CTFR 17/456,703 CTFR 87859 DETAILED ACTION Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status 07-03-aia AIA 15-10-aia The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA. 12-151 AIA 26-51 12-51 Status of Claims The reply filed 03/30/2026 is acknowledged. Claims 1, 6, and 11 have been amended. Claims 2-3 and 15-16 were previously canceled. Claims 1, 4-14, and 17-20 are pending and presented for examination. Response to Arguments Applicant’s amendments, filed 03/30/2026, to claim 11 has overcome the claim objection set forth in the Non-Final Rejection 01/09/2026. Therefore, the claim objection of claim 11 has been withdrawn. 07-37 AIA Applicant's arguments, filed 03/30/2026, with respect to the prior art rejections of claims 1, 4-14, and 17-20 have been fully considered, but they are not persuasive. In response to the Applicant’s remarks regarding the communication network provider and communication network on pgs. 10-12, it is unclear to which details of the communication network are missing from prior art Ciurea U.S. Patent 10,332,108 since the claimed invention itself does not claim any further details on the communication network. At most, the claimed invention is claiming that the communication network is being provided by a communication network provider, and the communication network exists between an electronic device, a merchant backend, and a passive service computer program, all of which are disclosed or at least suggested by Ciurea in at least Col. 52, lines 36-42, Col. 67, lines 44-49 (for purposes of brevity, please see below for mapping and rationale). Furthermore, in response to Applicant’s remarks regarding Ciurea not disclosing who provides the portal 143, i.e. the passive payment service computer program, to “provide” means to “supply or make available” (merriam-webster.com). Therefore, under the broadest, most reasonable interpretation, the portal 143, i.e. passive payment service computer program, is provided by the communication network provider because such communication network provider is making the portal available for access to the other devices Col. 67, lines 44-49 . The communication network could be, but is not limited to, cellular telecommunications network and/or the Internet, which one of ordinary skill in the art would recognize are provided by a mobile network operator and/or an internet service provider. Therefore, a mobile network operator and/or an internet service provider can make available the portal 143, i.e. providing, by the communication network provider. Furthermore, Ciurea suggests an Internet service provider that provides access to the portal in Col. 13, lines 57-60 since the portal 143 can use the street address, identified by the ISP, to identify the consumer. In response to the Applicant’s remarks regarding the unique identifier on pgs. 12-13, Ciurea does not provide payment information to the merchant in the form of one-time account information. Ciurea discloses that the user makes a payment using an anonymized account, or a one-time account Col. 51, lines 63-64 . The one-time account information is used to replace the account information, therefore shielding the account information from the merchant system in the payment transaction Col. 53, lines 62-67. Therefore, Ciurea’s one-time account information does not contain payment information since the purpose of the one-time account information is to shield the actual account information, or payment information. Furthermore, there is no suggestion in Ciurea that the one-time account information contains any payment information . Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103 07-06 AIA 15-10-15 In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status. 07-20-aia AIA 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. 07-21-aia AIA Claim s 1, 4-14, and 17-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ciurea U.S. 10,332,108 in view of Zaidi, III et al. U.S. 2017/0012843 (herein referred to as “Zaidi”), in view of Rohlfing et al. U.S. 2017/0323294 (herein referred to as “Rohlfing”), and further in view of Martin-Bale et al. U.S. 2021/0303331 (herein as “Martin-Bale”) . Re Claims 1 and 6, Ciurea disclose a method for inline passive payment, comprising: providing, by a communication network provider, a communication network between an electronic device associated with a customer and a merchant backend, ( Col. 52, lines 36-42, Fig. 23 – “portal (143) detects that the communication between the point of interaction (107) (i.e. electronic device associated with a customer) and the merchant system (689)” thereby suggesting the portal, point of interaction, and merchant system are all within the same communication network), wherein the communication network provider comprises a mobile network operator or an internet service provider ( Col. 67, lines 44-49 – “the portal (143) and other devices and/or services accessing the portal 143 are connected via communications networks, such as a local area networks, cellular telecommunications networks (i.e. mobile network operator) , wireless wide area networks, wireless local area networks, an intranet, and Internet (i.e. internet service provider) ” ); providing, by the communication network provider and as part of the communication network, a passive payment service computer program in the communication network ( Col. 52, lines 36-42, Fig. 23 – “portal (143) detects that the communication between the point of interaction (107) and the merchant system (689)…the portal (143) is configured to act on behalf of the user (101) of the point of interaction (107),” Col. 67, lines 44-49 – “the portal (143) and other devices and/or services accessing the portal 143 are connected via communications networks,” thereby suggesting the portal is provided by the communication network provider because the provider is providing access to the portal, and the portal is part of the same communication network as the point of interaction and merchant system because they are all communicating with each other); identifying, by the passive payment service computer program, a communication from the electronic device associated with a customer to the merchant backend Col. 53, lines 53-55 - “portal (143) detects the use of account information (142) to make a payment transaction in the consumer account (146)” ; intercepting, by the passive payment service computer program, the communication before it is communicated to the merchant backend ( Col. 53, lines 56-59 - “the portal (143) is configured to replace the account information (142) with one-time account information (751) to generate the online communication (757) provided to the merchant system (689),” thus “intercepting” the communication before it is communicated to the merchant system); generating, by the passive payment service computer program, a unique identifier for the customer, wherein the unique identifier identifies the customer and does not include a customer name and a customer contact information ( Col. 53, lines 56-58 – “the portal (143) is configured to replace the account information (142) with one-time account information (751),” thereby “generating” a unique identifier, Col. 54, lines 1-2 – “the one-time account information (751) (i.e. unique identifier) is associated with the consumer account information (142),” and therefore identifies the customer, Col. 53, lines 59-67 – “The anonymized user information (756) in the online communication (757) provided to the merchant system (689) is configured to include the one-time account information (751) that is used to replace the account information (142) of the consumer account (146) of the user (101) provided in the user information (758). Thus, the account information (142) of the user (101) is shielded from the merchant system (689) in the payment transaction,” Col. 70, lines 44-46 – “The account information (142) may include…the name of the consumer holding the consumer account (146),” Col. 70, lines 50-53 – “the account information (142) may further include…an address of the consumer,” therefore, the one-time account information that replaces the account information does not contain identifying elements of the customer, including the name and contact information), wherein the unique identifier does not include payment information ( Col. 51, lines 63-64 , Col. 53, lines 62-67 - the user makes a payment using an anonymized account with one-time account information that replaces the account information, therefore shielding the account information from the merchant system in the payment transaction, i.e. does not include payment information); communicating, by the passive payment service computer program, the unique identifier to an issuer backend for an issuer associated with the customer ( Shown in at least Fig. 4 – portal 143 is coupled to the data warehouse 149, Col. 54, lines 1-3 – “the one-time account information (751) is associated with the consumer account information (142) in the data warehouse (149),” Col. 5, lines 43-44 – “a portal (143) is coupled with the data warehouse (149) to provide data or information,” thereby suggesting the portal communicates the one-time account information to the data warehouse, Fig. 10 – data warehouse 149 is associated with the issuer processor 145, i.e. “to an issuer backend for an issuer”) ; anonymizing, by the passive payment service computer program, the customer in the communication by removing the customer name and the customer contact information from the communication ( Col. 53, lines 24-25 – “the portal (143) configured to perform the anonymizing operation,” Col. 52, lines 56-63 – “the user information (758) that is anonymized in the communications…include…user identifier, street address…account information (142),” Col. 70, lines 44-46 – “The account information (142) may include…the name of the consumer holding the consumer account (146),” Col. 70, lines 50-53 – “the account information (142) may further include…an address of the consumer,” the meaning of anonymize means to remove identifying information from something, such as computer data, so that the original source cannot be known (www.merriam-webster.com)) ; transmitting, by the passive payment service computer program, […] the unique identifier […] and the communication with the customer name and the customer contact information removed ( Col. 53, lines 59-62 – “The anonymized user information (756) in the online communication (757) provided to the merchant system (689) (i.e. transmitted to merchant backend) is configured to include the one-time account information (751) (i.e. unique identifier) ). However, Ciurea does not expressly disclose injecting, by the passive payment service computer program, the unique identifier into a header of a http(s) request; transmitting, by the passive payment service computer program, the http(s) request with the unique identifier in the header of the http(s) request; Zaidi disclose troubleshooting transactions in a network environment. Specifically, Zaidi disclose injecting, by the passive payment service computer program, the unique identifier into a header of a http(s) request [0042] – “generate a unique identifier and insert the unique identifier into the transaction request. The unique identifier…allows an enterprise to distinguish between transactions…inject the unique identifier as a header in the transaction request,” [0078] – “Unique ID generator 220 may inject the unique ID into the transaction request as an HTTP header,” ; transmitting, by the passive payment service computer program, the http(s) request with the unique identifier in the header of the http(s) request [0043] – “ transmit the transaction request to one or more application servers and databases to complete processing the transaction request . ” It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Ciurea’s anonymized transaction system and method with the teachings of injecting the unique identifier into a http header of a transaction request and transmitting the request in Zaidi. One of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the combination of applying the known technique of communicating via HTTP protocol to a known transaction system and method would have yielded predictable results because each element merely performs the same function as it does separately. Ciurea in view of Zaidi do not explicitly teach receiving, by the issuer backend, and in response to the merchant backend receiving the unique identifier, a request for authorization for a transaction with the unique identifier; issuing, by the issuer backend, a guarantee of payment to the merchant backend for the transaction for the unique identifier; and matching, by the merchant backend, the guarantee of payment to the transaction using the unique identifier for the customer. Rohlfing discloses a method and system for processing a guaranteed electronic transaction. Specifically, Rohlfing discloses receiving, by the issuer backend, and in response to the merchant backend receiving the unique identifier, a request for authorization for a transaction with the unique identifier Fig. 3A, 312 – “Receive Authorization Request,” [0052] – “The authorization request…that includes…a plurality data elements, including data elements configured to store the primary account number (i.e. unique identifier)” ; issuing, by the issuer backend, a guarantee of payment to the merchant backend for the transaction for the unique identifier [0055] – “(issuer) may generate a blockchain transaction as a record of guaranteed payment for payment of the transaction amount to the acquirer processing server 110 for instantaneous payment to the merchant system 108” ; and matching, by the merchant backend, the guarantee of payment to the transaction using the unique identifier for the customer [0058] – “The validation of the guarantee may include retrieving the blockchain from the blockchain network 114 and identifying the posted blockchain for the transfer of the transaction amount to the destination address associated with the acquirer processing server 110. The acquirer processing server 110 may also hash the blockchain transaction using the same hashing algorithm as the issuer processing server 102 and confirm that the hash matches (i.e. matching the guarantee of payment) the hash stored in the corresponding data element (i.e. unique identifier) in the authorization response.” It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Ciurea in view of Zaidi’s anonymized transaction system and method with the teachings of issuing a guarantee of payment to the merchant in Rohlfing. One would be motivated to make this combination because it would provide readily verifiable payment guarantee while maintaining a high level of consumer convenience Rohlfing, [0004]. However, Ciurea in view of Zaidi and Rolfing do not explicitly teach validating, by the issuer backend, the customer is a real person based on checks performed by the issuer; issuing, by the issuer backend, a guarantee that the customer is valid. Martin-Bale discloses transaction flows that allow clients to proceed with electronic transactions without having to provide their actual payment information. Specifically, Martin-Bale discloses validating, by the issuer backend, the customer is a real person based on checks performed by the issuer ( [0065] – “various steps of transaction authorization logic can be carried out by the virtual issuer”…”determining whether the card is in a valid state 305 (for example if the user’s account is in a valid status, if Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-money laundering (AML) status is valid if the user is verified,” determining the user status is valid/verified is analogous to validating the customer is a real person. The specification discloses the checks as the Know Your Customer checks/verification in [0029], [0050], therefore, the KYC checks used in Martin-Bale would also result in validating that the customer is a real person since both the prior art and specification uses the same type of checks); issuing, by the issuer backend, a guarantee that the customer is valid ( [0031] – “the virtual issuer server 105 can perform various actions to determine whether to generate an approval or denial message for ultimately returning to the merchant server 103,” such actions can reasonably include the steps disclosed in [0065]. Generating an approval message, based on the disclosed KYC checks, and returning it to the merchant server is analogous to issuing a guarantee that the customer is valid). It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Ciurea in view of Zaidi and Rolfing’s anonymized transaction system and method with the teachings of validating the customer is a real person based on KYC checks and issuing a guarantee that the customer is valid to the merchant in Martin-Bale. One would be motivated to make this combination to detect fraud and thereby decrease fraudulent transactions Martin-Bale, [0049], [0065]. Furthermore, regarding claim 6, Ciurea discloses a communication network provider electronic device Col. 73, lines 60-61 , a memory storing a passive payment service computer program Col. 73, line 62 , and a computer processor Col. 73, line 63 . Re Claims 4, 9, and 17, Ciurea in view of Zaidi, Rohlfing, and Martin-Bale teach the method of claim 1, and Ciurea in view of Zaidi, Rohlfing, and Martin-Bale further teach wherein the passive payment service computer program comprises a browser plugin for a browser executed on the electronic device. Zaidi discloses a network device may process requests from web browsers using an HTTP protocol [0077]. The network device may use a unique ID generator to inject the unique ID into the transaction request as an HTTP header, and unique ID generator may be any suitable plug-in [0078]. It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Ciurea’s anonymized transaction system and method with the teachings of using a browser plug-in with a device in Zaidi.. One of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that combining prior art elements (browser as taught in Ciurea, e.g. Col. 26, lines 1-2, Col. 12, line 18 – ‘Browser Cookie’ and plug-in to insert a unique identifier into a transaction request in Zaidi) according to known methods (e.g. installing/adding browser plug-in) would yield predictable results (browser with browser plug-in). Re Claims 5, 10, and 18, Ciurea in view of Zaidi, Rohlfing, and Martin-Bale teach the method of claim 4, and Ciurea in view of Zaidi, Rohlfing, and Martin-Bale further teach wherein the browser plugin injects the unique identifier into the header of the http(s) request from the browser to the merchant backend. Zaidi discloses a network device may process requests from web browsers using an HTTP protocol [0077]. The network device may use a unique ID generator to inject the unique ID into the transaction request as an HTTP header, and unique ID generator may be any suitable plug-in [0042], [0078]. It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Ciurea’s anonymized transaction system and method with the teachings of using a browser plug-in with a device to inject the unique ID into the transaction request in Zaidi. One of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that combining prior art elements (browser as taught in Ciurea, e.g. Col. 26, lines 1-2, Col. 12, line 18 – ‘Browser Cookie’ and plug-in to insert a unique identifier into a transaction request in Zaidi) according to known methods (e.g. installing/adding browser plug-in) would yield predictable results (browser with browser plug-in to inject the unique ID into the transaction request). Re Claim 7, Ciurea in view of Zaidi, Rohlfing, and Martin-Bale teach the communication network provider electronic device of claim 6, and Ciurea in view of Zaidi, Rohlfing, and Martin-Bale further teach wherein the communication network provider electronic device is a part of a communication network provider comprising a mobile network operator ( Ciurea, Col. 6, lines 12-17 – “the financial transactions are made via an account identification device (141), such as financial transaction cards…the financial transaction cards may be embodied in various devices, such as…mobile phones,” Col. 12, lines 25-26 – “…to the user (101) via the preferred communication channel (e.g. mobile communications),” thereby suggesting the network is a mobile network operator and the device is a part of the mobile network). Re Claim 8, Ciurea in view of Zaidi, Rohlfing, and Martin-Bale teach the communication network provider electronic device of claim 6, and Ciurea in view of Zaidi, Rohlfing, and Martin-Bale further teach wherein the communication network provider electronic device is a part of a communication network provider comprising an internet service provider Ciurea, Col. 13, lines 57-58 – “an Internet service provider knows the street address of the currently assigned IP address.” Re Claim 11, Ciurea discloses a system comprising: a customer electronic device associated with a customer ( Col. 72, line 65 – Col. 73, line 2 –“a consumer device is used as the point of interaction (107),” “The consumer device is to provide media content to the user (101) and may receive input from the user (101),” i.e. associated with a customer); a merchant backend Fig. 21, merchant system 689 ; a communication network provider providing a communication network between the customer electronic device associated with the customer and the merchant backend, and providing and executing a passive payment service computer program in the communication network, wherein the communication network provider comprises a mobile network operator or an internet service provider ( Col. 52, lines 36-42, Fig. 23 – “portal (143) detects that the communication between the point of interaction (107) and the merchant system (689)…the portal (143) is configured to act on behalf of the user (101) of the point of interaction (107),” thereby suggesting they are all within the same communication network, Col. 67, lines 44-49 – “the portal (143) and other devices and/or services accessing the portal 143 are connected via communications networks, such as a local area networks, cellular telecommunications networks (i.e. mobile network operator), wireless wide area networks, wireless local area networks, an intranet, and Internet (i.e. internet service provider), ” thereby suggesting the portal is provided by the communication network provider because the provider is providing access to the portal, and the portal is part of the same communication network as the point of interaction and merchant system because they are all communicating with each other); an issuer backend for an issuer comprising a passive payment computer program and authorization computer program ( Fig. 23 – issuer processor 145, transaction handler 103, and transaction terminal 105, data warehouse 149, and all other subcomponents are collectively analogous to an issuer backend for an issuer, and functions performed by the aforementioned components and subcomponents are analogous to a passive payment computer program and authorization computer program, see performed functions and citations below) ; wherein: the passive payment service computer program identifies a communication from the customer electronic device associated to the merchant backend Col. 53, lines 53-55 - “the portal (143) detects the use of the account information (142) to make a payment transaction in the consumer account (146)” ; the passive payment service computer program intercepts the communication before it is communicated to the merchant backend ( Col. 53, lines 56-57 – “the portal (143) is configured to replace the account information (142) with one-time account information (751) to generate the online communication (757) provided to the merchant system (689),” thereby “intercepting” the communication before it is communicated to the merchant system); the passive payment service computer program generates a unique identifier for the customer, wherein the unique identifier identifies the customer and does not include a customer name and a customer contact information ( Col. 53, lines 56-58 – “the portal (143) is configured to replace the account information (142) with one-time account information (751),” thereby “generating” a unique identifier, Col. 54, lines 1-2 – “the one-time account information (751) (i.e. unique identifier) is associated with the consumer account information (142),” and therefore identifies the customer, Col. 53, lines 59-67 – “The anonymized user information (756) in the online communication (757) provided to the merchant system (689) is configured to include the one-time account information (751) that is used to replace the account information (142) of the consumer account (146) of the user (101) provided in the user information (758). Thus, the account information (142) of the user (101) is shielded from the merchant system (689) in the payment transaction,” Col. 70, lines 44-46 – “The account information (142) may include…the name of the consumer holding the consumer account (146),” Col. 70, lines 50-53 – “the account information (142) may further include…an address of the consumer,” therefore, the one-time account information that replaces the account information does not contain identifying elements of the customer, including the name and contact information), wherein the unique identifier does not include payment information ( Col. 51, lines 63-64 , Col. 53, lines 62-67 - the user makes a payment using an anonymized account with one-time account information that replaces the account information, therefore shielding the account information from the merchant system in the payment transaction, i.e. does not include payment information); the passive payment service computer program communicates the unique identifier for the customer to an issuer backend associated with the customer ( Shown in at least Fig. 4 – portal 143 is coupled to the data warehouse 149, Col. 54, lines 1-3 – “the one-time account information (751) is associated with the consumer account information (142) in the data warehouse (149),” Col. 5, lines 43-44 – “a portal (143) is coupled with the data warehouse (149) to provide data or information,” thereby suggesting the portal communicates the one-time account information to the data warehouse); the passive payment computer program stores an association between customer information for the customer and the unique identifier for the customer Col. 54, lines 1-3 – “the one-time account information (751) is associated with the consumer account information (142) in the data warehouse (149),” Col. 70, lines 44-46 – “The account information (142) may include…the name of the consumer holding the consumer account (146),” Col. 70, lines 50-53 – “the account information (142) may further include…an address of the consumer,”; the passive payment service computer program anonymizes the customer in the communication by removing the customer name and the customer contact information from the communication ( Col. 53, lines 24-25 – “the portal (143) configured to perform the anonymizing operation,” Col. 52, lines 56-63 – “the user information (758) that is anonymized in the communications…include…user identifier, street address…account information (142),” Col. 70, lines 44-46 – “The account information (142) may include…the name of the consumer holding the consumer account (146),” Col. 70, lines 50-53 – “the account information (142) may further include…an address of the consumer,” the meaning of anonymize means to remove identifying information from something, such as computer data, so that the original source cannot be known (www.merriam-webster.com)); the passive payment service computer program transmits […] the unique identifier for the customer […] and the communication with the customer name and the customer contact information removed Col. 53, lines 59-62 – “The anonymized user information (756) in the online communication (757) provided to the merchant system (689) (i.e. transmitted) is configured to include the one-time account information (751) (i.e. unique identifier) ; the authorization computer program receives, from the merchant backend via a payment network, an authorization request for a transaction comprising transaction information and the unique identifier for the customer Col. 54, lines 28-34 – “the transaction handler (103) is configured to receive the authorization communication (753) (i.e. an authorization request) from the transaction terminal (105) (or the respective acquirer processor (147) of the merchant), identify the consumer account information (142) based on the one-time account information (751) provided in the authorization communication (753)” ; the authorization computer program retrieves the customer information associated with the unique identifier for the customer ( Col. 54, lines 34-36 – “replace the one-time account information (751) with the consumer account information (142),” thereby suggesting the consumer account information is retrieved, Col. 70, lines 44-46 – “The account information (142) may include…the name of the consumer holding the consumer account (146),” Col. 70, lines 50-53 – “the account information (142) may further include…an address of the consumer,” ); and the merchant backend completes the transaction Col. 69, line 8 – “funds are transferred electronically,” Col. 28, lines 25-26 – “merchant or retailer is to complete the purchase . ” However, Ciurea does not expressly disclose the passive payment service computer program injects the unique identifier for the customer into a header of a http(s) request; and the passive payment service computer program transmits the http(s) request with the unique identifier for the customer in the header of the http(s) request. Zaidi discloses troubleshooting transactions in a network environment. Specifically, Zaidi disclose the passive payment service computer program injects the unique identifier for the customer into a header of a http(s) request ( [0042] – “generate a unique identifier and insert the unique identifier into the transaction request. The unique identifier…allows an enterprise to distinguish between transactions…inject the unique identifier as a header in the transaction request,” [0078] – “Unique ID generator 220 may inject the unique ID into the transaction request as an HTTP header,” [0109] – “receives the transaction request from the user and inserts the unique identifier into the request,” therefore, the unique identifier is associated with the user that transmitted the transaction request, i.e. “for the customer”); and the passive payment service computer program transmits the http(s) request with the unique identifier for the customer in the header of the http(s) request [0043] – “ transmit the transaction request to one or more application servers and databases to complete processing the transaction request . ” It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Ciurea’s anonymized transaction system and method with the teachings of injecting the unique identifier into a http header of a transaction request and transmitting the request in Zaidi. One of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the combination of applying the known technique of communicating via HTTP protocol to a known transaction system and method would have yielded predictable results because each element merely performs the same function as it does separately. However, Ciurea in view of Zaidi do not explicitly teach the authorization computer program provides a payment guarantee for the transaction to the merchant backend. Rohlfing discloses a method and system for processing a guaranteed electronic transaction. Specifically, Rohlfing discloses the authorization computer program provides a payment guarantee for the transaction to the merchant backend [0055] – “(issuer) may generate a blockchain transaction as a record of guaranteed payment for payment of the transaction amount to the acquirer processing server 110 for instantaneous payment to the merchant system 108.” It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Ciurea in view of Zaidi’s anonymized transaction system and method with the teachings of providing a payment guarantee to the merchant in Rohlfing. One would be motivated to make this combination because it would provide readily verifiable payment guarantee while maintaining a high level of consumer convenience Rohlfing, [0004]. However, Ciurea in view of Zaidi and Rolfing do not explicitly teach the authorization computer program validates that the customer is a real person based on checks performed by the issuer; the authorization computer program provides a guarantee that the customer is valid. Martin-Bale discloses transaction flows that allow clients to proceed with electronic transactions without having to provide their actual payment information. Specifically, Martin-Bale discloses the authorization computer program validates that the customer is a real person based on checks performed by the issuer ( [0065] – “various steps of transaction authorization logic can be carried out by the virtual issuer”…”determining whether the card is in a valid state 305 (for example if the user’s account is in a valid status, if Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-money laundering (AML) status is valid if the user is verified,” determining the user status is valid/verified is analogous to validating the customer is a real person. The specification discloses the checks as the Know Your Customer checks/verification in [0029], [0050], therefore, the KYC checks used in Martin-Bale would also result in validating that the customer is a real person since both the prior art and specification uses the same type of checks); the authorization computer program provides a guarantee that the customer is valid ( [0031] – “the virtual issuer server 105 can perform various actions to determine whether to generate an approval or denial message for ultimately returning to the merchant server 103,” such actions can reasonably include the steps disclosed in [0065]. Generating an approval message, based on the disclosed KYC checks, and returning it to the merchant server is analogous to issuing a guarantee that the customer is valid). It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Ciurea in view of Zaidi and Rolfing’s anonymized transaction system and method with the teachings of validating the customer is a real person based on KYC checks and issuing a guarantee that the customer is valid to the merchant in Martin-Bale. One would be motivated to make this combination to detect fraud and thereby decrease fraudulent transactions Martin-Bale, [0049], [0065]. Re Claim 12, Ciurea in view of Zaidi, Rohlfing, and Martin-Bale teach the system of claim 11, and Ciurea in view of Zaidi, Rohlfing, and Martin-Bale further teach wherein the passive payment computer program further communicates shipping information to the merchant backend Ciurea, Fig. 24, 779, Col. 55, lines 66-67 – “provide (779) a first address to receive goods from the merchant . ” Re Claim 13, Ciurea in view of Zaidi, Rohlfing, and Martin-Bale teach the system of claim 12, and Ciurea in view of Zaidi, Rohlfing, and Martin-Bale further teach wherein the shipping information comprises anonymized shipping information Ciurea, Col. 56, lines 1-4 – “arrange (781) forwarding of the goods received at the first address to a second address of the user (101), without revealing the second address of the user (101) to the merchant,” Col. 55, lines 27-31 – “the portal (143) is configured to replace an address specified in the user information (758) provided in the online communication (759) with an anonymized address of the system to generate the online communication (757) to the merchant system (689).” Re Claim 14, Ciurea in view of Zaidi, Rohlfing, and Martin-Bale teach the system of claim 13, and Ciurea in view of Zaidi, Rohlfing, and Martin-Bale further teach wherein the anonymized shipping information comprises a third-party address ( Ciurea, Fig. 24, 779, Col. 55, lines 66-67 – “provide (779) a first address to receive goods from the merchant,” Col. 56, lines 1-4 – “arrange (781) forwarding of the goods received at the first address to a second address of the user (101), without revealing the second address of the user (101) to the merchant,” the first address is analogous to a third-party address because it is not the user’s address) . 07-22-aia AIA Claim s 19-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ciurea U.S. 10,332,108 in view of Zaidi, III et al. U.S. 2017/0012843 (herein referred to as “Zaidi”), in view of Rohlfing et al. U.S. 2017/0323294 (herein referred to as “Rohlfing”), and in view of Martin-Bale et al. U.S. 2021/0303331 (herein as “Martin-Bale”) as applied to claim 11 above, and further in view of Sharma et al. U.S. 2020/0167757 (herein referred to as “Sharma”) . Re Claim 19, Ciurea in view of Zaidi, Rohlfing, and Martin-Bale teach the system of claim 11, however, Ciurea in view of Zaidi, Rohlfing, and Martin-Bale do not explicitly teach further comprising a second electronic device that is registered to the customer, and the passive payment service computer program confirms, with the second electronic device, that the customer electronic device is authorized to conduct a passive payment. Sharma discloses a method and system for processing a transaction using plurality of devices. Specifically, Sharma discloses a second electronic device that is registered to the customer, and the passive payment service computer program confirms, with the second electronic device, that the customer electronic device is authorized to conduct a passive payment ( [0157] – “a trusted device is a user device 104 that is registered on the user account,” [0164] – pairing a non-trusted device 102, 103 with the user account using trusted device 104, “The user then authorizes the pairing request at the user device 104,” [0165] – “Once a non-trusted device 102, 103 is paired with the user account, the paired non-trusted device 102, 103 can perform steps 212-216 of method 200,” i.e. conduct a passive payment). It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Ciurea in view of Zaidi, Rohlfing, and Martin-Bale’s anonymized transaction system and method with the teachings of authorizing a plurality of devices to conduct a payment in Sharma. One would be motivated to make this combination because it would address a multitude of barriers as to why a user cannot complete a transaction they initiated as outlined in Sharma, [0002] – [0004] . Re Claim 20, Ciurea in view of Zaidi, Rohlfing, Martin-Bale, and Sharma teach the system of claim 19, and Ciurea in view of Zaidi, Rohlfing, Martin-Bale, and Sharma further teach wherein the second electronic device is registered to a family member of the customer Sharma, [0029] – “a user may be any suitable type of entity associated with a payment account, which may include a person, family.” It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Ciurea in view of Zaidi, Rohlfing, and Martin-Bale’s anonymized transaction system and method with the teachings of trusted devices amongst a family in Sharma. One would be motivated to make this combination because it would address a multitude of barriers as to why a user cannot complete a transaction they initiated as outlined in Sharma, [0002] – [0004] . Conclusion 07-40 AIA 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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If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000. /CHRISTINE DANG/Examiner, Art Unit 3698 Application/Control Number: 17/456,703 Page 2 Art Unit: 3698 Application/Control Number: 17/456,703 Page 3 Art Unit: 3698 Application/Control Number: 17/456,703 Page 4 Art Unit: 3698 Application/Control Number: 17/456,703 Page 5 Art Unit: 3698 Application/Control Number: 17/456,703 Page 6 Art Unit: 3698 Application/Control Number: 17/456,703 Page 7 Art Unit: 3698 Application/Control Number: 17/456,703 Page 8 Art Unit: 3698 Application/Control Number: 17/456,703 Page 9 Art Unit: 3698 Application/Control Number: 17/456,703 Page 10 Art Unit: 3698 Application/Control Number: 17/456,703 Page 11 Art Unit: 3698 Application/Control Number: 17/456,703 Page 12 Art Unit: 3698 Application/Control Number: 17/456,703 Page 13 Art Unit: 3698 Application/Control Number: 17/456,703 Page 14 Art Unit: 3698 Application/Control Number: 17/456,703 Page 15 Art Unit: 3698 Application/Control Number: 17/456,703 Page 16 Art Unit: 3698 Application/Control Number: 17/456,703 Page 17 Art Unit: 3698 Application/Control Number: 17/456,703 Page 18 Art Unit: 3698 Application/Control Number: 17/456,703 Page 19 Art Unit: 3698 Application/Control Number: 17/456,703 Page 20 Art Unit: 3698 Application/Control Number: 17/456,703 Page 21 Art Unit: 3698 Application/Control Number: 17/456,703 Page 22 Art Unit: 3698 Application/Control Number: 17/456,703 Page 23 Art Unit: 3698 Application/Control Number: 17/456,703 Page 24 Art Unit: 3698 Application/Control Number: 17/456,703 Page 25 Art Unit: 3698 Application/Control Number: 17/456,703 Page 26 Art Unit: 3698 Application/Control Number: 17/456,703 Page 27 Art Unit: 3698
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