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
The present application is being examined under the pre-AIA first to invent provisions.
This office action is in response to the documents filed on 03/11/2026. Claims 1 – 3, 11 – 12, 15 – 17 and 19 have been amended. Claims 1 – 20 dated by 03/11/2026 are pending for consideration.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments in Arguments/Remarks filed on 03/11/2026 (hereafter Remarks) referring to the Office Action on 12/12/2025 (hereafter OA) have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
The amendments to claims provide additional clarifications for limitations required to overcome rejection under 112b; the amended claims recite additional elements that integrate the judicial exception into practical application therefore claims are qualified as eligible subject matter under 35 USC 101. Accordingly, rejection under 101 and 112b withdrawn.
Arguments towards the 103 rejection are moot in view of new ground of rejection. The rejection under 103 maintained.
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.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 1 – 4, 8 – 11, 13 and 19 – 20 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Purves (US 20200104813) (hereafter Purves) and in view of Hawkes et al. (US 20230098093) (hereafter Hawkes).
As per claim 1 Purves discloses: One or more processors configured to cause a station to perform operations comprising (Purves, in para. [0003, 0015, 0018] discloses a communication wireless network including processors, access devices, i.e., access points entities, client mobile computers):
encrypting association data (Examiner note: association data are disclosed by Applicant in para. [0096, 0100] as a data set comprising addresses for respective access points accompanied by respective communication related values; limitation association data is met in Purves by the access data comprising “any suitable data that can be used to access a resource see Purves, [0017]) corresponding to the station in a mobility domain of a wireless communication network (Purves, in para. [0018] discloses a communication between server and mobile or client computers per wireless network 108),
wherein the encrypting is performed using a pairwise transient key (PTK) (Examiner note: the term “transient” as related to the cryptographic key for one with ordinary skills in the art may indicate a temporary, short-living, ephemeral cryptographic key generated for a specific session or task: limitation pairwise transient key in met in Purves by the ephemeral public key related to the public-private key pair) (Purves, in para. [0025] discloses generation and usage of an ephemeral public key that includes a cryptographic key that forms a public key of an ephemeral public-private key par, i.e., pairwise transient key, PTK),
Purves fails to explicitly disclose: encryption of transmissions to respective APs and creation or arrangement of gateway links for communication via specified access points, AP.
However, Hawkes discloses: that comprises a key for encrypting transmissions to different access points (APs) that are associated in the mobility domain and authenticated with the station in the mobility domain (Hawkes, in para. [0040] discloses processing of authentication identifier, AID, for secure communication via APs using respective key and generated variable AID, i.e., varied in time or transient);
and generating a transmission, comprising the encrypted association data and a message integrity code (MIC) associated with the PTK for identifying the station, to an AP of the different APs to establish a wireless communication link with the AP. (Hawkes, in para. [0201] discloses cryptographic function that includes a Message Integrity Code, MIC, to establish a secure wireless communication via APs in the network).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Purves, in view of teaching of Hawkes because they both disclose data processing in communication networks. The motivation to combine would be to modify Purves for teaching of Hawkes for encryption of transmission via APs and usage of MIC to improve security of communication in network.
As per claim 2 Purves as modified discloses: The one or more processors of claim 1, wherein the station uses the PTK to encrypt data for transmission to a second AP of the different APs of the mobility domain (Hawkes, in para. [0040] discloses processing of authentication identifier, AID, generated using respective key for secure communication via APs using respective key and generated variable AID, i.e., varied in time or transient).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Purves, in view of teaching of Hawkes because they both disclose data processing in communication networks. The motivation to combine would be to modify Purves for teaching of Hawkes for encryption of transmission via APs and usage of MIC to improve security of communication in network.
As per claim 3 Purves as modified discloses: The one or more processors of claim 1, the operations further comprising: identifying an AP multiple link device (MLD) in the mobility domain, wherein the station does not have an established link with the AP MLD; including, in the association data, a link request to the AP MLD to which the station does not have an established link; and generating a scanning message including the link request for transmission to the AP MLD (Hawkes, in para. [0263] discloses processing of communication followed by operations to establish links between AP and station, STA using respective service set identifiers, SSID for improved security).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Purves, in view of teaching of Hawkes because they both disclose data processing in communication networks. The motivation to combine would be to modify Purves for teaching of Hawkes for encryption of transmission via APs and usage of MIC to improve security of communication in network.
As per claim 4 Purves as modified discloses: The one or more processors of claim 1, further comprising receiving a response from the AP, wherein the response is encrypted based on the PTK (Purves, in para. [0025] discloses generation and usage of an ephemeral public key for data encryption that includes a cryptographic key that forms a public key of an ephemeral public-private key par, i.e., pairwise transient key)
and indicates a confirmation of a link creation between the AP and the station (Hawkes, in para. [0263] discloses operations to establish links between AP and station, STA using respective service set identifiers, SSID for improved security).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Purves, in view of teaching of Hawkes because they both disclose data processing in communication networks. The motivation to combine would be to modify Purves for teaching of Hawkes for encryption of transmission via APs and usage of MIC to improve security of communication in network.
As per claim 8 Purves as modified discloses: The one or more processors of claim 1, wherein the association data includes a request to establish a non-data link and a measurement request for establishing the non-data link with the AP, (Purves, in para. [0058] discloses signal communication per different links, “a cellular link” or “a radio frequency (RF) link”, i.e., per non-data links), the association data being sent to an associated AP MLD that is different from the AP (Hawkes, in para. [0263-0264] discloses: a communication between APs and stations including establishing separate links).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Purves, in view of teaching of Hawkes because they both disclose data processing in communication networks. The motivation to combine would be to modify Purves for teaching of Hawkes for encryption of transmission via APs and usage of MIC to improve security of communication in network.
As per claim 9 Purves as modified discloses: The one or more processors of claim 1, wherein the station is not associated with the AP, the operations further comprising: receiving an acknowledgement from the AP confirming receipt of the encrypted association data (Purves, in para. [0061] discloses that the access data, i.e., association data, could be encrypted); and receiving, from the AP, a response encrypted using the PTK (Purves, in para. [0025] discloses generation and usage of an ephemeral public key that includes a cryptographic key that forms a public key of an ephemeral public-private key par, i.e., pairwise transient key, PTK) (Purves, in para. [0025-0028] discloses application of the ephemeral key, i.e., the PTK key, for cryptographic operations with any transaction data).
As per claim 10 Purves as modified discloses: The one or more processors of claim 1, wherein the PTK is a mobility domain access point-wide PTK associated with a plurality of APs in the mobility domain AP (Purves, in para. [0025-0028] discloses application of the ephemeral key, i.e., the PTK key, for cryptographic operations with any transaction data).
As per claim 11 Purves as modified discloses: The one or more processors of claim 1, wherein the association data comprises one or more scanning addresses that identify a set of known to a plurality of APs in the mobility domain to which the station does not have an established link (Hawkes, in para. [0263] discloses processing of communication followed by operations to establish links between AP and station, STA using respective service set identifiers, SSID for improved security).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Purves, in view of teaching of Hawkes because they both disclose data processing in communication networks. The motivation to combine would be to modify Purves for teaching of Hawkes for encryption of transmission via APs and usage of MIC to improve security of communication in network.
As per claim 13 Purves as modified discloses: The one or more processors of claim 1, the operations further comprising transmitting, to the AP, one or more capabilities or operating parameters (Hawkes, in para. [0259] discloses different operations between stations and APs processing respective parameters).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Purves, in view of teaching of Hawkes because they both disclose data processing in communication networks. The motivation to combine would be to modify Purves for teaching of Hawkes for encryption of transmission via APs and usage of MIC to improve security of communication in network.
As per claims 19 and 20, claims 19 and 20 encompass same or similar scope as claims 1 and 2, respectively. Therefore, claims 19 and 20 are rejected based on the same reasons set forth above in rejecting claims 1 and 2.
Claims 5 – 7, 12 and 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Purves (US 20200104813) (hereafter Purves), in view of Hawkes et al. (US 20230098093) (hereafter Hawkes) and in view of HO et al. (US 20230269581) (hereafter HO).
As per claim 5 Purves as modified failed to disclose: usage of the beacon integrity group key, BIGTK, for encryption. However, HO discloses: The one or more processors of claim 1, further comprising receiving a response from the AP, wherein the response is encrypted based on the PTK and comprises a link-specific beacon integrity key (BIGTK) (HO, in para. [0071] discloses encryption using beacon integrity group key, BIGTK).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Purves-Hawkes, in view of teaching of HO because they all disclose data processing in communication networks. The motivation to combine would be to modify Purves-Hawkes for teaching of HO for usage of beacon integrity group key, BIGTK for data encryption in secure communication network.
As per claim 6 Purves as modified failed to disclose: data encryption based on protected management frame (PMF). However, HO discloses: The one or more processors of claim 1, wherein the association data comprises a request to establish a link with the AP and a measurement request, the association data being encrypted based on at least one protected management frame (PMF). (HO, in para. [0077] discloses data encryption based on protected management frame, PMF.)
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Purves-Hawkes, in view of teaching of HO because they all disclose data processing in communication networks. The motivation to combine would be to modify Purves-Hawkes for teaching of HO for data encryption based on protected management frame, PMF in secure communication network.
As per claim 7 Purves as modified failed to disclose: The one or more processors of claim 6, further comprising receiving a measurement response from the AP that is encrypted based on the PMF (HO, in para. [0077] discloses data encryption based on protected management frame, PMF.).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Purves-Hawkes, in view of teaching of HO because they all disclose data processing in communication networks. The motivation to combine would be to modify Purves-Hawkes for teaching of HO for data encryption based on protected management frame, PMF in secure communication network.
As per claim 12 Purves as modified failed to disclose: The one or more processors of claim 11, further comprising transmitting, based on the one or more scanning addresses, one or more PMF protected probe or access network query protocol (ANQP) frames to the AP (HO, in para. [0077] discloses data encryption based on protected management frame, PMF.).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Purves-Hawkes, in view of teaching of HO because they all disclose data processing in communication networks. The motivation to combine would be to modify Purves-Hawkes for teaching of HO for data encryption based on protected management frame, PMF in secure communication network.
As per claim 14 Purves as modified failed to disclose: operations comprising uplinks and downlinks in the system. However, HO discloses: The one or more processors of claim 1, the operations further comprising buffering uplink or downlink data of an associated AP MLD for synchronizing with the AP MLD. (HO, in para. [0039-0040] discloses MLD access point 110 operating using uplinks and downlinks).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Purves-Hawkes, in view of teaching of HO because they all disclose data processing in communication networks. The motivation to combine would be to modify Purves-Hawkes for teaching of HO for usage of uplinks and downlinks associated with an access point.
Claims 15 – 18 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hawkes et al. (US 20230098093) (hereafter Hawkes) and in view of Purves (US 20200104813) (hereafter Purves).
As per claim 15 Hawkes discloses: A method for wireless communication, comprising: receiving, at an access point (AP), association data for associating a station with the AP for establishing a wireless communication link in a wireless communication network (Hawkes, in para. [0005 - 0009] discloses communication between stations, STA, and access points, AP by establishing respective communication links, [0044]),
[the data being encrypted using by a pairwise transient key (PTK)]
that comprises a key for decrypting transmissions at different access points (APs) that are associated in a mobility domain that includes the AP and a set of different APs, the PTK associated with a message integrity code (MIC) (Hawkes, in para. [0201] discloses cryptographic function that includes a Message Integrity Code, MIC, to establish a secure wireless communication via APs in the network); and
generating, based on comparing the received MIC to a calculated MIC for at least one PTK known to the AP, a transmission to the station, the transmission including response data indicating that the communication link is established, the response data being encrypted with the PTK (Hawkes, in para. [0094] discloses comparative analysis of tokens comprising encryption keys by data transmissions between STAs and APs).
Hawkes fails to explicitly disclose data encryption using an ephemeral key, i.e., a pairwise transient key, PTK. However. Purves, discloses:
the data being encrypted by a pairwise transient key (PTK) (Examiner note: the term “transient” as related to the cryptographic key for one with ordinary skills in the art may indicate a temporary, short-living, ephemeral cryptographic key generated for a specific session or task: limitation pairwise transient key in met in Purves by the ephemeral public key related to the public-private key pair) (Purves, in para. [0025] discloses generation and usage of an ephemeral public key that includes a cryptographic key that forms a public key of an ephemeral public-private key par, i.e., pairwise transient key, PTK);
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Hawkes, in view of teaching of Purves because they both disclose data processing in communication networks. The motivation to combine would be to modify Hawkes for teaching of Purves for generation and usage of ephemeral keys to improve security by data encryption in wireless communication system.
As per claim 16 Hawkes as modified discloses: The method of claim 15, wherein the association data specifies an address (Examiner note: association data are disclosed by Applicant in para. [0096, 0100] as a data set comprising addresses for respective access points accompanied by respective communication related values; association data is met in Purves by the access data comprising “any suitable data that can be used to access a resource, see Purves, [0017])
the method further comprising: responsive to receiving the association data, retrieving, from a network controller, data that indicates the PTK as being for [[an]] the address associated with the station (Purves, in para. [0025] discloses generation and usage of an ephemeral public key that includes a cryptographic key that forms a public key of an ephemeral public-private key par, i.e., pairwise transient key, PTK);
decrypting the association data using the PTK (Purves, in para. [0024] discloses data encryption and decryption using respective algorithm);
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Hawkes, in view of teaching of Purves because they both disclose data processing in communication networks. The motivation to combine would be to modify Hawkes for teaching of Purves for generation and usage of ephemeral keys yo improve security by data encryption in wireless communication system.
Hawkes, as modified further discloses: determining, based on the decrypting, that the address associated with the station is an address of the AP; and preparing, for transmission based on determining, the response data (Hawkes, in para. [0124] discloses processing of the data addresses assigned to the AP).
As per claim 17 Hawkes as modified discloses: The method of claim 15, wherein the association data includes a link request for the AP (Hawkes, in para. [0263] discloses processing of communication followed by operations to establish links between AP and station, STA using respective service set identifiers, SSID for improved security).
As per claim 18 Hawkes as modified discloses: The method of claim 15, wherein the PTK is a mobility domain access point-wide PTK for a mobility domain associated with the station, the mobility domain including the AP (Hawkes in para. [0043] discloses a STA as a mobile station that includes AP).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure: Jiang US_11432138, Valla US_20170346820, Swanson US_20150089625, BW US_20200133221, Zhai US_20230179444, Wier US_10579955, Blohm US_20220219202.
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. 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).
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 VLADIMIR IVANOVICH GAVRILENKO whose telephone number is (313) 446-6530. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday 7:30-4:30 EST.
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/Vladimir I. Gavrilenko/Examiner, Art Unit 2431
/LYNN D FEILD/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2431
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