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 .
Status of Claims
This action is in reply to the amendment filed on 12/23/2025.
Claims 1, 8 and 15 are currently amended.
Claims 2 and 21 are previously cancelled.
Claims 1, 3-20, and 22 are currently pending and have been examined.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, filed 12/23/2025, with respect to the rejections of claims 1, 3-20 and 22 under 35 U.S.C. § 112(a)have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new grounds of rejection is made in view of 35 U.S.C. § 101.
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, 3-20, and 22 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, 8 and 23 are directed to a system, method, and non-transitory computer-readable recording medium.
For the purposes of this analysis, representative claim 8 is addressed. Abstract ideas are in bold below, and represents tracking repayment status of group payments which is a grouped under “Certain methods of organizing human activity — fundamental economic practices” in prong one of step 2A (MPEP 2106.04(a)).
A method, comprising
displaying, by a client device, a first user interface that includes a notification of a transaction that has occurred with a merchant, the first user interface comprising a user interface element associated with the transaction for initiating a split of the transaction;
displaying by the client device, a second user interface that includes a list of contacts retrieved from a memory in response to a selection of the user interface element for initiating the split of the transaction;
identifying, by the client device, a selection of a first peer-to-peer system for a first selected contact and a second peer-to-peer system for a second selected contact of the transaction from the second user interface;
transmitting, by the client device, a funds request for the transaction to a second computing device, the funds request comprising a first identifier for the first selected contact at the first peer-to-peer system and a second identifier for the second selected contact at the second peer-to-peer system;
displaying, by the client device, a third user interface that provides a repayment status for the funds request transmitted for the first selected contact at the first peer-to-peer system and the second selected contact at the second peer-to-peer system based at least in part on receiving an indication whether the first selected contact repaid a first portion of the funds request and the second selected contact repaid a second portion of the funds request.
The additional elements of claim 8 such as “by the client device,”, “a second computing device”, “first/second/third user interface” and “user interface element” represent the use of a computer as a tool to perform an abstract idea and/or does no more than generally link the abstract idea to a particular field of use.
The claims do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception. As discussed above with respect to integration into a practical application, the additional elements amount to no more than mere instructions to apply the abstract idea of using generic computer components. The claim elements when considered separately and in an ordered combination, do not add significantly more than implementing the abstract idea of tracking repayment status of group payments.
Hence, claim 1, 8 and 15 are not patent eligible.
Dependent claims 3-7, 9-14, 16-20 and 22 recited additional details which only further narrow the abstract idea and do not add any additional features, alone or in combination, that would provide a practical application or provide significantly more.
Claims 9 and 16 recites the additional elements of “wherein the first user interface is automatically displayed in response to receiving the notification from the second computing device.” does no more than use a computer as a tool to perform an abstract idea and do no more than generally link the abstract idea to a particular field of use. Therefore, as it is no more than apply it does not improve the functioning of a computer, or improve other technology or technical field.
The claims as a whole do not amount to significantly more than the abstract idea itself. This is because the claims do not affect an improvement to another technology or technical field, the claims do not amount to an improvement to the functioning of a computer system itself, and the claims do not move beyond a general link of the use of an abstract idea to a particular technological environment.
Accordingly, there are no meaningful limitations in the claims that transform the judicial exception into a patent eligible application such that the claims amount to significantly more than the judicial exception itself.
Prior Art Rejection
The prior art does not specifically teach or render obvious:
displaying, by the client device, a third user interface that provides a repayment status for the funds request transmitted for the first selected contact at the first peer-to-peer system and the second selected contact at the second peer-to-peer system based at least in part on receiving an indication whether the first selected contact repaid a first portion of the funds request and the second selected contact repaid a second portion of the funds request.
Prior Art of Record Not Currently Relied Upon
Zanzot et al. (US 2012/016957 A1) Teaches: System for populating a list of transaction participants.
Knowles et al. (US 2014/0025461 A1) Teaches: Enhanced transaction processing.
Purves et al. (US 2013/0346302 A) Teaches: Remote portal bill payment platform method.
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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/GREGORY M JAMES/Examiner, Art Unit 3692
/CHRISTINE M Tran/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3695