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 .
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 3-6 and 8 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.
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)(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(s) 1, 7, and 9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being antedated by United States Patent No.: US 12,512,092 B1 (Tu et al.).
As Per Claim 1: Tu et al. teaches: An image processing apparatus comprising:
- a storage that stores an account for a service providing device; and
- one or more controllers that control authentication processing for the service providing device based on the account, wherein
- upon receiving input of a new account, the one or more controller store the new account in the storage as a second account if the one or more controllers determine that the new account is compatible with the same authentication method as a first account stored in the storage, the second account being an alternative account to the first account.
(Tu et al., Column 5, Lines 16-37, “During the account linking stage 102, the system 120 determines whether a second user account 122 including the second user account data is already generated or not. As needed, the system 120 generates the second account 122 and stores the second user account data therein. The system 120 also associates the first account 121 and the second account 122 by defining access controls according to the first data access policy and the second data access policy. For example, the system 120 stores, in the second account 122, a first account identifier 123 that identifies the first account 121 (e.g., the first user identifier) and a first token 125. The first account identifier 123 indicates the association of the second account 122 with the first account 121, whereas the first token 125 controls the second function's access to user account data stored in the first account 121. Similarly, the system 120 stores, in the first account 121, a second account identifier 124 that identifies the second account 122 (e.g., a second user identifier) and a second token 126. The second account identifier 124 indicates the association of the first account 121 with the second account 122, whereas the second token 126 controls the first function's access to user account data stored in the second account 122.”.).
As Per Claim 7: The rejection of claim 1 is incorporated and further Tu et al. teaches:
- the one or more controllers store the new account in the storage as the second account if the new account is for a different service providing device than the first account.
(Tu et al., Column 10 Line 28 – Column 11 Line 15, “In comparison, the first computer system 220 can be operated by a service provider and implemented as hardware (e.g., a set of hardware servers) or software hosted on hardware (e.g., a cloud-based service) suitable for communication with devices over one or more data networks. As further illustrated in the next figures, the first computer system 220 can include an NLP system that provides the user interface function and a communication system that provides the communication function. The second computer system 230 can be operated by the service provider or another entity (e.g., a telehealth entity). Generally, a computer system (e.g., any of the first computer system 220 or the second computer system 230) includes one or more processors and one or more memory that store computer-readable instructions that, upon execution by the one or more processors, configure the computer system to perform operations including communications with other computer systems and/or with one or devices as described herein.
In an example, the first account 222 stores first user account data according to a first data access policy. This policy can permit multiple functions to have access to the first user account data (e.g., the user interface function, the communication function, a content streaming function, etc.) given the sensitivity, privacy, security, and/or user permission associated with the first user account data. In comparison, the second account 232 stores second user account data according to a second access policy. This policy can permit only other functions to have access to the second user account data (e.g., the third function) given the sensitivity, privacy, security, and/or user permission associated with the first user account data. To illustrate, and referring back to the telehealth use case, the second account 232 can store medical record data of the user that can be subject to heightened regulatory access controls (e.g., HIPAA), whereas the first account 222 can store personal identification data that can be subject to a different set of regulatory access controls (e.g., GDPR).
In another example, the first account 222 corresponds to a group account generated for a plurality of users. The group account can represent a multi-profile account that includes multiple individual user accounts, where each individual account can represent a user profile of an individual user and includes personal profile data of the corresponding user for instance. In comparison, the second account 232 can be generated for a single user of the particular users and include user account data subject to a different access control policy (e.g., referring back to the telehealth use case, the user account data can store the user's medical record data that can be subject to heightened regulatory access controls (e.g., HIPAA)). In this example, depending on the access control policy, the group account can be linked with the second account 232, a subset of the individual user accounts of the group account, and/or only the relevant individual account of the group account can be linked with the second account 232.”.).
As Per Claim 9: Tu et al. teaches: An authentication processing method comprising:
- storing, in a storage, an account for a service providing device as a first account; storing, upon receiving input of a new account, the new account in the storage as a second account if the new account is determined to be compatible with the same authentication method as the first account, the second account being an alternative account to the first account; and executing authentication processing for the service providing device based on any of the accounts stored in the storage.
(Tu et al., Column 5, Lines 16-37, “During the account linking stage 102, the system 120 determines whether a second user account 122 including the second user account data is already generated or not. As needed, the system 120 generates the second account 122 and stores the second user account data therein. The system 120 also associates the first account 121 and the second account 122 by defining access controls according to the first data access policy and the second data access policy. For example, the system 120 stores, in the second account 122, a first account identifier 123 that identifies the first account 121 (e.g., the first user identifier) and a first token 125. The first account identifier 123 indicates the association of the second account 122 with the first account 121, whereas the first token 125 controls the second function's access to user account data stored in the first account 121. Similarly, the system 120 stores, in the first account 121, a second account identifier 124 that identifies the second account 122 (e.g., a second user identifier) and a second token 126. The second account identifier 124 indicates the association of the first account 121 with the second account 122, whereas the second token 126 controls the first function's access to user account data stored in the second account 122.”.).
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.
Claim(s) 2 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over United States Patent No.: US 12,512,092 B1 (Tu et al.) in view of United States Patent Application Publication No.: US 2009/0320108 B1 (Livingston et al.).
As Per Claim 2: The rejection of claim 1 is incorporated and further Tu et al. does not explicitly teach the following limitation however Livingston et al. in analogous art does teach the following limitation:
- the one or more controllers execute the authentication processing for the service providing device using the second account if the authentication processing using the first account is inexecutable.
(Livingston et al., Paragraph [0035], “In one embodiment, the alternate credential 110C is provided for the same class of services as the current credential 110A. The alternate credential 110C may also be associated with the same or a similar service account as the current credential 110A. The alternate credential 110C may also be set to expire at a later date than the current credential 110A. For example, the alternate credential 110C and the current credential 110A may each be set to expire every ninety days. If the alternate credential 110C is forty-five days out of phase with the current credential 110A, then the alternate credential 110C may be used as a transitional credential while the current credential 110A is replaced. Similarly, when the alternate credential 110C is replaced, the new credential 110B, assuming it successfully replaced the current credential 110A, may be used as a transitional credential.”.).
It would have been an obvious interchangeable variation readily implemented with expectations of success to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the teachings of Livingston et al. into the teachings of Lu et al. to maintain backup accessibility measures.
Additional Prior Art
United States Patent Application Publication No.: US 2023/0185931 A1 (Acharya et al.) in analogous art provides additional teachings around the use of secondary accounts and associated access methods.
Conclusion
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/BENJAMIN A KAPLAN/Examiner, Art Unit 2434
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