DETAILED ACTION
This application is a Continuation of PCT/CN2023/081446 filed on March 14, 2023 which claims priority to the CHINA application 202211063836.7 filed on August 31, 2022.
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 § 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.
Claims 1-3, 10 and 12-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Pub EP-3437048-B1 (hereinafter Voell)
Regarding claim 1, Voell discloses a method, applied to a distributed data management system, wherein the distributed data management system comprises a plurality of data management apparatuses, one or more data management apparatus in the plurality of data management apparatuses correspond to one or more blockchain nodes in a blockchain network respectively (Fig. 1 and related text), and the method comprises:
receiving, by a target data management apparatus in the plurality of data management apparatuses, a transaction request from a blockchain client (Fig. 2A and related text, step 200-220 disclose a transaction key manager prepare for a transaction payload),
wherein the transaction request comprises identifiers of transaction participants (par. [0017]);
performing input/output (I/O), by the target data management apparatus, on a transaction information ciphertext in the blockchain network based on the transaction request, wherein the transaction information ciphertext is obtained by encrypting a transaction information plaintext by using a key that is invisible to a participant other than the transaction participant (par. [0017]-[0026] discloses a transaction payload and a symmetric key (e.g. an invisible key) in which the key is used to decrypt the payload, both the transaction payload and the symmetric key are encrypted by the public key of the recipient); and
returning, by the target data management apparatus, a transaction result to the blockchain client (par. [0025]).
Regarding claim 2, Voell discloses wherein: a blockchain node in the blockchain network comprises a blockchain ledger; and performing I/O, by the target data management apparatus, on the transaction information ciphertext in the blockchain network based on the transaction request comprises: performing I/O, by the target data management apparatus, on the transaction information ciphertext in the blockchain ledger based on the transaction request (see claim 1 rejection for transaction manager to process the request).
Regarding claim 3, Voell discloses wherein: the target data management apparatus is mounted with a local storage, and the local storage comprises a private ledger of the blockchain network; and performing I/O, by the target data management apparatus, on the transaction information ciphertext in the blockchain network based on the transaction request comprises: performing I/O, by the target data management apparatus, on the transaction information ciphertext in the private ledger based on the transaction request (par. [0016] discloses the method for providing data privacy in a private distributed ledger).
Regarding claim 10, Voell discloses wherein: the target data management apparatus is mounted with a local storage, and the local storage comprises a private ledger of the blockchain network; and the method further comprises: obtaining, by the target data management apparatus from the private ledger, first meta information of data stored in the private ledger; obtaining, from the blockchain ledger of the blockchain network, second meta information of the data stored in the private ledger; and performing fault check based on the first meta information and the second meta information to obtain a fault check result (par. [0021]-[0025] discloses validation of the digital signature which is the process of comparing the hash value (e.g. meta information)).
Claims 12-14 are rejected in view of claims 1-3 rejections respectively.
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 4-6 and 15-17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Voell in view of Pub CN-111612462-B (hereinafter Liu)
Regarding claim 4, Voell discloses wherein: the transaction request is a storage request (par. [0018] discloses “…sending a TxPayloadStore message including, for example, the hash digests, the encrypted payload, and the encrypted symmetric key to the TxKeyManager for storage”), and the transaction request comprises the transaction information plaintext (par. [0015] discloses the transaction is either encrypted or unencrypted payload); and performing I/O, by the target data management apparatus, on the transaction information ciphertext in the blockchain network based on the transaction request comprises:
Voell does not disclose using a chain key. Liu discloses using a symmetric key in blockchain communication comprises an initial key and a derivative key (e.g. a chain key) (see highlighted section and also claim 9). Hence, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Voell with Liu by utilizing the symmetric key of Voell as a chain key taught in Liu to further teach encrypting, by the target data management apparatus, the transaction information plaintext by using a chain key of a transaction initiator in the transaction participants in a privacy transaction group, to obtain a first transaction information ciphertext. One would have done so as an obvious variation to generate a key based on a derivative function as well known in the art of cryptography;
Voell discloses storing the first transaction information ciphertext in a blockchain ledger; encrypting, by the target data management apparatus, the transaction information plaintext by using a public key or a symmetric key of the transaction initiator in the transaction participants, to obtain a second transaction information ciphertext; and storing the second transaction information ciphertext in the private ledger (par. [0018]-[0019] discloses the key service manager storing the encrypted payload then the transaction party receives the encrypted payload to decrypt using their own private key).
Regarding claim 5, Liu discloses wherein: the transaction request is a query request (see highlighted section related to Fig. 2);
performing I/O, by the target data management apparatus, on the transaction information ciphertext in the blockchain network based on the transaction request comprises: reading, by the target data management apparatus, the transaction information ciphertext from the private ledger or a blockchain ledger based on the transaction request; the method further comprises: decrypting, by the target data management apparatus, the transaction information ciphertext to obtain the transaction information plaintext; and the transaction result comprises the transaction information plaintext (see claim 1-3 rejections).
Regarding claim 6, the combination of Voell and Liu discloses wherein before performing I/O, by the target data management apparatus, on the transaction information ciphertext in the blockchain network based on the transaction request, the method further comprises: obtaining, through agreement via the blockchain network, a chain key of a transaction initiator in the transaction participants in a privacy transaction group, wherein the key that is invisible to the participant other than the transaction participant comprises the chain key (see claim 4 reasoning on how the symmetric key, a derived key, of Voell is used as a chain key).
Claims 15-17 are rejected in view of claims 4-6 respectively.
Claims 7 and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Voell in view of Liu, and further in view of Pub 20210218710 (hereinafter Fallah) and Pub GB-2589390-A (Thomas)
Regarding claim 7, neither Voell nor Liu discloses wherein the method further comprises: when a key update condition is triggered, updating the chain key by using a double ratchet algorithm. Fallah discloses when there is an indication that a device has been compromised in distributed ledger, a proxy system then triggers a remedial or a crypto-agility action in the device, such as wiping the key store and re-provisioning the device keys and/or changing cryptographic algorithms (par. [0127]). While Fallah does not expressly disclose which cryptographic algorithms is used when changing the cryptographic algorithms, Thomas discloses generating keys using double rachet algorithm (Background section and page 6, lines 25-29). Therefore, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Voell and Liu with Fallah and Thomas to further teach the aforementioned feature. One would done so to improve communication between peers for forward secrecy and post-compromise security since Double Rachet algorithm prevents earlier keys cannot be calculated from later ones and later keys cannot be computed from earlier keys alone (Thomas, Background section).
Claim 18 is rejected in view of claim 7 rejection.
Claims 8 and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Voell in view of Liu, Fallah, Thomas and further in view of Patent 10003467 (hereinafter Miller)
Regarding claim 8, neither Voell, Liu, Fallah nor Thomas discloses wherein the key update condition comprises: a quantity of transactions based on the chain key reaches a preset quantity. Miller discloses this feature (col. 16, lines 18-25). Therefore, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Voell, Liu, Fallah and Thomas with Miller to further teach the aforementioned feature for key provisioning. One would done so to arrive at the claimed invention with reasonable expectation of success.
Claim 19 is rejected in view of claim 8 rejection.
Claims 9 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Voell in view of Patent 11922074 (hereinafter Thomason)
Regarding claim 9, Voell discloses private and public keys of a transaction party and the key service manager has the public key to encrypt the payload. Voell does not expressly disclose who issues the key pair, but it is well known in the art in PKI scheme, the certificate authority usually the issuer. For example, Thomason discloses a node as a certificate authority approving the key pair issued (Fig. 13 on col 14). Therefore, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Voell with Thomason to further teach receiving a public-private key pair issued by a certificate authority node to a transaction initiator in the transaction participants, wherein the key that is invisible to the participant other than the transaction participant comprises a public key in the public-private key pair for key provisioning. One would done so to arrive at the claimed invention with reasonable expectation of success.
Claim 20 is rejected in view of claim 8 rejection.
Claim 11 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Voell in view of Pub 20220114156 (hereinafter Maher)
Regarding claim 11, Voell discloses validating signature (par. [0021]-[0025]) and checking state database (par. [0046]-[0048]) but does not expressly disclose when the fault check result indicates that the data stored in the private ledger is tampered with or deleted, or when a storage mounted to the target data management apparatus is faulty, performing, by the target data management apparatus, fault recovery based on the blockchain ledger. Maher discloses this feature (par. [0048]-[0049] discloses error correction for ledger entry when data faults occur). Therefore, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Voell with Maher to further teach the aforementioned claimed feature. One would done so using known data recovery for fault or error of ledger entries to arrive at the claimed invention with reasonable expectation of success.
Inquiry communication
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/TRI M TRAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2432
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