DETAILED ACTION
Status of Claims
Claims 1-20 submitted on 11/21/2025 are pending and have been examined. Claims 1, 10, and 19 have been amended.
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 .
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant's claim for domestic benefit. The certified copy has been filed in parent Application No. 17/356,324, filed on 06/23/2021.
Acknowledgement is made of applicant's claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d). The certified copy has been filed in parent application No. CN202010718483.4, filed on 07/23/2020.
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 a judicial exception without significantly more. The claims recite an abstract idea. This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application. The claim(s) do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception.
Step 1
Claims 1-18 are directed to a process and claims 19-20 are directed to an article of manufacture (see MPEP 2106.03).
Step 2A, Prong 1
Claim 1, recites at least the following limitations that recite an abstract idea:
a method, comprising:
the plurality of area sites respectively corresponding to a plurality of geographic regions of different countries, the plurality of geographic regions not overlapping with one another and having different data regulation requirements, each area site of the plurality of area sites physically located in a geographic region corresponding to the area site;
assigning, a first domain-wide user identifier and a first plurality of area user identifiers to a first buyer, the first plurality of area user identifiers each linked to the first domain-wide user identifier and each uniquely corresponding to a respective area site of the plurality of area sites among the first plurality of area user identifiers, the plurality of area sites each corresponding to a different one of the first plurality of area user identifiers;
assigning, a second domain-wide user identifier and a second plurality of area user identifiers to a first seller, the second plurality of area user identifiers each linked to the second domain-wide user identifier and each uniquely corresponding to a respective area site of the plurality of area sites among the second plurality of area user identifiers, the plurality of area sites each corresponding to a different one of the second plurality of area user identifiers;
receiving a payment request initiated by the first buyer for a first order, a product in the first order being provided by the first seller, and the payment request including a selected payment channel;
determining that a buyer payment service corresponding to the payment request belongs to a first geographic region, a first area site of the plurality of area sites corresponding to the first geographic region including a first buyer service site, the first buyer having a first area user identifier for the first area site, the first geographic region being determined based on a place of registration of a payment institution corresponding to the selected payment channel being located in the first geographic region; and
routing a process of the buyer payment service corresponding to the first order to the first buyer service site, for the first buyer service site to locally process, at the first buyer service site, the buyer payment service through interconnection with the selected payment channel and interconnection with the first buyer based on the first area user identifier of the first buyer, and the first buyer service site service data generated by the processing the buyer payment service.
Claim 10, recites at least the following limitations that recite an abstract idea:
a method, comprising:
the plurality of area sites respectively corresponding to a plurality of geographic regions of different countries, the plurality of geographic regions not overlapping with one another and having different data regulation requirements, each area site of the plurality of area sites physically located in a geographic region corresponding to the area site;
assigning, a first domain-wide user identifier and a first plurality of area user identifiers to a first buyer, the first plurality of area user identifiers each linked to the first domain-wide user identifier and each uniquely corresponding to a respective area site of the plurality of area sites among the first plurality of area user identifiers, the plurality of area sites each corresponding to a different one of the first plurality of area user identifiers;
assigning, a second domain-wide user identifier and a second plurality of area user identifiers to a first seller, the second plurality of area user identifiers each linked to the second domain-wide user identifier and each uniquely corresponding to a respective area site of the plurality of area sites among the second plurality of area user identifiers, the plurality of area sites each corresponding to a different one of the second plurality of area user identifiers;
obtaining a payment success message corresponding to a payment request for a first order between the first buyer and the first seller, a product in the first order being provided by the first seller;
determining that a seller delivery service corresponding to the first order belongs to a first geographic region, a first area site corresponding to the first geographic region including a first seller service site, the first seller having a first area user identifier for the first area site; and
routing a process of the seller delivery service to the first seller service site, for the first seller service site to locally process at the first seller service site. the seller delivery service through interconnection with the first seller based on the first area user identifier of the first seller, and the first seller service site service data generated by the processing the seller delivery service.
Claim 19, recites at least the following limitations that recite an abstract idea:
the plurality of area sites respectively corresponding to a plurality of geographic regions of different countries, the plurality of geographic regions not overlapping with one another and having different data regulation requirements, each area site of the plurality of area sites physically located in a geographic region corresponding to the area site each area site including a buyer service site and a seller service site;
assigning, a first domain-wide user identifier and a first plurality of area user identifiers to a first user, the first plurality of area user identifiers each linked to the first domain-wide user identifier and each uniquely corresponding to a respective area site of the plurality of area sites among the first plurality of area user identifiers, the plurality of area sites each corresponding to a different one of the first plurality of area user identifiers;
determining that the first user having the first domain-wide identifier has logged in for a first service to be performed in a first geographic region corresponding to a first area site of the plurality of area sites;
determining the first plurality of area user identifiers of the first user based on the first domain-wide identifier; and
routing a process of the first service to the first area site of the plurality of area sites of the first area site to locally process, at the first area site, the first service using an area user identifier of the first plurality of area user identifiers that corresponds to the first area site, and the first area site service data generated by the processing the first service.
The above limitation, under its broadest reasonable interpretation, falls within the “Certain Methods of Organizing Human Activity” grouping of abstract ideas, enumerated in MPEP 2106.04(a)(2)(II), in that it recites a commercial interaction, see ¶0002 of the instant specification.
Thus, under Prong 1 of Step 2A, claims 1, 10, and 19 recite an abstract idea.
Step 2A, Prong 2
Claim 1 includes the following additional elements that are bolded:
a method, comprising:
deploying a plurality of servers for implementing a plurality of area sites of a service platform, the plurality of area sites respectively corresponding to a plurality of geographic regions of different countries, the plurality of geographic regions not overlapping with one another and having different data regulation requirements, a server of each area site of the plurality of area sites physically located in a geographic region corresponding to the area site and configured to interconnect with a service in the geographic region and to locally store data generated through the interconnection with the service in the geographic region;
assigning, by the service platform, a first domain-wide user identifier and a first plurality of area user identifiers to a first buyer, the first plurality of area user identifiers each linked to the first domain-wide user identifier and each uniquely corresponding to a respective area site of the plurality of area sites among the first plurality of area user identifiers, the plurality of area sites each corresponding to a different one of the first plurality of area user identifiers;
assigning, by the service platform, a second domain-wide user identifier and a second plurality of area user identifiers to a first seller, the second plurality of area user identifiers each linked to the second domain-wide user identifier and each uniquely corresponding to a respective area site of the plurality of area sites among the second plurality of area user identifiers, the plurality of area sites each corresponding to a different one of the second plurality of area user identifiers;
receiving a payment request initiated by the first buyer for a first order, a product in the first order being provided by the first seller, and the payment request including a selected payment channel;
determining that a buyer payment service corresponding to the payment request belongs to a first geographic region, a first area site of the plurality of area sites corresponding to the first geographic region including a first buyer service site, the first buyer having a first area user identifier for the first area site, the first geographic region being determined based on a place of registration of a payment institution corresponding to the selected payment channel being located in the first geographic region; and
routing a computer process of the buyer payment service corresponding to the first order to a server of the first buyer service site, for the server of the first buyer service site to locally process, at the first buyer service site, the buyer payment service through interconnection with the selected payment channel and interconnection with the first buyer based on the first area user identifier of the first buyer, and to locally store at the server of the first buyer service site service data generated by the processing the buyer payment service.
Claim 10 includes the following additional elements that are bolded:
a method, comprising:
deploying a plurality of servers for implementing a plurality of area sites of a service platform, the plurality of area sites respectively corresponding to a plurality of geographic regions of different countries, the plurality of geographic regions not overlapping with one another and having different data regulation requirements, a server of each area site of the plurality of area sites physically located in a geographic region corresponding to the area site and configured to interconnect with a service in the geographic region and to locally store data generated through the interconnection with the service in the geographic region;
assigning, by the service platform, a first domain-wide user identifier and a first plurality of area user identifiers to a first buyer, the first plurality of area user identifiers each linked to the first domain-wide user identifier and each uniquely corresponding to a respective area site of the plurality of area sites among the first plurality of area user identifiers, the plurality of area sites each corresponding to a different one of the first plurality of area user identifiers;
assigning, by the service platform, a second domain-wide user identifier and a second plurality of area user identifiers to a first seller, the second plurality of area user identifiers each linked to the second domain-wide user identifier and each uniquely corresponding to a respective area site of the plurality of area sites among the second plurality of area user identifiers, the plurality of area sites each corresponding to a different one of the second plurality of area user identifiers;
obtaining a payment success message corresponding to a payment request for a first order between the first buyer and the first seller, a product in the first order being provided by the first seller;
determining that a seller delivery service corresponding to the first order belongs to a first geographic region, a first area site corresponding to the first geographic region including a first seller service site, the first seller having a first area user identifier for the first area site; and
routing a computer process of the seller delivery service to a server of the first seller service site, for the server of the first seller service site to locally process at the first seller service site. the seller delivery service through interconnection with the first seller based on the first area user identifier of the first seller, and to locally store at the server of the first seller service site service data generated by the processing the seller delivery service.
Claim 19 includes the following additional elements that are bolded:
a computing device, comprising a memory and a processor, the memory storing executable instructions, the executable instructions, when executed by the processor, enable the processor to implement acts including:
communicating with a plurality of servers for implementing a plurality of area sites of a service platform, the plurality of area sites respectively corresponding to a plurality of geographic regions of different countries, the plurality of geographic regions not overlapping with one another and having different data regulation requirements, a server of each area site of the plurality of area sites physically located in a geographic region corresponding to the area site and configured to interconnect with a service in the geographic region and to locally store data generated through the interconnection with the service in the geographic region, each area site including a buyer service site and a seller service site;
assigning, by the service platform, a first domain-wide user identifier and a first plurality of area user identifiers to a first user, the first plurality of area user identifiers each linked to the first domain-wide user identifier and each uniquely corresponding to a respective area site of the plurality of area sites among the first plurality of area user identifiers, the plurality of area sites each corresponding to a different one of the first plurality of area user identifiers;
determining that the first user having the first domain-wide identifier has logged in for a first service to be performed in a first geographic region corresponding to a first area site of the plurality of area sites;
determining the first plurality of area user identifiers of the first user based on the first domain-wide identifier; and
routing a computer process of the first service to a server of the first area site of the plurality of area sites for the server of the first area site to locally process, at the first area site, the first service using an area user identifier of the first plurality of area user identifiers that corresponds to the first area site, and to locally store at the server of the first area site service data generated by the processing the first service.
The additional elements recited in claims 1, 10, and 19 merely invoke such elements as a tool to perform the abstract idea and generally link the use of the abstract idea to a particular technological environment (see MPEP 2106.05(f) and MPEP 2106.05(h). These additional elements are described at a high level in Applicant’s specification without any meaningful detail about their structure or configuration (see Fig. 3 and Paragraphs [0015]-[0020], [0049]-[0068], and [0126]).
As such, under Prong 2 of Step 2A, when considered both individually and as a whole, the additional elements do not integrate the judicial exception into a practical application and, thus, claims 1, 10, and 19 are directed to an abstract idea.
Step 2B
As noted above, while the recitation of the additional elements in independent claims 1, 10, and 19 are acknowledged, claims 1, 10, and 19 merely invoke such additional elements as a tool to perform the abstract idea and generally link the use of the abstract idea to a particular technological environment (see MPEP 2106.05(f) and MPEP 2106.05(h)).
Even when considered as an ordered combination, the additional elements of claim 1, 10, and 19 do not add anything that is not already present when they are considered individually. Therefore, under Step 2B, there are no meaningful limitations in claims 1, 10, and 19 that transform the judicial exception into a patent eligible application such that the claims amount to significantly more than the judicial exception itself (see MPEP 2106.05).
As such, independent claims 1, 10, and 19 are ineligible.
Dependent claims 2, 4-9, 11-14, 16-18, and 20 when analyzed as a whole, are held to be patent ineligible under 35 U.S.C. 101 because they do not add “significantly more” to the abstract idea. More specifically, dependent claims 2, 4-9, 11-14, 16-18, and 20 merely further define the abstract limitations of claims 1, 10, and 19 or provide further embellishments of the limitations recited in independent claims 1, 10, and 19. Claims 2, 4-9, 11-14, 16-18, and 20 do not introduce any further additional elements. Thus, dependent claims 2, 4-9, 11-14, 16-18, and 20 are ineligible.
Furthermore, it is noted that certain dependent claims recite additional elements supplemental to those recited in independent claims 1, 10, and 19: a hash operation (claims 3, 15). However, these elements do not integrate the abstract idea into a practical application because they merely amount to using a computer to apply the abstract idea to a particular technological environment or field of use and thus do not act to integrate the abstract idea into a practical application of the abstract idea. Additionally, the additional elements do not amount to significantly more because they merely amount to using a computer to apply the abstract idea and amount to no more than a general link of the use of the abstract idea to a particular technological environment.
Thus, dependent claims 3 and 15 are ineligible.
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
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) 1-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Oborne et al. (US 2012/0316992 A1 [previously cited]) in view of Chatenay et al. (US 2008/0262862 A1 [previously cited]) in view of Narasimhan et al. (US 2018/0089676 A1 [previously cited]) in view of Kishi et al. (US 2002/0026371 A1 [previously cited]).
Regarding Claim 1, Oborne et al., hereinafter, Oborne, discloses a method, comprising:
deploying a plurality of servers for implementing a plurality of area sites of a service platform (Fig. 1A [specifically elements 114a and 114b show a plurality of servers for implementing a plurality of area sites of a service platform]; ¶0023[a payment network system, comprised of payment network servers located in distant geographical regions (e.g., local pay network server 114a and remote pay network server 114b) may be required to determine where to process a purchase transaction]),
the plurality of area sites respectively corresponding to a plurality of geographic regions (Fig. 1A[Showing servers are deployed in different countries as seen on elements 112 and 114b]; ¶0023[a payment network system, comprised of payment network servers located in distant geographical regions (e.g., local pay network server 114a and remote pay network server 114b) may be required to determine where to process a purchase transaction]; Examiner notes that network systems and servers located in a region are comparable to area sites),
the plurality of geographic regions not overlapping with one another and having different data regulation requirements (Fig. 1A[geographical regions covered by servers labeled 114a and 114b do not overlap according to the map shown in this figure] and Fig. 7B; ¶0069[the restriction may be updated (e.g., periodically, automatically, on demand) based on privacy and/or other laws governing processing of transactions in that country.]; Examiner notes that restrictions based on laws of a particular country is comparable to the plurality of regions as seen on Fig. 1A having different data regulation requirements),
a server of each area site of the plurality of area sites physically located in a geographic region corresponding to the area site and configured to interconnect with a service in the geographic region and to locally store data generated through the interconnection with the service in the geographic region (Fig. 1A[servers 114a and 114b are depicted to be in different geographic regions corresponding to the area site they are located in and configured to interconnect with a service in the geographic region, 114a being configured to interconnect with a local pay network and 114b being configured to interconnect with a remote pay network], Fig. 15[elements 1514 and 1529]; ¶0099[The memory 1529 may contain a collection of program and/or database components and/or data ... components may be stored and accessed from the storage devices and/or from storage devices ... non-conventional program components such as those in the component collection, typically, are stored in a local storage device (examiner notes that a local storage device is comparable to locally storing generated data) 1514, they may also be loaded and/or stored in memory such as: peripheral devices, RAM, remote storage facilities through a communications network, ROM, various forms of memory, and/or the like]);
assigning, by the service platform, a first domain-wide user identifier (Fig. 3C[depicts a service platform assigning account number and other user identifiers to a user]; ¶0043[for example, the token hash may be generated (examiner notes generating for a user is comparable to assigning to the user) from a consumer's uniquely identifying information (e.g., an account identifier, unique name/address/age/etc. pairings, Social security number, and/or the like) and as Such, the resulting hash would be unique to that consumer and be the basis of a query which can be used to identify the consumer's home country]; examiner notes that a consumer's uniquely identifying information is comparable to a domain-wide user identifier) and
a first plurality of area user identifiers to a first buyer (Fig. 3C[depicts a plurality of area user identifiers for a buyer as seen on elements 324b and 326b which show the user address and a current GPS location which make up two different area user identifiers for the user]; ¶0033[the user may be able to view/modify a user name (e.g., 321a-b), account number (e.g., 322a-b), user security access code (e.g., 323a-b), user pin (e.g., 324a-b), user address (e.g., 325a-b), social security number associated with the user (e.g., 326a-b), current device GPS location (e.g., 327a-b) ... and/or the like]),
the first plurality of area user identifiers each linked to the first domain-wide user identifier and each uniquely corresponding to a respective area site of the plurality of area sites among the first plurality of area user identifiers, the plurality of area sites each corresponding to one of the first plurality of area user identifiers (Fig. 3C[depicts a plurality of area user identifiers for the user which are linked to the domain-wide user identifier of that user]; ¶0043[for example, the token hash may be generated from a consumer's uniquely identifying information (e.g., an account identifier, unique name/address/age/etc. pairings, Social security number, and/or the like) and as Such, the resulting hash would be unique to that consumer and be the basis of a query which can be used to identify the consumer's home country]; examiner notes that a consumer's uniquely identifying information is comparable to a domain-wide user identifier, refer to Fig. 3C which depicts linkage between the domain-wide user identifier and the area user identifiers);
assigning, by the service platform, a second domain-wide user identifier and a second plurality of area user identifiers to a first seller (Fig. 15[element 1519e]; ¶0148[A Merchants table 1519e may include fields such as, but not limited to: merchant id, merchant name, merchant address, store id, ip address, mac address, auth key, port num, Security settings list, and/or the like]; examiner notes that merchant address and store ID are comparable to a plurality of area user identifiers for that merchant/seller),
the second plurality of area user identifiers each linked to the second domain-wide user identifier and each uniquely corresponding to a respective area site of the plurality of area sites among the second plurality of area user identifiers, the plurality of area sites each corresponding to one of the second plurality of area user identifiers (Fig. 15[element 1519e depicts linkage of the merchant ID, merchant address and store ID under one category, "Merchants"]; ¶0148[A Merchants table 1519e may include fields such as, but not limited to: merchant id, merchant name, merchant address, store id, ip address, mac address, auth key, port num, Security settings list, and/or the like]; examiner notes that merchant address and store ID encompass a plurality of area user identifiers for a specific merchant/seller);
receiving a payment request initiated by the first buyer for a first order (Fig. 1A; ¶¶0085-0087 [the wallet mobile application may provide a user with a number of options for paying for a transaction via the wallet mode 1010 ... user may select the funds tab 1016 to select one or more forms of payment 1017, which may include various credit, debit, gift, rewards and/or prepaid cards ... when the user selects pay button 1021, the transaction authorization is conducted]),
a product in the first order being provided by the first seller (Fig. 1B; ¶0025[a user may desire to purchase a product, service and/or other offering ("product") from a merchant] and ¶¶0026-0027[the user can make a purchase order using the token ... The app may provide an indication of a pay amount due for the purchase of the product]), and
the payment request including a selected payment channel (Fig. 1B[multiple payment channels are available for choosing]; ¶0085[The user may select the funds tab 1016 to select one or more forms of payment 1017, which may include various credit, debit, gift, rewards and/or prepaid cards]);
determining that a buyer payment service corresponding to the payment request belongs to a first geographic region (Fig. 1A and 1B; ¶0024[the merchant's payment server may be aware of other regional payment server and may include a purchase origination regulation rule set, wherein certain jurisdictions may be flagged as requiring maintenance of varying levels of privacy. In such implementations, e.g., when a payment request originates from a country (e.g., European Union) requiring that the highest levels of privacy be maintained, the PPT may send the tokens and route the purchase transaction to an appropriate locality relative to the purchase origination. However, an alternative example where the purchase origination is from a locality that does not have rigorous privacy requirements, the pay network server that is most readily available (e.g., the current server, a less loaded alternative server, etc.) may instead handle the request]; examiner notes determining purchase origination is comparable to determining that a buyer payment service corresponds to a geographic region),
a first area site of the plurality of area sites corresponding to the first geographic region including a first buyer service site (Fig. 1A[show a plurality of sites that correspond to geographic regions with buyer and seller service sites]; ¶0023[a payment network system, comprised of payment network servers located in distant geographical regions (e.g., local pay network server 114a and remote pay network server 114b) may be required to determine where to process a purchase transaction]),
the first buyer having a first area user identifier for the first area site (Fig. 3C [depicts a plurality of area user identifiers for the user which are linked to the domain-wide user identifier of that user]; ¶0043[for example, the token hash may be generated from a consumer's uniquely identifying information (e.g., an account identifier, unique name/address/age/etc. pairings, Social security number, and/or the like) and as Such, the resulting hash would be unique to that consumer and be the basis of a query which can be used to identify the consumer's home country]; refer to Fig. 3C which depicts linkage between the domain-wide user identifier and the area user identifiers for a user),
the first geographic region being determined based on a place of registration of a payment institution corresponding to the selected payment channel being located in the first geographic region (Fig. 1A and 1B; ¶0024[the merchant's payment server may be aware of other regional payment server and may include a purchase origination regulation rule set, wherein certain jurisdictions may be flagged as requiring maintenance of varying levels of privacy. In such implementations, e.g., when a payment request originates from a country (e.g., European Union) requiring that the highest levels of privacy be maintained, the PPT may send the tokens and route the purchase transaction to an appropriate locality relative to the purchase origination. However, an alternative example where the purchase origination is from a locality that does not have rigorous privacy requirements, the pay network server that is most readily available (e.g., the current server, a less loaded alternative server, etc.) may instead handle the request] and ¶0058[the pay network server may generate a query, e.g., 635, for issuer server(s) corresponding to the payment token and user-selected payment options. For example, the user's payment token may be linked to one or more issuer financial institutions ("issuers"), such as banking institutions, which issued the account(s) for the user linked to the payment token. For example, such accounts may include, but not be limited to: credit card, debit card, prepaid card, checking, savings, money market, certificates of deposit, stored (cash) value accounts and/or the like. Issuer server(s), e.g., 609a-n, of the issuer(s) may maintain details of the user's account linked to the payment token. In some implementations, a database, e.g., pay network database 608, may store details of the issuer server(s) associated with the issuer(s)]); and
routing a computer process of the buyer payment service corresponding to the first order to a server of the first buyer service site (Fig. 1A[the merchant server is shown to route the transaction to a server as seen on element 114b of the first buyer site] and 1B; ¶0024[the merchant server 112 may provide the purchase requests from both users to the same locally-situated payment network server, e.g., 114a. Thus, in some implementations, the local pay network server 114a may be required to determine whether to process the payment for an incoming card authorization request locally, or transfer the request to a remotely located pay network server, e.g., 114b. In some implementations, the local pay network server 114a may be required to make such a determination without utilizing any personally identifying information of the user. In some implementations, the local pay network server 114a may utilize the payment token provided by the client of the user as a search term to query a database ... route the purchase transaction to an appropriate locality relative to the purchase origination]),
for the first service site to locally process, at the first service site, the buyer payment service through interconnection with the selected payment channel and interconnection with the first buyer based on the first area user identifier of the first buyer (Fig. 1A, 1B and 3C[linkage between user identifier and area user identifier]; ¶0024[the local pay network server 114a may be required to determine whether to process the payment for an incoming card authorization request locally, or transfer the request to a remotely located pay network server, e.g., 114b]; Examiner notes that the remotely located server processing the request is comparable to the server processing the request, and ¶0043[a consumer's uniquely identifying information (e.g., an account identifier, unique name/address/age/etc. pairings, Social security number, and/or the like) and as Such, the resulting hash would be unique to that consumer and be the basis of a query which can be used to identify the consumer's home country]; examiner notes that determining where to process a payment based on location or area user identifier of a buyer is comparable to processing a buyer payment service through interconnection with the payment channel and area user identifier of the buyer), and
to locally store at the first service site service data generated by the processing the buyer payment service (Fig. 1A[servers 114a and 114b are depicted to be in different geographic regions corresponding to the area site they are located in and configured to interconnect with a service in the geographic region, 114a being configured to interconnect with a local pay network and 114b being configured to interconnect with a remote pay network], Fig. 15[elements 1514 and 1529]; ¶0099[The memory 1529 may contain a collection of program and/or database components and/or data ... components may be stored and accessed from the storage devices and/or from storage devices ... non-conventional program components such as those in the component collection, typically, are stored in a local storage device (examiner notes that a local storage device is comparable to locally storing generated data) 1514, they may also be loaded and/or stored in memory such as: peripheral devices, RAM, remote storage facilities through a communications network, ROM, various forms of memory, and/or the like]).
Although Oborne discloses area sites corresponding to geographic regions, Oborne does not explicitly disclose sites corresponding to geographic regions of different countries.
However, Chatenay et al., hereinafter, Chatenay, teaches sites corresponding to geographic regions of different countries (Fig. 4; ¶0019[More particularly, the regional service 212 comprises a regional version of the network-based service that is offered in a particular geographical region, such as a particular country. The regional service 212 comprises a regional network site 214 and regional assets 216.] in view of ¶0014[Therefore, each server computer 104 may be operated in and/or for a different geographical region, e.g., country.]).
The method of Chatenay is applicable to the method of Oborne as they share characteristics and capabilities, namely, they are both targeted to web content gathering. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the area sites as disclosed by Oborne to include area sites of different countries as taught by Chatenay. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to expand the method of Oborne in order to access multiple sites of a given organization and with which the same customer data can be directly accessed using any of those sites (¶0011).
Although Oborne discloses a plurality of area user identifiers corresponding to a respective area site, Oborne in view of Chatenay does not explicitly teach the plurality of area sites each corresponding to a different one of the first plurality of area user identifiers.
However, Narasimhan et al., hereinafter, Narasimhan, teaches a plurality of websites corresponding to a different identifier of a user (Fig. 4; ¶0049[In one example of determining that two user identifiers match one another, data collection module 220 may provide first information indicating a user has logged into a merchant website using one identifier. Data collection module 220 may then also provide second information indicating the user is known to correspond to another particular identifier (e.g., a global identifier such as one provided by a digital payment service). Later, another instance of data collection module 220 may be able to link the same user, with yet a third different user identifier on a merchant site, to the same digital payment service identifier. With the digital payment service identifier (or any other suitable identifier) serving as a common link, it can be established that the two different user identifiers from two different merchant sites (such as on rows 420 and 425) should be matched to the same GUID 415 (“GUID_1”, in the example of FIG. 4)] in view of ¶0065).
The method of Narasimhan is applicable to the method of Oborne in view of Chatenay as they share characteristics and capabilities, namely, they are all targeted to web content gathering. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the plurality of user identifiers as taught by Oborne in view of Chatenay to include each identifier corresponding to a different website as taught by Narasimhan. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to expand the method of Oborne in view of Chatenay in order to track user behavior and provide better personalization data (¶0059).
Although Oborne discloses service sites, Oborne in view of Chatenay does not explicitly teach the server of the buyer service site to process at the buyer service site.
Although Oborne discloses locally storing data at a site, Oborne in view of Chatenay in further view of Narasimhan does not explicitly teach locally storing at the server of the first buyer service site.
However, Kishi et al., hereinafter Kishi, teaches locally storing at the server of the buyer (¶0037[One or more transaction servers 30 may be provided for regions, business types or product categories.] and ¶0165[the transaction server 30 can inquire of another transaction server 30 that maintains the corporation information location file 395 storing the corporation and/or the transaction condition information file 391 of the corporation.] in view of Claim 6[at least one transaction center is provided for each region, each business type and each product type.]; Examiner notes that servers specific to a region maintaining data is comparable to locally storing).
The method of Kishi is applicable to the method of Oborne in view of Chatenay in further view of Narasimhan as they characteristics and capabilities, namely, they are all directed to connecting a seller to a buyer. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the local storage of data as taught by Oborne in view of Chatenay in further view of Narasimhan to include locally storing at a server as taught by Kishi. One of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date would have been motivated to expand the method of Oborne in view of Chatenay in further view of Narasimhan in order to provide a network system in which the delivery schedule including the delivery date for each retailer dealing with the product can be provided to a customer buying the product through the network, and the transaction between corporations related to the product can be immediately completed at once when the order of the product is received from the customer (¶0021).
Regarding Claim 2, Oborne in view of Chatenay in view of Narasimhan in further view of Kishi teaches the method according to claim 1, Oborne further discloses further comprising:
before the receiving the payment request initiated by the first buyer for the first order, determining the first domain-wide user identifier corresponding to the first buyer in response to a successful login of the first buyer (¶¶0043-0054[the token hash may be generated from a consumer's uniquely identifying information (e.g., an account identifier, unique name/address/age/etc. pairings, Social security number, and/or the like) and as Such, the resulting hash would be unique to that consumer and be the basis of a query which can be used to identify the consumer's home country ... the user must be queried for authentication (e.g., login and password), then the token server may determine that verification of authentication is necessary. The token server may initiate a user verification session]; examiner notes that user verification using login and password of a user is comparable to determining the first domain-wide user identifier corresponding to the first buyer in response to a successful login of the first buyer); and
creating the first order in response to receiving an order creation request initiated by the first buyer (Fig. 1A and 1B; ¶0077[A user may type in an item in the search field 912 to search and/or add an item to a cart 911]).
Regarding Claim 3, Oborne in view of Chatenay in view of Narasimhan in further view of Kishi teaches the method according to claim 2, Oborne further discloses wherein the determining the first domain-wide user identifier corresponding to the first buyer includes:
obtaining a user name of the first buyer (Fig. 6A; ¶0054[the user must be queried for authentication (e.g., login and password), then the token server may determine that verification of authentication is necessary. The token server may initiate a user verification session]; examiner notes obtaining login is comparable to obtaining username); and
obtaining the first domain-wide user identifier by at least one of performing a hash operation on the user name (¶¶0028-00S0[the user may be required to enter a user name and password ... the token hash may be generated from a consumer's uniquely identifying information (e.g., an account identifier, unique name/address/age/etc. pairings, Social security number, and/or the like) and as Such, the resulting hash would be unique to that consumer and be the basis of a query which can be used to identify the consumer's home country]; the reference discloses using a hash operation to obtain a user's home country, the reference also discloses obtaining a domain-wide user identifier [¶0043] and it would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use a hash operation in order to obtain a domain-wide user identifier instead of a user's home country although it is not explicitly disclosed in the reference in that order) or
querying the first domain-wide user identifier based on an existing mapping relationship between the user name and the first domain-wide user identifier (Fig. 3C[depicts a service platform with a user's account number and other user identifiers]; ¶0043[for example, the token hash may be generated from a consumer's uniquely identifying information (e.g., an account identifier, unique name/address/age/etc. pairings, Social security number, and/or the like) and as Such, the resulting hash would be unique to that consumer and be the basis of a query]; examiner notes a mapping relationship between the account identifier and other identifying information of a user is comparable to an existing mapping relationship between the username and the first domain-wide user identifier of a user, also refer to figure to Fig. 3C which shows this mapping in image form).
Regarding Claim 4, Oborne in view of Chatenay in view of Narasimhan in further view of Kishi teaches the method according to claim 2, Oborne further discloses after the creating the first order and before the receiving the payment request initiated by the first buyer for the first order, further comprising (Figs. 9A-9F, 10A[show sequential images which initially display creating a first order by adding items to a cart as seen in Fig. 9A, determining local proximity of the user as seen in Fig. 9F and subsequently receiving payment request from the buyer of an order as seen in Fig. 10A]; examiner notes that the numbering of these steps within the figures indicates that they are performed in order):
obtaining location element information of the first buyer (Fig. 3C[GPS location or address is comparable to a location information of the first buyer]; ¶0033[the app may provide the PPT with the GPS location of the user]);
determining a geographic region in which the first buyer is currently located based on the location element information, and using the geographic region as the first geographic region (Fig. 1A[show a plurality of sites that correspond to geographic regions with buyer and seller service sites], Fig. 3C; ¶0043[for example, the token hash may be generated from a consumer's uniquely identifying information (e.g., an account identifier, unique name/address/age/etc. pairings, Social security number, and/or the like) and as Such, the resulting hash would be unique to that consumer and be the basis of a query which can be used to identify the consumer's home country]; examiner notes that using identifying information including the location element corresponding to a user to find the user's home country is comparable to using the location element to find a geographic region in which the user is located in);
determining the first area user identifier of the first buyer in the first geographic region based on the first plurality of area user identifiers (Fig. 3C[depicts a plurality of area user identifiers for the user which are linked to the domain-wide user identifier of that user]; ¶0043[for example, the token hash may be generated from a consumer's uniquely identifying information (e.g., an account identifier, unique name/address/age/etc. pairings, Social security number, and/or the like) and as Such, the resulting hash would be unique to that consumer and be the basis of a query which can be used to identify the consumer's home country]); and
obtaining a plurality of candidate payment channels for selection by the first buyer (Fig. 1B[multiple payment channels are available for choosing]; ¶0025[user may desire to utilize a card (e.g., debit, credit, prepaid, etc.), e.g., 101a, cash (or its equivalent), e.g., iota, securities, e.g., 103a, virtual currency, rewards, points, miles, etc., e.g., 104a, and/or other payment options]),
wherein places of registration of payment institutions corresponding to the plurality of candidate payment channels are all located in the first geographic region (Fig. 1A and 1B; ¶0024[the merchant's payment server may be aware of other regional payment server and may include a purchase origination regulation rule set, wherein certain jurisdictions may be flagged as requiring maintenance of varying levels of privacy. In such implementations, e.g., when a payment request originates from a country (e.g., European Union) requiring that the highest levels of privacy be maintained, the PPT may send the tokens and route the purchase transaction to an appropriate locality relative to the purchase origination] and ¶0058[the pay network server may generate a query, e.g., 635, for issuer server(s) corresponding to the payment token and user-selected payment options. For example, the user's payment token may be linked to one or more issuer financial institutions ("issuers"), such as banking institutions, which issued the account(s) for the user linked to the payment token. For example, such accounts may include, but not be limited to: credit card, debit card, prepaid card, checking, savings, money market, certificates of deposit, stored (cash) value accounts and/or the like. Issuer server(s), e.g., 609a-n, of the issuer(s) may maintain details of the user's account linked to the payment token. In some implementations, a database, e.g., pay network database 608, may store details of the issuer server(s) associated with the issuer(s)]; examiner notes that routing a purchase transaction to a locality relative to the purchase origination is comparable to routing the purchase transaction to payment institutions that correspond to candidate payment channels located in the first geographic region).
Regarding Claim 5, Oborne in view of Chatenay in view of Narasimhan in further view of Kishi teaches the method according to claim 4, Oborne further discloses wherein the location element information includes at least one of longitude and latitude information (Fig. 3C[shows a location element, GPS Location, which is known in the art to include longitude and latitude information]),
a network address, an Internet Protocol (IP) address, and a consignee address included in the first order (Fig. 3C[shows a consignee address], Fig. 7B; ¶0070[the token server may determine the identity (e.g., IP address, MAC address, URL, etc.) of server(s) of payment network(s), issuer(s) to contact for payment processing using the pre-defined issuer settings, privacy rules, transaction processing restrictions, settings, etc. (obtained from the privacy rules database), and/or the payment options input provided by the user, e.g., 719]).
Regarding Claim 6, Oborne in view of Chatenay in view of Narasimhan in further view of Kishi teaches the method according to claim 4, Oborne further discloses wherein the determining the first area user identifier of the first buyer in the first geographic region based on the plurality of area user identifiers corresponding to the plurality of geographic regions includes (Fig. 3C; ¶0043):
creating a previously presented user identifier as the first area user identifier in response to a user identifier corresponding to the first geographic region not existing in the plurality of area user identifiers (Fig. 3C[displays user identifiers corresponding to a user]; ¶0043[for example, the token hash may be generated from a consumer's uniquely identifying information (e.g., an account identifier, unique name/address/age/etc. pairings, Social security number, and/or the like) and as Such, the resulting hash would be unique to that consumer and be the basis of a query which can be used to identify the consumer's home country]; examiner notes that uniquely identifying information such as an address is comparable to a user identifier corresponding to the first geographic region that was not existing in the plurality of area user identifiers]); and
classifying the first area user identifier into the plurality of area user identifiers (Fig. 3C[the area user identifier of a user as shown in elements 324a and 327a], Fig. 6E[element 610]; ¶0060[based on the request details may query a database, e.g., user profile database]; examiner notes that storing area user identifiers into a user profile database is comparable to classifying the area user identifier into a plurality of area user identifiers).
Regarding Claim 7, Oborne in view of Chatenay in view of Narasimhan in further view of Kishi teaches the method according to claim 1, Oborne further discloses wherein the determining the first geographic region that the buyer payment service corresponding to the payment request belongs to includes (Fig. 1A and 1B; ¶0024):
determining a place of registration corresponding to the payment channel (Fig. 1A and 1B; ¶0024[the merchant's payment server may be aware of other regional payment server and may include a purchase origination regulation rule set, wherein certain jurisdictions may be flagged as requiring maintenance of varying levels of privacy. In such implementations, e.g., when a payment request originates from a country (e.g., European Union) requiring that the highest levels of privacy be maintained, the PPT may send the tokens and route the purchase transaction to an appropriate locality relative to the purchase origination]), and
determining a geographic region in which the place of registration is located as the first geographic region (Fig. 1A and 1B; ¶0024[the merchant's payment server may be aware of other regional payment server and may include a purchase origination regulation rule set, wherein certain jurisdictions may be flagged as requiring maintenance of varying levels of privacy. In such implementations, e.g., when a payment request originates from a country (e.g., European Union) requiring that the highest levels of privacy be maintained, the PPT may send the tokens and route the purchase transaction to an appropriate locality relative to the purchase origination] and ¶0058[the user's payment token may be linked to one or more issuer financial institutions ("issuers"), such as banking institutions, which issued the account(s) for the user linked to the payment token. For example, such accounts may include, but not be limited to: credit card, debit card, prepaid card, checking, savings, money market, certificates of deposit, stored (cash) value accounts and/or the like. Issuer server(s), e.g., 609a-n, of the issuer(s) may maintain details of the user's account linked to the payment token. In some implementations, a database, e.g., pay network database 608, may store details of the issuer server(s) associated with the issuer(s)]).
Regarding Claim 8, Oborne in view of Chatenay in view of Narasimhan in further view of Kishi teaches the method according to claim 7, Oborne further discloses further comprising:
after the determining the first geographic region that the buyer payment service corresponding to the payment request belongs to (Fig. 1A and 1B; ¶0024[the merchant's payment server may be aware of other regional payment server and may include a purchase origination regulation rule set, wherein certain jurisdictions may be flagged as requiring maintenance of varying levels of privacy. In such implementations, e.g., when a payment request originates from a country (e.g., European Union) requiring that the highest levels of privacy be maintained, the PPT may send the tokens and route the purchase transaction to an appropriate locality relative to the purchase origination]), and
before the routing the buyer payment service to the first buyer service site (Fig. 1A and 1B; ¶0024[the merchant server 112 may provide the purchase requests from both users to the same locally situated payment network server, e.g., 114a. Thus, in some implementations, the local pay network server 114a may be required to determine whether to process the payment for an incoming card authorization request locally, or transfer the request to a remotely located pay network server, e.g., 114b ... the local pay network server 114a may utilize the payment token provided by the client of the user as a search term to query a database ... route the purchase transaction to an appropriate locality relative to the purchase origination]),
determining the first area user identifier of the first buyer in the first geographic region based on the first plurality of area user identifiers (Fig. 1A[shows users in different geographical regions], Fig. 3C[depicts a plurality of area user identifiers for a buyer as seen on elements 324b and 326b which show the user address and a current GPS location which make up two different area user identifiers for the user]; ¶0023[a payment network system, comprised of payment network servers located in distant geographical regions (e.g., local pay network server 114a and remote pay network server 114b) may be required to determine where to process a purchase transaction. For example, a user 110a may be located in a remote geographical region, and may access the website, e.g., 113, of a merchant, e.g., 112, in a different geographical region ... the token may not include identifying information, it may be based off of identifying information (e.g., based on a unique identifier); this has the advantage that a privacy enhancing data table may be populated by such hashes with the a country code of the user's information ... such a table may then be used apply privacy regulations specific to the country code and thereby route the token and payment processing to payment servers in the appropriate country (examiner notes that the area user identifier is determined prior to routing of the transaction to a buyer service site as disclosed in the reference)] and ¶0033[the user may be able to view/modify a user name (e.g., 321a-b), account number (e.g., 322a-b), user security access code (e.g., 323a-b), user pin (e.g., 324a-b), user address (e.g., 325a-b), social security number associated with the user (e.g., 326a-b), current device GPS location (e.g., 327a-b), user account of the merchant in whose store the user currently is (e.g., 328a-b), the user's rewards accounts (e.g., 329a-b), and/or the like]; examiner notes that the area user identifier is based on the plurality of area user identifiers which include address and GPS location of the user/buyer).
Regarding Claim 9, Oborne in view of Chatenay in view of Narasimhan in further view of Kishi teaches the method according to claim 1, Oborne further discloses further comprising:
before the receiving the payment request initiated by the first buyer for the first order (Fig. 1A; ¶0024[user 110b may utilize client 111b to provide a purchase input to the same merchant website 113 of the merchant 112 located in the local geographical location]),
querying a plurality of historical orders associated with the first plurality of area user identifiers from the plurality of area sites (Figs. 2A and 11; ¶0096[a user may select the history mode 1110 to view a history of prior purchases and perform various actions on those prior purchases. For example, a user may enter a merchant identifying information such as name, product, MCC, and/or the like in the search bar 1111. In another implementation, the user may use voice activated search feature by clicking on the microphone icon 1114. The wallet application may query the storage areas in the mobile device or elsewhere (e.g., one or more databases and/or tables remote from the mobile device) for transactions matching the search keywords. The user interface may then display the results of the query such as transaction 1115] in view of ¶0043[a consumer's uniquely identifying information (e.g., an account identifier, unique name/address/age/etc. pairings, social security number, and/or the like) and as such, the resulting hash would be unique to that consumer and be the basis of a query which can be used to identify the consumer's home country]; examiner notes that according to the reference, association of historical orders with a user indicates association of historical orders with the area user identifier of that user since the references discloses a user's identifying information to include area user identifiers such as address and GPS location); and
recommending a product to the first buyer based on purchased products included in the plurality of historical orders (Fig. 11[elements 1120 and 1121 depict recommendation of a product to a buyer]; ¶0097[if the user previously shared the purchase via social channels, a post including the photo may be generated and sent to the social channels for publishing. In one implementation, any sharing may be optional, and the user, who did not share the purchase via social channels, may still share the photo through one or more social channels of his or her choice directly from the history mode of the wallet application] and ¶0027[the app may provide the user with historical information on the user's prior purchases via the app, e.g., 211. In some implementations, the app may provide the user with an option to share information about the purchase (e.g., via email, SMS, wall posting on Facebook. RTM., tweet on Twitter.TM., etc.) with other users]; examiner notes that a user recommending a product from a purchased product history is comparable to recommending a product to a buyer based on purchased products included in the historical orders).
Regarding Claim 10, Oborne discloses a method, comprising:
deploying a plurality of servers for implementing a plurality of area sites of a service platform (Fig. 1A[specifically elements 114a and 114b show a plurality of servers for implementing a plurality of area sites of a service platform]; ¶0023[a payment network system, comprised of payment network servers located in distant geographical regions (e.g., local pay network server 114a and remote pay network server 114b) may be required to determine where to process a purchase transaction]),
the plurality of area sites respectively corresponding to a plurality of geographic regions (Fig. 1A[specifically elements 114a and 114b show a plurality of servers for implementing a plurality of area sites of a service platform]; ¶0023[a payment network system, comprised of payment network servers located in distant geographical regions (e.g., local pay network server 114a and remote pay network server 114b) may be required to determine where to process a purchase transaction]),
the plurality of geographic regions not overlapping with one another and having different data regulation requirements (Fig. 1A[geographical regions covered by servers labeled 114a and 114b do not overlap according to the map] Fig. 7B; ¶0069[the restriction may be updated (e.g., periodically, automatically, on demand) based on privacy and/or other laws governing processing of transactions in that country.]; Examiner notes that restrictions based on laws of a particular country is comparable to the plurality of regions as seen on Fig. 1A having different data regulation requirements),
a server of each area site of the plurality of area sites physically located in a geographic region corresponding to the area site and configured to interconnect with a service in the geographic region and to locally store data generated through the interconnection with the service in the geographic region (Fig. 1A[servers 114a and 114b are depicted to be in different geographic regions corresponding to the area site they are located in and configured to interconnect with a service in the geographic region, 114a being configured to interconnect with a local pay network and 114b being configured to interconnect with a remote pay network], Fig. 15[elements 1514 and 1529]; ¶0099[The memory 1529 may contain a collection of program and/or database components and/or data ... components may be stored and accessed from the storage devices and/or from storage devices ... non-conventional program components such as those in the component collection, typically, are stored in a local storage device (examiner notes that a local storage device is comparable to locally storing generated data) 1514, they may also be loaded and/or stored in memory such as: peripheral devices, RAM, remote storage facilities through a communications network, ROM, various forms of memory, and/or the like]);
assigning, by the service platform, a first domain-wide user identifier (Fig. 3C[depicts a service platform assigning account number and other user identifiers to a user]; ¶0043[for example, the token hash may be generated from a consumer's uniquely identifying information (e.g., an account identifier, unique name/address/age/etc. pairings, Social security number, and/or the like) and as Such, the resulting hash would be unique to that consumer and be the basis of a query which can be used to identify the consumer's home country]; examiner notes that a consumer's uniquely identifying information is comparable to a domain-wide user identifier) and
a first plurality of area user identifiers to a first buyer (Fig. 3C[depicts a plurality of area user identifiers for a buyer as seen on elements 324b and 326b which show the user address and a current GPS location which make up two different area user identifiers for the user]; ¶0033[the user may be able to view/modify a user name (e.g., 321a-b), account number (e.g., 322a-b), user security access code (e.g., 323a-b), user pin (e.g., 324a-b), user address (e.g., 325a-b), social security number associated with the user (e.g., 326a-b), current device GPS location (e.g., 327a-b)]),
the first plurality of area user identifiers each linked to the first domain-wide user identifier and each uniquely corresponding to a respective area site of the plurality of area sites among the first plurality of area user identifiers, the plurality of area sites each corresponding to one of the first plurality of area user identifiers (Fig. 3C[depicts a plurality of area user identifiers for the user which are linked to the domain-wide user identifier of that user]; ¶0043[for example, the token hash may be generated from a consumer's uniquely identifying information (e.g., an account identifier, unique name/address/age/etc. pairings, Social security number, and/or the like) and as Such, the resulting hash would be unique to that consumer and be the basis of a query which can be used to identify the consumer's home country]; examiner notes that a consumer's uniquely identifying information is comparable to a domain-wide user identifier, refer to Fig. 3C which depicts linkage between the domain-wide user identifier and the area user identifiers);
assigning, by the service platform, a second domain-wide user identifier and a second plurality of area user identifiers to a first seller (Fig. 15[element 1519e]; ¶0148[A Merchants table 1519e may include fields such as, but not limited to: merchant id, merchant name, merchant address, store id, ip address, mac address, auth key, port num, Security settings list, and/or the like]; examiner notes that merchant address and store ID are comparable to a plurality of area user identifiers for that merchant/seller),
the second plurality of area user identifiers each linked to the second domain-wide user identifier and each uniquely corresponding to a respective area site of the plurality of area sites among the second plurality of area user identifiers, the plurality of area sites each corresponding to one of the second plurality of area user identifiers (Fig. 15[element 1519e depicts linkage of the merchant ID, merchant address and store ID under one category, "Merchants"]; ¶0148[A Merchants table 1519e may include fields such as, but not limited to: merchant id, merchant name, merchant address, store id, ip address, mac address, auth key, port num, Security settings list, and/or the like]; examiner notes that merchant address and store ID encompass a plurality of area user identifiers for that merchant/seller);
obtaining a payment success message corresponding to a payment request for a first order between the first buyer and the first seller (Fig. 7C; ¶0073[the pay network server may generate an authorization success message, e.g., 744, and forward the message to the token server, which may in turn forward the authorization success message, e.g., 745-746, to the acquirer server and/or the merchant server]; examiner notes payment success message following a payment is comparable to a product being provided in response to a transaction),
a product in the first order being provided by the first seller (Fig. 1B; ¶0025[a user may desire to purchase a product, service and/or other offering ("product") from a merchant] and ¶¶0026-0027[the user can make a purchase order using the token ... The app may provide an indication of a pay amount due for the purchase of the product]);
determining that a first order belongs to a first geographic region (Fig. 1A and 1B; ¶0024[the merchant's payment server may be aware of other regional payment server and may include a purchase origination regulation rule set, wherein certain jurisdictions may be flagged as requiring maintenance of varying levels of privacy]; examiner notes determining purchase origination is comparable to determining that an order corresponds to a geographic region),
a first area site corresponding to the first geographic region including a first seller service site (Fig. 1A[show a plurality of area sites that correspond to geographic regions with buyer and seller service sites]; ¶0023[a payment network system, comprised of payment network servers located in distant geographical regions (e.g., local pay network server 114a and remote pay network server 114b) may be required to determine where to process a purchase transaction]),
the first seller having a first area user identifier for the first area site (Fig. 15[element 1519e depicts linkage of the merchant ID, merchant address and store ID under one category, "Merchants"]; ¶0148[A Merchants table 1519e may include fields such as, but not limited to: merchant id, merchant name, merchant address, store id, ip address, mac address, auth key, port num, Security settings list, and/or the like]; examiner notes that merchant address and store ID are comparable to a seller having an area user identifier for a respective area site); and
routing a computer process of to a server of the first seller service site (Fig. 1A[the merchant server is shown to route the transaction to a server as seen on element 114b of the first buyer site] and 1B; ¶0024[the merchant server 112 may provide the purchase requests from both users to the same locally-situated payment network server ... the local pay network server 114a may be required to determine whether to process the payment for an incoming card authorization request locally, or transfer the request to a remotely located pay network server ... route the purchase transaction to an appropriate locality relative to the purchase origination]; examiner notes that routing the purchase transaction to a remotely located pay network server or locally located network server is comparable to routing to a seller service site),
for the server of the first seller service site to locally process at the first seller service site. through interconnection with the first seller based on the first area user identifier of the first seller (Fig. 1A[element 112 depicts a seller service site], 1B, 3C and Fig. 15[element 1519e depicts linkage of the merchant ID, merchant address and store ID under one category, "Merchants"]; ¶0148[A Merchants table 1519e may include fields such as, but not limited to: merchant id, merchant name, merchant address, store id, ip address, mac address, auth key, port num, Security settings list, and/or the like] in view of ¶0024-0027[the merchant's payment server may be aware of other regional payment server and may include a purchase origination regulation rule set… the app may include an indication of the location (e.g., name of the merchant store, geographical location, information about the aisle within the merchant store, etc.) of the user, e.g., 201]; Examiner notes that merchant address and store ID are comparable to area user identifiers for that merchant/seller), and
to locally store at the first service site service data generated by the processing (Fig. 1A[servers 114a and 114b are depicted to be in different geographic regions corresponding to the area site they are located in and configured to interconnect with a service in the geographic region, 114a being configured to interconnect with a local pay network and 114b being configured to interconnect with a remote pay network], Fig. 15[elements 1514 and 1529]; ¶0099[The memory 1529 may contain a collection of program and/or database components and/or data ... components may be stored and accessed from the storage devices and/or from storage devices ... non-conventional program components such as those in the component collection, typically, are stored in a local storage device (examiner notes that a local storage device is comparable to locally storing generated data) 1514, they may also be loaded and/or stored in memory such as: peripheral devices, RAM, remote storage facilities through a communications network, ROM, various forms of memory, and/or the like]).
Although Oborne discloses area sites corresponding to geographic regions, Oborne does not explicitly disclose sites corresponding to geographic regions of different countries.
However, Chatenay teaches sites corresponding to geographic regions of different countries (Fig. 4; ¶0019[More particularly, the regional service 212 comprises a regional version of the network-based service that is offered in a particular geographical region, such as a particular country. The regional service 212 comprises a regional network site 214 and regional assets 216.] in view of ¶0014[Therefore, each server computer 104 may be operated in and/or for a different geographical region, e.g., country.]).
The method of Chatenay is applicable to the method of Oborne as they share characteristics and capabilities, namely, they are both targeted to web content gathering. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the area sites as disclosed by Oborne to include area sites of different countries as taught by Chatenay. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to expand the method of Oborne in order to access multiple sites of a given organization and with which the same customer data can be directly accessed using any of those sites (¶0011).
Although Oborne discloses a plurality of area user identifiers corresponding to a respective area site, Oborne in view of Chatenay does not explicitly teach the plurality of area sites each corresponding to a different one of the first plurality of area user identifiers and the plurality of area sites corresponding to a different one of identifiers.
However, Narasimhan teaches a plurality of websites corresponding to a different identifier of a user (Fig. 4; ¶0049[In one example of determining that two user identifiers match one another, data collection module 220 may provide first information indicating a user has logged into a merchant website using one identifier. Data collection module 220 may then also provide second information indicating the user is known to correspond to another particular identifier (e.g., a global identifier such as one provided by a digital payment service). Later, another instance of data collection module 220 may be able to link the same user, with yet a third different user identifier on a merchant site, to the same digital payment service identifier. With the digital payment service identifier (or any other suitable identifier) serving as a common link, it can be established that the two different user identifiers from two different merchant sites (such as on rows 420 and 425) should be matched to the same GUID 415 (“GUID_1”, in the example of FIG. 4)] in view of ¶0065).
The method of Narasimhan is applicable to the method of Oborne in view of Chatenay as they share characteristics and capabilities, namely, they are all targeted to web content gathering. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the plurality of user identifiers as taught by Oborne in view of Chatenay to include each identifier corresponding to a different website as taught by Narasimhan. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to expand the method of Oborne in view of Chatenay in order to track user behavior and provide better personalization data (¶0059).
Although Oborne discloses determining that an order belongs to a region, Oborne in view of Chatenay in further view of Narasimhan does not explicitly teach determining that a seller delivery service corresponding to the first order belongs to a region.
However, Kishi teaches a seller delivery service corresponding to a first order (Fig. 3[element S104 shows correspondence between the delivery service and an order]; ¶0094[In step S104, the transaction server 30 receives the order information. Then, the transaction server 30 generates slip information necessary to generate a slip for the retailer, the distributor and the delivery service and provides the slip information to the retailer, the distributor and the delivery service]).
Although Oborne discloses routing to a server of a seller service site, Oborne in view of Chatenay in further view of Narasimhan does not explicitly teach routing and processing the seller delivery service.
Although Oborne discloses locally storing data at a site, Oborne in view of Chatenay in further view of Narasimhan does not explicitly teach locally processing the seller delivery service.
However, Kishi teaches a seller delivery service corresponding to a first order (Fig. 3[element S104 shows correspondence between the delivery service and an order]; ¶0094[In step S104, the transaction server 30 receives the order information. Then, the transaction server 30 generates slip information necessary to generate a slip for the retailer, the distributor and the delivery service and provides the slip information to the retailer, the distributor and the delivery service]).
Although Oborne discloses locally storing data at a site, Oborne in view of Chatenay in further view of Narasimhan does not explicitly teach locally storing at the server of the first seller service site data generated by processing the seller delivery service.
However, Kishi teaches locally storing at the server of the seller (¶0037[One or more transaction servers 30 may be provided for regions, business types or product categories.] and ¶0165[the transaction server 30 can inquire of another transaction server 30 that maintains the corporation information location file 395 storing the corporation and/or the transaction condition information file 391 of the corporation.] in view of Claim 6[at least one transaction center is provided for each region, each business type and each product type.]; Examiner notes that servers specific to a region maintaining data is comparable to locally storing).
Further, Kishi teaches a seller delivery service corresponding to a first order and storing that information (Fig. 3[element S104 shows correspondence between the delivery service and an order]; ¶0094[In step S104, the transaction server 30 receives the order information. Then, the transaction server 30 generates slip information necessary to generate a slip for the retailer, the distributor and the delivery service and provides the slip information to the retailer, the distributor and the delivery service] in view of ¶0060[The corporation information file 39 stores information of each corporation.]).
The method of Kishi is applicable to the method of Oborne in view of Chatenay in further view of Narasimhan as they characteristics and capabilities, namely, they are all directed to connecting a seller to a buyer. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the local storage of data as taught by Oborne in view of Chatenay in further view of Narasimhan to include locally storing at a server data generated by a seller delivery service as taught by Kishi. One of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date would have been motivated to expand the method of Oborne in view of Chatenay in further view of Narasimhan in order to provide a network system in which the delivery schedule including the delivery date for each retailer dealing with the product can be provided to a customer buying the product through the network, and the transaction between corporations related to the product can be immediately completed at once when the order of the product is received from the customer (¶0021).
Regarding Claim 11, Oborne in view of Chatenay in view of Narasimhan in further view of Kishi teaches the method according to claim 10, Oborne further discloses wherein the determining that the seller delivery service corresponding to the first order belongs to the first geographic region includes:
determining a place of registration of the first seller based on the payment success message (Fig. 7C, Fig. 15[element 1519e]; ¶0073[the pay network server may generate an authorization success message, e.g., 744, and forward the message to the token server, which may in turn forward the authorization success message, e.g., 745-746, to the acquirer server and/or the merchant server] and ¶0148[A Merchants table 1519e may include fields such as, but not limited to: merchant id, merchant name, merchant address, store id, ip address, mac address, auth key, port num, Security settings list, and/or the like]; examiner notes that merchant address and store ID are comparable to a place of registration of the first seller), and
determining a geographic region in which the place of registration is located as the first geographic region (Fig. 1A and 1B; ¶0024[the merchant's payment server may be aware of other regional payment server and may include a purchase origination regulation rule set, wherein certain jurisdictions may be flagged as requiring maintenance of varying levels of privacy. In such implementations, e.g., when a payment request originates from a country (e.g., European Union) requiring that the highest levels of privacy be maintained, the PPT may send the tokens and route the purchase transaction to an appropriate locality relative to the purchase origination] and ¶0058[the user's payment token may be linked to one or more issuer financial institutions ("issuers"), such as banking institutions, which issued the account(s) for the user linked to the payment token. For example, such accounts may include, but not be limited to: credit card, debit card, prepaid card, checking, savings, money market, certificates of deposit, stored (cash) value accounts and/or the like. Issuer server(s), e.g., 609a-n, of the issuer(s) may maintain details of the user's account linked to the payment token. In some implementations, a database, e.g., pay network database 608, may store details of the issuer server(s) associated with the issuer(s)]).
Regarding Claim 12, Oborne in view of Chatenay in view of Narasimhan in further view of Kishi teaches the method according to claim 10, Oborne further discloses further comprising:
after the routing the to the first seller service site (Fig. 1A and 1B; ¶0024[the merchant server 112 may provide the purchase requests from both users to the same locally-situated payment network server ... the local pay network server 114a may be required to determine whether to process the payment for an incoming card authorization request locally, or transfer the request to a remotely located pay network server ... route the purchase transaction to an appropriate locality relative to the purchase origination]; examiner notes that routing the purchase transaction to a remotely located pay network server or locally located network server is comparable to routing to a seller service site),
routing an order settlement service corresponding to the first seller to the first seller service site (Fig. 1A and 1B; ¶0024[the merchant server 112 may provide the purchase requests from both users to the same locally-situated payment network server, e.g., 114a. Thus, in some implementations, the local pay network server 114a may be required to determine whether to process the payment for an incoming card authorization request locally, or transfer the request to a remotely located pay network server, e.g., 114b. In some implementations, the local pay network server 114a may be required to make such a determination without utilizing any personally identifying information of the user. In some implementations, the local pay network server 114a may utilize the payment token provided by the client of the user as a search term to query a database ... route the purchase transaction to an appropriate locality relative to the purchase origination]; examiner notes that routing a purchase transaction locally or remotely located network is comparable to routing an order settlement service to the seller service site),
for the first seller service site to process the order settlement service through interconnection with the first seller, (Fig. 1A, 1B and 3C[linkage between seller service site and seller/buyer]; ¶0024[the local pay network server 114a may be required to determine whether to process the payment for an incoming card authorization request locally, or transfer the request to a remotely located pay network server, e.g., 114b] and ¶0148[A Merchants table 1519e may include fields such as, but not limited to: merchant id, merchant name, merchant address, store id, ip address, mac address, auth key, port num, Security settings list, and/or the like]; examiner notes that merchant address and store ID are comparable to area user identifiers for that merchant/seller), and
to locally store service data generated by the processing the order settlement service (Fig. 1A[servers 114a and 114b are depicted to be in different geographic regions corresponding to the area site they are located in and configured to interconnect with a service in the geographic region, 114a being configured to interconnect with a local pay network and 114b being configured to interconnect with a remote pay network], Fig. 15[elements 1514 and 1529]; ¶0099[The memory 1529 may contain a collection of program and/or database components and/or data ... components may be stored and accessed from the storage devices and/or from storage devices ... non-conventional program components such as those in the component collection, typically, are stored in a local storage device (examiner notes that a local storage device is comparable to locally storing generated data) 1514, they may also be loaded and/or stored in memory such as: peripheral devices, RAM, remote storage facilities through a communications network, ROM, various forms of memory, and/or the like]).
Although Oborne discloses routing to the first seller service site, Oborne in view of Chatenay in view of Narasimhan does not explicitly teach routing the seller delivery service to the first seller service site.
However, Kishi, teaches a seller delivery service corresponding to a first order (Fig. 3[element S104 shows correspondence between the delivery service and an order]; ¶0094[1n step S104, the transaction server 30 receives the order information. Then, the transaction server 30 generates slip information necessary to generate a slip for the retailer, the distributor and the delivery service and provides the slip information to the retailer, the distributor and the delivery service]).
The method of Kishi is applicable to the method of Oborne in view of Chatenay in view of Narasimhan as they characteristics and capabilities, namely, they are directed to connecting a seller to a buyer. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the order routing method as taught by Oborne in view of Chatenay in view of Narasimhan to include a seller delivery service as taught by Kishi. One of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date would have been motivated to expand the method of Oborne in view of Chatenay in view of Narasimhan in order to provide a network system in which the delivery schedule including the delivery date for each retailer dealing with the product can be provided to a customer buying the product through the network, and the transaction between corporations related to the product can be immediately completed at once when the order of the product is received from the customer (¶0021).
Regarding Claim 13, Oborne in view of Chatenay in view of Narasimhan in further view of Kishi teaches the method according to claim 10, Oborne further discloses further comprising:
after the routing to the seller service site (Fig. 1A and 1B; ¶0024[the merchant server 112 may provide the purchase requests from both users to the same locally-situated payment network server, e.g., 114a. Thus, in some implementations, the local pay network server 114a may be required to determine whether to process the payment for an incoming card authorization request locally, or transfer the request to a remotely located pay network server, e.g., 114b. In some implementations, the local pay network server 114a may be required to make such a determination without utilizing any personally identifying information of the user. In some implementations, the local pay network server 114a may utilize the payment token provided by the client of the user as a search term to query a database ... route the purchase transaction to an appropriate locality relative to the purchase origination]; examiner notes that routing a purchase transaction locally or remotely located network is comparable to routing an order to a seller service site),
in response to an order viewing instruction sent by the first seller (Fig. 5[elements503 shows parsing or analysis of an order done by the seller and is comparable to an order viewing instruction sent by the first seller]),
querying order information of a plurality of orders associated with the second plurality of area user identifiers from the plurality of area sites for viewing by the first seller, wherein the plurality of orders include the first order (Fig. 1A, Fig. 5[elements 502-509[the series of steps shows the seller receiving an order from a buyer, querying order information for the plurality of orders associated with the area user identifier from the sites associated with that seller]).
Although Oborne discloses routing to the seller service site, Oborne in view of Chatenay in view of Narasimhan does not explicitly teach routing the seller delivery service to a first seller.
However, Kishi teaches a seller delivery service (Fig. 3[element S104 shows correspondence between the delivery service and an order]; ¶0094[1n step S104, the transaction server 30 receives the order information. Then, the transaction server 30 generates slip information necessary to generate a slip for the retailer, the distributor and the delivery service and provides the slip information to the retailer, the distributor and the delivery service]) and a first seller (¶0085[When a product handled by the specific retailer is selected by the customer, as selection information, information including a retailer code, a product code, a shipping method, a shipping destination address code and the like is transmitted to the transaction server 30. In this case, only the specific retailer handles the product, or a plurality of retailers handle the same one but the customer wants to purchase from a specific retailer]; examiner notes that a plurality of retailers is comparable to having a first and second seller).
The method of Kishi is applicable to the method of Oborne in view of Chatenay in view of Narasimhan as they characteristics and capabilities, namely, they are all directed to connecting a seller to a buyer. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the order routing method as taught by Oborne in view of Chatenay in view of Narasimhan to include a seller delivery service and a second seller/retailer as taught by Kishi. One of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date would have been motivated to expand the method of Oborne in view of Chatenay in view of Narasimhan in order to provide a network system in which the delivery schedule including the delivery date for each retailer dealing with the product can be provided to a customer buying the product through the network, and the transaction between corporations related to the product can be immediately completed at once when the order of the product is received from the customer (¶0021).
Regarding Claim 14, Oborne in view of Chatenay in view of Narasimhan in further view of Kishi teaches the method according to claim 10, Oborne further discloses further comprising:
determining the second domain-wide user identifier corresponding to the first seller in response to a successful login of the first buyer (¶¶0043-0054[the token hash may be generated from a consumer's uniquely identifying information (e.g., an account identifier, unique name/address/age/etc. pairings, Social security number, and/or the like) and as Such, the resulting hash would be unique to that consumer and be the basis of a query which can be used to identify the consumer's home country ... the user must be queried for authentication (e.g., login and password), then the token server may determine that verification of authentication is necessary. The token server may initiate a user verification session]; examiner notes that such user verification is comparable to determining the first domain-wide user identifier corresponding to the first buyer in response to a successful login of the first buyer); and
creating the first order in response to receiving an order creation request initiated by the first buyer (Fig. 1A and 1B; ¶¶0024-0025[user 110b may utilize client 111b to provide a purchase input to the same merchant website 113 of the merchant 112 located in the local geographical location ... a user may desire to purchase a product, service and/or other offering ("product") from a merchant]).
Although Oborne discloses determining a domain-wide user identifier corresponding to a buyer in response to a successful login of the buyer and creating a first order in response to receiving an order creation request initiated by the first buyer, Oborne in view of Chatenay in view of Narasimhan does not explicitly teach that information in relation to a seller.
However, Kishi discloses a seller (¶0053[The order information providing part 35 receives an order from the customer and then provides the information related to the order to the retailer]; examiner notes that a retailer is comparable to a seller]).
The method of Kishi is applicable to the method of Oborne in view of Chatenay in view of Narasimhan as they characteristics and capabilities, namely, they are directed to connecting a seller to a buyer. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the determination of a domain-wide user identifier in response to a login of a buyer and order creation in response to a buyer as taught by Oborne in view of Chatenay in view of Narasimhan to include a seller as taught by Kishi. One of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date would have been motivated to expand the method of Oborne in view of Chatenay in view of Narasimhan in order to provide a network system in which the delivery schedule including the delivery date for each retailer dealing with the product can be provided to a customer buying the product through the network, and the transaction between corporations related to the product can be immediately completed at once when the order of the product is received from the customer (¶0021).
Regarding Claim 15, Oborne in view of Chatenay in view of Narasimhan in further view of Kishi teaches the method according to claim 14, Oborne further discloses wherein the determining the second domain-wide user identifier corresponding to the first seller includes:
obtaining a user name of the first seller (¶0110[For example, the user may be able to Page 50 view/modify ... user account of the merchant in whose store the user currently is (e.g., 1418-b), the user's rewards accounts (e.g., 1419-b), and/or the like ... the user may be able to select which of the data fields and their associated values should be transmitted to facilitate the purchase transaction, thus providing enhanced data security for the user. For example, in the example illustration in FIG. 14A, the user has selected the ... merchant account ID 1418a and rewards account ID 1419a as the fields to be sent as part of the notification to process the purchase transaction]; examiner notes to view/modify user account of the merchant is comparable to obtaining a username of a first seller); and
obtaining the second domain-wide user identifier by at least one of performing a hash operation on the user name (¶¶0028-00S0[the user may be required to enter a user name and password ... the token hash may be generated from a consumer's uniquely identifying information (e.g., an account identifier, unique name/address/age/etc. pairings, Social security number, and/or the like) and as Such, the resulting hash would be unique to that consumer and be the basis of a query which can be used to identify the consumer's home country]; the reference discloses using a hash operation to obtain a user's home country, the reference also discloses obtaining a domain-wide user identifier [¶0043] and it would be obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to one of ordinary skill in the art to use a hash operation in order to obtain a domain-wide user identifier instead of a user's home country although it is not explicitly disclosed in the reference) or
querying the second domain-wide user identifier based on an existing mapping relationship between the user name and the second domain-wide user identifier (Fig. 3C[depicts a service platform with a user's account number and other user identifiers]; ¶0043[for example, the token hash may be generated from a consumer's uniquely identifying information (e.g., an account identifier, unique name/address/age/etc. pairings, Social security number, and/or the like) and as Such, the resulting hash would be unique to that consumer and be the basis of a query]; examiner notes a mapping relationship between the account identifier and other identifying information of a user is comparable to an existing mapping relationship between the username and the first domain-wide user identifier of a user, also refer to figure to Fig. 3C which shows this mapping in image form).
Regarding Claim 16, Oborne in view of Chatenay in view of Narasimhan in further view of Kishi teaches the method according to claim 15, Oborne further discloses further comprising:
obtaining location element information of the first seller (¶0027[the app may include an indication of the location (e.g., name of the merchant store, geographical location, information about the aisle within the merchant store]; examiner notes that an app including a geographical location of the merchant store is comparable to obtaining location element information of a seller);
determining a geographic region in which the first seller is currently located based on the location element information, and using the geographic region as the first geographic region (¶0027[the app may include an indication of the location (e.g., name of the merchant store, geographical location, information about the aisle within the merchant store]; examiner notes that obtaining a geographical location of the merchant is comparable to determining a geographic region in which the seller is located based on the location element information);
determining the first area user identifier of the first seller in the first geographic region based on the second plurality of area user identifiers (Fig. 15[element 1519e depicts linkage of the merchant ID, merchant address and store ID under one category, "Merchants"]; ¶0148[A Merchants table 1519e may include fields such as, but not limited to: merchant id, merchant name, merchant address, store id, ip address, mac address, auth key, port num, Security settings list, and/or the like]; examiner notes that merchant address and store ID are comparable to a seller having an area user identifier for a respective area site and that a merchant having a unique ID and address from a database of merchants' information as seen in Fig. 15 is comparable to determining the first area user identifier of the seller based on the second plurality of area user identifiers); and
wherein places of registration of the plurality of candidate are all located in the first geographic region (Fig. 1A and 1B; ¶0024[the merchant's payment server may be aware of other regional payment server and may include a purchase origination regulation rule set, wherein certain jurisdictions may be flagged as requiring maintenance of varying levels of privacy. In such implementations, e.g., when a payment request originates from a country (e.g., European Union) requiring that the highest levels of privacy be maintained, the PPT may send the tokens and route the purchase transaction to an appropriate locality relative to the purchase origination] and ¶0058[the pay network server may generate a query, e.g., 635, for issuer server(s) corresponding to the payment token and user-selected payment options. For example, the user's payment token may be linked to one or more issuer financial institutions ("issuers"), such as banking institutions, which issued the account(s) for the user linked to the payment token. For example, such accounts may include, but not be limited to: credit card, debit card, prepaid card, checking, savings, money market, certificates of deposit, stored (cash) value accounts and/or the like. Issuer server(s), e.g., 609a-n, of the issuer(s) may maintain details of the user's account linked to the payment token. In some implementations, a database, e.g., pay network database 608, may store details of the issuer server(s) associated with the issuer(s)]; examiner notes that routing a purchase transaction to a locality relative to the purchase origination is comparable to routing the purchase transaction to payment institutions that correspond to candidate payment channels located in the first geographic region).
Although Oborne discloses obtaining a location element information of the seller, determining the geographic location of the seller and the first area user identifier of the seller, Oborne in view of Chatenay in view of Narasimhan does not explicitly teach obtaining a plurality of candidate seller delivery services for selection by the first seller, wherein places of registration of the plurality of candidate seller delivery service are all located in the first geographic region.
However, Kishi teaches a seller delivery service and obtaining a plurality of delivery services for selection by the seller (¶0145[when the product is shipped from the retailer, a delivery service being in accordance with the transaction condition of the retailer delivers the product to a consumer. Also, when the product is shipped from the distributor, another delivery service chosen by the distributor delivers the product to the consumer]; examiner notes that a delivery service being chosen by a distributor or seller is comparable to selection of a delivery service from a plurality of delivery services by the seller).
The method of Kishi is applicable to the method of Oborne in view of Chatenay in view of Narasimhan as they characteristics and capabilities, namely, they are directed to connecting a seller to a buyer. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the registration of payment channels in a matching geographic region as taught by Oborne in view of Chatenay in view of Narasimhan to include a seller delivery service and a plurality of delivery services for selection by the seller as taught by Kishi. One of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date would have been motivated to expand the method of Oborne in view of Chatenay in view of Narasimhan in order to provide a network system in which the delivery schedule including the delivery date for each retailer dealing with the product can be provided to a customer buying the product through the network, and the transaction between corporations related to the product can be immediately completed at once when the order of the product is received from the customer (¶0021).
Regarding Claim 17, Oborne in view of Chatenay in view of Narasimhan in further view of Kishi teaches the method according to claim 16, Oborne further discloses wherein the location element information includes at least one of longitude and latitude information, a network address, an Internet Protocol (IP) address, and a consignee address included in the first order (Fig. 3C[shows a consignee address], Fig. 7B; ¶0070[the token server may determine the identity (e.g., IP address, MAC address, URL, etc.) of server(s) of payment network(s), issuer(s) to contact for payment processing using the pre-defined issuer settings, privacy rules, transaction processing restrictions, settings, etc. (obtained from the privacy rules database), and/or the payment options input provided by the user, e.g., 719]).
Regarding Claim 18, Oborne in view of Chatenay in view of Narasimhan in further view of Kishi teaches the method according to claim 16, Oborne further discloses wherein the determining the first area user identifier of the first seller in the first geographic region based on the second plurality of area user identifiers corresponding to the plurality of geographic regions includes (Fig. 15; ¶0148):
creating a previously presented user identifier as the first area user identifier in response to a user identifier corresponding to the first geographic region not existing in the second plurality of area user identifiers (Fig. 3C[displays user identifiers corresponding to a user]; ¶0043[for example, the token hash may be generated from a consumer's uniquely identifying information (e.g., an account identifier, unique name/address/age/etc. pairings, Social security number, and/or the like) and as Such, the resulting hash would be unique to that consumer and be the basis of a query which can be used to identify the consumer's home country]; examiner notes that uniquely identifying information such as an address is comparable to a user identifier corresponding to the first geographic region that was not existing in the plurality of area user identifiers]); and
classifying the first area user identifier into the second plurality of area user identifiers (Fig. 15[ element 1519e shows a database containing a plurality of merchant area user identifiers, also refer to ¶0148]; examiner notes that storing area user identifiers into a merchant profile database is comparable to classifying the area user identifiers into the plurality of area user identifiers).
Regarding Claim 19, Oborne discloses a computing device, comprising a memory and a processor, the memory storing executable instructions, the executable instructions, when executed by the processor, enable the processor to implement acts including (¶0357[comprising: [0358] a memory; [0359] a processor disposed in communication with said memory, and configured to issue a plurality of processing instructions stored in the memory, wherein the processor issues instructions to: [0360] receive, from a user mobile device in a first country location, a purchase request]; examiner notes that a user mobile device is comparable to a computing device):
communicating with a plurality of servers for implementing a plurality of area sites of a service platform (Fig. 1A [specifically elements 114a and 114b show a plurality of servers for implementing a plurality of area sites of a service platform]; ¶0023[a payment network system, comprised of payment network servers located in distant geographical regions (e.g., local pay network server 114a and remote pay network server 114b) may be required to determine where to process a purchase transaction]),
the plurality of area sites respectively corresponding to a plurality of geographic regions (Fig. 1A; ¶0023[a payment network system, comprised of payment network servers located in distant geographical regions (e.g., local pay network server 114a and remote pay network server 114b) may be required to determine where to process a purchase transaction]; examiner notes that network systems and servers located in a region are comparable to area sites),
the plurality of geographic regions not overlapping with one another and having different data regulation requirements (Fig. 1A[geographical regions covered by servers labeled 114a and 114b do not overlap according to the map] Fig. 7B; ¶0069[the restriction may be updated (e.g., periodically, automatically, on demand) based on privacy and/or other laws governing processing of transactions in that country.]; Examiner notes that restrictions based on laws of a particular country is comparable to the plurality of regions as seen on Fig. 1A having different data regulation requirements),
a server of each area site of the plurality of area sites physically located in a geographic region corresponding to the area site and configured to interconnect with a service in the geographic region and to locally store data generated through the interconnection with the service in the geographic region (Fig. 1A[servers 114a and 114b are depicted to be in different geographic regions corresponding to the area site they are located in and configured to interconnect with a service in the geographic region, 114a being configured to interconnect with a local pay network and 114b being configured to interconnect with a remote pay network], Fig. 15[elements 1514 and 1529]; ¶0099[The memory 1529 may contain a collection of program and/or database components and/or data ... components may be stored and accessed from the storage devices and/or from storage devices ... non-conventional program components such as those in the component collection, typically, are stored in a local storage device (examiner notes that a local storage device is comparable to locally storing generated data) 1514, they may also be loaded and/or stored in memory such as: peripheral devices, RAM, remote storage facilities through a communications network, ROM, various forms of memory, and/or the like]),
each area site including a buyer service site and a seller service site (Fig. 1A[shows area sites that include both a buyer service site and a seller service site]; ¶0023[a user from a remote geographical location may desire to utilize a payment mechanism designed for use in the remote geographical location to pay for a purchase made at a merchant located at a local geographical location]);
assigning, by the service platform, a first domain-wide user identifier (Fig. 3C[depicts a service platform assigning account number and other user identifiers to a user]; ¶0043[for example, the token hash may be generated (examiner notes generating for a user is comparable to assigning to the user) from a consumer's uniquely identifying information (e.g., an account identifier, unique name/address/age/etc. pairings, Social security number, and/or the like) and as Such, the resulting hash would be unique to that consumer and be the basis of a query which can be used to identify the consumer's home country]; examiner notes that a consumer's uniquely identifying information is comparable to a domain-wide user identifier) and
a first plurality of area user identifiers to a first user (Fig. 3C[depicts a plurality of area user identifiers for a buyer as seen on elements 324b and 326b which show the user address and a current GPS location which make up two different area user identifiers for the user]; ¶0033[the user may be able to view/modify a user name (e.g., 321a-b), account number (e.g., 322a-b), user security access code (e.g., 323a-b), user pin (e.g., 324a-b), user address (e.g., 325a-b), social security number associated with the user (e.g., 326a-b), current device GPS location (e.g., 327a-b) ... and/or the like]),
the first plurality of area user identifiers each linked to the first domain-wide user identifier and each uniquely corresponding to a respective area site of the plurality of area sites among the first plurality of area user identifiers, the plurality of area sites each corresponding to one of the first plurality of area user identifiers (Fig. 3C[depicts a plurality of area user identifiers for the user which are linked to the domain-wide user identifier of that user]; ¶0043[for example, the token hash may be generated from a consumer's uniquely identifying information (e.g., an account identifier, unique name/address/age/etc. pairings, Social security number, and/or the like) and as Such, the resulting hash would be unique to that consumer and be the basis of a query which can be used to identify the consumer's home country]; examiner notes that a consumer's uniquely identifying information is comparable to a domain-wide user identifier, refer to Fig. 3C which depicts linkage between the domain-wide user identifier and the area user identifiers);
determining that the first user having the first domain-wide identifier has logged in for a first service to be performed in a first geographic region corresponding to a first area site of the plurality of area sites (¶¶0043-0054[the token hash may be generated from a consumer's uniquely identifying information (e.g., an account identifier, unique name/address/age/etc. pairings, Social security number, and/or the like) and as Such, the resulting hash would be unique to that consumer and be the basis of a query which can be used to identify the consumer's home country ... the user must be queried for authentication (e.g., login and password), then the token server may determine that verification of authentication is necessary. The token server may initiate a user verification session]; examiner notes that such user verification is comparable to determining the first domain-wide user identifier corresponding to the buyer has logged in);
determining the first plurality of area user identifiers of the first user based on the first domain-wide identifier (Fig. 3C[depicts a plurality of area user identifiers for the user which are linked to the domain-wide user identifier of that user]; ¶0043[for example, the token hash may be generated from a consumer's uniquely identifying information (e.g., an account identifier, unique name/address/age/etc. pairings, Social security number, and/or the like) and as Such, the resulting hash would be unique to that consumer and be the basis of a query which can be used to identify the consumer's home country]; examiner notes that a consumer's uniquely identifying information is comparable to a domain-wide user identifier, refer to Fig. 3C which depicts linkage between the domain-wide user identifier and the area user identifiers); and
routing a computer process of the first service to a server of the first area site of the plurality of area sites for the first area site to locally process, at the first area site, the first service using an area user identifier of the first plurality of area user identifiers that corresponds to the first area site (Fig. 1A[the merchant server is shown to route the transaction to a server as seen on element 114b of the first buyer site] and 1B; ¶0024[the merchant server 112 may provide the purchase requests from both users to the same locally-situated payment network server, e.g., 114a. Thus, in some implementations, the local pay network server 114a may be required to determine whether to process the payment for an incoming card authorization request locally, or transfer the request to a remotely located pay network server, e.g., 114b. In some implementations, the local pay network server 114a may be required to make such a determination without utilizing any personally identifying information of the user. In some implementations, the local pay network server 114a may utilize the payment token provided by the client of the user as a search term to query a database ... route the purchase transaction to an appropriate locality relative to the purchase origination]; examiner notes that routing a purchase transaction to an appropriate locality is comparable to routing the service to an area site to process the first service and that querying a database is comparable to using an area user identifier of the plurality of area user identifiers that correspond to the area site), and
to locally store at the first area site service data generated by the processing the first service (Fig. 1A[servers 114a and 114b are depicted to be in different geographic regions corresponding to the area site they are located in and configured to interconnect with a service in the geographic region, 114a being configured to interconnect with a local pay network and 114b being configured to interconnect with a remote pay network], Fig. 15[elements 1514 and 1529]; ¶0099[The memory 1529 may contain a collection of program and/or database components and/or data ... components may be stored and accessed from the storage devices and/or from storage devices ... non-conventional program components such as those in the component collection, typically, are stored in a local storage device (examiner notes that a local storage device is comparable to locally storing generated data) 1514, they may also be loaded and/or stored in memory such as: peripheral devices, RAM, remote storage facilities through a communications network, ROM, various forms of memory, and/or the like]).
Although Oborne discloses area sites corresponding to geographic regions, Oborne does not explicitly disclose sites corresponding to geographic regions of different countries.
However, Chatenay teaches sites corresponding to geographic regions of different countries (Fig. 4; ¶0019[More particularly, the regional service 212 comprises a regional version of the network-based service that is offered in a particular geographical region, such as a particular country. The regional service 212 comprises a regional network site 214 and regional assets 216.] in view of ¶0014[Therefore, each server computer 104 may be operated in and/or for a different geographical region, e.g., country.]).
The system of Chatenay is applicable to the system of Oborne as they share characteristics and capabilities, namely, they are both targeted to web content gathering. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the area sites as disclosed by Oborne to include area sites of different countries as taught by Chatenay. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to expand the system of Oborne in order to access multiple sites of a given organization and with which the same customer data can be directly accessed using any of those sites (¶0011).
Although Oborne discloses a plurality of area user identifiers corresponding to a respective area site, Oborne in view of Chatenay does not explicitly teach the plurality of area sites each corresponding to a different one of the first plurality of area user identifiers.
However, Narasimhan teaches a plurality of websites corresponding to a different identifier of a user (Fig. 4; ¶0049[In one example of determining that two user identifiers match one another, data collection module 220 may provide first information indicating a user has logged into a merchant website using one identifier. Data collection module 220 may then also provide second information indicating the user is known to correspond to another particular identifier (e.g., a global identifier such as one provided by a digital payment service). Later, another instance of data collection module 220 may be able to link the same user, with yet a third different user identifier on a merchant site, to the same digital payment service identifier. With the digital payment service identifier (or any other suitable identifier) serving as a common link, it can be established that the two different user identifiers from two different merchant sites (such as on rows 420 and 425) should be matched to the same GUID 415 (“GUID_1”, in the example of FIG. 4)] in view of ¶0065).
The system of Narasimhan is applicable to the system of Oborne in view of Chatenay as they share characteristics and capabilities, namely, they are all targeted to web content gathering. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the plurality of user identifiers as taught by Oborne in view of Chatenay to include each identifier corresponding to a different website as taught by Narasimhan. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to expand the system of Oborne in view of Chatenay in order to track user behavior and provide better personalization data (¶0059).
Although Oborne discloses locally storing data at a site, Oborne does not explicitly disclose the server of the first area site and locally storing at the server of the first service site.
However, Kishi teaches locally storing at a server (¶0037[One or more transaction servers 30 may be provided for regions, business types or product categories.] and ¶0165[the transaction server 30 can inquire of another transaction server 30 that maintains the corporation information location file 395 storing the corporation and/or the transaction condition information file 391 of the corporation.] in view of Claim 6[at least one transaction center is provided for each region, each business type and each product type.]; Examiner notes that servers specific to a region maintaining data is comparable to locally storing).
The system of Kishi is applicable to the system of Oborne in view of Chatenay in further view of Narasimhan as they characteristics and capabilities, namely, they are all directed to connecting a seller to a buyer. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the local storage of data as taught by Oborne in view of Chatenay in further view of Narasimhan to include locally storing at a server as taught by Kishi. One of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date would have been motivated to expand the system of Oborne in view of Chatenay in further view of Narasimhan in order to provide a network system in which the delivery schedule including the delivery date for each retailer dealing with the product can be provided to a customer buying the product through the network, and the transaction between corporations related to the product can be immediately completed at once when the order of the product is received from the customer (¶0021).
Regarding Claim 20, Oborne in view of Chatenay in view of Narasimhan in further view of Kishi teaches the computing device according to claim 19, Oborne further discloses wherein the acts include:
obtaining location element information of the first user (Fig. 3C[GPS location or address is comparable to a location information of the first buyer]),
determining a geographic region in which the first user is currently located based on the location element information as the first geographic region (Fig. 1A[show a plurality of sites that correspond to geographic regions with buyer and seller service sites], Fig. 3C; ¶0043[token hash may be generated from a consumer's uniquely identifying information (e.g., an account identifier, unique name/address/age/etc. pairings, Social security number, and/or the like) and as Such, the resulting hash would be unique to that consumer and be the basis of a query which can be used to identify the consumer's home country]; Examiner notes that using identifying information including the location element corresponding to a user to find the user's home country is comparable to using the location element to find a geographic region in which the user is located in); and
determining the first area site based on the geographic region in which the first user is currently located (Fig. 1A[show a plurality of sites that correspond to geographic regions with buyer and seller service sites]; ¶¶0023-0043[a payment network system, comprised of payment network servers located in distant geographical regions (e.g., local pay network server 114a and remote pay network server 114b) may be required to determine where to process a purchase transaction ... token hash may be generated from a consumer's uniquely identifying information (e.g., an account identifier, unique name/address/age/etc. pairings, Social security number, and/or the like) and as Such, the resulting hash would be unique to that consumer and be the basis of a query which can be used to identify the consumer's home country]; Examiner notes that determining where to process a purchase transaction based on location information of a user is comparable to determining the area site based on the geographic region in which the user is located in).
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments on pages 10-11 of the remarks filed 11/21/2025, with respect to the previous 35
USC § 101 rejections have been fully considered but are not persuasive.
Applicant argues on pages 10-11 of the remarks that the amended claims are not directed to Certain Methods of Organizing Human Activity enumerated grouping of abstract ideas and relates to technical activities. Examiner respectfully disagrees. According to the MPEP 2106.04, the question of whether a claim is “directed to” a judicial exception in Step 2A is now evaluated using a two-prong inquiry. Prong One asks if the claim “recites” an abstract idea, law of nature, or natural phenomenon. Under that prong, the mere inclusion of a judicial exception such as a method of organizing human activity in a claim means that the claim “recites” a judicial exception (see MPEP 2106.04 [“The mere inclusion of a judicial exception such as a mathematical formula (which is one of the mathematical concepts identified as an abstract idea in MPEP § 2106.04(a)) in a claim means that the claim "recites" a judicial exception under Step 2A Prong One.”]). Additionally, MPEP 2106.04 instructs examiners to refer to the groupings of abstract ideas enumerated in MPEP 2106.04(a)(2) (i.e., mathematical concepts, certain methods of organizing human activities, and mental processes) in order to identify abstract ideas. As noted above and in the previous office action, the claims recite purchasing products over the web. This is an abstract idea because it is a concept of business relations which makes it a method of organizing human activity (i.e., one of the groupings of abstract ideas enumerated in MPEP 2106.04(a)(2)).
A method, comprising: the plurality of area sites respectively corresponding to a plurality of geographic regions of different countries, the plurality of geographic regions not overlapping with one another and having different data regulation requirements, each area site of the plurality of area sites physically located in a geographic region corresponding to the area site; assigning, a first domain-wide user identifier and a first plurality of area user identifiers to a first buyer, the first plurality of area user identifiers each linked to the first domain-wide user identifier and each uniquely corresponding to a respective area site of the plurality of area sites among the first plurality of area user identifiers, the plurality of area sites each corresponding to a different one of the first plurality of area user identifiers; assigning, a second domain-wide user identifier and a second plurality of area user identifiers to a first seller, the second plurality of area user identifiers each linked to the second domain-wide user identifier and each uniquely corresponding to a respective area site of the plurality of area sites among the second plurality of area user identifiers, the plurality of area sites each corresponding to a different one of the second plurality of area user identifiers; receiving a payment request initiated by the first buyer for a first order, a product in the first order being provided by the first seller, and the payment request including a selected payment channel; determining that a buyer payment service corresponding to the payment request belongs to a first geographic region, a first area site of the plurality of area sites corresponding to the first geographic region including a first buyer service site, the first buyer having a first area user identifier for the first area site, the first geographic region being determined based on a place of registration of a payment institution corresponding to the selected payment channel being located in the first geographic region; and routing a process of the buyer payment service corresponding to the first order to the first buyer service site, for the first buyer service site to locally process, at the first buyer service site, the buyer payment service through interconnection with the selected payment channel and interconnection with the first buyer based on the first area user identifier of the first buyer, and the first buyer service site service data generated by the processing the buyer payment service as recited in amended claim 1 are all part of the abstract idea and the mere execution of the abstract idea on generic components which are recited at a high level do not integrate the abstract idea into a practical application or provide a technical improvement. The components of servers for implementing a plurality of area sites of a service platform, interconnect with a service in a geographic region and to locally store data generated through the interconnection, and a service platform are described as generic and at a high level in Fig. 3 and Paragraphs [0015]-[0020], [0049]-[0068], and [0126] of the instant specification.
Accordingly, Examiner maintains that the invention is directed to a judicial exception without
significantly more. The claims recite an abstract idea. This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application. The claim(s) do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception. Thus the 35 USC §101 rejections are maintained.
Applicant’s arguments on pages 11 of the remarks filed 11/21/2025, with respect to the previous 35 USC 103 rejections have been fully considered but are not persuasive. As no remarks directed to the specific nature of how the previous art failed to teach the previously presented claims, references Oborne, Chatenay, Narasimhan, and Kishi have been maintained.
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 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.
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/AHOORA LADONI/Examiner, Art Unit 3689
/MARISSA THEIN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3689