PTAB Decisions on Section 101
APRIL 2019
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This section contains summaries of April 2019 decisions of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) concerning 35 U.S.C. Section 101, which sets forth the four categories of patent-eligible subject matter: process, machines, manufactures, and compositions of matter.
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Ex Parte Ghaly; 4/30/2019; TC 3700. The claimed invention related to a gaming device that used symbols occurring at one, or a plurality of winning lines, also known as pay lines, during a plurality of independent spins, to populate one or a plurality of new winning lines. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Gonser et al; 4/30/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, DocuSign, Inc. The claimed invention related to formula calculation and payment authorization with electronic signatures. The Board agreed with the Examiner that the method recited in claim 1 was a fundamental economic practice because the claims recited concepts relating to the economy and commerce, such as agreements between people in the form of contracts, legal obligations, and business relations. The Board described this as a judicial exception of certain methods of organizing human activity, i.e., a fundamental economic principle or practice, and thus an abstract idea. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Kassaei; 4/30/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, eBay, Inc. The claims related to the field of online commerce, and more particularly to methods and systems of recommending software to users engaged in online commerce. The Board agreed with the Examiner that independent claim 10 was directed broadly to recommending items to users in a marketplace based on a comparison of metrics associated with other users. When viewed through the lens of the 2019 Revised Guidance, the Examiner's analysis depicted the claimed subject matter as one of the ineligible certain methods of organizing human activity, including at least advertising and marketing. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Deslauriers et al; 4/30/2019; TC 2800; Real party in interest, Chevron Phillips Chemical Company LP. The claimed invention related to a computer implemented method for improving processing of polyethylene resins and systems for implementing the method. The Board concluded that steps 1-4 of the invention—receiving data, determining parameter values, identifying resins with suitable properties, and outputting the identification of the resins—were mental steps. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Carlen et al; 4/30/2019; TC 2400; Real party in interest, OC Acquisition LLC. The claimed invention related to a method providing a first orchestration service instance for managing a set of containers operating on a controller node where the controller node controlled a set of physical nodes. The method also provided a set of second orchestration service instances for managing a set of first services operating in the set of containers where a second orchestration service instance in a container managed a respective first service in the container. The Board described the invention as collecting state information, i.e. data, from various components and combining that state information into the global state, i.e., additional data. This was a method of organizing behavior or interactions. Further, the claimed invention included a mental process in that a person could receive the state information from multiple sources and combine it, for example, with a pen and paper. Moreover, the generating of the global state would include mathematical operations in that it was combining data. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Lei; 4/30/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, Siemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc. The claimed invention related to a system and method for medical data scan archiving. More specifically, the invention provided a message broadcast mechanism for Picture Archiving And Communication Systems (PACS) to alert medical professionals of the need to evaluate the medical data scans and retrieve outdated message broadcasts. The Board said the limitations of enrolling, gathering, entering, evaluating, monitoring, and determining data were mental steps and activities that were ordinarily performed in evaluations, such as of medical scans. Conditionally broadcasting a message based on the determination was a post-solution activity and also ordinarily performed when providing results of evaluations made. The Board concluded the claim recited a way of sending the results of evaluated information, which was a way of managing interactions between people, one of the certain methods of organizing human activity as identified in the 2019 Revised Guidance. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Drew et al; 4/30/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, PhysioControl, Inc. The claimed invention related to sending software application upgrades to medical devices over a network. The Examiner concluded claim 1 was directed to querying and distributing messages and receiving, screening and distributing data/messages. The Board agreed with this characterization of the claims. The Board, however, disagreed with the Examiner's conclusion that the claims were directed to an abstract idea because these concepts did not fit within the “certain methods of organizing human activity,” or any of the other categories, identified in the January 2019 Revised Guidance. Section 101 rejections REVERSED.
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Ex Parte Gonen et al; 4/30/2019; TC 3600. The claimed invention concerned a community-based recycling system and methods of utilizing same. The Board said providing financial rewards to recycle was an economic act that was not meaningfully different from acts that courts had determined were fundamental economic practices. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Hall et al; 4/30/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, Linkedln Corporation. The claimed invention related to presenting goal-related insights to a member of an on-line social network. Claim 1 was directed to determining or identifying, in response to a search request, a person's desired job position and particular members of that person's network who had past and current jobs similar to the person's current and desired jobs. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Siddiqui; 4/30/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, Cerner Innovation, Inc. The claimed invention related to a medication ordering system, involving compiling a list of medication orders, by finding and collating order items to provide a compiled list with itemized hierarchical priority. The Board agreed with the Examiner that an abstract idea was recited in claim 1 as a whole, and particularly by the two “identifying” functions and the two functions that determined whether a medication order was a phase-one medication order, or a phase-two medication order. These identifying and determining functions could be performed alternatively as mental steps. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Tremblay et al; 4/30/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, Carefusion 303, Inc. The claimed invention related to an adaptable medical workflow system. The Examiner concluded claim 1 recited the abstract idea of retrieving and selecting possible (workflow) action options corresponding to an identified medical object based on past actions taken by an identified healthcare worker during a particular span of time, and a state corresponding to the medical object, and communicating to an interface a menu of the possible workflow action options that were prioritized based on a probability value and disabled based on the state. Section 101 rejections sustained.
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Ex Parte Chauhan et al; 4/30/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, MasterCard International Inc. The claimed invention was directed to a system to enable vendor recommendations using payment card transaction information. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Wilson et al; 4/30/2019; TC 1600. The claims involved a method for, apparatus configured for, and programming for a processor for outputting a sedative dosage based on a model and a calculation. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Hook et al; 4/30/2019; TC 3600. The claim invention involved methods, systems, and media for targeting online advertisements to users using brand affinity modeling. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Deirmengian et al; 4/30/2019; TC 3700; Real party in interest, DePuy Synthes Products, Inc. The claimed invention related to a system and method for tracking the process of bone healing and, in particular, systems and methods that calculated a ratio of strain at multiple locations along an implant and/or a bone. The Board said the judicial exception (mental process as abstract idea) was integrated into a practical application, which was the use of a particular configuration of sensors relative to an implant and fractured bone, and use of the data from the sensors in order to generate a ratio of strains measured in a fractured bone region and in a non-weakened region, to provide a normalized value or effect of loads on the bone at those locations. Section 101 rejections REVERSED.
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Ex Parte Baker et al; 4/30/2019; TC 2400; Real party in interest, IBM. The claims related to negotiated delivery and rejection of electronic mail (email), such that the email was delivered to a recipient only under certain enumerated conditions. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Caglayan et al; 4/30/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, MasterCard International Incorporated. The claims recited a system and method for processing financial transactions using a mobile device. The Board concluded claim 10 recited a fundamental economic practice, one of certain methods of organizing human activity identified in the January 2019 Revised Guidance, and, thus, an abstract idea. But the claim as a whole was integrated into a practical application. Specifically, the additional elements recited a specific manner of transmitting a confirmation to a mobile computing device, activating an application program installed on the mobile computing device, causing the transaction details to be displayed on a display of the mobile computing device, and prompting user-confirmation of the financial transaction. These elements provided a specific improvement over prior systems, resulting in an improved system for confirming payment at a mobile device, without requiring storage of payment information at the mobile device and without requiring transmission of payment information directly from the mobile device to a device of a merchant. Section 101 rejections REVERSED.
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Ex Parte Howe et al; 4/30/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, Eunum, LLC. The claimed invention related generally to systems and methods related to advertising. The Specification at the Summary stated, “Embodiments disclosed herein provide systems and methods for advertising in which viewers or consumers of advertisements (referred to hereinafter as ‘consumers’) vote on advertisements in order to receive some benefit, such as an offer, discount, prize, etc. (hereinafter referred to as an ‘offer’), from the advertisers.” Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Benway et al; 4/30/2019; TC 2600; Real party in interest, Plantronics, Incorporated. The claimed invention aimed to improve on current noise management systems. In one example, an application program received noise level measurements taken at mobile devices at different locations and adjusted the masking volume level output using a noise masking system. The Board said claim 1 was not directed simply to measuring and mapping noise levels, but rather was focused on electronically adjusting outputs of sound masking noises using noise level measurements taken with mobile devices located within a building. Thus the focus of claim 1 was not directed to an abstract idea. But even if it were so directed, additional elements in claim 1 reflected an improvement in the sound masking noise technology or the sound masking noise field. These additional elements integrated the abstract idea into a practical application. Section 101 rejections REVERSED.
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Ex Parte Mahafzah; 4/30/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, HSC Acquisition, LLC dba HealthSTAR Communications. The claimed invention related to the field of promotional events. More particularly, the invention related to a system and method for certifying attendance at a promotional event. The Board said the invention recited a method of organizing human activity, an abstract idea. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Schulz; 4/30/2019; TC 3600; The claims involved a method of evaluating damage to a vehicle. The Board said the concept of producing a repair cost estimate was a fundamental economic practice, and also involved mental processes because evaluations were required. But additional elements in claim 1 were directed to a specific graphical representation of the damaged product and assessed damage that encompassed functionalities beyond generally linking the concept of producing a repair cost estimate for repair services to a general purpose computer. Accordingly, the Board concluded these additional elements imposed meaningful limits that integrated the abstract idea into a practical application. Section 101 rejections REVERSED.
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Ex Parte Kelkar et al; 4/30/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, IBM. The claimed invention related to human resource analytics using profile data. The Board said the Examiner neither: (a) identified the specific limitations in the claims under examination that the Examiner believed recited an abstract idea; nor (b) demonstrated that the identified limitations fell within the subject matter groupings of abstract ideas of mathematical concepts, certain methods of organizing human activity, or mental processes. Thus, the Examiner had failed to establish a prima facie case of unpatentability. Section 101 rejections REVERSED.
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Ex Parte Kumar et al; 4/30/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, Palo Alto Research Center Incorporated. The claimed invention generally related to detecting anomalies (i.e., outliers) within an identified peer group from a data set of entities. The Board concluded the claims recited an abstract idea of a mental process. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Sgambati et al; 4/30/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, Early Warning Systems, LLC. The claims were directed to an account-owner verification database. The Board concluded the claims recited a judicial exception of a fundamental economic practice. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Asher et al; 4/30/2019; TC 3700; Real party in interest, Cantor Index, LLC. The claimed invention related to means to account for the value of a sum (i.e., pool) of money or money equivalent wagered by or collected from one or more participants or gaming machines for the purpose of subsequent distribution of an amount of the pool as an award or prize to a participant that had reached or accomplished a defined goal in a contest; or means for determining or causing the distribution of the amount from the pool, including retaining an amount of the pool unless or until a defined goal was attained in a game, the retained amount being successively added to the award amount for that goal in a subsequent game or games until the goal was attained. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Tyson; 4/30/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, The Prudential Insurance Company of America. The claims were directed to market-based adjustment of premium amounts for the generation of an annuity based on a pension plan. The Board agreed with the Examiner that determining an annuity premium was a fundamental economic practice of the banking/financial/insurance industries. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Caglayan et al; 4/30/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, MasterCard International Incorporated. The claims recited a system and method for processing financial transactions using a mobile device. The Board determined that elements of claim 1 integrated a judicial exception, in this case the abstract idea of a fundamental economic practice, into a practical application. The claim limitations, e.g., transmitting a selection request to a mobile computing device, activating an application program installed on the mobile computing device, causing the mobile computing device to display, on a display thereof, selection data including at least one payment account, and prompting user-selection of a payment account from the at least one payment account, wherein payment details associated with the at least one payment account were not stored on the mobile computing device, imposed meaningful limits on practicing the abstract idea. Section 101 rejections REVERSED.
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Ex Parte Bosl; 4/30/2019; TC 3700; Real party in interest, Children’s Medical Center Corporation. The claimed invention related generally to the analysis of electromagnetic signals to identify biomarkers for cognitive, language and behavioral disorders, of known or unknown etiology (collectively referred to as “developmental disorders”), and more specifically to analyzing EEG data using complexity and/or synchronization measures in infants to identify characteristics associated with developmental disorders including autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Schory et al; 4/30/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, eBay Inc. The claim invention related generally to the technical field of online marketing, and in one specific example, to customizing an online shopping experience for a user based on information about the user. Section 101 rejections sustained.
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Ex Parte Cooper et al; 4/30/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, The Boeing Company. The invention related generally to minimizing aircraft emissions. Claim 1 recited steps of calculating emissions data, generating a flight plan, determining whether an amount of each type of emissions was greater than a threshold, and modifying the parameters for the flight plan to reduce the effect of emissions until the flight plan met an objective. Claim 1 was therefore directed to generating and modifying a flight plan until an objective was met. The Board said each step in the method, calculating, generating, determining, and modifying, could be done mentally by a human using mental thought to analyze and modify a plan. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Fusco et al; 4/30/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, DealerSafeGuard Solutions LLC. The claims related to a system and method for customer credit information acquisition, aggregation, and maintenance. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Weinflash et al; 4/30/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, Early Warning Services, LLC. The claims related to a method of making check-risk decisions. An inquiring institution could make a risk decision for accounts of member institutions based on status data accessed from a first database system and make a risk decision for accounts of non-member institutions based on risk data accessed from a separate, second database system. The Board concluded this system was a fundamental economic activity. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Page et al; 4/30/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, Adidas AG. The claimed invention related to a retail system that retrieved user information from the device, determined the location of the user based on the user information, and transmitted a list of specials based on the user location. The Board agreed with the Examiner that the claims were directed to a judicial exception but disagreed that the claims were not integrated into a practical application. The Board agreed with the Appellants that claim 1 provided a specific technological solution to a problem that arose in the field of product presentation to remote users. Specifically, the claimed limitations showed how a product server system could analyze remote device information to determine user location, compare the location to one or more conditions for accessing specials, and compile a unique collection of specials and customization features from a data storage device based on the analyzed location. Section 101 rejections REVERSED.
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Ex Parte Raina et al; 4/30/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, Facebook, Inc. The claimed invention was a way of advertising about objects in a social networking system to users using collaborative filtering based on the users' interactions with objects in the social networking system. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Hladio et al; 4/29/2019; TC 3700. The claimed invention related to aligning a prosthesis during surgery. The Board said claim 1 fell within the ambit of essentially a mental process and was thus an abstract idea. Nevertheless, although claim 1 did collect and analyze data, the Board said it would be an oversimplification of the claim to state that it was directed to an abstract idea. A first sensor was configured to be attached to a bone. A second sensor was configured to be attached to a surgical tool. The sensors were used to define a spatial relationship and orientation between the bone and the tool to enhance a surgical procedure. This was a technological improvement in the delivery of a medical service and, as such, the claims were directed to a specific tangible application. Section 101 rejections REVERSED.
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Ex Parte Mandava; 4/29/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, CA, Inc. The claimed invention was directed to a task assignment and alert system using a device capable of providing location information. The Examiner determined that claim 1 was directed to the concept of using location-based rules to process a task assignment, which was a method of organizing human activities and, therefore, an abstract idea. The Board substantially agreed. Section 101 rejections sustained.
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Ex Parte Kataoka et al; 4/29/2019; TC 2100; Real party in interest, Fujitsu Limited. The claimed invention related to information processing, searching, compression, and expansion using a Huffman tree. Under Section 2B of the January 2019 Guidance, the Examiner determined the computer readable medium, and a computer to execute process, were recited at a high level of generality and were recited as performing generic computer functions routinely used in computer applications. Generic computer components recited as performing generic computer functions that were well-understood, routine, and conventional activities amounted to no more than implementing the abstract idea with a computerized system. The Board, however, determined that the Examiner had not provided the evidence required by Berkheimer to support such determination. In particular, the Examiner had not provided any of the four categories of information required by the Memorandum of Changes in Examination Procedure Pertaining to Subject Matter Eligibility, Recent Subject Matter Eligibility Decision (Berkheimer v. HP, Inc.) (“Berkheimer Memorandum”). Section 101 rejections REVERSED on procedural grounds.
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Ex Parte Crowley et al; 4/29/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, Creditex Group, Inc. The claimed invention was related to an exchange auction that resulted in offsetting the positions associated with a first financial instrument and replacing the offset position with a second financial instrument. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Karunamurthy et al; 4/29/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, SAP SE. The claimed invention related generally to distributing costs in a transportation management system. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Kwan et al; 4/29/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, IBM. The claimed invention was directed to the field of business process management and, more particularly, to dynamically modifying business processes based on real-time events. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Easterhaus et al; 4/29/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, Cerner Innovation, Inc. The claimed invention related to methods, systems, and computer-readable storage media for creating, among other things, a unified patient referral worklist that helped a provider to manage incoming and outgoing referrals. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Nowak et al; 4/29/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, Avaya, Inc. The claimed invention related to predicting contact center activity and adjusting operational parameters of the contact center based on such predictions. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Pullman; 4/29/2019; TC 3600. The claimed invention was a method and device for pooling intellectual property assets for valuing and securitizing intellectual property assets. The Board agreed with the Examiner's findings that claim 1 recited a fundamental economic practice because it related to creating a pool of intellectual property assets for securitization or sale of rights in those assets. Claim 1 was directed to a certain method of organizing human activities i.e., a fundamental economic practice related to sales activity. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Gedeon et al; 4/29/2019; TC 3600. The claimed invention related to a system that tracked and stored a value representing an amount of cash generated by securities in an index over a predetermined time period. The index was rebalanced by adjusting a weight or a value of a second security included in the group of securities based on the value that indicated the amount of cash generated by securities in the index. An updated index value was calculated for the index based on the group of securities that included the second security with the adjusted weight. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Abhinkar; 4/29/2019; TC 2100; Real party in interest, Intel Corporation. The claimed invention related to executing database queries based on query semantics information. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Killian et al; 4/29/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, MasterCard International Incorporated. Claim 1 called for a personalized payment method comprising nine steps. The Board determined that the identified limitations described a type of financial transaction, more particularly, a certain payment scheme whereby a payment card system payment transaction initiated from a customer's device (such as a mobile telephone) was utilized to consummate a purchase of goods or services. Purchasing goods and services, including initiating payment therefor, was a fundamental economic practice. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Fung et al; 4/29/2019; TC 2100; Real party in interest, Saudi Arabian Oil Company. The claimed invention involved computerized simulation of hydrocarbon reservoirs, specifically, simulating multiphase multicomponent flow and transport processes involving complex well geometry. To this end, the invention included a near-well unstructured model builder that could output a near-well unstructured grid with a specified grid resolution in regions of interest that included a well. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Crowley et al; 4/29/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, Creditex Group, Inc. The claimed invention was a multilateral exchange auction that resulted in offsetting positions associated with first and second financial instruments. The Board said the claimed steps were directed to the concept of financial trading, which was a fundamental economic practice and an abstract concept. Section 101 rejections sustained.
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Ex Parte Findlay et al; 4/26/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, MYCA Health, Inc. The claimed invention provided a multi-dimensional contextual platform for managing a medical practice that used social network tools to enhance communication between the doctor and patients. Section 101 rejections were proper.
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Ex Parte Baptist et al; 4/26/2019; TC 2100; Real party in interest, IBM. The claimed invention related to computer networks and more particularly to dispersing error encoded data. The Board concluded the claim limitations recited mathematical relationships, mathematical equations, and mathematical calculations, which were mathematical concepts―a specific subject matter group that was identified as an abstract idea under the 2019 Revised Guidance. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Weinberger et al; 4/26/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, MasterCard International Incorporated. The claims were directed to a method and apparatus for modeling a virtual panel of consumer behavior from financial transactions that occurred in a payment network. The method and apparatus used a selected set of financial accounts to create a virtual panel which measured behavior from a sample of consumers that was representative of the overall consumer population across key geographic, demographic, and behavior dimensions. The Board determined the claims were directed to a judicial exception, namely, the abstract idea of sampling data for market research, which was a fundamental economic practice and method of organizing human activity identified as an abstract idea in the January 2019 Revised Guidance. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Cohen-Solal et al; 4/26/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, Koninklijke Philips N.V. Embodiments of the claimed invention related to: identifying missing medical concepts for selecting an imaging protocol for an imaging procedure for a patient from medical concepts for imaging procedures for other patients and/or for identifying medical concepts from medical information for a patient in addition to an order prescribing an imaging procedure for the patient for selecting an imaging protocol for the imaging procedure. The Board concluded that the two steps of identifying recited abstract ideas, which could be performed as mental steps. Thus, method claim 1 recited an abstract idea (mental steps). Similarly, the Board concluded the identify and determine functions of computing system independent claim 15 could be performed as mental steps. Therefore, remaining independent claim 15 also recited an abstract idea. But the Board agreed with the Appellants' contention that at least method claims 1-8, 11-13, 43, 44, and 46 were subject matter eligible as the claims were tied to an imaging scanner to scan the patient, i.e., a particular machine. And the claimed generating a signal step of method claim 1 provided a meaningful limitation under MPEP Section 2106.05(e). Accordingly, method claims 1-8, 11-13, 43, 44, and 46 integrated the judicial exception into a practical application. This integration, however, did not apply to computing systems claims 15, 41, 42, and 45. In contrast to independent method claim 1, claim 15 was silent regarding any mention of generating a signal indicative of the selected imaging protocol that configured an imaging scanner to scan the patient. Instead, claim 15 recited: a display configured to display the missing medical concept and the determined at least one scan protocol. Merely displaying the missing medical concept and the determined scan protocol on a display, without more, was just the display of non-functional descriptive material (NFDM) intended for human viewing. Some Section 101 rejections REVERSED, some affirmed.
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Ex Parte Crane et al; 4/26/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC. The claims were directed to the selection of an advertisement responding to a query, based on the location of the query and the location of the advertisement. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Bortolotti; 4/26/2019; TC 3600; Possible real party in interest, IBM. The claimed invention concerned analyzing a product's “consmnability,” that is, how well the product suited the purchaser. Section 101 rejections sustained.
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Ex Parte Gegner et al; 4/25/2019; TC 3700; Real party in interest, Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. The claims were directed to a patient deterioration detection system. The Board agreed with the Examiner that claims 1 and 7 recited steps involved in the gathering of data, performing calculations on that data, and outputting the results of those calculations. These calculations constitute mathematical concepts falling within the purview of abstract ideas held ineligible. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Taylor; 4/25/2019; TC 3700. The claims were directed to a book for illustrating and describing activities. Section 101 rejections sustained.
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Ex Parte Mallik et al; 4/25/2019; TC 2100; Real party in interest, Qualcomm. The claimed invention related to wireless communication systems, and more particularly, to data encoding and decoding to reduce the impact of bursty interference in wireless communication systems. The Board REVERSED the Examiner’s Section 101 rejections of independent claim 13 and its dependent claims. Independent claim 13 integrated the judicial exception (mathematical concepts) into a practical application, because the decoded parity check code blocks were positively recited as actually being used to determine when to correct errors in the decoded code blocks. Thus, claim 13 effected an improvement in wireless communication technology that more efficiently corrected for bits dropped due to radio frequency (RF) interference from other proximate mobile devices, or neighboring base stations in adjacent cells. In contrast, the Board concluded that independent claims 1, 16, and 21 did not integrate the judicial exception into a practical application. For example, although claim 21 recited decoding, by the mobile device, the one or more code blocks, the claim did not require the decoding to be performed using the parity check code blocks. Thus, the Section 101 rejections of claims 1, 16, and 21 and their dependent claims were affirmed.
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Ex Parte Tully et al; 4/25/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, Thomson Reuters Global Resources. The preamble of claim 1 recited a method of managing unclaimed property. The Abstract recited that the invention’s systems and technique provided a complete end to end solution for the unclaimed property compliance process including tracking of potential unclaimed transactions, mailing of confirmation and due diligence letters, routing responses received from the letters, and the preparation of the unclaimed property reports. The Board found that the claim limitations formed a process that, under its broadest reasonable interpretation, covered certain methods of organizing human activity―commercial or legal interactions―and mental processes. Section 101 rejections sustained.
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Ex Parte Falkenberg et al; 4/25/2019; TC 2100; Real party in interest, IBM. The claimed invention pertained to optimizing the loading of a web page based on aggregated user preferences for Web page elements of the Web page. Claims 1, 7, 14, 20, and 23 were independent, and each recited similar limitations pertaining to dynamically adapting a workflow of a content management system to publish content, including determining which users were currently signed into a groupware application and were currently active and available to approve an information item. The Board concluded the claims were not directed to an abstract idea or judicial exception. Specifically, the method for adapting a workflow of a content management system recited in claim 1 (and method, systems, and computer program products reciting similar limitations in claims 7, 14, 20, and 23) did not fall into any of the subcategories of abstract ideas enumerated in the January 2019 Revised Guidance. Section 101 rejections REVERSED.
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Ex Parte Walker; 4/25/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, Electronic Check Clearing House Organization. The claimed invention related to electronic payment orders for authorizing and instructing the payment from a payor to a payee without the use of paper checks. The Board concluded claim 1 recited a fundamental economic practice. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Esselink et al; 4/25/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, Ford Global Technologies, LLC. The claimed invention generally related to a system and method for providing personalized dealership service to new and return customers. The Board concluded claim 1 was directed to a method of organizing human activity (e.g., a fundamental economic practice). Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Jynge et al; 4/24/2019; TC 1600; Real parties in interest, Heidi Brurok and IC TARGETS AS. The claimed invention was directed to a method of subjecting an individual to an MRI procedure to assess the signal intensity (SI) of images, or more preferably the longitudinal relaxation rate, R1 throughout the myocardium. The Board concluded that, although the claims might recite an abstract idea, claim 60 also recited additional elements that transformed the nature of the claim into a patent-eligible application. There was no prior art of record to demonstrate that the technique of steps (1) through (4) of the method recited in the claims, viz., using manganese uptake to spatially map sectors or layers of the heart damaged by a myocardial infarction, had been practiced previously in the art, let alone become so commonplace that a reasonable finder of fact could determine that using such a technique was well-understood, routine, and conventional activity previously engaged in by researchers in the field. Section 101 rejections REVERSED.
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Ex Parte Isaacs; 4/24/2019; TC 3600; Possible real party in interest, Entit Software LLC. The claimed invention was a way of analysis of business operations. The Board described method claim 1 as reciting retrieving test and actual data, identifying a business process from the actual data by matching against baseline data, and generating a report. Thus, claim 1 recited retrieving, analyzing, and displaying data. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Maw et al; 4/24/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, MasterCard International Inc. The claimed subject matter related to a computer-implemented method for electronically redeeming at a merchant a voucher stored on a customer mobile device where the monetary value of the voucher was insufficient to cover a payment transaction at the merchant location. In particular, upon receiving a request to redeem the electronic voucher, a payment processor verified that the voucher qualified for payment, which it applied towards the payment transaction, and combined the redeemed monetary value of the voucher with the excess monetary value paid by the customer to cover the full amount of the payment transaction. Section 101 rejections sustained.
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Ex Parte Aahlad et al; 4/24/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, WANdisco, Inc. The claimed invention was a replicated state machine comprising, among other things, a proposal manager and agreement manager. The proposal manager managed proposals issued by a node of a distributed application for enabling coordinated proposal execution by all other application nodes. The agreement manager facilitated agreement on the proposals. The Board determined the claim limitations did not fit any of the categories of abstract ideas in the agency's guidelines. Consequently, the claims did not recite an abstract idea. Section 101 rejections REVERSED.
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Ex Parte Zhu et al; 4/24/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, Facebook, Inc. The claimed invention related generally to computing a compatibility score of individuals in a social network based on interests expressed by these individuals. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Gandhi; 4/24/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, Facebook, Inc. The recited methods, computer-readable media, and systems related to electronic advertising. The Board was persuaded that analyzing common attributes of proximate individuals and sending tailored advertising for display was a fundamental economic principle or practice, e.g., identifying and contacting potential customers; a commercial interaction, including advertising, marketing, or sales activities; or managing relationships, e.g., between a seller and a potential customer. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Owen; 4/23/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, MasterCard International Incorporated. The claimed invention was directed to the distribution of offers to a consumer, specifically the distribution of offers to a consumer based on both the consumer's location and length of time at the location. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte McHenry et al; 4/23/2019; TC 3700; Real party in interest, Medtronic, Inc. The preamble of claim 1 recited a non-invasive method for determining whether an expandable medical device was appropriate for implanting in a conduit of a patient having a cardiac cycle, conduit being a bioprosthetic or natural conduit, vessel, or organ structure into which an expandable medical device could be implanted. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Herschler et al; 4/23/2019; TC 3600. The claimed invention related to financial instruments, and particularly to managing assets including transferring assets from one investment to alternate investments based on triggering events. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Stiff et al; 4/23/2019; TC 3600. The claimed invention related to financial products and services, and particularly providing an investor the ability to purchase an option to exchange a future value of an asset or a portfolio of assets, regardless of future performance or value, for at least one non-cash settlement instrument outcome on a future date. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Kao et al; 4/23/2019; TC 3600. The claimed invention was a way of using weighted condition primitives to facilitate the description of a business policy. The preamble of claim 1 recited a computer implemented method for using weighted condition primitives in decision logic of a business policy evaluation for providing a web service to a user. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Greenleaf et al; 4/22/2019; TC 3700; Real party in interest, Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research. Claim 1 was a method for measuring a mechanical property of a subject with an ultrasound system, the steps of the method comprising: (a) producing shear waves that propagated in the subject by applying unfocused ultrasound energy to the subject; (b) acquiring measurement data by using a shear wave detector to measure at least one location in the subject in which the shear waves produced in step (a) were present, the measurement data suitable for calculating a mechanical property of the subject. The Board agreed with the Examiner that claim 1 recited a law of nature or a natural phenomenon including insignificant post-solution activity of data collection for an intended use of mathematical calculations and data analysis for calculating a mechanical property of the subject. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Brooker et al; 4/22/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, Prudential Insurance Company of America. The claimed invention related in general to the field of financial systems, and more particularly to a system and method for managing a group insurance policy. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Chan et al; 4/22/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, IBM. Claim 1 recited a method for blocking orders during order processing by an order processing system, the order processing system including at least one electronic processing unit, the method comprising steps of initiating, detecting, determining, accessing, selecting, automatically performing, automatically ceasing processing, and resuming processing. The Section 101 rejections involved both being directed to a judicial exception without significantly more and encompassing an embodiment of non-statutory transitory signals. Both Section 101 rejection categories were affirmed.
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Ex Parte Amundson; 4/22/2019; TC 3600. The claimed invention related to health information, and more particularly to displaying and editing health information using mobile client devices. The Board agreed with the Examiner that the steps of claim 1 were steps for managing personal behavior or relationships or interactions between people, including following rules or instructions for creating a medical record. Thus, the steps represented a method of organizing human activity, which was an abstract idea. But under Step 2A, Prong 2, of the January 2019 Guidance, the Board determined that the display of the medical record as a spectral array as required by the claim, and as supported by the Specification, went beyond merely tying the judicial exception to a particular technological environment, e.g., medical records, and was more than a drafting effort designed to monopolize the exception. The display of a medical record as a spectral array represented a meaningful limit on the judicial exception in the form of a practical application. Section 101 rejections REVERSED.
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Ex Parte Foley; 4/22/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, BGC Partners, Inc. The claimed invention related generally to methods and systems that might facilitate the trading of instruments or items with the use of proprietary data, such as internal price or valuation information, associated with the instruments or items. In the Board’s view, the claims simply required receiving, computing, generating, analyzing, and filtering communication of data without any specific functionality directly related to the processor's structure that was addressed to and resolved a problem in technology. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Koufaty et al; 4/22/2019; TC 2400; Real party in interest, Intel, Inc. The claimed invention was directed to a processing core to execute a task, and a memory management unit, coupled to the core, in which the memory management unit included a storage unit and first and second permission registers. The Board described claim 1 as reciting limitations such as a storage unit to store a page table entry comprising one or more identifiers of memory frames, a first permission register associated with the user mode, and a second permission register associated with the supervisor mode. Each limitation recited physical hardware used in the management of a computer memory during operation of the computer. The claims did not cover mathematical concepts, certain methods of organizing human activity, or mental processes, and thus did not recite a judicia exception. Section 101 rejections REVERSED.
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Ex Parte Palestrant et al; 4/22/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, Sermo, Inc. The claims related to methods and systems to provide an early indication of consensus of opinion among a number of users regarding an event or observation indicated by a user. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Kiper et al; 4/22/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company. The claimed invention generally related to insurance price quotes and, more particularly, to processes for obtaining insurance price quotes. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Cunningham et al; 4/22/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. The claims were directed to a method and system for managing spread orders. The Board concluded claim 1 recited a fundamental economic practice. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Kolovski et al; 4/22/2019; TC 2100; Real party in interest, Oracle International Corporation. The claims related to methods, systems, and other embodiments associated with equivalence reasoning. The Board stated that if a claim, under its broadest reasonable interpretation, covered performance in the mind but for the recitation of generic computer components, then it was still encompassed by the mental processes category unless the claim could not practically be performed in the mind. Claim 1 fell under the “unless” qualification. Claim 1 recited, inter alia, “iteratively inputting, by at least the processor, batches of equivalence pairs from a semantic model to an operating memory.” The Board found that a human person could not interact, mentally, with computer hardware so as to retrieve equivalence pairs from a first memory, i.e., the semantic model, and inject the retrieved data into operating memory. Section 101 rejections REVERSED.
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Ex Parte Nassif et al; 4/22/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, Markov Processes International, LLC. The claimed invention related to systems and methods for quantifying similarities between various financial instruments. Specifically, the exemplary systems and methods related to measuring a degree of similarity between several financial instruments using a factor intersection metric. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Callicoat et al; 4/19/2019; TC 1600; Real party in interest, OptiScan Biomedical Corporation. The Board described claim 40 as reciting a system for collecting and analyzing data, specifically analyte data, using fluidic and sensor systems, and then analyzing the data with a processor and displaying the result of the analysis. The Board found that because claim 40 recited collecting and analyzing information by mathematical algorithms, it recited a mental process in the abstract idea category of judicial exceptions. But the judicial exceptions in claim 40 were integrated into a practical application. This integration occurred because of the requirement for a choice of displaying either an estimated concentration based on a calibration set or displaying a null result if no calibration set. This requirement of a specific, practical physical act in a particular technological environment extended the method beyond mental steps or mathematical analysis. The configuration informed the artisan as to whether the analyte concentration could or could not be displayed, imposing a real world check on whether an analyte concentration could be provided to the end user or if the analyte concentration could not be provided due to the absence of calibration. Section 101 rejections REVERSED.
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Ex Parte Stueckemann et al; 4/19/2019; TC 3600. The claimed invention was a way of facilitating, coordinating, or managing healthcare products and/or services, such as pharmaceutical products, drugs, medical devices, or other prescribed medical treatments. The Board described claim 25 as reciting storing, receiving, transmitting, generating, analyzing, displaying, and updating data. Claim 25 was directed to insurance benefits processing, which fell into the abstract idea category. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Hartman et al; 4/19/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, Varian Medical Systems, International AG. The claimed invention related generally to treatment planning for treating a tumor and, more particularly, to choosing a treatment plan based on estimation models for different treatments. The Board determined claim 1 recited a judicial exception, i.e., a mathematical concept. But additional limitations in the claim focused on treatment of a specific tumor. These limitations included generating a first treatment plan that included instructions for controlling a treatment head in order to treat the tumor, and providing, by the treatment head coupled with a radiation source, radiation at pre-defined angles and pre-defined doses to specific portions of a treatment area of the patient according to the treatment plan. These limitations applied the recited mathematical relationships to improve the selection of a treatment plan type that was optimal for treating a particular patient's tumor based on specific characteristics of the tumor. The claim limitations, thus, provided a technical improvement in the evaluation of cancer treatment plans. The claimed limitations also applied the judicial exception, i.e., the mathematical concept, with a particular machine, i.e., a treatment head coupled with a radiation source and controlled by a control unit. Section 101 rejections REVERSED.
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Ex Parte Beiser et al; 4/19/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, Ford Global Technologies, LLC. The claims were directed to validating a purchase using communication between a vehicle computing system (VCS) and a wireless device. The Board concluded the claims recited a certain method of organizing human activity identified in the January 2019 Revised Guidance (either a fundamental economic activity or a commercial interaction), and thus, an abstract idea. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Boss et al; 4/18/2019; TC 3600. The claims described a way of allocating a resource among a plurality of groups based on the role of each group within an organizational model. The Board concluded the claims were directed to the abstract idea of certain methods of organizing human activity in allocating organizational resources by advising one to assign and compare relative privileges in the process of bidding for the use of the resource. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Utech et al; 4/18/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, CareFusion 303, Inc. The claims were directed to medication distribution, and, in particular, were related to systems and methods for managing retrieval of a prepared medication in a healthcare facility. The Board concluded the claim limitations were certain methods of organizing human activity. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Andersson et al; 4/18/2019; TC 1600; Real party in interest, GE Healthcare Bio-Sciences AB. The preamble of claim 1 recited a method for monitoring immunogenicity of a drug in a patient. The claimed invention employed a mathematical model to consider the averaged dissociation behaviors of two antibody subpopulations, one forming a less stable complex with antigen (showing rapid dissociation behavior) and one subpopulation forming a more stable complex with antigen (showing a slower antigen behavior). The Board concluded the steps of claim 1 recited a judicial exception of a mathematical concept. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Ragno et al; 4/18/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, VitalClick LLC. The claimed invention related to an automated emergency response method and system. The Board determined the claim steps were part of a mental process but that the claims integrated the abstract idea into a practical application. Claim 1 recited that the response protocol was accessed via a web-based application on a recipient computer over a network from a database. Claim 1 also recited that the response protocol was provided to recipients via the network, and further recited the response protocol was updated via the network in the database in near real time based on information received regarding an emergency. The claim limitations provided a specific improvement over the traditional or known way of providing a set of emergency response instructions to recipients. Section 101 rejections REVERSED.
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Ex Parte Elrod et al; 4/18/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, Vindicia, Inc. The claimed subject matter related to a method and system for allowing partial authorization of an electronic payment request associated with a customer's prepaid card account, which might not have sufficient funds to authorize the full requested amount to cover a transaction at a merchant location. In particular, upon receiving via a billing platform a request for electronic payment authorization from a merchant for an online transaction initiated by a customer, a server analyzed pertinent account data obtained from a history database to determine whether the requested transaction would successfully go through based on verification information obtained from various financial institutions associated with the account. The Board said the claim limitations recited the fundamental economic practice of authorizing payment in an online transaction, the practice falling within the abstract ideas identified by the January 2019 Guidance. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Fortune et al; 4/18/2019; TC 2100; Real party in interest, Alcatel-Lucent USA Inc. The claimed invention generally related to providing a scripting language, scripting-language environment and methodology that allowed troubleshooting scripts to self-tune thereby optimizing troubleshooting actions responsive to a particular troubleshooting issue. The Board said the claim limitations were processes that, under their broadest reasonable interpretation, covered performance of the limitations in the mind or by a human using pen and paper. For example, the limitations encompassed a user manually calculating the number of times execution of each chunk resulted in resolution of a particular issue and mentally determining the ordered set of chunks based on the calculation. These limitations, therefore, recited mental processes. Section 101 rejections affirmed but designated as a new ground of rejection.
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Ex Parte Hong et al; 4/17/2019; TC 2100; Real party in interest, Telefonaktiebolaget L M Ericsson. The claimed invention generally related to rate-compatible polar codes for use in a wireless communications system. More specifically, the claimed invention related to adapting existing polar codes, which were not rate-compatible, to become rate-compatible by using parallel concatenated polar codes. The Board concluded the claims were not directed to an abstract idea of merely any type of encoding, but rather the patent-eligible concept of rate-compatible polar encoding. Further, claim limitations integrated the concept of standard encoding into a practical application. The use of a plurality of polar code generator matrices to encode a plurality of information bits at different code rates and concatenating the coded bits provided a rate-compatible polar encoder, which provided an improvement over the use of existing polar codes (which were not rate compatible) in wireless communication systems. Section 101 rejections REVERSED.
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Ex Parte Smith; 4/17/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, Boku, Inc. The claimed invention related generally to processing transactions initiated by users of mobile devices. The Board agreed with the Examiner that claim 1 was directed to an abstract idea, which was certain methods of organizing human activity―a fundamental economic practice. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Sloan et al; 4/17/2019; TC 3700; Real party in interest, Disney Enterprises, Inc. The claimed invention related to a method and system for providing recommendations, in particular for drafting or managing a player in a fantasy sport team. The Board said the claim limitations (claim 27) fell within the abstract idea category of mental processes. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Parker; 4/17/2019; TC 3700. The claimed invention related to systems and method of providing a virtual world game where users competed against artificial intelligence of the game and/or other users to collect autographs and pictures of virtual celebrities for game credits. The Board said that claim 1’s recitations could be done by a person using mental processes. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Narayan et al; 4/17/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, Home Depot Product Authority, LLC, and The Home Depot, Inc. The invention related generally to a system for providing retail store information. The Board concluded claim 1 recited both a mental process, and one of certain methods of organizing human activity in the form of (a) sales activity and behavior and (b) a fundamental economic practice. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Studnitzer et al; 4/17/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Inc. The claimed invention related to a financial instrument or electronic trading system, such as a futures exchange, that provided (i) a contract market where financial instruments like futures and options were traded; and (ii) centralized clearing where all trades were confirmed, matched, and settled. More specifically, the disclosed and claimed invention pertained to a system and computer-implemented method for reproducing a particular state of an electronic marketplace for one or more financial products (i.e., running simulations) by sequentially processing previously received transactions from a financial transaction processing system to obtain the reproduced prior state of the electronic marketplace. The Board affirmed the Examiner’s Section 101 rejections of claim 1-10 and 20 as being directed to non-statutory subject manner (e.g., a transitory storage device). But the Board concluded that claims 11-19 integrated an abstract idea―certain methods of organizing human activity― into a practical application because the claim limitations reflected a technological improvement and use of the abstract idea in a meaningful way beyond linking the idea to a particular environment (i.e., the limitations performed a simulation by reproducing a particular state of an electronic marketplace). Section 101 rejections of claims 11-19 REVERSED.
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Ex Parte Wargin et al; 4/17/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, Accenture Global Services Limited. The claimed invention was a way of developing flexible and reusable components to permit business users to develop and configure insurance products. The Board described claim 1 as directed to linking data, i.e. storing data representing some association between other data, for use in creating insurance products, i.e. insurance creation. This was an example of fundamental economic principles or practices or commercial or legal interactions as a certain method of organizing human activity because insurance creation was itself a fundamental economic activity and was also a way of providing transactions for assumption of risk in commerce. Alternately, this was an example of concepts performed in the human mind as mental processes. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Steelberg et al; 4/17/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, Veritone, Inc. The claimed invention related generally to tracking metrics associated with delivery of an advertisement to a consumer. The Board agreed with the Examiner that claim 1 was directed to an abstract idea, which was certain methods of organizing human activity―a fundamental economic practice. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Song et al; 4/17/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, Freenters Inc. The claimed invention was directed to a computer-implemented system and method for utilizing open space of a document to be printed for selective, targeted advertising based on information (such as demographics) about the user submitting the document. The Board agreed with the Examiner that claim 1 was directed to an abstract idea. The claim recited methods of organizing human activity, including both (1) commercial or legal interactions, and (2) fundamental economic practices. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Cowan et al; 4/17/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, Cerner Innovation, Inc. The claimed invention provided systems and methods for providing an interactive healing environment to a patient in a healthcare facility. The Board ruled that the claim 1 limitations recited the abstract idea of a method of organizing human activity. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Douglass et al; 4/16/2019; TC 2800; Real party in interest, Eaton Corporation plc, the parent company of Eaton Intelligent Power Limited. The claimed invention related to electrical circuit protection fuses. In particular, the invention was directed to a compact, full-range power fuse. Full-range power fuses were described as operable in high voltage power distributions to safely interrupt both relatively high fault currents and relatively low fault currents with equal effectiveness. The Examiner entered Section 101/Section 112(a) rejections as not being supported by either a specific or substantial asserted utility or a well-established utility. The Board REVERSED these rejections.
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Ex Parte Hamilton et al; 4/16/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, IBM. The claimed subject matter related to advertising systems and methods for virtual universes. The Board agreed with the Examiner that the claims recited the abstract idea of advertising and marketing, which were certain methods of organizing human activity. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Zhang; 4/16/2019; TC 3700; Possible real party in interest, Siemens Corporation. The claims were directed to a method and system for non-invasive cardiac output determination. The Board said the Examiner correctly determined that claim 1 was directed to a mathematical concept, which was an abstract idea. The only characteristic purportedly inventive was the “calculating” aspects of the claimed invention. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Finkelstein et al; 4/16/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, Helix Financial Systems, L.P. The claimed subject matter was directed to providing an exchange system which facilitated matching of buyer and seller by initially providing search information to inform potential counterparties of mutual interest in a transaction, but optionally maintained potential counterparty anonymity until one party sought to initiate contact with the other to finalize negotiations for the deal. The Board concluded the claim steps comprised fundamental economic principles or practices and/or commercial or legal interactions. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Chu et al; 4/16/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, The Western Union Company. The claimed subject matter was directed to consumer lending using a money transfer network. The Examiner found the claims were directed to approving a loan application, which was an abstract idea―namely, a fundamental economic practice. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Fafara; 4/15/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, Systems Made Simple, Inc. The claimed invention was a system and method for communicating health care information and/or facilitating health care services via a hybrid architecture. The Board said claim 1 was directed to monitoring, sending, and receiving data in aid of facilitating healthcare and as such was a certain method of organizing human activity, i.e. managing interactions between people, which was a judicial exception. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Carter et al; 4/15/2019; TC 2600; Real party in interest, IBM. The claimed invention generally related to a mechanism for identifying and solving logic problems in natural language (NL) text using a statistical approach and natural language processing (NLP). The Board said the limitations of claim 1 collectively recited identifying a logic problem (e.g., a question, missing fact, or statistical anomaly) in input text based on analysis of statistical relationships between pairs of entities in the input text or, in short, statistically identifying a logic problem in input text. Identifying a logic problem in input text did not fall into any of the subcategories of abstract ideas enumerated in the January 2019 Revised Guidance. In particular, the statistical determinations in claim 1 did not define any mathematical relationships, formulas, equations, or calculations. But even if the claims were considered a judicial exception, the recited sequence of steps of parsing, statistical determinations, and identifying and generating candidate solutions to logic problems, taken as a whole, integrated the alleged judicial exception (mental process) into a practical application; claim 1 as a whole reflected a technological improvement. Section 101 rejections REVERSED.
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Ex Parte Ponnuswamy; 4/15/2019; TC 2400; Real party in interest, KodaCloud, Inc. The invention was directed to cooperative scanning of wireless devices to obtain information about a wireless environment. The Board was persuaded that claim 1 did not recite a judicial exception (a law of nature, natural phenomenon, or subject matter within the enumerated groupings of abstract ideas in the January 2019 Guidance), so the claim was eligible at Prong One of revised Step 2A. The limitations of claim 1 recited operations (identifying, aggregating, determining, configuring) performed on or by a plurality of wireless devices. These recited wireless devices were not people, and thus, the recited operations were not human activity. Similarly, the claimed plurality of wireless devices related to wireless signals and wireless environment information; thus, the recitations could not practically be performed in the mind and were not mental processes. Nor was there any indication that the limitations recited mathematical concepts. Section 101 rejections NOT SUSTAINED.
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Ex Parte Murgai et al; 4/15/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, Capital One Financial Corporation. The claimed invention related to systems and methods for performing fraud detection using a stored voice recording. The Board concluded claim 1 recited a fundamental economic practice. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Chang et al; 4/15/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC. The claims were directed to a web-usage pattern insight platform. The Board said the process covered steps that, but for the recitation of the processing unit, could be performed in the mind when analyzing user behaviors. Section 101 rejections sustained.
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Ex Parte Thue et al; 4/15/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, Navarik Corp. The claimed invention related to managing cargo inspection processes and associated data for providing accurate cargo loss calculations. Specifically, aspects of the disclosure were described with regard to receiving cargo and voyage information, validating the information, and calculating losses associated with the cargo and voyage. The Board ruled the Examiner had not provided the requisite evidence under Berkheimer and Step 2B of the January 2019 Guidance to support the determination that only generic computer elements performed the recited functions. Section 101 rejections REVERSED.
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Ex Parte Carrington et al; 4/15/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, MasterCard International Incorporated. The claimed invention generally related to indicating an elevated status of an account holder via an enhanced authorization message in response to a financial transaction request. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Bruchlos et al; 4/12/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, IBM. The claims were directed to a method for automatic creation and configuration of license models and policies. The preamble of claim 1 recited a computer-implemented method for providing licensed access to software application services based on a contract that specified conditions for usage of the software application services by a service requester, access to the software application services being provided over a network under different license types, each license type defining a particular usage condition. The Board said the claim as a whole recited a method of organizing human activity and in particular a sales activity. But the claim as a whole integrated the method of organizing human activity into a practical application. In particular, the claim as a whole integrated the method of organizing human activity of determining the availability of two or more licensing types to satisfy a service request into a practical application of the licensing service component. The claim compared the received service usage data from a metering handler with the received license condition data from a contract handler accessing a contract services component that stored contract information including license condition data corresponding to the identified and validated contract. The claim then determined the availability of two or more licensing types to satisfy the service request based upon the comparison. A computer was integral to this comparison. Section 101 rejections REVERSED.
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Ex Parte Wender; 4/12/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, Intercontinental Exchange Holdings, Inc. The claimed invention related to systems and apparatus for receiving and processing trade orders and more particularly to calculating and visually displaying the profitability and risk profile of a proposed trade to facilitate processing of a trade order. The Examiner concluded the claims were directed to a fundamental economic practice, which was mitigating risk. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Tai et al; 4/12/2019; TC 2100; Real party in interest, SanDisk Technologies LLC, a subsidiary of Western Digital Technologies, Inc. The claimed invention was directed to performing decoding operations on data obtained from a plurality of units of memory using soft information values for the plurality of units of memory, where the plurality of units of memory included an error correction stripe, and updating a soft information value for a first unit of memory. The Board concluded that additional elements recited computer memory manipulations that could not be performed by the human mind. Specifically, claim 1’s limitation of updating a respective soft information value for a first unit of memory in accordance with a magnitude of a corresponding soft information value for a second unit of memory, and a direction based on parity of the error correction stripe excluding the first unit of memory, integrated the judicial exception mental process into a practical application. Section 101 rejections REVERSED.
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Ex Parte Gross; 4/11/2019; TC 3600. The claimed invention was a way of testing, evaluating, and measuring performance of electronic recommendation systems. Claim 39 recited generating, reading, analyzing, modifying, and displaying data. None of the limitations recited technological implementation details for any of these steps, but instead recited only results desired by any and all possible means. The claims were a certain method of organizing human activity. Alternatively, they were mental processes. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Silver; 4/11/2019; TC 2800; Real party in interest, Resonant Inc. The claims were directed to a fast method and system for spectral analysis of electronic circuits and equivalent linear time invariant systems. The Specification provided that the methods disclosed could accelerate the circuit design process by orders of magnitude, which could enable discovery of new types of circuits. The Board concluded claims 1-8 were directed to the abstract idea of mathematical concepts determining certain characteristics of electronic circuits and did not recite additional elements that integrated those mathematical concepts into a practical application. Further, the possible use of the method in circuit design did not transform it into a patentable apparatus; the method remained pre-empted mathematical concepts. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Bousis et al; 4/11/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, Raise Marketplace Inc. The claims were directed to a method and apparatus for an exchange item marketplace network. The Board determined the claim 1 was directed to an abstract idea because it was directed to a fundamental economic practice, which was one of certain methods of organizing human activity. The recited claim steps of receiving a request to sell, receiving requests to buy items, verifying information regarding a buyer, and processing payment for the item, fell under the umbrella of economic practices, including managing transactions or sales activities. Section 101 rejections sustained.
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Ex Parte Sum et al; 4/11/2019; TC 2800; Real party in interest, Itron Networked Solutions. The claimed invention related to distributed smart grid processing. In particular, the Specification explained that in a conventional electricity distribution smart grid system, the back office received a multitude of real-time data from the various smart meters and processes and that the network could become quickly over-burdened with traffic and, therefore, suffer from throughput and latency issues. The Specification set forth use of a system making use of cloud computing environments with the advantage of being able to identify a greater range of events occurring within the utility network compared to traditional approaches. The Board said that even if it were to agree with the Examiner that some recitations of claim 1 were a mathematical concept or mental process, claim 1 was not directed to an abstract idea because the claim, as a whole, was directed to a practical application. In particular, claim 1 recited configuring three distinct cloud computing environments in a certain manner. The recited configuration sought to address technological problems such as an over-burdened network with throughput and latency issues or back office hardware that had become too slow and, therefore, obsolete. Thus, the claim's recitations reflected a technological improvement and use of the abstract idea in a meaningful way beyond linking the idea to a particular environment. Section 101 rejections REVERSED.
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Ex Parte Ekambaram; 4/11/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, IBM. The claims related to automatic validation of reviews submitted by reviewers of information technology items. The Board said claim 1 required collecting external environmental context data during a time frame that was tied (correlated) both to displaying a graphical user interface (GUI) to the reviewer and to populating multiple different fields in a dialog box of the GUI by the reviewer (collectively, the recited correlation requirements). The Board was persuaded the Examiner erred by making a conclusory determination that the combined limitations recited in claim 1 's correlating step constituted a generic implementation of the abstract idea of mental processes. Section 101 rejections REVERSED.
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Ex Parte Milioris; 4/11/2019; TC 2600; Real party in interest, Alcatel Lucent, a subsidiary of Nokia Inc. The claimed subject matter related to a communication system for classifying text blocks (e.g. Twitter characters) across a social network (e.g., Twitter). The Board concluded claim 1, as a whole, merely involved the application of a mathematical algorithm to received text data to determine its sparsity, as well as to identify comparable text data for subsequent classification and transmission to another party. Such classification and transmission of the block of text were nothing more than mental processes. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Kimizuka et al; 4/11/2019; TC 3700; Real party in interest, Dunlop Sports Co. Ltd. Claim 19 recited a hollow golf club head having a precisely defined moment of inertia. The Board determined that claim 19 integrated the recited abstract idea―mathematical concepts―into a practical application. The recited moments of inertia Ix and Iy were around specific axes of the golf club head and had specific numerical values. Claim 19 did not merely seek patent protection for a conditional expression in the abstract, but instead applied the conditional expression in a structure, that is, a hollow golf club head, to describe or define the structure. Moreover, claim 19 applied or used the recited mathematical formula or mathematical relationship in a manner that imposed a meaningful limit on the judicial exception, such that the claim was more than a drafting effort designed to monopolize the judicial exception. Further, the recited moments of inertia related to the mass distribution of the golf club head and, as such, were physical parameters of the golf club head and were directed to its structure. Section 101 rejections REVERSED.
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Ex Parte Wu et al; 4/11/2019; TC 2800; Real party in interest, Halliburton Energy Services, Inc. The claimed subject matter related to apparatuses and methods that might operate to increase the accuracy of variably, rotationally coupled sensors when they were used in down hole applications. The Specification stated that various embodiments of the invention could be used to calibrate received sensor data by effectively synchronizing signals between sets of transmitting and receiving sensors that were rotating at different relative speeds. The Board agreed with the Examiner that claim 1 recited mathematical concepts. The Board, however, determined that the abstract idea was integrated into a practical application. Claim 1, for example, recited an apparatus comprising downhole drilling components, a transmitter, a receiver, spatial orientation packages, and a processor that determined spatial orientations of the transmitter and receiver at common points in time, and then used those orientations to transform raw measurements into calibrated measurements, thereby yielding more accurate data relative to apparatuses and methods that did not use the described solution. Thus, claim 1 was not directed to an ineligible abstract idea because it reflects a technological improvement. Section 101 rejections REVERSED.
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Ex Parte Sinnadurai et al; 4/11/2019; TC 2800; Real party in interest, Altera Corporation. The claimed invention related to electronic design automation (EDA) tools for creating and optimizing design for a physical target device such as a field programmable gate array (FPGA) or application specification integration circuit (ASIC). In particular, the Specification explained that performing a timing analysis, presenting the timing analysis to a designer, and allowing modifications prior to compilation of an entire system enabled a system to be designed on a target device in a shorter period of time. The Board determined the claims recited a mental process. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Dutta et al; 4/11/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, Apple Inc. The claimed invention provided a calendar application for associating travel times with appointments in a calendar. The Board agreed with the Examiner that an abstract idea can be identified as a certain method of organizing human activity that involved managing personal behavior. And, in the context of the Specification, this identified abstract idea manifested itself in a person's calendar correctly showing that he/she was unavailable during a time slot corresponding to travel time to an appointment. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Albitar; 4/10/2019; TC 1600. The claims involved methods of treating and diagnosing cancer. The Board remanded the case to the Examiner for a clearer and more thorough treatment of Section 101 issues.
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Ex Parte Samuels et al; 4/10/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, Insamco Holdings, LLC. The claimed invention related to the calculating of a premium risk for a life insurance option, and specifically to using a zero-lapse adjustment method to calculate a zero-lapse adjusted mortality rate and premium based thereon for a guarantee of future insurability based on a current risk class of an individual. The Board said the claim limitations, given their broadest reasonable interpretation, recited receiving a customer request for a guarantee of future insurability and calculating a premium amount for the guarantee—i.e., a fundamental economic practice, which was a method of organizing human activity, and, therefore, an abstract idea. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Cataline et al; 4/10/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. The preamble of claim 58 recited a method for conducting financial transactions over a computerized network. The claim called for twice converting financial data prior to approval and initiation of payment. Payment initiation was a fundamental economic practice. Performing two converting steps as a prelude to payment initiation did not affect the character of the payment initiation as a fundamental economic practice. The conversion steps were a matter of evaluation of certain information, both individually and in combination with the payment initiation as claimed, that fell within the enumerated mental processes grouping of abstract ideas set forth in the January 2019 Revised 101 Guidance. Section 101 rejections affirmed but denominated as a new ground of rejection.
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Ex Parte Wu et al; 4/10/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, Oracle International Corporation. The claims were directed to a managing a marketing template used in an e-mail marketing campaign. The Board concluded the claims recited advertising, marketing, or sales activity, which was a certain method of organizing human activity identified in the January 2019 Revised Guidance, and thus an abstract idea. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Zhou et al; 4/10/2019; TC 1600; Real party in interest, City University of Hong Kong. The claimed invention provided a fully automated algorithm to construct the interface surface between two biomolecules involved in an interaction (e.g., protein-protein interactions, protein-DNA interactions, protein-ligand interactions, and DNA-ligand interactions). Even if claim limitations such as those directed to generation of three-dimensional models, alpha shapes, or Delaunay triangulations were interpreted to recite abstract ideas, the Board found that the claims used this subject matter in a specific manner and imposed a meaningful limit on any judicial exceptions by limiting their use to a practical application, which was the generation of a three-dimensional model or alpha shape of the binding interface between two molecules. The practical application recited by the claims when viewed as a whole was more than a drafting effort to monopolize the use of mathematical concepts. Thus, under Prong 2 of Step 2A of the January 2019 Guidance, the claims as a whole were not directed to a patent-ineligible concept. Section 101 rejections REVERSED.
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Ex Parte Buck et al; 4/10/2019; TC 2600; Real party in interest, Nuance Communications, Inc. The claimed invention related to a dynamic microphone signal mixer that included spectral preprocessing to compensate for different speech levels and/or for different background noise. The Board found the claims involved mathematical concepts—a judicial exception—but that additional elements integrated the judicial exception into a practical application. Specifically, the limitations regarding receiving a plurality of signals from speaker-dedicated microphones, determining a dominant speaker signal from a plurality of speakers, and configuring the output signal for output of sound were additional elements that used the judicial exception beyond generally linking the use of the judicial exception to a particular technological environment. Section 101 rejections REVERSED.
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Ex Parte Banner; 4/10/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, Hewlett-Packard Development Company, LP. The claimed invention planned workflow for processing an article in a plant where other articles were currently processed. The Board found that claim 1's recited steps, which collectively were directed to selecting a workflow route and associated machines based on certain criteria to process an article, fit squarely within at least one of the categories of the agency's judicial exception guidelines. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Scheibe et al; 4/10/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, Landmark Screens, LLC. The Application was directed to web services and methods for supporting an electronic signboard. The Board found claim 1 integrated the abstract advertising-related recitations into a system comprising displays, an operation center, and a client service system, which was a specific arrangement of components and integral use of machines to achieve performance of a method. See MPEP 2106.05(b) (I) and (II). The recited system limitations were additional elements that resulted in the claim implementing a judicial exception with, or using a judicial exception in conjunction with, a particular machine or manufacture that was integral to the claim. Section 101 rejections NOT SUSTAINED.
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Ex Parte Gatzemeyer et al; 4/10/2019; TC 3700; Real party in interest, Colgate-Palmolive Company. The claimed invention related to a method of monitoring oral health. The Board found that claim 1 was directed to a mental process, which was a judicial exception, and that the judicial exception was not integrated into a practical application. But the Board was not persuaded the additional elements of Appellants' claimed invention represented well-understood, routine, conventional activities previously known to the industry. There was insufficient evidence that the claimed interactive display, wherein a graphical depiction of an oral cavity on the interactive display changed, in response to a user selecting a first one of the undesirable oral health characteristics on the interactive display, to indicate which regions of the individual's oral cavity were affected by the first one of the undesirable oral health characteristics, as required by claims 1-12, was taught or suggested by the prior art, much less that it was well-known, routine, or conventional for skilled artisans practicing in the relevant field. (Berkheimer v. HP Inc., 881 F.3d 1360, 1369 (Fed. Cir. 2018)). Section 101 rejections REVERSED.
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Ex Parte Beller et al; 4/10/2019; TC 2600; Real party in interest, IBM. The claimed invention related generally to an improved data processing apparatus and method and more specifically to mechanisms for identifying nonsense passages in a question answering system based on domain specific policy. The Board agreed with the Appellants that the Examiner had not provided the sufficient evidence required by Berkheimer v. HP Inc., 881 F.3d 1360, 1367 (Fed. Cir. 2018), and USPTO Guidance concerning additional claim elements being well-understood, routine, or conventional. Section 101 rejections REVERSED.
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Ex Parte Uribe et al; 4/9/2019; TC 3500; Real party in interest, Netflix, Inc. The claimed invention related generally to online content distribution and, more specifically, to identifying similar items based on global interaction history. The Board determined that claim 1, as a whole, recited a method of organizing human activity, i.e., a commercial interaction in the form of marketing or sales activities or behaviors. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Cochran et al; 4/9/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, The Western Union Company. The claimed invention related generally to systems for transferring funds between two entities. More specifically, the invention related to methods of providing stored-value instruments as a pay-out method for person to person transfers. The Board concluded claim 1 recited a judicial exception of certain methods of organizing human activity, i.e., a fundamental economic practice, and thus an abstract idea. But the Board determined the judicial exception was integrated into a practical application. The steps of recording and sending provided improvements to the underlying technology or technical field, namely, funds transfer systems. Section 101 rejections REVERSED.
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Ex Parte Holt et al; 4/9/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, Reed Technology and Information Services, Inc. The Board construed claim 25 as being directed to a data-gathering and displaying scheme comprising storing information in a generic database, displaying information on a generic user interface, searching the generic database, and updating the information displayed on the generic user interface, all implemented on a generic computer system. The Board said the activities amounted to mental processes and were thus abstract idea. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Holt; 4/9/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, Reed Technology and Information Services, Inc. The preamble of claim 10 recited a method of accessing data in a database of patent-related writings, using a computing device having a computer processor. The Board said the receiving, filtering, identifying, and presenting steps were concepts that were akin to making observations and evaluations that could be performed in the human mind and thus were matters that fell within the mental process enumerated grouping of abstract ideas. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Walraven et al; 4/9/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, JP Morgan Chase, N.A. The claimed subject matter related to a method and system for detecting, monitoring, and investigating fraudulent activity. The preamble of claim 23 recited a method that identified potentially fraudulent transactions based on a score that represented how data was clustered. The Board concluded the claims recited a mental process, and thus, an abstract idea. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Champernowne; 4/9/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, Expedia, Inc. The claimed invention related to a system, apparatus, and method for providing automatic determination of the best fares for an on-line reservation or fare inquiry. The Board agreed with the Examiner that the claims recited an abstract idea, which was the concept of determining optimal travel fares for a query. This was either a fundamental economic practice or managing interactions between people. But claim 1 recited additional elements imposing meaningful limits that integrated the abstract idea into a practical application. Claim 1 recited a specific implementation of a “branch and bound” class of algorithms, which improved a computer's ability to retrieve relevant information by identifying sub-optimal groups of potential search results without requiring that individual search results from within those suboptimal groups be examined. Additionally, when viewed as a whole in light of the Specification, claim 1 recited the selective traversal of the sparse tree data structure and the identification of sub-optimal results without explicitly enumerating those results, which resulted in increased computational efficiency. Section 101 rejections REVERSED.
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Ex Parte Novikov et al; 4/8/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, Facebook, Inc. The Board broadly construed claim 1 as being directed to a social networking environment in which a requested page with two related content items (e.g., advertisements) presented on different portions of the display was sent to a viewing user, the first content item being based on content identified on a recently visited page that was different from the requested page. Social networking was a type of interaction between people, which was one of certain methods of organizing human activity, and thus an abstract idea. Advertising was a commercial interaction, which was also one of certain methods of organizing human activity, and it too was an abstract idea. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Moroz et al; 4/8/2019; TC 2800; Real party in interest, Synopsys, Inc. The Specification described a method for measuring the effective channel length, which was defined as the average distance from source junction to drain junction. The preamble of claim 1 recited a system for enhancing simulations of three-dimensional transistors. The Board determined that the recited estimating steps resulted in an estimated volume V of the channel, a cross-sectional area A of the channel, and finally, an effective channel length, which was based on a realistic estimation of the channel length in a channel having an irregular volume. The recited estimation provided a specific improvement over the conventional way of “drawing a line parallel to the current flow somewhere inside the channel,” resulting in more accurate channel length measurement and an improved simulation of a transistor performance. As such, the claimed process for estimating effective channel length amounted to more than the mere manipulation of data. Thus, the abstract idea was integrated into a practical application. Section 101 rejections REVERSED.
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Ex Parte Cichosz et al; 4/8/2019; TC 2100; Real party in interest, IBM. The disclosure related to distributed processing of data records in a database computer system. The Board agreed with the Examiner that the claims recited an abstract idea, specifically mathematical concepts. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Elias; 4/8/2019; TC 3700; Real party in interest, Gamesys Ltd. The claims were directed to apparatus and methods for providing online games, in particular, a bingo game, to remote user devices. The Board found claim 11 recited a method of managing/conducting a bingo game, including either a wagering bingo game or a non-wagering bingo game. This involved managing interactions between people, namely, humans following rules, which was one of certain methods of organizing human activity identified in the 2019 Revised Guidance, and thus an abstract idea. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Emison; 4/8/2019; TC 3600. The claimed invention related to using building permits to identify underinsured properties or properties with a condition that might negatively affect insurance coverage. The claimed invention related to using permit information (e.g., number of permits, age of permits, cost of work associated with permits) of properties to estimate a condition of a target property, which could be used to determine whether to inspect and properly insure the target property. The Board agreed with the Examiner that the claims recited a series of steps that could be performed mentally. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Wright; 4/8/2019; TC 3600; Possible real party in interest, Walgreen Co. The claimed invention related to a process for facilitating patient compliance with prescription medications and instructions provided upon discharge from a healthcare facility. The Board agreed with the Examiner that the claims were directed to the mental step of evaluating prescription information to determine an alignment date. Because this involved only mental processes, which was a category of abstract idea identified in the January 2019 Guidance, the claims were directed to an abstract idea. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Wang et al; 4/8/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, Oracle International Corporation. The preamble of claim 1 recited a non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a processor, caused the processor to predict promotional cross item (PCI) effects for retail items for a store. The Board found that the Examiner failed to adequately consider whether the claims effected an improvement in computer technology. The Specification indicated that prior art techniques required solving a set of models and a large number of model variables in order to account for promotional cross-item effects. The Appellants asserted they solved these problems by providing a more computationally efficient and scalable methodology. The Examiner's conclusory statements in the Answer were not sufficient to support the position that there was no improvement to computer technology. Section 101 rejections REVERSED.
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Ex Parte Motupalli; 4/8/2019; TC 2100. The claimed invention was entitled a “Necktie-imitating Persona Extender/Environment-Integrator and Method for Super-Augmenting a Persona to manifest a Pan-Environment Super-Cyborg or Wedded Avatar of Christ with eThrone for Global Governance.” The claim invention was said to be related to “cognitive Information technology engineering of a morphological solution and a handle for the same to the macroscopic problem of n-entropy,” namely “the loss of control or information in the globalized world.” The Board concluded the claims were directed to an abstract idea. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Naas et al; 4/5/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, Deutsche Borse AG. The claimed invention related generally to controlling transfers of a group of resources which were defined in association with a condition under which, after the resource group transfer had been completed, a reverse transfer of the same or a similar group of resources had to occur. The invention was limited particularly to completing repo transactions in a repo market. The Board determined the claims involved security transactions, and thus a fundamental economic practice and an abstract idea. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Faith et al; 4/5/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, RetailMeNot, Inc. The claimed invention generally related to the redemption of merchant offers, such as online coupons. The Board concluded the claims recited an abstract idea within the category of certain methods of organizing human activity—i.e., a fundamental economic practice. In particular, the claims were generally directed to the use of online coupons on a merchant webpage. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Nathanson et al; 4/5/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, Thomson Reuters Global Resources. The claimed invention was directed to a system for planning and managing (budgeting) engagements associated with legal fee arrangements, thus allowing law firms to efficiently deliver services to achieve higher profit margins. The Board concluded the claim limitations collectively were directed to abstract ideas of mathematical concepts and managing human activity. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Herrington; 4/5/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, NCR Corporation. The claimed invention presented to a user a ranked list of media content representing a subset of all the media content available from a kiosk, the ranked list being based upon preferences previously provided by the user. The Examiner stated the claims recited the abstract idea of ranking and displaying media content. The Examiner regarded the identified abstract idea as an idea of itself, as well as a variety of organizing human activity, because it related to receiving and providing product information, such that it related to advertising, marketing, or sales activities. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Jones et al; 4/5/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC. The Board and the Examiner had difficulty determining what the claims were directed to. The Board settled upon claim 7 reasonably broadly describing a device comprising: (1) a wireless network interface that was made to receive an announcement transmission from each of multiple wireless access points that were within a predetermined range of the client device; (2) a processor connected to a memory that was made to receive from the wireless network interface segments of notification data from each received announcement transmission from each of the multiple wireless access points and combine the segments of notification data from multiple announcement transmissions to create a notification describing the at least one service offered by an entity associated with the multiple wireless access points; and (3) a user interface that was made to display the notification before establishing a connection to at least one of the multiple wireless access points and, in response to detecting a request for more information, that was further made to establish a connection to at least one of the plurality of wireless access points and request information on the at least one service. The Board seemed to say this was not an abstract idea, but even if it was, the claimed subject matter reflected a specific asserted improvement in computer capabilities. Thus, there was an integration into a practical application. Section 101 rejections REVERSED.
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Ex Parte Bergmann et al; 4/4/2019; TC 1600; Real party in interest, B.R.A.H.M.S. GMBH. The claims involved a method for providing a prognosis for a patient having an acute coronary syndrome. The Board agreed with the Examiner that claim 1 recited a patent-ineligible law of nature, specifically, the correlation between (1) the level of procalcitonin or fragment thereof in a sample obtained from a patient during hospitalization for acute coronary syndrome, and (2) a predisposition to an adverse outcome of said acute coronary syndrome, as specifically recited in step (d) of the claim. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Li et al; 4/4/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, Excalibur IP, LLC. The claims were directed to presenting an advertiser's retargeting message to a user device that had accessed a website targeted by the advertiser. The Board described claim 1 as directed to storing and receiving information, monitoring for the occurrence of a condition, ranking and selecting information, and associating the activity with a particular user. The Board determined the claims recited and were directed to an abstract idea of targeting search results, which was a judicial exception in the form of a certain method of organizing human activity, i.e., fundamental economic principles or practices and/or advertising, marketing or sales activities. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Williams; 4/4/2019; TC 3600. The claimed invention was directed to establishing and maintaining PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) compliant transaction flows for banking entities by leveraging non-EMV (Europay, MasterCard, and Visa) tokens. The Board determined the Examiner had not sufficiently established that the claims recited an abstract idea. But even if an abstract idea were involved, additional elements integrated the abstract idea into a practical application. The claims, in light of the Specification, were directed to solving a problem related to computer technology for improving the security of transaction processing computer systems, for which there was no pre-Internet analogy. Section 101 rejections REVERSED.
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Ex Parte Galloway et al; 4/4/2019; TC 2600; Real party in interest, Companyons, Incorporated. The claimed invention related generally to business workflow management systems and methods optimized for small to medium-sized businesses that included a recommendation engine to parse through data to provide a finite and optimized to-do list to business owners and employees to optimize business operation and overall productivity. The to-do list had context-derived tasks, such as a task to return phone calls on the day the user was in the office on a work day, and could be updated. The Board determined that the managing of a user's to-do list having tasks based on the user's context, time management, cash generation, and ongoing data analysis involved mental processes, and thus an abstract idea. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Massarik; 4/4/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, Fastgive Incorporated. The claimed invention related to e-philanthropy, specifically to online marketplaces, exchanges, and transactions in a social networking environment. The Board concluded that each of the independent claims recited a mathematical calculation, which was one of the mathematical concepts identified in the January 2019 Guidance, and thus an abstract idea. For example, claim 15 recited a method for generating metrics reflecting a charity's fiscal behavior and financial effectiveness, the method including mathematical calculations. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Krahnstoever et al; 4/4/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, General Electric Company. The claims were directed to person tracking and interactive advertising. The Board determined the claims were directed to a fundamental economic practice and/or method of organizing human activities. Activities included within the organizing human activity group were commercial or legal interactions including advertising, marketing, or sales activities or behaviors, which had been determined to be abstract ideas. Also, the claimed use of a combination of Sequential Monte Carlo filtering and Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sampling fell within the group of mathematic concepts that included mathematical relationships, mathematical formulas or equations, and mathematical calculations. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Civil et al; 4/4/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, IBM. The claimed invention related to computing targets for use in process control, based on trends in observed process control data. The Board determined claim 1 included limitations that were mental processes. The Board also determined that in claim 19 the term “computer readable storage medium” encompassed non-patentable transitory signals. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Keyser et al; 4/4/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, IBM. The claimed invention was related to data analysis using computer systems. The Examiner determined the claimed invention involved a fundamental economic practice. The Board disagreed, concluding the claimed invention recited concepts that could be performed in the human mind, such as gathering and evaluating data, which were one of the mental processes identified in the January 2019 Memorandum, and thus an abstract idea. Section 101 rejections affirmed, but as a new ground of rejection under Section 101.
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Ex Parte Browne et al; 4/4/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, Boku, Inc. The claimed invention related to a system and method for managing subscriptions in a scenario where a merchant server repeatedly instructed a billing server to charge a user account at a carrier server. The Board agreed with the Examiner that claim 1 was directed to a fundamental economic principle because its basis was the collection of money owed for the sale in a transaction. In addition, because the claim also covered billing through a subscription, the claim 1 was directed to a commercial or legal interaction. Commercial or legal interactions were certain forms of methods of organizing human activities, which was a judicial exception that fell within the purview of the abstract ideas articulated in the January 2019 Guidance. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Reddington et al; 4/4/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, IBM. The claimed invention related to providing guidance to a business organization by one or more of a plurality of business advisor modules. The Board said the concept of providing guidance by collecting data, analyzing data, and providing the results of the collection and analysis could be performed mentally by a human. Thus, claim recited an abstract idea. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Morinville; 4/4/2019; TC 3600. The claimed invention related generally to systems and methods for automating business processes, and more specifically to systems and methods for providing automated signature looping using role-based user access and approver identification. Method claim 1 had four steps: (1) providing to a computer a plurality of business information items; (2) defining in the computer a hierarchical content structure of the business information items; (3) the computer associating access rights for a first role with a first one of the business information items; (4) the computer automatically enabling access by the first role to the first one of the business information items and business information items below the first one of the business information items in the hierarchical content structure. Because the limitations recited operations that would ordinarily take place in granting permissions for controlling access to information, the Board interpreted these limitations under the broadest reasonable interpretation as reciting assigning access rights to a user. This amounted to managing personal behavior by following rules and instructions, which was one of certain methods of organizing human activity, and, thus, an abstract idea. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Simmons et al; 4/4/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, Vyze, Inc. The claims were directed to a settlement facilitation hub for enabling a retailer to offer financing from multiple lenders. The Board concluded the claims recited a fundamental economic practice, which was a certain method of organizing human activity identified in the January 2019 Revised Guidance, and thus an abstract idea. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Bensely et al; 4/4/2019; TC 3700; Real party in interest, Western Michigan University Research Foundation. The preamble of claim 1 recited a computer-implemented tool for building a backend content management system for an interactive, computer-implemented behavior change-based lesson delivery system. The Board was persuaded the Examiner had not adequately established that the claims on appeal were directed to a judicial exception without significantly more, or that they were directed to software per se. Section 101 rejections REVERSED.
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Ex Parte Tsai et al; 4/4/2019; TC 3600. The claimed invention concerned detecting whether multimedia content was properly presented. More specifically, in the field of digital video advertisements, problems often occurred where frames were skipped or presented out of order. Accordingly, in one example, the disclosed invention implemented a player system that received encoded multimedia content comprising an advertisement, decoded the content to extract encoding information, and compared the encoding information with stored information that indicated how the frames of the encoded multimedia content should be presented. If the encoding information of multiple captured frames was consistent with the stored information, then the encoded multimedia content could be properly presented. Otherwise, alerts could be generated. The Board approvingly note that the Examiner had identified claim 1 features—capturing and comparing—that were part of the combination of mental processes. Section 101 rejections sustained.
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Ex Parte Linden et al; 4/3/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, Facebook, Inc. The claimed invention related generally to the field of electronic commerce (e-commerce), and more specifically to a new and useful method for enabling gift prepay via e-commerce. The claim steps, including managing social interactions between individuals by providing a gift to a recipient through a recommendation of a social networking system, recited a certain method of organizing human activity. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Dixit; 4/3/2019; TC 1600; Real party in interest, Zymeworks Inc. The claims involved a method of sampling and analysis of protein conformational dynamics. The Board found that claim 1 recited mathematical concepts, which were abstract ideas. But evaluating the additional claim elements in combination, the Board concluded that claim 1 as a whole integrated the mathematical concepts into a practical application. In particular, the additional elements in combination appeared to provide an improvement to a technical field or technical fields, namely, the fields of computer-implemented protein conformation analysis and molecular docking. Section 101 rejections REVERSED.
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Ex Parte Mirlas et al; 4/3/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, IBM. The claimed invention related to execution of business events in a business system directed to conversion of asynchronous business events to synchronous business events. The object of the invention was to avoid conflicts in processing business events. The Board agreed with the Examiner that the steps of claim 1 could be performed by human thought alone. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Garretsen et al; 4/3/2019; TC 3700; Real party in interest, Everi Games, Inc. The claimed invention related to wagering games that could expand the number of payout chances for a given play of the game. The Board agreed with the Examiner that the concept of a wagering game was similar to concepts the courts had held to be abstract ideas. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Gustin et al; 4/3/2019; TC 2400; Real party in interest, Honeywell International, Inc. The claims recited an apparatus, systems, and methods related generally to industrial process control and automation systems. More specifically, the disclosure related to an apparatus and method for virtualizing a connection to a node in an industrial control and automation system. The Board accepted the Examiner’s arguments that the claims were directed to certain methods of organizing human activity. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Roth et al; 4/3/2019; TC 1600; Real party in interest, Westfaelische Wilhelms-Universitaet Muenster. The claims involved methods of monitoring the status of a rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patient based on the biomarker calgranulin C (CAL C), and adjusting the patient's treatment. The Board agreed with the Examiner that the claims recited a judicial exception, namely a law of nature or natural phenomenon. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Demuth et al; 4/3/2019; TC 2600. The claimed invention concerned techniques for the manipulation of semantic objects within a semantic store. The preamble of claim 1 recited a method for self-programming a semantic reasoning apparatus. The Board concluded claim 1 recited mental processes. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Martin et al; 4/3/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, MasterCard International Incorporated. The claimed invention generally related to electronic payment systems. Claim 2 recited setting up a wellness program for employees of an employer. The Board concluded the claim limitations were processes that, under their broadest reasonable interpretation, were commercial interactions similar to certain methods of organizing human activity found to be abstract ideas. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Blundell et al; 4/3/2019; TC 1600; Real party in interest, C4X Discovery Limited. The claims involved methods for generating and analyzing three-dimensional structures of molecules. One aspect involved varying bond angles. The Board found that claim 63 did not recite an abstract idea that would make it patent-eligible. And even if claim 63 were interpreted to recite a mathematical concept, and therefore an abstract idea, under prong 2 of Step 2(a) of the January 2019 Guidance, the claim integrated any recited mathematical concept into a practical application. Specifically, the claimed method used the probability distribution function in a specific manner, thereby imposing a meaningful limit on any judicial exception by limiting its use to a practical application, i.e., generating an ensemble of molecular structures representing a range of three-dimensional shapes of a solvated molecule. Section 101 rejections REVERSED.
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Ex Parte Schnorf et al; 4/3/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, Elemica, Inc. The claimed invention was directed to a system for managing logistics sourcing decisions including shipping rates. The preamble of claim 1 recited a method of managing logistics sourcing decisions including shipping rates in a logistics management network having a consignee, a shipper, and a plurality of carriers for shipping freight from the shipper to the consignee. The Board concurred with the Examiner that claim 1 recited a method of organizing human activity (an abstract idea). Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Ackerman; 4/3/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, Amazon Technologies, Inc. The claimed invention related to a kiosk management system. The Board concluded the recited judicial exception was integrated into a practical application. The integration was the result of a number of claim 1 steps that represented an improvement over conventional approaches in terms of security and convenience, and specifically improved the way that kiosk inventory management systems accessed data to make the vending process more efficient. Section 101 rejections REVERSED (one dissent).
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Ex Parte Demuth et al; 4/3/2019; TC 2600. The claimed invention concerned techniques for the manipulation of semantic objects within a semantic store. The preamble of claim 1 recited a semantic reasoning apparatus. The Board concluded claim 1 recited mental processes. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Trayanova et al; 4/2/2019; TC 1600; Real party in interest, The John Hopkins University. The disclosure related to systems and methods for planning patient-specific cardiac procedures. The Board concluded the claimed invention was directed to mathematical calculations. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Amaitis et al; 4/2/2019; TC 3700; Real party in interest, CFPH, LLC. The claimed invention related generally to gaming systems and methods and, more particularly, to systems and methods for wagering based on one or more financial market indicators. The Board said wagering was a commercial interaction, which was a method of organizing human activity and, therefore, an abstract idea. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Neuwirth; 4/2/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, Zukunftware, LLC. The claimed invention was a system, method, and computer program product for processing a request for user input to a client computing device over a network. The Board concluded the claims recited commercial or legal interactions, which constituted one of certain methods of organizing human activity identified in the January 2019 Revised Guidance. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Linssen et al; 4/2/2019; TC 1600; Real party in interest, Sysmex Corporation. The Specification disclosed a blood cell counter, a diagnosis support method, and a computer program product that utilized information about nucleated red blood cells and granulocytes in the blood to provide diagnostic support information for supporting the prognosis of a patient. The Board agreed with the Examiner that claim 1 was directed to a mental process. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Neuwirth; 4/2/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, Zukunftware, LLC. The claimed invention was a system, method, and computer program product for processing a request for user input to a client computing device over a network. The Board concluded the claims recited commercial or legal interactions, which constituted one of certain methods of organizing human activity identified in the January 2019 Revised Guidance. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Pines et al; 4/2/2019; TC 3700. The claimed subject matter related to a method for determining a pump setpoint for delivering a desired volumetric flow rate of a substance through a channel. The Board concluded claim 1 recited mathematical relationships and mental processes, and thus was an abstract idea. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Varghese et al; 4/2/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, Facebook, Inc. The claims were related to a system for reviewing advertisements in an online system. The Board agreed with the Examiner that claim 1 was directed to methods of organizing human activity. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Vadakkumpadan; 4/2/2019; TC 1600; Real party in interest, The John Hopkins University. The claimed invention related to systems and methods for personalized cardiac arrhythmia risk assessment, and more particularly personalized cardiac arrhythmia risk assessment by simulating arrhythmia inducibility. The Board agreed with the Examiner that the claim limitations required mathematic calculations, which was an abstract idea. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Vasudevan et al; 4/2/2019; TC 1600; Real party in interest, Renovar, Inc. The claimed invention provided systems and methods for characterizing biological markers in the urine of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) subjects. The Board said the correlation, or relationship, between concentrations or presence or amounts of molecules (created by the body) to the body's natural biological processes (caused by disease) was a law of nature. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Lemcke et al; 4/2/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, SAP SE. The claimed invention was directed to evaluating validity of an extended status and action management (SAM) schema. The Board ruled the Examiner had not sufficiently identified how the claimed invention recited an abstract idea under the guidelines established in the January 2019 Memorandum (i.e., mathematical concepts, certain methods of organizing human activity such as a fundamental economic practice, or mental processes). The Board concluded the collection and analysis of an extended SAM schema using the core SAM schema, data objects, goals, action chains, and status vectors, to validate the extended SAM schema, was not a mathematical concept, an identified method of organizing human activity, or a mental process. Section 101 rejections REVERSED.
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Ex Parte Neuwirth; 4/2/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, Zukunftware, LLC. The claimed invention was a system, method, and computer program product for processing a request for user input to a client computing device over a network. The preamble of claim 1 recited a method for enabling a merchant computing system to obtain user input from a user. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Lopez; 4/1/2019; TC 3700. The claimed invention related to a woman's shoe that helped to alleviate or relieve pain at a wearer's metatarsophalangeal joint. The Board agreed with the Appellant that the recitation of “the metatarsophalangeal joint” was only for relative placement and positioning of portions of the claimed shoe when on a wearer's foot, and that the claim did not actually encompass the metatarsophalangeal joint (or any other portion of human anatomy) as part of the claimed subject matter. Section 101 rejection REVERSED.
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Ex Parte Decre et al; 4/1/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. The preamble of claim 1 recited a method of monitoring a person having an interest in a physical object. According to the Specification, the person was a potential customer of a shop and was located either inside the shop or near the shop window. In one embodiment, an intersection of the direction in which the person was looking with a location of a specific product was determined. In another embodiment, touches of the person with the shop window were projected onto coordinates of products to determine the closest product to the touches. Once the particular object was identified, corresponding information about the particular object was provided to the person. Section 101 rejections of claims 1-3, 5, and 7-13 affirmed but Section 101 rejection of claim 17 REVERSED. Regarding claim 17, the Board concluded a transformation into a different state or thing occurred when touch position data was projected onto objects' coordinates that indicated the touch's physical proximity to a particular physical object and the particular interesting object. This transformation integrated the judicial exception into a practical application. (Decision had three opinions: Opinion for the Board, Opinion Concurring-in-Part and Dissenting-in-Part, and Opinion Dissenting-in-Part.)
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Ex Parte Furr et al; 4/1/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, PatientPay, Inc. The claims were directed to managing installment payments in a healthcare system. The Board determined the claim as a whole recited a particular improvement in medical service payments. The additional elements recited a provider interface receiving data in a first format and transforming data into a second format, such that the provider interface was able to receive data (i.e., data in various, difficult to process forms) and transform the data into standardized, easily processed formats such that both the system and other devices (i.e., the medical service entity devices) could more easily and efficiently process the data and automate payment. Therefore, the Board concluded that the claim was patent-eligible because it was not directed to a judicial exception. Section 101 rejections REVERSED.
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Ex Parte Lu; 4/1/2019; TC 3700; Real party in interest, Koninklijke Philips N.V. The claims were directed to a method and system for user-steered, on-the-fly path planning to assist in image-guided endoscopic procedures. The Board determined the abstract idea―mental processes―was integrated into a practical application. Specifically, the pathfinding method of claim 1 was limited to the use of a 2D sectional image obtained from a preoperative CT scan of a patient's body lumen. Thus, claim 1 was necessarily rooted in the technology used to perform medical CT scans, and therefore integrated the recited abstract idea into a practical application. Section 101 rejections REVERSED.
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Ex Parte Grissom; 4/1/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, Optricity Corporation. The claimed invention related to the computerized placement and organization of items in a warehouse and more specifically to approaches for efficiently determining item slot assignments to improve the movement of items in a warehouse. Section 101 rejections affirmed (with one dissent).
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Ex Parte Weinrib et al; 4/1/2019; TC 2400; Real party in interest, Texas Instruments, Inc. The claimed invention was directed, in general, to network communications, and, more specifically, to systems and methods for Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) acknowledgement (ACK) packet suppression. The Board concluded claim 1 was directed to the idea of processing a received computer data packet to identify information that triggered suppression of an acknowledgment packet. Neither this idea nor the Examiner's identified idea of “suppressing acknowledgement packets” was a patent-ineligible abstract idea. Thus, claim 1 focused on (was directed to) a technological process and was not directed to an abstract idea under the first step of Alice. Section 101 rejections REVERSED.
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Ex Parte Liebelt et al; 4/1/2019; TC 2600. The claims were directed to generation of samples for a print job that included resource usage estimates. The Board concluded the claim as a whole integrated the method of a mental process into a practical application because the control unit rasterized a sample page multiple times based on different printing parameters stored in memory to determine an estimate of printing resource usage for each of the multiple versions, and a printer printed the multiple versions of the sample page and an output indicating the estimate of printing resource usage for the version of the sample page. Accordingly, the claim could not be performed by the human mind. Moreover, this combination of elements reflected an improvement in the functioning of computer printing technology. Section 101 rejections REVERSED.
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Ex Parte Nix et al; 4/1/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, Dell Products L.P. The claimed invention related to distributing software images with mixed licensing. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Banthia et al; 4/1/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, Zendyplace, Inc. The claimed invention brokered services between a buyer and a professional service provider by using a software-based system that received, verified, and negotiated appointment availabilities and offers while providing privacy to both parties. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Momita; 4/1/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, MedImpact Healthcare Systems, Inc. The claimed invention related generally to prescription drug benefits programs and more specifically to an improved claims adjudication system for adjudicating consumer purchases covered by such programs. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Sheldon; 4/1/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, Bionic Trader Systems, LLC. The claimed invention related generally to a risk management system and method. More specifically, the invention related to a risk management system and method for use within a trading environment. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Tziortzis et al; 4/1/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, BlackBerry Limited. The claimed invention related to a system and method for distributing messages (i.e., advertisements and other messages) to an electronic, mobile device based on movement of the device. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Shimansky; 4/1/2019; TC 3600. The claimed invention was directed to an on-line shopping system for selling a product over an electronic communication network such as the Internet. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Berde et al; 4/1/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, III Holdings I, LLC. The claimed invention related to formation of product offerings by defining feature data and then grouping the feature data in a package and assembling a market offering comprising the package. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte Amir et al; 4/1/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, IBM. The claimed invention concerned the trend of introducing new software applications to assist in employee tasks, wherein employees and employers implementing the new software face adverse impacts to productivity due to time spent learning new software. The invention related to (i) a method of managing usage costs of a resource, and (ii) computer systems and computer program products for implementing the method. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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Ex Parte King; 4/1/2019; TC 3600; Real party in interest, Orderly Mind Limited. The claims were directed to a queuing system, method, and computer program. The Board concluded that claim limitations enhanced the conventional practice of customer queue management by providing a specific technological improvement allowing customers to disconnect and reconnect when service was available, and also by keeping phone lines free from congestion that would otherwise occur if the phone lines were occupied by callers on hold. As explained in the Specification, this improvement provided benefits both in customer satisfaction, and in the reduction of telecommunications expenses as disconnecting customers saved the callers the expense of being on hold, and saved the provider the expense of running multiple phone lines to keep them on hold. Thus, claim 1 was integrated into a practical application. Section 101 rejections REVERSED.
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Ex Parte Wu et al; 4/1/2019; TC 3700; Real party in interest, Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. The claims were directed to a medical image visualizing system and method of displaying medical images. The Specification, titled Multi-Modality Medical Image Layout Editor, described a medical imaging system for use in conjunction with multi-modality systems, such as PET-CT systems as well as various combinations of SPECT, CT, ultrasound, MRI, fluoroscopy, and the like. The Board said even if it were persuaded that displaying images from obtained data by making different displaying areas in a layout design area with some preview features was an abstract idea, the structural elements required to perform the functions and method steps recited in the claims integrated the abstract idea into a practical application. Section 101 rejections REVERSED.
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Ex Parte Hyatt et al; 4/1/2019; TC 2100; Real party in interest, Thomson Reuters Global Resources. The claims were directed to maintaining a database of user profiles based, respectively, on user interaction with third-party systems. The Examiner determined that the claims were directed to three different abstract ideas: (1) comparing new and stored information and using rules to identify options; (2) the concept of data manipulations on a first database by taking a user profile record and somehow automatically associating it with the unique user to predict and produce potential items of interest; and (3) mental or paper file procedures such as those used by attorneys working on multiple cases. The Board said because none of the three purported abstract ideas identified by the Examiner were within the judicial-exceptions identified in the January 2019 Memorandum, the Examiner erred in concluding the claims were directed to an abstract idea under Alice step 1. Section 101 rejections REVERSED.
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Ex Parte Golding et al; 4/1/2019; TC 3600; Possible real party in interest, Philips Intellectual Property & Standards. The claimed invention was directed to a method of manufacturing an electronic device product from reusable electronic hardware modules and electronic device products obtained by the method. The Board concluded that the Examiner had not shown the claims recited an abstract idea. And even if the claims did recite an abstract idea, additional elements integrated the judicial exception into a practical application. Interaction of all the steps using the computer, pick and place machine, primary hardware module, and establishment of a product intranet applied or used the abstract idea in a meaningful way beyond generally linking the use of the judicial exception to a particular technological environment, such that the claim as a whole was more than a drafting effort designed to monopolize the exception. The invention was also directed to an improved product assembly and disassembly process, based on the use of a particular product structure during manufacturing. Section 101 rejections REVERSED.
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Ex Parte Tuzhilin et al; 4/1/2019; TC 2100; Real party in interest, Facebook, Inc. The claimed invention related to dynamic profiling of a user in one to one marketing applications. Specifically, a user profile was created based on historical data and was utilized, for example, in a shopping assistant application to efficiently serve the user. Section 101 rejections affirmed.
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