DETAILED ACTION
This Non-Final Office Action is in response to Applicant's amendments and arguments filed with a request for continued examination on March 13, 2026. Applicant has amended claims 15 and 24 and added claims 25-26. Currently, claims 15-17, 21-26 are pending. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 3/13/26 has been entered.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Response to Amendments
The 35 U.S.C. 101 rejections of claims 15-17, 21-24 are maintained in light of applicant’s amendments to claims 15 and 24.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s remarks submitted on 3/13/26 have been considered but are not persuasive. Applicant argues on p. 8 of the remarks that the 101 rejections are improper. Examiner disagrees. Applicant argues that the claims are not directed to an abstract idea. Applicant argues that the claims use AI technology that improves the efficiency and accuracy of the ESG analysis and leverages it as a technological solution to process and analyze data in real-time and is a technical solution. Examiner notes the use of AI technology does not make the claims not abstract and are considered an additional element not part of the abstract idea. These arguments appear to be directed to practical implementation. Examiner notes the use of AI and machine learning in the claims are tools for implementing the abstract idea itself or extra solution activity. Applicant argues on p. 10 of the remarks that the claims recite significantly more than the abstract idea. Applicant makes comparisons to the decision in Ex Parte Desjardins. Examiner notes that applicant’s claims are very different than those in Ex Parte Desjardins where the AI technology itself and the models and how it operated were improved whereas applicant’s claims use AI technology to implement the abstract idea. Applicant further argues on p. 11 of the remarks that the claims provide a technical solution to a technical problem. Examiner disagrees and notes the claims solve an abstract idea and that the claims merely use technology to implement the abstract or generally link the abstract idea to a computing environment. Therefore, the 101 rejections are maintained.
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 15-17, 21-26 are clearly drawn to at least one of the four categories of patent eligible subject matter recited in 35 U.S.C. 101 (device and method). Claims 15-17, 21-26 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to a judicial exception (i.e., a law of nature, a natural phenomenon, or an abstract idea) without significantly more. Claims 15 and 24 recite the abstract idea of an ESG diagnosis module configured to generate ESG diagnosis results for a target company based on a plurality of ESG evaluation items including environmental evaluation items, social evaluation items, governance evaluation items, and general evaluation items and a materiality topic selection module configured to select materiality topics corresponding to the target company from among ESG topics included in an ESG topic pool and an ESG report generation module configured to generate an ESG report based on the ESG diagnosis results and responses to the materiality topics and an ESG management support module configured to provide an ESG management screen including at least one of the ESG diagnosis results, the materiality topics, and the ESG report, wherein the ESG diagnosis module is configured to select the ESG evaluation items from an ESG evaluation item pool that compiles evaluation items from domestic and international corporate evaluation agencies or evaluation items by category from large corporations, wherein the ESG evaluation items are selected in order of highest frequency for each category and the ESG evaluation items of the ESG evaluation item pool is continuously updated, and an ESG supply chain management module that stores information on supply chain companies managed by the target company and configures the ESG evaluation items by selecting one or more from evaluation items corresponding to the supply chain companies wherein the materiality topic selection module collects priority survey results for the ESG topics from pre-registered stakeholders, and selects the materiality topics based on the priority survey results and the report author's priority input for the ESG topics and wherein the materiality topic selection module provides topics pre-selected by the report author from among the ESG topics to the pre-registered stakeholders, and collects the priority survey results for the selected topics from the stakeholders and wherein the ESG report generation module generates the ESG report including a materiality comparison diagram that compares the priority input and the priority survey results. The claims are directed to a type of managing diagnosis and evaluations of companies for ESG. Under prong 1 of Step 2A, these claims are considered abstract because the claims are certain methods of organizing human activity such as fundamental economic principles (including business relations). Applicant’s claims are organized human activity because the claims show evaluating (organizing) data of companies (where a company is a business that is considered human activity). Under prong 2 of Step 2A, the judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application because the claims (the judicial exception and any additional elements individually or in combination such as a management device and wherein the ESG diagnosis module further performs processor-executed analysis including artificial-neural-network-based processed trained by machine-learning algorithms to derive diagnostic feedback and benchmark comparison information based on accumulated ESG data) are not an improvement to a computer or a technology, the claims do not apply the judicial exception with a particular machine, the claims do not effect a transformation or reduction of a particular article to a different state or thing nor do the claims apply the judicial exception in some other meaningful way beyond generally linking the use of the judicial exception to a particular technological environment such that the claims as a whole is more than a drafting effort designed to monopolize the exception. These limitations at best are merely implementing an abstract idea on a computer, or merely uses a computer as a tool to perform an abstract idea - see MPEP 2106.05(f). Under Step 2B, the claims do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception because the additional elements individually or in combination such as a management device and wherein the ESG diagnosis module further performs processor-executed analysis including artificial-neural-network-based processed trained by machine-learning algorithms to derive diagnostic feedback and benchmark comparison information based on accumulated ESG data (as evidenced by p. 9-10, 12, 31, 33 of applicant’s own specification) are well understood, routine and conventional in the field. Dependent claims 16-17, 21-22 also do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception because the additional elements either individually or in combination are merely an extension of the abstract idea itself by further showing wherein the ESG diagnosis module sets evaluation item weights for each of the evaluation items corresponding to the supply chain companies, and generates ESG diagnosis results for the supply chain companies by reflecting the evaluation item weights and wherein the ESG report generation module generates the ESG report including at least one of an ESG comprehensive diagnosis score, ESG category-specific diagnosis scores, ESG diagnosis feedback based on the ESG diagnosis results, ESG diagnosis score history, or benchmark company comparison information and a disclosure standard recommendation module configured to recommend disclosure standards corresponding to the target company based on at least one of the target company's industry group, company size, primary markets, disclosure targets, or disclosure purposes, wherein the ESG report generation module generates the ESG report based on the recommended disclosure standards or disclosure standards selected by the report author and wherein the disclosure standard recommendation module recommends the disclosure standards by applying higher importance to the disclosure targets and disclosure purposes than to the importance of the industry group, company size, and primary markets. Dependent claims 23, 25-26 does not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception because the additional elements individually or in combination such as wherein the ESG report distribution module provides the ESG report corresponding to the public ESG report when a hash corresponding to the public ESG report is input and a blockchain network configured to securely distribute the ESG report, wherein the blockchain network uses a distributed ledger to ensure the ESG report cannot be modified once finalized, and provides a record of the report's distribution and access, ensuring information security by allowing only authenticated users to access sensitive company information and distributing the ESG report through a blockchain network, wherein the blockchain network ensures that the ESG report cannot be modified once finalized, and provides a record of the report's distribution and access, ensuring information security by allowing only authenticated users to access sensitive company information (as evidenced by p. 9-10, 12, 31, 33 of applicant’s own specification) are well understood, routine and conventional in the field.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 15-17, 21-26 would be allowable if rewritten or amended to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 101, set forth in this Office action.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Jemiri (US 2023/0316197 A1), a system for a collaborative, multi-user platform that can utilize a collaborative diversity resource planning and supply chain localization platform powered by artificial intelligent
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SUJAY KONERU whose telephone number is (571)270-3409. The examiner can normally be reached M-F, 8:30 AM to 5 pm.
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/SUJAY KONERU/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3624
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