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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of claims 1-6, 8, 9, 21, and 25 in the reply filed on 12/2/2025 is acknowledged. The non-elected claims are cancelled.
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(s) 1, 2, 5, 6, 8, 9, 21, and 25 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by U.S. Patent Application Publication Number 2021/0007168 by Asterjadhi et al.
As to claim 1, Asterjadhi teaches a method for a radio access node (AP MLD 110) configured for transmission to a user device (Non-AP MLD 120) over multiple links (links 132 and 134), the method comprising: responsive to data (paragraphs 135 and 136, data may be available to send on both links 132 and 134 in the form of data 415 and 416) being available for transmission to the user device, determining which of the multiple links are possible links for transmission of the data (paragraphs 104-106 describe the same technique as disclosed in page 10, lines 5-11 of the applicant’s disclosure); selecting one or more links of the possible links (paragraphs 135, the control frame is selected by AP 110 for waking link 134); and transmitting a wake-up signal to the user device, the wake-up signal being indicative of the selected one or more links (paragraphs 135 and 136 and Figure 4A, ref. no. 412 wakes link 134 to receive data 416).
As to claim 2, Figure 4A shows a transmission over multiple links that comprises a multi-link operation.
As to claim 5, see paragraph 135 and Figure 4A.
As to claim 6, device 120 allocates a resource by waking link 134 and sends ack 414.
As to claim 8, signal 412 is indicative of waking link 134.
As to claim 9, see Abstract, the signaling 412 in paragraph 135 and be based on communication load, throughput requirements, or QOS.
As to claim 21, it is rejected for the same reasoning as claim 1.
As to claim 25, it is rejected for the same reasoning as claim 5.
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.
Claim(s) 3 and 4 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Patent Application Publication Number 2021/0007168 by Asterjadhi et al. in view of Applicant Admitted Prior Art (see section 2129(II) of the MPEP).
As to claim 3, Asterjadhi teaches the subject matter of claim 1, including sending a wake-up signal however Asterjadhi does not explicitly teach executing a wake-up protocol.
On page 13, lines 7-17 of the applicant’s disclosure, the applicant describes such protocols and their execution as well-known prior art.
It would have been obvious to those of ordinary skill in the device communication art at the time of the applicant’s filing to combine the teachings of Asterjadhi regarding waking up a link on device with the teachings of a using a wake-up protocol because the applicant describes such protocols as being specified by 802.11ax, which is used by the devices in Asterjadhi (paragraph 170), and therefore its incorporation into the teachings of Asterjadhi.
As to claim 4, Asterjadhi teaches the subject matter of claim 1, however Asterjadhi does not explicitly teach negotiating wake-up protocols for the multiple links.
On page 14, lines 21-24, the applicant describes negotiating wake-up protocols as operations defined for the WUR standard in relation to IEEE 802.11 communication.
It would have been obvious to those of ordinary skill in the device communication art at the time of the applicant’s filing to combine the teachings of Asterjadhi regarding waking up a link on device with the teachings of a negotiating wake-up protocols because Asterjadhi conforms to 802.11 standards and therefore the use of the known WUR standard prior to executing Figure 4A would be obvious in the broad context of negotiation disclosed by the applicant.
Conclusion
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/DOUGLAS B BLAIR/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2454