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
This communication is in response to Applicant's Amendment filed 9/25/2025. Applicant has amended claims 1, 4 16, 19, and 30, and has cancelled claims 3 and 18. Currently, claims 1-2, 4-17, and 19-42 are pending in the application.
Response to Arguments
Regarding rejection of claim 1 and 16 under 35 USC § 103, the arguments filed 9/25/2025 have been considered but are not persuasive to overcome the references on record: Salama et al. (US 2023/0083220 A1) in view of Christiansen et al. (US 2014/0282153 A1).
In claim 1 and 16 (also applicable to claim 30):
Applicant states, in page 10, that “A micro application performs a discrete task “without requiring the user to access an application store and locate, download and install a mobile application on a mobile device… Unlike a full mobile application, a “micro app will reside on the mobile device for a short period of time.”… The device’s operating system manages the life cycle for the micro app.” Examiner notes that such language is not recited in the claims. Although the claims are interpreted in light of the specification, limitations from the specification are not read into the claims. The claims, as constructed, are broadly interpreted as micro applications that can be installed/uninstalled at user’s convenience, and therefore it can be present in the mobile device temporarily or permanently.
Furthermore, Applicant states, in page 11, that “Salama merely describes “provisioning an electronic device to allow the electronic device to be used as a payment device”… The issuer records described by Salama contain basic customer data like account numbers and transaction information, not customized institutional content as claimed…Furthermore, Salama does not disclose displaying this data, rather the issuer data is to be stored….” Examiner notes that thus, the obviousness rejection constructs the rejection as Salama displaying information (as shown in paragraph [0083]) of the secure application that relates to an institution (i.e. bank). However, since Salama does not explicitly teach displaying customized content of the institution, Christensen further supports the customized content for an institution is displayed. Therefore, such practice is known in the art and hence, not novel.
Additionally, in page 12, Applicant states “neither Salama nor Christiansen teach or suggest “wherein the configuration set identifies an identity service provider for the institution” as claimed…. However, Salama does not teach identifying a specific identity service provider through a configuration set corresponding to a unique parameter as claimed.” Examiner interpreted such claim limitation, under the broadest reasonable interpretation, as an identification process of an institution using configuration set corresponding to unique parameters of that institution. Salama uses records associated with the institution’s criteria in order to properly identify the institution (fig. 6, par 36). Such practice is also a well-known practice for identification purposes, and therefore it is also not novel.
Claim Rejections - 35 U.S.C. 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.
Claims 1-2, 4-17, 19-42 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 pre-AIA the applicant regards as the invention.
For claim 1 (also applicable to claims 16 and 30), the claim limitation reading “the micro application transiently resides on the mobile device..." contain the relative term “transiently”, which renders the claim indefinite. The specification does not provide a definition of what is deemed to be “transiently” residing. Based on dictionary definition, the word transiently is to do something temporarily or for a short time. Given this definition, the claim language does not specify the terms of how long is a short time that the application will reside in the mobile device. Therefore, a person of ordinary skill in the art would broadly interpret that any application that is installed or downloaded in a mobile device and can also remove or uninstall the application, is therefore considered transient, since the application does not stay in the mobile device indefinitely.
Examiners suggests eliminating the relative term “transiently”, and explicitly recite in the claim language what is the condition that the micro application will no longer reside in the mobile device, therefore making the application “transiently” residing the mobile device.
Claims 2, 4-15, 17, 19-29, and 31-42 are rejected by virtue of dependency since they do not obviate the above cited rejection.
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 may not be obtained though the invention is not identically disclosed or described as set forth in section 102 of this title, if the differences between the subject matter sought to be patented and the prior art are such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains. Patentability shall not be negatived by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 1-3, 8-18, 23-29 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Salama et al. (US 2023/0083220 A1, hereinafter “Salama”) in view of Christiansen et al. (US 2014/0282153 A1, hereinafter “Christiansen”).
Regarding claim 1, Salama teaches:
1. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a computing device, cause the one or more processors to perform a plurality of operations comprising:
launching a micro application (par 25, installation of a secure application in the computing device), wherein the micro application transiently resides on the mobile device (par 25, installation of secure application, thus implying also uninstallation of apps. Examiner notes that it is known for applications to be removed from mobile device by users, where users delete data when not needed);
identifying a unique parameter associated with an institution (fig. 6, step 602, issuer’s evaluation criteria);
identifying a configuration set corresponding to the unique parameter, wherein the configuration set identifies customized content for the institution (fig. 6, issuer records associated with the first issuer (i.e. a first bank), step 606);
causing the micro application (par 50; secure application) to display a user interface that includes the [customized] content for the institution (par 27: “receive the issuer data from the provisioning system via the authenticated session; and provide the issuer data to the mobile wallet application”, see also fig. 3, step 520, par 60) and one or more data input fields for entry of login credentials by a user (fig. 3, step 514, par 83, i.e. initiate an authentication session using the output interface, such as a display which requests input of authentication credentials), wherein the login credentials entered into the data input fields enable authentication of the user (par 83: “account number that is prompted for during operation 514”);
identifying one or more identifiers associated with the user (par 83: “requested account number and password/PIN”); and
creating mobile credential data that includes the one or more identifiers (par 27: “receive the issuer data from the provisioning system via the authenticated session; and provide the issuer data to the mobile wallet application”), wherein the mobile credential data enables provisioning of a mobile credential in a digital wallet of the computing device (Samala: par 115, see also par 25).
Salama does not teach yet Christiansen suggests (emphasis added):
displaying….customized content for the institution (Christensen: par 22: “general brand information including information related to one or more brand trademarks, one or more brand logos, one or more commercial item logos, brand description”)
Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to have implemented a display with customized content for an institution, as taught by Christiansen, to Salama’s invention. The motivation to do so would have been in order to provide a system that is designed to display a user-customized subset of item and/or provider information to the user (Christiansen: Abstract).
Regarding claim 2, the combination of Salama and Christiansen teach:
2. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the computing device comprises one of a mobile phone, a wearable computing device, or a personal computing tablet (Samala: fig. 1, par 48).
Regarding claim 8, same rationale for combination of Salama and Christiansen, which combined in claim 1, applies here as it encompasses same subject matter. Therefore, the combination of Salama and Christiansen teaches:
8. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise: generating the user interface based on a predetermined format configured for use with a plurality of different institutions (Christiansen: par 7: “selecting data objects for interaction with a user at a graphical user interface… receiving a data stream from an item provider, the data stream identifying items available from the item provider”), wherein the predetermined format includes the data input fields (Christensen: par 7: “data object being selected for inclusion in the customized set… updating the customized set to include the new data object”) and enables dynamic inclusion of the customized content for the institution (Christensen: par 7: “using the tracking database to select a customized data set of data objects based on the associations in the tracking database, the customized data set being for presentation at the graphical user interface.”).
Regarding claim 9, same rationale for combination of Salama and Christiansen, which combined in claim 1, applies here as it encompasses same subject matter. Therefore, the combination of Salama and Christiansen teaches:
9. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the customized content comprises one or more of a name of the institution, a logo associated with the institution, and a color associated with the institution (Christensen: par 22: “general brand information including information related to one or more brand trademarks, one or more brand logos, one or more commercial item logos, brand description”).
Regarding claim 10, same rationale for combination of Salama and Christiansen, which combined in claim 1, applies here as it encompasses same subject matter. Therefore, the combination of Salama and Christiansen teaches:
10. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the customized content comprises textual information configured for the institution (Christensen: par 156: “fields in the GUI can be adjusted, e.g., the relative position of search fields, data tables, data object representations, item or provider information”).
Regarding claim 11, same rationale for combination of Salama and Christiansen, which combined in claim 1, applies here as it encompasses same subject matter. Therefore, the combination of Salama and Christiansen teaches:
11. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein identifying the configuration set corresponding to the unique parameter comprises:
transmitting the unique parameter to a mapping service in communication with a mapping database, wherein the mapping database stores a plurality of unique parameters and corresponding configuration sets (Christensen: par 170: “creating in a tracking database an association between the user data object and the item and/or item provider data object”),, and wherein the mapping service
(a) accesses the mapping database to identify the configuration set corresponding to the unique parameter (Christensen: par 170: “using the tracking database to select a customized data set of data objects based on the associations in the tracking database”) and
(b) transmits the configuration set to the computing device (Christensen: par 170: “the customized data set being for presentation at the graphical user interface”).
Regarding claim 12, same rationale for combination of Salama and Christiansen, which combined in claim 1, applies here as it encompasses same subject matter. Therefore, the combination of Salama and Christiansen teaches:
12. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein identifying the configuration set corresponding to the unique parameter comprises:
transmitting the unique parameter to a mapping service in communication with a mapping database, wherein the mapping database stores a plurality of unique parameters and corresponding institution identifiers (Christensen: par 170: “creating in a tracking database an association between the user data object and the item and/or item provider data object”), and wherein the mapping service
(a) accesses the mapping database to identify an institution identifier corresponding to the unique parameter (Christensen: par 170: “using the tracking database to select a customized data set of data objects based on the associations in the tracking database”) and
(b) transmits the institution identifier to the computing device (Christensen: par 170: “the customized data set being for presentation at the graphical user interface”); and transmitting the institution identifier to a configuration service in communication with a configuration database, wherein the configuration database stores a plurality of institution identifiers and corresponding configuration sets (Christensen: par 170: “ the data stream identifying items available from the item provider; storing a data object in a global database with a provider identifier uniquely identifying the item provider”), and wherein the configuration service
(a) accesses the configuration database to identify the configuration set corresponding to the institution identifier (Christensen: par 170: “ the data stream identifying items available from the item provider”) and
(b) transmits the configuration set to the computing device (Christensen: par 170: “using the tracking database to select a customized data set of data objects based on the associations in the tracking database”).
Regarding claim 13, same rationale for combination of Salama and Christiansen, which combined in claim 1, applies here as it encompasses same subject matter. Therefore, the combination of Salama and Christiansen teaches:
13. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 12, wherein the institution identifier comprises an institution and service portal tuple (Christensen: par 170: “ the data stream identifying items available from the item provider; storing a data object in a global database with a provider identifier uniquely identifying the item provider”).
Regarding claim 14, the combination of Salama and Christiansen teach:
14. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein identifying the one or more identifiers associated with the user comprises: receiving user information associated with the login credentials from an identity service provider (Salama: par 83: “the account identifier which is received at operation 502 may identify an account associated with a payment instrument, such as a credit card, while the account number that is prompted for during operation 514 may identify a bank account that is provided by the same issuer as the credit card.”); and identifying the one or more identifiers corresponding to the user information (Salama: par 83: “provide this data, in an encrypted format, to an issuer system. That is, a communication module 226 provided on the electronic device is controlled to generate a signal representing the authentication credentials”).
Regarding claim 15, the combination of Salama and Christiansen teach:
15. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 14, wherein the configuration set identifies the identity service provider (Salama: par 36: “ first issuer records from a first issuer system associated with the first issuer”).
Regarding claim 16, Salama teaches:
16. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a computing device, cause the one or more processors to perform a plurality of operations comprising:
launching a micro application (par 25, installation of a secure application in the computing device), wherein the micro application transiently resides on the mobile device (par 25, installation of secure application, thus implying also uninstallation of apps. Examiner notes that it is known for applications to be removed from mobile device by users, where users delete data when not needed);
identifying a unique parameter associated with an institution (fig. 6, step 602, issuer’s evaluation criteria);
identifying a configuration set corresponding to the unique parameter (fig. 6, issuer records associated with the first issuer (i.e. a first bank), step 606), wherein the configuration set identifies an identity service provider for the institution (par 36: “ first issuer records from a first issuer system associated with the first issuer”);
causing the micro application (par 50; secure application) to display a user interface that includes one or more data input fields for entry of login credentials by a user, wherein the login credentials entered into the data input fields enable authentication of the user (fig. 3, step 514, par 83, i.e. initiate an authentication session using the output interface, such as a display which requests input of authentication credentials) [by the identity service provider for the institution];
identifying one or more identifiers corresponding to the user information (par 83: “requested account number and password/PIN”); and
creating mobile credential data that includes the one or more identifiers (par 27: “receive the issuer data from the provisioning system via the authenticated session; and provide the issuer data to the mobile wallet application”), wherein the mobile credential data enables provisioning of a mobile credential in a digital wallet of the computing device (Samala: par 115, see also par 25).
Salama does not teach yet Christiansen suggests (emphasis added):
wherein the login credentials entered into the data input fields enable authentication of the user by the identity service provider for the institution (Christensen: par 264: “system creates credentials for that brand-user to enable the brand-user to activate the profile and be associated in the system as an authorized user for the brand”);
receiving user information associated with the login credentials from the identity service provider for the institution (Christensen: par 264: “The identity and login information for each authorized brand-user is stored to the brand data table”).
Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to have implemented a mechanism wherein the login credentials entered into the data input fields enable authentication of the user by the identity service provider and wherein receiving user information associated with the login credentials from the identity service provider, as taught by Christiansen, to Salama’s invention. The motivation to do so would have been in order to provide a system that is designed to display a user-customized subset of item and/or provider information to the user (Christiansen: Abstract).
Regarding claim 17, all claim limitations are set forth and rejected as it has been discussed in claim 2.
Regarding claim 23, the combination of Salama and Christiansen teach:
23. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 16, wherein the configuration set identifies customized content for the institution (Salama: par 36: “the first issuer records including customer data for a plurality of customers associated with the first issuer”), and wherein the user interface includes the customized content (Salama: par 27: “receive the issuer data from the provisioning system via the authenticated session; and provide the issuer data to the mobile wallet application”).
Regarding claim 24, all claim limitations are set forth and rejected as it has been discussed in claim 8.
Regarding claim 25, all claim limitations are set forth and rejected as it has been discussed in claim 9.
Regarding claim 26, all claim limitations are set forth and rejected as it has been discussed in claim 10.
Regarding claim 27, all claim limitations are set forth and rejected as it has been discussed in claim 11.
Regarding claim 28, all claim limitations are set forth and rejected as it has been discussed in claim 12
Regarding claim 29, all claim limitations are set forth and rejected as it has been discussed in claim 13.
Claims 4-7, 19-22 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Salama et al. (US 2023/0083220 A1, hereinafter “Salama”) in view of Christiansen et al. (US 2014/0282153 A1, hereinafter “Christiansen”) in further view of Rule et al. (US 20220335412 A1, hereinafter “Rule”).
Regarding claim 4, the combination of Salama and Christiansen does not teach yet Rule suggests:
4. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 3, wherein the unique parameter associated with the institution comprises a portion of an invocation Uniform Resource Locator (URL) (Rule: par 44).
Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to have implemented a mechanism where the unique parameter associated with an institution comprises a portion of an invocation URL, as taught by Rule, to Salama and Christiansen’s invention. The motivation to do so would have been in order to start an activation process by using a resource locator which points to an app store to download an app (Rule: par 44).
Regarding claim 5, same rationale for combination of Salama, Christiansen, and Rule, which combined in claim 4, applies here as it encompasses same subject matter. Therefore, the combination of Salama, Christiansen, and Rule teaches:
5. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 4, wherein the mobile device is configured to decode the invocation URL from a machine-readable code to thereby launch the micro application (Rule: par 44, 46: “a mobile device may read the resource locator 220 to install and/or launch an app”).
Regarding claim 6, same rationale for combination of Salama, Christiansen, and Rule, which combined in claim 4, applies here as it encompasses same subject matter. Therefore, the combination of Salama, Christiansen, and Rule teaches:
6. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 4, wherein the mobile device is configured to read the invocation URL from a Near-Field Communication (NFC) tag to thereby launch the micro application (Rule: par 50).
Regarding claim 7, same rationale for combination of Salama, Christiansen, and Rule, which combined in claim 4, applies here as it encompasses same subject matter. Therefore, the combination of Salama, Christiansen, and Rule teaches:
7. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 4, wherein the mobile device is configured to render an interface that presents a link or button directed to the invocation URL, wherein selection of the link or button causes launch of the micro application (Rule: par 52: “The new resource locator may be an instruction or a link (deep link) pointing to terms and conditions …the mobile device 302 may process the resource locator, which may cause the app to present the terms and conditions in a graphical user interface (GUI) on a display of the banking app or a web browser of the mobile device 302.”).
Regarding claim 19, all claim limitations are set forth and rejected as it has been discussed in claim 4.
Regarding claim 20, all claim limitations are set forth and rejected as it has been discussed in claim 5.
Regarding claim 21, all claim limitations are set forth and rejected as it has been discussed in claim 6.
Regarding claim 22, all claim limitations are set forth and rejected as it has been discussed in claim 7.
Claims 30-37 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Rule et al. (US 20220335412 A1, hereinafter “Rule”) in view of Salama et al. (US 2023/0083220 A1, hereinafter “Salama”).
Regarding claim 30, Rule teaches:
30. A method for provisioning a mobile credential in a digital wallet of a mobile device, comprising:
launching a micro application on the mobile device (Rule: par 44, 46: “a mobile device may read the resource locator 220 to install and/or launch an app”), wherein the micro application transiently resides on the mobile device (Rule: par 44, 46; i.e. apps are installed and/or launched, thus implying also uninstallation of apps. Examiner notes that it is known for applications to be removed from mobile device by users, where users delete data when not needed); and
initiating execution of the micro application on the mobile device (Rule: par 44, 46: “a mobile device may read the resource locator 220 to install and/or launch an app”),
Although Rule teaches on launching and/or initiating an app (par 51), Salama suggests on:
wherein the micro application performs a plurality of operations comprising:
displaying a user interface that includes one or more data input fields for entry of login credentials by a user (Salama: fig. 3, step 514, par 83, i.e. initiate an authentication session using the output interface, such as a display which requests input of authentication credentials), wherein the login credentials entered into the data input fields enable authentication of the user (Salama: par 83: “account number that is prompted for during operation 514”);
identifying one or more identifiers associated with the user (par 83: “requested account number and password/PIN”); and
creating mobile credential data that includes the one or more identifiers (par 27: “receive the issuer data from the provisioning system via the authenticated session; and provide the issuer data to the mobile wallet application”), wherein the mobile credential data enables provisioning of a mobile credential in a digital wallet of the computing device (Samala: par 115, see also par 25).
Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to have implemented a micro application performing the operations of displaying a user interface including data input fields for login credentials to authenticate the user, of identifying identifiers associated with user, of creating mobile credential data that includes identifiers that enable the provisioning of a mobile credential in a digital wallet, as taught by Salama, to Rule’s invention. The motivation to do so would have been to execute a mobile wallet application that is configured to: receive an account identifier of an account; identify an issuer associated with the account; determine, based on the identified issuer, that a secure application associated with the issuer is installed on the client computing device … and provide a provisioning request to the secure application; and execute the secure application that is configured to: obtain authentication credentials associated with the secure application; send, to an issuer system associated with the identified issuer, the authentication credentials, wherein upon verification of the authentication credentials, the issuer system establishes an authenticated session between the client computing device and a provisioning system; and obtain, via the authenticated session, issuer data associated with the account for use in provisioning the mobile wallet application (Salama: par 25).
Regarding claim 31, same rationale for combination of Rule and Salama, which combined in claim 30, applies here as it encompasses same subject matter. Therefore, the combination of Rule and Salama teaches:
31. The method of claim 30, wherein the mobile device comprises one of a mobile phone, a wearable computing device, or a personal computing tablet (Samala: fig. 1, par 48).
Regarding claim 32, the combination of Rule and Salama teaches:
32. The method of claim 30, wherein the unique parameter associated with the institution comprises a portion of an invocation Uniform Resource Locator (URL) (Rule: par 44).
Regarding claim 33, the combination of Rule and Salama teaches:
33. The method of claim 32, wherein the mobile device is configured to decode the invocation URL from a machine-readable code to thereby launch the micro application (Rule: par 44, 46: “a mobile device may read the resource locator 220 to install and/or launch an app”).
Regarding claim 34, the combination of Rule and Salama teaches:
34. The method of claim 32, wherein the mobile device is configured to read the invocation URL from a Near-Field Communication (NFC) tag to thereby launch the micro application (Rule: par 50).
Regarding claim 35, the combination of Rule and Salama teaches:
35. The method of claim 32, wherein the mobile device is configured to render an interface that presents a link or button directed to the invocation URL, wherein selection of the link or button causes launch of the micro application (Rule: par 52: “The new resource locator may be an instruction or a link (deep link) pointing to terms and conditions …the mobile device 302 may process the resource locator, which may cause the app to present the terms and conditions in a graphical user interface (GUI) on a display of the banking app or a web browser of the mobile device 302.”).
Regarding claim 36, same rationale for combination of Rule and Salama, which combined in claim 30, applies here as it encompasses same subject matter. Therefore, the combination of Rule and Salama teaches:
36. The method of claim 30, wherein the micro application is configured for use in connection with a plurality of different institutions (Salama: par 92, i.e. different issuers), and wherein the operations further comprise identifying a unique parameter associated with an institution (Salama: par 25: “ identify an issuer associated with the account”), wherein the institution comprises one of the plurality of different institutions (Salama: par 92, i.e. different issuers).
Regarding claim 37, same rationale for combination of Rule and Salama, which combined in claim 30, applies here as it encompasses same subject matter. Therefore, the combination of Rule and Salama teaches:
37. The method of claim 36, wherein the operations further comprise identifying customized content for the institution (Salama: fig. 6, issuer records associated with the first issuer (i.e. a first bank), step 606), and wherein the user interface includes the customized content (Salama: par 27: “receive the issuer data from the provisioning system via the authenticated session; and provide the issuer data to the mobile wallet application”).
Claims 38-42 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Rule et al. (US 20220335412 A1, hereinafter “Rule”) in view of Salama et al. (US 2023/0083220 A1, hereinafter “Salama”) in further view of Christiansen et al. (US 2014/0282153 A1, hereinafter “Christiansen”).
Regarding claim 38, the combination of Rule and Salama does not teach yet Christiansen suggests:
38. The method of claim 37, wherein the operations further comprise:
generating the user interface based on a predetermined format configured for use with the plurality of different institutions (Christiansen: par 7: “selecting data objects for interaction with a user at a graphical user interface… receiving a data stream from an item provider, the data stream identifying items available from the item provider”), wherein the predetermined format includes the data input fields (Christensen: par 7: “data object being selected for inclusion in the customized set… updating the customized set to include the new data object”) and enables dynamic inclusion of the customized content for the institution (Christensen: par 7: “using the tracking database to select a customized data set of data objects based on the associations in the tracking database, the customized data set being for presentation at the graphical user interface.”).
Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to have generated a user interface based on a predetermined format to use with many different institutions, where the predetermined format includes data input data fields and enables dynamic inclusion of the customized content for the institution, as taught by Christiansen, to Rule and Salama’s invention. The motivation to do so would have been in order to provide a system that is designed to display a user-customized subset of item and/or provider information to the user (Christiansen: Abstract).
Regarding claim 39, same rationale for combination of Rule, Salama and Christiansen, which combined in claim 38, applies here as it encompasses same subject matter. Therefore, the combination of Rule, Salama and Christiansen teaches:
39. The method of claim 37, wherein the customized content comprises one or more of a name of the institution, a logo associated with the institution, and a color associated with the institution (Christensen: par 22: “general brand information including information related to one or more brand trademarks, one or more brand logos, one or more commercial item logos, brand description”).
Regarding claim 40, same rationale for combination of Rule, Salama and Christiansen, which combined in claim 38, applies here as it encompasses same subject matter. Therefore, the combination of Rule, Salama and Christiansen teaches:
40. The method of claim 37, wherein the customized content comprises textual information configured for the institution (Christensen: par 156: “fields in the GUI can be adjusted, e.g., the relative position of search fields, data tables, data object representations, item or provider information”).
Regarding claim 41, same rationale for combination of Rule, Salama and Christiansen, which combined in claim 38, applies here as it encompasses same subject matter. Therefore, the combination of Rule, Salama and Christiansen teaches:
41. The method of claim 30, wherein the operations further comprise identifying an identity service provider (Christensen: par 170: “the data stream identifying items available from the item provider; storing a data object in a global database with a provider identifier uniquely identifying the item provider”).
Regarding claim 42, same rationale for combination of Rule, Salama and Christiansen, which combined in claim 38, applies here as it encompasses same subject matter. Therefore, the combination of Rule, Salama and Christiansen teaches:
42. The method of claim 41, wherein identifying the one or more identifiers associated with the user comprises: receiving user information associated with the login credentials from the identity service provider (Christensen: par 264: “system creates credentials for that brand-user to enable the brand-user to activate the profile and be associated in the system as an authorized user for the brand”); and identifying the one or more identifiers corresponding to the user information (Christensen: par 264: “The identity and login information for each authorized brand-user is stored to the brand data table”).
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 extension fee 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 date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to LIZBETH TORRES-DIAZ whose telephone number is 571-272-1787. The examiner can normally be reached on 9:00a-4:30p.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Linglan Edwards can be reached on 571-270-5440. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/LIZBETH TORRES-DIAZ/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2408
January 10, 2026