Appeal No. 2006-3120
Application No. 09/944,695
emphasizes that the private key is not used to decrypt the document in DeBry,
but rather to recover the symmetric key [brief, pages 8 and 9].
The examiner responds that there is ample motivation to combine the
references since Mazzagatte “vaguely” refers to an asymmetric encryption
technique (i.e., utilizing a public/private key pair) for securely printing documents,
and DeBry teaches encrypting files with a public key prior to transmission. The
user in DeBry then decrypts the file using the appropriate key which, according to
the examiner, “can obviously be a private key” [answer, page 23].
The examiner also argues that appellant’s arguments are not
commensurate with the scope of the claims. In this regard, the examiner notes
that the claims do not (1) recite details regarding the public key, nor (2) require
the user to present a private key at the printer to decrypt documents [answer,
pages 24 and 25].
We will sustain the examiner’s rejection of independent claims 1, 12, 19,
and 29. In our view, the scope and breadth of the claim language does not
preclude Mazzagatte’s secure printing system that, among other things, (1)
encrypts print data with a symmetric key that is, in turn, encrypted by a public
key, (2) decrypts the symmetric key with a private key corresponding to the
public key, (3) decrypts the print data using the symmetric key, and (4) prints the
decrypted print data.
Mazzagatte in Fig. 5 details the process that occurs after the sender
submits a print job. First, the send node transmits data to the print node via
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