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 March 13, 2025. Claims 1-18 are pending and examined.
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 to a provisional application which don’t have status that can change.)
Information Disclosure Statement
An initialed and dated copy of Applicant’s IDS forms 1449 filed March 13 and May 12, 2025, are attached to the instant Office action.
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.
Claims 1–18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 101 because the claimed invention is directed to a judicial exception (i.e., a law of nature, a natural phenomenon, or an abstract idea) without significantly more.
In sum, claims 1–18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. §101 because the claimed invention is directed to a judicial exception to patentability (i.e., a law of nature, a natural phenomenon, or an abstract idea) and do not include an inventive concept that is something “significantly more” than the judicial exception under the January 2019 patentable subject matter eligibility guidance (2019 PEG) analysis which follows.
Under the 2019 PEG step 1 analysis, it must first be determined whether the claims are directed to one of the four statutory categories of invention (i.e., process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter). Applying step 1 of the analysis for patentable subject matter to the claims, it is determined that the claims are directed to the statutory category of a process (claims 1–18). Where claim 1 is for receiving a request for a price quotation for purchasing and claim 8 is for receiving a request for a price quotation for selling which for 101 purposes are the same thing so the analysis for claim 1 will also apply to claim 8. (See, e.g., MPEP §2106.03). Therefore, we proceed to step 2A, Prong 1.
Under the 2019 PEG step 2A, Prong 1 analysis, it must be determined whether the claims recite an abstract idea that falls within one or more designated categories of patent ineligible subject matter (i.e., organizing human activity, mathematical concepts, and mental processes) that amount to a judicial exception to patentability. Here, the claims recite the abstract idea of trading contracts for one or more standardized types of processing nodes, comprising:
receiving a request for a price quotation for purchasing a predetermined number of processing nodes via a processing circuit;
comparing one or more standing buy orders for buying respective first numbers of processing nodes at a first price and one or more standing sell orders for selling respective second numbers of processing nodes at a second price via the processing circuit;
filtering the standing buy orders and the standing sell orders via the processing circuit to provide a collection of filtered standing buy orders that offer a best first price for the first number of processing nodes and filtered standing sell orders that offer a best second price for the second number of processing nodes;
identifying at least one set of bids and offers among the collection of filtered standing buy orders and the filtered standing sell orders that fulfill the request for the price quotation via the processing circuit;
discarding one or more of the identified sets of bids and offers via the processing circuit to determine at least one set of qualified bids and offers; and
generating the requested price quotation based upon the at least one set of qualified bids and offers via the processing circuit.
Here, the recited abstract idea falls within one or more of the three enumerated 2019 PEG categories of patent ineligible subject matter, to wit: the category of certain methods of organizing human activity, which includes fundamental economic practices or principles and commercial or legal interactions (e.g., auctioning something off would be a form of marketing or sales activities or behaviors.).
Under the 2019 PEG step 2A, Prong 2 analysis, the identified abstract idea to which the claim is directed does not include limitations that integrate the abstract idea into a practical application, since the recited features of the abstract idea are being applied on a computer or computing device or via software programming that is simply being used as a tool (“apply it”) to implement the abstract idea. (See, e.g., MPEP §2106.05(f)). Therefore, the claim is directed to an abstract idea.
Under the 2019 PEG step 2B analysis, the additional elements are evaluated to determine whether they amount to something “significantly more” than the recited abstract idea. (i.e., an innovative concept). Here, the additional elements, such as: a “processor” do not amount to an innovative concept since, as stated above in the step 2A, Prong 2 analysis, the claims are simply using the additional elements as a tool to carry out the abstract idea (i.e., “apply it”) on a computer or computing device and/or via software programming. (See, e.g., MPEP §2106.05(f)). The additional elements are specified at a high level of generality to simply implement the abstract idea and are not themselves being technologically improved. (See, e.g., MPEP §2106.05 I.A.). Independent claim 1 is nearly identical to independent claim 8 and so the analysis for claim 1 also applies to claim 8.
Dependent claims 2–7, and 9–18 have all been considered and do not integrate the abstract idea into a practical application. Dependent claims 2 and 9 are substantially similar and recite limitations that further define the abstract idea noted in claims 1 and 8 as they describe the price quotation being for a predetermined number of graphics processing units (GPU) nodes with claim 2 being for purchasing and claim 9 being for selling. Dependent claims 3 and 13 are substantially similarly and recite limitations that further define the abstract idea noted in claims 1 and 8 as they describe wherein said identifying the at least one set of bids and offers comprises identifying at least one set of bids and offers among the collection of filtered standing buy orders and the filtered standing sell orders that fulfill the request for the price quotation and at least one packing constraint. Dependent claims 4 and 14 are substantially similarly and both recite limitations that further define the abstract idea noted in claims 1 and 8 as they describe maintaining a collection of current standing buy orders for buying respective first numbers of processing nodes at a current first price and current standing sell orders for selling respective second numbers of processing nodes at a current second price via the processing circuit. Dependent claims 5 and 15 are substantially similarly and both recite limitations that further define the abstract idea noted in claims 1 and 8 as they describe receiving a limit order to purchase the predetermined number of processing nodes at a limit price that is less than or equal to the generated price quotation via the processing circuit. Dependent claim 6 recite limitations that further define the abstract idea noted in claim 1 as it describes enabling a seller to accept the limit order and to deliver a contract for using the predetermined number of processing nodes via the processing circuit, wherein the predetermined number of processing nodes are owned by the seller. Dependent claim 7 recites limitations that further define the abstract idea noted in claim 1 as it describes enabling the seller to deliver a contract includes enabling the seller to deliver a virtual contract for using the predetermined number of processing nodes. Dependent claim 10 recites limitations that further define the abstract idea noted in claim 8 as they describe confirming that the seller controls at least the predetermined number of processing nodes. Dependent claim 11 recites limitations that further define the abstract idea noted in claim 8 as they describe wherein said confirming that the seller controls at least the predetermined number of processing nodes comprises confirming that the seller controls a settled contract for at least the predetermined number of processing nodes. Dependent claim 12 recites limitations that further define the abstract idea noted in claim 8 enabling the seller to associate specific processing nodes with the price quotation request. These claims simply further define the item being purchased
The additional elements of the dependent claims merely refine and further limit the abstract idea of the independent claims and do not add any feature that is an “inventive concept” which cures the deficiencies of their respective parent claim under the 2019 PEG analysis. None of the dependent claims considered individually, including their respective limitations, include an “inventive concept” of some additional element or combination of elements sufficient to ensure that the claims in practice amount to something “significantly more” than patent-ineligible subject matter to which the claims are directed.
The elements of the instant process steps when taken in combination do not offer substantially more than the sum of the functions of the elements when each is taken alone. The claims as a whole, do not amount to significantly more than the abstract idea itself because the claims do not effect an improvement to another technology or technical field (e.g., the field of computer coding technology is not being improved); the claims do not amount to an improvement to the functioning of an electronic device itself which implements the abstract idea (e.g., the general purpose computer and/or the computer system which implements the process are not made more efficient or technologically improved); the claims do not perform a transformation or reduction of a particular article to a different state or thing (i.e., the claims do not use the abstract idea in the claimed process to bring about a physical change. See, e.g., Diamond v. Diehr, 450 U.S. 175 (1981), where a physical change, and thus patentability, was imparted by the claimed process; contrast, Parker v. Flook, 437 U.S. 584 (1978), where a physical change, and thus patentability, was not imparted by the claimed process); and the claims do not move beyond a general link of the use of the abstract idea to a particular technological environment (e.g., simply claiming the use of a computer and/or computer system to implement the abstract idea).
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 1-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bushonville et al. (USPG 2001/0034,687 A1 herein after Bushonville) in view of Resource pricing and allocation in MEC enabled Blockchain Systems (Du et al.; March 23, 2021, IEEE Transactions on Network Science and Engineering Vol. 9 Issue 1 2022 pages 33-44 Hereafter Du).
As per claim 1 Bushonville teaches:
A computer-implemented method for trading contracts for one or more standardized types of processing nodes, comprising:
receiving a request for a price quotation for purchasing a predetermined number of processing nodes via a processing circuit; (see at least Bushonville paragraph 9 “Based on this market information, users may submit quote proposals (e.g., bid or offers) or quote acceptances. Preferably, an exchange system in accordance with the present invention is implemented within a publicly available network, such as the Internet or World Wide Web.”)
comparing one or more standing buy orders for buying respective first numbers of processing nodes at a first price and one or more standing sell orders for selling respective second numbers of processing nodes at a second price via the processing circuit; (see at least Bushonville paragraph 26 “to conduct exchange operations. Such functions include, but are not limited to, processing user accounts, providing displays of markets, receiving bids and offers, recognizing matches between submitted bids and offers, processing acceptances of bids and/or offers and other exchange-oriented processing.” Matches are recognized by comparing bids and offers for when they meet each other’s terms.)
filtering the standing buy orders and the standing sell orders via the processing circuit to provide a collection of filtered standing buy orders that offer a best first price for the first number of processing nodes and filtered standing sell orders that offer a best second price for the second number of processing nodes; (see at least Bushonville paragraph 26 Matches are recognized by comparing bids and offers for when they meet each other’s terms. When more bids meet the terms than the offers some of those offers are filtered out there are actually all sorts of rules for how those kind of ties are settled.)
identifying at least one set of bids and offers among the collection of filtered standing buy orders and the filtered standing sell orders that fulfill the request for the price quotation via the processing circuit; (see at least Bushonville paragraph 26 This is the matches between the submitted bids and offers.)
discarding one or more of the identified sets of bids and offers via the processing circuit to determine at least one set of qualified bids and offers; (see at least Bushonville paragraph 26 Matches are recognized by comparing bids and offers for when they meet each other’s terms. When more bids meet the terms than the offers some of those offers are filtered out there are actually all sorts of rules for how those kind of ties are settled.) and
generating the requested price quotation based upon the at least one set of qualified bids and offers via the processing circuit. (see at least Bushonville paragraph 26 “a selection information stor age structure 414, an optional transmit program 416, quote data 418, address data 420, trade data 422 and markets data 424. The exchange logic 406 implements those functions, preferably through the use of computer-readable instructions, susceptible to automation and necessary to conduct exchange operations.” A price quote is what the matches would be for a buy or sell bid.)
While Bushonville is for service contracts of things being bought sold to be used in available time frames including spot market pricing for immediate delivery starting usage. It is not explicit about it being for computer processing but Du (see at least Du Abstract “When using blockchain in mobile systems, computation intensive mining tasks pose great challenges to the processing capabilities of mobile miner equipment. Mobile edge computing (MEC) is an effective solution to alleviating the problem via task offloading. In the mining process, miners compete for rewards through puzzle solving, where only the miner that first completes the process will be rewarded. Thus, miners may wish to pay higher price and use more communication resources in task offloading and more computation resources in task processing for latency reduction.”) teaches the immediate purchasing of computation resources and communication resources for Blockchain mining. Therefore it would have been obvious to have applied the trading of services on an exchange to trading contract for processing nodes since it was solving a known problem of allocating resources in a known way setting up an exchange to trade such a resource between buyers and suppliers of that resource.
As per claims 2 and 9 while Bushonville teaches receiving quotations it is not explicit about it being for computer processing but Du teaches the immediate purchasing of computation resources and communication resources for Blockchain mining. Therefore it would have been obvious to have applied to purchasing graphic processing units nodes usage as an example of computation resources.
As per claim 3 Bushonville teaches:
The method of claim 1, wherein said identifying the at least one set of bids and offers comprises identifying at least one set of bids and offers among the collection of filtered standing buy orders and the filtered standing sell orders that fulfill the request for the price quotation and at least one packing constraint. (see at least Bushonville paragraph 4 “[0004] Generally, almost any fungible good can be treated as a commodity. For example live cattle, random-length lumber, various foreign currencies, interest rates and stock indices, to name a few, are currently traded as commodities. These types of commodities are traded according to predefined contracts. A typical commodity contract sets forth a specific quantity of a given type of goods, a specific quality for the goods, a specified delivery date and specified delivery location. By standardizing contracts in this manner, buyers and sellers are able to efficiently trade quickly and reliably. Such contracts are often referred to as forward or futures contracts because the delivery or maturity date is set to a date in the future. Prior to the maturity date of a given contract type, traders are able to buy and sell such contracts on the market. Once the maturity date for a given contract type arrives, trading is no longer possible. A different type of market for various contracts is the so-called spot market. In contrast to futures markets, the spot market for a commodity is the price for a specific quantity and quality of that good for immediate delivery at a specified location.” That is market with a specific quantity, quality, and a specified location limitations which is what packing constraints would be specific limitations of quantity, quality, or specified location.)
As per claim 4 Bushonville teaches:
The method of claim 1, further comprising maintaining a collection of current standing buy orders for buying respective first numbers of processing nodes at a current first price and current standing sell orders for selling respective second numbers of processing nodes at a current second price via the processing circuit. (see at least Bushonville paragraph 28 “[0028] As further shown in FIG. 4, quote data 418, preferably resident in the database 304, is available to the exchange process 308. The quote data 418 comprises all pertinent information regarding quotes provided by each market participant. As described above, service contracts in accordance with the present invention specify standardized terms for duration, quality, delivery and maturity dates and delivery location. While this information may be stored for each quote submitted, it is preferable to instead store an identifier corresponding to the type of contract for each quote and, if desired, to separately store contract specifications that detail the particular terms of each type of contract. Because the duration, quality, delivery, maturity and location terms are standardized, knowledge of the contract type identifier inherently specifies each of the contract terms. In addition to the contract type identifier, each quote stored in the quote data 418 comprises the corresponding bid or offer price entered by respective users and account identifiers likewise corresponding to the respective users. The account identifiers uniquely identify individual users (i.e., natural persons or business entities, in most instances) of the exchange system. Each account identifier comprises information needed to identify and contact users, as well as financial information needed to charge customers that engage in transactions. Temporal information, such as when a particular quote was entered, may also be included. Further still, a status indication may be associated with each quote to indicate whether each particular quote is active, i.e., available for acceptance on the market, or on hold, i.e., not available for acceptance.” Maintaining all the buy and sell orders).
As per claims 5 and 15 while Bushonville is not explicit about limit orders The set price and quantity terms of the buy and sell orders in Bushonville actually are a form of limit order since they limit the price and quantity of the orders. Official Notice is taken that it is old and well known in the art of trading orders to have limit orders that limit price and quantity that are required to meet their limits with another common limitation whether an order can be split or must be filled or killed in it’s entirety. Submitting an order that is between a market’s current clearing prices of the highest selling bid and the lowest purchase bid is also old and well known in the art with the market either filling the order at that new price or letting that bid set the new buy or sell price.
As per claim 6 Bushonville teaches:
The method of claim 5, further comprising enabling a seller to accept the limit order and to deliver a contract for using the predetermined number of processing nodes via the processing circuit, wherein the predetermined number of processing nodes are owned by the seller. (see at least Bushonville paragraph 19 “That is, the exchange office 210 receives information regarding completed transactions (transactions in which a buyer agreed to a seller's offering price or in which a seller agreed to a buyer's bid price) from the exchange controller 206 and forwards any information necessary for a carrier 212, if required, to perfect delivery of the desired commodity. It is anticipated that communications between the exchange controller 206 and the carrier 212 can also be performed directly (as illustrated by the dotted link) such that the necessary information is forwarded directly to the carrier 212 once a transaction has been completed.” Perfecting delivery is the buyer receiving what they purchased in this case the access to the processing nodes represented by the contract.)
As per claim 7 Bushonville teaches:
The method of claim 6, wherein said enabling the seller to deliver a contract includes enabling the seller to deliver a virtual contract for using the predetermined number of processing nodes. (see at least Bushonville paragraph 19 Perfecting delivery is the buyer receiving what they purchased in this case the access to the processing nodes represented by a virtual contract.)
As per claim 8 Bushonville teaches:
A computer-implemented method for trading contracts for one or more standardized types of processing nodes, comprising:
receiving a request for a price quotation for selling a predetermined number of processing nodes from a seller via a processing circuit; (see at least Bushonville paragraph 9 “Based on this market information, users may submit quote proposals (e.g., bid or offers) or quote acceptances. Preferably, an exchange system in accordance with the present invention is implemented within a publicly available network, such as the Internet or World Wide Web.”)
comparing one or more standing buy orders for buying respective first numbers of processing nodes at a first price and one or more standing sell orders for selling respective second numbers of processing nodes at a second price via the processing circuit; (see at least Bushonville paragraph 26 “to conduct exchange operations. Such functions include, but are not limited to, processing user accounts, providing displays of markets, receiving bids and offers, recognizing matches between submitted bids and offers, processing acceptances of bids and/or offers and other exchange-oriented processing.” Matches are recognized by comparing bids and offers for when they meet each other’s terms.)
filtering the standing buy orders and the standing sell orders via the processing circuit to provide a collection of filtered standing buy orders that offer a best first price for the first number of processing nodes and filtered standing sell orders that offer a best second price for the second number of processing nodes; (see at least Bushonville paragraph 26 Matches are recognized by comparing bids and offers for when they meet each other’s terms. When more bids meet the terms than the offers some of those offers are filtered out there are actually all sorts of rules for how those kind of ties are settled.)
identifying at least one set of bids and offers among the collection of filtered standing buy orders and the filtered standing sell orders that fulfill the request for the price quotation via the processing circuit; (see at least Bushonville paragraph 26 This is the matches between the submitted bids and offers.)
discarding one or more of the identified sets of bids and offers via the processing circuit to determine at least one set of qualified bids and offers; (see at least Bushonville paragraph 26 Matches are recognized by comparing bids and offers for when they meet each other’s terms. When more bids meet the terms than the offers some of those offers are filtered out there are actually all sorts of rules for how those kind of ties are settled.) and
generating the requested price quotation for selling the predetermined number of processing nodes based upon the at least one set of qualified bids and offers via the processing circuit. (see at least Bushonville paragraph 26 “a selection information stor age structure 414, an optional transmit program 416, quote data 418, address data 420, trade data 422 and markets data 424. The exchange logic 406 implements those functions, preferably through the use of computer-readable instructions, susceptible to automation and necessary to conduct exchange operations.” A price quote is what the matches would be for a buy or sell bid.)
While Bushonville is for service contracts of things being bought sold to be used in available time frames including spot market pricing for immediate delivery starting usage. It is not explicit about it being for computer processing but Du (see at least Du Abstract “When using blockchain in mobile systems, computation intensive mining tasks pose great challenges to the processing capabilities of mobile miner equipment. Mobile edge computing (MEC) is an effective solution to alleviating the problem via task offloading. In the mining process, miners compete for rewards through puzzle solving, where only the miner that first completes the process will be rewarded. Thus, miners may wish to pay higher price and use more communication resources in task offloading and more computation resources in task processing for latency reduction.”) teaches the immediate purchasing of computation resources and communication resources for Blockchain mining. Therefore it would have been obvious to have applied the trading of services on an exchange to trading contract for processing nodes since it was solving a known problem of allocating resources in a known way setting up an exchange to trade such a resource between buyers and suppliers of that resource.
As per claim 10 Bushonville teaches:
The method of claim 8, further comprising confirming that the seller controls at least the predetermined number of processing nodes. (see at least Bushonville paragraph 19 “Generally, the exchange controller 206 functions to automate interface operations with potential buyers and sellers of a given commodity, to implement exchange functionality (e.g., display market information, identify potential trades, etc.) and to support settlement activities. To this end, the exchange controller 206 is in communication with one or more financial institutions 208 capable of verifying customer credit availability and limits,” Customer credit and availability would include being able to actually provide the service themselves especially for immediate delivery where someone either needs to be holding a contract already where they can make third party fill it or hold the commodity themselves to be able to deliver it right then.)
As per claim 11 Bushonville teaches:
The method of claim 10, wherein said confirming that the seller controls at least the predetermined number of processing nodes comprises confirming that the seller controls a settled contract for at least the predetermined number of processing nodes. (see at least Bushonville paragraph 19 Customer credit and availability would include being able to actually provide the service themselves especially for immediate delivery where someone either needs to be holding a contract already where they can make third party fill it or hold the commodity themselves to be able to deliver it right then.)
As per claim 12 Bushonville teaches:
The method of claim 8, further comprising enabling the seller to associate specific processing nodes with the price quotation request. (see at least Bushonville paragraph 4 “[0004] Generally, almost any fungible good can be treated as a commodity. For example live cattle, random-length lumber, various foreign currencies, interest rates and stock indices, to name a few, are currently traded as commodities. These types of commodities are traded according to predefined contracts. A typical commodity contract sets forth a specific quantity of a given type of goods, a specific quality for the goods, a specified delivery date and specified delivery location. By standardizing contracts in this manner, buyers and sellers are able to efficiently trade quickly and reliably. Such contracts are often referred to as forward or futures contracts because the delivery or maturity date is set to a date in the future. Prior to the maturity date of a given contract type, traders are able to buy and sell such contracts on the market. Once the maturity date for a given contract type arrives, trading is no longer possible. A different type of market for various contracts is the so-called spot market. In contrast to futures markets, the spot market for a commodity is the price for a specific quantity and quality of that good for immediate delivery at a specified location.” That is market with a specific quantity, quality, and a specified location limitations which could include specific processing nodes.)
As per claim 13 Bushonville teaches:
The method of claim 8, wherein said identifying the at least one set of bids and offers comprises identifying at least one set of bids and offers among the collection of filtered standing buy orders and the filtered standing sell orders that fulfill the request for the price quotation and at least one packing constraint. (see at least Bushonville paragraph 4 “[0004] Generally, almost any fungible good can be treated as a commodity. For example live cattle, random-length lumber, various foreign currencies, interest rates and stock indices, to name a few, are currently traded as commodities. These types of commodities are traded according to predefined contracts. A typical commodity contract sets forth a specific quantity of a given type of goods, a specific quality for the goods, a specified delivery date and specified delivery location. By standardizing contracts in this manner, buyers and sellers are able to efficiently trade quickly and reliably. Such contracts are often referred to as forward or futures contracts because the delivery or maturity date is set to a date in the future. Prior to the maturity date of a given contract type, traders are able to buy and sell such contracts on the market. Once the maturity date for a given contract type arrives, trading is no longer possible. A different type of market for various contracts is the so-called spot market. In contrast to futures markets, the spot market for a commodity is the price for a specific quantity and quality of that good for immediate delivery at a specified location.” That is market with a specific quantity, quality, and a specified location limitations which is what packing constraints would be specific limitations of quantity, quality, or specified location.)
As per claim 14 Bushonville teaches:
The method of claim 8, further comprising maintaining a collection of current standing buy orders for buying respective first numbers of processing nodes at a current first price and current standing sell orders for selling respective second numbers of processing nodes at a current second price via the processing circuit. (see at least Bushonville paragraph 28 “[0028] As further shown in FIG. 4, quote data 418, preferably resident in the database 304, is available to the exchange process 308. The quote data 418 comprises all pertinent information regarding quotes provided by each market participant. As described above, service contracts in accordance with the present invention specify standardized terms for duration, quality, delivery and maturity dates and delivery location. While this information may be stored for each quote submitted, it is preferable to instead store an identifier corresponding to the type of contract for each quote and, if desired, to separately store contract specifications that detail the particular terms of each type of contract. Because the duration, quality, delivery, maturity and location terms are standardized, knowledge of the contract type identifier inherently specifies each of the contract terms. In addition to the contract type identifier, each quote stored in the quote data 418 comprises the corresponding bid or offer price entered by respective users and account identifiers likewise corresponding to the respective users. The account identifiers uniquely identify individual users (i.e., natural persons or business entities, in most instances) of the exchange system. Each account identifier comprises information needed to identify and contact users, as well as financial information needed to charge customers that engage in transactions. Temporal information, such as when a particular quote was entered, may also be included. Further still, a status indication may be associated with each quote to indicate whether each particular quote is active, i.e., available for acceptance on the market, or on hold, i.e., not available for acceptance.” Maintaining all the buy and sell orders).
As per claim 16 Bushonville teaches:
The method of claim 8, further comprising enabling a buyer to accept the limit order and enabling the seller to deliver a contract to the buyer for using the predetermined number of processing nodes via the processing circuit. (see at least Bushonville paragraph 19 “That is, the exchange office 210 receives information regarding completed transactions (transactions in which a buyer agreed to a seller's offering price or in which a seller agreed to a buyer's bid price) from the exchange controller 206 and forwards any information necessary for a carrier 212, if required, to perfect delivery of the desired commodity. It is anticipated that communications between the exchange controller 206 and the carrier 212 can also be performed directly (as illustrated by the dotted link) such that the necessary information is forwarded directly to the carrier 212 once a transaction has been completed.” Perfecting delivery is the buyer receiving what they purchased in this case the access to the processing nodes represented by the contract.)
As per claim 17 Bushonville teaches:
The method of claim 16, wherein said enabling the seller to deliver a contract includes enabling the seller to deliver a virtual contract for using the predetermined number of processing nodes. (see at least Bushonville paragraph 19 Perfecting delivery is the buyer receiving what they purchased in this case the access to the processing nodes represented by a virtual contract.)
As per claim 18 Bushonville teaches:
The method of claim 16, further comprising holding payment from the buyer to the seller in an escrow account until the seller delivers the contract to the buyer. (see at least Bushonville paragraph 19 “Generally, the exchange controller 206 functions to automate interface operations with potential buyers and sellers of a given commodity, to implement exchange functionality (e.g., display market information, identify potential trades, etc.) and to support settlement activities. To this end, the exchange controller 206 is in communication with one or more financial institutions 208 capable of verifying customer credit availability and limits, issuing payments, holding funds while awaiting transaction clearance and the like.” The exchange controller holding funds while awaiting settlement is performing escrow. When the settlement is thru performance the holding could be until the performance is completed.)
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.
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/SCOTT S TROTTER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3696