CTNF 18/131,724 CTNF 84545 DETAILED ACTION Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status 07-03-aia AIA 15-10-aia The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA. Claims 1-20 are presented for examination. Specification 06-31 AIA The lengthy specification has not been checked to the extent necessary to determine the presence of all possible minor errors. Applicant’s cooperation is requested in correcting any errors of which applicant may become aware in the specification. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103 07-06 AIA 15-10-15 In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status. 07-20-aia AIA 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. 07-20-02-aia AIA This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention. 07-21-aia AIA Claim (s) 1, 2, 5, 10, 11, 14, 19, and 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liang et al. (WO 2022/022530 A1 and Liang hereinafter) in view of Huang (CN 115714657 A) . As to claims 1 and 10, Liang discloses a system and method for determining public network address of MPTCP server, the system and method having: causing a client DNS resolution request to be stored to a predetermined query caching database (page 18, lines 21-27) ; wherein the connection request is for a resolved IP address associated with the client DNS resolution request (page 15, lines 8-11) ; using contents of the predetermined query caching database to determine the validity of the connection request (page 15, lines 8-11; page 18, lines 21-27) ; using the determined validity results to control whether the client device is allowed to connect to the resolved IP address (page 16, lines 18-28) . Liang fails to specifically disclose: receiving a request from a firewall to determine a validity of a connection request received by the firewall from a client device. Nonetheless, this feature is well known in the art and would have been an obvious modification of the teachings disclosed by Liang, as taught by Huang. Huang discloses a system and method for network access control, the system and method having: receiving a request from a firewall to determine a validity of a connection request received by the firewall from a client device (page 12, lines 28-34) . Given the teaching of Huang, a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have readily recognized the desirability and advantages of modifying the teachings of Liang with the teachings of Huang by determining validity of a connection request. Huang recites motivation by disclosing that determining the validity of a connection request allows for network access control (page 12, lines 8-13). It is obvious that the teachings of Huang would have improved the teachings of Liang by determining validity of a connection request in order to provide network access control. As to claim 19, Liang discloses: a processor (page 9, line 28) ; logic integrated with the processor, executable by the processor, or integrated with and executable by the processor, the logic being configured to (page 9, lines 28-29) : cause a client DNS resolution request to be stored to a predetermined query caching database (page 18, lines 21-27) ; wherein the connection request is for a resolved IP address associated with the client DNS resolution request (page 15, lines 8-11) ; use contents of the predetermined query caching database to determine the validity of the connection request (page 15, lines 8-11; page 18, lines 21-27) ; use the determined validity results to control whether the client device is allowed to connect to the resolved IP address (page 16, lines 18-28) . Liang fails to specifically disclose: receive a request from a firewall to determine a validity of a connection request received by the firewall from a client device. Nonetheless, this feature is well known in the art and would have been an obvious modification of the teachings disclosed by Liang, as taught by Huang. Huang discloses: receive a request from a firewall to determine a validity of a connection request received by the firewall from a client device (page 12, lines 28-34) . Given the teaching of Huang, a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have readily recognized the desirability and advantages of modifying the teachings of Liang with the teachings of Huang by receiving a request from a firewall. Please refer to the motivation recited above with respect to claims 1 and 10 as to why it is obvious to apply the teachings of Huang to the teachings of Liang. As to claims 2, 11, and 20, Liang discloses: wherein the client device is allowed to connect to the resolved IP address in response to the determined validity results indicating that the connection request is valid (page 16, lines 24-28) , wherein the client device is not allowed to connect to the resolved IP address in response to the determined validity results indicating that the connection request is not valid (page 16, lines 24-28) . Liang fails to specifically disclose: wherein using the determined validity results to control whether the client device is allowed to connect to the resolved IP address includes: causing the determined validity results to be provided to the firewall. Nonetheless, this feature is well known in the art and would have been an obvious modification of the teachings disclosed by Liang, as taught by Huang. Huang discloses: wherein using the determined validity results to control whether the client device is allowed to connect to the resolved IP address includes: causing the determined validity results to be provided to the firewall (page 15, lines 37-39) . Huang also discloses: wherein the client device is allowed to connect to the resolved IP address in response to the determined validity results indicating that the connection request is valid (page 16, lines 7-9) . Given the teaching of Huang, a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have readily recognized the desirability and advantages of modifying the teachings of Liang with the teachings of Huang by using validity results to control whether a client device is allowed to connect . Please refer to the motivation recited above with respect to claims 1 and 10 as to why it is obvious to apply the teachings of Huang to the teachings of Liang. As to claims 5 and 14, Liang fails to specifically disclose: causing enforcement of a predetermined security control action on the client DNS resolution request. Nonetheless, this feature is well known in the art and would have been an obvious modification of the teachings disclosed by Liang, as taught by Huang. Huang discloses: causing enforcement of a predetermined security control action on the client DNS resolution request (page 16, lines 7-9) . Given the teaching of Huang, a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have readily recognized the desirability and advantages of modifying the teachings of Liang with the teachings of Huang by enforcing a security control action. Please refer to the motivation recited above with respect to claims 1 and 10 as to why it is obvious to apply the teachings of Huang to the teachings of Liang . 07-22-aia AIA Claim (s) 8 and 17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liang in view of Huang as applied to claim s 1 and 10 above, and further in view of Zheng et al. (CN 108243265 A and Zheng hereinafter) . As to claims 8 and 17, Liang in view of Huang fails to specifically disclose: wherein the client DNS resolution request is received from a predetermined authorized DNS server, wherein the client DNS resolution request is stored with information associated with the request. Nonetheless, this feature is well known in the art and would have been an obvious modification of the teachings disclosed by Liang in view of Huang, as taught by Zheng. Zheng discloses a system and method for DNS resolution processing, the system and method having: wherein the client DNS resolution request is received from a predetermined authorized DNS server, wherein the client DNS resolution request is stored with information associated with the request (page 6, lines 9-10) . Given the teaching of Zheng, a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have readily recognized the desirability and advantages of modifying the teachings of Liang in view of Huang with the teachings of Zheng by storing client DNS resolution request with request information. Zheng recites motivation by disclosing that the request is stored with associated information for analysis in order to provide for accelerated analysis (Abstract). It is obvious that the teachings of Zheng would have improved the teachings of Liang in view of Huang by storing client DNS resolution request with request information in order to provide for accelerated analysis . Allowable Subject Matter 12-151-08 AIA 07-43 12-51-08 Claim s 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 12, 13, 15, 16, and 18 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims. Prior Art Made of Record 07-96 AIA The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Alam et al. (EP 4167524 A1) discloses a system and method for local network device connection control. Buck et al. (US 2023/0421531 A1) discloses a system and method for client device security for domain name resolution and browsing. Hentunen (US Patent 9,654,494 B2) discloses a system and method for detecting and marking client devices). Jiang et al. (CN 113315821 A) discloses a system and method for selection method. Lapidous et al. (CA 2996409 A1) discloses a system and method for secure communications. Patil (JP 2010239400 A) discloses a system and method for managing access to domain name service database. Redekop et al. (CA 2973108 A1) discloses a system and method for permitting or blocking internet protocol connectivity based on originating domain name server requests. Roddy et al. (WO 03/079605 A1) discloses a system and method for providing security for external access to a protected computer network. Sethi et al. (US 2024/0291835 A1) discloses a system and method for monitoring health and security of data center components via bi-directional proxy. Shi et al. (CN 120151067 A) discloses a system and method for dynamic protection. Teo et al. (WO 2021/263222 A1) discloses a system and method for securing access to network devices utilizing two factor authentication and dynamically generated temporary firewall rules. Zhao et al. (CN 110912925 A) discloses a system and method for detecting domain name system DNS hijacking. Zhao et al. (CN 119155163 A) discloses a system and method for master/backup switching. Zheng et al. (CN 108243265 A) discloses a system and method for DNS resolution processing . Conclusion Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SARAH SU whose telephone number is (571)270-3835. The examiner can normally be reached 6:30 AM - 3:00 PM. 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, Lynn Feild can be reached at 571-272-2092. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000. /SARAH SU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2431 Application/Control Number: 18/131,724 Page 2 Art Unit: 2431 Application/Control Number: 18/131,724 Page 3 Art Unit: 2431 Application/Control Number: 18/131,724 Page 4 Art Unit: 2431 Application/Control Number: 18/131,724 Page 5 Art Unit: 2431 Application/Control Number: 18/131,724 Page 6 Art Unit: 2431 Application/Control Number: 18/131,724 Page 7 Art Unit: 2431 Application/Control Number: 18/131,724 Page 8 Art Unit: 2431 Application/Control Number: 18/131,724 Page 9 Art Unit: 2431 Application/Control Number: 18/131,724 Page 10 Art Unit: 2431
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