DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Notice for all US Patent Applications filed on or after March 16, 2013
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 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.
Status of the Claims
This communication is in response to communications received on 3/7/25. Claim(s) none is/are amended, claim(s) none is/are cancelled, claim(s) none is/are new, and applicant does not provide any information on where support for the amendments can be found in the instant specification as there are no amendments. Therefore, Claims 1-10 is/are pending and have been addressed below.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement(s) (IDS) submitted on 3/7/25 was/were considered by the examiner.
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant's claim for foreign priority based on an application(s) filed in Japan on January 19, 2024. Should applicant desire to obtain the benefit of foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d) prior to declaration of an interference, a certified English translation of the foreign application must be submitted in reply to this action. 37 CFR 41.154(b) and 41.202(e).
Failure to provide a certified translation may result in no benefit being accorded for the non-English application.
Response to Arguments
There are no arguments.
Claim Interpretation
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(f):
(f) Element in Claim for a Combination. – An element in a claim for a combination may be expressed as a means or step for performing a specified function without the recital of structure, material, or acts in support thereof, and such claim shall be construed to cover the corresponding structure, material, or acts described in the specification and equivalents thereof.
The following is a quotation of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph:
An element in a claim for a combination may be expressed as a means or step for performing a specified function without the recital of structure, material, or acts in support thereof, and such claim shall be construed to cover the corresponding structure, material, or acts described in the specification and equivalents thereof.
The claims in this application are given their broadest reasonable interpretation using the plain meaning of the claim language in light of the specification as it would be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art. The broadest reasonable interpretation of a claim element (also commonly referred to as a claim limitation) is limited by the description in the specification when 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, is invoked.
As explained in MPEP § 2181, subsection I, claim limitations that meet the following three-prong test will be interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph:
(A) the claim limitation uses the term “means” or “step” or a term used as a substitute for “means” that is a generic placeholder (also called a nonce term or a non-structural term having no specific structural meaning) for performing the claimed function;
(B) the term “means” or “step” or the generic placeholder is modified by functional language, typically, but not always linked by the transition word “for” (e.g., “means for”) or another linking word or phrase, such as “configured to” or “so that”; and
(C) the term “means” or “step” or the generic placeholder is not modified by sufficient structure, material, or acts for performing the claimed function.
Use of the word “means” (or “step”) in a claim with functional language creates a rebuttable presumption that the claim limitation is to be treated in accordance with 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph. The presumption that the claim limitation is interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, is rebutted when the claim limitation recites sufficient structure, material, or acts to entirely perform the recited function.
Absence of the word “means” (or “step”) in a claim creates a rebuttable presumption that the claim limitation is not to be treated in accordance with 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph. The presumption that the claim limitation is not interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, is rebutted when the claim limitation recites function without reciting sufficient structure, material or acts to entirely perform the recited function.
Claim limitations in this application that use the word “means” (or “step”) are being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, except as otherwise indicated in an Office action and those claims are 1-8 specifically the term unit which is identified in the specification [ [pg 33-34] “processing unit may be implemented by an integrated circuit communication … As illustrated in FIG. 3, the processing unit 12 includes a reception unit 30, an acquisition unit 31, an analysis unit 32, and a provision unit 33”]. Conversely, claim limitations in this application that do not use the word “means” (or “step”) are not being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, except as otherwise indicated in an Office action.
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(s) 1-10 is/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 as noted below.
The limitation(s) below for representative claim(s) 1, 9, and 10 that, under its broadest reasonable interpretation, is directed to analysis of users of stores and facilities.
Step 1: The claim(s) as drafted, is/are a process (claim(s) 9 recites a series of steps) and system (claim(s) 1-8 and 10 recites a series of components).
Step 2A – Prong 1: The claimed invention is directed to an abstract idea without significantly more. The claim(s) recite(s):
Claim 1: a receiving step of receiving designation of a store or a facility;
an acquiring step of acquiring information concerning a plurality of users who have used the store or the facility, the designation of which has been received in the receiving step, the information indicating actions of the plurality of users before and after using the store or the facility;
an analyzing step of summarizing the actions of the plurality of users before and after using the store or the facility based on the information indicating the actions of the plurality of users before and after using the store or the facility acquired in the acquiring step; and
a providing step of providing a summary result by the analyzing step.
Claim(s) 1 and 10: same analysis as claim(s) 9.
Claim 1 additionally: a reception unit configured to receive designation of a store or a facility;
an acquisition unit configured to acquire information concerning a plurality of users who have used the store or the facility, the designation of which has been received by the reception unit, the information indicating actions of the plurality of users before and after using the store or the facility;
an analysis unit configured to summarize, based on the information indicating the actions of the plurality of users before and after using the store or the facility acquired by the acquisition unit, the actions of the plurality of users before and after using the store or the facility;
a provision unit configured to provide a summary result by the analysis unit.
Dependent claims 2-8 recite the same or similar abstract idea(s) as independent claim(s) 1, 9, and 10 with merely a further narrowing of the abstract idea(s): .
The identified limitations of the independent and dependent claims above fall well-within the groupings of subject matter identified by the courts as being abstract concepts of:
a method of organizing human activity (commercial or legal interactions including advertising, marketing or sales activities or behaviors, or business relations) because the invention is directed to economic and/or business relationships as they are associated with analysis of users of stores and facilities.
Step 2A – Prong 2: This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application because:
The additional elements unencompassed by the abstract idea include an information processing apparatus, units (claim(s) 1), computer (claim(s) 9), non-transitory computer-readable storage medium (claim(s) 10), units (claim(s) 2), unit (claim(s) 3-6, 8).
The claim(s) does/do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception because the additional elements as described above with respect to Step 2A Prong 2 fails to describe:
Improvements to the functioning of a computer, or to any other technology or technical field - see MPEP 2106.05(a)
Applying or using a judicial exception to effect a particular treatment or prophylaxis for a disease or medical condition – see Vanda Memo
Applying the judicial exception with, or by use of, a particular machine – see MPEP 2106.05(b)
Effecting a transformation or reduction of a particular article to a different state or thing - see MPEP 2106.05(c)
Applying or using the judicial exception in some other meaningful way beyond generally linking the use of the judicial exception to a particular technological environment, such that the claim as a whole is more than a drafting effort designed to monopolize the exception - see MPEP 2106.05(e) and Vanda Memo.
Thus the additional elements as described above with respect to Step 2A Prong 2 are merely (as additionally noted by instant specification [pg 64-65, para that begins on 64 and ends on 65]) invoked as a tool and/or general purpose computer to apply instructions of an abstract idea in a particular technological environment, and/or mere application of an abstract idea in a particular technological environment and merely limiting the use of an abstract idea to a particular technological field do not integrate an abstract idea into a practical application (MPEP 2106.05(f)&(h)).
Step 2B: The claims do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception. Thus the additional elements as described above with respect to Step 2A Prong 2 are merely (as additionally noted by instant specification [pg 64-65, para that begins on 64 and ends on 65]) invoked as a tool and/or a general purpose computer to apply instructions of an abstract idea in a particular technological environment, and/or mere application of an abstract idea in a particular technological environment and merely limiting the use of an abstract idea to a particular technological field do not integrate an abstract idea into a practical application and thus similarly the combination and arrangement of the above identified additional elements when analyzed under Step 2B also fails to necessitate a conclusion that the claims amount to significantly more than the abstract idea for the same reasons as set forth above (MPEP 2106.05(f)&(h)).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
It has been held that a prior art reference must either be in the field of applicant’s endeavor or, if not, then be reasonably pertinent to the particular problem with which the applicant was concerned, in order to be relied upon as a basis for rejection of the claimed invention. See In re Oetiker, 977 F.2d 1443, 24 USPQ2d 1443 (Fed. Cir. 1992).
Claim(s) 1-5 and 7-10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Crutchfield (US 2015/0112826 A1) in view of Clark et al. (US 2014/0122229 A1).
Regarding claim 1, 9, and 10, Crutchfield teaches an information processing method executed by a computer, the method comprising {an information processing apparatus comprising: - claim 1} {a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing an information processing program for causing a computer to execute: - claim 10} [see at least Fig. 16 and [0245-0247] “In the center of the system 1600 may be a Passport server 1602 …
… As shown in FIG. 16, the Passport server 1602 is in communication with a data repository 1608 …
The retailer may operate an e-commerce web server 1604 to support its online store. The Passport server 1602 may communicate and coordinate with e-commerce web server 1604 to identify an online shopper/customer who visits the online store from a personal computing device 1606 (e.g., desktop computer, laptop computer, tablet, or smart phone).”;
[0249] “For example, the Passport server 1602 might be co-located with the e-commerce web server 1604 and/or the data repository 1610.”]:
a receiving step of receiving designation of data and a store or a facility {a reception unit configured to receive designation of a data and a store or a facility - claim 1} [see at least 0109] retail sales channels includes “For example, vendors may allow customers to shop for their products via intelligent display systems, telephone call centers, interactive television services, mobile software applications, social networks, and the like, in addition to their physical stores. … Thus, whether a customer is shopping via a physical store, intelligent display system, online website, software application, social network, etc.,”;
Fig. 16 and [0245-0247] data sent and received between devices 1602, 1604, 1606, and 1608];
an acquiring step of acquiring information concerning a plurality of users who have used the store or the facility, the designation of which has been received in the receiving step, the information indicating actions of the plurality of users before and after using the store or the facility {an acquisition unit configured to acquire information concerning a plurality of users who have used the store or the facility, the designation of which has been received by the reception unit, the information indicating actions of the plurality of users before and after using the store or the facility - claim 1} [see at least Fig. 16 and [0245, 0247-0248] ([0247-0248] items 1606 and “the shopper's identification and/or other information”) server receives customer information from various retail sales channels “In the center of the system 1600 may be a Passport server 1602 that is networked and communicates with various computing equipment operated by or for the retailer.”;
[0316] “Although in this example just described the shopper visits the online store first and then the physical store, those skilled in the art would appreciate that a shopper may choose to visit any of the retail sales channels and in any chosen order regardless of which the method of improving shopping experience described herein could still be applied.”;
[0109] retail sales channels includes “For example, vendors may allow customers to shop for their products via intelligent display systems, telephone call centers, interactive television services, mobile software applications, social networks, and the like, in addition to their physical stores. … Thus, whether a customer is shopping via a physical store, intelligent display system, online website, software application, social network, etc.,”;
[0316, 0109] ([0316]) customer can visit retail channels in any order, ([0109]) there are a plurality of retail channels, and thus a customer can visit others channels before and after visiting a store;
[0231] all customer data for a store and associated locations (online, in person, in in a profile called passport “Further embodiments of the present invention are directed to a two-way, server-side management tool, referred to as “Passport,” that provides the shopper with a personalized shopping experience and seamless transitions between all customer experiences on any device the customer chooses to use (current and future), whether it is a desktop, mobile device, or store device, and regardless of whether it is a website, App, etc. The Passport tool may also provide the retailer's sales advisors with data relevant to understanding the customer's needs and buying behavior, including purchase history, recent activity, tutorials related to topics of interest to the customer, etc.”;
[0310] a) customer data regarding a store visit include before the visit, during the visit and b) each visit to a retail channel is added to the customer’s profile by detecting a user based on a user device “In Step 2606, a shopper's visit to a first retail sales channel may be detected. For example, the shopper may visit the first (online) channel by shopping on the Internet web portal via a standard web browser or with the mobile app distributed by the retailer or a third party. The shopper could be detected based on an identifier of the shopper's computing device, its network address (e.g., IP address, mobile phone number), or login credentials or other personal information supplied by the shopper.”;
[0316, 0109, 0310] ([0316]) customer can visit retail channels in any order, ([0109]) there are a plurality of retail channels, and ([0310]) the data recorded can be about actions at a channel before visiting a store, actions during visiting the store, and actions at another channel after visiting the store];
an analyzing step of summarizing the actions of the plurality of users before and after using the store or the facility based on the information indicating the actions of the plurality of users before and after using the store or the facility acquired in the acquiring step {an analysis unit configured to summarize, based on the information indicating the actions of the plurality of users before and after using the store or the facility acquired by the acquisition unit, the actions of the plurality of users before and after using the store or the facility - claim 1}; and
a providing step of providing a summary result by the analyzing step {a provision unit configured to provide a summary result by the analysis unit – claim 1} [for the limitations above, see at least [0046] analyzing step “More particularly, these embodiments of the present invention will greatly improve retail shopping experience for shoppers and greatly improve the efficiency and effectiveness of selling process for a retailer by providing techniques that provide one or more of the following technical effects, benefits, and/or advantages: (j) provide real-time analytics regarding their shoppers' discovery and shopping behavior”;
Fig. 17 and [0250] analysis unit (processor) and provisioning unit (communication interface) “In terms of hardware, the Passport server 1700 may comprise a processor 1702, a storage medium 1704, and a communication interface 1706. In terms of software, the Passport server 1700 may include or run a number of functional modules such as … Account Management/Security (1711), … Recommendation/Cross-Sell (1714),”;
[0318] combine parts “The various embodiments and features of the presently disclosed invention may be used in any combination, as the combination of these embodiments and features are well within the scope of the invention.”;
[0318, 0046, 0250] ([0318]) combine ([0250]) passport server output (communication interface 1706) such as recommendation 1714 ([0046]) where the specific recommendation is “regarding their shoppers' discovery and shopping behavior”].
Crutchfield teaches a store but doesn’t/don’t explicitly teach selection of a store however, in the field pertinent to the particular problem with which the applicant was concerned such analysis of user data in recommendations, Clark discloses
a receiving step of receiving designation of a store or a facility [see at least [0017-0018] “At 110, the retail recommender identifies a retail choice made by a consumer. A retail choice is a selection by the consumer to go to a particular type or restaurant. The choice may be actively communicated by the consumer to the retail recommender or may be indirectly communicated by the consumer to the retail recommender, such as via credit card data (if permissible), surveys, social network sites, the restaurant where the consumer visited, and the like.
According to an embodiment, at 111, the retail recommender aggregates the retail choice with previous retail choices for the consumer across multiple communication channels for the consumer. For example, a survey can be one type of channel (phone call), a restaurant's consumer loyalty data can be another type, a survey (Internet) can be still another type, and the like.”].
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Crutchfield with Clark to include the limitation(s) above as disclosed by Clark. Doing so would help further define Crutchfield’s (Crutchfield) information received in and this will provide a more informed data analysis process in Crutchfield [see at least Clark [0001-0002] ].
Furthermore, all of the claimed elements were known in the prior arts of a) Crutchfield and b) Clark and one skilled in the art could have combined the elements as claimed by known methods with no change in their respective functions, and the combination would have yielded predictable results to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Regarding claim 2, modified Crutchfield teaches the information processing apparatus according to claim 1,
and Crutchfield teaches wherein the acquisition unit further acquires information concerning the plurality of users who have used the store or the facility, the information indicating actions of the plurality of users at a time of using the store or the facility [see at least Fig. 16 and [0245, 0247-0248] ([0247-0248] items 1606 and “the shopper's identification and/or other information”) server receives customer information from various retail sales channels “In the center of the system 1600 may be a Passport server 1602 that is networked and communicates with various computing equipment operated by or for the retailer.”;
[0316] “Although in this example just described the shopper visits the online store first and then the physical store, those skilled in the art would appreciate that a shopper may choose to visit any of the retail sales channels and in any chosen order regardless of which the method of improving shopping experience described herein could still be applied.”;
[0109] retail sales channels includes “For example, vendors may allow customers to shop for their products via intelligent display systems, telephone call centers, interactive television services, mobile software applications, social networks, and the like, in addition to their physical stores. … Thus, whether a customer is shopping via a physical store, intelligent display system, online website, software application, social network, etc.,”;
[0316, 0109] ([0316]) customer can visit retail channels in any order, ([0109]) there are a plurality of retail channels, and thus a customer can visit others channels before and after visiting a store;
[0231] all customer data for a store and associated locations (online, in person, in in a profile called passport “Further embodiments of the present invention are directed to a two-way, server-side management tool, referred to as “Passport,” that provides the shopper with a personalized shopping experience and seamless transitions between all customer experiences on any device the customer chooses to use (current and future), whether it is a desktop, mobile device, or store device, and regardless of whether it is a website, App, etc. The Passport tool may also provide the retailer's sales advisors with data relevant to understanding the customer's needs and buying behavior, including purchase history, recent activity, tutorials related to topics of interest to the customer, etc.”;
[0310] a) customer data regarding a store visit include before the visit, during the visit and b) each visit to a retail channel is added to the customer’s profile by detecting a user based on a user device “In Step 2606, a shopper's visit to a first retail sales channel may be detected. For example, the shopper may visit the first (online) channel by shopping on the Internet web portal via a standard web browser or with the mobile app distributed by the retailer or a third party. The shopper could be detected based on an identifier of the shopper's computing device, its network address (e.g., IP address, mobile phone number), or login credentials or other personal information supplied by the shopper.”;
[0316, 0109, 0310] ([0316]) customer can visit retail channels in any order, ([0109]) there are a plurality of retail channels, and ([0310]) the data recorded can be about actions at a channel before visiting a store, actions during visiting the store, and actions at another channel after visiting the store], and
the analysis unit summarizes, based on the information indicating the actions of the plurality of users before and after using the store or the facility and the information indicating the actions of the plurality of users during the use of the store or the facility acquired by the acquisition unit, the action of the plurality of users before, during, and after using the store or the facility [see at least [0046] analyzing step “More particularly, these embodiments of the present invention will greatly improve retail shopping experience for shoppers and greatly improve the efficiency and effectiveness of selling process for a retailer by providing techniques that provide one or more of the following technical effects, benefits, and/or advantages: (j) provide real-time analytics regarding their shoppers' discovery and shopping behavior”;
Fig. 17 and [0250] analysis unit (processor) and provisioning unit (communication interface) “In terms of hardware, the Passport server 1700 may comprise a processor 1702, a storage medium 1704, and a communication interface 1706. In terms of software, the Passport server 1700 may include or run a number of functional modules such as … Account Management/Security (1711), … Recommendation/Cross-Sell (1714),”].
Regarding claim 3, modified Crutchfield teaches the information processing apparatus according to claim 2,
and Crutchfield teaches wherein the analysis unit summarizes the actions of the plurality of users [see at least [0046] analyzing step “More particularly, these embodiments of the present invention will greatly improve retail shopping experience for shoppers and greatly improve the efficiency and effectiveness of selling process for a retailer by providing techniques that provide one or more of the following technical effects, benefits, and/or advantages: (j) provide real-time analytics regarding their shoppers' discovery and shopping behavior”;
Fig. 17 and [0250] analysis unit (processor) and provisioning unit (communication interface) “In terms of hardware, the Passport server 1700 may comprise a processor 1702, a storage medium 1704, and a communication interface 1706. In terms of software, the Passport server 1700 may include or run a number of functional modules such as … Account Management/Security (1711), … Recommendation/Cross-Sell (1714),”].
Modified Crutchfield (Crutchfield) teaches a store but doesn’t/don’t explicitly teach selection of a store however, in the field pertinent to the particular problem with which the applicant was concerned such analysis of user data in recommendations, Clark discloses
summarizes the actions of the plurality of users by classifying the actions of the plurality of users into two or more groups [see at least [0013-0014] “Consumers visit restaurants and express preferences using repeat visits, surveys or social media. Aggregating multiple preference expressions of any single individual provides a profile of that individual's tastes. This profile of the Individual is referred to herein as an Individual Taste Profile (ITP). Aggregating a statistically significant set of consumers in this way provides a sample that represents preferences of a demographic set within a geographic region at any given time. This set of representative ITPs is known as a Taste Profile Set (TPS). The TPS can change over time as the oldest consumer preference expressions are discarded and replaced by newer ones, for example when restaurants close or consumers enter/leave the area.
Using techniques of machine learning, the TPS can be clustered into groups of individuals that share similar tastes. For example, a k-Means algorithm can cluster together similar ITPs. It is noted that there are hundreds of other algorithms that also exist for this purpose; each of which can be used herein without departing from the teachings provided herein. All that is required is that the group, which has been clustered, contains ITPs that are more similar to members of the group than to ITPs in other groups, where “similar” is a metric describing a mathematical relationship between encoded forms of ITPs. One example of this mathematical encoding is a normalized vector with a degree of freedom for each restaurant in the geography where every value in the vector represents the probability that the individual that is related to the ITP would visit the restaurant related to the value. A distance metric in this example could be straight L2 (root of squared differences).”].
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify modified Crutchfield with Clark to include the limitation(s) above as disclosed by Clark. Doing so would help further define modified Crutchfield’s (Crutchfield) analysis of user data [see at least Clark [0001-0002] ].
Furthermore, all of the claimed elements were known in the prior arts of a) modified Crutchfield and b) Clark and one skilled in the art could have combined the elements as claimed by known methods with no change in their respective functions, and the combination would have yielded predictable results to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Regarding claim 4, modified Crutchfield teaches the information processing apparatus according to claim 3,
and Crutchfield teaches wherein the provision unit provides information indicating data classified by the analysis unit [see at least [0046] analyzing step “More particularly, these embodiments of the present invention will greatly improve retail shopping experience for shoppers and greatly improve the efficiency and effectiveness of selling process for a retailer by providing techniques that provide one or more of the following technical effects, benefits, and/or advantages: (j) provide real-time analytics regarding their shoppers' discovery and shopping behavior”;
Fig. 17 and [0250] analysis unit (processor) and provisioning unit (communication interface) “In terms of hardware, the Passport server 1700 may comprise a processor 1702, a storage medium 1704, and a communication interface 1706. In terms of software, the Passport server 1700 may include or run a number of functional modules such as … Account Management/Security (1711), … Recommendation/Cross-Sell (1714),”;
[0318] combine parts “The various embodiments and features of the presently disclosed invention may be used in any combination, as the combination of these embodiments and features are well within the scope of the invention.”;
[0318, 0046, 0250] ([0318]) combine ([0250]) passport server output (communication interface 1706) such as recommendation 1714 ([0046]) where the specific recommendation is “regarding their shoppers' discovery and shopping behavior”].
Modified Crutchfield (Crutchfield) teaches a store but doesn’t/don’t explicitly teach selection of a store however, in the field pertinent to the particular problem with which the applicant was concerned such analysis of user data in recommendations, Clark discloses
information indicating characteristics of the two or more groups [see at least [0013-0014] “Consumers visit restaurants and express preferences using repeat visits, surveys or social media. Aggregating multiple preference expressions of any single individual provides a profile of that individual's tastes. This profile of the Individual is referred to herein as an Individual Taste Profile (ITP). Aggregating a statistically significant set of consumers in this way provides a sample that represents preferences of a demographic set within a geographic region at any given time. This set of representative ITPs is known as a Taste Profile Set (TPS). The TPS can change over time as the oldest consumer preference expressions are discarded and replaced by newer ones, for example when restaurants close or consumers enter/leave the area.
Using techniques of machine learning, the TPS can be clustered into groups of individuals that share similar tastes. For example, a k-Means algorithm can cluster together similar ITPs. It is noted that there are hundreds of other algorithms that also exist for this purpose; each of which can be used herein without departing from the teachings provided herein. All that is required is that the group, which has been clustered, contains ITPs that are more similar to members of the group than to ITPs in other groups, where “similar” is a metric describing a mathematical relationship between encoded forms of ITPs. One example of this mathematical encoding is a normalized vector with a degree of freedom for each restaurant in the geography where every value in the vector represents the probability that the individual that is related to the ITP would visit the restaurant related to the value. A distance metric in this example could be straight L2 (root of squared differences).”].
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify modified Crutchfield with Clark to include the limitation(s) above as disclosed by Clark. Doing so would help further define modified Crutchfield’s (Crutchfield) analysis of user data [see at least Clark [0001-0002] ].
Furthermore, all of the claimed elements were known in the prior arts of a) modified Crutchfield and b) Clark and one skilled in the art could have combined the elements as claimed by known methods with no change in their respective functions, and the combination would have yielded predictable results to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Regarding claim 5, modified Crutchfield teaches the information processing apparatus according to claim 4,
and Crutchfield teaches wherein the analysis unit analyzes data [see at least [0046] analyzing step “More particularly, these embodiments of the present invention will greatly improve retail shopping experience for shoppers and greatly improve the efficiency and effectiveness of selling process for a retailer by providing techniques that provide one or more of the following technical effects, benefits, and/or advantages: (j) provide real-time analytics regarding their shoppers' discovery and shopping behavior”;
Fig. 17 and [0250] analysis unit (processor) and provisioning unit (communication interface) “In terms of hardware, the Passport server 1700 may comprise a processor 1702, a storage medium 1704, and a communication interface 1706. In terms of software, the Passport server 1700 may include or run a number of functional modules such as … Account Management/Security (1711), … Recommendation/Cross-Sell (1714),”].
Modified Crutchfield (Crutchfield) teaches a store but doesn’t/don’t explicitly teach selection of a store however, in the field pertinent to the particular problem with which the applicant was concerned such analysis of user data in recommendations, Clark discloses
analyzes an intention to use of the store or the facility [see at least [0013-0014] intention such as repeat visits or not “Consumers visit restaurants and express preferences using repeat visits, surveys or social media. Aggregating multiple preference expressions of any single individual provides a profile of that individual's tastes. This profile of the Individual is referred to herein as an Individual Taste Profile (ITP). Aggregating a statistically significant set of consumers in this way provides a sample that represents preferences of a demographic set within a geographic region at any given time. This set of representative ITPs is known as a Taste Profile Set (TPS). The TPS can change over time as the oldest consumer preference expressions are discarded and replaced by newer ones, for example when restaurants close or consumers enter/leave the area.
Using techniques of machine learning, the TPS can be clustered into groups of individuals that share similar tastes. For example, a k-Means algorithm can cluster together similar ITPs. It is noted that there are hundreds of other algorithms that also exist for this purpose; each of which can be used herein without departing from the teachings provided herein. All that is required is that the group, which has been clustered, contains ITPs that are more similar to members of the group than to ITPs in other groups, where “similar” is a metric describing a mathematical relationship between encoded forms of ITPs. One example of this mathematical encoding is a normalized vector with a degree of freedom for each restaurant in the geography where every value in the vector represents the probability that the individual that is related to the ITP would visit the restaurant related to the value. A distance metric in this example could be straight L2 (root of squared differences).”].
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify modified Crutchfield with Clark to include the limitation(s) above as disclosed by Clark. Doing so would help further define modified Crutchfield’s (Crutchfield) analysis of user data [see at least Clark [0001-0002] ].
Furthermore, all of the claimed elements were known in the prior arts of a) modified Crutchfield and b) Clark and one skilled in the art could have combined the elements as claimed by known methods with no change in their respective functions, and the combination would have yielded predictable results to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Regarding claim 7, modified Crutchfield teaches the information processing apparatus according to claim 1,
and Crutchfield teaches wherein the information indicating the actions includes information indicating an online action and information indicating an offline action [see at least [0310] a) customer data regarding a store visit include before the visit, during the visit and b) each visit to a retail channel is added to the customer’s profile by detecting a user based on a user device “In Step 2606, a shopper's visit to a first retail sales channel may be detected. For example, the shopper may visit the first (online) channel by shopping on the Internet web portal via a standard web browser or with the mobile app distributed by the retailer or a third party. The shopper could be detected based on an identifier of the shopper's computing device, its network address (e.g., IP address, mobile phone number), or login credentials or other personal information supplied by the shopper.”;
[0316] “Although in this example just described the shopper visits the online store first and then the physical store, those skilled in the art would appreciate that a shopper may choose to visit any of the retail sales channels and in any chosen order regardless of which the method of improving shopping experience described herein could still be applied.”;
[0109] retail sales channels includes “For example, vendors may allow customers to shop for their products via intelligent display systems, telephone call centers, interactive television services, mobile software applications, social networks, and the like, in addition to their physical stores. … Thus, whether a customer is shopping via a physical store, intelligent display system, online website, software application, social network, etc.,”;
[0316, 0109] ([0316]) customer can visit retail channels in any order, ([0109]) there are a plurality of retail channels, and thus a customer can visit others channels before and after visiting a store].
Regarding claim 8, modified Crutchfield teaches the information processing apparatus according to claim 1,
and Crutchfield teaches wherein the analysis unit determines data of the plurality of users [see at least [0046] analyzing step “More particularly, these embodiments of the present invention will greatly improve retail shopping experience for shoppers and greatly improve the efficiency and effectiveness of selling process for a retailer by providing techniques that provide one or more of the following technical effects, benefits, and/or advantages: (j) provide real-time analytics regarding their shoppers' discovery and shopping behavior”;
Fig. 17 and [0250] analysis unit (processor) and provisioning unit (communication interface) “In terms of hardware, the Passport server 1700 may comprise a processor 1702, a storage medium 1704, and a communication interface 1706. In terms of software, the Passport server 1700 may include or run a number of functional modules such as … Account Management/Security (1711), … Recommendation/Cross-Sell (1714),”].
Modified Crutchfield (Crutchfield) teaches a store but doesn’t/don’t explicitly teach selection of a store however, in the field pertinent to the particular problem with which the applicant was concerned such analysis of user data in recommendations, Clark discloses
determines evaluations of the plurality of users for the store or the facility [see at least [0013-0014] evaluations such as repeat visits or not “Consumers visit restaurants and express preferences using repeat visits, surveys or social media. Aggregating multiple preference expressions of any single individual provides a profile of that individual's tastes. This profile of the Individual is referred to herein as an Individual Taste Profile (ITP). Aggregating a statistically significant set of consumers in this way provides a sample that represents preferences of a demographic set within a geographic region at any given time. This set of representative ITPs is known as a Taste Profile Set (TPS). The TPS can change over time as the oldest consumer preference expressions are discarded and replaced by newer ones, for example when restaurants close or consumers enter/leave the area.
Using techniques of machine learning, the TPS can be clustered into groups of individuals that share similar tastes. For example, a k-Means algorithm can cluster together similar ITPs. It is noted that there are hundreds of other algorithms that also exist for this purpose; each of which can be used herein without departing from the teachings provided herein. All that is required is that the group, which has been clustered, contains ITPs that are more similar to members of the group than to ITPs in other groups, where “similar” is a metric describing a mathematical relationship between encoded forms of ITPs. One example of this mathematical encoding is a normalized vector with a degree of freedom for each restaurant in the geography where every value in the vector represents the probability that the individual that is related to the ITP would visit the restaurant related to the value. A distance metric in this example could be straight L2 (root of squared differences).”].
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify modified Crutchfield with Clark to include the limitation(s) above as disclosed by Clark. Doing so would help further define modified Crutchfield’s (Crutchfield) analysis of user data [see at least Clark [0001-0002] ].
Furthermore, all of the claimed elements were known in the prior arts of a) modified Crutchfield and b) Clark and one skilled in the art could have combined the elements as claimed by known methods with no change in their respective functions, and the combination would have yielded predictable results to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 6 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Crutchfield in view of Clark as applied to claim(s) 1 above and further in view of Google published November 20, 2023 (reference U on the Notice of References Cited).
Regarding claim 6, modified Crutchfield teaches the information processing apparatus according to claim 1,
and Crutchfield teaches wherein the analysis unit summarizes the actions of the plurality of users [see at least [0046] analyzing step “More particularly, these embodiments of the present invention will greatly improve retail shopping experience for shoppers and greatly improve the efficiency and effectiveness of selling process for a retailer by providing techniques that provide one or more of the following technical effects, benefits, and/or advantages: (j) provide real-time analytics regarding their shoppers' discovery and shopping behavior”;
Fig. 17 and [0250] analysis unit (processor) and provisioning unit (communication interface) “In terms of hardware, the Passport server 1700 may comprise a processor 1702, a storage medium 1704, and a communication interface 1706. In terms of software, the Passport server 1700 may include or run a number of functional modules such as … Account Management/Security (1711), … Recommendation/Cross-Sell (1714),”].
Modified Crutchfield (Crutchfield) teaches analysis of data via summarization but doesn’t/don’t explicitly teach summarization using generative AI however, in the field pertinent to the particular problem with which the applicant was concerned such summarization of data, Clark discloses
summarizes the data using generative AI [see at least [pg 3] “Put simply, AI summarization is the use of AI technologies to distill text, documents, or content into a short and easily digestible format. For example, AI summarization can use natural language processing or understanding to condense a long PDF and restate its most important takeaways in just a few sentences.”].
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify modified Crutchfield with Clark to include the limitation(s) above as disclosed by Clark. Doing so would help further define modified Crutchfield’s (Crutchfield) analysis of user data [see at least Clark [0001-0002] ].
Furthermore, all of the claimed elements were known in the prior arts of a) modified Crutchfield and b) Clark and one skilled in the art could have combined the elements as claimed by known methods with no change in their respective functions, and the combination would have yielded predictable results to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Conclusion
When responding to the office action, any new claims and/or limitations should be accompanied by a reference as to where the new claims and/or limitations are supported in the original disclosure.
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Crutchfield – WO 2015/103020 A1 (relevant because it teaches the same as US 2015/0112826 A1)
Kim et al. – Utilizing In-store Sensors for Revisit Prediction (relevant because it teaches With the help of noninvasive monitoring, analyzing a customer's behavior inside stores has become possible, and revisit statistics are available from the large portion of customers who turn on their Wi-Fi or Bluetooth devices)
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JAMES WEBB whose telephone number is (313)446-6615. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F 10-3.
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/JAMES WEBB/Examiner, Art Unit 3624