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 .
DETAILED ACTION
This non-final office action is responsive to the U.S. patent application no. 18/781,800 filed on July 23, 2024.
Claims 1-12 are pending.
Claims 1-12 are rejected.
Priority
The application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. 120 to U.S. non-provisional application No. 17/630,483 filed on January 26, 2022, which claims priority under 35 U.S.C. 365(a) to the international application no. PCT/US2020/044086 filed on July 29, 2020, which claims priority under 35 U.S.C. 119(e) to U.S. Provisional application No. 62/881,025 filed on July 31, 2019.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on 9/3/2024 and 9/25/2024 are compliant with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements have 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.
Claims 1-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
Claim 1 recites in clause 4 “a distributed ledger manager comprising …” and in clause 8 “transmit, to a distributed ledger manager, …” It is unclear whether and how the two instances of “a distributed ledger manager” are related.
Claim 1 further recites in clause 5 “a data platform comprising …” and in the last clause “transmit, to a data platform, …” It is unclear whether and how the two instances of “a data platform” are related.
Claims 5 and 9 have the same issues as claim 1.
The dependent claims 2-4, 6-8 and 10-12 inherit the issues of claims 1, 5 and 9, respectively.
Double Patenting
The nonstatutory double patenting rejection is based on a judicially created doctrine grounded in public policy (a policy reflected in the statute) so as to prevent the unjustified or improper timewise extension of the “right to exclude” granted by a patent and to prevent possible harassment by multiple assignees. A nonstatutory double patenting rejection is appropriate where the conflicting claims are not identical, but at least one examined application claim is not patentably distinct from the reference claim(s) because the examined application claim is either anticipated by, or would have been obvious over, the reference claim(s). See, e.g., In re Berg, 140 F.3d 1428, 46 USPQ2d 1226 (Fed. Cir. 1998); In re Goodman, 11 F.3d 1046, 29 USPQ2d 2010 (Fed. Cir. 1993); In re Longi, 759 F.2d 887, 225 USPQ 645 (Fed. Cir. 1985); In re Van Ornum, 686 F.2d 937, 214 USPQ 761 (CCPA 1982); In re Vogel, 422 F.2d 438, 164 USPQ 619 (CCPA 1970); In re Thorington, 418 F.2d 528, 163 USPQ 644 (CCPA 1969).
A timely filed terminal disclaimer in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(c) or 1.321(d) may be used to overcome an actual or provisional rejection based on nonstatutory double patenting provided the reference application or patent either is shown to be commonly owned with the examined application, or claims an invention made as a result of activities undertaken within the scope of a joint research agreement. See MPEP § 717.02 for applications subject to examination under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA as explained in MPEP § 2159. See MPEP § 2146 et seq. for applications not subject to examination under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA . A terminal disclaimer must be signed in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(b).
The filing of a terminal disclaimer by itself is not a complete reply to a nonstatutory double patenting (NSDP) rejection. A complete reply requires that the terminal disclaimer be accompanied by a reply requesting reconsideration of the prior Office action. Even where the NSDP rejection is provisional the reply must be complete. See MPEP § 804, subsection I.B.1. For a reply to a non-final Office action, see 37 CFR 1.111(a). For a reply to final Office action, see 37 CFR 1.113(c). A request for reconsideration while not provided for in 37 CFR 1.113(c) may be filed after final for consideration. See MPEP §§ 706.07(e) and 714.13.
The USPTO Internet website contains terminal disclaimer forms which may be used. Please visit www.uspto.gov/patent/patents-forms. The actual filing date of the application in which the form is filed determines what form (e.g., PTO/SB/25, PTO/SB/26, PTO/AIA /25, or PTO/AIA /26) should be used. A web-based eTerminal Disclaimer may be filled out completely online using web-screens. An eTerminal Disclaimer that meets all requirements is auto-processed and approved immediately upon submission. For more information about eTerminal Disclaimers, refer to www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/applying-online/eterminal-disclaimer.
Claims 1-4 are rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claims 1, 3-5 of U.S. Patent No. 12,081,683 in view of Holman et al. (U.S. 2015/0106947), as shown below.
Present application no. 18/781,800
Patent No. 12,081,683
1. A user device comprising:
one or more computer readable storage devices configured to store computer executable instructions;
a head mounted display;
sensors configured to detect surroundings of the user device;
a distributed ledger manager comprising a distributed ledger and software configured to read and write to the distributed ledger;
a data platform comprising one or more databases;
a network interface; and
one or more hardware computer processors in communication with the one or more computer readable storage devices to execute the computer executable instructions to cause the user device to:
receive privacy settings associated with a first user;
transmit, to a distributed ledger manager, the privacy settings;
receive, from the distributed ledger manager, a first public encryption key associated with the first user;
collect, via the sensors, environment data associated with the user device;
encrypt the environment data based on the first public encryption key;
semantically tag the encrypted environment data with metadata, wherein the metadata indicates at least identifying information about the user device; and
transmit, to a data platform, the semantically tagged encrypted environment data, wherein the data platform comprises one or more databases.
2. The user device of claim 1, wherein the public encryption key is generated by the distributed ledger manager based at least in part on the privacy settings.
3. The user device of claim 1, wherein the sensors include one or more of: an accelerometer, a camera, and a GPS sensor.
4. The user device of any one of claim 1, wherein the metadata is not encrypted.
1. A user device comprising:
one or more computer readable storage devices configured to store computer executable instructions;
a head mounted display;
sensors configured to detect surroundings of the user device;
a network interface; and
one or more hardware computer processors in communication with the one or more computer readable storage devices to execute the computer executable instructions to cause the user device to:
receive privacy settings associated with a first user;
transmit, to a distributed ledger manager via the network interface, the privacy settings for storage on a distributed ledger, wherein the distributed ledger manager comprises a distributed ledger and software configured to read and write to the distributed ledger;
receive, from the distributed ledger manager via the network interface, a first public encryption key associated with the first user;
collect, via the sensors, environment data associated with the user device, wherein the sensors are configured to detect surroundings of the user device;
encrypt the environment data based on the first public encryption key;
semantically tag the encrypted environment data with metadata, wherein the metadata indicates at least identifying information about the user device; and
transmit, to a data platform via the network interface, the semantically tagged encrypted environment data, wherein the data platform comprises one or more databases.
3. The user device of claim 1, wherein the first public encryption key is generated by the distributed ledger manager based at least in part on the privacy settings.
4. The user device of claim 1, wherein the sensors include one or more of: an accelerometer, a camera, and a GPS sensor.
5. The user device of claim 1, wherein the metadata is not encrypted.
The claims of the patent no. 12,081,683 do not explicitly disclose a user device that comprises two of the components of the user device in claim 1 of the present application, as underlined in the table above. However, Holman et al. disclosed a user device that comprises
a distributed ledger manager comprising a distributed ledger and software configured to read and write to the distributed ledger (Holman disclosed in Figs. 1-L, 1-M and [0164] that “In an embodiment, wearable computer acquired encrypted data decryption and re-encryption server 4200 may include a user-specific key retrieving module 4270, that may be configured to obtain, through generation, acquisition, reception, or retrieval, of a user-specific encryption key” said server 4200 may anticipate the distributed ledger manager in the claim);
a data platform comprising one or more databases (Holman disclosed in [0167] that “ In an embodiment, computing device 3200 receives the image data. … After processing those images at the server 4000, for example, the images, which, in some embodiments, now may be encrypted with a user-specific code, may be transmitted to computing device 3200, which may be the user 3105's home media center back at her house. In another embodiment, computing device 3200 may be user 3105's laptop device, or user 3105's smartphone or tablet device” said computing device 3200 anticipates the “data platform” in the claim);
One of ordinary skill in the art, at a time before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, would have been motivated to combine Holman et al. with Patent No. 12,081,683 because both of them disclosed methods and systems for managing user data collected by sensors using encryption and ledger, in an augmented reality settings (Patent no. 12,081,683, Fig. 7A; Holman, Abstract and Fig. I-J). Therefore it would have been obvious to modify the patent’s teaching with Holman’s as such that the user device in the Patent no. 12,081,683 would also comprise a distributed ledger manager and a data platform.
Claims 5-12 are rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claims 8-12, 14-19 of U.S. Patent No. 12,081,683 as shown below.
Present application no. 18/781,800
Patent No. 12,081,683
5. A user device comprising:
one or more computer readable storage devices configured to store computer executable instructions;
a head mounted display;
a network interface; and
one or more hardware computer processors in communication with the one or more computer readable storage devices to execute the computer executable instructions to cause the user device to:
receive privacy settings associated with a first user;
transmit, to a distributed ledger manager via the network interlace, the privacy settings for storage on a distributed ledger;
receive, from the distributed ledger manager via the network interface, a first public encryption key associated with the first user;
collect, via sensors, environment data associated with the user device,
wherein the sensors are configured to detect surroundings of the user device;
encrypt the environment data based on the first public encryption key;
semantically tag the encrypted environment data with metadata, wherein the metadata indicates at least identifying information about the user device; and
transmit, to a data platform via a network interface, the semantically tagged encrypted environment data,
wherein the data platform comprises one or more databases.
6. The user device of claim 5, wherein the public encryption key is generated by the distributed ledger manager based at least in part on the privacy settings.
7. The user device claim 5, wherein the sensors include one or more of: an accelerometer, a camera, and a GPS sensor.
8. The user device of claim 5, wherein the metadata is not encrypted.
9. A method comprising:
receiving privacy settings associated with a first user;
transmitting, to a distributed ledger manager, the privacy settings,
wherein the distributed ledger manager comprising a distributed ledger and software configured to read and write to the distributed ledger;
receiving, from the distributed ledger manager, a first public encryption key associated with a first user;
collecting, via sensors, environment data associated with a user device,
wherein the sensors are configured to detect surroundings of the user device;
encrypting the environment data based on the first public encryption key;
semantically tagging the encrypted environment data with metadata, wherein the metadata indicates at least identifying information about the user device; and
transmitting, to a data platform, the semantically tagged encrypted environment data, wherein the data platform comprises one or more databases.
10. The method of claim 9, wherein the public encryption key is generated by the distributed ledger manager based at least in part on the privacy settings.
11. The method of claim 9, wherein the sensors include one or more of: an accelerometer, a camera, and a GPS sensor.
12. The method of claim 9, wherein the metadata is not encrypted.
6. A user device comprising:
one or more computer readable storage devices configured to store computer executable instructions;
a head mounted display;
and one or more hardware computer processors in communication with the one or more computer readable storage devices to execute the computer executable instructions to cause the user device to:
receive privacy settings associated with a first user;
transmit, to a distributed ledger manager, the privacy settings;
receive, from the distributed ledger manager, a first public encryption key associated with the first user;
collect, via one or more sensors, environment data associated with the user device;
(8. The user device of claim 6, wherein the one or more sensors are configured to detect surroundings of the user device.)
encrypt the environment data based on the first public encryption key;
semantically tag the encrypted environment data with metadata, wherein the metadata indicates at least identifying information about the user device; and
transmit, to a data platform, the semantically tagged encrypted environment data.
(12. The user device of claim 6, wherein the data platform comprises one or more databases.)
7. The user device of claim 6, wherein the public encryption key is generated by the distributed ledger manager based at least in part on the privacy settings.
9. The user device of claim 6, wherein the one or more sensors include one or more of: an accelerometer, a camera, and a GPS sensor.
10. The user device of claim 6, wherein the metadata is not encrypted.
14. A method comprising:
receiving privacy settings associated with a first user;
transmitting, to a distributed ledger manager, the privacy settings;
(19. The method of claim 14, wherein the distributed ledger manager comprises a distributed ledger and software configured to read and write to the distributed ledger.)
receiving, from the distributed ledger manager, a first public encryption key associated with the first user;
collecting, via one or more sensors, environment data associated with a user device;
(16. The method of claim 14, wherein the one or more sensors are configured to detect surroundings of the user device.)
encrypting the environment data based on the first public encryption key;
semantically tagging the encrypted environment data with metadata, wherein the metadata indicates at least identifying information about the user device; and
transmitting, to a data platform, the semantically tagged encrypted environment data, wherein the data platform comprises one or more databases.
15. The method of claim 14, wherein the public encryption key is generated by the distributed ledger manager based at least in part on the privacy settings.
17. The method of claim 14, wherein the one or more sensors include one or more of: an accelerometer, a camera, and a GPS sensor.
18. The method of claim 14, wherein the metadata is not encrypted.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 –
(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 1-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being unpatentable over Holman et al. (U.S. 2015/0106947).
Regarding claim 1, Holman disclosed user device comprising:
one or more computer readable storage devices configured to store computer executable instructions (Holman disclosed in Fig. 1-I and [0139] that “wearable computer device memory 3180, which also may include encrypted image storage 3184”);
a head mounted display (Holman disclosed in Figs. 1-J, 2A and [0269] “a wearable head-mounted computer”);
sensors configured to detect surroundings of the user device (Holman disclosed in Fig. 1-J and [0136] that “wearable computer 3100 may include a wearable computer image capturing device 3110, e.g., a lens.” and in [0137] that “wearable computer image capturing device 3110 may also include circuitry to detect audio (e.g., a microphone) and/or video …”);
a distributed ledger manager comprising a distributed ledger and software configured to read and write to the distributed ledger (Holman disclosed in Figs. 1-L, 1-M and [0164] that “In an embodiment, wearable computer acquired encrypted data decryption and re-encryption server 4200 may include a user-specific key retrieving module 4270, that may be configured to obtain, through generation, acquisition, reception, or retrieval, of a user-specific encryption key” said server 4200 may anticipate the distributed ledger manager in the claim);
a data platform comprising one or more databases (Holman disclosed in [0167] that “ In an embodiment, computing device 3200 receives the image data. … After processing those images at the server 4000, for example, the images, which, in some embodiments, now may be encrypted with a user-specific code, may be transmitted to computing device 3200, which may be the user 3105's home media center back at her house. In another embodiment, computing device 3200 may be user 3105's laptop device, or user 3105's smartphone or tablet device” said computing device 3200 anticipates the “data platform” in the claim);
a network interface (Holman disclosed in [0148] that “wearable computer server 4000 may communicate with one or more wearable devices 3100 through use of a communication network, which may use any known form of device communication” meaning that the wearable device 3100 has a network interface); and
one or more hardware computer processors in communication with the one or more computer readable storage devices to execute the computer executable instructions to cause the user device to:
receive privacy settings associated with a first user (Holman disclosed in Figs. 1-I, 1-N and [0141] that “DCM beacon detecting module 3140 is configured to detect a presence or an absence of a DCM beacon, e.g., DCM beacon 2110, associated with the entity (e.g., user 2105, e.g., "Jules Caesar")” Holman disclosed in [0126] that a DCM beacon is a "Don't Capture Me" (hereinafter "DCM") privacy beacon. Said DCM beacon anticipates the “privacy settings associated with a first user” in the claim);
transmit, to a distributed ledger manager, the privacy settings (Holman, Fig. 1-L disclosed that that the “Don’t Capture Me” setting is transmitted to the server 4200);
receive, from the distributed ledger manager, a first public encryption key associated with the first user (Holman disclosed in [0139] that “device-specific encryption key 3182 may be generated in real time by the device.” and in [0164] that “The user-specific encryption key may be delivered to image data encrypting with user-specific key module 4280,…”);
collect, via the sensors, environment data associated with the user device (Holman disclosed in [0235] that “computing device 220 may capture an image of an entity 105 associated with a privacy beacon, e.g., a DCM ("Don't Capture Me") beacon 110. In this and some other examples, the captured entity is named "Jules Caesar."”)
encrypt the environment data based on the first public encryption key (Holman disclosed in [0140] that “ image prior-to-processing encryption module 3150 may generate encrypted image data 2210. Encrypted image data 2210 may be stored in encrypted image storage 3184 of wearable computer device memory 3180. In an embodiment, encrypted image data 2210 also may be transmitted to central server encrypted data and beacon metadata transmission module 3170”);
semantically tag the encrypted environment data with metadata, wherein the metadata indicates at least identifying information about the user device (Holman disclosed in [0020] that “… wherein said image data further includes a privacy metadata regarding a presence of a privacy beacon associated with the entity”); and
transmit, to a data platform, the semantically tagged encrypted environment data, wherein the data platform comprises one or more databases (Holman disclosed in [0140] that “encrypted image data 2210 also may be transmitted to central server encrypted data and beacon metadata transmission module 3170” and in [0146] that “central server encrypted data and beacon metadata transmission module 3170 may receive the encrypted image data 2210 and the DCM beacon metadata 2230 ”).
Claim 5 lists substantially the same elements as claim 1, minus the distributed ledger manager and the data platform, in the same user device form. Therefore, the rejection rationale for claim 1 applies equally as well to claim 5.
Claim 9 lists substantially the same elements as claim 1 in method form rather than user device form. Therefore, the rejection rationale for claim 1 applies equally as well to claim 9.
Regarding claims 2, 6 and 10, Holman disclosed the subject matter of claims 1, 5 and 9, respectively.
Holman further disclosed wherein the public encryption key is generated by the distributed ledger manager based at least in part on the privacy settings (Holman, [0297], “ … a unique device code (e.g., a device identifier that is set the first time a person logs into the device is used as a seed to generate an encryption key) associated with a head-mounted wearable computer device (e.g., a Google Glass device) configured to capture the image (e.g., the picture of two women on a fishing boat), wherein said image data further includes the privacy metadata (e.g., a code that is specific to the particular woman who has the privacy beacon)”).
Regarding claims 3, 7 and 11, Holman disclosed the subject matter of claims 1, 5 and 9, respectively.
Holman further disclosed wherein the sensors include one or more of: an accelerometer, a camera, and a GPS sensor (Holman disclosed in Fig. 1-J and [0136] that “wearable computer 3100 may include a wearable computer image capturing device 3110, e.g., a lens.” Said image capturing device 3110 anticipates the camera in the claim).
Regarding claims 4, 8 and 12, Holman disclosed the subject matter of claims 1, 5 and 9, respectively.
Holman further disclosed wherein the metadata is not encrypted (Holman disclosed in [0302] “operation 1410 may include operation 1414 depicting receiving the privacy metadata regarding the presence of the privacy beacon associated with the entity, wherein the privacy metadata is unencrypted. For example, FIG. 9, e.g., FIG. 9A, shows unencrypted privacy metadata correlated to the entity-associated privacy beacon obtaining module 914 receiving the privacy metadata”).
Related Prior Art
Holman et al. (US 2015/0106947) is directed to methods and systems for acquiring image data that includes an image that contains a representation of a feature of an entity and that has been encrypted through use of a unique device code, wherein said image data further includes a privacy metadata regarding a presence of a privacy beacon associated with the entity.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SHIRLEY X ZHANG whose telephone number is (571)270-5012. The examiner can normally be reached 8:30am - 5:00pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Joon H Hwang can be reached at 571-272-4036. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/SHIRLEY X ZHANG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2447