Acknowledgements
This communication is in response to applicant’s response filed on 03/19/2026.
Claims 1, 9-10, and 13 have been amended. Claims 2-3, 7-8, and 12 have been cancelled. Claims 1, 4-6, 9-12 and 14 are pending and have been examined.
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
Regarding applicant’s arguments:
Applicant’s arguments, see pg. 8, filed 03/19/2026, with respect to the rejection(s) of claims 1, 4-6, 9-11, and 14 under Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101 that the claims incorporate the features previously recited in claim 12 and the rejection is now overcome have been fully considered and are not persuasive. At most, the present improvement is a business improvement, i.e. allowing a blockchain to track transactions of surplus electricity and transfer ownership of surplus to other agents in need of additional electricity, but it is not a technical improvement, i.e. the blockchain is still being used as it normally would be used. It also does not appear that the blockchain is being used to improve a technology or a technical field. The blockchain itself is not being improved since it is being used as it normally would be, i.e. tracking transactions of asset (i.e., electricity produced), transferring ownership of asset between nodes on the blockchain network, etc. The claims are directed to calculating surplus of asset (i.e., electricity) and transferring ownership of surplus using a blockchain network. While, applicant has incorporated the real-time communication from claim 12 into the independent claims, the real-time communication as currently claimed recites a mental process similar to Electric Power Group, 830 F.3d at 1351 and n.1, 119 USPQ2d at 1740 and n.1 which recites a wide-area real-time performance monitoring system for monitoring and assessing dynamic stability of an electric power grid (see MPEP 2106.04(a)(2)). In this case, the claims were directed to a method of collecting and analyzing data from an electric power grid, and presenting the results of this analysis as a “composite indicator of reliability.” The court found that collecting information (even when limited to particular content) and analyzing that information by mental steps or mathematical algorithms are both abstract ides. The claims in this case specify what information in the power-grid field it is desirable to gather, analyze, and display, including in “real time,” but they do not include any requirement for performing the claimed functions of gathering, analyzing, and displaying in real time by use of anything but entirely conventional, generic technology. Therefore, the rejection has been maintained.
Applicant’s arguments, see pgs. 8-9, filed 03/19/2026, with respect to the rejection(s) of claims 1 and 9-10 under Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102 that Kuroda (US 20240311934) falls under the prior art exception has been considered, and the rejection has been withdrawn.
Priority
Applicant’s claim for the benefit of Japanese Application JP2023-117181 filed on 07/19/2023 is acknowledged. Applicant’s claim for the benefit of Japanese Application JP2022-152666 filed on 09/26/2022 is acknowledged.
Examiner Note: Examiner could not find the publication of Japanese Application JP2022-152666, so the effective filing date of the instant application is 07/19/2023. Please provide an English translation of the application.
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 and 4-6, 9-11, and 13-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to an abstract idea without significantly more.
Under Step 1 of the Section 101 analysis, claim 1 is directed to a system, claim 9 is directed to a method, and claim 10 is directed to a non-transitory computer-readable medium (an apparatus, a process, and an article of manufacture).
Under Step 2A Prong One, Claims 1, 9, and 10 recite: the first intermediary system includes first circuitry configured to: calculate an amount of a surplus asset owned by the first intermediary agent; and transmit first data related to the surplus asset owned by the first intermediary agent to a first intermediary node of the first intermediary agent on a blockchain network, wherein first data indicates the amount of the surplus asset, and the first intermediary node is configured to share data with a second intermediary node of the second intermediary agent on the blockchain network, the second intermediary system includes second circuitry to: calculate an amount of a shortage asset to provide to a consumer; transmit data related to the shortage asset to the second intermediary node; recognize an amount of the surplus asset available to transfer based on the first data shared in the blockchain; and transmit, to the first intermediary system, a request for transfer of a specific asset produced by a specific type of production method from the first intermediary system, and the first circuitry is further configured to receive the request for transfer of the specific asset, and transmit second data to the first intermediary node, wherein the second data is for transferring ownership of the specific asset from the first intermediary agent to the second intermediary agent; and the first intermediary system and the second intermediary system communicate to transfer ownership of the specific asset in real time.
Claims 1, 9, and 10 as drafted include language (see underlined language above) that recite an abstract idea of determining an amount of surplus asset and enabling a transfer of the surplus between a supplier of the asset and a second supplier of the asset with real time communication, which falls under the abstract idea of certain methods of organizing human activity (i.e., commercial interactions) and mental process (i.e., observation and evaluation).
Under Step 2A Prong Two, the additional claim element(s), considered individually, do not apply, rely on, or use the judicial exception in a manner that imposes a meaningful limit on the judicial exception and in a manner that integrates the exception into a practical application of the exception. The additional claim elements(s) “a first intermediary system comprising circuitry,” “a second intermediary system comprising circuitry,” “an intermediary node,” “a second intermediary node,” “a blockchain network” and “a non-transitory recording medium” generally “apply” the concept of determining an amount of surplus asset and enabling a transfer of the surplus between a supplier of the asset and a second supplier of the asset with real time communication. The claimed computer components are recited at a high level of generality and are merely invoked as tools to perform the abstract idea. Simply implementing the abstract idea on a generic computer is not a practical application of the abstract idea. Accordingly, these additional elements do not integrate the abstract idea into a practical application because it does not impose any meaningful limits on practicing the abstract idea. The claim is directed to an abstract idea.
Under Step 2A Prong Two, the additional claim element(s), considered in combination, do not apply, rely on, or use the judicial exception in a manner that imposes a meaningful limit on the judicial exception and in a manner that integrates the exception into a practical application of the exception. As discussed above with respect to integration of the abstract idea into a practical application, the additional element of using a first intermediary system comprising circuitry, a second intermediary system comprising circuitry, a first intermediary node, a second intermediary node, a blockchain network, and a non-transitory recording medium amounts to no more than applying the abstract idea of determining an amount of surplus asset and enabling a transfer of the surplus between a supplier of the asset and a second supplier of the asset with real time communication. Mere instructions to apply an exception using a generic component cannot provide an inventive concept. The claim is not patent eligible.
Under Step 2B, the additional claim element(s), considered individually and in combination, do not provide meaningful limitation(s) to transform the abstract idea into a patent eligible application of the abstract idea such that the claim(s) amounts to significantly more than the abstract idea itself for similar reasons outlined under Step 2A Prong Two.
A similar analysis can be applied to dependent claim 4 which claims “wherein the asset is electricity” which merely elaborate on the abstract idea without reciting any new additional elements. When the limitations are considered individually and as a whole in combination with the independent claims from which they depend from, the claims do not recite additional elements that amount to significantly more than the judicial exception.
A similar analysis can be applied to dependent claim 5 which claims “wherein the specific asset produced by the specific type of production method is electricity produced from renewable energy” which merely elaborate on the abstract idea without reciting any new additional elements. When the limitations are considered individually and as a whole in combination with the independent claims from which they depend from, the claims do not recite additional elements that amount to significantly more than the judicial exception.
A similar analysis can be applied to dependent claim 6 which claims “wherein the intermediary system is applicable to a write standard application programming interface (API), which enables the circuitry of the intermediary system to record data to the intermediary node on the blockchain network” which merely elaborate on the abstract idea without reciting any new additional elements. When the limitations are considered individually and as a whole in combination with the independent claims from which they depend from, the claims do not recite additional elements that amount to significantly more than the judicial exception.
A similar analysis can be applied to dependent claim 11 which claims “wherein the circuitry is further configured to assign, of assets owned by the intermediary agent, an amount of electric power to a consumer based on a contract with the consumer” which merely elaborate on the abstract idea without reciting any new additional elements. When the limitations are considered individually and as a whole in combination with the independent claims from which they depend from, the claims do not recite additional elements that amount to significantly more than the judicial exception.
A similar analysis can be applied to dependent claim 13 which claims “wherein the first intermediary system and the second intermediary system facilitate a real time transfer of the electricity” which merely elaborate on the abstract idea without reciting any new additional elements. When the limitations are considered individually and as a whole in combination with the independent claims from which they depend from, the claims do not recite additional elements that amount to significantly more than the judicial exception.
A similar analysis can be applied to dependent claim 14 which claims “wherein the first data includes identification information of the surplus asset and production information of the surplus asset” which merely elaborate on the abstract idea without reciting any new additional elements. When the limitations are considered individually and as a whole in combination with the independent claims from which they depend from, the claims do not recite additional elements that amount to significantly more than the judicial exception.
Statement Regarding the Prior Art
As per claim 1, the closest prior art of record, United States Patent Application No. 20230387682 to Tateiwa teaches a control method for causing a computer to execute processing of: acquiring supply information indicating supply power supplied to a power grid and grid information indicating a grid capacity of the power grid; determining whether or not the supply power exceeds the grid capacity based on the supply information and the grid information; and if it is determined that the grid capacity is exceeded, performing control so that surplus power exceeding the grid capacity is supplied to a computing device constituting a predetermined distributed computing system. In addition, United States Patent Application No. 20210264414 to Ikemoto teaches a resource accommodation assistance system includes a plurality of information processing apparatuses each including: a storage unit configured to hold a distributed ledger storing transactions issued in accordance with events including power sale from an ordinary household to a retail electric utility, power purchase by a customer through the power sale, and commodity purchase by the ordinary household of a commodity from the customer with a payment token gained from the retail electric utility through the power sale; and an arithmetic unit configured, in the event of commodity purchase, to execute a smart contract, to carry out a transaction for payment on the commodity purchase using the payment token with a predetermined premium bearing by the customer, and to store, in the distributed ledger, the transaction subjected to a predetermined process executed together with another information processing apparatus among the information processing apparatuses. In addition, United States Patent Application No. US 20210295454 to Mayuzumi teaches an intermediary server for intermediating ownership of energy between a supplier and a user, includes circuitry to: receive, from other intermediary server, a first request for changing ownership of energy having been produced by a particular production method, from an intermediary agent of the intermediary server to other intermediary agent of the other intermediary server; in response to reception of the first request, transmit, to a decentralized ledger system that manages energy information on energy, a second request for changing ownership of energy from the intermediary agent to the other intermediary agent; and in response to reception of a notification indicating that the ownership of energy is changed to the other intermediary agent from the decentralized ledger system, transmit to the other intermediary server a response indicating that the ownership of energy is changed to the other intermediary agent. In addition, United States Patent Application No. US 20230350363 to Yerli teaches an energy supply chain management and optimization system comprises an energy system comprising a plurality of inter-connected micro-grids connected to at least one macro-grid. The energy system connects to one or more cloud servers comprising at least one processor and memory storing computer code which, when executed by the at least one processor, implements a persistent virtual world system mapped according to the real world and comprising a plurality of virtual objects including at least one virtual replica of a corresponding real world element. The memory further stores a decentralized energy management system connected to the persistent virtual world system, comprising at least an energy control system configured to, through the virtualization of reality in the persistent virtual world system, digitally control energy flows based on data received from the energy system, and an energy market platform enabling energy aggregation and exchange between energy-related devices. Methods thereof are also disclosed. In addition, United States Patent Application No. US 20210098988 to Gokhale teaches an electricity distribution system includes a peer-to-peer decentralized ledger network and a plurality of distributed ledger nodes in communication within the peer-to-peer decentralized ledger network. At least one distributed ledger node of the plurality of distributed ledger nodes includes a processor that aids in executing peer-to-peer energy and financial transactions between energy suppliers and energy buyers. The processor is programmed to schedule at least one of supply of electricity from one of a plurality of available energy sources to an on-site load based on predetermined demand parameters set by an energy buyer and delivery of electricity generated by a distributed energy resource to an external load based on predetermined supply parameters set by an energy supplier.
The closest prior art of record fail to teach or suggest, in the context of the ordered combination of the claim, the second intermediary system includes second circuitry to: calculate an amount of a shortage asset to provide to a consumer; transmit data related to the shortage asset to the second intermediary node; recognize an amount of the surplus asset available to transfer based on the first data shared in the blockchain; and transmit, to the first intermediary system, a request for transfer of a specific asset produced by a specific type of production method from the first intermediary system, and the first circuitry is further configured to receive the request for transfer of the specific asset, and transmit second data to the first intermediary node, wherein the second data is for transferring ownership of the specific asset from the first intermediary agent to the second intermediary agent; and the first intermediary system and the second intermediary system communicate to transfer ownership of the specific asset in real time.
Claims 4-6, 11, 13-14 are dependent on claim 1 and contain allowable subject matter for the same reasons stated above. In addition, claim 9 is analogous to claim 1, and thus contains allowable subject matter for the same reasons stated above. In addition, claim 10 is analogous to claim 1, and thus contains allowable subject matter for the same reasons stated above.
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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/COURTNEY P JONES/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3699
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