DETAILED ACTION
Applicant’s amendment filed 7/21/2026 has been fully considered.
Claims 1-5 and 7-13 are pending and have been examined. Claim 6 has been canceled.
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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.
Response to Amendment
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Applicant’s arguments with respect to the amendments in the context of the cited prior art have been fully considered and are persuasive. The prior art rejection has been withdrawn.
Double Patenting
Claims 1-5 and 7-13 are provisionally rejected under the judicially created doctrine of obviousness-type double patenting as being unpatentable over claims of Patent No. 11,088,996. Although the conflicting claims are not identical, they are not patentably distinct from each other because
“A method of secure communication operative in association with a network of nodes configured as a mesh, wherein a node is a computing entity, and at least some of the nodes in the network are configured with a discovery service, the method comprising: connecting, by a first endpoint, to the discovery service, the first endpoint associated with a user seeking an anonymous connection to a protected network, the protected network being distinct from the network of nodes: receiving, by the first endpoint and from the discovery service, a list of nodes in the network; responsive to receipt of the list of nodes, the first endpoint establishing a multi- node hop virtual circuit to a gateway node identified from the list and requesting that the gateway node establish a connection to the protected network, the protected network being accessed via a virtual private network (VPN) and the connection being a VPN connection; and responsive to receipt from the gateway node of given information, the given information confirming that the gateway node has established the VPN connection to the protected network, the first endpoint securely communicating information to an entity in the protected network over a bidirectional communications channel via the multi-node hop virtual circuit and the gateway node” (claim 1, instant application) is analogous to
“A method of secure communication operative at a first endpoint in association with a network of nodes configured as a mesh, wherein a node is a computing entity, comprising: providing a distributed data structure across at least some of the nodes in the network, the distributed data structure storing presence records associated with endpoints, wherein a presence record does not reveal an identity of a user or service associated therewith; establishing a secure communication between the first endpoint and a second endpoint by: establishing a first virtual circuit and requesting a second endpoint presence record; establishing a second virtual circuit to a rendezvous service instance located at a rendezvous node, wherein the first and second virtual circuits are established concurrently; in response to receipt of the second endpoint presence record, directing a connection request to a second endpoint presence node identified in the second endpoint presence record, the connection request identifying the rendezvous node; and securely communicating with the second endpoint over a bidirectional communications channel via the second virtual circuit and the rendezvous node, the second endpoint having accepted the connection request and established a separate virtual circuit to the rendezvous service instance” (claim 1, patent 11,088,996).
This is a provisional obviousness-type double patenting rejection because the conflicting claims of the instant application have not in fact been patented.
The claims of the conflicting patents and/or applications contain every element of claims 1-5 and 7-13 of the instant application and thus anticipate the claims of the instant application. Claims 1-5 and 7-13 of the instant application therefore are not patently distinct from the copending application claims and as such are unpatentable for obvious-type double patenting. A later patent/application claim is not patentably distinct from an earlier claim if the later claim is anticipated by the earlier claim.
“A later patent claim is not patentably distinct from an earlier patent claim if the later claim is obvious over, or anticipated by, the earlier claim. In re Longi, 759 F.2d at 896, 225 USPQ at 651 (affirming a holding of obviousness-type double patenting because the claims at issue were obvious over claims in four prior art patents); In re Berg, 140 F.3d at 1437, 46 USPQ2d at 1233 (Fed. Cir. 1998) (affirming a holding of obviousness-type double patenting where a patent application claim to a genus is anticipated by a patent claim to a species with that genus). “ELI LILLY AND COMPANY v BARR LABORATORIES, INC., United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, ON PETITION FOR REHEARING EN BANC (DECIDED: May 30, 2001).
“Claim 12 and Claim 13 are generic to the species of invention covered by claim 3 of the patent. Thus, the generic invention is “anticipated” by the species of the patented invention. Cf., Titanium Metals Corp. v. Banner, 778 F.2d 775, 227 USPQ 773 (Fed. Cir. 1985) (holding that an earlier species disclosure in the prior art defeats any generic claim) 4. This court’s predecessor has held that, without a terminal disclaimer, the species claims preclude issuance of the generic claim. In re Van Ornum, 686 F.2d 937, 944, 214 USPQ 761, 767 (CCPA 1982); Schneller, 397 F.2d at 354. Accordingly, absent a terminal disclaimer, claims 12 and 13 were properly rejected under the doctrine of obviousness-type double patenting.” (In re Goodman (CA FC) 29 USPQ2d 2010 (12/3/1993).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
Smith (US PG-PUB No. 2020/0274849 A1) disclosed a method and system for message routing among multiple devices and device domains via end-to-end tunneling.
Reimer (US PG-PUB No. 2019/0132292 A1) disclosed methods for supporting anonymous communications over a network of onion routers.
Kalimuthu et al. (US Pat. No. 7,366,894 B1) disclosed a method and system for dynamically securing voice and other delay-sensitive network.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to David Garcia Cervetti whose telephone number is (571)272-5861. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8AM-5PM.
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/David Garcia Cervetti/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2409
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