DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
1. The present application is being examined under the pre-AIA first to invent provisions.
Status of Claims
2. A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 06/26/2026 has been entered.
3. Claims 1-20 are currently pending and are rejected for the reasons set forth below.
Related Application(s) – Prior Art of Record
4. The instant application is a continuation application (CON) of parent application 17/080,026 (now USPN 12,062,087), which is itself a CON of application 12/262,477 (now USPN 10,817,932). In accordance with MPEP §609.02 A.2 and §2001.06(b) (last paragraph), the prior art cited in the above parent application has been considered, and all documents cited or considered ‘of record' in that application are now considered cited or ‘of record' in this application. The prosecution history of the above parent application is relevant in the examination of the instant application.
Double Patenting
5. The nonstatutory double patenting rejection is based on a judicially created doctrine grounded in public policy (a policy reflected in the statute) so as to prevent the unjustified or improper timewise extension of the “right to exclude” granted by a patent and to prevent possible harassment by multiple assignees. A nonstatutory double patenting rejection is appropriate where the conflicting claims are not identical, but at least one examined application claim is not patentably distinct from the reference claim(s) because the examined application claim is either anticipated by, or would have been obvious over, the reference claim(s). See, e.g., In re Berg, 140 F.3d 1428, 46 USPQ2d 1226 (Fed. Cir. 1998); In re Goodman, 11 F.3d 1046, 29 USPQ2d 2010 (Fed. Cir. 1993); In re Longi, 759 F.2d 887, 225 USPQ 645 (Fed. Cir. 1985); In re Van Ornum, 686 F.2d 937, 214 USPQ 761 (CCPA 1982); In re Vogel, 422 F.2d 438, 164 USPQ 619 (CCPA 1970); In re Thorington, 418 F.2d 528, 163 USPQ 644 (CCPA 1969).
A timely filed terminal disclaimer in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(c) or 1.321(d) may be used to overcome an actual or provisional rejection based on nonstatutory double patenting provided the reference application or patent either is shown to be commonly owned with the examined application, or claims an invention made as a result of activities undertaken within the scope of a joint research agreement. See MPEP § 717.02 for applications subject to examination under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA as explained in MPEP § 2159. See MPEP § 2146 et seq. for applications not subject to examination under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA . A terminal disclaimer must be signed in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(b).
The USPTO Internet website contains terminal disclaimer forms which may be used. Please visit www.uspto.gov/patent/patents-forms. The filing date of the application in which the form is filed determines what form (e.g., PTO/SB/25, PTO/SB/26, PTO/AIA /25, or PTO/AIA /26) should be used. A web-based eTerminal Disclaimer may be filled out completely online using web-screens. An eTerminal Disclaimer that meets all requirements is auto-processed and approved immediately upon submission. For more information about eTerminal Disclaimers, refer to
www.uspto.gov/patents/process/file/efs/guidance/eTD-info-I.jsp.
6. Claims 1-20 of the instant application are rejected on the ground of nonstatutory anticipated-type double patenting as being unpatentable over claims 1-20 of Patent No. 12,062,087.
Although claims 1-20 of the instant application and claims 1-20 of Patent No. 12,062,087 are not identical, they are not patentably distinct from each other because claims 1-20 of instant application are anticipated by claims 1-20 of Patent No. 12,062,087.
Claims 1-20 of the instant application and claims 1-20 of Patent No. 12,062,087 recite a computer-implemented method, a system, and one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of accepting of each bid of a plurality of bids based on a market discount rate and a hurdle rate for an obligation owned by a seller.
For independent claims 1, 11, and 18 of the instant application: Independent claims 1, 9, and 16 of Patent No. 12,062,087 is a narrower version of independent claims 1, 11, and 18 of the instant application with additional allowed claim limitations of “electronically providing an offer to a computer of an authorized bidder to whom a seller owes an obligation, via a network interface over a communications network, the obligation being associated with an available inventory of obligations, wherein the offer is associated with a stated amount for the obligation owed by the seller to the authorized bidder, wherein an auction integration engine enables interoperation between (1) the network interface and a seller auction interface and between (2) the network interface and a bidder interface, via a respective protocol; electronically receiving, via the network interface over the communications network and until occurrence to a terminating condition, a request in a first communications protocol and submit via the bidder interface on the computer of the authorized bidder, the request associated with a bid including electronic data specifying a bid amount in terms of a discount for the obligation as a portion of the stated amount for the obligation; electronically converting the request from the first communications protocol to a second communications protocol; electronically storing a representation of the bid in an auction database; using a processor coupled to the network interface and a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium.” Therefore, claims 1, 9, and 16 of Patent No. 12,062,087 is in essence a “species” of the generic invention of the instant application independent claims 1, 11, and 18. It has been held that a generic invention is “anticipated” by a “species” within the scope of the generic invention. See In re Goodman, 29 USPQ2d 2010 (Fed. Cir. 1993).
Response to Applicant’s Arguments
7. Double Patenting: Applicant respectfully traverses this rejection and further requests that the Double Patenting rejection be held in abeyance until such time as patentable subject matter has been identified by the Office (See Applicant Arguments/Remarks Page 12).
Examiner hereby maintains the Double Patenting Rejections of amended claims 1-20 because the amended claims 1-20 did not overcome the Double Patenting Rejections. See details of Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101 of claims 1-20 in the section above.
8. 35 U.S.C. §101 Rejections: Applicant’s arguments with respect to amended claims 1-20 that are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 have been considered and they are persuasive (See Applicant Arguments/Remarks Pages 12-18).
Examiner hereby withdraws the Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101 of amended claims 1-20 because the claim limitations of “electronically providing for display a graphical user interface (GUI) comprising a graphical representation of the plurality of bids and a corresponding eligibility status for acceptance of each bid of the plurality of bids based on the market discount rate and the hurdle rate; determining, via at least one processor, that at least one of the first data, the second data, or the third data has been updated; based on at least one of the first data, the second data, or the third data having been updated, determining that the corresponding eligibility status of at least one bid of the plurality of bids has changed, wherein determining the corresponding eligibility status comprises: (i) determining a statistical summary of the plurality of bids, (ii) updating the market discount rate based on the statistical summary, and (iii) iteratively repeating the determining the statistical summary and updating until occurrence of a terminating condition comprising satisfaction of an auction goal or expiration of a threshold time, wherein the determining the statistical summary and updating are performed by an integration engine coordinating data exchange among a distributed system comprising a web server, an application server, and a database server; and based on the change in the corresponding eligibility status, causing a respective graphical representation of the at least one bid to change to reflect an updated eligibility status, wherein selection of a graphical user interface element associated with the graphical representation causes the at least one bid to be accepted and the obligation to be updated based on the accepted at least one bid” integrate the abstract idea into a practical application of allowing for the electronic sending of a notification, via the network interface to a seller computer and the computer of the authorized bidder, to cause display of the seller auction interface to change by causing the generation of a first graphical user interface element corresponding to the eligible bid and that is selectable to accept the eligible bid including updating the obligation based on the bid or the discount for the obligation [See representative independent claims 1, 11, and 18]. Also, the same reasons of 35 USC § 101 apply to dependent claims (2-10), (12-17), and (19-20) for dependent from independent claims 1, 11, and 18 since they include the limitations of independent claims 1, 11, and 18.
Relevant Prior Art
9. The best prior art of record, Tulloch et al. (U.S. Pub. No. 2008/0162285), hereinafter, “Tulloch”, Podsiadlo (U.S. Patent No. 7,136,833), hereinafter, “Podsiadlo”, Orgad (U.S. Pub. No. 2008/0195525), hereinafter, “Orgad”, and Bizri (U.S. Pub. No. 2009/0043678), hereinafter, “Bizri’, alone or in combination, neither discloses nor fairly suggests the instant application amended claim limitations of "electronically providing for display a graphical user interface (GUI) comprising a graphical representation of the plurality of bids and a corresponding eligibility status for acceptance of each bid of the plurality of bids based on the market discount rate and the hurdle rate; determining, via at least one processor, that at least one of the first data, the second data, or the third data has been updated; based on at least one of the first data, the second data, or the third data having been updated, determining that the corresponding eligibility status of at least one bid of the plurality of bids has changed, wherein determining the corresponding eligibility status comprises: (i) determining a statistical summary of the plurality of bids, (ii) updating the market discount rate based on the statistical summary, and (iii) iteratively repeating the determining the statistical summary and updating until occurrence of a terminating condition comprising satisfaction of an auction goal or expiration of a threshold time, wherein the determining the statistical summary and updating are performed by an integration engine coordinating data exchange among a distributed system comprising a web server, an application server, and a database server; and based on the change in the corresponding eligibility status, causing a respective graphical representation of the at least one bid to change to reflect an updated eligibility status, wherein selection of a graphical user interface element associated with the graphical representation causes the at least one bid to be accepted and the obligation to be updated based on the accepted at least one bid."
Conclusion
10. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Liz Nguyen whose telephone number is (571) 272-5414. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday to Friday 8:00 A.M to 5:00 P.M.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Matthew Gart, can be reached on (571) 272-3955. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/LIZ P NGUYEN/
Examiner, Art Unit 3696
/MATTHEW S GART/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3696
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