DETAILED ACTION
This Office Action is in response to the Amendments filed on 02/04/2026.
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 .
Response to Amendment
The objections made in the Non-Final Rejection dated 11/12/2025 are hereby withdrawn due to the Amendments filed on 02/04/2026.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 02/04/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Regarding claim 1, on pages 7-8, applicant argues that Achillopoulos does not disclose the newly added limitation “…the determination includes verifying an administrative authorization that indicates an authority of a user to initiate the burnout procedure;”
In response, Examiner respectfully disagrees, and submits that Achillopoulos does teach this newly added limitation as detailed in the rejection below.
Regarding claims 9 & 15, see response to claim 1 above.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-5, 7-13, 15-19 and 22 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Achillopoulos (US 2019/0362080 A1-hereinafter Achillopoulos).
Regarding claim 1, Achillopoulos discloses a method for retiring edge devices, the method comprising:
obtaining a request to retire an edge device of the edge devices (at least [0023]-[0030][0103], i.e.: when a violation pertaining to accessing portable storage system is determined, it is implied that a command to shutdown/lock is received, because the portable storage system goes into a lockdown or erasure mode);
making a determination that a burnout procedure is to be performed as part of retiring the edge device (at least [0030][0151][0153], a determination to destroy or erase all data in the portable storage system is made), the determination includes verifying an administrative authorization that indicates an authority of a user to initiate the burnout procedure (at least [0023][0029][0034][0123], a command to erase data is received from the device gateway platform DGP cloud server).
based on the determination:
performing the burnout procedure to eliminate use of a key by the edge device, the use of the key being required to use data stored by the edge device (at least [0100]-[0103][0149][0151]-[0153], i.e.: crypto-processor of the portable storage system is destructed, the crypto-processor holds at least key that unlocks or boots the operation of portable storage system/mass storage sub-system (MSS)).
Regarding claim 2, Achillopoulos discloses the method of claim 1. Achillopoulos also discloses the performing the burnout procedure comprises:
destroying a trusted platform module that is required for use of the key by the edge device (at least [0149][0151]-[0153], i.e.: crypto-processor is destroyed).
Regarding claim 3, Achillopoulos discloses the method of claim 2. Achillopoulos also disclose the destroying the trusted platform module comprises:
activating an enhanced power circuit that connects a power supply to the trusted platform module (at least [0152][0154][0155], high voltage power is applied/ activated to the TPM module);
sending a voltage from the power supply to the trusted platform module via the enhanced power circuit to destroy the trusted platform module, the trusted platform module holding the key (at least [0142][0149][0152][0154][0155], power is provided to the crypto-processor via power control module, data-logger’s backup battery & backup battery of the TPM module, the TPM crypto-processor holds the encryption keys that unlock the operations to boot and access the portable storage system/MSS).
Regarding claim 4, Achillopoulos discloses the method of claim 3. Achillopoulos also discloses the performing the burnout procedure further comprises:
sending an audit report with a set of specifications of the edge device to an edge management device, the audit report indicating a condition of the trusted platform module after the voltage is sent to the trusted platform module (at least [0125][0151]-[0152][0267]-[0269], logging data is transmitted to cloud server, the logging data including sensor data of the TPM-processor after it received high voltage signal/ was destructed).
Regarding claim 5, Achillopoulos discloses the method of claim 4. Achillopoulos also discloses the set of specifications comprises operating details for the edge device (at least [0275], the logging data includes system operational data), a location of the edge device at least (at least [0022]-[0023], location of portable storage system is tracked/logged), intended results of the burnout procedure (at least [0125], result of destruction of TPM-processor is logged), and confirmatory results of a testing procedure which is performed after the burnout procedure and indicates an outcome of the burnout procedure (at least [0012]-[0013][0022][0125][0267][0275], i.e.: logged data of the destruction of the TPM-processor is forensically analyzed).
Regarding claim 7, Achillopoulos discloses the method of claim 3. Achillopoulos also discloses the activating the enhanced power circuit comprises:
activating, by a basic input-output system (BIOS) of the edge device, a power management function of a power controller of the edge device (at least [0100]-[0101], it is inherent that BIOS is used to activate/boot (power up) the portable storage system); and
activating, by the power controller and based on the activation by the BIOS, a circuitry initiation function of the power supply to initiate use of the enhanced power circuit (at least figure 2, [0142][0154], high voltage power is supplied/initiated).
Regarding claim 8, Achillopoulos discloses the method of claim 1. Achillopoulos also discloses the key is a volume management key used to encrypt all data stored by the edge device to obtain encrypted data (at least [0100]-[0103], a key that encrypts all data while uploading them to the portable storage system /MSS), and the key being required to decrypt the encrypted data (at least [0100]-[0103], the key is used to decrypt the boot disk).
Claim 9 is rejected for the same rationale as claim 1 above.
Claim 10 & 16 are rejected for the same rationale as claim 2 above.
Claims 11 & 17 are rejected for the same rationale as claim 3 above.
Claims 12 & 18 are rejected for the same rationale as claim 4 above.
Claims 13 & 19 are rejected for the same rationale as claim 5 above.
Claim 15 is rejected for the same rationale as claim 1 above. In addition, Achillopoulos also discloses a processor (at least [0106], i.e.: crypto-processor) and a memory (at least [0021], memory card or flash memory).
Regarding claim 22, Achillopoulos discloses the method of claim 1. Achillopoulos also discloses the burnout procedure includes using a heating element to increase a temperature of a storage device of the edge device (at least [0152]-[0155], high voltage of power is supplied to microprocessor of TPM).
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.
Claim 21 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Achillopoulos and in view of Strong (US 2021/0357144 A1-hereinafter Strong).
Regarding claim 21, Achillopoulos discloses the method of claim 1. Achillopoulos also discloses that the command/authorization from the DGP Cloud server to erase data is received in an encrypted message (at least [0123]).
Achillopoulos does not explicitly disclose authorization is verified by using a public key to verify a signature of the user.
However, Strong discloses a public key is used to verify a command related to a self-destruction of memory device is received from a trusted source (at least [0039]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the feature discloses by Strong into the method of Achillopoulos to clearly indicate encryption algorithm used in the method.
Claim 23 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Achillopoulos.
Regarding claim 23, Achillopoulos discloses the method of claim 22. Achillopoulos does not explicitly discloses the burnout procedure includes closing vents of an enclosure of the edge device that selectively retains heat.
However, Achillopoulos also discloses if a lid is closed while normal system operation, the system will overheat (at least [0131]).
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to ensure that when high voltage of power is supplied to destroy the microprocessor of the TPM, that the lid would be closed to ensure the high voltage is trapped and destruction of the TPM would be carried out successfully.
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 PHY ANH TRAN VU whose telephone number is (571)270-7317. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 7 am-1 pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Taghi T Arani can be reached at (571) 272-3787. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/PHY ANH T VU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2438
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