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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 9/11/2026 has been entered.
Claims 1-20 are pending with claims 1, 4, 12 and 16 having been amended and claim 20 newly added.
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 Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 9/11/2026 have been fully considered.
A) Applicant's arguments with respect to TCG, “TCG EK Credential Profile For TPM Family 2.0; Level 0” in view of Zaverucha et al (US 2012/0317412) in view of Crabtree et al (2020/0396254) does not teach “each of the schema identifier field, the root key identifier field and the CMA field having a respective fixed byte-length” have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Regarding A) Zaveruche teaches each of the schema identifier field, the root key identifier field and the CMA field having a respective fixed byte-length (see Zaveruche paragraph 0027 i.e. Examples of implicit certificate encoding schemes include the fixed-length field scheme … A certificate encoded by the fixed-length field scheme can include a series of fields, each having a fixed length). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify TCG in view of Zaveruche to have used a fixed length scheme fixed-length field scheme sinch a fixer length scheme can be used to achieve greater bandwidth efficiency (see Zaveruche paragraph 0027).
B) Applicant's arguments with respect to TCG, “TCG EK Credential Profile For TPM Family 2.0; Level 0” in view of Zaverucha et al (US 2012/0317412) in view of Crabtree et al (2020/0396254) does not teach “a root key identifier field comprising data that identifies a device-specific asymmetric key used as a root of trust by a logic circuit associated with a replaceable print apparatus component” have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Regarding B) Table 3 EK Certificate Fields table row "Subject key Identifier" and section 3.2.12 Authority key Identifier disclose this identifies the subject public key of the certificate issuer and hence facilitates the validation of the certificate path. The certificate MUST contain an authority key identifier that matches the subject key identifier of the CA certificate. Also see section 3.2.7 Subject Public Key Info.
C) Applicant's arguments that TCG, "TCG EK Credential Profile For TPM Family 2.0; Level 0" does not disclose "a Cryptographic Mode of Use Attribute (CMA) field, the CMA field storing data that expressly identifies a cryptographic signature algorithm to be used to verify a signature generated using said device-specific asymmetric key" have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Regarding C) Table 3 EK Certificate Fields table row "Signature Algorithm" and section 3.2.3 Signature Algorithm discloses this field identifies the algorithm used by the EK certificate issuer to sign the certificate The certificate SHOULD be signed using an RSA 2048 bit key or ECC NISTP-256 bit key.
D) Applicant's arguments that Crabtree does not disclose "the certificate schema not requiring external libraries for parsing and validating" have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Regarding D) Crabtree paragraph 0092 states "certificate may be validated 2308 either by parsing the certificate 2308a to extract the text of the certificate, or by validation of the certificate using a validation service 2308b, or both". Therefore the certificate may be validated by parsing the certificate to extract the text of the certificate without external libraries since no external libraries were used during the parsing.
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 1-8, 10, 12 and 14-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over TCG, “TCG EK Credential Profile For TPM Family 2.0; Level 0” in view of Zaverucha et al (US 2012/0317412) in view of Crabtree et al (2020/0396254).
With respect to claim 1, TCG teaches a non-transitory computer-readable memory arrangement comprising a key storage memory partition and a general purpose user memory partition, wherein the general purpose user memory partition stores a certificate schema for a public key certificate comprising:
a schema identifier field, distinct from a certificate version or TPM platform version, the schema identifier field storing a value to identify a version of the certificate schema (see Table 3 EK Certificate Fields table row “Version” and section 3.2.1 Version);
a root key identifier field comprising data that identifies a device-specific asymmetric key used as a root of trust by a logic circuit associated with a replaceable print apparatus component (see Table 3 EK Certificate Fields table row “Authority key Identifier” and section 3.2.12 Authority key Identifier);
a Cryptographic Mode of Use Attribute (CMA) field, the CMA field storing data that expressly identifies a cryptographic signature algorithm to be used to verify a signature generated using said device-specific asymmetric key (see Table 3 EK Certificate Fields table row “Signature Algorithm” and section 3.2.3 Signature Algorithm); and
a public key field (see Table 3 EK Certificate Fields table row “Subject Public Key Info” and section 3.2.7 Subject Public Key Info).
TCG does not disclose each of the schema identifier field, the root key identifier field, the CMA field, and the at least one public key field having a respective fixed byte-length, the certificate schema not requiring external libraries for parsing and validating.
Zaveruche teaches each of the schema identifier field, the root key identifier field, the CMA field, and the at least one public key field having a respective fixed byte-length (see Zaveruche paragraph 0027 i.e. Examples of implicit certificate encoding schemes include the fixed-length field scheme … A certificate encoded by the fixed-length field scheme can include a series of fields, each having a fixed length).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify TCG in view of Zaveruche to have used a fixed length scheme fixed-length field scheme sinch a fixer length scheme can be used to achieve greater bandwidth efficiency (see Zaveruche paragraph 0027).
TCG in view of Zaveruche does not disclose the certificate schema not requiring external libraries for parsing and validating.
Crabtree teaches the certificate schema not requiring external libraries for parsing and validating (see Crabtree paragraph 0092 i.e. If that HTTP service uses TLS 2307, the TLS certificate may be validated 2308 either by parsing the certificate 2308a to extract the text of the certificate, or by validation of the certificate using a validation service 2308b, or both).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify TCG in view of Crabtree to have been able to validated the certificate either by parsing the certificate to extract the text of the certificate or using a validation service as one of many ways to validate the certificate (see Crabtree paragraph 0092).
With respect to claim 2, TCG, Zaverucha and Crabtree teaches the non-transitory computer-readable memory arrangement of claim 1, wherein the schema identifier field stores a schema version number (see TCG Table 3 EK Certificate Fields table row “Version” and section 3.2.3 Version), the root key identifier field stores an identifier of a device-specific key (see Table 3 EK Certificate Fields table row “Authority key Identifier” and section 3.2.12 Authority key Identifier), and/or the CMA field stores data indicating a signing algorithm to be used for computing a signature (see Table 3 EK Certificate Fields table row “Signature Algorithm” and section 3.2.3 Signature Algorithm).
With respect to claim 3, TCG, Zaverucha and Crabtree teaches the non-transitory computer-readable memory arrangement of claim 1, wherein the public key field stores an RSA public key or an ECC public key (see TCG Table 3 EK Certificate Fields table row “Subject Public Key Info” and section 3.2.7 Subject Public Key Info).
With respect to claim 4, TCG, Zaverucha and Crabtree teaches the non-transitory computer-readable memory arrangement of claim 1, wherein the certificate schema further comprises: a data length field, wherein the public key field comprises a public exponent field and a modulus field (see TCG section 3.2.7 Subject Public Key Info i.e. The RSA public key MUST be encoded using the ASN.1 type RSAPublicKey as defined in RFC 3279[13]. RSAPublicKey ::= SEQUENCE { modulus INTEGER, --n publicExponent INTEGER }).
With respect to claim 5, TCG, Zaverucha and Crabtree teaches the non-transitory computer-readable memory arrangement of claim 4, wherein the data length field stores data indicating a total accumulated length of the schema identifier field, the root key identifier field, the CMA field, the public exponent field, and the modulus field, and/or the public exponent field stores an exponent used for signature verification and the modulus field stores a product of two prime numbers used to generate a key pair (see TCG Table 3 EK Certificate Fields table row “Subject Public Key Info” and section 3.2.7 Subject Public Key Info).
With respect to claim 6, TCG, Zaverucha and Crabtree teaches the non-transitory computer-readable memory arrangement of claim 1, wherein the certificate schema further comprises: a capability field (see TCG Table 3 EK Certificate Fields table row “Key Usage” and section 3.2.15 Key Usage).
With respect to claim 7, TCG, Zaverucha and Crabtree teaches the non-transitory computer-readable memory of claim 6, wherein the capability field stores a capability indicating at least one supported signing function (see TCG Table 3 EK Certificate Fields table row “Key Usage” and section 3.2.15 Key Usage).
With respect to claim 8, TCG, Zaverucha and Crabtree teaches the non-transitory computer-readable memory of claim 1, wherein the certificate schema defines an RSA public key certificate (see TCG Table 3 EK Certificate Fields table row “Signature Algorithm” and section 3.2.3 Signature Algorithm).
With respect to claim 10, TCG, Zaverucha and Crabtree teaches the non-transitory computer-readable memory of claim 1, wherein the certificate schema defines an ECC public key certificate (see TCG Table 3 EK Certificate Fields table row “Signature Algorithm” and section 3.2.3 Signature Algorithm).
With respect to claim 12, TCG teaches a logic circuitry package for a replaceable print apparatus component comprising: an interface to communicate with a host logic circuit; and a logic circuit comprising a memory arrangement storing a symmetric key, a private key, and a certificate comprising a public key corresponding to the private key; wherein the certificate comprises a certificate schema comprising:
a schema identifier field, the schema identifier field storing a value to identify a version of the certificate schema (see Table 3 EK Certificate Fields table row “Version” and section 3.2.1 Version);
a root key identifier field comprising data that identifies a device-specific asymmetric key used as a root of trust by a logic circuit associated with a replaceable print apparatus component (see TCG Table 3 EK Certificate Fields table row “Authority key Identifier” and section 3.2.12 Authority key Identifier);
a Cryptographic Mode of Use Attribute (CMA) field, the CMA field storing data that expressly identifies a cryptographic signature algorithm to be used to verify a signature generated using said device-specific asymmetric key (see TCG Table 3 EK Certificate Fields table row “Signature Algorithm” and section 3.2.3 Signature Algorithm);
a public key field (see TCG Table 3 EK Certificate Fields table row “Subject Public Key Info” and section 3.2.7 Subject Public Key Info) and
a modulus field (see TCG section 3.2.7 Subject Public Key Info i.e. The RSA public key MUST be encoded using the ASN.1 type RSAPublicKey as defined in RFC 3279[13]. RSAPublicKey ::= SEQUENCE { modulus INTEGER, --n publicExponent INTEGER }).
TCG does not disclose each of the schema identifier field, the root key identifier field, and the CMA field having a respective fixed byte-length, the certificate schema not requiring external libraries for parsing and validating.
Zaveruche teaches each of the schema identifier field, the root key identifier field, and the CMA field having a respective fixed byte-length (see Zaveruche paragraph 0027 i.e. Examples of implicit certificate encoding schemes include the fixed-length field scheme … A certificate encoded by the fixed-length field scheme can include a series of fields, each having a fixed length).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify TCG in view of Zaveruche to have used a fixed length scheme fixed-length field scheme sinch a fixer length scheme can be used to achieve greater bandwidth efficiency (see Zaveruche paragraph 0027).
TCG in view of Zaveruche does not disclose the certificate schema not requiring external libraries for parsing and validating.
Crabtree teaches the certificate schema not requiring external libraries for parsing and validating (see Crabtree paragraph 0092 i.e. If that HTTP service uses TLS 2307, the TLS certificate may be validated 2308 either by parsing the certificate 2308a to extract the text of the certificate, or by validation of the certificate using a validation service 2308b, or both).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify TCG in view of Crabtree to have been able to validated the certificate either by parsing the certificate to extract the text of the certificate or using a validation service as one of many ways to validate the certificate (see Crabtree paragraph 0092).
With respect to claim 13, TCG, Zaverucha and Crabtree teaches the non-transitory computer-readable memory of claim 12, wherein the capability field stores data indicating supported signing functions (see TCG Table 3 EK Certificate Fields table row “Key Usage” and section 3.2.15 Key Usage) and the CMA field stores data indicating a signing algorithm to be used when computing a signature (see Table 3 EK Certificate Fields table row “Signature Algorithm” and section 3.2.3 Signature Algorithm).
With respect to claim 14, TCG, Zaverucha and Crabtree teaches the non-transitory computer-readable memory of claim 12, wherein the root key identifier field stores an identifier for a device-specific RSA key (see TCG Table 3 EK Certificate Fields table row “Authority key Identifier” and section 3.2.12 Authority key Identifier).
With respect to claim 15, TCG, Zaverucha and Crabtree teaches the non-transitory computer-readable memory of claim 12, wherein the data length field stores data indicating a total accumulated length of the schema identifier field, the root key identifier field, the CMA field, the public exponent field, and the modulus field, the schema identifier field stores a schema version number, and/or the public exponent field stores an exponent used for signature verification and the modulus field stores a product of two prime numbers used to generate a key pair (see TCG Table 3 EK Certificate Fields table row “Subject Public Key Info” and section 3.2.7 Subject Public Key Info).
With respect to claim 16, TCG, Zaverucha and Crabtree teaches A non-transitory computer-readable memory arrangement for a replaceable print apparatus component comprising: a key storage memory partition storing a private key; and a general purpose user memory partition storing a certificate schema for a public key certificate comprising:
a schema identifier field (see TCG Table 3 EK Certificate Fields table row “Version” and section 3.2.1 Version);
a root key identifier field comprising data that identifies a device-specific asymmetric key used as a root of trust by a logic circuit associated with a replaceable print apparatus component (see TCG Table 3 EK Certificate Fields table row “Authority key Identifier” and section 3.2.12 Authority key Identifier);
a Cryptographic Mode of Use Attribute (CMA) field, the CMA field storing data that expressly identifies a cryptographic signature algorithm to be used to verify a signature generated using said device-specific asymmetric key (see TCG Table 3 EK Certificate Fields table row “Signature Algorithm” and section 3.2.3 Signature Algorithm);
a capability field (see TCG Table 3 EK Certificate Fields table row “Key Usage” and section 3.2.15 Key Usage); and
a public key field (see TCG Table 3 EK Certificate Fields table row “Subject Public Key Info” and section 3.2.7 Subject Public Key Info).
TCG does not disclose each of the schema identifier field, the root key identifier field, and the CMA field having a respective fixed byte-length, the certificate schema not requiring external libraries for parsing and validating.
Zaveruche teaches each of the schema identifier field, the root key identifier field, and the CMA field having a respective fixed byte-length (see Zaveruche paragraph 0027 i.e. Examples of implicit certificate encoding schemes include the fixed-length field scheme … A certificate encoded by the fixed-length field scheme can include a series of fields, each having a fixed length).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify TCG in view of Zaveruche to have used a fixed length scheme fixed-length field scheme sinch a fixer length scheme can be used to achieve greater bandwidth efficiency (see Zaveruche paragraph 0027).
TCG in view of Zaveruche does not disclose the certificate schema not requiring external libraries for parsing and validating.
Crabtree teaches the certificate schema not requiring external libraries for parsing and validating (see Crabtree paragraph 0092 i.e. If that HTTP service uses TLS 2307, the TLS certificate may be validated 2308 either by parsing the certificate 2308a to extract the text of the certificate, or by validation of the certificate using a validation service 2308b, or both).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify TCG in view of Crabtree to have been able to validated the certificate either by parsing the certificate to extract the text of the certificate or using a validation service as one of many ways to validate the certificate (see Crabtree paragraph 0092).
With respect to claim 17, TCG, Zaverucha and Crabtree teaches the non-transitory computer-readable memory of claim 16, wherein the capability field stores data indicating supported signing functions and the CMA field stores data indicating a signing algorithm to be used when computing a signature (see TCG Table 3 EK Certificate Fields table row “Signature Algorithm” and section 3.2.3 Signature Algorithm).
With respect to claim 18, TCG, Zaverucha and Crabtree teaches the non-transitory computer-readable memory of claim wherein the root key identifier field stores an identifier for a device-specific ECC key (see TCG Table 3 EK Certificate Fields table row “Authority key Identifier” and section 3.2.12 Authority key Identifier).
With respect to claim 19, TCG, Zaverucha and Crabtree teaches the non-transitory computer-readable memory of claims 16, wherein the schema identifier field stores a schema version number (see TCG Table 3 EK Certificate Fields table row “Version” and section 3.2.3 Version) and the public key field stores an ECC public key (see Table 3 EK Certificate Fields table row “Subject Public Key Info” and section 3.2.7 Subject Public Key Info).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 9 and 11 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 while also overcoming the 35 USC § 112 rejection.
With respect to claim 9 the prior art does not disclose the non-transitory computer-readable memory arrangement of claim 8, wherein a data size of the RSA public key certificate is between 263 and 267 bytes.
With respect to claim 11 the prior art does not disclose the non-transitory computer-readable memory arrangement of claim 10, wherein a data size of the ECC public key certificate is between 37 and 39 bytes.
With respect to claim 20 the prior art does not disclose the non-transitory computer-readable memory arrangement of claim 1, wherein the schema identifier field has a length of 1 byte, the root key identifier field has a length of 2 bytes, and the CMA field has a length of 1 byte.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DEVIN E ALMEIDA whose telephone number is (571)270-1018. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Thursday from 7:30 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. The examiner can also be reached on alternate Fridays from 7:30 A.M. to 4:00 P.M.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner's supervisor, Rupal Dharia, can be reached on 571-272-3880. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free).
/DEVIN E ALMEIDA/Examiner, Art Unit 2492
Prosecution Insights