Prosecution Insights
Last updated: April 19, 2026
Application No. 19/050,433

SELF-HEALING DATA CLUSTERS

Non-Final OA §103
Filed
Feb 11, 2025
Examiner
TRAN, LOC
Art Unit
2164
Tech Center
2100 — Computer Architecture & Software
Assignee
American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc.
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
84%
Grant Probability
Favorable
1-2
OA Rounds
2y 7m
To Grant
99%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 84% — above average
84%
Career Allow Rate
311 granted / 372 resolved
+28.6% vs TC avg
Strong +24% interview lift
Without
With
+23.9%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
2y 7m
Avg Prosecution
17 currently pending
Career history
389
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
14.4%
-25.6% vs TC avg
§103
44.8%
+4.8% vs TC avg
§102
24.4%
-15.6% vs TC avg
§112
8.0%
-32.0% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 372 resolved cases

Office Action

§103
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 . 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 of this title, 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. Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Burke (US 8,442,917 B1), published on May 14, 2013 in view of Wyllie et al (“Wyllie” US 2013/0238623 A1), published on September 12, 2013. As to claim 1, Burke teaches “generate a new record based at least in part on a transaction from a user” in col. 14: 1-5, fig. 4B (814_01 transaction corresponds to a transaction from a user; 814_5 corresponds to a new record based at least in part on the data input). It appears Burke does not explicitly teach “identify candidate data of one or more candidates in a candidate pool”. However, Wyllie teaches “identify candidate data of one or more candidates in a candidate pool” in par. 0016 (“…obtaining a set of combinations of identifiers by, for each record, determining a plurality of identifiers using the data stored in the record…”. Identifiers correspond to candidate data. Record(s) correspond to of one or more candidates in a candidate pool). Burke and Wyllie are analogous art because they are in the same field of endeavor, database management. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claim invention to data records, disclosed by Burke including “identify candidate data of one or more candidates in a candidate pool” in order to link electronic database records (see Wyllie par. 0015). Wyllie teaches “compute a plurality of pair combinations between individual ones of the one or more candidates of the candidate pool and the new record” in par. 0033 (“calculating a similarity value for corresponding identifiers from pairs of combinations in the cluster”. Pairs of combination (in the cluster) corresponds to a plurality of pair combinations between individual ones of the one or more candidates of the candidate pool and the new record). Wyllie teaches “cluster the one or more candidates in the candidate pool and the new record into a group based at least in part on the plurality of pair combinations; update the candidate data based at least in part on the group” in paragraphs [0047-0050] (“calculating a quality value for the cluster containing the new combination; [0048] 4) if the quality value of the cluster is below the pre-determined threshold, splitting the cluster into two or more clusters by removing one or more links between combinations in the original cluster, in the case that the resulting clusters have higher quality values than the original cluster; [0049] 5) linking the new record to any record whose corresponding combination of identifiers is a member of the same cluster as the new combination”. Noting that “linking the new record to any record whose corresponding combination of identifiers is a member of the same cluster as the new combination” corresponds to update the candidate data based at least in part on the group). Burke teaches “send a notification to a client device associated with the user to notify the user of the update to the candidate data” in fig. 4B, step 335. As to claim 8, it is rejected for similar reason to claim 1. As to claim 14, it is rejected for similar reason to claim 1. As to claim 2, Burke teaches “wherein the plurality of pair combinations are at least one of an nC2 pairing or an nCr pairing” in par. 0033 (“…calculating a similarity value for corresponding identifiers from pairs of combinations in the cluster…”. Noting that choosing a pair (2 items) from a set of n items corresponds to nC2 combination). As to claim 9, it is rejected for similar reason to claim 2. As to claim 15, it is rejected for similar reason to claim 2. As to claim 3, Wyllie teaches “cause the computing device to at least generate a graph with individual ones of the one or more candidates representing individual ones of a plurality of vertices” in par. 0087, fig. 5 (“…the unique combinations of identifiers then are considered as nodes in a graph. Edges between the nodes are created whenever the combinations share an identifier…”). As to claim 10, it is rejected for similar reason to claim 3. As to claim 16, it is rejected for similar reason to claim 3. As to claim 4, Wyllie teaches “cause the computing device to at least calculate a distance between each of the plurality of pair combinations wherein the distance is calculated by measuring a space between the plurality of vertices” in par. 0087 (“…the unique combinations of identifiers then are considered as nodes in a graph. Edges between the nodes are created whenever the combinations share an identifier…”) and par. 0091 (“…each identifier is compared against all other identifiers of the same type, using a distance measure…”). As to claim 11, it is rejected for similar reason to claim 4. As to claim 17, it is rejected for similar reason to claim 4. As to claim 5, Wyllie teaches “wherein the one or more candidates in the candidate pool and the new record are clustered into the group based at least in part on the distance” in paragraphs [0121-0124] (“…a quality value for the cluster containing the new combination 52 is obtained. Again similarly to the previous embodiment, if the quality value is below the threshold, the cluster is analysed to see if it can be split into two or more clusters of a higher quality value than the original cluster, and the process is repeated until no further increase in quality values is possible…”. The record 50 is added into set of existing records, then the cluster is built based on the quality value using similar value (corresponding to distance) for each identifier). As to claim 12, it is rejected for similar reason to claim 5. As to claim 18, it is rejected for similar reason to claim 5. As to claim 6, Wyllie teaches “cause the computing device to at least calculate a score to determine a level of match based at least in part on the distance between each of the plurality of pair combinations” in par. 0103 (the score is calculated after cluster splitting to determine when to stop creating new cluster as to determine a level of match based at least in part on the distance between each of the plurality of pair combinations). As to claim 13, it is rejected for similar reason to claim 6. As to claim 19, it is rejected for similar reason to claim 6. As to claim 7, Burke teaches “at least display a user interface configured to allow the user to specify data to be analyzed” in col. 16: 31-36 (“…in which the reason code and reason description is displayed in step 448 at a later time after opening and reviewing the `Rejected worklist 307…”. Noting that “opening and reviewing the `Rejected worklist 307” is to allow the user to specify data to be analyzed). As to claim 20, it is rejected for similar reason to claim 7. Conclusion The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicants’ disclosure: . LUNDB/EK (US 2022/0171874 A1) . DeRobertis et al (US 2007/0100929 A1) . Therani et al (US 11405482 B2) Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Loc Tran whose telephone number is 571-272-8485. The examiner can normally be reached on Mon-Fri. 7:30am-5pm; First Fri Off. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Amy Ng can be reached on (571)-270-1698. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free).If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000. /LOC TRAN/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2164
Read full office action

Prosecution Timeline

Feb 11, 2025
Application Filed
Jan 08, 2026
Non-Final Rejection — §103 (current)

Precedent Cases

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Study what changed to get past this examiner. Based on 5 most recent grants.

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Prosecution Projections

1-2
Expected OA Rounds
84%
Grant Probability
99%
With Interview (+23.9%)
2y 7m
Median Time to Grant
Low
PTA Risk
Based on 372 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allow rate.

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