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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 07/02/2026 has been entered.
Response to Amendment
The following is a non-final office action in response to applicant’s amendment filed on 06/08/2026 for response of the office action mailed on 03/04/2026. Claims 1, 9 and 11 are amended. Claims 4-7 and 10 are cancelled. Claims 1-3, 8-9 and 11 are pending in this application.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments with respect to Claims 1-3, 8-9 and 11, filed 06/08/2026 have been considered but are not persuasive/are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Argument(s) regarding Phuah/Karr: Due to the amendment(s) made on independent Claims 1, 9 and 11, the Office no longer relies on Phuah and Karr, and instead introduces Crump (US 2020/0186381) and Nicholson et al. (US 2016/0142872), therefore arguments are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument(s) regarding Phuah/Karr.
Argument(s) regarding Fontaine: The other documents Fontaine and Hampel do not alleviate the previously identified deficiencies of Phuah and Karr. Newly cited document Fontaine relates to techniques for controlling a femtocell or picocell home radio access point in a mobile network. This document, applied only in relation with dependant Claim 2 in the Office Action, does not disclose or suggest either the features of amended Claim 1 as previously discussed.
Response regarding Fontaine: Examiner has considered the applicant’s arguments/remarks and respectfully disagrees. Fontaine teaches the claimed functionality by disclosing that the gateway detects the presence of a terminal and “gives the order to wake up the radio access point” therefore teaching an exit from a sleep state of the gateway equipment (Page 7, ¶16). Fontaine further teaches transmitting commands for “putting on standby, deactivating [and] activating the access point (Page 4, ¶2), therefore teaching activation of a wireless access point at the gateway equipment. Activating or waking the access point restores the wireless communication capability of the local area network, therefore modifying its operational state. This response applies to Claim 2.
Argument(s) regarding Hampel: Previously cited document Hampel relates to multi-hop wireless backhaul networking techniques, according to which a network access device configures a user equipment to connect to, and route communications through, one or more relays, when the user equipment experiences poor communication with a network access device for example. Hampel, applied only in relation with dependant Claim 8 in the Office Action, does not disclose or suggest either the features of amended Claim 1 as previously discussed.
Response regarding Hampel: Examiner has considered the applicant’s arguments and respectfully disagrees. Hampel teaches determining a reference relay automatically based on a prior association with the device. Specifically, Hampel discloses that relays autonomously attach to previously integrated relays or donor nodes to establish connectivity (¶0004, ¶0048, Fig. 2), and that an integrated relay may provide gateway functionality. Hampel further teaches communication between the mobile communication terminal (UE) and the network through identified relay/base stations within the gateway’s coverage area (¶65). Thus, Hampel teaches automatically identifying a previously determined relay associated with the gateway network and using that relay attachment to establish communication, corresponding to the claimed determination of a previously determined reference relay antenna based on prior identification of a relay to which a mobile communication terminal is attached.
Applicant is reminded that obviousness may be established by combining or modifying the teachings of the prior art to produce the claimed invention where there is some teaching, suggestion, or motivation to do so found either in the references themselves or in the knowledge generally available to one of ordinary skill in the art. See in re Fine, 837 F.2d 1071, 5 USPQ2d 1596 (Fed. Cir. 1988), In re Jones, F.2d 347, 21 USPQ2d 1941 (Fed. Cir. 1992), and KSR international Co. v. Teleflex, Inc., 550 U.S. 398, 82 USPQ2d 1385 (2007).
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.
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 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 non-obviousness.
Claims 1, 3, 9 and 11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Crump (US 2020/0186381), Crump hereinafter, and further in view of Nicholson et al. (US 2016/0142872), Nicholson hereinafter.
Re. Claim 1, Crump teaches a method for activating at least one functionality of gateway equipment providing the interface between a wide area network and a local area network, (Fig. 1-5, 8 & ¶0021 - In the home, the user may have one or more network devices connected to a home network 102 that connects to the internet 109 through a router 104 connected to a modem 106. … Router 104 and modem 106 can be any type of network gateway, which acts as an entrance to the internet 109 through ISP 110, and may include devices such as a combination of a router and a high-speed modem, including a DSL modem and a cable modem, among others. Examiner interprets webserver 112 as the electronic device, router 104 as the gateway device, the home network 102 as the LAN and the internet 109 as the WAN);
the functionality being related to modifying an operational state of the local area network, (Fig. 1-5, 8 & ¶0022 - In this configuration, smart switch 100 gives user-control over router 104 between an on state and an off state, which in turn disables home network 102. ¶0027 - When geofence 304 is empty, i.e. both mobile devices 300a, 300b are outside the perimeter as shown in FIG. 5, router 104 is off. This corresponds with a presumption that no one is at the home/office so the network is not needed. Conversely, when one or more of the associated mobile devices 300a, 300b are inside the perimeter, router 104 is on);
wherein the method comprises, at an electronic device connected to the wide area network, an activation via the wide area network of the at least one functionality related to modifying an operational state of the local area network, (Fig. 1-5, 8 & ¶0028 - Mobile devices 300a, 300b send updates of their location to webserver 112 so that webserver 112 will notify smart switch 100 to turn off when all of the associated mobile devices 300a, 300b leave the perimeter of geofence 304, and, conversely, to turn on when one of the associated mobile devices 300a, 300b enters the perimeter of geofence 304. Examiner interprets the webserver 112 as the electronic device);
in response to location information from at least one mobile communication terminal referenced to the gateway equipment being representative of a geographic proximity of the mobile communication terminal with the gateway equipment, (Fig. 1-5, 8 & ¶0026 - As such, mobile device 300 can comprise a mobile application 302 that communicates with a webserver 112 (FIG. 1) for providing instructions to smart switch 100, such as one or more predetermined conditions for switching smart switch 100 to the on state to enable router 104. These predetermined conditions can include (i) a geofencing area in which a user of the home network device resides wherein when the user is in the geofencing area the home network device is in the on state);
Yet, Crump does not explicitly teach the geographic proximity of the mobile communication terminal with the gateway equipment being established by the electronic device when the location information data is in the form of data representative of a current attachment of the mobile communication terminal to at least one previously determined reference relay antenna of a cellular network.
However, in the analogous art, Nicholson explicitly teaches the geographic proximity of the mobile communication terminal with the gateway equipment being established by the electronic device when the location information data is in the form of data representative of a current attachment of the mobile communication terminal to at least one previously determined reference relay antenna of a cellular network (Fig. 5 & ¶0010 - A practical geofence solution requires the coupling of two technologies: i) a geolocation (finding where the mobile device is) and ii) geofencing determining whether the mobile device is within a defined area. ¶0012 - In mobile device based geolocation, the geofencing implementation must constantly monitor the mobile device location via one of the mobile device based location methods which include … cell identifiers … ¶0017 - Cell-id based geofencing will locate a user to the area of a cell which may have a radius of 1 to 5 km. ¶0073 - A user 105 can be located to either their cell ID or to a routing area (group of cells).¶0113 - The network distributes the geofences to the cell towers which cover the area defined by the geofence. One method of identifying which cell towers cover a particular geofence is by computing the distance between a cell tower and the region defining the geofence).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add the teaching of Nicholson to the teaching of Crump. The motivation would be because the invention is directed to geolocation functionality of a mobile device in a network. In particular, it provides a system and a method suitable for managing a geofence associated with the geolocation of the mobile device (¶0001, Nicholson).
Re. Claim 3, Crump and Nicholson teach Claim 1.
Crump further teaches the location information is in the form of data indicative of proximity, received by the electronic device from the communication terminal, confirming the geographic proximity of the mobile communication terminal with the gateway equipment (Fig. 1-5, 8 & ¶0009 - The device can be configured responsive to three predetermined conditions comprising: (1) a geofencing area in which a user of the home network device resides wherein when the user is in the geofencing area the home network device is in the on state … The device can be in communication with a mobile device that is associated with the user over a communication network for determining a geolocation of the user for determining whether the user is in the geofencing area. ¶0028 - Mobile application 302 can be configured to send updates to webserver 112 when mobile device 302 enters or leaves geofence 304 … Mobile devices 300a, 300b send updates of their location to webserver 112 so that webserver 112 will notify smart switch 100 to turn off when all of the associated mobile devices 300a, 300b leave the perimeter of geofence 304, and, conversely, to turn on when one of the associated mobile devices 300a, 300b enters the perimeter of geofence 304).
Re. Claim 9, Crump teaches an electronic device for activating at least one functionality of gateway equipment providing an interface between a wide area network and a local area network, (Fig. 1, 3 (Please see webserver 112) 2, 4-5, 8 & ¶0021 - In the home, the user may have one or more network devices connected to a home network 102 that connects to the internet 109 through a router 104 connected to a modem 106. … Router 104 and modem 106 can be any type of network gateway, which acts as an entrance to the internet 109 through ISP 110, and may include devices such as a combination of a router and a high-speed modem, including a DSL modem and a cable modem, among others. Examiner interprets webserver 112 as the electronic device, router 104 as the gateway device, the home network 102 as the LAN and the internet 109 as the WAN);
the electronic device being connected to the wide area network and the functionality being related to modifying an operational state of the local area network, (Fig. 1-5, 8 & ¶0028 - Mobile devices 300a, 300b send updates of their location to webserver 112 so that webserver 112 will notify smart switch 100 to turn off when all of the associated mobile devices 300a, 300b leave the perimeter of geofence 304, and, conversely, to turn on when one of the associated mobile devices 300a, 300b enters the perimeter of geofence 304);
wherein the electronic device comprises a processor configured for activating the at least one functionality related to modifying an operational state of the local area network, (Fig. 1-5, 8 & ¶0022 - In this configuration, smart switch 100 gives user-control over router 104 between an on state and an off state, which in turn disables home network 102. ¶0027 - When geofence 304 is empty, i.e. both mobile devices 300a, 300b are outside the perimeter as shown in FIG. 5, router 104 is off. This corresponds with a presumption that no one is at the home/office so the network is not needed. Conversely, when one or more of the associated mobile devices 300a, 300b are inside the perimeter, router 104 is on);
in response to location information from at least one mobile communication terminal referenced to the gateway equipment being representative of a geographic proximity of the mobile communication terminal with the gateway equipment, (Fig. 1-5, 8 & ¶0026 - As such, mobile device 300 can comprise a mobile application 302 that communicates with a webserver 112 (FIG. 1) for providing instructions to smart switch 100, such as one or more predetermined conditions for switching smart switch 100 to the on state to enable router 104. These predetermined conditions can include (i) a geofencing area in which a user of the home network device resides wherein when the user is in the geofencing area the home network device is in the on state);
Yet, Crump does not explicitly teach the geographic proximity of the mobile communication terminal with the gateway equipment being established by the electronic device when the location information data is in the form of data representative of a current attachment of the mobile communication terminal to at least one previously determined reference relay antenna of a cellular network.
However, in the analogous art, Nicholson explicitly teaches the geographic proximity of the mobile communication terminal with the gateway equipment being established by the electronic device when the location information data is in the form of data representative of a current attachment of the mobile communication terminal to at least one previously determined reference relay antenna of a cellular network (Fig. 5 & ¶0010 - A practical geofence solution requires the coupling of two technologies: i) a geolocation (finding where the mobile device is) and ii) geofencing determining whether the mobile device is within a defined area. ¶0012 - In mobile device based geolocation, the geofencing implementation must constantly monitor the mobile device location via one of the mobile device based location methods which include … cell identifiers … ¶0017 - Cell-id based geofencing will locate a user to the area of a cell which may have a radius of 1 to 5 km. ¶0073 - A user 105 can be located to either their cell ID or to a routing area (group of cells).¶0113 - The network distributes the geofences to the cell towers which cover the area defined by the geofence. One method of identifying which cell towers cover a particular geofence is by computing the distance between a cell tower and the region defining the geofence).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add the teaching of Nicholson to the teaching of Crump. The motivation would be because the invention is directed to geolocation functionality of a mobile device in a network. In particular, it provides a system and a method suitable for managing a geofence associated with the geolocation of the mobile device (¶0001, Nicholson).
Re. Claim 11, Crump teaches a non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising a computer program stored thereon, comprising program code instructions for executing
a method for activating at least one functionality of gateway equipment providing the interface between a wide area network and a local area network, (Fig. 1-5, 8 & ¶0021 - In the home, the user may have one or more network devices connected to a home network 102 that connects to the internet 109 through a router 104 connected to a modem 106. … Router 104 and modem 106 can be any type of network gateway, which acts as an entrance to the internet 109 through ISP 110, and may include devices such as a combination of a router and a high-speed modem, including a DSL modem and a cable modem, among others. Examiner interprets webserver 112 as the electronic device, router 104 as the gateway device, the home network 102 as the LAN and the internet 109 as the WAN);
when the computer program is executed by a processor, the functionality being related to modifying an operational state of the local area network, the method comprising, (Fig. 1-5, 8 & ¶0022 - In this configuration, smart switch 100 gives user-control over router 104 between an on state and an off state, which in turn disables home network 102. ¶0027 - When geofence 304 is empty, i.e. both mobile devices 300a, 300b are outside the perimeter as shown in FIG. 5, router 104 is off. This corresponds with a presumption that no one is at the home/office so the network is not needed. Conversely, when one or more of the associated mobile devices 300a, 300b are inside the perimeter, router 104 is on);
at an electronic device connected to the wide area network, an activation via the wide area network of the at least one functionality related to modifying an operational state of the local area network, (Fig. 1-5, 8 & ¶0028 - Mobile devices 300a, 300b send updates of their location to webserver 112 so that webserver 112 will notify smart switch 100 to turn off when all of the associated mobile devices 300a, 300b leave the perimeter of geofence 304, and, conversely, to turn on when one of the associated mobile devices 300a, 300b enters the perimeter of geofence 304);
in response to location information from at least one mobile communication terminal referenced to the gateway equipment being representative of a geographic proximity of the mobile communication terminal with the gateway equipment, (Fig. 1-5, 8 & ¶0026 - As such, mobile device 300 can comprise a mobile application 302 that communicates with a webserver 112 (FIG. 1) for providing instructions to smart switch 100, such as one or more predetermined conditions for switching smart switch 100 to the on state to enable router 104. These predetermined conditions can include (i) a geofencing area in which a user of the home network device resides wherein when the user is in the geofencing area the home network device is in the on state);
Yet, Crump does not explicitly teach the geographic proximity of the mobile communication terminal with the gateway equipment being established by the electronic device when the location information is in the form of data representative of a current attachment of the mobile communication terminal to at least one previously determined reference relay antenna of a cellular network.
However, in the analogous art, Nicholson explicitly teaches the geographic proximity of the mobile communication terminal with the gateway equipment being established by the electronic device when the location information is in the form of data representative of a current attachment of the mobile communication terminal to at least one previously determined reference relay antenna of a cellular network (Fig. 5 & ¶0010 - A practical geofence solution requires the coupling of two technologies: i) a geolocation (finding where the mobile device is) and ii) geofencing determining whether the mobile device is within a defined area. ¶0012 - In mobile device based geolocation, the geofencing implementation must constantly monitor the mobile device location via one of the mobile device based location methods which include … cell identifiers … ¶0017 - Cell-id based geofencing will locate a user to the area of a cell which may have a radius of 1 to 5 km. ¶0073 - A user 105 can be located to either their cell ID or to a routing area (group of cells).¶0113 - The network distributes the geofences to the cell towers which cover the area defined by the geofence. One method of identifying which cell towers cover a particular geofence is by computing the distance between a cell tower and the region defining the geofence).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add the teaching of Nicholson to the teaching of Crump. The motivation would be because the invention is directed to geolocation functionality of a mobile device in a network. In particular, it provides a system and a method suitable for managing a geofence associated with the geolocation of the mobile device (¶0001, Nicholson).
Claim 2 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Crump and Nicholson, and further in view of Fontaine et al. (FR-3006529A1), Fontaine hereinafter.
Re. Claim 2, Crump and Nicholson teach Claim 1.
Yet, Crump and Nicholson do not explicitly teach the functionality belongs to a group comprising: an exit from a sleep state of the gateway equipment; and an activation of at least one wireless access point at the gateway equipment.
However, in the analogous art, Fontaine explicitly teaches the functionality belongs to a group comprising: an exit from a sleep state of the gateway equipment (Page 7, ¶6 - The gateway can, for example, detect the presence of the terminal in the cell via its WiFi module (or alternatively Bluetooth, Zigbee, etc.) and therefore give the order to wake up the radio access point); and an activation of at least one wireless access point at the gateway equipment (Page 4, ¶2 - The invention makes it possible to remedy this situation by transmitting to the access point appropriate commands for taking into account or refusing a connection, putting on standby, deactivating, activating the access point, and so on…. the invention relates to a device for managing the state of a radio access point of a radio cell of a radio telecommunications network, the access point being able to accept the connection of mobile radio terminals).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add the teaching of Fontaine to the teachings of Crump and Nicholson. The motivation would be because the invention relates to a configuration of a base station, or access point, of a cellular mobile radio telecommunication network (Page 1, Description ¶2, Fontaine).
Claim 8 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Crump and Nicholson, and further in view of Hampel et al. (US 2018/0288823), Hampel hereinafter.
Re. Claim 8, Crump and Nicholson teach Claim 1.
Yet, Crump and Nicholson do not explicitly teach the at least one previously determined reference relay antenna is determined automatically based on an address associated with the gateway equipment or based on a prior identification of at least one relay antenna to which the mobile communication terminal is attached when the mobile communication terminal is connected to a wireless local area network provided by the gateway equipment.
However, in the analogous art, Hampel explicitly discloses the at least one previously determined reference relay antenna is determined automatically based on an address associated with the gateway equipment or based on a prior identification of at least one relay antenna to which the mobile communication terminal is attached when the mobile communication terminal is connected to a wireless local area network provided by the gateway equipment (Fig. 2 & ¶0065 - … coverage area 205 associated with base station 105-b may be expanded (e.g., such that UE 115-b may communicate with the CN 130-a through base station 105-b) using multi-hop relay technique. As described above, base station 105-b … may communicate with relay 220-a via wireless backhaul 225-a. Fig. 2 & ¶0048 - The proposed techniques allow each relay to autonomously connect to a donor (or anchor) node using a packet data unit (PDU) Session Request procedure that resembles the procedure used by a UE to connect to a base station. When integrated, the relay may provide gNB functionality as well as gateway (GW) functionality… Fig. 2 & ¶0004 - For the support of wireless backhauling, it may be desirable to enable new relays to autonomously attach to already-integrated relays (e.g., by reusing existing packet data network (PDN) connectivity establishment procedures, and thereby obtaining network connectivity (e.g., data network (DN) connectivity) to the donor).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to add the teaching of Hampel to the teachings of Crump and Nicholson. The motivation would be because in some cases, a UE may experience poor communication with a network access device, and the network access device may configure the UE to connect to, and route communications through, one or more relays (¶0004, Hampel).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Quam et al. (US 2015/0163631) – Please see Abstract and Fig. 93-104.
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 ALYSSA WILLIAMS whose telephone number is (571)270-7673. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 8-5pm. Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Ayman Abaza can be reached on (571) 270-0422. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ALYSSA WILLIAMS/Examiner, Art Unit 2465B /CHRISTOPHER T WYLLIE/Examiner, Art Unit 2465
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