Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claim(s) 1-27, 32-34, 42, 44-54, 59, 61-62 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Shuster-Arechiga (US 20140214505) in view of CN’101 (CN 206735101)
Shuster-Arechiga discloses
1. A method of an intelligent recycling system, the method comprising:
registering a first user in a computer network environment enrollment, which associates digital automated recognition of the first user, by using unique biometric characteristics of the first user or electronic digital key assignment which is associated with the first user (par. 13, 53, 67: user is registered with account 2020 and recognized by biometric data),
wherein the first user collects and distributes recyclable goods to a Second Compensating Provider (par. 64: redemption center) within the intelligent recycling system by depositing the recyclable goods into a unique electronically identifiable disposable waste container (100) configured to perform digital automated recognition of the first user as a recyclable goods depositing agent by using a remote processor (par. 13, 53, 67),
wherein the unique electronically identifiable disposable waste container comprises:
a capacity sensor configured to determine a remaining capacity of the unique electronically identifiable disposable waste container (par. 49, 59);
at least one of a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), a QR code and a barcode (Shuster-Arechiga discloses an identifying code is placed on the container 100, par. 55; Shuster-Arechiga is silent to the code being a barcode, QR, or RFID; however, Shuster-Arechiga discloses that such codes are well known in the art; therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective date the invention was made to extend the teachings of Shuster-Arechiga by providing such code thereon so that it is recognizable by known reader), and
wherein the Second Compensating Provider in turn compensates the first user with a monetary reward enhanced through participation of a third user value enhancing member within the intelligent recycling system and a fourth user participant goods and services provider member within the intelligent recycling system who enhances value of the monetary reward through increased value of exchange of goods and services in trade for accepting the monetary reward accrued by the first user
(Shuster-Arechiga discloses that companies, entities, affiliates, state of California, funding entity, and a “team tasked with recouping redemption value pick up the contents”, which can be considered as at least third member and fourth member who enhances the exchange value)
Shuster-Arechiga is silent to the entities provide rewards above the market values of recyclable goods;
CN’101 discloses integral management system, the intelligent garbage classifying and collecting device adopts the integral evaluation bonus system, intelligent associated garbage type and integral standard, relying on the cloud platform to realize data analysis. villager can be integrated on the intelligent device directly exchange the corresponding commodity to realize putting-acquire score-consumption integrated circulation, through intelligent integration value of exchange is higher than the market recycling price, high benefit and reward substance and improves enthusiasm of the villager garbage sorting, culturing waste classification.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective date the invention was made to incorporate the teachings of CN’101 to enable people to recycle more by encouraging more entities providing more competitive values comparable to or better than the market values.
Re claims 2-8, see Shuster-Arechiga, Fig. 1, par. 12-13, 31-32, 37, 55-56+.
Re claim 9, see Shuster-Arechiga, par. 45-47, 55, 60-62, wherein the receptacle 100 can recognize and identify the characteristics of the material being deposited for recycling. Shuster-Arechiga further discloses there are multiple entities participating in the recycling effort as well as providing incentives in terms of rewards to customers.
Shuster-Arechiga is silent to containers belonging to the Second Compensating Provider.
it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective date the invention was made to modify Shuster-Arechiga by having the Second Compensating Provider providing the containers to registering customers to encourage the customers engaging in the recycling effort.
Re claims 10-11, Shuster-Arechiga, par. 13, 49, 53: container 100 can recognize biometric from the user or on the item.
Re claims 12-15, Shuster-Arechiga, Fig. 1, par. 12-13, 31-32, 37, 55-56+.
Re claim 16-18, see discussion regarding claim 1 above. Shuster-Arechiga further discloses secondary containers owned and consumed by the first user can be attached or placed in the recycling container 100 for recognition and identified using sensors or readers including RFID reader, barcode reader, QR reader or camera. See i.e. par. 12-13, 31-32, 37, 55-56+.
Re claims 19-20, Shuster-Arechiga discloses a code that can be produced any time and “applied to one of a plurality of items, and set out the number of items to be covered by such code”
Re claim 21-22, Shuster-Arechiga is silent to NFC or RFID tags on secondary containers. However, this is considered an obvious extension of Shuster-Arechiga’s teachings as Shuster-Arechiga discloses the container 100 is equipped with reader 220 capable of reading RFID, NFC, Bluetooth, or similar device (par. 32)
Re claims 23-27, see discussion regarding claims above. Shuster-Arechiga discloses that a code on the item (i.e. cans, magazine, box …) is used to identify the user and item being selected for recycling (par. 13, 46, 63). Additionally, recycle data can be recoded on a card or other hardware (par. 76)
Re claims 32-34, see discussion regarding claims above.
Re claim 42, 44-45, see discussion regarding claims above. Shuster-Arechiga further discloses enhancements or “funds are may be automatically divided and/or distributed utilizing a computerized process”
Re claim 46, although silent to raiseable underground collection bins, it would have also been obvious that ShusterArechiga's bin may be carry-able since it may be used to collect soda cans (i.e. ShusterArechiga, par. 8) and is capable to be used in underground environment.
Re claim 47-51, Shuster-Arechiga discloses the container 100 comprises sensors to detect suitability, to count the number of items, and to determine whether the container is full or not (par. 49, 59). The container 100 also has the ability to communicate a notification interactively on its display or to other devices or network (par. 49, 75)
Re claims 52-54, see discussion regarding claims above.
Re claim 59, see Shuster-Arechiga, par. 72: virtual currency.
Re claims 61-62, see discussion regarding claims above. Although silent to debit card, this would have been an obvious extension of the prior art's teachings.
Claim(s) 28-31, 43, 60 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Shuster-Arechiga (US 20140214505)/ CN’101 (CN 206735101) in view of McGurk (WO 2019/243848)
Re claim 28-31, Shuster-Arechiga is silent to electronic currency blockchain
McGurk discloses blockchain system is well known to be part of a recycling system for transferring digital money (Fig. 1-7, p. 11, 13-14, 21-22).
McGurk discloses that Figure 6 illustrates an example of a consumer processing a container return. A digital wallet 206 is associated with a consumer and has a unique cryptographic identifier or private key. This private key is sent to the recycling exchange in a data message to the exchange with an instruction to process a number of container returns. The message may be sent from a reverse vending machine or retailer as described above. The recycling record may include at least the unique identifier of the container and may optionally include further information such as the time and date of recycling, location of recycling and the method of recycling, for example. The recycling exchange 403 verifies the identity of the wallet holder 206 and creates a verification process using the wallet's private key.
The identity of the wallet holder will be verified initially by a digital wallet application running on a consumer phone or by a unique code associated with a store loyalty card. This identifier of the container is used to retrieve a creation record from the blockchain which is matched to a deposit (optionally referred to as recycling or processing) record which is appended to the block on the blockchain. If verified, the value associated with the container is transferred to the wallet 206.
The blockchain is updated to show that the container has now been validated and retrieved. It has been described above how systems and methods can be provided for recording, transferring, clearing and settling transactions used in a distributed blockchain ledger for the purposes of tracking recyclable containers. Consumers and retailers may be provided with cryptographic or virtual wallets, the cryptographic wallets enable the user to access a peer-to-peer network of computing devices on which the distributed blockchain ledger is managed. The values made available through the network are embedded directly onto blockchain ledger itself. When a consumer presents a recyclable container back into the network by way of a reverse vending machine or a retailer scanner, the system will transfer any associated value to the user and verify that all transactions are in compliance with applicable rules.
The users' cryptographic wallets may include specialised cryptographic and tokenization protocols which are employed to update the blockchain ledger and exchange virtualised data tokens among the cryptographic wallets in order to facilitate trading and to authenticate of transactional values. The platform converts the deposit values into virtual data tokens that can be exchanged for cash or other instruments/vouchers. The blockchain network provides an audit trail that can be utilised in real-time to track and validate all transactions involving the data tokens. All transactions, including previous transactions that resulted in a recycling exchange, can be self-verified by using the audit trail provided within the blockchain, thus providing a high level of transparency and protection to all interested individuals. Some or all information may be recorded within the blockchain network, this information may include data associated with any transaction, any parties to the transactions, and any data about the recycling asset itself. Instead of embedding an impractically large amount of data into the virtual data tokens, the tokens will include a key or cypher that will be used to unlock and securely access the values. A centralised banking institution is not required to perform clearance and settlement functions the system is able to process transactions quickly and efficiently. Furthermore, because the record keeping or auditing process for all transactions is "dematerialised" (e.g., conducted and stored electronically without the need for physical papers or handwritten signatures), all of the relevant documentation is immediately available the transactions may be implemented using one or more event-driven programs and protocols that utilize the blockchain network to facilitate, verify, execute and enforce the rules associated with the recycling exchange. The protocols associated with the transactions may be incorporated into the cryptographic wallets or otherwise made available through the platform.
An entry in a blockchain ledger pertaining to a container, that is the creation record of a blockchain transaction, may include information that enables a master account (e.g., a family account) to provide permissions to one or more sub-accounts (e.g., a child-account in the family office) which enable the child accounts to access, or otherwise utilize a value. For example, a digital wallet of a master account may be linked to the transaction and the transaction also linked to a sub-account. Entries in the blockchain which pertain to the container value may identify the master account as the owner of the value and may further include parameters or fields that identify child-accounts that have been granted the permissions. A user associated with the master account can grant or remove permissions to the value as needed. An entry may be appended to the blockchain each time permissions are updated so that the system can at all times can determine whether a particular account has permissions to access, or otherwise utilise a value. A further example of how the described concepts might be implemented will now be described in the context of Figure 7. In this further example, a blockchain network is provided with each manufacturer utilizing a specific, separate register/ledger contained within a blockchain network. Unlike standard blockchain distributed ledger technology where consensus is normally reached by processing a specific algorithm, within a single function, in this in stance consensus may be defined as the full circle verification of the correctness of a set of transactions comprising a block.
A network blockchain is provided with each manufacturer's transaction and containers (assets) stored within a single blockchain in an associated blockchain network. This provides anonymity to each manufacturer and also provides security in relation to each company's sensitive production data.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective date the invention was made to incorporate the teachings of McGurk for a more secure transfer of monetary value or voucher through the blockchain ledger that provides transaction histories.
Re claim 43, 60, see discussion regarding claims above.
Claim(s) 55-58 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Shuster-Arechiga (US 20140214505)/ CN’101 (CN 206735101) in view of TW263 (TW 264263)
Re claims 55.45, Shuster-Arechiga is silent to a door of the waste disposal portals is configured to be electronically remotely controlled through a remote CPU.
TW263 discloses a door of the waste disposal portals is configured to be electronically remotely controlled through a remote CPU
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the teachings of TW263 for convenience or for security purposes
Re claims 56-58, these features are well understood and therefore considered an obvious extension of the prior art’s teachings.
Remarks
Applicant's arguments have been considered but are moot in view of the new ground(s) of rejection.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
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/THIEN T MAI/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2876