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 references listed in the Information Disclosure Statement, filed on 19 April 2024, have been considered by the examiner (see attached PTO-1449 form or PTO/SB/08A and 08B forms).
Claim Objections
Claims 1, 4-6, 15-17 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Regarding claims 1, 4, 5, 6, 15, 16, 17, it is believed that the claimed limitation “the second unit” is meant to reflect on the antecedent basis of “the second mobile unit” of the respective independent claims.
Regarding claims 4, 5, 6, 15, 16, 17, it is believed that the claimed limitation “the first unit” is meant to reflect on the antecedent basis of “the first mobile unit” of the respective independent claims.
Regarding claims 5 and 16, it is suggested to replace the claimed limitation “the replay” in lines 3 and 5 respectively with --the reply--.
Appropriate correction is required.
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 1-2, 9, 12-13, 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cheong et al. (PG Pub US 2022/0337986 A1) in view of Greiner et al. (PG Pub US 2019/0164207 A1).
Regarding claims 1, 12, Cheong discloses a method and a system for managing communication between units.
a first mobile unit configured to: transmit, by a transmitter of the first mobile unit, a poll message that includes data indicating an identification (ID) of the first mobile unit (“the electronic device 401 may transmit a poll 321. The electronic device 401 may transmit (e.g., broadcast) the poll 321 at specified intervals. The poll 321 may include a contention phase duration value (e.g., the number of unit slots)” [0066], “an advertising packet containing information (e.g., identifier and/or Bluetooth address information) about the electronic device 401. The advertising packet may be multicast or broadcast” [0060], “The scan request 307 may include information (e.g., identification information and Bluetooth address information) of the first electronic device 201” [0062]);
adjust, in response to the broadcasting, a power state of a receiver of the first mobile unit to an on-power state for a specified amount of time (“After transmitting the poll 321, the electronic device 401 may activate a reception path of a UWB communication module, and may attempt to receive a response signal during the contention phase duration” [0066]);
a second mobile unit configured to: receive, by a receiver of a second mobile unit, the poll message (“the electronic device 401 may transmit a poll 321. The electronic device 401 may transmit (e.g., broadcast) the poll 321 at specified intervals” [0066]);
store data indicating the poll message of the first mobile unit (“the electronic device 401 may store, in the memory 430, information of electronic devices belonging to the same group. The electronic device 401 may identify electronic devices belonging to the same group (e.g., family account) using a database stored in the memory 430” [0103]);
transmit, in response to receiving the poll message and within the specified amount of time, a reply message to the first mobile unit, the reply message including data indicating an identification (ID) of the second mobile unit (“The first electronic device 201, which has received the poll 321, may transmit a response 323 (e.g., UWB frame) to the poll 321. For example, the first electronic device 201 may transmit (e.g., unicast) the response 323 to the electronic device 401 at any point of time within the contention phase duration value indicated by the poll 321. For example, the response 323 may include positioning information (e.g., arrival angle), reception time information, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and/or response time information” [0066], “exchanging important information such as unique identifiers” [0065]);
the first mobile unit further configured to: detect, by the receiver of the first mobile unit, the reply message (“The first electronic device 201, which has received the poll 321, may transmit a response 323 (e.g., UWB frame) to the poll 321. For example, the first electronic device 201 may transmit (e.g., unicast) the response 323 to the electronic device 401 at any point of time within the contention phase duration value indicated by the poll 321” [0066]; and
store data indicating the reply message of the second mobile unit (“the electronic device 401 may store, in the memory 430, information of electronic devices belonging to the same group. The electronic device 401 may identify electronic devices belonging to the same group (e.g., family account) using a database stored in the memory 430” [0103]).
However, Cheong does not explicitly disclose a poll message that includes an ID and the reply message including an ID.
Nevertheless, Greiner discloses “BLE beacon 102 may broadcast a universally unique identifier (UUID), major number, and minor number to identify the merchant … Customer device 104A may transmit a customer identifier .. The customer identifier may also include an identification number such as a UUID, major number, and minor number” [0028].
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 have a poll message that includes an ID and the reply message including an ID because “The merchant identifier broadcast by BLE beacon 102 may identify a particular merchant to customer device 104 to notify the customer device 104 when a customer associated with customer device 104 has entered a merchant location” [0027].
Regarding claims 2, 13, Cheong, Greiner discloses everything claimed as applied above. In addition, Cheong discloses after storing the data indicating the reply message of the second mobile unit, adjusting, by the first mobile unit, the power state of the receiver of the first mobile unit to an off-power state (“information of a duty cycle (e.g., activation time period and duration of the first communication circuit 491) of BLE scanning for UWB communication. The BLE scanning duty cycle may be set to 10% (e.g., total period 5000 ms, scanning period duration 500 ms) .. the first electronic device 201 may perform the above-mentioned BLE scanning repeatedly until Bluetooth function is deactivated, the UWB application requests stopping of the BLE scanning, or the scanning is stopped based on Bluetooth protocol” [0086]).
Regarding claims 9, 20, Cheong, Greiner discloses everything claimed as applied above. In addition, Cheong discloses adjusting a communication standard utilized by the first mobile unit based on a previously identified route transversed by the first mobile unit (“The processor 420 may communicate with other electronic devices using the first communication circuit 491 based on Bluetooth protocol. For example, the first communication circuit 491 may correspond to a communication module configured to support Bluetooth communication (e.g., Bluetooth legacy and/or BLE). The electronic device 401 may communicate with the first electronic device 201, the second electronic device 202, and/or the third electronic device 203 using the first communication circuit 491” [0075], “The processor 420 may communicate with other electronic devices (e.g., the first electronic device 201, the second electronic device 202, and/or the third electronic device 203) using the second communication circuit 492 based on UWB communication protocol. For example, the second communication circuit 492 may correspond to a communication module configured to support UWB communication. The electronic device 401 may communicate with the first electronic device 201, the second electronic device 202, and/or the third electronic device 203 using the second communication circuit 492” [0076], “the electronic device 401 may determine the electronic device with which to perform UWB communication based on communication quality and state information” [0107]).
Claim 10 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cheong, Greiner in view of Chow et al. (PG Pub US 2012/0188876 A1).
Regarding claim 10, Cheong, Greiner discloses everything claimed as applied above. However, Cheong, Greiner does not explicitly disclose adjusting the communication standard can further include adjusting a frequency at which the first mobile unit broadcasts the poll message.
Nevertheless, Chow discloses “adjusting a network polling frequency comprises 1) reducing the frequency or stopping polling (i.e., searching for a network) or 2) managing a power state of a radio for one of the networks” [0014].
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 adjust a frequency at which the first mobile unit broadcasts the poll message because “This adjusting is performed when device data or network data indicates that the telecommunication device is moving or is already connected to the network being polled. Also, the adjusting may include increasing a polling frequency for one network when the device data or network data indicates that the quality of another network is poor. Further, while automatically connecting to one network, the telecommunication device may reduce the network polling frequencies for other networks. Also, while automatically disconnecting from one network, the telecommunication device may increase the network polling frequencies for other networks” [0014].
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-8, 11, 14-19 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CHRISTINE T DUONG whose telephone number is (571)270-1664. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 8 AM - 6 PM EST with every other Friday off.
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/CHRISTINE T DUONG/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2462 09/26/2025