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 .
DETAILED ACTION
This office action is prepared in response to a Request for Continued Examination (RCE) filed on July 16, 2026.
Claims 1, 7 and 8 have been amended.
Claims 1-25 are pending.
Claims 1-9 are allowed.
Claims 10-25 are rejected.
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 July 16, 2026 has been entered.
Response to Amendments
The claim amendments and Applicant’s arguments filed on Julu 16, 2026 have been carefully considered. However, the amendments and arguments failed to place all the claims in condition for allowance reasons set forth below.
Claims 1-9 are allowed based on the understanding that the “interface” on the second clause of claim 1 is an interface that is neither part of the AI processor in the third clause nor part of the hardware security module (HSM) in the first clause.
Claim Interpretation
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(f):
(f) Element in Claim for a Combination. – An element in a claim for a combination may be expressed as a means or step for performing a specified function without the recital of structure, material, or acts in support thereof, and such claim shall be construed to cover the corresponding structure, material, or acts described in the specification and equivalents thereof.
Claim 25 in this application is given its broadest reasonable interpretation using the plain meaning of the claim language in light of the specification as it would be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art. The broadest reasonable interpretation of a claim element (also commonly referred to as a claim limitation) is limited by the description in the specification when 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, is invoked.
As explained in MPEP § 2181, subsection I, claim limitations that meet the following three-prong test will be interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph:
(A) the claim limitation uses the term “means” or “step” or a term used as a substitute for “means” that is a generic placeholder (also called a nonce term or a non-structural term having no specific structural meaning) for performing the claimed function;
(B) the term “means” or “step” or the generic placeholder is modified by functional language, typically, but not always linked by the transition word “for” (e.g., “means for”) or another linking word or phrase, such as “configured to” or “so that”; and
(C) the term “means” or “step” or the generic placeholder is not modified by sufficient structure, material, or acts for performing the claimed function.
Use of the word “means” (or “step”) in a claim with functional language creates a rebuttable presumption that the claim limitation is to be treated in accordance with 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph. The presumption that the claim limitation is interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, is rebutted when the claim limitation recites sufficient structure, material, or acts to entirely perform the recited function.
Absence of the word “means” (or “step”) in a claim creates a rebuttable presumption that the claim limitation is not to be treated in accordance with 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph. The presumption that the claim limitation is not interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, is rebutted when the claim limitation recites function without reciting sufficient structure, material or acts to entirely perform the recited function.
Claim limitations in this application that use the word “means” (or “step”) are being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, except as otherwise indicated in an Office action. Conversely, claim limitations in this application that do not use the word “means” (or “step”) are not being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, except as otherwise indicated in an Office action.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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.
Claims 10-25 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being unpatentable over Kim et al. (U.S. 2024/0370563).
Regarding claim 10, Kim disclosed a system comprising:
receiving an artificial intelligence (AI) request from an application, (Kim disclosed in [0073] that “the cryptographic processing front-end processor 131 may receive an on-demand request by the processor 135 in the process of AI computation and accesses the first type memory 110 to import encrypted input data”),
wherein the AI request is a request to perform one or more AI related operations (Kim, [0073], “an on-demand request by the processor 135 in the process of AI computation”);
offloading one or more cryptographical operations associated with the one or more AI related operations to a hardware security module (HSM); (Kim disclosed in Fig. 11, [0049, 0077] that “The AI device based on a trust environment according to the present disclosure may utilize processor resources limited in neural network execution operations by performing offloading to cryptographic hardware and shorten an artificial neural network execution time by overlapping with data encryption and decryption through intra-layer pipelining” Kim, Fig. 1 and para. [0073] disclosed “the cryptographic processing front-end processor 131, as cryptographic hardware…” which anticipates the HSM in the claim), and
performing the one or more cryptographical operations associated with the one or more AI related operations by the HSM (Kim disclosed in [0073] that “The cryptographic processing front-end processor 131, as cryptographic hardware, may generate decrypted input data through decryption of encrypted input data and perform encryption of non-encrypted output data to generate encrypted output data.”), and
sending a result of the one or more cryptographical operations associated with the one or more AI related operations to an AI processor (Kim, [0073], “The cryptographic processing front-end processor 131 may … store a decryption input activation and decryption filter in the second type memory 133.” and in [0077] that “the processor 135 may transmit and receive data to and from the cryptographic processing front-end processor 131” which means cryptographic processing front-end processor 131 may send the decrypted data to the processor 135; Kim disclosed in Fig. 1 and [0075] “the processor 135” that “perform a neural network computation based on the decrypted input data”, therefore the processor 135 anticipates the AI processor in the claim), and
performing the one or more AI related operations by the AI processor (Kim disclosed in [0080] that “the AI device 100 may directly perform a convolution-based neural network computation through the processor 135, thereby reducing the number of accesses by the cryptographic processing front-end processor 131 to access the first type memory 110 and import the encrypted input data”).
Claim 17 lists substantially the same elements as claim 10 but in system form rather than method form. Therefore, the rejection rationale for claim 10 applies equally as well to claim 17.
Regarding claims 11 and 18, Kim disclosed the subject matter of Claims 10 and 17.
Kim further disclosed wherein the HSM is a hardware component that is separate from the AI processor (Kim, [0073], “The cryptographic processing front-end processor 131, as cryptographic hardware”).
Regarding claim 19, Kim disclosed the system of Claim 17.
Kim further disclosed wherein the AI processor is a central processing unit (CPU) or a graphics pipeline unit (GPU) (Kim disclosed in Fig. 11 that the AI processing unit is a CPU).
Regarding claims 12 and 20, Kim disclosed the subject matter of Claims 10 and 17. Kim further disclosed wherein the one or more cryptographical operations is at least one or more of encryption/decryption, digital signature and verification, authentication, auditing, secure code execution, key management, and tamper protection (Kim, [0074], “the cryptographic front-end processor 131 may encrypt and decrypt the data to ensure accuracy and security”).
Regarding claims 13 and 21, Kim disclosed the subject matter of Claims 10 and 17.
Kim further disclosed receiving data associated with the AI request in encrypted format from the application (Kim, [0073, 0042], “encrypted input data”).
Regarding claims 14 and 22, Kim disclosed the subject matter of Claims 13 and 21.
Kim further disclosed wherein the data is received by the HSM, and wherein the method further comprises: decrypting the data to form a plain data; sending the plain data to the AI processor; and performing the one or more AI related operations, by the AI processor, based on the plain data (Kim, Fig. 2 and [0079-0082], “decrypted encrypted input data”, “perform neural network computation based on decrypted input data”).
Regarding claim 15 and 23, Kim disclosed the subject matter of Claim 14 and 22.
Kim further disclosed sending a result of the processing the one or more AI related operations in an unencrypted format from the AI processor to the HSM; encrypting the result of the processing the one or more AI related operations in the unencrypted format using the HSM; and sending the encrypted result of the processing the one or more AI related operations to the application (Kim, Fig. 2 and [0079-0082] including “encrypt non-encrypted output data” and “The AI device 100 may perform encryption on the non-encrypted output data through the cryptographic processing front-end processor 310.).
Regarding claim 16 and 24, Kim disclosed the subject matter of Claim 10 and 17.
Kim further disclosed wherein the one or more AI related operations is related to an AI model (Kim, [0075], “The processor 135 may directly perform a convolution-based neural network computation”).
Claim 25 lists substantially the same elements as claim 17, also in system form but using the means-plus-function format. Therefore, the rejection rationale for claim 17 applies equally as well to claim 25.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SHIRLEY X ZHANG whose telephone number is (571)270-5012. The examiner can normally be reached 8:30am - 5:00pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Joon H Hwang can be reached at 571-272-4036. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/SHIRLEY X ZHANG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2447
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