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 .
DETAILED ACTION
Applicant’s amendment filed on 01/21/2026 has been entered. Applicant has amended claims 1 and 24. Currently claims 1, 3, 4, 6, 10, 12-14, 16-17, 21, 24, 26, 27, 33, 35-37 and 39 are pending in this application.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments with respect to claims 1 and 24 have been considered but are moot in view of the new ground(s) of rejection.
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.
Claims 1, 6, 10, 12, 14, 16, 17, 21, 24, 33, 35, 37 and 39 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kuenzi et al. (US 2019/0182672 A1), hereinafter, “Kuenzi” in view of Kuenzi et al. (US 2020/0351661 A1), hereinafter, “Kuenzi 661” and further in view of Frenette et al. (US 2018/0341393 A1), hereinafter, “Frenette”.
Regarding Claims 1 and 24, Kuenzi discloses method and corresponding machine-readable storage medium, wherein the method comprises:
generating, by a server of the access control system, an access token associated with both a mobile device of a user and including access credential information for the user (See, Paragraph 0035, “The encrypted credential may be generated by the server 14 using well-known techniques for digital certificate creation and encryption using cryptographic algorithms such as AES, ECC, RSA, and the like. For example, the credential may contain but is not limited to including a credential identifier, unique access control 16 identifier, unique credential module 36 identifier, an identifier shared with multiple access controls, a parameter indicating the type or format of the credential, it may contain encrypted data such as the virtual card data, and it may contain a digital signature”);
receiving, by the mobile device, the access token and storing the access token in the mobile device (See, Paragraph 0029, “A mobile device 12 may store credentials for one or all or other of the examples noted above, and in addition may store a plurality of credentials for each type of application at the same time. Some credentials may be used for multiple access controls 16”);
detecting multiple physical access portals using an application of the mobile device (See, Paragraph 0053, “At block 402, the mobile device 12 wirelessly detects availability of an access control 16a. Availability can be detected based on listening for advertisements from the access control 16a and/or sending a request and waiting for a response of availability of the access control 16a.” and 0014, “an access control system includes an access control operable to control a lock actuator to open a lock, and a mobile device application executable by a mobile device. The access control system is configured to detect availability of the access control wirelessly by the mobile device” and Paragraph 0043, “Seamless access may include the mobile application 80 running in the “background” on a mobile device 12 where it is continuously or periodically scanning for a signal advertisement, such as Bluetooth low energy (BTLE) advertisements from in-range access controls 16 along with continuously or periodically determining an intent prediction” and Paragraph 0057, “In yet another embodiment, intent may be shown by a user making a selection on a screen of the mobile device 12 through the mobile device application 80. For example, a list of names of one or more access controls 16 may display on the screen and the user may select one of the access controls 16”));
displaying notification a list of names of one or more access controls 16 may display on the screen and the user may select one of the access controls 16”, Note: the language of the claim does not restrict displaying all the detected physical access portals even if the user does not have token for some of the access portal as long as the detected portal with access tokens are displayed and also broad enough to detect, identify and notify the user on UI a single physical access portal);
receiving a selection of a physical access portal using a user interface of the mobile device (See, Paragraph 0057, “In yet another embodiment, intent may be shown by a user making a selection on a screen of the mobile device 12 through the mobile device application 80. For example, a list of names of one or more access controls 16 may display on the screen and the user may select one of the access controls 16”);
establishing a secure communication channel with a secure relay device associated with the selected physical access portal (See, Paragraph 0043, “When the intent prediction indicates the user should authenticate, the mobile application 80 can again call the software-to-software API in the mobile library 82 to initiate the secure transfer of the encrypted mobile credential to the access control 16 (step 230)” and Paragraph 0044, “The mobile library 82 can initiate a wireless connection, and perform a secure transfer of the encrypted mobile credential (step 232). The secure transfer may utilize a unique session encryption key and standard cryptographic algorithms and techniques”);
sending an encrypted access token of the access token stored in the mobile device to the secure relay device (See, Paragraph 0043, “When the intent prediction indicates the user should authenticate, the mobile application 80 can again call the software-to-software API in the mobile library 82 to initiate the secure transfer of the encrypted mobile credential to the access control 16 (step 230)” and Paragraph 0044, “The mobile library 82 can initiate a wireless connection, and perform a secure transfer of the encrypted mobile credential (step 232). The secure transfer may utilize a unique session encryption key and standard cryptographic algorithms and techniques”); and
optionally, granting access by the secure relay device to the selected physical access portal according to the encrypted access token (See, Paragraph 0045, “The credential module 36 can receive the encrypted mobile credential, then validate and decrypt the encrypted mobile credential to retrieve the virtual card data” and 0046, “The virtual card data can then be communicated via hardware and software interfaces, depending on embodiments, to the lock controller 24, which may further decrypt the virtual card data, processes the data based on lock vendor rules, then open the lock if entry is permitted (step 234)”).
While Kuenzi discloses detecting multiple access point and providing user with a list of access points to choose from for access control, Kuenzi does not explicitly disclose determining, by the application, which of the detected multiple physical access portals the user can access based on the access token stored in the mobile device and an access list stored in the mobile device previous to the detecting the multiple physical access portals and displaying notification of only the detected physical access portals that the application determined the user can access on a display screen of the mobile device and not displaying notifications of other detected physical access portals.
Kuenzi 661 discloses determining, by an application, which of detected multiple physical access portals a user can access based on an access token stored in a mobile device and an access list stored in the mobile device previous to the detecting the multiple physical access portals (See, Fig. 4, Numeral 82 and Paragraphs 0063, 0065 and 0066).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to determine, in the system of Kuenzi, which of detected multiple physical access portals a user can access based on an access token stored in a mobile device and an access list stored in the mobile device previous to the detecting the multiple physical access portals as taught by Kuenzi 661 so that the user can operate the access control in an offline mode at any later time without the mobile device being required to be connected to the credential service and so that the user can get a list of all the authorized access points and filters the access points according to the list.
Frenette discloses displaying notification of only detected physical access portals that an application determined a user can access on a display screen of a mobile device and not displaying notifications of other detected physical access portals (See, Paragraphs 0006, 0055 and 0068).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to displaying, in the system of Kuenzi and Kuenzi 661, notification of only the detected physical access portals that the application determined the user can access on a display screen of the mobile device and not displaying notifications of other detected physical access portals as taught by Frenette so that only access points that are available are presented to the user, and if the authorization status for certain access points or users changes, the modified prioritized list will reflect the updated authorization status (See, Frenette, Paragraph 0068).
Regarding Claim 6, the rejection of claim 1 is incorporated and the combination of Kuenzi, Kuenzi 661 and Frenette as applied in the rejection of claim 1 does not explicitly disclose wherein the displaying the notifications comprises comparing identifiers of the detected multiple physical access portals to a stored list of physical access portals allowed for access by a user of the mobile device, and displaying the notifications for the detected physical access portals included in the list.
However, Frenette in the same reference discloses wherein the displaying the notifications comprises comparing identifiers of detected multiple physical access portals to a stored list of physical access portals allowed for access by a user of a mobile device, and displaying the notifications for the detected physical access portals included in the list (See, Frenette Fig. 6A and Paragraphs 0056, 0057, 0064 and 0074).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to comparing, in the system of Kuenzi and Frenette, identifiers of the detected multiple physical access portals to a stored list of physical access portals allowed for access by a user of the mobile device, and displaying the notifications for the detected physical access portals included in the list as further taught by Frenette so that “the access points that are presented to the user are further prioritized based on predictions of which access points are most likely to be the next access point engaged by the user. The predicted access points can be presented as preeminent icons such that they are easy to access” (See, Frenette, Paragraph 0006).
Regarding Claims 12 and 35, the rejection of claims 1 and 24 is incorporated and the combination of Kuenzi, Kuenzi 661 and Frenette as applied in the rejection of claim 1 fails to disclose further discloses wherein the displaying the notifications includes comprises: determining, by the application, one or more of distance, position or movement of the mobile device relative to multiple detected physical access portals (See, Paragraph 0057) but fails to disclose sorting and displaying the notifications for the multiple detected physical access portals according to the one or more of the determined distance, position or movement of the mobile device.
Frenette discloses sorting and displaying the notifications for the multiple detected physical access portals according to the one or more of the determined distance, position or movement of the mobile device (See, Figs. 1 and 6A-6D and Paragraphs 0041, 0052 and 0077).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to sort and display, in the system of Kuenzi, the notifications for the multiple detected physical access portals according to the one or more of the determined distance, position or movement of the mobile device as taught by Frenette so that inferred location of the user is determined based on the predictions of which access point will be the next access point engaged by the user, which access point was most recently engaged by the user, and/or location information based on positioning information received from the GNSS receiver and/or the local position detector (See, Frenette, Paragraph 0094) and also graphical elements appear in the selection pane sorted by the likelihood of access points to be the next access point engaged by the user. Thus, graphical elements associated with access points that are predicted with higher levels of confidence to be the next access point to be engaged by the user are displayed closer to the top of the selection pane (See, Frenette, Paragraph 0075).
Regarding Claims 10 and 33, the rejection of claims 12 and 35 is incorporated and the combination of Kuenzi, Kuenzi 661 and Frenette further discloses wherein the determining the distance comprises determining the distance using received beacon signal strength (See, Kuenzi, Paragraphs 0015 and 0043).
Regarding Claims 14 and 37, the rejection of claims 12 and 35 is incorporated and the combination of Kuenzi, Kuenzi 661 and Frenette further discloses wherein the one or more of distance, position or movement of the mobile device relative to the multiple detected physical access portals is determined using one or more sensors included in the mobile device that determines the one or more of the distance, position, or movement of the mobile device relative to the multiple detected physical access portals (See, Kuenzi, Paragraphs 0057 and 0060 and Frenette, Paragraphs 0046-0047).
Regarding Claim 16, the rejection of claim 1 is incorporated and the combination of Kuenzi, Kuenzi 661 and Frenette as applied in the rejection of claim 1 does not explicitly disclose wherein the displaying the notifications comprises: comparing the multiple detected physical access portals to at least one of a user-defined list of physical access portals stored in memory of the mobile device or an administrator-defined list of physical access portals; and displaying or not displaying notifications for certain ones of the multiple detected physical access portals based on the at least one of the user-defined list or the administrator-defined list.
Frenette discloses comparing the multiple detected physical access portals to at least one of a user-defined list of physical access portals stored in memory of the mobile device or an administrator-defined list of physical access portals; and displaying or not displaying notifications for certain ones of the multiple detected physical access portals based on the at least one of the user-defined list or the administrator-defined list (See, Paragraphs 0061, 0064, 0068 and 0069).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to compare, in the system of Kuenzi, the one or more detected physical access portals to at least one of a user-defined list of physical access portals stored in memory of the mobile device or an administrator-defined list of physical access portals; and displaying or not displaying notifications for certain ones of the detected physical access portals based on the at least one of the user-defined list or the administrator-defined list as taught by Frenette so that the prioritized list is updated based on the selection of the user which are continuously maintained and improved over time as the user continues to engage more and more access points (See, Frenette, Paragraph 0061).
Regarding Claim 17, the rejection of claim 1 is incorporated and the combination of Kuenzi, Kuenzi 661 and Frenette further discloses wherein the detecting one or more physical access portals comprises detecting a beacon signal from a secure relay device associated with at least one physical access portal of the one or more physical access portals using the application of a mobile device (See, Kuenzi, Paragraph 0044 and 0054).
Regarding Claims 21 and 39, the rejection of claims 1 and 24 is incorporated and the combination of Kuenzi, Kuenzi 661 and Frenette as applied in the rejection of claim 1 does not explicitly disclose tracking a history of user access of physical access portals; and displaying the notifications for the multiple detected physical access portals in an order determined by the history of user access.
Frenette discloses tracking a history of user access of physical access portals; and displaying the notifications for the multiple detected physical access portals in an order determined by the history of user access (See, Paragraph 0015, 0051, 0056-0058).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to track, in the system of Kuenzi, a history of user access of physical access portals; and displaying the notifications for the one or more detected physical access portals in an order determined by the history of user access as taught by Frenette so that the access points presented to the user via the GUI are prioritized by the mobile application based on predictions of the next access points to be engaged by the user. These predictions are based in part on information generated by the behavior learning module, which, in general, maintains prioritized lists of previously engaged access points that are indexed by the time of the day, day of the week, and/or location information of the user (See, Frenette, Paragraph 0051).
Claims 3 and 26 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kuenzi and Kuenzi 661 in view of Frenette and further in view of Devdas et al. (US 2018/0322759 A1), hereinafter, “Devdas”.
Regarding Claims 3 and 26, the rejection of claims 1 and 24 is incorporated and the combination of Kuenzi, Kuenzi 661 and Frenette does not explicitly disclose wherein the displaying the notifications comprises: displaying the notifications on the display screen while the mobile device is locked from use; and accepting the selection of the physical access portal while the mobile device is locked from use.
Devdas discloses displaying a notification on a display screen while a mobile device is locked from use; and accepting the selection of a physical access portal while the mobile device is locked from use (See, Paragraph 0135).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to display, in the system of Kuenzi, Kuenzi 661 and Frenette, a notifications on a display screen while a mobile device is locked from use; and accepting the selection of a physical access portal while the mobile device is locked from use as taught by Devdas so that the mobile device can render this notification on a home screen, on a locked screen which results in saving user’s time to unlock the phone prior to unlocking the physical access portal.
Claims 4 and 27 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kuenzi and Kuenzi 661 in view of Frenette and Devdas and further in view of Kim (US 2014/0095994 A1), hereinafter, “Kim”.
Regarding Claims 4 and 27, the rejection of claims 3 and 26 is incorporated and the combination of Kuenzi, Kuenzi 661, Frenette and Devdas further discloses wherein the receiving the selection of a physical access portal includes comprises detecting contact to an icon displayed on the locked display screen corresponding to a physical access portal (See, Devdas, Paragraph 0135) but fails to disclose detecting holding of the contact to the icon for longer than a specified duration of time.
Kim discloses detecting holding of a contact to an icon for longer than a specified duration of time (See, Paragraphs 0034 and 0036-0037).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to detect, in the system of Kuenzi, Kuenzi 661, Frenette and Devdas, holding of a contact to an icon for longer than a specified duration of time as taught by Kim so that the portable device may interpret a touch gesture of dragging by less than the preset distance threshold as that the user has no intention to unlock a user interface. In this way, the portable device is free from sudden unlocking due to an unintentional touch gesture or incorrect touch (See, Kim, Paragraph 0034).
Claims 13 and 36 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kuenzi and Kuenzi 66 in view of Frenette and further in view of Casamassima et al. (US 2021/0302536 A1), hereinafter, “Casamassima”.
Regarding Claims 13 and 36, the rejection of claims 12 and 35 is incorporated and the combination of Kuenzi, Kuenzi 661 and Frenette does not explicitly discloses wherein the determining the one or more of distance, position or movement of the mobile device includes comprises determining the one or more of distance, positions or movement of the mobile device relative to multiple detected physical access portals using ultra-wide band (UWB) signaling.
However, using UWB signaling is well known in the art. Casamassima discloses determining one or more of distance, position or movement of a mobile device includes comprises determining the one or more of distance, positions or movement of the mobile device relative to multiple detected physical access portals using ultra-wide band (UWB) signaling (See, Paragraphs 0003 and 0016).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to determine, in the system of Kuenzi, Kuenzi 661 and Frenette, one or more of distance, position or movement of a mobile device includes comprises determining the one or more of distance, positions or movement of the mobile device relative to multiple detected physical access portals using ultra-wide band (UWB) signaling as taught by Casamassima because it provides “exceptional positioning accuracy and high data throughput as compared to other wireless technologies” (See, Casamassima, Paragraph 0003).
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 nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) 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 mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to YOGESH PALIWAL whose telephone number is (571)270-1807. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:00AM-5:00PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Amir Mehrmanesh can be reached at (571)270-3351. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/YOGESH PALIWAL/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2435