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 .
DETAILED ACTION
Status of Claims
Claim(s) 1 are cancelled.
Claim(s) 2-21 have been examined.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claim 2-21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claims 1, 9, and 16 recites the limitation "the third-party server". There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
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 2-21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claims recite a judicial exception which is not integrated into a practical application and the claims lack an inventive concept.
Step 1 is the first inquiry into eligibility analysis and asks whether the claims are directed to a statutory category. In this instance, the answer must be in the affirmative because they recite a method, medium, and system.
Step 2A prong 1 is the next step in the eligibility analyses and asks whether the claimed invention recites a judicial exception. In this instance, the claims recite the following limitations which comprise the abstract idea:
receiving a first credential data for accessing a merchant account of the merchant with an electronic commerce platform and second credential data for accessing a funding account of the merchant with an electronic payment provider;
retrieving product data associated with one or more products offered by the merchant and stored on the electronic commerce platform using the first credential data;
transmitting product data;
in response to receiving a purchase request for the one or more products from the third-party server, transmitting the purchase request to the electronic commerce platform;
This is an abstract idea because it is a certain method of organizing human activity because if involves commercia or legal interactions such as marketing or sales activities and/or behaviors.
Step 2A prong 2 is the next step in the eligibility analyses and looks at whether the abstract idea is integrated into a practical application. This requires an additional element or combination of additional elements in the claims to apply, rely on, or use the judicial exception in a manner that imposes a meaningful limit on the judicial exception, such that the claim is more than a drafting effort designed to monopolize the exception.
In this instance, the claims recite the additional elements such as:
one or more hardware processors coupled to the non-transitory memory and configured to read instructions from the non-transitory memory to cause the system to perform operations comprising:
providing, on a device associated with a merchant, a user interface for integrating the merchant with one or more third-party platforms;
receiving data on a user interface;
retrieving data via a software module on the device;
transmitting, via the software module and using a first application programming interface (API) associated with the third-party server, the data to a third-party server associated with a third-party channel, wherein the transmitting causes the third-party server to display the product data on a website hosted by the third-party server and associated with the third-party channel;
transmitting using a second API associated with the electronic commerce platform;
However, these elements do not amount to an improvement in the functioning of a computer or any other technology or technical field, apply the judicial exception with, or by use of, a particular machine, or apply or use the judicial exception in some other meaningful way beyond generally linking the use of the judicial exception to a particular technological environment, such that the claim as a whole is more than a drafting effort designed to monopolize the exception.
In addition, the recitations of the additional limitations, they are recited at a high level of generality and also do not amount to an improvement in the functioning of a computer or any other technology or technical field, apply the judicial exception with, or by use of, a particular machine, or apply or use the judicial exception in some other meaningful way beyond generally linking the use of the judicial exception to a particular technological environment, such that the claim as a whole is more than a drafting effort designed to monopolize the exception.
The dependent claims also fail to recite elements which amount to an improvement in the functioning of a computer or any other technology or technical field, apply the judicial exception with, or by use of, a particular machine, or apply or use the judicial exception in some other meaningful way beyond generally linking the use of the judicial exception to a particular technological environment, such that the claim as a whole is more than a drafting effort designed to monopolize the exception. For example, claims 2-8 are directed to the abstract idea itself. In addition, even if they were not directed to the abstract idea, they do not amount to an integration according to any one of the considerations above.
Step 2B is the next step in the eligibility analyses and evaluates whether the claims recite additional elements that amount to an inventive concept (i.e., “significantly more”) than the recited judicial exception. According to Office procedure, revised Step 2A overlaps with Step 2B, and thus, many of the considerations need not be re-evaluated in Step 2B because the answer will be the same.
In Step 2A, several additional elements were identified as additional limitations:
one or more hardware processors coupled to the non-transitory memory and configured to read instructions from the non-transitory memory to cause the system to perform operations comprising:
providing, on a device associated with a merchant, a user interface for integrating the merchant with one or more third-party platforms;
receiving data on a user interface;
retrieving data via a software module on the device;
transmitting, via the software module and using a first application programming interface (API) associated with the third-party server, the data to a third-party server associated with a third-party channel, wherein the transmitting causes the third-party server to display the product data on a website hosted by the third-party server and associated with the third-party channel;
transmitting using a second API associated with the electronic commerce platform;
These additional limitations, including the limitations in the dependent claims, do not amount to an inventive concept because they are recited at a high level of generality and also do not amount to an improvement in the functioning of a computer or any other technology or technical field, apply the judicial exception with, or by use of, a particular machine, or apply or use the judicial exception in some other meaningful way beyond generally linking the use of the judicial exception to a particular technological environment, such that the claim as a whole is more than a drafting effort designed to monopolize the exception.
In addition, they were already analyzed under Step 2A and did not amount to a practical application of the abstract idea.
Therefore, the claims lack one or more limitations which amount to an inventive concept in the claims.
For these reasons, the claims are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 2-21 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Purves (US 2013/0290203).
Referring to Claim 2, Purves teaches a system, comprising:
a non-transitory memory and one or more hardware processors coupled to the non-transitory memory and configured to read instructions from the non-transitory memory to cause the system to perform operations comprising (see Purves ¶¶0176,180):
providing, on a device associated with a merchant, a user interface for integrating the merchant with one or more third-party platforms (see Purves ¶0087 lines 5-9);
receiving, via the user interface, first credential data for accessing a merchant account of the merchant with an electronic commerce platform and second credential data for accessing a funding account of the merchant with an electronic payment provider (see Purves ¶0050, a merchant url; ¶¶0113,45, login information and integration information for a V.me API payment widget);
retrieving, via a software module on the device, product data associated with one or more products offered by the merchant and stored on the electronic commerce platform using the first credential data (see Purves ¶0052);
transmitting, via the software module and using a first application programming interface (API) associated with the third-party server, the product data to a third-party server associated with a third-party channel (see Purves ¶0057, the CWI may execute a request to the social media server 204; ¶0060, the request is sent via the widget application injection using at least XML), wherein the transmitting causes the third-party server to display the product data on a website hosted by the third-party server and associated with the third-party channel (see Purves ¶0095 and Fig. 9C);
in response to receiving a purchase request for the one or more products from the third-party server, transmitting the purchase request to the electronic commerce platform using a second API associated with the electronic commerce platform (see Purves ¶0082).
Referring to Claim 3, Purves teaches the system of claim 2, wherein the device is a merchant device, and wherein the software module is a plug-in application installed on the merchant device (see Purves ¶¶0048,121).
Referring to Claim 4, Purves teaches the system of claim 2, wherein the user interface presents a plurality of options corresponding to a plurality of electronic commerce platforms, and wherein the operations further comprise: receiving, via the user interface, a selection of an option from the plurality of options, wherein the selection corresponds to the electronic commerce platform (see Purves ¶¶0087,50, the user may choose the platforms they wish to integrate the widget and/or social media application views into).
Referring to Claim 5, Purves teaches the system of claim 2, wherein the user interface presents a plurality of options corresponding to a plurality of electronic payment providers, and wherein the operations further comprise: receiving, via the user interface, a selection of an option from the plurality of options, wherein the selection corresponds to the electronic payment provider (see Purves ¶0111 lines 10-12).
Referring to Claim 6, Purves teaches the system of claim 2, wherein the third-party channel is one of a social networking platform, a retail aggregator, or a consumer platform (see Purves ¶0046, Facebook).
Referring to Claim 7, Purves teaches the system of claim 2, wherein the purchase request comprises funding information usable for purchasing the one or more products, and wherein the operations further comprise: transmitting, based on the second credential data and using a third API associated with the electronic payment provider, the funding information to a payment server associated with the electronic payment for processing the purchase request (see Purves ¶0081-82,126, the order is shown with the payment/funding information being sent via the API, and the CWI server processes the order which charges the user’s payment account, and the seller server(s) generate a payment authorization message using the purchase request).
Referring to Claim 8, Purves teaches the system of claim 7, wherein the operations further comprise: in response to receiving a payment complete signal from the payment server, transmitting a notification to the electronic commerce platform using the second API (see Purves ¶¶0083,129).
Referring to Claim 9, Purves teaches a method, comprising:
providing, by a computer system and on a device associated with a merchant, a user interface for integrating the merchant with one or more third-party platforms, wherein the user interface presents a plurality of options corresponding to a plurality of electronic commerce platforms (see Purves ¶¶0092,65);
receiving, via the user interface, a selection of a particular option from the plurality of options, wherein the particular option corresponds to a particular electronic commerce platform from the plurality of electronic commerce platforms (see Purves ¶¶0087, the user may choose a product or products to feature in the integration and this can be further seen in [0050]);
retrieving, by the computer system, product data associated with a set of products offered by the merchant and stored on the particular electronic commerce platform using first credential data associated with the merchant and obtained via the user interface (see Purves ¶0052);
transmitting, by the computer system and using a first application programming interface (API) associated with the third-party server, the product data to a third-party server associated with a third-party channel (see Purves ¶0057, the CWI may execute a request to the social media server 204; ¶0060, the request is sent via the widget application injection using at least XML), wherein the transmitting causes the third-party server to display the product data on a website associated with the third party channel (see Purves ¶0095 and Fig. 9C);
in response to receiving a purchase request for one or more products in the set of products from the third-party server, transmitting the purchase request to the particular electronic commerce platform using a second API associated with the particular electronic commerce platform (see Purves ¶0082).
Referring to Claim 10, Purves teaches the method of claim 9, further comprising:
receiving, from the third-party server, a content request, wherein the retrieving the product data is responsive to the content request (see Purves ¶0010, the social media server may contact the CWI server 503 and request the CWI render the social media application containing the integrated ecommerce capability; also see ¶0076).
Referring to Claim 11, Purves teaches the method of claim 10, wherein the content request is associated with an advertisement presented on a webpage of the website (see Purves ¶0046, advertising banners).
Referring to Claim 12, Purves teaches the method of claim 9, wherein the user interface further presents a second plurality of options corresponding to a plurality of electronic payment providers, and wherein the method further comprises: receiving, via the user interface, a second selection of a second option from the second plurality of options, wherein the second option corresponds to a particular electronic payment provider in the plurality of electronic payment providers (see Purves ¶0111 lines 10-12).
Referring to Claim 13, Purves teaches the method of claim 12, wherein the purchase request comprises funding information usable for purchasing the one or more products, and wherein the method further comprises: transmitting, using a third API associated with the particular electronic payment provider, the funding information to a payment server associated with the particular electronic payment provider for processing the purchase request (see Purves ¶0081,126).
Referring to Claim 14, Purves teaches the method of claim 13, further comprising:
obtaining, via the user interface, second credential data associated with the merchant for accessing a funding account of the merchant with the particular electronic payment provider; causing the payment server to process the purchase request based on the second credential data (see Purves ¶¶0113-114,82).
Referring to Claim 15, Purves teaches the method of claim 9, wherein the computer system comprises a plug-in application installed on the device (see Purves ¶0201, plug-ins).
Referring to Claim 16, Purves teaches a non-transitory machine-readable medium having stored thereon machine-readable instructions executable to cause a machine to perform operations comprising:
providing, on a device associated with a merchant, a user interface for integrating the merchant with one or more third-party platforms (see Purves ¶0087 lines 5-9);
receiving, via the user interface, first credential data for accessing a merchant account of the merchant with an electronic commerce platform (see Purves ¶0050, a merchant url; ¶¶0113,45, login information and integration information for a V.me API payment widget);
retrieving, via a software module on the device, product data associated with one or more products offered by the merchant and stored on the electronic commerce platform using the first credential data (see Purves ¶0052);
transmitting, via the software module and using a first application programming interface (API) associated with the third-party server, the product data to a third-party server associated with a third-party channel (see Purves ¶0057, the CWI may execute a request to the social media server 204; ¶0060, the request is sent via the widget application injection using at least XML), wherein the transmitting causes the third-party server to display the product data on a website associated with the third party channel (see Purves ¶0095 and Fig. 9C);
in response to receiving a purchase request for the one or more products from the third-party server, transmitting the purchase request to the electronic commerce platform using a second API associated with the electronic commerce platform (see Purves ¶0082).
Referring to Claim 17, Purves teaches the non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the operations further comprise causing the software module to be installed on the device (see Purves ¶¶0048,121).
Referring to Claim 18, Purves teaches the non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the operations further comprise causing the electronic commerce platform to process the purchase request based on the first credential data (see Purves ¶¶0082,123).
Referring to Claim 19, Purves teaches the non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the purchase request comprises funding information usable for paying for the one or more products, and wherein the operations further comprise: transmitting the funding information to a payment server associated with a payment provider for processing a payment associated with the purchase transaction (see Purves ¶0081, the funding information in the order request; ¶0126, the seller server(s) may invoke the purchase transaction authorization component which facilitates payment processing via payment gateway and settlement).
Referring to Claim 20, Purves teaches the non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 19, wherein the operations further comprise: in response to receiving a payment completion signal from the payment server, transmitting a payment confirmation to the electronic commerce platform using the second API, wherein the transmitting the payment confirmation causes the electronic commerce platform to fulfill a shipment of the one or more products (see Purves ¶0130-132,136, when the transaction state is successful, the logical flow continues and the seller servers send a payment success message for display to the client, and the shipping information is collected after successful payment, including order fulfillment details).
Referring to Claim 21, Purves teaches the non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 19, wherein the operations further comprise: receiving, via the user interface, second credential data for accessing a funding account of the merchant with the payment provider; accessing, via the payment server, the funding account of the merchant using the second credential data, wherein the transmitting the funding information to the payment server causes the payment to be processed through the funding account based on the second credential data (see Purves ¶¶0113,45, login information and integration information for a V.me API payment widget; also see ¶0082, showing merchant revenue from orders processed through their account).
Remarks
Additional prior art relevant to the claimed application, but not relied upon, includes:
Hutchinson (US 9,864,990) teaches ordering goods using a virtual payment system and commerce gateway.
Rashwan (US 2014/0229270) teaches selling products through a purchase interface on different internet channels.
Reference U (see PTO-892) teaches a third-party payment system for e-commerce.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MATTHEW E ZIMMERMAN whose telephone number is (571)270-5278. The examiner can normally be reached 8-4pm M-T, 8-12pm W.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Jeff Smith can be reached at (571)272-6763. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/MATTHEW E ZIMMERMAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3688
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