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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 3/5/2026 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Prior Art Rejections
Applicant’s arguments, see pg. 8 of remarks, filed 3/5/2026, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 1 under 35 U.S.C. 103 have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of different interpretation of the previously applied reference and newly found prior art reference(s).
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.
Claims 1, 3, 8, 10, 12-13, 19-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Adams et al. (US 20060233374 A1, hereinafter “Adams”) in view of Park et al. (US 20130318139 A1, hereinafter “Park”).
As per claim 1, Adams teaches An apparatus comprising: an entropy supply (Adams: [0020], mobile device corresponding to the apparatus) and a transmitter (Adams: Fig. 2 element 108) configured to transfer entropy from the entropy supply to an external computing device (Adams: [0020], of note last sentence).
However, while Adams discloses the mobile device comprising a randomness pool and providing random data to the smart card reader ([0020]), Adams does not explicitly disclose details of the randomness providing circuitry in the mobile device. Thus, Adams does not teach comprising a physical entropy generator configured to generate entropy from physical processes, wherein the entropy comprises a random number and/or a random sequence of bits; a power source configured to provide power to the entropy supply to power the generation of entropy from the physical processes;
Park teaches comprising a physical entropy generator configured to generate entropy from physical processes (Park: Fig. 3 element 304; [0057], wherein the hardware noise source is a thermal noise diode), wherein the entropy comprises a random number and/or a random sequence of bits (Park: Fig. 5 element S520; [0085]); a power source configured to provide power to the entropy supply to power the generation of entropy from the physical processes (Park: Fig. 3 elements 301, 303; [0069]);
Therefore, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify, with a reasonable expectation of success, the mobile device of Adams with the low-power microprocessor system of Park. One would have been motivated to combine these references because both references disclose random number generation on low-power devices, and Parks provides a method to efficiently generate unpredictable random numbers (Park: [0025]).
As per claim 3, Adams/Park further teaches The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a controller configured to control generation of entropy by the entropy generator and/or control the provision of power from the power source to the entropy generator (Park: Fig. 3 element 305, [0065]-[0066]).
As per claim 4, Adams/Park further teaches The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the controller comprises at least one actuator that upon actuation causes the power source to provide power to the entropy generator, causes the entropy generator to generate entropy, and/or causes the apparatus to provide entropy generated by the entropy generator to the external computing device (Park: Fig. 3 element 302, [0063]; [0066]).
As per claim 8, Adams/Park further teaches The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the power source comprises at least one of: a battery, a rechargeable battery that can be recharged via a power supply external to the apparatus, or a solar cell (Park: Fig. 3 elements 301, 303);
and wherein the transmitter comprises at least one of a wireless transmitter for wirelessly transmitting entropy to the external computing device or a port for connecting a cable for transferring entropy to the external computing device (Adams: Fig. 2 elements 108, 212; [0020]).
As per claims 10, 12-13, the claims are directed to a method that implements the same or similar features as the apparatus of claims 1, 3-4, respectively, and are therefore rejected for at least the same reasons therein.
As per claim 19, Adams/Park further teaches The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the physical entropy generator is configured to generate on-demand entropy (Park: [0087]; Fig. 7 [0099]-[0104]; random numbers are updated when they are requested)
As per claim 20, the claim is directed to a method that implements the same features as the apparatus of claim 19, and is therefore rejected for at least the same reasons therein.
Claims 5-7, 14-17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Adams/Park in further view of Baird, III et al. (US 20020112183 A1, hereinafter “Baird”).
As per claim 5, Adams/Park further teaches The apparatus of claim 1,
However, while Adams discloses the mobile device maintaining an entropy pool [0020], Adams does not explicitly state how the entropy pool is stored. Thus, Adams does not teach wherein the entropy supply comprises storage for storing entropy generated by the physical entropy generator.
Baird teaches wherein the entropy supply comprises storage for storing entropy generated by the physical entropy generator (Baird: Fig. 4 element 416, [0042]; contained in Fig. 3-4 element 301, [0026]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify, with a reasonable expectation of success, the mobile device entropy pool of Adams with the memory module of Baird. One would have been motivated to combine these references because both references disclose small devices maintaining entropy pools, and combining prior art elements according to known methods to yield predictable results (maintaining an entropy pool).
As per claim 6, Adams/Park/Baird further teaches The apparatus of claim 5, further comprising a controller (Adams: Fig. 2 element 216).
However, while Adams discloses a processor in the mobile device ([0029]), Adams/Park does not explicitly disclose the processor controlling entropy in memory. Thus, Adams/Park does not teach that controls the provision of entropy from the storage to the external computing device via the transmitter.
Baird teaches that controls the provision of entropy from the storage to the external computing device via the transmitter (Baird: [0043], [0050]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify, with a reasonable expectation of success, the mobile device processor of Adams with the handheld device processor of Baird (Fig. 3 element 314). One would have been motivated to combine these references because both references disclose smart card readers, and combining prior art elements according to known methods to yield predictable results (control and interfacing the components of a mobile device for entropy pools).
As per claim 7, Adams/Park/Baird further teaches The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the controller comprises at least one actuator that upon actuation causes the transmitter to start providing entropy from the storage to the external computing device (Baird: [0043], [0050]).
As per claim 14, the claim is directed to a method that implements the same or similar features as the apparatus of claims 5, and are therefore rejected for at least the same reasons therein.
As per claim 15, Adams/Park/Baird further teaches The method of claim 14, wherein the storage stores the entropy without requiring energy from the power source (Baird: [0042] entropy pool is within the data module, [0039] which is a long-term memory).
As per claims 16-17, the claims are directed to a method that implements the same or similar features as the apparatus of claims 6-7, respectively, and are therefore rejected for at least the same reasons therein.
Prior Art Made of Record
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant’s disclosure:
Bradish et al. (US 5830064 A) discloses a portable random-event generator (Fig. 1 element 100) that that may be used to generate randomness and control a variety of applications (abstract).
Valentino et al. (US 20130110895 A1) discloses a random event generator (Fig. 8) that displays the correlation of physical events and the randomness of their signals.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to PHAT N LE whose telephone number is (571)272-0546. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8:30AM-5PM ET.
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/P.N.L./
Phat LeExaminer, Art Unit 2182 (571) 272-0546
/ANDREW CALDWELL/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2182
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