DETAILED ACTION
This communication is in response to the Application filed on 02/28/2025. Claims 1-20 are pending and have been examined. Claims 1, 13, 20 are independent. This Application was published as US Pub 20250272486.
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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 05/27/2025 was filed. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority based on application CN202410224804.3 filed in China National Intellectual Property Administration on 02/28/2024 and receipt of a certified copy thereof.
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 therefore, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to abstract idea without significantly more.
Regarding Claims 1, 13 and 20,
Claim 1 recites a method, which falls under the statutory category of process, machine or manufacture. Claims 13 and 20 recite an electronic device and a non-transitory computer-readable medium, which fall under the statutory categories of machine and manufacture, respectively (Step 1: Yes).
Claims recite limitations, “(a) determining product information…”, “(b) obtaining at least one reference script…”, and “(c) generating a target script…”.
Limitations (a)- (c) are concepts, which can be performed in the human mind through observation, evaluation, or judgement, or by a human using a pen and paper.
The claims, under their broadest reasonable interpretation, cover the concept of a copywriter determining product information by reading a product page (step (a)); obtaining a reference document by recalling or finding similar copywriting for a comparable product (step (b)); and generating a new script by adapting the reference document’s tone, structure, and content suing the product information (step (c)) (see MPEP 2106.04(a)(2) III. This is the ordinary practice of writing promotional copy from a template or examples
Under its broadest reasonable interpretation when read in light of the specification, the actions recited in limitations (a)-(c) encompass mental processes practically performed in the human mind. Accordingly, the claim recites an abstract idea (Step 2A, Prong one).
The judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application. In particular, in claim 1, no additional elements are introduced to integrate the abstract idea into a practical application. Claims 13 and 20 recite additional elements (an electronic device comprising a memory, a processor, a computer program, and a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium), but they are recited at a high level of generality (combination of hardware and software are a generic computing device and generic computer components performing a generic computer functions such as processing and storing data from given input) such that it amounts to no more than mere instructions to apply to the exception using a generic computer component.
Accordingly, the additional elements do not integrate the abstract idea into a practical application because it does not impose any meaningful limits on practicing the abstract idea and the claim is therefore directed to the judicial exception (Step 2A: YES).
The claims do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception because they do not include subject matter that could not be performed by a human, as discussed above with respect to integration of the abstract idea into a practical application, the additional element of using the generic computing elements to perform the claimed elements amounts to no more than mere instructions to apply the exception using a generic computer component. Mere instructions to apply an exception using a generic computer component cannot provide an inventive concept.
As noted previously, the claim as a whole merely describes how to generally link the use of the aforementioned concept to a particular technological environment or field of use. 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 not patent eligible. (Step 2B: NO).
Regarding Dependent Claims 2-12 and 14-19
Claims 2-12 and 14-19 are dependent on supra claim(s) and include all the limitations of the claims and further limits the elements of Claims 1 and 13. Therefore, the dependent claims recite the same abstract idea. The claim recites the additional limitations of “parsing the at least one reference script…” in claim 2, “obtaining a product material…”, “parsing the product material…” in claim 4, “generating a target video …” in claim 10, but they also encompass mental processes practically performed in the human mind. Additional limitations reciting “displaying a target page…”, “displaying the first information…”, “displaying the second information…”, “displaying the target script…”, and “highlighting script content…” are no more than mere instructions to apply the exception using a generic computer component, generally linking the use of the judicial exception to a particular technological environment or field of use, insignificant extra-solution activity, or that are well understood, routine and conventional activities previously known to the industry.
Claims 5-12 and 17-19 add user interface elements (e.g., input boxes, controls, sub-pages, labels), but no additional elements beyond the use of generic computing elements are claimed, therefore the judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application nor are the claim elements sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception. Therefore, claims are not patent eligible.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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.
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.
Claims 1-7, 11 and 13-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Aher et al. (US Pub 2022/0058709) in view of Chen et al. (CN117331456A).
Regarding Claim 1,
Aher discloses a method for generating a script (Title, par [001], "…methods for dynamically generating a product description personalized for a target user account..."), comprising:
determining product information of a target product, the script being related to the target product (par [050], "…The product description data are data provided by the product provider (Apple or Warner Bros, in the previous examples) and/or the merchant or distributor (Amazon or Netflix in the previous examples)..."; i.e., product information);
obtaining at least one reference script related to the target product according to the product information (par [054], "… control circuitry 204 processes the product data (either one or both of the product description data and the product comment data) to generate a product description template. A product description template comprises one or several fields...that need to be populated with information related to the product of interest. The fields are linked together by a structure, the structure being, for instance, extracted from product data..."; i.e., the template with its field is construed as the "reference script."); and
generating a target script of the target product according to the product information and the at least one reference script (Fig.13, paras [069, 075], "…control circuitry 204 selects a field in the retrieved product description template. The field is associated with a tag, and at 1304, control circuitry 204 selects an information item that is associated with the same tag, in order to populate the field..."; par [069], tagging an information item parsed from the commented data. i.e., the template (i.e., reference script) is populated with the tagged content parsed from comment data to generate the personalized description (i.e., target script)…).
While Aher discloses a product description template, which is construed as a "reference script" assembled from an aggregated corpus of product description and comment data, Aher does not explicitly teach a specific, retrievable body of prior copy tied to a single source.
However, Chen, in the analogous field of AI-assisted e-commerce copywriting, discloses obtaining at least one reference script related to the target product according to the product information (Chen, pg.7, lls.12-30, "…When the user selects a personal history style option, step 102 Obtaining the second task description information corresponding to the copywriting style selected by the user...In step A1, the user's historical copywriting data is obtained...In step A2, the user's personal historical style is obtained based on the historical copywriting data, preset prompt words and a generative large language model...").
Therefore, it would be obvious to apply Chen's known technique of deriving reference content form a specific, retrievable body of prior copy to Aher's template-based reference script generation system, with the expectation to have yielded the result of a script-generation system whose references script can be sourced either from an aggregated, structurally-driven template or from a discrete, specifically retrievable example.
Regarding Claim 2,
Aher in view of Chen discloses the method according to claim 1, wherein the generating the target script of the target product according to the product information and the at least one reference script further comprises:
parsing the at least one reference script to obtain reference script information of the at least one reference script (Aher, Fig.5, par [062], "…control circuitry 204 identifying, at 506, an information item in the product data and associating 508 that information item with a tag...identifying, at 510, the structure of the product data (e.g., a sentence)..."; Chen, pg.7, lls.12-30, "…When the user selects a personal history style option, step 102 Obtaining the second task description information corresponding to the copywriting style selected by the user..."); and
generating the target script according to the product information and the reference script information (Aher, Fig.13, paras [069, 075], "…control circuitry 204 selects a field in the retrieved product description template. The field is associated with a tag, and at 1304, control circuitry 204 selects an information item that is associated with the same tag, in order to populate the field..."; Chen, pg.7, "…In step S103, a Prompt word is generated based on the description text of the target item and the first task description information and/or the second task description information...")
Regarding Claim 3,
Aher in view of Chen discloses the method according to claim 2, wherein the reference script information comprises a reference script structure (Aher, par [054], "…The fields are linked together by a structure, the structure being, for instance, extracted from product data..."; Fig.6, par [0], "…The information item identified is "Dell Inspiron", "great" and "battery life" with respective tags PRODUCT NAME, ADJECTIVE, and FEATURE, and the structure is "[ ... ] has [ ... ]"..."), and
the generating the target script according to the product information and the reference script information further comprises: generating the target script according to the product information and the reference script structure (Aher, Fig.13, paras [069, 075], "…control circuitry 204 selects a field in the retrieved product description template. The field is associated with a tag, and at 1304, control circuitry 204 selects an information item that is associated with the same tag, in order to populate the field..."; Chen, pg.7, "…In step S103, a Prompt word is generated based on the description text of the target item and the first task description information and/or the second task description information...").
Regarding Claim 4,
Aher in view of Chen discloses the method according to claim 1, wherein the generating the target script of the target product according to the product information and the at least one reference script further comprises:
obtaining a product material corresponding to the product information according to the product information (Aher, par [057], "… control circuitry 204 obtains, via the communication network 110, a first set of comment data associated with the product of interest..."; par [069], "…The comment data are associated with the product of interest and contains information that describes the product of interest (i.e., a product material)...");
parsing the product material to obtain reference product information related to the product material (Aher, par [069], "…control circuitry 204 identifying, at 904, at least one information item in the comment data, and, at 906, associating a tag to the information item..."); and
generating the target script according to the reference product information and the at least one reference script (Aher, Fig.13, paras [069, 075], "…control circuitry 204 selects a field in the retrieved product description template. The field is associated with a tag, and at 1304, control circuitry 204 selects an information item that is associated with the same tag, in order to populate the field..."; Chen, pg.7, "…In step S103, a Prompt word is generated based on the description text of the target item and the first task description information and/or the second task description information...").
Regarding Claim 5,
Aher in view of Chen discloses the method according to claim 4, wherein the reference product information comprises first information related to a product feature (Aher, Fig.11, par [072], "…Column "tagged sentence" 1108 shows how a comment data is processed by control circuitry 204...comment data (input 1102) may be "I like the beautiful keyboard". The information item identified is "beautiful" and "keyboard" with respective tags ADJECTIVE and FEATURE..."), and the method further comprises:
displaying a target page, the target page comprising a first sub-page, the first sub-page comprising a first input box; and displaying the first information in the first input box in response to obtaining the reference product information (Chen, pg.11, Fig.3, "…Figure 3 shows an exemplary copywriting generation page 300. For example, when a user requests copywriting generation on his client, the copywriting generation page 300 can be displayed on the client he is using. The copywriting generation page 300 includes an image input area 301, a keyword input area 302, a usage scenario selection area 303, a copywriting style selection area 304, and a copywriting output area 305...", "…The user can upload a target item (such as a product to be sold, or an environmental picture) in the input picture area 301, or select from the options in the usage scene selection area 303 and the copy style selection area 304…" );
wherein the generating the target script according to the reference product information and the at least one reference script further comprises: generating the target script according to the first information and the at least one reference script.
Regarding Claim 6,
Aher in view of Chen discloses the method according to claim 5, wherein the first sub-page further comprises a second input box (Chen, pg.11, "…usage scenario selection area 302 includes the following options: "Weidian Community", "Product Advertisement", "Moments", and "Little Red Book"..."), and
the reference product information further comprises second information related to a product application scenario (Chen, pg.9, "…In step C2, a first association relationship between the usage scenario and the corresponding first task description information is established. After obtaining the first task description information corresponding to all optional usage scenarios, a first association relationship between the usage scenarios and the corresponding first task description information can be established..."), the method further comprises:
displaying the second information in the second input box in response to obtaining the reference product information (Chen, pg.6, "…, the usage scenario selection area may include multiple preset usage scenario options for the user to select, such as APP1, APP2, Mini Program 1, Mini Program 2 and other usage scenarios");
wherein the generating the target script according to the first information and the at least one reference script further comprises: generating the target script according to the first information, the second information, and the at least one reference script.
Regarding Claim 7,
Aher in view of Chen discloses the method according to claim 6, wherein the generating the target script according to the first information, the second information, and the at least one reference script further comprises: generating the target script according to the first information, the second information, input information, and the at least one reference script in response to receiving the input information through the first input box and/or the second input box (Chen, pg.11 , "…After the user clicks the "Submit" button in the copywriting generation page 300 of the client, the client sends the picture of the target item, the selected usage scenario and the copywriting style to the server...").
Regarding Claim 11,
Aher in view of Chen discloses the method according to claim 5,
wherein the first sub-page further comprises a first option for switching an application scenario of the target script (Chen, pg.6, "…the usage scenario selection area may include multiple preset usage scenario options for the user to select, such as APP1, APP2, Mini Program 1, Mini Program 2 and other usage scenarios..."), and the generating the target script according to the reference product information and the at least one reference script further comprises: generating a target script corresponding to a target application scenario according to the reference product information and the at least one reference script in response to switching to the target application scenario through the first option.
Claim 13 is a device claim with limitations similar to the limitations of Claim 1 and is rejected under similar rationale. Additionally,
Aher discloses an electronic device, comprising a memory, a processor, and a computer program stored in the memory and capable of running on the processor, wherein the processor, when executing the program (Fig.2, paras [042-043], "…control circuitry 204 includes storage 208, such as a memory, and processing circuitry 210…control circuitry 204 and/or 212 executes instructions for an application stored in memory..."), implements a method for generating a script
…
Rationale for combination is similar to that provided for Claim 1.
Claim 14 is a device claim with limitations similar to the limitations of Claim 2 and is rejected under similar rationale.
Claim 15 is a device claim with limitations similar to the limitations of Claim 3 and is rejected under similar rationale.
Claim 16 is a device claim with limitations similar to the limitations of Claim 4 and is rejected under similar rationale.
Claim 17 is a device claim with limitations similar to the limitations of Claim 5 and is rejected under similar rationale.
Claim 18 is a device claim with limitations similar to the limitations of Claim 6 and is rejected under similar rationale.
Claim 19 is a device claim with limitations similar to the limitations of Claim 7 and is rejected under similar rationale.
Claim 20 is a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium claim with limitations similar to the limitations of Claim 1 and is rejected under similar rationale.
Additionally,
Aher discloses a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing computer instructions (Fig.2, par [043], "…Each of storage 208, storage 216, and/or storages of other components of system 100...Non-volatile memory may also be used...").
…
Rationale for combination is similar to that provided for Claim 1.
Claims 8-10 and 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Aher in view of Chen further in view of LI et al. (US Pub 2022/0366153) further in view of Peters (US Pub 2007/0143705).
Regarding Claim 8,
Aher in view of Chen discloses the method according to claim 5. But Aher in view of Chen does not explicitly teach a first control for triggering a script generation operation, a second sub-page, or a script structure.
Li, in the analogous field of script generation and presentation, discloses wherein the first sub-page further comprises a first control for triggering a script generation operation (Li, Fig.4, par [035], "…The initial user interface 400 may include the query box 405 and let's go button 410…When the use selects the let's go button 410, the process begins to generate a script/speech for the user..."),
the target page further comprises a second sub-page (par [037], "…Below the submit button 510, several candidate script previews 520, 530, 540 are shown, each with a corresponding radio button..."), and
the generating the target script according to the reference product information and the at least one reference script further comprises:
generating the target script according to the reference product information and the at least one reference script in response to a triggering instruction on the first control; and
Peters, in the analogous field of electronic document navigation and UI control, discloses displaying the target script and a script structure of the target script on the second sub-page (Peters, Fig.3, paras [007, 009], "…The indicators 102 may correspond to a document structure...The indicators 102 may further be associated with descriptors 104, as shown in FIG. 1C. The descriptors may provide information about the portion of the document pointed to by a particular indicator...").
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to combine Li's known first-control-triggered generation and second sub-page display technique, and Peters' known labeled-document-structure-display technique with the reference-script-generation system taught by Aher in view of Chen, because each technique performs its own known functions regardless of the underlying base content-generation base system, yielding a system that generates and displays the target script and its structure on a designated second display.
Regarding Claim 9,
Aher in view of Chen further in view of Li further in view of Peters discloses the method according to claim 8, wherein the script structure comprises at least one label (Peters, par [009], "…The indicators 102 may further be associated with descriptors 104...The descriptors may provide information about the portion of the document pointed to by a particular indicator... the descriptors are chapter headings..."), and
the displaying the target script and the script structure of the target script on the second sub-page further comprises: highlighting script content corresponding to a target label in the target script in response to a triggering instruction on the target label in the at least one label (Peters, par [014], "…may highlight the selected indicator and a portion of the corresponding document section...").
Regarding Claim 10,
Aher in view of Chen further in view of Li further in view of Peters discloses the method according to claim 8, wherein the second sub-page further comprises a second control for triggering a video generation operation (Li, Fig.8, par [040], "…Upon selection of final presentation button 840, the input document...and the selected audio candidate are synchronized to generate a final audio-visual presentation...The generated file may be an audio-visual file type of, for example, .mpg, .mp4, .wmv..."),
the method further comprises: generating a target video containing the target script in response to a triggering instruction on the second control.
Regarding Claim 12,
Aher in view of Chen further in view of Li further in view of Peters discloses the method according to claim 8,
wherein the first sub-page further comprises a second option for switching a style of the target script (Chen, pg.11, "…The copywriting style selection area 303 includes the following options: "Personal history style", "Celebrity 1 style", "Celebrity 2 style", "Funny and humorous style", "Serious style", "Popular style", and "Customized style". And a custom style input area..."), and
the displaying the target script and the script structure of the target script on the second sub-page further comprises:
displaying a target script corresponding to a target style and the script structure of the target script on the second sub-page in response to switching to the target style through the second option (Li, Fig.4, par [035], "…The initial user interface 400 may include the query box 405 and let's go button 410…When the use selects the let's go button 410, the process begins to generate a script/speech for the user..."; par [037], "…Below the submit button 510, several candidate script previews 520, 530, 540 are shown, each with a corresponding radio button..." ; Peters, par [009], "…The indicators 102 may further be associated with descriptors 104...The descriptors may provide information about the portion of the document pointed to by a particular indicator... the descriptors are chapter headings...").
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Axen et al. (US Pat 9,129,642) discloses an apparatus for generation of playable media from structured data, comprising a structured data reading unit for reading in of content of a first structure, a transformation unit for transforming content into a second structure, and a rendering unit for rendering content from the second structure using said media play instructions to generate playable media from the content... (Axen, Abstract ).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JANGWOEN LEE whose telephone number is (703)756-5597. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8:00 am - 5:00 pm ET.
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/JANGWOEN LEE/ Examiner, Art Unit 2656
/BHAVESH M MEHTA/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2656
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