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
The following is a Non-Final Office Action in response to communications received November 2, 2023. Claims 1-7 are pending and examined.
Drawings
The drawings are objected to because Figures 1-10B contain grayscale features. Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
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 1-7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to an abstract idea without significantly more.
(Step 1) The claims recite a system. For the purposes of this analysis, representative claim 1 is addressed.
(Step 2A, prong 1) Abstract ideas are in bold below, and represents certain methods of organizing human activity, as a method of storing and managing trust property. Storing and managing trust property is akin to certain methods of organizing human activity.
A trust management system, comprising:
a management server storing and managing trust property information including contract details information in its own storage unit, and connected to a communication network, the contract details information including (1) a trustor information regarding the trustor of trust property, (2) a trustee information regarding the trustee, (3) a beneficiary information regarding the beneficiary, and (4) the contract details of the trust property; and,
a program that is stored in the storage unit, is available to the management server, and enables information transmission between the management server and at least one of a trustor terminal used by the trustor, a trustee terminal used by the trustee, and a beneficiary terminal used by the beneficiary via the communication network,
wherein the program causes the management server to execute
a storage function that stores the trust property information and its reception date and time in the storage unit;
an extraction function that extracts, from the trust property information stored in the storage unit by the storage function, trustee identification information that identifies the trustee, beneficiary identification information that identifies the beneficiary, and trust property identification information that identifies the trust property from the trust property information;
a generation function that generates, assuming that each of which the reception date and time is contract date, trustee certification information including the trustee identification information and the trust property identification information, and beneficiary certification information including the beneficiary identification information and the trust property identification information from the trustee identification information, the beneficiary identification information, and the trust property identification information extracted by the extraction function;
a notification function that, after the generation function generates the trustee certification information and the beneficiary certification information, notifies the trustor terminal, the trustee terminal, and the beneficiary terminal of completion of generating by the generation function; and,
a transmission or browsing function that causes, after the completion is notified by the notification function, the trustee certification information, and the beneficiary certification information to be transmitted or viewed by a terminal that sent a transmission or browsing request, assuming that the reception date and time is the contract date via an application running on the trustor terminal, the trustee terminal, or the beneficiary terminal, in response to a transmission or viewing request sent from the trustor terminal, the trustee terminal, or the beneficiary terminal.
(Step 2A prong 2) The additional elements are considered as follows:
“a management server…in its own storage unit, and connected to a communication network” This is extra solution activity, akin to data gathering, transmitting, and storing.
“a program that is stored in the storage unit, is available to the management server, and enables information transmission between the management server and at least one of a trustor terminal used by the trustor, a trustee terminal used by the trustee, and a beneficiary terminal used by the beneficiary via the communication network, wherein the program causes the management server to execute” This is merely “apply it” this sever is claimed at a high level of generality, it receives the information, performs the abstract idea, and outputs the results.
“via an application running on the trustor terminal” This is merely “apply it” this sever is claimed at a high level of generality, it receives the information, performs the abstract idea, and outputs the results.
“the trustee terminal, or the beneficiary terminal, in response to a transmission or viewing request sent from the trustor terminal, the trustee terminal, or the beneficiary terminal” This is also an extra solution activity, akin to data gathering and transmitting.
(Step 2B) The claim(s) does/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 validating user identification information in order to open an account, over a generic computer network with generic computing elements, and generic hardware.
Analysis of dependent claims 2-7 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.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention..
Claims 1, 2, 4, and 6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102 (a)(2) as being anticipated by the publication by Yoshinari Matsuda (Publication No.: US 2023/0222612 A1).
As to Claim 1, Matsuda teaches a trust management system, comprising:
a management server storing and managing trust property information including contract details information in its own storage unit, and connected to a communication network, the contract details information including (1) a trustor information regarding the trustor of trust property, (2) a trustee information regarding the trustee, (3) a beneficiary information regarding the beneficiary, and (4) the contract details of the trust property (see ¶[0008] – “The present invention is an information processing apparatus that includes: a first storage means configured to store first trust information that is information regarding that a stock option has been entrusted from a trustor to a first trustee; a determination means configured to determine fulfillment of a determination condition for determining a temporary person to be granted in the trust shown by the first trust information as a beneficiary; and a second storage means configured to store second trust information that is information regarding that the stock option related to the first trust information has been taken over from the first trustee to a second trustee in a case where the determination means determines that the beneficiary determination condition is not fulfilled.”); and,
a program that is stored in the storage unit, is available to the management server, and enables information transmission between the management server and at least one of a trustor terminal used by the trustor, a trustee terminal used by the trustee, and a beneficiary terminal used by the beneficiary via the communication network (see Figure 4, and ¶[0116] – “(1) Note that the present invention includes: a first storage means configured to store the first trust information that is information regarding that the stock option has been entrusted from the trustor to the first trustee; a determination means configured to determine fulfillment of the determination condition for determining a temporary person to be granted in the trust shown by the first trust information as a beneficiary; and a second storage means configured to store the second trust information that is information regarding that the stock option related to the first trust information has been taken over from the first trustee to the second trustee in a case where the determination means determines that the beneficiary determination condition is not fulfilled.”),
wherein the program causes the management server to execute
a storage function that stores the trust property information and its reception date and time in the storage unit; an extraction function that extracts, from the trust property information stored in the storage unit by the storage function, trustee identification information that identifies the trustee, beneficiary identification information that identifies the beneficiary, and trust property identification information that identifies the trust property from the trust property information (see ¶[0019] – “An issuing company 10 is a company that issues a stock option subject to the stock option management system of the present embodiment. A trustor 11 is, for example, a manager or a shareholder of the issuing company 10. Note that the issuing company 10 may make a contribution. The present embodiment covers a trust-type stock option (trust of a stock option issued at a market value (registered trademark)). In the trust type-stock option of the present embodiment, an exercise price (or formula thereof) and the number of stock options to be entrusted are decided at the time of issuance. However, a determined person to be granted is not decided, a specific number of the stock options is temporarily granted to a trustee in the trust, and as the content of the trust, an officer and an employee or the like is decided as a temporary person to be granted, and a beneficiary determination condition that needs to be fulfilled in order for the temporary person to be granted to become a beneficiary is decided (trust with a specified beneficiary). If the temporary person to be granted fulfills the beneficiary determination condition, the temporary person to be granted is a definitive beneficiary and can received the delivery of the stock option as a person to be granted the stock option. A person decided as a person having a right to designate a beneficiary 14 by the trustor 11 may designate who to be set as the temporary person to be granted. In addition, the person having a right to designate a beneficiary 14 may also designate the beneficiary determination condition for determining the temporary person to be granted as a beneficiary. The person having a right to designate a beneficiary 14 (may be the issuing company 10, may be the trustor 11, or may be another person) may decide the temporary person to be granted and the beneficiary determination condition at the time of setting up the trust, for example, according to the degree of contribution to a company, or may decide the temporary person to be granted and the beneficiary determination condition after setting up the trust, for example, according to the degree of contribution to the company or the like. In addition, depending on the trust, the person having a right to designate a beneficiary 14 may set a stepwise beneficiary determination condition at the time of setting up the trust or after setting up the trust, for example, according to the degree of contribution to the company or the like, and link the temporary person to be granted and a number granted to the temporary person to be granted with a stepwise fulfillment status of the beneficiary determination condition. While, in a case where the beneficiary determination condition is fulfilled, the temporary person to be granted is determined as the beneficiary of the trust, in a case where the beneficiary determination condition is not fulfilled, the trustor 11 or the person having a right to designate a beneficiary 14 may determine a person different from the temporary person to be granted as a beneficiary, or the stock option may be taken over to a trustee of another trust by determining the trustee of another trust as a beneficiary at the time of setting up the trust or by designating the trustee of another trust after setting up the trust. Another trust may be a trust for which a temporary person to be granted and a beneficiary determination condition are decided or may be a trust for which a time limit or a condition (cause for designation of a beneficiary) for designating a person having a right to designate a beneficiary and the beneficiary is decided (trust without a specified beneficiary), or another trust may be a trust for which both a time limit and a condition (cause for designation of a beneficiary) for designating a person having a right to designate a beneficiary and the beneficiary are decided. In a case where another trust is a trust for which a temporary person to be granted and a beneficiary determination condition are decided, when the beneficiary determination condition is not fulfilled, still another person may be further determined as a beneficiary or the stock option may be taken over to a trustee of still another trust by further determining the trustee of still another trust as a beneficiary.”);
a generation function that generates, assuming that each of which the reception date and time is contract date, trustee certification information including the trustee identification information and the trust property identification information, and beneficiary certification information including the beneficiary identification information and the trust property identification information from the trustee identification information, the beneficiary identification information, and the trust property identification information extracted by the extraction function (see ¶[0044]-¶[0047] – “[0044] A trust identification (ID) included in the trust information is an ID capable of identifying each trust and is uniquely assigned to each trust. [0045] A trustor ID included in the trust information is an ID capable of identifying a trustor of the trust. [0046] A trustee ID included in the trust information is an ID capable of identifying a trustee of the trust. [0047] An issuing company ID included in the trust information is an ID capable of identifying an issuing company that issues a stock option of the trust.”);
a notification function that, after the generation function generates the trustee certification information and the beneficiary certification information, notifies the trustor terminal, the trustee terminal, and the beneficiary terminal of completion of generating by the generation function (see ¶[0072] – “In a case where the formation of the second trust and/or the third trust is required in step S503, the information processing apparatus 16a registers each piece of information of the trust information of FIG. 4 as second trust information and/or third trust information in step S504. In step S504, the information processing apparatus 16a proceeds with a procedure of setting up the second trust (trust without a specified benefit) and/or the third trust (trust with a specified beneficiary) to take over the first trust for the stock option for which the beneficiary determination condition is not fulfilled, for example, by separately entrusting money or the like. For example, the information processing apparatus 16a executes processing of proceeding with a process necessary to conclude a contract of the second trust. For example, processing of concluding a trust contract with an electronic signature and processing of outputting a notification for prompting contribution of money to the trustee are executed.”); and,
a transmission or browsing function that causes, after the completion is notified by the notification function, the trustee certification information, and the beneficiary certification information to be transmitted or viewed by a terminal that sent a transmission or browsing request, assuming that the reception date and time is the contract date via an application running on the trustor terminal, the trustee terminal, or the beneficiary terminal, in response to a transmission or viewing request sent from the trustor terminal, the trustee terminal, or the beneficiary terminal (see ¶[0072] – “In a case where the formation of the second trust and/or the third trust is required in step S503, the information processing apparatus 16a registers each piece of information of the trust information of FIG. 4 as second trust information and/or third trust information in step S504. In step S504, the information processing apparatus 16a proceeds with a procedure of setting up the second trust (trust without a specified benefit) and/or the third trust (trust with a specified beneficiary) to take over the first trust for the stock option for which the beneficiary determination condition is not fulfilled, for example, by separately entrusting money or the like. For example, the information processing apparatus 16a executes processing of proceeding with a process necessary to conclude a contract of the second trust. For example, processing of concluding a trust contract with an electronic signature and processing of outputting a notification for prompting contribution of money to the trustee are executed.”, and ¶[0105] – “A means configured to transmit, to an information processing apparatus operated by a person (the trustor or the issuing company) who has an authority to fill in information related to the fulfillment or non-fulfillment of a beneficiary determination condition, an email or the like prompting the filling in of the information related to the fulfillment or non-fulfillment of the beneficiary determination condition as a determination on the fulfillment or non-fulfillment of the beneficiary determination condition approaches”).
As to Claim 2, Matsuda teaches the trust management system according to claim 1, wherein
the trust property identification information is composed of first information regarding subject of the trust property and second information regarding other than the subject;
the generation function divides the trust property identification information into the first information and the second information, and generates the trustee certification information and the beneficiary certification information; and,
the sending or browsing function divides, respectively, the trustee certification information and the beneficiary certification information into (A) the trustee identification information, the first information, and the second information; and (B) the beneficiary identification information, the first information, and the second information, and allows the terminal that sent a sending or browsing request to send or view (A) the trustee identification information, the first information, and the second information; and (B) the beneficiary identification information, the first information, and the second information (see ¶[0024], and ¶[0072]) .
As to Claim 4, Matsuda teaches the trust management system according to claim 1,
the trust management system can transmit a modification request of the trustee certification information from the trustor terminal to the management server via an application running on the trustor terminal, the trustee terminal, and the beneficiary terminal after the completion is notified by the notification function, wherein
the generation function modifies the beneficiary certification information based on the modification request; and,
the sending or browsing function allows the trustee certification information and the beneficiary certification information modified based on the modification request, assuming that the date and time when the modification request was sent is modification date, to send or view to the trustor terminal, the trustee terminal, and the beneficiary terminal after the beneficiary certification information is modified (see ¶[0007], and ¶[0019]).
As to Claim 6, Matsuda teaches the trust management system according to claim 1,
wherein if the contract for the trust property includes a money trust, the management server can receive withdrawal information for the money trust from a deposit server that manages deposit account for the money trust via the communication network,
wherein when the management server receives the withdrawal information of the deposit account from the deposit server, the notification function notifies the trustor terminal, the trustee terminal, and the beneficiary terminal of the withdrawal information (see ¶[0087] - ¶[0088] – “(2) In a case where (the contract conclusion process is completed and) the formation of the second trust is completed, [0086] processing of executing reservation registration to the effect that the person having a right to designate a beneficiary of the second trust (if any) designates the trustee of the first trust as the beneficiary of the second trust, and [0087] processing of accepting a request for executing reservation registration that automatically designates the trustee of the second trust as the beneficiary of the first trust in a case where the temporary person to be granted in the first trust does not fulfill the beneficiary determination condition and does not desire waiver of the stock option, and processing of regarding non-fulfillment of the determination condition for the temporary person to be granted as a notification of designation of a beneficiary at a point of time when the determination condition for the temporary person to be granted is not fulfilled and of taking over information regarding a stock option to be taken over to the second trust out of the stock option for which a cause for designation of a beneficiary has occurred. [0088] (3) Processing of automatically transmitting a transfer approval request, a name transfer request, or a trust property status report necessary as a requirement to duly assert against third parties to the trustor or the issuing company according to the contents of designation of a beneficiary.“).
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 3, 5, and 7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over the publication by Yoshinari Matsuda (Publication No.: US 2023/0222612 A1) in view of the publication by Robert F. Brody (Publication No.: US 2018/0082391 A1).
As to Claim 3, although Matsuda substantially teaches the invention of claim 3, it does not explicitly teach the trust management system according to claim 2, wherein the program causes the management server to execute
a mailing function that prints the trustee certification information and beneficiary certification information using a printing machine, creates a trustee certificate and beneficiary certificate, and mails the trustee certificate and the beneficiary certificate to a location specified by the terminal that sent a mailing request, in response to the mailing request sent from the trustor terminal, the trustee terminal, and the beneficiary terminal via an application running on the trustor terminal, the trustee terminal, and the beneficiary terminal after the completion is notified by the notification function.
Brody teaches the trust management system according to claim 2, wherein the program causes the management server to execute
a mailing function that prints the trustee certification information and beneficiary certification information using a printing machine, creates a trustee certificate and beneficiary certificate, and mails the trustee certificate and the beneficiary certificate to a location specified by the terminal that sent a mailing request, in response to the mailing request sent from the trustor terminal, the trustee terminal, and the beneficiary terminal via an application running on the trustor terminal, the trustee terminal, and the beneficiary terminal after the completion is notified by the notification function (see ¶[0010], and ¶[0027]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the effective filing date of the invention to incorporate the features of Brody with those of Matsuda since the claimed invention is merely a combination of old elements, and in the combination each element merely would have performed the same function as it did separately, and one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable. The motivation to combine is to provide greater convenience in trust management.
As to Claim 5, Brody teaches the trust management system according to claim 3,
wherein the trustee certificate and the beneficiary certificate are each a piece of paper with characters printed on both sides, and, the beneficiary certificate has the beneficiary identification information and the first information printed on one side, and the second information on the other side (see ¶[0009], and ¶[0043]).
As to Claim 7, Brody teaches the trust management system according to claim 1
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to IRENE S KANG whose telephone number is (571)270-3611. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday through Friday between M-F 10am-2pm.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Matt Gart may be reached at (571)-272-3955. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/IRENE KANG/
Examiner, Art Unit 3695
3/7/2026
/MATTHEW S GART/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3696