101 Rejection Reference Database – Art Unit 3622
Data processing: Financial, business practice, management, or cost/Price determination
Examiner: Andrei, Radu
| Patent Assignee | Patent Application |
| Eversight | 16/217,005 |
Systems and methods for democratized coupon redemption
Patent Abstract
Systems and methods for offer redemption are provided. In some embodiments, payment data for a product is received via a payment gateway, along with an identifier unique to the payer. This payer identifier is correlated to a database associated with household IDs that have been collected from loyalty programs, pharmacy data and payment collected at a retailer. When the identifier has been associated with a household ID the system may identify applicable promotions that are associated with that household. The details of the offer/promotion are sent back to the point of sale where they are applied to the transaction. Once this is confirmed the adjusted payment is processed and the promotion is cleared from the database.
Reason for 101 Rejection | CTNF 6/30/20
Directed towards ineligible subject matter, the process is comparable to a marketing, sales activities process aimed at providing an offer and updating the offer database. Further the application is not integrated into a practical application, and the non-positively received claim elements are merely descriptive and do not integrate themselves into practical application.
Remarks on Overcoming the 101 Rejection | REM 9/30/2020
The claims are directed to the backend system of managing the transactions of a product. The claims have been amended to remove the references to offers that may be associated with the products and instead focus specifically on the utility of the product management on its own. The resulting amendments to the claims named a database of products instead of offers, and systematically replaced the word “offer” for “product”. The applicant notes that the management of product has important implications for offer tracking and redemption, and that these products are the foundation that enables the judicial exception to be performed. Therefore the claims are not directed to the judicial exception and are therefore not patent ineligible.
The independent claims were amended to a computer implemented method for product management rather than offer redemption, the rest of the independent claim was amended to reflect such changes, including how the method relates to how the products are analyzed in real time to associate at least one product to the customer’s product.
Examiner: Andrei, Radu
| Patent Assignee | Patent Application |
| Rakuten | 15/027,893 |
Information processing device, information processing method, program and storage medium
Patent Abstract
An advertisement delivery system 1 includes an information manager, a timing information retriever, a selection determiner, and a selection handling processor. When switching between images displayed in a partial area on a web page is performed, the information manager keeps information about a pre-switching image even after the switching. The timing information retriever retrieves the timing of the switching and the timing of a selection operation by a user on the area. When the timing information retriever retrieves the timing of the selection operation within a predetermined time length after the switching, the selection determiner makes a determination as to which of the pre-switching image and a post-switching image the selection operation is intended for. Based on the determination, the selection handling processor performs a selection handling process based on information about the pre-switching image or the post-switching image.
Reason for 101 Rejection | CTFR 12/12/2019
The independent claims have not been integrated into a practical application, all the elements in the independent claims amount to no more than obtaining and exchanging information.
Remarks on Overcoming the 101 Rejection | REM 4/13/2020
This method provides an improvement to man-made user interfaces and helps incorrect data being collected about the use of the site. The application suggests previous methods enabled incorrect information to be captured about user viewing history. This incorrect data would corrupt the sites viewing history database and possibly result in lost time to the user and lost revenue to the company. Since there is a described computer benefit of avoiding corrupting memory the application is patentable.
The original claims 1-8 were cancelled. The remaining independent method claims were amended to reflect that it is the selection determining code that is configured to detect whether the selection was for the pre-switching image or the post-switching image rather than a time based comparison.
Examiner: Andrei, Radu
| Patent Assignee | Patent Application |
| Mastercard | 15/701,100 |
System and method for card-linked services
Patent Abstract
A system and method for optimizing at least one of a promotion, a targeting of the promotion, and a campaign associated with the promotion. Acceptances of the promotion are received following each user’s selection of the promotion. Information representing users is received from publisher computing devices. Thereafter, respective match keys are generated that are usable to access information representing transaction accounts of each of the users. The match keys are transmitted computing device(s) having access to information representing transaction accounts. Information representing a selected one account is received. For users who redeemed the promotion, the promotion is associated with the selected one transaction account. Thereafter, as a function of the received selection of the transaction account and/or associating the promotion with a selected one transaction account, the at least one processor optimizes the promotion, a targeting of the promotion to other users, and/or a campaign associated with the promotion.
Reason for 101 Rejection | CTFR 12/11/2019
Method of organizing human activity. The claims are not properly limited under their current construction, and in their current embodiment covers the judicial exception of sales activities. Since the claims recite an abstract idea it is further demonstrated that the application does not incorporate the judicial exception into a practical application. The claim elements amount to no more than insignificant extra-solution activity.
Remarks on Overcoming the 101 Rejection | REM 3/11/2020
The claims are directed to a specific implementation of generating and transmitting a “respective match key that uniquely represents the respective user”. This match key is then associated with a computing device continuing user account information which then generates a prompt representing possible transaction accounts. Upon selection of an item in the prompt, a promotion is then associated with the transaction. These steps cannot be performed mentally and there is no claim of organizing human activity. Those features also provide additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception therefore further making the subject matter patent eligible.
The independent claims are amended to reflect that the method relates to each of the acceptances and further specifies that the users involved are ones who accepted the promotion, rather than ones that had past or present communication with the publisher’s website. Additionally, the elements relating to how the information received is no longer a representation of a user transaction account. Instead, the method now relies on the use of generating a prompt, and it is the redemption of the promotion and the selection of the items in the prompt to associate the promotion to the user and modify their transaction accounts.
Examiner: Andrei, Radu
| Patent Assignee | Patent Application |
| Viant Technology | 14/474,962 |
System and method for card-linked services
Patent Abstract
A method, apparatus, system, and computer program product provide the ability to bid for an advertising impression. Via input from an advertising purchaser, a publisher specification is defined. The publisher specification provides impression information regarding impressions desired by the advertising purchaser. An auction is conducted by receiving one or more bids (that comply with the specification) from one or more publishers. A determination is made regarding which of the one or more publishers has provided a successful bid. The advertising purchaser is enabled to provide one or more advertisements to the one or more successful bidding publishers.
Reason for 101 Rejection | CTFR 5/17/2019
The claims are not directed to eligible subject matter without significantly more. The claims recite a method that under the broadest interpretation amounts to no more than a commercial activity being performed by generic computing components. Additionally, the insertion of a pixel to be used for analyzing statistics and determining the user base amount to insignificant extra-solution activity.
Remarks on Overcoming the 101 Rejection | REM 8/19/2019
The applicant demonstrates that the claims are tied to both a system and a method satisfying the step 1 analysis. For steps 2A and 2B, the applicant demonstrates that the claim is not directed to a judicial exception but rather that the judicial exception is integrated into a practical application of that exception. The applicant points out that this system not only performs a bidding process between two users but also incorporates the use of a tracking pixel to collect user statistics to analyze and determine the userbase using the system. Further arguments are made that the application recited additional elements and integrates any judicial exception into practical application by improving the technical field of “conducting an auction/exchange for online advertisements based on an advertisement purchasers specifications”. The system is further incorporated into an integral part of the computer and processor, and the bid is actually transformed by the system into an actual impression slot to be filled with an advertisement.
The amendments to the claim focus on the uniqueness of the publisher’s pixel within the method. The publisher’s pixel is comprised of elements relating to user identification that is then used to determine if the publisher that provided the successful bid for the advertisement is capable of fulfilling it. An additional step is added noting the utilization of the statistics and user base collected in the subsequent bidding processes.
Examiner: Andrei, Radu
| Patent Assignee | Patent Application |
| Tencent Technology | 15/643,961 |
Method and device and system for processing promotion information
Patent Abstract
A method and device for processing promotion information and a system are provided. The method includes that: agreement information and exposure requirements of all promotion information within a preset period are acquired (101); directional delivered targets are determined according to the agreement information and the exposure requirements, and the directional delivered targets are split into multiple non-intersected delivered target sets (102); the promotion information is delivered to users corresponding to the corresponding delivered target sets according to the exposure requirements (103); statistics about social propagation amounts of to the delivered promotion information is made in real time in a delivery process (104); and exposure parameters are corrected according to the social propagation amounts (105), so that delivery of the promotion information is regulated in real time. By the method, the effectiveness and accuracy of delivering the promotion information may be improved.
Reason for 101 Rejection | CTNF 6/30/20
Directed towards ineligible subject matter, the process is comparable to a marketing, sales activities process aimed at providing an offer and updating the offer database. Further the application is not integrated into a practical application, and the non-positively received claim elements are merely descriptive and do not integrate themselves into practical application.
Remarks on Overcoming the 101 Rejection | REM 9/30/2020
The applicant’s claims are directed to a particular improvement in the delivery of promotion information. These improvements include prioritizing the delivery of the promotion information and making corrections to the delivery patterns based on social propagation amounts. Applicants claimed invention helps realize the improvement in the promotion information delivery performance. These claims reflect an improvement in delivering promotion information in comparison to the prior art.
The amended claims add an element specifying delivery of the promotion information to users corresponding to the defined targets. The amendments also remove language relating to the exposure requirements associated with the promotion information for a preset period. The delivery of the promotion information is amended to specify that it relates to the directionally delivered targets rather than merely the exposure requirement. The exposure parameter is changed to exposure priorities and exposure probabilities. The redefined parameters further specify the exposure parameter.
Examiner: Andrei, Radu
| Patent Assignee | Patent Application |
| 15/170,354 |
Real-time tracking of offline transactions
Patent Abstract
An online system receives offline conversion data in real-time from a third party system regarding an offline user, the offline conversion data indicating an action performed by the offline user and identifying information for the offline user. The online system identifies a local user matching the offline user based on the identifying information for the offline user. The online system stores the offline conversion for the identified local user. The online system determines an attribution to a sponsored content item for the offline conversion. The online system presents updated information regarding the offline conversion to the third party system in real-time.
Reason for 101 Rejection | CTFR 3/06/20
The claims are directed towards “Certain Methods of Organizing Human Activity”. The claim elements amount to no more than insignificant extra-solution activity. The non-substantial elements of the method may provide further helpful context for the claimed invention; it does not integrate the abstract idea into a practical application.
Remarks on Overcoming the 101 Rejection | REM 4/30/2020
During the Examiner interview the examiner “stressed the importance of clarifying how the claimed invention can be integrated into a ‘practical application’”. The Examiner requests that the applicant better explain how the claimed invention improves upon the existing technology or technical field. The claimed invention is directed to tracking user response to content. The system implements an API that interacts with third party systems to identify a local user through the identifying information collected in an offline setting. Therefore the claims do not recite a commercial interaction or business relation. The method of the claims specifically collects offline conversion data that is not directly trackable to compute an updated bid price for the sponsored content. This demonstrates an improvement to the field of digital content management and advertising technology. The transmission of offline conversion data to an online system where the offline user is not directly trackable amounts to significantly more than the abstract idea.
The amended claims further specify the offline data conversion comprises identifying information. The identifying information is amended to include the indication of an action to be performed by the offline user and the metadata associated with the revenue generated from the offline interaction. From the collected identifying information, the claims are further amended to include the assignment of a confidence score to the user based on the identifying information and determining if that confidence score meets a predefined threshold before it will be transmitted to the online system responsible for the conversion of the offline data entry.
Examiner: Tokarczyk, Christopher
| Patent Assignee | Patent Application |
| Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc | 15/855124 |
Computer system for performing display control for advertisement
Patent Abstract
When a user selects an input element from entertainment elements, related to a game, possessed by the user and accepts an advertisement output offer, advertisement watching control starts. Improvement control including 1) improving a parameter value associated with the input element, or 2) improving the parameter value associated with the input element and changing a display mode of the input element is performed in return for advertisement watching.
Reason for 101 Rejection | CTNF 7/24/2020
The claims are directed towards an abstract idea relating to certain methods of organizing human activity. Reciting a method of controlling the implementation of a game to present advertisement offers to the user and to improve the way in which advertisements are delivered to a user relates to managing personal behavior between people. The judicial exceptions are not integrated into practical application, and all processors are recited at such a generic level the elements amount to mere instruction to implement the abstract ideas to a computer. There is no indication that the claimed invention improves the way the computer functions or advances the technology in a particular field.
Remarks on Overcoming the 101 Rejection | REM 10/9/2020
The application has been extensively reviewed and revised along with the examiner’s guidance from the interview. It is important to note that the game is controlled by at least one processor circuit and is not a physical game like cards. The game enables power ups based on the way the user interacts with the game, which further demonstrates an improvement in videogame technology. These limitations are indicative of integration as improvements to video gaming technology.
The claims are amended so that the system is directed to the execution of a video game rather than the implementation of a game. The claim language is amended to specify that it receives user input to confirm or deny watching the advertisement by providing a visual display screen when the user confirms the advertising watching to start. The visual display screen element has been amended to demonstrate that the display presents input elements that are elements related to the video game possessed by the user such as indicated for the user to select a base to power up/evolve and a material to power up the base element. Through the selection of the user to watch the advertisement the user is granted an improved parameter value for the base input element in the video game.
Examiner: Tokarczyk, Christopher
| Patent Assignee | Patent Application |
| Visa International Service Association | 15/853392 |
Card-linked merchant promotional credit processing
Patent Abstract
A system of servers and algorithms allows merchants to award value to a customer when certain criteria have been met, such as buy $100 worth of clothing and get a $20 credit toward a future purchase. Unlike a gift card, the funding for the award is held by the merchant until the award is used, at which time the award funds are transferred to the user’s designated account, such as an open loop credit or debit card.
Reason for 101 Rejection | CTNF 2/6/2020
The claims are recites comparing a user transaction to merchant-specified criteria to award the user’s personal account with a credit amount to be used on the transaction. The limitations of the claims describe certain methods of organizing human activity relating to fundamental economic principles. Additional elements of the claims do not amount to more than mere instructions to implement the abstract idea onto a computer.
Remarks on Overcoming the 101 Rejection | REM 5/6/2020
Integration of the abstract idea into a practical application may be demonstrated by additional elements that provide an improvement to the functioning of a computer. The use of a monitor tied to a processor to identify transactions between a user and a merchant causing a payout to the users account provides new computer functions and expands the functionality of the processor.
The claims are amended to indicate that the identification of the transaction takes place at the monitor without the transfer of the merchant award. A second criteria is added to the redemption of the merchant award relating to identifying a second user transaction where the transaction of the merchant award is transferred directly from the clearing service.
Examiner: Tokarczyk, Christopher
| Patent Assignee | Patent Application |
| Groupon Inc | 14/103256 |
Method, apparatus, and computer program product for ascertaining a demand of promotions
Patent Abstract
A method, apparatus and computer program product are provided herein for ascertaining a demand of promotions. An example method comprises receiving, from one or more consumers, at least one consumer request for at least one of one or more requested promotions or one or more requested providers, generating an aggregated list of the at least one of the one or more requested promotions or the one or more requested providers, ranking the aggregated list of the at least one consumer request, and causing one or more ranked lists to be distributed to at least one sales resource.
Reason for 101 Rejection | CTNF 3/19/2020
The claims are directed to abstract ideas of certain methods of organizing human activity. The limitations to the claims recite receiving one promotion from a plurality of promotions, and dynamically updating a list of promotions users request to interact with as new users interactions take place. All of the claimed limitations are considered abstract ideas relating to a mental process that is not integrated into a practical application. Additional elements of the claims amount to mere instruction to implement the identified abstract ideas on a computer. The use of generic computer components to provide, send, or receive information and display it is a well-understood computer function that does not impose a meaningful limit on the computer implementation of abstract ideas.
Remarks on Overcoming the 101 Rejection | REM 8/19/2020
Applicant submits that the claims are amended herein, obviating the rejection. In particular, Applicant submits that the claims, as amended, are directed to statutory subject matter, and in addition to being directed to statutory subject matter, the claims are not directed to a judicial exception (i.e. an abstract idea, as alleged by the Examiner). And even assuming arguendo that the Examiner finds that claims are directed to an abstract idea, Applicant submits that the claimed invention (and any alleged abstract to which the claimed invention may be directed) is integrated into a practical application. And even assuming arguendo that the Examiner were to find that the claimed invention and/or an alleged abstract to which the claimed invention may be directed is not integrated into a practical application, Applicant submits that the claimed invention includes elements that when considered, either alone or in combination, constitute significantly more than any alleged abstract to which the claimed invention may be directed.
The claims are amended to specify that the method is provided through a user interface that displays one or more promotions with a selectable button that when selected by the user provides the search request from the promotion database. When the search of the promotions is completed the promotion database is updated and configured for display. Additional amendments are made to make the determination of the availability of the promotion its own step after the generation of the ranked list. Once the availability of the promotion has been determined the claims have been amended to reflect that the display is to be updated at the user interface to comprise an icon to purchase the available promotion.
Examiner: Tokarczyk, Christopher
| Patent Assignee | Patent Application |
| Yieldmo | 16/119819 |
Method for quantifying advertising impressions
Patent Abstract
One variation of a method for quantifying user engagement includes: serving a digital advertisement to a mobile device; recording a first proportion of pixels of the digital advertisement rendered on a display of the mobile device during a first sampling period; recording a second proportion of pixels of the digital advertisement rendered on the display of the mobile device during a second sampling period offset in time from the first sampling period; calculating a cumulative pixel exposure of the digital advertisement at the mobile device based on a combination of a first product of the first proportion of pixels and a duration of the first sampling period and a second product of the second proportion of pixels and a duration of the second sampling period; and storing the cumulative pixel exposure as an engagement metric for a user consuming the digital advertisement at the mobile device.
Reason for 101 Rejection | CTNF 3/7/2019
The claims are directed to certain methods of organizing human activity such as concepts performed in the human mind that do not integrate the abstract idea into a practical application. The additional elements recited at a high level level of generality amounts to mere instructions to implement the identified abstract ideas on a computer.
Remarks on Overcoming the 101 Rejection | REM 6/7/2019
The addition of the limitations from claim 4 that the examiner identified as eligible subject matter has been added to add rejected claims. The additional limitation of claim 4 is that there are multiple digital advertising campaigns being served though the data collected, imposing a meaningful limitation on the claims subject matter and making it patent-eligible.
Examiner: Tokarczyk, Christopher
| Patent Assignee | Patent Application |
| 14/562547 |
Modifying advertising policies enforced by an online system based on likelihood of user interaction with content items
Patent Abstract
An online system presents advertisements and content items to its users in a feed of content items (e.g., a newsfeed). The online system enforces one or more advertising policies regulating insertion of advertisements into the feed. For example, an advertising policy specifies a minimum distance between advertisements in the feed. Based on a likelihood of the user interacting with an advertisement, the online system may modify one or more of the advertising policies to increase a likelihood of the advertisement being included in the feed. For example, an advertising policy is modified if the user has at least a threshold likelihood of interacting with the advertisement. To modify an advertising policy, the online system may ignore the advertising policy when selecting content for the feed or may modify conditions limiting inclusion of advertisements in the feed specified by the advertising policy.
Reason for 101 Rejection | CTFR 11/26/2018
The claims recite abstract ideas such as collecting and comparing known information that correspond to certain methods of organizing human activity. The claims do not amount to significantly more than the judicial exception as the additional elements amount to no more than generic computers that do not impose a limitation on the practice of the abstract idea.
Remarks on Overcoming the 101 Rejection | ADPR 4/24/2020
The examiner and appellant both agree that the appellant’s claim recites a method for the placement of advertisements that may fall within organizing human activity. The appellant claimed method provides a specific improvement to online systems of the advertisement so the claims as a whole integrate the judicial exception into a practical application.
Examiner: Andrei, Radu
| Patent Assignee | Patent Application |
| BBY Solutions INC. | 16/712564 |
Beacon-based media network
Patent Abstract
Techniques and system configurations for providing content to a mobile device based on activity in a physical commercial environment such as a retail store are described herein. Mobile devices that are operated by an associated customer may be tracked with the use of beacons to determine customer activities in the retail store, including particular areas visited in the store, activities conducted by the customer in the store, and like tracking information. The customer activity and data for the activities and locations in the physical environment may be correlated to an identifier, profile, or other tracking information. This tracking information may be subsequently used by the mobile device to identify the user to an advertising network, or other information service, and obtain customized media content and information.
Reason for 101 Rejection | CTNF 12/23/2020
The limitations, as drafted, constitute a process that, under its broadest reasonable interpretation, covers commercial activity, but for the recitation of generic computer components. That is, the drafted process is comparable to an advertising, marketing, process, i.e. a process aimed at providing content (i.e,
advertisements) to mobile computing devices, if a claim limitation, under its broadest reasonable interpretation, covers performance of limitations of agreements in form of contracts, legal obligations, advertising, marketing, sales activities or behaviors, business relationships, but for the recitation of
generic computer components, then it fails within the “Certain Methods of Organizing Human Activity Application/Control Number: 16/712,564 Art Unit: 3622 Page 7 Commercial or Legal Interactions (e.g. agreements in form of contracts, legal obligations, advertising, marketing, sales activities or behaviors,
business relationships)” grouping of abstract ideas. Accordingly, the claim recites an abstract idea.
Remarks on Overcoming the 101 Rejection | REM 4/30/2021
Citing a PTAB decision from the parent case 14/610605 mailed on 6/27/2019, the claims were considered eligible at least because: “Similarly, we find that the limitations discussed above, that require the physical tracking of the location of a device, sufficiently limit the use of the abstract Idea encompassed by the other limitations to the specific and tangible application of tracking a
mobile device although physically located in a particular area, such as a retail store, and notifying another entity after the device has left that particular area. Accordingly, we conclude, when the claim is considered as a whole, the recited judicial exception is integrated into a practical application as determined under MPEP § 2106.05(e) cited above, such that the claim is patent-eligible, thus concluding the eligibility analysis”. 1
(Decision on Appeal, [Redacted], mailed June 27, 2019, pages 9-11)
Examiner: Andrei, Radu
| Patent Assignee | Patent Application |
| ROKT Pte | 15/608,096 |
Digital advertising system and method
Patent Abstract
A computer system for providing digital advertiser referrals comprising a third party referral provider operable to maintain a store of digital referral objects, each digital referral object associated with an advertiser for referral to a consumer. The third party referral provider being further operable to engage with a consumer while the consumer is accessing digital content on a publisher site subscribing to the third party referral provider by way of a computer presentation interface, such that once the consumer has engaged with the third party referral provider, the third party referral provider is operable to refer one or more of the advertisers to the consumer through presentation of an associated digital referral object on the presentation interface.
Reason for 101 Rejection | CTNF 12/23/2020
Examiner asserted the claims are directed to the abstract idea of certain methods of organizing human activities and mathematical concepts. The claims recite a method of organizing human activity because they are directed to mitigating risk through digital geometric analysis using a time curve graph. Further, because the claims recite utilizing without significantly more the claims are also directed to a mathematical concept.
Remarks on Overcoming the 101 Rejection | REM 4/30/2021
Applicant submits that the claims as amended recite a specific way of automatic risk management through generating a time curve graph based on extracted contract data based on the convergence of the generated time curve graph. The claimed process provides a graphical representation of how the contract changes as a function of time, which is more than a risk mitigation technique as determined by Alice.
