DETAILED ACTION
This Office Action is with regard to the most recent papers filed 11/12/2025.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 11/12/2025 have been fully considered but they are moot based on the new ground of rejection necessitated by the amendments, where Sakurai is added to teach the missing details.
It is noted that Applicant’s arguments focus on what is explicitly shown in the prior art, which was published by the assignee of the instant application and refers to the technology of the assignee. Further, the rejection is over the state of Cisco’s User Defined Networks as of 12/6/2021 (more than a year prior to the filing of the instant application). Any arguments should address the state of Cisco’s User Defined Networks, in general, and not the specific art cited considering that the assignee is in the best position to identify what the undisclosed, but publicly available for sale, details of the User Defined Networks is.
Further, it is noted that the tuple is actually never used for any claimed functionality. Rather, the only detail of the tuple that has any further recitation is the “respective identifier,” which does not require any use of the tuple, in general.
Accordingly, the instant claims stand rejected for the reasons provided 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) 1-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cisco User Defined Networks (Cisco), as evidenced by “User Defined Network Prescriptive Deployment Guide”, published December 2020 (Cisco1) as well as the previously cited “User Defined Network,” Published April, 2021 (Cisco2) in view of US 2016/0295167 (Sakurai).
With regard to claim 1, Cisco discloses a method comprising:
defining a private group having an identification (ID), wherein the private group is associated with a respective identifier of one or more end devices, wherein the ID and each respective identifier of the one or more end devices forming a tuple with access to a set of services (Cisco1: Page 9, “UDN:Private-group-id and UDN:Private-group-name. In the instant specification, the tuple would include Ix and Gx, with Ix referring to a room identity and Gx referring to a group identity (note that this disclosure is not limiting, but does provide details of what the instant claim could cover). In Cisco1, the group-id would be the same group id, while the group name is “The UDN “name” of the room created by a user.” As a note, at least one respective identifier allows for a single identifier corresponding to the entire collection of one or more end devices, and would not require different individual identifiers for each respective one of the devices. As a note, the term “tuple” would just refer to a collection of information.);
receiving, from an application on a user device, a request from the user device to access at least one of the one or more end devices (Cisco1: Pages 84-85 and Page 10, Paragraph 6 to Page 13. Cisco1 provides for the joining of a device to a UDN, with the application being used by a user to select to join the UDN.), wherein
the request includes a credential of the end user device (Cisco1: Page 6, Paragraph 6), and
the credential of the user device and the end device is unknown to the private group prior receiving the request (Cisco1: Page 7, Paragraph 1. A device identifier can be used, such as a MAC address, where the device’s MAC address would be unknown to the private group, itself.);
authenticating the user device based on the credential being associated with the ID of the private group (Cisco1: Page 7, Paragraph 1);
dynamically adding a user device identity of the user device to the private group based on the respective identifier and upon authenticating the user device (Cisco1: Pages 7 and 9. The device is added, where the identifier is used for some of the communications as part of the joining.);
sending, to a controller, a change of authorization to include the user device within the private group (Cisco1: Page 9);
granting the user device access to the set of services (Cisco1: Page 5, first Tech Tip.); and
performing network segmentation and traffic management for the user device based on the ID of the private group (Cisco1: Page 1 and Page 9, item 3. The attributes are used for segmentation, where the UDN would provide traffic management and such segmentation for any devices that are joined.).
Cisco does not appear to disclose expressly, but Sakurai teaches that the at least one respective identifier of the one or more devices is included with the request (Sakurai: Paragraphs [0033] and [0046]. A room ID can be sent when requesting to join a room/group.).
Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to include a the at least one respective identifier to simplify the joining of the device to the appropriate room/group, such as by unambiguously identifying the room/group to join.
With regard to claim 2, Cisco teaches that the private group is logically associated with multiple end devices within a room (Cisco1: Page 90. The UDN provides a shared network environment for different spaces, where the invitation is to join a personal room.).
With regard to claim 3, Cisco teaches that two or more private groups are associated with a same physical space (Cisco1: Page 85, Second Figure).
With regard to claim 4, Cisco teaches dynamically removing the user device from the private group based on removing the user device identity; dynamically mapping a second user device identity of a second user device to the private group; and sending, to the controller, a change of authorization to include the second user device within the private group (Cisco1: Page 7, Paragraph 4 and Page 9.).
With regard to claim 5, Cisco teaches registering the one or more end devices to the private group; and in response to registering the one or more end devices, creating one or more policies associated with the private group (Cisco1: Page 9).
With regard to claim 6, Cisco teaches that the one or more end devices are unilateral devices that cannot communicate with devices outside the private group (Cisco1: Page 3).
With regard to claim 7, Cisco teaches that a guest for a room is assigned to the private group (UDN) by associating the user device with a specific access point device (Cisco1: Page 12, Device network access.).
With regard to claim 8, Cisco teaches determining co-location of the user device to an access point; validating the co-location of the user device to the private group based on detecting the access point; sending, to the controller, a change of authorization to include the user device within the private group based on the co-location of the user device to the private group; and restricting access of the user device to other private groups associated with geolocations outside of the private group (Cisco1: Page 10, Paragraph 2. Roaming is not supported.).
With regard to claim 9, Cisco teaches assigning the private group to be a dynamic UDN group, wherein member devices of the UDN group are configured to be appended or removed on an at-will basis (Cisco1: Page 7, Paragraph 4 and Page 85. Devices can move, join, and leave the UDNs freely.).
With regard to claim 10, Cisco teaches that a number of member devices within the private group is limited (Cisco1. Any network will always have a limited number of devices, as it is impossible to have infinite devices, where the instant claim does not provide that the maximum number of member devices is limited, but instead would refer to the current number of member devices. Further, one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing would have recognized that one purpose of a UDN is to limit the amount of devices in any particular group to make the group more manageable.).
With regard to claims 11-20, the instant claims include recitations similar to that of one or more of claims 1-10, and are rejected for similar reasons.
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.
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SCOTT B. CHRISTENSEN
Examiner
Art Unit 2444
/SCOTT B CHRISTENSEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2444