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
Claim 24 is objected to because of the following informalities: Claim 1 has been cancelled. Claim 24 cannot depend on claim 1. Examiner believes that claim 24 depends on claim 21. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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.
Claim(s) 21, 23-27, 33 and 35-39 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Mayron (US 2004/0258229 A1) in view of Noureddin et al. (US 2016/0127210 A1).
Regarding claim 21, Mayron teaches a zero charge telephony protocol
system comprising:
receive, via the cellular network, from a first communication device associated with a user account of a first user and a first telephony address, a telephony call request addressed to a second communication device associated with a second user and a second telephony address (see figs. 3-4; fig. 11 and par. 0158: 96/126B/136A; step 420 “a request to perform a telephony operation between at least two remote network nodes is received”);
modify the second telephony address in the telephony call request to generate a modified telephony address associated with a service node so as to result in a modified telephony call request (step 308/426/702/732/762: a signaling message is generated according to the determined originating identification and the destination node identification), when the user account has insufficient balance to complete the call request, or when the telephony call request is independent of a balance of the user account (see pars. 0198-0199: CMS 452 determines according to the MIN of terminal 488, that terminal 488 is a per-paid terminal, and hence CMS 452 sends an AAA message 624 to PPS 460 requesting PPS 460 to check the pre-paid call-credit of terminal 488. PPS 460 detects that the call-credit is insufficient to place the call, and PPS 460 notifies CMS 452 by sending a signal 626 to CMS 452 via communication link 466); and instruct the cellular network to connect the modified telephony call request, thereby routing the telephony call request to the service node (see pars. 0019; 0167; 0228-0229: Step 312/430/778/710: In procedure 430, the telephony operation is performed according to the signaling message).
But Mayron doesn’t teach a software performing an automating function. However, Noureddin discloses a software performing an automating function (see pars. [0205, 0208]: automated processing).
Since, all are analogous arts addressing charging methods associated with calling/smart
card 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 teaching of the software performing an automating function of Mayron and Noureddin to ensure the various computer functions can be automated, thus, improving efficiency and system processing speed.
Regarding claim 33, Mayron teaches a zero charge telephony protocol method comprising: receiving, by at least one controlling node of a cellular network, from a first communication device associated with a user account of a first user and a first telephony address, a telephony call request addressed to a second communication device associated with a second user and a second telephony address (see figs. 3-4; fig. 11 and par. 0158: 96/126B/136A; step 420 “a request to perform a telephony operation between at least two remote network nodes is received”);
modifying, by the at least one controlling node, the second telephony address in the telephony call request to generate a modified telephony address associated with a service node so as to result in a modified telephony call request (step 308/426/702/732/762: a signaling message is generated according to the determined originating identification and the destination node identification) when the user account has insufficient balance to complete the telephony call request, or when the telephony call request is independent of a balance of the user account (see pars. 0198-0199: CMS 452 determines according to the MIN of terminal 488, that terminal 488 is a per-paid terminal, and hence CMS 452 sends an AAA message 624 to PPS 460 requesting PPS 460 to check the pre-paid call-credit of terminal 488. PPS 460 detects that the call-credit is insufficient to place the call, and PPS 460 notifies CMS 452 by sending a signal 626 to CMS 452 via communication link 466); and
instructing, by the at least one controlling node, the cellular network to connect the modified telephony call request, thereby routing the telephony call request to the service node (see pars. 0019; 0167; 0228-0229: Step 312/430/778/710: In procedure 430, the telephony operation is performed according to the signaling message).
But Mayron doesn’t teach a software performing an automating function. However, Noureddin discloses a software performing an automating function (see pars. [0205, 0208]: automated processing).
Since, all are analogous arts addressing charging methods associated with calling/smart
card 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 teaching of the software performing an automating function of Mayron and Noureddin to ensure the various computer functions can be automated, thus, improving efficiency and system processing speed.
Regarding claims 23 and 35, Mayron also teaches reverting the modified telephony call request to the call request; and deliver the telephony call request, reverted from the modified telephony call request, to the second communication device, thereby routing the call to the second communication device (see pars. 0019; 0167; 0228-0229: Step 312/430/778/710: In procedure 430, the telephony operation is performed according to the signaling message).
Regarding claims 24 and 36, Mayron also teaches look up a pre-configured routing table to identify a communication path to the service node, as associated with the modified telephony address (step 308/426/702/732/762: a signaling message is generated according to the determined originating identification and the destination node identification).
Regarding claims 25 and 37, Mayron also teaches disconnecting the call to the second communication device upon a receipt of the call by the second communication device (see pars. 0178, 0022, 0019, 0103: terminates the call when purchase time approaches zero).
Regarding claims 26 and 38, Mayron also teaches disconnecting the call from the first communication device after delivering the call to the second communication device, when the user account, associated with the first communication device, has the insufficient balance to complete the call (see pars. 0178, 0022, 0019, 0103: terminates the call when purchase time approaches zero).
Regarding claims 27 and 39, Mayron also teaches deliver the call from the service node to the second communication device together with an identification of the first communication device, a ringing permission, an answering restriction, or a combination thereof (see par. 0019, par. 0228-0229: Step 312/430/778/710); and automatically disconnect the call to the second communication device based on a receipt, by the second communication device, of the identification of the first communication device, the ringing permission, the answering restriction, or the combination thereof (see pars. 0178, 0019, 0022, 0103: terminates the call when purchased time approaches zero).
Claims 22 and 34 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Mayron (US 2004/0258229 A1) in view of Noureddin et al. (US 2016/0127210 A1) and further in view of CHEN, JIAN (WO-2018000502-A1).
Regarding claims 22 and 34, Mayron in view of Noureddin et al. do not mention wherein the system is configured to automatically present at least one option to the first communication device. CHEN teaches the system is configured to automatically present at least one option to the first communication device (see specification, fig. 1 and step 110: That is to say, if the balance of the call charge corresponding to the target user identification module is insufficient, if the user still needs to make a call, the user identification module that needs to be used for dialing the telephone number of the target contact may be temporarily changed. For example, in the window of the prompt message indicating insufficient credit balance shown above, an option of using another user identification module to initiate a current call request may be included, and the user may select whether to use other user identification modules and need to use the window. a user identification module, and the user identification module selected by the user as a temporary user identification module, and through the temporary user identification module, initiates a call request corresponding to the call instruction detected in (step) S110, that is, temporarily dialing using the temporary user identification module The phone number of the target contact).
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 teaching of automatically present at least one option to the first communication device of CHEN to Mayron in view of Noureddin et al. to ensure the first user remaining the call although the balance of the call charge corresponding to the target user identification module is insufficient.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 28-32 and 40 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.
Regarding claims 28 and 40, the above prior art does not mention the user account is associated with a balance-dependent subscriber identification module (SIM) card or a balance-independent SIM card; and the balance-independent SIM card is configured to facilitate the telephony call request without a charge through a balance-independent service key, invoking a no-charge logic separate from the balance-dependent logic when the user account has the insufficient balance to complete the call, as specified in claim 28 and claim 40. Therefore, they are objected.
Claim 29 depend on claim 28. Therefore, it is objected.
Regarding claim 30, the above prior art does not mention automatically setting a call duration time quota when the user account has the insufficient balance to complete the call, as specified in claim 30. Therefore, it is objected.
Claims 31-32 depend on claim 30. Therefore, they are objected.
Conclusion
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/DAVID Q NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2643