DETAILED ACTION,
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 .
This Office Action is responsive to: RCEX filed 02 Sep. 2025
Claims 1 and 3-20 are pending in this case. Claims 1, 8 and 15 are independent claims
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 02 Sep. 2025 has been entered.
Applicant’s Response
In Applicant’s Response dated 02 Sep. 2025, Applicant amended claims 1, 5, 8, 12 and 15; argued against all rejections previously set forth in the Office Action dated 01 May 2025.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 4-6, 11-13 and 18-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over JAEB et al. (Pub. No.: US 2016/0092862 A1; Date: Mar. 31, 2016)(hereinafter “JAEB”) in view of Cella et al. (Pub. No.: US 2023/0206329 A1; Effective Filed Date: Nov. 23, 2021)(hereinafter “Cella”).
Regarding independent claims 1, 8 and 15, JAEB disclose a system for identification and management of layered dependent resource distribution devices, the system comprising:
at least one network communication interface (0032-0034);
at least one non-transitory storage device (0032-0034); and
at least one processing device coupled to the at least one non-transitory storage device and the at least one network communication interface, wherein the at least one processing device is configured to (0032-0034):
receive an expunge request from a user to expunge a resource distribution device, via a user interface (0039-0040);
in response to receiving the expunge request, determine one or more layered dependent resource distribution devices associated with the resource distribution device, wherein the one or more layered dependent resource distribution devices comprise at least one or more primary resource distribution devices and one or more secondary resource distribution devices, wherein the one or more primary resource distribution devices are created by an entity system and the one or more secondary resource distribution devices are created by one or more third party systems, wherein the one or more secondary resource distribution devices are associated with the resource distribution device and the one or more primary resource distribution devices associated with the resource distribution device (0038-0040; 0042-0046);
display the one or more layered dependent resource distribution devices to the user, via the user interface (0040);
in response to displaying the one or more layered dependent resource distribution devices, receive a selective expunge request associated with the one or more layered dependent resource distribution devices to expunge (i) the one or more primary resource distribution devices and (ii) at least one layered dependent resource distribution device excluding at least once other secondary resource distribution device of the one or more secondary resource distribution devices (0039-0040); and
expunge the resource distribution device associated with the expunge request, the one or more primary resource distribution devices, and the at least one layered dependent resource distribution device of the one or more layered dependent resource distribution devices associated with the selective expunge request (0039-0040).
JAEB does not expressly disclose communicating with an entity system and one or more third party systems.
Cella teach communicating with an entity system and one or more third party systems (0015; 0412; 0704; 1078).
Therefore, before the effective filing date of the current invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to combine Cella with JAEB for the benefit of enhance digital transactions in markets of all types (0003),
Regarding dependent clams 3, 10 and 17, JAEB disclose the system of claims 1, 9 and 16 respectively, wherein the at least one processing device is configured to identify the entity system based on identifying an enrollment record associated with the resource distribution device in an enrollment database (0033; 0035; 0039-0042).
Regarding dependent clams 7 and 14, JAEB disclose the system of claims 1 and 8 respectively, wherein the one or more layered dependent resource distribution devices are tokens (0039).
Regarding dependent clams 9 and 16, JAEB disclose the computer program product of claims 8 and 15 respectively, wherein the one or more primary resource distribution devices are created by an entity system and the one or more secondary resource distribution devices are created by one or more third party systems (0043-0046).
Claims 4-6, 11-13 and 18-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over JAEB in view of Cella , further in view of Ding et al. (Pub. No.: US 2024/0249273 A1; Effective Filing Date: Nov. 23, 2018)(hereinafter “Ding”).
Regarding dependent clams 4, 11 and 18, JAEB in view of Cella does not expressly disclose the system of claims 1, 9 and 15 respectively, wherein the at least one processing device is configured to identify the one or more third party systems based on identifying one or more historical interactions associated with the resource distribution device.
Ding teach identify the one or more third party systems based on identifying one or more historical interactions associated with the resource distribution device (0012; 0014-0015; 0044; 0128).
Therefore at the time of the invention it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to combine Ding with JAEB in view of Cella for the benefit of improving card binding efficiency (0005).
Regarding dependent clams 5, 12 and 19, JAEB in view of Cella, further in view of Ding disclose the system of claims 1, 9 and 15 respectively, wherein the at least one processing device 1s further configured to determine the one or more layered dependent resource distribution devices based on:
establishing a first communication link with the entity system (0021; 0041; 0056; 0070; 0196-0212);
establishing a second communication link with the one or more third party systems (0021; 0041; 0056; 0070; 0196-0212); and
querying the entity system via the first communication link and the one or more third party systems via the second communication link to determine the one or more layered dependent resource distribution devices (0021; 0041; 0056; 0070; 0196-0212).
Regarding dependent clams 6, 13 and 20, JAEB in view of Cella, further in view of Ding disclose the system of claims 5, 12 and 15 respectively, wherein the at least one processing device is further configured to expunge the resource distribution device and the at least one secondary resource distribution device based on:
transmitting a first set of instructions associated with expunging the resource distribution device to the entity system, via the first communication link, wherein the first set of instructions cause the entity system to expunge the resource distribution device (JAEB 0039-0040); and
transmitting a second set of instructions associated with expunging the at least one secondary resource distribution device to at least one third party system of the one or more third party systems associated with the at least one secondary resource distribution device, via the second communication link, wherein the second set of instructions cause the at least one third party system to expunge the at least one secondary resource distribution device (0021; 0041; 0056; 0070; 0196-0212).
NOTE
It is noted that any citations to specific, pages, columns, lines, or figures in the prior art references and any interpretation of the reference should not be considered to be limiting in any way. A reference is relevant for all it contains and may be relied upon for all that it would have reasonably suggested to one having ordinary skill in the art. See MPEP 2123.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JAMES J DEBROW whose telephone number is (571)272-5768. The examiner can normally be reached on 09:00 - 06:00.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, William Bashore can be reached on 571-272-4088. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/James J Debrow/
Primary Patent Examiner
Art Unit 2174
571-272-5768