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 communication is a Non-Final Office Action rejection on the merits. Claims 1-20 are currently pending and have been addressed below.
Double Patenting
The nonstatutory double patenting rejection is based on a judicially created doctrine grounded in public policy (a policy reflected in the statute) so as to prevent the unjustified or improper timewise extension of the “right to exclude” granted by a patent and to prevent possible harassment by multiple assignees. A nonstatutory double patenting rejection is appropriate where the conflicting claims are not identical, but at least one examined application claim is not patentably distinct from the reference claim(s) because the examined application claim is either anticipated by, or would have been obvious over, the reference claim(s). See, e.g., In re Berg, 140 F.3d 1428, 46 USPQ2d 1226 (Fed. Cir. 1998); In re Goodman, 11 F.3d 1046, 29 USPQ2d 2010 (Fed. Cir. 1993); In re Longi, 759 F.2d 887, 225 USPQ 645 (Fed. Cir. 1985); In re Van Ornum, 686 F.2d 937, 214 USPQ 761 (CCPA 1982); In re Vogel, 422 F.2d 438, 164 USPQ 619 (CCPA 1970); In re Thorington, 418 F.2d 528, 163 USPQ 644 (CCPA 1969).
A timely filed terminal disclaimer in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(c) or 1.321(d) may be used to overcome an actual or provisional rejection based on nonstatutory double patenting provided the reference application or patent either is shown to be commonly owned with the examined application, or claims an invention made as a result of activities undertaken within the scope of a joint research agreement. See MPEP § 717.02 for applications subject to examination under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA as explained in MPEP § 2159. See MPEP § 2146 et seq. for applications not subject to examination under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA . A terminal disclaimer must be signed in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(b).
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Claims 1-3, 5-15, 17 and 19 are rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claims 1-2, 4-5, 8-9, 11-12, 14-15 and 20 of U.S. Patent No. 11,922,415 (Christopher Andon), respectively. The claims at issue are not patentably distinct from each other as shown in bold in the table below.
Patent. No 11,922,415
Present Application:
19/055,787
Examiner’s Notes
1 and 12. A method of selectively locking a cryptographic digital asset comprising:
instructing the creation or minting of a plurality of first cryptographic tokens via a first common digital contract registered to a distributed ledger, wherein each cryptographic token of the plurality of cryptographic tokens defines a digital asset that includes an attribute that is operative to evolve or change through a plurality of evolutionary stages;
instructing the plurality of cryptographic tokens to be transferred to a plurality of token holders;
receiving a request from a token holder of the plurality of token holders to selectively lock a digital asset defined by one of the plurality of cryptographic tokens at one of the plurality of evolutionary stages;
instructing the transfer of a second cryptographic token to the token holder, the second cryptographic token having at least one attribute that is at least partially derived from the evolutionary stage of the digital asset at the time of the request.
11 and 20. wherein the plurality of first cryptographic tokens are ERC1155 tokens that are created according to Ethereum Improvement Proposal EIP-1155, and the second cryptographic token is an ERC721 token that is created according to Ethereum Improvement Proposal EIP-721
9. further comprising instructing the first cryptographic token be burned or transferred to a burn wallet following the instructing of the transfer of the second cryptographic token to the token holder.
5 and 15. wherein the at least one attribute of the digital assets includes a visual or graphical representation, an alphanumeric identifier, or a combination thereof.
2. wherein the attribute is operative to evolve or change in response to an external triggering event.
4 and 14. further comprising receiving, via a blockchain oracle, an indication that the external triggering event has occurred; and altering the attribute in response to the indication that the external triggering event has occurred.
Moved from claim 1 and 12 above
instructing the transfer of a second cryptographic token to the token holder, the second cryptographic token having at least one attribute that is at least partially derived from the evolutionary stage of the digital asset at the time of the request.
8. “…instructing the transfer of a third cryptographic token to the second token holder, the third cryptographic token having at least one attribute that is at least partially derived from the evolutionary stage of the digital asset at the time of the request; and wherein the second cryptographic token and the third cryptographic token have at least one attribute that is different.”
8. “…receiving a request from a second token holder of the plurality of token holders to selectively lock a digital asset defined by one of the plurality of cryptographic tokens at one of the plurality of evolutionary stages;”
.
1 and 11. A method of managing digital assets, comprising:
instructing creation of a plurality of first cryptographic tokens via a first smart contract registered to a distributed ledger, wherein:
the first smart contract conforms to a first token standard configured for batch minting, each first cryptographic token represents a digital asset having at least one attribute configured to evolve through a plurality of evolutionary states over time;
receiving, from a holder of one of the plurality of first cryptographic tokens, a request to lock the digital asset at a current evolutionary state;
determining the current evolutionary state of the at least one attribute of the digital asset; generating, via a second smart contract registered to the distributed ledger, a second cryptographic token, wherein: the second smart contract conforms to a second token standard configured for unique asset creation, the second token standard is different from the first token standard, and at least one property of the second cryptographic token is deterministically derived from the current evolutionary state of the digital asset; and
instructing transfer of the second cryptographic token to the holder.
2 and 12. wherein the first token standard is ERC-1155, and the second token standard is ERC-721.
3 and 13. further comprising instructing transfer of the first cryptographic token to a burn wallet after generating the second cryptographic token.
5 and 14. wherein the data comprises at least one of: a graphics file providing a visual representation of the digital asset; or a data file defining one or more non-visual parameters of the digital asset.
6. wherein the at least one attribute evolves in response to an external triggering event.
7 and 15. further comprising receiving an indication of the external triggering event from a blockchain oracle.
8 and 19. wherein generating the second cryptographic token comprises: executing a mapping function that converts the current evolutionary state into one or more visual characteristics of the second cryptographic token.
9. generating a third cryptographic token conforming to the second token standard, wherein the third cryptographic token is a replica of the digital asset at the current evolutionary state.
10 and 17. wherein the first cryptographic token remains available to be locked by other holders after generating the second cryptographic token.
This preamble is essentially the same.
This limitation is essentially the same.
This limitation is essentially the same
This limitation is essentially the same, but without a second smart contract involved, the second smart contract element has no patentable weight here, because the intended result here is to have a second cryptographic token that is deterministically derived from the current evolutionary state of the digital asset, which is taught in the mapping shown in bold.
This limitation is essentially the same.
This limitation is essentially the same
This limitation is essentially the same
This limitation is essentially the same
This limitation is essentially the same
This limitation is essentially the same
This limitation is essentially the same
This limitation is essentially the same
Prior Art Analysis
This application contains subject matter that is patentable over the prior art currently of record. Examiner is unable to find prior art for the following limitations:
“each first cryptographic token represents a digital asset having at least one attribute configured to evolve through a plurality of evolutionary states over time;
receiving, from a holder of one of the plurality of first cryptographic tokens, a request to lock the digital asset at a current evolutionary state;
determining the current evolutionary state of the at least one attribute of the digital asset;
and at least one property of the second cryptographic token is deterministically derived from the current evolutionary state of the digital asset;”
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon:
1) (US 20220391895 A1) – Weber et al., Data Access Management with Non-Fungible Tokens - relates generally to data access management platform for managing generation of a hierarchy of verifiable non-fungible tokes based on blockchain.
2) (US 20230196341 A1) – Quigley et al., Digital Tokens That are Redeemable for Baskets of Items – relates to decentralized lending systems and methods that leverage smart contracts and distributed ledgers, such as blockchains, to provide a trustless or substantially trustless ecosystem for providing ticketing functionalities, pre-sale campaign functionalities, and digital rights management functionalities, among other uses.
3) (US Pat. 11588748 B1) – Dehenre et al., Resource Allocating and Scheduling for A Network – relates generally to resource and process management for a network, and more specifically to resource allocating and scheduling for a network.
4) (US Pat. 11488265 B1) – Jain et al., Time-Based Leaderboard Display on Social Media Network – relates to a method involving, providing time data associated with a set of cryptographic tokens to a graphical leaderboard display. A provenance data is tracked by an immutable distributed consensus ledger that indicates a history of user linkage.
5) (US Pat. 11379429 B1) – Lupowitz et al., Computer-based Systems Configured for Permission Events Management on a Blockchain and Methods of Use Thereof – generally relates to computer-based systems configured for permission events management on a blockchain and methods of use thereof.
6) (WO-2020092900-A2) – Yantis et al., A Tokenization Platform - relates to a platform that effectuates transactions involving tokens that correspond to instances of linkage among physical and/or digital items and corresponding virtual representations of the physical and/or digital items.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to VINCENT IDIAKE whose telephone number is (571)272-1284. The examiner can normally be reached on Mon-Fri from 10:30AM to 7:30PM ET.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, PATRICK MCATEE, can be reached at telephone number 571-272-7575. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/V.I./Examiner, Art Unit 3698
/PATRICK MCATEE/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3698