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 .
Status of Claims
Claims 1-20 filed June 11, 2024 are pending and are hereby examined.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
3. 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.
4. Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to an abstract idea without significantly more.
5. Step 1 Statutory Category: Claims 1-12 are directed to a system, and claims 13-20 are directed to a method, all of which are statutory. Claims 1-20 are statutory classes of invention.
6. Step 2A – Prong 1: Judicial Exception Recited: Nevertheless, independent claims 1, 10, and 13 recite an abstract idea of sales data processing with approved brands.
The independent claims 1, 10, and 13 recite the following limitations which fall under commercial or legal interactions:
…;
…;
…;
…;
acquire settlement data associated with a code symbol read from… the settlement data including information for completing a code settlement payment for a sales transaction;
transmit the settlement data via… that provides a settlement proxy service of the code settlement payment;
receive a settlement result notification via… the settlement result notification including a code settlement brand used for the code settlement payment;
compare the code settlement brand in the settlement result notification to a listing of approved brands;
output a notification that the code settlement payment was performed using an unapproved code settlement brand when the code settlement brand included in the settlement result notification does not match an approved brand on the listing.
7. According to the MPEP, "Commercial interactions" or "legal interactions" include agreements in the form of contracts, legal obligations, advertising, marketing or sales activities or behaviors, and business relations. Clearly, sales data processing with approved brands falls under sales activities, therefore commercial or legal interactions. If the claim limitations, under the broadest reasonable interpretation, covers performance of the limitations as a commercial or legal interaction, then it falls within the “Certain Methods of Organizing Human Activity” grouping of abstract ideas. Accordingly, the claim recites an abstract idea.
8. Step 2A – Prong 2: Practical Application: This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application because the claim as a whole merely recites sales data processing with approved brands with generally recited computer elements such as a communication interface, processor, external server, customer terminal, printer, and optical scanner which in these steps are recited at a high-level of generality such that it amounts to more than mere instructions to apply the exception using a generic computer component, and are merely invoked as tools for sales data processing with approved brands. Accordingly, these elements do not integrate the abstract idea into a practical application because they do not impose any meaningful limits on practicing the abstract idea. Simply implementing the abstract idea on a generic computing environment is not a practical application of the abstract idea, and does not take the claim out of the Commercial or Legal Interactions subgrouping of Certain Methods of Organizing Human Activity grouping. The claims are directed to an abstract idea.
9. Step 2B – Inventive Concept: The claims do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception because, when considered individually and as an ordered combination, they do not add significantly more (also known as “inventive concept”) to the exception. As discussed above with respect to integration of the abstract idea into a practical application, the additional elements of a communication interface, processor, external server, printer, customer terminal, and optical scanner to perform these steps amounts to no more than mere instructions to apply the exception using a generic computer component. Mere instructions to apply an exception using a generic computer component cannot provide an inventive concept. Accordingly, these additional elements, do not change the outcome of the analysis, when considered individually and as an ordered combination as there is no inventive concept sufficient to transform the claimed subject matter into a patent-eligible application. The claims are not patent eligible.
10. Regarding dependent claims 2-4, 9, 11, 14-16, 18, and 20, these claims merely narrow the abstract idea of sales data processing with approved brands, and these claims neither integrate into a practical application nor contain additional elements which amount to significantly more than the abstract idea.
11. Regarding dependent claims 5 and 17, although these claims recite a generally recited display unit, these claims merely narrow the abstract idea of sales data processing with approved brands, and these claims neither integrate into a practical application nor contain additional elements which amount to significantly more than the abstract idea.
12. Regarding dependent claim 6, although this claim recites a generally recited product scanner, this claim merely narrows the abstract idea of sales data processing with approved brands, and this claim neither integrates into a practical application nor contains additional elements which amount to significantly more than the abstract idea.
13. Regarding dependent claims 7 and 19, although these claims recite a generally recited product scanner and customer terminal, these claims merely narrow the abstract idea of sales data processing with approved brands, and these claims neither integrate into a practical application nor contain additional elements which amount to significantly more than the abstract idea.
14. Regarding dependent claim 8, although this claim recites a generally recited processor, this claim merely narrows the abstract idea of sales data processing with approved brands, and this claim neither integrates into a practical application nor contains additional elements which amount to significantly more than the abstract idea.
15. Regarding dependent claim 12, although this claim recites a generally recited display unit and processor, this claim merely narrows the abstract idea of sales data processing with approved brands, and this claim neither integrates into a practical application nor contains additional elements which amount to significantly more than the abstract idea.
16. Therefore, the limitations of the claims, when viewed individually and in ordered combination, are directed to ineligible subject matter.
Examiner Notes
17. Claims 1-20 are novel and unobvious over the prior art, however, there remains a pending 35 U.S.C. 101 rejection. Finally, the Examiner suggests incorporating more hardware from the Specification and any unique arrangements of hardware, unique hardware, or unique ways the hardware is communicating. The aforementioned claim suggestions, in combination together, is suggested to help advance prosecution forward, although further search, examination, and consideration is required.
18. After further search and consideration, the most pertinent U.S. prior art was found to be Kelly et al (US 2016/0086454) and Tonnison et al (US 2019/0244224). Kelly et al (US 2016/0086454) is directed to a receipt generation service. Tonnison et al (US 2019/0244224) is directed to transforming scattered business operations into centralized business operations. Swithinbank et al (Planning and Managing the Deployment of WebSphere Commerce, NPL) was found to be the most pertinent NPL prior art, and is directed to next online commerce.
19. However, both the most pertinent U.S. prior art and NPL fail to disclose all of the limitations particularly:
compare the code settlement brand in the settlement result notification to a listing of approved brands;
output a notification that the code settlement payment was performed using an unapproved code settlement brand when the code settlement brand included in the settlement result notification does not match an approved brand on the listing.
20. No prior art cited here or in any previous Office Action neither fully anticipates nor supports a conclusion of obviousness with respect to the subject matter present in the independent claims, either alone or in combination. The limitations lacking in the prior art, in combination with the other limitations clearly claimed in the application, are novel and unobvious.
Conclusion
21. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure: Swithinbank et al (Planning and Managing the Deployment of WebSphere Commerce, NPL) is found to be the most pertinent NPL prior art.
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/FAWAAD HAIDER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3627