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 .
Applicant’s Submission of a Response
Applicant’s submission of a response was received on 05/05/2026. Presently, claims 8-16 are pending.
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 8-16 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) a method for forming a fund and providing dividend payments using an online game competition having customers, the method comprising: (a) receiving, by an asset management server, user data and participation information for participation in the online game competition from a plurality of customer terminals, and generating fund account data for each customer ;(b) receiving, by the asset management server, payment data corresponding to an entry fee from the customer terminals, and storing the payment data in association with the fund account data of each customer; (c) providing, by a game competition server, an online game competition including a plurality of rounds in a tournament format to the customer terminals, and processing competition-related data input from the customer terminals; (d) generating, by the game competition server, result data for each customer based on the competition-related data, and calculating differentiated allocation values for each customer according to the result data; (e) converting, by the asset management server, the payment data into fund-related data, and associating the fund-related data with the result data; and (f) automatically updating, by the asset management server, the fund account data of each customer according to the allocation values, wherein the fund-related data includes data corresponding to investment returns generated as entry fees paid into the fund accounts of the asset management server are converted into and managed as a fund. Each of the above underlined portions of the claim relates to the abstract idea category of fundamental economic practice and/or mental process. That is each of the above is related to how to manage and fund an investment fund and/or rules for managing a wagering game. This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application because it is only applied to a technological area, that is including servers/terminals, which is not enough to bring the claims into patent eligibility. The claim(s) does/do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception because the only additional elements to the claims are generic computing parts which the Supreme Court in Alice determined was not enough to bring abstract ideas into patent eligibility.
Claim 12 is rejected for similar reasoning.
All dependent claims are rejected as they only add additional abstract ideas to the claims.
Response to Arguments
Applicant argues that the present claims are not directed to fundamental economic practices or rules for a wagering game. It is unclear why Applicant believes this. The claims are clearly directed towards fund management via money and then conducting a game. Thus, Applicant’s arguments are not found convincing.
Applicant’s arguments of efficiencies created and automating updates are not reasons to overcome the rejection based upon 101, but rather just providing the abstract idea into a technological area. The same argument was put forth in the Alice case which was rejected by the Supreme Court, and as such must be rejected here.
Finally, Applicant argues that the claims are significantly more than the abstract idea, but only points to parts of the abstract idea to support the argument. As such, this cannot be found to be convincing.
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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Jay Liddle whose telephone number is (571)270-1226. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9-5.
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/Jay Trent Liddle/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3715
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