DETAILED ACTION
Claims 1-20 are presented on 04/04/2025 for examination on merits. Claims 1 and 16 are independent base claims.
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 .
Examiner's Instructions for filing Response to this Office Action
When the Applicant submits amendments regarding to the claims in response the Office Action, the Examiner would appreciate Applicant if a clean copy of the claims is provided to facilitate the prosecution which otherwise requires extra time for editing the marked-up claims from OCR.
Please submit two sets of claims:
Set #1 as in a typical filing which includes indicators for the status of claim and all marked amendments to the claims; and
Set #2 as an appendix to the Arguments/Remarks for a clean version of the claims which has all the markups removed for entry by the Examiner.
Double Patenting
The nonstatutory double patenting rejection is based on a judicially created doctrine grounded in public policy (a policy reflected in the statute) so as to prevent the unjustified or improper timewise extension of the “right to exclude” granted by a patent and to prevent possible harassment by multiple assignees. A nonstatutory double patenting rejection is appropriate where the conflicting claims are not identical, but at least one examined application claim is not patentably distinct from the reference claim(s) because the examined application claim is either anticipated by, or would have been obvious over, the reference claim(s). See, e.g., In re Berg, 140 F.3d 1428, 46 USPQ2d 1226 (Fed. Cir. 1998); In re Goodman, 11 F.3d 1046, 29 USPQ2d 2010 (Fed. Cir. 1993); In re Longi, 759 F.2d 887, 225 USPQ 645 (Fed. Cir. 1985); In re Van Ornum, 686 F.2d 937, 214 USPQ 761 (CCPA 1982); In re Vogel, 422 F.2d 438, 164 USPQ 619 (CCPA 1970); In re Thorington, 418 F.2d 528, 163 USPQ 644 (CCPA 1969).
A timely filed terminal disclaimer in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(c) or 1.321(d) may be used to overcome an actual or provisional rejection based on nonstatutory double patenting provided the reference application or patent either is shown to be commonly owned with the examined application, or claims an invention made as a result of activities undertaken within the scope of a joint research agreement. See MPEP § 717.02 for applications subject to examination under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA as explained in MPEP § 2159. See MPEP § 2146 et seq. for applications not subject to examination under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA . A terminal disclaimer must be signed in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(b).
The filing of a terminal disclaimer by itself is not a complete reply to a nonstatutory double patenting (NSDP) rejection. A complete reply requires that the terminal disclaimer be accompanied by a reply requesting reconsideration of the prior Office action. Even where the NSDP rejection is provisional the reply must be complete. See MPEP § 804, subsection I.B.1. For a reply to a non-final Office action, see 37 CFR 1.111(a). For a reply to final Office action, see 37 CFR 1.113(c). A request for reconsideration while not provided for in 37 CFR 1.113(c) may be filed after final for consideration. See MPEP §§ 706.07(e) and 714.13.
The USPTO Internet website contains terminal disclaimer forms which may be used. Please visit www.uspto.gov/patent/patents-forms. The actual filing date of the application in which the form is filed determines what form (e.g., PTO/SB/25, PTO/SB/26, PTO/AIA /25, or PTO/AIA /26) should be used. A web-based eTerminal Disclaimer may be filled out completely online using web-screens. An eTerminal Disclaimer that meets all requirements is auto-processed and approved immediately upon submission. For more information about eTerminal Disclaimers, refer to www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/applying-online/eterminal-disclaimer.
Claims 1-20 are rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claims 1-20 of Patent No. US # 12299094 B2 (USPAT 094).
Although the claims at issue are not identical, they are not patentably distinct from each other because the claims of the Patent contain every element of the claims of the instant application and as such anticipate the claims of the instant application. It is noted that the instant application corresponds to the elected group of the parent application.
The table below illustrates the correspondence between the claims of the instant application and the claims of the U.S. Patent.
The Instant Application
The Reference Patent USPAT 094
1. A computer-implemented method for improving behavioral biometrics scoring accuracy, the method comprising:
1. A computer-implemented method for improving behavioral biometrics scoring accuracy using streamed data, the method comprising:
receiving, at a behavioral biometrics server, and responsive to a user accessing a service on an enterprise server:
receiving, at a behavioral biometrics server, and responsive to a user accessing a service on an enterprise server:
behavioral biometrics data; and
streamed behavioral biometrics data; and
contextual data associated with the behavioral biometrics data;
contextual data associated with the streamed behavioral biometrics data;
determining a first trust score by evaluating the behavioral biometrics data;
determining a first trust score by evaluating the streamed behavioral biometrics data;
if the first trust score is below a first predetermined value:
if the first trust score is below a first predetermined value:
separating the behavioral biometrics data into contextualized bins corresponding to the contextual data to produce binned data;
separating the streamed behavioral biometrics data into contextualized bins corresponding to the contextual data to produce binned data, the contextualized bins comprising one or more of: a target identifier; a data field; a data type field; an area of a browser window; a task; and a physical activity;
responsive to a first threshold amount of accrued binned data, evaluating the binned data to determine a second trust score; and
responsive to a first threshold amount of accrued binned data, evaluating the binned data to determine a second trust score that is context-aware; and
sending an alert to the enterprise server responsive to the second trust score being below a second predetermined value.
sending an alert to the enterprise server responsive to the second trust score being below a second predetermined value.
As shown above, USPAT 094 anticipates claim 1 of the instant application:
Independent claim 16 is rejected for the same reason as claim 1, because claim 16 recites the same limitations as claim 1 in similar language.
Regarding dependent claims of the present application, they are obvious variants of the same subject matter as found in the reference application, and thereby rejected under the judicially created doctrine of obviousness-type double patenting.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-20 are allowable over prior art for the following reasons:
Independent claims 1 and 16 repeat a substantial portion of the allowable subject matter of the parent case Application No. 18171793, filed 02/21/2023, now U.S. Patent # 12299094. The claims recite elements of “receiving, at a behavioral biometrics server, behavioral biometrics data; and contextual data associated with the behavioral biometrics data;
determining a first trust score by evaluating the behavioral biometrics data;
if the first trust score is below a first predetermined value: separating the behavioral biometrics data into contextualized bins corresponding to the contextual data to produce binned data; responsive to a first threshold amount of accrued binned data, evaluating the binned data to determine a second trust score; and sending an alert to the enterprise server responsive to the second trust score being below a second predetermined value.” These features, in combination with the other limitations in the claim(s), are not anticipated by, nor made obvious over the prior art of record.
Therefore, independent claims 1 and 16 are allowable. Dependent claims are allowed by virtue of their dependencies on claims 1 and 16 as they further limit the scope of the claimed invention.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure as the prior art additionally discloses certain parts of the claim features (See “PTO-892 Notice of Reference Cited”).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DON ZHAO whose telephone number is (571)272.9953. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday to Friday, 7:30 A.M to 5:00 P.M EST.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Carl G Colin can be reached on 571.272.3862. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571.273.8300.
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/Don G Zhao/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2493 06/25/2026
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