DETAILED ACTION
Status of Case
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
This Office Action is in response to the amendment filed on 8/25/2025.
Response to Amendment
Newly submitted claims 11-13 are directed to an invention that is independent or distinct from the invention originally claimed for the following reasons: new claims now recite using an identifier associated with a direct communication between a first terminal apparatus and a second terminal apparatus and transmitting a frame using the identifier associated with the direct communication and duration information, all of which was not recited in the original claims. In addition, the original claims recited generating SR link information including information indicating the first radio terminal apparatus and information indicating the second radio terminal apparatus, and a color index, which is not recited in the new claims. As such, the new claims are materially different in scope and content, and would require different search strings and likely would require different prior art than the original claims, all of which would result in undue examination burden.
Since applicant has received an action on the merits for the originally presented invention, this invention has been constructively elected by original presentation for prosecution on the merits. Accordingly, claims 11-13 are withdrawn from consideration as being directed to a non-elected invention. See 37 CFR 1.142(b) and MPEP § 821.03.
To preserve a right to petition, the reply to this action must distinctly and specifically point out supposed errors in the restriction requirement. Otherwise, the election shall be treated as a final election without traverse. Traversal must be timely. Failure to timely traverse the requirement will result in the loss of right to petition under 37 CFR 1.144. If claims are subsequently added, applicant must indicate which of the subsequently added claims are readable upon the elected invention.
Should applicant traverse on the ground that the inventions are not patentably distinct, applicant should submit evidence or identify such evidence now of record showing the inventions to be obvious variants or clearly admit on the record that this is the case. In either instance, if the examiner finds one of the inventions unpatentable over the prior art, the evidence or admission may be used in a rejection under 35 U.S.C. 103 or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) of the other invention.
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 1-2, 5, 9, and 10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kim (USPAN 2018/0227952) in view of Liao (USPAN 2014/0348081).
Consider claims 1 and 9, Kim discloses a radio communication apparatus (see figure 1 (reproduced below for convenience) and figure 10, wherein disclosed is said apparatus), and a corresponding method (see paragraph 207, wherein disclosed is said method) comprising: a receiver configured to receive a reception frame; and a transmitter configured to transmit a transmission frame (see RF unit 1013 in figure 10 and paragraph 207), wherein first information for confirming direct link setup with a second radio terminal apparatus is received from a first radio terminal apparatus, and in a case that information that intra-BSS SR is enabled is included in the first information, SR link information is generated that includes information indicating a color index associated with the information indicating the first radio terminal apparatus and the information indicating the second radio terminal apparatus (see paragraph 207, wherein disclosed is that in this specification, in order to perform SR, first, an SR STA may determine when a received frame is an intra-BSS frame or an inter-BBS frame (or an OBSS frame). In this case, the intra-BSS frame refers to a frame transmitted by a BSS to which an SR STA belongs (or a frame transmitted by an AP/STA belonging to a corresponding BSS). The inter-BBS frame refers to a frame transmitted by an OBSS for an SR STA (or a frame transmitted by an AP/STA belonging to an OBSS). In order to determine whether the received frame is an inter-BBS frame or an intra-BSS frame, the SR STA may use a BSS color (i.e., an identifier used to identify a BSS) included in the HE-SIG A field (or the HE-SIG A field included in a PPDU that carries the received frame) and/or the MAC address of a MAC header. For example, if the BSS color of a received HE-SIG A field is the same as its own BSS color, the SR STA may determine that the received frame is an intra-BSS frame. If the BSS color of a received HE-SIG A field is different from its own BSS color, the SR STA may determine that the received frame is an inter-BBS frame.).
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Kim does not specifically disclose information indicating a first radio terminal apparatus, information indicating a second radio terminal apparatus.
Liao discloses information indicating a first radio terminal apparatus, information indicating a second radio terminal apparatus (see paragraph 11: receiving a message that indicates identifiers of the first UE and the second UE).
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 invention of Kim and combine it with the noted teachings of Liao. The motivation to combine these references is to provide proximity-based service discovery and communication in a wireless communication system (see paragraph 2 of Liao).
Consider claim 2, Kim discloses that after generating the SR link information, the radio communication apparatus transmits the SR link information to one or more radio terminal apparatuses (see paragraph 207).
Consider claims 5 and 10, Kim discloses a first radio terminal apparatus (see figure 1 (reproduced below for convenience) and figure 10, wherein disclosed is said apparatus), and a corresponding method (see paragraph 207, wherein disclosed is said method) comprising: a transmitter configured to transmit a transmission frame, and a receiver configured to receive a reception frame (see RF unit 1013 in figure 10 and paragraph 207), wherein information that intra-BSS SR is enabled is transmitted to a radio communication apparatus, SR link information is received from the radio communication apparatus, and the SR link information at least includes a color index associated with the information indicating the second radio terminal apparatus and the information indicating a third radio terminal apparatus (see paragraph 207, wherein disclosed is that in this specification, in order to perform SR, first, an SR STA may determine when a received frame is an intra-BSS frame or an inter-BBS frame (or an OBSS frame). In this case, the intra-BSS frame refers to a frame transmitted by a BSS to which an SR STA belongs (or a frame transmitted by an AP/STA belonging to a corresponding BSS). The inter-BBS frame refers to a frame transmitted by an OBSS for an SR STA (or a frame transmitted by an AP/STA belonging to an OBSS). In order to determine whether the received frame is an inter-BBS frame or an intra-BSS frame, the SR STA may use a BSS color (i.e., an identifier used to identify a BSS) included in the HE-SIG A field (or the HE-SIG A field included in a PPDU that carries the received frame) and/or the MAC address of a MAC header. For example, if the BSS color of a received HE-SIG A field is the same as its own BSS color, the SR STA may determine that the received frame is an intra-BSS frame. If the BSS color of a received HE-SIG A field is different from its own BSS color, the SR STA may determine that the received frame is an inter-BBS frame.).
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Kim does not specifically disclose information indicating a second radio terminal apparatus and information indicating a third radio terminal apparatus.
Liao discloses information indicating a second radio terminal apparatus and information indicating a third radio terminal apparatus (see paragraph 11: receiving a message that indicates identifiers of the first UE and the second UE, wherein Liao’s “first” and “second” terminals are “second” and “third” terminals relative to the teaching of Kim).
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 invention of Kim and combine it with the noted teachings of Liao. The motivation to combine these references is to provide proximity-based service discovery and communication in a wireless communication system (see paragraph 2 of Liao).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-4 and 6-8 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
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 extension fee 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 date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Jamal Javaid whose telephone number is 571-270-5137 and email address is Jamal.Javaid@uspto.gov.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Charles Jiang, can be reached on 571-270-7191. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JAMAL JAVAID/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2412