DETAILED ACTION
1. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
2. Claims 1-23 are pending. Claims 1, 22 and 23 are independent.
3 The IDS submitted on 2/5/2025 has been entered.
Claim Objections
4. Claims 4-11, 17, 18 and 20 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.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
5. 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 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.
6. 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.
7. Claims 1-3, 19, 22 and 23 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Antonatos (US PG Pub. 2019/0020477) in view of Cheng (US PG Pub. 2025/0023785).
As regarding claims 1, 22 and 23, Antonatos discloses A computer-implemented method for vertical federated machine learning, the method performed by a central system communicatively coupled to a plurality of satellite systems, the method comprising:
receiving, at the central system, first encrypted data based on a first dataset, wherein the first dataset is at a first satellite system [para. 74; receiving, at the second server, encrypted dataset from a first server];
receiving, at the central system, second encrypted data based on a second dataset, wherein the second dataset is at a second satellite system [para. 74; receiving, at the second server, second encrypted dataset from another first server];
applying a first transformation to the first encrypted data to generate first transformed data [para. 74-76; clustering encrypted dataset];
applying a second transformation to the second encrypted data to generate second transformed data [para. 74-76; clustering encrypted dataset];
Antonatos does not explicitly disclose the following steps those, however, are disclosed by Cheng identifying one or more matching values in the first and second transformed data [Cheng para. 147; matching filter information];
generating a first set of location indices indicating one or more matching values in the first transformed data [Cheng para. 187 and 190; matching filter information including location information];
generating a second set of location indices indicating one or more matching values in the second transformed data [Cheng para. 187 and 190; matching filter information including location information];
transmitting instructions to the first satellite system to train a first local machine learning model using data of the first dataset that is associated with the first set of location indices [Cheng para. 109-112]; and
transmitting instructions to the second satellite system to train a second local machine learning model using data of the second dataset that is associated with the second set of location indices [Cheng para. 109-112].
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the effective filing of the invention to modify Antonatos’s system to further comprise the missing claim features, as disclosed by Cheng, so as to improve trained learning machine models.
As regarding claim 2, Antonatos and Cheng further disclose The method of claim 1, comprising: receiving, at the central system, first update data from the first satellite system and second update data from the second satellite system [Cheng para. 109-112]; and training a global model using the first update data and the second update data [Cheng para. 109-112].
As regarding claim 3, Antonatos and Cheng further disclose The method of claim 2, comprising executing the global model to generate one or more predictions [Cheng para. 123, 125 and 212].
As regarding claim 19, Antonatos and Cheng further disclose The method of claim 16, wherein the first transformation key and the second transformation key transform the first encrypted data and second encrypted data according to a deterministic encryption scheme [Antonatos para. 74; applying an encryption scheme].
8. Claims 12-16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Antonatos (US PG Pub. 2019/0020477) in view of Cheng (US PG Pub. 2025/0023785) and further in view of Bercich (US PG Pub. 2021/0089899).
As regarding claim 12, Antonatos and Cheng do not disclose that the first encrypted data corresponds to one or more data categories of the first dataset that contain personally identifying information (PII). However, Bercich discloses it [para. 21-22 and 43].
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the effective filing of the invention to modify Antonatos and Cheng’s dataset to further comprise PII, as alternative confidential information that requires privacy and needs to be protected [Bircich para. 22].
As regarding claim 13, Antonatos, Cheng and Bircich further disclose The method of claim 1, wherein the first encrypted data corresponds to one or more unique data categories of the first dataset that contain information that identifies a corresponding one or more entities of the first dataset [Bircich para. 43 and 45].
As regarding claim 14, Antonatos, Cheng and Bircich further disclose The method of claim 1, wherein the first dataset and the second dataset comprise one or more of financial data, medical data, and biographical data [Bircich para. 43].
As regarding claim 15, Antonatos, Cheng and Bircich further disclose The method of claim 1, wherein the first dataset and the second dataset store data according to different data schemas [FIG. 1B, para. 28 and 43].
As regarding claim 16, Antonatos, Cheng and Bircich further disclose The method of claim 1, wherein the first dataset and the second dataset store data in one or more tables [FIG. 1B, para. 28 and 43].
9. Claim 21 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Antonatos (US PG Pub. 2019/0020477) in view of Cheng (US PG Pub. 2025/0023785) and further in view of Freeman (US PG Pub. 2020/0401705).
As regarding claim 21, Antonatos and Cheng do not disclose that the first encrypted data is encrypted using a pseudorandom generator. However, Freeman discloses it [para. 38].
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the effective filing of the invention to modify Antonatos and Cheng’s encryption scheme to further comprise a pseudorandom generator, as alternative encryption scheme for data protection.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to THONG P TRUONG whose telephone number is (571)270-7905. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F 8:30AM - 5:30PM.
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/THONG TRUONG/
Examiner, Art Unit 2433
/JEFFREY C PWU/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2433
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