Ex Parte Hom et al

Patent Trial and Appeal Board

Mar 29, 2016

12955087 (P.T.A.B. Mar. 29, 2016)

UNITED STA TES p A TENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
APPLICATION NO. FILING DATE
121955,087 11/29/2010
79980 7590 03/31/2016
Keohane & D'Alessandro
1881 Western Avenue Suite 180
Albany, NY 12203
FIRST NAMED INVENTOR
Richard V. Hom
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
United States Patent and Trademark Office
Address: COMMISSIONER FOR PATENTS
P.O. Box 1450
Alexandria, Virginia 22313-1450
www .uspto.gov
ATTORNEY DOCKET NO. CONFIRMATION NO.
END920100204US1 6826
EXAMINER
WILCOX, JAMES J
ART UNIT PAPER NUMBER
2494
NOTIFICATION DATE DELIVERY MODE
03/31/2016 ELECTRONIC
Please find below and/or attached an Office communication concerning this application or proceeding.
The time period for reply, if any, is set in the attached communication.
Notice of the Office communication was sent electronically on above-indicated "Notification Date" to the
following e-mail address( es):
drubbone@kdiplaw.com
Docket@Kdiplaw.com
lcronk@kdiplaw.com
PTOL-90A (Rev. 04/07)
UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
BEFORE THE PATENT TRIAL AND APPEAL BOARD
Ex parte RICHARD V. HOM,
ERIC M. NELSON, and DAVID C. ROXIN
Appeal2014-004360
Application 12/955,087 1
Technology Center 2400
Before JASON V. MORGAN, DANIEL J. GALLIGAN, and
SHARON PENICK, Administrative Patent Judges.
PENICK, Administrative Patent Judge.
DECISION ON APPEAL
This is an appeal under 35 U.S.C. § 134(a) from the Examiner's
Final Rejection of claims 1-15. (Appeal Br. 6.) We have jurisdiction under
35 U.S.C. § 6(b)(l).
We affirm.
Invention
Appellants' invention relates to providing attribute values for data that
changes rapidly with a speed high enough to satisfy real-time requirements.
1 According to Appellants, the real party in interest is International Business
Machines Corporation. (Appeal Br. 2.)
Appeal2014-004360
Application 12/955,087
Attribute values are calculated rather than stored for each attribute of an
object class instance. These virtual attributes allow for decisions to be based
on information resulting from metrics, statistics, or data from outside
systems. (Abstract.)
Illustrative Claim
Claim 1, reproduced below with key limitations emphasized, is
illustrative:
1. A system for providing virtual attribute based access
control, the system comprising:
a virtual attribute based access control unit
operable with a processing unit, the virtual attribute
based access control unit comprising a computer readable
storage device storing computer program instructions, the
computer program instructions being executable by the
processing unit, the computer program instructions
including:
program instructions to analyze a request to a
directory for a directory attribute in the case that the
directory attribute is not currently stored in any directory;
program instructions to receive the request at a
virtual attribute enabled directory (VAED); and
program instructions to determine whether access
to a controlled resource should be granted based on a set
of policies and a value of a virtual directory attribute,
wherein the value of the virtual directory attribute is
calculated, just-in-time, based on information retrieved
from one or more non-directory sources, wherein a
directory source comprises at least one of an attribute
database and an attribute store.
Rejection
The Examiner rejects claims 1-15 under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as
unpatentable over Bagepalli et al. (US 2009/0064287 Al; Mar. 5, 2009)
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Application 12/955,087
("Bagepalli") and Boreham et al. (US 2003/0088678 Al; iviay 8, 2003)
("Boreham"). (Final Action 2-28.)
Issue
Did the Examiner err in finding that the combination of Bagepalli and
Boreham teaches or suggests access to a controlled resource granted based in
part on a value for a virtual directory attribute "calculated, just-in-time,
based on information retrieved from one or more non-directory sources," as
recited in claim 1?
ANALYSIS
Appellants contend that the combination of Bagepalli and Boreham
does not teach or suggest calculating a value for a virtual directory attribute
"just-in-time, based on information retrieved from one or more non-
directory sources" value, as recited in claim 1. (Appeal Br. 25-27.)
Appellants argue that Boreham teaches virtual attributes based only on a
static stored value or a shared stored attribute value. (Appeal Br. 26-27,
citing Boreham i-fi-143--44.) Either value, according to Appellants, would
reflect information from a directory source and not information received
from a non-directory source, "e.g., an external system such as a monitoring
device for transmitting real-time instrumentation data that is not stored in a
database or directory." (Appeal Br. 27.) The Examiner finds that Bagepalli
teaches determining whether access to a controlled resource should be
granted based on a set of policies and a value of a virtual directory attribute,
calculated based on a non-directory source. (Final Action 3; Answer 5.)
Bagepalli relates to access control for applications, including the
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Appeal2014-004360
Application 12/955,087
determination of access based on user attributes as well as information about
the application being requested, and network and environment attributes,
such as access methods, location, and time. (Bagepalli Abstract, i-f 51.)
The Examiner cites Bagepalli' s discussion of the query regarding
access being determined based on all attributes extracted, including from the
environmental attribute manager 4803. (Final Action 2--4; Answer 5 (each
citing Bagepalli i-f 79.)) Bagepalli' s teaching regarding environmental
attributes are that these relate to the location of the client in the network,
including physical location of the requesting client, date, time, and other
security considerations. (Bagepalli i-f 72, Claims 6-9.) The Examiner
additionally cites the protocol and content attributes, which relate to on-the-
wire session characteristics, which are extracted from the data stream. (Final
Action 4--5; Answer 5---6; Bagepalli i-fi-179, 83.)
While not providing a specific definition of "non-directory sources"
the examples in the Appellants' Specification include the current location of
a satellite or acquisition of instrumentation data from monitoring devices.
(Spec. i-f 23.) Bagepalli's protocol and content attributes and environment
attributes are dynamic information which become obsolete or lose value
quickly (see Spec. i-f 25) and, as the Examiner finds, these attributes are
extracted from the data stream and teach or suggest the claimed "non-
directory sources." (Answer 5---6.) The Examiner uses Boreham for the
teaching or suggestion that virtual attributes may be generated "on-the-fly"
or, as claimed, "just-in-time." (Final Action 5; Answer 6.) As Appellants'
arguments concern the deficiencies of Boreham with respect to teachings of
virtual attributes based on information from a non-directory source, while
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Application 12/955,087
the Examiner finds this teaching in Bagepalli, not Boreham, we are not
persuaded of error on the part of the Examiner.
Accordingly, we sustain the Examiner's 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) rejection
of claim 1, and the rejections of claims 2-15 not separately argued with
specificity.
DECISION
We affirm the Examiner's decision rejecting claims 1-15.
Pursuant to 37 C.F.R. § 1.136(a)(l )(iv), no time period for taking any
subsequent action in connection with this appeal may be extended.
AFFIRMED
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