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 .
Response to Preliminary Amendment
Applicant’s preliminary amendment to the specification dated 09/27/2024 has been fully considered and is entered.
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 1-15 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.
As to claim 1, the claim is directed to a method of constructing a closed P2P network, as recited in the preamble. The body of the claim includes several steps, the last step being “constructing, by the operating device, the first network with the plurality of terminals”. However, neither claim 1 nor any of the dependent claims explain how the first network is actually constructed, broadly covering all known and unknown ways of constructing the network, rendering the scope of the claim indefinite. In particular, it is unclear how the steps of issuing a unique ticket, transmitting the unique ticket to the plurality of terminals, and generating a terminal list is factored into the construction of the first network. It appears the claim is missing the linkage between generating and transmitting the terminal list to the plurality of terminals and constructing the first network, such as to show what “constructing” entails. As a separate issue, it is unclear how generating and transmitting the terminal list to the plurality of terminals is related to transmitting the unique ticket. It appears that transmitting the unique ticket and transmitting the terminal list are unrelated features that are not linked in a logical combination of elements rendering the scope of the claim indefinite.
Dependent claims are rejected for the same reasons.
As to claim 2, it is unclear whether the language “at least one second network including one or more terminals from at least one terminal among the plurality of terminals” suggests that the at least one terminal belonging to the second network is also part of the first network since the first network includes “the plurality of terminals”. In other words, it is unclear whether “at least one terminal” is included in both the first network and the second network, rendering it unclear what a “combination” entails.
As to claims 6-8, it is unclear what “releasing a combination of the first network and the at least one second network” entails. In particular, it is unclear whether “releasing” requires any action on behalf of the operating device to effectuate the release, rendering the scope of the claim indefinite.
Claims 9-15 contain similar limitations and are rejected for the same reasons as the corresponding dependent claims.
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.
Claims 1-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Datta et al. (US 2005/0086288 A1) in view of Yoon et al. (US 2014/0304419 A1).
As to claim 1, Datta teaches a method of constructing a closed peer-to-peer network [establishing a P2P relay network that requires authentication] (par. [0064] Fig. 1), comprising:
receiving, by an operating device [server 110] (Fig. 1), a construction request signal for constructing a first network, which is a closed peer-to-peer network [peer system submits a create grid request to establish a new peer-to-peer relay network that has restricted access] (par. [0064]), using a plurality of terminals including a first terminal [establishing peer] and at least one second terminal from the first terminal [one or more joining peer systems B-J in Fig. 1] (par. [0066]);
generating, by the operating device, a terminal list including all of the plurality of terminals, and transmitting the terminal list to the plurality of terminals [generating a new table for the new grid and sending confirmation to the peer including access information and rules for the grid. The server also sends the list of available grids and the addresses of the peers that have already joined the selected grid to each joining peer] (par. [0064], [0068]); and
constructing, by the operating device, the first network with the plurality of terminals [facilitating new connections for joining peers and closing connections for peers that are leaving the P2P network] (par. [0072]-[0073]).
While Datta teaches the server facilitating joining the grid by forcing one or more connections, Datta fails to teach issuing, by the operating device, a unique ticket according to the construction request signal and transmitting, by the operating device, the unique ticket to the plurality of terminals.
Yoon is directed to a method and a system for a peer-to-peer connection utilizing a relay server (Fig. 6). In particular, Yoon teaches issuing, by the operating device [relay server 108], a unique ticket according to the construction request signal [channel generation request message INVITE] (Fig. 6); and transmitting, by the operating device, the unique ticket to the plurality of terminals [transmitting the message INVITE to each second peer 104 with whom the first peer wants to form a P2P connection] (par. [0065]).
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 method and system of Datta by issuing, by the operating device, a unique ticket according to the construction request signal; and transmitting, by the operating device, the unique ticket to the plurality of terminals, in order to allow the joining peers of Datta to join the established P2P network when the peers are located in different private networks and the joining peer cannot reach the establishing peer directly (par. [0064] in Yoon).
As to claim 2, Datta teaches the method further comprising, after the constructing of the first network, receiving, by the operating device, a combination request signal for a combination with at least one second network including one or more terminals from at least one terminal among the plurality of terminals [after establishing a main grid, creating, joining, and leaving additional smaller grids where the server can facilitate creation of sub-grids, identifying participants, and adding new peers to an existing grid. Also, detecting and joining islands] (par. [0124]-[0128], [0137], [0175], Figs. 25 and 26; par. [0159]).
As to claim 3, Datta teaches the method further comprising, after the receiving of the combination request signal, combining, by the operating device, the first network with the at least one second network to construct an integrated network [adding peers or creating sub-networks withing the P2P relay network and managing connection limits, rules, and members. Also, detecting and joining islands] (par. [0125]-[0128], [0175], Figs. 25 and 26; par. [0159]).
As to claim 4, Datta in view of Yoon teaches that the constructing of the integrated network includes: issuing, by the operating device, a union ticket to be transmitted to all of the terminals included in the first network and the at least one second network; and transmitting, by the operating device, the union ticket to all of the terminals [the procedure of message INVITE to join new peers] (par. [0065], Fig. 6 in Yoon).
As to claim 5, Datta teaches the method further comprising, after the transmitting of the union ticket, generating, by the operating device, an integrated terminal list for all of the terminals included in the integrated network, and transmitting the integrated terminal list to all of the terminals [the server sends the addresses of the peers that have already joined the selected grid, where the peers update the list with the server] (par. [0068], [0095], [0158]).
As to claim 6, Datta teaches the method further comprising, after the constructing of the integrated network, checking, by the operating device, whether a condition for releasing the combination of the first network with the at least one second network is satisfied [peer is disconnected voluntary or a failure in the connection is detected] (par. [0091]); and releasing, by the operating device, the combination of the first network with the at least one second network when the condition is satisfied [server causes a peer to close one more connections resulting in corresponding disconnections] (par. [0091]).
As to claim 7, Datta teaches that the checking, by the operating device, of whether the condition for releasing the combination of the first network with the at least one second network is satisfied includes confirming, by the operating device, that the condition is satisfied when a time corresponding to time information included in the union ticket has elapsed [time limit, where the peer sends an update to the server confirming any closed connections and the server updates its records] (par. [0100]).
As to claim 8, Datta teaches the method further comprising, after the constructing of the integrated network, releasing the combination of the first network with the at least one second network when the operating device receives a request for integration release from any terminal belonging to the integrated network [server detects formation of islands] (par. [0145]-[0147]).
As to claim 9, Datta in view of Yoon teaches a system for constructing a closed peer-to-peer network (Fig. 1 in Datta), comprising:
a plurality of terminals including a first terminal and at least one second terminal [peers 105] (Fig. 1 in Datta); and
an operating device [server 110 in Datta] configured to perform the functionality as discussed above with respect to claim 1.
As to claims 10-15, Datta in view of Yoon teaches all the elements, as discussed above with respect to corresponding method claims 2-8.
Related Prior Art
Gu et al. (US 2015/0074779 A1) is directed to peer enrollment and route updating method (abstract). In particular, Gu teaches an enrollment server that receives an enrollment request of a peer and sends the peer credential carrying the peer location information to the peer so that the peer joins a peer-to-peer network according to the peer credential (par. [0019], [0029], [0067]). Therefore, teachings of Gu are related to the subject matter of the pending claims.
Conclusion
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/OLEG SURVILLO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2457