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 .
Response to Remarks
This Office action is considered fully responsive to the amendments filed 08/25/2026.
The previous claim objections are withdrawn in light of Applicant’s amendments.
Some of the previous specification objections are withdrawn, some are maintained as they have not been addressed (i.e. to WiFi, Bluetooth, Blu-ray).
The previous U.S.C. 112(b) rejections are withdrawn in light of Applicant’s amendments.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see Remarks, filed 08/25/2026, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 8-20 under U.S.C. 102 and U.S.C. 103 have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of US 20160134954 A1.
Specification
The use of the terms WiFi, Bluetooth, Blu-ray each of which is a trade name or a mark used in commerce, has been noted in this application. The terms should be accompanied by the generic terminology; furthermore the terms should be capitalized entirely wherever each appears or, where appropriate, include a proper symbol indicating use in commerce such as ™, SM , or ® following the term.
Although the use of trade names and marks used in commerce (i.e., trademarks, service marks, certification marks, and collective marks) are permissible in patent applications, the proprietary nature of the marks should be respected and every effort made to prevent their use in any manner which might adversely affect their validity as commercial marks.
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.
Claim(s) 8-12, 15-19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Publication No. 2018/0270645 A1 to Seidman et al. (“Seidman”) in view of U.S. Patent No. 10,873,909 B1 to Chu et al. (“Chu”).
As to claims 8-12, see similar rejections to claims 15-19, respectively. The apparatus teaches the methods. The term “streaming” before “meter” is taught by Seidman as packets (i.e. a stream) are processed (i.e. metering) by privacy reverser 301, see para. 0042.
As to claim 15, Seidman discloses a meter (fig. 2, MAC Privacy Reverser 301), comprising:
a first communication radio configured to communicate on a network (para. 0004, radio based connectivity; para. 0042, the device id (MAC) privacy reverser 301 receives the packets to process their device ids (e.g., MAC addresses), i.e. receive radio);
a second communication radio configured to communicate on the network (para. 0004, radio based connectivity; para. 0042, The device id (MAC) listener 302 may poll for log updates containing device ids (MAC addresses) from the wireless access point 305, i.e. transmit radio); a processor (para. 0019, claim 17, processor);
and a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, having stored thereon program instructions that, upon execution by the processor, cause performance of a set of operations comprising (para. 0019, claim 17, the disclosed invention is a method or a non-transitory computer storage medium including a plurality of instructions [executed by one or more processors] for performing a process for identifying mobile users in a site, the site including a plurality of wireless access points):
monitoring, at the first communication radio, network traffic to process at least one network traffic record (para. 0042, the device id (MAC) privacy reverser 301 receives, i.e. receive radio, the packets (i.e. network traffic) to process their device ids (e.g., MAC addresses); para. 0021, the unique device identifications (i.e. network traffic records) may be MAC addresses, IMEI and/or Bluetooth identifiers);
analyzing the at least one network traffic record to determine a parameter associated with the at least one network traffic record (para. 0042, the device id (MAC) privacy reverser 301 receives the packets (i.e. network traffic) to process their device ids (e.g., MAC addresses), i.e. MAC address being a parameter of the various identifications); and
filtering, based on a match of the parameter to a stored parameter associated with the second communication radio, the at least one network traffic record (para. 0060, the filter policy may represent a pre-determined device id (e.g., MAC address) (i.e. stored parameter) pattern determined to be false. An example of such a policy could be any address (i.e. the parameter) which matches XX:XX:XX:00:X9:09 (i.e. stored parameter) where X represents that the bits may be anything, i.e. as the MAC address of the IDs is filtered, this means the list of IDs [“network traffic records”] is consequently filtered; para. 0042, The device id (MAC) listener 302 may poll for log updates containing device ids (MAC addresses) from the wireless access point 305 (i.e. as the filter policy is within listener 302, it is associated with the radio)).
Siedman does not expressly disclose the second communication radio different than the first communication radio.
Chu discloses in various embodiments, the MAC layer processor 172 and the PHY processor 174 of the client station 134-1 [i.e. equivalent to MAC privacy reverser of Seidman] are configured to generate data units, and process received data units, that conform to the WLAN communication protocol such as a communication protocol conforming to the IEEE 802.11 Standard or another suitable wireless communication protocol. For example, in an embodiment, the MAC layer processor 172 is configured to implement MAC layer functions, including MAC layer functions of the WLAN communication protocol, and the PHY processor 174 is configured to implement PHY functions, including PHY functions of the WLAN communication protocol. The MAC layer processor 172 is configured to generate MAC layer data units such as MSDUs, MPDUs, etc., and provide the MAC layer data units to the PHY processor 174, in an embodiment. The PHY processor 174 is configured to receive MAC layer data units from the MAC layer processor 172 and encapsulate the MAC layer data units to generate PHY data units such as PPDUs for transmission via the one or more antennas 146, in an embodiment. Similarly, the PHY processor 174 is configured to receive PHY data units that were received via the one or more antennas 146, and extract MAC layer data units encapsulated within the PHY data units, in an embodiment. In an embodiment, the PHY processor 174 provides the extracted MAC layer data units to the MAC layer processor 172, which then processes the MAC layer data units (col. 7. lines 57 to col. 8, line 17). Further, wireless network interface device 142 (i.e. inside client station) is capable of wirelessly receiving and transmitting via the one or more antennas 146 (fig. 1A, col. 4, lines 19-28).
Prior to the effective filing date of invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to incorporate the antennas as taught by Chu into the invention of Seidman. The suggestion/motivation would have been to have power saving features (Chu, col. 1 lines 15-20). Including the antennas as taught by Chu into the invention of Seidman was within the ordinary ability of one of ordinary skill in the art based on the teachings of Chu.
Additionally, making a transmit and receive radio, as in Seidman, separable is a common practice which is obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art as a routine expedient (see MPEP 2144.04, “Making Separable”).
As to claim 16, Seidman and Chu further discloses the meter of claim 15, wherein the network traffic includes media content requested by a media device (Seidman, para. 0042, The device id (MAC) [para. 0005, media access control (MAC)] listener 302 (i.e. media device) may poll for log updates containing device ids (MAC addresses) from the wireless access point 305). In addition, as the primary reference teaches the instant claim limitations, the same suggestion/motivation of claim 15 applies.
As to claim 17, Seidman and Chu further discloses the meter of claim 16, wherein the media content is media streamed over the network (Seidman, para. 0073, stream all packets to controller 801, where a centralized MAC [para. 0005, media access control (MAC)] privacy reverser 807 performs processing). In addition, as the primary reference teaches the instant claim limitations, the same suggestion/motivation of claim 15 applies.
As to claim 18, Seidman and Chu further discloses the meter of claim 15, wherein the parameter associated with the at least one network traffic record is a media access control (MAC) address (Seidman, para. 0042, the device id (MAC) privacy reverser 301 receives the packets (i.e. network traffic) to process their device ids (e.g., MAC addresses), i.e. MAC address being a parameter). In addition, as the primary reference teaches the instant claim limitations, the same suggestion/motivation of claim 15 applies.
As to claim 19, Seidman and Chu further discloses the meter of claim 15, wherein the parameter associated with the at least one network traffic record is at least one of a source media access control (MAC) address (Seidman, para. 0032, the disclosed invention is a system and/or process associated with one or more wireless access point devices that includes a device identification (e.g., MAC address) listener that receives a device identifications (e.g., MAC addresses) from data packets received by any one of the associated wireless access point device (i.e. source of the data meaning source MAC addresses)), a destination MAC address, an Internet Protocol (IP) address of a source or a destination of the network traffic, a port name of the source or the destination of the network traffic, application related data indicative of the network traffic (para. 0021, The unique device identifications may be MAC addresses, IMEI and/or Bluetooth identifiers, i.e. each may be an application), or data indicative of an origin device of the at least one network traffic record (para. 0032, the disclosed invention is a system and/or process associated with one or more wireless access point devices that includes a device identification (e.g., MAC address) listener that receives a device identifications (e.g., MAC addresses) from data packets received by any one of the associated wireless access point device (i.e. source of the data meaning origin)). In addition, as the primary reference teaches the instant claim limitations, the same suggestion/motivation of claim 15 applies.
Claim(s) 14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Publication No. 2018/0270645 A1 to Seidman et al. (“Seidman”) in view of U.S. Patent No. 10,873,909 B1 to Chu et al. (“Chu”) and in further view of U.S. Publication No. 2017/0257893 A1 to ZONG et al. (“Zong”).
As to claim 14, Seidman and Chu does not expressly disclose the method of claim 8, wherein monitoring, at the first communication radio, the network traffic to process the at least one network traffic record comprises: using a network parameter to process the network traffic, the network parameter including at least one of a wireless network service set identifier (SSID), an access code, a wireless network key, or a wireless network password.
Zong discloses smart terminal 110 may execute a corresponding decoding method to extract the SSID and password of the Wi-Fi network from the received information (para. 0027).
Prior to the effective filing date of invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to incorporate the extraction as taught by Zong into the invention of Seidman and Chu. The suggestion/motivation would have been to connect to Wi-Fi (Zong, para. 0027). Including the extraction as taught by Zong into the invention of Seidman and Chu was within the ordinary ability of one of ordinary skill in the art based on the teachings of Zong.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
US 2016/0134954 A1 discloses at para. 0019: An embodiment of the present invention provides an access switch (i.e. equivalent to MAC Privacy Reverser of Seidman, as it monitors MAC addressing) [para. 0094, long data streams, i.e. a streaming meter], where the access switch includes: a transceiving module, includes a first Ethernet transceiving unit, a second Ethernet transceiving unit and an optical packet transceiving unit, where the transceiving module is configured to extract Media Access Control Address (MAC) frame control information from a received MAC frame, and establish a MAC address forwarding table according to the control information, where the MAC frame control information includes one or any combination of a source MAC address, a destination MAC address, a virtual local area network identifier and frame protocol type information.
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 OMAR J GHOWRWAL whose telephone number is (571)270-5691. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:00am-6:00pm.
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/OMAR J GHOWRWAL/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2463
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