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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 December 26, 2025 has been entered.
Response to Amendment
Claims 1-3, 6-8, 10, 12-14, 23-26, 28, 34-37 and 49 are pending in the application. Claims 1, 34, and 49 are currently amended. Claims 4-5, 9, 11, 15-22, 27, 29-33, 38-48, and 50-52 have been canceled. Claims 23-26 and 28 have been withdrawn from consideration as a result of the earlier Restriction requirement. No new claims are currently added.
Response to Arguments
With regard to Applicant’s remarks dated December 26, 2025:
Regarding the rejection of claims 1-3, 6-8, 10, 12-14, 34-37, and 49 under 35 U.S.C. 112(b), Applicant’s amendment introduces new clarity issues. Therefore, the rejection is maintained.
Regarding the rejection of claims 1-3, 6-7, 34-37 and 49 under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) and claims 8, 10, and 12-14 under 35 U.S.C. 103, Applicant’s amendment and arguments have been fully considered. Applicants generally argue that Jung fails to teach the newly added wherein clause feature. Examiner generally agrees. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, new grounds of rejection are made.
As to any arguments not specifically addressed, they are the same as those discussed above.
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.
Claims 1-3, 6-8, 10, 12-14, 34-37, and 49 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 regards as the invention.
As to claims 1, 34, and 49, the newly added language “by applying a cryptographic linear combination operation or cyclic graph operation defined by a controllable pattern” is ambiguous for multiple reasons.
At first, it is unclear what is meant by “cryptographic linear combination operation” versus just “linear combination operation” or “linear function” as mentioned in the specification at par. [0107] and [0143] which are the only two places in the disclosure that would mention “linear function” none of which mention that the linear function is somehow “cryptographic” and what that entails.
As second, it is unclear how the cryptographic linear combination operation can be defined by a controllable pattern, which are two different concepts. Linear combination, as generally understood in the context of combining data, is a process where multiple data inputs are multiplied by constant coefficients and then added together. Specification appears to support this in par. [0143] as published. On the other hand, “controllable pattern”, as explained in the specification, defines an order of managed entities in which the combining of measurement data is performed (par. [0020] as published), where the set of managed entities is traversed in a certain order and measurement data from the managed entities is combined in this particular order. Therefore, the controllable pattern defines an order of traversal for collection of measurement data while linear combination operation appears to define weights applied to each piece of collected data. The specification fails to explain how the controllable pattern defines the cryptographic linear combination operation. The specification analogously fails to explain how the controllable pattern defines the cyclic group operation, rendering the claim ambiguous because it is unclear how data is combined.
As to claims 1, 34, and 49, it is unclear how “a controllable pattern that is updated” is functionally different from “the controllable pattern is dynamically regenerated”. The specification only mentions that the controllable pattern may be dynamically updated in par. [0174]. There is no explanation how updating is distinct from dynamically regenerating, rendering the claim indefinite.
As to claims 1, 34, and 49, the newly added language “such that the network customer defines the cryptographic operations performed during said combining step” is ambiguous because there is no requirement in the combining step to perform any “cryptographic operations” and what those operations entail. Therefore, this limitation fails to further limit the step of combining and properly introduce “cryptographic operations” in the combining step, thus, “the cryptographic operations” having no proper antecedent basis in the claim. However, if Applicants refer to “a cryptographic linear combination operation or cyclic group operation” as “the cryptographic operations” for the purposes of antecedent basis, it is contradictory and confusing because the claim already states that these operations are somehow defined by a controllable pattern. It is unclear whether defining these operations by the network customer is in addition or in place of defining them by the controllable pattern.
As to claims 1, 34, and 49, “enabling the combined data to be collected” does not appear to be an active step, rendering the scope of the claim indefinite. In particular, it is unclear what active step is performed to “enable” the combined data to be collected.
It is further noted that since the “measurement collection system” is not claimed to be part of the claim (as evidenced by the system claim 34 that is directed to a management system configured to perform the functionality of the method steps of claim 1), the operations performed by the measurement collection system fall outside of the scope of the claim and are not accorded patentable weight. In particular, the language “a controllable pattern that is updated by the measurement collection system responsive to fraud detection events or network topology changes”, “validation of existence of the controllable pattern in the combined measurement data”, and “the controllable pattern is dynamically regenerated by the measurement collection system during advice data collection” are all outside of the claimed scope because they are directed to an extra solution activity that does not further limit the only active step of “combining” that is performed by the management system.
Dependent claims are rejected for the same reasons.
Relevant Prior Art
Nemat-Nasser (US 2014/0210625 A1) is directed to receiving a face tracking data and a sensor data (abstract). In particular, Nemat-Nasser teaches combining (merging) the measurement data by evaluating a linear function of the face tracking data and sensor data (par. [0062]).
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, 6-7, 34-37 and 49 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Jung et al. (US 2005/0254520 A1) in view of Yoshida (US 2019/0203963 A1).
As to claim 1, Jung teaches a method for supporting protected collection of measurement data [log data is encrypted] (par. [0084]) that is representative of usage of network capabilities within a communication network [antenna information, communication quality of service information, coordinates information] (Figs 2 and 5 log data), referred to as managed entities [motes in the network] and managed by a management system associated with the communication network (Fig. 11), said method comprises:
combining measurement data related to a set of at least two of said managed entities by applying a cryptographic combination operation defined by a controllable pattern [aggregating mote-associated log data] (Fig. 5, par. [0058], [0060]), said pattern defining at least the order of managed entities in which the combining of measurement data is to be performed [log data is aggregated in motes up the stream that have a multi-mote log creation agent, where reporting entity at every mote transmits log data to other entities at designated mote addresses and/or designated gateway-proximate motes] (par. [0071]); and
enabling [“enabling” under the BRI suggests inaction] the combined measurement data to be collected by a measuring system [device in the network receiving the content log] for validation of existence of the controllable pattern in the combined measurement data [utilizing both public and private key encryption techniques to transmit content log data] (par. [0084]-[0085]), wherein the management system and the managed entities are network customer-controlled, such that the network customer defines the cryptographic operations performed during said combining step [devices in the network are differently administered] (par. [0055], [0088]).
Jung fails to teach that the measurement data is combined by applying a linear combination operation or cyclic group operation.
Yoshida is directed to a temperature characteristic evaluation method (abstract). In particular, Yoshida teaches obtaining a set of temperature data and combining the data by a linear function to obtain the linear function as a temperature function by the computer (par. [0009]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method and system of Jung by having the measurement data combined by applying a cryptographic linear combination operation or cyclic group operation defined by the controllable pattern of Jung, in order to perform an evaluation of combined measurement data (par. [0009] in Yoshida).
As to claim 2, Jung teaches that said step of combining measurement data comprises cryptographically combining measurement data related to said set of at least two of said managed entities according to said controllable pattern [aggregated multi-mote content log data is encrypted and decrypted using keys] (par. [0073]).
As to claim 3, Jung teaches that said step of enabling the combined measurement data to be collected for validation comprises preparing the combined measurement data for transfer towards a measurement collection system [gateway motes or mainframe] (Fig. 11) for enabling validation [“for enabling validation” is a statement of intended use and is not an active step] of existence of the controllable pattern in the combined measurement data [content log data is transmitted up the stream towards mainframe for combining into a federated content log] (par. [0093]), wherein said step of enabling the combined measurement data to be collected for validation comprises sending the combined measurement data to said measurement collection system via said management system (Fig. 11, par. [0094]).
As to claim 6, Jung teaches that said method is performed by a combiner/weaver/controller arranged as a controlling proxy [gateway mote 704] (par. [0051], [0053]) between at least a subset of said managed entities and said management system (Fig. 11).
As to claim 7, Jung teaches that said weaver or combiner is independently controlled by a measurement collection system for enabling [“for enabling” suggests intended use, as previously discussed] network customer- independent validation of measurement data [devices in the network are differently administered] (par. [0055], [0088]).
As to claim 34, Jung in view of Yoshida teaches a management system configured to support protected collection of measurement data (Fig. 11 in Jung), the management system comprises: a processor; a non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon a set of instructions, that is when executed by the processor (par. [0120] in Jung), causes the management system to perform the functionality as discussed per claim 1 above.
As to claims 35-36, Jung teaches all the elements as discussed per corresponding method claims 2-3 above.
As to claim 37, Jung teaches a network entity arranged between at least a subset of said managed entities [regular motes] and said management system [mainframe] (Fig. 11), said network entity comprising a system [intermediate mote that includes a multi-mote agent or gateway mote] (Fig. 11) configured to support protected collection of measurement data according to claim 34 as discussed above.
As to claim 49, Jung in view of Yoshida teaches a computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon (par. [0120] in Jung) a computer program for supporting, for protected collection of measurement data that is representative of usage of network capabilities within a communication network, referred to as managed entities and managed by a management system associated with the communication network, the computer program when executed by the at least one processor causing the system to perform the method steps as discussed per claim 1 above.
Claims 8, 10, and 12-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Jung et al. in view of Yoshida and in further view of Hummel et al. (US 2020/0387639 A1).
As to claim 8, Jung in view of Yoshida teaches all the elements except that the weaver or combiner cryptographically combines hashed measurement data related to at least one managed entity of said set of at least two managed entities with hashed measurement data related to at least one other managed entity of said set of at least two managed entities, wherein the weaver or combiner cryptographically combines hashed measurement data by performing hashing of the hashed measurement data related to at least one managed entity of said set of at least two managed entities and the hashed measurement data related to at least one other managed entity of said set of at least two managed entities.
Hummel is directed to a method for manipulation-proof storage of payload data of measurement values of one or more sensors (par. [0007], [0053]). In particular, Hummel teaches cryptographically combining hashed measurement data related to at least one managed entity of said set of at least two managed entities with hashed measurement data related to at least one other managed entity of said set of at least two managed entities [forming the hash value over the payload data again and comparing with the hash value previously stored in the data record] (par. [0008], [0053]), wherein the weaver or combiner cryptographically combines hashed measurement data by performing hashing of the hashed measurement data related to at least one managed entity of said set of at least two managed entities and the hashed measurement data related to at least one other managed entity of said set of at least two managed entities [combine payload data with a predecessor hash value] (par. [0053], [0067]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the weaver or combiner of Jung in view of Yoshida by having a gateway mote cryptographically combines hashed measurement data related to at least one managed entity of said set of at least two managed entities with hashed measurement data related to at least one other managed entity of said set of at least two managed entities, wherein the weaver or combiner cryptographically combines hashed measurement data by performing hashing of the hashed measurement data related to at least one managed entity of said set of at least two managed entities and the hashed measurement data related to at least one other managed entity of said set of at least two managed entities in order to make sure the content of the content log of Jung is not manipulated at any point during transmission, aggregation, or storage (par. [0007] in Hummel).
As to claim 10, Jung teaches that said method is performed by a managed entity being part of said set of at least two of said managed entities from which measurement data is to be combined [gateway mote 704, 705] (par. [0051], [0053]).
Jung in view of Yoshida fails to teach that the managed entity cryptographically combines hashed measurement data related to at least one other managed entity of said set of at least two managed entities with hashed measurement data related to the managed entity.
Hummel is directed to a method for manipulation-proof storage of payload data of measurement values of one or more sensors (par. [0007], [0053]). In particular, Hummel teaches cryptographically combining hashed measurement data related to at least one other managed entity of said set of at least two managed entities with hashed measurement data related to the managed entity [forming the hash value over the payload data again and comparing with the hash value previously stored in the data record] (par. [0008], [0053], [0067]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the weaver or combiner of Jung in view of Yoshida by having a gateway mote cryptographically combine hashed measurement data related to at least one other managed entity of said set of at least two managed entities with hashed measurement data related to the managed entity in order to make sure the content of the content log of Jung is not manipulated at any point during transmission, aggregation, or storage (par. [0007] in Hummel).
As to claim 12, Jung in view of Yoshida and Hummel teaches that the managed entity cryptographically combines hashed measurement data by performing hashing of hashed measurement data related to at least one other managed entity of said set of at least two managed entities and hashed measurement data related to the managed entity (par. [0008], [0053], [0067] in Hummel) to produce [“to produce” suggests intended use and is not an active step] a combined hash for validation.
As to claim 13, Jung in view of Yoshida and Hummel teaches that the managed entity sends the combined hash to a controlling proxy [proxy mote that is gateway to WAN in Jung] (Fig. 11) arranged between at least a subset of said managed entities and said management system [mainframe 990] (Fig. 11 in Jung), enabling [“enabling” suggests capability and is not an active step, as discussed above] the controlling proxy to send the combined hash to a measurement collection system for validation of existence of the controllable pattern in the combined hash and/or send the combined hash to a next managed entity defined by said order of managed entities in which the combining of measurement data is to be performed for updating the combined hash (par. [0008], [0053], [0067] in Hummel).
As to claim 14, Jung in view of Yoshida and Hummel teaches that the managed entity digitally signs the combined hash (par. [0020] in Hummel).
Conclusion
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/OLEG SURVILLO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2457