DETAILED ACTION
Notice of 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 action is in reply to the first amendment to non-final filed on May 7, 2026.
Claim 1 has been amended and is hereby entered.
Claim 2, 3, and 7–12 have been canceled.
Claims 1 and 4–6 are currently pending and have been examined.
This action is made FINAL.
Response to Amendment
The amendment filed May 7, 2026 has been entered. Claims 1 and 4–6 remain pending in the application.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 101:
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 and 4–6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to an abstract idea without significantly more.
First of all, claims must be directed to one or more of the following statutory categories: a process, a machine, a manufacture, or a composition of matter. Claims 1 and 4–6 are directed to a process (“A method”). Thus, claims 1 and 4–6 satisfy Step One because they are all within one of the four statutory categories of eligible subject matter.
Claims 1 and 4–6, however, are directed to an abstract idea without significantly more. For claim 1, the specific limitations that recite an abstract idea are:
generating a transaction initiation . . .;
triggering, by the transaction initiation, transmission, . . . to . . . a first processing entity, a request for a second . . . Shard ID, . . . ;
wherein a Shard ID is a unique ID, . . . storing a previous subset of customer transactions in a particular chronological sequence, said Shard ID being based at least in part on the previous subset of customer transactions in said particular chronological sequence;
transmitting, . . . the second . . . Shard ID;
receiving . . ., the second . . . Shard ID;
triggering, by the request for a second . . . Shard ID, transmission, . . . to . . . a second processing entity, a request for a first . . . Shard ID, . . .;
transmitting, from the second processing entity . . ., the first . . . Shard ID;
receiving, . . ., the first . . . Shard ID;
generating a transaction request . . ., said transaction request comprising:
a first . . . Shard ID . . .;
the second . . . Shard ID . . .;
transmitting the transaction request . . .;
processing the transaction request . . . based on the first . . . Shard ID and the second . . . Shard ID, said processing comprising validating the first smartwatch Shard ID and the second smartwatch Shard ID . . ., respectively, using . . . past transaction validator, said validating performed by comparing the previous subsets of customer transactions in chronological sequences to a legacy transaction lookup table; and
receiving, . . . approval . . .;
generating a transaction request . . . , said transaction request comprising:
the first . . . Shard ID . . . ;
the second . . . Shard ID . . . ;
transmitting the transaction request . . .;
processing the transaction request at the second processor based on the first . . . Shard ID and the second . . . Shard ID;
receiving, . . . approval from the second processor;
comparing the first . . . Shard ID and the second . . . Shard ID, and, when the first . . . Shard ID and the second . . . Shard ID are determined, based on the comparison, to be identical, increasing . . ., a logical counter . . ., and, when the first . . . Shard ID and the second . . . Shard ID are determined, based on the comparison, to be different, then maintaining the logical counter . . . at a current level; . . .
processing the transaction, by the first and second processors, wherein . . . determines fraud statuses and controls the first and second processors’ transaction based on the fraud statuses;
enabling authentication of the transaction and authentication . . . within a threshold distance . . ., said enabling being based at least on the first . . . Shard ID and the second . . . Shard ID.
The claims, therefore, recite initiating, approving, and recording a transaction, which is the abstract idea of certain methods of organizing human activity because they recite a commercial interaction and the fundamental economic practice of mitigating risk.
The judicial exception recited above is not integrated into a practical application. The additional elements of the claims are various generic technologies and computer components to implement this abstract idea (“smartwatch”, “memory”, “artificial intelligence”, “Tempo Radix”, and “fraud detection controller”). The claims also recite “displaying, at the first smartwatch and at the second smartwatch, a status of the transaction” and “sharing communication signals from at least one of the first smartwatch and the second smartwatch shared with the other smartwatches”. These additional elements are not integrated into a practical application because the invention merely applies the abstract idea to generic computer technology, using the computer to initiate, communicate, and approve the transaction, and then record the result. Claim 1 does introduce a more specific technology, Tempo Radix, but again, this is merely being used as a generic tool to implement the abstract idea above. The logical counter only provides an alternative means for recording and validating the transaction, rather than creating any type of improvement to the technology itself. Because the invention is using the computer simply as a tool to perform the abstract idea on, the judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application.
Finally, the claims do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception because, as discussed above, the additional elements in combination are at a high level of generality such that they amount to no more than mere instructions to apply the abstract idea using generic components. Because merely “applying” the exception using generic computer components cannot provide an inventive concept, the additional elements do not recite significantly more than the judicial exception. Thus, claim 1 is not patent eligible.
Dependent claims 4–6 have been given the full two part analysis, analyzing the additional limitations both individually and in combination. The dependent claims, when analyzed individually and in combination, are also held to be patent ineligible under 35 U.S.C. 101.
For claim 4, the additional recited limitations of this claim merely further narrow the abstract idea discussed above. This dependent claim only narrows the transaction recited in claim 1 by further specifying the information recorded—“transaction denial and approval”. The limitations of this claim fail to integrate the abstract idea into a practical application because this claim does not introduce additional elements other than the generic components discussed above (“Tempo Radix”). This dependent claim, therefore, also amounts to merely using a computer, in its ordinary capacity, as a tool to perform the abstract idea. Finally, the additional recited limitations of this dependent claim fails to establish that the claim provides an inventive concept because claims that merely use a computer, in its ordinary capacity, as a tool to perform the abstract idea cannot provide an inventive concept.
For claims 5 and 6, the additional recited limitations of these claims merely further narrow the abstract idea discussed above. These dependent claims only narrow the transaction recited in claim 1 by further specifying the transaction type—“transfer of funds”, and “beneficiary . . . is the account associated with the second . . . and a benefactor . . . is the account associated with the first”. The limitations of these claims fail to integrate the abstract idea into a practical application because these claims do not introduce additional elements other than the generic components discussed above (“smartwatch”). These dependent claims, therefore, also amount to merely using a computer, in its ordinary capacity, as a tool to perform the abstract idea. Finally, the additional recited limitations of these dependent claims fail to establish that the claims provide an inventive concept because claims that merely use a computer, in its ordinary capacity, as a tool to perform the abstract idea cannot provide an inventive concept.
Response to Arguments
Claim Rejections Under 35 U.S.C. § 101
Applicant’s arguments filed on May 7, 2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicant argues that the claimed invention recites an improvement to smartwatch technology, and therefore integrates the claims into a practical application and recites significantly more than the judicial exception. Applicant explains that the newly amended claims enable authentication of smartwatches by sharing communication signals, which provides non-traditional, novel, and non-obvious improvements to smartwatch transaction processing security. Applicant further argues that this novelty is emphasized by the absence of any prior art rejection under 35 U.S.C. 103. The analysis for patent eligibility under 35 U.S.C. 101, however, is distinct from the analysis for patentability under 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103. See MPEP 2106.05(I) (“Because they are separate and distinct requirements from eligibility, patentability of the claimed invention under 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 with respect to the prior art is neither required for, nor a guarantee of, patent eligibility under 35 U.S.C. 101.”). Although the claim limitations have not been rejected over any prior art, the claims are only providing improvements to the transactions and their authentication, which is then applied to smartwatch technology. Applicant has not explained how the smartwatch technology itself is being improved in any way. The claims are instead merely applying the abstract idea to the technologies recited, using them as generic tools to communicate and receive authentication information. Thus, claims 1 and 3–6 do not include additional elements sufficient to integrate the claims into a practical application or recite significantly more than the judicial exception.
Prior Art Not Relied Upon
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to Applicant’s disclosure. Those prior art references are as follows:
Gupta, U.S. Patent No. 11,308,474, discloses payments between smartwatches using telephone numbers.
Syed et al., U.S. Patent App. No. 2013/0305335, discloses transactions between devices including device identifiers associated with a transaction history.
De Caro et al., U.S. Patent App. No. 2022/0004539, discloses transactions with shards and associated transaction identifiers.
Rusnac, Is Radix the Coolest Thing Happening in Crypto Right Now, https://hackernoon.com/is-radix-the-coolest-thing-happening-in-crypto-right-now-ca1596cf7307 (Nov. 20, 2018), discloses a Radix network including nodes with a logical clock that increments by 1 with each event.
Tempo – Consensus Lessons Learned, The Radix Blog, https://www.radixdlt.com/blog/tempo-consensus-lessons-learned (August 31, 2020), discloses increasing a node logical clock counter with a new request.
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 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 DIVESH PATEL whose telephone number is (571) 272–3430. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday and Thursday 10:00 AM–8:00 PM EST.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Matthew Gart can be reached on (571) 272–3955. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571–273–8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/DIVESH PATEL/Examiner, Art Unit 3696
Prosecution Insights