Detailed Action
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Amendment filed on 11/11/2025 has been acknowledged. Claims 1-21are currently pending and have been considered below. Claim 1, 9 and 14 are independent claim. Claim 16-21 are added new. Claim 2 is cancelled.
35 USC § 101rejection is withdrawn in view of amendment.
Priority
This application is a 371 of PCT/US2020/053435 filed on 09/30/2020.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments added in the amendment filed on 11/11/2025 have been fully considered but moot in view of new ground of rejection. The reasons set forth below.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 1, 3-8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter. Claim 1 recites “a compute device, comprising a database, a host controller and a device connection controller”. The claim recites “device” without having any hardware positively recited. No hardware component is recited in the claim. A database or a host controller is not defined as hardware component in the claim. Thus, the device cannot be implemented in software or tangible component. If the device is considered as machine, then the machine needs to consist of some concrete part or structure which is absent in the claim. See MPEP 2106.
A claim that covers both statutory and non-statutory embodiments (under the broadest reasonable interpretation of the claim when read in light of the specification and in view of one skilled in the art) embraces subject matter that is not eligible for patent protection and therefore is directed to non-statutory subject matter. The dependent claims 3-8 inherit the deficiency of the parent claim and are rejected for the same rational.
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 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 of this title, 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.
Claim 1, 3-21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Michaud (US Patent Application Publication No 2020/0220783 A1) in view of Lee (US Patent Application Publication No 2014/0351478 A1).
Regarding Claim 1, Michaud discloses a compute device, comprising:
a database to store values representing different combinations of peripheral devices previously connected to a computing dock (Michaud, ¶[0013], the out of band discovery system can compare the received hash value to other hash values (hash identifiers) from a local cache or remote database to identify service definitions associated with service attributes of the peripheral device);
a host controller communicatively coupled to the database, the host controller to:
receive, via the computing dock, identification data from a peripheral device connected to the computing dock, the identification data identifying the peripheral device (Michaud, ¶[0038]- ¶[0039], the local cache manager may perform a bulk download of service database entries from the user account data or service entry database prior to communicating with or performing out of band discovery for a peripheral device. In addition, the local cache manager may dynamically update the local cache in response to performing discovery for peripheral device. The hash manager and communication manager collect information (device identifier and hash value) from the peripheral device and determine if the hash value matches a hash identifier from an entry of the local cache);
compare the identification data with the values stored in a database (Michaud, ¶[0041]- ¶[0043], when peripheral device generates random identifier, out of band discovery system may fail to recognize the device identifier. The hash manager may access user account data to determine whether the account cache includes an account entry having a hash identifier that matches the hash value received from the peripheral device), and
a device connection controller communicatively coupled to the host controller, the device connection controller to:
retrieve, from the database, operational data for the peripheral device, based on a match between the identification data and at least one of the values (Michaud, ¶[0045]- ¶[0046], if the hash manager fails to identify a local database entry having a hash identifier that matches the hash value, the hash manager can query the user account data to determine whether an account cache includes an account database entry corresponding to the hash value); and
establish, based on the operational data, a connection with the peripheral device via the computing dock (Michaud, ¶[0049], establishes a connection between peripheral device and client device).
Michaud does not explicitly teach the following limitation that Lee teaches:
connected to computing dock (Lee, ¶[0253], after the auto docking connection procedure, the wireless dockee (WD) tries to connect to the wireless docking center (WDC). The WD may transmit a probe request message with a service hash for a service name which the WD searches).
Michaud in view of Lee are analogous art because they are from the “same field of endeavor” and are from the same “problem solving area”. Namely, they pertain to the field of “authenticating device identity and functionality in a peripheral device”. It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the invention of Michaud in view of Lee to include the idea of verifying the identity of the peripheral devices connected to the docking station that can be considered safe (Lee, ¶[0019]).
Regarding claim 3, Michaud in view of Lee discloses the compute device of claim 1, wherein:
the database comprises a number of profiles (Michaud, ¶[0021], “service definition” or “service database” may refer to any information associated with one or more service attributes that enables a central device to interact with a peripheral device. ¶[0024], the local cache includes a number of service database entries); and
each profile comprises:
a stored value corresponding to the identification data of a respective combination of peripheral devices (Michaud, ¶[0019], a hash value may include a unique identifier (UUID), a globally unique identifier (GUID), a service declaration value, a service handle identifier or other data associated with a set of service attributes); and
operational data for the peripheral devices of the respective combination (Michaud, ¶[0022], a central device may interact with the peripheral device, provide an input or output to the peripheral device, receive an input or output from the peripheral device, or otherwise interact with the peripheral device in accordance with a set of service definitions).
Regarding claim 4, Michaud in view of Lee discloses the compute device of claim 1, wherein the stored value values comprises identification data for the most recently used combination of peripheral devices coupled to the computing dock (Michaud, ¶[0019], a hash value may include a unique identifier (UUID), a globally unique identifier (GUID), a service declaration value, a service handle identifier or other data associated with a set of service attributes. Michaud, ¶[0052], out of band discovery system performs discovery for peripheral devices and dynamically updates a local cache to include a local entry including a hash and corresponding service definition that enable the client device to interact with each of the respective peripheral devices).
Regarding Claim 5, Michaud in view of Lee discloses the compute device of claim 1, wherein the host controller is further to:
receive, from the computing dock, a single hashed string representing identification data for multiple peripheral devices connected to the computing dock (Michaud, ¶[0019], a hash value may include a unique identifier (UUID), a globally unique identifier (GUID), a service declaration value, a service handle identifier or other data associated with a set of service attributes. Michaud, ¶[0052], out of band discovery system performs discovery for peripheral devices and dynamically updates a local cache to include a local entry including a hash and corresponding service definition that enable the client device to interact with each of the respective peripheral devices).
Regarding claim 6, Michaud in view of Lee discloses the compute device of claim 1, wherein the identification data comprises a hashed value representing a combination of peripheral devices connected to the
computing dock (Michaud, ¶[0019], a hash value may include a unique identifier (UUID), a globally unique identifier (GUID), a service declaration value, a service handle identifier or other data associated with a set of service attributes. ¶[0052], out of band discovery system performs discovery for peripheral devices and dynamically updates a local cache to include a local entry including a hash and corresponding service definition that enable the client device to interact with each of the respective peripheral devices).
Regarding claim 7, Michaud in view of Lee discloses the compute device of claim 1, wherein the device connection controller is further to,
store, in the database when the identification data does not match any of the values stored in the database, the identification data and operational data retrieved from the peripheral device (Michaud, ¶[0045], if the hash manager fails to identify a local database entry having a hash identifier that matches the hash value, the hash manager can query the user account data to determine whether an account cache includes an account database entry corresponding to the hash value).
Regarding Claim 8, Michaud in view of Lee discloses the compute device of claim 1, wherein the device connection controller is further to:
purge, from the database when the identification data does not match an of the values stored in the database, previously stored identification data and operational data (Michaud, ¶[0045], if the hash manager fails to identify a local database entry having a hash identifier that matches the hash value, the hash manager can query the user account data to determine whether an account cache includes an account database entry corresponding to the hash value).
Regarding Claim 9, Michaud discloses a method, comprising:
storing, in a database of a compute device, values representing different combinations of peripheral devices previously connected to a computing dock (Michaud, ¶[0013], the out of band discovery system can compare the received hash value to other hash values (hash identifiers) from a local cache or remote database to identify service definitions associated with service attributes of the peripheral device);
receiving identification data that identifies a peripheral device connected to a computing dock, based on the compute device being physically connected to the computing dock (Michaud, ¶[0038]- ¶[0039], the local cache manager may perform a bulk download of service database entries from the user account data or service entry database prior to communicating with or performing out of band discovery for a peripheral device. In addition, the local cache manager may dynamically update the local cache in response to performing discovery for peripheral device. The hash manager and communication manager collect information (device identifier and hash value) from the peripheral device and determine if the hash value matches a hash identifier from an entry of the local cache);
comparing, in response to receiving the identification data from the peripheral device, the identification data with the values (Michaud, ¶[0041]- ¶[0043], when peripheral device generates random identifier, out of band discovery system may fail to recognize the device identifier. The hash manager may access user account data to determine whether the account cache includes an account entry having a hash identifier that matches the hash value received from the peripheral device); and
retrieving, from the database when the identification data matches at least one of the values stored in the database, operational data for the peripheral device (Michaud, ¶[0045]- ¶[0046], if the hash manager fails to identify a local database entry having a hash identifier that matches the hash value, the hash manager can query the user account data to determine whether an account cache includes an account database entry corresponding to the hash value); and
establishing, based on the operational data, a connection with the peripheral device via the computing dock (Michaud, ¶[0049], establishes a connection between peripheral device and client device).
Michaud does not explicitly teach the following limitation that Lee teaches:
connected to computing dock (Lee, ¶[0253], after the auto docking connection procedure, the wireless dockee (WD) tries to connect to the wireless docking center (WDC). The WD may transmit a probe request message with a service hash for a service name which the WD searches).
Michaud in view of Lee are analogous art because they are from the “same field of endeavor” and are from the same “problem solving area”. Namely, they pertain to the field of “authenticating device identity and functionality in a peripheral device”. It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the invention of Michaud in view of Lee to include the idea of verifying the identity of the peripheral devices connected to the docking station that can be considered safe (Lee, ¶[0019]).
Regarding Claim 10, Michaud in view of Lee discloses the method of claim 9, further comprising:
retrieving operational data for the peripheral device from the peripheral device via the computing dock in response to a determination that the identification data does not match any of the values stored in the database (Michaud, ¶[0045], if the hash manager fails to identify a local database entry having a hash identifier that matches the hash value, the hash manager can query the user account data to determine whether an account cache includes an account database entry corresponding to the hash value).
Regarding Claim 11, Michaud in view of Lee discloses the method of claim 10, further comprising storing, in the database, hashed identification data and operational data collected from the peripheral devices (Michaud, ¶[0022], a central device may interact with the peripheral device, provide an input or output to the peripheral device, receive an input or output from the peripheral device, or otherwise interact with the peripheral device in accordance with a set of service definitions).
Regarding Claim 12, Michaud in view of Lee discloses the method of claim 11, further comprising purging the database of previously stored hashed identification data and operational data (Michaud, ¶[0045], if the hash manager fails to identify a local database entry having a hash identifier that matches the hash value, the hash manager can query the user account data to determine whether an account cache includes an account database entry corresponding to the hash value).
Regarding Claim 13, Michaud in view of Lee discloses the method of claim 11, further comprising:
storing the hashed data identification data and operational data collected from the peripheral devices as a first profile in the database (Michaud, ¶[0021], “service definition” or “service database” may refer to any information associated with one or more service attributes that enables a central device to interact with a peripheral device. ¶[0024], the local cache includes a number of service database entries); and
retaining previously stored hashed identification data and operational data as a second profile in the database (Michaud, ¶[0022], a central device may interact with the peripheral device, provide an input or output to the peripheral device, receive an input or output from the peripheral device, or otherwise interact with the peripheral device in accordance with a set of service definitions).
Regarding Claim 14, Michaud discloses a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium encoded with instructions executable by a processor, the machine-readable storage medium comprising instructions to, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:
storing, in a database of a compute device, values representing different combinations of peripheral devices previously connected to a computing dock (Michaud, ¶[0013], the out of band discovery system can compare the received hash value to other hash values (hash identifiers) from a local cache or remote database to identify service definitions associated with service attributes of the peripheral device);
receive identification data that identifies a peripheral device connected to a computing dock, based on the compute device being physically connected to the computing dock (Michaud, ¶[0038]- ¶[0039], the local cache manager may perform a bulk download of service database entries from the user account data or service entry database prior to communicating with or performing out of band discovery for a peripheral device. In addition, the local cache manager may dynamically update the local cache in response to performing discovery for peripheral device. The hash manager and communication manager collect information (device identifier and hash value) from the peripheral device and determine if the hash value matches a hash identifier from an entry of the local cache);
compare, in response to receiving the identification data form the peripheral device, the identification data with the values (Michaud, ¶[0041]- ¶[0043], when peripheral device generates random identifier, out of band discovery system may fail to recognize the device identifier. The hash manager may access user account data to determine whether the account cache includes an account entry having a hash identifier that matches the hash value received from the peripheral device);
establish, based on operational data, a connection with the peripheral device via the computing dock (Michaud, ¶[0049], establishes a connection between peripheral device and client device).
Michaud does not explicitly teach the following limitation that Lee teaches:
connected to computing dock (Lee, ¶[0253], after the auto docking connection procedure, the wireless dockee (WD) tries to connect to the wireless docking center (WDC). The WD may transmit a probe request message with a service hash for a service name which the WD searches).
Michaud in view of Lee are analogous art because they are from the “same field of endeavor” and are from the same “problem solving area”. Namely, they pertain to the field of “authenticating device identity and functionality in a peripheral device”. It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the invention of Michaud in view of Lee to include the idea of verifying the identity of the peripheral devices connected to the docking station that can be considered safe (Lee, ¶[0019]).
Regarding Claim 15, Michaud in view of Lee discloses the non-transitory machine-readable storage of claim 14, wherein the identification data comprises a hashed value representing a combination of peripheral devices connected to the computing dock (Michaud, ¶[0038]- ¶[0039], the local cache manager may perform a bulk download of service database entries from the user account data or service entry database prior to communicating with or performing out of band discovery for a peripheral device. In addition, the local cache manager may dynamically update the local cache in response to performing discovery for peripheral device. The hash manager and communication manager collect information (device identifier and hash value) from the peripheral device and determine if the hash value matches a hash identifier from an entry of the local cache); and
wherein the identification data comprises data selected from the group consisting of a device identifier, a vendor identifier, a device serial number, and a device name (Michaud, ¶[0019], a hash value may include a unique identifier (UUID), a globally unique identifier (GUID), a service declaration value, a service handle identifier or other data associated with a set of service attributes).
Regarding Claim 16, Michaud in view of Lee discloses the compute device of claim 1, wherein the operational data comprises protocol-specific information for establishing communication between the compute device and the peripheral device (Michaud, ¶[0049], establishes a connection between peripheral device and client device).
Regarding Claim 17, Michaud in view of Lee discloses the compute device of claim 16, wherein the protocol-specific information includes at least one of:
a protocol version,
extended display identification data,
bandwidth information,
device address (Michaud, ¶[0019], a hash value may include a unique identifier (UUID), a globally unique identifier (GUID), a service declaration value, a service handle identifier or other data associated with a set of service attributes),
resource allocations,
device-specific settings,
Universal Serial Bus (USB) type (Michaud, ¶[0101], some communication interface includes a universal serial bus),
supported protocols,
transmission speed,
class code, or
vendor identification.
Regarding Claim 18, Michaud in view of Lee discloses the compute device of claim 1, wherein the device connection controller is
further to:
bypass, when the identification data matches at least one of the values stored in the database, a full enumeration and initialization operation for the peripheral device (Michaud, ¶[0019], a hash value may include a unique identifier (UUID), a globally unique identifier (GUID), a service declaration value, a service handle identifier or other data associated with a set of service attributes).
Regarding Claim 19, Michaud in view of Lee discloses the compute device of claim 1, wherein the identification data comprises a hashed value representing a combination of peripheral devices connected to the computing dock (Michaud, ¶[0013], the out of band discovery system can compare the received hash value to other hash values (hash identifiers) from a local cache or remote database to identify service definitions associated with service attributes of the peripheral device).
Regarding Claim 20, Michaud in view of Lee discloses the compute device of claim 19, wherein the hashed value is generated by the computing dock (Michaud, ¶[0013], the out of band discovery system can compare the received hash value to other hash values (hash identifiers) from a local cache or remote database to identify service definitions associated with service attributes of the peripheral device. Also Lee, ¶[0253], after the auto docking connection procedure, the wireless dockee (WD) tries to connect to the wireless docking center (WDC). The WD may transmit a probe request message with a service hash for a service name which the WD searches).
Regarding Claim 21, Michaud in view of Lee discloses the compute device of claim 1, wherein the device connection controller is
further to:
establish connections with multiple peripheral devices based on a single retrieval of operational data from the database when identification data for the multiple peripheral devices matches at least one of the values stored in the database (Michaud, ¶[0049], establishes a connection between peripheral device and client device).
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 extension fee 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 date of this final action. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to WASIKA NIPA whose telephone number is (571)272-8923. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F (7:30 - 5:00).
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, JEFFRY PWU can be reached on 571-272-6798. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/WASIKA NIPA/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2433
Prosecution Insights