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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see page 10, filed 08/01/2025, with respect to the objection to the specification have been fully considered. The objection to the specification has been withdrawn in response to the submission of the substitute specification filed 08/01/2025.
Applicant’s arguments, see pages 10-14, filed 08/01/2025, with respect to the rejection of claims 1-20 under 35 U.S.C. § 103 have been fully considered.
Upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of newly discovered prior art in response to amended independent claims 1, 15, and 17.
Applicant attests “The cited portions of Nieto describe or suggest using two factor authentication to authenticate a physical user device to access or otherwise interact with a digital asset. However, the cited portions do not describe or suggest that SIM data including IMEI is obtained from an e- wallet and the SIM data is used to initiate two factor authentication between a subscriber and a NFT metaverse phone as well as initiate two factor authentication between the subscriber and a physical phone and based on such authentications, initiating communication between the NFT metaverse phone and the physical phone”, followed by a full recitation of independent claims 1, 15, and 17. Since applicant does not give any further explanation as to how the previously cited art differentiates from the claimed invention other than repeating the amendments made to the claim, the examiner defers to the rejection below as a response to this argument.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112(a):
(a) IN GENERAL.—The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor or joint inventor of carrying out the invention.
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112:
The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor of carrying out his invention.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the written description requirement. The claim(s) contains subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to reasonably convey to one skilled in the relevant art that the inventor or a joint inventor, or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the inventor(s), at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention.
Regarding Claims 1, 15, and 17:
Independent claims 1, 15, and 17 recite “wherein the SIM data includes an International mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) associated with the physical phone”, “wherein the SIM data includes an International mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) associated with the communication device”, and “wherein the SIM data includes an International mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) associated with the non-virtual communication device” respectively. The originally filed disclosure is not commensurate with the scope of the amended claims requiring that the “SIM data includes an International mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) associated with the” devices. Paragraph [0027] of the originally filed disclosure supports the potential claim scope of the claimed e-wallet including “identification data of the new (or existing) subscriber, which can include data associated with the mobile phone (e.g., IMEI or International Mobile Equipment Identity, and/or a serial number of the mobile phone)”. The distinction here is that the originally filed disclosure does not support the scope claimed that the SIM data includes an International mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) associated with the physical phone. The originally filed disclosure is silent with respect to the SIM data including an IMEI as currently claimed.
The dependent claims fall together accordingly.
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.
Claim(s) 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Nieto et. al. (US Patent No. US 11,487,850 B1) hereinafter Nieto in view of Liang et. al. (CN 115811412 A) hereinafter Liang, further in view of Kahn; Ari (US Patent No. US 11,564,266 B1) hereinafter Kahn.
Regarding Claims 1 and 15:
Claim 1. Nieto discloses a device, comprising: a processing system including a processor; and a non-transitory memory that stores executable instructions that, when executed by the processing system, facilitate performance of operations, the operations comprising (Nieto Fig. 11, Col. 35 line 39 through Col. 36 line 7): generating a link for a non-fungible token (NFT) metaverse phone (Nieto Fig. 1, Col. 4 lines 8-15 NFTs serve as a token linking digital asset to physical products; Col. 5 lines 29-39 mobile phones are a part of the system; Col. 4 lines 58-62 “Additional embodiments of the present invention may further relate to creation of a metaverse environment that connects both the enterprise network and any additional external systems and for enabling the integration of digital assets into the third-party systems.”); associating the link of the NFT metaverse phone to provisioning data of a service account of a physical phone associated with a subscriber of the physical phone (Nieto Col. 9 lines 54-66 links ownership of digital asset to ownership of physical product), wherein the NFT metaverse phone is associated with artwork managed by a blockchain, wherein the artwork is associated with the physical phone (Nieto Col. 13 line 66 through Col. 14 line 13 “For example, in an embodiment involving implementing digital assets as digital shoes, a smart contract may specify that certain types of eyelets are to be integrated in different ways based on the overall style of the shoe (such as high-tops, boots, mid-rise, low-tops). The smart contract may specify that high-top shoes are to include a certain number of eyelets while boots are to include another number of eyelets such that when the smart contract is executed by the digital activation layer 230A, a digital asset corresponding to a high-top shoe is generated having different number of eyelets then a digital asset of a boot. In this manner, smart contracts may include information that dictate the appearance of digital assets based on the specific combination of different components” and Nieto Col. 33 lines 35-41 “Other examples of conditions include customizing the digital asset and transferring the digital asset for use in external systems 220. Customizing the digital asset may include allowing the user to add personal details such as with the user's name, updating the appearance of the digital asset based on real-world usage of a corresponding physical product”); … initiating a first two factor authentication between the subscriber and the NFT metaverse phone (Nieto Fig. 2A and 2B authentication module 234; Col. 16 lines 55-61 two-factor authentication) … initiating a second two factor authentication between the subscriber and the physical phone (Nieto Fig. 2A and 2B authentication module 234; Col. 16 lines 55-61 two-factor authentication) … receiving a communication request initiated by user equipment, the communication request associated with the service account (Nieto Fig. 5 and 7; Col. 30 lines 39-58 request to associate physical product with a digital asset); detecting the NFT metaverse phone is available for use in a metaverse system of a plurality of metaverse systems (Nieto Col. 19 lines 26-32 “In another embodiment, the trained machine learning model may adjust views of the available digital asset for each user based on the user's usage activity…” e.g., adjust the view of the digital asset based on if the asset is currently in use or not); and initiating communications between the user equipment and the NFT metaverse phone via the metaverse system based on the first authentication, the second authentication, the first record and the second record (Nieto Fig. 2A-2B authentication module 234, Fig. 5; Col. 26 lines 51-62 “FIG. 5 is a system diagram illustrating communication between different devices within the system for processing digital assets in combination with a physical product. Components are discussed in relation to FIG. 2A but are not limited to this embodiment. It should be noted that the communications illustrated in FIG. 5 merely represent one possible embodiment of the interactions between the identified components. It should be understood that other implementations of communications and other components may be involved with the process for the purpose of processing digital assets in combination with a physical product consistent with the description in this disclosure.”; Col. 15 line 55 through Col. 16 line 3 manage user interactions within enterprise network; Col 27 lines 37-51 authentication scheme disclosed).
Nieto does not explicitly disclose obtaining an e-wallet associated with the subscriber from a virtual database associated with the NFT metaverse phone, wherein the e-wallet comprises subscriber identity module (SIM) data associated with the physical phone, wherein the SIM data includes an International mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) associated with the physical phone; associating a first record in a virtual database associated with the NFT metaverse phone with a second record of the SIM data associated with the physical phone; … based on the SIM data resulting in a first authentication… based on the SIM data resulting in a second authentication.
Liang teaches obtaining an e-wallet associated with the subscriber from a virtual database associated with the NFT metaverse phone (Liang page 10 lines 34-35 “the DID may include a DID identifier and a DID document, the DID document comprises: the public key of the first user, the set of encryption protocol, set of service endpoint, The creation time stamp of the DID document and the JSON-LD (JavaScript ObjectNotation-Linked Data, a method based on JSON representation and transmission interconnection data) are signed. wherein the JSON-LD signature is used for verifying the validity of the DID document. The public key of the first user corresponds to the private key of the first user mentioned in the following text”), wherein the e-wallet comprises subscriber identity module (SIM) data associated with the physical phone (Liang page 11-12 “S404: The meta-space application module obtains the transaction record of the first user in the meta-space platform. S405: The universe application module sends a transaction record to the SIM card. S406: the SIM card based on the private key of the first user to encrypt the transaction record to obtain the corresponding digital signature, and sending the digital signature to the universe application module. S407: the universe application module obtains digital signature from the SIM card, and sends transaction record and digital signature to the universe platform. The universe platform can use block chain as the infrastructure, for example, the universe platform can issue virtual asset based on block chain.”), … associating a first record in a virtual database associated with the NFT metaverse phone with a second record of the SIM data associated with the physical phone (Liang page 11-12 “S404: The meta-space application module obtains the transaction record of the first user in the meta-space platform. S405: The universe application module sends a transaction record to the SIM card. S406: the SIM card based on the private key of the first user to encrypt the transaction record to obtain the corresponding digital signature, and sending the digital signature to the universe application module. S407: the universe application module obtains digital signature from the SIM card, and sends transaction record and digital signature to the universe platform. The universe platform can use block chain as the infrastructure, for example, the universe platform can issue virtual asset based on block chain.”); … based on the SIM data resulting in a first authentication… based on the SIM data resulting in a second authentication (Liang page 11-12 “S404: The meta-space application module obtains the transaction record of the first user in the meta-space platform. S405: The universe application module sends a transaction record to the SIM card. S406: the SIM card based on the private key of the first user to encrypt the transaction record to obtain the corresponding digital signature, and sending the digital signature to the universe application module. S407: the universe application module obtains digital signature from the SIM card, and sends transaction record and digital signature to the universe platform. The universe platform can use block chain as the infrastructure, for example, the universe platform can issue virtual asset based on block chain.”).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the time the invention was effectively filed to combine the metaverse and NFT system disclosed by Nieto with the SIM data integration taught by Liang. The motivation for this combination would be in order to take advantage of physical SIM cards to link the virtual metaverse data to the SIM data belonging to the physical device and to further facilitate authentication utilizing SIM data.
Liang does not explicitly teach wherein the SIM data includes an International mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) associated with the physical phone.
Kahn teaches the SIM data includes an International mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) associated with the physical phone (Kahn claim 6 cellular identities may include an IMEI).
It would have been further obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the time the invention was effectively filed to further combine the metaverse and NFT system disclosed by Nieto with the use of IMEI data taught by Kahn.
The motivation to include the IMEI data would be to improve security by requiring further details of the physical phone (Kahn utilizes the IMEI and other identifiers to prevent SIM swaps for example in Col. 92 lines 11-29).
Claim 15 discloses substantially the same material and is therefore rejected by the same rationales. Nieto further discloses a non-transitory machine-readable medium, comprising executable instructions that, when executed by a processing system including a processor (Nieto Fig. 11, Col. 35 line 39 through Col. 36 line 7).
Regarding Claim 2:
The combination of Nieto, Liang, and Kahn further teaches the device of claim 1 (Nieto Fig. 11, Col. 35 line 39 through Col. 36 line 7), wherein the communication request corresponds to a message transmitted by the user equipment (Nieto Col. 15 line 55 through Col. 16 line 3 manage user interactions within enterprise network), wherein the user equipment comprises another physical phone or another NFT metaverse phone (Nieto Col. 15 line 55 through Col. 16 line 3 manage user interactions within enterprise network including users interacting with other users’ digital assets), and wherein the message includes text, an image or combination thereof (Nieto Col. 15 line 55 through Col. 16 line 3 manage user interactions within enterprise network including users interacting with other users’ digital assets; Col. 20 line 52 through Col. 21 line 16 example of social media interactions enumerated).
Regarding Claim 3:
The combination of Nieto, Liang, and Kahn further teaches the device of claim 1 (Nieto Fig. 11, Col. 35 line 39 through Col. 36 line 7), wherein the communication request corresponds to an audio communication initiated by the user equipment, a video communication initiated by the user equipment, or a combination thereof (Nieto Col. 20 line 52 through Col. 21 line 16 example of social media interactions enumerated).
Regarding Claim 4:
The combination of Nieto, Liang, and Kahn further teaches the device of claim 1 (Nieto Fig. 11, Col. 35 line 39 through Col. 36 line 7), wherein the link of the NFT metaverse phone is generated responsive to enabling communication services for the physical phone (Nieto Col. 4 lines 58-67 digital assets in the metaverse may be connected; Col. 11 lines 31-39 “in some embodiments, ownership of the digital assets may be linked to the physical product where purchase of the physical product may result in automatic ownership of the digital ownership or vice versa where purchase of the digital asset may result in automatic ownership of the physical product. The digital activation layer 118 may also provide a mechanism that allows digital assets to be sold or traded between users of the digital asset system 100.”).
Regarding Claim 5 and 16:
Claim 5. The combination of Nieto, Liang, and Kahn further teaches the device of claim 1 (Nieto Fig. 11, Col. 35 line 39 through Col. 36 line 7), wherein the metaverse system associates a virtual machine with the NFT metaverse phone (Nieto Col. 5 lines 32-39 user devices may be virtual machines), and wherein the virtual machine emulates at least a portion of services provided by the physical phone (Nieto Col. 5 lines 32-39 user devices may be virtual machines).
Claim 16 discloses substantially the same content and is therefore rejected by the same rationales.
Regarding Claim 6:
The combination of Nieto, Liang, and Kahn further teaches the device of claim 5 (Nieto Fig. 11, Col. 35 line 39 through Col. 36 line 7), wherein the communications are initiated between the user equipment and the NFT metaverse phone via the virtual machine (Nieto Col. 5 lines 32-39 user devices may be virtual machines).
Regarding Claim 7:
The combination of Nieto, Liang, and Kahn further teaches the device of claim 5 (Nieto Fig. 11, Col. 35 line 39 through Col. 36 line 7), wherein the virtual machine operates from the metaverse system (Nieto Col. 5 lines 32-39 user devices may be virtual machines).
Regarding Claim 8:
The combination of Nieto, Liang, and Kahn further teaches the device of claim 1 (Nieto Fig. 11, Col. 35 line 39 through Col. 36 line 7), wherein the operations further comprise initiating communications between the user equipment and the physical phone (Nieto Col. 15 line 55 through Col. 16 line 3 manage user interactions within enterprise network including users interacting with other users’ digital assets; Col. 20 line 52 through Col. 21 line 16 example of social media interactions enumerated).
Regarding Claim 9:
The combination of Nieto, Liang, and Kahn further teaches the device of claim 1 (Nieto Fig. 11, Col. 35 line 39 through Col. 36 line 7), wherein the operations further comprise transitioning communications between the user equipment and the NFT metaverse phone to communications between the user equipment and the physical phone responsive to receiving a transfer request from the NFT metaverse phone (Nieto Col. 15 line 56 through Col. 16 line 4 system can shift managing functions between the blockchain, physical communications, and the enterprise network).
Regarding Claim 10:
The combination of Nieto, Liang, and Kahn further teaches the device of claim 1 (Nieto Fig. 11, Col. 35 line 39 through Col. 36 line 7), wherein the NFT metaverse phone is assigned to an avatar in the metaverse system (Nieto Col. 19 line 53 through Col. 20 line 3 video game avatars contemplated), and wherein artwork of the NFT metaverse phone emulates an appearance of the physical phone (Nieto Fig. 10A-10C various artworks of digital assets shown; Col. 14 lines 11-16 appearance of digital assets is customizable).
Regarding Claim 11:
The combination of Nieto, Liang, and Kahn further teaches the device of claim 1 (Nieto Fig. 11, Col. 35 line 39 through Col. 36 line 7), wherein the operations further comprise receiving a notification from one or more metaverse systems of the plurality of metaverse systems (Nieto Col. 28 line 1-5 notification of ownership), the notification indicating the NFT metaverse phone is registered for use at the one or more metaverse systems, and wherein the detecting is responsive to searching the one or more metaverse systems for an availability of the NFT metaverse phone (Nieto Col. 28 line 1-5 notification of ownership).
Regarding Claim 12:
The combination of Nieto, Liang, and Kahn further teaches the device of claim 1 (Nieto Fig. 11, Col. 35 line 39 through Col. 36 line 7), wherein the operations further comprise configuring the NFT metaverse phone to roam between the plurality of metaverse systems (Nieto Col. 15 line 55 through Col. 16 line 3 cross-enterprise relationships contemplated).
Regarding Claim 13:
The combination of Nieto, Liang, and Kahn further teaches the device of claim 1 (Nieto Fig. 11, Col. 35 line 39 through Col. 36 line 7), wherein the operations further comprise receiving a message from a virtual machine associated with the NFT metaverse phone, the message directed to the user equipment, and the message being automatically submitted by the virtual machine responsive to detecting an unavailable status for accepting the communications initiated by the user equipment (Nieto Fig. 5; Col. 28 line 6-12 destroying digital assets, Col. 23 line 53 through Col. 24 line 2 destroying digital asset).
Regarding Claim 14:
The combination of Nieto, Liang, and Kahn further teaches the device of claim 1 (Nieto Fig. 11, Col. 35 line 39 through Col. 36 line 7), wherein the operations further comprise initiating multifactor authentication, wherein the multifactor authentication comprises the first two factor authentication and the second two factor authentication (Nieto Fig. 2A and 2B authentication module 234; Col. 16 lines 55-61 two-factor authentication).
Regarding Claim 17 ***:
Nieto discloses a method, comprising: registering, by a metaverse system, NFT metaverse communication device, the metaverse system comprising a processing system that includes at least one processor (Nieto Fig. 7-8, Col. 30 lines 18-38 and Col. 31 lines 34-55); sending, by the metaverse system, a message to a communication system that provides services to a non-virtual communication device linked to the NFT metaverse communication device (Nieto Fig. 2A-2B, Fig. 5; Col. 26 lines 51-62 “FIG. 5 is a system diagram illustrating communication between different devices within the system for processing digital assets in combination with a physical product. Components are discussed in relation to FIG. 2A but are not limited to this embodiment. It should be noted that the communications illustrated in FIG. 5 merely represent one possible embodiment of the interactions between the identified components. It should be understood that other implementations of communications and other components may be involved with the process for the purpose of processing digital assets in combination with a physical product consistent with the description in this disclosure.”; Col. 15 line 55 through Col. 16 line 3 manage user interactions within enterprise network), the message indicating the NFT metaverse communication device has been registered at the metaverse system (Nieto Col. 4 lines 58-67 digital assets in the metaverse may be connected; Col. 11 lines 31-39 “in some embodiments, ownership of the digital assets may be linked to the physical product where purchase of the physical product may result in automatic ownership of the digital ownership or vice versa where purchase of the digital asset may result in automatic ownership of the physical product. The digital activation layer 118 may also provide a mechanism that allows digital assets to be sold or traded between users of the digital asset system 100.”), wherein the NFT metaverse communication device is associated with artwork managed by a blockchain system, wherein the artwork is associated with the non-virtual communication device (Nieto Col. 13 line 66 through Col. 14 line 13 “For example, in an embodiment involving implementing digital assets as digital shoes, a smart contract may specify that certain types of eyelets are to be integrated in different ways based on the overall style of the shoe (such as high-tops, boots, mid-rise, low-tops). The smart contract may specify that high-top shoes are to include a certain number of eyelets while boots are to include another number of eyelets such that when the smart contract is executed by the digital activation layer 230A, a digital asset corresponding to a high-top shoe is generated having different number of eyelets then a digital asset of a boot. In this manner, smart contracts may include information that dictate the appearance of digital assets based on the specific combination of different components” and Nieto Col. 33 lines 35-41 “Other examples of conditions include customizing the digital asset and transferring the digital asset for use in external systems 220. Customizing the digital asset may include allowing the user to add personal details such as with the user's name, updating the appearance of the digital asset based on real-world usage of a corresponding physical product”), … initiating a first two factor authentication between the subscriber and the NFT metaverse communication device (Nieto Fig. 2A and 2B authentication module 234; Col. 16 lines 55-61 two-factor authentication) … initiating a second two factor authentication between the subscriber and the non-virtual communication device (Nieto Fig. 2A and 2B authentication module 234; Col. 16 lines 55-61 two-factor authentication) … detecting, by the metaverse system, that the communication system including the non-virtual communication device has initiated communications directed to the NFT metaverse communication device (Nieto Col. 4 lines 58-67 digital assets in the metaverse may be connected; Col. 11 lines 31-39); and facilitating, by the metaverse system, communications between the communication system including the non-virtual communication device and the NFT metaverse communication device based on the first authentication, the second authentication, the first record and the second record (Nieto Fig. 2A-2B, Fig. 5; Col. 26 lines 51-62; Col. 15 line 55 through Col. 16 line 3 manage user interactions within enterprise network; Col 27 lines 37-51 authentication scheme disclosed).
Nieto does not disclose a method wherein a subscriber is associated with the non-virtual communication device, wherein an e-wallet associated with the subscriber is obtained from a virtual database associated with the NFT metaverse communication device, wherein the e-wallet comprises subscriber identity module (SIM) data associated with the non-virtual communication device, wherein the SIM data includes an International mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) associated with the non-virtual communication device wherein a first record in the virtual database associated for the NFT metaverse communication device is associated with a second record of the SIM data of the non-virtual communication device for the communication system… based on the SIM data resulting in a first authentication; … based on the SIM data resulting in a second authentication.
Liang teaches wherein a subscriber is associated with the non-virtual communication device, wherein an e-wallet associated with the subscriber is obtained from a virtual database associated with the NFT metaverse communication device (Liang page 10 lines 34-35 “the DID may include a DID identifier and a DID document, the DID document comprises: the public key of the first user, the set of encryption protocol, set of service endpoint, The creation time stamp of the DID document and the JSON-LD (JavaScript ObjectNotation-Linked Data, a method based on JSON representation and transmission interconnection data) are signed. wherein the JSON-LD signature is used for verifying the validity of the DID document. The public key of the first user corresponds to the private key of the first user mentioned in the following text”), wherein the e-wallet comprises subscriber identity module (SIM) data associated with the non-virtual communication device (Liang page 11-12 “S404: The meta-space application module obtains the transaction record of the first user in the meta-space platform. S405: The universe application module sends a transaction record to the SIM card. S406: the SIM card based on the private key of the first user to encrypt the transaction record to obtain the corresponding digital signature, and sending the digital signature to the universe application module. S407: the universe application module obtains digital signature from the SIM card, and sends transaction record and digital signature to the universe platform. The universe platform can use block chain as the infrastructure, for example, the universe platform can issue virtual asset based on block chain.”), … wherein a first record in a virtual database associated for the NFT metaverse communication device is associated with a second record of subscriber identity module (SIM) data for the communication system (Liang page 11-12 “S404: The meta-space application module obtains the transaction record of the first user in the meta-space platform. S405: The universe application module sends a transaction record to the SIM card. S406: the SIM card based on the private key of the first user to encrypt the transaction record to obtain the corresponding digital signature, and sending the digital signature to the universe application module. S407: the universe application module obtains digital signature from the SIM card, and sends transaction record and digital signature to the universe platform. The universe platform can use block chain as the infrastructure, for example, the universe platform can issue virtual asset based on block chain.”) … based on the SIM data resulting in a first authentication; … based on the SIM data resulting in a second authentication (Liang page 11-12 “S404: The meta-space application module obtains the transaction record of the first user in the meta-space platform. S405: The universe application module sends a transaction record to the SIM card. S406: the SIM card based on the private key of the first user to encrypt the transaction record to obtain the corresponding digital signature, and sending the digital signature to the universe application module. S407: the universe application module obtains digital signature from the SIM card, and sends transaction record and digital signature to the universe platform. The universe platform can use block chain as the infrastructure, for example, the universe platform can issue virtual asset based on block chain.”).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the time the invention was effectively filed to combine the metaverse and NFT communication method disclosed by Nieto with the SIM data integration taught by Liang. The motivation for this combination would be in order to take advantage of physical SIM cards to link the virtual metaverse data to the SIM data to extend the functionalities of the metaverse system to non-virtual communication devices.
Liang does not explicitly teach wherein the SIM data includes an International mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) associated with the physical phone.
Kahn teaches the SIM data includes an International mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) associated with the physical phone (Kahn claim 6 cellular identities may include an IMEI).
It would have been further obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the time the invention was effectively filed to further combine the metaverse and NFT system disclosed by Nieto with the use of IMEI data taught by Kahn.
The motivation to include the IMEI data would be to improve security by requiring further details of the physical phone (Kahn utilizes the IMEI and other identifiers to prevent SIM swaps for example in Col. 92 lines 11-29).
Regarding Claim 18:
The combination of Nieto, Liang, and Kahn further teaches the method of claim 17 (Nieto Fig. 7-8, Col. 30 lines 18-38 and Col. 31 lines 34-55), further comprising associating, by the metaverse system, a virtual machine with the NFT metaverse communication device, the virtual machine facilitating the communications with the communication system (Nieto Col. 5 lines 32-39 user devices may be virtual machines).
Regarding Claim 19:
The combination of Nieto, Liang, and Kahn further teaches the method of claim 18 (Nieto Fig. 7-8, Col. 30 lines 18-38 and Col. 31 lines 34-55), wherein the virtual machine operates from cloud-based computing resources (Nieto Col. 5 lines 32-39 user devices may be virtual machines; Col. 36 lines 27-40 cloud-based services and devices contemplated).
Regarding Claim 20:
The combination of Nieto, Liang, and Kahn further teaches the method of claim 17 (Nieto Fig. 7-8, Col. 30 lines 18-38 and Col. 31 lines 34-55), further comprising: submitting, by the metaverse system, a request to a blockchain system managing the artwork associated with the NFT metaverse communication device (Nieto Fig. 10A-10C various artworks of digital assets shown; Col. 14 lines 11-16 appearance of digital assets is customizable); receiving, by the metaverse system, the artwork from the blockchain system (Nieto Fig. 10A-10C various artworks of digital assets shown; Col. 14 lines 11-16 appearance of digital assets is customizable); and associating, by the metaverse system, the artwork with an avatar in the metaverse system (Nieto Fig. 10A-10C various artworks of digital assets shown; Col. 14 lines 11-16 appearance of digital assets is customizable).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record in the submitted PTO-892 Notice of References Cited and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant’s disclosure.
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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MIGUEL A LOPEZ whose telephone number is (703)756-1241. The examiner can normally be reached 8:00AM-5:00PM.
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/M.A.L./ Examiner, Art Unit 2496 /JORGE L ORTIZ CRIADO/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2496