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 .
This office action is in response to applicant’s RCE filed on 02/05/2026.
Claims 1-8 are pending and examined.
Response to Arguments
Per 103 rejection, applicant’s arguments filed on 02/05/2026 have been fully considered but they are moot in light of new grounds of rejection with a new reference applied (Viegas).
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 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Madden (US PGPUB 2019/0228397), in view of Singleton (US PGPUB 2017/0339563), in view of Viegas et al. (US PGPUB 2019/0362414) hereinafter Viegas.
Per claim 1, Madden discloses “a method comprising: receiving, by a device connected to a communications network, a neutral application packet kit; running, by the device, an instance of an application corresponding to the neutral application packet kit” (paragraph [0026]; downloading from an application store, an application in APK format (application packet kit), executing the application on a device); “requesting, by the application, endpoint data from an authentication cluster of the plurality of clusters on the communications network; receiving, by the application, the endpoint data from the authentication cluster; and connecting, by the application, to the initial servicing cluster using the neutral application packet kit; and connecting to another servicing cluster of the plurality of clusters using the neutral application packet kit” (paragraph [0036]; executing the application (from the file in APK format), the application authenticates the user by asking the user to submit credentials to a server (authentication cluster), once authenticated (receiving validation), a user may be logged-in to one or more merchant sites (initial servicing cluster and another servicing cluster) and to select products for purchase; i.e. after the authentication, the user may first connect to merchant site A (initial servicing cluster), then connect to merchant site B (another servicing cluster); the application executes from the file in APK format, thus connecting to the servicing clusters utilizes the neutral application packet kit).
Madden discloses receiving, by the application, the endpoint data from the authentication cluster (paragraph [0036]; after validation, the user gains access to a merchant website (initial servicing cluster)). Madden does not explicitly teach receiving, by the application, the endpoint data that identifies the initial servicing cluster from the authentication cluster sent by the authentication cluster in response to the request for the endpoint data by the application. However, Singleton suggests receiving, by the application, the endpoint data that identifies the initial servicing cluster from the authentication cluster sent by the authentication cluster in response to the request for the endpoint data by the application; connecting, by the application, to the initial servicing cluster identified by the endpoint data; and connecting to another servicing cluster (paragraphs [0101][0102]; an application (a web browser) prompts a user to enter user ID and password, and sends them to an authentication server (requesting validation data), the authentication server returns validation data (endpoint data) to the application, including data indicative of a plurality of websites (URLs identifying an initial servicing cluster and another servicing cluster) and one or more policies for each website; based on the received website policies (endpoint data), the application (web browser) is connected (routed) to websites (initial servicing cluster, another servicing cluster) using the URL contained in the validation data (endpoint data)). Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Madden and Singleton that after a user receives validation data (endpoint data) the user gains access to merchant websites (initial servicing cluster and another servicing cluster) identified by the URL in the endpoint data based on website policies, as this enhances the network security (access to unsafe websites is prevented).
Madden discloses an application packet kit can connect to one or more merchant websites, but does not explicitly teach wherein the neutral application packet kit is configured to connect to any of a plurality of clusters and is not configured to function in connection with only a specific cluster of the plurality of clusters. However, Viegas suggests the above (paragraphs [0045][0046]; on a smartphone device, a neutral mobile application (a browser application) is able to access different merchants’ websites residing on different clusters/servers; the browser application is not configured specifically for a particular server). Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Madden, Singleton and Viegas that a browser application (neutral APK) on a mobile device is able to connect to any of a plurality of clusters, this would improve the versatility of the browser application (instead of using different APK to connect to different clusters).
Per claim 2, Madden further suggests “providing, by the application, identifying data to the authentication cluster; and receiving, by the application, an indication of authentication from the authentication cluster” (paragraph [0036]; executing the application, the application authenticates the user by asking the user to submit credentials to a server (authentication cluster), once authenticated (receiving validation), a user may be logged-in to a merchant site (initial servicing cluster) and to select products for purchase).
Per claim 3, Singleton further suggests “wherein the endpoint data comprises a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) of the initial servicing cluster and the method further comprises configuring the application to connect to the initial servicing cluster via the communications network using the URL” (paragraphs [0101][0102]; the authentication server returns validation data (endpoint data) to the application, including data indicative of a plurality of websites (URLs identifying an initial servicing cluster) and one or more policies for each website; based on the received website policies (endpoint data), the application (web browser) is connected (routed) to a website (initial servicing cluster) using the URL contained in the validation data (endpoint data)).
Claims 4-5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Madden, in view of Singleton, in view of Viegas, in view of Miller et al. (US PGPUB 2015/0235389) hereinafter Miller.
Per claim 4, Madden does not explicitly teach “requesting, by the application, cluster settings of the initial servicing cluster from the initial servicing cluster; and receiving, by the application, the cluster settings”. However, Miller suggests the above (paragraphs [0093][0094]; a user logs on to a website (initial servicing cluster), retrieving a profile associated with the user, the profile which contains account settings (cluster settings), which configures the website for the user’s interaction). It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Madden, Singleton, Viegas and Miller to provide cluster settings to a client application, so the client application can be customized to suite the user’s preferences (providing a more user-friendly environment).
Per claim 5, Madden does not explicitly teach “further comprising communication, by the application, with a profile service and causing the profile service to retrieve a profile of a technician associated with the device, wherein the profile includes the endpoint data”. However, Miller suggests the above (paragraphs [0093][0094]; a user logs on to a website (initial servicing cluster), retrieving a profile associated with the user, the profile which contains account settings (a user profile), which configures the website for the user’s interaction). It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Madden, Singleton, Viegas and Miller to provide a user profile to a client application, so the client application can be customized to suite the user’s preferences (providing a more user friendly environment).
Claims 6-8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Madden, in view of Singleton, in view of Viegas, in view of JEON (US PGPUB 2021/0226949).
Per claim 6, Madden discloses authenticating a user, but does not explicitly teach “selecting, by the application, the authentication cluster”. However, JEON suggests “selecting, by the application, the authentication cluster” (paragraph [0010]; receiving an authentication request for a terminal; randomly selecting a plurality of nodes (authentication cluster) for authenticating the terminal). It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Madden, Singleton, Viegas and Jeon to randomly select a plurality of nodes (authentication cluster) for authentication purpose, it would enhance security (attackers do not know which nodes perform the authentication process).
Per clam 7, Jeon further suggests “the selection of the authentication cluster is a random selection performed by the application” (paragraph [0010]; receiving an authentication request for a terminal; randomly selecting a plurality of nodes (authentication cluster) for authenticating the terminal).
Per clam 8, Jeon further suggests “the selection of the authentication cluster is performed by a cluster picker application running on the device” (paragraph [0010]; receiving an authentication request for a terminal; randomly selecting a plurality of nodes (authentication cluster) for authenticating the terminal).
Conclusion
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/HANG PAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2193
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