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 .
Claims 1-13 are pending.
Information Disclosure Statement
The IDS filed 9/29/2025 has been considered by the Examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1-13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
As to claim 1, the preamble recites “A system for secure processing and storing of sensitive data”, but there are no claim limitations that with storing anything.
As to claims 2-6 and 9, the phrases "in such a way” (cl. 2, l. 3, cl. 3 3, l. 4, cl. 4, l. 3, cl. 5, l.3), “in a way” (cl. 3, l. 11) , and “such that” (cl. 6, l.1 and cl. 9, l. 1) renders the claim indefinite because it is unclear whether the limitations following the phrase are part of the claimed invention. See MPEP § 2173.05(d).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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.
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.
The factual inquiries 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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 1 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US PG Pub. No. 2024/0364747 to Gilburd et al. (hereinafter Gilburd) in view of US PG Pub. No. 2023/0044294 to Aravamudan et al. (hereinafter Aravamudan).
As to claim 1, Gilburd teaches secure processing and storing of sensitive data and non-sensitive data of a tenant in an execution environment of a Software as a Service provider or of a Platform as a Service provider (cloud environment with a tenant and a service provider) (Gilburd, [0055]):
a. The sensitive data includes a plaintext sensitive data element (some data is sensitive) (Gilburd, [0161]).
b. The non-sensitive data includes no plaintext sensitive data element (not all the data is sensitive) (Gilburd, [0161]).
Gilburd teaches subnets for trusted and untrusted apps but not explicitly state that the subnets are divided between secure and non-secure execution areas. However, in an analogous art, Aravamudan teaches:
c. A general execution area that allows full access by the Software as a Service provider or the Platform as a Service provider (processing operations are divided between enclaves depending on whether the data is secure or non-secure) (Aravamudan, [0053, 0160] and fig. 9).
Therefore, one of ordinary skill in art before the effective filing date of the instant application would have been motivated to implement the secure the SaaS/PaaS of Gilburd with the secure execution environments of Aravamudan in order to better protect the sensitive data of a patient as suggested by Aravamudan (Aravamudan, [0004]).
Gilburd as modified further teaches:
d. A general application service running in the general execution area that does not have access to the sensitive data and only processes the non-sensitive data (processing operations are divided between enclaves depending on whether the data is secure or non-secure) (Aravamudan, [0053, 0160] and fig. 9).
e. The execution environment for the tenant comprises a trusted execution area and a trusted application service running in the trusted execution area (processing operations are divided between enclaves depending on whether the data is secure or non-secure) (Aravamudan, [0053, 0160] and fig. 9).
As to claim 2, Gilburd as modified teaches the gateway service is configured in such a way that during operation of the system, the gateway service splits the sensitive data and the non-sensitive data, always routes the sensitive data to the trusted execution environment, and optionally routes the non-sensitive data to the general execution area (processing operations are divided between enclaves depending on whether the data is secure or non-secure) (Aravamudan, [0053, 0160] and fig. 9).
As to claim 3, Gilburd as modified teaches:
a. A plurality of trusted application services, wherein one of the plurality of trusted application services is a replacement service, wherein the replacement service is configured in such a way that during operation of the system the replacement service carries out the steps in a securing phase (using an algorithm to identify sensitive data and replace it with placeholders) (Aravamudan, at least [0185] and Gilburd, [0162]).
b. The replacement service receiving the plaintext sensitive data element from a requesting service originating from the plurality of trusted application services (sensitive data is replaced based on an algorithm) (Aravamudan, at least [0185]).
c. The replacement service providing a placeholder for the at least one plaintext sensitive data element in a way allowing later reconstitution of the sensitive data element from the placeholder (service tokenizes sensitive data with a placeholder and service replaces the placeholder with original plaintext sensitive data after appropriate authentication) (Gilburd, [0161]).
d. The replacement service sending the placeholder to the requesting service (service tokenizes sensitive data with a placeholder and service replaces the placeholder with original plaintext sensitive data after appropriate authentication) (Gilburd, [0161]).
e. In the retrieval phase, the replacement service receiving the placeholder from a requesting service originating from the plurality of trusted application services (service tokenizes sensitive data with a placeholder and service replaces the placeholder with original plaintext sensitive data after appropriate authentication) (Gilburd, [0161]).
f. The replacement service reconstituting the plaintext sensitive data element associated with the placeholder (service tokenizes sensitive data with a placeholder and service replaces the placeholder with original plaintext sensitive data after appropriate authentication) (Gilburd, [0161]).
g. The replacement service sending the plaintext sensitive data element to the requesting service (service tokenizes sensitive data with a placeholder and service replaces the placeholder with original plaintext sensitive data after appropriate authentication) (Gilburd, [0161]).
As to claim 4, Gilburd as modified teaches:
a. The gateway service is configured in such a way that during operation of the system the gateway service carries out the steps in a securing phase (service gateway) (Gilburd, [0069]).
b. The gateway service receiving the sensitive data including the plaintext sensitive data element from a tenant data source at the tenant outside the execution environment or from one of the plurality of trusted application services (the user/tenant is outside the secure enclave as the user/tenant creates the secure enclave) (Aravamudan, [0049]
c. The gateway service identifying the plaintext data element in the sensitive data (detecting sensitive information) (Gilburd, [0162]).
d. The gateway service transmitting the plaintext sensitive data element to the replacement service (service tokenizes sensitive data with a placeholder and service replaces the placeholder with original plaintext sensitive data after appropriate authentication) (Gilburd, [0161]).
e. The gateway service receiving the placeholder from the replacement service (service tokenizes sensitive data with a placeholder and service replaces the placeholder with original plaintext sensitive data after appropriate authentication) (Gilburd, [0161]).
f. The gateway service replacing the sensitive data element in the sensitive data with the placeholder to generate the non-sensitive data (service tokenizes sensitive data with a placeholder and service replaces the placeholder with original plaintext sensitive data after appropriate authentication) (Gilburd, [0161]).
g. The gateway service forwarding the non-sensitive data to one of the plurality of general application services (service tokenizes sensitive data with a placeholder and service replaces the placeholder with original plaintext sensitive data after appropriate authentication) (Gilburd, [0161]).
h. In a retrieval phase, the gateway service receiving the non-sensitive data including the placeholder from one of the plurality of general application services (service tokenizes sensitive data with a placeholder and service replaces the placeholder with original plaintext sensitive data after appropriate authentication) (Gilburd, [0161]).
i. The gateway service identifying the placeholder in the non-sensitive data (service tokenizes sensitive data with a placeholder and service replaces the placeholder with original plaintext sensitive data after appropriate authentication) (Gilburd, [0161]).
j. The gateway service transmitting the placeholder to the replacement (service tokenizes sensitive data with a placeholder and service replaces the placeholder with original plaintext sensitive data after appropriate authentication) (Gilburd, [0161]).service
k. The gateway service receiving the plaintext sensitive data element from the replacement service (service tokenizes sensitive data with a placeholder and service replaces the placeholder with original plaintext sensitive data after appropriate authentication) (Gilburd, [0161]).
l. The gateway service replacing the placeholder with the plaintext sensitive data element in the non-sensitive data to obtain the sensitive data (service tokenizes sensitive data with a placeholder and service replaces the placeholder with original plaintext sensitive data after appropriate authentication) (Gilburd, [0161]).
m. The gateway service forwarding the sensitive data to a tenant data source at the tenant outside the execution environment or to one of the plurality of trusted application services (service tokenizes sensitive data with a placeholder and service replaces the placeholder with original plaintext sensitive data after appropriate authentication) (Gilburd, [0161]).
As to claim 5, Gilburd as modified teaches a trusted processing service is the requesting service out of the plurality of trusted application services, the trusted processing service is configured in such a way that during operation of the system the trusted processing service carries out the steps:
a. Receiving a non-sensitive instructing message from the general application service
b. Identifying a placeholder in the non-sensitive instruction message
c. Transmitting the placeholder to the replacement service
d. Receiving the plaintext sensitive data element from the replacement service
e. Replacing the placeholder in the non-sensitive instruction message with the plaintext sensitive data element to obtain a sensitive instructing message
f. Processing the sensitive instructing message including the plaintext sensitive data element to obtain a sensitive data processing result
g. Identifying the plaintext sensitive data element in the sensitive data processing result
h. Transmitting the plaintext sensitive data element to the replacement service
i. Receiving the placeholder from the replacement service
j. Replacing the plaintext sensitive data element in the sensitive data processing result with the placeholder to generate a non-sensitive data processing result
k. Transmitting the non-sensitive data processing result to the general application service
As to claim 6, Gilburd as modified teaches the trusted execution area is isolated such that the sensitive data in the trusted execution area is exclusively accessible by the tenant (secure enclave is isolated from other processes and networks) (Aravamudan, [0049]).
As to claim 7, Gilburd as modified teaches a control plane for the execution environment enabling at least orchestration of the general application service in the general execution area and of the trusted application service in the trusted execution area (control plane sets up a demilitarized zone (DMZ) to protect the enclaves) (Gilburd, [0068-0069]).
As to claim 8, Gilburd as modified teaches the trusted execution area is implemented on premise or in a private or public cloud infrastructure under control of the tenant (the created enclaves are the trusted execution area) (Aravamudan, [0112]).
As to claim 9, Gilburd as modified teaches the trusted execution area is isolated such that the sensitive data in the trusted execution area is exclusively accessible by the tenant by implementation of the trusted execution area in a hardware-based, attested, trusted environment (secure enclave is isolated from other processes and networks) (Aravamudan, [0049]).
As to claim 10, Gilburd as modified teaches the trusted execution area is implement on an edge network (edge network contemplated) (Gilburd, [0050]).
As to claim 11, Gilburd as modified teaches the trusted execution area is isolated from an edge network provider by performing computations in a hardware-based, attested Trusted Execution Environment (edge network contemplated) (Gilburd, [0050]) and (the created enclaves are the trusted execution area) (Aravamudan, [0112]).
As to claim 12, Gilburd as modified teaches providing a placeholder for the plaintext sensitive data element the replacement service uses a method of a group consisting of pseudonymization, tokenization, anonymization, and encryption (tokenization) (Gilburd, [0161]).
As to claim 13, Gilburd as modified teaches using homomorphic encryption (Aravamudan, [0046]).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to WILLIAM S POWERS whose telephone number is (571)272-8573. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 7:30-17:30.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Jorge L Ortiz-Criado can be reached at (571) 272-7624. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/WILLIAM S POWERS/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2496
