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 statement (IDS) submitted on 01/19/2024 have been placed in record and considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 1, 2, 3, 4, and 10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being unpatentable over Kang et al. (US PG Pub. 2022/0360968 A1, from IDS, hereinafter “Kang”).
In regards to claim 1, Kang teaches A method comprising: identifying, at a user equipment (UE) a first plurality of available subscriber identity module (SIM) profiles (¶ [0079], [0082] terminal receives remote management instructions to download eSIM profiles); and in response to identifying the plurality of SIM profiles, concurrently downloading the first plurality of SIM profiles to the UE (¶ [0079], [0082] once the terminal receives these instructions, the terminal downloads the eSIM profiles).
In regards to claim 2, Kang teaches concurrently downloading comprises concurrently downloading the first plurality of SIM profiles via corresponding ones of a plurality of logical secure element interfaces (LSIs) (¶ [0065], [0079], [0081] downloading eSIM profiles downloads eSIM ports, which are LSIs).
In regards to claim 3, Kang teaches opening a first LSI of the plurality of LSIs in response to identifying the plurality of SIM profiles (¶ [0079], [0090] once the eSIM profiles are downloaded, profile 1, or the first LSI, is opened after a management command).
In regards to claim 4, Kang teaches opening the first LSI comprises opening the first LSI in response to determining that a number of the available SIM profiles exceeds a number of open LSIs at the UE (¶ [0079], [0090] after downloading two SIM profiles, opening the eSIM port (LSI) on the terminal).
In regards to claim 10, Kang teaches the plurality of SIM profiles are electronic SIM (eSIM) profiles (¶ [0081], [0082] both SIM profiles are eSIM profiles).
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.
Claims 5, 6, and 7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kang et al. (US PG Pub. 2022/0360968 A1, from IDS, hereinafter “Kang”) in view of Veneroso (US PG Pub. 2018/0295501 A1). In regards to claim 5, Kang does not teach after downloading the first plurality of SIM profiles, concurrently downloading a second plurality of SIM profiles to the UE.
In an analogous art, Veneroso teaches after downloading the first plurality of SIM profiles, concurrently downloading a second plurality of SIM profiles to the UE (¶ [0114] device downloads plurality of profiles P1, the P2). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify Veneroso into Kang to more efficiently use RAM in the eUICC, preventing slowdowns that negatively affect the user experience (¶ [0118]).
In regards to claim 6, the combination Kang and Veneroso, specifically Veneroso teach downloading the second plurality of SIM profiles comprises downloading the second plurality of SIM profiles after the first plurality in response to determining a total number of available SIM profiles exceeds a number of LSIs at the UE (¶ [0008], [0114] for each profile there is a secure domain, and once the device downloads the first profiles P1, there are less secure domains than there are available profiles, which prompts the device to download the second profiles P2.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify Veneroso into Kang to more efficiently use RAM in the eUICC, preventing slowdowns that negatively affect the user experience (¶ [0118]).
In response to claim 7, the combination Kang and Veneroso, specifically Kang, teaches downloading the first plurality of SIM profiles comprises downloading a first SIM profile via a first LSI and a second SIM profile via a second LSI (¶ [0065], [0079], [0081] when downloading SIM profiles 1 and 2, each eSIM port is its own LSI).
Claims 8 and 9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kang et al. (US PG Pub. 2022/0360968 A1, from IDS, hereinafter “Kang”) in view of Veneroso (US PG Pub. 2018/0295501 A1) in further view of Xu et al. (US PG Pub. 2024/0137336 A1, hereinafter “Xu”).
In regards to claim 8, the combination Kang and Veneroso does not teach downloading the second plurality of SIM profiles comprises downloading a third SIM profile via the first LSI and a fourth SIM profile via the second LSI.
In an analogous art, Xu teaches downloading the second plurality of SIM profiles comprises downloading a third SIM profile via the first LSI and a fourth SIM profile via the second LSI (¶ [0071], [0088] device downloads various SIM profiles, storing multiple profiles in an eSIM card pool that comprises a trusted execution environment or having different profiles in different eSIM card pools).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify Xu into the combination Kang and Veneroso to scale beyond the amount of eSIM profiles a physical SIM card may have, allowing the user to have many more SIM profiles on their device increasing flexibility for the user (¶ [0088]).
In response to claim 9, the combination Kang, Veneroso, and Xu, specifically Kang, teaches the first LSI is assigned to a first protocol stack of the UE and the second LSI is assigned to a second protocol stack of the UE (¶ [0095-0096] the first eSIM port is used for one baseband, and the second eSIM port is used for another baseband of the terminal).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Chughtai et al. (US PG Pub. 2024/0276199 A1) teaches a method of providing UICC data to a requesting cellular router, checking whether the data is cached or not before requesting it from an MSA.
Muthurajan et al. (US PG Pub. 2022/0117008 A1) teaches connection settings of a mobile device, which are preloaded onto a SIM card, but then can also be updated through a remote file management operation.
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/A.A./Examiner, Art Unit 2413
/UN C CHO/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2413