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 .
Claim Objections
Claims 1, 11 and 20 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 1 recites “can communicate”. Language that suggests or makes optional (i.e., can) but does not require steps to be performed or does not limit a claim to a particular structure does not limit the scope of a claim or claim limitation. Such clauses may render parts of the claims optional. Similar objection applies to claims 11 and 20.
Claim 1 recites “implementing, by a first Unified Communication BOT (UCBot) application executing on a first communications device, a discovery process to discover other UCBot applications with which the first UCBot application can communicate”. The language of “to discover other UCBot applications with which the first UCBot application can communicate” describes the “discovery process” (by stating its purpose, or intended use) but does not recite a step of discover[ing] other UCBot applications with which the first UCBot application can communicate. The only step required in this limitation is “implementing, by a first Unified Communication BOT (UCBot) application executing on a first communications device, a discovery process”. Similar objection applies to claims 11 and 20.
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, 11, 13 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Qiu et al. (US 2011/0304686 A1, hereinafter “Qiu”) in view of Smith (US 9,197,544 B2, hereinafter “Smith”).
As to claim 1:
Qiu discloses a communications method (Abstract; Figs. 1-6 and 10; [0034]-[0035]; [0016]; [0021]; [0042]-[0043]) comprising:
implementing, by a first Unified Communication BOT (UCBot) application executing on a first communications device, a discovery process to discover other UCBot applications with which the first UCBot application can communicate (“When N single screen clients 340, 350, and 360 are set up together, the multi-screen applications 346, 356, and 366 may discover each other”; Figs. 3-4, 6 and 10; [0034]-[0035]; [0016]; [0021]; [0028]; [0042]-[0043] the examiner interprets for example application 356 (i.e., first UCBot application) executing on client 350 (i.e., first communications device) discovers applications 356 and 366 (i.e., other UCBot applications));
subsequent to discovering a second UCBot application executing on a second communications device via said discovery process, performing [establishment of communication channel and begin audio/video communication] (“discover the multi-screen applications and set up the multi-screen video conference communicating with each participating unit (656, 658, 660, 662, 664, 668, 670, 672, and 674) for establishment of communication channels”; Figs. 3-4, 6 and 10; [0042]; [0060] examiner notes establishment of channel and audio/video communication is after discovering a second application executing on a second client).
Qiu does not explicitly disclose performing, by the first UCBot application, a test media session on each of a plurality of communications routes between the first communications device and the second communications device; and determining, by the first UCBot application, an optimal media communications route from the plurality of communications routes between the first communications device and the second communications device based on the results of the performed test media sessions.
However, Smith discloses performing a test media session on each of a plurality of communications routes between the first communications device and the second communications device (“method also includes selecting, for a packet originating from a source node and addressed to a destination node, a route from the computed set of multiple routes, where the selecting comprises i) determining quality of service performance requirements for the packet based on traffic classification rules, and ii) selecting the route that minimizes network congestion and satisfies the quality of service performance requirements for the packet.”; see Abstract; Figs. 9-10; Col. 5 lines 13-64; “measures of a link such as delay, delay variance (“jitter”), available bandwidth, reliability, etc”; see Col. 9 lines 23-31; Col. 10 lines 19-34; Col. 7 lines 38-45); and
determining an optimal media communications route from the plurality of communications routes between the first communications device and the second communications device based on the results of the performed test media sessions (“method also includes selecting, for a packet originating from a source node and addressed to a destination node, a route from the computed set of multiple routes, where the selecting comprises i) determining quality of service performance requirements for the packet based on traffic classification rules, and ii) selecting the route that minimizes network congestion and satisfies the quality of service performance requirements for the packet.”; see Abstract; Figs. 9-10; Col. 5 lines 13-64; “measures of a link such as delay, delay variance (“jitter”), available bandwidth, reliability, etc”; see Col. 9 lines 23-31; Col. 10 lines 19-34); and
communicating using the optimal media communications route (“selects a route from the multiple routes and forwards the packet over the selected route”; Col. 10 lines 46-67; claim 1).
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Smith into Qiu’s system/method as it would allow subsequent to discovering a second UCBot application executing on a second communications device via said discovery process, performing, by the first UCBot application, a test media session on each of a plurality of communications routes between the first communications device and the second communications device; and determining, by the first UCBot application, an optimal media communications route from the plurality of communications routes between the first communications device and the second communications device based on the results of the performed test media sessions. Such combination would have been obvious as the refences are from analogous art where selecting an optimal path that meets QoS needs would improve user satisfaction, in addition to reducing network congestion (Smith; Col. 5 lines 14-30 and 55-64).
As to claim 3:
The combined system/method of Qui and Smith discloses the invention set forth above. Smith further discloses determining from each of the performed test media sessions one or more media quality metrics for the route being tested (“method also includes selecting, for a packet originating from a source node and addressed to a destination node, a route from the computed set of multiple routes, where the selecting comprises i) determining quality of service performance requirements for the packet based on traffic classification rules, and ii) selecting the route that minimizes network congestion and satisfies the quality of service performance requirements for the packet.”; see Abstract; Figs. 9-10; Col. 5 lines 13-64; “measures of a link such as delay, delay variance (“jitter”), available bandwidth, reliability, etc”; see Col. 9 lines 23-31; Col. 10 lines 19-34; Col. 7 lines 38-45); and
making said determination of the optimal media communications route from the plurality of communications routes between the first communications device and the second communications device based on one or more of the one or more media quality metrics determined for the plurality of communications routes tested (“method also includes selecting, for a packet originating from a source node and addressed to a destination node, a route from the computed set of multiple routes, where the selecting comprises i) determining quality of service performance requirements for the packet based on traffic classification rules, and ii) selecting the route that minimizes network congestion and satisfies the quality of service performance requirements for the packet.”; see Abstract; Figs. 9-10; Col. 5 lines 13-64; “measures of a link such as delay, delay variance (“jitter”), available bandwidth, reliability, etc”; see Col. 9 lines 23-31; Col. 10 lines 19-34; Col. 7 lines 38-45).
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Smith into the combined system/method as it would allow determining, by the first UCBot application, from each of the performed test media sessions one or more media quality metrics for the route being tested; and making, by the first UCBot, said determination of the optimal media communications route from the plurality of communications routes between the first communications device and the second communications device based on one or more of the one or more media quality metrics determined by the first UCBot application for the plurality of communications routes tested. Such combination would have been obvious as the refences are from analogous art where selecting an optimal path that meets QoS needs would improve user satisfaction, in addition to reducing network congestion (Smith; Col. 5 lines 14-30 and 55-64).
As to claim 11:
Qiu discloses a communications system (Abstract; Figs. 1-6 and 10; [0034]-[0035]; [0016]; [0021]; [0042]-[0043]) comprising:
a first communications device (client 350; see Fig. 3) including a first processor configured to control the first communications device to perform the following operations (“a processor executing a multi-screen application and a multimodal communication application, where in the processor is configured to”; claim 12; Fig. 9):
implementing, by a first Unified Communication BOT (UCBot) application executing on the first communications device, a discovery process to discover other UCBot applications with which the first UCBot application can communicate (“When N single screen clients 340, 350, and 360 are set up together, the multi-screen applications 346, 356, and 366 may discover each other”; Figs. 3, 6 and 10; [0034]-[0035]; [0016]; [0021]; [0028]; [0042]-[0043] the examiner interprets for example application 356 (i.e., first UCBot application) executing on client 350 (i.e., first communications device) discovers applications 356 and 366 (i.e., other UCBot applications));
subsequent to discovering a second UCBot application executing on a second communications device via said discovery process, performing [establishment of communication channel and begin audio/video communication] (“discover the multi-screen applications and set up the multi-screen video conference communicating with each participating unit (656, 658, 660, 662, 664, 668, 670, 672, and 674) for establishment of communication channels”; Figs. 3, 6 and 10; [0042]; [0060] examiner notes establishment of channel is after discovering a second application executing on a second client).
Qiu does not explicitly disclose performing, by the first UCBot application, a test media session on each of a plurality of communications routes between the first communications device and the second communications device; and determining, by the first UCBot application, an optimal media communications route from the plurality of communications routes between the first communications device and the second communications device based on the results of the performed test media sessions.
However, Smith discloses performing a test media session on each of a plurality of communications routes between the first communications device and the second communications device (“method also includes selecting, for a packet originating from a source node and addressed to a destination node, a route from the computed set of multiple routes, where the selecting comprises i) determining quality of service performance requirements for the packet based on traffic classification rules, and ii) selecting the route that minimizes network congestion and satisfies the quality of service performance requirements for the packet.”; see Abstract; Figs. 9-10; Col. 5 lines 13-64; “measures of a link such as delay, delay variance (“jitter”), available bandwidth, reliability, etc”; see Col. 9 lines 23-31; Col. 10 lines 19-34; Col. 7 lines 38-45); and
determining an optimal media communications route from the plurality of communications routes between the first communications device and the second communications device based on the results of the performed test media sessions (“method also includes selecting, for a packet originating from a source node and addressed to a destination node, a route from the computed set of multiple routes, where the selecting comprises i) determining quality of service performance requirements for the packet based on traffic classification rules, and ii) selecting the route that minimizes network congestion and satisfies the quality of service performance requirements for the packet.”; see Abstract; Figs. 9-10; Col. 5 lines 13-64; “measures of a link such as delay, delay variance (“jitter”), available bandwidth, reliability, etc”; see Col. 9 lines 23-31; Col. 10 lines 19-34);
and communicating using the optimal media communications route (“selects a route from the multiple routes and forwards the packet over the selected route”; Col. 10 lines 46-67; claim 1).
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Smith into Qiu’s system/method as it would allow subsequent to discovering a second UCBot application executing on a second communications device via said discovery process, performing, by the first UCBot application, a test media session on each of a plurality of communications routes between the first communications device and the second communications device; and determining, by the first UCBot application, an optimal media communications route from the plurality of communications routes between the first communications device and the second communications device based on the results of the performed test media sessions. Such combination would have been obvious as the refences are from analogous art where selecting an optimal path that meets QoS needs would improve user satisfaction, in addition to reducing network congestion (Smith; Col. 5 lines 14-30 and 55-64).
As to claim 13:
The combined system/method of Qui and Smith discloses the invention set forth above. Smith further discloses determining from each of the performed test media sessions one or more media quality metrics for the route being tested (“method also includes selecting, for a packet originating from a source node and addressed to a destination node, a route from the computed set of multiple routes, where the selecting comprises i) determining quality of service performance requirements for the packet based on traffic classification rules, and ii) selecting the route that minimizes network congestion and satisfies the quality of service performance requirements for the packet.”; see Abstract; Figs. 9-10; Col. 5 lines 13-64; “measures of a link such as delay, delay variance (“jitter”), available bandwidth, reliability, etc”; see Col. 9 lines 23-31; Col. 10 lines 19-34; Col. 7 lines 38-45); and
making said determination of the optimal media communications route from the plurality of communications routes between the first communications device and the second communications device based on one or more of the one or more media quality metrics determined for the plurality of communications routes tested (“method also includes selecting, for a packet originating from a source node and addressed to a destination node, a route from the computed set of multiple routes, where the selecting comprises i) determining quality of service performance requirements for the packet based on traffic classification rules, and ii) selecting the route that minimizes network congestion and satisfies the quality of service performance requirements for the packet.”; see Abstract; Figs. 9-10; Col. 5 lines 13-64; “measures of a link such as delay, delay variance (“jitter”), available bandwidth, reliability, etc”; see Col. 9 lines 23-31; Col. 10 lines 19-34; Col. 7 lines 38-45).
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Smith into the combined system/method as it would allow determining, by the first UCBot application, from each of the performed test media sessions one or more media quality metrics for the route being tested; and making, by the first UCBot, said determination of the optimal media communications route from the plurality of communications routes between the first communications device and the second communications device based on one or more of the one or more media quality metrics determined by the first UCBot application for the plurality of communications routes tested. Such combination would have been obvious as the refences are from analogous art where selecting an optimal path that meets QoS needs would improve user satisfaction, in addition to reducing network congestion (Smith; Col. 5 lines 14-30 and 55-64).
As to claim 20:
Qiu discloses a non-transitory machine readable medium including processor executable instructions, which when executed by a processor of a first communications device (client 350; see Fig. 3) control the first communications device (client 350; see Fig. 3) perform the steps of (“A computer-readable storage medium with instructions stored thereon for providing telepresence multi-screen video conferencing within an enhanced communication system, the instructions comprising”; claim 18; Fig. 9; [0019]):
implementing, by a first Unified Communication BOT (UCBot) application executing on the first communications device, a discovery process to discover other UCBot applications with which the first UCBot application can communicate (“When N single screen clients 340, 350, and 360 are set up together, the multi-screen applications 346, 356, and 366 may discover each other”; Figs. 3, 6 and 10; [0034]-[0035]; [0016]; [0021]; [0028]; [0042]-[0043] the examiner interprets for example application 356 (i.e., first UCBot application) executing on client 350 (i.e., first communications device) discovers applications 356 and 366 (i.e., other UCBot applications));
subsequent to discovering a second UCBot application executing on a second communications device via said discovery process, performing [establishment of communication channel and begin audio/video communication] (“discover the multi-screen applications and set up the multi-screen video conference communicating with each participating unit (656, 658, 660, 662, 664, 668, 670, 672, and 674) for establishment of communication channels”; Figs. 3, 6 and 10; [0042]; [0060] examiner notes establishment of channel is after discovering a second application executing on a second client).
Qiu does not explicitly disclose performing, by the first UCBot application, a test media session on each of a plurality of communications routes between the first communications device and the second communications device; and determining, by the first UCBot application, an optimal media communications route from the plurality of communications routes between the first communications device and the second communications device based on the results of the performed test media sessions.
However, Smith discloses performing a test media session on each of a plurality of communications routes between the first communications device and the second communications device (“method also includes selecting, for a packet originating from a source node and addressed to a destination node, a route from the computed set of multiple routes, where the selecting comprises i) determining quality of service performance requirements for the packet based on traffic classification rules, and ii) selecting the route that minimizes network congestion and satisfies the quality of service performance requirements for the packet.”; see Abstract; Figs. 9-10; Col. 5 lines 13-64; “measures of a link such as delay, delay variance (“jitter”), available bandwidth, reliability, etc”; see Col. 9 lines 23-31; Col. 10 lines 19-34; Col. 7 lines 38-45); and determinizing an optimal media communications route from the plurality of communications routes between the first communications device and the second communications device based on the results of the performed test media sessions (“method also includes selecting, for a packet originating from a source node and addressed to a destination node, a route from the computed set of multiple routes, where the selecting comprises i) determining quality of service performance requirements for the packet based on traffic classification rules, and ii) selecting the route that minimizes network congestion and satisfies the quality of service performance requirements for the packet.”; see Abstract; Figs. 9-10; Col. 5 lines 13-64; “measures of a link such as delay, delay variance (“jitter”), available bandwidth, reliability, etc”; see Col. 9 lines 23-31; Col. 10 lines 19-34);
and communicating using the optimal media communications route (“selects a route from the multiple routes and forwards the packet over the selected route”; Col. 10 lines 46-67; claim 1).
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Smith into Qiu’s system/method as it would allow performing, by the first UCBot application, a test media session on each of a plurality of communications routes between the first communications device and the second communications device; and determining, by the first UCBot application, an optimal media communications route from the plurality of communications routes between the first communications device and the second communications device based on the results of the performed test media sessions. Such combination would have been obvious as the refences are from analogous art where selecting an optimal path that meets QoS needs would improve user satisfaction, in addition to reducing network congestion (Smith; Col. 5 lines 14-30 and 55-64).
Claims 2, 4, 7, 10, 12, 14 and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Qiu (US 2011/0304686 A1) in view of Smith (US 9,197,544 B2) and further in view of Jimenez et al. (US 2023/0027647 A1, hereinafter “Jimenez”).
As to claim 2:
The combined system/method of Qui and Smith discloses the invention set forth above. Qiu further discloses wherein said discovery process includes transmitting, by the first UCBot application, a UCBot discovery message to other UCBot applications (“multi-screen applications may discover each other with one serving as master, the others as slaves. The system may be set up in systems with dedicated multi-point control unit (MCU), generic audio/video MCUs, or in a point to point mesh”), but does not explicitly disclose on a multicast Internet Protocol address.
However, Jimenez discloses discovery process includes transmitting a discovery message on a multicast Internet Protocol address (“receiving the resource discovery message comprises receiving an Internet Protocol, IP, packet comprising: i) a header comprising an IP destination address and ii) a payload comprising the resource discovery message, wherein the IP destination address is an IP multicast group address”; Fig. 1; [0095]; [0049]).
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Jimenez into the combined system/method of Qiu and Smith as it would allow said discovery process to include transmitting, by the first UCBot application, a UCBot discovery message on a multicast Internet Protocol address to other UCBot applications. Such combination would have been obvious as the refences are from analogous art where a motivation would have been to allow a group of devices to cooperate to perform a set of operations that would relieve one device from performing it all (Jimenez; [0004]).
As to claim 4:
The combined system/method of Qui, Smith and Jimenez discloses the invention set forth above. Smith further discloses wherein making said determination of the optimal media communications route from the plurality of communications routes between the first communications device and the second communications device includes ranking each of the plurality of communications routes based on quality metrics (“multiple metrics and multiple paths can be described formally by representing the set of metrics used to describe the performance of paths from a given source and destination pair as points in a multidimensional space. Such a set of multiple metrics will be referred to herein as a link or path weight. FIG. 1 plots the weights of nine paths between a specific source and destination in an example network where the metrics composing the weights are the inverse of bottleneck bandwidth and latency. “Better” values of these metrics tend to be located closer to the origin of the graph and “worse” values are farther away from the origin (i.e., a perfect path would have infinite bandwidth and 0 latency)”; see Figs. 1-4; Col. 8 lines 14-28).
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Smith into the combined system/method as it would allow wherein making said determination of the optimal media communications route from the plurality of communications routes between the first communications device and the second communications device includes ranking each of the plurality of communications routes based on quality metrics. Such combination would have been obvious as the refences are from analogous art where selecting an optimal path that meets QoS needs would improve user satisfaction, in addition to reducing network congestion (Smith; Col. 5 lines 14-30 and 55-64).
As to claim 7:
The combined system/method of Qui, Smith and Jimenez discloses the invention set forth above. Qui discloses a discovery process includes transmitting, by the first UCBot application, a UCBot discovery message to other UCBot applications (“multi-screen applications may discover each other with one serving as master, the others as slaves. The system may be set up in systems with dedicated multi-point control unit (MCU), generic audio/video MCUs, or in a point to point mesh”), but does not explicitly disclose receiving, by the first UCBot application from one or more UCBot applications which received the UCBot discovery message, a UCBot discovery response message.
However Jimenez discloses said discovery process further includes receiving a discovery response message (“first device 102 receives the RDM 154, then first device 102 may transmit toward second device 104 a resource discovery response message (RDRM) 156”; Fig. 1; [0050]).
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Jimenez into the combined system/method as it would allow receiving, by the first UCBot application from one or more UCBot applications which received the UCBot discovery message, a UCBot discovery response message. Such combination would have been obvious as the refences are from analogous art where a motivation would have been to allow a group of devices to cooperate to perform a set of operations that would relieve one device from performing it all (Jimenez; [0004]).
As to claim 10:
The combined system/method of Qui, Smith and Jimenez discloses the invention set forth above. Qui further discloses wherein the first communications device and the second communications device are edge devices located at different edges or borders of a first network (“Each client device may be capable of executing one or more communication applications for voice communication, video communication, instant messaging, application sharing, data sharing, and the like. In addition to their advanced functionality, the end devices may also facilitate traditional phone calls through an external connection such as through PBX 124 to a Public Switched Telephone Network ("PSTN"). End devices may include any type of smart phone, cellular phone, any computing device executing a communication application, a smart automobile console, and advanced phone devices with additional functionality.”; Fig. 1; [0022]).
As to claim 12:
The combined system/method of Qui and Smith discloses the invention set forth above. Qiu further discloses wherein said discovery process includes transmitting, by the first UCBot application, a UCBot discovery message to other UCBot applications (“multi-screen applications may discover each other with one serving as master, the others as slaves. The system may be set up in systems with dedicated multi-point control unit (MCU), generic audio/video MCUs, or in a point to point mesh”), but does not explicitly disclose on a multicast Internet Protocol address.
However, Jimenez discloses discovery process includes transmitting a discovery message on a multicast Internet Protocol address (“receiving the resource discovery message comprises receiving an Internet Protocol, IP, packet comprising: i) a header comprising an IP destination address and ii) a payload comprising the resource discovery message, wherein the IP destination address is an IP multicast group address”; Fig. 1; [0095]; [0049]).
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Jimenez into the combined system/method of Qiu and Smith as it would allow said discovery process to include transmitting, by the first UCBot application, a UCBot discovery message on a multicast Internet Protocol address to other UCBot applications. Such combination would have been obvious as the refences are from analogous art where a motivation would have been to allow a group of devices to cooperate to perform a set of operations that would relieve one device from performing it all (Jimenez; [0004]).
As to claim 14:
The combined system/method of Qui, Smith and Jimenez discloses the invention set forth above. Smith further discloses wherein making said determination of the optimal media communications route from the plurality of communications routes between the first communications device and the second communications device includes ranking each of the plurality of communications routes based on quality metrics (“multiple metrics and multiple paths can be described formally by representing the set of metrics used to describe the performance of paths from a given source and destination pair as points in a multidimensional space. Such a set of multiple metrics will be referred to herein as a link or path weight. FIG. 1 plots the weights of nine paths between a specific source and destination in an example network where the metrics composing the weights are the inverse of bottleneck bandwidth and latency. “Better” values of these metrics tend to be located closer to the origin of the graph and “worse” values are farther away from the origin (i.e., a perfect path would have infinite bandwidth and 0 latency)”; see Figs. 1-4; Col. 8 lines 14-28).
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Smith into the combined system/method as it would allow wherein making said determination of the optimal media communications route from the plurality of communications routes between the first communications device and the second communications device includes ranking each of the plurality of communications routes based on quality metrics. Such combination would have been obvious as the refences are from analogous art where selecting an optimal path that meets QoS needs would improve user satisfaction, in addition to reducing network congestion (Smith; Col. 5 lines 14-30 and 55-64).
As to claim 17:
The combined system/method of Qui, Smith and Jimenez discloses the invention set forth above. Qui discloses a discovery process includes transmitting, by the first UCBot application, a UCBot discovery message to other UCBot applications (“multi-screen applications may discover each other with one serving as master, the others as slaves. The system may be set up in systems with dedicated multi-point control unit (MCU), generic audio/video MCUs, or in a point to point mesh”), but does not explicitly disclose receiving, by the first UCBot application from one or more UCBot applications which received the UCBot discovery message, a UCBot discovery response message.
However Jimenez discloses said discovery process further includes receiving a discovery response message (“first device 102 receives the RDM 154, then first device 102 may transmit toward second device 104 a resource discovery response message (RDRM) 156”; Fig. 1; [0050]).
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Jimenez into the combined system/method as it would allow receiving, by the first UCBot application from one or more UCBot applications which received the UCBot discovery message, a UCBot discovery response message. Such combination would have been obvious as the refences are from analogous art where a motivation would have been to allow a group of devices to cooperate to perform a set of operations that would relieve one device from performing it all (Jimenez; [0004]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5-6, 8-9,15-16 and 18-19 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 MARIELA VIDAL CARPIO whose telephone number is (571)272-1250. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:00AM to 5:00PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Ayaz Sheikh can be reached at (571)272-3795. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/MARIELA VIDAL CARPIO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2476