DETAILED ACTION
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 01/21/2026 has been entered.
Amendment Summary
Claims 1, 9 and 13 are amended.
Response to Arguments/Amendment
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims # 1-20 have been considered but they are not persuasive.
1)
Applicant argues that the board decision does not render amended claim 1 unpatentable.
Examiner respectfully disagrees as the amended claim does not change the scope of the claim. Plus the amended claim is rejected under 112th(b) as it is not clear how the authentication information is generated. Also authentication information can be associated with multiple subject including the user identifier, authentication algorithm , type of cryptography, ect. Since the scope of the claim is not changed, the board decision and arguments still applied to the amended claims. The arguments about device generated authentication are different than its interpretation in the claim. The lack of antecedent renders the argument moot.
Conclusion
Therefore for each of these about reasons, Lu in view of Schwagmann does teach all of the limitations of claim 1. Claim 9, 13 contain similar features as claim 1, therefore it is subject to all explanations above. The rejections on the dependent claims with respective to claim 1 and claim 9 and Claim 13 remain.
Therefore, Applicant requests that this art ground of rejection of these claims under 35 U.S.C. §103 to be withdrawn has been denied.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b): 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.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) 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.
Claim 1 recites “:
“ receiving, at a server, a registration request for registering and associating a plurality of user identifiers for at least one service on a particular device, the registration request comprising the plurality of user identifiers and device-generated authentication information”
There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim as it is not clear that we are referring to the same “particular device or another device”.
Note :
Even though the claims are rejected under 112th(b), they will be analyzed as per examiner own interpretation.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claim(s) 1-5, 9-11, 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lu (US 2013/0125227 A1) in view of Schawagmann (US 2008/0003957 A1).
Regarding Claim 1, 9, 13
Lu discloses a method (See [Abstract]; a method for accessing a storage server of an IM service system and an IM service system) comprising:
receiving, at a server (Fig.1(IM Server)), a registration request (See [0041-0043]; an IM client sends a registration request message to an IM service system) for registering a first user identifier (See [0045]; a registration process is triggered) for at least one service (See [0042]; IM Service) on a particular device (Fig.1(IM Client 1),
the registration request comprising device-generated authentication information (See [0043-0044]; user identifier associated and generated by one device
obtaining, by the server, other user identifiers associated with the first user identifier (See [0043]; obtains other user identifiers associated with the first user identifier),
the authentication information cryptographically binds each of the plurality of user identifiers the particular device (See [0010]; [0045]); registration process triggered authentication of each user identifiers).
performing, by the server (Fig.1(IM Server)), an authentication of a plurality of user identifiers associated with the particular device (See [0045]; the registration process triggers the authentication process of the first user identifier and a plurality of user identifiers associated with the first user identifier) based at least on the authentication information (See [0045]; The authentication is performed using the plurality of user identifiers);
performing, by the server (Fig.1(IM Server)), a registration of the at least one service for the particular device (See [0045-0046]; the service associated with the plurality of user identifiers is registered) using the authenticated plurality of user identifiers (See [0045]; The authentication is performed using the plurality of user identifiers); and
transmitting, from the server (Fig.1(IM Server)), to the particular device (Fig.1(IM Client 1), information for accessing the at least one service via each respective user identifier of the plurality of user identifiers (See [0045-0046]; transmitting registration success response to IM client).
But Lu fails to explicitly recite about
A registration request for registering a plurality of user identifiers for a particular device.
However in an analogous art,
Schawagmann teaches about a registration request corresponding to a plurality of user identifiers associated with particular device (See [0078])
Lu and Schawagmann are analogous art because they all pertain to server and client device interaction in term of registration and authentication. Lu teaches about registration request comprising a user identifier and authentication information. Schawagmann teaches about a registration request corresponding to a plurality of user identifiers associated with particular device where one identifier can be used for all associated user identifiers. Lu could use Schawagmann features in term of using one message comprising all user identifiers to be registered and authenticate all corresponding user identifications associated with a particular device. Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill at the time of the filing of the application to combine Schawagmann and Lu as to obtain an efficient telecommunication system.
Regarding Claim 2,
Lu and Schawagmann teach all the features with respect to claim 1 and Lu further teaches
performing, by the server (Fig.1(IM Server)), a registration of the at least one service (See [0045]; the registration process triggers the authentication process of the first user identifier and a plurality of user identifiers associated with the first user identifier) for a plurality of devices (See Fig.1; multiple clients can register to at least a server service),
wherein the registration includes at least one respective handle (See {[0047]; [0051]; client uses login request to access services) for accessing the at least one service on a respective device via each respective user identifier (See [0047]; [0051]; in order to access at least one service, client needs to be authenticated).
Regarding Claim 3,
Lu and Schawagmann teach all the features with respect to claim 2 and Lu further teaches
wherein the performing the authentication (See [0045]; [0051]; authenticating IM client associated with multiple users) comprises
performing a batch operation of authenticating the plurality of user identifiers
associated with the plurality of devices (See [0045]; [0051]; the registration process triggers the authentication process of the first user identifier and a plurality of user identifiers associated with the first user identifier).
Regarding Claim 5, 11
Lu and Schawagmann teach all the features with respect to claim 1, 9 and Lu further teaches
wherein at least one corresponding user identifier is associated with a corresponding subscriber identity module (See Fig.1(3G); [0014-0016]; [0070-0072] an identity verification module is used in the network).
Claim(s) 6 and 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over
Lu (US 2013/0125227 A1) in view of Schawagmann (US 2008/0003957 A1) and further in view of Examiner Official Notice.
Regarding Claim 6, 12
Lu and Schawagmann teach all the features with respect to claim 1, 9
But Lu and Schawagmann fail to explicitly recite
wherein the registration includes a tag identifying a priority of each of the plurality of user identifiers for accessing the at least one service in a particular order.
“Examiner Official Notice”
Examiner takes official notice in that assigning a tag for associating priority tag to an identifier among plurality of identifiers in order to access a server in order of priority is trivial and is known in the art. Therefore, it would have been obvious for Lu to use this feature in its art in order to obtain an efficient registration/access server method.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4, 7, 8, 10 and 14-20 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in statutory independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to GARY LAFONTANT whose telephone number is (571)272-3037. The examiner can normally be reached 9:00AM -5:00PM.
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/GARY LAFONTANT/Examiner, Art Unit 2646