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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement(s) (IDS) submitted on 11/21/2024 were filed before the mailing date of this office action. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner.
Claim Interpretation
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(f):
(f) Element in Claim for a Combination. – An element in a claim for a combination may be expressed as a means or step for performing a specified function without the recital of structure, material, or acts in support thereof, and such claim shall be construed to cover the corresponding structure, material, or acts described in the specification and equivalents thereof.
The following is a quotation of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph:
An element in a claim for a combination may be expressed as a means or step for performing a specified function without the recital of structure, material, or acts in support thereof, and such claim shall be construed to cover the corresponding structure, material, or acts described in the specification and equivalents thereof.
The claims in this application are given their broadest reasonable interpretation using the plain meaning of the claim language in light of the specification as it would be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art. The broadest reasonable interpretation of a claim element (also commonly referred to as a claim limitation) is limited by the description in the specification when 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, is invoked.
As explained in MPEP § 2181, subsection I, claim limitations that meet the following three-prong test will be interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph:
(A) the claim limitation uses the term “means” or “step” or a term used as a substitute for “means” that is a generic placeholder (also called a nonce term or a non-structural term having no specific structural meaning) for performing the claimed function;
(B) the term “means” or “step” or the generic placeholder is modified by functional language, typically, but not always linked by the transition word “for” (e.g., “means for”) or another linking word or phrase, such as “configured to” or “so that”; and
(C) the term “means” or “step” or the generic placeholder is not modified by sufficient structure, material, or acts for performing the claimed function.
Use of the word “means” (or “step”) in a claim with functional language creates a rebuttable presumption that the claim limitation is to be treated in accordance with 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph. The presumption that the claim limitation is interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, is rebutted when the claim limitation recites sufficient structure, material, or acts to entirely perform the recited function.
Absence of the word “means” (or “step”) in a claim creates a rebuttable presumption that the claim limitation is not to be treated in accordance with 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph. The presumption that the claim limitation is not interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, is rebutted when the claim limitation recites function without reciting sufficient structure, material or acts to entirely perform the recited function.
Claim limitations in this application that use the word “means” (or “step”) are being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, except as otherwise indicated in an Office action. Conversely, claim limitations in this application that do not use the word “means” (or “step”) are not being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, except as otherwise indicated in an Office action.
This application includes one or more claim limitations that do not use the word “means,” but are nonetheless being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, because the claim limitation(s) uses a generic placeholder that is coupled with functional language without reciting sufficient structure to perform the recited function and the generic placeholder is not preceded by a structural modifier. Such claim limitation(s) is/are: “a graph builder module”, “an answer retrieval module” and “an answer output module” in claim 1.
Because this/these claim limitation(s) is/are being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, it/they is/are being interpreted to cover the corresponding structure described in the specification as performing the claimed function, and equivalents thereof.
If applicant does not intend to have this/these limitation(s) interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, applicant may: (1) amend the claim limitation(s) to avoid it/them being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph (e.g., by reciting sufficient structure to perform the claimed function); or (2) present a sufficient showing that the claim limitation(s) recite(s) sufficient structure to perform the claimed function so as to avoid it/them being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph.
Claim Objections
Claims 1-15 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Claims 2-12, the statement “The system according claim …”, in line 1 of the respective claims, should read “The system according to claim …”.
Claims 14-15, the statement “The method according claim …”, in line 1 of the respective claims, should read “The method according to claim …”.
Appropriate correction is required.
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 1-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to an abstract idea without significantly more. The claim(s) 1 and 13 recite(s) “receiving, by a user query input receiver, a structured query language as a query from a user; constructing, by a graph builder module, a computational graph for converting the query into a directed acyclic graph, where edges represent operations on sets of entities and attributes; encoding, by a query encoder model, the query graph related to the computational graph into a vector format; retrieving, by an answer retrieval module, the vector format of the query graph into candidate answer sets, wherein information output by the answer retrieval module denotes answer sets of entities or values retrieved by the computational graph; determining, by a privacy risk identifier, whether the answer sets pose any privacy risks, check for sensitive information, and flag queries that lead to privacy breaches; classifying, by the privacy risk identifier, the answer sets from the computational graph into a public answer set and a privacy answer set; calculating, by a score calculator engine, a score of each candidate answer by computing probability of the public answer set and the privacy answer set using corresponding loss functions, wherein a low threshold is assigned to a loss function for the public answer set by the score calculator engine, requiring a loss function calculation result for the public answer set to be lower than the threshold, and wherein a high threshold is given to a loss function for the privacy answer set by the score calculator engine, requiring a loss function calculation result for the privacy answer set to be higher than the threshold; and referencing, by an answer output module, results of the loss functions in combination with the threshold values to select a final answer for the original query.”. The steps of “constructing”, “determining”, “classifying”, “calculating” and “referencing” to select a final answer for an original query fall within the mental process groupings of abstract ideas because they cover concepts performed in the human mind, including observation, evaluation, judgment, and opinion. The step of “encoding” a query graph into a vector format is a mathematical concept that fall within the mathematical relationships, formulas, or calculations of groups of abstract ideas. See MPEP 2106.04(a)(2), subsection III.
This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application, because claims 1 and 13 do not recite any additional limitations that reflect an improvement to the functioning of a computer, or an improvement to another technology or technical field. The claims do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception. The claims recite the additional elements of “receiving, by a user query input receiver, a structured query language” and “retrieving, by an answer retrieval module, the vector format of the query graph”. These additional limitations are mere data gathering recited at a high level of generality, and thus are insignificant extra-solution activity. See MPEP 2106.05(g) (“whether the limitation is significant”). In addition, all uses of the recited judicial exceptions require such data gathering, and, as such, these limitations do not impose any meaningful limits on the claim. These limitations amount to necessary data gathering. See MPEP 2106.05.
The dependent claims which further limit claims 1 and 13 also fail to recite any further limitations that would either integrate the above identified abstract idea into practical application and fail to recite anything which would constitute as significantly more than the abstract idea itself. Thus, these claims are also rejected for the same reasons as applied to claims 1 and 13 above.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claim limitation (claim 1) “A system using a privacy-preserving neural graph database for receiving a query from a user and giving an answer to the user in response to the query, comprising: a graph builder module configured to …; an answer retrieval module configured to …; and an answer output module configured to ...” invokes 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph. However, the written description fails to disclose the corresponding structure, material, or acts for performing the entire claimed function and to clearly link the structure, material, or acts to the function. Paragraph [0114] of the Specification discloses the functional units and modules may be embodied in hardware or software without disclosing any structure that performs the function in the claim. Therefore, the claim is indefinite and is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, second paragraph.
Applicant may:
(a) Amend the claim so that the claim limitation will no longer be interpreted as a limitation under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph;
(b) Amend the written description of the specification such that it expressly recites what structure, material, or acts perform the entire claimed function, without introducing any new matter (35 U.S.C. 132(a)); or
(c) Amend the written description of the specification such that it clearly links the structure, material, or acts disclosed therein to the function recited in the claim, without introducing any new matter (35 U.S.C. 132(a)).
If applicant is of the opinion that the written description of the specification already implicitly or inherently discloses the corresponding structure, material, or acts and clearly links them to the function so that one of ordinary skill in the art would recognize what structure, material, or acts perform the claimed function, applicant should clarify the record by either:
(a) Amending the written description of the specification such that it expressly recites the corresponding structure, material, or acts for performing the claimed function and clearly links or associates the structure, material, or acts to the claimed function, without introducing any new matter (35 U.S.C. 132(a)); or
(b) Stating on the record what the corresponding structure, material, or acts, which are implicitly or inherently set forth in the written description of the specification, perform the claimed function. For more information, see 37 CFR 1.75(d) and MPEP §§ 608.01(o) and 2181.
Conclusion
The following references are found to be the closest prior arts to the Applicant’s disclosure:
Allin et al. (US 2019/0179723 A1)- teaches a method for obtaining a federated structured query language (SQL) query, generating a query plan for the federated SQL query, the query plan comprising a plurality of data processing operations to be performed by the data processing system including at least a first data processing operation and a second data processing operation.
Brunel et al. (US 2018/0018375 A1)- teaches receiving, by a database, a query requesting data in the form of a table in which each row is related to a different node of a hierarchy of nodes, the query specifying a hierarchical window clause and at least one expression containing a window function on a hierarchical window specified by the hierarchical window clause; constructing a directed acyclic graph of at least a portion of the rows in a windowed table based on the hierarchical window clause; obtaining, based on expressions specified by the query, results responsive to the query by accumulating data from the rows across edges of the directed acyclic graph; and providing data comprising at least a portion of the obtained results.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MATTHIAS HABTEGEORGIS whose telephone number is (571)272-1916. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8am-5pm ET.
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/M.H./ Examiner, Art Unit 2491
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