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 .
Status of the Claims
This Office Action is in response to Applicant’s reply dated 7/28/2025. Claims 1 and 11 have been amended and claims 1-6, 9-16, 21, 23, and 25 are currently pending and being examined in this reply.
Response to Arguments
Regarding the 103 arguments:
Applicant’s arguments regarding the 103 rejection have been considered and are not found to be persuasive.
Applicant argues that the cited art does not teach or imply retrieving payment information from the memory of the commerce system, or storing the payment information from a previous session with the electronic device. The Examiner disagrees. Sartori teaches a system and method by which when an unlocked device is detected by the ambient commerce system, a customer ID associated with a customer profile is automatically obtained, this profile can be used to automatically process a transaction on behalf of the customer by the previously stored payment information. See at least Sartori ¶ 0123, 0163, 0172, and 0169 “to receive payment information, such as from Apple Pay™ or Google Wallet™.”; “the POS module 635 may be operable to automatically associate a shopping cart on the mobile POS device 630 with a customer ID or account of a customer in close proximity. For example, a Bluetooth signal (e.g., a beacon signal) may be broadcasted from the mobile POS device 630 with a unique identifier, and the unique identifier may be picked up (received) by a mobile device (e.g., a smartphone) carried by a customer and that mobile device may use the unique identifier to connect to the mobile POS device 630. The mobile POS device 630 may then associate the shopping cart with the customer's mobile device. In addition, if the customer already has a customer profile stored on e-commerce platform 100 (e.g. a loyalty club member profile associated with a particular merchant store), the POS module 635 may use an identifier associated with the mobile device (e.g., a phone number of the mobile device where it is a phone) to automatically link the shopping cart with the customer profile… may obtain/access/identify a corresponding customer profile for the customer (e.g., from the database), and may link that customer profile to the shopping cart. In this way, when the customer is ready to check out based on the shopping cart, one or more fields (e.g., billing and/or shipping information) may be pre-populated based on the customer profile retrieved by the POS module 635 from the e-commerce platform 100”; “The mobile application may, additionally or alternatively, have a payment interface, which is operable, when the mobile device 630 is in an unlocked state, to receive payment information from existing financial applications installed on the mobile phone, such as from Apple Pay™ or Google Wallet™.”; “virtual geo-fence may be implemented based on the physical location and boundaries of the store…a geo-fence may be used to trigger an action or response when a consumer or any product enters or exits the store…a customer may enter the store with a mobile phone (or any other mobile device), which may be pre-registered/previously associated with a customer profile for that customer and may include information about that customer such as, for example, name, address, and/or payment information”
Therefore the 103 rejections are maintained and are final.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
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.
Claims 1-6, 9-16, 19-20, and 25 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over United States Patent Application Publication No. 2021/0374707 A1 to Sartori (“Sartori”), in view of United States Patent No. 10,546,289 B1 to Maeng (“Maeng”).
In regards to claims 1 and 11, Sartori discloses the following limitations:
An ambient commerce system comprising: at least one sensor at an ambient commerce premises; a communication module; a processor coupled to the communication module and the at least one sensor; and a memory coupled to the processor, the memory storing processor-executable instructions which, when executed, cause the processor to: (see at least Sartori Abstract and ¶ 0020
detect that an electronic device previously configured to communicate with the ambient commerce system is at the ambient commerce premises, the electronic device associated with an entity; (see at least Sartori Abstract, ¶ 0169 “virtual geo-fence may be implemented based on the physical location and boundaries of the store…a geo-fence may be used to trigger an action or response when a consumer or any product enters or exits the store…a customer may enter the store with a mobile phone (or any other mobile device), which may be pre-registered/previously associated with a customer profile for that customer and may include information about that customer such as, for example, name, address, and/or payment information”)
in response to detecting that the electronic device is at the ambient commerce premises, retrieve, from memory of the ambient commerce system, a previously-stored wallet identifier that was persistently associated during a prior session with the electronic device, the wallet identifier retrieved automatically in response to detecting presence of the electronic device; (see at least Sartori ¶ 0123, 0163, 0172, and 0169 “to receive payment information, such as from Apple Pay™ or Google Wallet™.”; “the POS module 635 may be operable to automatically associate a shopping cart on the mobile POS device 630 with a customer ID or account of a customer in close proximity. For example, a Bluetooth signal (e.g., a beacon signal) may be broadcasted from the mobile POS device 630 with a unique identifier, and the unique identifier may be picked up (received) by a mobile device (e.g., a smartphone) carried by a customer and that mobile device may use the unique identifier to connect to the mobile POS device 630. The mobile POS device 630 may then associate the shopping cart with the customer's mobile device. In addition, if the customer already has a customer profile stored on e-commerce platform 100 (e.g. a loyalty club member profile associated with a particular merchant store), the POS module 635 may use an identifier associated with the mobile device (e.g., a phone number of the mobile device where it is a phone) to automatically link the shopping cart with the customer profile… may obtain/access/identify a corresponding customer profile for the customer (e.g., from the database), and may link that customer profile to the shopping cart. In this way, when the customer is ready to check out based on the shopping cart, one or more fields (e.g., billing and/or shipping information) may be pre-populated based on the customer profile retrieved by the POS module 635 from the e-commerce platform 100”; “The mobile application may, additionally or alternatively, have a payment interface, which is operable, when the mobile device 630 is in an unlocked state, to receive payment information from existing financial applications installed on the mobile phone, such as from Apple Pay™ or Google Wallet™.”; “virtual geo-fence may be implemented based on the physical location and boundaries of the store…a geo-fence may be used to trigger an action or response when a consumer or any product enters or exits the store…a customer may enter the store with a mobile phone (or any other mobile device), which may be pre-registered/previously associated with a customer profile for that customer and may include information about that customer such as, for example, name, address, and/or payment information”)
identify, based on the at least one sensor, one or more items that are to be associated with the ambient commerce transaction; and (see at least Sartori ¶ 0137-0139 “The POS module 635 may be executed to operate the mobile device 630 in a POS (or scanning mode) mode to efficiently and securely create, edit and/or checkout an electronic shopping cart…the mobile POS device 630 may be used to scan a bar code or QR code of a product (e.g. using a rear-facing camera unit of the mobile POS device 630) and display a set of information regarding the product, including, for example, price, description of the product, and a SKU number”)
automatically process the ambient commerce transaction for the identified one or more items using the particular entity defined wallet identified by the wallet identifier. (see at least Sartori ¶¶ 00150, and 0173-0174 “A transaction task may be or include a task related to completion of a transaction based on a shopping cart, such as, for example: initiating or completing a check-out process; interacting with a payment processor to complete a transaction; creating an order; entering, retrieving or processing payment information; entering, retrieving or processing customer information including a customer ID, a loyalty membership ID, an address, payment information…an automatic checkout process may be completed based on the payment information in the customer profile. Alternatively, the customer may simply walk out of the store…Once the e-commerce platform 100 has determined that the mobile phone and the customer have exited the store, the POS module 635 of the mobile POS device 630, or alternatively, the mobile POS engine 600 of the e-commerce platform 100, may automatically initiate and complete a checkout process based on the customer profile.”)
While Sartori discloses using both ApplePay and Google Wallet, Sartori does not appear to specifically disclose the following limitations:
uniquely identifying a particular entity-defined wallet of a plurality of wallets configured for use with the electronic device.
The Examiner provides Maeng to teach the following limitations:
uniquely identifying a particular entity-defined wallet selected from a plurality of wallets configured for use with the electronic device. (Maeng teaches selecting one of a plurality of wallets for use in a transaction based on user configured preferences. See at least Maeng Abstract “Based on the transaction type and element-selection data such as configuration preferences, usage history or device-specific information, one or more mobile wallet element(s) from among the plurality of mobile wallet elements in the mobile wallet can be determined”) Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing the invention to include in the system and method of Sartori the teachings of Maeng in order to process payments from multiple user wallets, and since the claimed invention is merely a combination of old elements, and in the combination each element merely would have performed the same function as it did separately, and one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
In regards to claims 2, and 12 Sartori discloses the following limitations:
wherein the instructions further cause the processor to: detect an indicator of a desire to complete an ambient commerce session, and wherein the ambient commerce transaction is processed in response to detecting the indicator of the desire to complete the ambient commerce session. (see at least Sartori ¶¶ 00150, and 0173-0174 “A transaction task may be or include a task related to completion of a transaction based on a shopping cart, such as, for example: initiating or completing a check-out process; interacting with a payment processor to complete a transaction; creating an order; entering, retrieving or processing payment information; entering, retrieving or processing customer information including a customer ID, a loyalty membership ID, an address, payment information…an automatic checkout process may be completed based on the payment information in the customer profile. Alternatively, the customer may simply walk out of the store…Once the e-commerce platform 100 has determined that the mobile phone and the customer have exited the store, the POS module 635 of the mobile POS device 630, or alternatively, the mobile POS engine 600 of the e-commerce platform 100, may automatically initiate and complete a checkout process based on the customer profile.”)
In regards to claims 3 and 13, Sartori discloses the following limitations:
wherein detecting an indicator of a desire to complete the ambient commerce session includes detecting the entity exiting a geofence defined for the ambient commerce premises. (see at least Sartori ¶¶ 00150, and 0173-0174 “A transaction task may be or include a task related to completion of a transaction based on a shopping cart, such as, for example: initiating or completing a check-out process; interacting with a payment processor to complete a transaction; creating an order; entering, retrieving or processing payment information; entering, retrieving or processing customer information including a customer ID, a loyalty membership ID, an address, payment information…an automatic checkout process may be completed based on the payment information in the customer profile. Alternatively, the customer may simply walk out of the store…Once the e-commerce platform 100 has determined that the mobile phone and the customer have exited the store, the POS module 635 of the mobile POS device 630, or alternatively, the mobile POS engine 600 of the e-commerce platform 100, may automatically initiate and complete a checkout process based on the customer profile.”)
In regards to claims 4 and 14, Sartori discloses the following limitations:
wherein the processor-executable instructions further configure the processor to: receive, from the electronic device, an entity identifier, the entity identifier uniquely identifying the entity; and based on the entity identifier, obtain a profile for the entity, wherein the profile is used to process the ambient commerce transaction. (see at least Sartori ¶¶ 00150, and 0173-0174 “A transaction task may be or include a task related to completion of a transaction based on a shopping cart, such as, for example: initiating or completing a check-out process; interacting with a payment processor to complete a transaction; creating an order; entering, retrieving or processing payment information; entering, retrieving or processing customer information including a customer ID, a loyalty membership ID, an address, payment information…an automatic checkout process may be completed based on the payment information in the customer profile. Alternatively, the customer may simply walk out of the store…Once the e-commerce platform 100 has determined that the mobile phone and the customer have exited the store, the POS module 635 of the mobile POS device 630, or alternatively, the mobile POS engine 600 of the e-commerce platform 100, may automatically initiate and complete a checkout process based on the customer profile.”)
In regards to claims 5 and 15, Sartori discloses the following limitations:
wherein the profile is used to perform authentication during the ambient commerce transaction. (see at least Sartori ¶ 0164 “a customer uses a self-scanning device or his own mobile device, he needs to first authenticate as a legitimate user (e.g. a valid user profile exists upon verification by the POS module 635)”)
In regards to claims 6 and 16, Sartori discloses the following limitations:
wherein the profile includes a voice print or facial profile which is used to authenticate the entity. (see at least Sartori ¶ 0163 “the mobile POS device 630, with appropriate user consent, may receive from the customer, a voice scan, a fingerprint, a facial scan, and/or any other biometric information of the customer, may identify the customer based on the received biometric information (e.g., by performing a lookup in a database), may obtain/access/identify a corresponding customer profile for the customer (e.g., from the database), and may link that customer profile to the shopping cart. In this way, when the customer is ready to check out based on the shopping cart, one or more fields (e.g., billing and/or shipping information) may be pre-populated based on the customer profile retrieved by the POS module 635 from the e-commerce platform 100.”)
In regards to claims 9 and 19, Sartori discloses the following limitations:
wherein the wallet identifier includes a link to a computer system or module associated with the particular wallet. (see at least Sartori ¶ 0172 “The mobile application may, additionally or alternatively, have a payment interface, which is operable, when the mobile device 630 is in an unlocked state, to receive payment information from existing financial applications installed on the mobile phone, such as from Apple Pay™ or Google Wallet™.”)
In regards to claims 10 and 20, Sartori discloses the following limitations:
wherein the at least one sensor includes a receptacle contents detector. (see at least Sartori ¶ 0130 “device 630 may have a camera 690, 695. The camera may be front-facing 690 or rear-facing 695. In some embodiments, the mobile POS device 630 may have both front-facing camera 690 and a rear-facing camera 695. Rear-facing camera 695 may be used to scan and read various machine-readable codes, such as a bar code, a quick response (QR) code, and so on. Additionally or alternatively, the mobile POS device 630 may include another component for reading machine-readable codes/indicia such as, for example, a charge-coupled device (CCD) barcode reader”)
In regards to claim 25, Sartori discloses the following limitations: wherein the one or more items that are to be associated with the ambient commerce transaction are identified using computer vision. (see at least Sartori ¶ 0018 “the mobile POS device has a camera, and the method may include: capturing an image, by the camera, of a machine-readable code associated with the product; and determining the product identifier based on the machine-readable code.”)
Claims 21 and 23 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over United States Patent Application Publication No. 2021/0374707 A1 to Sartori (“Sartori”), in view of United States Patent No. 10,546,289 B1 to Maeng (“Maeng”), in further view of United States Patent Application Publication No. 2021/0133714 A1 to Gao (“Gao”)
In regards to claims 21 and 23, Sartori does not appear to specifically disclose the following limitations:
wherein the receptacle contents detector is associated with a shopping receptacle, the shopping receptacle being a container configured to transport goods within the ambient commerce premises.
The Examiner provides Gao to teach the following limitations:
wherein the receptacle contents detector is associated with a shopping receptacle, the shopping receptacle being a container configured to transport goods within the ambient commerce premises. (Gao teaches a shopping cart including a receptacle contents detector that detects merchandise placed inside the shopping cart for use in checkout. See at least Abstract and Figures 1 and 2)
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing the invention to include in the system and method of Sartori the teachings of Gao since the claimed invention is merely a combination of old elements, and in the combination each element merely would have performed the same function as it did separately, and one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. 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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JOSEPH M MUTSCHLER whose telephone number is (313)446-6603. The examiner can normally be reached 0600-1430.
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/JOSEPH M MUTSCHLER/Examiner, Art Unit 3627
/A. Hunter Wilder/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3627
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