DETAILED ACTION
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 .
Claim status:
Claims 1, 10-47 and 91-109 are pending.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments (arguments number 14,15 and 16) with respect to claim(s) 11 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.
With respect to all remaining arguments, the arguments have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
With respect to arguments (1,4, 9, 11, 13), Shribman explicitly teaches (paragraph [0444], “Any device herein, such as any tunnel device herein, may be housed in a single enclosure that may be a hand-held enclosure or a portable enclosure, and may further be integrated with at least one of a notebook computer, a laptop computer, a media player, a Digital Still Camera (DSC), a Digital video Camera (DVC or digital camcorder), a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a cellular telephone, a digital camera, a video recorder, or a smartphone…”). So, any device, the TB server device not excluded, according to the teaching of Shribman, may be integrated in a smartphone.
With respect to arguments (2, 3), Shribman explicitly teaches (paragraph [0571], “…as part of the “Receive Request from Client” step 151 is according to HTTPS protocol, where part or all of the message is encrypted using TLS or SSL. In such a case, the SP server 72 (or the TB server 71), may use SSL Sniffing for extracting the content identifier (such as the requested URL)… ”. [emphasis added], also Shribman further teaches the TB server device relays the identified content to the tunnel (fig. 14, 140).
With respect to argument (5), please find a response to this argument in previous office actions.
With respect to argument (6-8), please see the newly cited paragraphs of Shribman.
With respect to argument (10), the cited fig. 13, and the associated paragraphs, show that each element in the figure, including first and second client devices configurated to initiate respective connections when conveying the request.
With respect to argument (12), all elements in the delivery path send requests and receive response for the requested contents, including webpages (paragraph [0533]).
With respect to arguments (18 and 19), In response to applicant’s argument that there is no teaching, suggestion, or motivation to combine the references, the examiner recognizes that obviousness may be established by combining or modifying the teachings of the prior art to produce the claimed invention where there is some teaching, suggestion, or motivation to do so found either in the references themselves or in the knowledge generally available to one of ordinary skill in the art. See In re Fine, 837 F.2d 1071, 5 USPQ2d 1596 (Fed. Cir. 1988), In re Jones, 958 F.2d 347, 21 USPQ2d 1941 (Fed. Cir. 1992), and KSR International Co. v. Teleflex, Inc., 550 U.S. 398, 82 USPQ2d 1385 (2007).
Additionally, the test for obviousness is not whether the features of a secondary reference may be bodily incorporated into the structure of the primary reference; nor is it that the claimed invention must be expressly suggested in any one or all of the references. Rather, the test is what the combined teachings of the references would have suggested to those of ordinary skill in the art. See In re Keller, 642 F.2d 413, 208 USPQ 871 (CCPA 1981).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claim(s) 1, 10, 12-47, 92-93, 95 and 98-109 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Shribman et al. (Pub. No.: US 20200220746 A1).
As to claim 1, Shribman teaches a method for use with a web server that stores a content identified by a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) the method comprising:
receiving, by a first server from a requesting device over the Internet, the URL (fig. 12a, 121a, “31a” teaches a requesting device and “72” teaches a first server);
sending, by the first server to a first client device over the Internet, the received URL (fig. 12a, 131a, “71” teaches a first client);
receiving, by the first client device from the first server over the Internet, a first request that includes the URL (fig. 12a, 131a, “72”, and paragraph [0533]);
extracting, by the first client device, the URL from the first request (paragraph [0571], “…as part of the “Receive Request from Client” step 151 is according to HTTPS protocol, where part or all of the message is encrypted using TLS or SSL. In such a case, the SP server 72 (or the TB server 71), may use SSL Sniffing for extracting the content identifier (such as the requested URL)… ”, and [0562], “…the TB server 71 forwards the requested content identification to the selected tunnel…”, fig. 14, 140b and paragraph [0571]);
forming, by the first client device, a second request that includes the extracted URL, or modifying the first request to obtain the second request (paragraph [0562], “…The message sent over the message path 131b…” and [0575], fig. 14);
sending, by the first client device to a second client device over the Internet, the second request (fig. 12b, 131b, “33d” teaches the second client device);
receiving, by the second client device from the first client device over the Internet, the second request (fig. 12b, 131b);
sending, by the second client device to the web server over the Internet, the received second request (fig. 12b, 131c);
receiving, by the second client device from the web server over the Internet, the content, in response to the sending of the second request (fig. 13, 131d and paragraph [0564]);
sending, by the second client device to the first client device over the Internet, the received content (fig. 13, 131e and paragraph [0564]);
receiving, by the first client device from the second client device over the Internet, the received content (fig. 13, 131e and paragraph [0564]); and
sending, by the first client device to the first server over the Internet, the received content (fig. 13, 131f and paragraph [0564]),
wherein the sending of the received second request to the web server uses an IP address of the second client device, so that an IP address of the first client device is unknown to the web server (paragraph [0549], “…It is noted that such tunneling provides anonymity and untraceability, where the web server 22b is only aware of the request from the selected tunnel device, and is ignorant to the identity of the origin of the request…”),
wherein the content comprises, or consists of, a Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) object, a web-page, a web- site, or any combination thereof, that includes, consists of, or comprises, a part or whole of a program or data file, text data, audio data, voice data, multimedia data, video data, an image, music data, or any combination thereof (paragraph [0120]),
wherein, except for using the IP address of the second client device, the second client device transparently passes messages between the first client device and the web server (paragraph [0549], “…the tunnel device forwards the request for content, using tunneling or proxy scheme, to the web server 22b…” and “…For example, in case where the requesting client 31a is in a location A, and the selected tunnel device that is used is in a location B, the web server 22b may only be aware (such as by using IP geolocation) to the request arrival from the location B…”), and
wherein the first client device is a consumer electronic device that is housed in a single enclosure that comprises, is based on, or consists of, a hand-held enclosure or a portable enclosure that comprises a smartphone (paragraph [0444], “Any device herein, such as any tunnel device herein, may be housed in a single enclosure that may be a hand-held enclosure or a portable enclosure, and may further be integrated with at least one of a notebook computer, a laptop computer, a media player, a Digital Still Camera (DSC), a Digital video Camera (DVC or digital camcorder), a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a cellular telephone, a digital camera, a video recorder, or a smartphone…”).
Shribman does not explicitly teach using the IP address of the second client device as a source address.
However, Shribman further teaches, as shown above in paragraph [0549], the web server is only aware of the IP associated with request arrived from location of the second client device, “location B”, which indicates using IP address of the second client device as source IP address.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to use the IP address of the second client device as a source address when sending requests to the web server in order to enable the web server to send responses to the second client device utilizing the source IP address of the requester.
As to claim 10, Shribman teaches further comprising receiving, by the first client device over the Internet, the IP address of the second client device, and wherein the sending of the second request by the first client device to the second client device is in response to the receiving of the IP address of the second client device (paragraphs [0324] and [0542]).
As to claim 12, Shribman teaches wherein the receiving of the IP address of the second client device is from the first client device or from the first server or a second server that is different from the first server (paragraph [0324] and [0542]).
As to claim 13, Shribman teaches for use with a group of client devices that includes the second client device, the method further comprising selecting the second client device from the group of client devices (paragraph [0352]).
As to claim 14, Shribman teaches wherein IP addresses of the client devices in the group are stored in the first client device, and wherein the selecting is by the first client device (paragraph [0352]).
As to claim 15, Shribman teaches further comprising receiving and storing of the IP addresses of the client devices in the group (paragraphs [0672], [0324] and fig. 39 “send table to SP”).
As to claim 16, Shribman teaches wherein the receiving of the IP addresses of the client devices in the group is from the first client device or from a server device (paragraphs [0672], [0324] and fig. 39 “send table to SP”).
As to claim 17, Shribman teaches wherein IP addresses of the client devices in the group are stored in a server device, and wherein the selecting is by the server device (paragraph [0324], [0672], fig. 39 “send table to SP”).
As to claim 18, Shribman teaches wherein the selecting is in response to the URL, a domain in the first request, a web-page in the first request, a web-site in the first request, or any combination thereof (paragraphs [0324] and [0577]).
As to claim 19, Shribman teaches wherein the selecting is based on a time of the selecting or is time-based (paragraph [0318] and [0535]).
As to claim 20, Shribman teaches wherein the selecting is based on a calendar time (paragraph [0318] and [0535]).
As to claim 21, Shribman teaches wherein the selecting is based on a calendar month, a week, a day of the week, an hour of a day, a minute in an hour, or any combination thereof (paragraph [0318] and [0535]).
As to claim 22, Shribman teaches wherein the selecting uses, or is based on, an action or an event that is external to, and sensed by, the first client device (paragraphs [0597] and [0537]).
As to claim 23, Shribman teaches wherein the selecting uses, or is based on, load balancing, or wherein the selecting uses, or is based on, random, quazi-random, or deterministic selection (paragraph [0662]).
As to claim 24, Shribman teaches wherein the selecting uses, or is based on, random selecting that uses one or more random numbers generated by a random number generator (paragraph [0663]).
As to claim 25, Shribman teaches wherein the random number generator is hardware-based that uses, or is based on, thermal noise, shot noise, nuclear decaying radiation, photoelectric effect, or quantum phenomena (paragraph [0663]).
As to claim 26, Shribman teaches wherein the random number generator is software-based that uses, or is based on, executing an algorithm for generating pseudo-random numbers (paragraph [0663]).
As to claim 27, Shribman teaches wherein the IP addresses are arranged in a sequence in the group, and wherein the selecting is based on, or uses, sequential selection, cyclic selection, Last-In-First-Out (LIFO), First-In-First-Out (FIFO) scheme, or any combination thereof (paragraph [0664]).
As to claim 28, Shribman teaches for use with a first attribute type, and wherein each of the client devices in the group is associated with a first value relating to the first attribute type that comprises a numeric value or an identifier of a feature, an attribute, a characteristic, or a property of the first attribute type, wherein the selecting comprises selecting based on the first value associated with the selected client device (paragraph [0666]).
As to claim 29, Shribman teaches wherein the first attribute type comprises a geographical location, and wherein each of the first values comprises a name or an identifier of a continent, a country, a region, a city, a street, a ZIP code, or a timezone (paragraph [0349]).
As to claim 30, Shribman teaches wherein the first value of each of the client devices in the group or each of the IP addresses is based on IP geolocation (paragraph [0349]).
As to claim 31, Shribman teaches wherein the geolocation is based on W3C Geolocation API (paragraph [0349]).
As to claim 32, Shribman teaches for use with a database that associates IP addresses to geographical locations (paragraph [0414]).
As to claim 33, Shribman teaches wherein the database is stored in a first server (paragraph [0414]).
As to claim 34, Shribman teaches further comprising receiving and storing, by the first server, the database (paragraph [0414]).
As to claim 35, Shribman teaches further comprising estimating or associating the first value to each of the client devices in the group by the database (paragraph [0414]).
As to claim 36, Shribman teaches wherein the first attribute type comprises Internet Service Provider (ISP) or Autonomous System Number (ASN), wherein each of the first values comprises respectively a name or an identifier of the ISP or the ASN number (paragraph [0414]).
As to claim 37, Shribman teaches wherein the first attribute type corresponds to a hardware or software of client devices (paragraph [0350]).
As to claim 38, Shribman teaches wherein the first attribute type comprises the hardware of the client devices (paragraph [0350]).
As to claim 39, Shribman teaches wherein the first values comprise stationary or portable values, respectively based on the client device being stationary or portable (paragraph [0415]).
As to claim 40, Shribman teaches wherein the first attribute type comprises a software application installed, used, or operated, in client devices (paragraph [0415]).
As to claim 41, Shribman teaches wherein the first values comprise the type, make, model, or version of the software, or wherein the software application comprises an operating system (paragraph [0415]).
As to claim 42, Shribman teaches wherein the first attribute type corresponds to a communication property, feature of a communication link of client devices (paragraph [0351]).
As to claim 43, Shribman teaches wherein the communication link corresponds to the respective connection to the Internet of client devices, or wherein the communication linkcorresponds to a communication link of a client device with the first client device or with the web server (paragraph [0351]).
As to claim 44, Shribman teaches wherein the first attribute type corresponds to a bandwidth (BW) or Round-Trip delay Time (RTT) of the communication link, and the first value is the respective estimation or measurement of the BW or RTT (paragraph [0351]).
As to claim 45, Shribman teaches further comprising estimating or measuring, by the first server or by a client device, the BW or RTT of the communication link (paragraph [0351]).
As to claim 46, Shribman teaches wherein the first attribute type corresponds to a technology or scheme used by the client devices for connecting to the Internet (paragraph [0351]).
As to claim 47, Shribman teaches wherein the first values comprise wired or wireless values, respectively based on the client device being connected to the Internet using a wired or wireless connection (paragraph [0351]).
As to claim 92, Shribman teaches wherein the first request comprises, or consists of, a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) request, and the HTTP is based on, comprises, or consists of, HTTP/l.1, HTTPS, HTTP/2, HTTP/3, or any combination thereof (paragraph [0201]).
As to claim 93, Shribman teaches wherein the HTTP request comprises, or consists of, Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) request (paragraph [0571], “…according to HTTPS protocol…”).
As to claim 95, Shribman teaches wherein the second request comprises, or consists of, a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) request (paragraph [0201]).
As to claim 98, Shribman teaches wherein the primary function of each of the first and second client devices is to serve as a respective client device in a client / server architecture for accessing a respective resource over the Internet from the respective server in the client / server architecture (paragraph [0384], i.e. since the TB server and Tunnel device are devices, both may be integrated with one of the listed of devices, for example a notebook computer).
As to claim 99, Shribman teaches wherein each of the first and second client device is configured to initiate a respective connection with the respective server in the client / server architecture (fig. 13).
As to claim 100, Shribman teaches wherein each of the first and second client device further comprises a respective web browser for retrieving over the Internet web pages from web servers (paragraphs [0698] and [0063]).
As to claim 101, Shribman teaches wherein each of the first and second client device is configured for using a request-response protocol that comprises Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) for submitting an HTTP request message for a web-page or a part thereof to the respective server in the client / server architecture (paragraph [0210] and [0533] and fig. 13).
As to claim 102, Shribman teaches further comprising storing, operating, or using, by the first client device, a first client operating system, and storing, operating, or using, by the second client device, a second client operating system (paragraphs [0384]-[0385]).
As to claim 103, Shribman teaches wherein the first or second client operating system consists of, comprises, or is based on, one out of Microsoft Windows 7, Microsoft Windows XP, Microsoft Windows 8, Microsoft Windows 8.1, Linux, and Google Chrome OS (paragraphs [0391]).
As to claim 104, Shribman teaches wherein the first or second client operating system comprises, is based on, or consists of, a Real-Time Operating System (RTOS) (paragraphs [0391]).
As to claim 105, Shribman teaches wherein the first or second client operating system comprises, is based on, or consists of, a mobile operating system (paragraphs [0384]-[0385]).
As to claim 106, Shribman teaches wherein the mobile operating system is based on, or comprises, Android version 2.2 (Froyo), Android version 2.3 (Gingerbread), Android version 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich), Android Version 4.2 (Jelly Bean), Android version 4.4 (KitKat), Apple iOS version 3, Apple iOS version 4, Apple iOS version 5, Apple iOS version 6, Apple iOS version 7, Microsoft Windows® Phone version 7, Microsoft Windows® Phone version 8, Microsoft Windows® Phone version 9, or Blackberry® operating system (paragraphs [0384]-[0385]).
As to claim 107, Shribman teaches wherein the first or second client device is a consumer electronic device that is housed in a single enclosure that comprises, is based on, or consists of, a hand-held enclosure or a portable enclosure (paragraphs [0384]-[0385]).
As to claim 108, Shribman teaches wherein the second client device consists of, comprises, is part of, or is integrated with, a notebook computer, a laptop computer, a media player, a Digital Still Camera (DSC), a Digital video Camera (DVC or digital camcorder), a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a cellular telephone, a digital camera, a video recorder, or a smartphone (paragraphs [0384]-[0385] and [0444]).
As to claim 109, Shribman teaches wherein the second client device consists of, comprises, is part of, or is integrated with, a smartphone that comprises, or is based on, an Apple iPhone 6 or a Samsung Galaxy S6 (paragraphs [0384]-[0385] and [0444]).
Claim(s) 11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Shribman et al. (Pub. No.: US 20200220746 A1) in view of Lim et al. (Pub. No.: US 20050223248 A1).
As to claim 11, Shribman does not explicitly teach receiving IP address of second client device in response to sending a request for the IP address.
However, in an analogues art (computer networks) Lim teaches sending, by a first client device over the Internet, a request for the IP address of a second client device, and wherein the receiving of the IP address of the second client device is in response to the sending of the request for the IP address (paragraph [0084] “…The host 72 requests the IP address of the remote terminal 71 from the proxy 73 that retains the IP address of the remote terminal 71. The host 72 receives a response including the IP address from the proxy 73 which has received the request…”).
Based on Shribman in view of Lim, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to incorporate receiving IP address of second client device in response to sending a request for the IP address (taught by Lim) with using the IP address of the second client device as a source address when sending requests to the web server, with accessing contents using proxy server (taught by Shribman) in order to enable the web server to send responses to the second client device utilizing the source IP address of the requester and in order to enable the device to initiate retrieving IP address as needed.
Claim(s) 91, 94 and 96-97 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Shribman et al. (Pub. No.: US 20200220746 A1) in view of Maloo (Pub. No.: US 20140006479 A1).
As to claim 91, Shribman does not explicitly teach modifying a header field in the first request.
However, in the same field of endeavor (accessing contents through proxy servers) Maloo teaches second request is formed or generated by modifying a header field in the first request (paragraph [0016]).
Based on Shribman in view of Maloo, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to incorporate modifying a header field in the first request (taught by Maloo) with using the IP address of the second client device as a source address when sending requests to the web server, with accessing contents using proxy server (taught by Shribman) in order to enable the web server to send responses to the second client device utilizing the source IP address of the requester and in order to enable proxy servers to add or remove desired information to be communicated to the origin servers as motivated by Maloo (paragraph [0016]).
As to claim 94, the claim limitations are substantially similar to claim 91. Please refer to claim 91 above.
As to claim 96, Maloo further teaches wherein the second request comprises, or consists of, a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) request, and wherein at least one header field is modified from the first to second HTTP requests (paragraph [0016]). The limitations of claim 96 are rejected in view of the analysis of claim 91 above, and the rationale to combine, as discussed in claim 91, applies here as well.
As to claim 97, Maloo further teaches wherein the modified header field comprises User-Agent field, Accept field, Content Encoding field, Content Language field (paragraph [0016]). The limitations of claim 97 are rejected in view of the analysis of claim 91 above, and the rationale to combine, as discussed in claim 91, applies here as well.
Conclusion
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/Abdulkader M Alriyashi/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2447 5/11/2026
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