DETAILED ACTION
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 .
Status of Claims
Claims 1-11 have been examined.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-11 are allowable over prior art and further in view of overcoming U.S.C. 101 rejection.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement filed 03/14/2025 fails to comply with 37 CFR 1.98(a)(2), which requires a legible copy of each cited foreign patent document; each non-patent literature publication or that portion which caused it to be listed; and all other information or that portion which caused it to be listed. It has been placed in the application file, but the information referred to therein has not been considered.
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.
Claims 1-11 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 the instance case, claims 1-9 are directed to a computing device and claims 10-11 are directed to a method. Therefore, these claims fall within the four statutory categories of invention.
The claims are directed to registering a user which is an abstract idea. Specifically, the claims recite “providing a registration code… to the user…; receiving from the user, the registration code and at least one user credential…; processing…the registration code…; creating a user account for the user… ” which is grouped within the “certain methods of organizing human activity” grouping of abstract ideas in prong one of step 2A of the Alice/Mayo test (MPEP 2106) because the claims involve a series of steps for providing a registration code to a user, receiving the registration code and credential from the user, processing the registration code and credentials and creating a user account which is process deals with commercial or legal interactions. Accordingly, the claims recite an abstract idea (See MPEP 2106).
This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application because, when analyzed under prong two of step 2A of the Alice/Mayo test (See MPEP 2106), the additional elements of the claims such as, software application and personal computer merely use a computer as a tool to perform an abstract idea. Specifically, software application and personal computer perform the steps of providing a registration code to a user, receiving the registration code and credential from the user, processing the registration code and credentials and creating a user account. The use of a processor/computer as a tool to implement the abstract idea does not integrate the abstract idea into a practical application because it requires no more than a computer performing functions that correspond to acts required to carry out the abstract idea. The additional elements do not involve improvements to the functioning of a computer, or to any other technology or technical field (MPEP 2106.05(a)), the claims do not apply or use the abstract idea to effect a particular treatment or prophylaxis for a disease or medical condition (Vanda Memo), the claims do not apply the abstract idea with, or by use of, a particular machine (MPEP 2106.05(b)), the claims do not effect a transformation or reduction of a particular article to a different state or thing (MPEP 2106.05(c)), and the claims do not apply or use the abstract idea in some other meaningful way beyond generally linking the use of the abstract idea to a particular technological environment, such that the claim as a whole is more than a drafting effort designed to monopolize the exception (MPEP 2106.05(e) and Vanda Memo). Therefore, the claims do not, for example, purport to improve the functioning of a computer. Nor do they effect an improvement in any other technology or technical field. Accordingly, the additional elements do not impose any meaningful limits on practicing the abstract idea, and the claims are directed to an abstract idea.
The claims do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception because, when analyzed under step 2B of the Alice/Mayo test (See MPEP 2106), the additional elements of software application and personal computer, to perform the steps amounts to no more than using a computer or processor to automate and/or implement the abstract idea of registering a user. As discussed above, taking the claim elements separately, software application and personal computer the steps of providing a registration code to a user, receiving the registration code and credential from the user, processing the registration code and credentials and creating a user account. These functions correspond to the actions required to perform the abstract idea. Viewed as a whole, the combination of elements recited in the claims merely recite the concept of registering a user. Therefore, the use of these additional elements does no more than employ the computer as a tool to automate and/or implement the abstract idea. The use of a computer or processor to merely automate and/or implement the abstract idea cannot provide significantly more than the abstract idea itself (MPEP 2106.05(I)(A)(f) & (h)). Therefore, the claim is not patent eligible.
Dependent claims 2-9 and 11 further describes the abstract idea of registering a user. Specifically claims 2, 7-8 and 11 just describing the information such as credential and code. This further describes the abstract idea because it involves in the analysis of the information. Claims 3-6 describing the checking and processing the information which is part of the abstract idea because it describes the manner in which user registration is performed. Claim 9 describing the additional element which is used as a tool to automate and/or implement the abstract idea.
Therefore, the dependent claims are also not patent eligible.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Sather (US 10373149) discloses: offline user authentication (See column 6 lines 56-67)
Dean (US 10013536) discloses license activation and management (See Abstract)
DEVAKI (US 20160086375) discloses user login utilizing license key and credentials (See paragraph 0033)
Bliding (US 20120222103) discloses access control during offline mode (See Abstract).
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/ZESHAN QAYYUM/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3697