More of the same today, and nothing particularly noteworthy issuing. IBM has their usual slew of pre-Bilski allowances but I'll spare you from them.
But here's two that may be of some interest, to E*Trade and First Data. And be sure to read to the end -- there's a special treat having nothing to do with 101 -- a Patent of the Day.
-aaron
Assignee: E*Trade 1. A method of providing solutions for trading securities, the method comprising the steps of:
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Commentary: I guess if you include a step of "creating in a computer memory" that suffices. Or so this examiner thought before 10/30/2008.
U.S. Patent No. 7,490,059, Methods and Systems for consolidating financial reporting information
Assignee: First Data Corp.
1. A method for providing financial reporting information to a customer, the method comprising:
receiving financial reporting information for a plurality of distinct financial accounts at a host system;
mapping the received financial reporting information onto a set of distinct financial account types with the host computer system wherein each financial account type of the set of financial account types is distinguished based on a credit mechanism by which an account balance is increased and a debit mechanism by which the account balance is decreased;
consolidating the mapped financial reporting information according to a set of consolidation rules with the host computer system wherein the consolidation rules are defined by both the financial institution that controls at least one of the financial accounts and the customer;
formatting the consolidated financial reporting information according to a set of fulfillment rules with the host computer system for distribution to the customer; and
preparing a summary of the consolidated financial reporting information for distribution to the customer with the consolidated financial reporting information.
Commentary: Not sure if that "host computer system" is particular enough, but I'll let it slide. The interesting story here is that the claims were actually rejected in 8/2006 under 101 -- failing the State Street useful/concrete/tangible test. After two rounds battling over whether the claim really did produce a useful result, the applicant added the last step of “preparing a summary”. This satisfied the Examiner.
Patent of the Day
U.S. Patent No. 7,488,244 Apparatus for skinning squirrels
Yep, because
"It is well known that when a squirrel is manually skinned without the aid of a device, one must first start by pulling the hair away from a spot just above where the tail joins the body and make a cut that leaves a strip of skin uncut at the top edge of the tail." Well known in the inventor's home of Cadiz, Kentucky, I guess.
So, for those of you who hate having to step on your squirrel's tail when you skin it, you'll love this gizmo: "One advantage of the present invention is that it eliminates the need to step on the tail and bend over to complete the skinning process."
Practice tip: This application was filed in April 2008 -- 10 months to issuance, and no Accelerated Examination. So if you can put in a few appropriate buzzwords in your application, try to dress it up so it can get classified into Art Unit 3643 "FISHING, TRAPPING, AND VERMIN DESTROYING", where there appears to be short pendencies.
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