DETAILED ACTION
Claims 1-20 are pending in the Instant Application.
Claims 1-20 are rejected (Non-Final Rejection).
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 .
Priority
The Instant Application, filed 06/05/2025 is a continuation of 18/462,247 filed 09/06/2023, which claims priority from provisional application 63/404,041, filed 09/06/2022, which is the effective filing date for what is recited therein.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 06/05/2025 was considered by the Examiner.
Double Patenting
The nonstatutory double patenting rejection is based on a judicially created doctrine grounded in public policy (a policy reflected in the statute) so as to prevent the unjustified or improper timewise extension of the “right to exclude” granted by a patent and to prevent possible harassment by multiple assignees. A nonstatutory double patenting rejection is appropriate where the conflicting claims are not identical, but at least one examined application claim is not patentably distinct from the reference claim(s) because the examined application claim is either anticipated by, or would have been obvious over, the reference claim(s). See, e.g., In re Berg, 140 F.3d 1428, 46 USPQ2d 1226 (Fed. Cir. 1998); In re Goodman, 11 F.3d 1046, 29 USPQ2d 2010 (Fed. Cir. 1993); In re Longi, 759 F.2d 887, 225 USPQ 645 (Fed. Cir. 1985); In re Van Ornum, 686 F.2d 937, 214 USPQ 761 (CCPA 1982); In re Vogel, 422 F.2d 438, 164 USPQ 619 (CCPA 1970); In re Thorington, 418 F.2d 528, 163 USPQ 644 (CCPA 1969).
A timely filed terminal disclaimer in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(c) or 1.321(d) may be used to overcome an actual or provisional rejection based on nonstatutory double patenting provided the reference application or patent either is shown to be commonly owned with the examined application, or claims an invention made as a result of activities undertaken within the scope of a joint research agreement. See MPEP § 717.02 for applications subject to examination under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA as explained in MPEP § 2159. See MPEP § 2146 et seq. for applications not subject to examination under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA . A terminal disclaimer must be signed in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(b).
The filing of a terminal disclaimer by itself is not a complete reply to a nonstatutory double patenting (NSDP) rejection. A complete reply requires that the terminal disclaimer be accompanied by a reply requesting reconsideration of the prior Office action. Even where the NSDP rejection is provisional the reply must be complete. See MPEP § 804, subsection I.B.1. For a reply to a non-final Office action, see 37 CFR 1.111(a). For a reply to final Office action, see 37 CFR 1.113(c). A request for reconsideration while not provided for in 37 CFR 1.113(c) may be filed after final for consideration. See MPEP §§ 706.07(e) and 714.13.
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Claim 1 is rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claim 9 of U.S. Patent No. 12,339,909. Although the claims at issue are not identical, they are not patentably distinct from each other because although they are not the same, they both recite the limitations of claim 1 of the Instant Application.
Instant Application
U.S. Patent No. 12,339,909
Claim 1.
One or more non-transitory computer readable medium having instructions, which when executed by one or more processors are programmed to at least:
store a hierarchical tag database that includes a plurality of tags arranged according to a hierarchical data schema for a number of tag hierarchies, in which each tag hierarchy has one or more levels, each level in a respective tag hierarchy includes one or more tags representative of related concepts associated with the respective tag hierarchy, and tags within each level of a respective tag hierarchy have a different specificity relative to each other level of the respective tag hierarchy, in which a tag at a given level of a given tag hierarchy represents a more specific concept than the respective tag in each level that is higher than the given level in the respective tag hierarchy;
store profile tags for a given user, in which the profile tags for the given user include one or more tags of the plurality of tags that have been assigned to the given user at a respective level in an associated tag hierarchy defined by the hierarchical data schema;
store user-specific journey tags for the given user to encode where the given user is in a personalized journey map,
in which the personalized journey map defines a sequence of stages describing a progression of objective milestones to achieve a goal for the given user, each stage of the personalized journey map includes one or more journey tags defined by the hierarchical data schema;
select item tags based on at least one of the user-specific journey tags and the personalized journey map for the given user, wherein the item tags include respective tags in the associated tag hierarchy defined by the hierarchical data schema and are representative of actions, services, products and/or activities;
perform matching between the profile tags for the given user and the selected item tags to provide a results list representative of a matching set of the actions, services, products and/or activities for the given user based on the matching.
From claim 1 unless noted:
One or more non-transitory computer readable media having instructions, which when executed by one or more processors are programmed to at least:
store a hierarchical tag database that includes a plurality of tags arranged according to a hierarchical data schema for a number of tag hierarchies, in which each tag hierarchy has one or more levels, each level in a respective tag hierarchy includes one or more tags representative of related concepts associated with the respective tag hierarchy, and tags within each level of a respective tag hierarchy have a different specificity relative to each other level of the respective tag hierarchy, in which a tag at a given level of a given tag hierarchy represents a more specific concept than the respective tag in each level that is higher than the given level in the respective tag hierarchy;
store profile tags for a given user, in which the stored profile tags for the given user include one or more tags of the plurality of tags that have been assigned to the given user at a respective level in an associated tag hierarchy defined by the hierarchical data schema;
From claim 9:
wherein the instructions further include instructions to provide user-specific journey tags for the given user to encode where the given user is in a journey map,
in which the journey map defines a sequence of stages describing a progression of objective milestones to achieve a health-related and/or wellness goal for the given user, each stage of the journey map includes one or more journey tags defined by the hierarchical data schema, wherein the instructions to determine which of the tags in the expanded profile tag data set match corresponding item tags further include instructions to apply the user-specific journey tags for the given user and constrain the item tags for the given user based on the applied user-specific journey tags to include one or more actions, services, products and/or activities relevant to where the given user is in the journey map.
End of claim 9
perform matching between the profile tags and item tags representative of actions, services, products and/or activities, wherein the item tags include respective tags in the associated tag hierarchy defined by the hierarchical data schema, and wherein the instructions to match further include instructions to: expand each of the stored profile tags for the given user based on the associated tag hierarchies in the hierarchical tag database that include the stored profile tags to provide an expanded profile tag data set for the given user, in which the expanded profile tag data set includes each of the assigned profile tags and each one or more higher-level tags in each associated tag hierarchy that are at a higher level than the assigned profile tag in the associated tag hierarchy to which each of the assigned profile tags belongs; determine which tags in the expanded profile tag data set match corresponding item tags representative of available actions, services, products and/or activities, and generate a results list representative of a matching set of the actions, services, products and/or activities for the given user based on the determination.
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 Riezler et al. (“Riezler”), United States Patent Application Publication No. 2006/0224552, in view of Robichaux et al. (“Robichaux”), United States Patent Application Publication No. 2023/0005580.
As per claim 1, Riezler discloses one or more non-transitory computer readable medium having instructions, which when executed by one or more processors are programmed to at least:
store a hierarchical tag database that includes a plurality of tags arranged according to a hierarchical data schema for a number of tag hierarchies ([0045] wherein the plurality of tags (recognized as interests in the prior art (See [0030] wherein a tag can describe an interest in the specification of the Instant Application)) are stored in a hierarchal ontology in a database such as WordNet), in which each tag hierarchy has one or more levels, each level in a respective tag hierarchy includes one or more tags representative of related concepts associated with the respective tag hierarchy, and tags within each level of a respective tag hierarchy have a different specificity relative to each other level of the respective tag hierarchy ([0046] wherein at least three levels are described (see [0039]) since there is a parents and child and wherein WordNet is arranged so that the higher level term is more broad (less specificity) than the lower nodes), in which a tag at a given level of a given tag hierarchy represents a more specific concept than the respective tag in each level that is higher than the given level in the respective tag hierarchy ([0039]) wherein since there is a parents and child and wherein WordNet is arranged so that the higher level term is more broad (less specificity) than the lower nodes);
store profile tags for a given user, in which the profile tags for the given user include one or more tags of the plurality of tags that have been assigned to the given user at a respective level in an associated tag hierarchy defined by the hierarchical data schema([0038]-[0039] wherein the profile tags are stored in a file (recognized as the words in user-interest profile) in the prior art); and wherein the item tags include respective tags in the associated tag hierarchy defined by the hierarchical data schema and are representative of actions, services, products and/or activities ([0061] wherein item tags can be document tags that can relate to activities/products such as “cultivating orchids” as described in [0023] or purchasing flowers in [0061]), but does not disclose to store user-specific journey tags for the given user to encode where the given user is in a personalized journey map, in which the personalized journey map defines a sequence of stages describing a progression of objective milestones to achieve a goal for the given user, each stage of the personalized journey map includes one or more journey tags defined by the hierarchical data schema; select item tags based on at least one of the user-specific journey tags and the personalized journey map for the given user; perform matching between the profile tags for the given user and the selected item tags to provide a results list representative of a matching set of the actions, services, products and/or activities for the given user based on the matching. However, Robichaux teaches to store user-specific journey tags for the given user to encode where the given user is in a personalized journey map ([0021] where a whole-person model, personalized journey map in the claim language, wherein each resource is tagged with a dimensionality the resource improves), in which the personalized journey map defines a sequence of stages describing a progression of objective milestones to achieve a goal for the given user ([00676] wherein a user while-person report consists of a sequence of stages describing objective milestones for sub-dimensions such as tasks to complete, or interacting with a coach for a certain amount of time), each stage of the personalized journey map includes on or more journey tags ([0020] wherein progress of dimensionality is tagged for each stage);
select item tags based on at least one of the user-specific journey tags and the personalized journey map for the given user ([0084] wherein the coach can select an item tag to assign to an item with a tag based on the user-specific journey tags and journey map);
perform matching between the profile tags for the given user and the selected item tags to provide a results list representative of a matching set of the actions, services, products and/or activities for the given user based on the matching ([0085] wherein a coach can match between profile tags that need work and items that the user can do to reach a milestone in their journey and provide a set or resources, which can be activities or actions).
Both Riezler and Robichaux both describe tag based user profiling. Riezler describes tags defined by the hierarchical data schema, whereas the tags in Robichaux are not. One could use hierarchy of tags from Riezler with the individual journey tags and milestone tracking n Robichaux to teach the claimed invention. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to combine the method of storing a user profile with interest tags as in Riezler with the tagged milestone tracking in Robichaux in order to provide the resources and guidance for the user to reach their goals.
As per claim 2, note the rejection of claim 1 where Riezler and Robichaux The combination teaches the media of claim 1. Robichaux further teaches wherein the instructions further comprise instructions to generate a user interface to present intake questions and receive responses to the intake questions in response to user inputs ([0056] wherein the intake questions can be questions to provide insight to the user’s strengths in the prior art), the profile tags for the given user being stored based on the responses to the intake questions ([0056] wherein the tags associated with the questions are stored as a self-reporting process).
As per claim 3, note the rejection of claim 1 where Riezler and Robichaux The combination teaches the media of claim 2. Robichaux further teaches wherein the user-specific journey tags are determined for the given user based on the responses to the intake questions ([0056] wherein the user’s strengths and weaknesses can be discovered by the intake questions, wherein a user’s “journey” (“track” in the prior art) is based on metrics calculated from tags).
As per claim 4, note the rejection of claim 1 where Riezler and Robichaux The combination teaches the media of claim 1. Robichaux further teaches wherein the instructions further comprise instructions to apply the user-specific journey tags for the given user and filter the item tags for the given user, based on the applied user-specific journey tags, to include a subset of the actions, services, products and/or activities relevant to where the given user is in the personalized journey map ([0085] wherein a coach can match between profile tags that need work and items that the user can do to reach a milestone in their journey and provide a set or resources, which can be activities or actions).
As per claim 5, note the rejection of claim 1 where Riezler and Robichaux The combination teaches the media of claim 1. Robichaux further teaches wherein the instructions further comprise instructions to:
update the profile tags for the given user periodically and/or in response to a detecting a trigger condition ([0067] wherein am update pulse is a trigger condition to update profile tags), in which the update includes at least one of adding and/or changing one or more of the profile tags for the given user ([0068] wherein which tag to update is determined by the dimensionalities updated); and change where the given user is in the personalized journey map based on the updated profile tags for the given user. ([0067] wherein the change is the user meeting a milestone).
As per claim 6, note the rejection of claim 1 where Riezler and Robichaux The combination teaches the media of claim 5. Robichaux further teaches wherein the change where the given user is in the personalized journey map includes one of a reversion to an earlier place in the personalized journey map or a progression to a subsequent place in the personalized journey map (Examiner notes the use of “or” in the claim language requiring only one of reversion or progression, and [0067] wherein a milestone is met, which means there is forward progression).
As per claim 7, note the rejection of claim 1 where Riezler and Robichaux The combination teaches the media of claim 5. Robichaux further teaches wherein the instructions further comprise instructions to invoke the instructions to perform the matching responsive to updating the profile tags for the given user and provide an updated results list for a recommended set of the actions, services, products and/or activities for the given user ([0085] wherein the matching to find more resources after the updated tag (based on the pulse), the recommend action/activity resources are also updated).
As per claim 8, note the rejection of claim 1 where Riezler and Robichaux The combination teaches the media of claim 1. Robichaux further teaches wherein the instructions further comprise instructions to augment the profile tags for the given user to include one or more new tags that are expected for the given user at a future time in the personalized journey map, such that the matching is performed based on the augmented profile tags for the given user ([0086] wherein the augmented profile tags are those given by the manual tagging by the coach , and are expected in a future time as tags that will pulse).
As per claim 9, note the rejection of claim 1 where Riezler and Robichaux The combination teaches the media of claim 1. Robichaux further teaches wherein the goal for the given user comprises a health-related and/or wellness goal for the given user, and the personalized journey map describes a corresponding progression of objective milestones to achieve the health-related and/or wellness goal for the given user ([0014]-[0015] wherein the goals are wellness goals and the milestones are wellness milestones).
As per claim 10, note the rejection of claim 1 where Riezler and Robichaux The combination teaches the media of claim 1. Riezler further discloses wherein the instructions to perform matching further include instructions to: expand each of the profile tags for the given user based on the tag hierarchies in the hierarchical tag database that include the profile tags to provide an expanded profile tag data set for the given user , in which the expanded profile tag data set includes each of the profile tags and each one or more higher-level tags in each associated tag hierarchy that are at a higher level than the profile tag in the associated tag hierarchy to which each of the profile tags belongs ([0039] wherein single words are expanded to include the high-level tag (recognized as the parent concept in the prior art)); determine which tags in the expanded profile tag data set match corresponding item tags([0057] wherein updating user-interest features requires the determination of which tags led to the results including the expanded tags); and generate the results list based on the determination ([0061]-[0062]) wherein a result list of matching document results are provided to the user).
As per claim 11, note the rejection of claim 1 where Riezler and Robichaux The combination teaches the media of claim 1. Riezler further discloses wherein each of the profile tags for the given user includes a tag within a single most-specific level of each associated tag hierarchy that has been assigned for the given user ([0062] wherein tag (interest in the prior art) assigned to the user profile is as the most-specific level that was assigned), wherein the hierarchical tag database is changed independently of the profile tags for the given user ([0023] wherein the tag database (interest terms in the prior art) can be added), and wherein the profile tags for the given user are expanded based on the associated tag hierarchies in the changed hierarchical tag database, whereby changes to the hierarchical tag database are reflected in the expanded profile tag data set for the given user ([0023] wherein the expanded profile tags can be the new terms in the hierarchical database).
As per claim 12, Riezler discloses a system comprising:
one or more non-transitory machine-readable media to store instructions and data ([0087]), wherein the data includes:
a hierarchical tag database that includes a plurality of tags arranged according to a hierarchical data schema for a number of tag hierarchies ([0045] wherein the plurality
of tags (recognized as interests in the prior art (See [0030] wherein a tag can
describe an interest in the specification of the Instant Application)) are stored in a
hierarchal ontology in a database such as WordNet), in which each tag hierarchy has one or more levels, each level in a respective tag hierarchy includes one or more tags, and tags within each level of a respective tag hierarchy have a different specificity relative each other level of the respective tag hierarchy[0046] wherein at least three levels are described (see [0039]) since there is a parents and child and wherein WordNet is arranged so that the higher level term is more broad (less specificity) than the lower nodes);
profile tag data for a given user, in which the profile tag data for the given user includes one or more tags that have been assigned for the given user at a respective level in an associated tag hierarchy defined by the hierarchical data schema([0038]-[0039] wherein the profile tags are stored in a file (recognized as the words in user-interest profile) in the prior art); wherein the item tags include respective tags in the associated tag hierarchy defined by the hierarchical data schema and are representative of actions, services, products and/or activities ([0061] wherein item tags can be document tags can relate to activities/products such as “cultivating orchids” as described in [0023] or purchasing flowers in [0061]), but does not disclose user-specific journey tags to encode where the given user is in a personalized journey map, in which the personalized journey map defines a sequence of stages describing a progression of objective milestones to achieve a goal for the given user, each stage of the personalized journey map includes one or more journey tags defined by the hierarchical data schema; a processor configured to access the one or more non-transitory machine-readable media and execute the instructions to perform a method comprising: select item tags based on at least one of the user-specific journey tags and the personalized journey map for the given user; and matching between the profile tags for the given user and the selected item tags to provide a results list representative of a matching set of the actions, services, products and/or activities for the given user based on the matching. However, Robichaux teaches user-specific journey tags to encode where the given user is in a personalized journey map ([0021] where a whole-person model, personalized journey map in the claim language, wherein each resource is tagged with a dimensionality the resource improves), in which the personalized journey map defines a sequence of stages describing a progression of objective milestones to achieve a goal for the given user ([00676] wherein a user while-person report consists of a sequence of stages describing objective milestones for sub-dimensions such as tasks to complete, or interacting with a coach for a certain amount of time), each stage of the personalized journey map includes one or more journey tags ([0020] wherein progress of dimensionality is tagged for each stage); a processor configured to access the one or more non-transitory machine-readable media and execute the instructions to perform a method comprising: select item tags based on at least one of the user-specific journey tags and the personalized journey map for the given user ([0084] wherein the coach can select an item tag to assign to an item with a tag based on the user-specific journey tags and journey map);
and matching between the profile tags for the given user and the selected item tags to provide a results list representative of a matching set of the actions, services, products and/or activities for the given user based on the matching ([0085] wherein a coach can match between profile tags that need work and items that the user can do to reach a milestone in their journey and provide a set or resources, which can be activities or actions).
Both Riezler and Robichaux both describe tag based user profiling. Riezler describes tags defined by the hierarchical data schema, whereas the tags in Robichaux are not. One could use hierarchy of tags from Riezler with the individual journey tags and milestone tracking n Robichaux to teach the claimed invention. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to combine the method of storing a user profile with interest tags as in Riezler with the tagged milestone tracking in Robichaux in order to provide the resources and guidance for the user to reach their goals.
As per claim 13, claim 13 is the system implemented by the computer product of claim 2 and is rejected for the same rationale and reasoning.
As per claim 14, claim 14 is the system implemented by the computer product of claim 3 and is rejected for the same rationale and reasoning.
As per claim 15, claim 15 is the system implemented by the computer product of claim 4 and is rejected for the same rationale and reasoning.
As per claim 16, claim 16 is the system implemented by the computer product of claim 5 and is rejected for the same rationale and reasoning.
As per claim 17, claim 17 is the system implemented by the computer product of claim 6 and is rejected for the same rationale and reasoning.
As per claim 18, claim 18 is the system implemented by the computer product of claim 7 and is rejected for the same rationale and reasoning.
As per claim 19, claim 19 is the system implemented by the computer product of claim 8 and is rejected for the same rationale and reasoning.
As per claim 20, claim 20 is the system implemented by the computer product of claim 10 and is rejected for the same rationale and reasoning.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KANNAN SHANMUGASUNDARAM whose telephone number is (571)270-7763. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:00 AM -6:00 PM.
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/KANNAN SHANMUGASUNDARAM/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2168
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