DETAILED ACTION
This FINAL office action is in response to Applicant’s amendment filed July 7, 2026. Applicant’s July 7th amendment amended claims 1, 5, 13 and 25. Currently Claims 1-25 are pending. Claims 1, 13 and 25 are the independent claims.
The instant application is a continuation of Application No. 18204526 now U.S. Patent No. 12131343. Application No. 18204526 is a continuation of Application No. 15642038 now U.S. Patent No. 11704682.
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Response to Amendment
The Double Patenting rejection of claims 1, 3-13 and 15-25 over U.S. Patent No. 12131343 in view of Sainani et al. in the previous office action is maintained.
The 35 U.S.C. 101 rejection of claims 1-25 in the previous office action is withdrawn.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see Pages 16, 21, 22, 24, 25, filed July 7, 2026, with respect to 35 U.S.C. 101 have been fully considered and are persuasive. The 35 U.S.C. 101 rejection of claims 1-25 has been withdrawn.
Applicant's arguments filed July 7, 2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. Applicant’s July 7, 2026 did not provide any arguments directed to the pending Double Patenting rejection.
Double Patenting
The nonstatutory double patenting rejection is based on a judicially created doctrine grounded in public policy (a policy reflected in the statute) so as to prevent the unjustified or improper timewise extension of the “right to exclude” granted by a patent and to prevent possible harassment by multiple assignees. A nonstatutory double patenting rejection is appropriate where the conflicting claims are not identical, but at least one examined application claim is not patentably distinct from the reference claim(s) because the examined application claim is either anticipated by, or would have been obvious over, the reference claim(s). See, e.g., In re Berg, 140 F.3d 1428, 46 USPQ2d 1226 (Fed. Cir. 1998); In re Goodman, 11 F.3d 1046, 29 USPQ2d 2010 (Fed. Cir. 1993); In re Longi, 759 F.2d 887, 225 USPQ 645 (Fed. Cir. 1985); In re Van Ornum, 686 F.2d 937, 214 USPQ 761 (CCPA 1982); In re Vogel, 422 F.2d 438, 164 USPQ 619 (CCPA 1970); In re Thorington, 418 F.2d 528, 163 USPQ 644 (CCPA 1969).
A timely filed terminal disclaimer in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(c) or 1.321(d) may be used to overcome an actual or provisional rejection based on nonstatutory double patenting provided the reference application or patent either is shown to be commonly owned with the examined application, or claims an invention made as a result of activities undertaken within the scope of a joint research agreement. See MPEP § 717.02 for applications subject to examination under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA as explained in MPEP § 2159. See MPEP § 2146 et seq. for applications not subject to examination under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA . A terminal disclaimer must be signed in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(b).
The filing of a terminal disclaimer by itself is not a complete reply to a nonstatutory double patenting (NSDP) rejection. A complete reply requires that the terminal disclaimer be accompanied by a reply requesting reconsideration of the prior Office action. Even where the NSDP rejection is provisional the reply must be complete. See MPEP § 804, subsection I.B.1. For a reply to a non-final Office action, see 37 CFR 1.111(a). For a reply to final Office action, see 37 CFR 1.113(c). A request for reconsideration while not provided for in 37 CFR 1.113(c) may be filed after final for consideration. See MPEP §§ 706.07(e) and 714.13.
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Claims 1-13, and 15-25 are rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claims 1 and 4-23 of U.S. Patent No. 12131343 in view of Sainani et al., U.S. Patent No. 10817757.
The table below maps the conflicting claims between the instant application and U.S. Patent No. 12131343.
Application No. 18899828
USPN 12131343
1, 5
1, 2
3
4
4
5
6
6
7
7
8
8
9
9
10
10
11
11
13, 17
12
15
15
16
16
18
17
19
18
20
19
21
22
22
21
23
22
25
23
Regarding Claims 1, 12, 13, 24, and 25 Studnitzer et al., U.S. Patent No. 12131343 does not claim the steps directed to receiving, processing and outputting search request/results as claimed in the instant application.
Sainani et al., from the same field of endeavor of pre-processing data for machine learning, discloses a system and method comprising:
Receiving, from a client computer via an electronic communication network, a search request that identifies a request time period window having a start/end time stamp (e.g time ranges, event boundaries, buckets; Figures 4, 6A. 7A; Claim 1; Column 12, Lines 11-24; Column 13, Lines 40-46);
Extract, using a trained machine learning model, features from the request time period window (Figures 6A, 7A; Column 35, Lines 30-50; Column 40, Lines 13-35);
Compare the extracted features from the compressed sequences of time period windows (Column 40, Lines 13-35);
Output search results that include result time period of the compressed sequences that are similar to the time period window (Figures 4, 6A. 7A; Claim 1; Column 30, Lines 36-59); and
Output the compressed sequence of time period windows to a display to enable user input to the search request (Figures 4, 6A. 7A; Claim 1).
It would have been obvious to one skilled in the art that the system and method of pre-processing data for machine learning as disclosed by Studnitzer et al. would have benefited from enabling one to perform searches of various time periods/frames of the data in view of the disclosure of Sainani et al., since the claimed invention is merely a combination of old elements, and in the combination each element merely would have performed the same function as it did separately, and one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-25 are allowable over the prior art. The closest prior art Sainani et al., U.S. Patent No. 10817757, Bland et al., U.S. Patent No. 9959573, and Satchwell, U.S. Patent Publication No. 20030139957 fail to teach or suggest either singularly or in combination a system and method system configured to search, using a recurring neural network, data in a data set comprising a plurality of data records, each data set including data indicative of a time stamp, a level, and a quantity, the data set characterized by a first size, the computer system comprising: a processor; a tangible computer-readable medium containing computer-executable instructions that when executed by the processor cause the processor to: arrange the data set into a sequence of time period windows of a selected adjustable length sufficient to encompass a pattern or structure within the data set; generate a new pre-processed data set comprising a series of vectors encoding each of a plurality of quantity change categories representative of each level and time of the sequence of time period windows, the new pre-processed data set characterized by a second size less than the first size; train the recurrent neural network, based on the new pre-processed data set and a machine learning algorithm to generate a trained recurrent neural network to identify a structure in the data set and execute a lossy encoded compression to compress the sequence of time period windows of the data set to extract features and provide a feature mapping from the sequence of time period windows to a point in a feature space, wherein the lossy encoded compression of the sequence removes noise from the sequence of time period windows while retaining unique features of the feature space as recited in independent Claims 1, 13 and 25.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SCOTT L JARRETT whose telephone number is (571)272-7033. The examiner can normally be reached M-TH 6am-4:30PM.
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SCOTT L. JARRETT
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 3625
/SCOTT L JARRETT/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3625
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