DETAILED ACTION
This Action is in response to Applicant’s amendment filed on April 21, 2026. Claims 63 and 64 are now pending in the present application. This Action is made FINAL.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office Action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 63 and 64 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Mustafic et al. (US 2018/0247544 A1).
Consider claims 63 and 64, Mustafic et al. disclose a method for a user equipment (UE) as an uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) and a user equipment (UE) as an uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) comprising a memory and at least one processor (see figure 11 and paragraphs 0182 and 183 – electronic system 1100 includes processor(s) 1105 and memories 1110, 1115, and 1150 and the system 1100 can be part of, among others, the user device 120, the UAV 105, or both),
configured to access the memory and configured to/the method comprising:
sending, to a first network node, by using an application layer, a request for flight planning (At block 605, the network management system 135 receives information associated with (e.g., indicative of) a starting point (e.g., 140A) and a destination point (e.g., 140B). For example, the network management system 135 may receive the starting point and the destination point from the UAV 105 - figure 6 and paragraph 0138. The user interface (UI) controller 1030 may be utilized to provide an interface for facilitating providing of user input to generate and manage flight plans. For example, the UI controller 1030 may provide a user interface on a website and/or an application program that accepts user input from an operator - paragraph 0178);
receiving, from the first network node, altitude information (the network management system 135 may transmit the flight plan information in one or more messages to the UAV 105 - paragraph 0141; the flight plan (referred to as flight plan information or simply flight plan) may include, or may have information indicative of (e.g., derivable into), a flight route generated based on the starting point and the destination point and flight rules associated with flying over the flight route. The flight route may be provided as a set of points in three-dimensional space. For example, each point may be associated with a longitude coordinate (or range of longitude coordinates), a latitude coordinate (or range of latitude coordinates), and an altitude coordinate (or range of altitude coordinates). The altitude coordinate may be a distance (e.g., height) from a reference sea level - paragraph 0024); and
receiving, from the first network node by using the application layer, a response message corresponding to the request, the response message including a path of a flight (At block 630, the network management system 135 provides the flight plan information for transmission. For example, the network management system 135 may transmit the flight plan information in one or more messages to the UAV 105 - paragraph 0141).
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see page 4 of the remarks filed on April 21, 2026, with respect to the rejection of claims 61-64 under 35 USC 112(a) have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground of rejection is made in view of the Mustafic et al. (US 2018/0247544 A1) reference as necessitated by the amendment that overcame the previous 35 USC 112(a) rejection.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the Supervisory Patent Examiner (SPE) should be directed to Rafael Pérez-Gutiérrez whose telephone number is (571)272-7915. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Thursday from 6:15 am to 4:15 pm EST.
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Rafael Pérez-Gutiérrez
R.P.G./rpg
/Rafael Pérez-Gutiérrez/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2642
May 6, 2026
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