DETAILED ACTION
Response to Amendment
The amendment filed on 12/16/2025 has been entered and considered by Examiner. Claims 1-3, 7-9, 17, and 19-20 are presented for examination. Claims 10-16 are withdrawn.
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 12/16/2025 has been entered.
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 of this title, 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 1-3, 7-9, and 17are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhao et al. (US Pub. 20180132289 A1) in view of Raleigh et al. (US Pub. 20170201850 A1).
For claims 1 and 17, ZHAO discloses user equipment (UE) (wireless devices 102 FIG. 1 or 200 in detail view FIG. 2), comprising:
a processor (206) ("The wireless device 200 may include at least one controller, such as a general-purpose processor 206, which may be coupled to a coder/decoder (CODEC) 208." para. (00561); and
a memory unit (214) operatively connected to the processor, and including instructions which when executed by the processor comprise a data subscription policy manager to ("The general purpose processor 206 may also be coupled to at least one memory 214. The memory 214 may be a non-transitory tangible computer readable storage medium that stores processor-executable instructions. For example, the instructions may include routing communication data relating to a subscription though the transmit chain and receive chain of a corresponding baseband-RF resource chain." para. (0058]):
determine desired operating characteristics associated with data to be communicated to or from the UE ("As described, the wireless communication device (e.g., 102, 200) may be a MSMS wireless device in which at least two SIMs configured to access LTE network(s) share a single RF resource, taking turns to conduct wireless communications. In various examples, the LTE operations detected on the modem stack associated with the first SIM may be in an LTE network supported by the first SIM ("first network"), while the detected LTE operations for the second SIM may be in an LTE network supported by the second SIM ("second network")." para. (00981); also implicit from paragraph 5, "detecting a request from at least one application to perform an activity using a packet switched service", because depending on the request it is determined the characteristics needed),
determine possible data connections over which to send or receive the data to be communicated, the possible data connections comporting with usage of at least one of a plurality of subscriber identity module (SIM) cards installed in the UE ("... application interfaces and routing information once a DDS switch is requested." para. (0095]; "In block 402, the wireless device processor may detect LTE operations on a modem stack associated with a first SIM ("SIM-1") and a modem stack associated with a second SIM ("SIM-2"). As described, the wireless communication device (e.g., 102, 200) may be a MSMS wireless device in which at least two SIMs configured to access LTE network(s) share a single RF resource, taking turns to conduct wireless communications." para. [0098]; "Once in RRC connected mode, the wireless communication device may perform the network attach procedure, which establishes a bearer path to a default PON designated by the network operator." para. (01011); also paragraph 105, "the requested activity may be specific to an operator service application using the modem stack associated with the second SIM, and therefore cannot be performed on the DDS SIM (i.e. the first SIM). "); and
establish a data connection between an application running on the UE and a modem of the UE using the plurality of SIM cards ("... application interfaces and routing information once a DDS switch is requested." para. (0095]; "Once in RRC connected mode, the wireless communication device may perform the network attach procedure, which establishes a bearer path to a default PON designated by the network operator." para. [0101]; also paragraph 90, "requires a transfer of data-oriented traffic from the modem stack associated with the first SIM to that of the second SIM. Another example of the trigger may be request for activity requiring a packet- switched service associated with the second SIM.", paragraph 58, "The memory 214 may store operating system (OS), as well as user application software and executable instructions.", figure 2, "B81","B82" and paragraph 59, ", the shared baseband-RF resource chain may include, for each of the first SIM 204a and the second SIM 204b, separate baseband- modem processor 216 functionality (e.g., B81 and B82).),
wherein each of the plurality of SIM cards operates in an always-on mode relative to a modem of the UE ("... wireless communication devices may now include a plurality of SIM cards ...," para. [0032]; "... the modem stack associated with the non-DDS SIM may further prepare for packet-switched service requests ... Upon completion of the packet-switched service activity, the corresponding PDN connection may be maintained if set as a persistent PDN connection, thereby providing an "always-on" status for certain types of packet-switched services (e.g., an Internet F'DN) When a packet-switched activity is requested on the non-DDS SIM, packet-switched traffic may be sent and received by the modem stack associated with the non-DDS SIM if the corresponding PDN is already activated. Thus, the non-DDS sub may always maintain commonly used PDNc, o.g., the Internet." para. [0093]).
But ZHAO doesn’t explicitly teach wherein the desired operating characteristics comprise at least one of: priorities, preferences, load, or resource usage;
determine, depending on updated determinations resulting from repeated determination of the desired operating characteristics, possible data connections over which to send or receive the data to be communicated,
However, Raleigh discloses wherein the desired operating characteristics comprise at least one of: priorities, preferences, load, or resource usage (Figs. 82-83, 111-113, 174-175) [1601, 1355, 1284];
determine, depending on updated determinations resulting from repeated determination of the desired operating characteristics, possible data connections over which to send or receive the data to be communicated (Figs. 82-83, 111-113, 174-175, 349, 352) [1601, 1355, 1284];
Since, all are analogous arts addressing tracking different system characteristics used in a mobile system; Therefore, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine the teachings of Zhao with Raleigh to ensure different data metric can be properly track, thus, improve system performance.
For claim 2, ZHAO discloses wherein each of the SIM cards installed in the UE is associated with a data subscription ("Modern wireless communication devices may now include a plurality of SIM cards that enable a user to connect to different mobile networks while using the same mobile communication device. Each SIM card serves to identify and authenticate a subscriber using a particular mobile communication device, and each SIM card is associated with only one subscription." para. (0032]).
For claim 3, ZHAO discloses wherein a first of the SIM cards is associated with a primary data subscription and wherein a second of the SIM cards is associated with a secondary data subscription ("Modern wireless communication devices may now include a plurality of SIM cards that enable a user to connect to different mobile networks while using the same mobile communication device. Each SIM card serves to identify and authenticate a subscriber using a particular mobile communication device, and each SIM card is associated with only one subscription." para. [0032]).
For claim 7, ZHAO discloses wherein the instructions that when executed establish the data connection between the application running on the UE and the modem of the UE using the at least one of the plurality of SIM cards further comprise establishing another data connection between the application running on the UE and the modem of the UE using the other of the at least one of the plurality of SIM cards ("The SGW 160 may route incoming and outgoing IP packets for the wireless device 102 via the LTE access network and external IP networks (i.e., packet data networks (PDNs)). The SGW 160 may also provide an anchor point for handover between eNodeBs. The SGW 160 may be logically connected to the PGW 163, which may route packets to and from PDNs to form a connection between the EPC and various PDNs, for example, IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) 170." para. [0048]; "In the various examples, in addition to the LTE access network, the wireless device 102 may be configured to connect independently to various access networks that provide at least voice services through the public switched telephone network (PSTN) 176. For example, the wireless device 102 may connect to a legacy circuit switched (CS) core network 178 through a radio access network (RAN) 164 that provides at least voice service through the PSTN 176. Further, the wireless device 102 may connect through the RAN 164 to a packet switched (PS) core network 182, which may be connected to external PS networks, such as the Internet 158 through a Gateway GPRS support node (GGSN) (not shown)." para. [0049)).
For claim 8, ZHAO discloses wherein the instructions that when executed establish the data connection between the application running on the UE and the modem of the UE using the at least one of the plurality of SIM cards further comprise establishing simultaneously-used data connections between the application running on the UE and the modem of the UE using each of the plurality of SIM cards ("For example, the wireless device 102 may be configured to communicate over multiple wireless data networks on different subscriptions, such as in a dual-SIM wireless device. In some examples, the wireless device 102 may be configured with MSMS capability, which enables a multi-SIM wireless communication device to share a transmit/receive chain and to simultaneously monitor for pages in idle mode until one SIM begins a communication." para. [0051)).
For claim 9, ZHAO discloses wherein the instructions that when executed establish the data connection between the application running on the UE and the modem of the UE using the at least one of the plurality of SIM cards further comprise establishing another data connection between the application running on the UE and the mu<..11:1111 uf lh1:1 UE using lhe other of the at least one of the plurality of SIM cards, and switching between the data connection and the other data connection ("The SGW 160 may route incoming and outgoing IP packets for the wireless device 102 via the LTE access network and external IP networks (i.e., packet data networks (PDNs)). The SGW 160 may also provide an anchor point for handover between eNodeBs. The SGW 160 may be logically connected to the PGW 163, which may route packets to and from PDNs to form a connection between the EPC and various PDNs, for example, IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) 170." para. [0048]; "In the various examples, in addition to the LTE access network, the wireless device 102 may be configured to connect independently to various access networks that provide at least voice services through the public switched telephone network (PSTN) 176. For example, the wireless device 102 may connect to a legacy circuit switched (CS) core network 178 through a radio access network (RAN) 164 that provides at least voice service through the PSTN 176. Further, the wireless device 102 may connect through the RAN 164 to a packet switched (PS) core network 182, which may be connected to external PS networks, such as the Internet 158 through a Gateway GPRS support node (GGSN) (not shown)." para. [0049)).
Claims 19 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhao et al. (US Pub. 20180132289 A1) in view of Raleigh et al. (US Pub. 20170201850 A1) in further view of Kreishan (US Pub. 20200314629 A1).
For claim 19, ZHAO discloses all limitations this claim depended on.
ZHAO doesn’t explicitly disclose the following limitation taught by Kreishan.
Kreishan disclose the determining of the possible data connections is based on a mapping of the application to the one of the plurality of SIM cards ("... processing continues at operation 360 in which the communication management 140 enters a standard DSDS dual SIM dual standby mode." para. (0097); "Switching the data path or route dynamically between networks will designate an active and standby PON." para. (00321)).
Since, all are analogous arts addressing SIMs used in a mobile device; Therefore, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to combine the teachings of ZHAO and Kreishan to use path selection to designate routes to active or standby network, thus, improving system performance.
For claim 20, ZHAO discloses all limitations this claim depended on.
ZHAO doesn’t explicitly disclose the following limitation taught by Kreishan.
Kreishan disclose the determining of the possible data connections is dynamically performed based on the determined desired operating characteristics . ("... processing continues at operation 360 in which the communication management 140 enters a standard DSDS dual SIM dual standby mode." para. [0097); "Switching the data path or route dynamically between networks will designate an active and standby PON." para. (00321)).
Since, all are analogous arts addressing SIMs used in a mobile device; Therefore, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to combine the teachings of ZHAO and Kreishan to use dynamic routing in order to designate routes to active or standby network, thus, improving system performance.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments with respect to all the claims have been considered but are moot in view of the new ground(s) of rejection.
In view of amendment, a new reference has been used for new ground of rejections.
Inquiries
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the Examiner should be directed to PAKEE FANG whose telephone number is (571)270-3633. The Examiner can normally be reached on Mon-Fri 9:00AM-5:00PM.
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If attempts to reach the Examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the Examiner’s supervisor, Armouche, Hadi can be reached on 571-270-3618. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/PAKEE FANG/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2409