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:
The claims are process/system claims thereby falling into one of the four statutory categories of invention.
Step 2A, prong 1:
Applicant recites the following limitations in Claims 1-20:
1. A computer-implemented method for generating and dynamically applying a digital representation of items within a warehouse environment, the method comprising: receiving an inbound within the box; and weight of the items within the box; determining a subset of work orders from a plurality of work orders to sort the respective ones of the items within the box into; providing an indication of the sorted items and the subset of work orders; sending item-specific labels to be printed based on association with the subset of work orders; determining a type of carton label to be printed for respective ones of the subset of work orders, wherein a first type of carton label is a marketplace shipping label and a second type of carton label is a warehouse management system type of carton label; and responsive to receiving an updated quantity of items within the box, updated dimensions of the items within the box, and updated weight of the items within the box,
2. A warehouse management system, comprising: pertaining to: a quantity of items within the box; dimensions of the items within the box; and weight of the items within the box; determine a subset of work orders from a plurality of work orders to sort the respective ones of the items within the box into; provide an indication of the sorted items and the subset of work orders to the handheld device; send item-specific labels to be printed based on association with the subset of work orders; determine a type of carton label to be printed for respective ones of the subset of work orders, wherein a first type of carton label is a marketplace shipping label and a second type of carton label is a warehouse management system type of carton label; organize the respective ones of the items into an outbound marketplace shipment; and send routing instructions to the handheld device, wherein the routing instructions provide instructions to route the respective ones of the items towards a location in the warehouse environment designated for a truck being loaded for the outbound marketplace shipment.
3. The warehouse management system of claim 2, wherein, to determine the subset of work orders to sort the respective ones of the items within the box into,
4. The warehouse management system of claim 3, wherein, verify that the quantity of items within the box matches the ground truth number of items that are expected to be present within the box
5. The warehouse management system of claim 3, wherein, to determine the subset of work orders to sort the respective ones of the items within the box into,
6. The warehouse management system of claim 2, wherein
7. The warehouse management system of claim 2, wherein, to determine the type of carton label to be printed for the respective ones of the subset of work orders,
8. The warehouse management system of claim 2, wherein, to determine the type of carton label to be printed for the respective ones of the subset of work orders,
9. The warehouse management system of claim 2, wherein, to determine the type of carton label to be printed for the respective ones of the subset of work orders,
10. The warehouse management system of claim 2, wherein, to determine the type of carton label to be printed for the respective ones of the subset of work orders, ones of the quantity of items; and cause the marketplace shipping label to be printed.
11. The warehouse management system of claim 2, wherein, to determine the type of carton label to be printed for the respective ones of the subset of work orders
12. The warehouse management system of claim 2, wherein, to determine the type of carton label to be printed for the respective ones of the subset of work orders, the computing device is configured to: determine that there is an unassigned digital representation for the subset of work orders; determine that the unassigned digital representation does not match the quantity of items within the box, wherein the unassigned digital representation has a smaller quantity than the quantity of items within the box; assign the unassigned digital representation to a transient box; cause the smaller quantity of items within the unassigned digital representation to be increased; and cause the marketplace shipping label to be printed.
13. The warehouse management system of claim 2, wherein, to organize the respective ones of the items into the outbound marketplace shipment,
14. The warehouse management system of claim 2, wherein
15. The warehouse management system of claim 14, wherein
16. The warehouse management system of claim 15, wherein, to generate the shipment pre-creation statement,
17. The warehouse management system of claim 16, wherein, to determine the shipment quantity,
18. The warehouse management system of claim 17, wherein: to generate the shipment pre-creation statement, representation,
19. The warehouse management system of claim 18, wherein, responsive to the generation of the digital representation,
20. A computer-implemented method for managing a warehouse environment, the method comprising: receiving an inbound towards a location in the warehouse environment designated for a truck being loaded for the outbound marketplace shipment.
Examiner has bolded the limitations that are part of the abstract idea and struck through additional elements.
Applicant claims an abstract idea in the category of Certain Methods of Organizing Human Activity in the subcategory of Commercial or Legal interactions.
Applicant further claims an abstract idea in the category of Mental Processes because a human could certainly make determinations items in a box, sort the items, determine labels needed for the sorted items, determine if an extra box is needed, and determine routine instructions toward a location in a warehouse. MPEP 2104(a)(2)(IIT)(A) provides an example of an abstract mental process: “a claim to "collecting information, analyzing it, and displaying certain results of the collection and analysis".
Claims 1-20 thus recite an abstract idea.
Step 2A, prong 2:
In addition to the abstract idea discussed above, applicant recites a computing device, a handheld device, sending and retrieving data between devices, and a digital representation as additional elements that are positively claimed. Note that the recitations of a warehouse, labels, a box, conveyor, truck, printer, etc. are ancillary to the claim language and are NOT positively recited and therefore are NOT considered additional elements.
The additional elements are general purpose computer elements and/or field of use. MPEP 2106.05(f)(2) states “Use of a computer or other machinery in its ordinary capacity for economic or other tasks (e.g., to receive, store, or transmit data) or simply adding a general purpose computer or computer components after the fact to an abstract idea (e.g., a fundamental economic practice or mathematical equation) does not integrate a judicial exception into a practical application”.
Step 2B:
As discussed above, applicant claims an abstract idea in the category of Certain Methods of Organizing Human Activity in the subcategory of Commercial or Legal interactions and further in the category of Mental Processes.
As mentioned above with respect to Step 2A, prong 2, applicant recites the additional elements in the claims of: a computing device, a handheld device, sending and retrieving data between devices, and a digital representation.
Similar to the discussion above with respect to Step 2A, prong 2, the claimed additional elements are general purpose computer elements, or field of use. They are recited at a high level of generality and amount to applying the exception using general purpose computer systems. MPEP 2106.05(f) states that merely adding a general purpose computer or computer components to an abstract idea does not amount to significantly more.
The additional elements alone or in combination do not improve the functioning of a computer or any other technology or technological field. The additional elements alone or in combination do not apply the judicial exception to a particular (non-general purpose) machine. The additional elements alone or in combination do not effect a transformation or reduction of a particular article to a different state or thing. Applicant does not claim or teach in their specification any special purpose hardware or improvements thereof. Therefore, the claims do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception.
Claims 1-20 are not patent eligible.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being clearly anticipated by US 2006/0020366 A1 (Bloom).
Bloom discloses all of the limitations of the claims including:
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For convenience, the paragraphs shown below from the Bloom reference support the rejection of claim 1. For the additional paragraph and figure citations described in the rejection above, the examiner refers the applicant to the Bloom reference directly.
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Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication should be directed to Florian Zeender whose telephone number is 571-272-6790. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday, 9:30-5:30pm EST.
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Florian Zeender
Supervisory Patent Examiner
Art Unit 3627
/FLORIAN M ZEENDER/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3627
Prosecution Insights