DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after allowance or after an Office action under Ex Parte Quayle, 25 USPQ 74, 453 O.G. 213 (Comm'r Pat. 1935). Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, prosecution in this application has been reopened pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 02/24/2026 has been entered. Currently, claims 1-6,8-19 and 21-26 remain pending in the application.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 1-4 and 14-17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C.103 as being unpatentable over Salkintzis (US 2019/0215691 A1) in view of Kunz et al. (US 2023/0262463 A1, hereinafter referred to as Kunz).
Referring to claim 1, Salkintzis discloses a method comprising:
requesting, by a user equipment (UE) (fig.10A, UE 205), a non-seamless wireless offload (NWSO) connection to a network entity (fig.10A, TWAN 610) ([0151]-[0152]) (Note: UE 205 makes a connection to the TWAN 610, wherein UE 205 will be able to use the TWAN 610 only for Non-Seamless WLAN Offload (“NSWO”) traffic);
receiving, by the UE, from the network entity, an identity request (fig.10A, and [0153]) (Note: the TWAN 610 transmits an EAP-REQ/AKA-Identity request to the UE 205); and
in response to the identity request, causing transmission, by the UE, of an identity response comprising a UE identifier to the network entity such that the UE is configured to establish a security context with the network entity upon successful authentication using the UE identifier ([0153], and [0164]-[0169]) (Note: in response to the identity request, the UE 205 transmits an EAP-AKA identity response comprising a UE identifier to the TWAN 610; and in response to the successful authentication of the UE 205 at the mobile core network 130. At 1054, the adaptation layer 611 in the UE 205 establishes a secure DTLS connection to the N3IWF 225 by using the security key derived in step 1052 as a DTLS pre-shared key);
receiving, by the UE, an authentication challenge message comprising an authentication token; checking, in response to an authentication challenge message, whether an authentication token can be accepted and, in an instance the authentication token can be accepted, computing a response and transmitting a message to the network entity (fig.10A-B, [0160]-[0166]) (Note: the UE receives an EAP-AKA′ authentication message (here an EAP-REQ/AKA-Challenge message) comprising an authentication parameter (“AUTN”) (token); and in response to an authentication challenge message from the N3IWF 225, the UE 205 verifies the AUTN (authentication token) whether it is correct, and generates an authentication message (e.g., the EAP-REQ/AKA-Challenge message) containing a result attribute (“AT_RES”) to be transmitted to the TWAN 610 (network entity); wherein the UE 205 establishes a secure connection with the TWAN 610 upon successful authentication of the identifier, and then uses the TWAN 610 for NSWO traffic).
Salkintzis fails to disclose wherein the UE identifier is a subscription concealed identifier (SUCI).
However, in the same field of endeavor of user equipment authentication method, Kunz discloses wherein the UE identifier is a subscription concealed identifier (SUCI) ([0041], [0061], [0063]) (Note: the UE uses a subscription concealed identifier (SUCI) as identifier).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention by the applicant to replace the UE identifier of Salkintzis with a subscription concealed identifier (SUCI) as taught by Kunz. The suggestion/motivation for doing so would have been to enhance subscribers’ privacy by making it difficult for external parties to identify and track individual users.
Referring to claim 2, Salkintzis in view of Kunz discloses the method according to claim 1. Salkintzis further discloses wherein the NSWO connection to the network entity is during an extensible authentication protocol (EAP) procedure (figs.10A-B and [0151]-[0166]) (Note: the reference discloses an extensible authentication protocol (EAP) procedure, wherein the UE 205 uses the TWAN 610 for NSWO traffic).
Referring to claim 3, Salkintzis in view of Kunz discloses the method according to claim 1. Kunz discloses wherein the subscription concealed identifier (SUCI) is used for regular 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP) access or non-3GPP access to a fifth generation core (5GC) ([0041]) (Note: the subscription concealed identifier (SUCI) is used for non-3GPP access to a fifth generation core (5GC)).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention by the applicant to modify the method of Salkintzis with a concept wherein the subscription concealed identifier (SUCI) is used for regular 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP) access or non-3GPP access to a fifth generation core (5GC) as taught by Kunz. The suggestion/motivation for doing so would have been to prevent privacy-compromising attacks, especially when the access network is untrusted.
Referring to claim 4, Salkintzis in view of Kunz discloses the method according to claim 1. Salkintzis further discloses wherein the UE identifier serves as a fifth generation core (5GC) credential used in the NSWO connection ([0080], figs.10A-B and [0151]-[0166]) (Note: the UE identifier is used as a credential in the NSWO connection authorized by the 5G CN).
Referring to claim 14, the same ground of rejection provided for claim 1 is applicable herein. Salkintzis further discloses an apparatus (fig.4, user equipment apparatus 400) comprising: at least one processor (fig., Controller 405); and at least one memory (fig.4, Memory 410) including computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to implement the features similar to claim 1 ([0107]).
Referring to claim 15, the same ground of rejection provided for claim 2 is applicable herein.
Referring to claim 16, the same ground of rejection provided for claim 3 is applicable herein.
Referring to claim 17, the same ground of rejection provided for claim 4 is applicable herein.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5-6, 8-13, 18-19, and 21-26 are allowed.
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance:
Referring to claim 5, the searched prior arts individually or combined fail to disclose or make obvious the claimed subject matter. That is, Examiner did not find any reference that discloses or would have rendered obvious: “wherein the wireless connection indicator indicates that an extensible authentication protocol (EAP) procedure is triggered for non-seamless wireless offload (NSWO) connection purposes; and upon successful authentication using the UE identifier, sending a master key received from the authentication function to the dedicated element of the WLAN access system.”
Referring to claims 6 and 8-13, it follows that the claims are inherently allowed for being depend on base claim 5.
Referring to claim 18, the same reasons for allowance provided for claim 5 are applicable herein.
Referring to claims 19 and 21-26, it follows that the claims are inherently allowed for being depend on base claim 18.
Any comments considered necessary by applicant must be submitted no later than the payment of the issue fee and, to avoid processing delays, should preferably accompany the issue fee. Such submissions should be clearly labeled “Comments on Statement of Reasons for Allowance.”
Conclusion
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, ABDERRAHIM MEROUAN can be reached at (571) 270-5254. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/MOUSTAPHA DIABY/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2683