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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 4/29/2026 has been entered.
DETAILED ACTION
Claims 1-4, 6-12, and 14-20 are presented for examination in this application (17/868123) originally filed 7/19/2022.
The Examiner cites particular sections in the references as applied to the claims
below for the convenience of the applicant(s). Although the specified citations are
representative of the teachings in the art and are applied to the specific limitations within
the individual claim, other passages and figures may apply as well. It is respectfully
requested that, in preparing responses, the applicant(s) fully consider the references in
their entirety as potentially teaching all or part of the claimed invention, as well as the
context of the passage as taught by the prior art or disclosed by the Examiner.
Information Disclosure Statement
Acknowledgement is made of the information disclosure statement filed on 6/11/2026. All patents and non-patent literature have been considered.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments and remarks filed 4/29/2026 have been fully considered. The arguments and remarks regarding the 35 U.S.C 103 rejections were found to be persuasive. The 35 U.S.C 103 rejections have been overcome.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
Claims 1, 9, and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C 112(b) as indefinite.
The claims recite “wherein the performing the iterative retraining process comprises modifying one or more values of biases and weights of the neural network” … “wherein the iterative retraining process comprises: ” … “updating one or more model parameters; and when a quantity of updated model parameters exceeds or is equal to a threshold value that is based on a total number of model parameters”.
The recitation of “modifying one or more model parameters” are broader than the receding limitation of “modifying biases and weights”. As amended, it is unclear as to whether “modifying one or more model parameters” requires one bias and one weight or whether it requires only one type of the two parameters. As there are at least two reasonable interpretations to the metes and bounds of the aforementioned claims, claims 1, 9, and 17 are therefore deemed to be indefinite under U.S.C 35 112(b).
Pertinent Prior Art
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant’s disclosure:
US20230063489 — discloses malware detection with the use of neural networks
US20240054233A1 — discloses pruning data that is considered malicious with the use of neural networks and security platforms
US11562244B2 — discloses pruning data that is considered an adversarial attack with the use of neural networks
Liu et al. — “backdoor Defense with Machine Unlearning” — discloses fine-tuning a neural network to remove maliciously injected backdoor triggers
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Andrew A Bracero whose telephone number is (571)270-0592. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 9:00a.m. - 5:00 p.m. ET.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, David Yi can be reached at (571) 270-7519 on Monday – Friday 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. E.T. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ANDREW BRACERO/Examiner, Art Unit 2126 /DAVID YI/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2126
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