DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 1-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to method for estimating a quantitative laboratory value of a patient without significantly more. The claim(s) recite(s):
“obtaining one or more non-invasive medical images of at least a portion of the patient, each image acquired without penetrating the patient's skin;
processing the one or more images with a trained neural network to generate an estimated laboratory value corresponding to a biological condition of the patient;
causing presentation of the estimated laboratory value on a display or to another downstream computer process”
The processor is recited at a high level of generality, i.e., as a generic processor performing a generic computer function of processing data. This generic processor limitation is no more than mere instructions to apply the exception using a generic computer component.
Accordingly, this additional element does not integrate the abstract idea into a practical application because it does not impose any meaningful limits on practicing the abstract idea. This determining step, as drafted, is a process that under its broadest reasonable interpretation, covers performance of the limitation in the mind but for the recitation of generic computer components (one or more processors and computer storage memory)
That is, other than reciting "by a processor", nothing in the claim element precludes the step from practically being performed in the human mind. Additionally, the mere nominal recitation of a generic processor does not take the claim limitation out of the mental processes grouping. Thus, the claim recites a mental process. The additional element in the claim amounts to no more than mere instructions to apply the exception using a generic computer component which cannot integrate a judicial exception into a practical application. The claim does not provide an inventive concept (significantly more than the abstract idea). The claim is ineligible.
Prior arts:
Beck et al (Pub. No.: US 10, 650, 929).
a prognostic model is trained using any number of machine learning algorithms (e.g., regularized Cox regression, regularized logistic regression and overall survival time is used for the survival data. A classifier, such as for example, an L1-regularized logistic regression, is trained to predict the binary outcome of (1) alive at 5 years or (2) dead at 5 years [see column 22 lines 30-37] and disclosing performance of the model to be able to accurately predict survival data for patients in the other treatment group is analyzed to determine its effectiveness in correctly identifying a subset of patients that may benefit from the experimental treatment studied in the clinical trial. Ln some embodiments, the trained model is used to predict an expected benefit of an experimental treatment for candidate patients in a new clinical trial [see column 2 lines 50-64].
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JOEL F BRUTUS whose telephone number is (571)270-3847. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Sat, 11:00 AM to 7:00 PM.
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/JOEL F BRUTUS/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3797
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