Acknowledgements
This communication is in response to applicant’s response filed on 05/27/2026.
Claims 1-2, 4, 9, 11-12, 14, and 19-20 have been amended. Claims 1-20 are pending and have been examined.
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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 05/27/2026 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Regarding the applicant’s arguments:
Regarding applicant’s arguments, see pgs. 9-11, filed 05/27/2026, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 1, 11, and 20 under Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102(a)(1) that Goroff (US 20190325408) does not disclose generating more than one (e.g., a plurality of) pre-authorized transaction requests during a single temporary connection session. Rather, Goroff describes processing one transaction at a time in response to a real-time user request, and after signing out, the process is reinitialized for new transaction parameters to be entered nor the concept of the computing device processors themselves signing the key during the connection. In addition, the amended claim specifies that “the one or more processors of the computing device” perform “generating ... a complete, blockchain-valid transaction payload that encodes a recipient address,” which is not met by Goroff where the hardware device internally executes the signing and the computing device merely receives the output have been considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112(a) is made. More detail is provided below.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112(a)
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112(a):
(a) IN GENERAL.—The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor or joint inventor of carrying out the invention.
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112:
The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor of carrying out his invention.
Claims 1, 11, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the written description requirement. The claim(s) contains subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to reasonably convey to one skilled in the relevant art that the inventor or a joint inventor, or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the inventor(s), at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention.
The amended claims 1, 11, and 20 include the limitation “generate a plurality of pre-authorized transaction requests using the private cryptographic key stored in the offline storage, wherein generating the plurality of pre-authorized transaction requests comprises generating, by the one or more processors of the computing device, using the private cryptographic key while the computing device is temporarily connected to the offline storage, a complete, blockchain-valid transaction payload that encodes a recipient address,” but the spec. does not support this amendment. Paragraph 0121 of the spec. teaches a single transaction. “Referring to one of the transactions in FIG. 6A, for illustration, the transaction 620 may be referred to as a current transaction. Transaction 610 may be referred to as a prior transaction and transaction 630 may be referred to as a subsequent transaction. Each transaction includes a transaction data 622, a recipient address 624, a hash of the prior transaction 626, and the current transaction's owner's digital signature 628. In contrast, Paragraph 0126 of the spec. teaches a plurality of transactions. The blocks together may be referred to as the ledger of the blockchain. The blocks 650, 660, and 660 may each include a hash of the prior blockchain 652, a nonce 654, and a plurality of transactions (e.g., a first transaction 656, a second transaction 658, etc.). Therefore, if a plurality of pre-authorized transaction requests are generated, the transaction requests would include a plurality of recipient addresses not a single recipient address.
Claims 2-10 and 12-19 are rejected based on base rejected claims 1 and 11.
Statement Regarding the Prior Art
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: The independent claim 1 contains allowable subject matter. As per claim 1, the closest prior art of record, US Application No. 20190325408 to Goroff teaches a system for secure transactions of information is provided herein, where the system includes a computing device having a software application installed thereon and is configured to store a public cryptocurrency key and a hardware encryption device configured to store a private encryption key, and is configured to selectively connect in data communication to the computing device for signing an cryptocurrency transaction. The computing device broadcasts a signed transaction received from the hardware encryption device for verification of the transaction. In addition, United States Patent Application No. 20240333500 to Desmarais teaches a system, device, method, and subnetwork for performing a secure blockchain transaction of a digital asset. The system includes a terminal for generating the blockchain transaction, the terminal configured to operate in a first mode and a second mode, and a switch connector for preventing the terminal from operating in the first mode and the second mode simultaneously. When the terminal is in the first mode, the terminal is connected via a network to a system provider server, the system provider server in communication with a plurality of blockchain devices. When the terminal is in the second mode, the terminal is in communication with a cold storage device. The cold storage device is configured to store a private key for signing the blockchain transaction. The terminal is configured to sign the blockchain transaction on the cold storage device using the private key. In addition, United States Patent Application No. 20240078539 to Nakaike teaches a computer-implemented method, in accordance with one embodiment, includes receiving, at an offline input bridge module, a transaction order and a corresponding cryptogram. The transaction order and the cryptogram are transferred from the input bridge module to a disconnected vault module. The input bridge module is discarded in response to the transfer of the transaction order and cryptogram. The transaction order is converted to an unsigned transaction, using the disconnected vault module. The unsigned transaction and cryptogram are transferred to an offline hardware security module. A seed is unwrapped from the cryptogram, using the hardware security module. A key for signing the transaction is generated, using the hardware security module. The signed transaction is transferred to an offline output bridge module, and from the output bridge module to an online module. The output bridge module is discarded in response to the transfer of the signed transaction and the cryptogram therefrom. In addition, United States Patent No. 12,400,228 to Krishnaswamy teaches a phone case includes a cold wallet that holds various cryptocurrencies. A method provides for operation of a smartphone placed in the phone case to interact with the cold wallet. The cold wallet can be incorporated into a system that includes secure storage, a battery, and communications hardware. The system has robust security features, including features that require surface to surface proximity. For example, the system may use wireless charging, which only operates with a limited range. The phone case can use the wireless charging system to send and receive authentication signals from the smartphone. Based on the authentication signals the phone case can power up and connect the secure storage to the rest of the system, thereby only providing secured access to the keys in the cold wallet. After use, the system disconnects the secure storage and the powers down to cold wallet, protecting the private keys. In addition, PCT Patent Application No. WO2022131410 to Kim teaches a cryptocurrency system for the separate management of customer assets and a cryptocurrency wallet management method. The cryptocurrency wallet management method according to an embodiment comprises the steps of: batching a plurality of transactions according to preset conditions to generate a batch transaction; confirming the completion of a withdrawal process using a cold wallet-to-warm wallet offline key signing for the generated batch transaction; and processing the transfer of funds from the warm wallet to addresses respectively set for a plurality of transactions. In addition, PCT Patent Application No. WO2023123151 to Ding a system for cold wallets is disclosed. The system may create a wallet of a cold wallet application in response to a request to create a wallet from a user, generate a cold wallet cryptocurrency address of the cold wallet application, import a hot wallet cryptocurrency address to the cold wallet application, import a transaction data of an exchange platform to the cold wallet application, sign the transaction via the cold wallet application to generate a signed transaction, and export the signed transaction from the cold wallet application to the exchange platform.
The closest prior art of record fail to teach or suggest, in the context of the ordered combination of the claim, connect temporarily to the offline storage to generate a plurality of pre-authorized transaction requests using the private cryptographic key stored in the offline storage, wherein generating the plurality of pre-authorized transaction requests comprises generating, by the one or more processors of the computing device, using the private cryptographic key while the computing device is temporarily connected to the offline storage, a complete, blockchain-valid transaction payload that encodes a recipient address; disconnect the computing device from the offline storage; and store the plurality of pre-authorized transaction requests in the computing device, wherein the plurality of pre-authorized transaction requests include pre-determined parameters that include a the recipient address, and wherein the pre-authorized transaction requests are broadcastable to the blockchain at a time subsequent to disconnecting from the offline storage without further retrieving the private cryptographic key stored in the disconnected storage.
Claims 2-10 are dependent on claim 1 and contain allowable subject matter for the same reasons stated above. Claim 11 is analogous to claim 1 and is allowable based on the same reasons listed above for claim 1. Claim 12-19 are dependent on claim 11 and contain allowable subject matter for the same reasons stated above. Claim 20 is analogous to claim 1 and is allowable based on the same reasons listed above for claim 1.
Conclusion
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/COURTNEY P JONES/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3699
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