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 .
DETAILED ACTION
Response to Amendment
Acknowledgement is made of the amendment filed on December 9, 2025, in which:
Claims 1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 13, 17, and 20 are Currently Amended, and
Claims 4, 15, and 19 are Canceled.
Claims 1-3, 5-14, 16-18, and 20 are currently pending and an Office action on the merits follows.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, filed December 9, 2026, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 1, 13, and 17 under 35 USC §102(a)(1) have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made as further explained below.
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.
Claim(s) 1, 2, 3, 5, 9, 11, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, and 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over WO-2014020237-A1 (herein “Prins”), and further in view of Pub No.: US-20230292349-A1 (herein “Lee”).
Claims 1, 13, and 17Consider claim 1, Prins teaches A subscriber server (see Prins Fig. 2, Fig.3, note HLR/HSS) comprising:
a memory (see Prins Fig. 2, Fig.3, note memory is inherent to the HLR/HSS); and
one or more processors (see Prins Fig. 2, Fig.3, note processor is inherent to the HLR/HSS), that are configured to execute machine readable instructions stored in the memory for performing a method comprising:
receiving a request to attach, from a network element, a first subscriber identifier associated with a User Equipment (UEs) to the network element, wherein the first subscriber identifier is associated with a first jurisdiction and the network element is located in a second jurisdiction (see Prins Fig. 3, page 21 lines 8-24, page 23 lines 4-8, page 27 lines 24-27, note the VLR in the visitor network roamed into by the UE sends the IMSI to the HLR/HSS);
determining a default profile associated with the first subscriber identifier and UE, wherein the default profile is associated with the second jurisdiction, and wherein the second jurisdiction further matches a location of the network element (see Prins Fig. 3, page 23 lines 14-18, page 25 lines 9-23, page 26 lines 9-16, note determining the IMSI for traditional/primary/global roaming on the customers subscription profile in the visited network); and
based on the default profile being associated with the second jurisdiction matching the location of the network element, providing an approval to the network element for the first subscriber identifier to implement override functionality of the first subscriber identifier associated with the first jurisdiction, and enabling functionality of the UE in accordance with the default profile (see Prins page 24 lines 21-26, page 27 lines 15-22, note the mobile station with the IMSI for traditional/primary/global roaming is considered to be the new/temporary home network in the visited network),
wherein the UE operates in accordance with the default profile while the UE is located in the second jurisdiction (see Prins page 28 line 18 note the mobile station can now access the visited network).
Prins fails to teach “wherein the first subscriber identifier is configured with a new radio (NR) as Secondary Radio Access Technology (RAT) as allowed.” Lee teaches depending on whether the ‘NR Restriction in EPS as Secondary RAT’ IE is present or not, the state of the UE may be set or changed as below: The ‘Initial State’ may be set when a first UE connection is setup in an eNB, and goes to either ‘Not Restricted state’ [i.e., allowed] or ‘NR Restricted State’ depending on whether the ‘NR Restriction in EPS as Secondary RAT’ IE is present or not in a UE connection setup message such as ‘S1AP: Initial Context Setup Request’, ‘S1AP: Handover Request’, ‘X2AP: Handover Request’ or ‘X2AP: Retrieve UE Context Response’, etc. ) (see Lee [0158]-[0159]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Prins to include the recited teaching of Lee. Such a modification would improve Prins by supporting flexible resource restriction in communication networks to improve network utilization (see Lee [0006]).
Claim(s) 13 and 17 is/are rejected for at least the same reason(s) set forth in claim 1.
Claim 2
Consider claim 2, Prins as modified by Lee teaches wherein the subscriber identifier is an International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) (see Prins page 17 lines 24-26 note IMSI).
Claims 3 and 14
Consider claim 3, Prins as modified by Lee teaches wherein the default profile is determined from an Evolved Packet System (EPS) subscription data (see Prins page 11 lines 7-11 note EPC).
Claim(s) 14 is/are rejected for at least the same reason(s) set forth in claim 3.
Claims 5 and 20
Consider claim 5, Prins as modified by Lee teaches wherein the subscriber associated with the UE will opt into the NR as Secondary RAT identifier configuration (see Lee [0161] note change state to Not Restricted State).
Claim(s) 20 is/are rejected for at least the same reason(s) set forth in claim 5.
Claims 9, 16, and 18
Consider claim 9, Prins as modified by Lee teaches wherein the first subscriber identifier is a primary IMSI for the default profile (see Prins page 26, lines 9-16, page 27, lines 6-7, note primary IMSI).
Claim(s) 16 and 18 is/are rejected for at least the same reason(s) set forth in claim 9.
Claim 11
Consider claim 11, Prins as modified by Lee teaches wherein the network element is a Mobility Management Entity (MME) or Serving General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) Support Node (SGSN) (see Prins page 19 lines 11-20 note SGSN for delivery of data packets within the geographical service area tasked with mobility management).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 6-8, 10, and 12 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MARCUS C HAMMONDS whose telephone number is (571)270-3193. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 10:00AM-6:00PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, ALISON T. SLATER can be reached at (571)270-0375. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/MARCUS HAMMONDS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2647
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