DETAILED ACTION
1. This action is responsive to communication filed on 30 March 2026, with acknowledgement of an original application filed on 22 November 2023.
2. Claims 1-20 are currently pending. Claims 1, 14, and 19 are in independent forms. Claims 1-20 has been amended.
Drawings
3. The drawings filed on 11/22/2023 are accepted by the examiner.
Response to Arguments
4. Applicant’s arguments, filed 30 march 2026 with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 1-20 under 35 U.S.C. § 103 have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made as shown below.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
5. 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.
6. Claims 1-5, 7, and 10-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Suumaki US Patent Application Publication No. 2013/0036231 (hereinafter Suumaki) in view of Martini US Patent No. 8,893,255 (hereinafter Martini).
Regarding claim 1, Suumaki discloses a computer implemented method comprising:
“receiving a proxy request from a first device at a second device having a network connection to a setup device” (see Suumaki par. 0147, when an Enrollee (first device) is initialized, it looks for Beacons from Aps (second device) and sends probe requests with the WSC information element (IE), into either selected networks or into each network sequentially. It may also send probe requests to each IEEE 802.11 channel with the WSC IE included. It looks for the WSC IE in probe-responses that it receives and can engage with one or more Registrars (setup device) to further discover Registrar capabilities and to see if the user has selected a Registrar);
“forwarding the setup information to the first device” (see Suumaki par. 0019, receiving, by the first device, from the second device, the authentication information via the wireless out-of-band short-range carrier, for forwarding to the at least one of the access point device or the group owner device);
Suumaki does not explicitly discloses forwarding setup requests from the first device to the setup device using an address of the second device acting as a proxy for the first device; receiving a setup communication from the setup device that includes setup information for the first device.
However, in analogues art, Martini discloses forwarding setup requests from the first device to the setup device using an address of the second device acting as a proxy for the first device (see Martini col. 6, lines 1-22, the proxy server 140 is configured to receive network requests from the one or more devices 130a-c. In such a configuration, the proxy server 140 may inspect a received request to determine the address to which the request was sent and to determine the device that sent the request. The proxy server 140 may then consult the authentication system 170 (discussed below) to determine whether the proxy address to which the request was sent matches the proxy address assigned to the device. The proxy server 140 may then receive a response from the authentication system 170 indicating the proxy address associated with the device, and compare this proxy address with the proxy address to which the request was sent. If the proxy address matches the address configured for the particular device, the proxy server 140 may allow the request, such as by forwarding it to the appropriate network resource); receiving a setup communication from the setup device that includes setup information for the first device (see Martini col. 7, lines 29-43, At 205, the MDM 120 pushes proxy settings to the user device 130a. In some implementations, the proxy settings include information allowing the user device 130a to communicate with the proxy server such as, for example, a list of authentication mechanisms supported by the proxy server, and/or any other suitable settings information. The proxy settings may also include a device-specific proxy address associated with the user device 130a. In some implementations, the proxy settings are pushed to the user device 130a by the MDM 120 when an administrator updates a profile associated with the user device 130a, or assigns a new profile to the user device 130a. The proxy settings may also be pushed to the user device 130a by the MDM 120 according to a schedule, and/or when the user device 130a first appears on the network).
Therefore it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to Incorporate the teachings of Martini into the system of Suumaki to receive, over a network, a request to access a network resource, the request being received at the particular proxy network address; authenticating the device based on the particular proxy network address (see Martini col. 1, lines 26-29).
Regarding claim 2, Suumaki in view of Martini discloses the method of claim 1,
Suumaki further discloses wherein the proxy request is received wirelessly (see Suumaki par. 0149, the Enrollee sends its Discovery data in a probe request to a Wi-Fi Protected Setup AP or ad hoc wireless Registrar. The AP or wireless Registrar responds with its own Discovery data in the probe response).
Regarding claim 3, Suumaki in view of Martini discloses the method of claim 1,
Suumaki further discloses wherein the second device is wirelessly coupled to the setup device (see Suumaki par. 0019, receiving, by the first device, from the second device, the authentication information via the wireless out-of-band short-range carrier, for forwarding to the at least one of the access point device or the group owner device).
Regarding claim 4, Suumaki in view of Martini discloses the method of claim 1,
Suumaki further discloses wherein the setup information comprises credentials for setting up a wireless connection between the first device and a network (see Suumaki par. 0156, The Wi-Fi Simple Configuration EAP method (EAP-WSC) can be used for Registrar and Enrollee discovery and for Credential establishment).
Regarding claim 5, Suumaki in view of Martini discloses the method of claim 1,
Suumaki further discloses wherein the setup information includes log in credentials, protocol information, and a public key (see Suumaki par. 0162, The Registration Protocol Messages M1 to M8 are described in the Wi-Fi Simple Configuration Specification, Version 2.0. They include an exchange of public keys, description of the sending device, including its MAC address and device capabilities, and various message authentication values, culminating in the Registrar sending to the Enrollee credentials for accessing the network).
Regarding claim 7, Suumaki in view of Martini discloses the method of claim 1,
Martini further discloses wherein the second device is configured to broadcast information confirming the second device is handling the proxy request or if unable to connect to the setup device, provide an indication back to the first device that the second device is not handling the proxy request (see Martini col. 2, lines 40-46, When a device attempts to access a network resource via the proxy server, the proxy server determines whether the proxy server address to which the request was sent matches the proxy server address assigned to the particular device. If the proxy server address of the request matches the device's assigned proxy server address, the proxy server authenticates the device).
Therefore it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to Incorporate the teachings of Martini into the system of Suumaki to receive, over a network, a request to access a network resource, the request being received at the particular proxy network address; authenticating the device based on the particular proxy network address (see Martini col. 1, lines 26-29).
Regarding claim 10, Suumaki in view of Martini discloses the method of claim 1,
Martini further discloses wherein the setup information comprises networking protocol data and a setup device address (see Martini col. 2, lines295-39, a policy may be created by an administrator to configure the proxy settings for a set of devices that will be accessing a proxy server. Based on the policy, the proxy server may assign a unique proxy server address for each unique device. The unique proxy server address, which can be assigned randomly or by other mechanisms, enables the associated device to be uniquely identified, for example, by its serial number or MAC address. In some implementations, the proxy server address may include an Internet Protocol (IP) address, an IP version 6 (IPv6) address, a port number, and/or other types of addresses).
Therefore it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to Incorporate the teachings of Martini into the system of Suumaki to receive, over a network, a request to access a network resource, the request being received at the particular proxy network address; authenticating the device based on the particular proxy network address (see Martini col. 1, lines 26-29).
Regarding claim 11, Suumaki in view of Martini discloses the method of claim 1,
Suumaki further discloses and further comprising validating the setup communication prior to forwarding the setup information (see Suumaki par. 0160, When the Enrollee decides to connect to the network and run the Wi-Fi Simple Configuration EAP method, it associates with the AP and sends an EAPoL-Start message. The AP responds with an EAP-Request/Identity. The Enrollee sends an EAP-Response/Identity containing the defined Wi-Fi Alliance name for a Simple Configuration Enrollee ("WFA-SimpleConfig-Enrollee-1-0"). This causes the AP to start running the Simple Configuration EAP method. The Registration Protocol messages are exchanged until M8 is received and validated by the Enrollee).
Regarding claim 12, Suumaki in view of Martini discloses the method of claim 1,
Martini further discloses wherein the second device validates an address associated with the setup communication received from the setup device prior to forwarding the setup information to the first device (see Martini col. 6, lines 14-22, the proxy server 140 may then receive a response from the authentication system 170 indicating the proxy address associated with the device, and compare this proxy address with the proxy address to which the request was sent. If the proxy address matches the address configured for the particular device, the proxy server 140 may allow the request, such as by forwarding it to the appropriate network resource. If the proxy address does not match, the proxy server 140 may reject the request).
Therefore it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to Incorporate the teachings of Martini into the system of Suumaki to receive, over a network, a request to access a network resource, the request being received at the particular proxy network address; authenticating the device based on the particular proxy network address (see Martini col. 1, lines 26-29).
Regarding claim 13, Suumaki in view of Martini discloses the method of claim 1,
Suumaki further discloses wherein the proxy request includes information identifying the proxy request as a proxy request for a connection (see Suumaki pars. 0143-0144, The Protected Setup system uses this information to send data to a computer connected to the access point, to complete the network setup. Wi-Fi Protected Setup defines new IEEE 802.11 information elements (IE) that are included in beacons, probe requests and probe responses. The purpose of these IEs is to advertise the presence of devices that are capable of performing Wi-Fi Protected Setup operations).
Regarding claim 14, Suumaki discloses a computer implemented method comprising:
“receiving the setup information from the second device” (see Suumaki par. 0016, receiving, by the first device, from the at least one of the access point device or the group owner device, a value based on one of a random number, device password, public key encryption, Diffie-Hellman key exchange, or Advanced Encryption Standard symmetric key exchange as the authentication information, via an in-band communication connection;); and
“connecting to a network and host device based on the setup information” (see Suumaki par. 0149-0152, the Enrollee sends (forwards) its Discovery data in a probe request to a Wi-Fi Protected Setup AP or ad hoc wireless Registrar. The AP or wireless Registrar responds with its own Discovery data in the probe response. The user may be prompted to enter the Enrollee's device password into the AP/Registrar using a keypad interface or an out-of-band channel);
“generating a proxy request at a first device, the proxy request identifying the first device and including information identifying the proxy request as a proxy request for a second device to request setup information corresponding to a host device (see Suumaki par. 0147, 0158, when an Enrollee (first device) is initialized, it looks for Beacons from Aps (second device) and sends probe requests with the WSC information element (IE), into either selected networks or into each network sequentially. It may also send probe requests to each IEEE 802.11 channel with the WSC IE included. It looks for the WSC IE in probe-responses that it receives and can engage with one or more Registrars (host device) to further discover Registrar capabilities and to see if the user has selected a Registrar, the AP generates EAP Request messages and Enrollees and Registrars generate EAP Responses); but Suumaki does not explicitly discloses using an address of the second device acting as a proxy for the first device; broadcasting the proxy request.
However, in analogues art, Martini discloses using an address of the second device acting as a proxy for the first device (see Martini col. 6, lines 1-22, the proxy server 140 is configured to receive network requests from the one or more devices 130a-c. In such a configuration, the proxy server 140 may inspect a received request to determine the address to which the request was sent and to determine the device that sent the request. The proxy server 140 may then consult the authentication system 170 (discussed below) to determine whether the proxy address to which the request was sent matches the proxy address assigned to the device. The proxy server 140 may then receive a response from the authentication system 170 indicating the proxy address associated with the device, and compare this proxy address with the proxy address to which the request was sent. If the proxy address matches the address configured for the particular device, the proxy server 140 may allow the request, such as by forwarding it to the appropriate network resource); broadcasting the proxy request (see Martini col. 3, lines 35-47, The provided proxy settings may include a device-specific proxy address associated with each device 130a-c. The devices 130a-c, in turn, may send requests to the proxy server 140 using their assigned proxy addresses. The proxy server 140 may verify that a request received on a certain proxy address is from the device assigned to that proxy address. If the proxy address matches, the proxy server 140 may allow the received request (e.g., by passing it on to the appropriate network resource).
Therefore it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to Incorporate the teachings of Martini into the system of Suumaki to receive, over a network, a request to access a network resource, the request being received at the particular proxy network address; authenticating the device based on the particular proxy network address (see Martini col. 1, lines 26-29).
Regarding claim 15, Suumaki in view of Martini discloses the method of claim 14,
Martini further discloses wherein the setup information comprises networking protocol data and a host device address (see Martini col. 2, lines295-39, a policy may be created by an administrator to configure the proxy settings for a set of devices that will be accessing a proxy server. Based on the policy, the proxy server may assign a unique proxy server address for each unique device. The unique proxy server address, which can be assigned randomly or by other mechanisms, enables the associated device to be uniquely identified, for example, by its serial number or MAC address. In some implementations, the proxy server address may include an Internet Protocol (IP) address, an IP version 6 (IPv6) address, a port number, and/or other types of addresses).
Therefore it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to Incorporate the teachings of Martini into the system of Suumaki to receive, over a network, a request to access a network resource, the request being received at the particular proxy network address; authenticating the device based on the particular proxy network address (see Martini col. 1, lines 26-29).
Regarding claim 16, Suumaki in view of Martini discloses the method of claim 14,
Suumaki further discloses wherein the proxy request is broadcast wirelessly (see Suumaki par. 0149, the Enrollee sends its Discovery data in a probe request to a Wi-Fi Protected Setup AP or ad hoc wireless Registrar. The AP or wireless Registrar responds with its own Discovery data in the probe response).
Regarding claim 17, Suumaki in view of Martini discloses the method of claim 14
Suumaki further discloses wherein the setup information comprises credentials for setting up a wireless connection between the first device and the host device (see Suumaki par. 0156, The Wi-Fi Simple Configuration EAP method (EAP-WSC) can be used for Registrar and Enrollee discovery and for Credential establishment).
Regarding claim 18, Suumaki in view of Martini discloses the method of claim 14
Suumaki further discloses wherein the proxy request is a broadcast proxy request that includes log in credentials and a public key (see Suumaki par. 0162, The Registration Protocol Messages M1 to M8 are described in the Wi-Fi Simple Configuration Specification, Version 2.0. They include an exchange of public keys, description of the sending device, including its MAC address and device capabilities, and various message authentication values, culminating in the Registrar sending to the Enrollee credentials for accessing the network).
Regarding claim 19, Suumaki discloses a device comprising:
“a processor” (Fig. 2, Processor 20); and
a memory device (Fig. 2, RAM, ROM) coupled to the processor and having a program stored thereon for execution by the processor to perform operations comprising:
“receiving a proxy request from a first device at a second device having a network connection to a setup host, the proxy request including an address of the first device” (see Suumaki par. 0147, when an Enrollee (first device) is initialized, it looks for Beacons from Aps (second device) and sends probe requests with the WSC information element (IE), into either selected networks or into each network sequentially. It may also send probe requests to each IEEE 802.11 channel with the WSC IE included. It looks for the WSC IE in probe-responses that it receives and can engage with one or more Registrars (setup device) to further discover Registrar capabilities and to see if the user has selected a Registrar.);
“forwarding the setup information to the first device” (see Suumaki par. 0019, receiving, by the first device, from the second device, the authentication information via the wireless out-of-band short-range carrier, for forwarding to the at least one of the access point device or the group owner device);
Suumaki does not explicitly discloses forwarding a setup request to the setup device using an address of the second device acting as a proxy for the first device; receiving a setup communication from the setup device that includes setup information for the first device.
However, in analogues art, Martini discloses forwarding setup requests from the first device to the setup device using an address of the second device acting as a proxy for the first device (see Martini col. 6, lines 1-22, the proxy server 140 is configured to receive network requests from the one or more devices 130a-c. In such a configuration, the proxy server 140 may inspect a received request to determine the address to which the request was sent and to determine the device that sent the request. The proxy server 140 may then consult the authentication system 170 (discussed below) to determine whether the proxy address to which the request was sent matches the proxy address assigned to the device. The proxy server 140 may then receive a response from the authentication system 170 indicating the proxy address associated with the device, and compare this proxy address with the proxy address to which the request was sent. If the proxy address matches the address configured for the particular device, the proxy server 140 may allow the request, such as by forwarding it to the appropriate network resource); receiving a setup communication from the setup device that includes setup information for the first device (see Martini col. 7, lines 29-43, At 205, the MDM 120 pushes proxy settings to the user device 130a. In some implementations, the proxy settings include information allowing the user device 130a to communicate with the proxy server such as, for example, a list of authentication mechanisms supported by the proxy server, and/or any other suitable settings information. The proxy settings may also include a device-specific proxy address associated with the user device 130a. In some implementations, the proxy settings are pushed to the user device 130a by the MDM 120 when an administrator updates a profile associated with the user device 130a, or assigns a new profile to the user device 130a. The proxy settings may also be pushed to the user device 130a by the MDM 120 according to a schedule, and/or when the user device 130a first appears on the network).
Therefore it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to Incorporate the teachings of Martini into the system of Suumaki to receive, over a network, a request to access a network resource, the request being received at the particular proxy network address; authenticating the device based on the particular proxy network address (see Martini col. 1, lines 26-29).
Regarding claim 20, Suumaki in view of Martini discloses the device of claim 19,
Martini further discloses wherein the setup information comprises credentials for setting up a wireless connection between the first device and the setup device (see Martini col. 9, lines 3-12, At 310, a request is received to access a network resource, the request being received at the particular proxy network address. At 315, the device is authenticated based on the particular proxy network address. At 320, after authenticating the device, a user of the device is authenticated based on user-specific credentials associated with the user. In some cases, authenticating the user occurs via a secure method, such as, for example, HTTPS, SSL, TLS, and/or other methods), wherein the proxy request is a broadcast proxy request, and wherein the operations further comprise broadcasting information confirming the second device is handling the proxy request (see Martini col. 2, lines 40-46, When a device attempts to access a network resource via the proxy server, the proxy server determines whether the proxy server address to which the request was sent matches the proxy server address assigned to the particular device. If the proxy server address of the request matches the device's assigned proxy server address, the proxy server authenticates the device).
Therefore it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to Incorporate the teachings of Martini into the system of Suumaki to receive, over a network, a request to access a network resource, the request being received at the particular proxy network address; authenticating the device based on the particular proxy network address (see Martini col. 1, lines 26-29).
7. Claim 6 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Suumaki US Patent Application Publication No. 2013/0036231 (hereinafter Suumaki) in view of Martini US Patent No. 8,893,255 (hereinafter Martini) in further view of Ly et al. US Patent Application Publication No. 2013/0091273 (hereinafter Ly).
Regarding claim 6, Suumaki in view of Martini discloses the method of claim 1,
Suumaki in view of Martini does not explicitly discloses wherein the second device comprises a network address translation proxy.
However, in analogues art, Ly discloses wherein the second device comprises a network address translation proxy (see Ly Fig. 16, NAT A 1615 pars. 0147-0149, Modified SYN message 1634 is intercepted or redirected to NAT device A 1615. NAT device A 1615 modifies the source address of this message to a public network address and/or network port (CL.PUB) assigned to the client 1605 by the NAT device A 1615).
Therefore it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to Incorporate the teachings of Ly into the system of Suumaki and Martini to provide networked systems including proxy devices and network address translation (NAT) devices interposed in a network path between a client and a server (see Ly par. 0140).
8. Claims 8 and 9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Suumaki US Patent Application Publication No. 2013/0036231 (hereinafter Suumaki) in view of Martini US Patent No. 8,893,255 (hereinafter Martini) in further view of Yan et al. US Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0064008 (hereinafter Yan).
Regarding claim 8, Suumaki in view of Wei discloses the method of claim 1
Suumaki in view of Wei does not explicitly discloses wherein the proxy request includes a peer-to-peer address of the first device.
However, in analogues art, Yan discloses wherein the proxy request includes a peer-to-peer address of the first device (see Yan par. 0029, the proxy service peers are adapted to respond to the request of the requesting peer, query the local overlay network or global overlay network, and return the address information of the requested peer or the selected requested proxy service peer to the requesting peer).
Therefore it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to Incorporate the teachings of Yan into the system of Suumaki and Martini for setting up, by the requesting peer, communication according to the address information of the requested peer returned by the requested proxy service peer (see Yan par. 0021).
Regarding claim 9, Suumaki in view of Wei in further view of Yan discloses the method of claim 8
Yan further discloses wherein the setup information enables the first device to obtain a public internet protocol (IP) address (see Yan par. 0051, the proxy service peer list in the local overlay network provides address information (which may be IP address information) of all proxy service peers, and the requesting peer may send a query request such as a Distributed Hash Table (DHT) query request to obtain the address information of each proxy service peer in the list).
Therefore it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to Incorporate the teachings of Yan into the system of Suumaki and Wei for setting up, by the requesting peer, communication according to the address information of the requested peer returned by the requested proxy service peer (see Yan par. 0021).
Conclusion
9. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Flynn et al. (US 2016/0262205 A1): discloses A host device may include a wireless interface for communications, a memory, and a processor coupled to the memory and to the wireless interface. The host device may receive, via the wireless interface, an advertisement message from a client device. The advertisement message may include an identifier associated with the client device and a request for communication of data from a cloud-based service. Responsive to the advertisement, the host may send the identifier to the cloud-based service. The host may receive from the cloud-based service, a proxy indication of available data associated with the client. Responsive to receiving the proxy indication of available data, the host may provide, via the wireless interface, a connection request including a client indication of the available data from the cloud-based service to the client. After receiving the available data from the cloud-based service, the host device may send the available data to the client.
Swift et al. (US 2006/0225132 A1): discloses A method of controlling access to network services enables an authorized proxy client to access a service on behalf of a user. To permit the client to function as a proxy, the user registers proxy authorization information with a trusted security server. The proxy authorization information identifies the proxy client and specifies the extent of proxy authority granted to the proxy client. When the proxy client wants to access a target service on behalf of the user, it sends a proxy request to the trusted security server. The trusted security server checks the proxy authorization information of the user to verify whether the request is within the proxy authority granted to the proxy client. If so, the trusted security server returns to the proxy client a data structure containing information recognizable by the target service to authenticate the proxy client for accessing the target service on behalf of the user.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SAMUEL AMBAYE whose telephone number is (571)270-7635. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:00 AM - 6:00 PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Jeffrey Pwu can be reached at (571) 272-6798. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JEFFREY C PWU/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2433
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