DETAILED ACTION
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 18 December 2025 has been entered.
Claims 1-21 are pending in the present application.
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 § 102
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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.
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, 9, 15, and 21 are is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Davis et al. US Patent Application Publication No. 2013/0133052 A1.
Regarding claim 1, Davis et al. teaches, A method [note: Abstract, “determining a behavioral fingerprint associated with a network accessible user of one or more devices”] comprising:
receiving one or more data records associated with a computing device [note: paragraph 0056 “received data”; also paragraph 0079; ; paragraph 0058, receive fingerprint data; paragraph 0084; paragraph 0091, device is associated with computing device ];
generating, based on the one or more data records, a behavioral fingerprint comprising information associated with the computing device; [note: paragraph 0081, behavior fingerprint associated with devices; paragraph 0093 generating a behavioral fingerprint ]
determining, based on the behavioral fingerprint, identifying information of one or more users of the computing device [note: paragraph 0153, identifying information ]; and
causing identifying information of the one or more users of the computing device to be associated with one or more other data records [note: figure 8 flow chart; paragraphs 0153-0154; paragraphs 0175-0177 identifying information associated with devices]..
Claim 7: The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving, from a computing device associated with a matching system, a request for the behavioral fingerprint; and
sending, based on the request and to the computing device associated with the matching system, the behavioral fingerprint [note: figure 2a; paragraph 0079 receive data .].
Claim 21: A method comprising: generating, based at least in part on a first set of records, one or more behavioral fingerprints comprising information related to at least one computing device; and applying the one or more behavioral fingerprints to a second set of records to determine a match between at least in part the first set of records and at least in part the second set of records [note Abstract; figure 8 flowchart; paragraphs 0011, 0056, 0074, 0081, 0053-0054 ].
The limitations of claims 9 and 15 parallel claim 1; therefore they are rejected under the same rationale.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-6, 8, 10-14, and 16-20 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.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 18 November 2025 and 18 December 2025 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
ARGUMENT: A terminal disclaimer will be filed to overcome obviousness type double patenting rejection..
RESPONSE: The submission of a terminal disclaimer overcomes the rejection. .
ARGUMENT: Davis et al. does not teach receiving data records associated with a computing device, a behavioral fingerprint associated with user devices.
RESPONSE: The examiner respectfully maintains the prior art rejection. The scope of Davis covers the limitations. Note, Abstract, Davis teaches “determining a behavioral fingerprint associated with a network accessible user of one or more devices.” Also note means for receiving data at paragraphs 0057-0058paragraphs 0081-0082 and 0084 behavioral fingerprints may be associated with a plurality of users including devices.
Also note paragraphs 0091, 00930175-0177 identifying devices.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to GRETA ROBINSON whose telephone number is (571)272-4118. The examiner can normally be reached Mon.-Fri. 9:30AM-6:00PM.
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/GRETA L ROBINSON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2163
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