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 .
Response to Amendment
The Amendment, filed on 2/6/2026, has been entered and acknowledged by the Examiner. Claims 1, and 3-20 are pending.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments with respect to claims 1 and 3 -20 have been considered but are moot in view of the new ground(s) of rejection.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103(a) which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
(a) A patent may not be obtained though the invention is not identically disclosed or described as set forth in section 102 of this title, if the differences between the subject matter sought to be patented and the prior art are such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains. Patentability shall not be negatived by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 1 and 3-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being unpatentable over Egorov (US Pub. 2017/0054716) in view of Zhang (CN 110245144), and further in view of Shaull (CN 107835983 B).
Regarding claim 1, Egorov discloses a method comprising:
receiving, by a user device, an update request for a node stored in a zero-knowledge database from a server (¶ [0009], a request for a first node of the graph stored by the untrusted computing system; receiving, with the first computing system, the encrypted collection of data of the first node);
determining whether the node has been instantiated and/or initiated on the user device (¶ [0009], being identified with an identifier or defined in a table [0037]);
for the node being determined as not instantiated and/or initiated on the user device: instantiating and/or initiating the node on the user device (¶ [0042]); merging one or more attributes of the node with at least one updated attribute stored in the user device to generate an updated node (¶ [0042], being updated); and adding the updated node to a queue of updates to be send to the severe (¶ [0042]); and for the node being determined as being instantiated and/or initiated on the user device: merging the one or more attributes of the node with the at least one updated attribute stored in the user device to generate the updated node (¶ [0084]); and adding the updated node to the queue of updates to be sent to the server (¶ [0084]; updating with write operations).
Zhang further discloses “a version number” (abstract section) and wherein the node is encrypted and the server cannot decrypt the node or derive any attribute values of the nodes (Description, the appointed node can carry the encryption protocol data and feature information when the appointed node receives the data issuing request, decrypting the encryption protocol data according to the private key of the appointed node to obtain the protocol data, and performing the preset operation to the protocol data to obtain the feature information data). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Zhang into Egorov to implement a globally unique version number for an update and to utilize private key to encrypt/decrypt information where server does not have a private key to decrypt.
Egorov and Zhang do not disclose wherein the user device does not modify the requested version of the node; however, Shaull discloses wherein the user device does not modify the requested version of the node (Fig. 4, the user modifies the database data (e.g., inserting, updating and deleting all created new version, but not modifying or removing the existing version), the created version. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Shaull into Zhang and Egorov to easily identify old versions that can be safely deleted or cancelled from various ways.
Regarding claim 3, Egorov in view of Zhang and Shaull disclose the method of claim 1, wherein the one or more attributes of the node are derived by decrypting the node using the user device (¶ [0009]).
Regarding claim 4, Egorov in view of Zhang and Shaull disclose the method of claim 1, wherein the node stored in the zero-knowledge database is accessible by a plurality of devices, wherein the user device is a device of the plurality of devices (¶ [0009]).
Regarding claim 5, Egorov in view of Zhang and Shaull disclose the method of claim 4, further comprising receiving, by the user device, a version number of the node form the server (Egorov, ¶ [0042]; Zhang’s disclosure).
Regarding claim 6, Egorov in view of Zhang and Shaull disclose the method of claim 5, further comprising: adding the version number along with the updated node to the queue of updates to be sent to the server (Step 201); and comparing, by the server, the version number against a current version number of the node that is stored on the server (Zhang, comparing step 201).
Regarding claim 7, Egorov in view of Zhang and Shaull disclose the method of claim 6, further comprising: for the version number being determined as identical to the current version number, storing the updated node in the zero-knowledge database and incrementing the current version number (¶ [0062], may be changed or otherwise incremented each time).
Regarding claim 8, Egorov in view of Zhang and Shaull disclose the method of claim 7, further comprising: sending, by the server, an incremented version number to the user device (¶ [0062]).
Regarding claim 9, Egorov in view of Zhang and Shaull disclose the method of claim 7, further comprising: for the updated node being successfully stored in the zero-knowledge database, incrementing, by the user device, a local version number that corresponds to the version number (¶ [0062]. Also, Zhang’s disclosure).
Regarding claim 10, Egorov in view of Zhang and Shaull disclose the method of claim 7, further comprising: for the version number being determined as lower than the current version number, preventing, by the server, storing of the updated node on the zero-knowledge database (¶ [0084]).
Regarding claim 11, Egorov in view of Zhang and Shaull disclose the method of claim 6, wherein the version number and the current version number are not encrypted (Zhang’s disclosure).
Regarding claim 12, Egorov in view of Zhang and Shaull disclose the method of claim 1, further comprising: determining whether the updated node was successfully stored in the zero-knowledge database (¶ [0042], update operation’s complete).
Regarding claim 13, Egorov in view of Zhang and Shaull disclose the method of claim 12, further comprising: for the updated node being determined as not successfully stored in the zero-knowledge database, determining whether the node was locked (¶ [0043], operation’s blocked).
Regarding claim 14, Egorov in view of Zhang and Shaull disclose the method of claim 13, wherein a node is locked if it is being updated (¶ [0043], operation’s delayed).
Regarding claim 15, Egorov in view of Zhang and Shaull disclose the method of claim 13, further comprising: for the node being determined as locked, keeping the updated node in the queue of updates for processing (¶ [0043], waiting until the other operation’s be completed).
Regarding claim 16, Egorov in view of Zhang and Shaull disclose the method of claim 15, further comprising: for the node being determined as not locked, comparing a version number associated with the updated node against a current version number of the node that is stored on the server (¶ [0042], comparing version number).
Regarding claim 17, Egorov in view of Zhang and Shaull disclose the method of claim 16, further comprising: for the version number being determined as lower than the current version number, sending, by the server, a current version of the node stored in the zero-knowledge database and the current version number to the user device (¶¶ [0042]-[0043]); decrypting, by the user device, the current version of the node to generate a decrypted current version of the node (¶¶ [0042]-[0043]); and merging, by the user device, the updated node with the decrypted current version of the node to derive a merged node (¶¶ [0042]-[0043]).
Regarding claim 18, Egorov in view of Zhang and Shaull disclose the method of claim 17, further comprising: adding, by the user device, the merged node to the queue of updates to be sent to the server (¶ [0043]).
Regarding claim 19, Egorov discloses a system comprising: a server; and one or more processors in communication with the server, the one or more processors are configured to:
receive an update request for a node stored in a zero-knowledge database from the server (¶ [0009], a request for a first node of the graph stored by the untrusted computing system, receiving, with the first computing system, the encrypted collection of data of the first node);
receive the node and an associated version number (¶ [0042], update a version);
determine whether the node has been instantiated and/or initiated by the one or more processors (¶ [0009], being identified with an identifier or defined in a table [0037]);
for the node being determined as not instantiated and/or initiated by the one or more processors: instantiate and/or initiate the node (¶ [0009], being identified with an identifier or defined in a table [0037]);
merging one or more attributes of the node with at least one updated attribute stored in a memory coupled to the one or more processors to generate an updated node (¶ [0042], being updated); and
adding the updated node and the version number to a queue of updates to be send to the server (¶ [0084]; updating with write operations); and
for the node being determined as being instantiated and/or initiated by the one or more processors: merge the one or more attributes of the node with the at least one updated attribute stored in the memory to generate the updated node (¶̬ [0042], [0084]); and
add the updated node and the version number to the queue of updates to be sent to the server, wherein the version number as received by the server is compared against a current version number of the node that is stored on the server, wherein for the version number being determined as identical to the current version number, storing the updated node in the zero-knowledge database and incrementing the current version number (¶ [0062], which in some cases, may be changed or otherwise incremented each time a node is written to by client device).
Egorov discloses a version, but Zhang further discloses “a version number” (abstract section). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Zhang into Egorov to implement a globally unique version number for an update.
Egorov and Zhang do not disclose wherein the user device does not modify the requested version of the node; however, Shaull discloses wherein the user device does not modify the requested version of the node (Fig. 4, the user modifies the database data (e.g., inserting, updating and deleting all created new version, but not modifying or removing the existing/requested version), the created version. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Shaull into Zhang and Egorov to easily identify old versions that can be safely deleted or cancelled from various ways.
Zhang further discloses “a version number” (abstract section) and wherein the node is encrypted and the server cannot decrypt the node or derive any attribute values of the nodes (Description, the appointed node can carry the encryption protocol data and feature information when the appointed node receives the data issuing request, decrypting the encryption protocol data according to the private key of the appointed node to obtain the protocol data, and performing the preset operation to the protocol data to obtain the feature information data). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Zhang into Egorov to implement a globally unique version number for an update and to utilize private key to encrypt/decrypt information where server does not have a private key to decrypt.
Regarding claim 20, Egorov in view of Zhang and Shaull disclose the system of claim 19, wherein for the version number being determined as lower than the current version number, preventing, by the server, storing of the updated node on the zero-knowledge database (step 201, checking version number).
Conclusion
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/TUANKHANH D PHAN/ Examiner, Art Unit 2154