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 .
DETAILED ACTION
Claims 1-20 are presented for examination.
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 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.
3. Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ZHOU et al hereafter ZHOU (US pat. App. Pub. 20240114013) and in view of Wu et al hereafter Wu (US pat. 9253068).
4. As per claims 1, 11, and 20, ZHOU discloses a data encryption method, a data encryption apparatus and a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium performed by a user terminal, the method comprising: transmitting a message request packet to a server, a first source address of the message request packet comprising an encrypted terminal address, wherein the encrypted terminal address is obtained by encrypting a terminal address of the user terminal by using a first public key of the server (paragraphs: 5, 41-42, wherein it emphasizes transmits a message request packet to a server that comprises first source address of the packet includes an encrypted terminal address of the client which is encrypted by using public key of the server); receiving a traffic packet returned by the server for the message request packet, wherein a second source address of the traffic packet comprises an encrypted server address, and wherein the encrypted server address is obtained by encrypting a server address of the server by using a second public key of the user terminal (paragraphs: 6, 47, 76-77, wherein it elaborates server returns the packet with second source address comprises an encrypted source address based on encrypted server address by a public key of the client’s terminal); decrypting the encrypted server address by using a private key of the user terminal to obtain a to-be-determined server address; and obtaining traffic data from the traffic packet in response to the to-be-determined server address (paragraphs: 48-49, and 78, wherein it deliberates that decrypting the encrypted server address by using the client’s terminal private key to acquire the server address and receives the traffic data from the designated server). Although, ZHOU discuses about acquiring the traffic data from the verified server. In the same field of endeavor, Wu discloses server address being consistent with the server address (paragraphs: col. 1, lines 35-53, , and 3:11-67, and 4:1-25).
Accordingly, it would been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the network security art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have incorporated Wu’s teachings of server address being consistent with the server address with the teachings of ZHOU, for the purpose of effectively protecting the server address from any unauthorized intruders.
5. As per claims 2, ZHOU and in view of Wu discloses the data encryption method, wherein the first source address further comprises a hidden terminal address that is a virtual terminal address different from the terminal address, and wherein the second source address further comprises a hidden server address that is a virtual server address different from the server address (ZHOU, paragraphs: 38-39, and 42).
6. As per claims 3, ZHOU and in view of Wu discloses the data encryption method, further comprising: receiving, through a traffic link to the server, a key creation packet returned by the server for the message request packet, wherein a third source address of the key creation packet comprises the encrypted server address, and wherein the key creation packet comprises encrypted key data obtained through encryption by using the second public key; decrypting the encrypted key data by using the private key to obtain a shared key between the user terminal and the server and one or more intermediate shared keys corresponding to one or more intermediate routing nodes in the traffic link; encrypting the one or more intermediate shared keys by using the shared key to obtain encrypted intermediate key data; and transmitting, to the server, a key acknowledgement packet comprising the encrypted intermediate key data, wherein a fourth source address of the key acknowledgement packet comprises the encrypted terminal address (ZHOU, paragraphs: 104, 109, and 112).
7. As per claims 4, ZHOU and in view of Wu discloses the data encryption method, wherein the receiving the traffic packet comprises: receiving, through the traffic link, the traffic packet, wherein a destination address of the traffic packet is obtained by encrypting the terminal address based on a target intermediate shared key that is an intermediate shared key corresponding to a previous-hop intermediate routing node of the user terminal in the traffic link (ZHOU, paragraphs: 43, 45, and 49).
8. As per claims 5, ZHOU and in view of Wu discloses the data encryption method, further comprising: determining a packet receiving result for the traffic packet; and transmitting a traffic acknowledgement packet comprising the packet receiving result to the server, wherein a third source address of the traffic acknowledgement packet comprises the encrypted terminal address (ZHOU, paragraphs: 60, 65, and 69).
9. As per claims 6, ZHOU and in view of Wu discloses the data encryption method, further comprising: receiving a traffic retransmission packet returned by the server in response to the traffic acknowledgement packet, wherein the traffic retransmission packet is a traffic packet that is identified by the packet receiving result and that is not received by the user terminal, and wherein a fourth source address of the traffic retransmission packet comprises the encrypted server address (ZHOU, paragraphs: 120, 126, and 129).
10. As per claims 7, ZHOU and in view of Wu discloses the data encryption method, wherein the key acknowledgement packet comprises a plaintext server address of the server (ZHOU, paragraphs: 5, and 6).
11. As per claims 8, ZHOU and in view of Wu discloses the data encryption method, wherein the traffic retransmission packet comprises a plaintext terminal address of the user terminal (ZHOU, paragraphs: 32, and 34).
12. As per claims 9, ZHOU and in view of Wu discloses the data encryption method, wherein the user terminal is a smartphone, a tablet computer, a notebook computer, a desktop computer, a speaker, a smartwatch, an in-vehicle terminal, or a television (ZHOU, paragraphs: 142-147).
14. As per claims 10, ZHOU and in view of Wu discloses the data encryption method, wherein the message request packet is for requesting target video content from the server (ZHOU, paragraphs: 53, 56, and 59).
15. Claims 12-19 are listed all the same elements of claims 2-10. Therefore, the supporting rationales of the rejection to claims 2-10 apply equally as well to claims 12-19.
Citation of References
16. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. The following references are cited but not been replied upon for this office action:
CHEN et al (US pat. app. Pub. 20250133068): discusses a first protocol layer of a first party obtains a MAC address of a second party according to a data transmission request from an application layer, the data transmission request including an NLP address of the second party; the first protocol layer generates a first temporary key pair including a first temporary public key and a first temporary private key; the first protocol layer obtains a second temporary public key of the second party according to the first temporary public key; the first protocol layer generates a shared key according to the second temporary public key and the first temporary private key; the first protocol layer determines a data message, the data message carrying encrypted data obtained by encrypting using the shared key, and the receiver of the data message being the second party.
CARREL et al (US pat. App. Pub. 20190141017): elaborates that a first network device configured to communicate via an encrypted session, and a second network device configured to communicate with the first network device via the encrypted session, where the second network device may be configured to perform operations to facilitate communication via the encrypted session. The operations may include receive a first set of data from a device other than the first network device, where the first set of data is used to communicate via the encrypted session. The operations may also include combine peer-to-peer information to be used by the first network device to communicate via the encrypted session to an encrypted packet, where the peer-to-peer information is combined with the encrypted packet in an unencrypted form. The operations may additionally include send the encrypted packet with the peer-to-peer information to the first network device.
Conclusion
17. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MOHAMMAD W REZA whose telephone number is (571)272-6590. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday 8:30-5:30 ET.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Cathy Thiaw can be reached on 571-270-1138. 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).
/MOHAMMAD W REZA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2407
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