Detailed Action
Claims 1-13 are pending in this application.
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant's claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d).
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 11/28/23 has been considered.
Drawings
The Drawings filed on 11/28/23 are acceptable.
Claim Interpretation
Claim 13 includes 4 if statements/conditions, in particular
13. A method used by a computer that manages second information processing apparatuses, each of which, if authentication with a pair of information for proving that the second information processing apparatus and one of first information processing apparatuses form a pair is successfully completed, is operable in conjunction with the first information processing apparatus, which holds one of the pair of information, and holds another of the pair of the information, the method comprising:
holding proxy relationship information in which proxy relationships between the first information processing apparatuses are set;
sending back, if, after receiving, from a first information processing apparatus that operates as a proxy apparatus in accordance with a proxy authentication request from another first information processing apparatus that operates as a proxy authentication request apparatus, a first authentication request that specifies one of a pair of information held by the proxy apparatus and a second authentication request for authenticating the proxy authentication request apparatus, authentication with the pair of information specified by the first authentication request is successfully completed and the proxy apparatus is servable as a proxy apparatus for the proxy authentication request apparatus according to the proxy relationship information, authentication information for authenticating the proxy authentication request apparatus; and
authenticating, if the authentication information sent back to the proxy apparatus is added to communication data transmitted from the proxy authentication request apparatus, the proxy authentication request apparatus, even if a compromise of the one of the pair of information held by the proxy authentication request apparatus has been detected.
Taken broadest reasonable interpretation of the claim, the word "if," is interpreted as conditional/optional claim language. Language that suggests or makes optional but does not require steps to be performed or does not limit the claim to a particular structure or does not limit the scope of a claim or claim limitation. Accordingly, the Examiner need not cite art for the optional limitations. See Ex parte Katz, 2011 WL 514314, at *4-5 (BPAI Jan. 27, 2011) (citing In re Am. Acad. ofSci. Tech. Ctr., 367 F.3d 1359, 1364 (Fed. Cir. 2004)) (the broadest reasonable interpretation of a conditional step in a method claim includes instances in which the conditional step would not be invoked), 2011 WL 1211248, at *2 (BPAI Mar. 25, 2011) (denying request for rehearing); see also In re Johnston, 435 F.3d 1381, 1384 (Fed. Cir. 2006) (“optional elements do not narrow the claim because they can always be omitted”).
If, under the broadest reasonable interpretation of a method claim, one or more conditional method steps would not be invoked, an examiner need not find the conditional method steps in the prior art to establish the claimed method would have been obvious. See id. at *4—5 (explaining that because “ under the broadest scenario, the steps dependent on the ‘if conditional would not be invoked, the Examiner was not required to find these limitations in the prior art in order to render the claims obvious”); cf. Cybersettle, Inc. v. Natl Arbitration Forum, Inc., 243 Fed. Appx. 603, 607 (Fed. Cir. 2007) (unpublished) (“It is of course true that method steps may be contingent. If the condition for performing a contingent step is not satisfied, the performance recited by the step need not be carried out in order for the claimed method to be performed.”); Applera Corp. v. Illumina, Inc., 375 Fed. Appx. 12, 21 (Fed. Cir. 2010) (unpublished) (affirming a district court’s interpretation of a method claim as including a step that need not be practiced if the condition for practicing the step is not met).
Applicant(s) are reminded that optional or conditional elements do not narrow the claims because they can always be omitted. See e.g. MPEP § 2111.04: "Language that suggests or makes optional but does not require steps to be performed or does not limit a claim to a particular structure does not limit the scope of a claim or claim limitation. "As a matter of linguistic precision, optional elements do not narrow the claim because they can always be omitted." In re Johnston, 435 F.3d 1381, 77 USPQ2d 1788, 1790 (Fed. Cir. 2006) (where the Federal Circuit affirmed the Board's claim construction of "further including that said wall may be smooth, corrugated, or profiled with increased dimensional proportions as pipe size is increased" since "this additional content did not narrow the scope of the claim because these limitations are stated in the permissive form ~may.'").
Therefore the claims is interpreted as,
13. A method used by a computer, the method comprising:
holding proxy relationship information in which proxy relationships between the first information processing apparatuses are set;
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim 13 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1)/(a)(2) as being anticipated by US 2016/0261556 issued to Zheng.
As per claim 13, Zheng teaches method used by a computer, the method comprising: holding proxy relationship information in which proxy relationships between the first information processing apparatuses are set ([0088]..a relationship mapping table is set on the proxy node in the embodiment of the present invention, where the relationship mapping table includes a mapping relationship of an IP address of a virtual AN, a user side port of the virtual AN and a user side port of the remote access node, where the virtual AN is a device which the management system is capable of managing; after receiving the packet sent by the management device, the proxy node queries the relationship mapping table according to the packet content; and then the packet is sent to the corresponding remote access node according to querying result.….)
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-12 are allowed.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. See PTO-892.
US 2019/0245856 issued to Irwan et al., teaches receiving an authentication request from a first computing device; in response to receiving the authentication request from the first computing device, performing one or more authentication services on behalf of a second computing device using identity information that is stored in a first data repository; generating, based on data from an access control list maintained at the second computing device, a list of one or more third computing devices; receiving a request from the first computing device to access a third computing device in the list of one or more third computing devices; generating service identity information for authenticating to the third computing device and storing the service identity information in a second data repository; and performing one or more authentication services on behalf of the first computing device using the service identity information that is stored in the second data repository.
US 2017/0078100 issued to Kusumi et al., teaches etecting unit detects a function, from among functions used for communication with an authentication server that authenticates the identity of a user by verifying a signature of authentication result information that is information created by adding the signature using a predetermined key to an authentication result obtained by an authentication device that performs personal authentication on the user and that is information processed by a specific authentication procedure, that is not held by a terminal device that is used by the user. The providing unit provides the function detected by the detecting unit to the terminal device that is used by the user.
US 2020/0403993 issued to Alexander et al., teaches an identity server authenticates a first user identity for a user device through a first authentication exchange as part of a passwordless authentication system. The identity server registers with a relying party as an authenticator for a second user identity. The identity server initiates a second authentication exchange by obtaining from the relying party, a credential request associated with the second user identity. Responsive to a determination that the first user identity authenticated in the first authentication exchange is authorized to act as the second user identity, the identity server obtains a credential request response authenticated by the authenticator in the identity server. The identity server completes the second authentication exchange by providing the credential response to the relying party. The second authentication exchange authenticates the user device to the relying party without involving the user device.
US 2014/0115322 issued to Xu et al., teaches proxy transformation between a user and a server includes: selecting a first proxy relationship between a target user and a first user from a proxy relationship library; selecting a random value, and generating a second proxy relationship according to the random value and the first proxy relationship; and encrypting original information according to the public key of the first user and the random value to obtain the encrypted information, and transmitting the encrypted information and the second proxy relationship to the server, so that the server performs proxy transformation on the encrypted information according to the second proxy relationship to obtain the transformed information. The method for performing proxy transformation thoroughly solves the security hazard that the server performs proxy transformation without user permission. The present invention further discloses a user terminal and a system for performing proxy transformation.
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/BACKHEAN TIV/
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2459
Prosecution Insights