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 Application
This is a second non-final rejection in response to claim amendments and Remarks submitted on January 20, 2026 relating to U.S. Patent Application No. 18/786,559, filed on July 28, 2024 which claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application No.63/529,647, filed on July 28, 2023. Claims 1-2 and 4 have been amended. Claims 1-4 are pending and have been examined.
Response to Arguments
The Remarks submitted by Applicant on January 20, 2026 have been fully considered, however, are not persuasive.
With respect to the Section 101 rejection, Applicant has amended the claims and asserts that the steps are tied to hardware operation and, referencing prior patents relating to creating, transferring and managing non-fungible token-based digital assets, asserts that the current application is replete with practical application. (Remarks, p. 5). Examiner respectfully disagrees. The claims recite an abstract idea and do not integrate the abstract idea into a practical application or add significantly more to the abstract idea. (See Section 101 rejection below). The Section 101 rejection is maintained.
With respect to the Section 103 rejection, Applicant asserts that cited references do not disclose the elements of the claims insofar as they do not include a reference to the concept of “vesting.” (Remarks, p, 5). Examiner respectfully disagrees. The Specification, Paragraph 6, discloses “Vested tokens are created when a certain amount of energy has been sold which now has an underlying security such as a currency or other secured asset beyond the energy produced.” The cited references, particularly Hammock, disclose this concept. (See the Section 103 rejection below). The Section 103 rejection is maintained.
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 1-4 are rejected pursuant to 35 USC § 101 because the claimed invention is directed to an abstract idea without significantly more.
Step 1 - Statutory Class
Claims 1-4 are directed to a method. Therefore, on its face, each of the Claims 1-4 is directed to a statutory class of invention.
Step 2A, Prong 1 – Abstract Idea
Claim 1 recites generating dual class energy credits based on the significant net positive production of green energy; producing Y energy credits for a sponsor for every X amount of green energy sold to the grid; spending the energy credits as currency, wherein tokens are characterized as vested tokens, created when a certain amount of energy has been sold that now has an underlying security such as a currency or other secured asset beyond the energy produced, and unvested tokens. The abstract idea recited in Claim 1 involves generating dual class energy credits based on net positive production of green energy sold and spending the energy credits as currency which amounts to commercial interactions falling under Certain Methods of Organizing Human Activity enumerated in MPEP 2106.04(a).
Step 2A, Prong 2 – Practical Application
Claim 1 recites digital commodity tokens, a computer system, crypto currency, vested tokens and unvested tokens. The additional elements are recited at a high level of generality and are used as tools to implement the abstract idea. They do not provide a technical improvement such as an improvement to the functioning of a computer or to technology. They do not integrate the abstract idea into a practical application. The claims do not invoke a particular machine as our guidance is clear that a generic computer is not the particular machine envisioned, they do not transform matter as they only manipulate data which is not matter.
Step 2B – Significantly more
As set forth in the discussion in Step 2A, Prong 2, above, the additional elements are recited at a high level of generality and are used as tools to implement the abstract idea. They do not integrate the abstract idea into a practical application or add significantly more to the abstract idea.
Dependent claims
Claim 2 (creating within the computer system a non-fungible token (NFT) such as an Energy Reserve Credit (ERC); authorizing via the computer system the sale of ERC tokens only when there is a specific minimum market value on the currency or other specific criteria and context that is tradeable itself so that one is incentivize to reinvest resources into green energy), Claim 3 (specifying for the energy credit a specified minimum value) and Claim 4 (putting up and maintaining within the computer system a certain amount of green energy capacity in exchange for the bulk of the energy credits produced), contain additional elements (underlined above) that are recited at a high level of generality and used as tools to implement the abstract idea and/or further define and merely add specificity to the abstract idea. Thus, the dependent claims also fail to add significantly more to the abstract idea.
As such, Claims 1- 4 are not patent eligible.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112(b)
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
Claims 1-4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor regards as the invention.
Claim 1 recites in pertinent part, an enabling limitation containing the phrase “such as a currency or other secured asset beyond the energy produced”. The scope of “other secured asset” is indefinite. The Specification does not provide support with respect to the scope of this phrase. It is unclear what the metes and bounds of “other secured asset” are besides currency. In addition, it is difficult to determine the scope of the entire phrase “created when a certain amount of energy has been sold that now has an underlying security such as a currency or other secured asset beyond the energy produced”. The definite metes and bounds of this phrase cannot be determined. The aforementioned renders Claim 1 indefinite. Therefore, Claim 1 and dependent Claims 2-4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b). (See MPEP 2173.05(d)).
In addition, Claim 2 recites in pertinent part, “a non-fungible token (NFT) such as an Energy Reserve Credit (ERC)”. An ERC is merely an example of the NFT created per the claim language. It is unclear what the metes and bounds of the NFT created are where an ERC is merely an example. The metes and bounds of the NFT created cannot be ascertained with any certainty. This phrase renders Claim 2 indefinite and it is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b). (See MPEP 2173.05(d)).
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 1-4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kudo et al., US 2022/01228164A1, (“Kudo”), in view of Hammock et al., US 2023/0385824 A1, (“Hammock”).
Claim 1:
Kudo teaches:
A method for creating and using digital commodity tokens, comprising:
producing within the computer system Y energy credits for a sponsor for every X amount of green energy sold to the grid; (See Kudo, Par. 10 (In the configuration, the "mobile object" may be a vehicle such as an electrically driven vehicle, such as an electric vehicle or a hybrid electric vehicle, or any other mobile object, on which an externally chargeable and dischargeable storage battery is mounted. The "electricity transaction market" here may be a market on which a mobile object can conduct a transaction of selling and buying electricity by placing a bid or an offer, and may include, as described above, a general transaction market on which a contract is executed for electricity that is supplied from an electricity seller to a buyer through an electric power line of the grid-electricity network, and a direct transaction market on which a contract is executed for a case where one of parties of an electricity transaction moves a mobile object such as an electrically driven vehicle to a place of the other party and electricity transmission is directly performed between the parties.), Par. 33 (As schematically shown in Fig. 1, in an electricity transmission and distribution system 1, as distributed power supplies have become widely available owing to the liberalization of electricity and technologies for generating electricity from renewable energy, introduction of P2P electricity selling and buying transactions, that is, introduction of transactions of selling and buying electricity between individuals has been considered and, technically, is becoming feasible, although, previously, electricity was supplied exclusively from a power plant managed by an electric power company through a power grid PL (grid-electricity network) laid up to various facilities and buildings that consume or use electricity.))
Kudo does not expressly disclose, however, Hammock teaches:
generating within a computer system dual class energy credits based on the significant net positive production of green energy; (See Hammock, Par. 41 (Fig. 2 shows an embodiment of a blockchain distributed network 60 comprising the blockchain system of Fig. 1, wherein the blockchain system creates one REC for each MWh of generated power transmitted by the energy storage systems 31, makes such RECs and, optionally, associated NFTs available for purchase to REC/NFT purchasers 80 and effects a transfer 70 of each such REC to such purchasers, thereby creating fiat-to-token transaction data 90, which data is stored in the redundant ledger on the processors 32.))
enabling through the computer system the spending of the energy credits as crypto currency, wherein the tokens are characterized as vested tokens, created when a certain amount of energy has been sold that now has an underlying security such as a currency or other secured asset beyond the energy produced, and unvested tokens. (See Hammock, Par. 15 (In another preferred embodiment, the energy-to-token redistribution system described herein, wherein REC valuations from power generation and sales are bundled into transactable RECs and then converted to NFTs at a predesignated monetary valuation and recorded in the redundant ledger, such NFTs thereby becoming available for open market purchase through the blockchain system, with the blockchain system effecting purchase agreements wherein a purchaser may buy one or more such NFTs for stablecoins of equivalent value.))
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine with the teachings of Kudo discussed above, a step for spending energy credits as crypto currency wherein tokens are vested, having an underlying security beyond the asset produced, as taught by Hammock. Kudo teaches a system for transactions of buying and selling electricity on a market. It would be obvious for Kudo as part of his system to include a step for spending energy credits as crypto currency wherein tokens are vested, having an underlying security beyond the asset produced, so as to enable energy credit trading via cryptocurrency transactions. Since the claimed invention is merely a combination of old elements, Kudo’s system for transactions of buying and selling electricity on a market and Hammock’s step for spending energy credits as crypto currency wherein tokens are vested, having an underlying security beyond the asset produced, and in the combination each element would have performed the same function it performed separately, one having ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Claim 2:
Kudo and Hammock teach each and every element of Claim 1 above.
Kudo does not expressly disclose, however, Hammock teaches:
creating within the computer system a non-fungible token (NFT) such as an Energy Reserve Credit (ERC); (See Hammock, Claim 6 (The energy-to-token redistribution system of claim 5, wherein REC valuations from power generation and sales are bundled into transactable RECs and then converted to NFTs at a predesignated monetary valuation and recorded in the redundant ledger, such NFTs thereby becoming available for open-market purchase through the blockchain system, with the blockchain system effecting purchase agreements wherein a purchaser may buy one or more such NFTs for stablecoins of equivalent value.)(Renewable energy credits RECs read on energy reserve credits ERCs.))
authorizing via the computer system the sale of ERC tokens only when there is a specific minimum market value on the currency or other specific criteria and context that is tradeable itself so that one is incentivize to reinvest resources into green energy. (See Hammock, Par. 15 (In another preferred embodiment, the energy-to-token redistribution system described herein, wherein REC valuations from power generation and sales are bundled into transactable RECs and then converted to NFTs at a predesignated monetary valuation and recorded in the redundant ledger, such NFTs thereby becoming available for open market purchase through the blockchain system, with the blockchain system effecting purchase agreements wherein a purchaser may buy one or more such NFTs for stablecoins of equivalent value.))
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine with the teachings of Kudo discussed above, a step for creating a non-fungible token and authorizing the sale of the token when there is a specific minimum market value on the currency, as taught by Hammock. Kudo teaches a system for transactions of buying and selling electricity on a market. It would be obvious for Kudo as part of his system to include a step for step for creating a non-fungible token and authorizing the sale of the token when there is a specific minimum market value on the currency, so as to enable energy credit trading via cryptocurrency transactions. Since the claimed invention is merely a combination of old elements, Kudo’s system for transactions of buying and selling electricity on a market and Hammock’s step for step for creating a non-fungible token and authorizing the sale of the token when there is a specific minimum market value on the currency, and in the combination each element would have performed the same function it performed separately, one having ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Claim 3:
Kudo and Hammock teach each and every element of Claim 1 above.
Kudo further teaches:
specifying for the energy credit a specified minimum value. (See Kudo, Par. 11 (In the configuration of the apparatus, the "charge discharge optimization section", as described above, detects an optimal condition that maximizes a profit or minimizes a loss (cost) in terms of the index value, which represents a profit gained or a loss incurred by the mobile object from selling or buying of the amount of electricity on an electricity transaction market, within ranges of dischargeable and chargeable amounts of electricity of the storage battery of the mobile object over at least one unit time period, based on the "information on the sell and buy prices for the amount of electricity". Here, the "ranges of dischargeable and chargeable amounts of electricity of the storage battery of the mobile object" is a dischargeable amount of electricity and a chargeable amount of electricity depending on a capacity and an amount of stored electricity of the storage battery of the mobile object. In other words, the range of the dischargeable amount of electricity is amounts of electricity ranging from an amount of electricity stored in the storage battery to a lower limit of State Of Charge (SOC), and the range of the chargeable amount of electricity is amounts of electricity ranging from an amount of electricity stored in the storage battery to an upper limit of SOC. The ranges of the dischargeable and chargeable amounts of electricity may be determined, with an amount of electricity required for use, such as movement of the mobile object, taken into consideration. "A profit gained or a loss incurred from selling or buying of the amount of electricity" is a profit gained or a loss incurred from an electricity transaction and, more specifically, may be a profit or a loss that is a quantity obtained by multiplying a sell or buy amount of electricity by a sell or buy price. On the condition that one electricity transaction market is selected at a time, the charge-discharge optimization section searches for an optimal condition that maximizes a profit (or minimizes a loss) over at least one
time period, by calculating "a profit gained or a loss incurred from selling or buying of the amount of electricity" while variously changing an amount of electricity to be sold or bought at each of the acquired sell and buy prices in each
unit time period on each electricity transaction market, and thus determines an electricity transaction market, a sell or buy price, and an amount of electricity to be discharged from or charged into the storage battery of the mobile object in
each time period in the optimal condition.))
Claim 4:
Kudo and Hammock teach each and every element of Claim 1 above.
Kudo further teaches:
putting up and maintaining within the computer system a certain amount of green energy capacity in exchange for the bulk of the energy credits produced. (See Kudo, Par. 52 (When it is detected that the transaction of selling electricity proposed by the electricity demander gives an optimal condition, it is checked whether another already contracted transaction is not affected by the selling of electricity proposed by the electricity demander (step 5). Here, specifically, it is checked whether or not a room for electricity to be received under the other contract is secured in the capacity of the storage battery, or the like, even if electricity is received by accepting the selling of electricity proposed by the electricity demander. Here, when it is confirmed that the other already contracted transaction is not affected, it is next checked whether or not there is any other uncontracted bid or offer that can be affected if the transaction of selling electricity proposed by the electricity demander is contracted (any bid or offer that can suffer an effect, such inability of receiving electricity, due to insufficiency of the capacity of the storage battery if electricity is received by accepting the selling of electricity proposed by the electricity demander) (step 6).))
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to GEORGE PROIOS whose telephone number is (571)272-4573. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8-5.
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/GEORGE N. PROIOS/Examiner, Art Unit 3694
/BENNETT M SIGMOND/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3694