DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AlA or AIA Status
1. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Status of Claim
2. Claims 1-20 are pending. Claims 1, 10, and 16 are in independent forms.
Priority
3. No foreign priority has been has been claimed.
Information Disclosure Statement
4. The information disclosure statements (IDS's) submitted on 09/17/2025 is in compliance with provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Drawings
5. The drawings filed on 01/24/2024 are accepted.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
6. 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.
7. Claims 1-2, 6-11, 15-16, and 18-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Nawaz et al. US Patent Application Publication No. 2014/0187266 (hereinafter Nawaz) in view of Chou et al. US Patent Application Publication No. 2020/0065512 (hereinafter Chou).
Regarding claim 1, Nawaz discloses an apparatus, comprising:
“a processor circuit” (Fig. 1, Processing device 16); and
a memory storing location-based information (LBI) and instructions that are executable by the processor circuit to cause the apparatus to perform operations (see Nawaz par. 0013, The processing device 16 will utilize the information stored in the database 20 to determine the grid cell identifier in which each of an approved location, e.g., store, town, etc., is located for the approved locations provided by the user) comprising:
“receiving, from a computing device, a request for a particular item of LBI that corresponds to a specified geographic location, the request including first address information and encrypted second address information, the second address information being encrypted by a first cryptographic key not accessible to the apparatus, the first address information being indicative of a geographic area that includes the specified geographic location and the second address information being indicative of a sub-region of the geographic area that also includes the specified geographic location” (see Nawaz pars. 0013-0014, In step 50, when a user of a mobile device, e.g., mobile device 30, desires to receive location-based services from the LBS provider, the user will register with the LBS provider and provide the server 12 with one or more "approved locations." An approved location (first address information) is a location which the user desires to receive a location-based service, e.g., electronic coupon, offering, advertisement, etc., via a mobile device when the user is physically near such a location. Mobile device 30 will then encrypt the user's current location, and provide the encrypted location (second address information) to the LBS provider server 12. Alternatively, the user's mobile device 30 can automatically initiate a broadcast of its location (in encrypted format as described above) according to a specified time interval, e.g., every five minutes, or the user can manually operate the mobile device 30 to initiate a broadcast of its location (in encrypted format as described above) to the server 12, the mobile device 30 can also send to the server 12 a cloaking region, which could be, for example, a large area such as a state. If a cloaking region (sub-region) is provided, the server 12 will only test the locations from its database, as described below, which are in the cloaking region instead of every location. Thus, while the LBS provider may know that a user is in a particular region, which is a very large area, it will not know, at this time, the actual location within the region);
“selecting a particular subset of the stored LBI using the first address information, the particular subset including the particular item of LBI” (see Nawaz par. 0015, database 20 stores a listing of all approved locations for a user, along with the grid cell in which an approved location is located. The processing device 16 will retrieve each grid cell identifiers y.sub.1 . . . y.sub.m in which an approved location is located within the region (if provided)..The processing device 18 divides this set of m locations into k subsets Y.sub.1 . . . Y.sub.k. For every subset Y.sub.j, processing device 16 performs the following computation. It takes each location y.sub.i in that subset Y.sub.j and subtracts it from corresponding s.sub.i to get d.sub.i. It then computes the product of all d.sub.i's to get p.sub.i. The processing device 16 repeats this process for all subsets Y.sub.1 . . . Y.sub.k to obtain p.sub.1 . . . p.sub.k. These values represent an encrypted result, which are returned to the mobile device 30. it is possible that the random values selected by the mobile device 30 will result in a value for one or more d to be equal to zero, resulting in p.sub.i being zero, regardless of location of the mobile device 30); “returning the encrypted version of the particular item of LBI to the computing device without the sub-region of the geographic area being identifiable to the apparatus, the encrypted version of the particular item of LBI being decryptable by the computing device using a second cryptographic key” (see Nawaz par. 0006, 0015, The user's mobile device sends its location, in encrypted form, to the LBS provider. The LBS provider performs a computation on the encrypted location and returns an encrypted result to the user's mobile device. The user's mobile device decrypts the result and determines whether the user is near any selected businesses based on the decrypted result. Only if the decrypted result indicates the user is near an approved location will the user's mobile device return its location, in an unencrypted form, to the LBS provider. The LBS provider can then return a location-based service, e.g., electronic coupon, advertisement, or the like, to the user's mobile device or forward the user's location to a participating company which sends the location-based service to the user);
Nawaz does not explicitly discloses performing a privacy protocol that uses the encrypted second address information to produce an encrypted version of the particular item of LBI without the apparatus having access to information indicating which item of LBI was specified in the request.
However, in analogues art, Chou discloses performing a privacy protocol that uses the encrypted second address information to produce an encrypted version of the particular item of LBI without the apparatus having access to information indicating which item of LBI was specified in the request (see Chou Fig. 9, pars. 0048, At step 401, a user configures a personal privacy protocol. At step 402, the personal privacy protocol is encrypted with the second key and stored in the encrypted database along with personal identification data (e.g. PID 1). At step 403, the personal identification data is loaded on the user mobile device. At step 404, the persona identification data is broadcast as the media capturing device takes a photograph of the user. At step 405, the media capturing device encodes the digital image with the personal identification data. At step 406, a social media user uploads the digital image to the social media platform. At step 407, the personal identification data encoded with the digital image is used to retrieve the first key to decrypt the personal privacy protocol. At step 408, the privacy protocol is decrypted with the first key. At step 409, the digital image is displayed on the social media platform in accordance with the rules contained in the personal privacy protocol).
Therefore it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the teachings of Chou in to the system of Nawaz in order to include a media capturing device encodes the digital image data with the personal identification data, which is then used to retrieve the necessary key to decrypt and use the personal privacy protocol (see Chou par. 0018).
Regarding claim 2, Nawaz in view of Chou discloses the apparatus of claim 1,
Nawaz further discloses wherein the specified geographic location is a current location of the computing device (see Nawaz par. 0014, Once a user has registered with the LBS provider, the user can operate a mobile device 30 to obtain desired location-based services without having to divulge its current location unless the user is near an approved location).
Regarding claim 6, Nawaz in view of Chou discloses the apparatus of claim 1,
Chou further discloses wherein the stored LBI includes at least one of the following types of data: weather data, traffic data, data relating to local services, and wherein the first and second cryptographic keys are the same key (see Chou par. 0027, The personal privacy protocols 201a, 201b are encrypted with a cryptographic key known to the computing system 120 and stored in the encrypted database 113 alongside the encrypted personal privacy protocol).
Therefore it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the teachings of Chou in to the system of Nawaz in order to include a media capturing device encodes the digital image data with the personal identification data, which is then used to retrieve the necessary key to decrypt and use the personal privacy protocol (see Chou par. 0018).
Regarding claim 7, Nawaz in view of Chou discloses the apparatus of claim 1,
Nawaz further discloses wherein the particular item of LBI is stored in one of a plurality of entries of a data store, each of the plurality of entries storing LBI for multiple geographic sub-regions (see Nawaz par. 0012, System 10 also includes a database 20 that is in electronic communication with the server 12. Database 20 stores locations for one or more businesses that have registered with the LBS provider. The present solution utilizes a spatial grid structure having a plurality of cells to quantize and index locations).
Regarding claim 8, Nawaz in view of Chou discloses the apparatus of claim 1,
Nawaz further discloses wherein an amount of precision with which the specified geographic location is set forth in the request is configurable (see Nawaz pars. 0012-0013, each location of a business will be associated with a unique cell of the grid. Database 20 stores a table that associates each location of a business with a grid cell based on the identifier of the cell. The defined grid is also accessible by mobile devices, e.g., mobile devices 30, 32, 34, such that each device is able to determine in which cell of the grid it is currently located).
Regarding claim 9, Nawaz in view of Chou discloses the apparatus of claim 8,
Nawaz further discloses wherein an amount of precision with which the specified geographic location is set forth in the request is configurable by a user of the computing device (see Nawaz par. 0014, Once a user has registered with the LBS provider, the user can operate a mobile device 30 to obtain desired location-based services without having to divulge its current location unless the user is near an approved location. In step 52, the user's mobile device 30 determines its location, using any known technology such as GPS technology or triangulation, and associates its current location with a grid cell identifier).
Regarding claim 10, Nawaz discloses non-transitory computer-readable medium having program instructions stored (Fig. 1, Database 20) therein that are executable by a computer server (Fig. 1, LBS Provider server 12) to perform operations comprising:
“receiving, from a computing device, a request for a particular item of location-based information (LBI) that corresponds to a specified geographic location, the request including first address information and encrypted second address information, the second address information being encrypted by a first cryptographic key not accessible to the computer server, the first address information being indicative of a geographic area that includes the specified geographic location and the second address information being indicative of a sub-region of the geographic area that also includes the specified geographic location” (see Nawaz pars. 0013-0014, In step 50, when a user of a mobile device, e.g., mobile device 30, desires to receive location-based services from the LBS provider, the user will register with the LBS provider and provide the server 12 with one or more "approved locations." An approved location (first address information) is a location which the user desires to receive a location-based service, e.g., electronic coupon, offering, advertisement, etc., via a mobile device when the user is physically near such a location. Mobile device 30 will then encrypt the user's current location, and provide the encrypted location (second address information) to the LBS provider server 12. Alternatively, the user's mobile device 30 can automatically initiate a broadcast of its location (in encrypted format as described above) according to a specified time interval, e.g., every five minutes, or the user can manually operate the mobile device 30 to initiate a broadcast of its location (in encrypted format as described above) to the server 12, the mobile device 30 can also send to the server 12 a cloaking region, which could be, for example, a large area such as a state. If a cloaking region (sub-region) is provided, the server 12 will only test the locations from its database, as described below, which are in the cloaking region instead of every location. Thus, while the LBS provider may know that a user is in a particular region, which is a very large area, it will not know, at this time, the actual location within the region);
“selecting a particular subset of the stored LBI using the first address information, the particular subset including the particular item of LBI” (see Nawaz par. 0015, database 20 stores a listing of all approved locations for a user, along with the grid cell in which an approved location is located. The processing device 16 will retrieve each grid cell identifiers y.sub.1 . . . y.sub.m in which an approved location is located within the region (if provided)..The processing device 18 divides this set of m locations into k subsets Y.sub.1 . . . Y.sub.k. For every subset Y.sub.j, processing device 16 performs the following computation. It takes each location y.sub.i in that subset Y.sub.j and subtracts it from corresponding s.sub.i to get d.sub.i. It then computes the product of all d.sub.i's to get p.sub.i. The processing device 16 repeats this process for all subsets Y.sub.1 . . . Y.sub.k to obtain p.sub.1 . . . p.sub.k. These values represent an encrypted result, which are returned to the mobile device 30. it is possible that the random values selected by the mobile device 30 will result in a value for one or more d to be equal to zero, resulting in p.sub.i being zero, regardless of location of the mobile device 30);
“returning the encrypted version of the particular item of LBI to the computing device, the encrypted version of the particular item of LBI being decryptable by the computing device using a second cryptographic key” (see Nawaz par. 0006, 0015, The user's mobile device sends its location, in encrypted form, to the LBS provider. The LBS provider performs a computation on the encrypted location and returns an encrypted result to the user's mobile device. The user's mobile device decrypts the result and determines whether the user is near any selected businesses based on the decrypted result. Only if the decrypted result indicates the user is near an approved location will the user's mobile device return its location, in an unencrypted form, to the LBS provider. The LBS provider can then return a location-based service, e.g., electronic coupon, advertisement, or the like, to the user's mobile device or forward the user's location to a participating company which sends the location-based service to the user);
Nawaz does not explicitly discloses performing a privacy protocol that uses the encrypted second address information to produce an encrypted version of the particular item of LBI without the computer server having access to information indicating which item of LBI was specified in the request.
However, in analogues art, Chou discloses performing a privacy protocol that uses the encrypted second address information to produce an encrypted version of the particular item of LBI without the computer server having access to information indicating which item of LBI was specified in the request (see Chou Fig. 9, pars. 0048, At step 401, a user configures a personal privacy protocol. At step 402, the personal privacy protocol is encrypted with the second key and stored in the encrypted database along with personal identification data (e.g. PID 1). At step 403, the personal identification data is loaded on the user mobile device. At step 404, the persona identification data is broadcast as the media capturing device takes a photograph of the user. At step 405, the media capturing device encodes the digital image with the personal identification data. At step 406, a social media user uploads the digital image to the social media platform. At step 407, the personal identification data encoded with the digital image is used to retrieve the first key to decrypt the personal privacy protocol. At step 408, the privacy protocol is decrypted with the first key. At step 409, the digital image is displayed on the social media platform in accordance with the rules contained in the personal privacy protocol).
Therefore it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the teachings of Chou in to the system of Nawaz in order to include a media capturing device encodes the digital image data with the personal identification data, which is then used to retrieve the necessary key to decrypt and use the personal privacy protocol (see Chou par. 0018).
Regarding claim 11, Nawaz in view of Chou discloses the computer-readable medium of claim 10,
Chou further discloses wherein the stored LBI includes image data, and wherein the privacy protocol is a Private Information Retrieval (PIR) protocol (see Chou par. 0018, the privacy control system 100 locates an encrypted personal privacy protocol in response to a digital image being uploaded to the social media platform. The encrypted privacy protocol is decrypted with a pair of cryptographic keys retrieved based on personal identification data broadcasted from the user's mobile device to a media capturing device that is capturing the digital image).
Therefore it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the teachings of Chou in to the system of Nawaz in order to include a media capturing device encodes the digital image data with the personal identification data, which is then used to retrieve the necessary key to decrypt and use the personal privacy protocol (see Chou par. 0018).
Regarding claim 15, Nawaz in view of Chou discloses the computer-readable medium of claim 10,
Nawaz further discloses wherein the amount of precision with which the specified geographic location is set forth in the request is set by a program executing on the computing device (see Nawaz par. 0014, Once a user has registered with the LBS provider, the user can operate a mobile device 30 to obtain desired location-based services without having to divulge its current location unless the user is near an approved location. In step 52, the user's mobile device 30 determines its location, using any known technology such as GPS technology or triangulation, and associates its current location with a grid cell identifier. Mobile device 30 will then encrypt the user's current location, and provide the encrypted location to the LBS provider server 12).
Regarding claim 16, Nawaz discloses a method, comprising:
“storing, by a computer server, location-based information (LBI)” (see Nawaz par. 0013, The processing device 16 will utilize the information stored in the database 20 to determine the grid cell identifier in which each of an approved location, e.g., store, town, etc., is located for the approved locations provided by the user)
“receiving, at the computer server from a computing device, a request for a particular item of LBI that corresponds to a specified geographic location, the request including first address information and encrypted second address information, the second address information being encrypted by a first cryptographic key not accessible to the computer server, the first address information being indicative of a geographic area that includes the specified geographic location and the second address information being indicative of a sub-region of the geographic area that includes the specified geographic location” (see Nawaz pars. 0013-0014, In step 50, when a user of a mobile device, e.g., mobile device 30, desires to receive location-based services from the LBS provider, the user will register with the LBS provider and provide the server 12 with one or more "approved locations." An approved location (first address information) is a location which the user desires to receive a location-based service, e.g., electronic coupon, offering, advertisement, etc., via a mobile device when the user is physically near such a location. Mobile device 30 will then encrypt the user's current location, and provide the encrypted location (second address information) to the LBS provider server 12. Alternatively, the user's mobile device 30 can automatically initiate a broadcast of its location (in encrypted format as described above) according to a specified time interval, e.g., every five minutes, or the user can manually operate the mobile device 30 to initiate a broadcast of its location (in encrypted format as described above) to the server 12, the mobile device 30 can also send to the server 12 a cloaking region, which could be, for example, a large area such as a state. If a cloaking region (sub-region) is provided, the server 12 will only test the locations from its database, as described below, which are in the cloaking region instead of every location. Thus, while the LBS provider may know that a user is in a particular region, which is a very large area, it will not know, at this time, the actual location within the region);
“selecting, by the computer server, a particular subset of the stored LBI using the first address information, the particular subset including the particular item of LBI” (see Nawaz par. 0015, database 20 stores a listing of all approved locations for a user, along with the grid cell in which an approved location is located. The processing device 16 will retrieve each grid cell identifiers y.sub.1 . . . y.sub.m in which an approved location is located within the region (if provided)..The processing device 18 divides this set of m locations into k subsets Y.sub.1 . . . Y.sub.k. For every subset Y.sub.j, processing device 16 performs the following computation. It takes each location y.sub.i in that subset Y.sub.j and subtracts it from corresponding s.sub.i to get d.sub.i. It then computes the product of all d.sub.i's to get p.sub.i. The processing device 16 repeats this process for all subsets Y.sub.1 . . . Y.sub.k to obtain p.sub.1 . . . p.sub.k. These values represent an encrypted result, which are returned to the mobile device 30. it is possible that the random values selected by the mobile device 30 will result in a value for one or more d to be equal to zero, resulting in p.sub.i being zero, regardless of location of the mobile device 30);
“returning, by the computer server, the encrypted version of the particular item of LBI to the computing device, the encrypted version of the particular item of LBI being decryptable by the computing device using a second cryptographic key” (see Nawaz par. 0006, 0015, The user's mobile device sends its location, in encrypted form, to the LBS provider. The LBS provider performs a computation on the encrypted location and returns an encrypted result to the user's mobile device. The user's mobile device decrypts the result and determines whether the user is near any selected businesses based on the decrypted result. Only if the decrypted result indicates the user is near an approved location will the user's mobile device return its location, in an unencrypted form, to the LBS provider. The LBS provider can then return a location-based service, e.g., electronic coupon, advertisement, or the like, to the user's mobile device or forward the user's location to a participating company which sends the location-based service to the user);
Nawaz does not explicitly discloses performing, by the computer server, a privacy protocol that uses the encrypted second address information to produce an encrypted version of the particular item of LBI without the computer server having access to information indicating which item of LBI was specified in the request.
However, in analogues art, Chou discloses performing, by the computer server, a privacy protocol that uses the encrypted second address information to produce an encrypted version of the particular item of LBI without the computer server having access to information indicating which item of LBI was specified in the request (see Chou Fig. 9, pars. 0048, At step 401, a user configures a personal privacy protocol. At step 402, the personal privacy protocol is encrypted with the second key and stored in the encrypted database along with personal identification data (e.g. PID 1). At step 403, the personal identification data is loaded on the user mobile device. At step 404, the persona identification data is broadcast as the media capturing device takes a photograph of the user. At step 405, the media capturing device encodes the digital image with the personal identification data. At step 406, a social media user uploads the digital image to the social media platform. At step 407, the personal identification data encoded with the digital image is used to retrieve the first key to decrypt the personal privacy protocol. At step 408, the privacy protocol is decrypted with the first key. At step 409, the digital image is displayed on the social media platform in accordance with the rules contained in the personal privacy protocol).
Therefore it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the teachings of Chou in to the system of Nawaz in order to include a media capturing device encodes the digital image data with the personal identification data, which is then used to retrieve the necessary key to decrypt and use the personal privacy protocol (see Chou par. 0018).
Regarding claim 18, Nawaz in view of Chou discloses the method of claim 16,
Nawaz further discloses wherein the particular item of LBI is stored in one of a plurality of entries of a data store, each of which stores LBI for multiple geographic sub- regions (see Nawaz pars. 0012-0013, each location of a business will be associated with a unique cell of the grid. Database 20 stores a table that associates each location of a business with a grid cell based on the identifier of the cell. The defined grid is also accessible by mobile devices, e.g., mobile devices 30, 32, 34, such that each device is able to determine in which cell of the grid it is currently located), and wherein the LBI for multiple geographic sub-regions in a given entry of the data store is cacheable by the computing device for future LBI requests (see Nawaz par. 0015, In step 54, upon receiving the user's encrypted location (and optional cloaking region), the processing device 16 of the server 12 will process this information and provide an encrypted result back to the mobile device 30. Processing of the received information can be performed as follows. Recall that database 20 stores a listing of all approved locations for a user, along with the grid cell in which an approved location is located. The processing device 16 will retrieve each grid cell identifiers y.sub.1 . . . y.sub.m in which an approved location is located within the region (if provided). For example, if an approved location is Starbucks stores and the cloaking region is the state of Connecticut, this may be the set of grid cells in Connecticut in which a Starbucks is located. If no cloaking region is provided, then every grid cell identifier in which an approved location for that user is located will have to be retrieved).
Regarding claim 19, Nawaz in view of Chou discloses the method of claim 16,
Chou further discloses wherein the first address information and second address information have different formats, and wherein the first cryptographic key and the second cryptographic key are different (see Chou par. 0037, The key retrieval module 132 includes one or more components of hardware and/or software program code for retrieving a cryptographic key (i.e. a first key) based on the privacy identification data. The cryptographic key is used for decrypting an encrypted personal privacy protocol stored on the encrypted database 113, which is encrypted by a cryptographic key (i.e. a second key) that corresponds to the cryptographic key retrieved using the privacy identification data).
Therefore it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the teachings of Chou in to the system of Nawaz in order to include a media capturing device encodes the digital image data with the personal identification data, which is then used to retrieve the necessary key to decrypt and use the personal privacy protocol (see Chou par. 0018).
Regarding claim 20, Nawaz in view of Chou discloses the method of claim 16,
Nawaz further discloses wherein an amount of precision with which the specified geographic location is set forth in the request is based on the current location of the computing device (see Nawaz par. 0014, Once a user has registered with the LBS provider, the user can operate a mobile device 30 to obtain desired location-based services without having to divulge its current location unless the user is near an approved location. In step 52, the user's mobile device 30 determines its location, using any known technology such as GPS technology or triangulation, and associates its current location with a grid cell identifier. Mobile device 30 will then encrypt the user's current location, and provide the encrypted location to the LBS provider server 12).
8. Claims 5, 12, and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Nawaz et al. US Patent Application Publication No. 2014/0187266 (hereinafter Nawaz) in view of Chou et al. US Patent Application Publication No. 2020/0065512 (hereinafter Chou) in further view of Bakshi US Patent No. 10,810,235 (hereinafter Bakshi).
Regarding claims 5 and 12, Nawaz in view of Chou discloses the apparatus of claim 1, the computer-readable medium of claim 10,
Nawaz in view of Chou does not explicitly discloses wherein the first address information and the second address information are portions of a Geohash value that specifies the sub-region of the geographic area.
However, in analogues art, Bakshi discloses wherein the first address information and the second address information are portions of a Geohash value that specifies the sub-region of the geographic area (see Bakshi col. 3, lines 25-38, the identifier for geocoded areas, such as a geohash, uniquely identifies the geocoded area as specific component area of a higher-level area, which may be a specific component area of a still higher-level area, etc. Moreover, a target geographic location, such as an address or set of latitude/longitude coordinates, may be converted into an identifier for the lowest-level geocoded area that includes the target geographic location. The target area identifier may then also identify the higher-level areas in which the target area is located).
Therefore it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the teachings of Bakshi in to the system of Nawaz and Chou in order to determine which regions include a specific location, such systems retrieve and analyze information for all geocoded areas that include the specification location, at all levels of the hierarchy (see Bakshi col. 2, lines 32-35).
Regarding claim 17, Nawaz in view of Chou discloses the method of claim 16,
Nawaz in view of Chou does not explicitly discloses wherein the first address information and the second address information are portions of a Geohash value that specifies the sub-region of the geographic area, wherein the first address information corresponds to a coarse portion of the Geohash value and the second address information corresponds to a fine portion of the Geohash value.
However, in analogues art, Bakshi discloses wherein the first address information and the second address information are portions of a Geohash value that specifies the sub-region of the geographic area (see Bakshi col. 3, lines 25-38, the identifier for geocoded areas, such as a geohash, uniquely identifies the geocoded area as specific component area of a higher-level area, which may be a specific component area of a still higher-level area, etc. Moreover, a target geographic location, such as an address or set of latitude/longitude coordinates, may be converted into an identifier for the lowest-level geocoded area that includes the target geographic location. The target area identifier may then also identify the higher-level areas in which the target area is located); wherein the first address information corresponds to a coarse portion of the Geohash value and the second address information corresponds to a fine portion of the Geohash value (see Bakshi col. 2, lines 52-65, A record for a geocoded area in the subset may include information regarding a relatively coarse-grained geocoded area (e.g., in a mid to high level of the hierarchy) that is at least partially within a predefined region of interest. Advantageously, the record can also include a representation of one or more lower-level, finer-grained component areas of the coarse-grained area that are entirely within the predefined region of interest. In this way, the record for a single coarse-grained geocoded area can also provide a more fine-grained representation of which portions of the coarse-grained area are within the predefined region of interest without the necessity of storing separate records for each of the finer-grained component areas).
Therefore it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the teachings of Bakshi in to the system of Nawaz and Chou in order to include a region identification system may use the geocoded target location data to identify records of geocoded data for coarser-grained, higher-level areas that include the target location (see Bakshi col. 5, lines 46-49).
Allowable Subject Matter
9. Claims 3-4 and 13-14 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
10. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Kohno et al. (US 2009/0323972 A1): discloses A privacy-preserving device-tracking system and method to assist in the recovery of lost or stolen Internet-connected mobile devices. The function of such a system seem contradictory, since it is desirable to hide a device's legitimately-visited locations from third-party services and other parties to achieve location privacy, while still enabling recovery of the device's location(s) after it goes missing by tracking the device to determine its location. An exemplary embodiment uses a DHT for storing encrypted location information and other forensic information in connection with indices that are successively determined based on initial pseudorandom seed information (i.e., state) that is retained by the owner of the device. Using the seed information, the software can determine indices mapped to location information stored after the device went missing, enabling the device to be located. Numerous extensions are discussed for the basic exemplary design that increase its suitability for particular deployment environments.
Sharon et al. (US 2011/0083101 A1): discloses A method and/or system allows a user of a social networking service to publish a content item tagged with location information for sharing with other users of the social networking service. The user publishing the content item performs operations on the originating device to generate the content item. The originating communication device attaches the location information to the content item, and transmits the content item to a social networking system. The social networking system may provide various location-based services based on the content item tagged with the location information.
Ledlie (US 2012/0220308 A1): discloses An approach is provided for pre-fetching location-based data while maintaining user privacy. A pre-fetching manager determines to segment a geographical area into a plurality of discrete areas. The pre-fetching manager determines to record location information associated with a device operating within the geographical area. The pre-fetching manager processes and/or facilitates a processing of the location information to calculate occurrence information of the device with respect to the discrete areas. The pre-fetching manager processes and/or facilitates a processing of the occurrence information to select location-based data to cache at the device. The pre-fetching manager further determines one or more other devices based, at least in part, on a collaborative filtering process, and retrieves other occurrence information associated with the one or more other devices, wherein the selection of the location-based data to cache is further based, at least in part, on the other occurrence information.
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/SAMUEL AMBAYE/Examiner, Art Unit 2433