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 final office action is prepared in response to amendments and arguments filed by Applicant on June 10, 2026 as a reply to the non-final office action mailed on March 10, 2026.
Claims 13-18 have been added through the amendments.
Claims 1-18 are pending.
Claims 1-18 are rejected.
Response to Arguments
The claim amendments and Applicant’s arguments filed on June 10, 2026 have been carefully considered but deemed not to place the claims in condition for allowance in view of Examiner’s updated rejection rationale as set forth below, necessitated by Applicant’s substantial amendments to the claims which significantly affected the scope thereof, and will require further search and consideration.
Regarding the rejection of claim 1 under 35 U.S.C. 102 based on Holman et al., Applicant argued that Holman did not disclose the claimed limitation “wherein the metadata indicates at least identifying information about the user device.”
However, Examiner maintains the position that Holman et al. disclosed this claim limitation because Holman disclosed in [0020] “means 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.” Said “unique device code” is an indication of identifying information about the user device.
Regarding the “representation of a feature of an entity”, Holman disclosed in paragraph [0296] the subject matter “the representation of the feature (e.g., a face of one of the guys at the game) of the entity,” which makes it clear that the “representation of a feature of an entity” could be the face of one of the guys at the game. In other words, it is the identifying information about the user/entity.
Therefore, Holman disclosed the each and every claimed limitation.
The rejection of claims for double patenting with Patent No. 12,081,683 has been withdrawn as the terminal disclaimers filed and approved on June 10th, 2026 has overcome this ground of rejection.
Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
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 1-18 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 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 user of the user device (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 user of the user device(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 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”).
Regarding claims 13, 15 and 17, Holman disclosed the subject matter of claims 9, 1 and 5, respectively.
Holman further disclosed wherein the privacy settings indicate a type of entity that can or cannot access or purchase user data associated with the user of the user device (Holman, [0020, 0021, 0151], “DCM beacon TOS retrieval module 4122 may retrieve term data that includes a terms of service that specifies one or more conditions in which the image containing the DCM beacon 2110 may be used. In an embodiment, the TOS may also specify one or more penalties for using the personality rights that may be associated with the image, without acquiring permission or paying a licensing fee prior to releasing or utilizing the image”).
Regarding claims 14, 16 and 18, Holman disclosed the subject matter of claims 9, 1 and 5, respectively.
Holman further disclosed wherein the environment data includes information about a room or area in which with the user device is located (Holman disclosed in [0259] that “In an embodiment in which the beacon metadata 150 is binary beacon metadata 150A, additional data regarding the image may be obtained. For example, server device 830 may transmit the location and time of detection data 162 to a remote location, e.g., to beacon support server 890. … beacon support server 890 may use the location and time of detection data 162 to determine which DCM beacon is detected, and transmit the beacon identification information back to server device 830, …, the beacon identification information may be used to identify the entity in the image…”).
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any extension fee pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
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
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