The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
This Office action is in response to communications filed on 11/11/2024.
Claims 1-20 are pending.
DETAILED ACTION
Double Patenting
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.
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Claims 7-10 and 17-18 are rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claims 1-4 of U.S. Patent No. 12,143,474 B2. Although the claims at issue are not identical, they are not patentably distinct from each other because:
Regarding claim 7,
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As shown, claim 1 of US Patent No. 12,143,474 B2 discloses every limitation recited in claim 7 of the present application with the exception of "receive a join request from the computing element requesting to join the private network". However, claim 2 of US Patent No. 12,143,474 B2 recites "The method of claim 1 further comprising: in the computing element, generating a request to join the private network, wherein the request comprises at least the public key for communication with the computing element; in the computing element, communicating the request to the coordination service for the private network."
Therefore, claim 2 of US Patent No. 12,143,474 B2 claims in full the subject matter recited by claim 1 of the present application.
Claims 8-10 of the present application are similarly disclosed by claims 2-4 of US Patent No. 12,143,474 B2.
Claims 17-18 are similarly rejected in view of claims 1 and 2 of US Patent No. 12,143,474 B2.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-6 are allowed.
Claims 11-16 and 19-20 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.
REASONS FOR ALLOWANCE
The prior art of record fails to show singly, or in combination, the claimed limitations of “in response to determining the public key is signed with an administrative signature, adding the communication information to a communication configuration for the private network at the computing element; and exchanging communications between the computing element and the new computing element over the private network using the communication information from the communication configuration” as recited in claim 1. These limitations, in conjunction with other limitations in claim 1, are not specifically disclosed or remotely suggested in the prior art of record. A review of claim(s) 1-6 indicates claim(s) 1-6 are allowable over the prior art of record
The closest prior art of record includes:
US 20200301782 A1, which discloses "using a cluster-level trusted third party or a cluster-level certificate authority to digitally sign and distribute the public key of each component to every other component" (¶[0040]).
US 20240193250 A1, which discloses "The user device certificate includes a user device public key and can be signed by an authorizing entity private key. In some embodiments, the read record response message can further include an authorizing entity certificate. The authorizing entity certificate includes an authorizing entity public key and can be signed by a certificate authority (CA)" (¶[0102]) and "the access device 404 receives, from the user device, an authorizing entity certificate comprising an issuer public key and signed by a certificate authority private key and a user device certificate comprising a user device public key and signed by an issuer private key" (¶[0104]).
US 20230316263 A1, which discloses "the authenticator 113 can indicate to the NFT smart contract 109 that access to the asset can be granted. This could be done in response to two conditions. First, it could be done in response to validating the signature of the signed challenge received at block 419 using the public key 129 retrieve at block 423. Second, it could be done in response to determining that the signed public key 129 received at block 419 matches the public key 129 retrieved at block 423. If both conditions are true, then the authenticator 113 can determine that the NFT 116 can be used for authenticating its owner, as defined by the owner wallet address 123, and that authentication has been approved or authorized by the owner at block 416" (¶[0039]).
US 20230022797 A1, which discloses "after storing the biometric information, the authenticator 312 can sign a public key with a private key. In some embodiments, the public key and the private key can be an authenticator public key and an authenticator private key. In other embodiments, the public key and the private key can be a user device public key and a user device private key. The private key can be stored in a secure memory or in software (e.g., host card emulator (HCE)) on the user device 302. The private key may be associated with a digital certificate issued by a certificate authority. As such, the selected server computer can validate a certificate chain for the private key back to the certificate authority. The authenticator 312 can sign the public key with the private key to form a digital signature on the signed public key" (¶[0105]).
US 20220255905 A1, which discloses "a coordination service may obtain a request from a computing element to join a private network. In response to the request, the coordination service may identify communication rules associated with the computing element based on credential and device information in the request and may identify communication information to permit the computing element to communicate with one or more other computing elements in the private network" (abstract).
US 20220029973 A1, which discloses "a computing element may obtain credential information associated with a user and generate a public-private key pair for the computing element. The computing element may further communicate the public key from the pair with metadata to a coordination service to register the computing element at the coordination service. Once registered, the computing element may receive communication information associated with one or more other computing elements that permit the computing element to communicate with the other computing elements" (abstract).
US 20150381372 A1, which discloses "Each participant in the communication network has a public key which is provided to communication partners, i.e., other participants in the communication network, and a private key, which is kept secret by the participant. The public key is signed by a central certification authority in order to confirm the authorization of the participant for the communication network. The signed, public key is referred to herein as a certificate. A certificate can in addition include, besides the public key, attributes (for example, the name or characteristics of the owner), which are also signed. Since the security of the communication system is based on the secrecy of the private key, the private key is usually stored on a Hardware Security Module (HSM)" (¶[0002]).
US 20150188887 A1, which discloses "To join the VPN, the node may provide the public key from the key pair to routing apparatus 110, and routing apparatus 110 may assign a VPN Internet Protocol (IP) address to the node. Routing apparatus 110 may also maintain a list and/or routing table 204 containing the public key, VPN IP address, external IP address, and port number of each node and send the list to all nodes connected to routing apparatus 110. Each node may then compute a shared secret with every other node using the node's private key and the other node's public key" (¶[0042]).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to BORIS D GRIJALVA LOBOS whose telephone number is (571)272-0767. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 10:30AM to 6:30PM EST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Brian Gillis can be reached at 571-272-7952. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/BORIS D GRIJALVA LOBOS/ Primary Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2446
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