Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application is being examined under the pre-AIA first to invent provisions.
DETAILED ACTION
This communication is in response to Applicant’s amendment filed 27 April 2026. Claims 1 and 12 have been amended. Claims 1-20 are currently pending. The rejections are as stated below.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter. In particular, claims are directed to a judicial exception (abstract idea) without significantly more. Examiner incorporates the rejection and response to arguments from the previous office action mailed on 02 October 2025. Further:
Claim 1 (exemplary) recites a series of steps for managing an auction for trading an instrument.
The claim is directed to a process, which is a statutory category of invention.
The claim is then analyzed to determine whether it is directed to a judicial exception. The claim recites the limitations of receiving market data including filled and unfilled order information for a first instrument and from respective trading parties, an indication of interest in the first instrument and an indication of interest in at least one other instrument; determining a suggested mid-level price for the first instrument for an auction session; initiating an auction session for a first time period, based on a determination that an indication of interest in the first instrument of at least one first trading party of the trading parties is received respectively; monitoring countdown by a first timer of the first time period; while the auction session is determined not to be expired as indicated by the countdown of the first time period, to display an auction notification for the first instrument at the suggested mid-level price; receiving a query of a given second trading party responsive to the auction notification, in which the query indicates an order for the first instrument indicating a size and a buy or sell direction of the order; responsive to receiving the query, initiating a request for auction (RFA) session for the given second trading party for a second time period shorter than the first time period; monitoring countdown by a second electronic timer of the second time period; while the RFA session for the given second trading party is determined not to be expired as indicated by the countdown of the second time period, while both the RFA session timer and the auction session timer remain unexpired, dynamically terminating display of the RFA session information immediately upon expiration of either timer; transmitting RFA session information, to cause a display thereof to display the RFA session information, wherein the RFA session information is indicated by the query, in which the RFA session information indicates the first instrument and the suggested mid-level price for the RPA session for the given second trading party without indicating the size of the order, the buy or sell direction of the order or an identity of the given second trading party; receiving an RFA order of a given first trading party to trade the first instrument in the RFA session for the given second trading party, in which the RPA order indicates a second size and a second buy or sell direction without indicating an identity of the first trading party; and identifying matched orders including at least a portion of the order and the RFA order; and following execution of the matched orders, causing to display trade execution information for the matched orders.
The claimed system simply describes series of steps for managing an auction for trading an instrument. These limitations, as drafted, are processes that, under its broadest reasonable interpretation, covers performances and concepts relating to fundamental economic principles or practices/commercial interactions that enhance customer experience with managing a trade (see (Alice, 573 U.S. at 219-20; Bilski, 561 U.S. at 611), and, therefore, fall within the certain methods of organizing human activity category of the USPTO’s Guidance. These limitations are directed to an abstract idea because they are managing transactions and/or activities that fall within the enumerated group of “certain methods of organizing human activity”. See MPEP § 2106.04(a)(2).
Next, the claim is analyzed to determine if it is integrated into a practical application. The recited judicial exception may be integrated into a practical application by identifying whether there are any additional elements recited in the claim beyond the judicial exception and evaluating those additional elements individually and in combination to determine whether they integrate the exception into a practical application. The claim recites additional limitation of at least one processor (claim 12), a communication network, a market data database, computing devices, at least one first computing device of the computing devices, electronic timer, at least one second computing device, a given second computing device of the at least one second computing device and a given first computing device of the at least one first computing device to perform the steps. The processor and devices in the steps are recited at a high level of generality, i.e., as a generic processor performing a generic computer function of processing data. This generic processor limitation is no more than mere instructions to apply the exception using generic computer component. Merely adding generic computer components to perform abstract ideas does not integrate those ideas into a practical application. See 2019 Revised Guidance, 84 Fed. Reg. at 55 (identifying “merely includ[ing] instructions to implement an abstract idea on a computer” as an example of when an abstract idea has not been integrated into a practical application). Also, these limitations are an attempt to limit the abstract idea to a particular technological environment. Accordingly, these additional elements do not integrate the abstract idea into a practical application because they do not impose any meaningful limits on practicing the abstract idea. The claim is directed to the abstract idea.
Next, the claim is analyzed to determine if there are additional claim limitations that individually, or as an ordered combination, ensure that the claim amounts to significantly more than the abstract ideas (whether claim provides inventive concept). As discussed above, the recitation of the claimed limitations amounts to mere instructions to implement the abstract idea on a computer (using the computer as a tool to implement the abstract idea). Taking the additional elements individually and in combination, the computer at each step of the process performs purely generic computer functions. As such, there is no inventive concept sufficient to transform the claimed subject matter into a patent-eligible application. The same analysis applies here, i.e., mere instructions to apply an exception using a generic computer component cannot integrate a judicial exception into a practical application at or provide an inventive concept. Viewing the limitations as an ordered combination does not add anything further than looking at the limitations individually. When viewed either individually, or as an ordered combination, the additional limitations do not amount to significantly more than the abstract idea itself. Therefore, the claim does not amount to significantly more than the recited abstract idea. Therefore, the claim is not patent eligible.
The analysis above applies to the statutory category of invention of claims 1 and 12. Furthermore, the dependent claims 2-11 and 13-20 do not resolve the issues raised in the independent claims.
The dependent claims do not add limitations that meaningfully limit the abstract idea. Dependent claims 2-11 and 13-20, recite additional limitations and steps. However, as mentioned above with respect to the independent claims, the claimed limitations are no more than mere instructions to apply the exception using generic computer component. Also, these limitations are an attempt to limit the abstract idea to a particular technological environment. Accordingly, the additional elements do not integrate the abstract idea into a practical application because they do not impose any meaningful limits on practicing the abstract idea. The claim is directed to the abstract idea.
These claims do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception because the additional elements are simply steps performed by a generic computer. The claim merely amounts to the application or instructions to apply the abstract idea on a device, and is considered to amount to nothing more than requiring a generic device to merely carry out the abstract idea itself.
The dependent claims do not impart patent eligibility to the abstract idea of the independent claims. Therefore, none of the dependent claims alone or as an ordered combination add limitations that qualify as integrating the abstract idea into a practical application or amounts to significantly more than the abstract idea itself.
Accordingly, claims 1-20 are rejected as ineligible for patenting under 35 U.S.C. 101 based upon the same analysis.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments with respect to 35 USC § 101 directed to non-statutory subject matter been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Examiner respectfully disagrees. Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to a judicial exception (abstract idea) without significantly more.
Examiner incorporates herein the response to arguments from the previous office actions.
Applicant amended the claims to include the above-mentioned limitations. However, the concept is directed to managing an auction for trading an instrument which does not make it less abstract. The same updated analysis based on the new 2019 Patent Eligibility Guidance (2019 PEG) applies to the newly added claimed limitations as discussed above and in the previous office action rejections.
The claims apply the abstract idea on the computer system at a high-level of generality such that it amounts to no more than mere instructions to apply the exception using a generic computer component. The claims are directed to an abstract idea.
Applicant submits that “the presently pending claims recite a concrete control architecture for a networked trading platform, namely a specific distributed session-state control technique implemented across multiple networked computing devices ... the claims improve the operation of the computerized trading platform itself by enforcing synchronized, time-bounded session visibility across multiple devices based on explicitly recited control logic”.
Examiner respectfully disagrees, Step 2A, prong two, integration into a practical application requires an additional element(s) or a combination of additional elements in the claim to apply, rely on, or use the judicial exception in a manner that imposes a meaningful limit on the judicial exception, such that the claim is more than a drafting effort designed to monopolize the exception. Limitations that are not indicative of integration into a practical application are those that are mere instructions to implement an abstract idea on a computer, or merely uses a computer as a tool to perform an abstract idea.-see MPEP 2106.05(f).
The instant claims do not attempt to solve an unconventional technological solution. Using the processor as a tool to implement the abstract idea and the way the information is processed and displayed does not make it less abstract. The claimed use of computer elements recited at a high level of generality is an attempt to limit the abstract idea to a particular technological environment. Applicant amended the claims to include “… while both the RFA session timer and the auction session timer remain unexpired, dynamically terminating display of the RFA session information immediately upon expiration of either timer …” However, this is clearly a conditional use interface update rule (the RFA information is shown only while both timers are running, and stop showing it when either timer expires). Courts consider rules related to displaying, timing and termination of trading information as part of the abstract idea (fundamental economic principles or practices/commercial interactions that enhance customer experience with managing a trade), see analysis above. It is simply describing how the auction and the RFA sessions are managed, when certain information should stop being displayed on a device. The amended limitations add a more detailed description to the same idea, adding a timer condition does not change the nature of the claim. Accordingly, these additional elements do not integrate the abstract idea into a practical application because they do not impose any meaningful limits on practicing the abstract idea.
Examiner respectfully disagrees that the claims improve the operation of the computerized trading platform itself by enforcing synchronized. As found by the courts “In order for the addition of a machine to impose a meaningful limit on the scope of a claim, it must play a significant part in permitting the claimed method to be performed, rather than function solely as an obvious mechanism for permitting a solution to be achieved more quickly . . ..” SiRF Tech., Inc. v. Int'l Trade Comm'n, 601 F.3d 1319, 1333 (Fed. Cir. 2010); see also Content Extraction, 2013 WL 3964909, at *12 (“the mere use of a computer to more quickly and efficiently . . . accomplish a given task does not create meaningful limitation on an otherwise abstract and wide-ranging concept”).
The claims here do not recite an improvement in computers. The claims do not improve the functioning of the computer, or solve any technological problem. Rather, the claim simply “includes instructions to implement an abstract idea on a computer” and “does no more than generally link the use of a judicial exception to a particular technological environment or field of use.” The claim uses generic computer components and generic computer functionality to manage trades. The claims merely use instructions to implement the abstract idea on a computer or, alternatively, merely uses a computer as a tool to perform the abstract idea. Here, the additional limitations do not integrate the judicial exception into a practical application.
Examiner notes that the instant claims provide a generically computer-implemented solution to a business-related problem. The focus of the claimed invention in the present application is not on an improvement in computers as tools, but on certain independently abstract ideas that use computers as tools.
The claims as a whole do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception because the additional elements are generic computer components claimed to perform their basic functions. The processor is a general-purpose processor that performs general-purpose functions. The recitation of the claimed limitations amounts to mere instructions to implement the abstract idea on a computer (using the processor as a tool to implement the abstract idea). Taking the additional elements individually and in combination, each step of the process performs purely generic computer functions. As such, there is no inventive concept sufficient to transform the claimed subject matter into a patent-eligible application. The claim does not amount to significantly more than the abstract idea itself. The claims do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception because the additional elements are simply a generic recitation of a computer processor performing its generic computer functions. Accordingly, claims are ineligible.
Dependent claims do not resolve the issues raised in the independent claims. The dependent claims do not add limitations that meaningfully limit the abstract idea.
The dependent claims do not impart patent eligibility to the abstract idea of the independent claims. The claims merely amount to the application or instructions to apply the abstract idea on a processor, and is considered to amount to nothing more than requiring a generic processor to merely carry out the abstract idea itself. Therefore, none of the dependent claims alone or as an ordered combination add limitations that qualify as significantly more than the abstract idea.
Accordingly, claims 1-20 are rejected as ineligible for patenting under 35 U.S.C. 101.
For these reasons the rejection under 35 USC § 101 directed to non-statutory subject matter set forth in this office action is maintained.
Conclusion
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 extension fee 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 date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Hani Kazimi whose telephone number is (571) 272-6745. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday from 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM.
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Respectfully Submitted
/HANI M KAZIMI/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3691
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