Prosecution Insights
Last updated: April 19, 2026
Application No. 18/673,670

SECURE CONTROLLER OPERATION AND MALWARE PREVENTION

Non-Final OA §102
Filed
May 24, 2024
Examiner
TRAN, TRI MINH
Art Unit
2432
Tech Center
2400 — Computer Networks
Assignee
Karamba Security Ltd.
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
82%
Grant Probability
Favorable
1-2
OA Rounds
2y 7m
To Grant
99%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 82% — above average
82%
Career Allow Rate
456 granted / 556 resolved
+24.0% vs TC avg
Strong +34% interview lift
Without
With
+33.8%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
2y 7m
Avg Prosecution
10 currently pending
Career history
566
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
14.2%
-25.8% vs TC avg
§103
46.0%
+6.0% vs TC avg
§102
20.6%
-19.4% vs TC avg
§112
9.4%
-30.6% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 556 resolved cases

Office Action

§102
DETAILED ACTION Claims 23 is pending. Claims 1-22 are canceled. This application is a continuation of PCT Application No. PCT/IB2017/051964 filed on April 5, 2017, which claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application Serial No. 62/319,178, filed on April 6, 2016, and U.S. Application Serial No. 62/346,856, filed on June 7, 2016. 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 23 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by 20170090929 (hereinafter Muttik) Regarding claim 23, Muttik discloses a non-transitory computer-readable medium including instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform operations for customized code execution flow integrity for a controller, comprising: embedding, in a controller, customized and controller-specific code execution flow inspection code, the controller-specific code execution flow inspection code being configured to: (Fig. 4, par. [0010]-[0018] and [0077]-[0079] disclose a four-core CPU having a program flow monitoring code called CMU which can be an integrated part of the CPU, using an execution control data (ECD) for each program to be analyzed to ensure that they are consistent with the expected ECD. The analysis extracts execution control data (ECD) about the expected software behavior, including code flow and data flows). compare a request for execution of code by the controller to a map of a permitted sequence of calls between controller code elements executable by the controller, the permitted sequence of calls including at least one process call or at least one function call (Figs. 5-6 and par. [0081]-[0100] disclose the correctness monitoring unit CMU compares the instruction pointers, function’s addresses and data types to the ECD’s control and data flows. If there is a mismatch it raises an exception); determine whether the request for execution of code by the controller conflicts with the map of the permitted sequence (same citation of Figs. 5-6 and related text); implement, based on the determination, a control action to prevent the implement, based on the determination, a control action to prevent the request for execution of code by the controller that conflicts with the map of the permitted sequence of calls from being executed on the controller (Fig. 6 and related text disclose an exception is raised if a mismatch is found). Inquiry communication Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to TRI M TRAN whose telephone number is (571)270-1994. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri: 9am-5pm. Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Jeffrey Nickerson can be reached at (469)295-9235. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000. /TRI M TRAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2432
Read full office action

Prosecution Timeline

May 24, 2024
Application Filed
Oct 31, 2025
Non-Final Rejection — §102 (current)

Precedent Cases

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Study what changed to get past this examiner. Based on 5 most recent grants.

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Prosecution Projections

1-2
Expected OA Rounds
82%
Grant Probability
99%
With Interview (+33.8%)
2y 7m
Median Time to Grant
Low
PTA Risk
Based on 556 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allow rate.

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