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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements submitted on 03/24/2026 has been considered by the Examiner and made of record in the application file.
Specification
The amended title, as filed on 04/04/2026, of the invention is not descriptive. A new title is required that is clearly indicative of the invention to which the claims are directed.
The following title is suggested: “INFORMATION PROCESSING METHOD AND EQUIPMENT FOR ACCESSING A NON-PUBLIC NETWORK”.
Remarks
The present Office Action is in response to Applicant’s amendment filed on 04/04/2026. Claims 1-3, 5-10, 21-23, 44 and 46 are still pending in the present application. This Action is made FINAL.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-9, 21-23, 44 and 46 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Talebi Fard et al. -US 20230189192 A1- (hereinafter Talebi Fard).
Regarding claim 1, Talebi Fard discloses an information processing method, performed by a user equipment (UE) (for the UE in any of FIGS. 15-33), comprising:
receiving first information sent by a first network node, wherein the first information is related to a non-public network (NPN) (FIG. 27 (as an example from multiple figures), par. 0398, “the UE may receive an AMF (of the first network), a registration accept message. The registration accept message may comprise an onboarding support indication for a second network (a SNPN 2)”; Fig. 28, par. 0403, “The registration accept message may comprise onboarding support indication, undelay network capability, CAG information to access the integrated NPN for onboarding or underlay network support, S-NSSAI information to access the integrated NPN for onboarding or underlay network support, NPN ID or NPN information to access the integrated NPN for onboarding or underlay network support.”);
obtaining information of a third network according to first configuration information and the first information, and initiating an onboarding procedure with the third network (par. 0389, “The registration accept message may comprise a CAG ID, S-NSSAI, DNN, and/or the like dedicated to onboarding… the UE may send to the AMF and based on the onboarding support indication, a message to establish a packet data unit (PDU) session. The message may comprise an indication that the PDU session is for onboarding of the UE for the second network or the SNPN 2.”);
wherein in the onboarding procedure, the UE acquires access information from the third network (par. 0373, “FIG. 15 a procedure may allow a UE, which is not initially provisioned with subscription credentials to access an ON e.g., an onboarding SNPN (O-SNPN) and to obtain subscription credentials and configuration for an subscription owner SNPN (SO-SNPN) which may be the same as or different from the O-SNPN.”; par. 0399, “The UE may access a PS via the PDU session (e.g., onboarding PDU session) to receive credentials for a target network, desired network, a SNPN, SNPN 2, and/or the like.”),
wherein the access information comprises: credential, or credential, subscription information and information used for authentication and/or authorization (FIG. 15 and FIG 29, par. 0373, “FIG. 15 a procedure may allow a UE, which is not initially provisioned with subscription credentials to access an ON e.g., an onboarding SNPN (O-SNPN) and to obtain subscription credentials and configuration for an subscription owner SNPN (SO-SNPN) which may be the same as or different from the O-SNPN.”);
the third network comprises at least one of: a service provider configured to provide access information used to access a Standalone NPN (SNPN); a local service provider configured to provide access information for accessing an SNPN; a Subscriber Owner SNPN (SO-SNPN) configured to provide access information for accessing an SNPN; an onboarding SNPN (O-SNPN) configured to provide access information for accessing an SNPN (FIG. 15 and FIG 29, par. 0373, “FIG. 15 a procedure may allow a UE, which is not initially provisioned with subscription credentials to access an ON e.g., an onboarding SNPN (O-SNPN) and to obtain subscription credentials and configuration for an subscription owner SNPN (SO-SNPN) which may be the same as or different from the O-SNPN.”);
wherein the first configuration information is pre-configured for the UE, and comprises at least one of: information of a service provider configured to provide access information; SNPN information; O-SNPN information; SO-SNPN information; slice information supported by SNPN; data network information; subscription information of at least one local service provider; a label and/or an identification of at least one local service provider; information of at least one equivalent local service provider; a service provider control network selector; a user-controlled network selector; at least one PLMN whose priority meets a third preset requirement; at least one SNPN whose priority meets a fourth preset requirement (par. 0373, “which is not initially provisioned with subscription credentials to access an ON e.g., an onboarding SNPN (O-SNPN) and to obtain subscription credentials and configuration for an subscription owner SNPN (SO-SNPN) which may be the same as or different from the O-SNPN. In an example, the UE may select the O-SNPN based on information broadcasted by the O-SNPN and may register to it for onboarding service to obtain connectivity to the provisioning server”; par. 0396, “The onboarding information may be protected by a default UE credential which is also pre-configured in the UE (USIM). The UE may determine which default UE credentials are applied for protection (optionally via SNPN identity or default UE credential identity).”).
Regarding claim 2, as applied to claim 1 above, Talebi Fard discloses wherein the obtaining the information of the third network according to the first configuration information and the first information comprises: obtaining the information of the third network from a core network according to the first configuration information and the first information (par. 0389, for AMF “the UE may receive an AMF (of the first network), a registration accept message”; par. 0379, “The AMF may send the AMF configuration update message to the base station that may comprise the underlying network capability, interworking support with the second network, and/or the like. In an example, the base station (RAN) may receive an onboarding support indication from an OAM (OA&M) network element, NWDAF network element, and/or the like of the network. In an example, the base station upon receiving the onboarding support indication or onboarding support indication for one or more SNPNs, the base station may broadcast system information. The base station may broadcast SIB such as SIB1. The system information may indicate that the network or the RAN node, base station or one or more cell of the RAN node may support onboarding.”).
Regarding claim 3, as applied to claim 1 above, Talebi Fard discloses wherein the information of the third network further comprises at least one of: O-SNPN information, slice information, data network information, subscription information of at least one local service provider of the UE, a label and/or an identification of at least one local service provider of the UE, information of at least one public land mobile network (PLMN) whose priority meets a first preset requirement, and information of at least one SNPN whose priority meets a second preset requirement (par. 0398, “The registration accept message may comprise a CAG ID, S-NSSAI, DNN, and/or the like dedicated to onboarding…”).
Regarding claim 5, as applied to claim 1 above, Talebi Fard discloses wherein the first information further comprises at least one of: an indication that the non-public network supports the UE to access to the non-public network by using the access information obtained from the third network; a third network supported by at least one non-public network; a label/identification of at least one service provider group supported by the non-public network; an indication of whether the non-public network supports the onboarding procedure; an identification of the third network; a list of group identification IDs; an indication of whether the non-public network corresponding to a name identifying a non-public network used for manual selection supports the UE to access to the non-public network by using the access information obtained from the third network (FIG. 27 (as an example from multiple figures), par. 0398, “the UE may receive an AMF (of the first network), a registration accept message. The registration accept message may comprise an onboarding support indication for a second network (a SNPN 2). The registration accept message may comprise an operator defined access category or an access category”).
Regarding claim 6, as applied to claim 1 above, Talebi Fard discloses wherein the method further comprises: sending a registration request message to the third network, wherein the registration request message comprises at least one of: information configured to indicate that the registration is not related to a UE subscription; a UE's default credential and corresponding identity; a label/identification, address information and/or identity of a service provider group from which the access information is obtained; a label/identification, address information and/or identity of a service provider from which the access information is obtained; a label/identification, address information and/or identity of an O-SNPN from which the access information is obtained; a label/identification, address information and/or identity of an SO-SNPN from which the access information is obtained; a first indication configured to provide a radio access network with information for selecting an access and mobility management function (AMF) of a core network and/or indicate that the registration is only limited to an onboarding service (par. 0399, “The provisioning may be over a user plane or a control plane of the PDU session. Upon successful provisioning, the UE may deregister from the ON, and register to the SNPN based on the received parameters and credentials. An example of a registration procedure is depicted in FIG. 8 and FIG. 9”; par. 0372, “If the onboarding 5G network is SNPN, the UE may have default UE credentials e.g., provided by a manufacturer, for the UE to be uniquely identifiable and verifiably secure during onboarding and remote provisioning.”; par. 0373, “the UE may select another O-SNPN to try the process again. During the registration procedure the O-SNPN may authenticate the UE with the default credential server (DCS) to determine whether the UE is a genuine device subject to onboarding and authorized to access a provisioning server via a configuration PDU session.”).
Regarding claim 7, as applied to claim 1 above, Talebi Fard discloses wherein prior to the receiving the first information sent by the first network node, the method further comprises at least one of: sending a random access code and an identification and/or a label of the non-public network; sending an MSG3 and an identification and/or a label of the non-public network; sending an MSGA and an identification and/or a label of the non-public network; sending an identification and/or a label of the non-public network (par. 0400, “in FIG. 27, during the registration procedure, the UE may send to a RAN node (base station) a registration request message. The registration request message may be or may comprise an AN message. In an example embodiment, the registration request message may be the RRC setup complete message. The registration request message may comprise an identifier of a second network (e.g., a SNPN ID, second network ID, and/or the like).”).
Regarding claim 8, as applied to claim 1 above, Talebi Fard discloses wherein the method further comprises: updating permission information of the non-public network of the UE according to the access information (par. 0291, “The AMF 155 may respond with a service reject message to the UE 100, if the service request may not be accepted by the network. The service reject message may include an indication or cause code requesting the UE 100 to perform a registration update procedure.”);
wherein the permission information of the non-public network comprises at least one of: a CAG list supported by the UE, an SNPN list supported by the UE, a CAG list and an SNPN list preferred by the UE, whether a CAG ID or an SNPN ID in a CAG list needs a third-party provider's authentication, UE authentication content, third-party provider information, whether supporting a communication with a public network at the same time, whether supporting an IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) voice, whether being a narrowband Internet of Things (NB-lOT), whether being a machine type communication (MTC), UE only accessing through non-public network, UE accessing through public network (pare. 0405, “Provisioning Server may be provisioned with the dynamic vertical configurations (e.g. updated CAG information, updated QoS) based on UE granularity, which can constitute part of subscriptions of UEs allowed for on-boarding and accessing to the vertical DN via the PNI-NPN. Provisioning Server may be provisioned with the vertical credentials (e.g. N3GPP credential) for updating NPN credentials of UEs that are allowed for onboarding.”).
Regarding claim 9, as applied to claim 1 above, Talebi Fard discloses wherein the method further comprises: when the UE finds that the UE does not have the subscription information of the non- public network according to the received first information, and the non-public network does not support a capability of accessing through access information of a third party, not initiating an access to a cell of the public network; or when the UE finds that the UE does not have the subscription information of the non- public network according to the received first information, and a cell of the non-public network is a cell of a target version, not initiating an access to a cell of the non-public network (par. 0418, “As network slicing does not enable the possibility to prevent UEs from trying to access the network in areas where the UE is not allowed to use the Network Slice allocated for the NPN, Closed Access Groups may optionally be used to apply access control. A Closed Access Group may identify a group of subscribers who are permitted to access one or more CAG cells associated to the CAG. CAG may be employed for the PNI-NPNs to prevent UE(s), which are not allowed to access the NPN via the associated cell(s), from automatically selecting and accessing the associated CAG cell(s). CAG may be used for access control e.g. authorization at cell selection and configured in the subscription as part of the Mobility Restrictions e.g., independent from any S-NSSAI.”).
Regarding claim 21, Talebi Fard discloses an n information processing method, performed by a first network node (for the (R)AN in any of FIGS. 15-33), comprising:
sending first information to a user equipment (UE), wherein the first information is related to a non-public network (NPN), and configured to enable the UE to determine information of a third network according to first configuration information and the first information and initiate an onboarding procedure (FIG. 27 (as an example from multiple figures), par. 0398, “the UE may receive an AMF (of the first network), a registration accept message. The registration accept message may comprise an onboarding support indication for a second network (a SNPN 2). The registration accept message may comprise an operator defined access category or an access category.” par. 0389, “The registration accept message may comprise a CAG ID, S-NSSAI, DNN, and/or the like dedicated to onboarding… the UE may send to the AMF and based on the onboarding support indication, a message to establish a packet data unit (PDU) session. The message may comprise an indication that the PDU session is for onboarding of the UE for the second network or the SNPN 2.” ; Fig. 28, par. 0403, “The registration accept message may comprise onboarding support indication, undelay network capability, CAG information to access the integrated NPN for onboarding or underlay network support, S-NSSAI information to access the integrated NPN for onboarding or underlay network support, NPN ID or NPN information to access the integrated NPN for onboarding or underlay network support.”);
wherein in the onboarding procedure, the UE acquires access information from a third network (par. 0373, “FIG. 15 a procedure may allow a UE, which is not initially provisioned with subscription credentials to access an ON e.g., an onboarding SNPN (O-SNPN) and to obtain subscription credentials and configuration for an subscription owner SNPN (SO-SNPN) which may be the same as or different from the O-SNPN.”; par. 0399, “The UE may access a PS via the PDU session (e.g., onboarding PDU session) to receive credentials for a target network, desired network, a SNPN, SNPN 2, and/or the like.”);
the access information comprises at least one of: credential, or credential , subscription information and information used for authentication and/or authorization (FIG. 15 and FIG 29, par. 0373, “FIG. 15 a procedure may allow a UE, which is not initially provisioned with subscription credentials to access an ON e.g., an onboarding SNPN (O-SNPN) and to obtain subscription credentials and configuration for an subscription owner SNPN (SO-SNPN) which may be the same as or different from the O-SNPN.”);
the third network comprises at least one of: a service provider configured to provide access information used to access a Standalone NPN (SNPN); a local service provider configured to provide access information for accessing an SNPN; a Subscriber Owner SNPN (SO-SNPN) configured to provide access information for accessing an SNPN; an onboarding SNPN (O-SNPN) configured to provide access information for accessing an SNPN (FIG. 15 and FIG 29, par. 0373, “FIG. 15 a procedure may allow a UE, which is not initially provisioned with subscription credentials to access an ON e.g., an onboarding SNPN (O-SNPN) and to obtain subscription credentials and configuration for an subscription owner SNPN (SO-SNPN) which may be the same as or different from the O-SNPN.”) ;
wherein the first configuration information is pre-configured for the UE, and comprises at least one of: information of a service provider configured to provide access information; SNPN information; O-SNPN information; SO-SNPN information; slice information supported by SNPN; data network information; subscription information of at least one local service provider; a label and/or an identification of at least one local service provider; information of at least one equivalent local service provider; a service provider control network selector; a user-controlled network selector; at least one PLMN whose priority meets a third preset requirement; at least one SNPN whose priority meets a fourth preset requirement (par. 0373, “which is not initially provisioned with subscription credentials to access an ON e.g., an onboarding SNPN (O-SNPN) and to obtain subscription credentials and configuration for an subscription owner SNPN (SO-SNPN) which may be the same as or different from the O-SNPN. In an example, the UE may select the O-SNPN based on information broadcasted by the O-SNPN and may register to it for onboarding service to obtain connectivity to the provisioning server”; par. 0396, “The onboarding information may be protected by a default UE credential which is also pre-configured in the UE (USIM). The UE may determine which default UE credentials are applied for protection (optionally via SNPN identity or default UE credential identity).”).
Regarding claim 22, as applied to claim 21 above, the claim is rejected for the same reason(s) as set forth claim 5 above.
Regarding claim 23, as applied to claim 21 above, Talebi Fard discloses wherein the method further comprises: receiving the access information sent by the UE (par. 0400, “the UE may send to a RAN node (base station) a registration request message. The registration request message may be or may comprise an AN message. In an example embodiment, the registration request message may be the RRC setup complete message. The registration request message may comprise an identifier of a second network (e.g., a SNPN ID, second network ID, and/or the like).”).
Regarding claim 44, Talebi Fard discloses an information processing equipment, comprising: a transceiver, a memory, a processor, and a program stored in the memory and executable by the processor; wherein the processor is configured to read the program in the memory to perform the information processing method according to claim 1 (FIG. 3 for processor 318, instruction 328, memory 326 of UE 100, par. 0360 and rejection of claim 1 above).
Regarding claim 46, Talebi Fard discloses an information processing equipment, comprising: a transceiver, a memory, a processor, and a program stored in the memory and executable by the processor; wherein the processor is configured to read the program in the memory to perform the information processing method according to claim 21 (FIG. 3 for processor 344, instruction 348, memory 346 of base station 105-1, par. 0360 and rejection of claim 21 above).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim(s) 10 is/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.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 04/04/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
On pages 11 and 12 of the Applicant’s remarks, Applicant asserts, “Compared to D1 (US 20230189192 A 1), the distinguishing technical features of amended claim 1… The technical problem to be solved lies in how to ensure the service continuity. Based on the technical solution of amended claim 1, it is able to prevent service interruption and ensure the service continuity. The combination of the cited prior art references cannot arrive at the solution of amended claim 1, solve its technical problems, or achieve its technical effects. Therefore, amended claim 1 is non-obvious and complies with 35 U.S.C. § 103.” Examiner respectfully disagrees. There is nothing in the claim to disclose, “prevent service interruption and ensure the service continuity”, and Talebi Fard still discloses the limitations (see rejections above).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to Applicant’s disclosure.
Kedalagudde et al. -US 20210058784 A1- disclose USER EQUIPMENT ONBOARDING BASED ON DEFAULT MANUFACTURER CREDENTIALS UNLICENSED.
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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ALLAHYAR KASRAIA N whose telephone number is (571)270-1772. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday, 8:00 am - 5: 00 pm.
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/ALLAHYAR KASRAIA N/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2642
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