Prosecution Insights
Last updated: July 17, 2026
Application No. 19/011,894

DIGITAL SIGNATURE SYSTEM

Non-Final OA §102§103
Filed
Jan 07, 2025
Priority
Jan 18, 2024 — JP 2024-005829
Examiner
RAHMAN, SM AZIZUR
Art Unit
2434
Tech Center
2400 — Computer Networks
Assignee
NEC Corporation
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
88%
Grant Probability
Favorable
1-2
OA Rounds
1y 1m
Est. Remaining
99%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 88% — above average
88%
Career Allowance Rate
460 granted / 521 resolved
+30.3% vs TC avg
Strong +18% interview lift
Without
With
+18.2%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
2y 7m
Avg Prosecution
10 currently pending
Career history
538
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
0.9%
-39.1% vs TC avg
§103
74.1%
+34.1% vs TC avg
§102
22.9%
-17.1% vs TC avg
§112
0.5%
-39.5% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 521 resolved cases

Office Action

§102 §103
CTNF 19/011,894 CTNF 89480 Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status 07-03-aia AIA 15-10-aia 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 Claims 1-17 are pending in this instant application. Priority 2. Examiner acknowledges that this application is based upon and claims the benefit of the priority of Japanese patent application No. 2024-005829, filed on January 18, 2024, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference thereto. Information Disclosure Statement 3. The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 01/07/2025 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner. Examiner Note : claim 1 teaches “wherein the certificate holder includes: a communication interface configured to …………………………………………..... “receive the certificate and the first auxiliary data transmitted from the certificate holder (it probably should be ‘certificate issuer’ as certificate holder cannot receive something from itself)” . claim 9 teaches “the method further comprising, by the certificate holding node : .............................. “receiving the certificate and the first auxiliary data transmitted from the certificate holding node (it probably should be ‘certificate issuing node’ as certificate holder cannot receive something from itself) . Appropriate correction is requested. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102 07-06 AIA 15-10-15 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. 07-07-aia AIA 07-07 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 – 07-12-aia AIA (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. 07-15-03-aia AIA 4. Claim s 1-2, 5, 9-10, 13, and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102 (a) (2) as being anticipated by JP2023124201A issued to Wataru et al. (Wataru) (Applicant IDS) . As per claim 1, Wataru teaches a system including: a certificate issuer; a certificate holder; and a certificate verifier (Wataru: ¶ 0017, Fig. 1, Fig. 3 - the server device 100 serves as an issuer that issues a certificate to the user U, the user U is a person who can be the holder of the certificate, and the server device 200 serves as a verifier that verifies the certificate issued to the user U) , wherein the certificate issuer includes: a communication interface configured to communicate at least with the certificate holder; a memory configured to store instructions; and a processor configured to execute the instructions to (Wataru: Fig. 1 - teaches the issuer 100 with interface and communicating with holder and verifier) : generate first auxiliary data using a first signing key and first biometric information; generate a certificate including a verification key corresponding to the first signing key; and transmit the certificate and the first auxiliary data to the certificate holder (Wataru: ¶ 0021 to ¶ 0024, ¶ 0031 - the issuer authenticates and confirms the identity of the holder and issues a normal verifiable certificate (VC) wherein authentication information such as FIDO authentication, face-to-face identity verification, SMS delivery confirmation, etc. is carried as a certificate and a normal verifiable certificate (VC) uses information regarding the user's attributes and identity. The server device 100 that is the issuer identifies the public key (the holder's public key) to be used from the key identifier included in the assertion, and signs the signature using the public key (the holder's public key). Verify. If the signature verification is successful, the server device 100 sends a portable and verifiable certificate with authentication information signed with its own private key (issuer's private key) to the terminal device 10 of the user U) , wherein the certificate holder includes: a communication interface configured to communicate at least with the certificate issuer and the certificate verifier; a memory configured to store instructions; and a processor configured to execute the instructions (Wataru: Fig. 1 - teaches the holder U with interface and communicating with holder and verifier) to: acquire second biometric information; receive the certificate and the first auxiliary data transmitted from the certificate holder; generate a signature using the second biometric information and the first auxiliary data; generate a certificate presentation using the certificate; and transmit the certificate presentation and the signature to the certificate verifier (Wataru: ¶ 0031, ¶ 0032 - the server device 100 (issuer) sends a portable and verifiable certificate with authentication information signed with its own private key (issuer's private key) to the terminal device 10 of the user U (pVC). The terminal device 10 of the user U internally stores a portable and verifiable certificate with authentication information (pVC). As a result, the user U (the terminal device 10) becomes the holder of a portable and verifiable certificate with authentication information (pVC). When the terminal device 10 of the user U who is the holder needs to present a certificate to a verifier, the terminal device 10 of the user U who is the holder transfers the portable and verifiable certificate with authentication information (pVC) to the server device which is the verifier) , and wherein the certificate verifier includes: a communication interface configured to communicate at least with the certificate holder; a memory configured to store instructions; and a processor configured to execute the instructions (Wataru: Fig. 1 - teaches the certificate verifier (10) with interface and communicating with holder and issuer) to: receive the certificate presentation and signature transmitted from the certificate holder; verify the signature using the verification key included in the certificate presentation (Wataru: ¶ 0033, ¶ 0034 - the server device 200, which is the verifier, verifies the presented portable and verifiable certificate with authentication information (pVC) and when the server device 200, which is the verifier, succeeds in verifying the portable and verifiable certificate with authentication information (pVC), the server device 200 determines whether the holder is a FIDO authentication is performed for the user U in the same manner as the server device 100, which is the issuer (step S7). If FIDO authentication is successful, the server device 200, which is the verifier, provides products and services to the terminal device 10 of the user U, who is the holder) . As per claim 2, Wataru teaches the system according to claim 1, wherein the processor included in the certificate verifier is configured to: generate a challenge; and transmit the challenge to the certificate holder (Wataru: ¶ 0112 - the certificate database 123 may store information regarding a challenge sent to user U when requesting authentication) , and wherein the processor included in the certificate holder is configured to: receive the challenge transmitted from the circuit verifier; generate the signature for the challenge with a signing key restored using the first auxiliary data and the second biometric information; and transmit, to the certificate verifier, the signature and the certificate presentation separately or simultaneously, or the certificate presentation with the signature included therein (Wataru: ¶ 0118 - in response to a certificate issuance request from the user U's terminal device 10, the authentication processing unit 132 makes a user authentication request to the user U's terminal device 10, which is an authenticator, and transmits a challenge. The challenge is a random character string with a length of 16 or more characters to verify the validity of the signature. When the authentication processing unit 132 receives a signed challenge using the user U's private key from the user U's terminal device 10, the authentication processing unit 132 verifies the signature using the user U's public key, and if the signature verification is successful, the FIDO It is determined that the identity of user U has been confirmed through authentication) . As per claim 5, Wataru teaches the system according to claim 1, wherein the processor included in the certificate verifier is configured to: generate a challenge; and transmit the challenge to the certificate holder (Wataru: ¶ 0112 - the certificate database 123 may store information regarding a challenge sent to user U when requesting authentication) , wherein the processor included in the certificate holder is configured to based on the second biometric information and the first auxiliary data, generates, using a distributed signing process, the signature for the challenge transmitted from the certificate verifier, and wherein the processor included in the certificate verifier is configured to verify the signature using the verification key included in the certificate presentation (Wataru: ¶ 0118 - The challenge is a random character string with a length of 16 or more characters to verify the validity of the signature. When the authentication processing unit 132 receives a signed challenge using the user U's private key from the user U's terminal device 10, the authentication processing unit 132 verifies the signature using the user U's public key, and if the signature verification is successful, the FIDO It is determined that the identity of user U has been confirmed through authentication) . As per claim 9, the claim resembles claim 1 and is rejected under the same rationale. As per claim 10, the claim resembles claim 2 and is rejected under the same rationale. As per claim 13, the claim resembles claim 5 and is rejected under the same rationale. As per claim 17, the claim resembles claim 1 and is rejected under the same rationale while Wataru also teaches a non-transitory computer readable recording medium storing one or more programs that cause at least the first through third processing apparatuses to perform processing (Wataru: ¶ 0174 - the storage device may be a removable storage medium) . Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103 07-06 AIA 15-10-15 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. 07-20-aia AIA 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. 07-21-aia AIA 5. Claim s 3-4 and 11-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over JP2023124201A issued to Wataru et al. (Wataru) (Applicant IDS) in view of WO2023066374A1 issued to Cheng et al. (Cheng) . As per claim 3, Wataru teaches the system according to claim 1 however does not explicitly teach wherein the processor included in the certificate issuer is configured to generate the first auxiliary data using a first operation of an encoded value of the first signing key and the first biometric information, and wherein the processor included in the certificate holder is configured to: restore a signing key by decoding a value obtained by a second operation of the first auxiliary data and the second biometric information; and generate the signature with the signing key restored. Cheng however explicitly teaches wherein the processor included in the certificate issuer is configured to generate the first auxiliary data using a first operation of an encoded value of the first signing key and the first biometric information (Cheng: Pg. 3 - perform encoding operation on the first biometric template to obtain the first auxiliary data; the feature conversion is determined according to a key corresponding to the first auxiliary data) , and wherein the processor included in the certificate holder is configured to: restore a signing key by decoding a value obtained by a second operation of the first auxiliary data and the second biometric information; and generate the signature with the signing key restored (Cheng: Pg. 51 - when the first auxiliary data in the registration information is determined according to the second or third implementation S430, in the authentication stage, the key to be authenticated can be determined according to the decoding result of the error correction code, by comparing the key to be authenticated with the key corresponding to the first auxiliary data verifies the key to be authenticated to determine the authentication result; Pg. 72 - teaches the corrected value determined in step S430 can be restored by decoding the error correction code according to the quantized value to be authenticated that is close enough to the quantized value corresponding to the first biometric template and the first auxiliary data) . It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teaching of Wataru in view of Cheng to teach wherein the processor included in the certificate issuer is configured to generate the first auxiliary data using a first operation of an encoded value of the first signing key and the first biometric information, and wherein the processor included in the certificate holder is configured to: restore a signing key by decoding a value obtained by a second operation of the first auxiliary data and the second biometric information; and generate the signature with the signing key restored. One would be motivated to do so as encoding operation on the first biometric template to obtain the first auxiliary data is performed according to a key corresponding to the first auxiliary data and the key to be authenticated can be determined according to the decoding result of the error correction code, by comparing the key to be authenticated with the key corresponding to the first auxiliary data verifies the key to be authenticated to determine the authentication result. Also, the corrected value determined can be restored by decoding the error correction code according to the quantized value to be authenticated that is close enough to the quantized value corresponding to the first biometric template and the first auxiliary data (Cheng: Pg. 3, Pg. 51, Pg. 72) . As per claim 4, the modified teaching of Wataru teaches the system according to claim 3, wherein the first operation includes a composition operation of the encoded value of the first signing key and the first biometric information (Cheng: Pg. 3 - perform encoding operation on the first biometric template to obtain the first auxiliary data; the feature conversion is determined according to a key corresponding to the first auxiliary data) , and wherein the second operation includes a difference operation between the first auxiliary data and the second biometric information (Cheng: Pg. 72 - teaches the corrected value determined in step S430 can be restored by decoding the error correction code according to the quantized value to be authenticated that is close enough to the quantized value corresponding to the first biometric template and the first auxiliary data) . It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teaching of Wataru in view of Cheng to teach wherein the first operation includes a composition operation of the encoded value of the first signing key and the first biometric information, and wherein the second operation includes a difference operation between the first auxiliary data and the second biometric information. One would be motivated to do so as encoding operation on the first biometric template to obtain the first auxiliary data is performed according to a key corresponding to the first auxiliary data and the corrected value determined can be restored by decoding the error correction code according to the quantized value to be authenticated that is close enough to the quantized value corresponding to the first biometric template and the first auxiliary data (Cheng: Pg. 3, Pg. 72) . As per claim 11, the claim resembles claim 3 and is rejected under the same rationale. As per claim 12, the claim resembles claim 4 and is rejected under the same rationale . Allowable Subject Matter 12-151-08 AIA 07-43 12-51-08 Claim s 6-8 and 14-16 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. Conclusion Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SM AZIZUR RAHMAN whose telephone number is (571)270-7360. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F Telework; If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Ali Shayanfar can be reached on 571-270-1050. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000. /SM A RAHMAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2434 Application/Control Number: 19/011,894 Page 2 Art Unit: 2434 Application/Control Number: 19/011,894 Page 3 Art Unit: 2434 Application/Control Number: 19/011,894 Page 4 Art Unit: 2434 Application/Control Number: 19/011,894 Page 5 Art Unit: 2434 Application/Control Number: 19/011,894 Page 6 Art Unit: 2434 Application/Control Number: 19/011,894 Page 7 Art Unit: 2434 Application/Control Number: 19/011,894 Page 8 Art Unit: 2434 Application/Control Number: 19/011,894 Page 9 Art Unit: 2434
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Prosecution Timeline

Jan 07, 2025
Application Filed
Jun 03, 2026
Non-Final Rejection mailed — §102, §103 (current)

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Prosecution Projections

1-2
Expected OA Rounds
88%
Grant Probability
99%
With Interview (+18.2%)
2y 7m (~1y 1m remaining)
Median Time to Grant
Low
PTA Risk
Based on 521 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allowance rate.

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