DETAILED ACTION
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 .
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.
Priority/Benefit
Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 (a)-(d). The certified copy of China Application CN202311490599.7 filed on Nov. 10, 2023, has been received on 07/31/2024.
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)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102 (a) (1) as being anticipated by Chen et al. (NPL: Secret Sharing Based Reversible Data Hiding in Encrypted Images With Multiple Data-Hiders, IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON DEPENDABLE AND SECURE COMPUTING, VOL. 19, NO. 2, MARCH/APRIL 2022).
Regarding claim 1: Chen teaches: A decoupled multi-party reversible data hiding method in encrypted domain, applied in a multi-party reversible data hiding model in encrypted domain, wherein the multi-party reversible data hiding model in encrypted domain comprises a content owner, a data hider, and a plurality of receivers; wherein
the data hider comprises a plurality of data sub-hiders; all the data sub-hiders in the data hider are connected to the content owner; any one of the receivers is connected to a plurality of authorized data sub-hiders (Chen - Fig. 2),
wherein the authorized data sub-hiders are data sub-hiders authorized to the receiver in the data hider (Chen - [Page 984, section 3]: Step 1: The receiver sends a request to the tz-th data-hider to authorize the tz-th marked encrypted image); and
wherein the method comprises:
performing, by the content owner, decoupled encryption on an original carrier by using an encryption key to generate a plurality of encrypted carriers, and sending the plurality of encrypted carriers to corresponding data sub-hiders (Chen - [Page 980, section 3]: the original image is converted into multiple encrypted images of the same size as the original image, and the encrypted images are distributed to multiple different data-hiders for data hiding … In the image encryption phase, the original image I is divided into n encrypted images by secret sharing with an encryption key ke, and each encrypted image is distributed to the associated data-hider), wherein a preset number of arbitrary encrypted carriers contain all information of the original carrier, any single encrypted carrier contains only partial information of the original carrier, and the preset number is less than a total number of the encrypted carriers (Chen - [Page 988, section 5.3]: It is guaranteed that even if n - k data-hiders are damaged, the original image can still be reconstructed. In addition, each data-hider holds a different marked encrypted image, and the receiver needs k marked encrypted images to restore the original image, which implies that even if the marked encrypted images in k - 1 data-hiders are leaked, the original image will not be leaked);
embedding, by the data sub-hiders, data to be hidden into the encrypted carriers using a data hiding key, to obtain corresponding marked encrypted carriers (Chen - [Page 981, section 3]: For encrypted image E(t), the data can be embedded into it by the tth data-hider with data hiding key kht);
determining any one of the receivers as a current receiver (Chen - [Page 982, section 3]: The model involves multiple data-hiders, each of which can independently manage the corresponding encrypted image and independently communicate with the receiver);
sending, by the data hider, some of the marked encrypted carriers as authorized marked encrypted carriers to the current receiver (Chen - [Page 984, section 4.3]: the receiver can restore the original image by collecting any k or more marked encrypted images);
extracting, by the current receiver, when the number of the authorized marked encrypted carriers reaches the preset number, embedded data from the preset number of the authorized marked encrypted carriers by using the data hiding key, wherein the embedded data is the same as the data to be hidden (Chen - [Page 984, section 4.3]: The receiver extracts the secret message from the marked encrypted image, and decrypts the secret message with data hiding key kht, to obtain the message); and
performing, by the current receiver, carrier recovery on the authorized marked encrypted carriers by using a decryption key, to obtain the original carrier (Chen - [Page 983, section 4.3]: if the receiver holds the decryption key kd, the original image can be recovered from the k marked encrypted images).
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.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 2-4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chen et al. (NPL: Secret Sharing Based Reversible Data Hiding in Encrypted Images With Multiple Data-Hiders, IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON DEPENDABLE AND SECURE COMPUTING, VOL. 19, NO. 2, MARCH/APRIL 2022) in view Staddon et al. (Pub. No.: US 2006/0085651, hereinafter Staddon).
Regarding claim 2: Chen teaches: wherein said performing, by the content owner, decoupled encryption on an original carrier by using an encryption key to generate a plurality of encrypted carriers, and sending the plurality of encrypted carriers to corresponding data sub-hiders comprises:
performing, by the content owner, secret sharing encryption on the original carrier by using the encryption key to generate a plurality of shares (Chen - [Page 980, section 2.2]: The content-owner encrypts an original image into multiple encrypted images by Shamir’s k-out-of-n threshold secret sharing with encryption key ke)l
sending the encrypted carriers to the corresponding data sub-hiders (Chen - [Page 980, section 3]: each encrypted image is distributed to the associated data-hider).
However, Chen doesn’t explicitly teach, but Staddon discloses: performing, by the content owner, homomorphic encryption on the plurality of shares separately to obtain a plurality of encrypted carriers (Staddon - [0059]: the server generates a secret key St and randomly generates key shares y1, . . . , yt−1, (block 83). Finally, the server system 31 sends the key shares homomorphically encrypted with an index value).
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method of Chen with Staddon so that encryption protocol of plurality of encrypted carriers is homomorphic encryption. The modification would have allowed the system to increase data security.
Regarding claim 3: Chen teaches: wherein said performing, by the current receiver, carrier recovery on the authorized marked encrypted carriers by using a decryption key to obtain the original carrier comprises:
obtaining a plurality of authorized marked encrypted carriers, wherein the authorized marked encrypted carriers are obtained by embedding data into the encrypted carriers by using a data hiding key by authorized data sub-hiders and granting authorization to the current receiver, and the encrypted carriers are obtained by performing decoupled encryption on the original carrier with the encryption key by the content owner (see claim 1 rejection);
performing secret sharing decryption on the plurality of authorized shares by using the decryption key, to obtain the original carrier (Chen - [Page 983, section 4.3]: if the receiver holds the decryption key kd, the original image can be recovered from the k marked encrypted images).
However, Chen doesn’t explicitly teach, but Staddon discloses: performing homomorphic decryption on the corresponding authorized marked encrypted carriers separately, to obtain a plurality of authorized shares (Staddon - [0061]: The key recovery is performed in an iterative processing loop (blocks 91-93) from 1 to t−m+1, that is, up to the query count t plus m less one. During each iteration, the user system 21 homomorphically decrypts the authorization Ehom((ih−it)yh(block 92)).
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method of Chen with Staddon so that encryption protocol of plurality of encrypted carriers is homomorphic encryption. The modification would have allowed the system to increase data security.
Regarding claim 4: Chen teaches: wherein before obtaining the plurality of authorized marked encrypted carriers, the method further comprises:
determining whether the number of authorized data sub-hiders connected to the current receiver reaches the preset number; if the number of authorized data sub-hiders connected to the current receiver has been determined to have reached the preset number, performing the step of obtaining said plurality of authorized marked encrypted carriers (Chen - [Page 984, section 4.3]: step 4: Determine whether the number of received marked encrypted images reaches k. If yes, the receiver stops sending requests to the data-hider); and
if the number of authorized data sub-hiders connected to the current receiver has been determined not to have reached the preset number, sending an authorization request to the data hider (Chen - [Page 984, section 4.3]: Step 6: Let z = z +1 1, and repeat Step 1 to Step 5).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MENG LI whose telephone number is (571)272-8729. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:30-5:30.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Alexander Lagor can be reached on (571) 270-5143. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/MENG LI/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2437