DETAILED ACTION
This office action is a response to the amendment and arguments filed on June 26, 2026.
Claims 26-50 are pending.
Claims 26-50 are rejected.
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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on June 8, 2026 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 26-50 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. The rejection has been revised and set forth below according to the amended claims (See Office Action).
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 26-28 and 30-44, 46, 47, 49 and 50 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Park et al. U.S. Patent Application Publication 2023/0328622, hereinafter Park, in view of Naribole et al. U.S. Patent 12,375,913, hereinafter Naribole.
Regarding Claim 26, Park discloses an apparatus comprising: a memory; and circuitry of a first access point (AP) multilink device (MLD) affiliated with a group of AP MLDs (Abstract; Figure 1-4 and 19),
the circuitry coupled with the memory to: receive one or more medium access control (MAC) frames to authenticate and associate a non-AP MLD with the group of AP MLDs, wherein the group of AP MLDs includes the first AP MLD (Figure 3 and 4; Paragraph [0088-0096] Exchange of various authentication and association request response frame for the group of AP MLDs; Paragraph [0362] Information included in the request frame),
wherein the one or more MAC frames comprise an identifier field in an element in a frame body of the one or more MAC frames, the identifier field comprising a group identifier for the group of AP MLDs (Paragraph [0341 and 0362] Multi-AP group ID);
and send MAC authentication and association response frames to the non-AP MLD to establish communications (Park Figure 3 and 4; Paragraph [0088-0096] Various authentication and association request response frame for the group of AP MLDs; Paragraph [0362] Information included in the request frame [0363] Multi-AP group ID).
Park discloses authentication and association response frames including key in authentication protocol but fail to explicitly disclose sending MAC authentication and association response frames to the non-AP MLD to establish security keys for communications based on the group identifier.
However, Naribole more specifically teaches sending MAC authentication and association response frames to the non-AP MLD to establish security keys for communications based on the group identifier (Abstract; Figure 5, 7 and 10-12; Column 7 [Line 45] – Column 10 [Line 63] Association and authentication process establishing security keys for communications based on the group identifier where a a pairwise transient key (PTK1) and a group temporal key (GTK1) may be generated between the STA 802 and the AP to establish communications).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Park with the teachings of Naribole. The method enables an STA to roam freely and select different APs to exchange data frames with while reducing or eliminating the overhead associated with reassociating or reauthenticating for transitions between different APs. The method provides a seamless exchange of data frames between an STA and multiple coordinated APs and thus ensures better performance (Naribole Abstract; Column 1 [Line 15] – Column 2 [Line 42] and Column 3 [Line 33] – Column 4 [Line 37]).
Regarding Claim 27, Park in view of Naribole disclose the apparatus of Claim 26. Park in view of Naribole further disclose the circuitry comprising baseband processing circuitry and further comprising a radio coupled with the baseband processing circuitry, and one or more antennas coupled with the radio to receive the one or more MAC frames (Park Figure 1-4 and 19; Paragraph [0264] antenna array; Paragraph [0273] Stations with plurality of antennas for transmission of MAC request frame).
Regarding Claim 28, Park in view of Naribole disclose the apparatus of Claim 26. Park in view of Naribole further disclose wherein one or more of the MAC authentication and association response frames comprise the identifier field in the element in a frame body of the MAC authentication and association response frames, the identifier field comprising the group identifier for the group of AP MLDs (Park Figure 3 and 4; Paragraph [0088-0096] Various authentication and association request response frame for the group of AP MLDs; Paragraph [0362] Information included in the request frame [0363] Multi-AP group ID; Naribole Column 10 Authentication and association for exchanging data frames).
Regarding Claim 30, Park in view of Naribole disclose the apparatus of Claim 26. Park in view of Naribole further disclose wherein the element comprises an element identifier (ID) field, a length field, an element ID extension field, and a capabilities field (Park Figure 3-9 and 29; Paragraph [0088-0131 and 0296-0304] Various fields including element ID, length extension fields and capability fields including in MAC management frames; Naribole Column 7-9 contents of frame including element field and capability information).
Regarding Claim 31, Park in view of Naribole disclose the apparatus of Claim 26. Park in view of Naribole further disclose wherein the one or more MAC frames comprise an association request frame, a reassociation request frame, an authentication frame, or a combination thereof (Park Figure 3 and 4; Paragraph [0088-0096] Various authentication and association request response frame for the group of AP MLDs; Paragraph [0362] Information included in the request frame [0363] Multi-AP group ID; Naribole Column 10 Authentication and association for exchanging data frames).
Regarding Claim 32, Park in view of Naribole disclose the apparatus of Claim 26. Park in view of Naribole further disclose wherein the group of AP MLDs belong to the same extended service set (ESS) (Park Paragraph [0083] The distribution system 210 may implement an extended service set (ESS) 240 extended by connecting the multiple BSSs 200 and 205. The ESS 240 may be used as a term indicating one network configured by connecting one or more APs 225 or 230 through the distribution system 210).
Regarding Claim 33, Park in view of Naribole disclose the apparatus of Claim 26. Park in view of Naribole further disclose wherein the value for the group identifier is unique for the group of AP MLDs (Park Figure 3 and 4; Paragraph [0088-0096] Various authentication and association request response frame for the group of AP MLDs; Paragraph [0362] Information included in the request frame [0363] Multi-AP group ID; Naribole Column 10 Authentication and association for exchanging data frames).
Regarding Claim 34, Park in view of Naribole disclose the apparatus of Claim 26. Park in view of Naribole further disclose wherein the same security keys are established for communications from the non-AP MLD to each AP MLD in the group of AP MLDs (Park Paragraph [0083] The distribution system 210 may implement an extended service set (ESS) 240 extended by connecting the multiple BSSs 200 and 205. The ESS 240 may be used as a term indicating one network configured by connecting one or more APs 225 or 230 through the distribution system 210; Paragraph [0341] Different Multi-AP group IDs; Naribole Column 7-8 Same security keys from non-AP MLD to each AP MLD).
Regarding Claim 35, Park in view of Naribole disclose the apparatus of Claim 26. Park in view of Naribole further disclose wherein different security keys are established for each AP MLD of the group of AP MLDs for communications from the non-AP MLD (Park Paragraph [0083] The distribution system 210 may implement an extended service set (ESS) 240 extended by connecting the multiple BSSs 200 and 205. The ESS 240 may be used as a term indicating one network configured by connecting one or more APs 225 or 230 through the distribution system 210; Paragraph [0341] Different Multi-AP group IDs; Naribole Column 9 Different groups and temporal group keys).
Regarding Claim 36, Park discloses a non-transitory computer-readable medium, comprising instructions, which when executed by a processor of a first access point (AP) multilink device (MLD) affiliated with a group of AP MLDs, cause the processor to perform operations (Abstract; Figure 1-4 and 19) to:
parse one or more medium access control (MAC) frames to authenticate and associate a non-AP MLD with the group of AP MLDs, wherein the group of AP MLDs includes the first AP MLD (Figure 3 and 4; Paragraph [0088-0096] Exchange of various authentication and association request response frame for the group of AP MLDs; Paragraph [0362] Information included in the request frame),
wherein the one or more MAC frames comprise an identifier field in an element in a frame body of the one or more MAC frames, the identifier field comprising a group identifier for the group of AP MLDs (Paragraph [0341 and 0362] Multi-AP group ID);
and send MAC authentication and association response frames to the non-AP MLD to establish communications based on the group identifier (Park Figure 3 and 4; Paragraph [0088-0096] Various authentication and association request response frame for the group of AP MLDs; Paragraph [0362] Information included in the request frame [0363] Multi-AP group ID).
Park discloses authentication and association response frames including key in authentication protocol but fail to explicitly disclose send MAC authentication and association response frames to the non-AP MLD to establish security keys for communications based on the group identifier (Abstract; Figure 5, 7 and 10-12; Column 7 [Line 45] – Column 10 [Line 63] Association and authentication process establishing security keys for communications based on the group identifier where a a pairwise transient key (PTK1) and a group temporal key (GTK1) may be generated between the STA 802 and the AP to establish communications).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Park with the teachings of Naribole. The method enables an STA to roam freely and select different APs to exchange data frames with while reducing or eliminating the overhead associated with reassociating or reauthenticating for transitions between different APs. The method provides a seamless exchange of data frames between an STA and multiple coordinated APs and thus ensures better performance (Naribole Abstract; Column 1 [Line 15] – Column 2 [Line 42] and Column 3 [Line 33] – Column 4 [Line 37]).
Regarding Claim 37, Park in view of Naribole disclose the non-transitory computer-readable medium of Claim 36. Park in view of Naribole further disclose wherein one or more of the MAC authentication and association response frames comprise the identifier field in the element in a frame body of the MAC authentication and association response frames, the identifier field comprising the group identifier for the group of AP MLDs (Park Figure 3 and 4; Paragraph [0088-0096] Various authentication and association request response frame for the group of AP MLDs; Paragraph [0362] Information included in the request frame [0363] Multi-AP group ID; Naribole Column 10 Authentication and association for exchanging data frames).
Regarding Claim 38, Park in view of Naribole disclose the non-transitory computer-readable medium of Claim 36. Park in view of Naribole further disclose wherein the same security keys are established for communications from the non-AP MLD to each AP MLD in the group of AP MLDs (Park Paragraph [0083] The distribution system 210 may implement an extended service set (ESS) 240 extended by connecting the multiple BSSs 200 and 205. The ESS 240 may be used as a term indicating one network configured by connecting one or more APs 225 or 230 through the distribution system 210; Paragraph [0341] Different Multi-AP group IDs; Naribole Column 7-8 Same security keys from non-AP MLD to each AP MLD).
Regarding Claim 39, Park in view of Naribole disclose the non-transitory computer-readable medium of Claim 36. Park in view of Naribole further disclose wherein different security keys are established for each AP MLD of the group of AP MLDs for communications from the non-AP MLD (Park Figure 3 and 4; Paragraph [0088-0096] Various authentication and association request response frame for the group of AP MLDs; Paragraph [0362] Information included in the request frame [0363] Multi-AP group ID; Naribole Column 10 Authentication and association for exchanging data frames).
Regarding Claim 40, Park in view of Naribole disclose the non-transitory computer-readable medium of Claim 36. Park in view of Naribole further disclose wherein the one or more MAC frames comprise an association request frame, a reassociation request frame, an authentication frame, or a combination thereof (Park Figure 3 and 4; Paragraph [0088-0096] Various authentication and association request response frame for the group of AP MLDs; Paragraph [0362] Information included in the request frame [0363] Multi-AP group ID; Naribole Column 10 Authentication and association for exchanging data frames).
Regarding Claim 41, Park in view of Naribole disclose the non-transitory computer-readable medium of Claim 36. Park in view of Naribole further disclose wherein the group of AP MLDs belong to the same extended service set (ESS) (Park Paragraph [0083] The distribution system 210 may implement an extended service set (ESS) 240 extended by connecting the multiple BSSs 200 and 205. The ESS 240 may be used as a term indicating one network configured by connecting one or more APs 225 or 230 through the distribution system 210).
Regarding Claim 42, Park discloses An apparatus comprising: a memory; and circuitry of a non-AP multilink device (MLD) coupled with the memory (Abstract; Figure 1-4 and 19) to:
generate one or more medium access control (MAC) frames to authenticate and associate the non-AP MLD with a group of AP MLDs via a first AP MLD affiliated with the group of AP MLDs (Figure 3 and 4; Paragraph [0088-0096] Exchange of various authentication and association request response frame for the group of AP MLDs; Paragraph [0362] Information included in the request frame),
wherein the group of AP MLDs includes the first AP MLD, wherein the one or more MAC frames comprise an identifier field in an element in a frame body of the one or more MAC frames, the identifier field comprising a group identifier for the group of AP MLDs (Paragraph [0341 and 0362] Multi-AP group ID);
receive MAC authentication and association response frames to the non-AP MLD to establish communications based on the group identifier (Park Figure 3 and 4; Paragraph [0088-0096] Various authentication and association request response frame for the group of AP MLDs; Paragraph [0362] Information included in the request frame [0363] Multi-AP group ID).
Park discloses authentication and association response frames including key in authentication protocol but fail to explicitly disclose receive MAC authentication and association response frames to the non-AP MLD to establish security keys for communications based on the group identifier (Abstract; Figure 5, 7 and 10-12; Column 7 [Line 45] – Column 10 [Line 63] Association and authentication process establishing security keys for communications based on the group identifier where a a pairwise transient key (PTK1) and a group temporal key (GTK1) may be generated between the STA 802 and the AP to establish communications).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Park with the teachings of Naribole. The method enables an STA to roam freely and select different APs to exchange data frames with while reducing or eliminating the overhead associated with reassociating or reauthenticating for transitions between different APs. The method provides a seamless exchange of data frames between an STA and multiple coordinated APs and thus ensures better performance (Naribole Abstract; Column 1 [Line 15] – Column 2 [Line 42] and Column 3 [Line 33] – Column 4 [Line 37]).
Regarding Claim 43, Park in view of Naribole disclose the apparatus of Claim 42. Park in view of Naribole further disclose wherein the circuitry comprises baseband processing circuitry and further comprising a radio coupled with the baseband processing circuitry, and one or more antennas coupled with the radio to transmit the MAC request frame (Park Figure 1-4 and 19; Paragraph [0264] antenna array; Paragraph [0273] Stations with plurality of antennas for transmission of MAC request frame).
Regarding Claim 44, Park in view of Naribole disclose the apparatus of Claim 42. Park in view of Naribole further disclose wherein one or more of the MAC authentication and association response frames comprise the identifier field in the element in a frame body of the MAC authentication and association response frames, the identifier field comprising the group identifier for the group of AP MLDs (Park Figure 3 and 4; Paragraph [0088-0096] Various authentication and association request response frame for the group of AP MLDs; Paragraph [0362] Information included in the request frame [0363] Multi-AP group ID; Naribole Column 10 Authentication and association for exchanging data frames).
Regarding Claim 46, Park in view of Naribole disclose the apparatus of Claim 42. Park in view of Naribole further disclose wherein the element comprises an element identifier (ID) field, a length field, an element ID extension field, and a capabilities field (Park Figure 3-9 and 29; Paragraph [0088-0131 and 0296-0304] Various fields including element ID, length extension fields and capability fields including in MAC management frames; Naribole Column 7-9 contents of frame including element field and capability information).
Regarding Claim 47, Park discloses a non-transitory computer-readable medium, comprising instructions, which when executed by a processor of a non-AP multilink device (MLD), cause the processor to perform operations (Abstract; Figure 1-4 and 19) to:
generate one or more medium access control (MAC) frames to authenticate and associate the non-AP MLD with a group of AP MLDs via a first AP MLD affiliated with the group of AP MLDs, wherein the group of AP MLDs includes the first AP MLD (Figure 3 and 4; Paragraph [0088-0096] Exchange of various authentication and association request response frame for the group of AP MLDs; Paragraph [0362] Information included in the request frame),
wherein the one or more MAC frames comprise an identifier field in an element in a frame body of the one or more MAC frames, the identifier field comprising a group identifier for the group of AP MLDs (Paragraph [0341 and 0362] Multi-AP group ID);
receive MAC authentication and association response frames to the non-AP MLD to establish communications based on the group identifier (Park Figure 3 and 4; Paragraph [0088-0096] Various authentication and association request response frame for the group of AP MLDs; Paragraph [0362] Information included in the request frame [0363] Multi-AP group ID).
Park discloses authentication and association response frames including key in authentication protocol but fail to explicitly disclose receive MAC authentication and association response frames to the non-AP MLD to establish security keys for communications based on the group identifier (Abstract; Figure 5, 7 and 10-12; Column 7 [Line 45] – Column 10 [Line 63] Association and authentication process establishing security keys for communications based on the group identifier where a a pairwise transient key (PTK1) and a group temporal key (GTK1) may be generated between the STA 802 and the AP to establish communications).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Park with the teachings of Naribole. The method enables an STA to roam freely and select different APs to exchange data frames with while reducing or eliminating the overhead associated with reassociating or reauthenticating for transitions between different APs. The method provides a seamless exchange of data frames between an STA and multiple coordinated APs and thus ensures better performance (Naribole Abstract; Column 1 [Line 15] – Column 2 [Line 42] and Column 3 [Line 33] – Column 4 [Line 37]).
Regarding Claim 49, Park in view of Naribole disclose the non-transitory computer-readable medium of Claim 47. Park in view of Naribole wherein the same security keys are established for communications from the non-AP MLD to each AP MLD in the group of AP MLDs (Park Paragraph [0083] The distribution system 210 may implement an extended service set (ESS) 240 extended by connecting the multiple BSSs 200 and 205. The ESS 240 may be used as a term indicating one network configured by connecting one or more APs 225 or 230 through the distribution system 210; Paragraph [0341] Different Multi-AP group IDs; Naribole Column 7-8 Same security keys from non-AP MLD to each AP MLD).
Regarding Claim 50, Park in view of Naribole disclose the non-transitory computer-readable medium of Claim 47. Park in view of Naribole wherein different security keys are established for each AP MLD of the group of AP MLDs for communications from the non-AP MLD (Park Paragraph [0083] The distribution system 210 may implement an extended service set (ESS) 240 extended by connecting the multiple BSSs 200 and 205. The ESS 240 may be used as a term indicating one network configured by connecting one or more APs 225 or 230 through the distribution system 210; Paragraph [0341] Different Multi-AP group IDs; Naribole Column 9 Different groups and temporal group keys).
Claims 29, 45 and 48 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Park in view of Naribole as applied to claim 26, 42 and 47 above, and further in view of Wilkinson et al. U.S. Patent Application Publication 2005/0201342, hereinafter Wilkinson.
Regarding Claim 29 and 45, Park in view of Naribole disclose the apparatus of Claim 26 and 42. Park in view of Naribole disclose group identifiers but fail to explicitly disclose wherein the group identifier comprises a 48-bit MAC address.
However, the above limitation is known in the art, as evidenced by Wilkinson. Wilkinson more specifically teaches wherein the group identifier comprises a 48-bit MAC address (Paragraph [0049] 48-bit MAC address in MAC frame for group identification).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Park in view of Naribole with the teachings of Wilkinson. Wilkinson provides solutions for management of access points maintains the integrity of the distribution service (DS), hence the coverage of the extended service set (ESS) is in a purely wireless network. Stations are able to recognize the broadcast address. It is not necessary that a station be capable of generating the broadcast address (Wilkinson Abstract; Paragraph [0003-0012]).
Regarding Claim 48, Park in view of Naribole disclose the non-transitory computer-readable medium of Claim 47. Park in view of Naribole further disclose wherein the value for the group identifier is different from a MAC address of the first AP MLD and is different from the value of an MLD ID for the first AP MLD, wherein the group of AP MLDs belong to the same extended service set (ESS) (Park Paragraph [0083] The distribution system 210 may implement an extended service set (ESS) 240 extended by connecting the multiple BSSs 200 and 205. The ESS 240 may be used as a term indicating one network configured by connecting one or more APs 225 or 230 through the distribution system 210; Paragraph [0341] Different Multi-AP group IDs; Naribole Column 9 Different groups and temporal group keys).
Park in view of Naribole disclose group identifiers but fail to explicitly disclose wherein the group identifier comprises a 48-bit MAC address.
However, the above limitation is known in the art, as evidenced by Wilkinson. Wilkinson more specifically teaches wherein the group identifier comprises a 48-bit MAC address (Paragraph [0049] 48-bit MAC address in MAC frame for group identification).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Park in view of Naribole with the teachings of Wilkinson. Wilkinson provides solutions for management of access points maintains the integrity of the distribution service (DS), hence the coverage of the extended service set (ESS) is in a purely wireless network. Stations are able to recognize the broadcast address. It is not necessary that a station be capable of generating the broadcast address (Wilkinson Abstract; Paragraph [0003-0012]).
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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IVAN O. LATORRE
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2409
/IVAN O LATORRE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2409
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