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 § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Independent Claim 20 (drawn to a computer readable medium which includes the control method limitations of claim 1) is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter. The claim does not fall within at least one of the four categories of patent eligible subject matter because it’s directed to a computer readable medium which could be a signal. The medium in the spec is not limited to only non-transitory embodiments (note the use of “may” in the spec). It is recommended the applicant change the preamble to read “A non-transitory computer readable medium….” Or amend the spec and limit it to non-transitory embodiments only. As a side note, independent claim 19 is directed to “a Terminal device” whereas the device is statutory.
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.
Claims 7, 8, 9, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhu CN 111787562 (cited by applicant, hereafter Zhu) in view of WO2020042181A1 Lei et al. Note, the italics are from the refences cited which do not have column and lines.
Consider claim 7, Zhu teaches a 5G icon display control method (…The invention claims an icon display method…), comprising: determining a 5G icon display condition corresponding to target setting information as a target 5G icon display condition; obtaining a network status parameter; and displaying a 5G icon (….according to the RRC state of the LTE main cell and the access result, determining whether the electronic terminal continuously displays the 5 G icon….), in response to the network status parameter meeting the target 5G icon display condition, wherein the network status parameter comprises at least one of a E-UTRAN new radio dual connection status, an LTE network connection status, or (note alternative language) a 5G/LTE dual connection network coverage status, and wherein the target setting information is a network operator being used (…in the future dual-mode 5 G era, the dual-mode 5 G terminal can provide a more perfect 5 G network experience….most of the currently deployed 5 G NR (New Radio, new air interface) network is the eMBB network of the NSA system, according to the mature LTE (Long Term Evolution) network coverage, At the same time, it can exert high throughput of gNB in double connection ENDC (EUTRA-NR Dual Connection). In order to distinguish from the LTE network, when the terminal is connected with the ENDC network, the UI interface of the terminal displays the current network is 5 G. However, when the terminal does not have data transmission, RRC connection of LTE will be released, namely the LTE RRC is changed to idle state, resulting in NR release, the UI interface of the terminal will display the current network is 4 G. the terminal may still be in the coverage range of the NR auxiliary cell, but the icon on the terminal is frequently changed between the 4 G and 5 G, cannot truly reflect the network condition of the terminal position, so that the user is mistakeable to believe that the terminal 5 G signal is not stable, the product quality of the terminal and the brand mouth of the certain influence….). Zhu teaches a memory, but fails to explicitly teach there is a pre-stored correspondence between the setting condition and the 5G icon display condition. However, Lei et al from the same field of endeavor teaches such (see Table 1, note dual display of the icons still meets the limitation). It would have been obvious to use the teaches of Lei et al in Zhu to allow for faster Icon display. Device claim 19 is inherently rejected by the structure of both Zhu and Lei et al which teaches the method.
Regarding claims 8 and 15, as discussed above Table 1 and corresponding description of Lei et al, teaches wherein the determining of the 5G icon display condition corresponding to the target setting information as the target 5G icon display condition based on the pre-stored correspondence between the setting information and the 5G icon display condition comprises: receiving a target instruction, and determining the target setting information based on the target instruction.
Regarding claim 16, see claim 1 of Zhu which obtains the network status through a base station (main cell) as described.
Regarding claim 13, 14 and 17, see fig. 5 of Zhu and corresponding description in the disclosure.
Regarding claim 9, Table 1 and corresponding description of Lei et al, shows displaying the 5G icon when the 5G network registration status in the network status parameter is a registered state.
Claim Objections
Claims 10, 11 and 12 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.
12. Claims 1, 3-6 and 19 are allowed.
13. Applicant's arguments filed 2/20/2025 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. The applicant did not respond to the 35USC101 rejection of claim 20 so that is maintained. The applicant did not respond to the 35USC103 rejection of claims 7, 8, 9, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhu CN 111787562 (cited by applicant, hereafter Zhu) in view of WO2020042181A1 Lei et al so that is maintained as well. Applicants’ amendment to claims 1 and 3-6 overcomes the art of record.
Conclusion
14. THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
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.
15. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CURTIS A KUNTZ whose telephone number is (571)272-7499. The examiner can normally be reached on M-Th from 530am to 3pm and Fri from 530am to 10am.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Matthew D Anderson, can be reached at telephone number 5712724177. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/CURTIS A KUNTZ/Primary examiner, Art Unit 2646