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
This action is in response to the application filed February 3, 2025. Claims 1-20 are pending and examined. This action is Non-Final.
Specification
Applicant is required to update the status (pending, allowed, etc.) of all parent priority applications in the first line of the specification. The status of all citations of US filed applications in the specification should also be updated where appropriate. (The only priority claim noted was for a provisional application which will not change status. If there are any other priority claims that were missed the sooner they are pointed out the better for everyone.)
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101 Utility
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 20 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101. Applicant manufacture of a “computer-readable storage medium” does not meet the requirements of 35 U.S.C. 101. The “computer-readable storage medium” arguably could include a signal which is intangible therefore not one of the four classes of invention that can be claimed. (Examiner’s Note: “a tangible computer-readable storage medium” would definitely exclude signals.)
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.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1, 3- are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a1) as being anticipated by Nuzum et al. (USPG 2018/0268,390 A1).
As per claim 1 Nuzum teaches:
A general-purpose mobile device comprising:
a computer-readable storage medium; (see at least Nuzum paragraph 67 “In such a case, the remote MCF can be a laptop computer, a desktop computer, a tablet computer, a smart phone, or any device that can access the internet.” Computers and smart phones by definition require a computer-readable storage medium.)
a wireless transceiver; (see at least Nuzum paragraph 67 “a tablet computer, a smart phone, or any device that can access the internet” Smart phone and tablet computers would be required to have a wireless transceiver to access the internet)
a memory circuit; (see at least Nuzum paragraph 67 Computers and smart phones by definition require memory)
a card-present card reader configured to initiate a card-present payment transaction from a payment card using a card-present protocol; (see at least Nuzum paragraph 74 “[0074] In FIG. 1C, the reader 150 can be configured to read a payment and/or identity instrument. In some embodiments, the reader 150 can be a certified EMV level 1 contact and/or contact less reader, where EMV stands for Europay, MasterCard, and Visa. In some embodiments, an antenna of the reader 150 can be enabled in a pPOS device enclosure or integrated into an external device.”) and
a general-purpose processing circuit (see at least Nuzum paragraph 67 “a tablet computer, a smart phone, or any device that can access the internet” All would qualify as general purpose processing circuit) communicatively coupled to the computer- readable storage medium, the wireless transceiver, the memory circuit, and the card-present card reader, the computer-readable storage medium being dynamically configurable through the wireless transceiver to enable the general-purpose processing circuit and the memory circuit to perform a variety of general-purpose computing tasks, the general-purpose processing circuit being configured to communicate with the wireless transceiver, the memory circuit, and the card-present card reader to:
receive a message from a point-of-sale terminal to remotely activate the card- present payment transaction; (see at least Nuzum paragraph 119 “A user 830 interacts with a merchant e-commerce site 820 via a user merchant interface 810. Then the user 830 and/or the merchant can initiate a request for a payment transaction.”)
obtain payment information for the remotely activated card-present payment transaction from the payment card using the card-present card reader; (see at least Nuzum paragraphs 119 and 74 “Here, in some embodiments, the instrument is a payment instrument (e.g.: a card form factor, or a mobile phone) and/or an identity instrument ( e.g.: a face of the user, or a fingerprint of the user). Then the pPOS device authenticates and validates the instrument for the merchant and/or an issuer of the instrument. In FIG. BA, in some embodiments, this authentication and validation can be performed in the payment kernel local to the pPOS device.” “[0074] In FIG. 1C, the reader 150 can be configured to read a payment and/or identity instrument. In some embodiments, the reader 150 can be a certified EMV level 1 contact and/or contact less reader, where EMV stands for Europay, MasterCard, and Visa. In some embodiments, an antenna of the reader 150 can be enabled in a pPOS device enclosure or integrated into an external device. In some embodiments, the external device can be one of the following: wireless charging, WiFi (wireless local area network) communication, Bluetooth or Bluetooth low energy communication, near field magnetic induction (NFMI) communication, and cellular communication.”)
send the obtained payment information to a payment processor to process the card-present payment transaction; (see at least Nuzum paragraph 119 “The pPOS device also processes the payment transaction. The payment transaction processing is performed together with the merchant acquirer level 3 payment application 800.”) and
receive payment confirmation for the processed card-present payment transaction from the payment processor. (see at least Nuzum paragraph 119 “The pPOS device also processes the payment transaction. The payment transaction processing is performed together with the merchant acquirer level 3 payment application 800.” A payment is not complete unless the acquirer says so requiring the confirmation to have processed a payment.)
As per claim 3 Nuzum teaches:
The general-purpose mobile device of claim 1, wherein the card-present card reader comprises a Europay, Mastercard, Visa (EMV) compliant card reader configured to obtain the payment information from the payment card using a near-field communication (NFC) protocol. (see at least Nuzum paragraph 110 “[0110] FIG. 7A shows that pPOS device 700A can be interfaced with an EMV level 3 payment application via a remote MCF 790. In some embodiments, the pPOS device 700A can be configured to interface with the remote MCF 790 using one or more of the following: USB (Universal Serial Bus), audio jack, Bluetooth, WiFi (wireless local area network), NFC (near field communication), near field magnetic induction (NFMI) communication, and any computer network.”)
As per claim 4 Nuzum teaches:
The general-purpose mobile device of claim 3, wherein the general-purpose mobile device is a smartphone, smartwatch, or NFC-equipped tablet, (see at least Nuzum paragraph 64 “[0064] FIG. lA shows a first personal Point of Sale (pPOS) device 100A that is configured to provide for card present e-commerce transactions with a payment kernel 120 remote to the device, in accordance with some example embodiments. FIG. lA shows that the pPOS device l00A includes a secure microcontroller function (MCF) 110, a secure element 130, a secure MCF to secure element interface (115), and an interface to payment kernel (125). FIG. 1A also shows that a payment kernel 120 used for payment processing is remote to the pPOS device 100A, and not included in the pPOS device l00A. FIG. 1A shows that an external MCF 140 can be used for interfacing the pPOS device 100A to the payment kernel 120 and a certified EMV (EMV stands for Europay, MasterCard, and Visa) level 3 (L3) payment application, via an interface to payment kernel (145) and an interface to L3 (180) respectively. But, in some other embodiments (not shown in FIG. 1A), the interfacing can occur without the MCF 140, so that the interfacing is direct from the pPOS device 1 00A to the payment kernel 120 and EMV level 3 (L3) payment application. The pPOS device 100A can also include other components and interfaces, but these are not shown in detail in order to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the described embodiments.” There is no functionality listed that can not be delivered by at least a laptop computer.) and the point-of-sale terminal is a wireless tablet or laptop. (see at least Nuzum paragraph 67 “a tablet computer, a smart phone, or any device that can access the internet” All would qualify as general purpose processing circuit)
As per claim 5 Nuzum teaches:
The general-purpose mobile device of claim 1, wherein the general-purpose processing circuit is further configured to forward the received payment confirmation to the point-of-sale terminal. (see at least Nuzum paragraph 119 “The pPOS device also processes the payment transaction. The payment transaction processing is performed together with the merchant acquirer level 3 payment application 800.” A payment is not complete unless the acquirer says so requiring the confirmation to have processed a payment.)
As per claim 6 Nuzum teaches:
A system comprising the general-purpose mobile device of claim 1 and a server, wherein the memory circuit is a first memory circuit, the general-purpose processing circuit is a first general-purpose processing circuit, and the server comprises:
a connection to a communications network;
a second memory circuit; and
a second general-purpose processing circuit communicatively coupled to the network connection and the second memory circuit, the second general-purpose processing circuit being configured to communicate with the network connection and the second memory circuit to:
receive the message from the point-of-sale terminal;
identify the general-purpose mobile device as a recipient of the received message; and
forward the received message to the identified general-purpose mobile device, wherein the first general-purpose processing circuit is further configured to receive the message from the point-of-sale terminal by receiving the forwarded message from the server to remotely activate the card-present payment transaction. (see at least Nuzum paragraph 119 “A user 830 interacts with a merchant e-commerce site 820 via a user merchant interface 810. Then the user 830 and/or the merchant can initiate a request for a payment transaction.”)
As per claim 8 Nuzum teaches:
The system of claim 6, wherein the first general-purpose processing circuit is further configured to forward the received payment confirmation to the server, and the second general- purpose processing circuit is further configured to receive the forwarded payment confirmation from the general-purpose mobile device and forward the received forwarded payment confirmation to the point-of-sale terminal. (see at least Nuzum paragraph 119 “The pPOS device also processes the payment transaction. The payment transaction processing is performed together with the merchant acquirer level 3 payment application 800.” A payment is not complete unless the acquirer says so requiring the confirmation to have processed a payment.)
As per claim 9 Nuzum teaches:
The system of claim 6, wherein the first general-purpose processing circuit is further configured to send the obtained payment information to the payment processor by sending the obtained payment information to the server, and the second general-purpose processing circuit is further configured to:
receive the sent payment information from the general-purpose mobile device; forward the received payment information to the payment processor to process the card- present payment transaction;
receive the payment confirmation for the processed card-present payment transaction from the payment processor; and
forward the received payment confirmation to the general-purpose mobile device, wherein the first general-purpose processing circuit is further configured to receive the payment confirmation for the card-present payment transaction from the payment processor by receiving the forwarded payment confirmation from the server. (see at least Nuzum paragraph 119 “The pPOS device also processes the payment transaction. The payment transaction processing is performed together with the merchant acquirer level 3 payment application 800.” A payment is not complete unless the acquirer says so requiring the confirmation to have processed a payment.)
As per claim 16 Nuzum teaches:
A system comprising the general-purpose mobile device and the point-of-sale terminal of claim 1, wherein the wireless transceiver is a first Bluetooth transceiver, (see at least Nuzum paragraph 98 “In some embodiments, the pPOS device 400A can be configured to interface with the remote MCF 490 using one or more of the following: USB (Universal Serial Bus), audio jack, Bluetooth, WiFi (wireless local area network), NFC (near field communication), near field magnetic induction (NFMI) communication, and any computer network. This means that interface 445 can be one or more of the following: USB, audio jack, Bluetooth, WiFi, NFC, NFMI, and any computer network.”) the memory circuit is a first memory circuit, the general-purpose processing circuit is a first general-purpose processing circuit, and the point-of-sale terminal comprises:
a second Bluetooth transceiver; (see at least Nuzum paragraph 98)
a second memory circuit; and
a second general-purpose processing circuit communicatively coupled to the second Bluetooth transceiver and the second memory circuit, the second general-purpose processing circuit being configured to communicate with the second Bluetooth transceiver and the second memory circuit to:
identify the general-purpose mobile device; and
send the message to the identified general-purpose mobile device using the second Bluetooth transceiver, wherein the first general-purpose processing circuit is further configured to receive the message from the point-of-sale terminal using the first Bluetooth transceiver, to remotely activate the card-present payment transaction. (see at least Nuzum paragraph 119 “The pPOS device also processes the payment transaction. The payment transaction processing is performed together with the merchant acquirer level 3 payment application 800.” A payment is not complete unless the acquirer says so requiring the confirmation to have processed a payment.)
As per claim 17 Nuzum teaches:
A method of remotely activating a card-present payment transaction on a general- purpose mobile device, comprising:
receiving, at the general-purpose mobile device, a message from a point-of-sale terminal to remotely activate the card-present payment transaction; (see at least Nuzum paragraph 119 “A user 830 interacts with a merchant e-commerce site 820 via a user merchant interface 810. Then the user 830 and/or the merchant can initiate a request for a payment transaction.”)
obtaining payment information for the remotely activated card-present payment transaction from a payment card using a card-present card reader at the general-purpose mobile device; (see at least Nuzum paragraphs 119 and 74 “Here, in some embodiments, the instrument is a payment instrument (e.g.: a card form factor, or a mobile phone) and/or an identity instrument ( e.g.: a face of the user, or a fingerprint of the user). Then the pPOS device authenticates and validates the instrument for the merchant and/or an issuer of the instrument. In FIG. BA, in some embodiments, this authentication and validation can be performed in the payment kernel local to the pPOS device.” “[0074] In FIG. 1C, the reader 150 can be configured to read a payment and/or identity instrument. In some embodiments, the reader 150 can be a certified EMV level 1 contact and/or contact less reader, where EMV stands for Europay, MasterCard, and Visa. In some embodiments, an antenna of the reader 150 can be enabled in a pPOS device enclosure or integrated into an external device. In some embodiments, the external device can be one of the following: wireless charging, WiFi (wireless local area network) communication, Bluetooth or Bluetooth low energy communication, near field magnetic induction (NFMI) communication, and cellular communication.”)
sending, from the general-purpose mobile device, the obtained payment information to a payment processor to process the card-present payment transaction; (see at least Nuzum paragraph 119 “The pPOS device also processes the payment transaction. The payment transaction processing is performed together with the merchant acquirer level 3 payment application 800.”) and
receiving, at the general-purpose mobile device, payment confirmation for the processed card-present payment transaction from the payment processor. (see at least Nuzum paragraph 119 “The pPOS device also processes the payment transaction. The payment transaction processing is performed together with the merchant acquirer level 3 payment application 800.” A payment is not complete unless the acquirer says so requiring the confirmation to have processed a payment.)
As per claim 19 Nuzum teaches:
The method of claim 17, further comprising:
receiving, at a server, the message from the point-of-sale terminal;
identifying, by the server, the general-purpose mobile device as a recipient of the received message;
forwarding, from the server, the received message to the identified general-purpose mobile device; and
receiving, at the general-purpose mobile device, the message from the point-of-sale terminal by receiving, at the general-purpose mobile device, the forwarded message from the server to remotely activate the card-present payment transaction. (see at least Nuzum paragraph 119 “The pPOS device also processes the payment transaction. The payment transaction processing is performed together with the merchant acquirer level 3 payment application 800.” A payment is not complete unless the acquirer says so requiring the confirmation to have processed a payment.)
As per claim 20 Nuzum teaches:
A computer-readable storage medium having one or more instructions stored thereon, which when executed by at least one processor on a general-purpose mobile device, causes the general-purpose mobile device to:
receive a message from a point-of-sale terminal to remotely activate a card-present payment transaction; (see at least Nuzum paragraph 119 “A user 830 interacts with a merchant e-commerce site 820 via a user merchant interface 810. Then the user 830 and/or the merchant can initiate a request for a payment transaction.”)
obtain payment information for the remotely activated card-present payment transaction from a payment card using a card-present card reader at the general-purpose mobile device; (see at least Nuzum paragraphs 119 and 74 “Here, in some embodiments, the instrument is a payment instrument (e.g.: a card form factor, or a mobile phone) and/or an identity instrument ( e.g.: a face of the user, or a fingerprint of the user). Then the pPOS device authenticates and validates the instrument for the merchant and/or an issuer of the instrument. In FIG. BA, in some embodiments, this authentication and validation can be performed in the payment kernel local to the pPOS device.” “[0074] In FIG. 1C, the reader 150 can be configured to read a payment and/or identity instrument. In some embodiments, the reader 150 can be a certified EMV level 1 contact and/or contact less reader, where EMV stands for Europay, MasterCard, and Visa. In some embodiments, an antenna of the reader 150 can be enabled in a pPOS device enclosure or integrated into an external device. In some embodiments, the external device can be one of the following: wireless charging, WiFi (wireless local area network) communication, Bluetooth or Bluetooth low energy communication, near field magnetic induction (NFMI) communication, and cellular communication.”)
send the obtained payment information to a payment processor to process the card- present payment transaction; (see at least Nuzum paragraph 119 “The pPOS device also processes the payment transaction. The payment transaction processing is performed together with the merchant acquirer level 3 payment application 800.”) and
receive payment confirmation for the processed card-present payment transaction from the payment processor. (see at least Nuzum paragraph 119 “The pPOS device also processes the payment transaction. The payment transaction processing is performed together with the merchant acquirer level 3 payment application 800.” A payment is not complete unless the acquirer says so requiring the confirmation to have processed a payment.)
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 of this title, 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 2, 7, and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Nuzum et al. (USPG 2018/0268,390 A1) in view of Kolchin (USPG 2024/0013,193 A1).
As per claims 2, 7, and 18 while Nuzum teaches using a cloud to connect things (see at least Nuzum paragraph 118 “FIG. SA shows that the first configuration can include a pPOS (that includes a local payment kernel) with a payment instrument (jointly labeled as 850), a merchant e-commerce site 820, a user merchant interface 810, a merchant acquirer level 3 payment application 800, and the internet cloud 860 (which connects all these parts together). FIG. SA also shows that these parts are all connected to the internet cloud 860 via their respective interfaces”) is not explicit about using an API to deliver a push notification such setups were known in the art of conducting payment transactions as taught by Kolchin. (see at least Kolchin paragraph 13 “13 It is possible to control pre-authorization and release of pre-authorization via API of any processor to secure an ACH transaction.” ) Therefore it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made since it was solving a known problem in a known way with an expectation of success.
2. The general-purpose mobile device of claim 1, wherein the message is sent from the point-of-sale terminal to the general-purpose mobile device via a cloud-based interface that uses an application programming interface (API) call to deliver the message to the general- purpose mobile device as a push notification, and the general-purpose processing circuit is further configured to receive the delivered message through the API call to remotely activate the card-present payment transaction.
Claims 10-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Nuzum et al. (USPG 2018/0268,390 A1) in view of Tyler et al. (USPG 2014/0129428 A1).
As per claims 10-14 while displaying codes on screens to be scanned to exchange data such as confirmation of a recipient was not explicitly taught be Nuzum such functionality using QR codes taught in the art by Tyler. (see at least Tyler abstract “Systems and methods are provided for facilitating peer-to-peer payment transactions using mobile devices. In one implementation, a method facilitating a computer system to complete a peer-to-peer payment transaction using a mobile device is disclosed. The method comprises determining a financial account for providing funds for the payment transaction. The method further includes receiving a user input comprising a payment amount for the payment transaction, and generating a QR code comprising a representation of the payment amount. Additionally, the method comprises displaying the QR code on the display of one mobile device for purposes of scanning by a second mobile device. Apparatuses and systems for implementing the method, as well as for processing the generated QR code after it is scanned by the second mobile device are also disclosed.”) Therefore it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art of QR codes to use them to communicate between two systems which would include exchanging a message to prove that they were talking to each other. Since it would be solving a known problem in a known way with an expectation of success.
Claim 15 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Nuzum et al. (USPG 2018/0268,390 A1) in view of Mahaffey et al. (USPG 2018/0,068,309 A1).
As per claim 15 while Nuzum does not explicitly teach using location proximity confirmation between the mobile device and point of sale terminal as a criteria to complete a transaction it is taught in the art by Mahaffey. (see at least Mahaffey abstract “method for authorizing a mobile payment transaction is provided that is based on device locations. The method includes receiving, by a server, a request from a point of sale (POS) device to authorize a payment transaction involving a payment facilitating device. In an embodiment, the request includes payment information of the payment transaction and location information of the POS device. When the request is received, an authorizing client device for the payment transaction is identified based on the payment information from the payment facilitating device. The request to authorize the payment transaction is granted when it is determined that the authorizing client device is located within a predetermined distance from the POS device.”) Therefore it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made since it was solving a known problem in a known way with an expectation of success.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication from the examiner should be directed to Scott S. Trotter, whose telephone number is 571-272-7366. The examiner can normally be reached on 8:30 AM – 5:00 PM, M-F.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Matthew Gart, can be reached on 571-272-3955.
Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free).
The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned are as follows:
(571) 273-8300 (Official Communications; including After Final Communications labeled “BOX AF”)
(571) 273-7366 (Draft Communications)
/SCOTT S TROTTER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3696