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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 01/02/2025 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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.
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-8 and 12-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by “Matter Specification Version 1.0” (Connectivity Standards Alliance, September 28, 2022, Listed by Applicant in the IDS dated 01/02/2025, hereinafter “CSA”).
Claims 1 and 12:
CSA discloses an electronic device (Commissioner), comprising:
a display, configured to display an image and/or a user interface, wherein the user interface comprises a device adding interface (Page 373, Lines 10-11 and 22-24; A Dynamic device type supports intelligent and supervisory services, such as commissioning, monitoring, trend analysis, scheduling and central management. A dynamic device endpoint may support one or more external agents that manage relationships. External agents include, but are not limited to, a cloud application, a smartphone, an in-home display, or a configuration tool);
a memory, configured to store computer instructions and a node operational certificate corresponding to a virtual domain (Fabric) of the electronic device (Page 55, Lines 23-25; Each Matter device is issued an Operational Node ID and a Node Operational Certificate (NOC) for that Operational Node ID. The NOC enables a Node to identify itself within a Fabric by cryptographically binding a unique Node Operational Key Pair to the operational identity of its subject), wherein the virtual domain comprises the electronic device and one or more commissionee devices associated by the electronic device (Page 49, Line 21; A Fabric is a collection of Matter devices sharing a trusted root) (Page 56, Lines 15-16; The device being commissioned is referred to as the Commissionee and the device administering commissioning is referred to as the Commissioner); and
at least one processor, in connection with the display, the memory and configured to execute the computer instructions (Page 373, Lines 10-11; A Dynamic device type supports intelligent and supervisory services, such as commissioning, monitoring, trend analysis, scheduling and central management) to cause the electronic device to execute:
controlling, in response to an adding command input from a user on the basis of a first device, the display to display a network configuration interface, wherein the adding command is used for instructing a network configuration for the first device, and the network configuration interface is used for the user to perform a network configuration operation on the first device (Page 56, Lines 14-16; Device commissioning is the process of joining a device to a Fabric. The device being commissioned is referred to as the Commissionee and the device administering commissioning is referred to as the Commissioner);
sending, in response to the network configuration operation from the user, a network configuration request to the first device, wherein the network configuration request is used for requesting an establishment of a first encrypted session with the first device (Page 251, Lines 22-25; Commissioner and Commissionee shall establish encryption keys with Passcode-Authenticated Session Establishment (PASE) on the commissioning channel. All subsequent messages on the commissioning channel are encrypted using PASE-derived encryption keys);
sending a verification request to the first device via the first encrypted session, wherein the verification request is used for requesting a device attestation certificate of the first device (Page 252, Lines 1-2; Commissioner shall establish the authenticity of the Commissionee as a certified Matter device);
sending, based on that the first device is identified to be attested according to a received device attestation certificate (Page 274, Lines 17-18; The Device Attestation Certificate (DAC) is used in the Device Attestation process as part of Commissioning a Commissionee into a Fabric) (Page 276, Lines 9-10; Commissioners shall use PAA and PAI certificates to verify the authenticity of a Commissionee before proceeding with the rest of the Commissioning flow), network configuration information to the first device via the first encrypted session (Page 251, Lines 22-25; Commissioner and Commissionee shall establish encryption keys with Passcode-Authenticated Session Establishment (PASE) on the commissioning channel. All subsequent messages on the commissioning channel are encrypted using PASE-derived encryption keys), wherein the network configuration information comprises a node operational certificate assigned to the first device (Page 252, Lines 28-36; Following the Device Attestation Procedure yielding a decision to proceed with commissioning, the Commissioner shall request operational CSR from Commissionee using the CSRRequest command. The CSRRequest command will cause the generation of a new operational key pair at the Commissionee. Commissioner shall generate or otherwise obtain an Operational Certificate containing Operational ID after receiving the CSRResponse command from the Commissionee. Commissioner shall install operational credentials on the Commissionee using the AddTrustedRootCertificate and AddNOC commands); and
controlling, after the network configuration for the first device, the display to display a commissionee device interface, wherein the commissionee device interface comprises the first device (Page 373, Lines 10-11; A Dynamic device type supports intelligent and supervisory services, such as commissioning, monitoring, trend analysis, scheduling and central management);
sending, in response to a selection command input from the user on the basis of the first device, an interaction request to the first device (publisher) via the first encrypted session, wherein the interaction request is used for requesting establishment of a second encrypted session (Page 421, Lines 8-9; The Subscribe interaction shall start with one Subscribe transaction followed by a periodic sequence of Report transactions) (Page 79, Lines 13-15; Operational communication is defined as traffic that uses the secured Matter message format between commissioned nodes over an IP transport. All operational communication has message security enabled) with the first device (Page 420, Lines 16-18; This interaction allows a subscriber to create a subscription with a publisher on another node for the purposes of receiving data reports from that publisher thereafter, for the duration of the subscription), and the second encrypted session is established on the basis of the node operational certificate held by the electronic device and the node operational certificate held by the first device respectively (Page 55, Lines 23-26; Each Matter device is issued an Operational Node ID and a Node Operational Certificate (NOC) for that Operational Node ID. The NOC enables a Node to identify itself within a Fabric by cryptographically binding a unique Node Operational Key Pair to the operational identity of its subject, attestable through the signature of a trusted Certificate Authority (CA)); and
sending, in response to a control operation from the user, a corresponding command to the first device via the second encrypted session (Page 421, Lines 8-9; The Subscribe interaction shall start with one Subscribe transaction followed by a periodic sequence of Report transactions).
The method of claim 12 is implemented by the device of claim 1 and is therefore rejected with the same rationale.
Claims 2 and 13:
CSA further discloses wherein the at least one processor is further configured to execute the computer instructions to cause the electronic device to execute:
searching for, in response to a first display command input from the user, the first device on the basis of a discovery protocol supported by the first device (Page 249, Lines 17-19; Commissioners shall implement the role of a GAP Central. To discover a commissionable device advertising over BLE, a Commissioner shall perform a BLE scan across all three advertising channels with a sufficient dwell time, interval, and overall duration of scan); and
controlling the display to display the device adding interface, wherein an item of the first device is displayed in the device adding interface based on that the first device is discovered (Page 249, Lines 19-21 and 24-25; In order to promote quick discovery it is recommended that a Commissioner scan as aggressively as possible within the Commissioner device functionality/UX constraints. If discovery procedure is user initiated the scan interval should be set between 30 ms and 60ms and the scan window should be set to 30 ms).
Claims 3 and 14:
CSA further discloses wherein the at least one processor is configured to execute the computer instructions to cause the electronic device to execute:
obtaining, in response to the network configuration operation from the user, a passcode from the first device; and establishing, according to the passcode and a first encrypted session protocol, the first encrypted session with the first device (Page 251, Lines 22-25; Commissioner and Commissionee shall establish encryption keys with Passcode-Authenticated Session Establishment (PASE) on the commissioning channel. All subsequent messages on the commissioning channel are encrypted using PASE-derived encryption keys).
Claims 4 and 15:
CSA further discloses wherein:
the network configuration operation is, based on that the network configuration interface comprises a scanning box for a two-dimensional code, to scan the two-dimensional code provided by the first device through the scanning box, and the two-dimensional code is used for providing the passcode (Page 215, Lines 4-5; The representation and encoding of the onboarding payload as a QR Code);
the network configuration operation is, based on that the network configuration interface comprises an input box for a pairing code, to input the pairing code of the first device in the input box, and the pairing code of the first device is used for obtaining the passcode (Page 215, Lines 4-5; The representation and encoding of the onboarding payload as a manually entered code); and
prompt information prompts, based on that the network configuration interface comprises the prompt information, to obtain the passcode through a near field communication technology, then the network configuration operation is to establish near field communication between the electronic device and the first device, and the near field communication is used for obtaining the passcode (Page 215, Lines 4-5; The representation and encoding of the onboarding payload as content in an NFC tag).
Claims 5 and 16:
CSA further discloses wherein the network configuration information further comprises network interface configuration information, and the at least one processor is configured to execute the computer instructions to cause the electronic device to execute:
determining whether the first device has accessed a specified network (See citations below); and
sending, based on that the first device does not access the specified network (Page 253, Lines 2-3; A Commissionee requires network commissioning if it is not already on the desired operational network), a network configuration instruction to the first device via the first encrypted session to instruct the first device to access the specified network according to the network interface configuration information (Page 252, Lines 41-42; If the Commissionee both supports it and requires it, the Commissioner shall configure the operational network at the Commissionee using commands such as AddOrUpdateWiFiNetwork).
Claims 6 and 17:
CSA further discloses wherein the at least one processor is configured to execute the computer instructions to cause the electronic device to perform:
controlling the display to display the first device in a first region of the commissionee device interface, wherein the first region is a region where a classification to which the commissionee device belongs is undefined (not in the Fabric) (Page 373, Lines 10-11 and 22-24; A Dynamic device type supports intelligent and supervisory services, such as commissioning, monitoring, trend analysis, scheduling and central management. A dynamic device endpoint may support one or more external agents that manage relationships. External agents include, but are not limited to, a cloud application, a smartphone, an in-home display, or a configuration tool); and
the at least one processor is further configured to execute the computer instructions to cause the electronic device to perform:
control, in response to a movement command input from the user on the basis of the first device, the display to move the first device into a second region to be displayed, wherein the second region is a region in the commissionee device interface where the classification to which the commissionee device belongs is defined (in the Fabric) (Page 56, Lines 14-16; Device commissioning is the process of joining a device to a Fabric. The device being commissioned is referred to as the Commissionee and the device administering commissioning is referred to as the Commissioner).
Claims 7 and 18:
CSA further discloses wherein the at least one processor is configured to execute the computer instructions to cause the electronic device to perform:
sending, in response to a service turn-on command input from the user, a first instruction to the first device via the second encrypted session, wherein the first instruction is used for instructing the first device to resume providing a device discovery service to an external device, and the first device discontinues providing the device discovery service to an external device after establishing the first encrypted session with the electronic device (Page 253, Lines 20-23; While the Administrator of steps 13-15 will, in many situations, be the Commissioner Node itself, it may be a different Node that was configured by the Commissioner to have Administrator privilege against the Commissioner’s General Commissioning Cluster. This is to support flexibility in finalizing the Commissioning);
displaying, in response to a second display command input from the user, a control privilege management interface, wherein the control privilege management interface comprises a privilege available to a second device to control the first device, and the second device completes the network configuration for the first device when the first device resumes providing the device discovery service to an external device (Page 253, Lines 23-25; From a Commissioner’s perspective, all Nodes with Administrator privilege in the Commissionee’s ACL are equivalent once the Node has a Node Operational Certificate and associated Node Operational Identifier on the Fabric into which it was just commissioned); and
sending, in response to a privilege management command input from the user on the basis of the privilege management interface, a second instruction to the first device via the second encrypted session, wherein the second instruction is used for instructing the first device to set the privilege instructed by the privilege management command for the second device (See citation above. All Nodes with Administrator privilege in the Commissioner’s ACL are equivalent).
Claims 8 and 19:
CSA further discloses wherein the at least one processor is configured to execute the computer instructions to cause the electronic device to execute:
setting the first device to an on-line state after the network configuration for the first device (Page 251, Lines 29-30; Commissioner shall re-arm the Fail-safe timer on the Commissionee to the desired commissioning timeout within 60 seconds of the completion of PASE session establishment);
obtaining device information of the first device in accordance with time-to-live of a service discovery record issued by the first device (Page 251, Lines 31-33; A Commissioner may obtain device information including guidance on the fail-safe value from the Commissionee by reading BasicCommissionInfo attribute);
keeping the first device in the on-line state based on that the device information of the first device is obtained (Page 254, Lines 2-3; Whenever the Fail-safe timer is armed, Commissioners and Administrators shall not consider any cluster operation to have time-out); and
setting the first device to an off-line state based on that the device information of the first device is not obtained (Page 254, Lines 22-25; Commissioners that need to restart from step 2 may immediately expire the fail-safe by invoking the ArmFailSafe command with an ExpiryLengthSeconds field set to 0. Otherwise, Commissioners will need to wait until the current fail-safe timer has expired for the Commissionee to begin accepting PASE again).
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim(s) 9, 11, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over “Matter Specification Version 1.0” (Connectivity Standards Alliance, September 28, 2022, Listed by Applicant in the IDS dated 01/02/2025, hereinafter “CSA”) in view of Chen et al. (U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2018/0024843, hereinafter “Chen”).
Claims 9 and 20:
CSA disclose the device as recited in claims 1 and 8 and the method as recited in claims 12 and 19, wherein the at least one processor is configured to execute the computer instructions to cause the electronic device to execute:
obtaining an address of the first device during the network configuration for the first device, wherein the address is an address used by a primary control device to send a remote wake-on instruction to the first device (Page 257, Lines 15-16; When the targeted node is a SED, the current Administrator can guide the user to perform some action to ‘wake’ the device from its sleep cycle).
CSA does not appear to disclose:
the address is a media access control address; and
controlling the memory to store the media access control address of the first device.
Chen discloses a method for performing wake-up management including the steps of:
controlling the memory to store the media access control address of the first device and the address is a media access control address (§ 0029, Lines 9-15; The Wake-On-LAN (WOL) agent device 230 may record at least one of the MAC address of the network device, the IP address of the network device, and the UID of the network device in the wake-up management list 232 and may record the latest state of the network device in the wake-up management list 232).
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify CSA’s address with Chen’s MAC address in order to perform automatic wake-up management of a network device (Chen, § 0019, Lines 2-3).
Claim 11:
CSA in view of Chen further discloses wherein the at least one processor is configured to execute the computer instructions to cause the electronic device to execute:
controlling, in response to a command from the user, the display to display a commissionee device list, wherein the commissionee device list comprises the first device (CSA, Page 232, Lines 4-5; Commissioner constructs a list of Commissionees discovered, using as much information as possible from the Commissionee advertisement);
wherein the first device is displayed as being in the on-line state in the commissionee device list based on that the first device is in the on-line state (CSA, Page 232, Lines 31-33); and
the first device is displayed as being in the off-line state in the commissionee device list based on that the first device is in the off-line state (CSA, Page 231, Lines 25-27), wherein the commissionee device list further comprises a first button of the first device based on that the memory stores the media access control address of the first device (Chen, § 0029, Lines 9-15; The Wake-On-LAN (WOL) agent device 230 may record at least one of the MAC address of the network device, the IP address of the network device, and the UID of the network device in the wake-up management list 232 and may record the latest state of the network device in the wake-up management list 232), and the first button (CSA, Page 373, Lines 10-11 and 22-24; A Dynamic device type supports intelligent and supervisory services, such as commissioning, monitoring, trend analysis, scheduling and central management. A dynamic device endpoint may support one or more external agents that manage relationships. External agents include, but are not limited to, a cloud application, a smartphone, an in-home display, or a configuration tool) is used for inputting the remote wake-on instruction (Chen, § 0022, Lines 6-8; The WOL agent device may broadcast the predetermined package to make the target network device enter the operating state from the non-operating state).
The motivation to combine CSA with Chen is to perform automatic wake-up management of a network device (Chen, § 0019, Lines 2-3).
Claim(s) 10 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over “Matter Specification Version 1.0” (Connectivity Standards Alliance, September 28, 2022, Listed by Applicant in the IDS dated 01/02/2025, hereinafter “CSA”) in view of Chen et al. (U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2018/0024843, hereinafter “Chen”); further in view of Lee et al. (U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2016/0056968, hereinafter “Lee”).
Claim 10:
CSA in view of Chen discloses the device as recited in claims 1, 8, and 9, wherein the at least one processor is configured to execute the computer instructions to cause the electronic device to execute:
obtaining a Cluster supported by the first device (CSA, Page 488, Lines 3-5; The Actions Cluster provides a standardized way for a Node to expose information about logical groupings of endpoints on the Node);
determining whether the Cluster comprises an Actions cluster (CSA, Page 488, Lines 3-7; The Actions Cluster provides a standardized way for a Node to expose information about named actions that can be performed on such a group of endpoints).
CSA does not appear to disclose:
determining whether the Actions Cluster comprises a remote wake-on cluster;
determining, based on that the remote wake-on cluster is comprised, whether an attribute of the media access control address exists;
obtaining, based on that the attribute of the media access control address exists, the media access control address; and
obtaining, based on that the attribute of the media access control address does not exist, the media access control address according to an address resolution protocol.
Chen discloses a method for performing wake-up management including the steps of:
determining whether an attribute of the media access control address exists and obtaining, based on that the attribute of the media access control address exists, the media access control address (§ 0029, Lines 9-15; The Wake-On-LAN (WOL) agent device 230 may record at least one of the MAC address of the network device, the IP address of the network device, and the UID of the network device in the wake-up management list 232 and may record the latest state of the network device in the wake-up management list 232).
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify CSA’s Actions Cluster with features of Chen’s WOL agent in order to perform automatic wake-up management of a network device (Chen, § 0019, Lines 2-3).
Lee discloses obtaining, based on that the attribute of the media access control address does not exist, the media access control address according to an address resolution protocol (§ 0015Lines 3-5; Transmit an ARP response message including a media access control (MAC) address of the NIC in response to the ARP request message).
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify CSA and Chen’s device by obtaining the MAC address using ARP, as taught by Lee, in order to enable WOL for devices in which the MAC address is not known.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
U.S. Patent No. 12418424 (Lee et al.) – Setting the registration between an IoT controller and IoT controlee on the basis of a cloud-to-cloud connection in a wireless LAN system of a smart home environment.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2021/0409399 (Chifor et al.) – IoT bootstrapping including authenticating the vendor and device attestation.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2022/0278867 (Lee et al.) – Controlling an IoT controlee via App-to-App communications where the Apps may be from different manufacturers.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2024/0007354 (Zoualfaghari et al.) – Automatic onboarding of heterogeneous edge devices including device attestation.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to NAM T TRAN whose telephone number is (408)918-7553. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 7AM-3PM EST.
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/NAM T TRAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2455
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