DETAILED ACTION
This Office Action is in response to the application 19/280,592 filed on July 25th, 2025.
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
Claims 1-6 are pending and herein considered.
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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS), submitted on 07/25/2025, 12/18/2025, is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CRR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Priority
Acknowledgement is made of Applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d) to Application No. 2023-010563, the signed copy having been filed on January 26th, 2023.
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 1-6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 as being directed to non-statutory subject matter.
Regarding claims 1, 5 and 6; claims 1, 5 and 6 are/is rejected under 35 USC 101 because the claims are/is directed to an abstract idea without being integrated into a practical application nor being significantly more.
The claims reciting the limitations “accept[ing] an application for use of the connector by the first corporation,” “acquir[ing] an authentication result for a line number on the first communication line of the first business terminal at a time of the application for use,” “compar[ing] contractor information on the first corporation for the first communication line with information related to the first corporation accepted from the first business terminal at the time of the application for use,” “caus[ing] an email system to transmit a first one-time password to a second business terminal under a contract with the first corporation,” “acquir[ing] a first digital certificate including register information on the first corporation from a corporate digital certificate issuance infrastructure of a government,” “issu[ing] a first connector ID of the first connector to first corporation” and “register[ing] the first connector ID in association with at least identification information on the first corporation and the first digital certificate” are directed to an abstract idea as the claims recite mental processes. Accordingly, the claims recite an abstract idea. This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application. It’s noted that the claims recite additional element(s) (i.e, a management device, a first business terminal, an application). However, said additional element is recited at a high-level of generality (i.e., as a generic processor performing a generic computer function of accepting/acquiring/comparing/causing/acquiring/issuing/registering) such that it amounts no more than mere instructions to apply the exception using a generic computer component. Accordingly, this additional element does not integrate the abstract idea into a practical application because it does not impose any meaningful limits on practicing the abstract idea. Therefore, the claims are not integrated into a practical application.
The claims do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception because the additional elements when considered both individually and as an ordered combination do not amount to significantly more than the abstract idea. As mentioned above, although the claims recite additional element, said element taken individually or as a combination, do not result in the claim amounting to significantly more than the abstract idea because as the additional elements perform generic computer content distributing functions routinely used in information technology field. Registering the first connector ID in association with at least identification information on the first corporation and the first digital certificate is conventional, well know routing in view of Berkeeimer memo here. Generic computer components recited as performing generic computer functions that are well understood, routine and conventional activities amount to no more than implementing the abstract idea with a computerized system. Therefore, the claim is directed to non-statutory subject matter.
Regarding claims 2-4; claims 2-4 are also rejected under 35 U.S.C 101 as being directed to non-statutory subject matter for the same reasons addressed above as the claims are directed to abstract idea without being integrated into a practical application nor being significantly more.
Conclusion
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/KHOI V LE/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2436
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