DETAILED ACTION
This Action is in consideration of the Applicant’s response on January 26, 2026. Claims 2, 5, 10, 12, 13, 15, 18, and 20 are amended by the Applicant. Claims 2 – 21, where Claims 2 and 12 are in independent form, are presented for examination.
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’s arguments filed January 26, 2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. Applicant argued:
a) Regarding Claims 2 and 12, Nemethi does not disclose or suggest of initiating a token-based action when the sending address is determined to belong to an autonomous program and the autonomous program is determined to currently be an owner of at least one access right associated with the cryptographic token.
The Office respectfully disagrees with Applicant’s assertions.
1. With regards to a), the Applicant opines that the cited portions of Nemethi merely disclose of the token listing phase with the requirements for the transfer of the token [See Remarks, Pg. 2-3]. However, the cited portions of Nemethi also disclose of executing a token transfer between blockchain addresses.
Foremost, nothing within the claims recites how it is determined that the sending address belongs to an autonomous program or that the autonomous program is currently the owner of at least one access right associated with the cryptographic token. The conditions are in the past tense with no indication of how these determinations are made. Given the broadest reasonable interpretation, any association or condition with an autonomous program is sufficient to read on the claimed limitation.
Nemethi discloses that for any decentralized exchange smart contracts that interact with the verified wrapper smart contract may be required to have DAO NFT and are part of the gating requirements of the verified wrapper smart contract [Para. 0108]. In the exchange of the token, the blockchain address B initiates the exchange, where the verified wrapper smart contract checks the validity status for DAO NFTs for the blockchain address B [Fig. 5; Para. 0107]. Therefore, the decentralized exchange smart contracts may have DAO NFTs that are validated and used to verify gating requirements.
The Applicant also recites the intentions of the invention by preventing transfer of a token once it becomes “soulbound” to a person [Remaks, Pg. 3]. However, none of the intentions are expressly recited in the claims.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 2 – 4, 6 – 14, and 16 – 21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by PGPub. 2024/0354758 (hereinafter “Nemethi”).
2. Regarding Claims 2 and 12, Nemethi discloses a non-transitory machine-readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed, are configured to cause a processor to perform a process for maintaining a sticky token [Fig. 5, 6, and 8; Para. 0162-164], the process comprising:
receiving a message from a sending address [Figs. 2, 5, and 6; request to transfer], wherein the message comprises:
a reference to a function call to execute a token-based action [Figs. 5 and 6; Para. 0106-123; request to transfer]; and
a token identifier corresponding to a cryptographic token associated with the token-based action [Figs. 5 and 6; Para. 0106-123];
determining, based on the sending address, transferability of the cryptographic token, wherein, when the sending address determined to belong to a human-owned account, the cryptographic token is determined to have a classification binding the cryptographic token to the human-owned account [Figs. 5 and 6; Para. 0106-123; wrapped tokens can be soulbound NFT]; and
initiating the token-based action, using the token identifier [Figs. 5 and 6; Para. 0106-123; request to transfer], when:
the sending address is determined to belong to an autonomous program [Fig. 5; Para. 0107-108; decentralized exchange smart contracts initiating token transfer with gating requirements]; and
the autonomous program is determined to currently be an owner of at least one access right associated with the cryptographic token [Fig. 5; Para. 0107-108; decentralized exchange smart contracts initiating token transfer with gating requirements].
3. Regarding Claims 3 and 13, Nemethi discloses the limitations of Claims 2 and 12. Nemethi further discloses that the token-based action is a transfer of the at least one access right, from the autonomous program to a recipient address [Figs. 5 and 6; Para. 0106-123]; and
when the sending address belongs to the human-owned account, the sending address is blocked from possessing a right to perform the transfer [Figs. 5 and 6; Para. 0106-123; wrapped tokens can be soulbound NFT].
4. Regarding Claims 4 and 14, Nemethi discloses the limitations of Claims 3 and 13. Nemethi further discloses that when the recipient address attempts to initiate the token-based action, the transferability of the cryptographic token is redetermined [Figs. 5 and 6; Para. 0106-123].
5. Regarding Claims 6 and 16, Nemethi discloses the limitations of Claims 3 and 13. Nemethi further discloses that the transfer is recorded on an immutable ledger [Figs. 5 and 6; Para. 0098];
the autonomous program is a smart contract [Para. 0099]; and the cryptographic token is a non-fungible token (NFT) [Para. 0099].
6. Regarding Claims 7 and 17, Nemethi discloses the limitations of Claims 3 and 13. Nemethi further discloses that the sending address is blocked from possessing an access right to perform the transfer [Figs. 5 and 6; Para. 0106-123; requirements are not met; wrapped tokens can be soulbound NFT].
7. Regarding Claims 8 and 18, Nemethi discloses the limitations of Claims 2 and 12. Nemethi further discloses that the at least one access right excludes an ownership access right [Figs. 5 and 6; Para. 0106-123]; and the sending address belongs to the human-owned account [Figs. 5 and 6; Para. 0106-123].
8. Regarding Claims 9 and 19, Nemethi discloses the limitations of Claims 8 and 18. Nemethi further discloses that the token-based action is allowed [Figs. 5 and 6; Para. 0106-123]; and the ownership access right remains with the human-owned account [Figs. 5 and 6; Para. 0106-123].
9. Regarding Claims 10 and 20, Nemethi discloses the limitations of Claims 2 and 12. Nemethi further discloses of determining the transferability of the cryptographic token comprises determining that the sending address belongs to the human-owned account; and the method further comprises receiving a conversion request, to modify the classification of the cryptographic token, from the human-owned account.
10. Regarding Claims 11 and 21, Nemethi discloses the limitations of Claims 10 and 20. Nemethi further discloses 1that a response to the conversion request is determined based on a vote implemented through a distributed autonomous organization (DAO) [Para. 0042, 0153-154].
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5 and 15 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. 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.
Contacts
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to TAE K KIM whose telephone number is (571)270-1979. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:30-5:30.
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/TAE K KIM/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2496
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