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 .
Terminal Disclaimer
The terminal disclaimer filed on 4-22-2026 disclaiming the terminal portion of any patent granted on this application which would extend beyond the expiration date of 11,690,015 has been reviewed and is accepted. The terminal disclaimer has been recorded.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 4-22-2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicant submits that Morelli teachings are different and do not teach “alternating”, because: “Morelli describes a receiver that transitions to the active mode when the RSSI exceeds a threshold and remains in the active mode as long as RSSI remains above the threshold”. The examiner points that the argument is ignoring what happens when the RSSI is below the threshold as seen in Morelli’s abstract “if the RSSI signal falls below a given threshold level, digital circuitry associated with the back-end circuitry of the receiver system is disabled”; thereby, alternating between enabling and disabling the receiver.
The rest of the arguments they fall for the same reasons as shown above.
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.
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim(s) 1-2, 7-8, 14-16 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Gurevitz 20190132154 on view of Morelli 6236674.
As to claim 1, Gurevitz discloses a method for wireless communications in a wireless local area network (WLAN) performed by a first WLAN device (see par. 0020), comprising:
alternating, during a listen mode, one or more components of the first WLAN device between a power-off state of the listen mode and a power-on state of the listen mode of the first WLAN device in accordance with a duty cycle [step 902-906; the receiver may include switching the one or more RF components from the off-state to the on-state after an off-state period.] (see par. 0289-0292); and
receiving, during the power-on state of the listen mode, preamble information of a packet from a second WLAN device [step 910; repeating switching the one or more RF components between the on-state and the off-state, for example, until the frame preamble is detected by the preamble detector] (see par. 0293). Gurevitz fails to disclose based at least in part on a received signal strength indicator (RSSI). In an analogous art, Morelli discloses based at least in part on a received signal strength indicator (RSSI) [below threshold level set by MAC and threshold level above greater than noise] (see col .12 lines 14-24). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the present invention to provide 'WLAN device between the power-off state of the listen mode and the power-on state of the listen mode is performed when an RSSI is greater than a first RSSI threshold and less than a second RSSI threshold' to effectively switch the mobile station between an active mode and a sleep mode in order to conserve power without substantially sacrificing data exchange rate, Morelli Col. 3, Il 35-40.
As to claim 2, Gurevitz discloses the method of claim 1, wherein alternating the one or more components between the power-off state of the listen mode and the power-on state of the listen mode includes: alternating, during the listen mode when the first WLAN device is monitoring a wireless channel for packets, the one or more components between the power-off state of the listen mode and the power-on state of the listen mode (see par. 0085, 0289-0293).
As to claims 7, Gurevitz discloses the method of claim 1, wherein alternating the one or more components of the first WLAN device between the power-off state of the listen mode and the power-on state of the listen mode is performed (see par. 0289-0293). Gurevitz fails to disclose based at least in part on the RSSI is greater than an RSSI threshold. In an analogous art, Morelli discloses wherein alternating the one or more components is performed when the RSSI is greater than a first RSSI threshold and less than a second RSSI threshold [below threshold level set by MAC and threshold level above greater than noise] (see col .12 lines 14-24). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the present invention to provide 'WLAN device between the power-off state of the listen mode and the power-on state of the listen mode is performed when an RSSI is greater than a first RSSI threshold and less than a second RSSI threshold' to effectively switch the mobile station between an active mode and a sleep mode in order to conserve power without substantially sacrificing data exchange rate, Morelli Col. 3, Il 35-40.
As to claim 8, Gurevitz discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the one or more components of the first WLAN device include at least one of: a radio frequency (RF) front end; an analog-to-digital converter (ADC); or a baseband processing unit (see par. 0055, 0086).
As to claim 14, Gurevitz discloses the method of claim 1, further comprising: monitoring for a preamble of the packet while operating in the power-on state of the listen mode[,] using the preamble information in response to detecting the preamble information [controller 164 (FIG. 1) may be configured to trigger, cause, instruct and/or control receiver 116 (FIG. 1) to switch the one or more RF components 170 (FIG. 1) between the on-state and the off-state based on the detection criterion for preamble] (see par. 0085, 0289).
Regarding claims 15-16 and 20, they are the corresponding first wireless local area network device and non-transitory computer-readable medium claims of method claims 1-2. Therefore, claims 15-16 and 20 are rejected for the same reasons as shown above and fig. 1 for the processor, memory, etc.
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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MARCOS L TORRES whose telephone number is (571)272-7926. The examiner can normally be reached 10:00 AM - 6:00 PM M-F.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Alison Slater can be reached at (571)270-0375. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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MARCOS L. TORRES
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2647
/MARCOS L TORRES/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2647
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