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 responds to the amendment and argument filed by applicant on July 23, 2025, in response to the Office Action mailed on April 29, 2025.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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) 1-18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Suzuki (US 2018/0075430), in view of Sugiyama et al. (US 2017/0103623, hereinafter Sugiyama).
With respect to claims 1, 5 and 12 Suzuki discloses a transaction processing system for improved merchandise item return and exchange of merchandise items processing (abstract), the system comprising:
a point-of-sale terminal configured to generate transaction data for a customer transaction and perform processing operations related to returns and exchanges (abstract and claim 1); and
a server including: a storage unit configured to store transaction data for a plurality of previous customer transactions, the transaction data for each previous customer transaction including a list of items included in the customer transaction (paragraph [0051]);
a processor configured to: select the transaction data of one of the plurality of previous customer transactions in the storage unit based on an input of a transaction identifier from the point-of-sale terminal (paragraphs [0051] – [0054]);
update the generated registration data according to an operation instruction from the point-of-sale terminal (paragraph [0073], claim 1 and also paragraph [0021]); and
store the updated registration data as new transaction data in the storage unit (paragraph [0073] and claim 1).
Suzuki does not explicitly disclose the feature to cancel the selected transaction data and
generate registration data corresponding to a new customer transaction, the registration data including the list of items included in the customer transaction corresponding the cancelled selected transaction data.
However, Sugiyama teaches the feature of canceling the selected transaction data and
generate registration data corresponding to a new customer transaction, the registration data including the list of items included in the customer transaction corresponding the cancelled selected transaction data (abstract and paragraphs [0068]). Therefore it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to have modified the feature of Suzuki to include the feature of canceling the selected transaction data and
generate registration data corresponding to a new customer transaction, the registration data including the list of items included in the customer transaction corresponding the cancelled selected transaction data, as taught by Sugiyama to facilitate the settlement.
With respect to claims 2, 7, 11 and 13 Sugiyama further discloses a transaction processing system wherein the generated registration data includes a unit price of each of the items in the customer transaction, and when two or more items sharing a same commodity code are in the updated registration data, the unit price for each of the two or more items can be different (paragraphs [0084] and [0095]).
With respect to claims 3, 6, 14 and 15 Sugiyama discloses a transaction processing system wherein the processor is further configured to: issue a refund for a total amount of the cancelled selected transaction data and settle a payment amount corresponding to the updated registration data (paragraphs [0084] and [0095]).
With respect to claim 4, Suzuki discloses a transaction processing system, wherein the point-of-sale terminal includes a printer, and the printer is configured to print a transaction receipt based on the new transaction data (claim 7).
With respect to claim 8, Sugiyama further discloses a transaction processing system, wherein the processor is further configured to: settle a payment amount corresponding to the updated transaction data for the new customer transaction by offsetting the total amount due in the new customer transaction by the total amount paid in the previous customer transaction (paragraphs [0084] and [0095]).
With respect to claim 9, Sugiyama discloses a transaction processing system, wherein the processor is configured to add an item to a list of items in the transaction data for the new customer transaction based on a registration input of a commodity code of the added item at the point-of-sale terminal (paragraphs [0084] and [0095]).
With respect to claim 10, Sugiyama further discloses a transaction processing system, wherein the processor is configured to add an item to a list of items in the transaction data for the new customer transaction based on a registration input of a commodity code of the added item at the point-of-sale terminal (paragraphs [0084] and [0095]).
With respect to claims 16 and 18 Suzuki further discloses the feature, wherein the generated registration data is updated according to a merchandise return operation instruction from the point-of-sale terminal (paragraph [0073], claim 1 and also paragraph [0021]).
With respect to claim 17, Sugiyama further discloses the feature, wherein the particular previous customer transaction is set to cancelled in the journal file when a merchandise return request is received from the point-of-sale terminal in association with the transaction code (abstract and paragraphs [0068]).
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed on July 23, 2025 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicant argues that, “Accordingly, neither reference teaches or suggests, “update the generated registration data according to a merchandise return or exchange operation instruction from the point-of-sale terminal,”
Examiner notes that, paragraph [0073] of Suzuki reference discloses the feature stating, “the POS terminals 101 and 102 utilize the common electronic receipt API to deliver the exchange data, which conforms to the definition by the electronic receipt API, to the electronic receipt agent from the control processing for controlling main functions relating to the transaction data processing. Then, the generation of the electronic receipt data from the exchange data and the sending of the electronic receipt data to the receipt server 103 are processed by the common electronic receipt agent. Thus, the agent program is not required to be adapted to the specification of the transaction data processing” and claim 1 of Suzuki reference states, “A transaction data processing apparatus which communicates with an electronic receipt server, comprising: a communication interface; and a processor configured to perform electronic receipt processing on transaction data having a first format, by extracting, from the transaction data, information items required for generating an electronic receipt, identifying, for each extracted information item, an information type indicating a category of the extracted information item, generating exchange data based on the extracted information items and the corresponding information type, the generated exchange data having a second format different from the first format, and transmitting the generated exchange data to the electronic receipt server through the communication interface.”, examiner also notes that paragraph [0021] of Suzuki reference described registration processing.
With respect to the other independent claims applicant has argument similar to claim 1, which has been addressed above.
Examiner notes no other remarks or arguments. Accordingly the rejection remains as is.
Conclusion
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.
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/ROKIB MASUD/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3627