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 1 was amended, claims 2-3 were cancelled, claims 1, 4-12 are pending.
Response to Arguments
Applicant' s arguments with respect to claim 1 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.
Priority
This application is a Continuation in-part of U.S. Application No. 18/341,349 filed June 26, 2023, which is a Continuation of U.S. Application No. 17/146,088 filed January 11, 2021, now issued as U.S. Patent No. 11,687,624 on June 27, 2023, which is a Continuation of U.S. Application No. 16/653,064 filed on October 15, 2019, now issued as U.S. Patent No. 10,922,384 on February 16, 2021, which is a Continuation of International Application No. PCT/KR2018/016615 filed on December 26, 2018, which claims priority from Korean Application No. 10-2018-0096219 filed on August 17, 2018 and Korean Application No. 10-2018-0146724 filed on November 23, 2018. The aforementioned applications are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.
Since “first node and the second node are associated by a predetermined relationship” which is introduced in this application but not described in earlier applications, this instant application will not enjoy priority of earlier cases.
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, 4-5, 7-10, 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chen et al(US 20180374173 A1) in view of Mazukabzov et al(US 20180189316 A1).
With regards to claim 1, Chen discloses, A blockchain management method, comprising:
transmitting one or more contents from a first node to a second node ([0120] S702. When any blockchain processing apparatus in the network receives a checked copyright management transaction that is submitted by a copyright processing apparatus corresponding to the blockchain processing apparatus, the blockchain processing apparatus correspondingly sends the copyright management transaction to a copyright processing apparatus corresponding to the leader. ABSTRACT: A digital content copyright management method includes: receiving a copyright processing request, and constructing a copyright management transaction according to the copyright processing request; and storing the copyright management transaction in a blockchain for processing, where the blockchain is stored in all blockchain apparatuses. Trusted and secure processing of the copyright management transaction can be implemented.);
validating, by the second node, whether the one or more contents received from the first node are truthful (FIG 7 S705 and associated text; [0163]; In addition, an election process is recorded in the blockchain by using a blockchain construction technology and using digital cryptography. Any node can simply check validity of a block, thereby reaching consensus on the block in the decentralized network, so that processing of blockchain data is transparent and open, and cannot be forged.); and
in response to validating that the one or more contents received from the first node are truthful, registering the one or more contents in a block (FIG 7 S706 and associated text;),
wherein the first node and the second node are associated by a predetermined relationship (0041] FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a relationship between a digital content copyright and a license according to an embodiment of the present invention; [0096] The copyright processing apparatus 402 is further configured to add a product and abandon a product, and check a product transaction. The specific check includes: checking whether a signature of an owner of a copyright is included, whether the signature matches a public key provided in copyright registration, and for a product license issued by a distributor, checking whether the digital signature matches a public key of the granted license; and whether input content and output content of the copyright management transaction are complete and whether a dependence relationship of the transaction is correct.)
wherein the predetermined relationship includes a parent-child relationship ([0162] creating a transaction, including information about a miner of the block, revenue information of the miner, and algorithm related information (for example, for the PoW algorithm, a random number needs to be recorded, and for the PoS algorithm, interest related information needs to be recorded), where whether the information is recorded in a first transaction or a blockhead is not limited; 2. constructing a blockhead (including packing a Merkle tree of a transaction received in a current period, recording the Merkle tree in the blockhead, constructing a chain pointing to a previous block in the blockhead, and the like); and 3. packing the transaction together with the blockhead, and broadcasting the block to all nodes when packing is complete. Note: Markle tree chain block are created as parent and child),
Chen does not exclusively but Mazukabzov teaches,
whereby the second node includes a piece of digital information present in the first node, and wherein the second node is authorized to validate the first node due to the piece of digital information inherited from the first node ([0017]; In some cases, when updated metadata is not identified at the application service, metadata associated with the parent node of a hierarchical dataset may be identified in the local data store. The children nodes of the parent nodes may be checked to determine whether the children nodes require updating of metadata. The metadata associated with the children nodes may be updated in the local data store such that any metadata properties inherited by the children nodes match the metadata of the corresponding parent node.)
Mazukabzov also teaches, wherein the predetermined relationship includes a parent-child relationship ([0017]; In some cases, when updated metadata is not identified at the application service, metadata associated with the parent node of a hierarchical dataset may be identified in the local data store. The children nodes of the parent nodes may be checked to determine whether the children nodes require updating of metadata. The metadata associated with the children nodes may be updated in the local data store such that any metadata properties inherited by the children nodes match the metadata of the corresponding parent node.)It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to modify Chen’s method with teaching of Mazukabzov in order for syncing and propagating updated metadata across multiple endpoints (Mazukabzov abstract).
With regards to claim 4, Chen further discloses, wherein the predetermined relationship includes a private consortium of nodes associated by prior authorization (0093] In a scenario of copyright registration, the copyright processing apparatus 402 is further configured to determine whether content included in a copyright registration request is complete, and determine, according to a digital content identifier, that a copyright is not registered. In a scenario of copyright transfer, the copyright processing apparatus 402 is further configured to query, in the corresponding blockchain processing apparatus 401 according to a copyright transaction identifier, whether an owner of a copyright owns the to-be-transferred copyright, determine that the copyright is not transferred, and determine, according to a signature of the owner of the copyright, that the owner of the copyright owns the copyright. Certainly, for successful transfer, the copyright processing apparatus 402 further receives an address of a receiver that is sent by the owner of the copyright by using the copyright management client.).
With regards to claim 5, Chen further discloses, wherein the second node has been divided from the first node ([0073] In a copyright management process, four operations may be performed on an asset: (1) Add: The add operation is used to create an asset, and the operation is used to add a root asset (an asset without a parent asset) only, for example, add a copyright asset. (2) Derive: The derive operation is used to create a child asset, and the operation can be used to add a child asset only, for example, derive a product asset or a license asset.).
With regards to claim 7, Chen further discloses, wherein the one or more contents include personal information ([0070] The output content includes an address of an owner of an asset output and asset data. The owner of the asset output may be specifically an owner of a copyright after the copyright is transferred, an owner of a copyright during copyright registration, a product owner after a product is added, or an owner that owns a license after the license is issued or distributed. The asset data indicates the asset carried in the transaction. According to transaction types, there are different definitions for asset data types, including a copyright asset, a product asset, and a license asset.).
With regards to claim 8, Chen further discloses, wherein the personal information includes information associated with a personal profile, information associated with a unique identity number, information associated with a passport, information associated with an address ([0070] The output content includes an address of an owner of an asset output and asset data. The owner of the asset output may be specifically an owner of a copyright after the copyright is transferred, an owner of a copyright during copyright registration, a product owner after a product is added, or an owner that owns a license after the license is issued or distributed. The asset data indicates the asset carried in the transaction. According to transaction types, there are different definitions for asset data types, including a copyright asset, a product asset, and a license asset.), information associated with a phone number, information associated with a school, information associated with a workplace, information associated with income, information associated with a hobby, information associated with an itinerary, information associated with an interest area, information associated with aptitude, information associated with a preference, information associated with a resume, information associated with a physical condition, biological information, information associated with a copyright, financial information, information associated with a property, or any combination thereof.
With regards to claim 9, Chen further discloses, wherein the predetermined relationship is configured to be revoked unilaterally or by mutual consent ([0068] In the present invention, there are a plurality of copyright management processes, for example, copyright registration and transfer, product creation and abandoning, and license distribution and issuance. Data recording the copyright management processes is referred to as a copyright management transaction. In addition, the blockchain processing apparatus further records data related to a block consensus constraint in the blockchain, where the data is referred to as a block consensus transaction, and the copyright management transaction and the block consensus transaction are referred to as transactions for short; FIG 12 and associated text;).
With regards to claim 10, Chen further discloses, wherein the predetermined relationship is configured to be revoked in response to a predetermined condition being satisfied (FIG 3 and associated text; [0207] Procedure for abandoning a product by a creator: After a product is abandoned, a status of a license derived from or associated with the product becomes invalid. As shown in FIG. 12, the process of the method includes the following steps. Note: when product is abandoned the license will be invalids thus relationship between product and license is off).
With regards to claim 12 Chen further discloses, further comprising: broadcasting the block to a blockchain ([0087] The blockchain processing apparatus 401 is configured to store a copyright management transaction after receiving the copyright management transaction sent by the copyright processing apparatus 402 or the license processing apparatus 403. For example, the blockchain processing apparatus 401 is configured to broadcast a transaction and a block that are checked successfully, and pack the transaction into a block by using a consensus mechanism, where the block is linked to a global blockchain and broadcast to all peers in the network.).
Claims 6 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chen et al(US 20180374173 A1) in view of Mazukabzov et al(US 20180189316 A1) and further in view of of Carvalhosa et al(US 20240341022 A1).
With regards to claim 6, Chen in view of Mazukabzov do not but Carvalhosa teaches, wherein the second node has been cloned from the first node ([0113] At the second node 20, the second controller may be configured to create a virtual sensor 210. The virtual sensor 210 has a state 211 and is associated to the sensor group 310. The virtual sensor 210 is defined as a subscriber to the sensor group 310 of the first physical sensor 110. That is, the virtual sensor 210 will receive the sensed data published in the sensor group 110 by the first physical sensor 110 and broadcasted between nodes, e.g. between the first node 10 and the at least second node 20. The state 211 of the virtual sensor 2100 will become the received sensed data, here the first state 111. So, the first physical sensor 110 at the first node will be effectively cloned at the at least second node 20.). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to modify Chen in view of Mazukabzov’s method with teaching of Carvalhosa in order to relate to management of sensed data for remote control of actuators in a network (Carvalhosa [0001];).
Claims 11 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chen et al(US 20180374173 A1) in view of Mazukabzov et al(US 20180189316 A1) and further in view of Arai et al(US 20200074468 A1).
With regards to claim 11, Chen in view of Mazukabzov do not but Arai discloses, wherein the predetermined relationship is prescribed in the one or more contents transmitted from the first node (Arai FIG 5 and associated text;). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to modify Chen in view of Mazukabzov’s method with teaching of Arai in order to safely performing an electronic transaction without deteriorating the processing performance of a transaction (Arai [0004];).
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 MOHAMMED WALIULLAH whose telephone number is (571)270-7987. The examiner can normally be reached on 8.30 to 430 PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Yin-Chen Shaw can be reached on 1-571-272-8878. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/MOHAMMED WALIULLAH/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2498