DETAILED ACTION
This Office Action is in response to application 18/477,839 filed on September 29, 2023.
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.
Claims 13-32 are pending and herein considered.
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 Rejections - 35 USC § 102
(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.
(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.
Claims 13, 18, 20, 21, 26, 28, 29 and 32 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1)/(a)(2) as being anticipated by Seewell et al. (Seewell) U.S. Pat. Number 12,423,682.
Regarding claims 13, 21 and 29, Sewell disclose a system/method of maintaining a blockchain, comprising: maintaining a public key file configured to store one or more public keys used in a plurality of blockchain transactions, each of the one or more public keys associated with a respective one of one or more corresponding addresses of one or more users; (col. 9, Line 52-60] The filter may be constructed by obtaining an address hash from the selected user and/or a signature script from the selected user. The filter may be constructed from the address hash arising from a public key of the selected user and/or from a signature script arising from a public key the filter may be constructed so as to provide a hash of the master public key of the selected user.
receiving a plurality of blockchain transactions, wherein the one or more users
verified each of the plurality of blockchain transactions by;
searching the public key file for a respective public key used to generate a respective blockchain transaction; ((col. 2; lines [[56-67]] Globally Unique Identifier (GUID) embedded, which is used to filter relevant multisignature transactions from the blockchain when scanning for ratings. It is further indicated that of these tagged multisignature transactions, only those with the Vendor's GUID signature; col. 9; lines [[53-59]] The filter may be constructed by obtaining an address hash from the selected user and/or a signature script from the selected user. The filter may be constructed from the address hash arising from a public key of the selected user and/or from a signature script arising from a public key of the selected user. The filter may be constructed so as to provide a hash of the master public key of the selected user.
verifying the respective blockchain transaction based at least in part on the respective public key, wherein the respective public key is not stored with the verified blockchain transaction. (col. 3 lines 20-36) The rating system comprises: a storage system for storing transaction information of the digital currency; an interface for receiving an identifier of at least one account associated with the digital currency and a request for rating the transaction history of the at least one account; and a processor communicative with the storage system and the interface. The processor identifies transactions of the at least one account from the transaction information stored in the storage system and assesses the destination of the identified transactions to generate a rating for the at least one account. It is further disclosed that the rating system may assess the amount and age of the identified transactions and that the rating system may be useful, for example, for peer-to-peer digital currencies. The storage system does not appear to include the blockchain and also user specific transactions merely include the amount, date, and destination of the identified transactions.
Regarding claims 18, 26. Sewell disclose the method of claim 13, wherein each of the one or more public keys is associated with a public key infrastructure (PKI) certificate. [[ col. lines (col. 15, Line 14-20] The vendor user has a wallet and the vendor user's wallet contains the information necessary to conduct transactions. This includes the public key and private key pair necessary for a transaction (col. 15, Line 56-60] A significant number of users may be involved in the contract structured and implemented using the DFA. Each of the users is associated with their pair of private and public keys which are used to facilitate the transaction.
Regarding claims 20, 28 and 32; Sewell discloses the method of claim 20, 28 and 32, wherein at least one of the plurality of blockchain transactions is a financial transaction. (col. 15, Line 56-60] In one embodiment, each user can employ their Bitcoin wallet to retrieve the user related data from the blockchain and then process the aggregate user related data, which can then be displayed to the user through the wallet interface. This provides useful information to the user, in effect a customer user, on the counterpart user, a vendor user, which helps the user decide whether to enter into the offered transaction or not, amongst other possible benefits.
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.
Regarding claims 19, 27, are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Seewell et al. (Seewell) U.S. Pub. Number 12,423682 in view of Akiyama et al. (Akiyama) US Pat 12,423,682.
Regarding claim 19, 27; Seewell discloses the method of claim 13.
Seewell does not discloses which Akiyama discloses wherein each of the one or more public keys is a Rainbow public key (Akiyama: para [0012] other public-key cryptography includes knapsack cryptography and multivariate polynomial type cryptography. Knapsack cryptography uses, as a basis for security, the difficulty of the knapsack problem as an NP problem. Multivariate polynomial type cryptography is constructed by using the theory of field extensions and uses, as a basis for security, the solution problem of simultaneous equations.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teaching of Seewell to provide each of the one or more public keys is a Rainbow public key as taught by Akiyama. The motivation would be to provide basis for security whose security is based on the divisor finding problem of obtaining a divisor on an algebraic surface which is a difficult problem that has not been solved by contemporary mathematics.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 14-17, 22-25 and 30-31 would be allowable if rewritten to include all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Related Art
The following prior art made of record and cited on PTO-892, but not relied upon, is considered pertinent to applicant’s disclosure:
U.S. Pub. Number 2016/034989 A1 to Davis=Davis teaches a method for authorizing a blockchain-based transaction includes: receiving a transaction request, the request including a network identifier associated with a blockchain network, a transaction amount, and one of: a public key and an address identifier; generating an address identifier using at least the public key included in the received transaction request and one or more hashing algorithms if the received transaction request does not include an address identifier; generating a transaction message, the message including a first data element configured to store a transaction amount and a second data element reserved for private use, and the first data element includes a zero value and the second data element includes at least (i) the network identifier or an encoded value based on the network identifier, (ii) the address identifier, and (iii) the transaction amount; and transmitting the transaction message to a financial institution using a payment network.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to VU V TRAN whose telephone number is (571)270-1708. The examiner can normally be reached M-F, 8 AM- 4 PM.
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/VU V TRAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2491