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 .
Priority
Applicant’s claim for the benefit of a prior-filed application under 35 U.S.C. 119(e) or under 35 U.S.C. 120, 121, 365(c), or 386(c) is acknowledged.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement(s) (IDS) submitted on March 5, 2026, is/are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement(s) has/have been considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112(a):
(a) IN GENERAL.—The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor or joint inventor of carrying out the invention.
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112:
The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor of carrying out his invention.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the written description requirement. The claim(s) contains subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to reasonably convey to one skilled in the relevant art that the inventor or a joint inventor, or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the inventor(s), at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention.
Per Claims 1-20: Independent claim 1 recites “in response to the first server being offline and unavailable to tokenize operational information to perform the secure operation: receiving, from the second server, the operational information that is encrypted using the public key to facilitate the secure operation; . . . providing, to the second server, the token to perform the secure operation.” However, there is insufficient written description support for these claim limitations. Specifically, ¶ 76 of the originally-filed specification describes the encrypted payload, i.e., the claimed operational information, is sent by the merchant to the payment processor until it is properly received, i.e., when the payment processor is back online. Further, ¶ 78 of the originally-filed specification describes decrypting the received encrypted payload, tokenizes the PAN, and sends the token back to the merchant. In other words, all of these operations are performed when the payment processor, i.e., the claimed first server, is online which is in contrast to the claim language which recites that these functions are performed when the first server is offline and unavailable. Independent claims 8 and 15 recite similar subject matter and are also rejected for similar reasons. The respective dependent claims are rejected by reason of their dependency from the independent claims.
Reasons for Allowability Over the Prior Art
The prior art, either alone or in combination, fails to disclose the subject matter of the independent claims as a whole. For example, the prior art fails to disclose providing, by a first server to a second server, a script including a public key, receiving, by the first server, a private key, and then the first server performing the receiving, decrypting, generating, and providing functions in response to the first server being offline.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
U.S. Patent Pub. No. 2011/0103589 discloses a key distributing method, a public key of key distribution centre online updating method, a key distribution centre, a communication entity and a key management system. The system includes: communication entities, a carrying device, a key distribution centre and a database, wherein the carrying device carries or transports the information during the key distributing course and the public key online updating course, the database stores whether each communication entity registered secret service; the database connects with the key distribution centre, the key distribution centre connects with the carrying device, and the carrying device connects with each communication entity. Using the cipher technology of public key, a key distribution system is provided based on principle of three-element peer authentication (TePA). The system safely distributes the communication key to each pair entities to enable keys have PFS attribute, reduces the key management complexity of the system, and realizes online updating of the public key of the trusted third party i.e. key distribution centre.
U.S. Patent Pub. No. 2011/0161233 discloses methods, systems, and devices for secure transaction management are provided. Embodiments include a method for providing secure transactions that include receiving an identifier of a financial account at a payment processor system. A token may be generated that is linked with the identifier of the financial account at the payment processor system. The identifier of the financial account and the token may be stored securely at the payment processor system. The token may be transmitted without the identifier of the financial account to at least a recipient system or a recipient device where the token replaces the identifier of the financial account.
U.S. Patent Pub. No. 2014/0219443 discloses a method is provided of generating and distributing secret random data. The method requires a plurality of participating parties each to own an identical private-key generation device and to request a random signal over a shared publication communication network. At each iteration of the method, the parties process the public random signal with the internal states of their secret-key generation devices using two functions, the output of the first function being generated secret random data and the output of the second function being a new internal state.
U.S. Patent No. 5,864,667 discloses a method for safe distribution of encryption keys including a known public and secret private keys in establishing a secure link between computer users resided at separate location whom have no previous secure communications. The secure communication link occasionally and anonymously interrogates the key distribution center for the certificate pertaining to the computer users in ensuring the validity and integrity of the information stored in the center which is not tampered by any unauthorized persons. The interactively interrogating of the key distribution center is conducted via a trusted and verified certificate decision making process which encompasses the acknowledging to user who receives a valid certificate, accepting an encrypted message, key distributed center's answer to the correct up-to-date certificate, decrypting the key distributed answer via the public key, and matching the answer's identification. As the result of the muli-steps process exchanged among users via key distributed center and other secure devices, the secure link can be established between the computer users in allowing data to be transferred from one computer location to another computer location in providing a very high reliability and confidentiality of users' data connectivity.
U.S. Patent No. 9,571,471 discloses systems and method for encrypted transmission of web pages. One exemplary method comprises: receiving, by a proxy server, a web page requested by a user device; analyzing, by a hardware processor of the proxy server, the received web page to identify code of elements of the web page; selecting one or more identified elements of the web page for encryption; encrypting, by the hardware processor, the code of the one or more selected elements; generating, by the hardware processor, a script containing the encrypted code of the one or more selected elements; modifying the web page, by the hardware processor, by replacing in the web page the code of the one or more selected elements with the script containing the encrypted code of said one or more selected elements; and transmitting, by the proxy server, the modified web page to the user device.
U.S. Patent Pub. No. 2006/0253396 discloses that a public key generated in a shop terminal (300) by making a pair with a private key is transmitted to a server (200) with a created web file and stored in the server. When request information for requesting performance of commerce and commerce details information are set and input in the terminal (400) according to the web file, the shop terminal (300) recognizes that the server (200) has made an order request, and requests a download processing of the commerce details information. The server (200) encrypts the commerce details information into first encryption information with a common key, encrypts the first encryption information and the common key into second encryption information with a public key and transmits the second encryption information to the shop terminal (300). The shop terminal (300) decrypts the second encryption information with a private key into the first encryption information and the common key, and decrypts the first encryption information with the decrypted common key into the commerce details information.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to NILESH B KHATRI whose telephone number is (571)270-7083. The examiner can normally be reached 8:30 AM - 5:30 PM Monday-Friday, alternating Fridays off.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Neha Patel can be reached at (571) 270-1492. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/NILESH B KHATRI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3699
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