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 Amendment
Applicant’s “Response to Amendment and Reconsideration” filed on 12/16/2025 has been considered.
Applicant’s response by virtue of amendment to claims 1-20 has overcome the Examiner’s rejection under 35 USC § 101 paragraph.
Claims 1-20 are pending in this application and an action on the merits follows.
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 1-7, 9-13, 15-18, 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Robinson et al. (U.S. Patent Publication No. 2009/0006239), in view of Nelms et al. (U.S. Patent Publication No. 2020/0134588), and further in view of Glasgo et. al. (U.S. Patent Publication No. 2014/0337232).
Regarding claims 1, 17 and 20, Robinson teaches:
receiving, transaction data for a transaction completed by a mobile device of a user; (Transaction identifier registration may occur during user enrollment in BAS 100 or subsequent to enrollment. If AS 106 is a point of sale, the user may register a transaction identifier during or after a transaction, [26, 34], receive transaction information generates by a POS, [54]).
responsive to receiving the transaction data, triggering a tracker component of the system to perform, in real-time as the transaction is completed, operations (Transaction information may be received as a transaction transpires or at a subsequent time. For example, transaction information may be received as each item is scanned or after all items have been scanned, [39]
comprising: determining whether an item of the transaction is to be categorized into a tracker category; (a user may select an option at AS 106 to activate or deactivate the transaction categorization feature, [44]) and categorizing the item of the transaction into the tracker category in response to determining that the item of the transaction is to be categorized into the tracker category (if the transaction information is travel-related, the system may request a transaction identifier to categorize the transaction as business or personal, [44], The system may categorize transactions automatically based on the received transaction information, [45]);
receiving feedback indicating revision to a categorization for the item of the transaction, (receiving categorization request from user, [56]),
based on the feedback, triggering an update to one or more category rules associated with the item such that subsequent transactions…are automatically categorized or excluded, (previously registered transaction identifiers may be used to categorize transaction information, [58]),
and responsive to an event, triggering a record component of the system to generate or update a transaction record for the tracker category, (once transaction information has been classified, the categorized data is recorded, [48]).
Robinson does not explicitly disclose, however Nelms teaches
configuring a mobile deice to present and append a mobile identifier to transaction data at a point of sale terminal by providing a smart wallet mobile system to the mobile device, (mobile self-checkout application resides on the mobile device, [29], transaction state identifier mobile unique (UMI), [49-50], create UMI, [77], load transaction state…transaction of UMI,
the transaction data including a linked mobile identifier appended by the mobile device, (transaction state is maintained through VTSA..mobile unique identifier, [77-80]);
the transaction data being received by the mobile device via wireless communication with the point of sale terminal, (receive point of sale message…load transaction state information, [77-80]);
the transaction record indicating that the transaction record was verified using the linked mobile identifier, (transaction state is maintained through VTSA..mobile unique identifier, [77-80]).
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify the Robinson’s record-generation process, to implement within Nelms’s mobile POS architecture, in order to provide a more accurate and efficient way of performing transactions, [82]).
Robinson does not explicitly teach receiving, by a smart wallet system, record trigger event. However, Glasgo teaches device-based location triggers are utilized to facilitate validation of a commercial transaction. In particular, a transaction is deemed valid if determined to be performed while the wireless device is at a proper location, FIG. 8 depicts a device-based trigger from a wireless phone attempting to perform a given electronic wallet transaction, [87-90].
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify the Robinson’s record-generation process, to employ even-based-triggers and smart wallet device, as taught by Glasgo, in order to enable dynamic updating and context validation of transaction records, [35].
Regarding claims 2 and 18, Robinson teaches in response to a submission trigger event, submit the transaction record to a third-party system, third-party system to process the transaction record, Fig, 1, [17]. Glasgo teaches mobile wallet system transmitting records to payment networks, Fig, 8-10.
Regarding claim 3, Robinson teaches transaction record, Fig, 4 and Nelms teaches transaction generation followed by transmission, [37].
Regarding claims 4-5, Robinson does not explicitly teach, however, Glasgo teaches the record trigger event comprises a location detected via a sensor of the mobile device, the smart wallet system is a smart wallet mobile system operating on the mobile device, [87-90].
Regarding claim 6-7, Robinson teaches determining that the item of the transaction should be categorized in a second tracker category; and in response to determining that the item should be categorized in the second tracker category, categorizing the item in the second tracker category; determining that a second item of the transaction should be categorized; and in response to determining that the second item of the transaction should be categorized, categorizing the second item into one of the tracker category or a second tracker category, [45].
Regarding claim 9, Robinson teaches determining whether the item of the transaction is to be categorized based on item-level information comprising at least a merchant category code MCC or a stock keeping unit SKU, (Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) code [45].
Regarding claim 10, Robinson teaches causing display of the transaction record on the mobile device; and receiving either a confirmation of or a revision to the transaction record, [41].
Regarding claim 11, Robinson teaches the smart wallet system is configured to track and categorize transactions performed using a plurality of different payment instruments, [12]. Glasgo teaches smart wallet system.
Regarding claim 12, Robinson teaches the record trigger event comprises the categorizing of the item into the tracker category, Fig. 4,
Regarding claim 13, Robinson teaches generating the tracker category via a user interface presented on the mobile device, the generating including receiving one or more inputs via one or more drop-down menus or fields presented on the user interface that indicate the tracker category and associated rules for categorization, [56, 62].
Regarding claim 15, Robinson does not explicitly teach, however, Nelms teaches the record trigger event comprises a time-based trigger selected from a scheduled time, a calendar date, recurring intervals, [40].
Regarding claim 16, Robinson does not explicitly disclose, however, Glasgo teaches wherein the linked mobile identifier comprises one of a mobile driver’s license, a mobile passport or a mobile visa, [9].
Claims 8, 14, 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Robinson, Nelms and Glasgo combination and further in view of Rengarajan et al. (U.S. Patent Publication No. 2024/0403691).
Regarding claims 8, 14, 19, Robinson but does not explicitly disclose wherein triggering the update to the one or more category rules us performed by a machine learning component of the smart wallet system that based on the feedback determines a change to the one or more category rules , automatically generating, by the smart wallet system, the tracker category in response to the receiving of the transaction data, the automatically generating being based on machine-learning based on at least past transaction data and a past tracker category.
However, Rangarajan teaches automatically predict transaction class for a transaction of interest, according to some embodiments of the present invention, generating the classifier comprises training, by the computing device, a machine learning model for predicting transaction classes, The computer-implemented system also includes a data processing module configured to (i) tokenize the preprocessed historical data portion for each transaction class to generate a plurality of tokens for each transaction class, the heuristic layer can be periodically updated to include new/revised rules, data for the transaction of interest and its predicted class can be stored in the library of historical data for future prediction usage. [5-6, 26-27].
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify the Robinson’s record-generation process to employ Machine learning based rule refinement, as taught by Rangarajan, in order to improve accuracy and reduce manual corrections. [2].
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1-20 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on references applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
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 MILENA RACIC whose telephone number is (571)270-5933. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 7:30am-4pm EST.
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/MILENA RACIC/Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3627
/FLORIAN M ZEENDER/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3627