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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS’s) submitted on 19 September 2023 and 24 April 2024 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the IDS’s are being considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
Claim limitations “detection unit”, “display control unit”, “selection unit” and “establishment unit” as mentioned throughout claims 1-6 invoke 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph. However, the written description fails to disclose the corresponding structure, material, or acts for performing the entire claimed function and to clearly link the structure, material, or acts to the function. The disclosure is devoid of any structure that performs the function in the claims. Therefore, the claim is indefinite and is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, second paragraph.
Applicant may:
(a) Amend the claim so that the claim limitation will no longer be interpreted as a limitation under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph;
(b) Amend the written description of the specification such that it expressly recites what structure, material, or acts perform the entire claimed function, without introducing any new matter (35 U.S.C. 132(a)); or
(c) Amend the written description of the specification such that it clearly links the structure, material, or acts disclosed therein to the function recited in the claim, without introducing any new matter (35 U.S.C. 132(a)).
If applicant is of the opinion that the written description of the specification already implicitly or inherently discloses the corresponding structure, material, or acts and clearly links them to the function so that one of ordinary skill in the art would recognize what structure, material, or acts perform the claimed function, applicant should clarify the record by either:
(a) Amending the written description of the specification such that it expressly recites the corresponding structure, material, or acts for performing the claimed function and clearly links or associates the structure, material, or acts to the claimed function, without introducing any new matter (35 U.S.C. 132(a)); or
(b) Stating on the record what the corresponding structure, material, or acts, which are implicitly or inherently set forth in the written description of the specification, perform the claimed function. For more information, see 37 CFR 1.75(d) and MPEP §§ 608.01(o) and 2181.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-3, 8 and 9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Zhang et al. (Zhang), U.S. Patent Pub. No. 2021/0029766.
Regarding claims 1, 8 and 9, Zhang discloses a wireless communication apparatus/associated method (see 0007) and CRM (see 0010) including a plurality of stations (STAs) including at least a first STA and a second STA (the station supports two frequency bands…5GHz and 2.4GHz; see station in figure 2), and connectable to a plurality of access points (APs) (see figures 5 and 6) in parallel (see connection in figure 2) (Based on capabilities of the station and the access point to work on a plurality of frequency bands at the same time, a specific data flow is duplicated between the station and the access point, transmitted on two different frequency bands or channels to a peer end through multiband operation (MBO) coordination of a service management entity (SME)) (0049; see also 0066; the access point includes a first sub-access point and a second sub-access point), the wireless communication apparatus comprising: a detection unit configured to detect an AP (via Bluetooth connection shown in figures 5 and 6); a display control unit configured to cause a display unit to display a plurality of APs detected by the detection unit (see display in figures 5 and 6 showing the detected access points); a selection unit configured to select at least one AP among the plurality of APs displayed on the display unit (the user is provided an option to “choose a network” from the display screen and can further select a dual-link switch from the display; see figures 5 and 6); and an establishment unit configured to establish a link with the AP selected by the selection unit, wherein, based on a user having performed a predetermined operation in a state where a first AP and a second AP are selected by the selection unit, the establishment unit establishes a link with the first AP by using the first STA and establishes a link with the second AP by using the second STA (the user can manually select a dual-link switch that is shown on the display thereby establishing a link with the first and second access points) (A second multi-link setup method is a manual connection. FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of an interface of manually establishing a multi-link according to the embodiments of this application. As shown in the figure, an access point having a plurality of frequency bands may be provided with a plurality of SSIDs. Therefore, a dual-link function may alternatively be enabled by manually connecting to two different SSIDs on an smart terminal. When connecting to the second SSID, the smart terminal identifies that two SSIDs do not belong to the same frequency band.) (0053).
Regarding claim 2, Zhang discloses the wireless communication apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the display control unit causes the display unit to recognizably display an AP in a selected state and an AP in an unselected state among the plurality of APs detected by the detection unit (see the displayed networks checked with a check mark and the networks unchecked in figures 5 and 6).
Regarding claim 3, Zhang discloses the wireless communication apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the display control unit causes the display unit to display an AP for which a link has been established with the wireless communication apparatus, among the plurality of Aps, in such a manner that it is recognized that the link has been established (see the displayed networks checked with a check mark and the networks unchecked in figures 5 and 6).
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) 4-7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang in view of Blatherwick et al. (Blatherwick), U.S. Patent No. 6,269,395.
Regarding claim 4, Zhang discloses the wireless communication apparatus according to claim 3 as described above. Zhang, however, fails to disclose wherein the display control unit causes the display unit to display information indicating that a connection to the first AP is to be disconnected based on the selection unit having selected the first AP that is in the selected state and for which the link has been established.
In a similar field of endeavor, Blatherwick discloses a method and system in a computer-based system for providing access to services associated with different access points.
Blatherwick further discloses a display screen that alerts a user that a currently selected access point will be disconnected if connection to another access point is selected. The display gives the user an option to choose yes or no to the connection change (SP1 will be disconnected to connect to SP2. Continue?) (col. 11, lines 32-55; see figure 7.2.1).
Therefore, before the effective filing date, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to implement the teachings of Blatherwick with the teachings of Zhang to ensure the user does not inadvertently disconnect from an access point connection.
Regarding claim 5, the combination of Zhang and Blatherwick discloses the wireless communication apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the display control unit causes the display unit to display the number of APs in the selected state among the plurality of displayed APs (Zhang, see figures 5 and 6).
Regarding claim 6, the combination of Zhang and Blatherwick discloses the wireless communication apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the display control unit causes the display unit to display a maximum number of APs to which the wireless communication apparatus is connectable in parallel (Zhang, see figures 5 and 6) and Blatherwick, see figure 7.2.1).
Regarding claim 7, the combination of Zhang and Blatherwick discloses the wireless communication apparatus according to claim 6, wherein each of the first STA and the second STA is connected to a corresponding AP by using a protocol complying with an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 standard (An objective is to improve interconnectivity between wireless network products that are based on the institute of electrical and electronics engineers (IEEE) 802.11 standard.) (Zhang, 0035).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Guo et al. U.S. Patent Pub. No. 2022/0346166 discloses a multi-link communication method, apparatus and system.
Watanabe et al. U.S. Patent Pub. No. 2005/0073521 discloses an information processing apparatus and information processing program.
Kneckt et al. U.S. Patent Pub. No. 2025/0240685 discloses channel switching.
Huang et al. U.S. Patent Pub. No. 2023/0046270 discloses a link processing method, multi-link device and computer readable storage medium.
Guo, U.S. Patent Pub. No. 2022/041785, discloses an energy-saving method and communication apparatus applied to a multi-link communication.
Huang et al. U.S. Patent Pub. No.2021/0050999, discloses enhanced security for multi-link wireless operations.
Fukunaga et al. U.S. Patent Pub. No. 2005/0005042, discloses information processing, an apparatus, a control method therefor, and aprogram for implementing the method.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to TEMICA M. BEAMER whose telephone number is (571)272-7797. The examiner can normally be reached Monday thru Friday; 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM.
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/TEMICA M BEAMER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2646