DETAILED ACTION
Response to Amendment
The amendment filed on 01/26/2026 has been entered and considered by Examiner. Claims 89-96, 132-140 are presented for examination.
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 01/26/2026 has been entered.
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:
Claims 89-94, 96, 132-137, and 139-140 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Asher et al. (US Pub. 20220131893 A1) in view of Sarkis (US Pat. 11595893 B2) in further view of Wohlert et al. (US Pub. 20140095630 A1).
For claims 89, 132, and 140, Asher discloses a data analysis node (400/320/322) for use in a communication network (300), the data analysis node comprises a processor (400) and a memory (430) [0065, 0068-69], said memory containing instructions executable by said processor whereby said data analysis node is operative to:
receive behavior information relating to an operational state of a first wireless device (gets data sent from another part of the network called the information management node 200, which manages behavior-related information, the data it receives includes info about how the first wireless device is working or set up according to traffic patterns) [0019, 0023, 0026]; and
send relationship information comprising an identity of the one or more wireless devices that are identified as having a relationship with the first wireless device (Page 11, claim 14. sends back data about anomalous traffic relationships between devices to the information management node 200, the info it sends includes the IDs or identities of the devices it determined are related to the first wireless device.) [0019, 0023, 0026].
But Asher doesn’t explicitly teach receive behavior information relating to an operational state and configuration of a first wireless device;
However, Sarkis discloses receive behavior information relating to an operational state and configuration of a first wireless device (Column 49, lines 20-49, Claim 1 and 12); and
Since, all are analogous arts addressing user information used in a mobile telecommunication system; Therefore, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to combine the teachings of Asher with Sarkis to ensure proper configuration is enable for optimal performance, thus, improving network speed.
But Asher, as modified by Sarkis, doesn’t explicitly teach receive a request for information identifying wireless devices that have a relationship with the first wireless device;
responsive to receiving the request, analyze the received behavior information for the first wireless device and behavior information for one or more other wireless devices to identify one or more wireless devices that have a relationship with the first wireless device;
However, Wohlert discloses receive a request for information identifying wireless devices that have a relationship with the first wireless device (Figs. 5-7, steps 504-506, 602-604, or 702-706; to determine whether other wireless devices might be related to that first device.) [0042-43, 0049];
responsive to receiving the request, analyze the received behavior information for the first wireless device and behavior information for one or more other wireless devices to identify one or more wireless devices that have a relationship with the first wireless device (Figs. 5-7, steps 504-506, 602-604, or 702-706; In response to step 504, step 506 examines or studies the behavior data, e.g. location, relationships, etc. for other wireless devices, the goal is to figure out which other devices are related to the first one.) [0042-43, 0012]; and
Wohlert also discloses send relationship information comprising an identity of the one or more wireless devices that are identified as having a relationship with the first wireless device [0042-43, 0012].
Since, all are analogous arts addressing user information used in a mobile telecommunication system; Therefore, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to combine the teachings of Asher, and Sarkis with Wohlert to ensure related devices a can be used to improve device identification, thus, enhancing system security and capabilities.
Claim 132 differs from claim 89 only by the additional recitation of the following limitation, which is also taught by the cited prior art. The cited prior arts Wohlert further discloses a method of operating a data analysis node in a communication network (Fig. 5) [0072-77].
All other identical limitations are rejected based on the same rationale as shown above.
Claim 140 differs from claim 89 only by the additional recitation of the following limitation, which is also taught by the cited prior art. The cited prior art Wohlert further discloses a computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable medium storing program code to be executed by processing circuitry to perform operations comprising the operations of claim 132 (Fig. 4) [0065-67].
All other identical limitations are rejected based on the same rationale as shown above.
For claims 90 and 133, Asher discloses the relationship information further comprises an indication of a type of relationship for each of the one or more wireless devices that are identified as having a relationship with the first wireless device (The relationship data also includes what kind of connection or relationship each related device has with the first device, so for every device it finds that’s related to the first one, it specifies what kind of relationship it is, for example, same user, entity, or communication partner, etc.) [0037-38].
For claims 91 and 134, Asher discloses the behavior information for the first wireless device comprises any one or more of:
mobility information for the first wireless device; Location Service information; UE availability; UE Location Area; UE Periodic Location; UE motion; configuration information; UE state; UE mode; capabilities of the first wireless device; battery capability; radio capability; computational capability; interaction information; and data session-related information [0037-38].
For claims 92 and 135, Asher discloses the interaction information relates to interactions between the first wireless device and one or more other wireless devices [0037-38].
For claims 93 and 136, Asher discloses the data analysis node is operative to analyze by identifying one or more wireless devices that have a relationship with the first wireless device as one or more wireless devices for which the behavior, data session(s) and/or configuration of the one or more wireless devices represented by the respective behavior information has one or more similarities with the behavior, data session(s) and/or configuration of the first wireless device represented by the received behavior information for the first wireless device (Page 11, claim 14) [0037-38].
For claims 94 and 137, Asher discloses the data analysis node is operative to analyze by using a machine learning algorithm to which the received behavior information and the behavior information for one or more other wireless devices are provided as inputs [0027, 0034],
the machine learning algorithm analyzing the input behavior information to determine measures of similarity between the received behavior information and the behavior information for the one or more other wireless devices (Page 11, claim 14) [0037-38], and
the machine learning algorithm identifying one or more wireless devices that have a relationship with the first wireless device as one or more wireless devices for which the respective behavior information has a required measure of similarity with the received behavior information (Page 11, claim 14) [0042-43].
For claims 96 and 139, Asher as modified by Sarkis and Wohlert, Wohlert further discloses the data analysis node is a Network Data Analytics Function, NWDAF [0117], and/or the location information management node is a Location Management Function, LMF [0109, 0148]. See motivation to combined the references from the above.
Claims 95 and 138 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Asher et al. (US Pub. 20220131893 A1) in view of Sarkis (US Pat. 11595893 B2) in further view of Wohlert et al. (US Pub. 20140095630 A1) in further view of Gibson (US Pub. 20200220892 A1).
Claims 95 and 138, Asher, as modified by Wohlert, discloses all limitations this claim depended on.
But Asher, as modified by Wohlert, doesn’t explicitly disclose the following limitation taught by Gibson.
Gibson discloses the machine learning algorithm is a graph-based machine learning algorithm (Fig. 2) [0046, 0006],
wherein the behavior information is input in the form of respective graphs, and the graph-based machine learning algorithm determines the measures of similarity by encoding each graph into a respective vector and comparing the vectors (Fig. 2) [0046, 0006].
Since, all are analogous arts addressing user information used in a mobile telecommunication system; Therefore, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to combine the teachings of Asher and Wohlert with Gibson to ensure user’s behavioral data can be easily access and utilized for machine learning, thus, improving the reliability of the models for machine learning system.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments with respect to all the claims have been considered but are moot in view of the new ground(s) of rejection.
In view of amendment, a new reference has been used for new ground of rejections.
Inquiries
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the Examiner should be directed to PAKEE FANG whose telephone number is (571)270-3633. The Examiner can normally be reached on Mon-Fri 9:00AM-5:00PM.
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/PAKEE FANG/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2409