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
Status of Claims
Claim 2-21 are pending. Claims 2, 5, 8-10, 13, 16-18 and 21 are amended.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments regarding the 101 rejection have been considered but are not persuasive.
Applicant argues the claims do not recite mitigating risk.
The Office asserts that the claims are directed toward background verification, which is mitigating risk, as noted previously.
Applicant argues the pending claims reflect an improvement to the functioning of a computer, technology or technological field. In the present case, the claims improve the efficiency of computing systems because the processing of the verification step is offloaded, minimizing verification steps provided by the platform.
The applicant argues the claims recite a technological improvement because they delegate which third party verification service performs verification of the onboarding request.
The Office asserts that the delegation step is broad and provides no particular method of delegation that can be considered an improvement over prior methods.
The applicant asserts that another improvement is seen in the providing of differential options through the network settings.
The Office asserts that the limitations merely recite altering network setting to provide the options but do not disclose any particular method of providing these options that differentiate it and improve upon prior methods.
The applicant argues the claims include features which are unconventional and non-generic arrangements of components which provide the request to an edge orchestration layer executed by an API to a services exchange for accessing a verification services provider.
The Office asserts that the applicant does not explain why this feature is unconventional and non-generic or what advantage is obtained by sch an arrangement other than offloading the verification process, which was discussed previously.
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.
Claim(s) 2-21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to an abstract idea without significantly more. The claim(s) recite(s):
2. An apparatus, comprising:
at least one processor; and
a storage device in communication with the at least one processor, the storage device storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to:
receive at least one onboarding request from a user device to register a user with a services platform requiring background verification;
provide the at least one onboarding request to an edge orchestration layer executed by an application programming interface (API) gateway device to delegate the at least one onboarding request to a services exchange for accessing at least one verification service provider to process the at least one onboarding request;
receive an onboarding request result determined via the at least one verification service provider processing the at least one onboarding request;
alter network settings of the services platform to allow network access to at least one of a set of services offered by the services platform based on the onboarding request result; and
alter network settings of the services platform to disallow network access to at least a second of the set of services offered by the services platform based on the onboarding request result.
Claims 10 and 18 are similar.
The underlined portions above represent the abstract idea and fall under certain methods of organizing human activity, commercial or legal interactions, business relations or fundamental economic principles, mitigating risk. The claims are directed to mitigating risk as shown by the specification in para. 0004: “Initial user registration is an important process that requires secure verification of users to avoid risks associated with fraudulent use of service provider resources.”
This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application because the additional limitations, processor, storage device, instructions, user device, edge orchestration layer, represent the computer implementation of the abstract idea, i.e., adding the words “apply it”, or the like, with the judicial exception.
The claim(s) does/do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception because the additional elements amount to the computer implementation of the abstract idea as indicated above.
The dependent claims merely narrow the abstract idea and as a whole and in combination the claims represent an abstract idea with the words apply it and are therefore not patent eligible.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. 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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to WILLIAM E RANKINS whose telephone number is (571)270-3465. The examiner can normally be reached on 9-530 M-F.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Bennett Sigmond can be reached on 303-297-4411. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/WILLIAM E RANKINS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3694
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