CTNF 18/760,692 CTNF 73460 DETAILED ACTION Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status 07-03-aia AIA 15-10-aia The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA. Information Disclosure Statement The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on 10/2/2024 & 7/30/2025 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101 07-04-01 AIA 07-04 35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows: Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title. Claims 18 and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter. The claim(s) does/do not fall within at least one of the four categories of patent eligible subject matter because the BRI of the “computer program product” comprising “program code” is “software per se” which is an explicit example of a claim not directed to any of the statutory categories. See MPEP 2106.03. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102 07-07-aia AIA 07-07 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 – 07-08-aia AIA (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. 07-12-aia AIA (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. 07-15 AIA Claim (s) 1, 3, 6, 9, 11 and 15-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102( a)(1) & (a)(2 ) as being anticipated by Li et al. (2019/0090132) hereinafter “Li” . 07-15-02-aia The applied reference has a common assignee with the instant application. Based upon the earlier effectively filed date of the reference, it constitutes prior art under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2). This rejection under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) might be overcome by: (1) a showing under 37 CFR 1.130(a) that the subject matter disclosed in the reference was obtained directly or indirectly from the inventor or a joint inventor of this application and is thus not prior art in accordance with 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(A); (2) a showing under 37 CFR 1.130(b) of a prior public disclosure under 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(B) if the same invention is not being claimed; or (3) a statement pursuant to 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) establishing that, not later than the effective filing date of the claimed invention, the subject matter disclosed in the reference and the claimed invention were either owned by the same person or subject to an obligation of assignment to the same person or subject to a joint research agreement. As to claim 1, (Currently Amended) Li discloses A communication method applied to a communication apparatus as a second device (Base station), the method comprising: receiving a first message (S310) from a first device (UE), wherein the first message comprises a certificate request file, and the certificate request file is used to apply for a digital certificate of the first device, (see [0062]: “S310. User equipment sends a certificate request message to a base station in a wireless communications network, and the base station in the wireless communications network receives the certificate request message sent by the user equipment , where the certificate request message is used to request the wireless communications network to generate a certificate for the user equipment .” ); sending a second message (S320) to a certificate authority (CA} server based on the first message, wherein the second message comprises the certificate request file, (see [0063]: “S320. The base station sends, to a control-plane device in the wireless communications network, the certificate request message received from the user equipment,…” ); receiving (S340) the digital certificate from the CA server, (see [0065]: “S340. The control-plane device sends a certificate response message to the base station , and the base station receives the certificate response message sent by the control-plane device, where the certificate response message carries information about the second certificate…” ); and sending (S350) the digital certificate to the first device, (see [0066]: “S350. The base station sends the certificate response message to the user equipment…” ). As to claim 3, (Original) Li discloses The method according to claim 1, wherein the receiving the digital certificate from the CA server comprises: receiving a first response from the CA server for the second message, wherein the first response comprises the digital certificate. See Fig 3 (carrying the certificate). As to claim 6, (Currently Amended) Li discloses A communication method applied to a communication apparatus as a first device, comprising: sending a first message (S310) to a second device, wherein the first message comprises a certificate request file ([0062]-[0066]), and the certificate request file is used to apply for a digital certificate of the first device; and receiving the digital certificate (S350) from the second device. See Fig 3.. As to claims 9, 11, and 15, Li discloses the second device comprising: a transceiver unit, configured to cooperate with a processor to (See Fig 8) as applied above to the method of claims 1, 3, and 6, respectively. As to claims 16/18 and 17/19 Li discloses mediums (see [0182]) as applied to claims 1 and 6 above. 07-15 AIA Claim (s) 1, 3, 6, 9, 11 and 15-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102( a)(1)&(a)(2 ) as being anticipated by Bender et al. (2009/0222657) hereinafter “Bender” . As to claim 1, (Currently Amended) Bender discloses A communication method applied to a communication apparatus as a second device (host server 230), the method comprising: receiving a first message (flow 2a of Fig 7, and flow 806 of Fig 8) from a first device (mobile device 102), wherein the first message (PKCS10 request block) comprises a certificate request file, and the certificate request file is used to apply for a digital certificate of the first device, (see [0082]); sending a second message (flow 2b of Fig 7, and flow 812 of Fig 8) to a certificate authority (CA) server (CA 250) based on the first message, wherein the second message comprises the certificate request file, (see [0082]); receiving (flow 4 of Fig 7, and flow 816 of Fig.8) the digital certificate from the CA server, (see [0083]); and sending (flow 5 of Fig. 7, and flow 820 of Fig. 8) the digital certificate to the first device, (see [0083]). As to claim 3, (Original) Bender discloses The method according to claim 1, wherein the receiving the digital certificate from the CA server comprises: receiving a first response from the CA server for the second message, wherein the first response comprises the digital certificate. See [0083]. As to claim 6, (Currently Amended) Bender discloses A communication method applied to a communication apparatus as a first device, comprising: sending a first message (2a / 806) to a second device, wherein the first message comprises a certificate request file ([0082]-[0083]), and the certificate request file is used to apply for a digital certificate of the first device; and receiving the digital certificate (5 / 820) from the second device. See Figs 7-8. As to claims 9, 11, and 15, Bender discloses the second device comprising: a transceiver unit, configured to cooperate with a processor to (See Fig 8) as applied above to the method of claims 1, 3, and 6, respectively. As to claims 16/18 and 17/19 Bender (inherently) discloses mediums as applied to claims 1 and 6 above . Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103 07-20-aia AIA 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. 07-21-aia AIA Claim (s) 2, 7, 10, and 20-21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bender . As to claim 2, (Currently Amended) Bender discloses The method according to claim 1, wherein the sending the second message to the CA server based on the first message comprises: sending a third message (814) to the first device however fails to explicitly recite: wherein the third message comprises the certificate request file; receiving, from the first device, first signature data corresponding to the third message; and sending the second message to the CA server, wherein the second message comprises the first signature data and the third message. Bender in [0062]-[0063] teach wherein the digital certificate comprises signature data and that the messages would be signed, thus implying that the message to the CA would include the signature data. Before the effective filing date of the instant invention it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to send a third message with the certificate request, receive and send, in the event the signature data was missing since asking for missing data is merely common sense. Claim 7 recites corresponding perspective of the UE. As to claim 10, Bender provides for the apparatus according to claim 9 and as applied above to claim 2 As to claim 20, (New) Bender discloses The method according to claim 2, wherein the receiving the digital certificate from the CA server comprises: receiving a first response from the CA server for the second message, wherein the first response comprises the digital certificate. See [0083]. As to claim 21, (New) Bender discloses The apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the transceiver is further configured to: receive a first response from the CA server for the second message, wherein the first response comprises the digital certificate. See [0083] . 07-22-aia AIA Claim (s) 4-5, 8, and 12-13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bender as applied to claim 6 above, and further in view of Kasaura et al. (2007/0162741) hereinafter “Kasaura” . As to claim 4, (Currently Amended) Bender discloses The method according to claim 3, wherein the first response carries signature data of the first response (see [0062]-[0063], however fail to explicitly recite and the sending the digital certificate to the first device comprises: sending first acknowledgment information to the CA server based on a check result of checking the first response according to the signature data of the first response (check result reads on Bender [0062]-[0063]); receiving second acknowledgment information from the CA server for the first acknowledgment information; and sending the digital certificate to the first device in response to the second acknowledgment information. In an analogous art, Kasaura discloses wherein a CA waits for an ACK to be received before completing the certificate issuing process (S1111 Fig 7, [0085]) thereby compelling one to send and receive acks. Before the effective filing date of the instant invention it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify Bender wherein the sending the digital certificate to the first device comprises: sending first acknowledgment information to the CA server based on a check result of checking the first response according to the signature data of the first response; receiving second acknowledgment information from the CA server for the first acknowledgment information; and sending the digital certificate to the first device in response to the second acknowledgment information for the purpose of conforming to industry standards. As to claim 5, (Currently Amended) Bender and Kasaura provide for The method according to claim 4, wherein the sending the first acknowledgment information to the CA server based on the check result of checking the first response based on the signature data of the first response comprises: based on the check result being successful , sending the first acknowledgment information to the first device; receiving, from the first device, second signature data corresponding to the first acknowledgment information; and sending the first acknowledgment information and the second signature data to the CA server. See Bender [0062]-[0063]. As to claim 8, (Currently Amended) Bender discloses The method according to claim 6, further comprising: sending second signature data corresponding to the first acknowledgment information to the second device (S1111 Fig 7, [0085]). Bender fails to explicitly recite yet in an analogous art Kasaura discloses receiving first acknowledgment information from the second device (see Fig 8). Before the effective filing date of the instant invention it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify Bender for further receiving first acknowledgment information from the second device for the purpose of updating information. As to claims 12 and 13, Bender provides for the apparatus according to claim 11 and as applied above to claims 4-5, respectively . Conclusion 07-96 AIA The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Pan et al. (2022/0311625) provide for the concepts of the independent claims in Fig 3. Zhu et al. (2021/0226802) provide for the concepts of the independent claims in Fig 2. Metke et al. (2012/0166796) provide for the concepts of the independent claims in Fig 3. Tie et al (2024/0323188) provide for CA signaling and verification in at least Fig.3. Avetisov et al. (10764752) provides for signature verification in Fig 3A. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to LESTER KINCAID whose telephone number is (571)272-7922. The examiner can normally be reached M-Th: 7-5. 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 at 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 published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000. LESTER G. KINCAID Primary Patent Examiner Art Unit 2649 /LESTER G KINCAID/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2649 Application/Control Number: 18/760,692 Page 2 Art Unit: 2649 Application/Control Number: 18/760,692 Page 3 Art Unit: 2649 Application/Control Number: 18/760,692 Page 4 Art Unit: 2649 Application/Control Number: 18/760,692 Page 5 Art Unit: 2649 Application/Control Number: 18/760,692 Page 6 Art Unit: 2649 Application/Control Number: 18/760,692 Page 7 Art Unit: 2649 Application/Control Number: 18/760,692 Page 8 Art Unit: 2649 Application/Control Number: 18/760,692 Page 9 Art Unit: 2649 Application/Control Number: 18/760,692 Page 10 Art Unit: 2649 Application/Control Number: 18/760,692 Page 12 Art Unit: 2649 Application/Control Number: 18/760,692 Page 13 Art Unit: 2649 Application/Control Number: 18/760,692 Page 14 Art Unit: 2649 Application/Control Number: 18/760,692 Page 15 Art Unit: 2649
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