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 .
Specification
The disclosure is objected to because of the following informalities: The specification should e updated to reflect the current status of all co-pending applications.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112(a):
(a) IN GENERAL.—The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor or joint inventor of carrying out the invention.
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112:
The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor of carrying out his invention.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the written description requirement. The claim(s) contains subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to reasonably convey to one skilled in the relevant art that the inventor or a joint inventor, or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the inventor(s), at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention.
Claim 1 has various steps present that are not supported in the specification. For example, there is no support for “making a determination as to an intent of the user based on processing the chat query; selecting a workflow based on the determination; wherein selecting the workflow includes selecting, in response to the determination being ambiguous, a first workflow; providing a chat response for the chat query using the first workflow”.
Claim 2 likewise has no support in the specification for “wherein selecting the workflow includes selecting a human intervention workflow”. Claim 3 has no support in the specification for “in response to determining that the intent is ambiguous, processing a second chat query, received after the chat query, to make the determination as to the intent of the user.” Similarly, there is support lacking in the specification for claims 4 and 5.
Similar issues exist with claims 11-15 and 20.
Claims 6-10 and 16-19 are rejected as being dependent upon a rejected claim.
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.
Claim 1 is 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.
Claim 1 recites the limitation "the user" in claim 1. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim. This issue does not exist in claims 11 and 20.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Sharpe et al. US 2016/0142541
Sharpe et al. WO 2016/073302 A1
Sharpe et al. US 2016/0119477
Sharpe et al. US 2016/0119478
Palakovich et al. US 2016/0099892
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Jeffrey R. Swearingen
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2445
/Jeffrey R Swearingen/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2445
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