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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 8/101/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
The 35 USC 101 rejection has been withdrawn in light of the claims as amended and as currently
presented.
Regarding the Arguments.
Arora does not disclose this sequence. Arora generally uses the user's mobile device as the vending interface. Arora explains that its mobile device operates as a virtual "front panel" through which product selection, payment, and vending may occur without physically interacting with the vending machine. Consistent with that architecture, Arora describes product selection through the application rather than through the vending-machine controls, followed by transmission of a dispense command to the vending machine. Arora therefore does not disclose an authorization grant passed to the selected payment accepting unit that causes machine-side credit to be displayed and thereby enables subsequent selection of a product or service at the payment accepting unit, as now required by claim 1. Because this limitation is not disclosed by Arora, claim 1 is not anticipated.
In response, the rejection of claim 1 (as now amended) and claims 11 and 16 as currently presented is found below.
It is noted that Aurora teaches or discloses the invention of claims 1, 11 and 16 as found below.
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)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1, 11 and 16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Arora et al. (U.S. Patent No. 9,898,884 to Arora (Exh. 1004)).
As per claims 1, 11 and 16, Arora discloses a computerized system and method for facilitating a user with a mobile device to make purchases at a vending machine or payment accepting unit. See the abstract of Arora. Accordingly, Arora teaches or discloses all the claimed limitations. Particularly, Arora teaches or discloses the system comprises a mobile device inherently one or more radio transceivers, one or more output device including a display, one or more processors, and memory storing one or more programs to be executed by the one or more processors. See figure 2 of Arora et al. Accordingly, Arora et al teach or disclose:
A method of executing payment accepting unit events, comprising:
at a mobile device with one or more processors, memory, one or more output devices including a display (as most mobile devices and/or computing device comprise a processor, memory, a display or sound device being output devices), and one or more radio transceivers (for the sending or receiving of signals or data. The use of NFC, Bluetooth and GSM may be applied for communication purposes (see column 13, lines 14-46 of Arora));
identifying one or more payment accepting units that are available to accept payment from a mobile payment application executing on the mobile device (column 12, lines 18-23 and column 15, lines 2-9 of Arora) the identifying based at least in part on an identifier or location corresponding to the one or more payment accepting units, wherein the one or more payment accepting units are payment operated machines that accept payment for dispensing of products and/or services (see column 5, lines 13-23 of Arora), and (as Arora teaches running an application software on the mobile device or user device) (column 4, lines 15-17 and column 4, lines 40-60) and states:
“In a simple example, a customer walks near a machine. The app, knowing the location of the customer, the machine and its current inventory, the customer's preferences and purchasing history, including products and typical purchase times, buzzes the phone in the customer's pocket. The customer removes the phone and sees a display of both the machine and a selection of her favorite products. “Dispense Sugar-Os,” she says to her phone. Under control of the app, the vending machine dispenses a package of Sugar-O's with no further actions by the customer. The application manages or communicates payment, participation in a loyalty program, customer health information, and vending inventory. In an alternative simple scenario, the customer simply touches a single icon representing a “Magic Almonds” consumer packaged good (CPG) and a bottle of spring water on her phone, and the vending machine next to her immediately dispenses the Magic almonds product while the vending machine next to the first machine simultaneously dispenses a bottle of water, where the specific brand of the bottle of water was selected by the vending company”);
Accordingly, the buzzing on the user phone and the provision of the vending information are provided through a wireless message broadcast by the vending machine. The above protocols utilize preconfigured messages such as handshakes and acknowledgements.
Arora et al further teach:
displaying a user interface of the mobile payment application on the display of the mobile
device, the user interface being configured to (column 4, lines 40-51 and column 19, lines 14-18 of Arora) display a visual indication of the one or more payment accepting units and accept user input to (i) receive selection by a user of the mobile device of an available payment unit of the one or more payment accepting units and (ii) trigger payment o the mobile payment application for a transaction initiated by a user of the mobile device with an available payment accepting unit of the one or more payment accepting units (column 14, lines 9-16 of Arora);
establishing via the one or more radio transceivers a wireless connection involving the mobile device and the available payment accepting unit of the one or more payment accepting units (column 13, lines 14-46 and column 17, lines 35-55 of Arora);
after establishing the wireless connection, completing the transaction by causing an authorizing grant to pass to the available payment accepting unit, wherein the authorization grant causes a credit to be displayed at the available payment accepting unit enabling user selection of a product or service provided by the available payment accepting unit (see column 4, lines 40-59 and column 21, lines 11-21 of Arora).
Claims 2-10, 12-15 and 17-20 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.
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.
Conclusion
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/fp/
/FRANTZY POINVIL/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3693
August 19, 2026
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