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 .
DETAILED ACTION
Response to Amendment
Acknowledgement is made of the amendment filed on March 11, 2026, in which:
Claims 1, 3-5, 8, 10-12, 15, and 17-19 are currently amended, and
Claims 2, 9, and 16 are cancelled.
Claims 1, 3-8, 10-15, and 17-20 are currently pending and an Office action on the merits follows.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1, 3-8, 10-15, and 17-20 have been considered but are moot in view of the new ground(s) of rejection.
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, 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) 1, 3-8, 10-15, and 17-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Pub No.: US-20230142719-A1 (herein “Zhu”), and further in view of Pub No.: US-20200037387-A1 (herein “Lee”).
Claims 1, 8, and 15
Consider claim 1, Zhu teaches an information display method, applied to a user equipment, comprising:
in a case that the user equipment is not connected to a first network and a second network at the same time (see Zhu Fig. 6, [0173]-[0174] note the NR secondary cell is released), if the user equipment does not receive indication information (see Zhu Fig. 6, [0174], [0175], [179] note at step 603 taking the No path which does not perform step 604), obtaining history information, wherein the indication information is used to indicate that a current cell supports dual connectivity of the first network and the second network (see Zhu Fig. 6, [0179], [0180] note detecting whether information of the LTE primary cell and information of the NR secondary cell are stored in a cell database); and
displaying, according to the history information, an identifier matching a network that can be connected by the user equipment (see Zhu Fig. 6, [0180]-[0184] the 4G icon is displayed, the 5G icon is displayed, or the 5G UWB icon is displayed).
Zhu fails to teach wherein the displaying, according to the history information, an identifier matching a network that can be connected by the user equipment comprises: displaying a first identifier in a case that the history information comprises first information of the user equipment in the current cell, wherein the first identifier is used to indicate that the user equipment is able to be connected to the first network and the second network at the same time; and in a case that the history information does not comprise first information of the user equipment in the current cell, displaying a second identifier, wherein the second identifier is used to indicate that the user equipment is not able to be connected to the first network and the second network at the same time. Lee explains an electronic device receiving network capability information from a first base station in a message associated with registration which may include a DCNR bit indicating whether EN-DC is possible or not and displaying a first indicator when dual connectivity is supported and a second indicator when dual connectivity is not supported (see Lee Fig. 4A, Fig. 5A, Fig. 6, [0102], [0103], [0106]-[0108], [0155], [0156], [0208]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Zhu to include the recited teaching of Lee. Such a modification would improve Zhu by notifying the user of the type of network service provided by the network as needed (see Lee [0007]-[0008]).
Claim(s) 8 and 15 is/are rejected for at least the same reason(s) set forth in claim 1.
Claims 3, 10, and 17
Consider claim 3, Zhu as modified by Lee teaches wherein the displaying a first identifier in a case that the history information comprises first registration information of the user equipment in the current cell comprises:
obtaining the first registration information of the user equipment in the current cell (see Zhu Fig. 6, [0180]-[0183] note the information of the LTE primary cell is stored in the cell database);
in a case that second registration information in the history information matches the first registration information, determining that the history information comprises the first registration information (see Zhu Fig. 6, [0174], determining whether the LTE primary cell where the electronic terminal is located has not changed and the LTE primary cell is stored in the cell database); and
displaying the first identifier on the user equipment (see Zhu Fig. 6, [0180]-[0183] note displaying the 5G icon or 5G UWB icon when the LTE primary cell and NR secondary cell are stored in the cell database).
Claim(s) 10 and 17 is/are rejected for at least the same reason(s) set forth in claim 3.
Claims 4, 11, and 18
Consider claim 4, Zhu as modified by Lee teaches wherein the second registration information is registration information that is of the user equipment in the current cell and that was obtained when the user equipment was connected to the first network and the second network at the same time previously (see Zhu Fig. 6, [0172]-[0174], [0179]-[0180] note detecting that the location of the electronic terminal has not changed since releasing the NR secondary cell); or
the second registration information is registration information that is of the user equipment in the current cell and that was obtained when the user equipment received the indication information previously.
Claim(s) 11 and 18 is/are rejected for at least the same reason(s) set forth in claim 4.
Claims 5, 12, and 19
Consider claim 5, Zhu as modified by Lee teaches wherein the displaying a first identifier in a case that the history information comprises first registration information of the user equipment in the current cell comprises:
obtaining, if the history information comprises the first registration information of the user equipment in the current cell, a storage time for the user equipment to store the first registration information (see [0140] note preset timer T1); and
displaying the first identifier if the time interval between the storage time and the current time of the user equipment is less than a preset threshold (see Fig. 6, [0140], [0174] note after the NR secondary cell is released, starting a timer T1 for a first preset time period where the icon is displayed until the expiration of the timer).
Claim(s) 12 and 19 is/are rejected for at least the same reason(s) set forth in claim 5.
Claims 6, 13, and 20
Consider claim 6, Zhu as modified by Lee teaches after the obtaining, if the history information comprises the first registration information of the user equipment in the current cell, a storage time for the user equipment to store the first registration information, further comprising:
if the time interval between the storage time and the current time of the user equipment is not less than a preset threshold, displaying the second identifier (see Fig. 6, [0140], [0172] note after expiry of the first preset time period, the electronic terminal may establish the dual connection with the LTE network and NR network the electronic terminal is controlled to display a 5G icon); and
deleting second registration information in the history information, wherein the second registration information is registration information in the history information that matches the first registration information (see Zhu Fig. 6, [0152], [0174] note the NR secondary cell is deleted when the NR secondary cell is released).
Claim(s) 13 and 20 is/are rejected for at least the same reason(s) set forth in claim 6.
Claims 7 and 14
Consider claim 7, Zhu as modified by Lee teaches, wherein the method further comprises:
displaying a first identifier when the user equipment is registered with a first cell, wherein the first cell supports the first network and the second network (see Zhu Fig. 6, [0140], [0172] note displaying a 5G icon, when the electronic terminal establishes dual connections with an LTE network and a NR network);
when the user equipment performs cell handover or re-registration, if the second cell to which the user equipment is handed over or the second cell for re-registration supports the first network and does not support the second network, starting a timer (see Zhu [0119], [0140] note when the NR secondary cell is released caused by handover, a timer T1 is started to delay the first preset time period and the electronic terminal to continue to display the 5G icon within the first delayed first preset time. The preset time period is reserved for the electronic device to re-connect an NR secondary cell to avoid jumping of the icons displayed on the electronic terminal); and
when the timer expires, if the cell currently registered by the user equipment supports the first network and does not support the second network, switching display of the first identifier to display of a second identifier (see Zhu [0140]-[0141] note when the timer T1 times out, a signal icon displayed on the electronic device can be determined by detecting whether the electronic terminal can currently access an NR secondary cell, where the 4G icon is displayed when the NR second cell may not be accessed).
Claim(s) 14 is/are rejected for at least the same reason(s) set forth in claim 7.
Conclusion
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.
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MARCUS C HAMMONDS whose telephone number is (571)270-3193. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 10:00AM-6:00PM.
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/MARCUS HAMMONDS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2647