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 .
Response to Amendment
This office action is responsive to amendment filed on 12/1/2025. Claims 1-16, 18 and 24 are previously cancelled. Claims 17, and 23 are amended. Consequently, claims 17, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 25 and 26 are pending.
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 17,19,20,21,22,23,25 and 26 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to a judicial exception (i.e., a law of nature, a natural phenomenon, or an abstract idea) without significantly more.
Claim 17 is drawn to a system and claim 23 is drawn to a method. As such, claims 17 and 23 are drawn to one of the statutory categories of invention.
Step 1: The claims are directed to a process and a system which are statutory categories under 35 U.S. C. 101.
Step 2A, Prong One: The claims recite a judicial exception, specifically an abstract idea which falls within the category of “certain methods or organizing human activity”, particularly “commercial or legal interactions’ such as managing transaction, advertising, marketing or sales activities. The clams recite system comprising a computer program and associated interface for: sending and receiving messages related to compensation, storing and processing a reply deadlines and compensation values, adjusting payment amounts based on message timing, transmitting payment data to a payment processor. These steps represent financial administrative workflow (e.g. sending messages with compensation offers, adjusting values based on response times, and processing payments, which could be performed manually or with pen and paper. As such the claims are directed to an abstract idea.
Step 2 A, Prong Two: The additional elements such as server, computing devices, database, user interface, user verification scheme and payment processor, are recited at ahigh level of generality and perform routine and conventional functions. The clams merely use the generic computing components to implement the abstract idea of sending compensation related messages and processing payments, without any improvement to computer functionality or technical solution to a technical problem. Therefore, the claims do not amount to significantly more than the abstract idea itself.
Step 2B: the claims do not recite an inventive concept enough to transform the abstract idea into patent eligible application. The use of the conventional computing components (severs, messaging system, user interface, and payment processors) to implement known business practices, such as adjusting compensation based on deadlines and sending payment data, is well understood, routine and conventional. In summary, the claims do not recite inventive concept that would render the abstract idea patent eligible.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
The applicant argues that the amended claims are directed to solving technical challenge of incentivizing response over a digital network, which is a digital only problem that is not present in face-to-face communication, accordingly like he claims in Desjardins, the present claims should be allowed.
Response: contrary to applicant assertions, the claims do not solve a technical challenge of incentivizing responses over a digital network. The problem addressed is a business and behavior challenge, not a technological one. The claims simply automate an economic inventive model of tracking reply times, adjusting compensation and initiating payments using generic messaging services, databases and processors performing conventional functions. Unlike in Desjardins, which improved computer memory integrity through a specific technical solution. The present claims do not improve the functioning of a computer or any network technology. Implementing a business rule in a digital environment does not convert it into a technical improvement. Accordingly, the claims remain directed to an abstract idea without a technological integration or inventive concept under 101.
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
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/SARGON N NANO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2443