Appeal No. 2005-0986
Application No. 09/727,904
given information item purchased by the user, resulting in
complete privacy for the user.
Representative independent claim 1 is reproduced as follows:
1. A method for controlling access to one or more
information items purchasable from a merchant and accessible over
a network, wherein a user interested in a given information item
is permitted to access a corresponding signed ciphertext of the
given information item, the signed ciphertext having at least a
first ciphertext portion, the method comprising the steps of:
receiving from the user a blinded version of the first
ciphertext portion of the signed ciphertext in conjunction with a
request from the user for purchase of the given information item
from the merchant; and
decrypting the blinded version of the first ciphertext
portion and returning to the user the resulting decrypted blinded
version of the first ciphertext portion, wherein the resulting
decrypted blinded version provides information that is utilized
by the user in conjunction with accessing the given information
item in a manner such that the merchant is unable to identify the
given information item purchased by the user.
The examiner relies on the following references:
Nishioka et al. (Nishioka) 5,754,656 May 19, 1998
Kyojima et al. (Kyojima) 6,275,936 Aug. 14, 2001
(filed Oct. 15, 1998)
Zheng 6,396,928 May 28, 2002
(filed Oct. 24, 1997)
Claims 1-20 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103. As
evidence of obviousness, the examiner offers Nishioka and Kyojima
-2-
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