FINAL REJECTION
Introduction
This Office action is responsive to the communications filed October 3, 2025. Claims 21, 28, and 35 were amended. Claims 21-40 are pending.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to the 35 U.S.C. 103 rejection of the claims have been considered but are moot in light of the new ground of rejection necessitated by the amendment.
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.
Claims 21-40 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Publication No. 2009/0070691 to Jain and U.S. Publication No. 2014/0143145 to Kortina et al. (“Kortina”) in view of WO 2013/086487 A1 to Castrechnini (“Castrechnini”).
As per claim 21, Jain discloses activating, on a mobile device, an application platform associated with an electronic transaction interface system (see fig. 9, which discloses receive request to activate transaction card, step 902; paragraph [0026], which discloses that “In some examples, the transaction card 112 may re-execute an activation process in response to at least a specified event type. An activation process may include activating the transaction card and/or financial account as discussed in more detail with respect to FIG. 9.”; paragraph [0082]);
presenting, on the application platform, a point of sale (POS) interface displaying a list of a plurality of products ( paragraph [0020], which discloses that “For example, the offline store 102 may be a click-and-mortar store such that a user selects a good or service using the Internet and purchases and receives the good or service at the offline store 102”; paragraph [0054], which discloses that “The Display Data command may present a dialog to the user through the GUI 111. In some implementations, the dialog can disappear after a period of time, a user selection, and/or other event.”);
detecting selection, through the POS interface, of at least one product of the plurality of products displayed in the list;
launching, subsequent to the detecting, a payment processing interface on the mobile device that displays an electronic transaction amount for the at least one product; receiving, at the payment processing interface, a selection of an electronic transaction type to facilitate payment for the electronic transaction amount (paragraphs [0020]- “the offline store 102 may be click-and-mortar store such that a user selects a good or service…the offline store may wirelessly execute financial transactions with the mobile device.” [0021] – “Each mobile device 110 comprises an electronic device operable to interface with the transaction card…the mobile device 110 may comprise a smartphone that includes an input device…and an output device that conveys information associated with a transaction with the offline store, including digital data, visual information, or GUI.” [0022] – “The GUI 111 comprises a graphical user interface operable to allow the user of the mobile device 110 to interface with at least a portion of the system 100 for any suitable purpose, such as authorizing transactions and/or displaying transaction history.” [0024] – “…the transaction card 112 may initiate a transaction in response to at least a user selecting a graphical element in the GUI”; paragraphs [0030], [0040],[0058] and [0059] teach electronic payment types to facilitate payment); detecting, via the payment processing interface, connection of a peripheral device to the mobile device, wherein the peripheral device is configured to interface with a payment vehicle associated with the selected electronic transaction type to collect transaction information (paragraph [0066], which discloses that “For example, the CPU 408 may activate the antenna 402 in response to at least detecting a connection to the physical interface with the host device (e.g., SD interface) and successful installation of the device driver for mass memory access (e.g., SD device driver) on the host device.”; paragraph [0074], which discloses that “Method 700 begins at step 702 where insertion into a host device is detected. For example, the transaction card 112 may detect insertion into the mobile device 110; paragraph [0036]); automatically querying, in response to detecting the connection of the peripheral device to the mobile device a payment management system for a library entry; automatically installing an update containing the library entry on the mobile device; (paragraph [0053], which discloses that “The API/UTI layer 304 can include any software, hardware, and/or firmware that operates as an API between the mobile device 110 and the transaction card 112 and as the GUI 111. Prior to executing transactions, the transaction card 112 may automatically install drivers in the mobile device 110 in response to at least insertion. For example, the transaction card 112 may automatically install a MicroSD device driver in the device 110 to enable the transaction card 112 to interface the mobile device 110. In some implementations, the transaction card 112 may install an enhanced device driver such as a Mass Memory with Radio (MMR) API…”); and
interfacing, by the payment processing interface system and using the update containing the library entry, with the peripheral device in accordance with the selected electronic transaction type (paragraph [0005], which discloses that “The physical interface interfaces the card with a mobile host device including a Graphical User Interface (GUI).”).
Jain does not expressly disclose the transaction amount. However, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to include an amount as part of Jain’s “information associated with a transaction,” as this is necessary to complete payment authorizations and transactions. Also, Jain does not expressly disclose the library comprising data for one or more supported electronic transaction types linked to an account associated with the POS interface utilized by the payment processing interface to interface with the peripheral device; determining, by the payment processing interface system, and based on the automatic querying, that the library entry including data for the selected electronic transaction type is not present.
Kortina explicitly discloses payment interfaces for receiving information regarding one or more payment options and presenting the transaction data as well as payment options to the user for selection including transaction amount (paragraphs [0026] and [0048]) and detecting selection of at least one product of the plurality of products in the list (paragraphs [0026] – the instructions may cause the processor to prepare, for presentation to a user of the computing device within an entity application, a GUI… [0051] – the payment dialogue may include purchase information – a list of items).
Castrechnini discloses a library comprising data for one or more supported electronic transaction types linked to an account associated with the POS interface utilized by the payment processing interface to interface with the peripheral device; determining, by the payment processing interface system, and based on the automatic querying, that the library entry including data for the selected electronic transaction type is not present; and in response to the determining, installing an update containing the library entry on the mobile device; (paragraphs [00106] and [00107]; Fig. 8).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify Jain to include the payment amount and the features of Kortina and Castrechnini to enhance the payment process. Applying the known technique of Kortina and Castrechnini into the system of Jain would have been recognized by those of ordinary skill in the art as resulting in an improved system that would have yielded predictable results.
As per claim 22, Jain discloses the peripheral device comprises one of: a magnetic card reader, a smart card reader, an optical reader, a biometric reader, an e-wallet interface (paragraphs [0019] and [0030]).
As per claim 23, Jan in view of Kortina and Castrechnini disclose the payment processing interface leverages a second library entry associated with the selected electronic transaction type (Jain at paragraphs [0026], [0030], and [0033]; Kortina at paragraph [0049]).
As per claim 24, Jain in view of Kortina and Castrechnini disclose receiving, at the application platform, an indication to facilitate a transaction distribution (Jain at paragraphs [0030]; [0036]; [0038]; Kortina at paragraphs [0049] and [0051]).
As per claim 25, Jain in view of Kortina and Castrechnini disclose the transaction distribution is one of: a refund distribution or an awards distribution (Jain at paragraphs [0037] and [0066]; Kortina at paragraphs [0045] and [0051]).
As per claim 26, Jain in view of Kortina and Castrechnini disclose inputting, at the payment processing interface, a distribution value; detecting, at the payment processing interface, selection of a distribution electronic transaction type; and facilitating performance of the transaction distribution, via interaction with the payment management system, using the selected distribution electronic transaction type (Jain at paragraphs [0027],[0028], [0030] and Kortina at paragraph [0051]).
As per claim 27, Jain discloses the payment processing interface leverages a third library entry associated with the selected distribution electronic transaction type to facilitate performance of the transaction distribution (paragraph [0053] and [0066]).
Claims 28-34 are rejected on the same rationale as claims 21-27, respectively.
Claim 35 is rejected on the same rationale as claim 21.
Claims 36-40 is rejected on the same rationale as claim 23-27, respectively.
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.
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/Jalatee Worjloh/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3697