DETAILED ACTION
Introduction
This Office action is responsive to the communications filed April 22, 2026. Claims 27, 28, 31, and 34 were amended. Claims 32 and 36-46 were canceled. Claims 47-58 were added. Claims 27-31, 33-35, and 47-58 are pending.
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
Applicant has amended claims, thereby overcoming the 35 U.S.C. 101 rejection of claims 27-31 and 33-35.
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 47-58 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to an abstract idea without significantly more.
In the instant case, claims 47-52 are directed to a method. Claims 53-58 is directed to a non-transitory machine readable medium. Therefore, these claims fall within the four statutory categories of invention.
For example, claim 47 recites an abstract idea of obtaining, manipulating, and transmitting information. The claim under its broadest reasonable interpretation recites limitations grouped within the “certain methods of organizing human activity” grouping of abstract ideas. The certain methods of organizing human activity abstract idea grouping is defined as concepts related to fundamental economic principles or practices, commercial or legal interactions including agreements in the form of contracts, legal obligations, advertising, marketing or sales activities or behaviors, and business relations. See MPEP § 2106.04(a)(2), subsection II. The claim limitations reciting the abstract idea are grouped within the “certain methods of organizing human activity” grouping of abstract ideas as they relate to obtaining, manipulating, and transmitting information. More specifically, the following the bolded claim elements recite additional elements while the other claim elements recite the abstract idea. according to MPEP 2106.04(a).
47. A method for conducting a card transaction, performed by a transaction-processing system that includes an encrypted PIN block (EPB) creation subsystem, the method comprising:
when a personal identification number (PIN) is entered by a user at a first location via a user device and when the first location corresponds to a third location at which the EPB creation subsystem operates, receiving, by the transaction-processing system, by a relay transmission over a local communication environment, the PIN entered by the user at the first location;
when the PIN is entered by the user at the first location via the user device and when the first location does not correspond to the third location, receiving, by the transaction-processing system through a networked communication environment, a first set of signals comprising the PIN entered by the user at the first location;
when a personal account number (PAN) is obtained from a card by a card reading interface at a second location and when the second location corresponds to the third location, receiving, by the transaction-processing system over the local communication environment, the PAN from the card at the second location, wherein the first location is different from the second location;
when the PAN is obtained from the card by the card reading interface at the second location and when the second location does not correspond to the third location, receiving, by the transaction-processing system through the networked communication environment, a second set of signals comprising the PAN from the card at the second location;
creating, by the EPB creation subsystem, an EPB using the PIN and the PAN; and
transmitting, by the transaction-processing system, the EPB to a PIN verification subsystem or a payment card for PIN verification, wherein the user device, the card reading interface, and the EPB creation subsystem are communicatively coupled via at least one of the networked communication environment or the local communication environment.
Independent claim 53 recites similar language.
This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application because, when analyzed under prong two of step 2A of the Alice/Mayo test (See MPEP 2106.04(d)), the additional element(s) of the claim(s) such as the user device, card reading interface, transaction-processing system, card, local communication environment, networked communication environment, and EPB creation subsystem are merely used as tools to perform an abstract idea and/or generally link the use of a judicial exception to a particular technological environment. Specifically, these additional elements perform the steps or functions of obtaining, manipulating, and transmitting information. Viewed as a whole, the use of user device, card reading interface, transaction-processing system, card, local communication environment, networked communication environment, and EPB creation subsystem as tools to implement the abstract idea and/or generally linking the use of the abstract idea to a particular technological environment does not integrate the abstract idea into a practical application because it requires no more than a computer or computer networks performing functions that correspond to acts required to carry out the abstract idea. The additional elements do not involve improvements to the functioning of a computer, or to any other technology or technical field (MPEP 2106.05(a)), and the claims do not apply or use the abstract idea in some other meaningful way beyond generally linking the use of the abstract idea to a particular technological environment, such that the claim as a whole is more than a drafting effort designed to monopolize the exception (MPEP 2106.05(e) and Vanda Memo). Therefore, the claims do not, for example, purport to improve the functioning of a computer. Nor do they effect an improvement in any other technology or technical field. Accordingly, the additional elements do not impose any meaningful limits on practicing the abstract idea, and the claims are directed to an abstract idea.
The claim(s) does/do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception because, when analyzed under step 2B of the Alice/Mayo test (See MPEP 2106.05), the additional element(s) of the user device, card reading interface, transaction-processing system, card, local communication environment, networked communication environment, and EPB creation subsystem to perform the steps amounts to no more than using generic hardware or software to automate and/or implement the abstract idea of obtaining, manipulating, and transmitting information. Viewed as a whole, the combination of elements recited in the claims merely recite the concept of obtaining, manipulating, and transmitting information. Therefore, the use of these additional elements does no more than employ the computer as a tool to automate and/or implement the abstract idea. The use of a computer or processor to merely automate and/or implement the abstract idea cannot provide significantly more than the abstract idea itself (MPEP 2106.05 (f) & (h)). Therefore, the claim is not patent eligible.
The dependent claims further describe the abstract idea such as the first set of signals comprising the PIN includes an encrypted representation of the PIN.
The dependent claims do not include additional elements that integrate the abstract idea into a practical application or that provide significantly more than the abstract idea. Therefore, the dependent claims are also not patent eligible.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 27-31 and 33-35 are allowed.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: The prior art references of record do not expressly disclose in accordance with a determination that the second location does not correspond to match the third location, generate, by the card reading interface at the second location, a second set of signals comprising the PAN, and transmit, by the card reading interface at the second location, the second set of signals comprising the PAN to the EPB creation subsystem at the third location, and in accordance with a determination that the second location corresponds to matches the third location, relay the PAN to the EPB creation subsystem over the local communication environment within the second location, wherein the first location is different from the second location; and the EPB creation subsystem at the third location, the EPB creation subsystem configured to: receive the PIN or the first set of signals comprising the PIN, receive the PAN or the second set of signals comprising the PAN, create an EPB using the PIN and the PAN” as recited in independent claim 27.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JALATEE WORJLOH whose telephone number is (571)272-6714. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 6:00am-2:00pm.
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/Jalatee Worjloh/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3697
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