Detailed Action
1. This Office Action is responsive to the Amendment filed 03/17/2026. Claims 1-20 have been previously cancelled. Claims 21-40 have been amended and are presented for examination. 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 § 103
2. 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.
3. Claims 21-30 and 39-40 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over RAMOUTAR (WO 2018/170576 A1), in view of Pham Van et al. (US 2022/0256606 A1), hereinafter “Pham”, and further in view of Graube (US 2015/0036823 A1).
4. As to claim 21, RAMOUTAR teaches a Bluetooth communication method implemented between a first electronic device (i.e., secure wireless device) and a second electronic device (i.e., mobile device), the second electronic device being configured to send a secure message including data to be processed by the first electronic device, the method comprising:
obtaining at least one security key (i.e., common seed values) by each of the first electronic device and the second electronic device the said at least one security key participating in a design of a secure tag (RAMOUTAR, Abstract);
transmitting, by the second electronic device to the first electronic device, the secure message including the specific singular element and a secure tag, the secure tag designed based on the at least one security key,
wherein the transmitting comprises establishing a Bluetooth communication link in a Bluetooth advertising mode between the first electronic device and the second electronic device (i.e., During contact the mobile device sends a pairing request and credentials to the secure wireless device. After the credentials are validated, the devices are paired and can exchange encrypted messages via a suitable wireless interface such as Bluetooth) (RAMOUTAR, Abstract).
RAMOUTAR does not explicitly disclose “generating a specific singular element for the secure message”.
In an analogous art, Pham discloses that the scrambled or encrypted nature of the downlink message 22 or field(s) 22A of the downlink message 22 protects the parameter(s) 24 from being revealed to attackers that could exploit the parameter(s) 24 to interfere with the EDT 16, its acknowledgement, and/or its retransmission ([0031]). Pham Van also discloses that the parameter(s) 24 may each be a value or index. The value or index may be used directly or the value or index may be used to determine/derive security material (e.g., key, sequence number or algorithm) for protection of transmission on a Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH), a Physical Uplink Control/Shared Channel (PUCCH/PUSCH), or a Physical Downlink Control/Shared Channel (PDCCH/PDSCH) ([0036-0039]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the teachings of Pham, into RAMOUTAR’s to enable the system to scramble or encrypt the data message by using the value or index to determine/derive security material for protection of transmission from being revealed from attackers.
RAMOUTAR-Pham does not explicitly teach “the established Bluetooth communication link in a Bluetooth advertising mode is a non-connectable undirected Bluetooth advertising mode and transmitting, in the non-connectable undirected Bluetooth advertising mode, the secure message including the specific singular element and the secure tag”.
In an analogous art, Graube discloses a Bluetooth transmitter transmits a Bluetooth non-connectable undirected advertisement (NON-CON-ADV) message. This is a broadcast message that may be received by any Bluetooth listening device without being paired to the Bluetooth transmitter or transceiver. This message has a restricted payload of 31 bytes, including protocol overhead. In the example embodiment, the tag identifier and other data are sent in 16 bytes of this message (Graube, [0021] and [0024]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing data of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of RAMOUTAR-Pham and Graube to achieve the claimed invention to allow a Bluetooth transmitter to broadcast a NON-CON-ADV message including a tag and other data that may be received by any Bluetooth listening device without being paired to the Bluetooth transmitter (Graube, [0024]).
5. As to claim 22, RAMOUTAR-Pham-Graube teaches the method according to claim 21, wherein the generating comprises determining the specific singular element by implementing a specific singular element algorithm (Graube discloses that a hashing algorithm may be applied to a seed value to generate each new encryption key. This encryption key then may become the seed value for generating the next encryption key according to the hashing algorithm [0022]). The same rationale of claim 21 is also applied to this claim.
6. As to claim 23, RAMOUTAR-Pham-Graube teaches the method according to the claim 22, wherein the specific singular element algorithm is: a sequence number algorithm, and the specific singular element is a sequence number, or a timestamp number algorithm, and the specific singular element is a timestamp number (Pham Van discloses that the value or index may be used directly or the value or index may be used to determine/derive security material (e.g., key, sequence number or algorithm) for protection of transmission on a Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH), a Physical Uplink Control/Shared Channel (PUCCH/PUSCH), or a Physical Downlink Control/Shared Channel (PDCCH/PDSCH) [0036-0039]). The same rationale of claim 21 is also applied to this claim.
7. As to claim 24, RAMOUTAR-Pham-Graube teaches the method according to claim 21, wherein the obtaining comprises: establishing a communication link in a Bluetooth connected mode between the first electronic device and the second electronic device, the establishing comprising performing a phase of pairing the first electronic device with the second electronic device, and exchanging the at least one security key between the first electronic device and the second electronic device, wherein the at least one security key is initially stored in the first electronic device or the second electronic device, or a key generated during the phase of pairing, or derived from the key that is generated (RAMOUTAR discloses that During contact the mobile device sends a pairing request and credentials to the secure wireless device. After the credentials are validated, the devices are paired and can exchange encrypted messages via a suitable wireless interface such as Bluetooth [Abstract]).
8. As to claim 25, RAMOUTAR-Pham-Graube teaches the method according to claim 21, wherein the obtaining comprises: establishing a communication link in a Bluetooth connected mode between the first electronic device and the second electronic device, and generating the at least one security key by the first electronic device and the second electronic device by implementing a key agreement protocol (RAMOUTAR discloses that During contact the mobile device sends a pairing request and credentials to the secure wireless device. After the credentials are validated, the devices are paired and can exchange encrypted messages via a suitable wireless interface such as Bluetooth [Abstract]).
9. As to claim 26, RAMOUTAR-Pham-Graube teaches the method according to claim 21, wherein the obtaining comprises: establishing a communication link between the first electronic device and the second electronic device by using a wired technology or a wireless technology standard different from the Bluetooth standard, and generating the at least one security key by the first electronic device and the second electronic device by implementing a key agreement protocol (RAMOUTAR discloses that once an NFC connection is established, it can secure the use of other wireless technologies (such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, RFID) and transfers data at up to 424 kbps [BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION]).
10. As to claim 27, RAMOUTAR-Pham-Graube teaches the method according to claim 21, wherein the obtaining comprises: establishing a communication link between the first electronic device and the second electronic device by using a wired technology or a wireless technology standard different from the Bluetooth standard (RAMOUTAR discloses that once an NFC connection is established, it can secure the use of other wireless technologies (such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, RFID) and transfers data at up to 424 kbps [BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION]), and exchanging the at least one security key between the first electronic device and the second electronic device, the at least one security key being initially stored in the first electronic device or the second electronic device, or a key generated during a phase of pairing between the first electronic device and the second electronic device during the establishing the communication link, or derived from the key that is generated (RAMOUTAR discloses that During contact the mobile device sends a pairing request and credentials to the secure wireless device. After the credentials are validated, the devices are paired and can exchange encrypted messages via a suitable wireless interface such as Bluetooth [Abstract]).
11. As to claim 28, RAMOUTAR-Pham-Graube teaches the method according to claim 21, wherein the obtaining comprises: establishing a communication link in a Bluetooth connected mode between the first electronic device, the second electronic device and a third electronic device, the establishing comprising performing a phase of pairing the third electronic device with the first electronic device and the second electronic device, and exchanging the at least one security key through the communication link between the first electronic device and the second electronic device through the third electronic device (it’s well-known in the art and also a design option for one skill in the art to implement RAMOUTAR-Pham-Graube’s teachings for exchanging data between a first electronic device and a second electronic device through a third electronic device, e.g., exchanging data between two smart home appliances/devices via a router/AP).
12. As to claim 29, RAMOUTAR-Pham-Graube teaches the method according to claim 21, wherein the obtaining comprises: establishing a communication link between the first electronic device, the second electronic device and a third electronic device from a selection of a communication technology carried out by each of the first electronic device, the second electronic device, and the third electronic device among: a secure wired technology, a secure wireless technology different from a Bluetooth technology, and the Bluetooth technology (RAMOUTAR discloses that once an NFC connection is established, it can secure the use of other wireless technologies (such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, RFID) and transfers data at up to 424 kbps [BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION]), and exchanging the at least one security key through the communication link between the first electronic device and the second electronic device through the third electronic device (it’s well-known in the art and also a design option for one skill in the art to implement RAMOUTAR-Pham-Graube’s teachings for exchanging data between a first electronic device and a second electronic device through a third electronic device, e.g., exchanging data between two smart home appliances/devices via a router/AP).
13. As to claim 30, RAMOUTAR-Pham-Graube teaches the method according to claim 21, wherein the obtaining comprises: exchanging the at least one security key through a communication link between the first electronic device and a second electronic device through a third electronic device, or distributing the at least one security key by the third electronic device to the first electronic device and the second electronic device (it’s well-known in the art and also a design option for one skill in the art to implement RAMOUTAR-Pham-Graube’s teachings for distributing data/security key to the first electronic device and the second electronic device using a third electronic device, e.g., distributing the security key using a security server/gateway/router).
14. As to claims 39-40, claims 39-40 are corresponding system claims that recite similar limitations as of method claims 21 and 30 and do not contain any additional limitations with respect to novelty and/or inventive steps; therefore, they are rejected under the same rationale.
15. Claims 31-38 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over RAMOUTAR-Pham-Graube, and further in view of MOON (US 2023/0030829 A1).
16. As to claim 31, RAMOUTAR-Pham-Graube teaches the method according to claim 21, but does not explicitly disclose “obtaining a message including a payload including data relating to phenomenon data or notification data, and designing the secure message by using the at least one security key and the payload”.
In an analogous art, MOON discloses that a message object can have different types including messages created within the secure private core network 10 (e.g., a notification object generated by an endpoint device 12 in the secure private core network 10), user created content from a user device 12 (e.g., a text message, an image, a media file, a media stream, etc.), or machine created content from an IoT device (e.g., a sensor-based data record or media stream, etc.) (i.e., a sub-step of realization of a message comprising a payload including data relating to phenomenon data or notification data) ([0035]). MOON also discloses that the endpoint device “A” 12 can secure the P2P invite for secure transmission to the endpoint device “B” 12 owned by the invitee P2 34 based on: encrypting the P2P invite payload with a dynamically-generated temporal key “TK1”; …; appending the encrypted temporal key “ENC(Key_B)[TK1]” to the encrypted payload; … prior to transmission to the endpoint device “B” 12 via a secure peer-to-peer path (i.e., a sub-step of designing the secure message by using at least one security key and the payload) ([0178]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the teachings of MOON, into RAMOUTAR-Pham-Graube’s to enable the system to avoid exposing network users to security threats due to uncontrolled messaging that results in receipt of unwanted messages and to prevent a message recipient from unauthorized distribution of media content provided by a message originator (MOON, [0007] and [0019]).
17. As to claim 32, RAMOUTAR-Pham-Graube-MOON teaches the method according to claim 31, wherein the designing comprises the secure tag by implementing a tag algorithm using the at least one security key and the payload (i.e., MOON discloses that a message object can have different types including messages created within the secure private core network 10 (e.g., a notification object generated by an endpoint device 12 in the secure private core network 10) [0035]), MOON also discloses that the endpoint device “A” 12 can secure the P2P invite for secure transmission to the endpoint device “B” 12 owned by the invitee P2 34 based on: encrypting the P2P invite payload with a dynamically-generated temporal key “TK1”; …; appending the encrypted temporal key “ENC(Key_B)[TK1]” to the encrypted payload; … prior to transmission to the endpoint device “B” 12 via a secure peer-to-peer path [0178]). The same rationale of claim 31 is also applied to this claim.
18. As to claim 33, RAMOUTAR-Pham-Graube-MOON teaches the method according to claim 31, wherein the designing comprises: generating the secure message by appending the secure tag to the payload and the specific singular element to the payload, or generating the secure message by appending the secure tag to an encrypted version of the payload and the specific singular element to the encrypted version of the payload (i.e., MOON also discloses that the endpoint device “A” 12 can secure the P2P invite for secure transmission to the endpoint device “B” 12 owned by the invitee P2 34 based on: encrypting the P2P invite payload with a dynamically-generated temporal key “TK1”; …; appending the encrypted temporal key “ENC(Key_B)[TK1]” to the encrypted payload; … prior to transmission to the endpoint device “B” 12 via a secure peer-to-peer path [0178]). The same rationale of claim 31 is also applied to this claim.
19. As to claim 34, RAMOUTAR-Pham-Graube-MOON teaches the method according to claim 21, further comprising processing usable data of the secure message received by the first electronic device from the second electronic device (i.e., MOON discloses that any data object that is sent from an originating endpoint device 12 (e.g., “A”) to a cohort (e.g., “B”) for secure storage can be encrypted using the originator private key (e.g., “prvKeyP1_A”) and the cohort public key (e.g., “Key_B”), and further encrypted using a temporal key prior to transmission to the cohort. The cohort can decrypt the transmitted data object based on the temporal key and store the object that was encrypted using the originator private key and the cohort public key [0046] and [0189-0191]). The same rationale of claim 31 is also applied to this claim.
20. As to claim 35, RAMOUTAR-Pham-Graube-MOON teaches the method according to claim 34, wherein the processing comprises: extracting the specific singular element included in the usable data of the secure message received, and extracting a payload contained in the secure message received (i.e., MOON discloses that any data object that is sent from an originating endpoint device 12 (e.g., “A”) to a cohort (e.g., “B”) for secure storage can be encrypted using the originator private key (e.g., “prvKeyP1_A”) and the cohort public key (e.g., “Key_B”), and further encrypted using a temporal key prior to transmission to the cohort. The cohort can decrypt the transmitted data object based on the temporal key and store the object that was encrypted using the originator private key and the cohort public key [0046] and [0189-0191]). The same rationale of claim 31 is also applied to this claim.
21. As to claim 36, RATOUMAR-Pham-Graube-MOON teaches the method according to claim 34, wherein the processing comprises extracting the specific singular element included in the usable data of the secure message received, and wherein the extracting comprises verifying the consistency of the specific singular element extracted from the usable data (i.e., MOON discloses that any data object that is sent from an originating endpoint device 12 (e.g., “A”) to a cohort (e.g., “B”) for secure storage can be encrypted using the originator private key (e.g., “prvKeyP1_A”) and the cohort public key (e.g., “Key_B”), and further encrypted using a temporal key prior to transmission to the cohort. The cohort can decrypt the transmitted data object based on the temporal key and store the object that was encrypted using the originator private key and the cohort public key [0046] and [0189-0191]). The same rationale of claim 31 is also applied to this claim.
22. As to claim 37, RATOUMAR-Pham-Graube-MOON teaches the method according to claim 21, wherein the processing comprises generating useful information based on data contained in a payload of the secure message (i.e., MOON discloses that any data object (e.g., text message, image, media file, media stream, etc.) that is sent from an originating endpoint device 12 (e.g., “A”) to a cohort (e.g., “B”) for secure storage can be encrypted using the originator private key (e.g., “prvKeyP1_A”) and the cohort public key (e.g., “Key_B”), and further encrypted using a temporal key prior to transmission to the cohort. The cohort can decrypt the transmitted data object based on the temporal key and store the object that was encrypted using the originator private key and the cohort public key [0035], [0046] and [0189-0191]). The same rationale of claim 31 is also applied to this claim.
23. As to claim 38, RAMOUTAR-Pham-Graube-MOON teaches the method according to claim 21, further comprising using the specific singular element in a computation of the secure tag or in encryption (i.e., MOON discloses that any data object that is sent from an originating endpoint device 12 (e.g., “A”) to a cohort (e.g., “B”) for secure storage can be encrypted using the originator private key (e.g., “prvKeyP1_A”) and the cohort public key (e.g., “Key_B”), and further encrypted using a temporal key prior to transmission to the cohort. The cohort can decrypt the transmitted data object based on the temporal key and store the object that was encrypted using the originator private key and the cohort public key [0046] and [0189-0191]). The same rationale of claim 31 is also applied to this claim.
Response to Arguments
24. Applicant’s arguments filed 03/17/2026 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
25. Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
26. Further references of interest are cited on Form PTO-892, which is an attachment to this Office Action.
27. A shortened statutory period for reply to this action is set to expire THREE (3) months from the mailing date of this communication. See 37 CFR 1.134.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to QUANG N NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571) 272-3886.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, KAMAL B. DIVECHA, can be reached at (571) 272-5863. The fax phone number for the organization is (571) 273-8300.
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/QUANG N NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2441
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