Detailed Action
Claims 1-20 are pending in this application.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 6/21/24 has been considered.
Drawings
The Drawings filed on 6/21/24 are acceptable.
Claim Interpretation
Claims 15-20 recites “a computer-readable storage device” is interpreted as not including signal per se, supported by para. 61 of the applicant’s specification therefore is statutory under 101.
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 1-4, 7-11, 14-18, 20 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 2002/0004908 issued to Galea in view of 2021/0021612 issued to Higbee in view of US 2022/0255950 issued to Dedenok et al.(Dedenok).
As per claims 1,8,15 Galea teaches a method/system/ computer-readable storage device for scanning email messages, comprising: one or more processors; a tangible computer-readable storage medium storing instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors(Fig.6, para.51), cause the one or more processors to:
generate, at a source computer system, an email message to be transmitted from the source computer system, wherein the email message comprises email content(Fig.1,2, [0046] ... As illustrated in FIG. 1, an electronic message received by the electronic mail server, step 101, is isolated, or captured, step 102. The captured electronic mail message is divided up, step 103, into its constituent bodies of message text 110, 111 and attachments 112, 113. An electronic mail message can have multiple bodies, also known as message text, and multiple attachments, but only two of each are illustrated in FIG. 1…;);
transmit the email message from the source computer system to a destination computer system(Fig.1,2, [0046] FIG. 1 illustrates an application of the invention in which the method of the invention is used in a gateway or electronic mail server, between a user's network and a public network, for example. However, it will be appreciated that the invention may be used to protect a single computer. As illustrated in FIG. 1, an electronic message received by the electronic mail server, step 101, is isolated, or captured, step 102…);
separate additional data from the email content is transmitted from the source computer system to the destination computer system(Figs.1,2, [0046] …The captured electronic mail message is divided up, step 103, into its constituent bodies of message text 110, 111 and attachments 112, 113. An electronic mail message can have multiple bodies, also known as message text, and multiple attachments, but only two of each are illustrated in FIG. 1…;attachment is interpreted as the additional data.); and
scan the transmitted email message to obtain the email content generated at the source computer system separate from the additional data added to the email message(Figs.1,2, [0046] …The captured electronic mail message is divided up, step 103, into its constituent bodies of message text 110, 111 and attachments 112, 113. An electronic mail message can have multiple bodies, also known as message text, and multiple attachments, but only two of each are illustrated in FIG. 1…. [0047] Simultaneously, or sequentially, the attachments are scanned to determine the presence of macros, as illustrated in FIG. 2. As already described in relation to FIG. 1, incoming or outgoing electronic mail messages are received by the electronic mail server, step 201, and an electronic mail message is isolated, step 202, and any attachments 212,213 are removed, step 203, from the electronic mail message and sequentially scanned to determine whether the attachments contain macros, step 214.; email body is interpreted as the email content; it is obvious to one ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention that the email is “scanned” because the email is separated into the body and the attachment; in further the body and attachment are scanned for viruses, para.4,46,47)
Galea does not explicitly teach additional data from the email content added to the email message as the email message is transmitted; scan the transmitted email message at the destination computer system
Higbee teaches additional data from the email content added to the email message as the email message is transmitted([0152] Some of email gateways may modify the headers or other metadata of an email as they interact with the email. As a non-limiting example, informative X-headers may be added to messages after scanning by a mail gateway. The fields in the headers can help provide administrators with information about the message and about how it was processed, [0154] … email gateway may add identifying metadata, such as headers, that indicate, for example, which gateway processed the email or the types of processing that were executed on the email. Subsequently, the modified email may be forwarded on to a generalized email server which stores emails for access by individual users and individual email clients. … )
Therefore it would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Galea’s teaching of separating email into different parts such as the body and the attachment to apply the known method of Higbee of adding headers to an email by a gateway in order to provide the predictable result of separating emails into the body, added header, and attachment.
One ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine the teachings in order to quickly identify suspicious messages(Higbee, para.2-4)
Galea in view of Higbee does not explicitly teach scan the transmitted email message at the destination computer system.
Dedenok scan the transmitted email message at the destination computer system([0120] launching an anti-virus scan both on the PC of the user who received the email and on the PC of the user who sent the email, if the email is internal)
Therefore it would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Galea in view of Higbee teaching of separating emails into the body, added header, and attachment and scanning for viruses to use the known method of Dedenok of the receiver launching anti-viruses to scan for viruses in order to provide the predictable result of separating emails into the body, added header, and attachment and scanning for viruses at the recipient’s computer system.
One ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine the teachings in order to quickly identify suspicious messages(Higbee, para.2-4) and/or prevent attacks by hackers or fraudsters(Higbee, para.2-3)
As per claims 2,9,16, Galea in view of Higbee in view of Dedenok teaches the method/system/computer-readable storage device of claim 1,8,15, wherein the email content is unaltered original email data and further comprising analyzing the unaltered original email data and the additional data to determine an email context relating to the email message(Galea, [0046]…. The bodies and attachments are sequentially scanned, step 104, to determine whether any of the said bodies or attachments contains a character string indicating the presence of operable program code. That is, the program scans the body or attachment for a tag or tags which identify program code that will be run on viewing the electronic mail message or code that will run an external program executed once the electronic mail message is viewed. For example, in the current version of HTML the tag "scripts" identifies program code. The presence of such a tag means that an electronic mail message can potentially run an external program or trigger a program. It will be understood that for future or different versions of HTML, there may be more or different names for identifying script code. [0047] Simultaneously, or sequentially, the attachments are scanned to determine the presence of macros, as illustrated in FIG. 2. As already described in relation to FIG. 1, incoming or outgoing electronic mail messages are received by the electronic mail server, step 201, and an electronic mail message is isolated, step 202, and any attachments 212,213 are removed, step 203, from the electronic mail message and sequentially scanned to determine whether the attachments contain macros, step 214. If a macro is detected within an attachment, the attachment may either be deleted, step 215, or quarantined, step 216….That is, all macros or attachments containing macros are removed and deleted, or at least quarantined, whether they are harmful or not.;Higbee, [0151] ... Some of the email gateways though which emails pass may be configured to scan for security threats, indicia of spam, or other arbitrary features that may be found in an email. In some environments, the email gateway may provide security features, and is referred to as a Secure Email Gateway.; [0310] …. This can include extraction of header information, content information or any other information that the management console module is capable of extracting. The extraction can be automatic upon meeting a specific threshold, such as number of people reporting the same message or reporting user reputation score above a threshold. The system can then aggregate the similar characteristics or pattern matching to develop rules. These can include if specific headers are identified, attachments, links, message content or any other element that malware and virus scanning programs detect.). Motivation to combine set forth in claims 1,8,15.
As per claims 3,10,17, Galea in view of Higbee in view of Dedenok the method/system/computer-readable storage device of claim 2,9,16, wherein the tangible computer-readable storage medium is further configured to store instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to: identify a potential email threat based at least in part on the analyzing and performing a protective action in response to the identified potential email threat(Galea, [0046] …. Alternatively, the message containing script tag may be quarantined until subsequently released or deleted… [0047] .. an electronic mail message is isolated, step 202, and any attachments 212,213 are removed, step 203, from the electronic mail message and sequentially scanned to determine whether the attachments contain macros, step 214. If a macro is detected within an attachment, the attachment may either be deleted, step 215, or quarantined, step 216….That is, all macros or attachments containing macros are removed and deleted, or at least quarantined, whether they are harmful or not.).
As per claims 4,11,18, Galea in view of Higbee in view of Dedenok the method/system/computer-readable storage device of claim 1,8,15, wherein the additional data is added to the email message by one or more gateways, routers, and mailboxes, or a combination thereof, as the email message is transmitted from the source computer system to the destination computer system(Higbee, [0152] Some of email gateways may modify the headers or other metadata of an email as they interact with the email. As a non-limiting example, informative X-headers may be added to messages after scanning by a mail gateway. The fields in the headers can help provide administrators with information about the message and about how it was processed, [0154] … email gateway may add identifying metadata, such as headers, that indicate, for example, which gateway processed the email or the types of processing that were executed on the email. Subsequently, the modified email may be forwarded on to a generalized email server which stores emails for access by individual users and individual email clients. … ). Motivation to combine set forth in claims 1,8,15.
As per claims 7,14,20, Galea in view of Higbee in view of Dedenok the method/system/computer-readable storage device of claim 1,8,15, wherein the email content comprises original email data having preserved additional information(Galea, [0006] According to the present invention there is provided an anti-virus system for an electronic mail message, the system including means for determining the presence of the electronic mail message; means for analysing and scanning the electronic mail message for tags indicating the presence of operable program code and for removing any such tags and operable program code from the electronic mail message; and means for applying the electronic mail message with the tags and operable program code removed to server means. [0046] FIG. 1 illustrates an application of the invention in which the method of the invention is used in a gateway or electronic mail server, between a user's network and a public network, for example. However, it will be appreciated that the invention may be used to protect a single computer. As illustrated in FIG. 1, an electronic message received by the electronic mail server, step 101, is isolated, or captured, step 102…. ).
Claims 5,12 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 2002/0004908 issued to Galea in view of 2021/0021612 issued to Higbee in view of US 2022/0255950 issued to Dedenok et al.(Dedenok) in view of US 2004/0111478 issued to Gross et al.(Gross).
As per claims 5,12, Galea in view of Higbee in view of Dedenok the method/system/computer-readable storage device of claim 1,8, wherein the tangible computer-readable storage medium is further configured to store instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to: adding the additional data in addition to the email content(Higbee, para.152,154) however does not explicitly teach extend an SMTP protocol conversation by adding the additional data.
Gross explicitly teaches extend an SMTP protocol conversation by adding the additional data([0146] .. The message generated by the message dispatch module 26 comprises a conventional SMTP (Simple-mail Transfer Protocol) message including an extended message header. Specifically, the message comprises a conventional header 159 including data identifying the e-mail address 44 displayed within the e-mail window 152 of the user interface 150 and a subject header including the text displayed within the subject window 157 of the user interface 150; an extended header 162; and a message body 164 comprising of text entered within the message window 158 of the user interface 150.).
Therefore it would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Galea in view of Higbee in view of Dedenok of the gateway added header to email message to apply the teachings of Gross of SMTP message with extended header in order to provide the predictable result of adding extended header to an email message in SMTP.
One ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine the teachings in order to provide security and track emails.
Claims 6,13,19, rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 2002/0004908 issued to Galea in view of 2021/0021612 issued to Higbee in view of US 2022/0255950 issued to Dedenok et al.(Dedenok) in view of US 2004/0111478 issued to Gross et al.(Gross) in view of US 2008/0109532 issued to Denoual et al.(Denoual).
As per claims 6,13, Galea in view of Higbee in view of Dedenok in view of Gross teaches the method/system/computer-readable storage device of claim 5,12, wherein a context of the additional data is included in a separate MIME boundary having a defined content type. Higbee, does teach MIME, para.56.
Denoual explicitly teaches wherein a context of the additional data is included in a separate MIME boundary having a defined content type(para.75, shows MIME boundary and content type).
Therefore it would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Galea in view of Higbee in view of Dedenok in view of Gross to use MIME boundary with content type as taught by Denoual in order to provide the predictable result of include data into the content type of within the MIME boundary.
One ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine the teachings in order to easily interpret and display content.
As per claim 19, Galea in view of Higbee in view of Dedenok teaches the computer-readable storage device of claim 15, wherein the instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, further cause the one or more processors to: adding the additional data in addition to the email content(Higbee, para.152,154) Higbee, does teach MIME, para.56, however does not explicitly teach extend an SMTP protocol conversation by adding the additional data, wherein a context of the additional data is included in a separate MIME boundary having a defined content type.
Gross explicitly teaches extend an SMTP protocol conversation by adding the additional data([0146] .. The message generated by the message dispatch module 26 comprises a conventional SMTP (Simple-mail Transfer Protocol) message including an extended message header. Specifically, the message comprises a conventional header 159 including data identifying the e-mail address 44 displayed within the e-mail window 152 of the user interface 150 and a subject header including the text displayed within the subject window 157 of the user interface 150; an extended header 162; and a message body 164 comprising of text entered within the message window 158 of the user interface 150.).
Therefore it would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Galea in view of Higbee in view of Dedenok of the gateway added header to email message to apply the teachings of Gross of SMTP message with extended header in order to provide the predictable result of adding extended header to an email message in SMTP.
One ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine the teachings in order to provide security and track emails.
Galea in view of Higbee in view of Dedenok does not explicitly teach wherein a context of the additional data is included in a separate MIME boundary having a defined content type.
Denoual explicitly teaches wherein a context of the additional data is included in a separate MIME boundary having a defined content type(para.75, shows MIME boundary and content type).
Therefore it would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Galea in view of Higbee in view of Dedenok in view of Gross to use MIME boundary with content type as taught by Denoual in order to provide the predictable result of include data into the content type of within the MIME boundary.
One ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine the teachings in order to easily interpret and display content.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. See PTO-892.
US 2018/0097761 issued to Everton et al.,teaches a system comprises email processing circuitry of a mail transfer agent. The email processing circuitry is configured to receive an inbound email message, and detect, based on parsing of the inbound email message, that the inbound email message is intended for multiple recipients and comprises one or both of: a header which determines that notification objects are to be embedded in corresponding output email messages; and body content which determines that notification objects to be embedded in the corresponding output email messages.
US 2021/0281606 issued to Singh et al., teaches methods and systems for detecting a phishing attack on a computer device can involve scanning one or more email messages, and separating email parts from the one or more email messages, in response to scanning the at least one email message. In addition, the email parts of the at least one email message can be subject to a feature extraction operation. The email features extracted from the email parts can be then analyzed to determine whether or not any of the email features contain suspected phishing content, confirmed phishing content and benign email content.
US 2016/0099959 issued to Yanovsky et al., teaches information concerning a plurality of identified threats provided by a plurality of preselected sources is stored in memory. An e-mail message may be received over a communication network. The received e-mail message is separated into a plurality of components. The stored information is searched to identify a reputation score associated with each of the plurality of components. It is then determined whether the e-mail is a threat based on the identified reputation score of each of the plurality of components. The determination is sent to a designated recipient.
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/BACKHEAN TIV/
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2459