DETAILED ACTION
Claims 1-20 are pending. This is in response to the application filed on September 27, 2024 which claims priority to a foreign application filed on September 29, 2023.
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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
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 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Pub 20210352051 (hereinafter Schmitt) in view of Pub 20220159461 (hereinafter Maass).
Regarding claim 1, Schmitt discloses a method for provisioning a networked device with digital security credentials, comprising:
receiving, by processing circuitry of a security server, a first digital certificate of a secure component, the secure component being associated with the networked device (Fig. 2, par. [0064] discloses “a secure communication to a target device 200 over a network …The OPC UA Server 220 of the target device 200 opens an unsecured OPC UA Endpoint 222 … indicating the presence of an initial device certificate stored in the secure storage 250 of the target device… retrieve the initial device certificate from the secure storage 250…”);
extracting, by the processing circuitry of the security server, a public key from the first digital certificate, the public key and a corresponding private key being stored in the secure component for asymmetric cryptography (par. [0064] discloses “The first device 100, respectively the commissioning tool 110… accessing the internal PKI 400 for integrating the device certificate … encrypts at least the device certificate using an initial device public key of the initial device certificate”);
Schmitt does not expressly disclose receiving, by the processing circuitry of the security server, a product identifier and a vendor identifier associated with the secure component from a first user device. Maass discloses this feature (Fig. 15A, par. [0144] discloses a certificate provisioning service obtaining from device serial number and manufacture name). Therefore, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Schmitt with Maass to further teach the claimed invention. One would have done so for the benefits of certificate provisioning as disclosed by Maass with the use refreshed cryptographic keys and associated certificates, increasing the security of the vehicle/device (par. [0048]);
The combination of Schmitt and Maass discloses generating, by the processing circuitry of the security server, a second digital certificate based on the public key of the secure component, the product identifier, and the vendor identifier (Schmitt, par. [0032] discloses integrating the initial certificate into a second PKI, whereas Maass, as presented above, discloses a certificate provisioning uses a device serial number and a manufacture/vendor name); and
Schmitt discloses transmitting, by the processing circuitry of the security server, the second digital certificate to the networked device associated with the secure component (par. [0032] discloses a second PKI to transform the initial device certificate into the device certificate that is based on the second PKI), the networked device being configured to generate a device commissioning request based on the second digital certificate and the private key of the secure component (par. [0051] and [0064] discloses the target device is configured to receive a request for the initial device certificate from an OPC UA Client over the network and a commissioning tool to manage the networked device for certificates and keys for decryption and encryption).
Regarding claim 2, the combination of Schmitt and Maass discloses wherein the second digital certificate includes a device attestation certificate and a product attestation intermediate certificate (as presented in claim 1 rejection, the certificate can contain device and manufacture information).
Regarding claim 3, Schmitt discloses authenticating the public key of the secure component based on authentication data received from a second user device (par. [0042] discloses certificate validation).
Regarding claim 4, Schmitt discloses receiving a device identifier and verifying that the device identifier is associated with the secure component prior to generating the second digital certificate (par. [0033] discloses the device certificate may include data relating to a network identification of the target device within the network).
Regarding claim 5, Schmitt discloses receiving ownership data associated with the secure component prior to generating the second digital certificate (par. [0032]-[0033] discloses the data relating to the network identification may include, or allow the determination of, a unique identification of the target device within the network. The data relating to the network identification of the target device may be signed by the signature of the device certificate).
Regarding claim 6, Schmitt discloses receiving a request for the second digital certificate prior to generating the second digital certificate (par. [0042]).
Regarding claim 7, Schmitt discloses receiving a digital signature of the second digital certificate from a certificate authority (par. [0032]).
Claims 8-14 are rejected in view of claims 1-7 rejections respectively.
Claims 15-20 are rejected in view of claims 1-4 and 6-7 rejections respectively.
Inquiry communication
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/TRI M TRAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2432