Business Methods Monday - Digital Rights

Business Methods Monday: Part 5, Class 705 Schedule Changes, Classification Order 1892

This installment to “Business Methods Monday” is part 5 of a 5 part series covering changes to Class 705 under Classification Order 1892. As noted previously, this revised Schedule was inserted by the USPTO between Subclass 705/45 and 705/400, with the exception of Digital Rights Management, 705/901-912, which is for cross-reference Discretionary classification listings only and under discussed here. This section of the Schedule is included below for reference. As a reminder, anything classified in Class 705 must involve apparatus or method applied to data processing operations applied to some type of business processes.

For the complete Schedule and Definitions for 300 through 348, use this link to get to the Classification Order. http://www.uspto.gov/patents/resources/classification/orders/1892.pdf. As the USPTO has now updated their website Classification Main Menu, you can access the complete Class 705 Schedule and Definitions, which includes the 300 through 348 arrays from the Classification Order by use of this link. http://www.uspto.gov/web/patents/classification/uspc705/sched705.htm.

901 DIGITAL RIGHTS MANAGEMENT

902 . Licensing digital content

903 .. Adding plural layer of rights or limitations by other than the original producer

904 . Usage protection of distributed files

905 .. Hardware usage protection

906 .. Requiring a supplemental attachment or input (e.g., dongle, etc.) to open

907 ... Specific computer ID (e.g., serial number, configuration, etc.)

908 .. Software or content usage protection

909 .. Usage charge determination

910 ... Including third party for collecting or distributing payment (e.g., clearing house, etc.)

911 . Copy protection or prevention

912 .. Having origin or program ID

First, from the “Handbook of Classification”, a Discretionary classification is considered “secondary classifications based on non-inventive, but otherwise valuable, information are discretionary”. This is generally based on detail that is not directly claimed, but is disclosed in the Abstract, Description, Figures, etc., though I have seen cases where Discretionary classification is wisely applied for methodology, claim or otherwise, that one versed in the art knows is being employed and the listing will therefore be of value for future search purposes.

901 “DIGITAL RIGHTS MANAGEMENT” is defined as “Subject matter drawn to a system of information technology components (hardware and software) and services designed to distribute and control the rights to intellectual property created or reproduced in digital form for distribution online or via other digital media, in conjunction with corresponding law, policy, and business models.” Everything below this is finer detail applied to the distribution, protection of rights and methodology associated with revenue from the distribution. I am only going to hit the high points for this as the Definitions are pretty clear regarding content.

902 “Licensing digital content”, 904 “Usage protection of distributed files” covers various methodologies used to ensure that a user has been granted usage rights or means limiting access to specific users or devices by means of a required license key. Examples of this would be a license key for use of software, a key assigned to a server that is unique to a remote user allowing use of specific software or data when the user or the user’s device provided the key. In the case of the latter, this could be a key assigned to a removable device, see 906, which allows access to licensed software by the system the removable device is plugged into. In any of these cases, this could be for a determined time period. 909 and 910 provide for means for calculation charges for the data or software usage and means for distribution of the funds collected, here by a third party on behalf of the to the data or software owner. In 911” Copy protection or prevention”, this is means for limiting the number of times data can be copied.

As noted by both Mike and myself, there are serious Classification Order 1892 conflicts with subject matter higher in the 705 Schedule, most notably with 705/7 and 705/8. The USPTO “Handbook of Classification” specifies that a Claim is classified in the first occurring Subclass that accepts the Claimed subject matter at least in part or in whole. As noted previously, the conflicts with both 705/7 and 705/8 were pointed out during the Classification Order 1892 project to the USPTO, and again in relationship to another 705 Classification Order project, which as yet, has not been published.

For the record, the USPTO Examiners consider subject matter that belongs in 705/7 to be evaluation of business operations, i.e., research or analysis, which is applied to management, planning, organizing, directing, decision making or controlling of an enterprise. 705/8 subject matter is considered any of those operations of 705/7 that are further applied to business resource planning, scheduling, allocation, distribute or routing. Resources of a business are any asset or commodity used by or made by a business, such as staff including contracted staff, business capital and intellectual property such as patents, trademarks, and trade secrets, then hard assets, such as computers, servers, printers, office supplies, manufacturing tooling, inventory goods, inventory or product distribution systems, transportation assets, and finally, the manufactured products or services of a business. As noted in an earlier Blog, the above is based on direct conversations with various Class 705 Examiners regarding what they consider 705/7 and 705/8 subject matter, which is backed up by USPTO Patents and Applications classification in 705/7 and 705/8. The conflicts noted with both 705/7 and 705/8 were pointed out during the Classification Order 1892 project to the USPTO, and later still, in relationship to another 705 Classification Order project, which as noted, has not been published.

For the most of the subject matter Mike and I have discuss in the 300 through 348 arrays, the Primary or Original classification will stop somewhere in the 705/7 array. If there is subject matter that additionally claims detail in the 300 through 348 arrays, the applicable Subclass can only be listed as a Discretionary classification listing, assuming one does not ignore the USPTO’s own “Handbook of Classification” rules.

What needs to happen to fix the conflicts we have noted?

Well, at some point in time, the USPTO needs to restructure the entire Class 705 Schedule as a whole. According to the “Handbook of Classification”, the requirement is that; “subclasses are arranged from top-to-bottom in order of decreasing complexity and comprehensiveness”. That is not presently the case with the Class 705 Schedule as it exists. As the USPTO is operating in the red just like the rest of the US government, it is anyone’s guess as to when this may happen, if ever.

A piecemeal process is fine, the best case being starting with the proper top-to-bottom order of decreasing complexity and comprehensiveness in the Schedule to begin with. If that is hopefully the case, and even if it is not, procedurally you must understand the entire existing Class Schedule and each of the existing Subclass Definitions for allowed subject matter, either higher or lower in the Class that is not a part of the specific Classification Order project. If conflicts exist with any existing Subclass Definitions, the Classification Order Subclass and Definition under consideration must be revised, so that the conflict does not exist, and barring that, the considered subject matter is just flat out not allowed under the Classification Order. While undesirable for obvious reasons, if there are multiple Classification Order projects are underway within the same Class, then everyone on each of these projects must be in communication with one another and in complete agreement that there are no Subclass subject matter conflicts relative to each of the in-process Classification Order projects relative to any proposed Subclasses and Definitions and existing Subclass Definitions. Procedurally, when multiple Classification Order projects are in-process for a Class, the individual USPTO project managers for each project are responsible for oversight adherence to procedures, QA processes and required communication.

While the internal business procedures do actually exist in the USPTO for Classification Orders, Class Schedule structure, and classification based on claimed subject matter, there is also evidence of that there is no consistent adherence to, or enforcement of these internal business procedures, which is based in the condition of various Classes and further based on actual Patents and Patent Applications classifications Mike and I have reviewed and reclassified in this and other Classification Order projects. Documents appear to be placed wherever one seems to want them to be placed, subject matter not withstanding. The issues of database integrity and search-ability are obvious; documents that should be searched in the Patent Application review process are not where the claimed subject matter collection of prior art actually resides in the various Class Schedules. I have seen multiple cases where the Examiner never searched the Subclass arrays where the clearly claimed subject matter exist, and that is based on review of the Examiner’s published search history data. Aside from the latter calling into serious question the validity of the issued Patent, which was also misclassified, it compounds the problem for the next Examiner’s doing future examination reviews and searches.

Mike and I hope that those following this Blog series come away with a better understanding of Class 705 in general. Some of what has been presented should provoke some very serious thought for anyone involved in the process of applying for a Patent Application, and most particularly for those of you who hold an issued Patent or are involved in representing clients who hold an issued Patent.

Electrical Engineers

Today I attended a conference on Intellectual Property at the Georgetown Law Center. One of the panelists was Commissioner Robert Stoll who is Commissioner of Patents at the Patent Office. During the discussion he told the assembled patent smart guys the following:

This year, as in other years, USPTO will hire 2% of the electrical engineers that graduate from college.

He also added that we'd also like electrical engineers to be electrical engineers and not just patent examiners.

That's a lot of electrical engineers.

Business Methods Monday - Documents, Communications, and Ratings

This week, I'll discuss new business methods subclasses 705/342 through 348, that deal with business documentation, employee and customer communications, business or product ratings, and business modeling inventions. All of the subclasses we are discussing in this series require, as a fundamental element of the claimed disclosure, a "computerized arrangement".

You can view this section of the schedule in the USPTO Manual of Classification. This portion of the schedule is shown here:

342 . Business documentation

343 .. Service or product manual or catalogue

344 .. Publishing content to a subscriber of a service

345 . Employee communication administration

346 . Customer communication at a business location (e.g., providing

product or service information, consulting, etc.)

347 . Business establishment or product rating or recommendation

348 . Business modeling

Business Documentation and its two indented subclasses are found at 705/342--344. Business Documentation (705/342), per se, requires a computerized arrangement involving "....management of business documents or business document generation as a business function . . ." which must include a ". . . means for distribution, processing or the usage of the business data in a business environment." This latter requirement is re-emphasized in a clarifying note. Indented below Business documentation is subclass 705/343, Service or product manual or catalogue. This subclass covers disclosures that provide ". . . generation of documents used to describe the use or the features of a business service or product with a means for distribution or usage in a business environment." These documents are considered to be both hard copy and electronic. Also indented below Business documentation is subclass 705/344, Publishing content to a subscriber of a service. In this subclass, subject matter must be for ". . . generating, managing or brokering of on-line or hard copy documents, with means for distribution, access or usage by the clients of the business." This includes disclosures where documents may be published in response to a predetermined schedule, or as a result of

triggering events, according to the accompanying note. To be classified in any of these three subclasses, the invention must include a means for distribution or usage in a business environment.

Employee Communication Administration is now classified at 705/345. USPTO considers administering employee communication to be ". . . directing business activity information or instructions to agents of a business via the Intranet, Internet, World Wide Web, including wireless communications to business personnel"; agents are considered employees per an accompanying note. Also, ". . . communications to remote agents of the business, such as field service, sales, delivery or other personnel" are included here.

Customer Communication, subclass 705/346, is for Customer Communication at a business location (e.g., providing product or service information, consulting, etc.). Inventive content classified here is ". . . for communications directed to client in a place of business by means of a wired or a wireless network." See or search notes direct some disclosures to other class 705 subclasses: 705/7 for analytical content, 705/14.1 for a coupon or other incentive, 705/14.4 for advertising, 705/16 for effecting a transaction and determining the amount of a sale, or 705/26 for aspects related to electronic shopping.

Business Establishment or Product Rating or Recommendation is now included in subclass 705/347. To be classified here, art must include ". . . ranking or collecting reviews regarding business entities or the products or the services of business entities." Two important see or search notes direct disclosures including analysis of business processes or operations research to 705/7, or disclosures including on-line browsing or purchase of a product or service to 705/26.

Business Modeling is found at 705/348. This art is considered to be ". . . simulation of a business operation or a function; or a document." A see or search note directs inventions ". . including analysis of business processes or operations research" to 705/7. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. How can simulations "of a business operation or a function; or a document" be performed without analysis? It would seem that any art intended to be classified here would stop at 705/7 or its indented subclasses according to the rules of classification. Time will tell.

In next week's final installment of this series, Sean will take a look at digital rights management, which USPTO has added as a new cross-reference art collection at the bottom of the class 705 schedule.

Business Methods Monday is the work of Mike Bowman and Sean Henderson. Mr. Bowman and Mr. Henderson have probably read more business methods patents than anyone having reclassified them into the new class structure for USPTO.

Business Method Monday -- A Little Late

Business Methods Monday: Part 3, Class 705 Schedule Changes, Classification Order 1892

This installment to “Business Methods Monday” is part 3 of a 5 part series covering changes to Class 705 under Classification Order 1892. As noted previously, this revised Schedule was inserted by the USPTO between Subclass 705/45 and 705/400, with the exception of Digital Rights Management, 705/901-912, which is for cross-reference Discretionary classification listings only, which will be discussed in a future installment. All of the 4,000 documents Mike and I reclassified for this project where originally classified as 705/1. As a reminder, anything classified in Class 705 must involve apparatus or method applied to data processing operations applied to some type of business processes.

Under discussion here are the Subclasses 326-328, 329 and 330-341. This section of the Schedule is included below for reference. For the complete Schedule and Definitions for 300 through 348, use this link to get to the Classification Order. http://www.uspto.gov/patents/resources/classification/orders/1892.pdf)

326 . Education administration or guidance

327 .. Education institution selection, admissions, or financial aid

328 .. Career enhancement or continuing education service

329 . Fundraising management

330 . Shipping

331 .. Overseas transaction

332 .. Special goods or handling procedure

333 .. Tracking

334 .. Choice of carrier

335 ... Pricing

336 .. Relationship between shipper or supplier and a carrier

337 .. Carrier internal procedure

338 ... Routing method

339 .. Central recipient pick-up

340 .. Return transaction

341 .. Historical data

Right from the start, there is serious 326 through 341 subject matter conflict with subject matter that is higher in the 705 Schedule. The USPTO “Handbook of Classification” specifies that a Claim is classified in the first occurring Subclass that accepts the Claimed subject matter at least in part or in whole. These are the classification rules that all Examiners and Classifiers are required to follow. The USPTO Examiners consider subject matter that belongs in 705/7 to be evaluation of business operations, i.e., research or analysis, which is applied to management, planning, organizing, directing, decision making or controlling of an enterprise. 705/8 subject matter is considered any of those operations of 705/7 that are further applied to business resource planning, scheduling, allocation, distribute or routing. Resources of a business are any asset or commodity used by or made by a business, such as staff including contracted staff, business capital and intellectual property such as patents, trademarks, and trade secrets, then hard assets, such as computers, servers, printers, office supplies, manufacturing tooling, inventory goods, inventory or product distribution systems, transportation assets, and finally, the manufactured products or services of a business. The above is based on direct conversations with various Class 705 Examiners regarding what they consider 705/7 and 705/8 subject matter, which is backed up by USPTO Patents and Applications classification in 705/7 and 705/8. The conflicts noted with both 705/7 and 705/8 were pointed out during the Classification Order 1892 project to the USPTO, and later still, in relationship to another 705 Classification Order project, which as yet, has not been published.

Based on the Definitions for required subject matter for the 326, 329 and 330 arrays, the operations also are clearly 705/7 analysis applied to management, planning, organizing, directing, or controlling of an enterprise and at times 705/8 demand driven resource distribution. Specifically in 326, conducting, organizing, or maintaining management functions, institution or course selection, assistance programs; in 329, developing, organizing or monitoring the organized activity of soliciting and collecting money; in 330, arrangement for the delivery of goods or items between parties, or for the monitoring of the status of that delivery. Shipping notably, clearly involves demand driven resource distribution, and the same can be said for resources in fund raising or various education programs.

The net of all this: For the subject matter under discussion here, the Primary or Original classification will stop somewhere in the 705/7 array, and if that subject matter additionally claims detail in the 326 through 341 arrays, these Subclass can only be listed as a Discretionary classification listing…short of outright ignoring the USPTO “Handbook of Classification” rules.

That said; let’s take a look at subject matter that can at least be classified as a Discretionary classification in the 326 through 341 arrays.

Subclass 326 “Education administration or guidance”, through 328, cover education institutions administrative operations. The Definition for subject matter entry in 326 reads, “Subject matter drawn to a computerized arrangement for (1) the business of conducting, organizing, or maintaining the management functions of an organization concerned with teaching , (2) the management of the process of institution or course selection, or (3) the management of assistance programs.”. Basically, this could cover all educational institution administrative operations, some of which will be resource management, such as assistance programs and course selection. This is further broken out in the 2 Dot indents:

327 “Education institution selection, admissions, or financial aid” associated with financial aid, which Claim dependent, must be considered for 705/8 resource distribution means, financial operations in 705/30 and 705/35.

328 “Career enhancement or continuing education service” deals with the institutions analysis related to continuing education services, including career changes and credits given for work experience.

Next is 329 “Fundraising Management”, which has been defined as “Subject matter drawn to a computerized arrangement for a system for developing, organizing or monitoring the organized activity of soliciting and collecting money for a nonprofit or political organization” which is first a 705/7 operational process, developing, organizing or monitoring the organized activity, which may claims financial resource allocation operations that fall into 705/8. Some can be in 705/30 and 705/35.

Subclass 330 “Shipping”, has been defined as “Subject matter drawn to a computerized arrangement for the delivery of goods or items between parties, or for the monitoring of the status of that delivery”. Again, this is subject matter that will stop in 705/7 array, most in 705/8 administrative arrangement for the delivery of goods or items between parties or scheduling for shipping goods or items between parties. NOTE: All the 2 Dot indents to 330 that follow must first include arrangement for the delivery of goods or items between parties, or for the monitoring of the status of that delivery, and also claim detail that is defined in a Subclass below:

331, “Overseas transaction”, covers shipping a resource internationally, and could include administrative operations for security, inspections and bounding procedures for shipped goods.

332, “Special goods or handling procedure”, covers any unique requirement for the resource being shipped, such as required environmental conditions during transit, shock prevention during transport, shipping time associated with product life cycle such as for foods, medical commodities, etc.

333, “Tracking”, which covers methodology for tracking shipped resources that are in-transit, by the carrier or by a client/recipient.

334 “Choice of carrier”, covers analysis applied to picking a specific carrier for shipping, which may be an internal process or a process done by the client/recipient, which moves to the 3 Dot indent 335 “Pricing” if price is claimed as a determining factor for the carrier choice.

336, “Relationship between shipper or supplier and a carrier”, which is defined as “…computerized arrangement directed at handling the transactions between a shipper or supplier of goods and the carrier who will deliver the goods” that are for the delivery of goods or items between parties or for the monitoring of the status of that delivery”. Note that 333 “Tracking” operations stop higher.

337 “Carrier internal procedure” for delivery of goods, which is very broad, with a 3 Dot indent, 338, “Routing method”, where the internal procedure for delivery of goods is applied to methodology for routing the resource being shipped.

339 “Central recipient pick-up” cover methods for shipping to a central location where the methodology further includes means for the recipient of the goods to pick up the shipped product.

340 “Return transaction” for processes of sending of received goods back to a supplier or manufacturer.

341 “Historical data”, that from the Definition is “…information collected in shipping transactions such as customer data, established routes, load history and cost information” that is applied to arrangement for the delivery of goods or tracking status of that delivery.

Mike Bowman will cover in Part 4 705/342-344, 345, 346, 347, 348, which cover management of business documents, business data distribution, subscriber document publication, employee and customer communications, means for business rating and business modeling. I will follow that up with Part 5, covering 705/901-912: Digital rights management.

Business Methods Monday is the work of Sean Henderson and Mike Bowman. The delay in posting this week's update is mine.

Stay tuned.

Business Method Monday -- Products, Social Networking, Cap & Trade and Wayfinding

This week, I'll discuss new business methods subclasses 705/317 through 325, which deal with inventions in the areas of business or product certification, social networking, human resources, destination assistance within a business, and personal security. You can view this section of the schedule in Classification Order 1892. These schedule changes have not yet migrated to the online Manual of Classification on USPTO's web page. This portion of the schedule is shown here:

317 . Business or product certification or verification

318 .. Product, service, or business identity fraud

319 . Social networking

320 . Human resources

321 .. Employment or hiring

322 .. Benefits package

323 . Destination assistance within a business structure or complex

324 .. Building evacuation

325 . Personal security, identity, or safety

Business or product certification or verification. This new subclass, "705/317, covers inventions ". . . for documentation, data collection, processing or monitoring to ensure the veracity or factuality of the status of an entity's qualifications, either required or claimed by that entity in execution of a business requirement or legal process." A clarifying note brings in a very broad range of content:

* land use by an entity

* carbon credits, emissions, abatement

* product compliance

* clinical trials

* trade agreements

* licensing

* degree verification

* government test

* regulatory compliance

* continuing education requirements

* safety compliance

* documentation of legal proceedings, such as courtroom transcripts.

Other notes (termed "See or Search" notes) under this definition direct inventions ". . . including analysis of business processes or operations research" to subclass 705/7, or to subclass 705/311 ". . . for the management of the work performed by a lawyer for a client." Sean discussed this latter subclass last week.

Indented below 705/317 is 705/318, for Product, service, or business identity fraud. This subclass is ". . . for the analysis or detection of (1) illegitimate use of a product or service, misrepresentation of the authenticity of products or services, (2) approved sources of products or services, or (3) the coding or marking of product with data used for authentication." The use of the word "analysis" in this definition appears to conflict with the search note in the parent subclass which directs claimed disclosures of business process analysis to 705/7. Additional notes direct claimed disclosures for subsets of fraud prevention or detection elsewhere in the class 705 schedule.

Social networking has now been broken out as subclass 705/319. Claimed disclosures that manage ". . . interaction between individuals or entities who are connected by one or more common relations or interests" are to be classified here.

Human resources (705/320) is defined as ". . . keeping of records (e.g., benefits, etc.) of the departments or employees of an organization, or hiring of employees", with employee performance review or evaluation directed to 705/7 in a see or search note.

Indented below human resources are two subclasses. The first is 705/321 for Employment or hiring, which requires ". . . engaging the services of a person or persons for wages or other payment either directly or through a third party." The second is 705/322 for Benefits package, defined as the ". . . maintenance, regulation, or the monitoring of non-monetary employment compensation provided to employees by an organization (e.g., health insurance, leave, retirement, etc.)." Detailed aspects of health (or other) insurance, such as co-pay determination, is directed to 705/2 (Health care management (e.g., record management, ICDA billing)), while managing retirement fund portfolios is directed to 705/36 (Portfolio selection,

planning or analysis).

Destination assistance within a business structure or complex, subclass 705/323, requires ". . . a computerized arrangement for providing direction information at a business location or the creation of direction plan for a business location." Indented under this subclass is 705/324, Building evacuation, ". . . for the removal of people from a structure for protective purposes." A note incorporates subject matter which creates a removal plan for a location.

Personal security, identity, or safety is new subclass 705/325, the last area we'll cover this week. Claimed disclosures ". . . (1) ensuring the legal or uninterrupted enjoyment by a person of their life, their body, their health, or their reputation (e.g., TSA airport screening, public venue admission screening, etc., in order to bar an individual who may cause harm to another, etc.), (2) for the detection of illicit use of personal information, such as analysis or detection means for determining that a person or business entity is who they say they are, or (3) for protective measures or protocol to prevent injury" are captured here. Notes direct certain fraud detection methods elsewhere in the class 705 schedule.

Next week, Sean will discuss new class 705 subclasses covering business processes related to to education, fundraising, and shipping processes.