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 information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 2023-09-19 has been considered by the examiner and made of record in the application file.
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.
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.
Claims 29-48 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Patent No. 5,903,832 to Seppanen et al. (“Seppanen”) in view of U.S. Patent Publication No. 2023/0363055 to Li et al. (“Li”).
As to claim 33 (and similarly applied to claims 29, 40, and 44), Seppanen discloses a method performed by a user equipment (UE) for handling communication in a wireless communications network, the method comprising: configuring the UE with a mapping, wherein the mapping maps a name indication to a type indication of a type of service offered by one or more networks (Figs. 3A-23D and 24, Abstract, and Col. 11: lines 6-35; the UE stores network ID, Alpha Tag (i.e., name indication), type of service offered by the network, etc.). Examiner notes that Seppanen also discloses a UE (mobile station 10) and radio network nodes (base stations 30), which perform the methods described herein. Thus, claims 29, 40, and 44 are similarly rejected. (see Figs. 2A-B and Col. 5: lines 10-31).
Seppanen does not disclose: at least one of a group identity (GID) or networks identified by the GID.
However, Li discloses: at least one of a group identity (GID) (Fig. 4 and ¶0043-46) and networks identified by the GID (Fig. 4 and ¶0043-46).
Seppanen and Li are considered to be similar to the claimed invention because they are in one or more of the same fields of: access restriction, network selection, and/or access point selection, e.g., selecting a network or a communication service; devices specially adapted for operation in multiple wireless communication networks; and/or network data management, i.e., processing of user, subscriber, or group data at user equipment or user record carrier. As such, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Seppanen to incorporate the teachings of Li to include: at least one of a group identity (GID) and networks identified by the GID. Doing so would allow for "supporting enhanced non-public network (eNPN) for NG-RAN… [including] supporting SNPN along with subscription or credentials owned by an entity separate from the SNPN including at least one of the broadcasting of information to enable SNPN selection for UEs with subscription/credentials owned by an entity separate from the SNPN, the associated cell selection/reselection and connected mode mobility support, or the necessary modifications over network interfaces" (Li, ¶0034).
As to claim 34 (and similarly applied to claims 30, 41, and 45), Seppanen in view of Li discloses the method according to claim 33, further comprising receiving system information (SI) comprising at least one of the GID (Li, Fig. 4 and ¶0043-44; the group ID is received in a broadcast message, which may comprise a system information block (SIB), for one example, SIB1) and the type indication (Seppanen, Figs. 5H, 8A, 24; Abstract and Col. 11: lines 6-35; additionally, Col. 8: lines 13-22: the mobile station can search for other networks to add to its list of networks mapped to ID, Alpha Tag (i.e., name indication), type of service offered by the network, etc. Examiner notes that it would be obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to include the type indication of Seppanen in the SIB of Li).
As to claim 35 (and similarly applied to claims 31, 42, and 46), Seppanen in view of Li discloses the method according to claim 34, wherein the SI further comprises at least one of the mapping (Li, Fig. 4 and ¶0043-44; the group ID is received in a broadcast message, which may comprise a system information block (SIB), for one example, SIB1) and the name indication (Seppanen, Figs. 5H, 8A, 24; Abstract and Col. 11: lines 6-35; additionally, Col. 8: lines 13-22: the mobile station can search for other networks to add to its list of networks mapped to ID, Alpha Tag (i.e., name indication), type of service offered by the network, etc. Examiner notes that it would be obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to include the type indication of Seppanen in the SIB of Li).
As to claim 36 (and similarly applied to claim 47), Seppanen in view of Li discloses the method according to claim 35, further comprising using at least one of the type indication, the GID (Li, Fig. 4 and ¶0043-46), and the name indication to access a network (Seppanen, Figs. 4A-15C, Col. 7: lines 50-53, the user can choose to join a network "By Name" or "By Service [type]"; Col. 8, lines 59-65, if the user selects "By Service [type]", they can subsequently select a network name; and Col. 8: lines 35-41, once a network is selected, the mobile station attempts to register to the network).
As to claim 37 (and similarly applied to claim 48), Seppanen in view of Li discloses the method according to claim 36, wherein using the at least one of the type indication, the GID, and the name indication to access a network comprises selecting one of the networks based on the GID (Li, Fig. 4 and ¶0043-46) and/or the type indication, and the mapped name indication (Seppanen, Figs. 4A-15C, Col. 7: lines 50-53, the user can choose to join a network "By Name" or "By Service [type]"; Col. 8, lines 59-65, if the user selects "By Service [type]", they can subsequently select a network name; and Col. 8: lines 35-41, once a network is selected, the mobile station attempts to register to the network).
As to claim 38, Seppanen in view of Li discloses the method according to claim 37, wherein the one of the networks is manually selected based on the name indication (Seppanen, Figs. 4A-15C, Col. 7: lines 50-53, the user can choose to join a network "By Name" or "By Service [type]"; Col. 8, lines 59-65, if the user selects "By Service [type]", they can subsequently select a network name; and Col. 8: lines 35-41, once a network is manually selected, the mobile station attempts to register to the network).
As to claim 39 (and similarly applied to claims 32 and 43), Seppanen in view of Li discloses the method according to claim 33, wherein the name indication comprises human readable service information (Seppanen, Figs. 4A-24; the name indications are human-readable, e.g. "Private Microsoft Ltd." as in Fig. 22F).
References Cited
Li, Wenting et al. (2023). Methods, devices, and systems for configuring enhanced non-public network (US 2023/0363055 A1). Filed 2023-07-14.
Seppanen, Jorma et al. (1999). Mobile terminal having enhanced system selection capability (US 5,903,832 A). Filed 1995-12-21.
Other Pertinent References
The following prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant’s disclosure:
Albasheir, Suliman et al. (2019). Methods for serving gateway selection based on type-of-service in a wireless communication network (US 2019/0223076 A1). Filed 2018-08-01.
Arnold, Kevin M. et al. (2000). System and method for identifying and locating services on multiple heterogeneous networks using a query by type (US 6,167,449 A). Filed 1997-11-19.
Baek, Youngkyo et al. (2022). Network structure and service providing method for supporting multicast and broadcast service in mobile communication network (US 2022/0279319 A1). Filed 2020-08-24.
Cheng, Peng et al. (2024). Random access channel parameter prioritization with network slice differentiation and access identity differentiation (US 2024/0015798 A1). Filed 2021-01-14.
Chong, Weiwei et al. (2022). Communication method, device, and system, and storage medium (US 2022/0225094 A1). Filed 2022-03-29.
Chung, Hyung Seok et al. (2015). Network service system and method for providing network service in multiple mobile network environment (US 2015/0195764 A1). Filed 2015-01-07.
Chauhan, Devesh et al. (2021). System and method of customizing and updating information (US 2021/0084486 A1). Filed 2020-09-17.
Forssell, Mika et al. (2011). Network discovery and selection (US 2011/0072101 A1). Filed 2008-06-04.
Han, Jaekwang et al. (2020). Electronic device for supporting data communication and method therefor (US 2020/0053806 A1). Filed 2019-07-25.
Han, Yoonseon et al. (2023). Method and apparatus for providing plurality of virtual networks for single application in mobile communication network (US 2023/0037685 A1). Filed 2021-01-05.
Huang, Zhenglei (2022). Information processing method, communication apparatus, and communication system (US 2022/0353337 A1). Filed 2022-06-29.
Jeong, Sangsoo et al. (2018). Method and apparatus for selecting core network in mobile communication system (US 2018/0262980 A1). Filed 2018-05-16.
Kang, Sujung et al. (2021). Method and apparatus for processing communication company information in wireless communication system (US 2021/0120424 A1). Filed 2019-06-25.
Lai, Chia-Lin et al. (2022). Network selection for supported standalone non-public network (s-snpn) (US 2022/0046530 A1). Filed 2021-07-01.
Li, Zhuoming (2023). Communication method and apparatus (US 2023/0026697 A1). Filed 2022-09-30.
Li, Wenting et al. (2022). Cell reselection techniques (US 2022/0386193 A1). Filed 2022-08-03.
Sasi, Nivedya Parambath et al. (2022). Credential storage and selection of credentials for non-public network (US 2022/0225093 A1). Filed 2020-05-26.
Shih, MEI-JU et al. (2021). Method of performing closed access group selection in non-public network and related device (US 2021/0377850 A1). Filed 2021-05-31.
Sama, Malla Reddy et al. (2022). Network function database, mobile communication network component, method for selecting a network function and method for registering a network function (US 2022/0159536 A1). Filed 2020-02-11.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SAMUEL H LEONARD whose telephone number is (571)272-5720. The examiner can normally be reached Monday – Friday, 7am – 4pm (PT).
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/SAMUEL H. LEONARD/Examiner, Art Unit 2649 /YUWEN PAN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2649