DETAILED ACTION
Status of the Application
Claims 1-5 have been examined in this application. This communication is the first action on the merits. The Information Disclosure Statement (IDS) filed on June 9, 2025 has been acknowledged.
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA . In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1-5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 1 recites “send this information to a voting reception terminal.” Previously the claim recites multiple instances of different “information,” such as “store information,” “information on at least one of a new product,” “information on a new service,” and “voting proposal information,” and thus, it is unclear to which information “this information” refers. For the purposes of examination, Examiner interprets “this information” to refer to the “voting proposal information.”
Claims 2-5 depend on claim 1 and do not cure the aforementioned deficiencies, and thus, these claims are rejected for the reasons set forth above.
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 1-5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to an abstract idea without significantly more. The claims (claim 1, and similarly claims 2-5) recite “[a] commercial activity support … for supporting a commercial activity of a store that performs at least one of product sales and service provision, comprising: … store store information related to the store; …, wherein the store information includes information on at least one of a new product that the store is considering selling and information on a new service that the store is considering providing, … execute processing to: generate voting proposal information for making multiple candidates for at least one of the new product and the new service with respect to voting targets for request voting by customers of the store, based on information on at least one of the new product and the new service, and send this information to a voting reception …; and receive voting response information from the voting reception … in response to the voting proposal information.” Claims 1-5, in view of the claim limitations, recite the abstract idea of commercial activity support of a store that performs product sales and service provision by storing store information on new product or service a store is considering, generating voting information for the new product or service by customers of the store based on the information on the new product or service, sending information to a voting recipient, and receiving a voting response from the voting recipient based on the voting information.
As whole, in view of the each of the claim limitations above, the limitations manage the commercial activity, marketing and sales activity, and human behavior of a store at which customers purchase products or services by obtaining information on new product or service that may be sold at the store, generating and sending voting information to customers, and receiving votes from the customers, which manages the commercial activity of the store by performing marketing and sales research based on the human behavior of customers, and thus, the claims recite a certain method of organizing human activity. Further, as a whole, in view of the claim limitations, but for the computer components and systems performing the claimed functions, the broadest reasonable interpretation of the recited storing store information on new product or service a store is considering, generating voting information for the new product or service by customers of the store based on the information on the new product or service, sending information to a voting recipient, and receiving a voting response from the voting recipient based on the voting information could all be reasonably interpreted as a human using their mind observing and collecting information regarding new products and services at a store, a human using their mind to make judgements and pen and paper to generate the voting information based on the observed information, a human sending the voting information to a customer either manually or with pen and paper, and a human using their mind to observe the response to the voting information; therefore, the claims recite mental processes. Moreover, aside from the additional elements beyond the recited abstract idea addressed below pursuant to the second prong of Step 2A and 2B, the dependent claims 2-5 recite further abstract limitations that merely narrow the abstract ideas recited in the independent claims because the perform further methods of organizing human activity that manage commercial activity of the store and further mental processes by observing information, evaluating the information, and outputting the results of the observations and evaluations. Accordingly, since the claims recite mental processes, the claims recite an abstract idea under the first prong of Step 2A.
This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application under the second prong of Step 2A. In particular, the claims recite the additional elements beyond the recited abstract idea of “[a] system … comprising,” “one or more memory devices are configured to,” “one or more processors are configured to,” and “terminal” in claim 1, and similarly claims 2-5; however, individually and when viewed as an ordered combination, and pursuant to the broadest reasonable interpretation, each of the additional elements are computing elements recited at high level of generality implementing the abstract idea on a computer (i.e. apply it), and thus, are no more than applying the abstract idea with generic computer components. In addition, these features generally link the abstract idea to a technical environment/field of use, namely a generic computing environment. Moreover, aside from the aforementioned additional elements, the remaining elements of dependent claims 2-5 do not integrate the abstract idea into a practical application because these claims merely recite further limitations that provide no more than simply narrowing the recited abstract idea.
The claims do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception under Step 2B. As noted above, the aforementioned additional elements beyond the recited abstract idea, as an order combination, are no more than mere instructions to implement the idea using generic computer components (i.e. apply it), and further, generally link the abstract idea to a technical environment/field of use, which is not sufficient to amount to significantly more than an abstract idea; therefore, the additional elements are not sufficient to amount to significantly more than an abstract idea. In addition, as noted above, with respect to the receiving and displaying limitations, while portions of these limitations are themselves abstract, even if analyzed as additional elements beyond the abstract idea, these elements are not sufficient to amount to significantly more than an abstract idea because they also perform data gathering operations, which is insignificant extrasolution activity. Additionally, these recitations as an ordered combination, simply append the abstract idea to recitations of generic computer structure performing generic computer functions that are well-understood, routine, and conventional in the field as evinced by Applicant’s specification at [0014]-[0016] (disclosing that the voting request system implementing the invention executes the processing with general purpose processor). Furthermore, as an ordered combination, these elements amount to generic computer components performing repetitive calculations, electronic record keeping, receiving or transmitting data over a network, presenting offers, and storing and retrieving information in memory, which, as held by the courts, are well-understood, routine, and conventional. See MPEP 2106.05(d); July 2015 Update, p. 7. Moreover, aside from the aforementioned additional elements, the remaining elements of dependent claims 2-5 do not transform the recited abstract idea into a patent eligible invention because these claims merely recite further limitations that provide no more than simply narrowing the recited abstract idea.
Looking at these limitations as an ordered combination adds nothing additional that is sufficient to amount to significantly more than the recited abstract idea because they simply provide instructions to use a generic arrangement of generic computer components and recitations of generic computer structure that perform well-understood, routine, and conventional computer functions that are used to “apply” the recited abstract idea. Thus, the elements of the claims, considered both individually and as an ordered combination, are not sufficient to ensure that the claims as a whole amount to significantly more than the abstract idea itself. Since there are no limitations in these claims that transform the exception into a patent eligible application such that these claims amount to significantly more than the exception itself, claims 1-5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 as being directed to non-statutory subject matter.
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.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1 & 5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1), (a)(2) as being anticipated by Wang et al. (US 20160055498 A1), hereinafter Wang.
Regarding claim 1, Wang discloses a commercial activity support system for supporting a commercial activity of a store that performs at least one of product sales and service provision, comprising ([0028]):
one or more memory devices are configured to store store information related to the store ([0017]-[0018], the system 100 for displaying a survey to consumers and obtaining survey question responses for use in predicting consumer behavior includes a client processor 130 representing an entity, such as a merchant, etc., and an enterprise data warehouse 114, wherein the enterprise data warehouse 114 includes a purchase transaction database 116, a consumer intention database 118, a historical information database 120, a demographic information database 122, a consumer profile database 124, a consumer survey database 126, and a consumer incentives database 128, [0019]-[0020], wherein the purchase transaction database 116 stores processed cardholder or consumer and merchant transaction data with a cardholder and one or more merchants, including account numbers, a retail store identifier, a purchase transaction amount, etc., consumer intention database 118 stores consumer intention information obtained from consumers or cardholders via their responses to survey questions designed to gauge the likelihood that a particular cardholder will purchase a particular type of product or service, [0025], the consumer survey database 126 stores consumer survey polls and/or consumer survey questions developed to obtain consumer intention information generated by the consumer information processor 112 based on input from the client processor 130 associated with an entity desiring to obtain consumer intention information regarding one or more products or services); and
one or more processors are configured to execute various processing ([0017], the system 100 for displaying a brief survey to cardholders or consumers and for obtaining cardholder survey question responses for use in predicting consumer behavior includes a consumer information processor 112 connected to a payment card processor 106, the enterprise data warehouse 114, and a client processor 130, wherein client processor 130 may represent an entity, such as a merchant, etc., and any one or more of such entities may desire information predictive of cardholder behavior with regard to purchasing one or more particular products or service offerings),
wherein the store information includes information on at least one of a new product that the store is considering selling and information on a new service that the store is considering providing ([0020], wherein the consumer intention database 118 stores consumer intention information obtained from consumers or cardholders via their responses to survey questions designed to gauge the likelihood that a particular cardholder will purchase a particular type of product or service, [0025], the consumer survey database 126 stores consumer survey polls and/or consumer survey questions developed to obtain consumer intention information generated by the consumer information processor 112 based on input from the client processor 130 associated with an entity desiring to obtain consumer intention information regarding one or more products or services, [0047], the customer survey process may be tuned to automatically perform intention-action processing and advanced statistical analyses to predict cardholders purchasing behavior, and such predictions of customer needs can significantly improve new product development, [0002], businesses will attempt to collect information about consumers who may be customers and/or prospective customers of such new products and/or services)
wherein one or more processors are configured to execute processing to:
generate voting proposal information for making multiple candidates for at least one of the new product and the new service with respect to voting targets for request voting by customers of the store, based on information on at least one of the new product and the new service ([0020], each time a particular cardholder performs a purchase transaction over a period at a particular merchant (at the merchant's retail store or online at a merchant website), that cardholder is presented with one to three survey questions at a time, [0025], the survey polls and/or questions developed to obtain consumer intention by based on input from the client processor 130 representing an entity desiring to obtain consumer intention information regarding one or more products or services, [0047], the customer survey process may be tuned to automatically perform intention-action processing and advanced statistical analyses to predict cardholders purchasing behavior, and such predictions of customer needs can significantly improve new product development), and send this information to a voting reception terminal ([0034], if in step 306 the cardholder agrees to participate in the brief consumer survey, then one or more survey questions are transmitted 310 to a card reader device and displayed on a display screen or otherwise presented to the cardholder, in any manner feasible, such as on a display screen of a cardholder's payment-enabled mobile device, or on a display screen of the cardholder's personal computer, [0015], the cardholder may then receive a brief consumer survey on a touch screen of his or her payment-enabled mobile device (such as on a Smartphone display screen) during payment processing); and
receive voting response information from the voting reception terminal in response to the voting proposal information ([0035], in step 312, if the consumer survey response(s) are received within a predetermined time period (which may be on the order of thirty (30) seconds to two (2) minutes or longer) then the cardholder response(s) are stored 316).
Regarding claim 5, Wang discloses the system according to claim 1 (as above), wherein: the new product includes a product with no sales record at the store; the new service includes a service with no provision record at the store ([0047], the customer survey process may be tuned to predict cardholders purchasing behavior, and such predictions of customer needs can significantly improve new product development, [0002], businesses will attempt to collect information about consumers who may be customers and/or prospective customers of such new products and/or services); and the voting reception terminal includes an information terminal operated by the customer at a payment of at least one of the product and service at the store ([0033]-[0034], the consumer purchase intention(s) process 300 for obtaining consumer survey responses and using that information to predict future consumer purchasing behavior payment card system receives 302 a purchase transaction request of a cardholder from any number of points of interaction (POI), e.g., from a merchant's credit card reader or contactless card reader associated with a POS device, the checkout page of a merchant's website, and if in step 306 the cardholder agrees to participate in the brief consumer survey, then survey questions are transmitted 310 to a card reader device and displayed on a display screen or otherwise presented to the cardholder, the consumer survey questions may be presented to the consumer in any manner feasible, such as on a display screen of a cardholder's payment-enabled mobile device, or on a display screen of the cardholder's personal computer)
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 2-4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wang et al. (US 20160055498 A1), hereinafter Wang, in view of Karty et al. (US 20140344013 A1), hereinafter Karty.
Regarding claim 2, Wang discloses the system according to claim 1 (as above). Further, while Wang discloses all of the above and wherein the one or more processors further configured to execute processing to: generate feedback information for the store based on a final voting result of the request voting generated from the voting response information; and send the feedback information for the store to an information terminal of the store, wherein the feedback information for the store includes … an estimated sales amount from at least one of sales and provision of the voting targets … ([0017], the client processor 130 represents an entity contracted with the payment card network 110 to receive consumer survey results data and consumer purchasing behavior prediction data, [0020], the consumer survey questions are designed to gauge the likelihood that a particular cardholder will purchase a particular type of product or service, [0035], survey response(s) are received, then the cardholder response(s) are stored 316, the payment card system determines 322 one or more consumer purchase predictions, and transmits 324 the cardholder prediction information to an entity, the purchase prediction may be based on, for example, the responses provided by that cardholder to the consumer survey questions and/or historical data of the cardholder, and/or demographic data associated with the cardholder, [0005], consumer survey responses lead to predictions regarding the probably of success of a new product or service or concept, and a new product or service pre-launch survey can predicted a purchasing level based on consumer survey responses), Wang does not expressly disclose the following remaining elements of these limitations, which however, are taught by further teachings in Karty.
Karty teaches wherein the feedback information includes each final voting count for the voting targets, … and at least one of the customer attributes who voted for the voting targets ([0158], additional information may be collected about the participant, such as demographic or preference information, may be used subsequently, either during the exercise to bias the choice presented to that particular participant, or in analyzing the data obtained during the exercise, and in presenting those results at the end of the exercise, e.g., demographic information such as gender, age, country of origin and income range may be entered using pull-down minus 510, 512, 514, 516, [0322], fig. 22 is screenshot of an aggregate of example data that may be obtained using the click and comment method, 2210 is the concept graphic as presented to the respondents, 2220 shows the concept graphic with the zones indicated and the click data shown, table on the right side shows the results of analyzing the click and comment data from the respondents, 2230 is a list of the elements of the concept in order by the relative number of clicks received by each element, 2240 is a positive/negative dichotomous graphic that shows the % of respondents that liked or disliked each element).
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Wang and Karty are analogous fields of invention because both address the problem of survey potential customers regarding new products and services. At the time the invention was effectively filed, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to include in the system of Wang the ability send feedback information that includes each final voting count for the voting targets and at least one of the customer attributes who voted for the voting targets, as taught by Karty, since the claimed invention is merely a combination of old elements, and in the combination each element merely would have performed the same function as it did separately, and one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the combination would produce the predictable results of sending feedback information including each final voting count for the voting targets, an estimated sales amount from at least one of sales and provision of the voting targets, and at least one of the customer attributes who voted for the voting targets, as claimed. Further, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to have modified Wang with the aforementioned teachings of Karty in order to produce the added benefit of improving the process of developing new products and services, consumer research, market segmentation, design iteration and market testing. [0003].
Regarding claim 3, Wang discloses the system according to claim 1 (as above). Further, while Wang discloses all of the above and wherein the one or more processors further configured to execute processing to: generate feedback information for the customer based on an interim voting result on the request voting generated from the voting response information; and send the feedback information for the customer to the voting reception terminal, wherein the feedback information for the customer includes … ([0035], survey response(s) are received, then the cardholder response(s) are stored 316, he payment card system may analyze cardholder data and then select and transmit 320 a personalized or targeted commercial message for display to the cardholder. Such a commercial message may promote a particular product or service associated with the entity sponsoring the consumer survey poll or may promote other entities and/or ideas (for example, the commercial may be an advertisement for a product or service, or may encourage voting for a particular candidate or political party), Wang does not expressly disclose the following remaining elements of these limitations, which however, are taught by further teachings in Karty.
Karty teaches generate feedback information for the customer based on an interim voting result on the request voting generated from the voting response information; and send the feedback information for the customer to the voting reception terminal, wherein the feedback information for the customer includes at least one of an intermediate voting count for each voting target and a prospect of at least one of sales and provision of the respective voting targets at the store ([0066], [0160], fig. 7B is a screenshot depicting an exemplary and non-limiting embodiment of a second voting screen following vote submission, which Examiner notes, as reproduced below, includes a statistics section in the lower left of the screen including a number of thumbs up by “You,” “This session,” and “Overall,” [0070], [0308], Figs. 10 and 11 are screenshots showing the items presented to two participants during an exemplary and non-limiting embodiment of a design exercise, which Examiner notes, as reproduced below, includes a statistics section in the lower left of the screen including a number of thumbs up by “You,” “This session,” and “Overall”).
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Wang and Karty are analogous fields of invention because both address the problem of survey potential customers regarding new products and services. At the time the invention was effectively filed, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to include in the system of Wang the ability send the feedback information for the customer to the voting reception terminal that includes at least one of an intermediate voting count for each voting target and a prospect of at least one of sales and provision of the respective voting targets at the store, as taught by Karty, since the claimed invention is merely a combination of old elements, and in the combination each element merely would have performed the same function as it did separately, and one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the combination would produce the predictable results of sending the feedback information for the customer to the voting reception terminal including at least one of an intermediate voting count for each voting target and a prospect of at least one of sales and provision of the respective voting targets at the store, as claimed. Further, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to have modified Wang with the aforementioned teachings of Karty in order to produce the added benefit of improving the process of developing new products and services, consumer research, market segmentation, design iteration and market testing. [0003].
Regarding claim 4, Wang discloses the system according to claim 1 (as above). Further, while Wang discloses all of the above and wherein the one or more processors further configured to execute processing to: generate feedback information for the customer based on the final voting result of the request voting generated from the voting response information; and send the feedback information for the customer to the voting reception terminal, wherein the feedback information for the customer includes … ([0035], survey response(s) are received, then the cardholder response(s) are stored 316, he payment card system may analyze cardholder data and then select and transmit 320 a personalized or targeted commercial message for display to the cardholder. Such a commercial message may promote a particular product or service associated with the entity sponsoring the consumer survey poll or may promote other entities and/or ideas (for example, the commercial may be an advertisement for a product or service, or may encourage voting for a particular candidate or political party), Wang does not expressly disclose the following remaining elements of these limitations, which however, are taught by further teachings in Karty.
Karty teaches generate feedback information for the customer based on an interim voting result on the request voting generated from the voting response information; and send the feedback information for the customer …, wherein the feedback information for the customer includes at least one of an intermediate voting count for each voting target and a prospect of at least one of sales and provision of the respective voting targets at the store ([0322], fig. 22 is screenshot of an aggregate of example data that may be obtained using the click and comment method, 2210 is the concept graphic as presented to the respondents, 2220 shows the concept graphic with the zones indicated and the click data shown, table on the right side shows the results of analyzing the click and comment data from the respondents, 2230 is a list of the elements of the concept in order by the relative number of clicks received by each element, 2240 is a positive/negative dichotomous graphic that shows the % of respondents that liked or disliked each element).
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Wang and Karty are analogous fields of invention because both address the problem of survey potential customers regarding new products and services. At the time the invention was effectively filed, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to include in the system of Wang the ability send the feedback information for the customer to the voting reception terminal that includes at least one of an intermediate voting count for each voting target and a prospect of at least one of sales and provision of the respective voting targets at the store, as taught by Karty, since the claimed invention is merely a combination of old elements, and in the combination each element merely would have performed the same function as it did separately, and one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the combination would produce the predictable results of sending the feedback information for the customer to the voting reception terminal including at least one of an intermediate voting count for each voting target and a prospect of at least one of sales and provision of the respective voting targets at the store, as claimed. Further, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to have modified Wang with the aforementioned teachings of Karty in order to produce the added benefit of improving the process of developing new products and services, consumer research, market segmentation, design iteration and market testing. [0003].
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CHARLES A GUILIANO whose telephone number is (571)272-9859. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 10:00 am - 6:00 pm.
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CHARLES GUILIANO
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 3623
/CHARLES GUILIANO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3623
Prosecution Insights