DETAILED ACTION
This office action is a response to a communication made on 08/05/2025.
Claims 11-13 are canceled.
Claims 1-10 are pending for this application.
Response to Arguments
Applicant: Applicant’s arguments, see remarks on page 5-8, filed 08/05/2025, applicant argues that, “Jazi do not teach the limitation of assigning a code to said message after said message is created, wherein said code is a position of said message in said database, and wherein said code is separate from, and other than said message” recited in claim 1.
Examiner: Applicant's arguments filed 08/05/2025 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. Examiner respectfully disagrees.
Jazi teaches assigning a code to said message after said message is created because ¶0115, teaches FIG. 2D, the data item 285 may be the same data that the generated wave blocks (i.e. code) and their associated wave tag(s) are going to represent. For example, the data may be a unique identifier, such as, for example, and without limitations, an ISBN as shown in FIG. 2D, a phone number, a web address, a bar code, a QR code, or any other item for which a client may want to generate wave blocks and wave tags…a wave tag created from a combination of one or more of the resulting wave blocks, ¶0129, teaches the wave patterns in the wave blocks of a wave tag that is using one or more wave blocks from the table 440 may be used to search a database to find a matching wave tag, which is then mapped to a data item (e.g., the identification of a URL, a phone number, a bar code, etc.) that is wave tag is used to indirectly represent, which means wave blocks (i.e. code) is separate than the Wave tags, and they are uniquely identifying the message, ¶0146, teaches assigning wave blocks (code) to a wave tags (i.e. messages), ¶0364, teaches the Wave Tag specify the code or data using a unique standardized block of wave pattern which can be generate in special frequency.
Jazi also teaches wherein said code is a position of said message in said database because ¶0129, teaches the wave patterns in the wave blocks (i.e. code) of a wave tag (i.e. message) that is using one or more wave blocks from the table 440 may be used to search a database to find a matching wave tag, which is then mapped to a data item (e.g., the identification of a URL, a phone number, a bar code, etc.) that is wave tag is used to indirectly represent, ¶0253, teaches wave tags access by location), ¶0319, teaches a wave tag with ‘barcode specific starting block’ is captured, the capturer would know the wave tag is a barcode and may treat the mapping data as barcode and may show the product corresponding to that barcode instead of the barcode number itself, ¶0364, teaches the Wave Tag specify the code or data using a unique standardized block of wave pattern which can be generate in special frequency.
Jazi further teaches wherein said code is separate from, and other than said message because ¶0084, teaches unique information extracted from existing wave files (e.g., music files, sounds, images, or videos recorded from nature, etc.), unique information extracted from a particular wave file provided by a wave tag requesting device 155 (e.g., an electronic device associated with an entity such as organization or a person who is requesting one or more wave tags 170), or may be any unique code or data, ¶0129, teaches the wave patterns in the wave blocks (i.e. code) of a wave tag (i.e. message) that is using one or more wave blocks from the table 440 may be used to search a database to find a matching wave tag, which is then mapped to a data item (e.g., the identification of a URL, a phone number, a bar code, etc.) that is wave tag is used to indirectly represent, ¶0135, teaches different wave blocks or different combination of wave blocks may be used to represent a different number for each section in barcode, ¶0356, teaches Files (i.e. digital file as message) that are encrypted or zipped using encryption or compression algorithms, wherein wave blocks as barcode and encrypted files are digital files as messages are distinct from code.
Applicant: Applicant’s arguments, see remarks on page 8-9, filed 08/05/2025, applicant argues that, “Jazi do not teach the limitation of having said end user cause the electronic device to request access to said message, if said end user accept a transmission of said message to said end user” recited in claim 1.
Examiner: Applicant's arguments filed 08/05/2025 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. Examiner respectfully disagrees.
Jazi teaches having said end user cause the electronic device to request access to said message, if said end user accept a transmission of said message to said end user because ¶0085, teaches The wave tag manager 100 may include a feature extractor 130 that may receive the wave blocks 180 and may extract the unique features of the wave patterns of each wave block 180, ¶0086, teaches the wave tag manager (see ¶0248, teaches the UI 2500 may be used, for example, by a person associated with the wave tag issuer (i.e. end user) and/or by a person (i.e. end user) associated with an entity that has received, and has control over, one or more wave tags) 100 may receive requests from wave tag requesting devices (i.e. electronic devices) 155 that may request one or more wave tags (i.e. transmission of message)… A wave tag requesting device 155 may send a request that may include a set of data items 162, such as, for example, and without limitations, data regarding the item(s) to be identified by the requested wave tag(s), information regarding the requesting organization or person, see ¶0089, teaches the wave tag manager 100 may allow some of the requesting devices 155 and/or some of the broadcasting devices 158 to receive an application program (e.g., by downloading the application program from a website associated with the wave tag manager 100) to generate the wave blocks and/or the web tags that are being used by an organization or a person (i.e. end user) associated with the wave tag requesting device, ¶0263, teaches the broadcast may be done by playing the wave tag (i.e. message), if the two devices 2720 and 2730 are nearby or may be transmitted electronically using a media file from the device 2720 to the device 2730 and played on the device 2730, ¶0273, teaches the wave tag holder may connect to the wave tag holder's account and authorize the wave tag manager 100 (FIG. 1) to withdraw from the account as alternative way, meaning after authorization wave tag manager can withdraw the amount from the account.
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) 1-4 and 6-10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Salimi Jazi (US 2022/0156475), hereinafter “Jazi” in view of Fardeau et al. (US 5581800), hereinafter “Fardeau”.
With respect to claim 1, Jazi discloses a method of transmitting a message, which include information or data, between a sender and an end user, comprising the following steps:
defining said message to be transmitted by said sender to said end user (¶0086, teaches the wave tag manager 100 may receive requests from wave tag (i.e. message) requesting devices (i.e. sender devices), ¶0089 teaches a person (i.e. end user) associated with the wave tag requesting device (sender device));
sending said message as a digital file to a receiving module of a service provider (¶0090, teaches the wave tag requesting device 135 may send the associated wave tag(s) 170 to a broadcasting device 158. The broadcasting device 158 may be a broadcasting entity such as a radio station, a TV station, a website, a satellite, etc., that may broadcast the wave tag(s) 170. ¶0222, teaches the wave tags (i.e. messages) starting with the wave block f 2041 belong to company C 2120, wherein company c is a receiving module of a service provider, ¶0356, teaches Files (i.e. digital file) that are encrypted or zipped using encryption or compression algorithms);
archiving said message in a database (¶0158, teaches a database that stores the mapping information for organization A's wave tags (i.e. messages) in order to find the item identified by the wave tag);
assigning a code to said message after said message is created (¶0115, teaches FIG. 2D, the data item 285 may be the same data that the generated wave blocks (i.e. code) and their associated wave tag(s) are going to represent. For example, the data may be a unique identifier, such as, for example, and without limitations, an ISBN as shown in FIG. 2D, a phone number, a web address, a bar code, a QR code, or any other item for which a client may want to generate wave blocks and wave tags…a wave tag created from a combination of one or more of the resulting wave blocks, ¶0146, teaches assigning wave blocks (code) to a wave tags (i.e. messages), ¶0364, teaches the Wave Tag specify the code or data using a unique standardized block of wave pattern which can be generate in special frequency), wherein said code is a position of said message in said database (¶0075, teaches the tones are embedded in a specific location in the content that is broadcasted. The broadcast is then captured, the embedded tones are extracted from their specific location in the content, and are converted back to the corresponding data (e.g., to the alphanumeric characters in a message or to an action to be taken by the receiving device, ¶0253, teaches wave tags access by location), ¶0319, teaches a wave tag with ‘barcode specific starting block’ is captured, the capturer would know the wave tag is a barcode and may treat the mapping data as barcode and may show the product corresponding to that barcode instead of the barcode number itself, ¶0364, teaches the Wave Tag specify the code or data using a unique standardized block of wave pattern which can be generate in special frequency ), and wherein said code is separate from, and other than said message (¶0084, teaches unique information extracted from existing wave files (e.g., music files, sounds, images, or videos recorded from nature, etc.), unique information extracted from a particular wave file provided by a wave tag requesting device 155 (e.g., an electronic device associated with an entity such as organization or a person who is requesting one or more wave tags 170), or may be any unique code or data, ¶0135, teaches different wave blocks or different combination of wave blocks may be used to represent a different number for each section in barcode, ¶0356, teaches Files (i.e. digital file as message) that are encrypted or zipped using encryption or compression algorithms, wherein wave blocks as barcode and encrypted files are digital files as messages are distinct from code, ¶0077-¶0078, teaches Each wave tag, in some embodiments, may include one or more wave blocks (i.e. codes). Each wave block may represent all or a portion of the information or data of the wave tag (see ¶0115, teaches FIG. 2D, the data item 285 may be the same data that the generated wave blocks (i.e. code) and their associated wave tag(s) are going to represent. For example, the data may be a unique identifier, such as, for example, and without limitations, an ISBN as shown in FIG. 2D, a phone number, a web address, a bar code, a QR code, or any other item for which a client may want to generate wave blocks and wave tags), wherein wave tags (i.e. message) is distinct from wave blocks (code));
returning said coded sound signal to said sender (¶0080, teaches Acoustic wave tags may include audible or inaudible sound tags (and may specify the pattern, code, and/or data, using unique standardized sound block(s), wherein unique sound block is a coded sound signal, ¶0188, teaches provide the wave tags 170 as media files to the wave tag requesting device (i.e. sender) 155, ¶0277, teaches return the wave tag manager 100 may provide the wave tag (dynamic, static 2591) to allow the account holder to verify their account in similar approach described with reference to FIG. 27 ¶0328) ;
spreading said coded sound signal through a transmission channel (¶0080, teaches unique sound block is codded sound signal, ¶0278, teaches Wave tags may be used to provide information about the asset through channels, ¶0312, teaches sound tag A1 3244 may be broadcasted (3245) in the Texas area radio station channels, such as, channel X 3221);
receiving said coded sound signal by a detector of an electronic device in use by said end user (¶0080, teaches acoustic wave tags may include audible or inaudible sound tags and may specify the pattern, code, and/or data, using unique standardized sound block(s). The light tags may specify the pattern, code, and/or data using unique standardized blocks of synthetic light patterns which may or may not be visible by humans but may be detectable by an electronic capturing (or reader) device, ¶0089, teaches the web tags (i.e. unique sound block is a coded sound signal) coded that are being used by an organization or a person (i.e. end user) associated with the wave tag requesting device), wherein an application configured therefor is installed on said electronic device (¶0080, teaches devices and/or software for performing acoustic tag capturing operations, ¶0096, teaches the application program used by the wave tag capturing device);
decoding said coded sound signal to obtain said code, wherein said decoding is performed by said application (¶0129, teaches the extracted features from the wave patterns in the wave blocks of a wave tag that is using one or more wave blocks from the table 440 may be used to search a database to find a matching wave tag, which is then mapped to a data item (e.g., the identification of a URL, a phone number, a bar code, etc.) that is wave tag is used to indirectly represent, ¶0319, teaches the encoded barcode may be used as a unique identifier data itself along with the signaling blocks so it is possible to just locate and possibly decode or decipher the data as what signaling block conveys in the receiver without asking for mapping data or decoding the wave tag itself, see ¶0312);
having said end user cause the electronic device to request access to said message, if said end user accept a transmission of said message to said end user (¶0086, teaches the wave tag manager (see ¶0248, teaches the UI 2500 may be used, for example, by a person associated with the wave tag issuer (i.e. end user) and/or by a person (i.e. end user) associated with an entity that has received, and has control over, one or more wave tags) 100 may receive requests from wave tag requesting devices (i.e. electronic devices) 155 that may request one or more wave tags (i.e. transmission of message)… A wave tag requesting device 155 may send a request that may include a set of data items 162, such as, for example, and without limitations, data regarding the item(s) to be identified by the requested wave tag(s), information regarding the requesting organization or person, see ¶0089, teaches the wave tag manager 100 may allow some of the requesting devices 155 and/or some of the broadcasting devices 158 to receive an application program (e.g., by downloading the application program from a website associated with the wave tag manager 100) to generate the wave blocks and/or the web tags that are being used by an organization or a person (i.e. end user) associated with the wave tag requesting device, ¶0263, teaches the broadcast may be done by playing the wave tag (i.e. message), if the two devices 2720 and 2730 are nearby or may be transmitted electronically using a media file from the device 2720 to the device 2730 and played on the device 2730 );
communicating between said application and said database (¶0301, teaches database 3009D may be maintained to store the records of permissions, type of application, relating signatures, etc) , wherein said database receives from said application said code and returns said message corresponding to said code (¶0095, teaches the wave tag mapper 145 may identify one or more wave blocks and may determine that a sequence of one or more detected wave blocks match a wave tag identified by a descriptor stored in the wave tag index database, ¶0129, teaches a database to find a matching wave tag, which is then mapped to a data item (e.g., the identification of a URL, a phone number, a bar code, etc.) that is wave tag is used to indirectly represent, ¶0302, teaches a reservation application 3011 (e.g., as described above with reference to FIG. 11) may assign one or more unique wave blocks, or reserve a set of signaling wave blocks for the applicant usage, which is specifically used for applicant's entities.. ; and
displaying said message on said device of said end user (¶0129, teaches mapped to a data item (e.g., the identification of a URL, a phone number, a bar code, etc.) that is wave tag is used to indirectly represent (i.e. display), ¶0288, teaches The identified wave tags 2905 may be displayed (as shown by 2906A, 2906B, and 2906C) on a UI 147 ).
Jazi ¶0080, teaches acoustic wave tags may include audible or inaudible sound tags and may specify the pattern, code, and/or data, using unique standardized sound block(s), wherein unique sound block is a coded sound signal, ¶0135, teaches different wave blocks or different combination of wave blocks may be used to represent a different number for each section in barcode, ¶0320, teaches the brand N may be encoded as a body wave block and may be placed between the signaling blocks, ¶0360, teaches a vocally or “visually non-printed” or unique wave signal which is distinguishable tone representing some standardized characteristic, code or data placed in the tone blocks called a TonoTags so as to form a pattern. However, Jazi remain silent on coding said code without said message into a coded sound signal.
Fardeau discloses coding said code without said message into a coded sound signal (Col-2, II. 60-62, teaches the encoded message is not added to the sound signal of the program during periods of silence, during which it would otherwise be audible, Col-5, II. 62-65, teaches encoding the sound signal of a program transmitted by a radio station, Col-7, II. 8-9, teaches avoid adding the code message to the sound signal during a period of silence).
Therefore, it would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify Jazi’s audible or inaudible sound tags and may specify the pattern, code, and/or data, using unique standardized sound block(s) with coding said code without said message into a coded sound signal of Smith, in order to improve security, and help prevent piracy or unauthorized use, as the audio carries traceable identifiers without revealing sensitive content (Fardeau, Col-2, II. 60-62, Col-7, II. 8-9).
With respect to claim 2, Jazi in view of Fardeau discloses the method as per claim 1, wherein coding said code into said coded sound signal occurs at least according to the following steps:
transposing said information or data to be transmitted in one or more bit strings or in one or more character sequences to be encoded (Jazi, ¶0095, teaches the wave tag mapper 145 may identify one or more wave blocks and may determine that a sequence of one or more detected wave blocks match a wave tag identified by a descriptor stored in the wave tag index database 160, ¶0105, teaches a fingerprinting algorithm is a procedure that maps an arbitrarily large data item (such as a computer file) into a much shorter bit string, a fingerprint, that uniquely identifies the original data for all practical purposes just as human fingerprints uniquely identify people for practical purposes);
coding or transforming said one or more strings or sequences into signals of predetermined duration with overlapping frequencies over time (Jazi, ¶0214, teaches each instance 1901-1902 of the slicing window may include a length of X time units and may move every Y time units to continuously look for new wave blocks. Y may be chosen in such a way that Y is smaller than X in order to check (as shown by 1910) overlapping windows of the signal 1900 for wave blocks. The overlapping windows may decrease the possibility of missing wave blocks, if the wave blocks are in the middle of non-overlapping windows); and
saving in one or more digital audio files (Jazi, ¶0106, teaches the acoustic fingerprint of the wave file may be a condensed digital summary (or a fingerprint) that is deterministically generated from the audio signals, which may be used to identify a played audio sample or may be used to quickly locate a matching audio file in an audio file database, ¶0113, teaches the wave file 270 may be an audio file that may be recorded from a nature).
With respect to claim 3, Jazi in view of Fardeau discloses the method as per claim 2, wherein said digital audio files are in mp3, way, midi, aac format, or other format configured to be reproduced and / or read by an electronic device (Jazi, ¶0104, teaches the wave blocks 180 are audio files, ¶0109, teaches the algorithm is capable of quickly identifying a short segment of music captured through a microphone in the presence of foreground voices and other dominant noise, and through voice codec compression, by searching a database of over a million tracks ¶0377, teaches compressing the data as mp3 format).
With respect to claim 4, Jazi in view of Fardeau discloses the method as per claim 1, wherein said coded sound signal is composed of one or more sound frequencies, infrasound, and / or ultrasound frequencies (Jazi, ¶0103, teaches for other types of wave files, such as, for example, and without limitations, ultrasound, infrared, ultraviolet, microwaves, radio waves, etc.).
With respect to claim 6, Jazi in view of Fardeau discloses the method as per claim 2, wherein said coding step further includes introducing a signal redundancy into the coded sound signal for noise attenuation (Jazi, ¶0181, teaches the unique identifier may be used to generate one or more wave blocks for the wave tag. For example, one or more wave blocks may be generated as described above with reference to FIG. 2D. When data is a unique identifier and is used as a common format as public wave tag, the generation of the wave blocks may be skipped (at block 1415) to avoid creating redundant wave tags).
With respect to claim 7, Jazi in view of Fardeau discloses the method as per claim 2, wherein said coding step further includes introducing of an end-to-end encryption (Jazi, ¶0279, teaches one or more wave tags may be used in the process and may create a multilevel encryption for securing the encryption. ¶0283, teaches the way wave tag 2851 may be used to broadcast a two-level encrypted data 2861, first by using the encryption key Pk1 2863 and second by using the encryption key Pk2 2862 as mapping data using 2851).
With respect to claim 8, Jazi in view of Fardeau discloses the method as per claim 1, wherein said coded sound signal comprises:
a first part or opening marker (A) which indicates a start of signal transmission (Jazi, ¶0122, teaches one or more starting wave blocks to indicate the start of a wave tag as opening marker);
a central part (C) which contains said information or data to be transmitted encoded (Jazi, ¶0133, teaches the body wave blocks 402 and 403 as central part); and
a possible third part or closure marker (B) which indicates an end of the signal transmission (Jazi, ¶0122, teaches one or more ending waves block to indicate the end of a wave tag, as closure marker).
With respect to claim 9, Jazi in view of Fardeau discloses the method as per claim 1, wherein said decoding step of said coded sound signal takes place according to the following steps:
interpreting a structure of digital values in time and frequency directions of a received sound signal (Jazi, ¶0139-¶0140, teaches the interpretation of the sound tags may, therefore, change by changing the tone, the occurrence and/or the fastness of the corresponding sound wave blocks, ¶0142, teaches different interpretation are wavelength, color, spectra or frequency of occurrence, ¶0144, teaches generate unique wave tags representing different interpretation, are wavelength or frequency of occurrence or combination and order of appearance of different type of wave patterns) ; and
decoding a digital sequence by removing redundancy (Jazi, ¶0243, teaches the unique identifier data and the type of the unique identifier may be extracted (i.e. remove) by decoding the wave pattern in the wave tag).
With respect to claim 10, Jazi in view of Fardeau discloses the method as per claim 1, wherein said information or data to be transmitted include a URL address (Jazi, ¶0241 teaches the signaling wave blocks may also identify the type of the unique identifiers, such as URL, ¶0354).
Claim(s) 5 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Jazi in view of Fardeau, and further in view of Jeong et al. (US 2015/0088495), hereinafter “Jeong”. Jeong cited in applicant IDS filed 06/22/2022.
With respect to claim 5, Jazi in view of Fardeau discloses the method as per claim 2, wherein said coding step comprises a two-dimensional coding step which includes at least the following steps:
developing a two-dimensional matrix A x T of digital values (Jazi, ¶0003, teaches the size of the code matrix may then be obtained based on the two-dimensional code that is read out, ¶0061, teaches the barcode or QR-code are images printed by barcode or two-dimensional code printers on a printable surface, ¶0109, teaches the algorithm uses a combinatorically hashed time-frequency constellation analysis of the audio);
inserting said two-dimensional matrix according to a predefined coding scheme, possibly adapted to introduce redundancy (Jazi, ¶0116, teaches using this approach, redundant wave tags may be avoided. For example, if the same phone number is requested a thousand times as a public wave tag, only one wave tag may be used instead of a thousand different wave tags representing exactly the same data ¶0150, teaches the value of combinations for each cell of the table may be found by inserting the number of the objects specified by the schema, ; and
transducing values of the two-dimensional matrix in an acoustic domain, reading said values according to directions of time and frequency (Jazi, ¶0075, teaches the data to be conveyed is converted (i.e. transducing values) to tones (i.e. acoustic domain), the tones are embedded in a specific location in the content that is broadcasted. The broadcast is then captured, the embedded tones are extracted from their specific location in the content, and are converted back to the corresponding data (e.g., to the alphanumeric characters in a message or to an action to be taken by the receiving device, ¶0109, teaches The algorithm uses a combinatorically hashed time-frequency constellation analysis of the audio).
However, Jazi in view of Fardeau remain silent on determining a frequency range containing a values chosen as harmonics; determining an overall duration of the sound signal, which is divided into T time intervals.
Jeong discloses determining a frequency range containing A values chosen as harmonics (¶0033, teaches the audible sound wave frequency band may range from 100 Hz or more to 8000 Hz or less,);
determining an overall duration of the sound signal, which is divided into T time intervals (¶0039, teaches the decoding apparatus 20 receives the sound code output from the encoding apparatus through a sound wave reception device, divides the sound code depending on a preset time interval to generate a multiple number of frames, identifies a frequency corresponding to each of the multiple number of the frames through frequency analysis for each of the multiple number of the frames, ¶0051, teaches the frequency determination unit 12 may divide a total bandwidth of 5000 Hz between 15000 Hz and 20000 Hz for a non-audible sound wave frequency band by a unit of at least 200 Hz, so as to discriminate twenty-five (25) frequencies, and then, determine each of the 25 discriminated frequencies to be a frequency corresponding to each of 25 partial information).
Therefore, it would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify Jazi’s in view of Fardeau’s system with determining a frequency range containing A values chosen as harmonics; determining an overall duration of the sound signal, which is divided into T time intervals of Jeong, in order to use it to generate a time domain representation of the signal (Jeong, ¶0103).