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 1-8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to abstract idea (organizing human activity and mental processes) without significantly more.
Regarding claim 1, the claim(s) recite(s) “receiving a notification of a task”, “retrieving one or more dynamic attributes of a staff member”, “determining whether the staff member is available”, “determining whether the staff member is capable” and “assigning the task to the staff member”. The steps of receiving, retrieving and determining could be performed by mental processes, and assigning task is merely organizing human activity.
Therefore, these limitations constitute organizing human activity and mental processes, which are recognized judicial exceptions. See Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank Int’l, 573 U.S. 208 (2014); MPEP 2106.04.
There are no additional elements recite in the claim; therefore, claim 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 as being directed to non-statutory subject matter.
Regarding claims 2-6, recited limitations further define the steps retrieving and determining without reciting any additional element that integrate the abstract idea into a practical application; therefore, these claims are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 as being directed to non-statutory subject matter for the same reasons set forth in rejection of claim 1.
Regarding claims 7-8, the claim further recite additional elements, such as “non-volatile memory” and “a processor” besides the abstract idea similar to the steps recited in claim 1.
However, these additional elements are not sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception because:
the “processor” is recited at a high level of generality and serves as a generic computing device for implementing the abstract idea;
the “non-volatile memory” is a well-known device for storing machine-readable instructions”, therefore, it is no more than using well-known generic hardware as a tool to store machine-readable instructions. The courts have held that utilizing well-known and conventional tool to perform abstract tasks do not supply “significantly more”.
Accordingly, the claim does not integrate the abstract idea into a practical application. See Enfish, LLC v. Microsoft Corp., 822 F. 3d 1327 (Fed. Cir. 2016) (improvement to computer architecture); Diehr, 450 U.S. 175 (1981) (transformation); MPEP 2106.05.
Therefore, claims 7-8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 as being directed to non-statutory subject matter.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Amarasingham et al. (US 2015/0213206 A1).
Regarding claims 1 and 7-8, Amarasingham discloses a method, a non-volatile memory and a system comprising: a processor; and a non-volatile memory communicatively coupled to the processor, the memory containing machine-readable instructions that, when loaded into the processor and executed (Figs. 1-2 & [0040-0042]: system and method stored in computer with computing device, memory and apps for executing the software), cause the processor to:
receiving a notification of a task that comprises a task location (e.g. [0092]: a patient being admitted in a particular department is broadly interpreted as receiving task notification and department corresponds to task location);
retrieving one or more dynamic attributes of a staff member (e.g. Abstract & [0091]: status of nurse are broadly considered as attributes of a staff member);
determining whether the staff member is available (e.g. [0091, 0092]);
determining whether the staff member is capable (e.g. [0095] & claim 22: best qualified and/or trained medical staff); and
assigning, if the staff member has been determined to be both available and capable, the task to the staff member (e.g. Abstract & [0091-0092] & claim 22).
Regarding claim 2, Amarasingham discloses determining whether the staff member is available comprises one or more of: determining whether a distance of the staff member from the task location exceeds a distance threshold; determining whether the staff member is currently assigned a Do Not Disturb (DND) status (e.g. [0091]: busy); and determining whether the staff member is currently on a break.
Regarding claim 3, Amarasingham discloses the one or more dynamic attributes comprise one or more of: role; education; skills; training (e.g. claim 22); experience; and physical capability.
Regarding claim 4, Amarasingham discloses the one or more dynamic attributes comprise one or more of: a distance of the staff member from the task location; a distance of another staff member from the task location; a break status of the staff member (e.g. [0091-0092]: busy or available equivalent to break status of a staff member) and a location of the staff member in a portion of a facility that requires personal protective equipment (e.g. [0091-0092]: location of nurse is monitored, and the location includes emergency and/or surgery room that required personal protective equipment, such as gloves and/or masks).
Regarding claim 5, Amarasingham discloses the one or more dynamic attributes comprise one or more of: a number of active alarms assigned to the staff member that are above a sub-priority threshold (e.g. [0048, 0052, 0088]: alerts relate to patients status, missed/delayed treatment, patient’s condition is deteriorating are considered as alerts that are above a certain priority threshold); and a number of scheduled tasks assigned to the staff member in a current time period.
Regarding claim 6, Amarasingham discloses the one or more dynamic attributes comprise one or more of: a number of patients assigned to the staff member that have a patient health assessment score above an acuity threshold; and an aggregate patient health assessment score of patients assigned to the staff member above an aggregate acuity threshold (e.g. Abstract & claim 1: patient risk scores, and medical staff is assigned to patients in response to patient risks).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KAM WAN MA whose telephone number is (571) 270-3693. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9am-6pm.
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/KAM WAN MA/Examiner, Art Unit 2688