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 .
Status of the Application
This final office action is in response to the communication filed on 6/25/2026. Claims 1, 3-4, 7-8, 10, and 15 have been amended. Claim 2 has been cancelled. Claim 16 has been added. Claims 1 and 3-16 are currently pending and have been examined below.
Claim Rejections – 35 U.S.C. 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 and 2-16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to an abstract idea without significantly more.
Per step 1 of the eligibility analysis set forth in MPEP § 2106, subsection III, the claims are directed towards a process, machine, or manufacture.
Per step 2A Prong One, Claim 1 recites specific limitations which fall within at least one of the groupings of abstract ideas enumerated in MPEP 2106.04(a)(2) as follows:
receiving a search term from a user; and
displaying, as search results for the search term on a first display area information on an advertising channel associated with the search term and simultaneously on a second display
area at least one advertising content item for a product or service being sold through the advertising channel.
As noted above, these limitations fall within at least one of the groupings of abstract ideas enumerated in MPEP 2106.04(a)(2). Specifically, these limitations fall within the group Certain Methods of Organizing Human Activity (i.e., fundamental economic principles or practices (including hedging, insurance, mitigating risk); commercial or legal interactions (including agreements in the form of contracts; legal obligations; advertising, marketing or sales activities or behaviors; business relations); managing personal behavior or relationships or interactions between people (including social activities, teaching, and following rules or instructions). That is – the limitations above describe displaying advertising content and an advertising channel associated with a user provided search term which is an advertising / marketing activity that falls within the certain methods of organizing human activity grouping of abstract ideas.
Per step 2A Prong 2, the Examiner finds that the judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application. Claim 1 recites the additional limitations of:
[displaying search results] on a search results page of the user terminal; and
[information on an advertising channel associated with the search term] including a link to the advertising channel and including a link to a detailed information page [for a product or service being sold through the advertising channel].
The additional limitations when viewed individually and when viewed as an ordered combination, and pursuant to the broadest reasonable interpretation, do not integrate the abstract idea into a practical application because each of the additional elements are recited at high level of generality implementing the abstract idea on a computer (i.e. apply it) or generally linking the use of the judicial exception to a particular technological environment. Specifically:
With respect to [displaying search results] on a search results page of the user terminal, this limitation is recited at a high level of generality and merely generally links the abstract idea to a particular technological environment (i.e. a page on a generic user device to display advertisements).
With respect to [information on an advertising channel associated with the search term] including a link to the advertising channel and including a link to a detailed information page [for a product or service being sold through the advertising channel], Examiner notes that these limitations are recited at a high level of generality including links to an advertising channel and detailed product information. Examiner notes that paragraph [0005] of Applicant’s specification recites “an advertising channel (e.g., website, Internet shopping mall, social networking service (SNS) platform, etc.) related to the search term entered by the user.” At this level of generality, this limitation merely generally links the abstract idea to a particular technological environment (i.e. generic links to an advertising channel and detailed product information for a product sold via the advertising channel).
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 when considered both individually and as an ordered combination do not amount to significantly more than the abstract idea. As discussed above with respect to integration of the abstract idea into a practical application, the additional elements are recited at a high level of generality and only generally link the use of the judicial exception to a particular technological environment. Thus, the same analysis applies here in 2B, i.e., mere instructions to apply an exception is a particular technological environment cannot provide an inventive concept.
Alice Corp. also establishes that the same analysis should be used for all categories of claims (e.g., product and process claims). Therefore, independent non-transitory computer readable medium claim 14 and independent system claim 15 are also rejected as ineligible subject matter under 35 U.S.C. 101 for substantially the same reasons as independent method claim 1. The non-transitory computer readable medium and processor in claim 14 and the user terminal comprising a processor add nothing of substance to the underlying abstract idea. At best, the components in independent claims 14 and 15 merely provide an environment to implement the abstract idea.
Dependent claims 3-13 and 16 are rejected on a similar rational to the claims upon which they depend. Specifically:
Dependent claims 3-13 and 16 merely further narrow the abstract idea or generally link the abstract idea to a particular technological environment and therefore do not integrate the abstract idea into a practical application or amount to significantly more than the abstract idea.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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.
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.
Claims 1, 11, 14, and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by US Patent Application Publication Number 20140214790 (“Vaish”).
Claims 1 and 15
As per claim 15, Vaish teaches a method of displaying an advertising content item associated with a search term and a computer system that is a user terminal ([0063] “ user access devices include personal computers (e.g., desktop computers), mobile computing devices, cell phones, smart phones.”) for displaying an advertising content item associated with a search term, the computer system comprising:
at least one processor configured to execute computer-readable instructions included in a memory ([0007] “the computer system includes a processor . . . the computer-executable instructions cause the processor to store within the memory.”);
receiving a search term from a user ([0095] “receive search terms directly from the user access devices.”);
displaying, as search results for the search term, a first display area of a search results page of the user terminal, information on an advertising channel associated with the search term including a link to the advertisement channel ([0098] “FIG. 3B is an example screenshot . . . showing representative search results arising from a search for “items” specified by a user . . . . A search specified by user yields a primary result, which is a link to an advertiser-specified landing page . . . Primary result includes a link , as well as a descriptive creative.” Examiner interprets the link to the advertiser-specific landing page as a link to the advertisement channel and notes that this interpretation is consistent with paragraph [0068] of Applicant’s published specification which recites “[t]he advertising channel may be a website, a shopping mall, a brand store, a reservation service, or a place registered to the platform by the advertiser.”);
and simultaneously on a second display area of the search results page, at least one advertising content item including a link to a detailed information page for a product or service being sold through the advertising channel ([0098] “In addition to primary result, the search may also yield several additional or secondary results including sitelinks. Appearing with sitelinks are descriptive texts (referred to as “creatives” or “creative texts.” And, [0060] “specific products and services as well as associated ads to be displayed with publications provided by the publishers.” And, [0099] “creatives associated with each advertiser specified sitelink.” And, [0070] “creative that specifies . . . a headline, a promotional slogan, a product image, a price quote, a landing page.” And, [0091] “The user access device may then be redirected to the content provider associated with the selected ad . . . The user may then perform a conversion action at the landing page, such as purchasing a product.” And see Figure 3B showing the sitelink(s) and associated creatives (i.e., advertising content items with links) simultaneously displayed with the link to the advertisement channel.).
Claim 11
As per claim 11, Vaish further teaches:
wherein the advertising content item is displayed in a form in which an image and price information associated with the product or service being sold through the advertising channel are synthesized ([0098] “In addition to primary result, the search may also yield several additional or secondary results including sitelinks. Appearing with sitelinks are descriptive texts (referred to as “creatives” or “creative texts.” And, [0060] “specific products and services as well as associated ads to be displayed with publications provided by the publishers.” And, [0099] “creatives associated with each advertiser specified sitelink.” And, [0070] “creative that specifies . . . a headline, a promotional slogan, a product image, a price quote, a landing page.” And, [0091] “The user access device may then be redirected to the content provider associated with the selected ad . . . The user may then perform a conversion action at the landing page, such as purchasing a product.”).
Claim 14
As per claim 14, Vaish further teaches:
a non-transitory computer-readable recording medium storing instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to execute the method of claim 1 on the computer system ([0095] “receive search terms directly from the user access devices.” And, [0098] “FIG. 3B is an example screenshot . . . showing representative search results arising from a search for “items” specified by a user . . . . A search specified by user yields a primary result, which is a link to an advertiser-specified landing page . . . Primary result includes a link , as well as a descriptive creative.” And, [0098] “In addition to primary result, the search may also yield several additional or secondary results including sitelinks. Appearing with sitelinks are descriptive texts (referred to as “creatives” or “creative texts.” And, [0060] “specific products and services as well as associated ads to be displayed with publications provided by the publishers.” And, [0099] “creatives associated with each advertiser specified sitelink.” And, [0070] “creative that specifies . . . a headline, a promotional slogan, a product image, a price quote, a landing page.” And, [0091] “The user access device may then be redirected to the content provider associated with the selected ad . . . The user may then perform a conversion action at the landing page, such as purchasing a product.” And see Figure 3B showing the sitelink(s) and associated creatives (i.e., advertising content items with links) simultaneously displayed with the link to the advertisement channel.).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
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 of this title, 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.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claim 3 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US Patent Application Publication 20140214790 (“Vaish”) as applied to claim 1 above, and in further view of Application Publication Number 20150193542 (“Colcernian”).
Claim 3
As per claim 3, Vaish discloses the first display and the second display area but does not explicitly teach that the display areas are provided at the upper end on the search results
page, below a search term input field as taught by Colcernian ([0022] “in the top-most position of a search results page, above the search results and advertisements, but below the header and search box.” And, [0078] “generating the prominence region above a region of advertisements and search results of the results page and below a page header and a search box of the results page.” And, [0008] “promotion of advertisements to a position of prominence in a document.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art at the effective filing date to modify Vaish to include the display areas are provided at the upper end on the search results page, below a search term input field as taught by Colcernian for the “promotion of advertisements to a position of prominence in a document” (Colcernian [0008]) resulting in increased advertisement effectiveness.
Claim 4 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US Patent Publication Number 20140214790 (“Vaish”) as applied to claim 1 above, and in further view of US Patent Publication Number 20150178681 (“Agarwal”).
Claim 4
As per claim 4, Vaish further teaches:
wherein the displaying of the search results comprises displaying a plurality of advertising content items that link to a detailed information page for each of products or services being sold through the advertising channel ([0098] “In addition to primary result, the search may also yield several additional or secondary results including sitelinks. Appearing with sitelinks are descriptive texts (referred to as “creatives” or “creative texts.” And, [0060] “specific products and services as well as associated ads to be displayed with publications provided by the publishers.” And, [0099] “creatives associated with each advertiser specified sitelink.” And, [0070] “creative that specifies . . . a headline, a promotional slogan, a product image, a price quote.” And, [0091] “The user access device may then be redirected to the content provider associated with the selected ad . . . The user may then perform a conversion action at the landing page, such as purchasing a product.” And see Figure 3B.”).
Vaish does not explicitly teach but Agarwal teaches:
[displaying a plurality of advertising content items] within a carousel user interface (UI) to be distinguished from information on the advertising channel ([0081] “the carousel may be used to display images that represent the products identified by the search . . . the user may use left and right arrows to scroll through the carousel, and may click on or select one of the images.”);
Vaish does not explicitly teach but Agarwal teaches:
the carousel UI is configured to sequentially display at least some of the plurality of advertising content items without leaving the search results page, in response to a detection of an interaction from the user with the carousel UI ([0081] “user may enter terms in the search box that are to be used as search keys in identifying one or more suitable products . . . the carousel may be used to display images that represent the products identified by the search . . . the user may use left and right arrows to scroll through the carousel, and may click on or select one of the images.” Examiner interprets using the left and right errors as interaction from the user with the carousel UI.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art at the effective filing date to modify Vaish to include [displaying a plurality of advertising content items] within a carousel user interface (UI) to be distinguished from information on the advertising channel and the carousel UI is configured to sequentially display at least some of the plurality of advertising content items without leaving the search results page, in response to a detection of an interaction from the user with the carousel UI as taught by Agarwal in order to “increase[e] engagement of users” (Agarwal [0080]).
Claims 5-6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US Patent Publication Number 20140214790 (“Vaish”) as applied to claim 1 above, and in further view of US Patent Publication Number 20220108393 (“CATALDI”).
Claim 5
As per claim 5, Vaish further teaches:
wherein the advertising content item is configured to include at least two additional information items for the product or service being sold through the advertising channel ([0098] “In addition to primary result, the search may also yield several additional or secondary results including sitelinks. Appearing with sitelinks are descriptive texts (referred to as “creatives” or “creative texts.” And, [0060] “specific products and services as well as associated ads to be displayed with publications provided by the publishers.” And, [0099] “creatives associated with each advertiser specified sitelink.” And, [0070] “creative that specifies . . . a headline, a promotional slogan, a product image, a price quote.” And, [0091] “The user access device may then be redirected to the content provider associated with the selected ad . . . The user may then perform a conversion action at the landing page, such as purchasing a product.” And see Figure 3B.”).
Vaish does not explicitly teach but CATALDI teaches:
different additional information items are included depending on a type of a vertical service associated with the advertising channel or a type of the product or service being sold through the advertising channel ([0077]) “the GUI may be modified to include more or less displayed information, or different type of information depending on the product or service being traded.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art at the effective filing date to modify Vaish to include wherein the advertising content item is configured to include at least two additional information items for the product or service being sold through the advertising channel and different additional information items are included depending on a type of a vertical service associated with the advertising channel or a type of the product or service being sold through the advertising channel as applied to claims as taught by CATALDI in order to ensure that all information provided is “clearly distinguishable” (CATALDI [0077]) increasing the readability of the interface.
Claim 6
As per claim 6, Vaish further teaches:
wherein the at least two additional information items include an image associated with the product or service being sold through the advertising channel, and at least one of price information on the product or service and review information on the product or service ([0098] “In addition to primary result, the search may also yield several additional or secondary results including sitelinks. Appearing with sitelinks are descriptive texts (referred to as “creatives” or “creative texts.” And, [0060] “specific products and services as well as associated ads to be displayed with publications provided by the publishers.” And, [0099] “creatives associated with each advertiser specified sitelink.” And, [0070] “creative that specifies . . . a headline, a promotional slogan, a product image, a price quote”).
Claim 7 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US Patent Publication Number 20140214790 (“Vaish”) as applied to claim 1 above, and in further view of US Patent Publication Number 20090138817 (“Oron”).
Claim 7
As per claim 7, Vaish does not explicitly teach but Oron teaches:
wherein the displaying of the search results comprises displaying the at least one advertising content item on the search results page, and displaying a fewer number of advertising content items as the width of the search results page, the width of the advertisement display area, or the width of the user terminal becomes smaller ([0112] “the arranger module of one implementation of the system may determine the maximum number of items that can be displayed per row for a given available row width . . . This may cause the arranger module to determine in this kind of implementation, that fewer items will be able to be displayed in the row.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art at the effective filing date to modify Vaish to include wherein the displaying of the search results comprises displaying the at least one advertising content item on the search results page, and displaying a fewer number of advertising content items as the width of the search results page, the width of the advertisement display area, or the width of the user terminal becomes smaller as taught by Oron in order to “maximize the number of items per page (display area)” (Oron [0111]).
Claim 8 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US Patent Publication Number 20140214790 (“Vaish”) as in view of US Patent Publication Number 20090138817 (“Oron”) as applied to claim 7, and in further view of US Patent Application Publication Number 20110238508 (“Koningstein”).
Claim 8
As per claim 8, Vaish does not explicitly teach but Koningstein teaches:
wherein as the fewer number of advertising content items are displayed on the search results page, the advertising content item is configured to include more additional information items for the product or service being sold through the advertising channel ([0085] “exclude other advertisements and thereby gain additional space for their particular advertisement by expanding to cover those advertisements.” And, [0028] “expands to provide more information about an advertising entity and/or is products and/or services.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art at the effective filing date to modify the combination of Vaish and Oron to include wherein as the fewer number of advertising content items are displayed on the search results page, the advertising content item is configured to include more additional information items for the product or service being sold through the advertising channel as taught by Koningstein in order to “create an incentive for an advertiser to create accurate and pleasing and useful full-size advertisements” (Koningstein [0038]).
Claims 9 and 10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US Patent Publication Number 20140214790 (“Vaish”) as applied to claim 1, and in further view of US Patent Application Publication Number 20020010625 (“Smith”).
Claim 9
As per claim 9, Vaish further teaches:
wherein the advertising content item includes an image associated with the product or service being sold through the advertising channel (([0098] “In addition to primary result, the search may also yield several additional or secondary results including sitelinks. Appearing with sitelinks are descriptive texts (referred to as “creatives” or “creative texts.” And, [0060] “specific products and services as well as associated ads to be displayed with publications provided by the publishers.” And, [0099] “creatives associated with each advertiser specified sitelink.” And, [0070] “creative that specifies . . . a headline, a promotional slogan, a product image, a price quote”).
Vaish does not explicitly teach but Smith teaches:
and selection history information on the product or service ([0193] “the page includes a list of recommended items, and a list of the recently viewed items used as the “items of known interest” for generating the list of recommended items. The recently viewed items in the illustrated embodiment are items for which the user has viewed corresponding product detail pages during the current session, as reflected within the user's current session record.” And, [0194] “the user de-selects one or more of the recently viewed items, the user can select the ‘update page’ button to view a refined list of Session Recommendations.” And, see Figure 11 displaying the recently viewed items above the other recommendations.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art at the effective filing date to modify Vaish to include and selection history information on the product or service as taught by Smith in order to “help users locate the products or other items they've recently viewed” (Smith [0201]).
Claim 10
As per claim 10, Vaish further teaches:
wherein the displaying of the search results comprises displaying an advertising content item on the search results page ([0098] “In addition to primary result, the search may also yield several additional or secondary results including sitelinks. Appearing with sitelinks are descriptive texts (referred to as “creatives” or “creative texts.” And, [0060] “specific products and services as well as associated ads to be displayed with publications provided by the publishers.” And, [0099] “creatives associated with each advertiser specified sitelink.” And, [0070] “creative that specifies . . . a headline, a promotional slogan, a product image, a price quote, a landing page.” And, [0091] “The user access device may then be redirected to the content provider associated with the selected ad . . . The user may then perform a conversion action at the landing page, such as purchasing a product.” And see Figure 3B showing the sitelink(s) and associated creatives (i.e., advertising content items with links) simultaneously displayed with the link to the advertisement channel.).
Vaish does not explicitly teach but Smith teaches:
including the selection history above other advertising content items for other products or other services being sold through the advertising channel ([0193] “the page includes a list of recommended items, and a list of the recently viewed items used as the “items of known interest” for generating the list of recommended items. The recently viewed items in the illustrated embodiment are items for which the user has viewed corresponding product detail pages during the current session, as reflected within the user's current session record.” And, [0194] “the user de-selects one or more of the recently viewed items, the user can select the ‘update page’ button to view a refined list of Session Recommendations.” And, see Figure 11 displaying the recently viewed items above the other recommendations.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art at the effective filing date to modify the combination of Vaish and Smith to include including the selection history above other advertising content items for other products or other services being sold through the advertising channel as taught by Smith in order to “help users locate the products or other items they've recently viewed” (Smith [0201]).
Claims 12 and 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US Patent Publication Number 20140214790 (“Vaish”) as applied to claim 1, and in further view of US Patent Application Publication Number 20150100433 (“Choy”).
Claim 12
As per claim 12, Vaish further teaches:
the method further comprises: in response to a selection on the advertising content item from the user, displaying the detailed information page that includes detailed information on the product or service or a detailed information page of the advertising channel ([0095] “receive search terms directly from the user access devices.” And, [0098] “FIG. 3B is an example screenshot . . . showing representative search results arising from a search for “items” specified by a user . . . . A search specified by user yields a primary result, which is a link to an advertiser-specified landing page . . . Primary result includes a link , as well as a descriptive creative.” And, [0098] “In addition to primary result, the search may also yield several additional or secondary results including sitelinks. Appearing with sitelinks are descriptive texts (referred to as “creatives” or “creative texts.” And, [0060] “specific products and services as well as associated ads to be displayed with publications provided by the publishers.” And, [0099] “creatives associated with each advertiser specified sitelink.” And, [0070] “creative that specifies . . . a headline, a promotional slogan, a product image, a price quote, a landing page.” And, [0091] “The user access device may then be redirected to the content provider associated with the selected ad . . . The user may then perform a conversion action at the landing page, such as purchasing a product.” And see Figure 3B showing the sitelink(s) and associated creatives (i.e., advertising content items with links) simultaneously displayed with the link to the advertisement channel.).
Vaish does not explicitly teach but Choy teaches:
wherein the advertising channel is for advertising a service or product provided at a specific location ([0066] “exposes product inventory information . . . for a group of stores such as at a mall or other common location. A customer may search for items available from the different merchants at the mall using the application or website.” And, [0081] “provide an indication in the search results of step 406 that a product is available for reserved pickup at a retail location as determined from product information database.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art at the effective filing date to modify Vaish to include wherein the advertising channel is for advertising a service or product provided at a specific location as taught by Choy “so that a customer does not arrive a retail location to discover that an item could not be reserved” (Choy [0032]) and “[t]o improve accuracy and customer experience” (Choy [0019])
Claim 13
As per claim 13, Vaish further teaches:
in response to a selection on the advertising content item from the user, displaying the
detailed information page that includes detailed information on the service or product ([0095] “receive search terms directly from the user access devices.” And, [0098] “FIG. 3B is an example screenshot . . . showing representative search results arising from a search for “items” specified by a user . . . . A search specified by user yields a primary result, which is a link to an advertiser-specified landing page . . . Primary result includes a link , as well as a descriptive creative.” And, [0098] “In addition to primary result, the search may also yield several additional or secondary results including sitelinks. Appearing with sitelinks are descriptive texts (referred to as “creatives” or “creative texts.” And, [0060] “specific products and services as well as associated ads to be displayed with publications provided by the publishers.” And, [0099] “creatives associated with each advertiser specified sitelink.” And, [0070] “creative that specifies . . . a headline, a promotional slogan, a product image, a price quote, a landing page.” And, [0091] “The user access device may then be redirected to the content provider associated with the selected ad . . . The user may then perform a conversion action at the landing page, such as purchasing a product.” And see Figure 3B showing the sitelink(s) and associated creatives (i.e., advertising content items with links) simultaneously displayed with the link to the advertisement channel.).
Vaish does not explicitly teach but Choy teaches:
wherein the advertising channel is for advertising a service or product provided in a specific and shopping mall and [the service or product] within the specific shopping mall ([0066] “exposes product inventory information . . . for a group of stores such as at a mall or other common location. A customer may search for items available from the different merchants at the mall using the application or website.” And, [0081] “provide an indication in the search results of step 406 that a product is available for reserved pickup at a retail location as determined from product information database.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art at the effective filing date to modify Vaish to include wherein the advertising channel is for advertising a service or product provided in a specific and shopping mall and [the service or product] within the specific shopping mall as taught by Choy “so that a customer does not arrive a retail location to discover that an item could not be reserved” (Choy [0032]) and “[t]o improve accuracy and customer experience” (Choy [0019]).
Claim 16 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US Patent Publication Number 20140214790 (“Vaish”) as applied to claim 1 above, and in further view of US Patent Publication Number 20190318406 (“Agarwal II”).
Claim 16
As per claim 16, Vaish further teaches:
wherein the at least one advertising content item is generated based on search results obtained, using the search term and wherein the displaying comprises displaying the link to the advertising channel and the at least one advertising content item together in an advertisement display area including the first display area and the second display area within the search results page, the at least one advertising content item being configured as a selectable item separate from the link to the advertising channel ([0095] “receive search terms directly from the user access devices.” And, [0098] “FIG. 3B is an example screenshot . . . showing representative search results arising from a search for “items” specified by a user . . . . A search specified by user yields a primary result, which is a link to an advertiser-specified landing page . . . Primary result includes a link , as well as a descriptive creative.” And, [0098] “In addition to primary result, the search may also yield several additional or secondary results including sitelinks. Appearing with sitelinks are descriptive texts (referred to as “creatives” or “creative texts.” And, [0060] “specific products and services as well as associated ads to be displayed with publications provided by the publishers.” And, [0099] “creatives associated with each advertiser specified sitelink.” And, [0070] “creative that specifies . . . a headline, a promotional slogan, a product image, a price quote, a landing page.” And, [0091] “The user access device may then be redirected to the content provider associated with the selected ad . . . The user may then perform a conversion action at the landing page, such as purchasing a product.” And see Figure 3B showing the sitelink(s) and associated creatives (i.e., advertising content items with links) simultaneously displayed with the link to the advertisement channel.).
Vaish does not explicitly teach but Agarwal II teaches:
[wherein the at least one content item is generated based on search results obtained using the search term ] from a vertical service search engine associated with the advertising channel, the search results are obtained by the vertical service search engine performing a search using the search term within a search scope restricted, based on an identifier of the advertising channel, to information about products or services sold through the advertising channel ([0021] “forwarding the query to a product catalogue associated with the selected advertiser, and returning the results for the query from the catalogue to the user . . . after identifying the best bidder (brand) for the query, such an embodiment includes searching for the query in this brand's catalog to return the matching results.” And, [0027] “deriving the search results from one or more catalogues associated with the at least one selected bidding entity.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art at the effective filing date to modify Vaish to include [wherein the at least one content item is generated based on search results obtained using the search term ] from a vertical service search engine associated with the advertising channel, the search results are obtained by the vertical service search engine performing a search using the search term within a search scope restricted, based on an identifier of the advertising channel, to information about products or services sold through the advertising channel as taught by Agarwal II in order to “display[], to a user, target search results associated with the selected advertiser” (Agarwal II [0015]) and “constrain the types of queries on which e-commerce websites can bid, and as a result, the resulting advertisements for a user query can return unrelated results and thus fewer clicks and/or page views” (Agarwal II [0002]).
Response to Arguments
35 U.S.C. 103
Applicant's arguments, see pages 6-8 filed 6/25/2026 with respect to the rejection(s) of 1 and 3-15 under 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejections have been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of Vaish.
35 U.S.C. 101
Applicant's arguments, see page 6, filed 6/25/2026 with respect to the rejection(s) of claims 1 and 3-16 under 35 U.S.C. 101 have been fully considered but are not persuasive.
Applicant argues that the amended claims are directed to a particular method of arranging search results on a display area of a user terminal which does not fall within the certain methods or organizing human activities grouping of abstract ideas. Examiner respectfully disagrees and replies that the limitations identified in the updated 35 U.S.C. 101 rejection recite displaying advertising content and an advertising channel associated with a user provided search term which is an advertising / marketing activity that falls within the certain methods of organizing human activity grouping of abstract ideas.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
US Patent Application Publication Number 20140052584 (“Gershon”) discloses ranking products on search result pages based on their availability from merchants within the user's current geo-location
US Patent Application Publication Number 20170230329 (“Akef”) discloses selecting and providing content (e.g., an advertisement) responsive to a search query
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
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/ALLAN J WOODWORTH, II/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3622
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