DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
1. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
2. Claims 1-20 are pending and have been examined.
Double Patenting
3. 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.
4. Claims 1-3, 6-11, 15-17, 19, and 20 are rejected on the ground of nonstatutory obviousness-type double patenting as being unpatentable over claims 1, 4-8, 11, and 15-19 of U.S. Patent 12,093,321. Although the conflicting claims are not identical, they are not patentably distinct from each other because the claims of the Patent contain every element of the claims of the instant application and as such anticipate the claims of the instant application.
“A later patent claim is not patentably distinct from an earlier patent claim if the later claim is obvious over, or anticipated by, the earlier claim. In re Longi, 759 F.2d at 896, 225 USPQ at 651 (affirming a holding of obviousness-type double patenting because the claims at issue were obvious over claims in four prior art patents); In re Berg, 140 F.3d at 1437, 46 USPQ2d at 1233 (Fed. Cir. 1998) (affirming a holding of obviousness-type double patenting where a patent application claim to a genus is anticipated by a patent claim to a species within that genus). “ ELI LILLY AND COMPANY v BARR LABORATORIES, INC., United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, ON PETITION FOR REHEARING EN BANC (DECIDED: May 30, 2001).
5. The table below shows the correspondence between the claims of the instant application and the U.S. Patent.
App. No. 18/808,762
Pat. No. 12,093,321
1. A computer-implemented method for encrypting and storing data strings to facilitate similarity searching of encrypted data strings, the method comprising: receiving an unencrypted data string; receiving one or more reference data strings; generating a document of tokens representing one or more edit distances between the unencrypted data string and the one or more reference data strings; encrypting the unencrypted data string to generate an encrypted data string; providing, to a data store, the encrypted data string and the document of tokens for storage in association with the encrypted data string; receiving, as part of a search request for the data store, a search data string; generating a search document of tokens representing one or more edit distances between the search data string and the one or more reference data strings; based on a comparing of the search document of tokens with the document of tokens stored in association with the encrypted data string, determining a similarity meets or exceeds a predetermined similarity threshold; decrypting the encrypted data string to yield the encrypted data string; and providing, responsive to the search request, the unencrypted data string.
1. A method of similarity searching encrypted data strings, the method comprising: receiving a plurality of data strings to be encrypted; obtaining a set of reference strings; determining a respective set of edit distances between each data string of the plurality of data strings and the set of reference strings; converting each respective set of edit distances into a document of tokens; encrypting the plurality of data strings; associating each of the documents of tokens with a corresponding encrypted data string of the plurality of encrypted data strings; storing the plurality of encrypted data strings and the associated plurality of documents of tokens in a memory; receiving a search request to search the plurality of encrypted data strings; determining a search set of edit distances between the search request and the set of reference strings; converting the search set of edit distances into a search document of tokens; comparing the search document of tokens with the plurality of documents of tokens stored in the memory to determine which of the plurality of documents of tokens are above a predetermined similarity threshold when compared to the search document of tokens; and returning, as a search result, the data strings that are associated with the documents of tokens of the plurality of documents of tokens that are above the predetermined similarity threshold when compared to the search document of tokens.
5. The method of claim 1, wherein the search request includes a search data string.
2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein generating the document of tokens comprises: determining and converting the one or more edit distances between the unencrypted data string and the one or more reference data strings into the document of tokens.
1. A method of similarity searching encrypted data strings, the method comprising: receiving a plurality of data strings to be encrypted; obtaining a set of reference strings;
determining a respective set of edit distances between each data string of the plurality of data strings and the set of reference strings; converting each respective set of edit distances into a document of tokens;
encrypting the plurality of data strings; associating each of the documents of tokens with a corresponding encrypted data string of the plurality of encrypted data strings; storing the plurality of encrypted data strings and the associated plurality of documents of tokens in a memory; receiving a search request to search the plurality of encrypted data strings; determining a search set of edit distances between the search request and the set of reference strings; converting the search set of edit distances into a search document of tokens; comparing the search document of tokens with the plurality of documents of tokens stored in the memory to determine which of the plurality of documents of tokens are above a predetermined similarity threshold when compared to the search document of tokens; and returning, as a search result, the data strings that are associated with the documents of tokens of the plurality of documents of tokens that are above the predetermined similarity threshold when compared to the search document of tokens.
3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein generating the search document of tokens comprises: determining and converting the one or more edit distances between the search data string and the one or more reference data strings into the search document of tokens.
1. A method of similarity searching encrypted data strings, the method comprising: receiving a plurality of data strings to be encrypted; obtaining a set of reference strings; determining a respective set of edit distances between each data string of the plurality of data strings and the set of reference strings; converting each respective set of edit distances into a document of tokens; encrypting the plurality of data strings; associating each of the documents of tokens with a corresponding encrypted data string of the plurality of encrypted data strings; storing the plurality of encrypted data strings and the associated plurality of documents of tokens in a memory; receiving a search request to search the plurality of encrypted data strings;
determining a search set of edit distances between the search request and the set of reference strings; converting the search set of edit distances into a search document of tokens;
comparing the search document of tokens with the plurality of documents of tokens stored in the memory to determine which of the plurality of documents of tokens are above a predetermined similarity threshold when compared to the search document of tokens; and returning, as a search result, the data strings that are associated with the documents of tokens of the plurality of documents of tokens that are above the predetermined similarity threshold when compared to the search document of tokens.
6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein a length of the one or more reference data strings corresponds to a length of the unencrypted data string.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein each reference string of the set of reference strings has dimensions that are the same as dimensions of each data string of the plurality of data strings.
7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein determining the similarity meets or exceeds the predetermined similarity threshold comprises: determining an exact match between the search document of tokens and the document of tokens stored in association with the encrypted data string.
7. The method of claim 1, wherein the predetermined similarity threshold is a match.
8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the predetermined similarity threshold is adjustable, and determining the similarity meets or exceeds the predetermined similarity threshold comprises: in response to determining no matches for the search document of tokens when the predetermined similarity threshold is a first predetermined similarity threshold set to an initial value, adjusting the predetermined similarity threshold to a second predetermined similarity threshold of a lower value allowing for less similarity than the initial value; and based on a re-comparing, determining the similarity between the search document of tokens and the document of tokens stored in association with the encrypted data string meets or exceeds the second predetermined similarity threshold.
8. The method of claim 7, further comprising: lowering the predetermined similarity threshold in the event that no matches are found between the search document of tokens with the plurality of documents of tokens stored in the memory; and repeating the comparing of the search document of tokens with the plurality of documents of tokens stored in the memory using the lowered predetermined similarity threshold.
9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the search request further includes the predetermined similarity threshold.
6. The method of claim 1, wherein the predetermined similarity threshold is defined in the search request.
10. A computer-implemented method for encrypting and storing data strings, the method comprising: receiving an unencrypted data string; receiving one or more reference data strings; generating a document of tokens representing one or more edit distances between the unencrypted data string and the one or more reference data strings; encrypting the unencrypted data string to generate an encrypted data string corresponding to the unencrypted data string; and providing, to a data store, the encrypted data string and the document of tokens for storage in association with the encrypted data string, wherein the encrypted data string is one of a plurality of encrypted data strings stored in the data store, and the storage of the document of tokens in association with the encrypted data string enables identification of the encrypted data string, from among the plurality of encrypted data strings without having to decrypt the plurality of encrypted data strings, in response to a receipt of a search query for the unencrypted data string.
1. A method of similarity searching encrypted data strings, the method comprising: receiving a plurality of data strings to be encrypted; obtaining a set of reference strings; determining a respective set of edit distances between each data string of the plurality of data strings and the set of reference strings; converting each respective set of edit distances into a document of tokens; encrypting the plurality of data strings; associating each of the documents of tokens with a corresponding encrypted data string of the plurality of encrypted data strings; storing the plurality of encrypted data strings and the associated plurality of documents of tokens in a memory; receiving a search request to search the plurality of encrypted data strings; determining a search set of edit distances between the search request and the set of reference strings; converting the search set of edit distances into a search document of tokens; comparing the search document of tokens with the plurality of documents of tokens stored in the memory to determine which of the plurality of documents of tokens are above a predetermined similarity threshold when compared to the search document of tokens; and returning, as a search result, the data strings that are associated with the documents of tokens of the plurality of documents of tokens that are above the predetermined similarity threshold when compared to the search document of tokens.
11. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, wherein generating the document of tokens comprises: determining and converting the one or more edit distances between the unencrypted data string and the one or more reference data strings into the document of tokens.
1. A method of similarity searching encrypted data strings, the method comprising: receiving a plurality of data strings to be encrypted; obtaining a set of reference strings;
determining a respective set of edit distances between each data string of the plurality of data strings and the set of reference strings; converting each respective set of edit distances into a document of tokens;
encrypting the plurality of data strings; associating each of the documents of tokens with a corresponding encrypted data string of the plurality of encrypted data strings; storing the plurality of encrypted data strings and the associated plurality of documents of tokens in a memory; receiving a search request to search the plurality of encrypted data strings; determining a search set of edit distances between the search request and the set of reference strings; converting the search set of edit distances into a search document of tokens; comparing the search document of tokens with the plurality of documents of tokens stored in the memory to determine which of the plurality of documents of tokens are above a predetermined similarity threshold when compared to the search document of tokens; and returning, as a search result, the data strings that are associated with the documents of tokens of the plurality of documents of tokens that are above the predetermined similarity threshold when compared to the search document of tokens.
15. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein a length of the one or more reference data strings corresponds to a length of the unencrypted data string.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein each reference string of the set of reference strings has dimensions that are the same as dimensions of each data string of the plurality of data strings.
16. A computer-implemented method for similarity searching among encrypted data strings, the method comprising: receiving an indication of a request to search a data store for a data string of interest, wherein the data store is configured to store a plurality of encrypted data strings in association with a plurality of documents of tokens that are representative of a plurality of unencrypted data strings to which the plurality of encrypted data strings correspond, each of the plurality of documents of tokens being generated based on one or more edit distances between a respective unencrypted data string of the plurality of unencrypted data strings and one or more reference data strings; generating a search document of tokens representing one or more edit distances between the data string of interest and the one or more reference data strings; comparing the search document of tokens with the plurality of documents of tokens stored in the data store; based on the comparing, determining a subset of the plurality of documents of tokens having a similarity to the search document of tokens that meets or exceeds a predetermined similarity threshold; and providing, in response to the request, a subset of the encrypted data strings stored in association with the subset of the plurality of documents of tokens.
11. A system for conducting searches within encrypted data strings, the system comprising: a memory storing instructions; and a processor executing the instructions to perform a process including: receiving a plurality of data strings to be encrypted; obtaining a set of reference strings; determining a respective set of edit distances between each data string of the plurality of data strings and the set of reference strings; converting each respective set of edit distances into a document of tokens; encrypting the plurality of data strings; associating each of the documents of tokens with a corresponding encrypted data string of the plurality of encrypted data strings; storing the plurality of encrypted data strings and the associated plurality of documents of tokens in an encrypted database; receiving a search request to search the plurality of encrypted data strings; determining a search set of edit distances between the search request and the set of reference strings; converting the search set of edit distances into a search document of tokens; comparing the search document of tokens with the plurality of documents of tokens stored in the memory to determine which of the plurality of documents of tokens are above a predetermined similarity threshold when compared to the search document of tokens; and returning, as a search result, the plurality of data strings that are associated with the documents of tokens of the plurality of documents of tokens that are above the predetermined similarity threshold when compared to the search document of tokens.
17. The computer-implemented method of claim 16, further comprising: decrypting the subset of the encrypted data strings stored in association with the subset of the plurality of documents of tokens; and providing the decrypted subset of the encrypted data strings in response to the request.
19. The system of claim 11, the process further comprising: decrypting, prior to returning the data strings, the encrypted data strings that are associated with the documents of tokens of the plurality of documents of tokens that are above the predetermined similarity threshold when compared to the search document of tokens.
19. The method of claim 16, wherein the predetermined similarity threshold is adjustable, and comparing the search document of tokens with the plurality of documents of tokens stored in the data store comprises: setting the predetermined similarity threshold to an initial value indicative of an exact match between the search document of tokens and one or more of the plurality of documents of tokens; and in response to determining none of the plurality of documents of tokens are an exact match to the search document of tokens when the predetermined similarity threshold is set to the initial value, lower the predetermined similarity threshold to a subsequent value and repeat the comparing.
18. The system of claim 17, the process further comprising: lowering the predetermined similarity threshold in the event that no matches are found between the search document of tokens with the plurality of documents of tokens stored in the memory; and repeating the comparing of the search document of tokens with the plurality of documents of tokens stored in the memory using the lowered predetermined similarity threshold.
17. The system of claim 11, wherein the predetermined similarity threshold is a match.
20. The computer-implemented method of claim 16, wherein the request includes one or more of: the data string of interest, the predetermined similarity threshold, or a portion of the data store to search.
15. The system of claim 11, wherein the search request includes a search data string.
16. The system of claim 11, wherein the predetermined similarity threshold is defined in the search request.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
6. 35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
7. Claims 10-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to a judicial exception in the form of an abstract idea without significantly more. The claims recite abstract ideas that can be categorized as mathematical concepts, and mental processes that include steps for observation, evaluation, and judgement.
As for claim 10, the claim recites limitations drawn to abstract ideas that fall into the following categories:
observation: receiving an unencrypted data string and one or more reference data strings,
Mathematical concepts and calculations: generating a document of tokens representing one or more edit distances between the unencrypted data string and the one or more reference data strings and encrypting the unencrypted data string to generate an encrypted data string corresponding to the unencrypted data string,
Mental processes and judgement: providing, to a data store, the encrypted data string and the document of tokens for storage in association with the encrypted data string, wherein the encrypted data string is one of a plurality of encrypted data strings stored in the data store, and the storage of the document of tokens in association with the encrypted data string enables identification of the encrypted data string, from among the plurality of encrypted data strings without having to decrypt the plurality of encrypted data strings, in response to a receipt of a search query for the unencrypted data string.
This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application because the claimed steps may be carried out by any generic programmable processor and therefore the steps are not intrinsically linked to any particular unique machine. Additionally, the claim language drawn to “…whereby the storage of the document of tokens in association with the encrypted data string enables identification of the encrypted data string, from among the plurality of encrypted data strings without having to decrypt the plurality of encrypted data strings, in response to a receipt of a search query for the unencrypted data string…” represents an intended use for the method, or a stated advantage of the method, and as such do not carry patentable weight or represent significantly more than the judicial exception by representing any fundamental improvement to the area of technology.
As for dependent claims 11-15, these claims do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception because they are only drawn to additional mathematical operations, and to define additional characteristic of the data being manipulated. Therefore they do not represent anything significantly more than the judicial exception of claim 10.
Allowable Subject Matter
8. Claims 4, 5, and 18 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
9. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Agarwal et al., U.S. 9,646,061: the patent discloses a method of matching a string segment with a query string involving generating tokens and matching using edit distance comparisons that meet or exceed an edit distance threshold, where the steps are similar to those disclosed in the instant application, (see esp. col. 3 lines 5-45 of Agarwal).
10. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Paul E. Callahan whose telephone number is (571) 272-3869. The examiner presently works a part-time schedule and can normally be reached from 9am to 5pm on the first Monday and Tuesday and the second Thursday and Friday of the USPTO bi-week schedule.
The examiner’s email address is: Paul.Callahan1@USPTO.GOV
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the Examiner's supervisor, Alexander Lagor, can be reached on (571) 270-5143. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is: (571) 273-8300.
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/PAUL E CALLAHAN/Examiner, Art Unit 2437