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 .
Status of Claims
This Office action is in response to correspondence received January 13, 2026.
Claims 1, 6, and 11 have been amended. Claims 1-15 are pending and have been examined.
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 January 13, 2026 has been entered.
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claim(s) 1, 4-6, 9-11, 14, and 15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Boelter et al., US PGPUB 20140087656 A1 (“Boelter”) in view of Wengrovitz, US PGPUB 20110165859 A1 (“Wengrovitz”), further in view of Yang, US 20180288037 A1 ("Yang").
Per claims 1, 6, and 11, which are similar in scope, Boelter teaches An electronic identification card, comprising: an e-paper display in par 28: “Assume for purposes of discussion that the end user seeks to create an e-paper document that provides for the display of various types of identification information. For purposes of example, assume that these different identification documents include a driver's license, vehicle registration document, proof of insurance document, among potentially others.”
Boelter then teaches a security chip in par 20: “For credit cards (even driver's licenses) and other access mechanisms including a magnetic strip or other type of stored electronic information and/or an embedded communication mechanism such as a near field communication (NFC) device, embodiments may lock these components as well to prevent their use unless the object is in an unlocked state.”
Boelter then teaches and a processing circuit, electrically connected to the e-paper display and the security chip, in par 17: “As shown in FIG. 1, an e-paper document 10 is present. In general, e-paper 10 (also referred to as a "document") is a piece of paper or other flexible material that includes a battery or other power supply, an input mechanism such as a capacitive or resistive touch mechanism, and a small amount of compute capacity such that it is a self-contained device that can display content loaded to it, and accept user input to lock and unlock the device.”
See also par 020: “For credit cards (even driver's licenses) and other access mechanisms including a magnetic strip or other type of stored electronic information and/or an embedded communication mechanism such as a near field communication (NFC) device, embodiments may lock these components as well to prevent their use unless the object is in an unlocked state.”
See also par 022: “After a user input on this icon, a keypad 35 is rendered to enable a user to input an authentication code, e.g., corresponding to an unlock code when an appropriate code is entered, an unobscured image 36 may be rendered, which includes the credit card information, and also enables any magnetic strip and/or embedded NFC device.”
Boelter then teaches and configured to receive a modification request from an electronic device in par 32: “For purposes of illustration, FIG. 4B shows a method 160 which can be performed within a personal computer of an end user when the end user is seeking to configure the electronic display with images. In some embodiments, method 160 may be implemented at least in part using a software application executing on one or more processors of the computer system, which may be downloaded via the Internet or otherwise obtained and stored in a memory or other storage of the computer system. In general, the method enables the user to select images for display, configure various parameters of the electronic display and download the configured image data and configuration information to the electronic display. Method 160 may begin by generating a first graphical user interface (GUI) display to request a digitized image from an end user (block 165).”
Boelter then teaches wherein the identity information comprises a plurality of items in par 29: ‘As such, the user may load these files into the non-volatile storage. As one example, this loading can be performed using the user's personal computer as connected to the e-paper, e.g., via a wired or wireless connection. Next, the user may be allowed to configure the operational parameters for the e-paper document (block 130). For example, via a graphical user interface (GUI) present on the user's computer, various parameters of the e-paper document such as the location at which to display an image, the type of authentication code required, the length of display time, the number of users that are allowed to unlock the image or so forth, can be set.”
See also par 032: “For purposes of illustration, FIG. 4B shows a method 160 which can be performed within a personal computer of an end user when the end user is seeking to configure the electronic display with images. In some embodiments, method 160 may be implemented at least in part using a software application executing on one or more processors of the computer system, which may be downloaded via the Internet or otherwise obtained and stored in a memory or other storage of the computer system. In general, the method enables the user to select images for display, configure various parameters of the electronic display and download the configured image data and configuration information to the electronic display. Method 160 may begin by generating a first graphical user interface (GUI) display to request a digitized image from an end user (block 165).”
Boelter then teaches wherein the processing circuit is configured to receive edited information comprising at least one selected item from the electronic device, determine at least one item to be displayed among the items according to the edited information, in pars 032-033: “Method 160 may begin by generating a first graphical user interface (GUI) display to request a digitized image from an end user (block 165).
Control next passes to block 170 where an image file may be received responsive to this request. For example, the end user may scan in a document, e.g., via a scanner or other digitizer coupled to the computer, to thus enable receipt of the image file responsive to the request (block 170)”
Boelter does not teach if the authentication process is passed, the security chip is configured to transmit identity information to the electronic device.
Wengrovitz teaches an interactive ID server that is in communication with an NFC tag. See abstract.
Wengrovitz teaches if the authentication process is passed, the security chip is configured to transmit identity information to the electronic device in par 034: “The NFC reader 60 then provides the tag ID, along with the reader ID of the NFC reader 60 to not only the legacy student ID server 20 via the LAN 50, but also the ISID server 100. The legacy student ID server 20 performs traditional one-way legacy services, as described above, whereas the ISID server 100 causes dynamic content to be delivered to the mobile device 130, thereby allowing the student to interact with the ISID system 10 via two-way data operations.” See also Fig 5A.
It would have been obvious to one ordinarily skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the electronic ID teaching of Boelter with the security chip teaching of Wengrovitz because Wengrovitz, like Boelter, teaches using a portable device as an ID and moreover teaches a way for information to be delivered to the user see par 005, not only the NFC going out from user to system. Therefore one would be motivated to modify because this would enable useful information to come in through the NFC reading where the ID is interacting, which would allow the device to be more up to date, and have more relevant information. For these reasons one would be motivated to modify Boelter with Wengrovitz.
Boelter does not teach generate a barcode according to the at least one item to be displayed, and control the e-paper display to display the barcode.
Yang teaches an e-paper device for identification, see abstract.
Yang teaches generate a barcode according to the at least one item to be displayed, and control the e-paper display to display the barcode in par 58 “in response to detection of a user operation for requesting to display the barcode, combining, by the portable electronic device, the at least two data files to obtain the barcode and displaying, by the portable electronic device, the barcode on a display thereof. It would have been obvious to one ordinarily skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the e-ink identification card teaching of Boelter with the barcode teaching of Yang because Yang teaches in pars 002 and 005 that it may be necessary to authenticate the ID card and a barcode is a common understood way of encoding a set of digits that could be used for that purpose. As one would want more security with an ID card, one would be motivated to modify Boelter with Yan so that an authentication code such as a barcode was generated and displayed.
Per claims 4, 9, and 14, which are similar in scope, Boelter, Wengrovitz, and Yang teach the limitations of claims 1, 6, and 11, above . Boelter further teaches name, address, identification number, or date of birth in Figure 2.
Per claims 5, 10, and 15, which are similar in scope, Boelter, Wengrovitz, and Yang teach the limitations of claims 1, 6, and 11, above . Boelter further teaches the security chip comprises a near field communication circuit in par 20: “For credit cards (even driver's licenses) and other access mechanisms including a magnetic strip or other type of stored electronic information and/or an embedded communication mechanism such as a near field communication (NFC) device, embodiments may lock these components as well to prevent their use unless the object is in an unlocked state.”
Claim(s) 2, 7, and 12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Boelter et al., US PGPUB 20140087656 A1 (“Boelter”), in view of Wengrovitz, US PGPUB 20110165859 A1 (“Wengrovitz”), further in view of Yang, US 20180288037 A1 ("Yang"), further in view of Rosati, US PGPUB 20140181955 A1 (“Rosati”).
Per claims 2, 7, and 12, which are similar in scope, Boelter, Wengrovitz, and Yang teach the limitations of claims 1, 6, and 11, above . Yang does not teach wherein the authentication process comprises: transmitting, by the security chip, a certificate request message to the electronic device
transmitting, by the electronic device, a certificate to the security chip
and determining, by the security chip, if the certificate is correct, determining that the authentication process is passed if yes, and otherwise determining that the authentication process is not passed.
Rosati teaches NFC which provides a dynamic credential to log into a network. See abstract.
Rosati teaches wherein the authentication process comprises: transmitting, by the security chip, a certificate request message to the electronic device in par 021: “Reference is now made to FIG. 1, which shows a mobile device 110 having NFC capabilities, as is described in detail below. The mobile device may establish radio communications with other NFC readers or NFC tags. Examples of NFC readers are shown as computing device 120, access control NFC reader 131 and mobile device 140 in the embodiment of FIG. 1.” Then see par 033: “In at least one embodiment, the signal includes a challenge, such as a random number. For example, the reader may use a protocol such as that specified by the U.S. Department of Commerce, Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS), "ENTITY AUTHENTICATION USING PUBLIC KEY CRYPTOGRAPHY", Publication 196, Feb. 18, 1997, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.” Then see par 035: “Using authentication as provided in the FIPS publication 196, in order to successfully respond to the challenge, the NFC device authenticates itself by proving ownership of a public/private key pair certified by a trusted authority. In other embodiments, the verification may use a shared secret or key. The shared key or private key of the public/private key pair is stored in the secure element of the NFC circuit, and the key may not be read by regular applications on the mobile device. Moreover, the public key is certified by a trusted certificate authority in one embodiment, where the public key is digitally signed by the certificate authority to form a "certificate".”
Then, Rosati teaches transmitting, by the electronic device, a certificate to the security chip in pars 036-037: “In at least one embodiment, the NFC reader may continually or periodically send out this challenge, until it is responded to by an NFC device. In other embodiments the reader may recognize when an NFC device or tag is brought into proximity of the reader prior to sending out the challenge.
In at least one embodiment, the challenge consists of a random number generated by the NFC reader. In at least one embodiment, the challenge further includes an application identifier, for identifying at least one application for the NFC reader (terminal). The application identifier may originate at the terminal and be propagated through the NFC reader in one embodiment.” The random number challenge is the certificate as exemplified in par 035.
Rosati then teaches and determining, by the security chip, if the certificate is correct, determining that the authentication process is passed if yes in par 039: “At block 340, the NFC device sends the signed random number challenge to the NFC reader along with a device identifier, the device's public key and a public key certificate. At block 350, the NFC reader verifies that the public key belongs to the device by checking the public key certificate and the device identifier, and decrypts the signed challenge with the public key to authenticate the NFC device. Once the NFC device is authenticated, the procedure ends at block 35”
Rosati then teaches and otherwise determining that the authentication process is not passed in par 048: “At block 430, the NFC reader may verify that the public key belongs to the NFC device, for example based on the device identifier and the public key certificate. If the verification fails, the method ends. The NFC reader also verifies that the public key correctly decrypts the signed random number. If this verification fails, the method ends, otherwise the NFC reader is ready to exchange data with the NFC device.”
It would have been obvious to one ordinarily skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the electronic ID teaching of Boelter with the certificate NFC teaching of Rosati because Rosati teaches a specific certificate method for using NFCs to authenticate. See pars 002-003. This eliminates a cumbersome requirement for users to authenticate themselves but keeps two factor which is known to be secure. Id. This teaches more security than what is taught with Boelter which would provide further assurance that the NFC authentication of Boelter is secure. As this would increase security of the electronic id device one would be motivated to modify Boelter with Rosati.
Claim(s) 3, 8, and 13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Boelter et al., US PGPUB 20140087656 A1 (“Boelter”), in view of Wengrovitz, US PGPUB 20110165859 A1 (“Wengrovitz”), further in view of Yang, US 20180288037 A1 ("Yang"), further in view of Yin et al., US 20180121727 A1 (“Yin”).
Per claims 3, 8, and 13, which are similar in scope, Boelter, Wengrovitz, and Yang teach the limitations of claims 1, 6, and 11, above. Boelter does not teach the barcode is configured to be scanned by a reading device to display an augmented reality object which comprises the at least one item to be displayed.
Yin teaches using AR to scan labels for information at a service site. See abstract.
Yin teaches the barcode is configured to be scanned by a reading device to display an augmented reality object which comprises the at least one item to be displayed in par 022: “For example, the user can use the AR client terminal to scan a particular identification in an environmental scene (for example, a QR code on a restaurant front door). Upon completion of the scanning, the AR client terminal can upload information of the scanned image to the server terminal, and the server terminal can perform image recognition.” Under a broadest reasonable interpretation, the QR code teaches a barcode because a QR code is a two dimensional barcode. Also, the barcode is the element that is configured to be scanned, which is taught by Yin. The at least one item was previously taught by Yang and is not re-taught by Yin.
It would have been obvious to one ordinarily skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the electronic ID teaching of Boelter with the barcode configured to be scanned to display the at least one item of Yin because one would be motivated to modify Boelter in view of Yang so that information can be displayed by AR, wherein the AR interprets the barcode and displays information. This would make Boelter in view of Yang’s technology more accessible to users who prefer AR as opposed to other ways of receiving information from scanning the barcode. This would broaden the reach of Boelter therefore one would be motivated to modify Boelter in view of Yang with Yin.
Therefore, claims 1-15 are rejected under 35 USC 103.
Response to Arguments
The arguments are to the display displaying the selected item. As Boelter, above, teaches selecting an item to display by a user scanning an item that is then uploaded to the device, see par 032-033, Boelter teaches this limitation. Therefore the arguments, though fully considered, that the other references do not teach this item are moot.
Prior Art Considered Relevant
The following prior art is considered relevant to Applicants disclosure but is not relied upon in the above rejection.
Battery E-Paper NFC Smart ID Badge, Youtube.com, available at: < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bl3HMjeQOk > Uploaded May 29, 2023.
Teaches an E-Paper NFC ID card where information is selected on a smartphone and uploaded via NFC to the ID card.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to RICHARD W. CRANDALL whose telephone number is (313)446-6562. The examiner can normally be reached M - F, 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM.
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/RICHARD W. CRANDALL/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3619