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 .
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.
Claim(s) 1, 6-9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sethuraman et al(“Loki: A Physical Security Key Compatible IoT Based Lock for Protecting Physical Assets”; by SIBI CHAKKARAVARTHY SETHURAMAN 1,ADITYA MITRA, KUAN-CHING LI, ANISHA GHOSH, M. GOPINATH, AND NITIN SUKHIJA; IEEE Access; Published on 25 October 2022.).
With regards to claim 1, 8, 9 Sethuraman discloses, An information processing system comprising: an information processing apparatus that holds, out of a private key and a public key of public key cryptography assigned to the information processing apparatus, the public key, and is shipped in a locked state in which startup by an operating system (OS) is prohibited (Page 112726; Figure. 6 shows the experimental testbed of Loki. Loki
follows the FIDO2 specifications, which implies it uses public-key cryptosystem for device attestation. The private cryptographic keys never leave the physical security key, making it secure. The device identities are stored in Azure SQL Database, which is always encrypted, making sure it is decrypted only during transactions. Virtual network rewall
rules ensure that only the backend virtual machine can access the database. Only the virtual machine can access the database with SQL Authentication. The public cryptographic keys, residing on the virtual machine's disks, have Azure Disk Encryption to prevent unauthorized access. ); and
a higher-level apparatus connectable to the information processing apparatus via an interface of Universal Serial Bus (USB) [[Type-C]], wherein the information processing apparatus includes: a main control unit that executes processes based on the OS and Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) (page 112725; FIG 5 and associated text; As the user taps on the 'unlock' button on the device, it prompts for the registered security key. It unlocks if the correct key is inserted into the device USB port. Fig. 5 shows the authentication workow.); and
a sub-control unit that is capable of operating in a state in which power is not supplied to the main control unit, and releases the locked state if mutual validity of the information processing apparatus and the higher-level apparatus is verified based on the private key and the public key using the USB [[Type-C]] (FIG 5 and associated text; page 112724; A low-power Single Board Computer (SBC) running Ubuntu OS is used to communicate with the physical security key and the backend over the internet.).
However, Sethuraman silent about USB C type, It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to modify Sethuraman’s method/device/system with applying USB-C-type in order to make faster the data transferring.
With regards to claim 6, Sethuraman further discloses, wherein the mutual validity of the information processing apparatus and the higher-level apparatus is verified based on the private key stored in a USB device connected to the higher-level apparatus and the public key held in the information processing apparatus(FIG 1 and associated text; 112724; A. PROPOSED SOLUTION AND NOVELTY OF LOKI ).
With regards to claim 7, Sethuraman further discloses, wherein the mutual validity of the information processing apparatus and the higher-level apparatus is verified based on the private key stored in a server apparatus connected to the higher-level apparatus via a network and the public key held in the information processing apparatus(FIG 1 and associated text; 112724; A. PROPOSED SOLUTION AND NOVELTY OF LOKI ).
Claim(s) 2 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sethuraman et al(“Loki: A Physical Security Key Compatible IoT Based Lock for Protecting Physical Assets”; by SIBI CHAKKARAVARTHY SETHURAMAN 1,ADITYA MITRA, KUAN-CHING LI, ANISHA GHOSH, M. GOPINATH, AND NITIN SUKHIJA; IEEE Access; Published on 25 October 2022.) in view of Tomppo(US 20160306616 A1).
With regards to claim 2, Sethuraman does not exclusively but Tomppo teaches, wherein the sub-control unit further permits a process of setting the BIOS and a process of updating the BIOS if the mutual validity of the information processing apparatus and the higher-level apparatus is verified, and wherein the higher-level apparatus executes the process of setting the BIOS and the process of updating the BIOS for the information processing apparatus via the sub- control unit using the USB Type-C([0004] A firmware update of a USB device is described. In an example a method, comprises: communicating from a first device to a second device by a configuration channel of a universal serial bus; identifying, by the first device, that the second device supports a firmware update mode for an update of a firmware of the second device; commanding, by the first device, the second device to enter the firmware update mode; receiving, by the first device, information of the firmware from the second device; based on the received firmware information, obtaining, by the first device, the update of the firmware; and sending, by the first device, the update of the firmware to the second device, wherein the steps of identifying, commanding, receiving, and sending are conducted by the communication via the configuration channel of the universal serial bus.) It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to modify Sethuraman’s system with teaching of Tomppo in order to applying USB-C-type in order to provide relative ease-of-use aspects(Tomppo [0001]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-5 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
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. US 20210034733 A1.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MOHAMMED WALIULLAH whose telephone number is (571)270-7987. The examiner can normally be reached 8.30 to 430 PM.
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/MOHAMMED WALIULLAH/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2498
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