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 .
This action is in response to the preliminary amendment filed on 12/21/2023. Claims 1-20 are pending [claims 21-45 are cancelled] and have been considered below.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claim 16 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 16 recites the limitation "the second service consumer" in line 2. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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) 1,5,6,10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Faccin et al. (US 2020/0267554).
Regarding claim 1:
Faccin discloses a system and method performed by a service consumer (figures; abstract), comprising:
sending, to a service provider, a request for subscribing to a notification of a change in network slice selection assistance information, NSSAI, availability information, wherein the request indicates that the notification is to be subscribed to for all tracking area identifiers, TAIs, supported by an access and mobility management function, AMF, set (para 68,73, partially reproduced herein {the availability of the Network Slice instances that are able to serve the S-NSSAI(s) in the Allowed NSSAI in the current UE's Tracking Areas}; figure 3; para 74 { Allowed NSSAI to the Subscribed S-NSSAIs if determined and the target AMF Set, or, based on configuration, the list of candidate AMF(s)}; para 108 {…update its capabilities or protocol parameters, or to request a change of the set of network slices it is allowed to use}; para 127, 178); and
receiving, from the service provider, a response to the request (21 I figure 3; para 160; and see throughout the disclosure).
Regarding claim 6:
Faccin discloses all of the subject matter as described above, and discloses method performed by a service provider (figure 3-9;) and function as above in claim 1, thus claim 6 is rejected with similar rationale as above.
Regarding claims 5 and 10:
Faccin discloses all of the subject matter as described above wherein the service provider is a network slice selection function, NSSF (para 55,65 and throughout).
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 11, 17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Lee et al. (US 2022/0330139).
Regarding claim 11:
Lee discloses a system and method performed by a network repository function, NRF (abstract; figures), comprising:
receiving, from a first service consumer, information about one or more single network slice selection assistance information, S-NSSAIs, supported by the first service consumer for each of one or more tracking areas, TAs (para 71 {request message may include network slice information (S-NSSAI) and an indicator indicating that the NSACF}; figures; para 164 {serving areas may be divided by a list of TAIs …}; para 166 {location (the TAI) of the UE 1100 may be a TAI that is not included in the registration area received in operation S1118. The registration request message may include S-NSSAI}); and
maintaining the received information (para 146 {NSACF 302 may not decrease the number of registered UEs and may intactly maintain the number of registered UEs}; and see throughout the disclosure).
Regarding claim 17:
Lee discloses all of the subject matter as described above, and discloses a method performed by a service consumer (abstract; figures 3-12), and function as above in claim 11, thus claim 17 is rejected with similar rationale as above.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-4,7-9,12-15,18-20 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to HIRDEPAL SINGH whose telephone number is (571)270-1688. The examiner can normally be reached 8:00-5:00 M-F.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Hannah S Wang can be reached on (571) 272-9018. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/HIRDEPAL SINGH/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2631