DETAILED ACTION
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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 21-40 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to a judicial exception (i.e., a law of nature, a natural phenomenon, or an abstract idea) without significantly more.
The claims are directed to logging event activities (mental processes and organizing methods of human activity) involving:
arranging in a field, one or more of at least one arranged object based on at least one event log within a unit period of actual time among event logs about in-game events that has occurred based on in-game activities (mental processes, such as using pen and paper to create a template or the like with designated spaces for logging notes according to observations of activities that has taken place),
arranging in the field, a topic object including information based on an in-game event that will occur after a period of the event log (mental processes, creating a headline, title, or the like for specific type of information),
storing, the field together with the one or more of the at least one arranged object as a past object based on arrangement of a predetermined number of arranged objects in the field (mental processes, such as using pen and paper to write collection of notes, graphs, charts, or the like),
arranging one or more of the at least one arranged object in another field when the predetermined number of arranged objects are arranged in the field (create new templates, areas, spaces, or the like for additional information), and
(as required by claims 21, 40) generating an output image based on the field where the one or more of the at least one arranged object and the topic object are arranged, for display on a display (using pen and paper to write and organize notes, graphs, charts, or the like);
(as required by claims 35, 36) transmitting the field where the one or more of the at least one arranged object and the topic object are arranged (sharing the collection of notes, graphs, charts, or the like).
Claims 21, 35, 36, and 40 do not integrate the abstract ideas into a practical application.
The claim does not improve the functioning of the computer itself or another technology; rather, it uses the computer components as tools to implement the abstract idea of logging event activities.
No particular machine beyond generic components. Claims 21, 35, 36 recite “memories”, “processors”; claims 21, 35 recite “computer-readable program”; claim 21 recite “information processing system”; claims 35, 40 recite “an information processing apparatus”; claim 36 “non-transitory computer-readable storage medium with an executable information processing program”; yet, these are generic computing elements. See MPEP 2106.05(b), (f).
The additional elements (virtual field, virtual game space) are generally linking the use of a judicial exception to a particular technological environment or field of use and do not impose a meaningful limit on the abstract idea.
Accordingly, the claim does not integrate the abstract idea into a practical application under MPEP § 2106.04(d).
Considered individually and as an ordered combination, the claims do not recite an inventive concept (“significantly more”) beyond the abstract ideas.
Generic computer components and environments (processor, memories, programs, and non-transitory computer-readable medium) performing data receiving and sending are well-understood, routine, and conventional (WURC) activities in the field of computer gaming.
Under Berkheimer v. HP, 881 F.3d 1360, absent evidence in the record that any claimed element or arrangement is not WURC, it is proper to treat generic processors, memories, programs, and data receiving/sending as conventional. The claims do not recite non-conventional computer functionality or architecture.
No specific algorithm, data structure, or hardware improvement is claimed that would transform the abstract idea into patent-eligible subject matter.
Therefore, claims 21-40 are ineligible under 35 U.S.C. § 101. The claims are directed to judicial exceptions—mental process and organizing methods of human activity —and do not integrate those exceptions into a practical application. The additional elements, viewed individually and in combination, amount to no more than the abstract idea of logging event activities, implemented on a generic computer, and therefore do not add “significantly more.”
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DAMON J PIERCE whose telephone number is (571)270-1997. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8am-5pm.
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/DAMON J PIERCE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3715
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