DETAILED ACTION
Status of Claims
1. This office action is in response to filing dated 10/31/2024.
2. Claims 21-38 are pending.
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 .
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 21-38
Claims 21-38 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to a judicial exception (i.e., a law of nature, a natural phenomenon, or an abstract idea) without significantly more.
Step 1: Claims 21-33 are directed to a method; claims 34-38 are directed to a system which is one of the statutory categories of inventions.
Step 2A: A claim is eligible at revised Step 2A unless it recites a judicial exception and the exception is not integrated into a practical application of the application.
Prong 1: Prong One of Step 2A evaluates whether the claim recites a judicial exception (an abstract idea enumerated in the 2019 PEG, a law of nature, or a natural phenomenon).
Groupings of Abstract Ideas:
I. MATHEMATICAL CONCEPTS
A. Mathematical Relationships
B. Mathematical Formulas or Equations
C. Mathematical Calculations
II. CERTAIN METHODS OF ORGANIZING HUMAN ACTIVITY
A. Fundamental Economic Practices or Principles (including hedging, insurance, mitigating risk)
B. Commercial or Legal Interactions (including agreements in the form of contracts; legal obligations; advertising, marketing or sales activities or behaviors; business relations)
C. Managing Personal Behavior or Relationships or Interactions between People (including social activities, teaching, and following rules or instructions)
III. MENTAL PROCESSES.
Concepts performed in the human mind (including an observation, evaluation, judgment, opinion).
See MPEP 2106.04 (a) (2) Abstract Idea Groupings [R-10.2019]
Independent claims 21, 33 and 34 are recite the limitations – determining a payable amount, the payable amount being defined in a first currency; determining an indication of a selected digital currency; selecting one of the plurality of payer digital wallets based on the selected digital currency, the selected payer digital wallet being configured to store digital funds defined by the selected digital currency; receiving an indication of a payee digital wallet, the payee digital wallet configured to store funds defined by the selected digital currency; determining, based on the payable amount defined in the first currency, a converted payable amount defined in the selected digital currency; and transferring the converted payable amount from the selected payer digital wallet to the payee digital wallet – that constitutes Commercial/Legal Interactions and hence falls under the abstract idea grouping of Certain Methods of Organizing Human Activity.
The dependent claims further limit the abstract idea to – determine exchange rate between first and second currency; withdraw withdrawal amount associated with a first and second purchase order; types of withdraw trigger; types of wallet; types of currency; maintenance amount in wallets; facilitate transfer to ensure it exceeds maintenance amount; validation process; transferring funds post validation – that also constitute Certain Methods of Organizing Human Activity.
Hence under Prong One of Step 2A, claims 21-38 recite a judicial exception.
Prong 2: Prong Two of Step 2A evaluates whether the claim recites additional elements that integrate the judicial exception into a practical application of the exception.
Limitations that are indicative of integration into a practical application include:
Improvements to the functioning of a computer or to any other technology or technical field – see MPEP 2106.05(a)
Applying the judicial exception with, or by use of, a particular machine – see MPEP 2106.05(b)
Effecting a transformation or reduction of a particular article to a different state or thing – see MPEP 2106.05(c)
Applying or using the judicial exception in some other meaningful way beyond generally linking the use of the judicial exception to a particular technological environment, such that the claim as a whole is more than a drafting effort designed to monopolize the exception – see MPEP 2106.05(e)
Limitations that are not indicative of integration into a practical application include:
Adding the words “apply it” (or an equivalent) with the judicial exception, or mere instructions to implement an abstract idea on a computer, or merely uses a computer as a tool to perform an abstract idea – see MPEP 2106.05(f)
Adding insignificant extra-solution activity to the judicial exception – see MPEP 2106.05(g)
Generally linking the use of the judicial exception to a particular technological environment or field of use – see MPEP 2106.05(h)
Additional elements recited by the claims, beyond the abstract idea, include: digital currency; payer digital wallet; payee digital wallet; distributed ledger; computer program comprising machine-readable instructions; processing device; processor; cryptocurrency nodes. Examiner finds that any additional element(s), beyond the judicial exception, has been recited at a high level of generality such that the claim limitations amount to no more than mere instructions to apply the exception using generic components (see MPEP 2106.05(f)) or insignificant data gathering activities (see MPEP 2106.05(g)).
The combination of additional elements does not purport to improve the functioning of a computer or effect an improvement in any other technology or technical field. Instead, the additional elements do no more than “use the computer as a tool” and/or “link the use of the judicial exception to a particular technological environment or field of use.” The focus of the claims is not on improvement in computers, but on certain independently abstract ideas – determining a payable amount, the payable amount being defined in a first currency; determining an indication of a selected digital currency; selecting one of the plurality of payer digital wallets based on the selected digital currency, the selected payer digital wallet being configured to store digital funds defined by the selected digital currency; receiving an indication of a payee digital wallet, the payee digital wallet configured to store funds defined by the selected digital currency; determining, based on the payable amount defined in the first currency, a converted payable amount defined in the selected digital currency; and transferring the converted payable amount from the selected payer digital wallet to the payee digital wallet – that merely uses generic computers as tools. Steps that do no more than spell out what it means to “apply it on a computer” cannot confer patent eligibility. Indeed, nothing in claim 1 improves the functioning of the computer, makes it operate more efficiently, or solves any technological problem. See Trading Techs. Int’l, Inc. v. IBG LLC, 921 F.3d 1378, 1384-85 (Fed. Cir. 2019).
Hence, the additional elements, when considered individually or in combination, do not integrate the judicial exception into a practical application.
Hence, the claims are ineligible under Step 2A.
Step 2B: In Step 2B, the evaluation consists of whether the claim recites additional elements that amount to an inventive concept (aka “significantly more”) than the recited judicial exception.
As discussed in Prong Two, the additional elements in the claims amount to no more than mere instructions to apply the exception using generic components, which is insufficient to provide an inventive concept.
When considered individually or as an ordered combination, the additional elements fail to transform the abstract idea of – determining a payable amount, the payable amount being defined in a first currency; determining an indication of a selected digital currency; selecting one of the plurality of payer digital wallets based on the selected digital currency, the selected payer digital wallet being configured to store digital funds defined by the selected digital currency; receiving an indication of a payee digital wallet, the payee digital wallet configured to store funds defined by the selected digital currency; determining, based on the payable amount defined in the first currency, a converted payable amount defined in the selected digital currency; and transferring the converted payable amount from the selected payer digital wallet to the payee digital wallet – into significantly more.
See MPEP 2106.05(f) Mere Instructions To Apply An Exception [R-10.2019].
(2) Whether the claim invokes computers or other machinery merely as a tool to perform an existing process. Use of a computer or other machinery in its ordinary capacity for economic or other tasks (e.g., to receive, store, or transmit data) or simply adding a general purpose computer or computer components after the fact to an abstract idea (e.g., a fundamental economic practice or mathematical equation) does not integrate a judicial exception into a practical application or provide significantly more.
Hence, the claims are ineligible under Step 2B.
Therefore, the claim(s) are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 as being directed to a judicial exception without significantly more.
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 21-38
Claims 21-38 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Mayblum (US20220122062) in view of McCLung, III (US20160162882A1).
Claim 21:
A computer-implemented method for facilitating a transfer of funds of a selected digital currency, the funds being transferred from one of a plurality of payer digital wallets, each of the plurality of payer digital wallets configured to store funds defined by a respective different one of a plurality of digital currencies, the method comprising:
determining a payable amount, the payable amount being defined in a first currency;
(See Mayblum: Para [0018] (“the customer of the financial institution can request that an amount of fiat currency be exchanged into the financial institution's digital currency”)
determining an indication of a selected digital currency;
(See Mayblum: Para [0255] (“In some embodiments, a user of the digital wallet may request conversion of digital currency in their digital wallet into fiat currency or another digital currency.”)
selecting one of the plurality of payer digital wallets based on the selected digital currency, the selected payer digital wallet being configured to store digital funds defined by the selected digital currency;
(See Mayblum: Para [0248] (“In some embodiments, the digital wallet may hold a digital currency that is issued by a financial institution and fixed with respect to a fiat currency, e.g., United States Dollar (USD), and another digital currency that is issued by another financial institution and fixed with respect to the same fiat currency. For example, the digital wallet may include $AA100SC (i.e., digital currency issued by financial institution AA and fixed with respect to USD) and $BB100SC (i.e., digital currency issued by financial institution BB and fixed with respect to USD). The customer's digital wallet may hold multiple types of digital currencies from financial institutions that have opted into the digital wallet.”)
receiving an indication of a payee digital wallet, the payee digital wallet configured to store funds defined by the selected digital currency;
(See Mayblum: Para [0280] (“In transaction 750, a customer of the financial institution 756 requests an amount of digital currency from his digital wallet 752, e.g., $AA100SC, be transferred to the digital wallet 754 for a customer of another financial institution 758.”)
determining, based on the payable amount defined in the first currency, a converted payable amount defined in the selected digital currency; and
(See Mayblum: Para [0220] (“The bank's customer may use the digital wallet to pay for an item using the bank's digital currency. In some embodiments, the bank provides a device that can accept the bank's digital currency card and/or digital wallet and notify a server at the bank to complete the transaction.”)
transferring the converted payable amount from the selected payer digital wallet to the payee digital wallet.
(See Mayblum: Fig. 7; Para [0279] (“The transaction may be recorded on the private distributed ledger of the clearing house 708 and the digital wallets 702 and 704 may be updated and the digital currency, e.g., $AA100SC, may be transferred from the digital wallet 702 to the digital wallet 704.”)
Mayblum describes but does not specifically disclose:
selecting one of the plurality of payer digital wallets based on the selected digital currency. …;
However, McClung teaches this limitation
(See McClung: Para
[0318] (“FIG. 7 illustrates a system 700 according to the present invention useful in certain methods according to the present invention. A consumer has a consumer device CD—any suitable computer device or phone disclosed herein—with a screen SC and a plurality of electronic wallet computer applications e1-e3 installed thereon for three existing computerized eWallet accounts of the consumer with three different eWallet providers.”)
[0327] (“wherein the electronic purchase transaction is conducted using a digital wallet and/or the transaction is conducted using multiple eWallets and then one eWallet chosen from a plurality of possible eWallets usable for the transaction”)
[0450] (“Particular individual elements, items, devices, tokens, warehouse, web pages, network, service, identifiers, reports and platforms are, e.g., as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 8,788,33. FIG. 17 shows steps in a method according to the present invention in which, in the step labeled SELECT E-WALLET multiple possible eWallets are presented to a consumer along with any bids or offers from each eWallet. The consumer then proceeds with eWallet selection—which may be any eWallet selection method according to the present invention—and/or in the SELECT EWALLET step multiple virtual currency (e.g. digital money) providers) make bid(s) and/or (offers(s) and the consumer proceeds with any method according to the present invention for selecting a virtual money provider to finalize the transaction.”)
[0451] (“The flow chart 600 of FIG. 17 begins in block 602 at START and then in step 616 one of a plurality of possible entities—eWallet and/or virtual currency provider—is chosen.”)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the above noted disclosure of Mayblum as it relates to facilitating transactions using digital currency to include the above noted disclosure of McClung as it relates to digital money and wallet selection. The motivation for combining the references would have been for fiat and crypto providers bid for a consumer to choose a particular entity.
Claims 33, 34 are similar to claim 21 and hence rejected on similar grounds.
Claim 22:
wherein determining a converted payable amount defined in the selected digital currency comprises determining an exchange rate between the first currency and the selected digital currency.
(See Mayblum: Para [0261])
Claim 23:
transmitting a first purchase order for the converted payable amount to a digital currency exchange;
(See Mayblum: Para [0366] (“According to some embodiments, a user may make a purchase using a buy now pay later (BNPL) option (e.g., Affirm). For example, the institution's customer (e.g., corporation, individual, etc.) may make a purchase by using their credit account to pay for an item or service at a merchant (e.g., store) using a bank's digital currency, such that the customer is borrowing an amount of money equivalent to the value of the full purchase from the issuing financial institution.”)
transferring a second amount from the selected payer digital wallet to a second payee digital wallet;
(See McClung: Para [0143] (“communicates with the funding source (e.g entity that provides and/or administrates a checking account, savings account, credit card account, electronic wallet); effects the transfer of the amount”)
transmitting a second purchase order for the second amount to the digital currency exchange; and
(See McClung: Para [0240] (“second purchase”)
in response to a withdraw trigger, withdraw a withdrawal amount from the digital currency exchange to the selected payer digital wallet, the withdrawal amount being associated with the first purchase order and the second purchase order.
(See Mayblum: Para
[0326] (“When a customer invests by purchasing stock, digital currency is transferred from the digital wallet of the customer to the digital wallet of the brokerage and/or public market.”);
[0366] (“For example, each of the installments may be of a value a fraction of the value of the purchase. In some examples, the installments may be automatically withdrawn from the customer's account after a period of time has passed (e.g., such that installments are paid monthly).”)
Claim 24:
wherein the withdraw trigger comprises any one or a combination of:
a time of the day;
a number of payments made from the payer digital wallet;
a total amount of transfers from the payer digital wallet;
a balance associated with the payer digital wallet;
a cost associated with withdrawing the withdrawal amount from the digital currency exchange; and/or
an indication that a balance of digital funds stored by the digital wallet is less than a minimum balance of digital funds.
(See Mayblum: Para [0366] (“For example, each of the installments may be of a value a fraction of the value of the purchase. In some examples, the installments may be automatically withdrawn from the customer's account after a period of time has passed (e.g., such that installments are paid monthly).”)
Claim 25:
wherein the payee digital wallet is the same as the second payee digital wallet.
(See McClung: Para [0375], [0376])
Claim 26:
wherein the selected digital currency comprises a cryptocurrency.
(See Mayblum: Para [0244])
Claim 27:
wherein the first currency is a fiat currency.
(See Mayblum: Para [0204])
Claim 28:
wherein the transfer of the converted payable amount from the selected payer digital wallet to the payee digital wallet is recorded in a distributed ledger.
(See Mayblum: Para [0204])
Claim 29:
wherein each of the plurality of payer digital wallets is associated with a respective maintenance amount of digital funds in the digital currency associated with the respective payer digital wallet.
(See McClung: Para [0450])
Claim 30:
in response to transferring the converted payable amount from the selected payer digital wallet to the payee digital wallet, facilitate a transfer of funds to the selected payer digital wallet to ensure an amount of funds stored by the selected payer digital wallet is equal to, or exceeds, the maintenance amount associated with the selected payer digital wallet.
(See Mayblum: Para [0095] (“in order to complete the received request for currency exchange, the financial institution transfers out a corresponding amount of the first fiat currency from a first omnibus account for the first fiat currency and transfers in a corresponding equivalent amount of the second fiat currency to a second omnibus account for the second fiat currency.”)
Claim 31:
further comprising a validation process, the validation process comprising:
receiving a payment request;
performing a validation process; and
in response to performing the validation process, providing an indication of validation to the processor.
(See Mayblum: Para [0009])
Claim 32:
further comprising, in response to receiving an indication of validation from the validation component, transferring the converted payable amount from the selected digital wallet to the payee digital wallet.
(See Mayblum: Fig. 7)
Claim 35:
an interface to a digital currency exchange;
the processor further configured to:
transmit a first purchase order for the converted payable amount to the digital currency exchange via the interface;
(See Mayblum: Para [0370])
transfer a second amount from the payer digital wallet to a second payee digital wallet;
transmit a second purchase order for the second amount to the digital currency exchange via the interface; and
(See McClung: Para [0143])
in response to a withdraw trigger, withdraw a withdrawal amount from the digital currency exchange to the payer digital wallet, the withdrawal amount being associated with the first purchase order and the second purchase order.
(See Mayblum: Para [0326], [0366])
Claim 36:
generate the withdraw trigger.
(See Mayblum: Para [0154])
Claim 37:
wherein the selected digital currency comprises a cryptocurrency.
(See Mayblum: Para [0244])
Claim 38:
further comprising a plurality of cryptocurrency nodes, each of the plurality of cryptocurrency nodes associated with a respective one of the plurality of payer digital wallets.
(See Mayblum: Para [0110])
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ARUNAVA CHAKRAVARTI whose telephone number is (571)270-1646. The examiner can normally be reached 9 AM - 5 PM ET.
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/ARUNAVA CHAKRAVARTI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3692