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 .
This Office Action is in response to Amendment on 09/14/2023.
In the instant Amendment, claims 3, 11, and 16 have been cancelled; claims 1, 9, and 14 have been amended; and claims 1, 9, and 14 are independent claims. Claims 12, 4-10, 12-15, and 17-20 have been examined and are pending. This Action is made Final
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments of the response filed on 11/26/2025, in regards to the objection and 112 b rejection are persuasive. The objection of claim 1 and 3, and the 112 b rejection of claim 1 are withdrawn.
Applicant’s arguments of the response filed on 11/26/2025, in regards to claims 1, 12, and 14 have been fully considered and are moot in view of new ground(s) of rejection which were necessitated by amendment.
Examiner’s Note
The citation used for Meyers et al (Pub. No.: 2024/0033639 A1) is supported by provisional application No. 63/386,078 filed on Dec. 05, 2022.
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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, 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, 4-6, 9, 12-14, 17-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Van et al. (E.P. 4209944 A1; Hereinafter “Van”) in view of Kurani et al. (U.S. 20250069067 A1; Hereinafter “Kurani”), Bacon et al. (U.S. 20240020683 A1; Hereinafter “Bacon”), and Meyers et al. (U.S. 2024/0033639 A1; Hereinafter “Meyers”).
As per claims 1, 9, and 14, Kurani teaches a non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions recorded thereon to authenticate a user of a wireless telecommunication network (Van: para[658], “The signalling of Figure 4 shows an authentication process, where a user of a wearable device is configured to start use of a web service, where authentication is required. On the left side of Fig. 4 there is a user device, and on the right side a web service is shown. The user device may be smart earbuds, optionally connected to a mobile device….The user activates the user device, and the user device may be detected by the web service, for example as a cellular communication device”), wherein the instructions, when executed by at least one processor of a system of the wireless telecommunication network, cause the system to (Van: para[17], “according to still further aspects, there are provided a computer program and a computer-readable medium, or a non-transitory computer-readable medium, configured, when executed in a data processing apparatus, to carry out at least partly features in accordance with any of the aspects or any embodiment thereof”):
obtain an indication of the attribute associated with a mobile device operating on the wireless telecommunication network , wherein the attribute includes at least two of: (Van: para[48-56], “At phase 306, in response to receiving the encrypted user id and the Pub-Key-S, optionally via a mobile device, the earbuds are configured to scan ear canal of the user. The scan provides a biometric identifier, which uniquely identifies the user. The biometric identifier is converted into digital form, like a digital code, SCAN123. The mobile device may be configured to convert the biometric identifier into digital form.”, “like in Fig. 3, the user device may fetch a contact information from internal settings or access to another device or server for the contact information. The contact information may comprise email address, user identifier of a service, like instant messaging, a phone number, or any other contact information”);
obtain a non-fungible token NFT including the attribute associated with the mobile device, an ID associated with the NFT (Van: para[52-60], “The user device, comprising the earbuds connected to the mobile device, are configured to create an NFT for the user, the earbuds and the web service. The NFT comprises a unique blockchain token identifier, token id, which is token001. The NFT comprises the digital code, SCAN123, which is based on the biometric identifier scanned from the user's ear canal. The digital code, SCAN123, is encrypted using the public key common to the set of apparatuses, which comprises the earbuds, Pub-Key-E. The NFT comprises the identifier of the earbuds, which may be the MAC address of the earbuds, MAC001. The NFT comprises user id of USERXYZ001, which has been generated by the web service.”);
wherein a public cryptographic key corresponds to the private cryptographic key, wherein an address corresponds to the public cryptographic key (Van: para[30], [172-174], “Blockchain security may utilize public-private key pairs for cryptography. A public key may be an address on the blockchain. Value tokens, which may be sent across network, may be recorded as belonging to the address. A private key may provide access to the digital assets of a blockchain.”), and
wherein the private cryptographic key provides access to the NFT and indicates that the attribute included in the NFT belongs to the user of the mobile device (Van: para[55-56], [75], [80], “A private key may provide access to the digital assets of a blockchain.”, “The USER field of the NFT may be decrypted with the earbuds specific private key, Priv-Key-U, of the earbuds owned by the user (Fig. 4)… USER field of the NFT cannot be decrypted without the specific private key, which is unique for a user apparatus. So, authentication cannot be successfully completed as in Fig. 4”, “As NFTs comprise ownership data, which enables identifying a rightful owner of the NFT, an owner identifier, owner id, is stored in the NFT. In this embodiment the NFT comprises fields of: a TokenID, or a NFT id, containing the unique token identifier; a SCAN containing the encrypted digital code based on the scan of user's ear canal; a MACADDRESS containing the MAC address of the earbuds; a USER containing the encrypted user identifier; and a NFTOWNER containing the owner identifier of the NFT”);
receive a request from a third party to authenticate the user based on the attribute (Van: para[70-72], step 500-502 “The signalling of Figure 5 shows an authentication process, where a user of a wearable device is configured to start use of a web service, where authentication is required...… The user activates the user device, and the user device may be detected by the web service, for example as a cellular communication device. The web service may continuously search for devices capable of accessing it” para[80], “the service receiving the authentication request may, in addition, be configured to try to contact the user. This way the user may be alerted on access request on their name, and the user is able to confirm own identity by responding to contact from the service. This enables providing additional confirmation for authenticating the correct person.”); and
provide, to the third party, the ID associated with the NFT and the public cryptographic key associated with the user (Van: para[74-77], step 503-504 “At phase 503, the user device is configured to send the digital code, SCAN123, and token identifiers of token001 and token987 to the web service. Before transmission, the user device is configured to encrypt data using public code of the web service, Pub-Key-S…. The web service may have received - in addition to the NFT identifier of token001 and token987, and the digital code of SCAN123 - an NFT owner identifier”, “the NFT created by the user device, like earbuds optionally connected to a mobile device, comprises: TokenID: token001 SCAN: Pub-Key-E[SCAN123] MACADDRESS: MAC001 USER: Pub-Key-U[USERXYZ001] NFTOWNER: OWNERID”),
wherein the third party authenticates the user to make a query to the NFT of token id: token001 in order to find owner identifier of the NFT token001. The information is in the NFTOWNER field of the NFT. The NFT token002 of the web service comprises list of additional NFTs, which have been send by the user, in the field NFTLIST. The web service has received additional NFT of token987. The web service compares the received token987 with the content listed in its NFT of token002 in the field NFTLIST. The additional NFT(s) that were received from the user device, is/are compared with the content of the NFTLIST of the NFT of the web service. The received token identifiers shall match with the listed token identifiers in the NFT field of the NFTLIST. In case there is any difference, for example different number of NFTs, the web service may reject authentication of the user. In case the received and listed NFTs are found to match, the web service is configured to authenticate the user to the web service.” See also para[65-71]).
Although, Van discuss a blockchain database utilizing public-private key pairs for cryptography, it does not specifically disclose create a digital wallet based on a public cryptographic key associated with the user of the mobile device, wherein the digital wallet is configured to store the NFT and a private cryptographic key associated with the user of the mobile device operating on the wireless telecommunication network; store the private cryptographic key in the digital wallet; verifying that the private cryptographic key is stored in the digital wallet corresponding to the public cryptographic key associated with the user.
However, in the related art, Kurani teaches create a digital wallet based on a public cryptographic key associated with the user of the mobile device (Kurani: para [48-52], [154-160], “In some arrangements, the one or more processors can receive, from a client system 103, an NFT account request for creating the NFT account stored on the data processing system 102. In turn, the one or more processors can create the NFT account associated with an account number and a customer identifier, update the overlay ledger to include the NFT account, and install, via an application programming interface (API) on the client system 102, a digital wallet, wherein the digital wallet is a decentralized application (dApp).”),
wherein the digital wallet is configured to store the NFT and a private cryptographic key associated with the user of the mobile device operating on the wireless telecommunication network; store the private cryptographic key in the digital wallet (Kurani: para[79-82], [154-172], fig. 1, “the public key can be used by the destination system to decrypt (e.g., verify) the encrypted NFT. For example, the sender (source) of an NFT stored in a digital wallet can sign (e.g., “lock”) the NFT or data package including the NFT to be exchanged with a private key stored in a digital wallet or on the user device (e.g., 103) of the user and in turn, transmit the NFT and share the public key for verifying (e.g., “un-locking”) by the receiver, such as the data processing system 102”)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filling date of the claimed invention, to have update Van and save the private key with the token in the digital wallet, it will prevent unauthorized parties from performing unauthorized actions (Kurani: para [70]).
Although Van in view of Kurani disclose authenticating the user, Van in view of Kurani does not clearly disclose that the authentication is made based on verifying that the private cryptographic key is stored in the digital wallet corresponding to the public cryptographic key associated with the user.
However, in the related art, Bacon teaches verifying that the private cryptographic key is stored in the digital wallet corresponding to the public cryptographic key associated with the user (Bacon: para[51], “The user device 1002 may include a wallet application 1032,…the wallet application 1032 may securely store public and private key pairs associated with the user device 1002. … The private keys may be stored securely and confidentially and may be used by the wallet application 1032 in certain signature operations for providing digital signatures that prove ownership of corresponding public keys, among other things”, para[87], “The method 600 relates to a user device connecting to the e-commerce system using a browser or mobile application to exchange communications as part of an e-commerce browsing session. It may be presumed that the user device provides the e-commerce system with at least one wallet address and a respective digital signature for each of the at least one wallet addresses. The system validates that the digital signature corresponds to the wallet address, thereby verifying that the wallet address is owned or controlled by an owner of the user device. In particular, the verification confirms that the user device stores the private key that corresponds to a public key associated with the wallet address.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filling date of the claimed invention, to have update the modified Van with the verification process of Bacon, it will provide for improved token-based access control systems by enabling multi-point token-based gating checks and prevent unauthorized access (Bacon: para [40]).
Van in view of Kurani and Bacon does not explicitly teach wherein the attribute further includes an incentive to engage with a third party, and wherein the incentive includes a coupon associated with the third party targeted to the user; wherein the incentive is stored in the NFT; and upon authentication of the user based on the attribute, cause the third party to determine that the user is associated with the incentive and apply the incentive to the user.
However, in the related art, Meyers teaches wherein the attribute further includes an incentive to engage with a third party independent of an operator of the wireless telecommunication network (Meyers: fig. 1 and 18, para [244-247], “a client device, such as client device 825 or 6020 of an NFT owner includes an NFT wallet 6725 that stores one or more NFTs. These NFTs can include a loyalty program NFT to be used to authenticate a transaction associated with the owner via an NFT platform such as NFT transaction authenticator 6022 with a third party associated with the loyalty program….the loyalty program is a customer loyalty program associated with a business that tracks transactions of a customer and grants benefits based on the amount/type of transactions, for example, enhanced status with the business and/or other businesses… the method can be implemented via a POS platform”), and wherein the incentive includes a coupon associated with the third party targeted to the user (Meyers: fig. 1 and 18, para [244-247], “the loyalty program is a customer loyalty program associated with a business that tracks transactions of a customer and grants benefits based on the amount/type of transactions, for example, enhanced status with the business and/or other businesses, discounts, rewards, coupons, invitations to events, gift cards, etc.”);
wherein the incentive is stored in the NFT (Meyers: para[244-247], “a client device, such as client device 825 or 6020 of an NFT owner includes an NFT wallet 6725 that stores one or more NFTs.” Para 247], “wherein a loyalty program NFT minted via a blockchain is stored in a wallet associated with the user,”); and
upon authentication of the user based on the attribute, cause the third party to determine that the user is associated with the incentive and apply the incentive to the user (Meyers: para[247], [254-257], “determining, via the processor and based on loyalty program data associated with the user and the information associated with the loyalty program reward, when the user is qualified for the loyalty program reward. Step 7210-5 includes determining, via the processor, when the user is authenticated, based on the user identification data. Step 7212-5 includes generating credentials data to facilitate the loyalty program reward in accordance with the loyalty program when the loyalty program NFT is authenticated, when the user is authenticated and when the user is qualified for the loyalty program reward. ”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filling date of the claimed invention, to incorporate the loyalty-program incentive features of Meyers into the NFT-based authentication system of the modified Van in order to allow third-party services to authenticate users via NFT credentials and provide associated promotional incentives such as coupons or rewards during transactions. Integrating authentication with loyalty-program incentives would allow businesses to securely authenticate users while enabling redemption of rewards associated with the user’s NFT-based credentials (Meyers: para [85]).
As per claims 4, 17, Van in view of Kurani, Bacon and Meyers teaches the independent claim 1.Van teaches obtain the indication of the attribute associated with the mobile device operating on the wireless telecommunication network, wherein the attribute includes information associated with the wireless telecommunication network, wherein the information indicates an action to be performed by the mobile device (Van: step 400, “the user device or the earbuds are configured to perform a scan of the user's ear canal. The resulting biometric scan is formulated in digital form, resulting to a digital code SCAN123. The user device is configured to search from the blockchain for a block that includes SCAN123. The NFT field SCAN may be detected and its content may be analysed. Alternatively, number of fields may be searched for SCAN123, without directing the search to any specific NFT field. The SCAN field content has been encrypted using public key common to a set of apparatuses, Pub-Key-E[SCAN123”);
cause the NFT to be encrypted using the public cryptographic key associated with the user, thereby making the NFT unreadable to public users (Van: step 400, “The NFT field SCAN may be detected and its content may be analysed. Alternatively, number of fields may be searched for SCAN123, without directing the search to any specific NFT field. The SCAN field content has been encrypted using public key common to a set of apparatuses, Pub-Key-E[SCAN123]. The set of apparatuses comprise the earbuds. The earbuds or the user device hold the private key of the earbuds manufacturer, Priv-Key-E.”);
obtain the information contained in the NFT by decrypting the NFT using the private cryptographic key associated with the user (Van: step: 400, “The user device is configured to decrypt the USER field of the NFT, containing user identifier, USERXYZ001, which is stored as encrypted using the public key, which is unique for the earbuds, being Pub-Key-U[USERXYZ001]. The user device is configured to decrypt the field USER using the unique private key of the earbuds, Priv-Key-U.”); and
perform the action (Van: step 400-403, “The user device is configured to encrypt the decrypted USER field, USERXYZ001, using the public key of the web service, Pub-Key-S. At phase 403, the encrypted USER field, Pub-Key-S[USERXYZ001], is sent to the web service.”).
As per claims 5, 18, Van in view of Kurani, Bacon and Meyers teaches the independent claim 1. Kurani teaches obtain the indication of the attribute associated with the mobile device operating on the wireless telecommunication network, wherein the unique ID associated with the user indicates that the user is associated with the wireless telecommunication network (Kurani: para[89-90], [150-151], “At block 520, the one or more processors can authenticate or verify the NFT using a key (e.g., wallet public key 214 or internal private key 228, or vice versa such as wallet private key 214 or internal public key 228), and authenticate the link of the NFT. …metadata of the digital asset can include, but is not limited to, a video, scannable code, audio, text, any media or digital representation, public and private key pairs (e.g., stored on and associated with the digital wallet, stored on and associated with the data processing system 102)”);
cause the third party to determine whether the user is associated with the wireless telecommunication network (Kurani: para[150-152], “the one or more processors can determine based on the received NFT and the metadata one or more attributes (or rules) for outputting. Referring to attributes of NFTs in more detail, each attribute can include or consists of a key value pair, where the key is the rule that can be satisfied and the value is the output associated with the NFT and/or metadata object. The smart contract control structures 210 can analyze off-chain data and the attributes to determine if the value of the attribute is satisfied, and in turn output the value based on the key of the attribute …. At block 524, the one or more processors can authenticate the first link of the first NFT based on successfully accessing, via the first link, the metadata object.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filling date of the claimed invention, to have update Van with Kurani, it will prevent unauthorized parties from performing unauthorized actions (Kurani: para [70]).
Although Van in view of Kurani teaches determining whether the user is associated with the wireless telecommunication network, Van in view of Kurani does not teach that the determination is made based on verifying that the private cryptographic key is stored in the digital wallet corresponding to the public cryptographic key associated with the user.
However, in the related art, Bacon teaches verifying that the private cryptographic key is stored in the digital wallet corresponding to the public cryptographic key associated with the user (Bacon: para[51], “The user device 1002 may include a wallet application 1032,…the wallet application 1032 may securely store public and private key pairs associated with the user device 1002. … The private keys may be stored securely and confidentially and may be used by the wallet application 1032 in certain signature operations for providing digital signatures that prove ownership of corresponding public keys, among other things”, para[87], “The method 600 relates to a user device connecting to the e-commerce system using a browser or mobile application to exchange communications as part of an e-commerce browsing session. It may be presumed that the user device provides the e-commerce system with at least one wallet address and a respective digital signature for each of the at least one wallet addresses. The system validates that the digital signature corresponds to the wallet address, thereby verifying that the wallet address is owned or controlled by an owner of the user device. In particular, the verification confirms that the user device stores the private key that corresponds to a public key associated with the wallet address.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filling date of the claimed invention, to have update the modified Van with the verification process of Bacon, it will provide for improved token-based access control systems by enabling multi-point token-based gating checks and prevent unauthorized access (Bacon: para [40]).
As per claims 6, 13, and 19, Van in view of Kurani, Bacon and Meyers teaches the independent claim 1. Van teaches obtain the indication of the attribute associated with the mobile device operating on the wireless telecommunication network, wherein the attribute includes an easy-to-remember phone number associated with the mobile device (Van: At phase 306, in response to receiving the encrypted user id and the Pub-Key-S, optionally via a mobile device, the earbuds are configured to scan ear canal of the user. The scan provides a biometric identifier, which uniquely identifies the user. The biometric identifier is converted into digital form, like a digital code, SCAN123. The mobile device may be configured to convert the biometric identifier into digital form.” , “The contact information may comprise email address, user identifier of a service, like instant messaging, a phone number, or any other contact information”);
cause creation of the NFT including the easy-to-remember phone number (Van: “The user device, comprising the earbuds connected to the mobile device, are configured to create an NFT for the user, the earbuds and the web service. The NFT comprises a unique blockchain token identifier, token id, which is token001. The NFT comprises the digital code, SCAN123, which is based on the biometric identifier scanned from the user's ear canal.”).
Van does not teach however, in the related art Kurani teaches receive a request from a second mobile device associated with the wireless telecommunication network to transfer the NFT including the easy-to-remember phone number (Kurani: para[93-96], 103-109], “token authentication processor 312 can include or reference a transfer authorization linked with a minting parameter, and can permit or initiate execution of a transfer of the NFT from or to the blockchain storage 168 in response to detecting the minting parameter linked with the transfer authorization. For example, token authentication processor 312 can link with a smart contract control structure 210 and receive an identification of or reference to a particular NFT. The token authentication processor 312 can then determine one or more characteristics or aspects of an NFT associated with a request to transfer that NFT, in response to receiving a transmission from or via the mobile wallet system 170 and/or NFT transaction processor 250.”); and
change a phone number associated with the second mobile device by transferring the NFT including the easy-to-remember phone number to a second digital wallet associated with the second mobile device (Kurani: para[121], “”an action can include transferring an NFT to a particular NFT account or smart contract. Transferring the NFT to a particular NFT account may include updating an entry in the overlay ledger 161 but not broadcasting the NFT to the permission blockchain 260. In another example, a deposit action can include registering an NFT to a particular NFT account on the overlay ledger 161 and broadcasting the NFT to the permission blockchain 260, or any combination thereof.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filling date of the claimed invention, to have update Van and save the private key with the token in the digital wallet, it will prevent unauthorized parties from performing unauthorized actions (Kurani: para [70]).
Claims 2, 7-8, 10, 15, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Van et al. (E.P. 4209944 A1; Hereinafter “Van”) in view of Kurani et al. (U.S. 20250069067 A1; Hereinafter “Kurani”), Bacon et al. (U.S. 20240020683 A1; Hereinafter “Bacon”); Meyers et al. (U.S. 2024/0033639 A1; Hereinafter “Meyers”) and Jackson et al. (U.S. 20220329446 A1; Hereinafter “Jackson”).
As per claims 2, 10, and 15, Van in view of Kurani, Bacon and Meyers teaches the independent claim 1.
Van teaches receive the request from the third party independent of the wireless telecommunication network to authenticate the user based on the attribute (Van: para[70-72], step 500-502 “The signalling of Figure 5 shows an authentication process, where a user of a wearable device is configured to start use of a web service, where authentication is required...… The user activates the user device, and the user device may be detected by the web service, for example as a cellular communication device. The web service may continuously search for devices capable of accessing it” para[80], “the service receiving the authentication request may, in addition, be configured to try to contact the user. This way the user may be alerted on access request on their name, and the user is able to confirm own identity by responding to contact from the service. This enables providing additional confirmation for authenticating the correct person.”);
wherein the request includes verifying whether the mobile device is stolen, cause the third party to determine whether the mobile device is stolen (Van: para[74-77], step 503-504 “At phase 504, in response to receiving the digital code and token identifiers, the web service is configured to search the blockchain. The blockchain may be created by the web service or be the same used by the user device…. The web service may be configured to make a query to the NFT of token id: token001 in order to find owner identifier of the NFT token001. The information is in the NFTOWNER field of the NFT. The NFT token002 of the web service comprises list of additional NFTs, which have been send by the user, in the field NFTLIST. The web service has received additional NFT of token987. The web service compares the received token987 with the content listed in its NFT of token002 in the field NFTLIST. The additional NFT(s) that were received from the user device, is/are compared with the content of the NFTLIST of the NFT of the web service. The received token identifiers shall match with the listed token identifiers in the NFT field of the NFTLIST. In case there is any difference, for example different number of NFTs, the web service may reject authentication of the user. In case the received and listed NFTs are found to match, the web service is configured to authenticate the user to the web service.” See also para[65-71]).
Although Van in view of Kurani teaches verifying whether the mobile device is stolen, Van in view of Kurani does not teach that the determination is made based on determining whether the private cryptographic key is stored in the digital wallet associated with the user.
However, in the related art, Bacon teaches verifying that the private cryptographic key is stored in the digital wallet corresponding to the public cryptographic key associated with the user (Bacon: para[51], “The user device 1002 may include a wallet application 1032,…the wallet application 1032 may securely store public and private key pairs associated with the user device 1002. … The private keys may be stored securely and confidentially and may be used by the wallet application 1032 in certain signature operations for providing digital signatures that prove ownership of corresponding public keys, among other things”, para[87], “The method 600 relates to a user device connecting to the e-commerce system using a browser or mobile application to exchange communications as part of an e-commerce browsing session. It may be presumed that the user device provides the e-commerce system with at least one wallet address and a respective digital signature for each of the at least one wallet addresses. The system validates that the digital signature corresponds to the wallet address, thereby verifying that the wallet address is owned or controlled by an owner of the user device. In particular, the verification confirms that the user device stores the private key that corresponds to a public key associated with the wallet address.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filling date of the claimed invention, to have update the modified Van with the verification process of Bacon, it will provide for improved token-based access control systems by enabling multi-point token-based gating checks and prevent unauthorized access (Bacon: para [40]).
Van in view of Kurani and Bacon does not teach wherein the attribute includes the IMEI associated with the mobile device.
However, in the related art Jackson teaches wherein the attribute includes the IMEI associated with the mobile device (Jackson: para[99-103], “At 704, the Asset controller may receive from the electronic device, a hashed data value generated from an electronic device identifier that can be used to verify the identity of the electronic device. For example, the electronic device may generate such a hashed data value by combining at least a portion of a device identifier (e.g., an MEID) and information about the NFT or asset to be accessed. The combined information may then be subjected to a hash algorithm to generate the hashed data value.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filling date of the claimed invention, to have update the modified Van with Jackson IMEI, it will enhanced asset tracking (Jackson: para [31]).
As per claim 7, 20, Van in view of Kurani, Bacon and Meyers teaches the independent claim 1. Van teaches obtain the indication of the attribute associated with the mobile device operating on the wireless telecommunication network (Van: para[70-72], step 500-502 “The signalling of Figure 5 shows an authentication process, where a user of a wearable device is configured to start use of a web service, where authentication is required...… The user activates the user device, and the user device may be detected by the web service, for example as a cellular communication device. The web service may continuously search for devices capable of accessing it” para[80], “the service receiving the authentication request may, in addition, be configured to try to contact the user. This way the user may be alerted on access request on their name, and the user is able to confirm own identity by responding to contact from the service. This enables providing additional confirmation for authenticating the correct person.”).
Bacon teaches verifying that the private cryptographic key is stored in the digital wallet corresponding to the public cryptographic key associated with the user (Bacon: para[51], “The user device 1002 may include a wallet application 1032,…the wallet application 1032 may securely store public and private key pairs associated with the user device 1002. … The private keys may be stored securely and confidentially and may be used by the wallet application 1032 in certain signature operations for providing digital signatures that prove ownership of corresponding public keys, among other things”, para[87], “The method 600 relates to a user device connecting to the e-commerce system using a browser or mobile application to exchange communications as part of an e-commerce browsing session. It may be presumed that the user device provides the e-commerce system with at least one wallet address and a respective digital signature for each of the at least one wallet addresses. The system validates that the digital signature corresponds to the wallet address, thereby verifying that the wallet address is owned or controlled by an owner of the user device. In particular, the verification confirms that the user device stores the private key that corresponds to a public key associated with the wallet address.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filling date of the claimed invention, to have update the modified Van with the verification process of Bacon, it will provide for improved token-based access control systems by enabling multi-point token-based gating checks and prevent unauthorized access (Bacon: para [40]).
Van in view of Kurani, Bacon and Meyers does not disclose wherein the attribute includes an Embedded Subscriber Identity Module (eSIM) associated with the mobile device; cause the third party to determine whether the mobile device is associated with the eSIM by determining whether the private cryptographic key is stored in the digital wallet associated with the mobile device.
However, in the related art, Jackson teaches wherein the attribute includes an Embedded Subscriber Identity Module (eSIM) associated with the mobile device (Jackson: para[37], “he user device may also include network devices that act as intermediaries with the Internet. It is noteworthy that the Internet is accessible via one or more network(s). In some examples, the user device may include a subscriber identity module (SIM), such as an eSIM, that identifies each device to a telecommunication service provider (also referred to herein, as “telecommunications network”). Additionally, each user device may include a serial number or Mobile Equipment Identifier (MEID) that uniquely identifies the user device itself.”);
cause the third party to determine whether the mobile device is associated with the eSIM (Jackson: para[ 75],[101-103] “payload data, prior to being incorporated into a data block within the block chain may be encrypted using a cryptographic key (e.g., a private key of an asymmetric key pair) that is associated with an owner of the NFT/enhanced MEID”, para[101-103], “At 706, upon verifying the identity of the electronic device, the Asset controller may compare the identity with the ownership and access control rights of the digital asset (e.g., within the permissions schedule). Upon determining that the identity associated with the electronic device retains ownership, or at least access rights, of the digital asset, the Asset controller may transmit, to the electronic device, a cryptographic key that unlocks and grants access to an unabridged instance of a digital asset.”, “proof of ownership may be based on an electronic device NFT. The electronic device NFT may be based on a Mobile Equipment Identifier (MEID) of the electronic device…Further, an NFT that is based on a MEID ensures that cloned or counterfeit electronic devices that purport to hold a MEID with access to a digital asset, are not inadvertently provided access rights to the unabridged digital asse”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filling date of the claimed invention, to have update the modified Van with Jackson, it will enhanced asset tracking (Jackson: para [31]).
As per claim 8, Van in view of Kurani, Bacon and Meyers teaches the independent claim 1.
Van in view of Kurani, Bacon and Meyers does not teach, however, in the related art Jackson teaches store the NFT in a block on a blockchain (Jackson: para[85-80], “At block 506, an Asset controller may create an initial block within a blockchain that includes the NFT and/or information associated with the asset as its initial payload. At least a portion of the payload data may be selectively encrypted using a private key of an asymmetric key pair associated with an owner of the NFT (or owner of the asset associated with the NFT).”);
generate a hash of contents of the block by generating a hash of a root node of a Merkle tree associated with the contents of the block (Jackson: para[71], [91-95] “The first block 306, which is appended to the electronic ledger subsequent to the initial block 304, may include a previous block hash value 318, a first block hash value 320, and a payload data 322. One or more of the hash values described herein may be Merkle Root hash values….The first block hash 320 may correspond to a cryptographic has of the content of the first block, namely the first Merkle root hash and the first payload data. The initial block hash and the first block hash may be generated using a digital signature algorithm such as HMAC with SHA256, ECDSA, or RSASSA-PSS. The n.sup.th block 308 may include similar data to the first block, but may represent the latest status with respect to the NFT.”); and
store the hash of contents in the block (Jackson: para[77], [95],“ at block 512, the Asset controller may generate a subsequent block to the blockchain that includes the payload data of the digital content. Similar to the process described with reference to FIG. 3, the subsequent block may include i) the hash of the preceding block within the blockchain, ii) a hash of the payload data and the preceding block hash, and iii) the encrypted payload data..”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filling date of the claimed invention, to have update the modified Van with Jackson, it will enhanced asset tracking (Jackson: para [31]).
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 LYDIA L NOEL whose telephone number is (571)272-1628. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 9:00 - 5:00.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Alexander Lagor can be reached on (571)-270-5143. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/L.L.N./Examiner, Art Unit 2437
/BENJAMIN E LANIER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2437