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 .
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 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) 6, 7, 8, 10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Kavuri (US 2021/0105866 A1)
Regarding Claim 6,
Kavuri discloses a method for communication between a multiple subscriber identity module (SIM) user equipment (UE) (Fig.7B(106)) and a plurality of networks (See [Abstract]; Paging method between Multi-SIM UE and corresponding networks),
the method comprising:
receiving a notification of priority activity from at least one second network of the plurality of networks (See [Abstract]; [0127]; a network may include an indication of
a paging priority to the Multi-SIM UE),
wherein the at least one second network is associated with at least one second SIM (See [0011]; [0127]; A first SIM may be transitioned to connected mode based on a first page received from the network, e.g., from a first AMF of the network. The first page may include an indication of an associated first paging priority);
allowing a first network to hold allocation of physical channel resources to the first SIM based on the notification (See [0011]; [0127]; SIM with higher priority paging is allocate with resources and the other SIM with lower priority is put on hold in term of resources allocated),
wherein the first network is associated with a first SIM (See [0011]; [0First Network associated with first SIM);
receiving a notification of completion of the priority activity from the at least one second network (See [0121]; [0127]; SIM 1145b may transmit a tune-away indication that indicates an end of the tune-away); and
allowing the first network to resume allocation of physical channel resources to the first SIM (See [0121]; [0127]; upon completion of the voice call, SIM 1145a may grant RF resources back to SIM 1145b and, at 1136, the connection supported by SIM 1145a may transition back to idle mode) upon receiving the notification of completion of the priority activity (See [0121]; [0127]; SIM 1145b may transmit a tune-away indication that indicates an end of the tune-away).
Regarding Claim 7,
Kavuri teaches all the features with respect to claim 6 and Kavuri further teaches
wherein prior to
allowing the first network to hold allocation of physical channel resources (See [0011]; [0127]; SIM with higher priority paging is allocate with resources and the other SIM with lower priority is put on hold in term of resources allocated),,
the method further comprises:
transmitting the notification of priority activity to the first network of the plurality of networks (See [0127]; SIM 1145b may determine that a tune-away indication is necessary based on a cause (e.g., voice call for SIM 1145a) of the tune-away and
transmit a tune-away indication, with cause, to AMF 1104b) .
Regarding Claim 8,
Kavuri teaches all the features with respect to claim 6 and Kavuri further teaches
wherein prior to
receiving the notification of the priority activity from the at least one second network (See [0121]; [0127]; SIM 1145b may transmit a tune-away indication that indicates an end of the tune-away);,
the method further comprises:
registering the first SIM and the at least one second SIM (See [0105]; [0114-0115]; Each SIM is registered to their respective network);
receiving a subscription request from the first network associated with the first SIM (See [0110]; [0118]; Each SIM can be allowed to subscribe to different services provided by the network) to provide the notification of priority activity of the at least one second SIM (See [0118]; [0127]; inform the other SIM with priority status of incoming activities); and
accepting the subscription request (See [0110]; [0118]; subscription is accepted to performed activities).
Regarding Claim 10,
Kavuri teaches all the features with respect to claim 6 and Kavuri further teaches
monitoring a state of each of a plurality of SIMs (See Fig.10A; [0121]; network monitored when SIM is in idle state or in connected state),
the plurality of SIMs including at least the first SIM and the at least one second SIM (See [0112-0113]; USIM A and USIM B); and
storing state information related to the state of each of the plurality of SIMs (See Fig.10A; [0121]; network monitored and stored when SIM is in idle state or in connected state).
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) 9 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kavuri (US 2021/0105866 A1) in view of Examiner Official Notice.
Regarding Claim 9,
Kavuri teaches all the features with respect to claim 6 and Kavuri further teaches
the plurality of SIMs including at least the first SIM and the at least one second SIM (See [0112-0113]; USIM A and USIM B);
But Kavuri fails to explicitly recite about
assigning a unique identity to each of a plurality of SIMs,
and storing the unique identity assigned to each of the plurality of SIMs .
Examiner Official Notice
During UE registration in at least 4G or 5G network, a temporary identity is assigned to each SIM in a UE and stored for further communication with the corresponding network.
Therefore it would have been obvious for the networks in Kavuri to use temporary ID for the SIMs and not use permanent IDs for security, flexibility and transmission purposes.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-5, 11-15, 21-25 are allowable for the following reasons:
The prior art of record Kavuri fails to specifically teach about
“notifying at least one second SIM to hold decoding of paging data associated with a paging channel monitoring request, wherein the at least one second SIM is registered with at least one second network of the plurality of networks;” and
“allowing the first SIM to instruct the at least one second SIM to resume decoding of the
paging data.”
The reference in record teach about holding and executing activities after decoding a paging message to determine priority or instructions to follow through after decoding a receive paging. Claim 1 and claim 11 described holding the decoding of a paging message to a UE SIM from a corresponding network and receiving an indication from the corresponding network to be transmitted to another UE SIM for allowing the UE SIM to resume decoding the paging message.
Kavuri focus on activities after receiving and decoding a paging message which correspond to independent Claim 6.
Claim 1 and Claim 11 described that one SIM needs to receive an indication from a corresponding network to be sent to another SIM in order to receive allowance for decoding the received paging message.
Another reference SHIH (US 20202/0322918 A1) teaches about stopping monitoring for paging channel after receiving an paging stop indicator (See [0089-0090]). This teaching is also different from the claim 1 and claim 11 teaching.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to GARY LAFONTANT whose telephone number is (571)272-3037. The examiner can normally be reached 9:00AM -5:00PM.
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, Matthew Anderson can be reached at 571-272-4177. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/GARY LAFONTANT/Examiner, Art Unit 2646