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 an application filed May 9, 2025. Claims 1-20 are pending in this application.
Double Patenting
The nonstatutory obviousness 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 claims at issue 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); and 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 a nonstatutory double patenting ground provided the reference application or patent either is shown to be commonly owned with this application, or claims an invention made as a result of activities undertaken within the scope of a joint research agreement. A terminal disclaimer must be signed in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(b).
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Claims 1-20 are rejected on the ground of nonstatutory obviousness double patenting as being unpatentable over claims 1-20 of patent no. US 12,299,090 B2. Although the claims at issue are not identical, they are not patentably distinct from each other because the claims are directed to the same subject matter of creating a virtual credential to bind to a physical location. A side-by-side analysis of the first independent claim(s) of the instant application and the copending application(s) has been included below. The bolded portions are portions which are almost identical to one another. The non-bolded portions are related to subject matter which are obvious, and do not further define over the subject matter of one another. Therefore, the subject matter of both claim sets are not distinct from one another and yields an obviousness-type double patenting rejection. This is NOT a provisional double patenting rejection since patent document (US 12,299,090 B2) has been issued while the instant application is pending.
Here is the following side-by-side analysis of the first independent claim in each application:
Instant Application ‘554
1. A system, comprising:
one or more memories; and
one or more processors, coupled to the one or more memories, configured to:
create a virtual credential that is linked to a primary payment credential and that is used as a substitute for the primary payment credential, wherein the virtual credential is bound to a physical location associated with a financial transacting entity and is invalid at any other location;
send, to one or more financial transaction terminals at the physical location, information associated with the virtual credential;
receive, from a financial transaction terminal requesting authorization for a transaction using the virtual credential, other information related to the virtual credential; and
send, to the financial transaction terminal, an authorization decision associated with the transaction based on a relation between the financial transaction terminal and the physical location.
Patent No. ‘090
1. A system for enabling an in-person card-not-present transaction, the system comprising:
one or more memories; and
one or more processors, communicatively coupled to the one or more memories, configured to:
create a mapping between physical locations associated with financial transacting entities and financial transaction terminals at the physical locations associated with the financial transacting entities based on historical transaction records received from a transaction backend system;
receive, from a user device, a request to create a virtual credential that is linked to a primary payment credential and is used as a substitute for the primary payment credential, wherein the virtual credential is bound to a physical location associated with a financial transacting entity such that the virtual credential is restricted to being valid at the physical location and is invalid at any other location;
create, based on the request from the user device, the virtual credential bound to the physical location;
send, to one or more financial transaction terminals at the physical location bound to the virtual credential, information to register the virtual credential and identify a user that owns an account associated with the virtual credential;
provide, to the user device, tokenized information related to the virtual credential based on a determination that a user attempting to authorize a transaction using the virtual credential is the user that owns the account associated with the virtual credential;
receive, from a financial transaction terminal requesting authorization for the transaction, the tokenized information related to the virtual credential; and
send, to the financial transaction terminal requesting the authorization for the transaction, an authorization decision associated with the transaction based on whether the financial transaction terminal is present at the physical location bound to the virtual credential.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-20 are allowed over available prior art references and/or combination(s) of available prior art references but are rejected under Double Patenting.
As allowable subject matter has been indicated, applicant's reply must either comply with all formal requirements or specifically traverse each requirement not complied with. See 37 CFR 1.111(b) and MPEP § 707.07(a).
REASONS FOR ALLOWANCE
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: The Examiner has not found any reasonable prior art(s) nor combination of prior art(s) which teach the feature of ‘the virtual credential is bound to a physical location associated with a financial transacting entity and is invalid at any other location’.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ESTHER B. HENDERSON whose telephone number is (571)270-3807. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 6a-2p ET.
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/ESTHER B. HENDERSON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2458 September 4, 2026
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