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 .
DETAILED ACTION
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.
Claim(s) 1-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to an abstract idea without significantly more. The claim(s) recite(s):
1. A blockchain-based payment control method, comprising:
determining a securities account available for payment based on a binding request for a securities account initiated by a requester;
transmitting the securities account available for payment to the requester to receive securities account selection information fed back by the requester for the securities account available for payment, to obtain a to-be-bound securities account;
establishing a payment link with the to-be-bound securities account, the payment link being used to invoke the securities account to use fund in the securities account;
verifying a payment request for a securities account initiated by the requester, wherein the payment request comprises a payment amount and a payee;
in response to the payment request passing the verification, performing fund deduction on the securities account based on the payment amount through the payment link, deducting a quota corresponding to the payment amount from a payment quota corresponding to the requester, and instructing an auxiliary payment platform to transfer the payment amount to the payee;
transferring finds corresponding to the payment quota to the auxiliary payment platform to generate a transaction result; and
verifying the transaction result through a smart contract and uploading data generated during the payment to a blockchain in response to the transaction result passing the verification.
The underlined elements represent certain methods of organizing human activity, commercial interactions, sales activities. Claims 7 and 13 are similar.
This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application because the claims include generically recited additional elements for applying the abstract idea by computer (adding the words "Apply it", or the like), including a smart contract, blockchain, auxiliary payment platform, electronic device, including processors, programs, a terminal and storage devices.
The claim(s) does/do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception because the claims merely comprise the abstract idea and elements amounting to adding the words "Apply it".
Claims 2-6, 8-12 and 14 merely narrow the abstract idea with additional administrative limitations.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
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 1-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
The claims recite deducting a quota corresponding to a payment amount from a payment quota corresponding to the requester. The Office interprets a quota as a limit on the spending amount (0053 of the spec). It is unclear to what a quota corresponding to a payment amount refers.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(d):
(d) REFERENCE IN DEPENDENT FORMS.—Subject to subsection (e), a claim in dependent form shall contain a reference to a claim previously set forth and then specify a further limitation of the subject matter claimed. A claim in dependent form shall be construed to incorporate by reference all the limitations of the claim to which it refers.
Claims 11 and 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(d) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, 4th paragraph, as being of improper dependent form for failing to further limit the subject matter of the claim upon which it depends, or for failing to include all the limitations of the claim upon which it depends. the claims refer to the method of claim 7 but depend from an electronic device. Applicant may cancel the claim(s), amend the claim(s) to place the claim(s) in proper dependent form, rewrite the claim(s) in independent form, or present a sufficient showing that the dependent claim(s) complies with the statutory requirements.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
(a) A patent may not be obtained though the invention is not identically disclosed or described as set forth in section 102 of this title, if the differences between the subject matter sought to be patented and the prior art are such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains. Patentability shall not be negatived by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claim(s) 1, 2, 7, 8 and 13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Brown (US 20140067565 A1) and further in view of Guo (US 20210049596 A1).
Brown discloses:
1. A [blockchain-based payment control] method, comprising:
determining a securities account available for payment based on a binding request for a securities account initiated by a requester; transmitting the securities account available for payment to the requester to receive securities account selection information fed back by the requester for the securities account available for payment, to obtain a to-be-bound securities account (([0037] As those skilled in the art would recognize, alternatively, the owner 50 may be able to start, manage, and issue cards without assistance of a broker, agent, or financial advisor directly from the 529 institution 100 using an online or paper-mailed account setup and management system.) (0053] With reference to FIG. 5, a flow chart illustrates steps performed by the system for initially setting up and issuing a card 104 for an exemplary 529 plan for a 529 institution 100. (0054] With reference back to FIG. 5, in step 502, the owner may next be provided with a selection screen of accounts/ beneficiaries. With reference to FIG. 7, an exemplary accounts/beneficiaries selection screen 700 is shown.);
establishing a payment link with the to-be-bound securities account, the payment link being used to invoke the securities account to use fund in the securities account ([0034] In one embodiment, when a beneficiary for the 529 account 190 is ready to begin his or her higher education, a credit or debit card 104 may be provided to the owner 50, and the beneficiary if the owner desires. (0035] In one embodiment, the issued card 104 may be directly linked to the cash portion 192 of a 529 account 190, as each account may have a cash or cash equivalent portion 192 (herein called cash portion 192) and a securities portion 194.);
verifying a payment request for a securities account initiated by the requester, wherein the payment request comprises a payment amount and a payee (0040, Registered merchants 150, having completed the qualification process, may then pass the subtotal of only qualified items to the credit card machine 106, which then may process the transaction using the card 104. When the transaction arrives at the 529 institution 100, the 529 institution 100 may read the merchant code and recognize it as identifying a registered merchant 150 within the local 529 institution database 114 and proceed with the next step of the transaction as described below.);
in response to the payment request passing the verification, performing fund deduction on the securities account based on the payment amount through the payment link, deducting a quota corresponding to the payment amount from a payment quota corresponding to the requester, and instructing an auxiliary payment platform to transfer the payment amount to the payee ((0050] By way of example, and not by way of limitation, the owner 50 may select the percentage of each type of fund 302, 304,306 within the account 190 for which a trade may be automatically trigged upon a qualified purchase. For example, when the card holder 102 swipes the card 104 to complete a purchase, then the pre-defined allocation by the owner 50 is applied. Payment to merchant per Fig. 1, 112-130);
transferring funds corresponding to the payment quota to the auxiliary payment platform to generate a transaction result (0068, In one embodiment, upon the trigger, a sell trade amount is added to the queue, split across the predetermined percentages of securities established in step 505. 0069, even though funds are not yet available in the cash equivalent portion 192 of the account 190 due to impending settlement, either the 529 institution 100, the credit/debit provider 120 and/or a third-party escrow agent may have an escrow account (112 in FIG. 1) that temporary provides funding); and
Brown does not disclose:
Blockchain based payment control
verifying the transaction result through a smart contract and uploading data generated during the payment to a blockchain in response to the transaction result passing the verification.
However, Guo discloses [0117] When storing the transaction data in the blockchain, the one or more blockchain nodes need to verify whether the transaction data meets the smart contract, and only when reaching an agreement on a verification result of the transaction data, the one or more blockchain nodes are allowed to store the transaction data in the blockchain. For example, when verifying that the transaction data meets the smart contract, at least one blockchain node may generate the second block.
One of ordinary skill would have been motivated to modify Brown with Guo as Guo is directed to a resource transfer data management method…to complete the resource transfer operations conveniently and quickly, and brings much convenience to a user's life (0003).
Claims 7 and 13 are similarly rejected. Brown discloses processors, computer-readable mediums and associated instructions in the summary of invention and throughout the specification.
2. The method according to claim 1, wherein said transferring the finds corresponding to the payment quota to the auxiliary payment platform comprises:
obtaining a quota change value of a payment quota corresponding to the auxiliary payment platform within a predetermined time period (0050, In one embodiment, there may be a requirement that the total of the pre-defined allocation percentages may equal 100%. However, the owner may change
the allocations at any time, as long as this 100% total requirement is met).; and
transferring funds corresponding to the quota change value to the auxiliary payment platform (0050, when the card holder 102 swipes the card 104 to complete a purchase, then the pre-defined allocation by the owner 50 is applied.).
Claim 8 is similarly rejected.
Claim(s) 4 and 10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Brown (US 20140067565 A1) and further in view of Guo (US 20210049596 A1) as applied to claims 1 and 7 and further in view of Jiang (US 10193880 B1).
Jiang not Brown discloses:
4. The method according to claim1,wherein said transmitting the securities account available for payment to the requester to receive the securities account selection information fed back by the requester for the securities account available for payment to obtain the to-be-bound securities account comprises:
transmitting a securities account verification request to the requester in response to the securities account selection information (Description 48, the user is requested to provide a username and password associated with an existing account);
receiving securities account verification information fed back by the requester based on the securities account verification request (Description 48, In response, providing module 108 may search a credential vault associated with the user for corresponding information);
performing securities account verification on a selected securities account based on the securities account verification information (Descr 48, and then automatically or semi-automatically provide the information to the online service that hosts the account) ; and
in response to the selected securities account passing the verification, taking the selected securities account as the to-be-bound securities account (Descr 48, and the user may be authenticated to the online service.).
Claim 10 is similarly rejected.
Jiang may be combined with Brown to increase account security which is the intention of Jiang per the background of the specification.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to WILLIAM E RANKINS whose telephone number is (571)270-3465. The examiner can normally be reached on 9-530 M-F.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Bennett Sigmond can be reached on 303-297-4411. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/WILLIAM E RANKINS/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3694
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