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 .
This office action is in response to communication filed on 1/15/2025.
Claims 1-20 are presented for examination.
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 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to an abstract idea without significantly more.
Step 1: Determining that a claim falls within one of the four enumerated categories of patentable subject matter recited in 35 U.S.C. 101 (i.e., process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter). (MPEP 2106.03)
Claims 1-12 recite a series of steps, thus falling within one of the four statutory classes; i.e., process. Claims 13-20 recite tangible components, thus falling the one of the four statutory classes; i.e. machine.
Step 2A, Prong One: Evaluating whether the claim(s) recite(s) a judicial exception, i.e. whether a law of nature, natural phenomenon, or abstract idea is set forth or described in the claim. (MPEP 2106.04).
Representative claim 1 recites:
collecting, by an advertisement targeting advertisement ID information and identification information from each of a plurality that have acquired an advertisement ID transmitted by a advertising; performing, by a bidding participation, clustering using the information collected by the advertisement targeting and transmitting information regarding a user group of a size exceeding a threshold, generated as a result of the clustering, to a bidding generation; determining, by the bidding generation, whether to generate real-time bidding (RTB) for a retargeting advertisement for the transmitted user group, based on the information regarding the transmitted user group; and performing, by the bidding participation, the RTB when an advertisement media generation event occurs on a first belonging to the user group.
The limitations of retargeting advertisements based on targeted user group, under its broadest reasonable interpretation, covers advertising, marketing and falls within “Certain Methods of Organizing Human Activity” grouping of abstract ideas. Accordingly, the claim recites an abstract idea.
Step 2A, Prong Two: Identifying whether there are any additional elements recited in the claim beyond the judicial exception(s); and then evaluating those additional elements individually and in combination to determine whether they integrate the exception into a practical application. Prong Two distinguishes claims that are "directed to" the recited judicial exception from claims that are not "directed to" the recited judicial exception. (MPEP 2106.04).
This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application. In particular, the claims recite the following additional elements:
• server (claims 1 and 13);
The “server” is recited at a higher level of generality such that they amount no more than mere instructions to apply the exception using generic computer components. They are no more than a tool to perform the “collecting”, “transmitting” steps.
The additional elements of server for collecting advertisement ID information are considered as “apply it” as the claim invokes the computer as a tool to perform the abstract idea. See MPEP 2106.05(f)(2) (similar to Apple, Inc. v Ameranth and Intellectual Ventures I LLC v Capital One Bank (USA).
Accordingly, these additional elements do not integrate the abstract idea into a practical application because they do not impose any meaningful limits on practicing the abstract idea. (MPEP 2106.05(f) Mere Instructions To Apply An Exception).
Therefore, under Step 2A, Prong Two, the claims are directed to an abstract idea.
Step 2B: Identifying whether there are any additional elements (features/limitations/steps) recited in the claim beyond the judicial exception(s), and then evaluating those additional elements individually and in combination to determine whether they contribute an inventive concept (i.e., amount to significantly more than the judicial exception(s)). (MPEP 2106.05)
Accordingly, the additional elements do not integrate the abstract idea into a practical application, because they don’t impose any meaningful limits on practicing the abstract idea. As discussed above with respect to integration of the abstract idea into a practical application, the additional elements of “server”, alone and in combination amount to no more than mere instructions to apply the exception using generic computer components.
Mere instructions to apply an exception using a generic computer component cannot provide an inventive concept.
Regarding the limitation “server”, it is noted that sending information over a network has been recognized in the courts as being Well Understood Routine and Conventional (see MPEP 2106.05(d)(II) - i. Receiving or transmitting data over a network, e.g., using the Internet to gather data, Symantec, 838 F.3d at 1321, 120 USPQ2d at 1362 (utilizing an intermediary computer to forward information); TLI Communications LLC v. AV Auto. LLC, 823 F.3d 607, 610, 118 USPQ2d 1744, 1745 (Fed. Cir. 2016) (using a telephone for image transmission); OIP Techs., Inc., v. Amazon.com, Inc., 788 F.3d 1359, 1363, 115 USPQ2d 1090, 1093 (Fed. Cir. 2015) (sending messages over a network); buySAFE, Inc. v. Google, Inc., 765 F.3d 1350, 1355, 112 USPQ2d 1093, 1096 (Fed. Cir. 2014) (computer receives and sends information over a network).
Therefore, this additional element does not amount to significantly more than a judicial exception and cannot provide an inventive concept. (MPEP 2106.05(d) Well-Understood, Routine, Conventional Activity).
Therefore, claims 1-20 are not patent eligible.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over (KR 2018/0043671 A (Mok) in view of Wi (2017/0372375).
With respect to claims 1, and 13, Mok teaches methods and systems for retargeting advertisement services (Abstract).
collecting, by an advertisement targeting server, advertisement ID information and identification information (DSP device 300 is a server that receives and stores the service utilization information transmitted from terminal device 100, the first identification information may be used to distinguish the service use information of each user when there is an advertisement request to selectively provide the retargeting advertisement )(page 4, paragraphs 7 and 10) from each of a plurality of terminals that have acquired an advertisement ID transmitted by a digital advertising medium (the terminal device 100 may be a smart phone, a tablet PC, PDA, etc. and refers to a device that receives an advertisement through an advertisement medium)(see bottom paragraph of page 3 and beginning paragraph of page 4);
performing, by a bidding participation device, using the information collected by the advertisement targeting server and transmitting information regarding a user group (The advertisement intermediary apparatus 500 refers to a server for selecting an advertiser who can register an advertisement in the DSP device 300. The advertisement mediating apparatus 500 selects an advertiser for registering an advertisement in a DSP device among a plurality of advertisers participating in a bid through a bid method)(see page 4, 5th paragraph);
determining, by the bidding generation device, whether to generate real-time bidding (RTB) for a retargeting advertisement for the transmitted user group, based on the information regarding the transmitted user group and performing, by the bidding participation device, the RTB when an advertisement media generation event occurs on a first terminal belonging to the user group and performing, by the bidding participation device, the RTB when an advertisement generation event occurs on a first terminal belonging to the user group (When the advertisement request signal including the first identification information or the second identification information is received, the bidding processing unit 520 selects an advertiser for registering an advertisement among a plurality of advertisers participating in the bid through a bid method, And a retargeting advertisement based on the service utilization information of the corresponding user is selectively provided from the DSP device of the selected advertiser)(page 9, 5th paragraph).
With respect to the group size exceeding a threshold as a result of the clustering. Mok teaches retargeting/clustering of the users based on interested users with high conversion, sex, age, area, and service usage behavior of the users on page 2, 4th paragraph. Mok is silent as to the group size exceeding a threshold. Nevertheless, Wi teaches on paragraph 0061 “If the score is high (e.g., greater than a threshold value), the installation probability of the target advertising app may increase. Thus, a segment may be generated by grouping users corresponding to a score greater than or equal to a determined level”. It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art at the time of Applicant’s invention to have included in the clustering of Mok the teachings of Wi for the group size exceeding a threshold because such a modification would help cluster the users based on threshold, cut off values.
With respect to claims 2-3 and 14 Mok further teaches collecting the advertisement ID information and the identification information from each of the plurality of terminals that have acquired an advertisement ID transmitted by the digital advertising medium further comprises collecting additional information generated during movement of each of the plurality of terminals; movement trajectory information of each of the terminals (when the service device accesses the B website through the same A browser as the browser to which the terminal device has previously accessed, the service device recognizes the SSP device contracted with the first DSP device and adds the SSP domain tag And executes the SSP domain tag to connect to the SSP device)(page 10, 4th paragraph), and the additional information includes whether a single or multiple predetermined advertisement IDs have been acquired, location information and time information at which the advertisement IDs have been acquired, and user profile information ( Log information (e.g., purchased goods, items stored in the shopping cart, and products retrieved) related to the service use is recorded in the cookie of the A browser. Then, when the use of the service of the terminal device is completed, the service device reads the cookie recorded in the A browser and collects the log information related to the service use (for example, the purchased product, the product stored in the shopping cart, the retrieved product, etc.) )(page 10, 4th paragraph).
With respect to claim 4, Mok teaches wherein the performing clustering using the information collected by the advertisement targeting server and transmitting information regarding a user group of a size exceeding a threshold, generated as a result of the clustering, to the bidding generation device, comprises: performing clustering into a plurality of user groups based on the advertisement ID information, the identification information, and the additional information; and determining a user group of a size exceeding the threshold among the clustered user groups (retargeting of the users based on interested users with high conversion, sex, age, area, and service usage behavior of the users on page 2, 4th paragraph). Mok is silent as to the group size exceeding a threshold. Nevertheless, Wi teaches on paragraph 0061 “If the score is high (e.g., greater than a threshold value), the installation probability of the target advertising app may increase. Thus, a segment may be generated by grouping users corresponding to a score greater than or equal to a determined level”. It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art at the time of Applicant’s invention to have included in the clustering of Mok the teachings of Wi for the group size exceeding a threshold because such a modification would help cluster the users based on threshold, cut off values.
With respect to claim 5, Mok further teaches wherein the digital advertising medium includes a display mounted on mobility (The terminal device 100 may be, for example, a smart phone, a tablet PC, a PDA).
With respect to claims 6-7, 16-17 Mok further teaches wherein the performing the RTB when an advertisement media generation event occurs on the first terminal belonging to the user group, comprises transmitting, by the bidding participation device, a push notification to the first terminal to induce the occurrence of the advertisement media generation event (The second identification information is used to distinguish service use information of each user from identifiers given by the SSP device for managing the service use information of the user, and when the advertisement request of the SSP device is requested, the service use information of the user is quickly retrieved Can be used to selectively provide retargeting advertisements)(page 12, 4th paragraph).
With respect to claims 8-10, 18-20 Mok further teaches wherein the performing the RTB when an advertisement media generation event occurs on the first terminal belonging to the user group, comprises: receiving, by the bidding participation device, advertisement access history, near-future transmission information, and user profile information of the first terminal stored in the advertisement targeting server; and calculating, using the received information, a user behavior conversion probability at the first terminal; the retargeting advertisement service wherein the advertisement access history includes advertisement access frequency and advertisement access timestamp information corresponding to a movement path of the first terminal; wherein the user behavior conversion probability is a probability of occurrence of a click event, a download event, and a purchase conversion event for an advertisement provided through an application or website on the first terminal (The advertisement unit 150 may include identification information (e.g., advertisement provider address information (URL)) capable of identifying the DSP device in the process of accessing the service page provided by the service device and device identification information of the terminal device 100 : MDN, IMEI) to the service device. In order to transmit the identification information of the DSP device, the service device confirms the identification information of the DSP device to recognize that the terminal device connected to the service page selects the advertisement provided by the DSP device and accesses the service page to be. The transmitting of the device identification information of the terminal device 100 allows the service device to generate the service user information so that the device identification information of the terminal device 100 is included, Is generated for the terminal device 100 receiving the web page). Mok doesn’t teach: the real time bidding (RTB) includes success probability. Official Notice is taken that it is old and well known for modern ad bidding, specially automated “smart bidding” to rely on predicting the probability of success (conversion). It will have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art at the time of Applicant’s invention to have included in Mok’s real time bidding (RTB) to have included on predicting the probability of success (conversion), in order to making probability a core component of achieving the campaign goals.
With respect to claims 11-12, Mok further teaches the performing the RTB when an advertisement media generation event occurs on the first terminal belonging to the user group, comprises: receiving requirements of an advertiser participating in the RTB; and selecting and providing a retargeting advertisement that meets the advertiser's requirements; wherein the advertiser's requirements include information regarding a user's gender, age group, areas of interest, types of applications installed by the user, a time of last application execution, and a list of products recently purchased by the user (advertiser who sells the advertisement and purchases the advertisement to be displayed, a DSP (Demand Side Platform) device, identifies an advertisement target user according to the user age, And sends the advertisement to the user terminal. At this time, the DSP device generates service usage information for each user in advance through data analysis on the sex, age, area, and service usage behavior of the user)(page 2, 4th paragraph).
With respect to claim 15, Mok teaches wherein the bidding participation device performs clustering into a plurality of user groups based on the advertisement ID information, the identification information, and the additional information, and determines a user group among the clustered user group. Mok identifies advertisement target users according to the user age, and sends the advertisement to the user terminal. At this time, the DSP device generates service usage information for each user in advance through data analysis on the sex, age, area, and service usage behavior of the users)(page 2, 4th paragraph). In addition Mok teaches retargeting/clustering of the users based on interested users with high conversion, sex, age, area, and service usage behavior of the users on page 2, 4th paragraph.
Mok is silent as to the group size exceeding a threshold. Nevertheless, Wi teaches on paragraph 0061 “If the score is high (e.g., greater than a threshold value), the installation probability of the target advertising app may increase. Thus, a segment may be generated by grouping users corresponding to a score greater than or equal to a determined level”. It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art at the time of Applicant’s invention to have included in the clustering of Mok the teachings of Wi for the group size exceeding a threshold because such a modification would help cluster the users based on threshold, cut off values.
References of record but not applied in the rejections:
Article from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia titled “Psychographic” teaches psychographic profiles that are used in market segmentation as well as in advertising. Some categories of psychographic factors used in market segmentation include: activity, interest, opinion (AIOs), attitudes, and lifestyles.
Lee (8,650,188) teaches the advertiser can request that a copy of the particular advertisement group be created, and then specify that the copy of the advertisement group be targeted using a specified retargeting set. By specifying that the copy of the advertisement group be targeting using the specified retargeting set, the advertisements that are included in the copy of the advertisement group will only be eligible for presentation if an advertisement request (or another content item request) includes (or references) a user identifier that matches a retargeted identifier from a retargeting set. However, assuming that the initial instance of the advertisement group is not targeted using a retargeting set, the bids for the advertisements in the initial instance of the advertisement group will be eligible for presentation irrespective of the user identifier that is included in the advertisement request (i.e., assuming all of the other targeting criteria for the advertisement group are satisfied). Thus, bids for the advertisements in the copy of the advertisement group will not be submitted to an auction unless the user identifier matches a retargeted identifier from the retargeting set, while the bids for the advertisements in the initial instance of the advertisement group will be submitted to the auction irrespective of the user identifier matching a retargeted identifier for the retargeting set.
Conclusion
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/RAQUEL ALVAREZ/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3622