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 Objections
Claim 8 is objected to because of the following informalities: Claim 8 recites “a user location encrypting plain text data with a common key sent from the secret sharing location. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claim limitation “a user location encrypting plain text”, “secret sharing location generating …” of claim 8 invokes 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph. However, the written description fails to disclose the corresponding structure, material, or acts for performing the entire claimed function and to clearly link the structure, material, or acts to the function(Hardware). Therefore, the claim is indefinite and is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, second paragraph.
Applicant may:
(a) Amend the claim so that the claim limitation will no longer be interpreted as a limitation under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph;
(b) Amend the written description of the specification such that it expressly recites what structure, material, or acts perform the entire claimed function, without introducing any new matter (35 U.S.C. 132(a)); or
(c) Amend the written description of the specification such that it clearly links the structure, material, or acts disclosed therein to the function recited in the claim, without introducing any new matter (35 U.S.C. 132(a)).
If applicant is of the opinion that the written description of the specification already implicitly or inherently discloses the corresponding structure, material, or acts and clearly links them to the function so that one of ordinary skill in the art would recognize what structure, material, or acts perform the claimed function, applicant should clarify the record by either:
(a) Amending the written description of the specification such that it expressly recites the corresponding structure, material, or acts for performing the claimed function and clearly links or associates the structure, material, or acts to the claimed function, without introducing any new matter (35 U.S.C. 132(a)); or
(b) Stating on the record what the corresponding structure, material, or acts, which are implicitly or inherently set forth in the written description of the specification, perform the claimed function. For more information, see 37 CFR 1.75(d) and MPEP §§ 608.01(o) and 2181.
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, 8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over OZAKI(US 20190027067 A1:IDS supplied) in view of ZENG et al(CN 114531225 A).
With regards to claim 1, 8 OZAKI discloses, A secret sharing-based storage method using a user location (FIG 1 103 and associated text), a secret sharing location (FIG 1 105 and associated text; ), and multiple cloud servers (FIG 1 107 and associated text), the method comprising: causing the secret sharing location to generate multiple pieces of key-distributed data obtained by distributing the common key ([0069] (Dis2) E is divided into five pieces, i.e., E.sub.1, E.sub.2, E.sub.3, E.sub.4, and E.sub.5 by means of the IDA(2, 5). [0070] (Dis3) The key K is divided into four pieces, i.e., K.sub.1, K.sub.2, K.sub.3, and K.sub.4 by means of the PSS(2, 4) as proposed by Shamir.), receiving the [[encrypted]] data from the first network, generating multiple pieces of encrypted data-distributed data obtained by distributing the encrypted data ([0065] The ciphertext management apparatus 105 includes an encryption unit 117, a dividing unit 119, and a distribution unit 121. The encryption unit 117, the dividing unit 119, and the distribution unit 121 operate in the same manner as those of the encryption unit 43, the dividing unit 45, and the distribution unit 47 shown in FIG. 2. This arrangement performs encryption processing and dividing processing for the secret data stored in the plaintext storage unit 113, so as to generate the divided ciphertexts and divided keys), and distributing and sending the multiple pieces of key-distributed data and the multiple pieces of encrypted data distributed data to the multiple cloud servers via the second network ([0065]; The distribution unit 121 generates the pairs of the divided ciphertext and the divided keys, and distributes the pairs to the respective servers of the server group 107.); and
causing each of the multiple cloud servers to store the corresponding received encrypted data- distributed data and the corresponding received key- distributed data ([0065] The distribution unit 121 generates the pairs of the divided ciphertext and the divided keys, and distributes the pairs to the respective servers of the server group 107.).
OZAKI does not but ZENG teaches, causing the user location (client) to encrypt plain text data with a common key sent from the secret sharing location and sending the encrypted data to the secret sharing location via a first network (Abstract; the user side determines a user shared key corresponding to the user side based on the gateway public key and a user private key configured by the user side; and the user side encrypts to-be-transmitted communication data based on the user shared key, and sends the encrypted communication data to the gateway device. A shared key is generated through negotiation between a user side and gateway equipment, bidirectional authentication is performed on the user side and the gateway equipment,); receiving the encrypted data from the first network (page 1; encrypting the communication data to be transmitted based on the user shared key, and sending the encrypted communication data to the gateway device.), 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 OZAKI’s method with teaching of ZENG in order to provide an end-to-end communication encryption method, device storage medium and terminal device, aiming at solving the problem of low communication security of the existing intelligent(ZENG page 1 ).
With regards to claim 7, 14 OZAKI further teaches, wherein the multiple secret sharing locations are provided and are usable to be changed ([0053] In a case in which the information of one unequal pair is added to the information stored in the leader server group 13, the secret data can be reconstructed. Accordingly, the secret data can be reconstructed even if a malfunction occurs in the servers that each store an equal pair. That is to say, such an arrangement exhibits improved fault tolerance. It should be noted that, to be exact, the secret data can be reconstructed if the information of only one equal information pair that is not stored in the leader server group 13 is added. Accordingly, in this example, this arrangement requires only one pair as an additional piece of information from among the pairs stored in the top server group 11, which is not stored in the leader server group 13, to reconstruct the secret data after access permission is acquired.).
Claim(s) 4, 11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over OZAKI(US 20190027067 A1:IDS supplied) in view of ZENG et al(CN 114531225 A) and further in view of AN et al(US 20200313865 A1).
With regards to claim 4, 11 OZAKI in view of ZENG teaches, wherein when receiving the encrypted data from the first network (page 1; encrypting the communication data to be transmitted based on the user shared key, and sending the encrypted communication data to the gateway device.),
OZAKI in view of ZENG do not but AN teaches, the secret sharing location receives double encrypted data which is double-encrypted via a proxy server ([0110] Step 905: After receiving the double-encrypted cipher text K.sub.BC[K.sub.AC(data)],). 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 OZAKI in view of ZENG’s method with teaching of AN in order to provide secure communication by reducing the risk of data being illegally captured during network transmission (AN [0004] ).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-3, 5-6, 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.
Claims 9-10, 12-13 would be allowable if rewritten to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action and to include 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. WO 0038382 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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