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 .
Response to Arguments
1. Applicant’s arguments have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument, specifically Ina (US 20210144055 A1).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
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.
2. Claims 1, 6-8, 13-15, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Callaghan (US 20070074280 A1) in view of Ina (US 20210144055 A1), Shribman et al. (US 20220103525 A1), and Turnbull et al. (US 20240114065 A1).
Claim 1 Callaghan teaches a first local proxy server (FIG. 6, Local Proxy 610) configured to (i) receive traffic (¶0051, wherein the local proxy server 610 and the remote proxy server 612 can re-route communications to and from the device 602 and remote device 606, i.e. receives traffic from both Device 606 and Device 602) from (a) the first electronic device (FIG. 6, Device 606) and (b) at least one second electronic device (FIG. 6, Device 602) tethered to the first electronic device; (Examiner interprets “tethering” as devices having some configured connection between them, ¶0006, wherein a legacy device is not compatible for use with the internet and connect with another device, i.e. tethers, to use the internet)
receiving, at the first local proxy server, the traffic from the at least one second electronic device. (¶0051, wherein traffic from the second electronic device can be re-routed to first local proxy server) and
forwarding, using the first local proxy server, the traffic from the first electronic device and the traffic from the at least one second electronic device to an external proxy server. (¶0051, traffic from device 602 and 605 can be re-routed to remote proxy server 612)
However, Callaghan does not teach executing a second local proxy server, wherein the first electronic device initiates execution of the second local proxy server in response to receiving an enable instruction enabling a tethering function;
obtaining, at a first electronic device, a first proxy auto-configuration (PAC) file;
a first local proxy server configured to forward the traffic based on the first PAC file; and
forwarding, using the first local proxy server, the traffic from the first electronic device and the traffic from the at least one second electronic device to an external proxy server.
From a related technology, Ina teaches wherein the first electronic device initiates execution of the second local proxy server (Ina, FIG. 6B, step 210, ¶0096, executing on the proxy server unit 1112) in response to receiving an enable instruction enabling a tethering function; (Ina, FIG. 6A, step 202, ¶0088, in response to receiving a request tethering setting to enable the tethering function)
It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Callaghan to incorporate the teachings of Ina in order to incorporate proxy server technology within well established utilization methods.
However, Callaghan in view of Ina does not explicitly teach
obtaining, at a first electronic device, a first proxy auto-configuration (PAC) file;
a first local proxy server configured to forward the traffic based on the first PAC file; and
forwarding, using the first local proxy server, the traffic from the first electronic device and the traffic from the at least one second electronic device to an external proxy server.
However, Callaghan in view of Ina does not explicitly teach obtaining, at a first electronic device, a first proxy auto-configuration (PAC) file;
a first local proxy server configured to forward the traffic based on the first PAC file; and
forwarding, using the first local proxy server, the traffic from the first electronic device and the traffic from the at least one second electronic device to an external proxy server.
From a related technology, Shribman teaches obtaining, at a first electronic device, a first proxy auto-configuration (PAC) file; (¶0347, obtaining a PAC file) and
executing a first local proxy server configured to forward the traffic based on the first PAC file to an external proxy server. (¶0345, wherein a PAC file controls the direction of traffic)
It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Callaghan in view of Ina in order to incorporate well-known techniques, such as proxy auto-configuration files as utilized by Shribman in order to more effectively utilize network resources.
However does not explicitly teach a second local proxy server configured to receive the traffic from the at least one second electronic device and forward the traffic from the at least one second electronic device to the first local proxy server.
From a related technology, Turnbull teaches executing a second local proxy server (Turnbull, FIG. 3, ¶0042, Proxy Y 308 being a second local proxy being local to network 300) configured to forward the traffic from the at least one second electronic device to the first local proxy server. (FIG. 3, ¶0052, Proxy Y forwarding traffic from device 304 to Proxy X)
It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Callaghan in view of Ina and Shribman to corporate the proxy techniques used in Turnbull in order to more effectively handle the traffic between network elements thereby more effectively utilizing network resources.
Claim 6 Callaghan in view of Ina, Shribman, and Turnbull teaches Claim 1, and further teach wherein the first local proxy server supports a virtual private network (VPN) proxy (Shribman, ¶0190, wherein the proxy servers support VPN services) and allows the traffic from the at least one second electronic device to be provided to an external VPN server. (Examiner notes that “allowing the traffic… to be provided” only requires that the prior art does not explicitly prohibit the flow of such traffic)
Claim 7 Callaghan in view of Ina, Shribman, and Turnbull teaches Claim 1, and further teaches wherein the traffic from the at least one second electronic device is provided to the external proxy server (Shribman, FIG. 2, ¶0017, sending the traffic to the global proxy network, which comprise an external proxy server) using the first local proxy server for delivery to at least one destination. (Turnbull, FIG.3, ¶0042, Proxy X 306 being a first local proxy server; wherein the servers a local to network 300)
Claims 8 and 13-14 are taught by Callaghan in view of Ina, Shribman, and Turnbull as described for Claim 1 and 6-7 respectively.
Claims 15 and 20 are taught by Callaghan in view of Ina, Shribman, and Turnbull as described for Claim 1 and 6 respectively.
3. Claims 2-5, 9-12, and 16-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Callaghan (US 20070074280 A1) in view of Ina (US 20210144055 A1), Shribman et al. (US 20220103525 A1), and Turnbull et al. (US 20240114065 A1) and in further view of Kann et al. (US 20210029197 A1).
Claim 2 Callaghan in view of Ina, Shribman, and Turnbull teaches Claim 1, and further teaches creating, by the first electronic device, a first network interface on the first electronic device; (Shribman, ¶0811, wherein an interface comprises a virtual network interface, wherein virtual interfaces are created by respective devices) and
initiating, by the first electronic device, creation of a second network interface on each of the at least one second electronic device. (Shribman, ¶0811, wherein an interface comprises a virtual interface, wherein virtual interfaces are created by respective devices)
However, Callaghan in view of Ina, Turnbull and Shribman does not explicitly teach providing a second PAC file to the at least one second electronic device, the second PAC file identifying a network address and a port associated with the second local proxy server.
From a related technology, Kann teaches providing a second PAC file to the at least one second electronic device, the second PAC file identifying a network address and a port associated with the second local proxy server. (¶0044, wherein a PAC file identifies a related address and port)
It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify the teachings of Callaghan in view of Ina, Turnbull and Shribman to incorporate the teachings of Kann in order to more effectively utilize network resources.
Claim 3 Callaghan in view of Ina, Shribman, Turnbull and Kann teaches Claim 2, and further teaches the first network interface on the first electronic device is configured to function as an access point visible to the at least one second electronic device; (Examiner notes that it is a basic function of a network interface to be a visible access point, and as such this generic configuration would teach the claim limitation) and each second network interface on each of the at least one second electronic device is configured to download the second PAC file. (Examiner notes that it is a basic quality of a network interface to download data, and that this generic configuration would teach the recited claim limitation, i.e. only generic downloading function is necessary)
Claim 4 Callaghan in view of Ina, Shribman, Turnbull and Kann teaches Claim 2, and further teaches wherein the first electronic device provides the second PAC file to each of the at least one second electronic device during an assignment of a network address to the second network interface of that second electronic device. (Examiner notes that “during an assignment of a network address” comprises a contingent limitation, wherein the contingency is not required by the claims and therefore does not have patentable weight)
Claim 5 Callaghan in view of Ina, Shribman, Turnbull and Kann teaches Claim 2, and further teaches the first PAC file is obtained after enabling of a proxy configuration of the first electronic device; (Examiner notes that “after enabling of a proxy configuration” comprises a contingent limitation, wherein the contingency is not required by the claims and therefore does not have patentable weight) and the second PAC file is provided after enabling of a tethering function of the first electronic device. (Examiner notes that “after enabling of a proxy configuration” comprises a contingent limitation, wherein the contingency is not required by the claims and therefore does not have patentable weight)
Claims 9-12 are taught by Callaghan in view of Ina, Shribman, Turnbull and Kann as described for Claims 2-5.
Claims 16-19 are taught by Callaghan in view of Ina, Shribman, Turnbull and Kann as described for Claims 2-4.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CHRISTOPHER PALACA CADORNA whose telephone number is (571)270-0584. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 10:00-7:00.
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/CHRISTOPHER P CADORNA/Examiner, Art Unit 2444
/JOHN A FOLLANSBEE/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2444
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