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 .
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 2/17/2026 has been entered.
Applicant amended claims 1, 10, and 17, canceled claim 18, and added claim 21 in the amendment filed on 02/17/2026.
The claims 1-17 and 19-21 are pending.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 02/17/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
A. Applicant argues that the cited prior art references do not disclose determining, by the first node, that a destination address of the first unicast message is a forced forward address that does not identify a specific destination node.
In reply, the examiner respectfully disagrees.
Examiner notes that, according to the current specification (paragraph 0014), the forced forward address indicates to a recipient node of the message that the node is to forward the message on to all the neighboring child nodes of the node.
Singh discloses the unicast message 212 (unicast message) can include a destination advertisement object (DAO) message. The DAO message (forced forward address) is used to propagate destination information upward along the mesh network 140. Accordingly, the cited prior art references disclose the argued claim features.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112(a):
(a) IN GENERAL.—The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor or joint inventor of carrying out the invention.
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112:
The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor of carrying out his invention.
Claims 1, 10, and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the written description requirement. The claim(s) contains subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to reasonably convey to one skilled in the relevant art that the inventor or a joint inventor, or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the inventor(s), at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention. No support is provide for the added claim limitations. Paragraph 0014; 0019; 0023; 0033 does not provide a support for the limitation “a destination address of the first unicast message is a forced forward address that does not identify a specific destination node”. That is a destination address that does not identify a specific destination node. The portion of the forced forward address is usable to identify which of the nodes in the sub-tree are desired recipients of the message and should further process the content of the message in addition to forwarding the message to all neighboring child nodes. Accordingly, the forced forward address identifies the desired recipients of the message.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-6, 10-11, 13, 15-17, and 19-21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Singh et al (US Publication No. 2022/0200921 A1).
With respect to claim 1, Singh teaches a method comprising: receiving, by a first node of a mesh network, a first unicast message from a second node (paragraph 0028; 0029 disclose the unicast message 212 sent from the child node E through the selected parent to the root node 114), wherein the first node is coupled to one or more child nodes that are neighbor nodes to the first node (Fig. 2A-B disclose root node 114/parent node 160 coupled to parent nodes 206 including in the mesh network 140); determining, by the first node, that a destination address of the first unicast message is a forced forward address that does not identify a specific destination node (paragraph 0028; 0029; 0072 disclose the unicast message includes a DAO message that is used to propagate destination information along the mesh network 140); and in response to determining that the destination address is a forced forward address, forwarding, by the first node, the first unicast message to the one or more child nodes by transmitting respective second unicast messages to the one or more child nodes (paragraph 0028; 0029; 0072; 0073 disclose forwarding the received unicast message 212 to the next node on the route).
With respect to claim 2, Singh teaches wherein the method further comprises
retrieving identifiers associated with the one or more child nodes from a neighborhood table prior to forwarding the first unicast message (paragraph 0073 disclose recording the sequence number of the unicast message along with an identifier of the node 160, such as the IP address of the identifier to identify the unicast message).
With respect to claim 3, Singh teaches wherein determining that the destination address is a forced forward address comprises determining that the destination address includes a distinct sequence of address bits associated with forced forward addresses (paragraph 0031; 0072 disclose adding a sequence number in an IPv6 extension header identifying the destination of the unicast message in the network).
With respect to claim 4, Singh teaches wherein determining that the destination address is a forced forward address comprises determining that the destination address is within an address range designated for forced forward addresses (paragraph 0031; 0072 disclose adding a sequence number in an IPv6 extension header identifying the destination of the unicast message in the network).
With respect to claim 5, Singh teaches wherein the second node is a parent node to the first node (parent node 206 as per Fig. 2A).
With respect to claim 6, Singh teaches wherein the first unicast message comprises information related to one or more of a firmware update to be processed by nodes in the mesh network, configuration data for devices associated with the nodes, information regarding a lost connection (outage), a request for connectivity status of devices associated with the nodes, a request for a group identification of devices associated with the nodes, or operational settings for devices associated with the nodes (paragraph 0027; 0068 discloses time-critical messages such power outage in a smart grid).
With respect to claim 10, Singh teaches one or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors of a first node (node 600) device of a mesh network, cause the one or more processors to perform operations (paragraph 0005) comprising: receiving a first message from a second node device via a first unicast service (paragraph 0028; 0029 disclose the unicast message 212 sent from the child node E through the selected parent to the root node 114); extracting a destination address from a header of the first message (paragraph 0028; 0029; 0031; 0072 disclose the unicast message includes a DAO message that is used to propagate destination information along the mesh network 140; adding a sequence number in an IPv6 extension header in the DAO message such that it can be uniquely identified in the network); determining that the destination address is a forced forward address (paragraph 0028; 0029; 0072 disclose the unicast message includes a DAO message that is used to propagate destination information along the mesh network 140); and in response to determining that the destination address is a forced forward address, transmitting respective copies of the first message to one or more child node devices that are neighbors of the first node device using respective second unicast services (paragraph 0028; 0029; 0072; 0073; Fig. 2B disclose forwarding the received unicast messages 212 to the next node on the route).
With respect to claim 11, Singh teaches wherein the second node device receives the first message from an access point of the mesh network or a root node device of the mesh network (paragraph 0028; 0029 disclose the unicast message 212 sent from the child node E through the selected parent to the root node 114).
With respect to claim 13, Singh teaches wherein the operations further comprise:
reporting to the second node device that respective confirmations were received from the one or more child node devices that the one or more child node devices received the respective copies of the first message (paragraph 0017; 0075 disclose forwarding acknowledgement messages of the unicast message from the nodes).
With respect to claim 15, Singh teaches wherein the operations further comprise:
generating a second message comprising a destination address that is a forced forward address (paragraph 0028; 0029 disclose the unicast message 212 sent from the child node E through the selected parent to the root node 114); and transmitting the second message to the one or more child node devices that are neighbors of the first node device using the respective second unicast services (paragraph 0028; 0029; 0072; 0073; Fig. 2B disclose forwarding the received unicast messages 212 to the next node on the route).
With respect to claim 16, Singh teaches wherein the operations further comprise: in response to losing a connection with the second node device, generating the second message (paragraph 0027 disclose generating time critical messages if a critical device of the power distribution device stops functioning).
With respect to claim 17, Singh teaches a networking device in a mesh network (Nodes, Fig. 2A-B; 600, Fig. 6), comprising: one or more processors; and a memory storing executable instructions (node 600) that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to: receive a message from a parent networking device via a first unicast channel (paragraph 0028; 0029 disclose the unicast message 212 sent from the child node E through the selected parent to the root node 114); determining that a destination address extracted from a header of the message is within an address range designated for forced forward addresses that does not identify a specific destination node (paragraph 0028; 0029; 0031; 0072 disclose the unicast message includes a DAO message that is used to propagate destination information along the mesh network 140; adding a sequence number in an IPv6 extension header in the DAO message such that it can be uniquely identified in the network); and in response to determining that the destination address is within the address range designated for forced forward addresses, forwarding copies of the message to one or more neighboring child networking devices using respective second unicast channels (paragraph 0028; 0029; 0072; 0073; Fig. 2B disclose forwarding the received unicast messages 212 to the next node on the route).
With respect to claim 19, Singh teaches wherein the networking device is a smart meter device or a sensor device (paragraph 0023 discloses nodes 160 includes meters such as electricity meters, gas meters, water meters, steam meters, and any other type of Internet of things (IoT) devices).
With respect to claim 20, Singh teaches wherein the message comprises information related to one or more of a firmware download, configuration data, information regarding a lost connection, a request for connectivity status, a request for a group identification, and operational settings (paragraph 0027; 0068 discloses time-critical messages such power outage in a smart grid).
With respect to claim 21, Singh teaches wherein the forced forward address indicates that the first unicast message is to be forwarded to the one or more child nodes of the first node using respective unicast services associated with respective child nodes of the one or more child nodes (Fig. 2A; paragraph 0072-0073 disclose forwarding unicast messages through the intermediate nodes).
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 12 and 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Singh et al (US Publication No. 2022/0200921 A1) in view of Hui et al (US Publication No. 2013/0028295 A1).
With respect to claim 12, Singh discloses the claimed subject matter as discussed above except wherein transmitting the respective copies of the first message to the one or more child node devices comprises: waiting for a unicast listening window to open for a third node device of the one or more child node devices; and in response to determining that a unicast listening window is open for the third node device, transmitting a respective copy of the first message to the third node device during the unicast listening window.
However, Hui teaches wherein transmitting the respective copies of the first message to the one or more child node devices comprises: waiting for a unicast listening window to open for a third node device of the one or more child node devices (paragraph 0078 disclose the device listens to the network for unicast traffic based on its local unicast listening schedule); and in response to determining that a unicast listening window is open for the third node device, transmitting a respective copy of the first message to the third node device during the unicast listening window (paragraph 0078 discloses if node 11 is to transmit a unicast packet to node 22, node 11 determines the appropriate frequency/channel based on node 22's neighbor listening schedule at the time the transmission is to occur, and then transmits the unicast packet) in order to provide a unicast listening scheduling solution (Abstract). Therefore, based on Singh in view of Hui, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to utilize the teaching of Hui to the system of Singh in order to provide a unicast listening scheduling solution.
With respect to claim 14, Singh discloses the claimed subject matter as discussed above except wherein the destination address comprises a Media Access Control (MAC) address.
However, Hui teaches wherein the destination address comprises a Media Access Control (MAC) address (paragraph 0077 disclose the local unicast listening schedule is based on a MAC address or other unique ID of the device) in order to provide unique identification solution (paragraph 0077). Therefore, based on Singh in view of Hui, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to utilize the teaching of Hui to the system of Singh in order to provide unique identification solution.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 7-9 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CHEIKH T NDIAYE whose telephone number is (571)270-3914. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8:00am-5:30pm.
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/CHEIKH T NDIAYE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2447
3/7/2026