DETAILED ACTION
This Office Action is in response to the application 18/855,114 filed on October 08th, 2024.
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 1-6 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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS), submitted on 10/08/2024, 06/10/2025, 06/11/2025, is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CRR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Priority
Acknowledgement is made of Applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d) to Application No. 2022-068599, the signed copy having been filed on April 19th, 2022.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
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.
Claim 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 as being directed to non-statutory subject matter.
Regarding claim 1; claim 1 calls for a system; however, the body of the claim does not positively recite any hardware element. As recited in the body of the claim, the claimed system contains “a first control unit,” “a second control unit,” “a third control unit” and “a fourth control unit.” In light of the specification (pgs. [20]-[21]), the first control unit, the second control unit, the third control unit, and the fourth control unit can be all construed as software per se since they do not embody any hardware. Because the elements of claim 1 is interpreted as merely software and the claim lacks any physical device or machine, the claim is directed to non-statutory subject matter. It is suggested that the claim be further amended to positively recite at least one hardware element within the body of the claim to make the claim statutory under 35 U.S.C. 101.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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.
(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 1-3 and 5-6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Long et al. (Long), U.S. Patent Number 11,075,891.
Regarding claim 1; Long discloses an information processing system (col. 8, line 6; systems.) that executes control to allow a client to use a content associated with an NFT with a predetermined tool while an owner owns the NFT on a blockchain (col. 8, lines 6-20; systems may be integrated with a block chain and use a form of decentralized ledgers and cryptographically-generated tokens, such as non-fungible tokens (NFTs), to verify that a given user has been given access to a particular content and has purchased or rented a given content for purposes of streaming; based on the verification, perform a data key distribution over the decentralized peer-to-peer content-distribution network; reducing or eliminating the need for a central data key server for DRM.), the system comprising:
a first control unit that encrypts the content using a first key and stores the encrypted content in a storage, and stores the first key by a first smart contract on the blockchain (col. 16, lines 12-57; a streaming source node or source cacher node can be configured to generate an encrypted data stream and a corresponding data encryption key.);
a second control unit that executes control, according to the first smart contract, to set a usage right of the content to the client satisfying a predetermined condition (col. 16, lines 12-57; when a streaming session starts, the source node can push the encrypted data stream and the encryption keys to a sub-network formed by nodes that have purchased a token (e.g., an NFT-based virtual ticket) for that content; the source node only shares the encrypted stream and encryption keys with authorized nodes (e.g., nodes that satisfy a DRM stipulation).);
a third control unit that executes control to extract, when the client requests use of the content, the encrypted content from the storage, and transmit the encrypted content to the predetermined tool operated by the client (col. 25, lines 17-35; a request from an authenticated viewer peer node of the plurality of nodes for receiving the data stream; generate an encrypted data stream based on the data stream and the data key to decrypt the data stream; transmit the encrypted data stream to the authenticated viewer peer node.); and
a fourth control unit that executes control, according to the first smart contract, to transmit the first key to the predetermined tool operated by the client, when it is confirmed that the client has the usage right (col. 20, lines 15-29; streaming can include multimedia that is constantly received by and presented to an end-user associated with a given node on the network while being delivered by a provider (e.g., another node on the network); through streaming, a given receiving node can start playing digital content before the entire file has been transmitted by the source node; for instance, some streaming events that occur via the nodes of the P2P network can include more time-sensitive events such as a “stream starts” event; accordingly, such time-sensitive events may need to be sent to the subscribers of the P2P network (e.g., subscribed nodes) in a relatively rapid manner; col. 25, lines 34-37; transmits the encrypted data stream and the data key to decrypt the data stream to the authenticated viewer peer node; col. 26, lines 35-45; interacting with a smart contract on a blockchain associated with the decentralized network to obtain an authentication to receive a data key to decrypt the data stream, the smart contract associated with the data stream, the smart contract allowing the authentication of the viewer peer by the viewer node’s ownership of a non-fungible token (NFT); transmitting a request to the source cacher node to receive the data stream; receiving an encrypted data stream based on the data stream and the data key to decrypt the data stream; and decrypting the encrypted data stream using the data key.).
Regarding claim 2; Long discloses the information processing system according to claim 1, wherein the third control unit executes control, as the control, when the client requests the use of the content, to acquire the first key from the first smart contract, re-encrypt the content extracted from the storage using the first key and a second key, and transmit the re-encrypted content and the second key to the predetermined tool operated by the client (col. 6, lines 44-53; a data key may be a unique piece of data and is part of a key pair where a first key may be used to encrypt data, while a second key may be used to decrypt the encrypted data; the encryption is symmetric and the encryption and decryption keys are identical; the encryption or decryption key may be a numeric or alphanumeric value and may be generated using an algorithm such as a pseudorandom-number generator based algorithm.).
Regarding claim 3; Long discloses the information processing system according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined tool is a dedicated tool for using the content provided by the control of the first control unit to the fourth control unit by decoding the content using at least the first key (col. 15, lines 36-62; a smart contract can refer to a self-executing contract or self-enforcing agreement in the form of computer programming codes/instructions that can be managed by or stored on a blockchain; the smart contract can be executed when predetermined or preexisting terms and conditions are met, or when an agreement between participating parties are reached.).
Regarding claim 5; Claim 5 is directed to an information processing method which has similar scope as claim 1. Therefore, claim 5 remains un-patentable for the same reasons.
Regarding claim 6; Claim 6 is directed to a non-transitory computer readable medium which has similar scope as claim 1. Therefore, claim 6 remains un-patentable for the same reasons.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 4 is 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
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KHOI V LE whose telephone number is (571)270-5087. The examiner can normally be reached 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM EST.
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/KHOI V LE/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2436