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 .
Examiner’s Comments
Claim 43 is not elected by applicant in response to examiner’s restriction requirement. Therefore, the status of claim 43 should be changed from “Previous presented” to “Withdrawn”.
Election/Restrictions
Applicant's election with traverse of Group I, claims 29-35, and 42 in the reply filed on December 17, 2025 is acknowledged. The traversal is on the ground(s) that “As provided under MPEP 1893.03(d), when no unity of invention objection was made during the international phase, and the claims remain substantially the same upon entry into the notional stage, the USPTO generally should not impose a restriction requirement absent a clear and substantially reason.”
This is not found persuasive because:
MPEP 1893.03(d) states that:
“When making a lack of unity requirement, the examiner must (1) list the different groups of claims and (2) explain why each group lacks unity with each other group (i.e., why there is no single general inventive concept) specifically describing the unique special technical feature in each group. The examiner may make a lack of unity requirement in a national stage application even if no such requirement was made by the ISA or IPEA.”
Emphasis added by the examiner.
The requirement is still deemed proper and is therefore made FINAL.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 29-35, and 42 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Bulakci (US 2020/0037234).
As to claim 29, Bulakci discloses a method performed by a user equipment (UE), for handling usage of a service in a communication network, the method comprising storing a first set of information related to an unavailability or availability of a slice in an area (see paragraphs [0069], [0074] which disclose that the UE receives a first set of information related to an unavailability or availability of a slice in an area; see paragraph [0075] which discloses “the UE device may report these identification and slice-related information elements towards the serving gNB in response to its request.”. Therefore, the UE inherently “stores a first set of information related to an unavailability or availability of a slice in an area” as claimed); and transmitting an indication of the stored first set of information to a radio network node (see paragraph [0075] which discloses “the UE device may report these identification and slice-related information elements towards the serving gNB in response to its request.”).
As to claim 30, Bulakci discloses identifying a need of a slice in the area. See paragraph [0075].
As to claim 31, Bulakci discloses identifying a presence or absence of the slice in the area. See paragraphs [0007], [0067], [0069].
As to claim 32, Bulakci discloses identifying the presence or absence of the slice comprises one or more of: determining the presence or absence of the slice based on information provided by the communication network (see paragraphs [0069], [0074]); requesting the communication network regarding the presence or absence of the slice; and receiving a response from the communication network and determining the presence or absence of the slice based on the response.
As to claim 33, Bulakci discloses that the first set of information comprises one or more of the following: information regarding one or more slices that were available and/or one or more slices that were unavailable (see paragraphs [0069], [0074]); information regarding a serving and/or camping cell; information regarding a neighboring cell (see paragraph [0007]); and information regarding a UE location.
As to claim 34, Bulakci discloses that the indication is transmitted: upon transitioning to an RRC_Connected state; using an existing logged minimization of drive test, MDT, message; and/or a new message (see paragraph [0075]).
As to claim 35, Bulakci discloses that the communication network configures the UE to log slice related information. See paragraph [0075] which discloses “the UE device may report these identification and slice-related information elements towards the serving gNB in response to its request.”. Therefore, the UE is inherently configured to “log slice related information” as claimed.
As to claim 42, it is rejected for similar reasons with respect to independent claim 29 as set forth above. Bulakci further discloses a radio unit (inherently included in order to perform wireless communication); and processing circuitry (see paragraph [0100] which discloses “A single processor or other unit may fulfill the functions of several items recited in the claims”) operatively connected to the radio unit.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Lee (US 2022/0312305) discloses indicating an unavailability or availability of a slice in a communication area.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to NGUYEN THANH VO whose telephone number is (571)272-7901. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 8-5.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Matthew Anderson can be reached at (571) 272-4177. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/NGUYEN T VO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2646