DETAILED ACTION
This Office Action is in response to application 17/539,178 filed on December 13, 2023.
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 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.
Claims 1-20 are pending and herein considered.
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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 12/13/2023. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 (a)-(d). The certified copy has been filed in parent Application No JP2021-131702 filed on 08/12/2021 and JP2021-104977 filed6/24/2021.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 1-5,7-10 and 12-19 are rejected under 35 USC § 101 as being directed to non-statutory subject matter.
Regarding claim 1; claim 1 call for a device; however, the body of the claim does not positively recite any hardware element. “a processor”.. Regarding the claim a processor, one of ordinary skill in the art would understand that a “processor” could be a software processor (See “The Authoritative Dictionary of IEEE Standards Terms,” Seventh Edition, published in 2000). Because the elements of claim 1 are interpreted as merely software and the claim lacks any physical device or machine, the claim is directed to non-statutory subject matter. It is suggested that the claim be further amended to positively recite at least one hardware element within the body of the claim to make the claim statutory under 35 U.S.C. 101.
Regarding claims 2-5; claims 2-5 do not recite any hardware element to resolve the issue in the independent claim 1. Therefore, claims 2-12 are also non-statutory under 35 U.S.C. 101.
Regarding claim 7; claim 7 calls for a device; however, the body of the claim does not positively recite any hardware element. “a processor”.. Regarding the claim a processor, one of ordinary skill in the art would understand that a “processor” could be a software processor (See “The Authoritative Dictionary of IEEE Standards Terms,” Seventh Edition, published in 2000). Because the elements of claim 1 are interpreted as merely software and the claim lacks any physical device or machine, the claim is directed to non-statutory subject matter. It is suggested that the claim be further amended to positively recite at least one hardware element within the body of the claim to make the claim statutory under 35 U.S.C. 101.
Regarding claims 8-10; claims 8-10 do not recite any hardware element to resolve the issue in the independent claim 1. Therefore, claims 8-10 are also non-statutory under 35 U.S.C. 101.
Regarding claim 12; claim12 calls for an apparatus; however, the body of the claim does not positively recite any hardware element. “a processor”.. Regarding the claim a processor, one of ordinary skill in the art would understand that a “processor” could be a software processor (See “The Authoritative Dictionary of IEEE Standards Terms,” Seventh Edition, published in 2000). Because the elements of claim 1 are interpreted as merely software and the claim lacks any physical device or machine, the claim is directed to non-statutory subject matter. It is suggested that the claim be further amended to positively recite at least one hardware element within the body of the claim to make the claim statutory under 35 U.S.C. 101.
Regarding claims 13-19; claims 13-19 do not recite any hardware element to resolve the issue in the independent claim 1. Therefore, claims 8-10 are also non-statutory under 35 U.S.C. 101.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 6, 11 and 20 are allowed.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: In interpreting the currently amended claims, in light of the specification as well arguments presented in the responses to the Office actions, the Examiner finds the claimed invention to be patentably distinct from the prior art of record.
U.S pub 2019/0363871 to Cheon-Cheon teaches an encryption method is provided. According to the encryption method, a scaling factor may be reflected in a message and then, a homomorphic ciphertext may be generated using a public key. The generated ciphertext is, when decryption is performed, generated in a form that a result value obtained by adding an error value to a value obtained by reflecting the scaling factor in the message is restored. Accordingly, a homomorphic ciphertext capable of being computed in a ciphertext state can be effectively generated.
What is missing from the prior art is a teaching, motivation, or suggestion and combine the prior art in such a way as to render obvious act of performing a homomorphic operation related to a predetermined operation for three or more of the ciphertexts for which an error range is set to make a range of an error added to a plaintext after the homomorphic operation fall within a predetermined value, and calculating a new ciphertext by applying a predetermined polynomial to a ciphertext that is a result of the homomorphic operation, wherein the calculation includes factorizing each of a plurality of the polynomials into a common polynomial common to the polynomials and an uncommon polynomial not common to the polynomials, and calculating a plurality of the new ciphertexts by using a plurality of ciphertexts calculated by applying the common polynomial to the result of homomorphic operation, and using the uncommon polynomial.
Thus, the prior art, when taken individually or in combination, does not fairly teach or suggest the limitations as a whole set forth in claim 7 and this claim is considered allowable. The dependent claims which further limit claim 1 are also allowed by virtue of their dependency.
Any comments considered necessary by applicant must be submitted no later than the payment of the issue fee and, to avoid processing delays, should preferably accompany the issue fee. Such submissions should be clearly labeled “Comments on Statement of Reasons for Allowance.”
Conclusion
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/VU V TRAN/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2491
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