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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 04/24/2026 has been entered.
Claims 16, 18-26 and 28-35 have been examined.
Claims 17 and 27 have been canceled.
P = paragraph e.g. P[0001] = paragraph[0001]
Examiner’s Note:
The 04/24/2026 claim amendments have rendered moot the Claim Objections, and have rendered moot the rejections under 35 U.S.C. 101 as the independent claims no longer recite an abstract idea.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments filed 04/24/2026 have been considered but are moot in view of the new ground(s) of rejection.
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.
Claims 16, 18-24, 26 and 28-34 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hong et al. (CN115004853A) in view of Saha et al. (2022/0404484).
Regarding Claim 16, Hong et al. teaches the claimed terminal in a wireless communication system, the terminal
comprising:
a transceiver (“…a wireless transmitting/receiving component 2724…”, see P[0521]); and
at least one processor (“…a processing component 2722…”, see P[0521])
receive, from a base station, via the transceiver, a first message including configuration information associated with an availability of flight path information (“…when the base station determines that the drone has the ability to report the flightpath information based on the capability information, the base station can send configuration information to the drone”, see P[0248] and “The flight path information may be the flight path information of the UAV in a fixed mode or the flight path information of the UAV in a dynamic mode…”, see P[0367]),
identify that the terminal has updated or new flight path information available (“…when the flight mode of the drone changes, the drone can obtain the changed flight path information…”, see P[0285]),
identify whether a condition associated with flight path information is satisfied…(“…based on the configuration information, the changed flight path information is reported to the base station”, see P[0286]), and
transmit to the base station a second message including an indicator to indicate availability of the flight path information if the condition associated with the flight path information is satisfied (“…based on the configuration information, the changed flight path information is reported to the base station”, see P[0286]).
Hong et al. does not expressly recite the bolded portions of the claimed
identify whether a condition associated with flight path information is satisfied based on at least one of time information or distance information.
However, Saha et al. (2022/0404484) teaches requesting user equipment to provide differential reporting, where a network entity may produce a request that provides one or more parameters defining an event to trigger flight path reporting, where a trigger event may be a “spatial threshold or the temporal difference exceeding a time threshold” (Saha et al.; see P[0111]).
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 teachings of Hong et al. with the teachings of Saha et al., and identify whether a condition associated with flight path information is satisfied based on at least one of time information or distance information, as rendered obvious by Saha et al., in order to provide for “obtaining flight path information” (Saha et al.; see P[0003]).
Regarding Claim 18, Hong et al. does not expressly recite the claimed terminal of claim 16, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:
identify that information on a distance threshold is included in the first message,
determine that a distance between previously reported location information and new location information is more than a distance threshold value based on the information on the distance threshold, and
determine that the condition associated with the flight path information is satisfied if the distance between the previously reported location information and the new location information is more than the distance threshold value.
However, Saha et al. (2022/0404484) teaches requesting user equipment to provide differential reporting, where a network entity may produce a request that provides one or more parameters defining an event to trigger flight path reporting, where a trigger event may be a “spatial threshold or the temporal difference exceeding a time threshold” (Saha et al.; see P[0111]).
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 teachings of Hong et al. with the teachings of Saha et al., and wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: identify that information on a distance threshold is included in the first message, determine that a distance between previously reported location information and new location information is more than a distance threshold value based on the information on the distance threshold, and determine that the condition associated with the flight path information is satisfied if the distance between the previously reported location information and the new location information is more than the distance threshold value, as rendered obvious by Saha et al., in order to provide for “obtaining flight path information” (Saha et al.; see P[0003]).
Regarding Claim 19, Hong et al. does not expressly recite the claimed terminal of claim 16, wherein the at least one processor is
further configured to:
identify that information on a time threshold is included in the first message,
determine whether a time difference between previously reported time information and new time information is more than a time threshold value based on the information on the time threshold, and
determine that the condition associated with the flight path information is satisfied if the time difference between the previously reported time information and the new time information is more than the time threshold value.
However, Saha et al. (2022/0404484) teaches requesting user equipment to provide differential reporting, where a network entity may produce a request that provides one or more parameters defining an event to trigger flight path reporting, where a trigger event may be a “spatial threshold or the temporal difference exceeding a time threshold” (Saha et al.; see P[0111]).
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 teachings of Hong et al. with the teachings of Saha et al., and wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: identify that information on a time threshold is included in the first message, determine whether a time difference between previously reported time information and new time information is more than a time threshold value based on the information on the time threshold, and determine that the condition associated with the flight path information is satisfied if the time difference between the previously reported time information and the new time information is more than the time threshold value, as rendered obvious by Saha et al., in order to provide for “obtaining flight path information” (Saha et al.; see P[0003]).
Regarding Claim 20, Hong et al. does not expressly recite the claimed terminal of claim 16, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:
transmit, to the base station, via the transceiver, a third message for reporting a capability supported by the terminal, the third message including information indicating whether the terminal supports reporting of flight path information,
wherein the second message is one of a radio resource control (RRC) setup complete message, an RRC resume complete message, an RRC reestablishment complete message, and an RRC reconfiguration complete message (“…after completing any of the RRC connection establishment operation, RRC connection re-establishment operation, RRC restart operation, and RRC reconfiguration operation, the drone can report the capability information to the base station”, see P[0226]).
Regarding Claim 21, Hong et al. does not expressly recite the claimed base station in a wireless communication system, the base station comprising:
a transceiver (“…a wireless transmitting/receiving component 2724…”, see P[0521]); and
at least one processor (“…a processing component 2722…”, see P[0521]) configured to:
transmit, to a terminal, via the transceiver, a first message including configuration information associated with an availability of flight path information (“…when the base station determines that the drone has the ability to report the flightpath information based on the capability information, the base station can send configuration information to the drone”, see P[0248] and “The flight path information may be the flight path information of the UAV in a fixed mode or the flight path information of the UAV in a dynamic mode…”, see P[0367]), and
receive, from the terminal, via the transceiver, a second message including an indicator to indicate the availability of the flight path information if a associated with the flight path information is satisfied…(“…based on the configuration information, the changed flight path information is reported to the base station”, see P[0286]),
wherein (“…based on the configuration information, the changed flight path information is reported to the base station”, see P[0286]).
Hong et al. does not expressly recite the bolded portions of the claimed
receive, from the terminal, via the transceiver, a second message including an indicator to indicate the availability of the flight path information if a condition associated with the flight path information is satisfied based on at least one of time information or distance information.
However, Saha et al. (2022/0404484) teaches requesting user equipment to provide differential reporting, where a network entity may produce a request that provides one or more parameters defining an event to trigger flight path reporting, where a trigger event may be a “spatial threshold or the temporal difference exceeding a time threshold” (Saha et al.; see P[0111]).
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 teachings of Hong et al. with the teachings of Saha et al., and to receive, from the terminal, via the transceiver, a second message including an indicator to indicate the availability of the flight path information if a condition associated with the flight path information is satisfied based on at least one of time information or distance information, as rendered obvious by Saha et al., in order to provide for “obtaining flight path information” (Saha et al.; see P[0003]).
Regarding Claim 22, Hong et al. does not expressly recite the claimed base station of claim 21, wherein information on a distance threshold is further included in the first message, and
wherein the if a distance between previously reported location information and new location information is more than a distance threshold value based on the information on the distance threshold.
However, Saha et al. (2022/0404484) teaches requesting user equipment to provide differential reporting, where a network entity may produce a request that provides one or more parameters defining an event to trigger flight path reporting, where a trigger event may be a “spatial threshold or the temporal difference exceeding a time threshold” (Saha et al.; see P[0111]).
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 teachings of Hong et al. with the teachings of Saha et al., and wherein information on a distance threshold is further included in the first message, and wherein the condition is satisfied if a distance between previously reported location information and new location information is more than a distance threshold value based on the information on the distance threshold, as rendered obvious by Saha et al., in order to provide for “obtaining flight path information” (Saha et al.; see P[0003]).
Regarding Claim 23, Hong et al. does not expressly recite the claimed base station of claim 21, wherein information on a time threshold is included in the first message, and
wherein the associated with the flight path information is satisfied if a time difference between previously reported time information and new time information is more than a time threshold value based on the information on the time threshold.
However, Saha et al. (2022/0404484) teaches requesting user equipment to provide differential reporting, where a network entity may produce a request that provides one or more parameters defining an event to trigger flight path reporting, where a trigger event may be a “spatial threshold or the temporal difference exceeding a time threshold” (Saha et al.; see P[0111]).
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 teachings of Hong et al. with the teachings of Saha et al., and wherein information on a time threshold is included in the first message, and wherein the condition associated with the flight path information is satisfied if a time difference between previously reported time information and new time information is more than a time threshold value based on the information on the time threshold, as rendered obvious by Saha et al., in order to provide for “obtaining flight path information” (Saha et al.; see P[0003]).
Regarding Claim 24, Hong et al. teaches the claimed base station of claim 21, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:
receive, from the terminal, via the transceiver, a third message for reporting a capability supported by the terminal, the third message including information indicating whether the terminal supports reporting of flight path information,
wherein the second message is one of a radio resource control (RRC) setup complete message, an RRC resume complete message, an RRC reestablishment complete message, and an RRC reconfiguration complete message (“…after completing any of the RRC connection establishment operation, RRC connection re-establishment operation, RRC restart operation, and RRC reconfiguration operation, the drone can report the capability information to the base station”, see P[0226]).
Regarding Claim 26, Hong et al. teaches the claimed method performed by a terminal in a wireless communication system, the method comprising:
receiving, from a base station, a first message including configuration information associated with (“…when the base station determines that the drone has the ability to report the flightpath information based on the capability information, the base station can send configuration information to the drone”, see P[0248] and “The flight path information may be the flight path information of the UAV in a fixed mode or the flight path information of the UAV in a dynamic mode…”, see P[0367]);
identifying that the terminal has updated or new flight path information available (“…based on the configuration information, the changed flight path information is reported to the base station”, see P[0286]);
identifying whether a condition associated with flight path information is satisfied…(“…based on the configuration information, the changed flight path information is reported to the base station”, see P[0286]); and
transmitting, to the base station, a second message including an indicator to indicate availability of the flight path information if the condition associated with the flight path information is satisfied (“…based on the configuration information, the changed flight path information is reported to the base station”, see P[0286]).
Hong et al. does not expressly recite the bolded portions of the claimed
identifying whether a condition associated with flight path information is satisfied based on at least one of time information or distance information.
However, Saha et al. (2022/0404484) teaches requesting user equipment to provide differential reporting, where a network entity may produce a request that provides one or more parameters defining an event to trigger flight path reporting, where a trigger event may be a “spatial threshold or the temporal difference exceeding a time threshold” (Saha et al.; see P[0111]).
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 teachings of Hong et al. with the teachings of Saha et al., and identifying whether a condition associated with flight path information is satisfied based on at least one of time information or distance information, as rendered obvious by Saha et al., in order to provide for “obtaining flight path information” (Saha et al.; see P[0003]).
Regarding Claim 28, Hong et al. teaches the claimed method of claim 26, further comprising:
identifying that information on a distance threshold is included in the first message;
determining whether a distance between previously reported location information and new location information is more than a distance threshold value based on the information on the distance threshold; and
determining that the condition associated with the flight path information is satisfied if the distance between the previously reported location information and the new location information is more than the distance threshold value.
However, Saha et al. (2022/0404484) teaches requesting user equipment to provide differential reporting, where a network entity may produce a request that provides one or more parameters defining an event to trigger flight path reporting, where a trigger event may be a “spatial threshold or the temporal difference exceeding a time threshold” (Saha et al.; see P[0111]).
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 teachings of Hong et al. with the teachings of Saha et al., and the method of claim 26, further comprising: identifying that information on a distance threshold is included in the first message; determining whether a distance between previously reported location information and new location information is more than a distance threshold value based on the information on the distance threshold; and determining that the condition associated with the flight path information is satisfied if the distance between the previously reported location information and the new location information is more than the distance threshold value, as rendered obvious by Saha et al., in order to provide for “obtaining flight path information” (Saha et al.; see P[0003]).
Regarding Claim 29, Hong et al. teaches the claimed method of claim 26, further comprising:
identifying that information on a time threshold is included in the first message;
determining whether a time difference between previously reported time information and new time information is more than a time threshold value based on the information on the time threshold; and
determining that the condition associated with the flight path information is satisfied if the time difference between the previously reported time information and the new time information is more than the time threshold value.
However, Saha et al. (2022/0404484) teaches requesting user equipment to provide differential reporting, where a network entity may produce a request that provides one or more parameters defining an event to trigger flight path reporting, where a trigger event may be a “spatial threshold or the temporal difference exceeding a time threshold” (Saha et al.; see P[0111]).
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 teachings of Hong et al. with the teachings of Saha et al., and the method of claim 26, further comprising: identifying that information on a time threshold is included in the first message; determining whether a time difference between previously reported time information and new time information is more than a time threshold value based on the information on the time threshold; and determining that the condition associated with the flight path information is satisfied if the time difference between the previously reported time information and the new time information is more than the time threshold value, as rendered obvious by Saha et al., in order to provide for “obtaining flight path information” (Saha et al.; see P[0003]).
Regarding Claim 30, Hong et al. teaches the claimed method of claim 26,
transmitting, to the base station, a third message for reporting a capability supported by the terminal, the third message including information indicating whether the terminal supports reporting of flight path information,
wherein the second message is one of a radio resource control (RRC) setup complete message, an RRC resume complete message, an RRC reestablishment complete message, and an RRC reconfiguration complete message (“…after completing any of the RRC connection establishment operation, RRC connection re-establishment operation, RRC restart operation, and RRC reconfiguration operation, the drone can report the capability information to the base station”, see P[0226]).
Regarding Claim 31, Hong et al. teaches the claimed method performed by a base station in a wireless communication system, the method comprising:
transmitting, to a terminal, a first message including configuration information associated with an availability of flight path information (“…when the base station determines that the drone has the ability to report the flightpath information based on the capability information, the base station can send configuration information to the drone”, see P[0248] and “The flight path information may be the flight path information of the UAV in a fixed mode or the flight path information of the UAV in a dynamic mode…”, see P[0367]); and
receiving, from the terminal, a second message including an indicator to indicate the availability of the flight path information if a associated with the flight path information is satisfied…(“…based on the configuration information, the changed flight path information is reported to the base station”, see P[0286]),
wherein (“…based on the configuration information, the changed flight path information is reported to the base station”, see P[0286]).
Hong et al. does not expressly recite the bolded portions of the claimed
receiving, from the terminal, a second message including an indicator to indicate the availability of the flight path information if a condition associated with the flight path information is satisfied based on at least one of time information or distance information.
However, Saha et al. (2022/0404484) teaches requesting user equipment to provide differential reporting, where a network entity may produce a request that provides one or more parameters defining an event to trigger flight path reporting, where a trigger event may be a “spatial threshold or the temporal difference exceeding a time threshold” (Saha et al.; see P[0111]).
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 teachings of Hong et al. with the teachings of Saha et al., and receiving, from the terminal, a second message including an indicator to indicate the availability of the flight path information if a condition associated with the flight path information is satisfied based on at least one of time information or distance information, as rendered obvious by Saha et al., in order to provide for “obtaining flight path information” (Saha et al.; see P[0003]).
Regarding Claim 32, Hong et al. teaches the claimed method of claim 31, wherein information on a distance threshold is further included in the first message, and
wherein the associated with the flight path information is satisfied if a distance between previously reported location information and new location information is more than a distance threshold value based on the information on the distance threshold.
However, Saha et al. (2022/0404484) teaches requesting user equipment to provide differential reporting, where a network entity may produce a request that provides one or more parameters defining an event to trigger flight path reporting, where a trigger event may be a “spatial threshold or the temporal difference exceeding a time threshold” (Saha et al.; see P[0111]).
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 teachings of Hong et al. with the teachings of Saha et al., and wherein information on a distance threshold is further included in the first message, and wherein the condition associated with the flight path information is satisfied if a distance between previously reported location information and new location information is more than a distance threshold value based on the information on the distance threshold, as rendered obvious by Saha et al., in order to provide for “obtaining flight path information” (Saha et al.; see P[0003]).
Regarding Claim 33, Hong et al. teaches the claimed method of claim 31, wherein information on a time threshold is included in the first message, and
wherein the associated with the flight path information is satisfied if a time difference between previously reported time information and new time information is more than a time threshold value based on the information on the time threshold.
However, Saha et al. (2022/0404484) teaches requesting user equipment to provide differential reporting, where a network entity may produce a request that provides one or more parameters defining an event to trigger flight path reporting, where a trigger event may be a “spatial threshold or the temporal difference exceeding a time threshold” (Saha et al.; see P[0111]).
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 teachings of Hong et al. with the teachings of Saha et al., and wherein information on a time threshold is included in the first message, and wherein the condition associated with the flight path information is satisfied if a time difference between previously reported time information and new time information is more than a time threshold value based on the information on the time threshold, as rendered obvious by Saha et al., in order to provide for “obtaining flight path information” (Saha et al.; see P[0003]).
Regarding Claim 34, Hong et al. teaches the claimed method of claim 31, further comprising:
receiving, from the terminal, a third message for reporting a capability supported by the terminal, the third message including information indicating whether the terminal supports reporting of flight path information,
wherein the second message is one of a radio resource control (RRC) setup complete message, an RRC resume complete message, an RRC reestablishment complete message, and an RRC reconfiguration complete message (“…after completing any of the RRC connection establishment operation, RRC connection re-establishment operation, RRC restart operation, and RRC reconfiguration operation, the drone can report the capability information to the base station”, see P[0226]).
Claims 25 and 35 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hong et al. (CN115004853A) in view of Saha et al. (2022/0404484) further in view of Phuyal et al. (2022/0386208).
Regarding Claim 25, Hong et al. teaches the claimed base station of claim 21, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to transmit, to a target base station, flight path information based on a handover preparation.
However, Phuyal et al. (2022/0386208) teaches a base station communicating flight path information to another base station as part of a handover preparation (Phuyal et al.; see P[0052]), where handover conditions and the flight path are associated with a UAV (Phuyal et al.; see P[0051]).
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 teachings of Hong et al. with the teachings of Phuyal et al., and wherein the at least one processor is further configured to transmit, to a target base station, flight path information based on a handover preparation, as rendered obvious by Phuyal et al., in order to provide for “communicating, based on a handover condition, flight path information associated with an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and performing a communication handover of the UAV” between a first base station and a second base station (Phuyal et al.; see Abstract).
Regarding Claim 35, Hong et al. does not expressly recite the claimed method of claim 31, further comprising transmitting, to a target base station, flight path information based on handover preparation.
However, Phuyal et al. (2022/0386208) teaches a base station communicating flight path information to another base station as part of a handover preparation (Phuyal et al.; see P[0052]), where handover conditions and the flight path are associated with a UAV (Phuyal et al.; see P[0051]).
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 teachings of Hong et al. with the teachings of Phuyal et al., and further comprising transmitting, to a target base station, flight path information based on handover preparation, as rendered obvious by Phuyal et al., in order to provide for “communicating, based on a handover condition, flight path information associated with an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and performing a communication handover of the UAV” between a first base station and a second base station (Phuyal et al.; see Abstract).
Conclusion
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/ISAAC G SMITH/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3662
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