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 Interpretation
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(f):
(f) Element in Claim for a Combination. – An element in a claim for a combination may be expressed as a means or step for performing a specified function without the recital of structure, material, or acts in support thereof, and such claim shall be construed to cover the corresponding structure, material, or acts described in the specification and equivalents thereof.
The following is a quotation of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph:
An element in a claim for a combination may be expressed as a means or step for performing a specified function without the recital of structure, material, or acts in support thereof, and such claim shall be construed to cover the corresponding structure, material, or acts described in the specification and equivalents thereof.
The claims in this application are given their broadest reasonable interpretation using the plain meaning of the claim language in light of the specification as it would be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art. The broadest reasonable interpretation of a claim element (also commonly referred to as a claim limitation) is limited by the description in the specification when 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, is invoked.
As explained in MPEP § 2181, subsection I, claim limitations that meet the following three-prong test will be interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph:
(A) the claim limitation uses the term “means” or “step” or a term used as a substitute for “means” that is a generic placeholder (also called a nonce term or a non-structural term having no specific structural meaning) for performing the claimed function;
(B) the term “means” or “step” or the generic placeholder is modified by functional language, typically, but not always linked by the transition word “for” (e.g., “means for”) or another linking word or phrase, such as “configured to” or “so that”; and
(C) the term “means” or “step” or the generic placeholder is not modified by sufficient structure, material, or acts for performing the claimed function.
Use of the word “means” (or “step”) in a claim with functional language creates a rebuttable presumption that the claim limitation is to be treated in accordance with 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph. The presumption that the claim limitation is interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, is rebutted when the claim limitation recites sufficient structure, material, or acts to entirely perform the recited function.
Absence of the word “means” (or “step”) in a claim creates a rebuttable presumption that the claim limitation is not to be treated in accordance with 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph. The presumption that the claim limitation is not interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, is rebutted when the claim limitation recites function without reciting sufficient structure, material or acts to entirely perform the recited function.
Claim limitations in this application that use the word “means” (or “step”) are being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, except as otherwise indicated in an Office action. Conversely, claim limitations in this application that do not use the word “means” (or “step”) are not being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, except as otherwise indicated in an Office action.
This application includes one or more claim limitations that do not use the word “means,” but are nonetheless being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, because the claim limitation(s) uses a generic placeholder that is coupled with functional language without reciting sufficient structure to perform the recited function and the generic placeholder is not preceded by a structural modifier. Such claim limitation(s) is/are: a fetch component to retrieve; a parse component to generate; an analytic component to generate; an insight component to generate; a psychographics matching engine to extract; and agent recommendation engine to select in claim 13-14. The structural support for these limitations is provided at least in specification para. 0200 (“the present disclosure may be implemented within methods, acts, systems, system elements and components using a variety of hardware and software configurations”), 0174, and 0073.
Because this/these claim limitation(s) is/are being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, it/they is/are being interpreted to cover the corresponding structure described in the specification as performing the claimed function, and equivalents thereof.
If applicant does not intend to have this/these limitation(s) interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, applicant may: (1) amend the claim limitation(s) to avoid it/them being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph (e.g., by reciting sufficient structure to perform the claimed function); or (2) present a sufficient showing that the claim limitation(s) recite(s) sufficient structure to perform the claimed function so as to avoid it/them being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph.
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.
The USPTO Internet website contains terminal disclaimer forms which may be used. Please visit www.uspto.gov/patent/patents-forms. The actual filing date of the application in which the form is filed determines what form (e.g., PTO/SB/25, PTO/SB/26, PTO/AIA /25, or PTO/AIA /26) should be used. A web-based eTerminal Disclaimer may be filled out completely online using web-screens. An eTerminal Disclaimer that meets all requirements is auto-processed and approved immediately upon submission. For more information about eTerminal Disclaimers, refer to www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/applying-online/eterminal-disclaimer.
Claims 1-20 are rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claims 1-19 of U.S. Patent No. 12380461. Although the claims at issue are not identical, they are not patentably distinct from each other because claims of the reference patent anticipate the claims of this pending application.
Claims 1-20 are rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claims 1-16 of U.S. Patent No. 11756063. Although the claims at issue are not identical, they are not patentably distinct from each other because claims of the reference patent anticipate the claims of this pending application.
Conclusion
Note that a copy of any non-patent literature mentioned in this action can be accessed from the record of the parent application 17149221.
Closest prior art to the invention includes US 2021/0125209 A1 (“Adibi”), US 20210350448 A1 (“Phillips”), US 2005/0222829 A1 (“Dumas”), and NPL Techopedia. None of the prior art alone or in combination teaches the claimed invention as recited in claims 1, 13, and 17, wherein the novelty is in the combination of all the limitations and not in a single limitation.
Additional relevant art to the claimed invention includes:
US 2004/0103017 A1 – adaptive marketing using insight driven customer interaction that stores and processes results of a first customer action, such as a marketing campaign, to retrain predictive models and gain new insights regarding how customers are responding to marketing campaigns.
US 2013/0103764 A1 – Performing observations in one or more mobile terminals and processing and distributing the related data in a server side system through layered data processing activities, and conversion of non-parametric data into parameterized form through the utilization of statistical filtering and semantic data structures, and the utilization of the multi-layer, parametrized data for predictive purposes.
US 7,340,411 B2 – Customer lead management system that collects potential customer data over a network and automatically ranks the viability of the customer lead on the interest level of the customer lead and other variable criteria used in a web-based algorithm calculation.
US 2014/0032271 A1 – Generating a distribution of the population over the geographic area based on characteristics of geographic features of the geographic area, where the characteristics of the geographic features can be classified into one or more usage categories corresponding to an estimated populated density associated with the particular geographic feature, and a grid can be generated to overlay the geographic area where the distribution of the population to an area encapsulated within each of the plurality of grid cells can be interpolated based on the usage categories of the geographic features and a position of the geographic features with respect to each of the plurality of grid cells.
US 2020/0356924 A1 – Techniques for defining and optimizing the boundaries of geospatial areas predictive of various outcomes using a model trained to predict the variable of interest within the geographic area of interest and a contour-finding algorithm applied to the grid to define the optimized geographic area.
NPL “An Innovative Methodology for Big Data Visualization for Telemedicine” – Graphical tool for the visualization of health data that can be easily used for monitoring health status of patients remotely, which adopts the geoJSON standard to classify data into different circles.
NPL “Demo Paper: Large Scale Spatial Data Processing With User Defined Filters In BBoxDB” – Distributed key-bounding-box-value store which is capable of handling large scale n-dimensional data such as GeoJson encoded spatial data sets.
NPL “Visualization of Large Data Sets with the Active Data Repository” – Ray-casting based volume rendering and isosurface rendering methods using an Active Data Repository (ADR) for visualizing out-of-core data sets.
NPL "Predicting behavior," A. Abbasi, R. Y. K. Lau and D. E. Brown, in IEEE Intelligent Systems, vol. 30, no. 3, pp. 35-43, May-June 2015, doi: 10.1109/MIS.2015.19.
NPL "Data Mining: Consumer Behavior Analysis," S. P. Singh, A. Kumar, N. Yadav and R. Awasthi, 2018 3rd IEEE International Conference on Recent Trends in Electronics, Information & Communication Technology (RTEICT), Bangalore, India, 2018, pp. 1917-1921, doi: 10.1109/RTEICT42901.2018.9012300.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MEHMET YESILDAG whose telephone number is (571)272-3257. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:30 am - 5:00 pm.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Jerry O'Connor can be reached on (571) 272-6787. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/MEHMET YESILDAG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3624
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