DETAILED ACTION
Acknowledgements
This Office Action is in response to Applicant’s response/application filed on 04/16/2025.
The Examiner notes that citations to United States Patent Application Publication paragraphs are formatted as [####], #### representing the paragraph number.
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 11, 13 have been amended.
Claim 4, 15-16, 20, 22, 24-25, 27, 29-37 have been canceled.
Claims 17-19, 21, 23, 26, 28 have been withdrawn.
Claims 1-3, 5-14 have been examined.
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election with traverse of group I, claims 1-3 and 5-14 in the reply filed on 04/06/2026 is acknowledged.
Claims 17-19, 21, 23, 26, 28 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected group, there being no allowable generic or linking claim.
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.
As per claims 1 and 6-14, the claimed invention is directed to an abstract idea without significantly more because:
• Claim 1 recites:
receiving, through a payment routing gateway device, a digital seal and an order key element signature sent by a payment information service provider business platform, wherein the digital seal and the order key element signature are generated by the payment information service provider business platform according to order information associated with a payment and a digital credential in a payment message associated therewith, the digital credential is generated by the digital credential platform and comprises an account static data ciphertext and account carrier information, the account static data ciphertext is obtained by encrypting account static data, and the account static data represents account information associated with a payment account;
verifying the digital seal and the order key element signature to obtain a transaction element signature; and
transmitting the transaction element signature to an account management platform through the payment routing gateway device, to cause the account management platform to verify the transaction element signature and complete the payment according to a verification result.
• Under Step 1 of the Section 101 analysis, the claim(s) is/are directed to a method, a system, and a manufacture, which are statutory categories of invention.
• Under Step 2A Prong One of the 2019 Revised Patent Subject Matter Eligiblity Guidance, the claimed invention as drafted includes language (see underlined language above) that recites an abstract idea of receiving a digital seal and an order key element signature, verifying the digital seal and the order key element signature, and transmitting a transaction element signature to an account management upon successful verifying the digital seal and the order key element signature (a certain method of organizing human activity such as a commercial or legal interactions, e.g. sales activities or behaviors) but for the recitation of additional claim elements. That is, other than reciting “device”, “platform”, nothing in the claim precludes the language from being considered as performed by a person.
• Under Step 2A Prong Two of the 2019 Revised Patent Subject Matter Eligiblity Guidance, the additional claim element(s), considered individually, do not apply, rely on, or use the judicial exception in a manner that imposes a meaningful limit on the judicial exception and in a manner that integrates the exception into a practical application of the exception. The additional claim elements(s) merely add the words “apply it” (or an equivalent) with the judicial exception, or mere instructions to implement an abstract idea on a computer, or merely uses a computer as a tool to perform an abstract idea. For example, the additional elements of “device”, “platform”, merely use a generic computer device and/or generic computer components as a tool to perform an abstract idea.
• Under Step 2A Prong Two, the additional claim element(s), considered in combination, do not apply, rely on, or use the judicial exception in a manner that imposes a meaningful limit on the judicial exception and in a manner that integrates the exception into a practical application of the exception. The combination of elements is no more than the sum of their parts. Unlike the eligible claims in Diehr and Bascom, in which the elements limiting the exception taken together improve a technical field, the instant claim lacks an improvement to the functioning of a computer or to any other technology or technical field.
• Under Step 2B, the additional claim element(s), considered individually and in combination, do not provide meaningful limitation(s) to transform the abstract idea into a patent eligible application of the abstract idea such that the claim(s) amounts to significantly more than the abstract idea itself for similar reasons outlined under Step 2A Prong Two.
A similar analysis can be applied to dependent claims 6 which further recite the abstract idea without additional elements.
A similar analysis can be applied to dependent claims 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 which include additional claim elements that merely add the words “apply it” (or an equivalent) with the judicial exception, or mere instructions to implement an abstract idea on a computer, or merely uses a computer as a tool to perform an abstract idea. For example, “user terminal”, “platform”.
Therefore, claims 1, and 6-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. §101.
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, 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.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103(a) are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claim(s) 1, 6 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wilkins (US 20160350749), in view of Zhao (CN 111192057 A).
Regarding claim(s) 1, Wilkins discloses:
receiving, through a payment routing gateway device, a digital seal and an order key element signature sent by a payment information service provider business platform, wherein the digital seal and the order key element signature are generated by the payment information service provider business platform according to order information associated with a payment and a digital credential in a payment message associated therewith, the digital credential is generated by the digital credential platform and comprises an account static data ciphertext, the account static data ciphertext is obtained by encrypting account static data, and the account static data represents account information associated with a payment account; (By disclosing, “Then, the Crypto Integration Platform [(payment information service provider business platform)] further creates a committed order transaction that includes data from the order and references the commit transaction. The Crypto Integration Platform encrypts the transaction with the public key of the trading system. The order, including a reference to the committed transaction, is recorded on a distributed ledger [(payment routing gateway device)]. Encrypting the order and publishing it to the distributed ledger results in the order being obfuscated except to the exchange—that is, the public can see that there is an order but cannot see the contents of the order. In some embodiments, the order is signed with the broker-dealer's private key (i.e., authorizing the transaction), which can be used by the trading system to ensure that the order was authorized….Once the trading system [(digital credential platform)] receives the encrypted order [(digital seal)], the trading system decrypts the order data using the trading system's private key and can validate the broker-dealer's signature [(order key element signature)] using the broker-dealer's public key (if relevant).” ([0028]-[0029] and Fig. 3 of Wilkins); and “Once the digital transactional items are associated with the customer committed account, the crypto adapter can create a committed order transaction (914), which references the commit transaction and includes the order data, that is, the order particulars such as price, quantity, type of order (e.g., market, limit), security, side (e.g., buy side or sell side), broker dealer identifiers, trader identifiers (potentially anonymous), time in force (e.g., day, IOC), and ledger identifiers.” ([0078] of Wilkins); “The commit transaction can include the digital transactional items and the public key [(account static data, digital credential)] of the customer committed account and can be signed [(account static data ciphertext)] by the crypto adapter with the private key of the customer portfolio account” ([0077] of Wilkins)); (Note: the limitation “wherein the digital seal and the order key element signature are generated by the payment information service provider business platform according to order information associated with a payment and a digital credential in a payment message associated therewith, the digital credential is generated by the digital credential platform and comprises an account static data ciphertext and account carrier information, the account static data ciphertext is obtained by encrypting account static data, and the account static data represents account information associated with a payment account” has no patentable weight because this limitation has no influence on how the digital credential platform receives the digital seal and the order key element signature. The Examiner suggested the Applicant to write this limitation in a positive way to gain patentable weigh.)
verifying the digital seal and the order key element signature (By disclosing, “Once the trading system [(digital credential platform)] receives the encrypted order [(digital seal)], the trading system decrypts the order data using the trading system's private key and can validate the broker-dealer's signature [(order key element signature)] using the broker-dealer's public key (if relevant).” ([0028]-[0029] and Fig. 3 of Wilkins)).
Wilkins does not disclose, but Zhao teaches:
transmitting the transaction element signature to an account management platform through the payment routing gateway device, to cause the account management platform to verify the transaction element signature and complete the payment according to a verification result. (By disclosing, “receiving a payment request merchant end transmitted by the receipt system, the payment request for digital signature, and returning the response result to the merchant through a single system, response result comprises the routing corresponding to the account of the skip address so that merchant end according to routing the skip address jump to the account, and sending to the background account system for verification by the account of the payment request for digital signature, after the verification is passed to the payment operation corresponding to the payment request, payment to obtain operation result; the payment operation result receiving account sent by the background system, and returning the payment operation result to the merchant via the reception system, the method is realized by clearing system receipt system, interconnection of the seller terminal and the account end, simplifies the system interactive link, reduces the complexity and improves the whole system safety and improve the overall payment processing efficiency.” (Abstract of Zhao)).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the effective filing date of the present application to modify the method of Wilkins in view of Zhao to include techniques of transmitting the transaction element signature to an account management platform through the payment routing gateway device, to cause the account management platform to verify the transaction element signature and complete the payment according to a verification result. Doing so would result in an improved invention because this would improve the security of the transmission.
Regarding claim(s) 6, Wilkins does not disclose, but Zhao teaches:
a user’s primary account ([0048]-[0051] of Zhao).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the effective filing date of the present application to modify the method of Wilkins in view of Zhao to include a user primary account. Doing so would result in an improved invention because this would allow the transaction to be conducted by using the user’s primary account.
Claim(s) 7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wilkins (US 20160350749), in view of Zhao (CN 111192057 A), further in view of Chumbley (US 20180108008).
Regarding claim(s) 7, Wilkins does not disclose, but Chumbley teaches:
receiving a first digital credential request message sent by the payment information service provider business platform, wherein the first digital credential request message comprises multi-dimensional data, and the multi-dimensional data comprises user personal information, the account information, and the account carrier information (By disclosing, “User 110 may generate a request for the resource provider specific token which may comprise a resource provider identifier such as a merchant name or merchant ID, an account selection identifying account information entered by user 110 such as the account identifier or account name, as well as a wallet ID [(personal information)] identifying a digital wallet account created by digital wallet server computer 140 for user 110 or for user device 120.” ([0043] of Chumbley); “For instance, in some embodiments, a real account identifier may include a sixteen digit numerical value such as “4147 0900 0000 1234.” The first six digits of the real account identifier (e.g., “414709”), may represent a real issuer identifier (BIN) that may identify an issuer associated with the real account identifier.” ([0051] of Chumbley); “a wallet ID 330 identifying the user” ([0076] of Chumbley); and “the digital wallet server computer receives the request and extracts the merchant ID, wallet ID, and account selection from the request and requests a resource provider specific token from a token provider.” ([0079) of Chumbley));
generating the digital credential based on at least part of the multi-dimensional data, wherein the digital credential identifies a corresponding relationship among a user, a card wallet and an account (By disclosing, “In step S404, digital wallet server computer receives the resource provider specific token from the token provider and links or associates it with the wallet ID, merchant ID, and account selection received from the user.” ([0079] of Chumbley); and “a wallet ID 330 identifying the user” ([0076] of Chumbley)); and
issuing the digital credential to the payment information service provider business platform and the account management platform (By disclosing, “In step S404, digital wallet server computer [(payment information service provicer)] receives the resource provider specific token from the token provider and links or associates it with the wallet ID, merchant ID, and account selection received from the user.” ([0079] of Chumbley); and “The entries into database 300 [(account management platform)] may include entries for a resource provider specific token 310, entries for a merchant ID 320 linked to each resource provider specific token, as well as a creation date for each resource provider specific token.” ([0076] of Chumbley)).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the effective filing date of the present application to modify the method of Wilkins and Zhao, in view of Chumbley to include techniques of receiving a first digital credential request message sent by the payment information service provider business platform, wherein the first digital credential request message comprises multi-dimensional data, and the multi-dimensional data comprises user personal information, the account information, and the account carrier information; generating the digital credential based on at least part of the multi-dimensional data, wherein the digital credential identifies a corresponding relationship among a user, a card wallet and an account; and issuing the digital credential to the payment information service provider business platform and the account management platform. Doing so would result in an improved invention because this would allow the digital credential to be used for authenticating the user.
Claim(s) 10, 11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wilkins (US 20160350749), in view of Zhao (CN 111192057 A), further in view of Srivastava (US 20230245109).
Regarding claim(s) 10, Wilkins does not disclose, but Srivastava teaches:
receiving a digital credential update request message; sending a digital credential element update request message to the account management platform or the payment information service provider business platform; receiving digital credential update information fed back by the account management platform or the payment information service provider business platform; updating the digital credential indicated by the digital credential update request message according to the digital credential update information to obtain an updated digital credential; and sending the updated digital credential to the payment information service provider business platform and the account management platform. (By disclosing, “The account information in the user request 306 can include information indicating changes requested for the account (e.g., a requested change of an account owner, a primary account holder (PAH) of the account, a name and/or an address associated with the account, etc.)…. The authentication server 118 can perform a modified token generation process (or “token modification”) 316. The token modification 316 can be performed based on the modified authorization code…. The modified token can include one or more data parameters (or “authorization parameter(s)”) indicating the user identity, user authentication information (e.g., the user identity elements utilized to authenticate the user), MFA (e.g., 2FA) authentication information (e.g., the MFA element(s) utilized to verify the user device), the level of user authorization and billing account authorization, and security parameters related to the authentication and authorization of the user…. The authentication server(s) 118 can transmit the modified token to the service provider server(s) 116. ” ([0095], [0098], [0108], [0109], [0110] and Fig. 3 of Srivastava)).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the effective filing date of the present application to modify the method of Wilkins and Zhao, in view of Srivastava to include techniques of receiving a digital credential update request message; sending a digital credential element update request message to the account management platform or the payment information service provider business platform; receiving digital credential update information fed back by the account management platform or the payment information service provider business platform; updating the digital credential indicated by the digital credential update request message according to the digital credential update information to obtain an updated digital credential; and sending the updated digital credential to the payment information service provider business platform and the account management platform. Doing so would result in an improved invention because this would allow the digital credential to be up-to-date.
Regarding claim(s) 11, Wilkins does not disclose, but Srivastava teaches:
wherein: the digital credential update request message is initiated by a user terminal and sent to the digital credential platform through the payment information service provider business platform. (By disclosing, the token updating request is initiated by a user 102 and transmitted to an authentication server via a service provider server ([0095], [0098], [0108], [0109], [0110] and Fig. 3 of Srivastava)).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the effective filing date of the present application to modify the method of Wilkins and Zhao, in view of Srivastava to include techniques of the digital credential update request message is initiated by a user terminal and sent to the digital credential platform through the payment information service provider business platform. Doing so would result in an improved invention because this would allow the user to manage the token.
Claim(s) 12, 13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wilkins (US 20160350749), in view of Zhao (CN 111192057 A), further in view of Liu (US 20090320117).
Regarding claim(s) 12, Wilkins does not disclose, but Liu teaches:
receiving a digital credential cancellation request message; cancelling the digital credential indicated by the digital credential cancellation request message; sending a digital credential element cancellation request message to the account management platform or the payment information service provider business platform; receiving digital credential cancellation result information fed back by the account management platform or the payment information service provider business platform; and sending the digital credential cancellation result information to the payment information service provider business platform or the account management platform. (By disclosing, “This enables customers to terminate live web based service 106 sessions that are initiated from a first device from any available device (that can access web based service 106), such as remote sign out device 103. As a part of its operation, component 107 accesses a customer request to delete a user authentication token from a data storage table associated with web based service 106 and responsive to this request deletes the user authentication token from the data storage table that is associated with web based service 106. Upon receipt of a subsequent request from browser 102 involving the authentication token, component 107 can provide an access denial indicator to web based service 106 indicating that the authentication token has been invalidated such that access is denied.” ([0020], [0051]-[0057], Fig. 3 of Liu)).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the effective filing date of the present application to modify the method of Wilkins and Zhao, in view of Liu to include techniques of receiving a digital credential cancellation request message; cancelling the digital credential indicated by the digital credential cancellation request message; sending a digital credential element cancellation request message to the account management platform or the payment information service provider business platform; receiving digital credential cancellation result information fed back by the account management platform or the payment information service provider business platform; and sending the digital credential cancellation result information to the payment information service provider business platform or the account management platform. Doing so would result in an improved invention because this would allow the storage space to be released for expired tokens.
Regarding claim(s) 13, Wilkins does not disclose, but Liu teaches:
wherein: the digital credential cancellation request message is initiated by a user terminal and sent to the digital credential platform through the payment information service provider business platform. ([0020], [0051]-[0057], Fig. 3 of Liu).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the effective filing date of the present application to modify the method of Wilkins and Zhao, in view of Liu to include techniques wherein the digital credential cancellation request message is initiated by a user terminal and sent to the digital credential platform through the payment information service provider business platform. Doing so would result in an improved invention because this would allow the user to manage the token.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim(S) 2, 3, 5 are allowed. Claims 8, 9, 14 would be allowable if rewritten or amended to overcome the rejections(s) under 35 USC § 101 set forth in this Office action.
As per claims 2, 8, 9, and 14, the closest prior art of record, Wilkins (US 20160350749) discloses an invention for receiving, through a payment routing gateway device, a digital seal and an order key element signature sent by a payment information service provider business platform, wherein the digital seal and the order key element signature are generated by the payment information service provider business platform according to order information associated with a payment and a digital credential in a payment message associated therewith, the digital credential is generated by the digital credential platform and comprises an account static data ciphertext, the account static data ciphertext is obtained by encrypting account static data, and the account static data represents account information associated with a payment account; performing signature verification on the order key element signature by using the card wallet business public key;
decrypting the digital seal using the digital seal private key to obtain at least part of information in the digital credential and order-related information, wherein the order-related information is obtained based on the order information.
In addition, Zhao (CN 111192057 A) discloses an invention for transmitting a transaction element signature to an account management platform through the payment routing gateway device, to cause the account management platform to verify the transaction element signature and complete the payment according to a verification result.
In addition, Chumbley (US 20180108008) discloses an invention for comparing account information and wallet ID to data stored in a digital wallet databased.
The closest prior art of record fail to teach or suggest, in the context of the ordered combination of the claims.
Claims 3 and 5 are depend on claim 2 and thus allowable for the same reasons stated above.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
US 20220321357 to Omori for disclosing:
In a user credential control system (1000), an access control server includes a token issuing unit (110) that issues, to a service provider server (16), a token in which a user credential (23) that can be acquired by the service provider server (16) is described according to the company name and the type of a service of the service provider server (16) described in an electronic certificate, a policy registration unit (130) that registers a policy of an access authority of the service provider server (16) to the user credential (23) based on the company name or the type of the service of the service provider server (16), and a notification reception unit (120) that, when the user credential (23) of the user terminal (11) has been changed, acquires the service provider server (16) with the access authority to the user credential from a token according to the registered policy to notify the service provider server of the change of the user credential (23).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DUAN ZHANG whose telephone number is (571)272-4642. The examiner can normally be reached Mon - Fri 10 AM-5 PM.
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/DUAN ZHANG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3699
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