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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed on 02/19/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
With respect to U.S.C. 101 rejection, Applicant is of the opinion that claims are not directed to abstract idea. Office action characterization of additional element is incomplete and disregards the functional and architectural limitations recited in the claims. The claimed limitations 1-4 define how the processing server operates what data it is permitted to possess and how linkage is technically achieved. The claims enforce a technical privacy constraint at the system level. The claimed invention addresses technical problem by structurally preventing the processing server from processing PII linkage data while still enabling accurate account linkage. Matching is an encrypted domain is a technical operation. The claims provide an improvement to a technical filed. The technical improvement is expressly recited in the claims. However, Examiner respectfully disagrees.
The claims recite updating a user profile which is an abstract idea. Specifically, the claims recite “storing…a plurality of account profiles….; safeguarding personally identifiable information (PII)…the account number…; storing….encrypted account number…; … receiving…account linkage data…; identifying…a match…; and updating….one or more profiles…in the another account profile” which grouped within the “certain methods of organizing human activity” grouping of abstract ideas in prong one of step 2A of the Alice/Mayo test (See MPEP 2106) because the claims involve a series of steps of storing plurality of profile, encrypting account number, storing encrypted account number, receiving account linkage data, matching received linkage data with the encrypted account number and update the profile which is a process that deals with commercial or legal interactions. Accordingly, the claims recite an abstract idea (See MPEP 2106.05).
Additionally, the claims are directed toward cryptographic operations i.e. encrypting data which is the abstract idea of mathematical concept. (See MPEP 2106). Therefore, the claim is directed to an abstract idea, as it has been held that a combination of abstract ideas, in this case organizing human activity and a mathematical concept, is still an abstract idea. See FairWarning IP, LLC v. Iatric Sys., Inc., 839 F.3d 1089, 1093-94 (Fed. Cir. 2016).
Claims recite a process that deals with commercial interactions such as storing plurality of profile, encrypting account number, storing encrypted account number, receiving account linkage data, matching received linkage data with the encrypted account number and update the profile, which are clearly related to commercial interactions/business relations.
The limitations applicant has identified 1-4 are part of the abstract idea, and cannot be additional elements beyond the abstract idea. The additional elements are use of the server, processing device, receiving device to perform these steps.
The linking accounts while maintaining privacy is not a technical problem, but rather a business or legal problem. Linking accounts is done for business or financial purposes such as provide information to advertisers or providing offers to customers (See spec para 2-4) and the need to provide privacy while linking these accounts is in order to protect the identity and financial interest of the customer, rather than perform any technical operation.
An encrypted-to-encrypted identifier matching is not a technical improvement it is just a data matching or data observing which is part of the abstract idea.
The reducing the attack surface associated with PII, enforcing non-possession of PII at the processing server and enabling accurate transaction aggregation across reissued account without exposing raw identifiers are a part of a business process such as providing data security and privacy and not any improvement to network architecture or technical processing workflows.
The claims limitations encrypting account numbers…; receiving account linkage data…; ensuring that the processing server doe not…; and performing matching is not a technical improvement and are part of the abstract idea. Linking accounts is done for business or financial purposes such as provide information to advertisers or providing offers to customers (See spec para 2-4) and the need to provide privacy while linking these accounts is in order to protect the identity and financial interest of the customer, rather than perform any technical operation.
Claims are not in any way similar to Ancora Technologies Inc. v. HTC America, Inc. According to this case “Improving security—here, against a computer’s unauthorized use of a program—can be a non-abstract computer-functionality improvement if done by a specific technique that departs from earlier approaches to solve a specific computer problem. The claimed method here specifically identifies how that functionality improvement is effectuated in an assertedly unexpected way: a structure containing a license record is stored in a particular, modifiable, non-volatile portion of the computer’s BIOS, and the structure in that memory location is used for verification by interacting with the distinct computer memory that contains the program to be verified. However, the Applicant’s claims and specification is silent with respect to description of any technique/way to solve any specific computer problem.
Claims are also not similar to Cosmokey Solutions GMBH & CO. KG. In this case, the claim limitations are more specific and recite an improved method for overcoming hacking by ensuring that the authentication function is normally inactive, activating only for a transaction, communicating the activation within a certain time window, and thereafter ensuring that the authentication function is automatically deactivated. However, the Applicant’s claims and specification is silent with respect to description of any technological improvement.
Claims are not similar to Ex Parte Desjardins. The Ex Parte Desjardins claimed invention was a methos of training a machine learning model on a series of tasks where machine learning model learn new tasks while protecting knowledge about previous task to overcome the problem of catastrophic forgetting. However, the Applicant’s claims and specification is silent with respect to description of any technique/way to solve any specific computer problem. Additionally, Applicant does not provide any comparison to the applicant’s claims with Ex Parte Desjardins.
Therefore, the rejection is maintained.
Status of Claims
Claims 1-4 and 6-9 have been examined.
Claims 5 and 10 have been canceled by the Applicant.
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 1-4 and 6-9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to a judicial exception (i.e., a law of nature, a natural phenomenon, or an abstract idea) without significantly more.
In the instant case, claims 1-4, are directed to a method and claims 6-9 are directed to a system. Therefore, these claims fall within the four statutory categories of invention.
The claims recite updating a user profile which is an abstract idea. Specifically, the claims recite “storing…a plurality of account profiles….; safeguarding personally identifiable information (PII)…the account number…; storing….encrypted account number…; … receiving…account linkage data…; identifying…a match…; and updating….one or more profiles…in the another account profile” grouping of abstract ideas in prong one of step 2A of the Alice/Mayo test (See MPEP 2106) because the claims involve a series of steps of storing plurality of profile, encrypting account number, storing encrypted account number, receiving account linkage data, matching received linkage data with the encrypted account number and update the profile which is a process that deals with commercial or legal interactions. Accordingly, the claims recite an abstract idea (See MPEP 2106.05).
Additionally, the claims are directed toward cryptographic operations i.e. encrypting data which is the abstract idea of mathematical concept. (See MPEP 2106). Therefore, the claim is directed to an abstract idea, as it has been held that a combination of abstract ideas, in this case organizing human activity and a mathematical concept, is still an abstract idea. See FairWarning IP, LLC v. Iatric Sys., Inc., 839 F.3d 1089, 1093-94 (Fed. Cir. 2016).
This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application because, when analyzed under prong two of step 2A of the Alice/Mayo test (See MPEP 2106), the additional elements of the claims such as, server, processing device and receiving device merely use a computer as a tool to perform an abstract idea. Specifically, server, processing device and receiving device perform the steps of storing plurality of profile, encrypting account number, storing encrypted account number, receiving account linkage data, matching received linkage data with the encrypted account number and update the profile. The use of a processor/computer as a tool to implement the abstract idea does not integrate the abstract idea into a practical application because it requires no more than a computer performing functions that correspond to acts required to carry out the abstract idea. The additional elements do not involve improvements to the functioning of a computer, or to any other technology or technical field (MPEP 2106.05(a)), the claims do not apply or use the abstract idea to effect a particular treatment or prophylaxis for a disease or medical condition (Vanda Memo), the claims do not apply the abstract idea with, or by use of, a particular machine (MPEP 2106.05(b)), the claims do not effect a transformation or reduction of a particular article to a different state or thing (MPEP 2106.05(c)), and the claims do not apply or use the abstract idea in some other meaningful way beyond generally linking the use of the abstract idea to a particular technological environment, such that the claim as a whole is more than a drafting effort designed to monopolize the exception (MPEP 2106.05(e) and Vanda Memo). Therefore, the claims do not, for example, purport to improve the functioning of a computer. Nor do they effect an improvement in any other technology or technical field. Accordingly, the additional elements do not impose any meaningful limits on practicing the abstract idea, and the claims are directed to an abstract idea.
The claims do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception because, when analyzed under step 2B of the Alice/Mayo test (See MPEP 2106), the additional elements of server, processing device and receiving device, to perform the steps amounts to no more than using a computer or processor to automate and/or implement the abstract idea of updating user profile. As discussed above, taking the claim elements separately, server, processing device and receiving device the steps of storing plurality of profile, encrypting account number, storing encrypted account number, receiving account linkage data, matching received linkage data with the encrypted account number and update the profile. These functions correspond to the actions required to perform the abstract idea. Viewed as a whole, the combination of elements recited in the claims merely recite the concept of updating a user profile. Therefore, the use of these additional elements does no more than employ the computer as a tool to automate and/or implement the abstract idea. The use of a computer or processor to merely automate and/or implement the abstract idea cannot provide significantly more than the abstract idea itself (MPEP 2106.05(I)(A)(f) & (h)). Therefore, the claim is not patent eligible.
Dependent claims further describe the abstract idea of updating a user profile. Specifically, claims 2-3, and 7-8 describing the data, which is part of the abstract idea. Claims 4 and 9, further describing the merging information which is part of the abstract idea of updating a user profile. The dependent claims do not include additional elements that integrate the abstract idea into a practical application or that provide significantly more than the abstract idea. Therefore, the dependent claims are also not patent eligible.
Conclusion
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/ZESHAN QAYYUM/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3697
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