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 .
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.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to an abstract idea without significantly more.
Step 1: Whether a Claim is to a Statutory Category
In the instant case, claims 1-20 recite a system/machine that is performing a series of functions. Therefore, these claims fall within the four statutory categories of invention of a process and a machine.
Step2A – Prong 1: Does the Claim Recite a Judicial Exception
Exemplary claim 1 recites the following abstract concepts that are found to include an enumerated “abstract idea”:
A system, comprising:
a supply chain command platform, comprising:
an interface manager configured to implement a build interface, and to build a visual model in response to user operations on the build interface;
a supply chain model creation component configured to determine a supply chain model in response to the visual model; and
a supply chain model execution component configured to operate the supply chain model as a digital twin of at least a portion of a physical supply chain, to interpret at least one physical supply chain execution value, and to provide a notification to a user of the supply chain command platform in response to a comparison of the supply chain model and the at least one physical supply chain execution value.
[Emphasis added to show the bolded abstract idea being executed by unbolded additional elements that do not meaningfully limit the abstract idea]
This system claim is grouped within the "certain methods of organizing human activity” grouping of abstract ideas in prong one of step 2A of the Alice/Mayo test because the claims involve a series of steps for following rules or instructions to provide a notification to a user of the supply chain command platform which is a process that is encompassed by the abstract idea of managing personal behavior. See e.g., MPEP 2106.04(a)(2)(II)(C); 2106.05(h). Accordingly, the claims recite an abstract idea.
Step2A – Prong 2: Does the Claim Recite Additional Elements that Integrate the Judicial Exception into a Practical Application
This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application because, when analyzed under prong two of step 2A of the Alice/Mayo test, the additional elements of the claims such as a supply chain command platform, interface manager, build interface, visual model, supply chain model creation component, supply chain model execution component and supply chain model merely use a computer as a tool to perform an abstract idea and/or generally link the use of a judicial exception to a particular technological environment. Specifically, the supply chain command platform, interface manager, build interface, visual model, supply chain model creation component, supply chain model execution component and supply chain model perform the steps or functions of following rules or instructions to provide a notification to a user of the supply chain command platform. The use of a processor/computer as a tool to implement the abstract idea and/or generally linking the use of the abstract idea to a particular technological environment does not integrate the abstract idea into a practical application because it requires no more than a computer (or technical elements disclosed at a high level of generality such as supply chain command platform, interface manager, build interface, visual model, supply chain model creation component, supply chain model execution component and supply chain model) performing functions of implementing, building, determining, operating, interpreting, providing and comparing that correspond to acts required to carry out the abstract idea (MPEP 2106.05(f) and (h)). Accordingly, the additional elements do not impose any meaningful limits on practicing the abstract idea, and the claims are directed to an abstract idea.
Step2B: Does the Claim Amount to Significantly More
The claims do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception. The additional element analysis of Step 2A Prong 2 is equally applied to Step 2B. “Another consideration when determining whether a claim recites significantly more than a judicial exception is whether the additional element(s) are well-understood, routine, conventional activities previously known to the industry. This consideration is only evaluated in Step 2B of the eligibility analysis.” MPEP 2106.05(d). The courts have recognized the following computer functions as well‐understood, routine, and conventional (“WURC”) functions when they are claimed in a merely generic manner (e.g., at a high level of generality) or as insignificant extra-solution activity. Exemplary claim 1 recites the following limitations that the courts have found to be WURC:
Claim 1 includes several limitations relating to performing repetitive calculations (an interface manager configured to implement a build interface, and to build a visual model in response to user operations on the build interface; a supply chain model creation component configured to determine a supply chain model in response to the visual model; a supply chain model execution component configured to operate the supply chain model as a digital twin of at least a portion of a physical supply chain, to interpret at least one physical supply chain execution value, and to provide a notification to a user of the supply chain command platform in response to a comparison of the supply chain model and the at least one physical supply chain execution value; as claimed). See MPEP 2106.05(d)(II) where courts found to be WURC - ii. Performing repetitive calculations, Flook, 437 U.S. at 594, 198 USPQ2d at 199 (recomputing or readjusting alarm limit values); Bancorp Services v. Sun Life, 687 F.3d 1266, 1278, 103 USPQ2d 1425, 1433 (Fed. Cir. 2012) ("The computer required by some of Bancorp’s claims is employed only for its most basic function, the performance of repetitive calculations, and as such does not impose meaningful limits on the scope of those claims.");
Accordingly, when viewed alone and in ordered combination, these additional elements are not found to recite significantly more than the underlying abstract idea.
Dependent claims 2-20 further describes the abstract idea of managing personal behavior. Dependent claims 2-20 add non-functional descriptive material or functions including determining, providing, inserting, drag-and-drop, selecting, associating and storing steps that are executed by technical elements such as a supply chain model creation component, supply chain model, physical model, logical model, coded modeling element, low coding element, interface manager, pre-configured element, build interface, visual model, black box modeling element, model element, catalog and as disclosed in their respective independent claim 1, however these additional steps remain disclosed at a high level of generality and do not amount to more than mere computer implementation of the abstract idea, which does not integrate the abstract idea into a practical application or provide significantly more than the abstract idea. Therefore, dependent claims 2-20 are also not patent eligible. Further, the dependency of these claims on ineligible independent claim 1 also renders dependent claims 2-20 as not patent eligible.
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.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cella et al. (US 2021/0357823 A1) in view of Lombardi et al. (US 2020/0227178 A1).
Regarding Claim 1, modified Cella teaches:
A system, comprising:
a supply chain command platform (See Cella ¶ [0009-0011] – a cloud-based management platform with a micro-services architecture, the platform having a set of interfaces that are configured to access and configure features of the platform… the set of interfaces includes at least one of a demand management interface and a supply chain management interface… supply chain management applications, demand management applications, intelligent product applications, and enterprise resource management applications), comprising:
an interface manager configured to implement a build interface, and to build a visual model (See Cella ¶ [0072]-[0073] - the digital twin system outputs a graphical representation of the package digital twin to a display whereby a user views the simulation via the display. In embodiments, the digital twin system outputs a graphical representation of the package digital twin in a graphical user interface, whereby a user edits the packaging design via the graphical user interface. In embodiments, the digital twin system outputs a simulation outcome of the simulation to the machine learning system, and the machine learning system reinforces the machine-learned model used to determine the packaging design recommendation based on the simulation outcome and further detailed in ¶ [0396]-[0397])…;
a supply chain model creation component configured to determine a supply chain model in response to the visual model (See Cella ¶ [0075] - the machine learning model is configured to learn which types of sensor data are relevant to dynamics of each value chain entity of the value chain entities and simulation thereof… interface regarding potential changes to the plurality of sensors that would improve simulation of the value chain entities via the digital twin system, [0546]-[0547] - define a machine learning model for performing analytics, simulation, decision making, and prediction making related to data processing, data analysis, simulation creation, and simulation analysis of one or more of the value chain entities. The machine learning model is an algorithm and/or statistical model that performs specific tasks without using explicit instructions, relying instead on patterns and inference); and
a supply chain model execution component configured to operate the supply chain model as a digital twin of at least a portion of a physical supply chain, to interpret at least one physical supply chain execution value (See Cella ¶ [0072] - the digital twin system: executes a packaging simulation based on the package digital twin; issues a packaging design request from the artificial intelligence system based on a state of the logistics simulation; and adjusts the state of the logistics simulation based on the packaging design recommendation output by the artificial intelligence system in response to the packaging design request and further detailed in ¶ [0642]-[0644]), and to provide a notification to a user of the supply chain command platform in response to a comparison of the supply chain model and the at least one physical supply chain execution value (See Cella ¶ [0639] - outcome from a simulation can be presented to a human user, compared against real world data (e.g., measured properties of a container, the environment of the container, the contents of the container, and resultant outcomes) to ensure convergence of the digital twin with the real world, and/or used to train machine learning models, [0810], - outcomes may be in the form of modeling results, alerts and warnings or remaining useful life (RUL) predictions. Machine twin may communicate with a user via multiple communication channels such as speech, text, gestures to convey outcomes and [1120] - types of issues that may be provided as augmentations or overlays may include alerts as to existing conditions and/or forecasts or predictions of such conditions, such as by analytic systems or forecasting artificial intelligence systems, such as expert agents trained to make such forecasts).
While Cella teaches a system for building models that simulate supply chain operations through a digital twin to interpret data relating to said supply chain (Cella ¶ [0072-0073], [0639] and [0642-0644]), Cella does not explicitly teach that said models are built as a visual model in response to user operations on the build interface. This is taught by Lombardi (See Lombardi ¶ [0336] - drag and drop visual composer, [0338] - widget palette may contain a set of widgets that can be instantiated with a simple drag and drop operation from the widget palette to the board design panel and/or configured, potentially changing their properties from the property panel and [0351]-[0353] - UI widgets may be available from a widget palette (potentially grouped per category, to potentially make it easier to find them) and may be instantiated and/or inserted inside a board with a drag and drop operation, potentially becoming UI widget Instances). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include in the model building system of Cella the use of a robotic device to retrieve said collected unwanted items as taught by Lombardi to optimize data exchange among UI components and may contribute to more efficiently managing widget interactions (Lombardi ¶ [0345]), thereby increasing the efficiency of model building system of Cella.
Regarding Claim 2, modified Cella teaches:
The system of claim 1, wherein the supply chain model creation component is further configured to determine the supply chain model in response to a plurality of linked entities representing the at least a portion of the physical supply chain, wherein each one of the plurality of linked entities comprises a behavior value, and wherein links between the entities each comprise a relationship value (See Cella ¶ [0230], representing an enterprise organizational structure in a digital twin of an enterprise; parsing the structure to infer relationships among a set of roles within the organizational structure, the relationships and the roles defining a workforce of the enterprise and [0430] - correlation may be derived from the value chain, such as a shipper cannot deliver international goods until they are processed through customs, or a sales forecast cannot be provided with a high degree of confidence without high quality field data and the like).
Regarding Claim 3, modified Cella teaches:
The system of claim 2, wherein the behavior value for at least one of the linked entities comprises at least one behavior value selected from: a physical model, a logical model, a data provision value, or a data collection value (See Cella ¶ [0359] - customer profiling application (such as for profiling one or more demographic, psychographic, behavioral, economic, geographic, or other attributes of a set of customers, including based on historical purchasing data, loyalty program data, behavioral tracking data (including data captured in interactions by a customer with a smart product), online clickstream data, interactions with intelligent agents, and other data sources)).
Regarding Claim 4, modified Cella teaches:
The system of claim 2, wherein the behavior value for at least one of the linked entities comprises at least one behavior value selected from: an event detection value, an event response value, a notification value, an alert value, or a reporting value (See Cella ¶ [0433] - an acceptable range of outcome variance may indicate a problem state trigger threshold that may be used by a local instance of artificial intelligence to signal a problem state).
Regarding Claim 5, modified Cella teaches:
The system of claim 2, wherein at least one of the plurality of linked entities comprises a coded modeling element (See Cella ¶ [0444] - environment for development of a digital twin may include a set of interfaces for developers in which a developer may configure an artificial intelligence system to take inputs from selected data sources of the data storage layer and events or other data from the monitoring systems layer and supply them for inclusion in a digital twin and [0471] - developer, may specify a desired type of data, such as software interaction data (such as of an expert working with a program to perform a particular task), video data).
Regarding Claim 6, modified Cella teaches:
The system of claim 2, wherein at least one of the plurality of linked entities comprises a low coding element (See Cella ¶ [1071] - distribution twins (such as representing distribution facilities, assets, objects, workers, or the like); warehousing twins (such as representing warehouse facilities, assets, objects, workers and the like)).
Regarding Claim 7, modified Cella teaches:
The system of claim 1, wherein the interface manager is further configured to provide a catalog of pre-configured elements to the build interface, and to insert at least one of the pre-configured elements into the visual model in response to the user operations on the build interface (See Cella ¶ [1436-1437] - role-based preference setting may be configured based on a set of role-specific templates… set of templates may include at least one of a CEO template, a COO template, a CFO template, a counsel template, a board member template, a CTO template).
Regarding Claim 8, modified Cella teaches:
The system of claim 7 (See claim 7 above),
While Cella teaches a system comprising an interface manager for building models that simulate supply chain operations through a digital twin to interpret data relating to said supply chain (Cella ¶ [0072-0073], [0639] and [0642-0644]), Cella does not explicitly teach that the interface manager is further configured to insert the at least one of the pre-configured elements into the visual model in response to a drag-and-drop operation. This is taught by Lombardi (See Lombardi ¶ [0336] - drag and drop visual composer, [0338] - widget palette may contain a set of widgets that can be instantiated with a simple drag and drop operation from the widget palette to the board design panel and/or configured, potentially changing their properties from the property panel and [0351]-[0353] - UI widgets may be available from a widget palette (potentially grouped per category, to potentially make it easier to find them) and may be instantiated and/or inserted inside a board with a drag and drop operation, potentially becoming UI widget Instances). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include in the model building system of Cella the use of a robotic device to retrieve said collected unwanted items as taught by Lombardi to optimize data exchange among UI components and may contribute to more efficiently managing widget interactions (Lombardi ¶ [0345]), thereby increasing the efficiency of model building system of Cella.
Regarding Claim 9, modified Cella teaches:
The system of claim 7, wherein the interface manager is further configured to insert the at least one of the pre-configured elements into the visual model in response to a menu selection operation (See Cella ¶ [0379]- menu selections).
Regarding Claim 10, modified Cella teaches:
The system of claim 7, wherein at least one of the pre-configured elements comprises a coded modeling element (See Cella ¶ [0444] - environment for development of a digital twin may include a set of interfaces for developers in which a developer may configure an artificial intelligence system to take inputs from selected data sources of the data storage layer and events or other data from the monitoring systems layer and supply them for inclusion in a digital twin and [0471] - developer, may specify a desired type of data, such as software interaction data (such as of an expert working with a program to perform a particular task), video data).
Regarding Claim 11, modified Cella teaches:
The system of claim 7, wherein at least one of the pre-configured elements comprises a low coding modeling element (See Cella ¶ [1071] - distribution twins (such as representing distribution facilities, assets, objects, workers, or the like); warehousing twins (such as representing warehouse facilities, assets, objects, workers and the like)).
Regarding Claim 12, modified Cella teaches:
The system of claim 7, wherein at least one of the pre-configured elements comprises a black box modeling element (See Cella ¶ [1711] - backup server).
Regarding Claim 13, modified Cella teaches:
The system of claim 7, wherein the supply chain model creation component is further configured to determine the supply chain model in response to a plurality of linked entities representing the at least a portion of the physical supply chain, wherein at least one of the pre-configured elements comprises an entity, and wherein the supply chain model creation component is further configured to insert the entity into the visual model in response to the user operations comprising selecting the entity (See Cella ¶ [1343] - the digital twin system may also stream one or more real-time data or near-real time data streams to the user device, such that the executive digital twin may be updated with fresh data as the user interacts with the executive digital twin… the user may delegate tasks via the executive digital twin, request simulations via the executive digital twin, drill down into or zoom out of states depicted in the executive digital twin and [1436-1437] - role-based preference setting may be configured based on a set of role-specific templates… set of templates may include at least one of a CEO template, a COO template, a CFO template, a counsel template, a board member template, a CTO template).
Regarding Claim 14, modified Cella teaches:
The system of claim 7, wherein the supply chain model creation component is further configured to determine the supply chain model in response to a plurality of linked entities representing the at least a portion of the physical supply chain, wherein at least one of the pre-configured elements comprises a relationship value, and wherein the supply chain model creation component is further configured to insert the relationship value into the visual model in response to the user operations comprising selecting the relationship value and a relationship position (See Cella ¶ [1130] - the collaboration suite may present the COO with information depicting the relationship of the item to operational processes, such as linkages to other systems involved in a production line, timing information (such as scheduled downtimes for a facility) and the like as noted in ¶ [1436]-[1437] above).
Regarding Claim 15, modified Cella teaches:
The system of claim 7, wherein the supply chain model creation component is further configured to determine the supply chain model in response to a plurality of linked entities representing the at least a portion of the physical supply chain, wherein at least one of the pre-configured elements comprises a behavior value, and wherein the supply chain model creation component is further configured to associate the behavior value with at least one of the plurality of linked entities in response to the user operations comprising selecting the behavior value and at least one of the plurality of linked entities (See Cella ¶ [0230] - representing an enterprise organizational structure in a digital twin of an enterprise; parsing the structure to infer relationships among a set of roles within the organizational structure, the relationships and the roles defining a workforce of the enterprise, [0359] – examples of behaviors and [0430] - correlation may be derived from the value chain, such as a shipper cannot deliver international goods until they are processed through customs, or a sales forecast cannot be provided with a high-degree of confidence without high quality field data and the like).
Regarding Claim 16, modified Cella teaches:
The system of claim 1, wherein the supply chain model creation component is further configured to store a model element of the visual model to a catalog of pre-configured elements in response to the user operations (See Cella ¶ [1119] - the user may select a type of organizational digital twin that is suitable for the user's organization, such as from a library of industry-specific or domain-specific organizational templates and [1168] - the computerized model library may be obtained from a behavior model data store that stores one or more models that defines one or more behaviors of entities, such as based on scientific, economic, statistical, psychological).
Regarding Claim 17, modified Cella teaches:
The system of claim 16, wherein the stored model element comprises at least one of: an entity, a behavior value, or a relationship value (See Cella ¶ [1168] - the computerized model library may be obtained from a behavior model data store that stores one or more models that defines one or more behaviors of entities, such as based on scientific, economic, statistical, psychological).
Regarding Claim 18, modified Cella teaches:
The system of claim 17, wherein the supply chain model creation component is further configured to store the model element in a storage scheme comprising one of: a coded modeling element, a low coding modeling element, or a black box modeling element (See Cella ¶ [0444] - environment for development of a digital twin may include a set of interfaces for developers in which a developer may configure an artificial intelligence system to take inputs from selected data sources of the data storage layer and events or other data from the monitoring systems layer and supply them for inclusion in a digital twin and [0471] - developer, may specify a desired type of data, such as software interaction data (such as of an expert working with a program to perform a particular task), video data [coded modeling]).
Regarding Claim 19, modified Cella teaches:
The system of claim 18, wherein the supply chain model creation component is further configured to select the storage scheme in response to the user operations (See Cella ¶ [0061] - the set of data storage facilities uses a distributed data architecture… the set of data storage facilities uses a graph database representing a set of hierarchical relationships of value chain network entities, [0347] - the data handling layers are configured in a topology that facilitates shared or common data storage across multiple applications and uses of the platform by a value chain network-oriented data storage systems layer and [1343] - the digital twin system may also stream one or more real-time data or near-real time data streams to the user device, such that the executive digital twin may be updated with fresh data as the user interacts with the executive digital twin… the user may delegate tasks via the executive digital twin, request simulations via the executive digital twin, drill down into or zoom out of states depicted in the executive digital twin ).
Regarding Claim 20, modified Cella teaches:
The system of claim 19, wherein the supply chain model creation component is further configured to select the storage scheme further in response to an authorization value associated with a user performing the user operations (See Cella ¶ [0061] and [0347] as noted above and [1585] - enterprise management platform having a collaboration suite configured to allow multiple disparate users authorized by an enterprise that controls an executive digital twin to collaborate and interact with the executive digital twin in a digital environment).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MATTHEW S WERONSKI whose telephone number is (571)272-5802. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8 am - 5 pm EST.
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/MATTHEW S WERONSKI/Examiner, Art Unit 3627
/MICHAEL JARED WALKER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3627
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