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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see page 1, line 8 through page 3, line 12, filed December 31, 2025, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 1-16 under 35 U.S.C. 103 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 Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn.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 in view of Wang et al. (Wang), U.S. Patent Pub. No. 2018/0098261 and Won, U.S. Patent Pub. No. 2021/0258857.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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) 1-9 and 11-16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wang et al. (Wang), U.S. Patent Pub. No. 2018/0098261 in view of Won, U.S. Patent Pub. No. 2021/0258857.
Regarding claim 1, Wang discloses a method comprising: receiving, by a processor of a user equipment (UE), a reject message from a satellite-accessing cell of a network (terrestrial radio access network) (An evolved Node-B (eNodeB) broadcasts system information including at least one SIB based at least in part on an enhanced universal terrestrial radio access network (E-UTRAN) parameter response message sent by an evolved packet core (EPC) network.) (0009); and storing, by the processor, one or more tracking area identifiers (TAIs) that are included in at least one information element (IE) of the reject message in a list of forbidden tracking areas in the UE regardless of a reject cause indicated in the reject message (The list may optionally be stored in the USIM 220 of the WTRU 105 when the WTRU 105 is powered off. When the WTRU is powered on, the list is loaded into the GMM 235. The list may be modified by the TAU accept message 170A or the TAU reject message 170B.) (0057).
Wang, however, fails to specifically disclose wherein the reject message comprises one or more forbidden TAIs for a list of a 5th Generation System (5GS) forbidden tracking areas regional provision of service IE.
In a similar field of endeavor, Won discloses methods, apparatuses and computer program products for managing a devices network capabilities in private networks.
Won further discloses wherein a reject message comprises one or more forbidden TAIs for a list of a 5th Generation System (5GS) forbidden tracking areas regional provision of service IE. (Upon expiry of timer T3247, the UE 102 can or shall: [0433] remove, for the current SNPN, all tracking areas from the list of “5GS forbidden tracking areas for regional provision of service” and the list of “5GS forbidden tracking areas for roaming”, which were stored in these lists for non-integrity protected NAS reject message) (0432).
Therefore, before the effective filing date, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to modify Wang with the teachings of Won for the purpose of providing a user more detailed information about tracking areas the user device is allowed or not allowed to enter.
Regarding claim 9, Wang discloses an apparatus implementable in a user equipment (UE), comprising: a transceiver configured to communicate wirelessly with a network(see figure 2); and a processor coupled to the transceiver and configured to perform operations (see figure 2) comprising: receiving, via the transceiver, a reject message from a satellite-accessing cell of the network (An evolved Node-B (eNodeB) broadcasts system information including at least one SIB based at least in part on an enhanced universal terrestrial radio access network (E-UTRAN) parameter response message sent by an evolved packet core (EPC) network.) (0009); and storing, by the processor, one or more tracking area identifiers (TAIs) that are included in at least one information element (IE) of the reject message in a list of forbidden tracking areas in the UE regardless of a reject cause indicated in the reject message (The list may optionally be stored in the USIM 220 of the WTRU 105 when the WTRU 105 is powered off. When the WTRU is powered on, the list is loaded into the GMM 235. The list may be modified by the TAU accept message 170A or the TAU reject message 170B.) (0057).
Wang, however, fails to disclose wherein the reject message comprises a registration reject message. Won discloses this limitation (an initial registration request message or a service request message; receiving from said network entity, in response to the initial registration request or the service request message, a rejection message comprising an indication of a reason for rejection of the initial registration request message or the service request message) (0020).
Therefore, before the effective filing date, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to modify Wang with the teachings of Madasamy for the purpose of providing a user more detailed information for the rejection.
Regarding claim 2, Wang as modified discloses wherein the reject message comprises an attach reject message, a tracking area update (TAU) reject message, a service reject message or a registration reject message (In response to receiving the TAU request message 165, the EPC network 115 sends either a TAU accept message 170A or a TAU reject message 170B to the WTRU 105, which is forwarded via the PHY 260, the MAC unit 255, the RLC unit 250, the PDCP unit 245 and the RRC unit 125 to the GMM 235 in NAS protocol stack 120 via the internal interface 265.) (0033).
Regarding claims 3 and 11, the combination of Wang and Won discloses wherein the reject message further comprises at least one of one or more forbidden TAIs for a list of a “forbidden tracking areas for roaming” or one or more forbidden TAIs for a list of a (5GS) forbidden tracking areas for roaming” IE, (Wang, The TAU reject message 170B may contain the rejected TA-ID, and optionally contain a list of other TAs that the WTRU 105 is not allowed to move into. The rejected TA-IDs may need to be added to the “forbidden TA-ID list” stored in the GMM 235 so that the WTRU 105 will not reselect to a cell under the TAs associated with these TA-IDs.) (0036). See also, (Won, wherein the reject message comprises one or more forbidden TAIs for a list of a 5th Generation System (5GS) forbidden tracking areas regional provision of service IE.) (0432).
Regarding claims 4 and 12, Wang as modified discloses wherein the network comprises an Evolved Packet System (EPS) network or a 5th Generation System (5GS) network (see abstract).
Regarding claims 5 and 13, Wang as modified discloses wherein the reject cause comprises inherently an EPS Mobility Management (EMM) reject cause or a 5th Generation Mobility Management (5GMM) reject cause (The TAU reject message 170B may contain a cause/reason for the rejection upon which the operating state of the GMM 235 may be changed. The TAU reject message 170B may contain the rejected TA-ID, and optionally contain a list of other TAs that the WTRU 105 is not allowed to move into.) (0036).
Regarding claims 6 and 14, Wang as modified discloses wherein the list of forbidden tracking areas in the UE comprises a corresponding EPS or 5GS list of forbidden tracking areas for roaming (If the TAC is only assigned by each network operator, (i.e., the TAC is per PLMN), then the TA-ID=PLMN-ID+TAC, (see field 450, where it is indicated that the PLMN field is present when x=1), considering the roaming requirement.) (0043) or a corresponding EPS or 5GS list of forbidden tracking areas for regional provision of service (The TAU reject message 170B is sent to the WTRU 105 if the EPC network 115 does not allow the WTRU 105 to obtain service from a reported tracking area.) (0060).
Regarding claims 7 and 15, Wang as modified discloses wherein the one or more TAIs comprise one TAI or multiple different TAIs which are rejected with one or multiple reasons and wherein one of the one or multiple reject reasons or another reject cause value is included in the at least one IE of the reject message to indicate a reason for why the reject message is sent by the network (when the TAC indicates that the WTRU 105 is in a different tracking area, the NAS protocol stack 120 in the processor 210 of the WTRU 105 generates a TAU request message 165 including the TA-ID of the new cell, which is transmitted by the transmitter 215 via the antenna 225 to the EPC network 115. In response to receiving the TAU request message 165, the EPC network 115 sends either a TAU accept message 170A or a TAU reject message 170B to the WTRU 105, which is forwarded via the PHY 260, the MAC unit 255, the RLC unit 250, the PDCP unit 245 and the RRC unit 125 to the GMM 235 in NAS protocol stack 120 via the internal interface 265.) (0033).
Regarding claims 8 and 16, Wang as modified discloses executing, by the processor, one or more actions defined for a value of the reject cause indicated by an Evolved Packet System (EPS) Mobility Management (EMM) cause IE or a 5.sup.th Generation Mobility Management (5GMM) cause IE in the reject message. (The invention performs LTE TAUs, and tracking area code (TAC) and PLMN-ID assisted optimized WTRU cell reselection. An evolved Node-B (eNodeB) broadcasts system information including at least one SIB based at least in part on an enhanced universal terrestrial radio access network (E-UTRAN) parameter response message sent by an evolved packet core (EPC) network.) (0009); (The TAU reject message 170B may contain a cause/reason for the rejection upon which the operating state of the GMM 235 may be changed.) (0036).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Won, U.S. Patent Pub. No. 2021/0051577 discloses a method and apparatus for handling non-integrity protected reject messages in non-public networks.
Tiwari et al. U.S. Patent Pub. No. 2021/0051566 discloses a method and system for managing closed access group feature for user equipment and network.
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/TEMICA M BEAMER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2646