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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 09/29/2025 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
In response to objection to the specification, filed 09/29/2025, the objection to the specification is withdrawn in light of amendment to the abstract.
In response to 35 USC 112, pages 10-13 of the remarks, filed 09/29/2025, the 35 USC 112 rejection has been withdrawn in light of claim amendment.
In response to 35 USC 103, page 14-22 of the remarks, filed 09/29/2025, for independent claims 1, 10 and 12 along with their respective dependent claims. Applicant argues that Rao-Hayes fails to teach “transmitting to a time server a first message comprising a first timestamp and a first value containing a first key in encrypted form, and thereafter, independently of the first message, transmitting a second message comprising a second value generated using the first key”.
The Examiner does not concede. Rao teaches “transmit, over the communication network via the network interface, the first value to the time server in a first message comprising a first timestamp”. Rao discloses “client sends Ticket.sub.v and Auth.sub.c,v to the application server [Page 250]. Time synchronization and freshness plan for symmetric encryption key based Kerberos 5 authentication for client-server situation [Abstract]. Utilize a sure time synchronization. Timestamps in authenticator, the legitimacy or validity time of tickets [Page 251]”. Application server acting as the time server, Ticket acting as the first value since it has encrypted session key and Auth acting as the second value. The tickets have timestamps.
Applicant further argues that Rao is directed to single message. This is inaccurate as Rao discloses multiple messages as shown in page 250.
In response to “and thereafter, independently of the first message, transmitting a second message comprising a second value generated using the first key”.
Applicant’s argument have been considered but are moot, because the newly recited amendment does not rely on the newly recited reference being applied to the prior rejection of record or any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 1, 3, 5, 6, 10, and 12-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Rao et al. (“Application of Time synchronization process to Kerberos”, hereinafter Rao) in view of Dowling et al. (“Authenticated Network Time Synchronization”, hereinafter Dowling).
Re. claim 1, Rao discloses a hardware time client device comprising a network interface for communicating over a communication network (Rao discloses a genuine client to sign on to his terminal and after that transparently get to all the networked resources [Page 249]. communication between Server(V) and Client(C) [Page 250] IPv6 systems [Page 251]), cause the hardware time client device being configured to: receive, over the communication network via the network interface from an authentication server, a first key, and a first value containing the first key in encrypted form (Rao discloses a session key that is produced by Authentication server for securing communication between client and server. Encrypts ticket and session key and sends them to the client [Page 250]);
and during a time synchronization phase, first transmit, over the communication network via the network interface to a time server, a first message comprising the first value and a first timestamp (Rao discloses client sends Ticket.sub.v and Auth.sub.c,v to the application server [Page 250]. Time synchronization and freshness plan for symmetric encryption key based Kerberos 5 authentication for client-server situation [Abstract]. Utilize a sure time synchronization. Timestamps in authenticator, the legitimacy or validity time of tickets [Page 251], application server acting as the time server, Ticket acting as the first value since it has encrypted session key and Auth acting as the second value. The tickets have timestamps).
Although Rao discloses multiple messages and receiving information (key and value), Rao does not explicitly teach but Dowling teaches a hardware time client device comprising a processing device comprising one or more processing cores, a network interface coupled to the processing device for communication over a communication network, and a memory coupled to the processing device and storing instructions that, when executed by the processing device (Dowling teaches processor with 4 cores running with RAM . Client and server connected over LAN [Page 832, 4.2 Performance]);
receive an indication of a negotiated algorithm to be used to generate a second value and a first value containing the indication of the negotiated encryption algorithm in encrypted form (Dowling teaches the server sends its certificate and state C1, and authenticated encryption of the hash of the message flow. The value C1 will be later used to authenticate negotiation. Key S for authenticated encryption algorithm [Page 828, 3.1 Protocol Description] [Page 830, Fig. 3]);
generate, by the processing device, the second value using the first key and the negotiated encryption algorithm (Dowling teaches the server sends its certificate and state C1, and authenticated encryption of the hash of the message flow. The value C1 will be later used to authenticate negotiation. Key S for authenticated encryption algorithm. Client sends a time synchronization request and includes offloaded server state C2. [Page 828, 3.1 Protocol Description] [Page 830, Fig. 3], second value is generated based on the first value);
and thereafter, independently of the first message, transmit, over the communication network via the network interface to the time server, a second message comprising the second value (Dowling teaches the server sends its certificate and state C1, and authenticated encryption of the hash of the message flow. The value C1 will be later used to authenticate negotiation. Key S for authenticated encryption algorithm. Client sends a time synchronization request and includes offloaded server state C2. [Page 828, 3.1 Protocol Description] [Page 830, Fig. 3] #m5).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one or ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the apparatus disclosed by Rao to include a hardware time client device comprising a processing device comprising one or more processing cores, a network interface coupled to the processing device for communication over a communication network, and a memory coupled to the processing device and storing instructions that, when executed by the processing device; receive an indication of a negotiated algorithm to be used to generate a second value and a first value containing the indication of the negotiated encryption algorithm in encrypted form; generate, by the processing device, the second value using the first key and the negotiated encryption algorithm; and thereafter, independently of the first message, transmit, over the communication network via the network interface to the time server, a second message comprising the second value as disclosed by Dowling. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated for the purpose of protect against desynchronization attacks and securely synchronize time (Dowling [Page 823, Abstract]).
Re. claim 3, the combination of Rao-Dowling teach the time client device of claim 2, Rao discloses sending second value, Rao does not explicitly teach but Dowling teaches wherein the second value is a message authentication code of the first message generated using the first key (Dowling teaches message authentication code [Page 830, Fig. 3] C2 contains MAC).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one or ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the apparatus disclosed by Rao to include wherein the second value is a message authentication code as disclosed by Dowling. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated for the purpose of ensure message integrity.
Re. claim 5, the combination of Rao-Dowling teach the hardware time client device of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed by the processing device, further cause the hardware time client device to transmit over the communication network, via the network interface a request to the authentication server for the first key, and the first value, the request containing an identifier of the time client device (Rao discloses client request a TGT to the Authentication server which incorporates the TGS ID and client ID. A session key that is produced by Authentication server for securing communication between client and server. Encrypts ticket and session key and sends them to the client. the ticket includes the C’Ids and V’IDs [Page 250]. Kerberos is utilized as a part of IPv6 systems [Page 251], C’ids is the identifier of the time client device, the identifier does not have to be IP address).
Rao discloses transmitting a request with various information, Rao does not explicitly teach but Dowling teaches the indication of the negotiated encryption algorithm (Dowling teaches the server sends its certificate and state C1, and authenticated encryption of the hash of the message flow. The value C1 will be later used to authenticate negotiation. Key S for authenticated encryption algorithm. Client sends a time synchronization request and includes offloaded server state C2. [Page 828, 3.1 Protocol Description] [Page 830, Fig. 3] #m5).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one or ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the apparatus disclosed by Rao to include the indication of the negotiated encryption algorithm as disclosed by Dowling. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated for the purpose of authentication.
Re. claim 6, the combination of Rao-Dowling teach the hardware time client device of claim 5, wherein the instructions, when executed by the processing device, cause the hardware time client device to further include in the request an identifier of the time server (Rao discloses the ticket includes the C’Ids and V’IDs [Page 250]. Kerberos is utilized as a part of IPv6 systems [Page 251], V’ids is the identifier of the time server, the identifier does not have to be IP address).
(Faten teaches State C encodes all the information required by TS to process client NTP requests. To provide this information to TC, AS maintains the relationships: TSID—[S,(Ke, Kd)], and TCID—[K, C], where TSID is the TS identifier [Page 3 Section, B. Protocol Description, 2. Cleint/Server Setup] message TCID||TSID||algoTC [Page 4 Figure 2]).
Re. claim 10, Rao discloses a time synchronization system comprising: a hardware authentication server comprising a network interface for communication over a communication network , the hardware authentication server being configured to transmit, over the communication network to a first time client device (Rao discloses a genuine client to sign on to his terminal and after that transparently get to all the networked resources [Page 249]. communication between Server(V) and Client(C) [Page 250]), a first key, and first value containing the first key in encrypted form (Rao discloses a session key that is produced by Authentication server for securing communication between client and server. Encrypts ticket and session key and sends them to the client [Page 250]); and a time server first receive, over the communication network via the network interface of the hardware time server and from the first time client device, a first message comprising the first value and a first timestamp (Rao discloses client sends Ticket.sub.v and Auth.sub.c,v to the application server [Page 250]. Time synchronization and freshness plan for symmetric encryption key based Kerberos 5 authentication for client-server situation [Abstract]. Utilize a sure time synchronization. Timestamps in authenticator, the legitimacy or validity time of tickets [Page 251], application server acting as the time server, Ticket acting as the first value since it has encrypted session key and Auth acting as the second value).
Although Rao discloses multiple messages and receiving information (key and value), Rao does not explicitly teach but Dowling teaches a hardware authentication server comprising a processing device comprising one or more processing cores, a network interface couple to the processing device for communicating over a communication network, and a memory coupled to the processing device and storing instructions that, when executed by the processing device, cause the hardware authentication server (Dowling teaches processor with 4 cores running with RAM . Client and server connected over LAN [Page 832, 4.2 Performance]. Multiple servers [Page 824]);
transmit an indication of a negotiated algorithm to be used to generate a second value and a first value containing the indication of the negotiated encryption algorithm in encrypted form (Dowling teaches the server sends its certificate and state C1, and authenticated encryption of the hash of the message flow. The value C1 will be later used to authenticate negotiation. Key S for authenticated encryption algorithm [Page 828, 3.1 Protocol Description] [Page 830, Fig. 3]);
and a hardware time server comprising a processing device comprising one or more processing cores, a network interface coupled to the processing device for communicating over the communication network, and a memory coupled to the processing device and storing instructions that, when executed by the processing device (Dowling teaches processor with 4 cores running with RAM . Client and server connected over LAN [Page 832, 4.2 Performance]. Multiple servers [Page 824]),
and thereafter independently of the first message, receive, over the communication network via the network interface of the hardware time server and from the first time client device, a second message comprising the second value generated using the first key and the negotiated encryption algorithm, and to authenticate, by the processing device of the hardware time server, the first time client device based on the second value (Dowling teaches the server sends its certificate and state C1, and authenticated encryption of the hash of the message flow. The value C1 will be later used to authenticate negotiation. Key S for authenticated encryption algorithm. Client sends a time synchronization request and includes offloaded server state C2. [Page 828, 3.1 Protocol Description] [Page 830, Fig. 3]. The server recovers shard key k from C2 and uses it to authenticate the response [Page 829]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one or ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the apparatus disclosed by Rao to include a hardware authentication server comprising a processing device comprising one or more processing cores, a network interface couple to the processing device for communicating over a communication network, and a memory coupled to the processing device and storing instructions that, when executed by the processing device, cause the hardware authentication server; transmit an indication of a negotiated algorithm to be used to generate a second value and a first value containing the indication of the negotiated encryption algorithm in encrypted form; and a hardware time server comprising a processing device comprising one or more processing cores, a network interface coupled to the processing device for communicating over the communication network, and a memory coupled to the processing device and storing instructions that, when executed by the processing device, and thereafter independently of the first message, receive, over the communication network via the network interface of the hardware time server and from the first time client device, a second message comprising the second value generated using the first key and the negotiated encryption algorithm, and to authenticate, by the processing device of the hardware time server, the first time client device based on the second value as disclosed by Dowling. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated for the purpose of protect against desynchronization attacks and securely synchronize time (Dowling [Page 823, Abstract]).
Re. claim 12, claim 12 is rejected with the same rationale as applied in claim 1 above.
Re. claim 13, rejection of claim 12 is included and claim 13 is rejected with the same rationale as applied in claims 1 and 10 above.
Re. claim 14, rejection of claim 5 is included and claim 14 is rejected with the same rationale as applied in claim 5 above.
Re. claim 15, rejection of claim 14 is included and claim 15 is rejected with the same rationale as applied in claim 5 above.
Claim 7 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Rao et al. (“Application of Time synchronization process to Kerberos”, hereinafter Rao) in view of Dowling et al. (“Authenticated Network Time Synchronization”, hereinafter Dowling) and in further view of Murray et al. (US 20190296901, hereinafter Murray).
Re. claim 7, the combination of Rao-Dowling teach the hardware time client device of claim 1, Although Rao discloses key not known by the time client device, the combination of Rao-Dowling do not explicitly teach but Murray teaches wherein the first value is encrypted using a second key not known by the time client device (Murray teaches one key can encrypt and another key can decrypt in a fixed configuration. The defining of the keys, with respect to each other and the secure communication network, can be determined according to an infrastructure standard in which the keys operate. In one configuration of an asymmetric key pair 305, the public key 306 can be assigned to a user with an unverified identity for encrypting information to be sent [0027], use another key to encrypt).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one or ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the apparatus disclosed by the combination of Rao-Dowling to include wherein the first value is encrypted using a second key not known by the time client device as disclosed by Murray. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated for the purpose of encrypting information (Murray [0027]).
Claim 8 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Rao et al. (“Application of Time synchronization process to Kerberos”, hereinafter Rao) in view of Dowling et al. (“Authenticated Network Time Synchronization”, hereinafter Dowling) and in further view of Nannra et al. (US 20180254841, hereinafter Nannra).
Re. claim 8, the combination of Rao-Dowling teach the hardware time client device of claim 1, the combination of Rao-Dowling do not explicitly teach but Nannra teaches wherein the instructions, when executed by the processing device, further cause the hardware time client devices to: receive, over the communication network via the network interface from the time server a third message containing one or more further timestamps (Nannra teaches the transactions 22-1 include respective transaction data 24-11, 24-12 . . . 24-1 n, and respective timestamps 26-11, 26-12 . . . 26-1 n [0032]); receive, over the communication network via the network interface from the time server a third value corresponding to: a message authentication code of at least part of the first message and/or at least part of the third message generated using the first key, or a digital signature of at least part of the first message and/or at least part of the third message generated based on a private key (Nannra teaches a digital signature by cryptographically signing the timestamp or a hash of the timestamp with a private key [0038]); and authenticate, by the processing device, the third message by verifying the third value based on the first key or on a public key (Nannra teaches the transaction module 112 verifies the authenticity of the timestamp 26a. For example, the transaction module 112 utilizes a public key associated with the second network node 110b to determine whether a digital signature associated with the timestamp 26a was generated with a private key corresponding with the public key. In such implementations, if the transaction module 112 successfully verifies the authenticity of the timestamp 26a, then the transaction module 112 stores the transaction 22a, and the timestamp 26a, in the transaction buffer 120 [0026]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one or ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the apparatus disclosed by the combination of Rao-Dowling to include receive from the time server a third message containing one or more further timestamps; a digital signature of at least part of the first message; and authenticate the third message by verifying the third value based on the first key or on a public key as disclosed by Nannra. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated for the purpose of synchronize the clock with other clocks in the distributed ledger system (Nannra [0018]).
Claim 9 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Rao et al. (“Application of Time synchronization process to Kerberos”, hereinafter Rao) in view Dowling et al. (“Authenticated Network Time Synchronization”, hereinafter Dowling), Fan et al. (“Blockchain-Based secure time protection scheme in IoT”, hereinafter Fan) and in further view of Holtzman et al. (US 20100024000, hereinafter Holtzman).
Re. claim 9, the combination of Rao-Dowling teach the hardware time client device of claim 1, the combination of Rao-Dowling do not explicitly teach but Fan teaches wherein the instructions, when executed by the processing device, further cause the hardware time client device to: generate a time estimation by requesting, by the network interface, from a node in a blockchain network headers of a series of blocks of a blockchain, extracting, by the processing device, a timestamp from the header of a most recent block of the series; and generating, by the processing device, the time estimation based on the extracted timestamp (Fan teaches a timestamp for each piece of information is attached. With time records and timestamp, the slave node can calculate the offset, compensate time and synchronize to the master clock [Page 1064]. Fig 2 teaches a current time of block N).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one or ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the apparatus disclosed by the combination of Rao-Dowling to include generate a time estimation by requesting from a node in a blockchain network headers of a series of blocks of a blockchain, extracting a timestamp from the header of a most recent block of the series; and generating the time estimation based on the extracted timestamp as disclosed by Fan. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated for the purpose of normal nodes may utilize a wrong time to achieve time synchronization due to a lack of ability to verify the correctness of the messages received (Fan [Page 1063]).
The combination of Rao-Dowling-Fan do not explicitly teach but Holtzman teaches validate, by the processing device, an authentication certificate of the authentication server based on the time estimation (Holtzman teaches the memory device 200 can use to generate a time estimate to perform such validation, a brief discussion of certificates and CRLs will be presented with respect to asymmetric authentication [0025]. Specifically, the memory device 200 will generate a time estimate based on the last received time stamp and the measured active time to verify the certificate [0058]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one or ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the apparatus disclosed by the combination of Rao-Dowling-Fan to include validate an authentication certificate of the authentication server based on the time estimation as disclosed by Holtzman. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated for the purpose of verifying the certificate (Holtzman [Page 1063]).
Claim 11 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Rao et al. (“Application of Time synchronization process to Kerberos”, hereinafter Rao) in view of Dowling et al. (“Authenticated Network Time Synchronization”, hereinafter Dowling), and in further view of Fan et al. (“Blockchain-Based secure time protection scheme in IoT”, hereinafter Fan).
Re. claim 11, the combination of Rao-Dowling teach the time synchronization system of claim 10, wherein: the instructions stored in the memory of the hardware authentication server, when executed by the processing device of the hardware authentication server, further cause the hardware authentication server transmit, a third key, and a third value containing the third key in encrypted form (Rao discloses a session key that is produced by Authentication server for securing communication between client and server. Encrypts ticket and session key and sends them to the client [Page 250]); and the instructions stored in the memory of the hardware time server, when executed by the processing device of the hardware time server, further cause the hardware time server to receive from the second time client device, during a time synchronization phase, the third value (Rao discloses client sends Ticket.sub.v and Auth.sub.c,v to the application server [Page 250]. Time synchronization and freshness plan for symmetric encryption key based Kerberos 5 authentication for client-server situation [Abstract]. Utilize a sure time synchronization [Page 251], application server acting as the time server, Ticket acting as the first value since it has encrypted session key and Auth acting as the second value), and to authenticate, by the processing device of the hardware time server, the second time client device based on the fourth value (Rao discloses Server(V) decode messages independently, and judges whether the requests or solicitations are effective by comparing the system addresses, username , legitimacy period and other data after getting messages including Ticketv and Authc,v sent by user [Page 250]).
Although Rao discloses a second value, Rao does not explicitly teach but Dowling teaches a fourth value generated using the third key (Dowling teaches the server sends its certificate and state C1, and authenticated encryption of the hash of the message flow. The value C1 will be later used to authenticate negotiation. Key S for authenticated encryption algorithm. Client sends a time synchronization request and includes offloaded server state C2. [Page 828, 3.1 Protocol Description] [Page 830, Fig. 3]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one or ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the apparatus disclosed by Rao to include generate another value using the first key as disclosed by Dowling. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated for the purpose of protect against desynchronization attacks (Dowling [Page 823, Abstract]).
The combination of Rao-Dowling do not explicitly teach but Fan teaches over the communication network via the network interface of the hardware authentication server and to a second time client device (Fan teaches All of the devices in the network can attain the time recorded in the public ledger [Page 1064]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one or ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the apparatus disclosed by the combination of Rao-Dowling to include over the communication network to a second time client device as disclosed by Fan. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated for the purpose of normal nodes may utilize a wrong time to achieve time synchronization due to a lack of ability to verify the correctness of the messages received (Fan [Page 1063]).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Aweya (US 20140064303) discloses Precision Time Protocol is used to exchange time stamps between a time server and a client from which the client can estimate the clock offset and skew.
Kudo (US 20010052071) discloses A time-key certificate is employed when a third party proves that a public encryption key added to the certificate satisfies the decryption condition. The time-key certificate manager issues a time-key certificate and then manages a decryption key.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KEVIN A AYALA whose telephone number is (571)270-3912. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Thursday 8AM-5PM; Friday: Variable EST.
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/KEVIN AYALA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2496