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 final rejection. 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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 1/21/2026 has been entered.
Response to Amendment
This office action has been changed in response to the amendment filed on 1/21/2026.
Claims 1, 6, 14 and 18 have been amended.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to the claims have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
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, 2, 6-8 and 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Jiang et al. (US-9,585,005 hereinafter, Jiang) in view of Smith et al. (US-2014/0357289 hereinafter, Smith) and Skög et al. (US-10,382,945 hereinafter, Skög).
Claims 1, 2, 6-8 and 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Jiang et al. (US-9,585,005 hereinafter, Jiang) in view of Smith et al. (US-2014/0357289 hereinafter, Smith).
Regarding claim 1, Jiang teaches one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media storing computer executable instructions that, when executed, cause one or more processors of one or more home network devices to perform operations comprising:
determining that a user equipment (UE) is in a roaming location; (Col. 4 lines 31-34 “ VPMN VLR/VMSC 114 sends a MAP transaction message 120 to HPMN HLR 118 when an inbound roamer registers at VPMN VLR/VMSC 114. MAP transaction message 120 includes a MAP Location Update transaction.” and Fig. 26 [DIAMETER ULR] from VPMN to enhanced PMMS)
determining to retrieve a subscription profile associated with the UE for network steering at the roaming location; (Fig. 10 [1004, 1006 and 1008] and Claim 5)
sending a query to a subscriber database for the subscription profile associated with the UE; (Fig. 26 [Diameter ULR] from enhanced PMMS to HPMN HSS)
receiving, from the subscriber database, the subscription profile associated with the UE; (Fig. 26 [Diameter ULA] “Diameter Payload Subscription Data AVP”)
determining, based at least in part on the subscription profile, to modify subscriber data of the UE; (Claim 1 “a detection block to detect whether provisioning of an alternate roaming profile is required for the roamer by at least identifying whether a Diameter attribute-value pairs (AVP) defining an expected profile of the roamer is passed to a mobility management entity (MME) in the VPMN in an original successful response indicated by a Diameter update location answer (ULA) received from a home subscriber system (HSS) upon receipt of a Diameter update location request (ULR)”) and
determining networking handling for the UE using the subscriber data. (Col. 1 lines 31-37 and Claim 1)
Jiang differs from the claimed invention by not explicitly reciting wherein the subscription profile includes at least one of a subscription account type associated with the UE, a general roaming policy, or a roaming policy for the roaming location and modifying subscriber data of the UE to block or unblock the UE from accessing a service at the roaming location.
In an analogous art, Smith teaches a method and system for dynamic spectrum arbitrage (Abstract) that includes receiving (Page 25 [0285] and Fig. 18A [1806]), from the subscriber database (Fig. 18A [132]), the subscription profile associated with the UE (Fig. 18A [1802] and Page 25 [0284]), wherein the subscription profile includes at least one of a subscription account type associated with the UE, a general roaming policy, or a roaming policy for the roaming location (Page 25 [0284 & 0286] “ the HSS 132 may determine whether the changed HSS information identifies a new QoS level that is to be provided to the wireless device, that the wireless device is allowed to use resources of a lessor network (e.g., via the lessee network winning a bid), etc” and “in operation block 1812, the MME 130 may initiate a detach procedure in response to determining the wireless device is not allowed to roam in the network based on the information included in the HSS INSERT SUBSCRIBER DATA”) and modifying subscriber data of the UE to block or unblock the UE from accessing a service at the roaming location. (Page 25 [0286] “in operation block 1812, the MME 130 may initiate a detach procedure in response to determining the wireless device is not allowed to roam in the network based on the information included in the HSS INSERT SUBSCRIBER DATA.”)
Before the effective filing date of the invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to be motivated to implement the invention of Jiang after modifying it to incorporate the ability to remove subscriber profile parameters in order to block the UE from accessing a roaming network of Smith since it enables stopping a UE from roaming to a network that may charge the user more than they expect to be charged.
Jiang in view of Smith differs from the claimed invention by not explicitly reciting block the UE from accessing one of a voice service, a messaging service, and a data service at the roaming location while not blocking others of the voice service, the message service and the data service, or
unblock the UE from accessing one of a voice service, a messaging service, and a data service at the roaming location while blocking others of the voice service, the messaging service and the data service.
In an analogous art, Skög teaches the ability to delivery data services to a roaming user (Abstract) that includes the ability to block the UE from accessing one of a voice service, a messaging service, and a data service at the roaming location (Fig. 2 [230e & 230i]) while not blocking others of the voice service, the message service and the data service, (Fig. 2 [230e], Col. 1 lines 36-50 and for further reference, Col. 7 line 46 through Col. 8 line 19) or
unblock the UE from accessing one of a voice service, a messaging service, and a data service at the roaming location while blocking others of the voice service, the messaging service and the data service.
Before the effective filing date of the invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to be motivated to implement the invention of Jiang in view of Smith after modifying it to incorporate the ability to block certain services while allowing other services of Skög since it enables a user to have control over the costs of roaming charges. (Skög Col. 1 lines 51-61)
Regarding claim 2, Jiang in view of Smith and Skög teaches removing a subscriber profile parameter from the subscriber data; (Smith Fig. 18A [1808] and Page 25 [0286]) and
determining to block the UE from accessing a partner network. (Smith Page 25 [0286] “in operation block 1812, the MME 130 may initiate a detach procedure in response to determining the wireless device is not allowed to roam in the network based on the information included in the HSS INSERT SUBSCRIBER DATA.”)
Regarding claim 6, the limitations of claim 6 are rejected as being the same reasons set forth above in claim 1.
Regarding claim 7, Jiang in view of Smith and Skög teaches wherein the query to the subscriber database is configured to use a Diameter interface. (Jiang Claims 15-18 “Diameter messages”)
Regarding claim 8, Jiang in view of Smith and Skög teaches wherein editing the subscriber data includes using commands Insert Subscriber Data-Request/Answer (IDR/IDA). (Jiang Claim 5 and Fig. 25 [Diameter IDR & Diameter IDA])
Regarding claim 10, Jiang in view of Smith and Skög teaches receiving location data associated with the UE; (Jiang Col. 4 lines 31-34 “ VPMN VLR/VMSC 114 sends a MAP transaction message 120 to HPMN HLR 118 when an inbound roamer registers at VPMN VLR/VMSC 114. MAP transaction message 120 includes a MAP Location Update transaction)
determining, based at least in part on the location data, the UE is in a roaming location; (Jiang Col. 4 lines 31-34 “ VPMN VLR/VMSC 114 sends a MAP transaction message 120 to HPMN HLR 118 when an inbound roamer registers at VPMN VLR/VMSC 114. MAP transaction message 120 includes a MAP Location Update transaction.”) and
sending, based at least in part on the roaming location, a query to the subscriber database, the query including the location data. (Jiang Fig. 10 [1004, 1006 and 1008], Claim 5 and Fig. 26 [Diameter ULR] from enhanced PMMS to HPMN HSS)
Jiang in view of Smith and Skög differs from the claimed invention by not explicitly reciting this is a second roaming location and a second query to the subscriber database.
However, it is well within the scope of one of ordinary skill to recognize that Jiang in view of Smith states that the method monitors “Diameter transactions between VPMN MME and HPMN HSS” (Jiang Fig. 10 [1002]) and it is well within the scope of one of ordinary skill to recognize that the MAP Location Update transactions would all be monitored for instances where a modifying user profile is required in order to support the correct roaming in the partner network of Jiang in view of Smith. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to do this since a UE is meant to be mobile and can connect to many different roaming networks within a short period of time, thereby ensuring user satisfaction by providing the proper service and billing in the roaming networks.
Regarding claim 13, the limitations of claim 13 are rejected as being the same reasons set forth above in claim 2.
Claims 3-5, 9, 11, 12 and 14-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Jiang in view of Smith and Skög as applied to claims 1 and 6, and further in view of Senn et al. (US-7,187,928 hereinafter, Senn).
Regarding claim 3, Jiang in view of Smith and Skög teaches the limitations of claim 1, but differs from the claimed invention by not explicitly reciting adding a subscriber profile parameter to the subscriber data; and selecting a partner network to register the UE.
In an analogous art, Senn teaches a call delivery system for roaming prepaid subscribers (Abstract) that includes adding a subscriber profile parameter to the subscriber data; (Col. 7 lines 16-48) and selecting a partner network to register the UE. (Col. 7 lines 52-64)
Before the effective filing date of the invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to be motivated to implement the invention of Jiang in view of Smith and Skög after modifying it to incorporate the ability to add information to a subscriber profile in order to register the UE with a partner network of Senn since it enables influencing which partner roaming networks subscribers are funneled towards.
Regarding claim 4, Jiang in view of Smith, Skög and Senn teaches registering, based at least in part on the subscriber data, the UE on the partner network. (Senn Col. 6 Lines 21-35)
Regarding claim 5, Jiang in view of Smith, Skög and Senn teaches wherein the subscriber data includes subscriber account type indicators associated with service access (Senn Col. 2 lines 54-64), wherein the subscriber account type indicators comprises at least one of:
an indication that the UE [is] has roaming enabled for the roaming location;
one or more service indicators associated with the roaming location; (Senn Col. 7 lines 16-60) or
a selection of a preferred partner network.
Regarding claim 9, Jiang in view of Smith and Skög teaches the limitations of claim 6 above, but differs from the claimed invention by not explicitly reciting wherein the subscriber data comprises at least one of:
an indication that the UE [is] has roaming enabled for the roaming location;
one or more service indicators associated with the roaming location; or
a selection of a preferred partner network.
In an analogous art, Senn teaches a call delivery system for roaming prepaid subscribers (Abstract) that includes adding a subscriber profile parameter to the subscriber data; (Col. 7 lines 16-48)
wherein the subscriber account type indicators comprises at least one of:
an indication that the UE [is] has roaming enabled for the roaming location;
one or more service indicators associated with the roaming location; (Senn Col. 7 lines 16-60) or
a selection of a preferred partner network.
Before the effective filing date of the invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to be motivated to implement the invention of Jiang in view of Smith and Skög after modifying it to incorporate the ability to add information to a subscriber profile in order to register the UE with a partner network of Senn since it enables influencing which partner roaming networks subscribers are funneled towards.
Regarding claim 11, the limitations of claim 11 are rejected as being the same reasons set forth above in claim 9.
Regarding claim 12, the limitations of claim 12 are rejected as being the same reasons set forth above in claim 3.
Regarding claim 14, Jiang teaches a system of a home network comprising:
one or more processors; (Claim 10)
a memory; (Claim 10) and
one or more components stored in the memory and executable by the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
determining that a user equipment (UE) is in a roaming location; (Col. 4 lines 31-34 “ VPMN VLR/VMSC 114 sends a MAP transaction message 120 to HPMN HLR 118 when an inbound roamer registers at VPMN VLR/VMSC 114. MAP transaction message 120 includes a MAP Location Update transaction.” and Fig. 26 [DIAMETER ULR] from VPMN to enhanced PMMS)
sending a query to a subscriber database for the subscription profile associated with the UE; (Fig. 26 [Diameter ULR] from enhanced PMMS to HPMN HSS)
receiving, from the subscriber database, the subscription profile associated with the UE; (Fig. 26 [Diameter ULA] “Diameter Payload Subscription Data AVP”)
determining, based at least in part on the subscription profile, to modify subscriber data of the UE; (Claim 1 “a detection block to detect whether provisioning of an alternate roaming profile is required for the roamer by at least identifying whether a Diameter attribute-value pairs (AVP) defining an expected profile of the roamer is passed to a mobility management entity (MME) in the VPMN in an original successful response indicated by a Diameter update location answer (ULA) received from a home subscriber system (HSS) upon receipt of a Diameter update location request (ULR)”) and
determining networking handling for the UE using the subscriber data. (Col. 1 lines 31-37 and Claim 1)
Jiang differs from the claimed invention by not explicitly reciting wherein the subscription profile includes at least one of a subscription account type associated with the UE, a general roaming policy, or a roaming policy for the roaming location and modifying subscriber data of the UE to block or unblock the UE from accessing a service at the roaming location.
In an analogous art, Smith teaches a method and system for dynamic spectrum arbitrage (Abstract) that includes receiving (Page 25 [0285] and Fig. 18A [1806]), from the subscriber database (Fig. 18A [132]), the subscription profile associated with the UE (Fig. 18A [1802] and Page 25 [0284]), wherein the subscription profile includes at least one of a subscription account type associated with the UE, a general roaming policy, or a roaming policy for the roaming location (Page 25 [0284 & 0286] “ the HSS 132 may determine whether the changed HSS information identifies a new QoS level that is to be provided to the wireless device, that the wireless device is allowed to use resources of a lessor network (e.g., via the lessee network winning a bid), etc” and “in operation block 1812, the MME 130 may initiate a detach procedure in response to determining the wireless device is not allowed to roam in the network based on the information included in the HSS INSERT SUBSCRIBER DATA”) and modifying subscriber data of the UE to block or unblock the UE from accessing a service at the roaming location. (Page 25 [0286] “in operation block 1812, the MME 130 may initiate a detach procedure in response to determining the wireless device is not allowed to roam in the network based on the information included in the HSS INSERT SUBSCRIBER DATA.”)
Before the effective filing date of the invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to be motivated to implement the invention of Jiang after modifying it to incorporate the ability to remove subscriber profile parameters in order to block the UE from accessing a roaming network of Smith since it enables stopping a UE from roaming to a network that may charge the user more than they expect to be charged.
Jiang in view of Smith differs from the claimed invention by not explicitly reciting block the UE from accessing one of a voice service, a messaging service, and a data service at the roaming location while not blocking others of the voice service, the message service and the data service, or
unblock the UE from accessing one of a voice service, a messaging service, and a data service at the roaming location while blocking others of the voice service, the messaging service and the data service.
In an analogous art, Skög teaches the ability to delivery data services to a roaming user (Abstract) that includes the ability to block the UE from accessing one of a voice service, a messaging service, and a data service at the roaming location (Fig. 2 [230e & 230i]) while not blocking others of the voice service, the message service and the data service, (Fig. 2 [230e], Col. 1 lines 36-50 and for further reference, Col. 7 line 46 through Col. 8 line 19) or
unblock the UE from accessing one of a voice service, a messaging service, and a data service at the roaming location while blocking others of the voice service, the messaging service and the data service.
Before the effective filing date of the invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to be motivated to implement the invention of Jiang in view of Smith after modifying it to incorporate the ability to block certain services while allowing other services of Skög since it enables a user to have control over the costs of roaming charges. (Skög Col. 1 lines 51-61)
Jiang in view of Smith and Skög differs from the claimed invention by not explicitly reciting determining to register the UE with a partner network.
In an analogous art, Senn teaches a call delivery system for roaming prepaid subscribers (Abstract) that includes adding a subscriber profile parameter to the subscriber data; (Col. 7 lines 16-48) and selecting a partner network to register the UE. (Col. 7 lines 52-64)
Before the effective filing date of the invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to be motivated to implement the invention of Jiang in view of Smith and Skög after modifying it to incorporate the ability to add information to a subscriber profile in order to register the UE with a partner network of Senn since it enables influencing which partner roaming networks subscribers are funneled towards.
Regarding claim 15, Jiang in view of Smith, Skög and Senn teaches wherein determining the UE is in the roaming location comprises:
determining location data associated with the UE. (Jiang Col. 4 lines 31-34 “ VPMN VLR/VMSC 114 sends a MAP transaction message 120 to HPMN HLR 118 when an inbound roamer registers at VPMN VLR/VMSC 114. MAP transaction message 120 includes a MAP Location Update transaction.”)
Regarding claim 16, Jiang in view of Smith, Skög and Senn teaches wherein determining the UE is in the roaming location further comprises:
determining to retrieve a subscription profile associated with the UE for network steering at the roaming location; (Jiang Fig. 10 [1004, 1006 and 1008] and Claim 5)
Regarding claim 17, Jiang in view of Smith, Skög and Senn teaches wherein the subscriber data includes subscriber account type indicators associated with service access (Senn Col. 2 lines 54-64), wherein the subscriber account type indicators comprises at least one of:
an indication that the UE [is] has roaming enabled for the roaming location; (Seen Col. 5 lines 63 through Col. 6 line 1)
one or more service indicators associated with the roaming location; or
a selection of a preferred partner network.
Regarding claim 18, the limitations of claim 18 are not applicable with respect to the Markush group selection within claim 17 above.
Regarding claim 19, Jiang in view of Smith, Skög and Senn teaches receiving location data associated with the UE; (Jiang Col. 4 lines 31-34 “ VPMN VLR/VMSC 114 sends a MAP transaction message 120 to HPMN HLR 118 when an inbound roamer registers at VPMN VLR/VMSC 114. MAP transaction message 120 includes a MAP Location Update transaction)
determining, based at least in part on the location data, the UE is in a roaming location; (Jiang Col. 4 lines 31-34 “ VPMN VLR/VMSC 114 sends a MAP transaction message 120 to HPMN HLR 118 when an inbound roamer registers at VPMN VLR/VMSC 114. MAP transaction message 120 includes a MAP Location Update transaction.”) and
sending, based at least in part on the roaming location, a query to the subscriber database, the query including the location data. (Jiang Fig. 10 [1004, 1006 and 1008], Claim 5 and Fig. 26 [Diameter ULR] from enhanced PMMS to HPMN HSS)
Jiang in view of Smith, Skög and Senn differs from the claimed invention by not explicitly reciting this is a second roaming location and a second query to the subscriber database.
However, it is well within the scope of one of ordinary skill to recognize that Jiang states that the method monitors “Diameter transactions between VPMN MME and HPMN HSS” (Fig. 10 [1002]) and it is well within the scope of one of ordinary skill to recognize that the MAP Location Update transactions would all be monitored for instances where a modifying user profile is required in order to support the correct roaming in the partner network of Jiang. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to do this since a UE is meant to be mobile and can connect to many different roaming networks within a short period of time, thereby ensuring user satisfaction by providing the proper service and billing in the roaming networks.
Regarding claim 20, Jiang in view of Smith, Skög and Senn teaches removing a subscriber profile parameter from the subscriber data; (Smith Fig. 18A [1808] and Page 25 [0286]) and
determining to block the UE from accessing a partner network. (Smith Page 25 [0286] “in operation block 1812, the MME 130 may initiate a detach procedure in response to determining the wireless device is not allowed to roam in the network based on the information included in the HSS INSERT SUBSCRIBER DATA.”)
Conclusion
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/Matthew C Sams/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2646