Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Status of Claims
This Office Action is in response to the communication filed on 12/15/2025.
Claim 14 has been previously cancelled.
Claims 1, 9 and 15 have been amended.
5. Claims 1-13 and 15-19 are currently pending and are considered below.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
6. 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.
7. Claims 1-13 and 15-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 101 because the claimed invention is directed to an abstract idea without significantly more. Representative claim 1, recites a method, which is a statutory class, the method for money transaction based on a blockchain, for improving user's medication compliance degree, the method being performed by a processor and comprising:
receiving types of service requests related to medication usage data of different users, and acquiring first money corresponding to the types of service requests of the different users, wherein the first money is obtained by performing medication rationality analysis on the medication usage data of the users, wherein the medication rationality is used to represent whether a user's medication usage is on time, according to an amount and in compliance with relevant requirements of a doctor's advice;
determining second money in a blockchain reward pool corresponding to the first money, according to the first money corresponding to the types of service requests of the different users; and
completing a transfer of the second money and completing a transaction by means of a
smart contract mechanism, wherein the transfer is used for representing that the second money is issued to the users in a reward manner, and an aim of the transaction is in exchange for an article or a service, wherein a manner for transferring the second money includes: basic mining, inviting new user, authorizing data to other users, and participating in clinical trials,
wherein the determining (102, 203) secondary money in a blockchain reward pool
corresponding to the first money comprises;
analyzing the first money corresponding to all service requests of the users, to obtain the second money in the blockchain reward pool corresponding to the first money, to obtain the second money from different dimensions.
The steps of
receiving types of service requests related to medication usage data of different users, and acquiring first money corresponding to the types of service requests of the different users, wherein the first money is obtained by performing medication rationality analysis on the medication usage data of the users, wherein the medication rationality is used to represent whether a user's medication usage is on time, according to an amount and in compliance with relevant requirements of a doctor's advice;
determining second money in a blockchain reward pool corresponding to the first money, according to the first money corresponding to the types of service requests of the different users; and
completing a transfer of the second money and completing a transaction by means of a
smart contract mechanism, wherein the transfer is used for representing that the second money is issued to the users in a reward manner, and an aim of the transaction is in exchange for an article or a service, wherein a manner for transferring the second money includes: basic mining, inviting new user, authorizing data to other users, and participating in clinical trials,
wherein the determining (102, 203) secondary money in a blockchain reward pool
corresponding to the first money comprises;
analyzing the first money corresponding to all service requests of the users, to obtain the second money in the blockchain reward pool corresponding to the first money, to obtain the second money from different dimensions,
as drafted, is a process that, under its broadest reasonable interpretation, covers a method of organizing human activity. Given the broadest reasonable interpretation, the claim recites a method for money transaction based on a blockchain. The above identified method steps recite commercial interactions such as sales activities and/or tailored personalized marketing relating to completing a transfer of money and transaction.
If a claim limitation, under its broadest reasonable interpretation, covers commercial interaction such as tailored personalized marketing, then it falls within the “certain methods of organizing human activity” grouping of abstract ideas. Accordingly, the claim recites an abstract idea.
This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application. In particular, the claim recites the additional elements of a service platform, a processor and a memory. The processor is recited at a high-level of generality (i.e., as a generic processor performing a generic computer functions of receiving types of service requests and acquiring first money; determining second money in a blockchain reward pool; and
completing a transfer of the second money and completing a transaction) such that they amount to no more than mere instructions to apply the exception using generic computer components. Accordingly, these additional elements do not integrate the abstract idea into a practical application because they do not impose any meaningful limits on practicing the abstract idea. The claim is directed to an abstract idea.
The claim does not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception. As discussed above with respect to integration of the abstract idea into a practical application, the additional elements of a service platform, a processor and a memory amount to no more than mere instructions to apply the exception using generic computer components. The additional elements are similar to the additional elements found by courts to be mere instructions to apply an exception because they do no more than merely invoke computers or machinery to perform an existing process such as: a common business method or mathematical algorithm being applied on a general purpose computer (Alice Corp. Pty. Ltd. V. CLS Bank Int’l, 573 US 208, 223; Versata Dev. Group, Inc. v. SAP Am., Inc., 793 F.3d 1306, 1334); providing a user with tailored information like advertisements based on information known about the user such as a location, address, or personal characteristics and a time of day is a fundamental practice long prevalent in our system); In re Morsa, 809 F. App’x 913, 917 (Fed. Cir. 2020). Mere instructions to apply an exception using a generic computer component cannot provide an inventive concept.
Thus, considered as an ordered combination, the additional elements add nothing that is not already present when the steps are considered separately. That is, a service platform, a processor and a memory, performing commercial interactions including: receiving types of service requests and acquiring first money; determining second money in a blockchain reward pool; and completing a transfer of the second money and completing a transaction, amount to mere instructions to apply the steps to a computer comprising of a processor.
Thus, claims1, 6, 9 and 15 are not eligible.
As for dependent claims 2-5, 7-8, 10-13 and 16-19, these claims recite limitations that further define the same abstract idea noted in claims 1,6,9,and 15. Therefore, they are considered patent ineligible for the reasons given above. The additional limitations of the dependent claims, when considered individually and as an ordered combination, do not amount to significantly more than the abstract idea itself.
Claims 1-13 and 15-19 are therefore not drawn to eligible subject matter as they are directed to an abstract idea without significantly more.
Response to Arguments
8. Applicant's arguments filed on 12/15/2025 with respect to the rejection of claims 1-13 and 15-19 under 35 U.S.C. 101 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
9. Applicant argued that “…According to 2019 Revised Patent Subject Matter Eligibility Guidance (hereinafter referred as "Guidance"), in the context of revised Step 2A, an additional element reflects an improvement in the functioning of a computer, or an improvement to other technology or technical field are indicative that an additional element (or combination of elements) may have integrated the exception into a practical application.
The claimed invention as amended sets forth an improved medication compliance degree management method and apparatus.
According to the specification at paragraph [0002], medication compliance degree refers to the consistency of a patient's medication usage with the doctor's advice, and from the perspective of medication therapy, medication compliance degree refers to the degree to which the patient implements a medication treatment plan. Medication compliance degree of elderly patients needs to be improved due to their decline of daily living ability and cognitive inadequacy. The present application, based on block chain, aims at improving medication compliance degree of users, so that
the problem that the condition of patients is worsen due to not take medication on time is solved…” Remarks pages 9-11
10. Examiner notes that the collecting and analyzing data are basic data gathering. The additional elements of a service platform, a processor and a memory that process data is used as a tool to implement the abstract idea and apply it without integrating the abstract idea into a practical application or transforming it into a patent eligible application.
11. DDR illustrates why claim 1 here is not integrated into a practical application. DDR Holdings, LLC V. Hotels.com, L.P., 773 F.3d 1245 (Fed. Cir. 2014). The claims in DDR recited a new web server configuration. If a website visitor clicked on an advertisement for a merchant's product on a host's website, the visitor was directed to a hybrid web page that combined the look and feel elements of the host website with product information of the merchant's website on a third party outsource provider's server. Id. At 1257-58. Claim 1 recites an abstract idea. Applying an abstract idea with a generic computer implementation does not make the abstract idea patent-eligible.
Conclusion
12. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
13. Austring et al. (U.S. Pub. No. 2020/0402624) discloses an Electronic Health Record (EHR) data blockchain system configured to allow multiple entities (e.g., pharmacy industry entities that can act as data, service, product providers, and consumers) to connect to an EHR patient transaction blockchain (e.g., EHR-DATA-BC) and an EHR Data Patient Portal (e.g., EHR-Data-PP) to provide a centralized location for messages and subsequent edits to ensure uniform message data is presented. The EHR data blockchain system can include an EHR Data API, an EHR patient transaction blockchain API, and an EHR patient transaction blockchain. The EHR Data API can access and retrieve patient identifiable information (PII) and generate a non-patient-identifiable Single Purpose Patient ID (SPPID) for a particular patient. The EHR patient transaction blockchain API (e.g., EHR-DATA-BC-API) can store the SPPID, store particular, discrete data retrieved from the EHR for a patient, execute smart contracts, and control the execution of digital currency transfers, among other functions (see at least the Abstract).
14. Brown et al. (U.S. Patent No. 11,289,179) discloses providing a solution for improving prescription drug compliance monitoring and compliance. Prescription drug compliance monitoring may be achieved by using patient's electronic device to initiate secure digital imaging. Medications may be dispensed in containers with pre-printed encoded unique identifiers and markings. The patient may use the digital camera in their smart phone to take a picture of the dispensed blister pack which may be processed and analyzed. Analysis may include assessment of the number of pills taken from and remaining in the uniquely identified blister pack. Package identification and consumption information may then be linked with other prescription information to determine if the observed rate of use is compliant with the legal prescription and to document that the imaged medication package is the same as the dispensed medication package. Data may also be linked with pharmacologic and clinical data to categorize risk and urgency of misuse (see at least the Abstract).
15. THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
16. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MARILYN G MACASIANO whose telephone number is (571)270-5205. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 12:00-9:00 pm.
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/MARILYN G MACASIANO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3622 01/10/2026