Appeal No. 2004-0007 Page 4
Application No. 09/844,105
ensure the authenticity of the stored data, the contents of the n-th byte are then
subtracted from or added to the conversion key number to reconstruct the key number.
The reconstructed key number is then compared with the entered key number to
determine whether the data is authentic.
Johnson discloses a process including the steps of reading a biological
characteristic, such as a fingerprint, deciphering it and converting it to a unique number,
and encrypting the unique number onto an ID card, such as an ATM card. When the
card is used, the user’s fingerprint is read by a reader, which then deciphers the
fingerprint and compares the result to the encrypted number to determine if the user is
an authorized user.
With respect to independent claims 1, 26, 35 and 41, the examiner has
determined that “Yamaguchi does not disclose a read unit for reading the value
information and reading the reference fingerprint to determine if the value information is
authentic (which is equivalent to a process of authenticating a fingerprint or encrypting a
fingerprint)” (answer, pages 4, 5 and 6) and that it would have been obvious “to modify
the fingerprint registering of Yamaguchi by including the process for encrypting a
fingerprint taught by Johnson because such modification would ensure that the
transaction is carried out by the legal owner of the memory card” (answer, pages 4, 5
and 6). Even assuming that the modification proposed by the examiner were made to
Yamaguchi’s system, such modification would not address the feature (a read unit for
reading the value information and reading the reference fingerprint to determine if the
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