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 .
Status of the Application
This Office action is in response to the amendment and remarks filed June 1, 2026. Claims 1, 13, and 18 have been amended. No claims have been added or cancelled. Claims 1-20 are pending and are examined herein.
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant’s amendment necessitated the new grounds of rejection set forth below; accordingly, this action is properly made final. See MPEP § 706.07(a).
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments filed June 1, 2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicant argues that a prima facie case of obviousness has not been established because, under MPEP §§ 2143.03 and 2141.02 and In re Wada and Murphy, the Office must consider every claimed feature and the claimed invention as a whole (Remarks, pages 7). The examiner respectfully disagrees. As set forth below, each limitation of the pending claims, including every limitation of amended claims 1, 13, and 18, has been considered and mapped to a specific teaching of Chu, Vannithamby, and Gollakota. The rejection considers the claimed invention as a whole and articulates a rational basis, supported by the express teachings of the references, for the combination.
Applicant further argues that the cited art is silent because “there exists no technique to predict a time of transmission of the data and recharge the energy storages of the ambient power devices just in time,” directed to the newly added limitation of determining a TWT service interval aligning with a time required to recharge the energy storage capacity (Remarks, page 7).
This argument is not persuasive. Gollakota expressly teaches this concept. Gollakota teaches that the wireless transmitter “may modulate its occupancy to deliver energy to the harvesting circuitry so that the sensor reaches its required voltage of 2.4V just in time” (Gollakota, col. 8, lines 44-47). When Gollakota’s just-in-time recharge timing is combined with Chu’s TWT service interval and Vannithamby’s retrieval of an energy storage capacity, the combination teaches determining a TWT service interval that aligns with the time required to recharge the energy storage capacity, as claimed. Applicant’s argument addresses the references individually and does not address the combination of Chu, Vannithamby, and Gollakota on which the rejection is based. One cannot show nonobviousness by attacking references individually where the rejection is based on a combination of references. See In re Keller, 642 F.2d 413 (CCPA 1981); In re Merck & Co., 800 F.2d 1091 (Fed. Cir. 1986).
Applicant also requests documentary evidence to support any statement regarding common knowledge, well-known features, inherency, or obviousness, pursuant to MPEP §§ 2112 and 2144 (Remarks, page 8). This request is not applicable here because the rejection does not rely on official notice, common knowledge, or inherency. Each limitation is supported by an express teaching of a cited reference, as quoted in the rejection below.
Accordingly, the amendment necessitated new grounds of rejection. Specifically, the rejection of claims 1-5 and 13-16 now relies on Gollakota (US 10,383,126 B2), which was not applied to those claims in the prior Office action, and the rejection of amended claim 18 and its dependent claims 19-20 relies on a passage of Gollakota (col. 8, lines 44-47) not previously cited, all to address the newly added limitation “determine a TWT service interval aligning with a time required to recharge the energy storage capacity” recited in amended independent claims 1, 13, and 18. Because these new grounds of rejection were necessitated by Applicant’s amendment, this action is properly made final. See MPEP § 706.07(a).
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 pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
(a) A patent may not be obtained though the invention is not identically disclosed or described as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the subject matter sought to be patented and the prior art are such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chu (US 2016/0381704 A1; “Chu”) in view of Vannithamby (US 2015/0201342 A1; “Vannithamby”) and further in view of Gollakota (US 10,383,126 B2; “Gollakota”).
Regarding claim 1, (Currently Amended) Chu discloses: A device, comprising: a processor; a memory communicatively coupled to the processor; because Chu teaches a wireless station whose processor electronics include one or more processors and at least one memory device: (Chu, para [0019] “processor electronics 103 of STAs 105, 110 can include one or more processors, such as a digital baseband processor and one or more additional dedicated processing units”; Chu, para [0019] “memory device to hold data and potentially instructions”).
Chu further discloses: and a transmission scheduling logic, configured to: detect a plurality of ambient power devices; because Chu teaches an access point that registers a set of stations and controls their access by a configuration function: (Chu, para [0020] “The AP 120 can be employed to register STAs 105, 110”; Chu, para [0020] “a configuration function that determines when a station can transmit and/or receive information via the network 130”).
Chu further discloses: transmit the schedule data to the ambient power device; because Chu teaches communicating the wake schedule to a station by a TWT element and a TWT Setup frame: (Chu, para [0023] “TWT can allow STAs to manage activity in the BSS by scheduling STAs 105, 110 to operate (e.g., transmit information) at different times”; Chu, para [0036] “the TWT requesting STA can receive the TWT Setup frame 515, and use the Target Wakeup Time and the TWT Wakeup Interval in order to establish the next, or a successive, TWT SP”).
Although Chu teaches determining and scheduling for its registered stations (Chu, para [0020]), but Chu does not explicitly disclose that the profile data comprises energy storage information of an energy harvesting device: determine device profile data associated with an ambient power device of the plurality of ambient power devices; generate schedule data based on the device profile data; and.
However, Vannithamby discloses this limitation because Vannithamby teaches receiving energy storage information from an energy harvesting device and scheduling based on that information: (Vannithamby, para [0054], “receiving, from user equipment of a wireless communication network, an indication that the user equipment is an energy-harvesting device and/or energy storage information of the energy-harvesting device”; Vannithamby, para [0055], “the energy storage information may include one or more of an energy source, energy-harvesting pattern, energy storage capability and an energy storage capacity”; Vannithamby, para [0047], “The energy harvesting related policy may consider energy storage information such as, for example, energy storage capacity and/or energy storage level”).
Vannithamby further discloses: retrieve an energy storage capacity from device profile data; and because Vannithamby teaches receiving an energy storage capacity from the device during capability negotiation: (Vannithamby, para [0056], “the network may initially receive an energy storage capacity (E) during device capability negotiation”).
Although Chu in view of Vannithamby teaches a TWT wake interval and energy-storage-aware scheduling (Chu, para [0036]; Vannithamby, para [0058]), but does not explicitly disclose aligning that interval with the time required to recharge the energy storage: determine a TWT service interval aligning with a time required to recharge the energy storage capacity.. However, Chu in view of Vannithamby and further in view of Gollakota discloses a method of modulating power delivery so that the harvesting device reaches its required charge just in time: (Gollakota, col. 8, lines 44-47, “modulate its occupancy to deliver energy to the harvesting circuitry so that the sensor reaches its required voltage of 2.4V just in time”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Vannithamby’s teaching of obtaining energy storage information and scheduling communications based on that information into Chu’s TWT-based scheduling, because both references are directed to scheduling communications to improve power efficiency and reliability for power-constrained devices, and Vannithamby expressly teaches using energy storage information to guide scheduling decisions. It would have been further obvious to incorporate Gollakota’s teaching of modulating power delivery so that a device reaches its required charge just in time, in order to align the TWT service interval with the time required to recharge the device’s energy storage, so that the ambient power device has sufficient stored energy when it is scheduled to wake. Doing so would predictably reduce failed transmissions, premature wakeups, and energy-depletion events while improving reliability and channel efficiency.
Regarding claim 2, (Original) Chu discloses: The device of claim 1, wherein the schedule data is indicative of a Target Wake Time (TWT) schedule associated with the ambient power device because Chu teaches communicating TWT scheduling information to a station in a TWT element that conveys the TWT scheme: (Chu, para [0023] “TWT can allow STAs to manage activity in the BSS by scheduling STAs 105, 110 to operate (e.g., transmit information) at different times”; Chu, para [0037] “target wake time 605; TWT group assignment 606: nominal minimum wake duration 607; and TWT wake interval mantissa 608”).
Regarding claim 3, (Original) Chu in view of Vannithamby discloses: The device of claim 2, wherein the device profile data is indicative of at least one of: an energy storage capacity of the ambient power device, or a transmission duration associated with the ambient power device because Vannithamby teaches an energy storage capacity as part of the energy storage information and Chu teaches a nominal minimum wake duration field: (Vannithamby, para [0055], “energy storage capability and an energy storage capacity”; Chu, para [0037] “nominal minimum wake duration 607”). The rationale to combine Chu and Vannithamby is the same as set forth for claim 1 above.
Regarding claim 4, (Original) while Chu teaches a TWT service period and wake interval derived from wake duration and interval fields, however Chu does not explicitly teach: The device of claim 3, wherein the transmission scheduling logic is further configured to determine: a service period of the TWT schedule based on the transmission duration; and a service interval of the TWT schedule based on the energy storage capacity
However, Vannithamby teaches scheduling the interval based on energy storage capacity: (Chu, para [0036] “use the Target Wakeup Time and the TWT Wakeup Interval in order to establish the next, or a successive, TWT SP”; Vannithamby, para [0058], “the scheduling policy may be configured to consider energy storage capacity and/or energy storage level”). The rationale to combine is the same as set forth for claim 1 above.
Regarding claim 5, (Original) Chu discloses: The device of claim 4, wherein the ambient power device operates in a semi-sleep mode during the service interval and in a transmission mode during the service period because Chu teaches that a station is required to be awake during the TWT service period and may go to sleep outside the service period: (Chu, para [0036] “The TWT requesting STA can be required to be awake during the TWT SP”; Chu, para [0039] “the STA that is not a broadcast TWT participant can go to sleep during the broadcast TWT, and thereby can increase power saving capabilities of TWT techniques”).
Regarding claim 6, (Original) Chu in view of Vannithamby and further in view of Gollakota discloses: The device of claim 5, wherein the transmission scheduling logic is further configured to: generate at least one control frame based on the schedule data; and transmit the at least one control frame to the ambient power device during the service period on a first Radio Frequency (RF) channel because Chu teaches transmission during the TWT service period and Gollakota teaches generating and transmitting power packets on a Wi-Fi channel: (Gollakota, col. 4, lines 39-41, “the wireless transmitter 105 may inject superfluous broadcast traffic (e.g. power packets) on one or more channels”; Gollakota, col. 4, lines 43-44, “The power packets may be implemented, for example, using UDP broadcast packets”). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Gollakota’s teaching of transmitting power packets over wireless communication channels during scheduled service periods, in order to deliver power to the energy-harvesting device during the coordinated service periods established by Chu, predictably improving energy replenishment under Chu’s schedule framework.
Regarding claim 7, (Original) Chu in view of Vannithamby and further in view of Gollakota discloses: The device of claim 6, wherein the transmission scheduling logic is further configured to receive, on a second RF channel, at least one uplink frame indicative of uplink data from the ambient power device because Gollakota teaches uplink data from devices encoded using backscatter and transmission across multiple communication channels: (Gollakota, col. 7, lines 55-57, “Uplink data from devices”; Gollakota, col. 7, lines 55-57, “encoded for example, using backscatter”; Gollakota, col. 10, lines 13-15, “The harvesting devices may be configured to harvest power across multiple wireless communication channels (Wi-Fi channels)”). The rationale to combine is the same as set forth for claim 6 above.
Regarding claim 8, (Original) Chu in view of Vannithamby and further in view of Gollakota discloses: The device of claim 7, wherein an energy storage of the ambient power device is recharged based on the at least one control frame because Gollakota teaches that power harvesting circuitry provides power to recharge the batteries based on the transmitted power packets: (Gollakota, col. 11, lines 26-28, “Power harvesting circuitry described herein may provide power to recharge the batteries”). The rationale to combine is the same as set forth for claim 6 above.
Regarding claim 9, (Original) Chu in view of Vannithamby and further in view of Gollakota discloses: The device of claim 8, wherein the energy storage is utilized to generate the uplink data because Gollakota teaches that the batteries are used to power electronic devices, which in turn provide uplink data using backscatter: (Gollakota, col. 11, lines 27-28, “The batteries may be used to power electronic devices”; Gollakota, col. 7, lines 55-57, “Uplink data from devices”). The rationale to combine is the same as set forth for claim 6 above.
Regarding claim 10, (Original) Chu in view of Vannithamby and further in view of Gollakota discloses: The device of claim 5, wherein the transmission scheduling logic is further configured to: identify a wireless device in communication with the ambient power device; and transmit the schedule data to the wireless device because Gollakota teaches an electronic device in communication with the harvesting circuitry, and Chu teaches transmitting the schedule data to a station: (Gollakota, col. 11, lines 41-43, “harvesting circuitry 200 may be in electronic communication to any of a variety of electronic devices to power the electronic devices”; Chu, para [0023] “STA 105 can be assigned a specific time to wake”). The rationale to combine is the same as set forth for claim 6 above.
Regarding claim 11, (Original) Chu discloses: The device of claim 10, wherein the wireless device operates in a power saving mode during the service interval and in an operational mode during the service period because Chu teaches that a station may go to sleep and is required to be awake during the TWT service period: (Chu, para [0039] “the STA that is not a broadcast TWT participant can go to sleep during the broadcast TWT”; Chu, para [0036] “The TWT requesting STA can be required to be awake during the TWT SP”).
Regarding claim 12, (Original) Chu in view of Vannithamby and further in view of Gollakota discloses: The device of claim 11, wherein the transmission scheduling logic is further configured to receive, from the wireless device, at least one uplink frame associated with the ambient power device during the service period because Gollakota teaches a feedback signal sent from an electronic device in communication with the harvesting circuitry to provide a value used to influence transmission: (Gollakota, col. 8, lines 63-67, “A feedback signal may be sent from the harvesting circuitry and/or an electronic device in communication with the harvesting circuitry to provide a value of the electrical characteristic”). The rationale to combine is the same as set forth for claim 6 above.
Regarding claim 13, (Currently Amended) the claim recites: A method, comprising: detecting a plurality of ambient power devices; determining device profile data associated with a set of ambient power devices of the plurality of ambient power devices; generating schedule data based on the device profile data; and transmitting the schedule data to the set of ambient power devices; retrieving an energy storage capacity from device profile data; and determining a TWT service interval aligning with a time required to recharge the energy storage capacity. Claim 13 is analogous to claim 1 and therefore is rejected for the same reason.
Regarding claim 14, (Original) Chu discloses: The method of claim 13, wherein the schedule data is indicative of a broadcast Target Wake Time (TWT) schedule associated with the set of ambient power devices because Chu teaches a broadcast TWT in which an access point announces a TWT service period in a beacon by transmitting a broadcast TWT Set element: (Chu, para [0024] “OFDMA TWT can be implemented in broadcast TWT, which can involve the AP broadcasting the TWT SP”; Chu, para [0038] “a beacon signal is used for an AP to explicitly announce a TWT SP via transmitting a TWT element”).
Regarding claim 15, (Original) Chu in view of Vannithamby discloses: The method of claim 14, wherein the device profile data is indicative of at least one of: one or more energy storage capacities of the set of ambient power devices, or one or more transmission durations associated with the set of ambient power devices because Vannithamby teaches an energy storage capacity and Chu teaches a nominal minimum wake duration field: (Vannithamby, para [0055], “energy storage capability and an energy storage capacity”; Chu, para [0037] “nominal minimum wake duration 607”). The rationale to combine is the same as set forth for claim 1 above.
Regarding claim 16, (Original) Chu in view of Vannithamby discloses: The method of claim 15, further comprising: determining a service period of the broadcast TWT schedule based on the one or more transmission durations; and a service interval of the broadcast TWT schedule based on the one or more energy storage capacities because Chu teaches broadcast TWT service period parameters and Vannithamby teaches scheduling the interval based on energy storage capacity: (Chu, para [0038] “a broadcast TWT Set element that is defined, or otherwise formatted, to include multiple OFDMA TWT elements 700 in a broadcast”; Vannithamby, para [0058], “the scheduling policy may be configured to consider energy storage capacity and/or energy storage level”). The rationale to combine is the same as set forth for claim 1 above.
Regarding claim 17, (Original) Chu in view of Vannithamby and further in view of Gollakota discloses: The method of claim 16, further comprising charging the set of ambient power devices during the service period because Gollakota teaches transmitting power packets during scheduled periods such that power harvesting circuitry provides power to recharge the batteries: (Gollakota, col. 4, lines 39-41, “the wireless transmitter 105 may inject superfluous broadcast traffic (e.g. power packets) on one or more channels”; Gollakota, col. 11, lines 26-28, “Power harvesting circuitry described herein may provide power to recharge the batteries”). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Gollakota’s teaching of delivering power packets during the coordinated service periods established by Chu, in order to recharge the energy-harvesting devices during those periods, predictably improving energy replenishment under Chu’s schedule framework.
Regarding claim 18, (Currently Amended) Chu discloses: A device, comprising: a processor; a memory communicatively coupled to the processor; and a transmission scheduling logic, configured to: receive schedule data indicative of a service period and a service interval; because Chu teaches a wireless device with a processor and memory that receives a frame indicating a target wake time and a TWT wake interval: (Chu, para [0005] “receiving a frame at a wireless device, wherein a format of the frame comprises (i) a field indicating a target wake time”; Chu, para [0036] “use the Target Wakeup Time and the TWT Wakeup Interval in order to establish the next, or a successive, TWT SP”).
Chu in view of Vannithamby and further in view of Gollakota discloses: receive, on a first wireless channel, a charging frame during the service period; recharge an energy storage based on the charging frame; and because Gollakota teaches receiving power packets on a channel and recharging the batteries from the harvested power: (Gollakota, col. 4, lines 43-44, “The power packets may be implemented, for example, using UDP broadcast packets”; Gollakota, col. 11, lines 26-28, “Power harvesting circuitry described herein may provide power to recharge the batteries”).
Gollakota further discloses: transmit, on a second wireless channel, an uplink frame during the service period; because Gollakota teaches uplink data encoded using backscatter and harvesting across multiple channels: (Gollakota, col. 7, lines 55-57, “Uplink data from devices”; Gollakota, col. 7, lines 55-57, “encoded for example, using backscatter”; Gollakota, col. 10, lines 13-15, “The harvesting devices may be configured to harvest power across multiple wireless communication channels (Wi-Fi channels)”).
Vannithamby discloses: retrieve an energy storage capacity from device profile data; and because Vannithamby teaches receiving an energy storage capacity during capability negotiation: (Vannithamby, para [0056], “the network may initially receive an energy storage capacity (E) during device capability negotiation”).
Chu in view of Vannithamby and further in view of Gollakota discloses: determine a TWT service interval aligning with a time required to recharge the energy storage capacity. Chu in view of Vannithamby teaches a TWT wake interval and energy-storage-aware scheduling (Chu, para [0036]; Vannithamby, para [0058]), but does not explicitly disclose aligning that interval with the time required to recharge the energy storage. However, Gollakota discloses this limitation because Gollakota teaches modulating power delivery so that the harvesting device reaches its required charge just in time: (Gollakota, col. 8, lines 44-47, “modulate its occupancy to deliver energy to the harvesting circuitry so that the sensor reaches its required voltage of 2.4V just in time”). The rationale to combine Chu, Vannithamby, and Gollakota is the same as set forth for claim 1 above.
Regarding claim 19, (Original) Chu discloses: The device of claim 18, wherein the transmission scheduling logic is further configured to: operate in a semi-sleep mode during the service interval; and operate in a transmission mode during the service period because Chu teaches that a station may go to sleep outside the service period and is required to be awake during the TWT service period: (Chu, para [0039] “the STA that is not a broadcast TWT participant can go to sleep during the broadcast TWT”; Chu, para [0036] “The TWT requesting STA can be required to be awake during the TWT SP”).
Regarding claim 20, (Original) Chu in view of Vannithamby and further in view of Gollakota discloses: The device of claim 19, wherein the transmission scheduling logic is further configured to generate uplink data associated with the uplink frame during the service interval because Gollakota teaches a device that generates sensor readings and records the times at which the sensor outputs a reading for subsequent communication: (Gollakota, col. 10, lines 3-5, “the wireless transmitter 105 may initially transmit power packets at a high occupancy, e.g. around 90%, and notes the times when the sensor outputs a reading”). The rationale to combine is the same as set forth for claim 6 above.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). 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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CHONGSUH (John) PARK whose telephone number is 408-918-7574. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 8:00-5:30 PST
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/CHONGSUH PARK/Examiner, Art Unit 2478
/JOSEPH E AVELLINO/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2478
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