DETAILED ACTION
This Office Action is in response to Applicant’s Arguments/Remarks and RCE filed on 06/10/2026.
As per instant Amendment, claims 1, 10 and 17 have been amended; claims 1, 10 and 17 are independent claims; claims 2 and 4 have been cancelled. Claims 1, 3 and 5-20 have been examined and are pending. This Action is made non-FINAL.
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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant’s submission filed on 05/13/2026 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see the Applicant Arguments/Remarks, filed 05/13/2026, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 1, 3 and 5-20 under 35 U.S.C. 103, have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicant’s arguments: “Nix fails to teach or suggest a single data stream comprising all three of the data stream portions called for in Applicant's Claim 1.”
The Examiner disagrees with the Applicants. The Examiner respectfully submits that Nix does disclose ‘a single data stream comprising all three of the data stream portions’ (para. 199 and fig. 2b, ephemeral public key equivalent to first data stream; Fig 2a, 2b, 209b cipher text1 equivalent to second data stream; fig. 2a, 297a message equivalent to third data stream).
Examiner, however, in light of the above submission maintains the previous rejections while considering the amendments to the claims as follows:
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
Claims 1, 3 and 5-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Nix, Pub. No.: US 2020/0280436 in view of Xu et. al. (hereinafter Xu), Pub. No.: US 2023/0037251.
Referring to claim 1, Nix teaches a method of device authentication (para. 0023), the method comprising:
a first data stream portion including unencrypted data that includes an ephemeral public key of an ephemeral key pair (para. 0018; ‘the device can send the device ephemeral public key’; fig. 2b, para. 0199, ‘ephemeral public key’), and at least one encryption algorithm identifier (para. 0199, ‘cryptographic parameters A 104a’, para. 0288, ‘cryptographic suite’);
a second data stream portion including first encrypted data (figs. 2a, 2b, ‘ciphertext1 209b’) that includes a first counter value (fig. 2a, 2b ‘Random1’) and an identity of the first endpoint device, wherein the first encrypted data is encrypted using a key of first symmetric encryption keys, wherein the first symmetric encryption keys are determined using an ephemeral secret key of the ephemeral key pair and a public key of the second endpoint device (paras. 0024-0025, The server can conduct a key derivation step with the point X4 in order to mutually derive a second symmetric ciphering key K2.); and
a third data stream portion (fig. 2a, ‘297a’) including second encrypted data that includes a second counter value (para. 0194, ‘random number 2’, fig. 2a, 211a)) and an identity of the second endpoint device (paras. 0024-0025, The device can derive the second symmetric ciphering key K2 using shared secret X4 and a key derivation function), wherein the second encrypted data is encrypted using a key second symmetric encryption keys , wherein the second symmetric encryption keys are determined using a secret key of the first endpoint device, which is part of a secret/public key pair of the first endpoint device that includes a public key of the first endpoint device, and the public key of the second endpoint device (paras. 0024-0025, The device can derive the second symmetric ciphering key K2 using shared secret X4 and a key derivation function); and
authenticating, by the second endpoint device, the first endpoint device using the first, second (para. 0167, ‘server 101 can then conduct a decryption step 221 (i) using the key K1 206a output from key exchange step 218 in order to (ii) convert ciphertext 209b from message 297 into plaintext.’; para. 0023, ‘the successful decryption of the first ciphertext can indicate that the device is authenticated’), and third data stream portions (para. 0195, device 103 can be further securely authenticated with server 101 (where the receipt and use of a random number random 221 1a is more resistant to replay attacks than a message 297’; para. 0196, ‘compare the received value m 227c with the value m 215e from a step 215, and if the two values m are equal then the device public key 121 can be considered validated by network 102’; para 0183, ‘server 101 can verify that device 103 can properly encrypt data sent from server 101, thereby further confirming authentication of device 103 with server 101’).
Nix does not explicitly disclose receiving a continuous data stream from a first endpoint device to an offline second endpoint device.
However, in an analogous art, Xu teaches receiving a data stream from a first endpoint device to an offline second endpoint device (paras. 0013-0014, message sent when the device offline).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention (AIA ) to combine the teachings of Nix with the method and system of Xu, wherein receiving a data stream from a first endpoint device to an offline second endpoint device to provide the user with a means for the field of communications technologies and the field of smart home technologies, and in particular, to a device sharing method and an electronic device (Xu: para. 0002).
Referring to claim 3, Nix and Xu teach the method of claim 2. Nix further teaches determining, by the second endpoint device, the first symmetric encryption keys using the ephemeral public key of the first data stream portion and a secret key of a secret/public key pair of the second endpoint device that includes the public key of the second endpoint device (Nix: para, 0163 and fig. 2d).
Referring to claim 5, Nix and Xu teach the method of claim 4. Nix further teaches authenticating, by the second endpoint device, the first endpoint device using the first and second symmetric encryption keys and keys received from the first endpoint device in the second data stream portion and the third data stream portion, wherein the second symmetric encryption keys are determined by the second endpoint device using the public key of the first endpoint device and a secret key of a secret/public key pair of the second endpoint device that includes the public key of the second endpoint device (Nix: paras. 0019-0022; para, 0185 and fig. 3a).
Referring to claim 6, Nix and Xu teach the method of claim 1. Nix further teaches wherein the identity of the first endpoint device includes a public key of a first public/secret key pair of the first endpoint device; and the identity of the second endpoint includes a public key of a second public/secret key pair of the endpoint device (Nix: para. 0199 and figs. 2a-2b).
Referring to claim 7, Nix and Xu teach the method of claim 1. Nix further teaches wherein the identity of the first endpoint device includes a public key of a first public/secret key pair of the first endpoint device signed by a certification authority (Nix: para. 0069).
Referring to claim 8, Nix and Xu teach the method of claim 1. Nix further teaches wherein the encryption algorithm identifier identifies an asymmetric encryption algorithm (Nix: para. 0288).
Referring to claim 9, Nix and Xu teach the method of claim 1. Nix further teaches wherein the encryption algorithm identifier identifies a symmetric encryption algorithm (Nix: para. 0288).
Referring to claim 10, This claim is similar in scope to claim 1, and is therefore rejected under similar rationale.
Referring to claim 11, Nix and Xu teach the first end point of claim 10. Nix
further teaches wherein the processing circuitry is configured to generate the first
symmetric encryption keys (Nix: paras. 0024-0025).
Referring to claim 12, Nix and Xu teach the first end point of claim 11. Nix
further teaches wherein the processing circuitry is configured to generate the second
symmetric encryption keys (Nix: paras. 0024-0025).
Referring to claim 13, This claim is similar in scope to claim 5, and is therefore rejected under similar rationale.
Referring to claim 14, This claim is similar in scope to claim 7, and is therefore rejected under similar rationale.
Referring to claim 15, This claim is similar in scope to claim 8, and is therefore rejected under similar rationale.
Referring to claim 16, This claim is similar in scope to claim 9, and is therefore rejected under similar rationale.
Referring to claim 17, This claim is similar in scope to claim 1, and is therefore rejected under similar rationale.
Referring to claim 18, This claim is similar in scope to claim 3, and is therefore rejected under similar rationale.
Referring to claim 19, This claim is similar in scope to claim 5, and is therefore rejected under similar rationale.
Referring to claim 20, This claim is similar in scope to claim 6, and is therefore rejected under similar rationale.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Please see the attached PTO-892.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to YONAS A BAYOU whose telephone number is (571)272-7610. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 7AM-4PM.
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/YONAS A BAYOU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2499 06/29/2026
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