DETAILED ACTION
Claims 1, 2, 16 and 17 have been amended.
Claims 1 – 11 and 16 – 17 have been examined and are pending.
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.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 1 – 11 and 16 – 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US Patent Application Publication No. 2017/0017939 to Killoran et al. (hereinafter Killoran), in view of US Patent Application Publication No. 2020/0026914 to Punzalan and in view of US Patent No. 10,217,092 to Maxwell et al. (hereinafter Maxwell).
Claim 1, Killoran (¶2 and ¶42) discloses technological improvements to electronic commerce system, and provide an interactive experience to customers allowing the customer greater choice and ease in purchase which further includes:
e-bill mail processing method (Killoran discloses Fig. 2 and ¶42 vendors send emails to customers allowing customers to make payments for specific amounts by selecting mail-to hyperlinks associated with each amount and sending the email to the e-commerce system), comprising:
determining to-be-processed identification information used to identify an organization corresponding to a target bill mail (Killoran discloses in Fig. 2 ¶43 and ¶131, the control area 14 shows that the send of the message has the email of the sender organization in the from field as sales@company.com)
parsing a bill mail template library for positioning information of a respective bill link of bill mails corresponding to each organization comprised in the bill mail template library (Killoran discloses (¶107-¶108) email interface module 147 configured to parse emails for action by the e-commerce system 140. A customer or vendor, wishing to complete a transaction with an e-commerce system 140 may register his/her email address and payment information with the e-commerce system 140. The account management unit 148 is configured to store a customer registry and a vendor registry. Further, Killoran discloses using templates (¶113) and email service provider 170 allows customers to adjust the templates and dynamically customize and distribute their billing messages) the positioning information indicating a location of the respective bill link, the target bill mail being one of the bill mails (Killoran discloses parsing emails for action by the e-commerce system (¶107), and using the customer registry and vendor registry (¶108) and templates (¶113) providing vendor with a customer interface tool to position the graphic buttons, tokens, and presenting tailored personalized content information and mailto links within the billing and advertising messages. Killoran discloses (¶42) each mailto link holds a token generated by the e-commerce system. The e-commerce system may validate and authenticate the email and decode the token. This system may be integrated with SMS and Social Media messaging. The e-commerce system is designed to give customers a fluid relationship between different modes of messaging with the goal of completing a secure payment)
comprising: upon determining that the matching result is that the matching succeeds, determining positioning information corresponding to the bill link in the target bill mail based on the matched identification information, and obtaining the bill link based on the positioning information (Killoran discloses (¶116) email-based e-commerce system 140 may allow vendors to send advertising emails or bills (¶Fig. 2) with a mailto hyperlink associated with a specific product offer (or payment amount) and upon determining (by using the templates, ¶113) that a link is selected by a customer (¶132, ¶137), generating a response email with a token identifier associated with the mailto link selection. This response email contains this token and is addressed to the e-commerce system 140. Once sent, this response email confirms the customer's payment for the product (or prepayment of a bill) by parsing the information in the token. The e-commerce system 140 matches the customer identification to perform security measures for authorized access (¶109-¶110), then processes the payment, and notifies the vendor system 120 and the customer device 150)
Killoran does not explicitly disclose matching the to-be-processed identification information with identification information corresponding to each organization comprised in the bill mail template library, obtaining the bill link comprised in the target bill mail based on a matching result. However, in an analogous art, Punzalan teaches:
matching the to-be-processed identification information with identification information corresponding to each organization comprised in the bill mail template library (Punzalan discloses ¶39 the identification information extracting section extracts identification information such a logo or a name of a demander from the bill image, and matches it with stored identification information indicating demanders, format and logos in identification information storage section 152/153, ¶30-¶31, ¶57, fig. 3) obtaining the bill link comprised in the target bill mail based on a matching result (Punzalan discloses Fig. 3 and ¶42-¶43, ¶57 the region identifying section 26 identifies and uses the layout information contained in the format A1 of the bill for Company A (ABC Bank) to identify the region T2 of the bill image G1 containing character images related to an electronic payment as shown in FIG. 6A)
It would have been obvious as of the effective filing date to one of ordinary skill in the art to combine the teachings of Killoran with Punzalan, for the purpose of implementing technique for processing an acquired image of a bill to extract information on an electronic payment, outputting the information to a settlement server, and allowing electronic payment to be made on the settlement server.
Killoran in view of Punzalan does not explicitly disclose obtaining an e-bill corresponding to the target bill mail based on the bill link. However, in an analogous art, Maxwell teaches:
obtaining an e-bill corresponding to the target bill mail based on the bill link (Maxwell teaches (¶Col. 5, Lines 56-62) interactive digital receipt is a web URL link in an electronic mail (Fig. 1D: 124) which takes the user to a web page to allow adding of the tipping amount.)
It would have been obvious as of the effective filing date to one of ordinary skill in the art to combine the teachings of Killoran and Punzalan with Maxwell, for the purpose of implementing a versatile system for providing a receipt electronically, where the receipt offers an interactive platform for merchants and customers to interact on a continuous basis (¶Col. 2, Lines 8-35).
Claim 2, Killoran, Punzalan and Maxwell disclose all the elements of claim 1. Further, they disclose:
upon determining that the matching result is that the matching fails, identifying a hyperlink comprised in the target bill mail, and obtaining the bill link based on an identification result (Maxwell discloses the user can quickly add the tipping amount by clicking on any of the default amounts displayed on the interactive digital receipt (¶Col. 5, Lines 56-62), however if a template (i.e. tipping feature 110) is not found for the merchant, the system searches the hyperlinks in the body of the e-mail for keywords such as receipt or statement and selects the hyperlink containing the keyword. This covers the failure case, a URL (bill/receipt link) in an email or message and the ability to access that link to view the receipt on a web page.)
The motivation to combine the references is similar to the reasons in Claim 1.
Claim 3, Killoran, Punzalan and Maxwell disclose all the elements of claim 2. Further, they disclose:
determining a target organization corresponding to the target bill mail based on the matched identification information (Punzalan fig. 3, ¶40,¶57, teaches the identification information extracting section extracts identification information such as a logo or a name of a demander from the bill image)
determining location information of the bill link in the target bill mail based on the positioning information corresponding to the target organization (Punzalan ¶41 teaches the correspondence table storage section stores correspondence information between the identification information and the format of each demander. The format storage section stores formats of bills of each demander and the region identifying section identifies a region of each item of the bill image according to the format corresponding to the demander. This is direct support for organization match, to positioning info, to link location)
obtaining the bill link from the target bill mail based on the location information (Maxwell teaches ¶Col. 4, Lines 3 – 6 the interactive transaction record organizes the interactive digital receipts based on time, location, and merchant. Further, Maxwell teaches (¶Col. 5, Lines 56-62) interactive digital receipt is a web URL link in an electronic mail (Fig. 1D: 124) which takes the user to a web page to allow adding of the tipping amount.)
The motivation to combine the references is similar to the reasons in Claim 1.
Claim 4, Killoran, Punzalan and Maxwell disclose all the elements of claim 3. Further, they disclose:
wherein the positioning information comprises a keyword used to point to the bill link (Punzalan ¶41 - ¶43 teaches correspondence table storage section stores correspondence information between the identification information and the format of each demander. The format storage section stores formats of bills of each demander and the region identifying section identifies a region of each item of the bill image according to the format corresponding to the demander. Here, the region identifying section uses stored format/positional data, which includes keywords/labels that point to fields such as bill links) and
the determining location information (Punzalan region identifying section which uses template/keyword/positional information to close) of the bill link in the target bill mail based on the positioning information corresponding to the target organization comprises (Punzalan ¶43 teaches region identifying section identifies a region, as per the format corresponding to the demander. This implies keyword-based region location in the mail or bill)
searching the target bill mail for the keyword (Punzalan implies region identifying section that identifies a region, according to the format (implies keyword-based region location) corresponding to the demander, ¶42) and
determining a link that the identified keyword points to as the bill link (Killoran ¶132 discloses the message body area includes a number of mailto links such as the ‘1 Bottle’ or ‘2 Bottles’, links. These links may be defined according to the mailto URI scheme. Here, the keyword text (1 Bottle, 2 Bottles) is adjacent to or pointing to the hyperlink.)
The motivation to combine the references is similar to the reasons in Claim 1.
Claim 5, Killoran, Punzalan and Maxwell disclose all the elements of claim 2. Further, they disclose:
obtaining a hyperlink comprised in a specified mail location of the target bill mail, wherein the specified mail location comprises a mail attachment and/or a mail body (Punzalan ¶35 the communication section 26 receives from the demander terminal device 100, a bill image (electronic bill) generated by the demander terminal device 100. The correspondence table storage section (Fig. 3) stores correspondence information between the identification information and the format of each demander. The format storage section 153 stores formats of bills of each demander (¶41). These show hyperlinks (bill-related information) being present in attachments or mail body regions)
determining a to-be-processed keyword pointing to the hyperlink, and matching the to-be- processed keyword with a predetermined keyword set to obtain a second matching result, wherein the keyword set comprises at least one keyword used to point to the bill link (Punzalan teaches ¶40 the identification information extracting section (Fig. 2:24) extracts identification information such as a logo or a name of a demander from the bill image. Punzalan teaches ¶41 the correspondence table storage section (Fig. 3) stores correspondence information between the identification information and the format of each demander. This shows extraction of keywords/identifiers and comparison against stored sets (correspondence table) to get a match result)
and determining the bill link from the hyperlink based on the second matching result (Punzalan teaches ¶43 the region identifying section (Fig. 2:26) identifies a region of each item of the bill image according to the format corresponding to the demander. This shows the decision step: using the match result to determine the correct hyperlink (bill link). Hence, to conclude, the hyperlink in specified location is shown by bill image attachments/regions (¶35-¶41). The keyword extraction/match is shown by OCR extraction and correspondence table (¶40-¶41). Determining bill link is shown by region identification (¶43).
The motivation to combine the references is similar to the reasons in Claim 1.
Claim 6, Killoran, Punzalan and Maxwell disclose all the elements of claim 5. Further, they disclose:
upon determining that the second matching result is that the matching succeeds, determining that the hyperlink is the bill link (Punzalan teaches ¶41-¶43 template/keyword match leads to correct link determination. Further, Punzalan teaches the correspondence table storage section (Fig. 3) stores correspondence information between the identification information and the format of each demander. The format storage section 153 stores formats of bills of each demander, and the region identifying section 126 identifies a region of each item of the bill image according to the format corresponding to the demander. This shows that when identification/format matching succeeds, the correct region (hyperlink) is determined directly – i.e., the hyperlink is the bill link.)
upon determining that the second matching result is that the matching fails, performing a download operation based on the hyperlink, and determining that the successfully downloaded hyperlink is the bill link (Punzalan teaches ¶40 the character recognition section 27 subjects the region of the bill image … to known OCR (optical character recognition) processing. The payment information extracting section 28 extracts … characters related to the electronic payment … from the recognized characters. When the identification information … fails to extract … the control section prematurely terminates (¶37). The communication section 26 … acquires the bill image data (¶35). When template/keyword matching fails, Punzalan discloses performing OCR + communication-based acquisition (download) of the bill content, and then using that successfully retrieved hyperlink data to confirm the bill link.)
The motivation to combine the references is similar to the reasons in Claim 1.
Claim 7, Killoran, Punzalan and Maxwell disclose all the elements of claim 6. Further, they disclose:
obtaining a keyword corresponding to the successfully downloaded hyperlink (Punzalan teaches (¶40) the identification information extracting section (Fig. 2:24) extracts identification information such as a logo or a name of a demander from the bill image. After content is acquired (download), Punzalan explicitly teaches extracting identifiers/keywords from the bill image)
adding the obtained keyword to the keyword set to update the keyword set (Punzalan discloses ¶41 the correspondence table storage section (Fig. 3) stores correspondence information between the identification information and the format of each demander. The format storage section 153 stores formats of bills of each demander. In conclusion, these disclosures show that extracted keywords/identifiers are stored in a correspondence table (i.e., updating the keyword set). Punzalan teaches obtaining keyword from downloaded content (¶40), adding/updating (¶41) keyword set.)
The motivation to combine the references is similar to the reasons in Claim 1.
Claim 8, Killoran, Punzalan and Maxwell disclose all the elements of claim 6. Further, they disclose:
determining the positioning information corresponding to the bill link in the target bill mail based on location information of the successfully downloaded hyperlink in the target bill mail (Punzalan discloses ¶43 the region identifying section identifies a region of each item of the bill image according to the format corresponding to the demander. This shows determining positional/location information of the relevant hyperlink region.)
correspondingly adding the positioning information corresponding to the bill link in the target bill mail and the to-be-processed identification information to the bill mail template library, to update the bill mail template library (Punzalan discloses ¶41-¶43 the correspondence table storage section stores correspondence information between the identification information and the format of each demander. The format storage section stores formats of bills of each demander. The region identifying section identifies a region of each item of the bill image according to the format corresponding to the demander. These passages support maintaining and updating a template/format library with new (correspondence) identification plus positional information. In conclusion, the location/positional information of hyperlink is taught by Punzalan and the updating template library with identification plus the positional information is taught by Punzalan, ¶41-¶43.)
The motivation to combine the references is similar to the reasons in Claim 1.
Claim 9, Killoran, Punzalan and Maxwell disclose all the elements of claim 1. Further, they disclose:
requesting the bill link to obtain a response body corresponding to the request (Punzalan teaches ¶35 the communication section receives from the demander terminal device, a bill image (electronic bill) generated by the demander terminal device. This discloses making a request and receiving bill content as a response body)
determining a file type of the response body upon determining a response state of the response body is normal (Punzalan teaches ¶40 the character recognition section subjects the region of the bill image identified … to known OCR (optical character recognition) processing. It implicitly requires it inherently determining a file type by POSITA, who determines the file type (image, PDF, etc.) before OCR can be applied)
obtaining the e-bill corresponding to the target bill mail based on the file type of the response body (Punzalan teaches ¶40 the payment information extracting section extracts, from the recognized characters, characters related to the electronic payment. Once file type is known and OCR is applied, the e-bill information is obtained. In conclusion, the request is the response body (¶35), the file type determination (¶40) is OCR requiring image/PDF recognition, and the obtaining of e-bill from response body (¶40) is payment information extraction.)
The motivation to combine the references is similar to the reasons in Claim 1.
Claim 10, Killoran, Punzalan and Maxwell disclose all the elements of claim 9. Further, they disclose:
upon determining that the file type is a downloadable first file type, performing a download operation based on the response body to obtain the e-bill (Punzalan teaches ¶35 the communication section receives, from the demander terminal device, a bill image (electronic bill) generated by the demander terminal device. Download operation of an electronic bill, the file type: bill image)
upon determining that the file type is a non-downloadable second file type, determining a parsing method corresponding to the bill link based on the file type, parsing the bill link based on the determined parsing method, and obtaining the e-bill based on a parsing result (Punzalan teaches ¶40 the character recognition section subjects the region of the bill image identified to known OCR (optical character recognition) processing. The payment information extracting section extracts characters related to the electronic payment from the recognized characters. This is parsing (via OCR) when the file type is not directly downloadable, yielding the e-bill data. In conclusion, downloadable file type is shown as download bill (¶35), non-downloadable type (¶40) is parsing method (OCR) to extract e-bill.)
The motivation to combine the references is similar to the reasons in Claim 1.
Claim 11, Killoran, Punzalan and Maxwell disclose all the elements of claim 10. Further, they disclose:
wherein the first file type comprises at least one of the following: a convenient document format and a file stream (Maxwell (Fig. 1D, ¶Col. 5, Lines 56-62) discloses the interactive digital receipt is a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) link which takes the user to a web page (HTML). The link can be a part of an electronic mail (e-mail). A POSITA would understand that requesting such a link could return a document format (e.g. PDF) or a file stream for downloading the receipt)
the second file type comprises at least one of the following: a text and a hypertext markup language (Maxwell’s same disclosure (Fig. 1D, ¶Col. 5, Lines 56-62) describing the receipt being accessible at a web page. A POSITA would recognize this as HTML/text content to be parsed rather than downloaded.)
The motivation to combine the references is similar to the reasons in Claim 1.
Claim 16, do not teach or further define over the limitations in Claim 1. Therefore, claim 16 is rejected for the same rationale of rejection as set forth in Claim 1.
Claim 17, do not teach or further define over the limitations in Claim 1. Therefore, claim 17 is rejected for the same rationale of rejection as set forth in Claim 1.
Response to Arguments
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
Applicant’s arguments and amendments, filed on 12/10/2025 with respect to the Claims 1 – 11 and 16 – 17 have been fully considered and they are persuasive. Hence, the 35 USC § 101 rejection is withdrawn.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
Applicant’s arguments and amendments, filed on 12/10/2025 with respect to the Claims 1 – 11 and 16 – 17 have been fully considered and they are not persuasive. Hence, the 35 USC § 103 rejection is maintained.
In response to the applicant argument, Pg. 10, “Killoran … does not teach the following: a bill mail template library storing positioning information for locating links within emails, parsing such a library to extract positional metadata, and conditional extraction logic based on template matching. Thus, Killoran at least fails to disclose … amended claim 1,” the Examiner notes that Killoran clearly discloses parsing emails (¶107) for action by the e-commerce system, and using customer registry and a vendor registry (¶108) alongside using the templates (¶113) to generate customized billing and advertisement messages by the e-commerce system, and the email service provider 170 allows customers to dynamically adjust the templates to customize and distribute their billing messages, and providing vendors with a customer interface tool to position the graphic buttons, tokens, for presenting tailored personalized content information and mailto links within these billing and advertising messages. Killoran discloses (¶42) each mailto link holds a token generated by the e-commerce system. The e-commerce system may validate and authenticate the email and decode the token. This e-commerce system is designed to give customers a fluid relationship between different modes of messaging with the goal of completing a secure payment. Killoran discloses that upon determining, i.e. by using the templates, ¶113, that a link is selected by a customer (¶132, ¶137), generating a response email with a token identifier associated with the mailto link. This response email contains this token and is addressed to the e-commerce system 140. Once sent, this response email confirms the customer's payment for the product (or prepayment of a bill) by parsing the information in the token. The e-commerce system 140 matches the customer identification to perform security measures for authorized access (¶109-¶110), then processes the payment, and notifies the vendor system 120 and the customer device 150).
In response to the applicant argument, Pg. 10, “Punzalan likewise fails to overcome the deficiencies of Killoran. Punzalan relates to extracting data from scanned bill images using predefined layouts. Punzalan does not process emails or extract hyperlinks, store positioning information for email-based links, or teach parsing a template library for link location data,” the Examiner notes that Killoran clearly discloses all the amendments. However, Punzalan also teaches (¶67-¶68) that the touch gesture made on the button K1 within the electronic payment message indicating “Lump-Sum” in Fig. 6b, will parse a template library for link location data, and the name of a bank, account and other characters etc. will be send to the settlement server 30 which settles the electronic payment. Then, the settlement server sends result of the electronic payment to the communication section 14 of the information terminal 10.
In response to the applicant argument, Pg. 11, “in Applicant's invention, the "positioning information" is obtained by parsing a bill mail template library and indicates the location of a bill link within an email structure (e.g., a hyperlink in the HTML body or an attachment), and it is used to directly access a link, e. g., URL, within the email, not to perform OCR on a static image. Furthermore, the technical context of the Applicant's Invention is email parsing and link retrieval, not image processing and character recognition … thus, Punzalan does not teach or suggest these features,” Examiner notes that Killoran clearly discloses all the newly amended claim limitations, and it teaches (¶113) using templates to send the messages and to identify (¶42) and access the mailto links within the messages holding tokens and determining the URLs the e-commerce system. This e-commerce system is designed to give customers a fluid relationship between different modes of messaging with the goal of completing a secure payment. Killoran discloses that upon determining (i.e. by using the blueprint templates, ¶113) that a link is selected by a customer (¶132, ¶137), generating a response email with a token identifier URL associated with the mailto link. This response email contains this token and is addressed to the e-commerce system 140. Once URL is sent, this response email confirms the customer's payment for the product (or prepayment of a bill) by parsing the information in the token. The e-commerce system 140 matches the customer identification to perform security measures for authorized access (¶109-¶110), then processes the payment, and notifies the vendor system 120 and the customer device 150).
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 HASSAN ABDUR-RAHMAN KHAN whose telephone number is (313)446-6574. The examiner can normally be reached TEAPP - (M-Sa) 9/30/17-9/30/18, 6am-10pm IFP.
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/H. A. K./
Examiner, Art Unit 2451
/GLENFORD J MADAMBA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2451
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