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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on was filed after the mailing date 01/25/2025 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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 1-26 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to an abstract idea without significantly more.
In the instant case, claim 1 is directed to a method for facilitating electronic trading. claim 11 is directed to a machine readable medium, and claim 15 is directed to an apparatus.
Claim 1 is directed to the abstract idea of “decentralized trading” which can be grouped under certain methods of organizing human activity used to describe concepts relating to fundamental economic principles and practices (e.g., economic systems wherein market based orders are held to be superior to centralized systems1) and/or managing transactions between people, such as creating a contractual relationships, satisfying or avoiding legal obligation and sales activities.
Claim 1 recites, “… receiving…trading commands for an order…; communicating the trading commands for the order…; executing the order…integrating liquidity…;…implementing a solvency check, using a safe margin lending service for margin lending, to determine whether another order of a maximum size does not impact solvency of margin accounts based on liquidity available …, wherein, upon the solvency check determining that the other order of the maximum size does impact the solvency of the margin accounts, preemptively liquidating all margin accounts impacted; wherein the solvency check involves, by the safe margin lending service, determining a least collateralized position (LCP) and executing the solvency check against only the LCP; wherein the solvency check involves, by the safe margin lending service, querying the automated market maker for deterministic pricing data corresponding to a value for one or more assets relating to the order; and updating … with status information for the order …”
Accordingly, the claim recites an abstract idea (See 2019 Revised Patent Subject Matter Eligibility Guidance).
This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application because, when analyzed under prong two of step 2A (See 2019 Revised Patent Subject Matter Eligibility Guidance), the additional elements of the claim such as “at least one processor”, “memory”, represent the use of a computer as a tool to perform an abstract idea and/or does no more than generally link the abstract idea to a particular field of use. Therefore, the additional elements do not integrate the abstract idea into a practical application as they do no more than represent a computer performing functions that correspond to decentralized trading.
When analyzed under step 2B (See 2019 Revised Patent Subject Matter Eligibility Guidance), the claim does not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception itself. Viewed as a whole, the combination of elements recited in the claims merely describe the concept of decentralized trading using computer technology (e.g. processor, memory, computing device, electronic trading system). Therefore, the use of these additional elements does no more than employ a computer as a tool to automate and/or implement the abstract idea, which cannot provide significantly more than the abstract idea itself (MPEP 2106.05(I)(A)(f) & (h)).
Hence, claims 1, 9, 15 and 20 are not patent eligible.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
[1] Heyek, F., “The Road to Serfdom” (1944)
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DANIEL S FELTEN whose telephone number is (571)272-6742. The examiner can normally be reached Flex.
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DANIEL S. FELTEN
Examiner
Art Unit 3692
/DANIEL S FELTEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3692