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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 01/07/2026 has been entered.
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim(s) 12-18, 20-28, and 30-31 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tew et al. (U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2011/0228919, hereinafter “Tew”) in view of Erhart et al. (U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0082342, hereinafter “Erhart”).
Claims 12 and 22:
Tew discloses a call processor for processing a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) media call (§ 0162, Lines 12-16; Call processor 40 can be made compatible with VoIP (Voice over IP) telephone systems) between a first entity and a second entity (§ 0160, Lines 7-8; Call processor 40 is an intermediary for all such calls between caller 10 and agent 20), the VoIP media call including separate signaling streams and media streams (§ 0162, Lines 12-16; VoIP media calls have at least one signaling stream and one media stream), and in which the media streams include a stream over which media is transmitted from the first entity to the second entity without passing through the call processor (§ 0017, Lines 4-9; A second “safe” mode, wherein potentially sensitive data sent by the first entity is prevented from reaching the second entity whilst voice communication between the two entities remains unaffected), the call processor embodied in computer hardware (Fig. 3(a), Element 40), the call processor configured to at least:
redirect the VoIP media call via the call processor, the VoIP media call as redirected including respective streams over which the media transmitted from the first entity is received at the call processor, and forwarded from the call processor to the second entity (§ 0160, Lines 7-10; Call processor 40 is an intermediary for all such calls between caller 10 and agent 20 and is arranged such that the agent 20 has no means by which to circumvent the call processor 40 and interact with the caller 10 directly); and
modify the media received at the call processor from the first entity to remove sensitive information before the media is forwarded to the second entity (§ 0017, Lines 4-9; A second “safe” mode, wherein potentially sensitive data sent by the first entity connected via the first, optionally telephone, interface is prevented from reaching the second entity connected via the second, optionally telephone, interface, whilst voice communication between the two entities remains unaffected).
Tew does not appear to disclose the media streams include a Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP) stream.
Erhart discloses a Voice over IP media call (§ 0021, Lines 7-9; System 101 can be networked into a Voice over IP contact center) wherein the format of the media stream includes a Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP) stream (§ 0021, Lines 12-14; The format of the media stream that is received is in the Real-Time Transport Protocol (RTP)).
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify Tew’s media stream to be in the RTP format, as taught by Erhart, in order to take advantage of the RTP standard.
The method of claim 22 is implemented by the system of claim 12 and is therefore rejected with the same rationale.
Claims 13 and 23:
Tew in view of Erhart further discloses wherein the call processor is configured to modify the media to remove DTMF tones comprising the sensitive information before the media is forwarded to the second entity (Tew, § 0175; The DTMF tones may be modified from their original tones or masked with a single frequency tone or a random tone, effectively removing the original DTMF tones comprising the sensitive information).
Claims 14 and 24:
Tew in view of Erhart discloses the call processor as recited in claim 12 and the method as recited in claim 22.
Tew does not appear to disclose wherein the call processor is configured to modify the media to remove spoken sensitive information before the media is forwarded to the second entity.
Erhart discloses wherein the call processor is configured to modify the media to remove spoken sensitive information before the media is forwarded to the second entity (§ 0032, Lines 1-2; Data-processing system 101 analyzes the audio stream in order to omit its private content) (§ 0030, Lines 5-10; Private audio content may be present in the caller speech waveform and/or the agent speech waveform).
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify Tew’s call processor with features of Erhart’s data-processing system in order to support removal of private content in live feeds (Erhart, § 0021, Lines 7-9).
Claims 15 and 25:
Claims 15 and 25 are analyzed (which claim the “second entity to first entity” direction or flow of data) with respect to claims 12 and 22 (which claim the “first entity to second entity” direction or flow of data).
Tew in view of Erhart discloses the limitations “wherein the media streams include a second RTP stream over which media is transmitted from the second entity to the first entity without passing through by the call processor, and the VoIP media call as redirected includes second respective RTP streams over which the media transmitted from the second entity is received at the call processor, and forwarded from the call processor to the first entity, and wherein the call processor is further configured to modify the media received at the call processor from the second entity to remove sensitive information before the media is forwarded to the first entity” because Tew discloses call processor 40 is an intermediary for all such calls between caller 10 and agent 20 (§ 0160, Lines 7-8). Thus, Tew’s “safe” mode would operate similarly for either the first entity or the second entity.
Claims 16 and 26:
Tew in view of Erhart further discloses wherein the call processor is configured to modify the media to remove DTMF tones comprising the sensitive information before the media is forwarded to the first entity (Tew, § 0175; The DTMF tones may be modified from their original tones or masked with a single frequency tone or a random tone, effectively removing the original DTMF tones comprising the sensitive information).
Claims 17 and 27:
Tew in view of Erhart discloses the call processor as recited in claim 12 and the method as recited in claim 22.
Tew does not appear to disclose wherein the call processor is configured to modify the media to remove spoken sensitive information before the media is forwarded to the first entity.
Erhart discloses wherein the call processor is configured to modify the media to remove spoken sensitive information before the media is forwarded to the second entity (§ 0032, Lines 1-2; Data-processing system 101 analyzes the audio stream in order to omit its private content) (§ 0030, Lines 5-10; Private audio content may be present in the caller speech waveform and/or the agent speech waveform).
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify Tew’s call processor with features of Erhart’s data-processing system in order to support removal of private content in live feeds (Erhart, § 0021, Lines 7-9).
Claims 18 and 28:
Tew in view of Erhart further discloses wherein the call processor is further configured to receive a message from the second entity to redirect the VoIP media call (Tew, § 0020, Lines 1-4; The call processor is adapted to switch between first and second modes in response to receiving a mode-switching data signal at the first or at the second telephone interface), the call processor configured to redirect the VoIP media call responsive to the message (Tew, § 0017, Lines 1-9; A telephone call processor can be switched between a first “normal” mode and a second “safe” mode).
Claims 20 and 30:
Tew in view of Erhart further discloses wherein the call processor is further configured to again redirect the VoIP media call after the media is modified to remove the sensitive information, the VoIP media call as again redirected being between the first entity and the second entity without passing through by the call processor (Tew, § 0017, Lines 4-9; A second “safe” mode, wherein potentially sensitive data sent by the first entity connected via the first telephone interface is prevented from reaching the second entity connected to the second telephone interface, whilst voice communication between the two entities remains unaffected).
Claims 21 and 31:
Tew in view of Erhart further discloses wherein the call processor configured to again redirect the VoIP media call includes the call processor configured to recreate the RTP stream (Erhart, § 0021, Lines 12-14; The format of the media stream that is received is in the Real-Time Transport Protocol (RTP)) over which media is transmitted from the first entity to the second entity (Tew, § 0017, Lines 4-9; A second “safe” mode, wherein potentially sensitive data sent by the first entity connected via the first telephone interface is prevented from reaching the second entity connected to the second telephone interface, whilst voice communication between the two entities remains unaffected. The modified RTP stream corresponds to the claimed recreated RTP stream).
Claim(s) 19 and 29 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tew et al. (U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2011/0228919, hereinafter “Tew”) in view of Erhart et al. (U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0082342, hereinafter “Erhart”); further in view of Westlake (U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2017/0026516, hereinafter “Westlake”).
Claims 19 and 29:
Tew in view of Erhart discloses the call processor as recited in claim 12 and the method as recited in claim 22.
Tew in view of Erhart does not appear to disclose wherein the second entity is a contact centre configured to send a message to a secure data collection server to indicate secure data collection is to be initiated on the VoIP media call, and receive a personal identification number from the secure data collection server, and wherein the call processor is configured to redirect the VoIP media call based on the personal identification number.
Westlake discloses wherein the second entity is a contact centre (§ 0043, Line 4; The call center is the second party) configured to send a message to a secure data collection server to indicate secure data collection is to be initiated on the VoIP media call (§ 0054; The signaling data may be modified in response to an external signal received by the signaling processor 3005 for example a signal transmitted by a call center worker to indicate that sensitive information is about to be input), and receive a personal identification number (“Call-ID”) from the secure data collection server (§ 0043, Lines 3-5; Telephone calls are delivered to a call center over an IP-based network using SIP. SIP messages contain a “Call-ID” field in the header that is the same for all requests and responses sent by either user agent in a dialog/session), and wherein the call processor is configured to redirect the VoIP media call based on the personal identification number (See citation above. SIP messages contain a “Call-ID” field in the header that is the same for all requests and responses sent by either user agent in a dialog/session).
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify Tew and Erhart’s call processor with features of Westlake’s system in order to secure transmission of sensitive information during a call between a caller and an agent such that the agent does not receive the sensitive information (Westlake, § 0003).
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 12/19/2025 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive:
Applicant argues on page 8 regarding claim 12 that Tew in view of Erhart does not teach or suggest the VoIP media call with media streams that transmit media without passing through the call processor, and which the call processor is configured to redirect the VoIP media call via the call processor because (1) even if Tew’s call processor is essentially transparent in the first mode, the call is still routed via the call processor and (2) in Tew, an incoming call is initially routed through (i.e., passes through) the call processor when the call is setup and the call processor does not then redirect or reroute the call via the call processor for the “safe” mode as the call was initially routed through the call processor. The examiner disagrees. Regarding (1), the limitation “media is transmitted from the first entity to the second entity without passing through the call processor” may be interpreted in two ways: (a) media is transmitted from the first entity to the second entity without passing through unmodified (similar to Tew’s safe mode) and (b) media is transmitted from the first entity to the second entity directly (Applicant’s interpretation). The examiner is taking interpretation (a) because taking interpretation (b) would not make sense in light of the other limitations of claim 12. Claim 12 first recites “the media streams include a Real-Time Transport Protocol (RTP) stream over which media is transmitted from the first entity to the second entity without passing through the call processor” on lines 3-5 and then recites “the VoIP media call as redirected including respective RTP streams over which the media transmitted from the first entity is received at the call processor, and forwarded from the call processor to the second entity” on lines 7-9. If interpretation (b) is taken, then the two aforementioned limitations contradict each other because the first limitation states that the media transmitted from the first entity to the second entity directly and the second limitation states that media transmitted from the first entity is received at the call processor and then forwarded from the call processor to the second entity. Taking interpretation (a) does not result in said contradiction. Thus, Tew’s “safe” mode, as disclosed in § 0017, ln. 4-9, reads on the limitation “media is transmitted from the first entity to the second entity without passing through the call processor”. Regarding (2), the claimed redirection involves receiving media transmitted from the first entity and then forwarding said media from the call processor to the second entity, which Tew’s call processor performs, as disclosed in § 0160, ln. 7-10. For these reasons, the rejection of claims 12 and 22 under 35 USC 103 is respectfully maintained.
The response to Applicant’s arguments above with respect to claims 12 and 22 apply with equal force to Applicant’s arguments regarding claims 13-21 and 23-31.
Conclusion
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/NAM T TRAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2455