Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after allowance or after an Office action under Ex Parte Quayle, 25 USPQ 74, 453 O.G. 213 (Comm'r Pat. 1935). Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, prosecution in this application has been reopened pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 6/1/2026 has been entered.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claim 24 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 24 recites the limitation "the blockchain access layer" in lines 9, 10 and 11, “the first database” in line 13 and “the second database” in line 17 and “the block chain database” in line 18 . There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-20 and 22-23 are allowed.
The following is an examiner's statement of reasons for allowance:
Regarding the claim terms, the Examiner notes that a "general term must be understood in the context in which the inventor presents it." in re Glaug, 283 F.3d 1335, 1350, 62 USPQ2d 1151, 1154 (Fed. Cir. 2002). Therefore, the Examiner must interpret the claimed terms as found in the specification of the instant application. Clearly almost all the general terms in the claims may have multiple meanings. So where a claim term "is susceptible to various meanings, the inventor's lexicography must prevail..." id. Using these definitions for the claims, the invention was not reasonably found in the prior art.
The prior art does not teach, either singly or in combination, the following:
Claims 1 and 11:
a second database in communication with the one or more servers, the second database configured to:
receive a vote identification from the one or more servers, the vote identification generated by the one or more servers in response to receive the ballot selections and electronic signature from the mobile computing device;
store a first pointer to a location of the ballot selections in the first database; and
store a second pointer to a location of the electronic signature in the first database
Claim 23:
a second database in communication with the block chain access layer, the second database configured to:
store a first pointer to a location of the ballot selections in the first database; and
store a second pointer to a location of the electronic signature in the first database;
Any comments considered necessary by applicant must be submitted no later than the payment of the issue fee and, to avoid processing delays, should preferably accompany the issue fee. Such submissions should be clearly labeled "Comments on Statement of Reasons for Allowance."
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Biddulph (U.S. 2005/0211778) discloses an information gathering system and method that utilizes a computer to authenticate, poll and store user responses to a customized questionnaire. The questionnaire can be a ballot. The computer utilizes various databases to authenticate and generate the customized questionnaire. The computer records user responses securely and anonymously. User and/or system errors are eliminated before finalizing the response database. An identification number is assigned to each user which allows the user to verify the integrity of the user's response by accessing a response database. The user is provided access to a tabulation database to allow the user to verify the user's voting choices and the voting choices of other voters.
Sealy (U.S. 11,100,743) discloses a blockchain-based election system includes an owner- controlled blockchain, an election administration server, registrars for authenticating voters and providing instructions for the election, and electronic devices for casting ballots. The administration server interfaces with the blockchain to manage election rules and content. The registrars authenticate each voter's identity and issue ballots to each voter through the blockchain. The voters may cast their ballots using an election polling place device, a wallet app or another electronic device such as a computer. Once cast, the ballots are tabulated and the vote counts revealed using the blockchain. Public key encryption is used to secure each step in the election process. As a result, any authorized person or entity may verify the election results by querying the blockchain.
Shiralkar et al (U.S. 10,979,225) discloses various embodiments for secure and anonymized electronic voting. An encrypted vote and digital signature of the vote are received from a client device and validated. The vote is stored in a data store and recorded in a publicly available distributed ledger.
Ruskin (U.S. 2020/0160640) discloses a system for collecting candidate choices from a voter, sending a proposed ballot to a vote server over a network, receiving a recorded ballot from the vote server, wherein the ballot includes a digital signature and the digital signature is generated by the vote server. The recorded ballot is sent to an audit server.
Deutsch (U.S. 2020/0242872) discloses a system for preserving the anonymity of a ballot cast by a voter in an election whose eligibility to vote in the election is not yet determined. A machine readable identification code associated with the voter is included to the ballot and is used to store contest choices in a results database. The contest choices can be included or excluded from the results of the election upon determination that the voter is either eligible or ineligible to vote in the election.
Backert et al (U.S. 2015/0310686) discloses a system for ensuring integrity of an electronic ballot in an election and includes creating electronic ballots, receiving votes, digitally signing the electronic ballots, storing the signed ballots, retrieving the signed ballots from storage, verifying the digital signatures and presenting voters with validation pages to confirm that the retrieved ballots accurately reflect their vote.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to John Hayes whose telephone number is (571)272-6708. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Thursday 6:00AM-4:00PM EST.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Tariq Hafiz can be reached on (571) 272-5350. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JOHN W HAYES/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3697
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