Prosecution Insights
Last updated: October 02, 2026
Application No. 18/455,208

METHOD AND DEVICE FOR MANAGING PHONE NUMBER AND CONTACTS IN WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM

Non-Final OA §103
Filed
Aug 24, 2023
Priority
Aug 29, 2022 — RE 10-2022-0108373
Examiner
BOTELLO, FABIAN
Art Unit
2648
Tech Center
2600 — Communications
Assignee
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
OA Round
3 (Non-Final)
86%
Grant Probability
Favorable
3-4
OA Rounds
0m
Est. Remaining
99%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 86% — above average
86%
Career Allowance Rate
6 granted / 7 resolved
+23.7% vs TC avg
Strong +25% interview lift
Without
With
+25.0%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
2y 8m
Avg Prosecution
28 currently pending
Career history
43
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
1.3%
-38.7% vs TC avg
§103
81.3%
+41.3% vs TC avg
§102
13.1%
-26.9% vs TC avg
§112
4.4%
-35.6% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 7 resolved cases

Office Action

§103
DETAILE 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 . Response to Arguments Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 6,16 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument. 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. The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows: 1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art. 2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue. 3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art. 4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness. Claims 6,16,10,20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Li et al. (US 9973513, hereinafter Li) in view of Sinha (US 20230300419, hereinafter Sinha) in further view of Gayaldo (US 20220272190) Regarding claim 6, Li discloses a method performed by a second user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system, the method comprising: receiving, from a first UE, a message (Col. 1: Lines 63-67 and Col. 2: Lines 1-2; A communication change number change message sent by a contact logged into an instant messenger (IM) is received. The message includes an old communication number and a new communication number of the sending contact; Col. 4: Lines 55-64; The instant messenger (IM) refers to a communication tool with the ability to send and receive instant messages through the internet. It can be installed on a terminal such as a cell phone; Col. 5: Lines 1-16; The user account on the instant messenger may use communication services provided by a telecommunications service provider. The old and new communication numbers may correspond to the old and new number of the SIM card; Thus, because the IM used to receive the message may be installed and operated on a cell phone, the receiving terminal may correspond to a UE); identifying that a first phone number of the first UE is not stored (Col. 1: Lines 63-67 and Col. 2: Lines 1-2; A communication change number change message sent by a contact logged into an instant messenger (IM) is received. The message includes an old communication number (second) and a new communication number (first) of the sending contact; Fig. 11; A message is received from a saved contact. The message is requesting access to change the phone number associated with a contact, to the contact’s new phone number (first); Thus, by identifying the new number in the message as the contact's new phone number to be used to update the existing stored contact information, the receiving device identifies the new phone number as a number not presently stored as the contact's existing phone number); identifying that the message includes a second phone number of the first UE different from the first phone number (Col. 1: Lines 63-67 and Col. 2: Lines 1-2; A communication change number change message sent by a contact logged into an instant messenger (IM) is received. The message includes an old communication number and a new communication number of the sending contact; Fig. 11; A message is received from a saved contact. The message is requesting access to change the phone number associated with a contact, to the contact’s new phone number; Col. 2: Lines 2-7; The receiver of the message accesses a local address book associated with the IM to find the entry associated with the old number. The old number is updated to the new number; The message carries both the old (second) and the new (first) numbers. As seen in Fig. 7, the old number is identified by the contact (second). Accessing the address book to locate the entry of the old number also indicates the old number (second) is identified); identifying that the message includes further information on a first usage state of the first phone number and second information on a second usage state of the second phone number (Col. 1: Lines 63-67 and Col. 2: Lines 1-2; A communication change number change message sent by a contact logged into an instant messenger (IM) is received. The message includes an old communication number and a new communication number of the sending contact; Fig. 11; A message is received from a saved contact. The message is requesting access to change the phone number associated with a contact, to the contact’s new phone number; Col. 9: Lines 27-43; The sender of the number change message may attach text is the message body to be displayed to the notified party. For example the message can include information such as “no longer in service”; the identification of the new communication number as the contact's new number, together with the descriptive information indicating whether the old communication number remains in service, provides information regarding the respective usage of the new and old communication numbers). identifying that the first usage state of the first phone number which is not stored is one a permanent state, a temporary state, or an invalid state (Col. 1: Lines 63-67 and Col. 2: Lines 1-2; A UE receives a communication number change message from a different UE. The communication number change message includes the old and new (permanent) communication number of the sending UE; Col. 5: Lines 1-16; The user account on the instant messenger may use communication services provided by a telecommunications service provider. The old and new communication numbers may correspond to the old and new number of the SIM card; Col. 9: Lines 8-10; The new communication number is added to the entry of the old number; Fig. 11; A message is received from a saved contact. The message is requesting access to change the phone number associated with a contact, to the contact’s new phone number; Thus, the receiving device identifies the number after the change as the contact’s new, currently used communication number to be added to the contact entry, corresponding to a number intended for continued rather than one-time use); in case that the first usage state is the permanent state indicating that the first phone number is for permanent usage (Col. 1: Lines 63-67 and Col. 2: Lines 1-2; A UE receives a communication number change message from a different UE. The communication number change message includes the old and new communication number of the sending UE; Col. 5: Lines 1-16; The user account on the instant messenger may use communication services provided by a telecommunications service provider. The old and new communication numbers may correspond to the old and new number of the SIM card; Fig. 11; A message is received from a saved contact. The message is requesting access to change the phone number associated with a contact, to the contact’s new phone number; Thus, the new communication number is identified as the contact's currently used number and is presented to the receiving user for acceptance as the contact's updated phone number, corresponding to a number for continued use); storing the first phone number of the first UE, based on the first usage state (Col. 1: Lines 63-67 and Col. 2: Lines 1-7 A UE receives a communication number change message from a different UE. The communication number change message includes the old and new communication number of the sending UE. The old communication number is found in the address book. The old communication number is updated by adding the new communication number in the address book; The new (permanent) number is stored as the communication number); and merging the first phone number to a contact in the second UE including the second phone number (Col. 1: Lines 63-67 and Col. 2: Lines 1-7 A UE receives a communication number change message from a different UE. The communication number change message includes the old and new communication number of the sending UE. The old communication number is found in the address book. The old communication number is updated by adding the new communication number in the address book; The new (permanent) number is stored as the communication number), wherein, in the case that the first usage state is the temporary state indicating that the first phone number is for one-time usage, the first phone number of the UE is not stored for the second UE (No patentable weight given due to the optional language “or” regarding the usage state of the first phone number). Li discloses a communication number change message but does not disclose the message is a SIP message. Sinha, however, discloses sending information from a calling UE to a called UE via an SIP message (Par. 18: Lines 10-17; SIP Invite message is sent from calling UE to a called UE with information about the calling UE). Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the teachings of Li wo use the SIP messages as taught by Sinha, since SIP is a known protocol for transmitting information thereby achieving improved network interoperability, standardized message formatting, and extensible session control without introducing proprietary overhead. Li in view of Sinha does not disclose displaying the second phone number. Gayaldo, however, discloses displaying the second (current calling) phone number (Par. 50: Lines 1-5; The name and number of the originating calling device can be displayed). Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Li in view of Sinha to display the second phone number as taught by Gayaldo, since Gayaldo teaches displaying both the name and the phone number of a calling device. Incorporating this feature would allow the receiving UE to present complete caller identification information to the user, including both the name and the associated phone number, thereby improving the clarity and usefulness of the displayed call information. Such modification merely applies a known caller identification display technique to the combined system and would have yielded the predictable result of enabling the receiving UE to display the phone number associated with the caller in addition to any corresponding name information. Regarding claim 16, the rejection of claim 6 addresses the limitations presented in claim 16. Therefore, the limitations of claim 16 have been addressed. Regarding claim 10 as applied to claim 6, Li in view of Sinha in view of Gayaldo, as detailed in the rejection of claim 1, disclose a SIP message comprising a first and second phone number but do not disclose based on the SIP including message including the second phone number, updating, based on the second phone number, contacts in the second UE. Li , however, further discloses based on the message including the second phone number, updating, based on the second phone number, contact in the UE (Col. 1: Lines 63-67 and Col. 2: Lines 1-7 A UE receives a communication number change message from a different UE. The communication number change message includes the old and new communication number of the sending UE. The old communication number is found in the address book. The old communication number is updated by adding the new communication number in the address book; The new (permanent) number is stored as the communication number). Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the combination of Li in view of Sinha in view of Gayaldo to update contacts in the second UE based on the second phone number included in the SIP message, as taught by Li, in order to automatically maintain accurate and up-to-date contact information while reducing the manual effort required to update stored contact information after a phone number change. Regarding claim 20 as applied to claim 16, the rejection of claim 10 addresses the limitations presented in claim 20. Therefore, the limitations of claim 20 have been addressed. Claims 7,17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Li et al. (US 9973513, hereinafter Li) in view of Sinha (US 20230300419, hereinafter Sinha) in further view of Gayaldo (US 20220272190) in further view of Kazami (JP 2009088734) Regarding claim 7 as applied to claim 6, Li in view of Sinha in further view of Gayaldo discloses a SIP message comprising a first and second phone number, as disclosed in claim 1, but does not disclose deactivating a function of blocking an unstored phone number based on the SIP message including the second phone number. Kazami, however, teaches deactivating a function of blocking an un-stored phone number based on a message including the second phone number (Par. 0075; If a first UEs calling phone number is not registered in the address book of a receiving UE, an alternate number associated with the first UE will be analyzed (i.e. first number was not blocked). This is done to avoid the problem of a caller rejecting a call due it originating from an unknown number (i.e. blocking function)). Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the combination of Li in view of Sinha in further view of Gayaldo to deactivate a function of blocking an unstored phone number based on the SIP message including the second phone number, as taught by Kazami, in order to avoid rejecting legitimate calls originating from previously unstored phone numbers when another phone number associated with the caller is available for identification. Regarding claim 17 as applied to claim 16, the rejection of claim 7 addresses the limitations presented in claim 17. Therefore, the limitations of claim 17 have been addressed. Claims 8,18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Li et al. (US 9973513, hereinafter Li) in view of Sinha (US 20230300419, hereinafter Sinha) in further view of Gayaldo (US 20220272190) in further view of in further view of Ryou et al. (US 20100329241, hereinafter Ryou). Regarding claim 8 as applied to claim 6, Li in view of Sinha in further view of Gayaldo teach a UE receiving multiple cellular identifiers (i.e. phone numbers) in an SIP message. The combination of references does not teach identifying whether the unique phone number of the first UE is included in a black list; based on the SIP message including at least one phone number different from the unique phone number of the first UE, identifying whether the at least one phone number is included in the black list; and based on the at least one phone number being included in the black list, blocking a call from the first UE. Ryou, however, teaches the ability to determine whether a number is in a black list, and blocking the number based on it being in a black list (Par. 0078: If the calling phone number is included in a blacklist, the call connection request is rejected). Therefore, it would have been obvious for a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of that claimed invention to have combined the SIP message from a calling UE to a called UE including multiple phone numbers of Li in view of Sinha in further view of Gayaldo, with the ability to block a phone number if it is included in a blacklist of Ryou. Doing so would predictably prevent calls from blacklisted numbers when multiple identifiers are sent in a message, thereby improving call security. Regarding claim 18 as applied to claim 16, the rejection of claim 8 addresses all the limitations of claim 18. Therefore, the limitations of claim 18 are addressed. Claims 9,19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Li et al. (US 9973513, hereinafter Li) in view of Sinha (US 20230300419, hereinafter Sinha) in further view of Gayaldo (US 20220272190) in further view of Bharrat et al. (US 20210184917, hereinafter Bharrat), in further view of Kim et al. (KR 100665819, hereinafter Kim). Regarding claim 9 as applied to claim 6, Li in view of Sinha in further view of Gayaldo discloses being able to send and receive an SIP message from a calling UE to a called UE including multiple phone numbers. Li in view of Sinha in further view of Gayaldo does not disclose a key corresponding to the at least one phone number, and deleting a phone number corresponding to an invalid key in a list including the at least one phone number. Bharrat, however, discloses a key, corresponding to the at least one phone number (Par. 0013: Lines 1-4; Key values corresponding to the calling party are included in a SIP message). Therefore, it would have been obvious for a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of that claimed invention to have modified the combined teachings of Li in view of Sinha in further view of Gayaldo with the key-based SIP signaling of Bharrat. Doing so would provide a mechanism for associating identifiers with SIP messages, thereby improving message integrity and enabling the receiving UE to authenticate and properly process the call setup. Li in view of Sinha in further view of Gayaldo in further view of Bharrat does not disclose deleting a phone number corresponding to an invalid key in a list including the at least one phone number. Kim, however, discloses the ability to delete an invalid phone number from a phone book (Summary: Lines 7-11; When a phone number is deemed to be invalid, it is deleted from the user’s phone book that lists the invalid numbers). Therefore, it would have been obvious for a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of that claimed invention to have modified the message sent from a first UE to a second UE including multiple phone numbers with associated keys of Li in view of Sinha in further view of Gayaldo in further view of Bharrat, with the ability to delete invalid phone numbers from a phone book of Kim. Doing so would ensure accurate, up to date contact records, and a more reliable phone book. Regarding claim 19 as applied to claim 16, the rejection of claim 9 addresses all the limitations of claim 19. Therefore, the limitations of claim 19 are addressed. Conclusion Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to FABIAN BOTELLO whose telephone number is (571)272-4439. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 8:30 am - 5:30 pm. Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Wesley Kim can be reached at (572) 272-7867. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000. /FABIAN BOTELLO/Examiner, Art Unit 2648 /WESLEY L KIM/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2648
Read full office action

Prosecution Timeline

Show 2 earlier events
Oct 29, 2025
Interview Requested
Nov 05, 2025
Applicant Interview (Telephonic)
Nov 13, 2025
Examiner Interview Summary
Dec 08, 2025
Response Filed
Mar 12, 2026
Final Rejection mailed — §103
May 06, 2026
Request for Continued Examination
May 07, 2026
Response after Non-Final Action
Sep 03, 2026
Non-Final Rejection mailed — §103 (current)

Precedent Cases

Applications granted by this same examiner with similar technology

Patent 12707268
PERFORMING SECURITY UPDATES WITHOUT RESYNCHRONIZATION
2y 9m to grant Granted Aug 11, 2026
Patent 12685460
SYSTEM FOR DETERMINING PATIENT SUPPORT APPARATUS AND MEDICAL DEVICE LOCATION
3y 3m to grant Granted Jul 21, 2026
Patent 12689873
DISASTER PREDICTION AND RESPONSE USING VIDEO ANALYTICS AND POSITIONING DATA
2y 6m to grant Granted Jul 21, 2026
Patent 12683675
Airborne Satellite Connectivity System
2y 9m to grant Granted Jul 14, 2026
Patent 12677238
METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PERFORMING SIDELINK POSITIONING BASED ON A RESOURCE POOL IN WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM
2y 8m to grant Granted Jul 07, 2026
Study what changed to get past this examiner. Based on 5 most recent grants.

Strategy Recommendation AI-generated — please review before filing

Get a prosecution strategy drawn from examiner precedents, rejection analysis, and claim mapping.
Typically takes 5-10 seconds — AI-generated, attorney review required before filing

Prosecution Projections

3-4
Expected OA Rounds
86%
Grant Probability
99%
With Interview (+25.0%)
2y 8m (~0m remaining)
Median Time to Grant
High
PTA Risk
Based on 7 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allowance rate.

Sign in with your work email

Enter your email to receive a magic link. No password needed.

Personal email addresses (Gmail, Yahoo, etc.) are not accepted.

Free tier: 3 strategy analyses per month