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 .
Claims 1-20 are pending.
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 1-7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter. The claim(s) does/do not fall within at least one of the four categories of patent eligible subject matter because the claims lack the necessary physical articles or objects to constitute a machine or a manufacture within the meaning of 35 USC 101. They are clearly not a series of steps or acts to be a process nor are they a combination of chemical compounds to be a composition of matter. As such, they fail to fall within a statutory category.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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) 1-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being unpatentable over Wu et al. (US Pub. No. 2018/0189857 A1).
In respect to Claim 1, Wu teaches:
a query system comprising: a provider system in communication with a user device over a network, the user device having one or more input systems and one or more output systems, (Wu teaches [0032] a user device with input and output.) the provider system configured to generate an interactive query interface, (Wu teaches [0018] a query interface.) the provider system receiving query input captured via the one or more input systems through interaction of a user with the interactive query interface, the provider system receiving user data from the user device; (Wu teaches [0018, 0027] reception of a query input from a user device.)
a natural language processing system configured to generate a query based on the query input, the query associated with at least one of a product or a service; (Wu teaches [0004] natural language processing of a query.)
and a recommendation system having a machine learning model, (Wu teaches [0020-0021] recommendations with a machine learning model.) the recommendation system configured to generate a recommendation based on the user data and the query using the machine learning model, the provider system configured to send the recommendation to the user device to cause the recommendation to be presented with the interactive query interface using the one or more output system (Wu teaches [0004, 0021] providing recommendations associated with a query.)
As per Claim 2, Wu teaches:
wherein the interactive query interface includes an onboarding user interface configured to capture the user data (Wu teaches [0061] capturing data.)
As per Claim 3, Wu teaches:
wherein the interactive query interface is configured to capture a user selection using the one or more input systems, the user selection indicating at least one of the product or the service a user desires to purchase (Wu teaches [0036, 0061] capturing data for purchase.)
As per Claim 4, Wu teaches:
wherein the interactive query interface includes at least one of a plurality of selectable products or services, a price change compared to a current product or service, an input for an additional inquiry, a recommended additional product or service, a statement from a virtual employee, an explanation of at least one of the product or the service, a comparison with a product or a service used by users with similar characteristics, or an indication that a user selection is below a recommendation (Wu teaches [0036, 0061] capturing data for purchase.)
As per Claim 5, Wu teaches:
wherein the user data includes at least one of a name of a user, an address of the user, a birthdate of the user, or a desired coverage level (Wu teaches [0004, 0035] utilizing a user profile.)
As per Claim 6, Wu teaches:
wherein the one or more input systems and the one or more output systems are integrated into the user device (Wu [FIG. 1])
As per Claim 7, Wu teaches:
wherein the recommendation is processed by natural language processing system before being sent to the user device (Wu [0004])
Claims 8-12 are the method claims corresponding to system claims 1-5 respectively, therefore are rejected for the same reasons noted above.
As per Claim 13, Wu teaches:
wherein the machine learning model is trained using historical conversational data relating to the at least one of the product or the service (Wu [0016])
As per Claim 14, Wu teaches:
wherein the one or more output systems form a part of a user device (Wu [FIG. 1])
Claims 15-16 are the media claims corresponding to system claims 1 & 4 respectively, therefore are rejected for the same reasons noted above.
As per Claim 17, Wu teaches:
wherein the machine learning model is trained using historical conversational data relating to the at least one of selling or explaining products or services to consumers (Wu [0016])
Claims 18-19 are the media claims corresponding to system claims 6 & 5 respectively, therefore are rejected for the same reasons noted above.
As per Claim 20, Wu teaches:
generating an onboarding user interface in response to receiving the query; and causing the interactive query interface to present the onboarding user interface, wherein the user data is captured using the onboarding user interface (Wu teaches [0061] capturing data.)
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JOSHUA BULLOCK whose telephone number is (571)270-1395. The examiner can normally be reached 8:00 am - 4:00 pm.
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/JOSHUA BULLOCK/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2153 February 7, 2026