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 .
This Office Action is responsive to communication filed on 03/03/2025.
Claims 1 – 9 are currently pending.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 03/03/2025 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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 – 9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to an abstract idea without significantly more.
Step 1:
Claims 1 - 20 are directed to a "device, method, a non-transitory computer-readable recording medium", and therefore, directed to a statutory category.
Step 2A, Prong One:
The independent claims 1, 8 - 9, include the following limitations that directed to an abstract idea:
“extracts, based on material parameter information in which that associates a material used in a product belonging to the product type with a value of a sense parameter indicating a degree of a human sense for the material, a value of a sense parameter for each material corresponding to the product type input to the input device;” as drafted, recites a mentally process as an evaluation or judgement. Comparing, associating, and mapping data attributes (like material features to human perceptual feelings) can be performed entirely in the human mind. Pure data collection (Extracting) and manipulation without a specific technological mechanism defining how the hardware interacts usually renders the claim directed to an abstract idea. This is also consistent with the Disclosure, Para. 0076 wherein the user can extract/obtain the emotional word.
“extracts, based on emotion word parameter information that associates the emotion word with the value of the sense parameter a value of a sense parameter corresponding to the emotion word input to the input device”, as drafted, recites a mentally process as an evaluation or judgement. The claim describes data sorting, manipulation, and conceptual mapping (associating words with parameter values), which falls under the abstract idea categories of data recognition, manipulation, or mental processes. This is also consistent with the Disclosure, Para. 0076 - 0081 wherein the user can obtain value from a tabular (by using pen and paper).
“identifies, based on the value of the sense parameter for each material that has been extracted and the value of the sense parameter corresponding to the emotion word that has been extracted the material to be recommended for the emotion word input to the input device , and presents the material that has been identified to the user” as drafted, recites a mentally process as an evaluation or judgement. The core operation involves extracting values, comparing parameters (data manipulation), and making a selection/recommendation based on that comparison. This can be performed entirely by the human mind or with pen and paper. Relying on general functional components like an "input device" or a processor to perform the comparison does not confer patent eligibility. This is also consistent with the Disclosure, Para. 0098 wherein the user can be presented a recommendation using a display.
Step 2A, Prong Two:
The claim recites additional elements such as:
“an input device, a hardware processor, a non-transitory computer readable recording medium storing instructions”, which is a high-level recitation of a generic computer components and represents mere instructions to apply on a computer as in MPEP 2106.05(f), which does not provide integration into a practical application.
Viewing the additional limitations together and the claim as a whole, nothing provides integration into a practical application.
Step 2B
The claims do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception.
In this case, using a “an input device, a hardware processor, a non-transitory computer readable recording medium storing instructions " are considered conventional or routine computer functions. Because the additional elements amount to nothing more than routine data-gathering and standard computer implementation, they fail to provide an inventive concept.
Accordingly, the additional limitations are not providing significantly more than the
judicial exception. Looking at the claim as a whole does not change this conclusion and
therefore, the claim is ineligible.
The dependent claims 2 includes “the emotion word is a phrase classified into an evaluation factor or an activity factor among factors of an evaluation-potency-activity (EPA) structure defined in an impression evaluation according to a semantic differential (SD) method”, are insignificant extra-solution activity as retrieval/receiving of data (i.e. mere data gathering) such as “classified into an evaluation factor ' as identified in MPEP 2106.05(g) and does not provide integration into a practical application.
The dependent claim 3 - 6 includes “the hardware processor corrects the value of the sense parameter using a coefficient in consideration of a cross modal effect in which impressions received by a plurality of types of senses are related to each other”, is insignificant extra-solution activity as data manipulation such as “corrects the value” as identified in MPEP 2106.05(g) and does not provide integration into a practical application.
The dependent claim 7 includes “the sense includes five senses or a sense obtained by subdividing the five senses” is insignificant extra-solution activity as retrieval/receiving of data (i.e. mere data gathering) such as “obtained by subdividing the five senses” as identified in MPEP 2106.05(g) and does not provide integration into a practical application.
Claims 1 – 7, and 9, Applicant claims the abstract idea on a non-transitory computer readable recording medium with instruction to carry-out the method as in claim 8, without adding further limitations that amount to more than generally linking the use of the exception to a particular technological environment. Generic computer components recited as performing generic computer functions that are well-understood, routine and conventional activities amount to no more than implementing the abstract idea with a computerized system. The use of generic computer components to "extracting … identifying…" do not impose any meaningful limit on the computer implementation of the abstract idea. Thus, taken alone, the additional elements do not amount to significantly more than the above-identified judicial exception (the abstract idea).
Looking at the limitations as an ordered combination adds nothing that is not already present when looking at the elements taken individually. There is no indication that the combination of elements improves the functioning of a computer or improves any other technology. Their collective functions merely provide conventional computer implementation. The claims are not patent eligible.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CAM LINH T NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)272-4024. The examiner can normally be reached M-F: 7:00 - 3:00 pm.
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/CAM LINH T NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2161
