DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
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 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.
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 of this title, 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, 2-10, 12-13, 15-22 and 24 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 20220408243 A1 (Mattsson), in view of JP 2004317764 A (Hoshino).
Regarding Claims 1, 13:
1 A method performed by a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) the method comprising: padding a subscription identifier comprising a number of characters with a random number of padding characters, wherein the random number depends on the number of characters of the subscription identifier, to obtain a padded subscription identifier; encrypting the padded subscription identifier to obtain a ciphertext; and transmitting the ciphertext to a wireless telecommunications network (Mattsson: Figs. 1, 7-9, par. 102-108. Generating a padded ID by inserting a padding bitstring, e.g., SUCI construct par. 52-56, 61-63, where the padding may be randomized or pseudo-randomized; padded ID is encrypted and encrypted ID is transmitted; Hoshino: Figs. 4a-d and par. 35-42, provide an example of using a random number padding an identifier).
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention was made to modify Mattsson with a processing of padding a random into an identifier as further taught by Hoshino. The advantage of doing so is to provide a mechanism so when transmitting an identifier given to another device, Information on the identifier can be kept secret from a third party (Hoshino: par. 24).
Regarding Claims 3 and 15, Mattsson as modified further teaches:
The method of claim 1, comprising transmitting, with the ciphertext, information indicating the number of padding characters (Mattsson: e.g., par. 56-77).
Regarding Claims 4 and 16, Mattsson as modified further teaches:
The method of claim 3, wherein the information indicating the number of padding characters is included in the ciphertext (Mattsson: e.g., par. 56-77).
Regarding Claims 5 and 17, Mattsson as modified further teaches:
The method of claim 1, wherein the padding characters belong to a set of characters disjunct from a set of characters allowed for the subscription identifier (Mattsson: e.g., par. 63-64, padding characters can be specified or be randomized; par. 74, a character is not contained in any username).
Regarding Claims 6 and 18, Mattsson as modified further teaches:
The method of claim 5, wherein the set of characters allowed for the subscription identifier is defined in RFC 3269 (It is noted that RFC 3269 is an industrial standardization process/doc, where to compliant with industrial standard is common practice in the field).
Regarding Claims 7 and 19, Mattsson as modified further teaches:
The method of claim 1, wherein padding comprises using at least one padding method among: appending, prepending and intermixing (Mattsson: e.g., par. 56-77).
Regarding Claims 8 and 20, Mattsson as modified further teaches:
The method of claim 1, comprising transmitting, with the ciphertext, an indication of a padding method used for the padding (Mattsson: e.g., par. 56-77, e.g., in key method, a public key may be provided).
Regarding Claims 9 and 21, Mattsson as modified further teaches:
The method of claim 8, wherein the indication is included in the ciphertext (Mattsson: e.g., par..60, 149, separated paddings for MSIN, routing indicators, and public key, and Fig. 7, padded field is encrypted).
Regarding Claims 10 and 22, Mattsson as modified further teaches:
The method of claim 1, wherein the subscription identifier is a username part of a network access identifier (Mattsson: e.g., par..60, 149, separated paddings for MSIN, routing indicators, and public key, and Fig. 7, padded field is encrypted).
Regarding Claims 12 and 24, Mattsson as modified further teaches:
The method of claim 1, wherein the ciphertext is transmitted in a subscription concealed identifier (Mattsson: Figs. 1. 7-9).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ZHITONG CHEN whose telephone number is (571) 270-1936. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F 9:30am - 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, Yuwen Pan can be reached on 571-272-7855. 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). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/ZHITONG CHEN/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2649