DETAILED ACTION
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on July 3, 2025 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Claims 1-20 are currently pending. Claims 1, 3-7, 11, 13-17, and 20 were amended.
Re: Rejections under 35 U.S.C. § 103
Applicant’s arguments on pp. 2-3 of the REMARKS (filed on July 3, 2025) have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection to the independent claims over US 2011/0191838 to Yanagihara in view of US 2017/0317993 to Weber has been withdrawn.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claims 1, 11, and 20 recite “the one or more devices”. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claims 1, 11, and 20 recite “access an application” twice. It is unclear if there are two distinct applications, or if the limitation was referring to a singular application.
Claims 2-10 and 12-19 are also rejected by virtue of their dependency to claims 1 and 11.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-20 would be allowable if rewritten or amended to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action.
The claimed invention is directed to dynamic security challenge authentication, wherein security challenges are generated from interactions with one or more applications, files, and/or devices associated with the user. See [0038]-[0039] & Fig. 3 of the originally filed specifications.
The concept of generating authentication challenges and/or questions derived from a user’s activities, such as interactions on a device or historical transactions, was well-known. See the cited prior arts in Conclusion on pp. 10-12 of the Non-Final Office Action dated 12/9/2024, and the following Conclusion in the current Office Action for additional relevant prior arts.
Furthermore, US 2011/0191838 (Yanagihara), from the withdrawn 35 U.S.C. § 103 rejection, discloses preparing authentication questions based off of transient event data, such as recent application activities, document access, login history, etc. [0026], [0040].
However, none of the cited prior arts disclose, teach, or reasonably suggest features to: “receive a plurality of device identifiers for a plurality of devices associated with the user identifier; retrieve, using each of the plurality of device identifiers, from one or more services or components configured to monitor usage on the plurality of devices, first data corresponding to one or more previous interactions of the user with one or more applications on a respective device of the plurality of devices; retrieve, according to the first data, from the one or more services or components, second data corresponding to one or more files including information indicative of access linked to the user identifier via a respective device” and “generate, based on the first data and the second data, a security challenge including a question relating to the one or more previous interactions of the user via the one or more devices” as recited in independent claims 1, 11, and 20.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
US 9,396,316: User information includes an account owner’s past activities, associated IP address(es), user device identifier(s) associated with the account owner, etc. The user information is used to determine a whitelisting deviation during a login attempt. See col. 14, lines 5-26.
US 2020/0380112: Device data may include identifier data and historical usage information relating to access of user devices. Device data and identity data are used in a passive-dimension process for verifying authentication of a user device. See [0037]-[0041].
US 2016/0057110: One-time challenge questions are generated from context information, which includes past location data, a user’s phone log, SMS history, or e-mail exchanges. See [0014]-[0016].
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/ROBERT B LEUNG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2494