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
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.
Claim(s) 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Guo US Publication No. 2022/0398602 cited by Applicant in view of Hubbard et al. US Publication No. 20200342507 A1.
Re Claim 1, Guo discloses a system for unlocking of an aerosol delivery device, the system comprising:
an aerosol delivery device (500) having a locked state and an unlocked state (Fig. 15, P91) ;
and a computing device, comprising a processor and a memory communicatively connected to the processor (P96, electronic cigarette 500 goes from deactivated 20 to activated 25 through authentication by an authorized near field communication reader mobile terminal 400, which can be any device with functionality of near field communication readability. Some non-limiting examples include a cell phone, smartwatch, tablet, handheld scanner, key fob, computer, ,
the memory containing instructions configuring the processor to:
receive a first identification data comprising a first user metadata from a user (P88-P89, P99);
retrieve a second identification data comprising a second user metadata from a data store (P105, P95) ;
generate a verification datum by comparing at least a portion of the first user metadata to at least a portion of the second user metadata (P105, P111);
store at least one of the verification datum, the first user metadata, or the second user metadata, in a blockchain (P108);
generate an object action datum based on the verification datum, the object action datum comprising an unlocking command; transmit the object action datum to the aerosol delivery device (P119, P98).
Guo fails to disclose storing the data in a blockchain.
Hubbard discloses utilizing Blockchain technology for storing personal or identification information (P6, P8, P32, P126) .
Given the teachings of Hubbard it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Guo with storing one of the verification datum, the first user metadata, or the second user metadata storing .
As suggested by Guo doing so allows for the secure storage of personal information, while also providing necessary access to that information (e.g. for verifying a user's identity or age) (P32).
Re Claim 2, Guo and Hubbard discloses the system of claim 1, and Guo discloses wherein the first user metadata comprise a date of birth of the user obtained from a user ID (P89).
Re Claim 3, Guo and Hubbard discloses the system of claim 1, and Guo discloses wherein the data store is maintained at a remote server (P36, P100 Fig. 18.)
Re Claim 4, Guo and Hubbard discloses the system of claim 1, and Guo discloses wherein the aerosol delivery device comprises a radio frequency chip including at least one of an NFC chip or a Bluetooth chip (P11, P69).
Re Claim 5 , Guo and Hubbard discloses the system of claim 1, and Guo discloses wherein the first identification data further comprises a unique identifier corresponding to the aerosol delivery device (500; P11, P14).
Re Claim 6, Guo and Hubbard discloses the system of claim 5, and Hubbard discloses wherein the processor is further configured to store the unique identifier in the blockchain (P32, P6, P8, P126) .
Re Claim 7, Guo and Hubbard discloses the system of claim 1, and Guo discloses wherein the computing is a mobile device (P96).
Re Claim 8, Guo and Hubbard discloses the system of claim 1, and Guo discloses wherein the first identification data includes a first biometric data and the second identification data includes a second biometric data of the user, and the generation of the verification datum further comprises comparing at least a portion of the first biometric data and the second biometric data (P94, P111, P105).
Re Claim 9, Guo and Hubbard discloses the system of claim 1, and Guo discloses wherein the storage of at least one of the verification datum, the first user metadata, or the second user metadata further includes storage of a cryptographically secured timestamp (P109) and Hubbard discloses storing the data on the blockchain (P6, P8, P32, P126).
Re Claim 10, Guo and Hubbard discloses the system of claim 1, and Guo discloses wherein the processor is further configured to convert the first identification data into a cryptographic hash (P109-P110, P70).
Re Claim 11, Guo discloses a method of unlocking of an aerosol delivery device, the method comprising:
providing an aerosol delivery device(500, Figure 15) ;
providing a computing device (400) : obtaining, using the computing device (400), a first user metadata from a user (P101, P88-90 verification imagining identity and information of a user ) ; retrieving, using the computing device (400) , a second identification data (P105, additional/authorized users may be added as authorized users of the electronic cigarette 500 so as to enable shared use of an electronic cigarette 500 for verified consumers) ,
comprising a second user (additional users/authorized users ) metadata from a data store(P105, P88-P89, P99);
generating a verification datum by comparing at least a portion of the first user metadata to at least a portion of the second user metadata (P105);
storing at least one of the verification datum, the first user metadata, and the second user metadata (P105-P106, P108-P109);
generating an object action datum based on the verification datum, the object action datum comprising an unlocking command; transmitting the object action datum to the aerosol delivery device to convert the aerosol delivery device from a locked to an unlocked state (P119,P108-P109 P98; fig. 18).
Guo fails to disclose storing the data in a blockchain.
Hubbard discloses utilizing Blockchain technology for storing personal or identification information (P6, P8, P32, P126) .
Given the teachings of Hubbard it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Guo with storing at least one of the verification datum, the first user metadata, and the second user metadata in a blockchain.
As suggested by Guo doing so allows for the secure storage of personal information, while also providing necessary access to that information (e.g. for verifying a user's identity or age) (P32).
Re Claim 12, Guo and Hubbard discloses The method of claim 11, and Guo discloses the obtaining of the first user metadata comprises scanning a user ID (P101, P89, P63, P107).
Re Claim 13, Guo and Hubbard discloses the method of claim 11, and Guo discloses wherein the data store is maintained at a remote server(P36, P100 Fig. 18.).
Re Claim 14, Guo and Hubbard discloses the method of claim 11, and Guo discloses wherein the transmitting of the object action datum comprises radio frequency communication including at least one of NFC and Bluetooth communication (P11, P69).
Re Claim 15, Guo and Hubbard discloses the method of claim 11, and Guo discloses wherein the first identification data further comprises a unique identifier corresponding to the aerosol delivery device(P11, P14).
Re Claim 16, Guo and Hubbard discloses the method of claim 15, and Hubbard discloses further comprising the unique identifier in the blockchain (P6, P8, P32, P126).
Re Claim 17, Guo and Hubbard discloses The method of claim 11, and Guo discloses wherein the computing device is a mobile device(P96).
Re Claim 18, Guo and Hubbard discloses The method of claim 11, and Guo discloses wherein the first identification data includes a first biometric data and the second identification data includes a second biometric data of the user, and the generation of the verification datum further comprises comparing at least a portion of the first biometric data and the second biometric data(P94, P105, P111, P105)..
Re Claim 19, Guo and Hubbard discloses The method of claim 1, and Guo discloses wherein the storage of at least one of the verification datum, the first user metadata, or the second user metadata further includes storage of a cryptographically secured timestamp (P109, P107) and Hubbard discloses storing the data on the blockchain (P6, P8, P32, P126).
Re Claim 20, Guo and Hubbard discloses the method of claim 11, and Guo discloses further comprising converting the first identification data into a cryptographic hash (P109-P110, P70).
.
Conclusion
The following reference is cited but not relied upon:
Hubbard et al. discloses system for realizing user authentication and age verification for an aerosol delivery device e.g. electronic cigarettes, heat-not-burn cigarettes and no-heat-no-burn devices, of an electronic nicotine delivery system
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SONJI N. JOHNSON
Examiner
Art Unit 2876
/SONJI N JOHNSON/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2876