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 .
Drawings
The drawings are objected to because figures 1-6 are difficult to read and interpret. The figures are blurred, fuzzy, and include shaded areas and broken lines. Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
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.
Claim 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to an abstract idea without significantly more.
Claim 1 recites a method of organizing human activity because the claim recites a method that includes receiving a search; initiating an empty leg auction; sending said empty leg auction; and completing a trip request. This is a method of managing commercial interactions between people. The mere nominal recitation of one or more processors, a user's client device, and an operator's client device does not take the claims out of the certain methods of organizing human activity grouping. Thus, the claim recites an abstract idea.
This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application. The claim as a whole merely describes how to generally “apply” the concepts of receiving, initiating, sending, and completing in a computer environment. The claimed processors and client devices are recited at a high level of generality and are merely invoked as tools to perform the claimed method. Simply implementing the abstract idea on a generic computer is not a practical application of the abstract idea. Accordingly, alone and in combination, these elements do not integrate the abstract idea into a practical application. The claim is directed to an abstract idea.
The claim does not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception. As discussed with respect to Step 2A, the claims as a whole merely describe how to generally “apply” the concepts of receiving, initiating, sending, and completing in a computer environment. Thus, even when viewed as a whole, nothing in the claim adds significantly more (i.e., an inventive concept) to the abstract idea. The claim is ineligible.
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 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Beitler US 20210241184 A1.
Regarding Claim 1, Beitler teaches a computer-implemented method for providing transport services, the method being performed by one or more processors and comprising ([0005] Another aspect of the present invention coordinates empty-leg flight bookings by connecting the user directly to the aircraft operator of the empty-leg flight. A computer program operates to coordinate the aircraft operator and user in arranging the flight time, departure airport and destination airport. The computer program further matches the user with an aircraft and further provides for the pricing and payment for the flight):
receiving a search from a user's client device ([0021] The computer control 30 provides a search engine to connect the user with aircraft charter operators who operate the empty-leg flights 21. The user uses the web access 32 to search and book an empty-leg flight. [0023] the user enters the search without selecting an arrival airport 42, flight date 44 or number of passengers 45);
initiating an empty leg auction; sending said empty leg auction to an operator's client device ([0031] If the user wishes to secure a booking on an empty-leg flight 221, the user will click on the “select flight” button 299, upon which the user will be directed to a flight summary display page 300 as shown in FIGS. 4(A) and 4(B). The flight summary display page 300 shows a picture of the empty-leg aircraft 390. To maintain the anonymity of the operators 11, the picture of the empty-leg aircraft 390 has the tail identification number or aircraft registration number altered to hide any identifying features of the aircraft. The departure airport 342 and arrival airport 343 are also shown. The date 344 is displayed. There is a display for the price of the flight 345. The price may be determined by the aircraft operator or using an auction technique such as a calculated price determined from an aircraft pricing profile in the database 20 or the application 38 of the control computer 30. Other auction techniques include minimum-bid auction or a reverse auction to determine the price 25 for the flight. If the user wishes to secure a booking of the flight, the user can click on the “book this flight” button 399. Claim 5. The method for booking a flight of claim 1 further comprising: auctioning the price of an empty-leg charter flight); and
completing a trip request ([0033] The user may be required to submit payment information 402 in the form of a credit card. While a credit card is one method of payment in the present invention, others forms of electronic payment may be used. In addition, the operation may require that the user pay the operator directly using other payment methods. Once the credit card information 402 has been submitted, the booking process is complete).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DUANE MOORE whose telephone number is (571)272-7544. The examiner can normally be reached on Mon-Fri 9:00-5:30.
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/D.N.M./Examiner, Art Unit 3628
/GEORGE CHEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3628