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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Re. claims 1, 6 and 11; the claims recite “combining the primary salted hash value with a selected name for the digital image”. The claims are not positively recited. The claim indicates that the name was selected for the digital image. The claim does not previously indicate there was a selection of a name being done. For example, a user selects a name from a list or a computer selects a name from a list of names. For the purpose of art, the examiner is interpreted the “selected name for the digital image” as the file name of the captured image. Thus one of ordinary skill in the art would not be able to draw a clear boundary between what is and is not covered by the claim.
Claims 2-5, 7-10 and 12-15 fall together accordingly as they do not cure the deficiencies of the independent claims.
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.
Claims 1, 6 and 11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kita (JP 2005045486) in view of Coppersmith (JP 2003309559) and in further view of Fujii (JP 2022163310).
Re. claim 1, Kit discloses a method for immutable document sealing comprising: loading a digital image of a document into memory of a computer (Kita discloses image data obtained and stored in the image data memory [0040]); applying random snowflaking to the digital image by incorporating one or more non-visible elements to the digital image (Kita discloses performing digital watermark processing for embedding the digital signature or the like in the captured image [0046-0048][Page 18-19]); generating a primary salted hash value from at least a portion of the snowflaked digital image (Kita discloses the captured image data and timestamp are hashed [0049-0055]); combining the primary salted hash value with a selected name for the digital image and generating a secondary salted hash value of the combination (Kita discloses the file name of the captured image, shooting conditions, copyright information, etc. are used as the original data, and a timestamp, position stamp, ID, etc. are combined with the hash value [Page 18]).
Kita discloses the secondary salted hash value and selected name for the digital image. Kita does not explicitly teach but Coppersmith teaches adding the secondary salted hash value to the selected name for the digital image of the document to produce a modified form of the selected name (Coppersmith teaches calculate M2 = H(M1) as a 160-bit hash of this message, where H is SHA-1. The owner's name and time are added to the 160 bit M2 to generate a 512-bit message M3 (704). Since M2 is 160 bits, the additional portion for the owner's name and time in 512-bit M3 is 352 (=512-160) bits. Here, the owner's name can include other data such as the name of the image, the date or location of the image's creation [0046]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one or ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method and system disclosed by Kita to include produce a modified form by adding the secondary salted hash value with the selected name for the digital image as disclosed by Coppersmith. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated for the purpose of adding information that are useful for verification purposes. Which would lead to determining whether the data has been altered.
Kita and Coppersmith teaches snowflaked digital image and modified form of the seleted name, Kita-Coppersmith do not explicitly teach but Fujii teaches persisting the snowflaked digital image into a new file with the modified form of the selected name as a new name for the new file (Fujii teaches the target document image represents a first format file, the target document image is also associated with a second format file created from the first format file, and the information processing device superimposes a seal impression image on the second format file. The information processing device updates the second format file itself associated with the target document image to a version on which the seal imprint image is superimposed. As another example, the information processing device may create and store a new second format file with the seal imprint image superimposed thereon. In this example, an image, i.e., an icon, representing the newly created file of the second format is newly displayed on the workspace area 110. As yet another example, the user may be allowed to set as an option whether to update the second format file associated with the target document image itself or to create a new second format file [0156][0109][0150]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one or ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method and system disclosed by Kita-Coppersmith to include persisting the snowflaked digital image into a new file with the modified form of the selected name as a new name for the new file as disclosed by Fujii. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated for the purpose of having quicker execution and managing files (Fujii [0029] and [0003]).
Re. claim 6, Kita discloses a data processing system adapted for immutable document sealing, the system comprising: a host computing platform comprising one or more computers, each with memory and one or processing units including one or more processing cores (Kita discloses a microprocessor (CPU) that controls the entire device and by reading a program stored in the Rom or the like [0040][Page 11]); persistent storage accessible by the host computing platform (Kita discloses memory storage of the imaging device [Page 19] Fig. 9); and, a sealing module comprising computer program instructions enabled while executing in the memory of at least one of the processing units of the host computing platform to perform (Kita discloses a microprocessor (CPU) that controls the entire device and by reading a program stored in the Rom or the like [0040][Page 11]. The signature encryption processing unit 19 also has a function of performing digital watermark processing for embedding the digital signature or the like in the captured image [Page 12]. Executed by the system control unit 15 (CPU) provided in the imaging device 11 controlling the operation of each unit according to the procedures described in the program [Page 20]): loading a digital image of a document into memory of a computer (Kita discloses image data obtained and stored in the image data memory [0040]); applying random snowflaking to the digital image by incorporating one or more non-visible elements to the digital image (Kita discloses performing digital watermark processing for embedding the digital signature or the like in the captured image [0046-0048][Page 18-19]); generating a primary salted hash value from at least a portion of the snowflaked digital image (Kita discloses the captured image data and timestamp are hashed [0049-0055]); combining the primary salted hash value with a selected name for the digital image and generating a secondary salted hash value of the combination (Kita discloses the file name of the captured image, shooting conditions, copyright information, etc. are used as the original data, and a timestamp, position stamp, ID, etc. are combined with the hash value [Page 18]).
Kita discloses the secondary salted hash value and selected name for the digital image. Kita does not explicitly teach but Coppersmith teaches adding the secondary salted hash value to the selected name for the digital image of the document to produce a modified form of the selected name (Coppersmith teaches calculate M2 = H(M1) as a 160-bit hash of this message, where H is SHA-1. The owner's name and time are added to the 160 bit M2 to generate a 512-bit message M3 (704). Since M2 is 160 bits, the additional portion for the owner's name and time in 512-bit M3 is 352 (=512-160) bits. Here, the owner's name can include other data such as the name of the image, the date or location of the image's creation [0046]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one or ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method and system disclosed by Kita to include produce a modified form by adding the secondary salted hash value with the selected name for the digital image as disclosed by Coppersmith. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated for the purpose of adding information that are useful for verification purposes. Which would lead to determining whether the data has been altered.
Kita and Coppersmith teaches snowflaked digital image and modified form of the seleted name, Kita-Coppersmith do not explicitly teach but Fujii teaches persisting the snowflaked digital image into a new file with the modified form of the selected name as a new name for the new file (Fujii teaches the target document image represents a first format file, the target document image is also associated with a second format file created from the first format file, and the information processing device superimposes a seal impression image on the second format file. The information processing device updates the second format file itself associated with the target document image to a version on which the seal imprint image is superimposed. As another example, the information processing device may create and store a new second format file with the seal imprint image superimposed thereon. In this example, an image, i.e., an icon, representing the newly created file of the second format is newly displayed on the workspace area 110. As yet another example, the user may be allowed to set as an option whether to update the second format file associated with the target document image itself or to create a new second format file [0156][0109][0150]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one or ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method and system disclosed by Kita-Coppersmith to include persisting the snowflaked digital image into a new file with the modified form of the selected name as a new name for the new file as disclosed by Fujii. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated for the purpose of having quicker execution and managing files (Fujii [0029] and [0003]).
Re. claim 11, claim 11 is rejected with the same rationale as applied in claims 1 and 6 above.
Claims 3-4, 8-9 and 13-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kita (JP 2005045486) in view of Coppersmith (JP 2003309559) in view of Fujii (JP 2022163310) and in further view of Roberts (CN 104410684).
Re. claim 3, the combination of Kita-Coppersmith-Fujii teach the method of claim 1, Kita-Coppersmith-Fujii teach embedding non-visible elements, Kita-Coppersmith-Fujii do not explicitly teach but Roberts teaches wherein the embedding of the non-visible elements includes tattooing the digital image content with random non-displayable characters selected according to a file type of the document (Roberts teach the user can use the simple identifier, but the mobile device may be configured with the possibility of additional near random digital to minimize two un-related social network having the same identifier, two associated social network with the same identifier may cause the two related network between the desired file sharing. For example, a user could use the new social network given the name "Smith family" to start a new social network, a mobile device of the user to the additional random numbers, such as 58135498513547, to produce Smith Family58135498513547 [0038]. The user can select a photo (or other types of documents) and designating the photo with a social network sharing to create "Smith family" social network. the mobile device can be configured to edit the selected picture data file to the social network identifier (e.g., Smith Family58135498513547) added to the metadata of the file [0045][0048]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one or ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method and system disclosed by Kita-Coppersmith-Fujii to include embedding of the non-visible elements includes tattooing the digital image content with random non-displayable characters selected according to a file type of the document as disclosed by Roberts. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated for the purpose of modifying data to have hidden texts (Roberts [0048]).
Re. claim 4, the combination of Kita-Coppersmith-Fujii teach the method of claim 1, Kita-Coppersmith-Fujii teach embedding non-visible elements, Kita-Coppersmith-Fujii do not explicitly teach but Roberts teaches wherein the embedding of the non-visible elements includes tattooing the digital image content with one or more randomly positioned non-visible image elements (Roberts teach the user can use the simple identifier, but the mobile device may be configured with the possibility of additional near random digital to minimize two un-related social network having the same identifier, two associated social network with the same identifier may cause the two related network between the desired file sharing. For example, a user could use the new social network given the name "Smith family" to start a new social network, a mobile device of the user to the additional random numbers, such as 58135498513547, to produce Smith Family58135498513547 [0038]. The user can select a photo (or other types of documents) and designating the photo with a social network sharing to create "Smith family" social network. the mobile device can be configured to edit the selected picture data file to the social network identifier (e.g., Smith Family58135498513547) added to the metadata of the file [0045][0048]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one or ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method and system disclosed by Kita-Coppersmith-Fujii to include embedding of the non-visible elements includes tattooing the digital image content with one or more randomly positioned non-visible image elements as disclosed by Roberts. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated for the purpose of modifying data to have hidden texts (Roberts [0048]).
Re. claim 8, rejection of claim 6 is included and claim 8 is rejected with the same rationale as applied in claim 3 above.
Re. claim 9, rejection of claim 6 is included and claim 9 is rejected with the same rationale as applied in claim 4 above.
Re. claim 13, rejection of claim 11 is included and claim 13 is rejected with the same rationale as applied in claim 3 above.
Re. claim 14, rejection of claim 6 is included and claim 14 is rejected with the same rationale as applied in claim 4 above.
Claims 5, 10 and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kita (JP 2005045486) in view of Coppersmith (JP 2003309559) in view of Fujii (JP 2022163310) and in further view of Munoz et al. (EP 3751526, hereinafter Munoz).
Re. claim 5, the combination of Kita-Coppersmith-Fujii teach the method of claim 1, Kita-Coppersmith-Fujii teach embedding non-visible elements, Kita-Coppersmith-Fujii do not explicitly teach but Roberts teaches wherein the embedding of the non-visible elements includes for each page of text of the digital image of the document: generating a raster image of the page of text; overlaying the raster image over the page of text in the digital image so that only the raster image displays while the page of text is obscured from view by the raster image in a document editor; and, embedding the non-visible elements into the page of text (Munoz teaches, wherein a software is installed which generates the information of said raster embedded with the mark in ultraviolet ink 402 and the raster embedded with the variable data mark 412, which will be printed, resulting in the document marked 126 with the data 420 [0040]. raster with the watermark in ultraviolet with the information of the batch 404 to which the documents being marked belong. Printing, by means of black toner, the raster made up of the digital watermark of the variable data 107 of each document and the text of the non-variable data [0041] Fig. 4).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one or ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method and system disclosed by Kita-Coppersmith-Fujii to include generating a raster image of the page of text; overlaying the raster image over the page of text in the digital image so that only the raster image displays while the page of text is obscured from view by the raster image in a document editor; and, embedding the non-visible elements into the page of text as disclosed by Munoz. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated for the purpose of verifying the authenticity of documents (Munoz [0012]).
Re. claim 10, rejection of claim 6 is included and claim 10 is rejected with the same rationale as applied in claim 5 above.
Re. claim 15, rejection of claim 11 is included and claim 15 is rejected with the same rationale as applied in claim 5 above.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2, 7 and 12 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims. The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: Extracting the new file name for the new file and extracting from the new file name the selected name and the secondary salted hash value; computing a document hash for the new file and computing a file hash for the new file, while also computing a file name hash for the document hash in combination with the selected name, and then computing a combined hash of the document hash and the file name hash; comparing the combined hash to the secondary salted hash value; and, authenticating the new file on condition that the comparison results in a determination that the combined hash is identical to the secondary salted hash value.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Snowflake security discloses Snowflake provides end-to-end encryption (E2EE) to ensure that only end users and the Snowflake runtime components can read your data.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KEVIN A AYALA whose telephone number is (571)270-3912. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Thursday 8AM-5PM; Friday: Variable EST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Jorge Ortiz-Criado can be reached at 571-272-7624. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/KEVIN AYALA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2496