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 .
Claim Objections
Claim 1, 17 is objected to because of the following informalities: the claim recites “a request ID.” When an acronym is used for a first time, it should be defined. Appropriate correction is required.
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.
Claim(s) 1-6, 9-11, 13-14, 17-22 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Khan (US 2024/0244042) in view of Hakola (US 2013/0159522)
Regarding Claim 1,
Khan (US 2024/0244042) teaches a method, comprising:
electronically receiving a verification request comprising a verification-type indicator and digital content indicative of an e-message to be verified (Paragraph [0014] teaches determining whether messages are sent from internal or external sources)(Fig. 6, 602, receive message) ;
initiating a transmission to facilitate a verification process based, at least in part, on the verification-type indicator, the transmission comprising the digital content (Fig., 6, teaches, determine based on sender attributes, the message is sent by an authorized sender);
receiving a response transmission based, at least in part, on the verification process, the response transmission comprising a verifier entity input regarding the digital content; and electronically implementing one or more processes based, at least in part, on the response transmission (Fig. 6, 606, teaches based on determining the message is sent by an authorized sender, process/forward unmodified message).
Khan does not explicitly teach assigning a request ID to the verification request; and transmission comprising the request ID
Hakola (US 2013/0159522) teaches assigning a request ID to the verification request; and transmission comprising the request ID (Paragraph [0040, 0048] teaches “assign a…verification request identifier”)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify Khan with the request ID and send a transmission comprising the request ID and the results would be predictable (i.e. the message to be verified would contain a request ID)
Regarding Claim 2,
Khan and Hakola teaches the method of claim 1 Kahn teaches wherein electronically implementing the one or more processes based, at least in part, on the response transmission comprises: determining a request verification status associated with the request ID based, at least in part, on the verifier entity input (Paragraph [0025] teaches determining whether the verification request status of the identity is “trusted”).
Regarding Claim 3,
Khan and Hakola teaches the method of claim 2. Khan teaches wherein electronically implementing the one or more processes based, at least in part, on the response transmission further comprises: responsive to a positive request verification status determination, initiating a request response transmission to a verification requester entity, the request response indicative of the positive verification status (Paragraph [0034] teaches “verified modified message may include…a [V] prepended to the original subject”)
Regarding Claim 4,
Khan and Hakola teaches the method of claim 2. Khan teaches wherein electronically implementing the one or more processes based, at least in part, on the response transmission further comprises: responsive to a negative request verification status determination: initiating an alert transmission to a designated entity, the alert transmission comprising an indicator of the negative verification status; and initiating a request response transmission to a verification requester, the request response indicative of the negative verification status (Fig. 2, [E] and message “external- This message comes from a source outside your organization).
Khan and Hakola do not explicitly teach the alert transmission comprising the request ID
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to include the request ID of Hakola in the alert message and the results would be predictable (i.e. the request ID would be in the alert transmission)
Regarding Claim 5,
Khan and Hakola teaches the method of claim 2. Khan teaches wherein electronically implementing the one or more processes based, at least in part, on the response transmission further comprises: responsive to the negative request verification status determination, initiating an alert message on a designated group messaging channel (Fig. 2, and paragraph [0021] teaches messaging system may be an email system associated with organization)
Regarding Claim 6,
Khan and Hakola teaches the method of claim 1. Khan teaches wherein initiating the transmission to facilitate the verification process based, at least in part, on the verification-type indicator comprises:
responsive to an internal verification-type indicator: initiating an internal verification transmission to a user identified by the digital content as a sender of the e-message to facilitate an internal verification process (Paragraph [0014, 0025] teaches initiating verification for internal sources or trusted sources); and receiving a response transmission from the user comprising the verifier entity input, the verifier entity input comprising an agreement or disagreement that the user is the sender of the e-message (Paragraph [0034] teaches modified message body may include indications of a verified sender (and/or links that are safe and trusted, based on the verification of the sender).
Regarding Claim 9,
Khan teaches a method, comprising:
receiving a transmission to facilitate a verification process based, at least in part, on a verification-type indicator contained in a request to verify an e-message , the transmission comprising digital content indicative of the e-message (Paragraph [0014] teaches determining whether messages are sent from internal or external sources)(Fig. 6, 602, receive message); executing the verification process, the verification process including at least an analysis of the digital content and additional information (Fig., 6, teaches, determine based on sender attributes, the message is sent by an authorized sender); receiving verifier entity input indicative of the analysis; and initiating a response transmission based, at least in part, on the verifier entity input,
Khan does not explicitly teach wherein the transmission comprising digital content indicative of the e-message and a request ID; the response transmission comprising the request ID.
Hakola (US 2013/0159522) teaches assigning a request ID to the verification request; and transmission comprising the request ID (Paragraph [0040, 0048] teaches “assign a…verification request identifier”)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify Khan with the request ID and send a transmission comprising the request ID and the results would be predictable (i.e. the message to be verified would contain a request ID)
Regarding Claim 10,
Khan and Hakola teaches the method of claim 9. Khan teaches further comprising retrieving additional information to facilitate the verification process based, at least in part, on the digital content (Fig., 6, teaches, determine based on sender attributes, the message is sent by an authorized sender);
Regarding Claim 11,
Khan and Hakola teaches the method of claim 10, but does not explicitly teach wherein retrieving additional information to facilitate the verification process comprises retrieving a copy of the e-message.
The Examiner takes Official Notice that retrieving a copy of a message is well known
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify Khan to include retrieving a copy of the e-message rather than just retrieving the e-message and the results would be predictable (i.e. Khan would retrieve a copy of the e-message rather than the e-message)
Regarding Claim 13,
Khan and Hakola teaches the method of claim 9. Khan teaches wherein receiving the transmission to facilitate the verification process comprises an internal verification transmission to a user identified by the digital content as a sender of the e-message to facilitate an internal verification process (Paragraph [0014, 0025] teaches initiating verification for internal sources or trusted sources).
Regarding Claim 14,
Khan and Hakola teaches the method of claim 13. Khan teaches wherein initiating the response transmission based, at least in part, on the verifier entity input comprises initiating the response transmission by the user, the verifier entity input comprising an agreement or disagreement that the user is the sender of the e-message (Paragraph [0034] teaches modified message body may include indications of a verified sender (and/or links that are safe and trusted, based on the verification of the sender).
.
Regarding Claims 1-6,
Claims 1-6 are similar in scope to Claims 17-22 and are rejected for a similar rationale.
Claim(s) 7-8, 12, 15-16, 23-24 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Khan (US 2024/0244042) in view of Hakola (US 2013/0159522) in further view of Horesh (US 11,750,650)
Regarding Claim 7,
Khan and Hakola teaches the method of claim 1, wherein initiating the transmission to facilitate the verification process based, at least in part, on the verification-type indicator comprises: responsive to an external verification-type indicator (Fig. 2, [E] and message “external- This message comes from a source outside your organization).:
but does not explicitly teach performing one or more processing operations to generate an initial assessment of the e-message based, at least in part, on the digital content; initiating an external verification transmission to facilitate an external verification process, the external verification transmission further comprising the initial assessment; and receiving a response transmission based, at least in part, on the verification process, the response transmission comprising the verifier entity input regarding the digital content.
Horesh (US 11,750,650) teaches performing one or more processing operations to generate an initial assessment of the e-message based, at least in part, on the digital content; initiating an external verification transmission to facilitate an external verification process, the external verification transmission further comprising the initial assessment (Col. 3, lines 41-47, teaches assessing messages to facilitate external verification based on content of the message); and receiving a response transmission based, at least in part, on the verification process, the response transmission comprising the verifier entity input regarding the digital content (Fig. 3, 306 and associated text, teaches a response transmission determining whether the message is malicious or non-malicious).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify Khan and Hakola with the assessment method of Horesh and the results would be predictable (i.e. the external verification would comprise an initial assessment)
Regarding Claim 8,
Khan and Hakola and Horesh teaches the method of claim 7. Horesh teaches wherein performing the one or more processing operations to generate the initial assessment of the e-message comprises: performing one or more image information extraction operations on received digital image content; performing one or more text analysis operations on received digital text content; and generating the initial assessment based, at least in part, on the one or more image information extraction operations and the one or more text analysis operations (Col. 3, lines 41-47, teaches using OCR to extract text from screenshots to determine the initial assessment);
Regarding Claim 12,
Khan and Hakola teaches the method of claim 9, but does not explicitly teach wherein receiving the transmission comprises receiving an initial assessment of the e-message based, at least in part, on the digital content.
Horesh (US 11,750,650) teaches performing one or more processing operations to generate an initial assessment of the e-message based, at least in part, on the digital content (Col. 3, lines 41-47, teaches assessing messages to facilitate external verification);
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify Khan and Hakola with the assessment method of Horesh and the results would be predictable (i.e. the external verification would comprise an initial assessment)
Regarding Claims 15-16,
Khan and Hakola teaches the method of claim 9, but does not explicitly teach wherein receiving the transmission to facilitate the verification process comprises an external verification transmission to facilitate an external verification process by an external, non-user verifier entity, the external verification transmission further comprising an initial assessment of the e-message, wherein initiating the response transmission based, at least in part, on the verifier entity input comprises initiating the response transmission by the non-user verifier, the response transmission including the verifier entity input indicative of the analysis of the digital content
Horesh (US 11,750,650) teaches receiving the transmission to facilitate the verification process comprises an external verification transmission to facilitate an external verification process by an external, non-user verifier entity, the external verification transmission further comprising an initial assessment of the e-message (Col. 3, lines 41-47, teaches assessing messages to facilitate external verification), wherein initiating the response transmission based, at least in part, on the verifier entity input comprises initiating the response transmission by the non-user verifier, the response transmission including the verifier entity input indicative of the analysis of the digital content (Fig. 3, 306 and associated text, teaches a response transmission determining whether the message is malicious or non-malicious).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify Khan and Hakola with the assessment method of Horesh and the results would be predictable (i.e. the external verification would comprise an initial assessment)
Regarding Claims 23-24,
Claims 23-24 are similar in scope to Claims 7-8 and are rejected for a similar rationale.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to HARRIS C WANG whose telephone number is (571)270-1462. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:00-5:30.
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/HARRIS C WANG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2439