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
This office action is in response to applicant’s amendment filed, 26 May 2026, of application filed, with the above serial number, on 05 January 2024 in which claims 1, 3, 4, 6-9, 11, 13-14 have been amended, claims 2, 5, 10, 12, 15 cancelled. Claims 1, 3-4, 6-9, 11, 13-14 are pending in the application.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claim 1 recites the limitation "the server" in line 13. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim as it is not clear which server is being referenced.
Claim 3 recites the limitation "the server" in line 4. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim as it is not clear which server is being referenced.
Claim 4 recites the limitation "the server" in line 2. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim as it is not clear which server is being referenced.
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, 4, 6-7, 9, 11, 14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Gazda et al (hereinafter “Gazda”, WO2023/183538).
As per Claim 1, Gazda discloses a method performed by a terminal in a communication system, the method comprising:
identifying whether an application triggering is supported by an edge enabler client (EEC) of the terminal (at least paragraph 113-118, 105; Initially, there may be one or more prerequisite. An application vertical session(s) may be created, and an AVSID(s) may be assigned to identify the session. The AVSID may be provided to the EEC 210, for example, by the AC 202 when registering with the EEC or requesting EAS 204 discovery for an AVSID(s); EEC 210 may create an application-vertical-session EAS 204 discovery subscription with the EES 208; ACx 202 may implicitly trigger an EAS discovery at the EEC 210 by registering with the EEC and providing the AVSID in the registration), wherein the terminal performs an action indicated by a payload in a short message service (SMS) message based on the application triggering being supported (at least paragraph 154, 162, EEC2 210 may have received an AVSID from the first WTRU 203: for example, it may have received the AVSID from a request originating from an AC 202 using EEC2 (e.g., AVSID exchanged between ACs); or, for example, it may have received the AVSID from a user; or, for example, it may have received the AVSID from a message such as a SMS; EEC1 210 may initiate AVS creation, which in EEC1 means acquiring the parameters needed to create an AVS in the EEL. For example, this action may be triggered from a request originating from an AC 202 using EEC1 210; or, for example, this action may be triggered by a user, or for example this action may be from a pre-defined AVS configuration present at WTRU1 203; or, for example, this action may be triggered by receiving a message such as a SMS);
if the application triggering is supported by the EEC of the terminal, transmitting, by the EEC of the terminal to an edge data network (EDN) server, a request message including an indication indicating that an EEC triggering is requested, the EDN server including an edge configuration server (ECS) or an edge enabler server (EES) (at least paragraph 114-119, 154, 97-106; Fig. 2; the EEC 210 may create an application-vertical-session EAS 204 discovery subscription with the EES 208; EEC1 210 may initiate AVS creation, which in EEC1 means acquiring the parameters needed to create an AVS in the EEL (e.g., EES 208); this action may be triggered from a request originating from an AC 202 using EEC1 210; the information required to create an AVS may be provided by the source that triggered the AVS initiation);
receiving, from a server via a short message service (SMS) – service center (SC) (SMS-SC), information on a trigger payload by the SMS message associated with the application triggering (at least paragraph 114-119, 154, 97-106, 162; Fig. 2, 7; At 704, at a later time, an EAS 204 may be instantiated in an EDN 206 to serve the application vertical session(s) that are identified by their respective AVSIDs. The EAS 204 may register with an EES 208 and provide its serving AVSIDs, for example via an enhanced EAS profile defined, e.g., as disclosed herein. [0117] At 706, the EES 208 may use the EAS 204 registration information and evaluate the information against EAS discovery subscription filters, for example the AVSIDs from the subscription created at 702. The EES 208 may determine that a notification needs to be issued towards the EEC 210, since the AVSID(s) matches the subscription request each EAS 204 may register with their EES 208 and provide their serving AVSIDs, the AC of the EEC receiving the EAS discovery; EEC1 210 may initiate AVS creation, which in EEC1 means acquiring the parameters needed to create an AVS in the EEL. For example, this action may be triggered from a request originating from an AC 202 using EEC1 210; or, for example, this action may be triggered by a user, or for example this action may be from a pre-defined AVS configuration present at WTRU1 203; or, for example, this action may be triggered by receiving a message such as a SMS (SMS from SMS Server SC); received the AVSID from a message such as a SMS), the trigger payload including entity information indicating the server that determines to perform the EEC triggering, wherein the EEC triggering indicated the EEC to perform a procedure over enhanced data rates for global system for mobile communication (GSM) evolution (EDGE)-1 or EDGE-4 (at least paragraph 114-119, 154, 97-106, 120-122; Fig. 2; AVSID having identifier of entity for EEC triggering; the EES 208 may send the EAS Discovery notification to the subscribed EEC 210 and include the application-vertical-session(s) enhanced EAS profile; par. 98 Gazda teaches the EEC/AC sends a message to EES an identifier of what the client requires, the EEC and EES match EAS discovery and selection requests with an appropriate EAS instance that was discovered; par. 99, Gazda discloses that if EAS is not available or not discovered, then service provisioning notification is sent to the EEC for service provisioning procedure to be selected. In par. 102 Gazda discloses this enables EEC to discover and select an EAS instance for the service requested. In par. 105, the AC/EEC may request and implicitly trigger an EAS discovery);
performing the procedure indicated by the trigger payload (at least paragraph 114-119, 154, 97-107, 120-122; Fig. 2; At 710, the EEC 210 may inform the AC 202 about the EAS 204, providing the EAS endpoint(s) and the AVSID(s) that the EAS(s) is serving. The AC 202 may connect to the selected EAS(s) 204 and join the application vertical session action may be triggered by receiving a message such as a SMS for EAS discovery/ (EDGE-1); service-provisioning procedure/ (EDGE-4); see par. 106 the EEC terminal performs the EAS discovery procedure),
in case that the server is indicated as the ECS by the entity information, performing a service provisioning procedure with the ECS over the EDGE-4 (at least paragraph par. 99, 120, 122 outlines that the ECS signals to an EEC for service provisioning; ECS 212 may signal a notification to a subscribed EEC 210 with a service provisioning notification if an EAS becomes available to service the requested application vertical session; the EEC then issues to the ECS a service provisioning request); and
in case that the server is indicated as the EES by the entity information, performing an edge application server (EAS) discovery procedure with the EES over the EDGE-1 (at least paragraph 114-119; EAS Discovery notification; at least Fig. 7, 2; EEC connection to EES over EDGE-1; alternatively Fig. 8, 9 and par. 120-130 for service provisioning).
As per Claim 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the entity information includes an identifier and an address of the server (at least paragraph 162, 97-106, 120-122; Fig. 2; eg. AVSID; EAS discovery/ (EDGE-1); EEC 210 may utilize services of the ECS 212 to discover EDNs 206 and EESs 208 that can serve the needs of ACs 202 on a WTRU 203 via the service-provisioning procedure. In some cases, EDN 206/EES 208 service provisioning may consider EAS 204 and AC 202 type information (e.g., EASID and ACID) in the AC Profile; the EES 208 may use the AVSID to identify the EAS 204 hosting the AVS and return the address of the EAS hosting the AVS to the EEC2), and
wherein the trigger payload further includes trigger description information indicating a procedure to be initiated by the EEC of the terminal (at least paragraph 105, 154; the ACx 202 may implicitly trigger an EAS discovery at the EEC 210 by registering with the EEC and providing the AVSID in the registration).
As per Claim 7. The method of claim 6, wherein the SMS message is transmitted based on a trigger delivery request message, the trigger delivery request message being transmitted from the EDN server to a network exposure function (NEF) based on the indication, and wherein the trigger delivery request message further includes at least one of a generic public subscription identifier (GPSI), an application function (AF) identifier (ID), a trigger reference number, or an application port ID (at least paragraph 154; this action may be triggered by receiving a message such as a SMS, or, for example, this action may be triggered by other external sources such as another WTRU 203 or server. In any case, the information required to create an AVS may be provided by the source that triggered the AVS initiation. The AVS parameters may include an AVS identifier (AVSID) that uniquely identifies the AVS resource).
Claims 6, 9, 11, 14 do not, in substance, add or define any additional limitations over claims 1, 4, 7 and therefore are rejected for similar reasons, supra.
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) 3, 8, 13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Gazda in view of Long (hereinafter “Long”, 2024/0064494).
Gazda fails to explicitly disclose wherein the SMS-SC is selected by a network exposure function (NEF) associated with the server. However, the use and advantages for using such a system was well known to one skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention as evidenced by the teachings of Long (at least paragraph 95-97, 100-101). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to incorporate the use of Long’s NEF selecting a suitable SMS-SC with Gazda as Long teaches the SMS may have a trigger payload and the SMS-SC sending the SMS needs to be suitable with the payload, having local context, for the application in order to properly trigger the UE.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 26 May 2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicant arguments with respect to claim 1 are moot as the limitations argued with respect to claim 1 being a method claim and as amended includes a contingent limitation of ‘if the application triggering is supported by the EEC of the terminal…’ with the following limitations only applying in such contingent scenario. See MPEP 2111.04 II wherein Ex parte Schulhauser notes that the BRI of such claim, including claim 1 herein, would not need to be disclosed by the prior art when such condition is not met (ie. application triggering is not supported, the remainder of claim 1 is not applied). The arguments will be considered with reference to claim 11 not being a method claim below.
Applicant argues on p. 10-11 that Gazda does not disclose the service provisioning procedure being triggered, as the paragraphs only disclose the EAS discovery procedure.
However, Gazda par. 99, 120, 122 outlines that the ECS signals to an EEC for service provisioning “ECS 212 may signal a notification to a subscribed EEC 210 with a service provisioning notification if an EAS becomes available to service the requested application vertical session” and that the EEC then issues to the ECS a service provisioning request.
Applicant also argues Gazda’s server sending the SMS is an external server not the EES server as claimed. However, the claims recite ‘receiving, from a server via’ SMS. The server claimed is an SMS server from SC, not EES as argued. See above 112 Rejection. It is not clear from the argument where it is claimed the SMS is received from an EES.
On p. 11, Applicant argues that “amended claim 1 recites that, in a “state with no network connection”, however the quoted language does not appear in claim 1.
Lastly, Applicant argues Gazda to not disclose the procedure performed by the UE dynamically changes, between the EAS discovery and service provisioning. However, as responded above, Gazda par. 99, 120, 122 outlines that the ECS signals to an EEC for service provisioning “ECS 212 may signal a notification to a subscribed EEC 210 with a service provisioning notification if an EAS becomes available to service the requested application vertical session” and that the EEC then issues to the ECS a service provisioning request. The AC makes the request depending on what is available and the needs of the EEC, Par. 86, 105 details that the EEC may request EAS discovery, but in par. 99, 102 the EEC may also be subscribed to be notified of service provisioning if an EAS becomes available. Gazda discloses the benefit is for the “EEC 210 to discover and select an EAS(s) 204 that not only provide(s) a certain type of service, but also enable(s) the AC and/or EEC to discover EAS(s) 204 that are associated with a particular instance of a service” and thus either discover the EAS or being provisioning with the service of the EAS, whichever is available and signaled to the EEC.
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.
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to GREGORY TODD whose telephone number is (303)297-4763. The examiner can normally be reached 8:30-5 MST.
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/GREGORY TODD/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2443
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