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 1-11 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.
Claims 1, 7 and 10-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to an abstract idea without significantly more. The claims recite “determining shipment information for a proposed shipment, wherein the shipment information includes a carrier assigned to transport the proposed shipment and an issuer of a rate confirmation for the proposed shipment; generating a digital code based on the shipment information, wherein the digital code is associated to the verified broker entity; generating a rate confirmation based on the shipment information, wherein the rate confirmation includes the digital code and a rate for the carrier to transport the proposed shipment.”
The recited limitations above are a process that, under the broadest reasonable interpretation, covers performance of the limitation done by a human but for the recitation of generic computer components under mental process (human using pen and paper). That is, other than reciting “processing circuitry”, nothing in the claim element precludes the steps from practically being performed by a human using generic computer component. For example, “determining”, “generating”, and “generating” in the context of this claim encompasses the user to manually determine shipment information and associating shipments with a rate confirmation.
This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application. In particular, the claims only recite the following additional elements- a “processing circuitry” and “memory” to perform the above recited steps. The computer elements recited at a high-level of generality (generic computer elements performing a generic computer function of receiving information, identifying solutions and determining what should be presented to a user) such that it amounts no more than mere instructions to apply the exception using a generic computer component. Accordingly, the additional elements recited do not integrate the abstract idea into a practical application because it does not impose any meaningful limits on practicing the abstract idea.
The claims do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception. As discussed above with respect to integration of the abstract idea into a practical application, the additional element of using the computer elements to perform the steps of claims 1, 7 and 10-11 amount to no more than mere instructions to apply the exception using a generic computer component cannot provide an inventive concept.
The limitations of the dependent claims 2-6 and 8-9, further describe the identified abstract idea. In addition, the limitations of claims 2 and 8-9 define how the rate confirmation is associated with shipments which further describes the abstract idea. The generic computer component of claims 3-6 (application programming interface) merely serve as the generic computer component and the functions performed by the generic computer components essentially amount to the abstract idea identified above. None of the dependent claims when taken separately in combination with each dependent claims parent claim overcome the above analysis and are therefore similarly rejected as being ineligible.
Conclusion
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/ZEINA ELCHANTI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3628