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 .
Response to Amendment
Applicant has amended claims 1-7, 9-15 and 17-20 in the amendment filed on 2/26/2026. Claims 1-20 are currently pending in the present application.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments filed on 2/26/2026 with respect to the claims 1-20 have been fully considered and are persuasive. The objection and the rejections of the claims in the last office action have been withdrawn.
Examiner’s Remarks
After further reviewed Applicant's arguments (i.e., pages 10-16 of the Applicant’s Remarks, and in light of the original specification, paragraphs [0005] – [0074]), the claimed amendment filed on February 26, 2026 overcomes the 35 U.S.C. § 112 and 101 rejections. The limitations as added and/or amended to the independent claims included additional elements that integrate the abstract idea into a practical application that would make the claims eligible under 35 U.S.C. § 101.
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.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
As per claims 1, 9 and 17; the claims recite the limitation “add[ing] a first element of the first result set to a third result set” which the underlined feature renders the claims indefinite because it is unclear as when/how “a third result set” is identified or recognized in order to be used in adding a first element of the first result set. Clarification or correction is respectfully required.
Note, the dependent claims are also rejected because they depend on and/or do not remedy the deficiencies inherited by their parent claims.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-20 would be allowable if rewritten or amended to overcome the rejection as set forth in this Office action.
Reasons for Allowance
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance:
After further consideration of the prior arts of record and conducting new searches in PE2E - SEARCH, Similarity Search, Google Scholar, and ACM Digital Library, it appears that none of prior arts discloses, teaches or fairly suggests the limitations as a whole in the independent claims 1, 9 and 17. The dependent claims, bring definite, further limiting, and fully enabled by the specification are also allowed.
The cited prior art, Chin et al. (US 2011/0202543 A1) involves in optimising a search of a collection of images. In one aspect, the method includes iteratively performing, in a processing system, steps of comparing a test search result set for a search query to a user defined expected search result set for the search query, wherein the search query includes a query feature set of a search image, each feature being associated with a weight; and adjusting one or more weights of the query feature set according to the results of the comparison to improve the similarity between the test and expected search result sets, thereby optimising a future image search of the collection of images.
Another cited prior art, Mao et al. (CN 112381670 A) involves in a component capacity matching global optimization method and system of comprehensive energy system, the method comprises: determining a search space; randomly selecting some point in the search space as the constant to optimize the target calculation; repeatedly randomly selecting coordinate point to calculate, evaluating and ordering the result obtained by the selected point calculation; re-setting the search space according to the result of the better part, repeating said steps, until reaching the set operation times, stopping the operation to obtain the result. The invention solves the problem of solving the variable component capacity w and optimization target p, by randomly generating w value in the reasonable value range to obtain the p value under the w value and ordering, then updating the search space so that the w value range gradually shrinks to obtain the optimal solution. The method can accelerate convergence, prevent local optimization and improve the calculation efficiency.
Another cited prior art, Miller et al. (CN 111971669 A) involves in providing an estimated breadth indicator and/or search term proximity for displaying a set of document results. A method comprises receiving a natural language search query comprising a plurality of search concepts, determining the plurality of search concepts from the natural language query, using the natural language search query search database to identify a document result set, wherein based on the plurality of search concepts, identifying the document result set, calculating the breadth of the document result set, wherein calculating the breadth according to the relevance score indicating the relevance degree of the document result set and the search query, and providing the breadth display as the feedback element. The feedback element provides a visual indication of the breadth of the natural language search query.
However, none of the prior arts, singular and any order combination, discloses the claimed limitations: “obtaining a first result set, from a first vector database., the obtaining being based on proximity to a first vector, the first vector being associated with a query; adding a first element of the first result set to a third result set; determining that an iteration criterion is met, the iteration criterion being based on the first result set; and in response to determining that the iteration criterion is met: obtaining a second result set from the first vector database; and adding a second element of the second result set to the third result set, wherein: the determining that the iteration criterion is met comprises determining that a cardinality of the third result set, after the addition of the first element, is less than a set number; and the adding of the second element to the third result set causes the cardinality of the third result set to reach the set number”, as recited in the independent claims 1, 9 and 17. Theses claimed limitations when consider as a whole are allowable over the prior arts of records.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
CN 111274265 A by Li et al. teaches obtaining the search target vector and the filter condition corresponding to the target search object according to the search target vector, centralized recall closest to target search vector of a first number of first candidate object, the first number is the preset from the standby retrieval object database according to the filtering condition, selecting the first candidate object from the second number of the first number of first candidate object according to the condition the filtration mode. and the second number is added to the cumulative number; the preset threshold if the accumulated number is less than the first number of first candidate object set excluded from the standby retrieval object to update the standby retrieval object set, and again concentrated recall order before the first number of second candidate object, until the cumulative number of screening out of candidate object is greater than or equal to the preset threshold value retrieved from the candidate object is updated. capable of both retrieval performance and returned result number.
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Bai D. Vu whose telephone number is (571) 270-1751. The examiner can normally be reached 9:00 - 5:30.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Tony Mahmoudi can be reached at (571) 272-4078. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/BAI D VU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2163 3/19/2026