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 .
Response to Amendment
The Amendment filed on 4/9/2026 has been entered. Claims 1, 2, 4-9, 11-16 and 18-23 remain pending in the application.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments on pages 11-12 with respect to claims 1, 8 and 15 have been considered but are moot upon a further consideration and a new ground of rejection made under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Castro Castro (US PGPub 2018/0146503).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 7, 14 and 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.
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)(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.
Claims 1, 2, 4-6, 8, 9, 11-13, 15, 16, 18, 19 and 21-23 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Castro Castro (US PGPub 2018/0146503).
Regarding claims 1, 8 and 15, Castro Castro teaches a device (Castro Castro, see paragraph 0044, The Subscriber Profile Repository (SPR) 325), comprising:
one or more processors configured to:
maintain subscription information associated with a plurality of User Equipment (“UEs”) (Castro Castro, see paragraph 0044, The Subscriber Profile Repository (SPR) 325 is a logical entity that contains all subscriber/subscription related information), wherein the subscription information includes priority level information associating one or more UEs with one or more access identities (Castro Castro, see paragraph 0025, the subscription information may be indicative of a subscribed access priority of the UE 10);
receive, from a network function (“NF”) of a wireless network, a request for priority level information associated with a particular UE (Castro Castro, see paragraph 0050, When the PCRF 316 receives the access information and further retrieves the subscription information of the user equipment for the communication service. The PCRF 316 can retrieve the subscription information from an internal or external subscription database);
identify, based on the request for priority level information associated with the particular UE, a particular set of access identities indicated by the subscription information as being associated with the particular UE (Castro Castro, see paragraph 0050, The SPR 325 usually stores the subscription information and further the SPR 325 reports to the PCRF 316 the subscription information. In particular, the SPR 325 usually reports to the PCRF 316 whether the user is a low access priority user, a low access priority user with overriding capabilities or non-low access priority user); and
output, to the NF and in response to the request for priority level information associated with the particular UE (Castro Castro, see paragraph 0050, The SPR 325 usually stores the subscription information and further the SPR 325 reports to the PCRF 316 the subscription information), the identified particular set of access identities (Castro Castro, see paragraph 0050, the SPR 325 usually reports to the PCRF 316 whether the user is a low access priority user, a low access priority user with overriding capabilities or non-low access priority user), wherein the NF maintains policy information associating the particular set of access identities with one or more network parameters and implements the one or more network parameters when providing service associated with the particular UE (Castro Castro, see paragraph 0051, The PCRF 316 can then execute a set of logic steps to evaluate the information received and determines the applicable access priority and the policy for providing the communication service), wherein implementing the one or more network parameters when providing service associated with the particular UE includes:
receiving a service request, from the particular UE, that includes a particular access identity (Castro Castro, see paragraph 0047, the UE 10 is trying to establish a PDN connection with the communication system. During the signaling for the establishment of the PDN connection i.e. during the exchange of messages with the communication system for establishment of the PDN connection the UE 10 notifies the communication system of access information as described above. The access information is indicative of the desired access priority), and
determining whether the particular access identity, included in the service request from the particular UE, is included in the particular set of access identities (Castro Castro, see paragraph 0051, When evaluating the information received the PCRF 316 may for example compare the subscribed access priority and the desired access priority. The PCRF 316 may derive the low access priority condition as an applicable access priority. The low access priority condition indicates whether the UE 10 has initiated the establishment of the connection with low access priority. The PCRF 316 can then take appropriate actions to proceed in accordance with the determined access priority and the policy).
Regarding claims 2, 9 and 16, Castro Castro teaches wherein implementing the one or more network parameters includes:
identifying a particular set of Quality of Service (“QoS”) parameters with the particular access identity is associated (Castro Castro, see paragraph 0063, Policy decisions that PCRF 316 can take based on low access priority condition may comprise, certain level of QoS, rating group or any other dynamic policy supported between the PGW 315 and the PCRF 316);
identifying particular traffic that is sent to or by the particular UE (Castro Castro, see paragraph 0039, Since the PCEF 315 a is the one handling the bearers it is the entity where the QoS is being enforced for the bearer according to the QoS information coming from the PCRF 316); and
implementing the particular set of QoS parameters with respect to the particular traffic sent to or by the particular UE (Castro Castro, see paragraph 0051, When evaluating the information received the PCRF 316 may for example compare the subscribed access priority and the desired access priority. The PCRF 316 may derive the low access priority condition as an applicable access priority. The low access priority condition indicates whether the UE 10 has initiated the establishment of the connection with low access priority. The PCRF 316 can then take appropriate actions to proceed in accordance with the determined access priority and the policy).
Regarding claims 4 and 11, Castro Castro teaches wherein the subscription information includes information associating one or more UE identifiers with one or more respective access identities (Castro Castro, see paragraph 0025, According to embodiments of the present invention, some sort of subscription information can be associated with the UE 10. The content of the subscription information may be determined by agreement with the network operator. In other words, the subscription information is the result of the specific arrangement between a network operator and a user with regard to the services granted).
Regarding claims 5 and 12, Castro Castro teaches wherein the one or more UE identifiers include a particular Subscription Permanent Identifier (“SUPI”) associated with the particular UE (Castro Castro, see paragraph 0061, The UE's identity and PDN Identifier requested are used to identify the subscriber and in PCRF selection to locate the PCRF function with the corresponding IP-CAN session established by the PDN GW).
Regarding claims 6, 13 and 19, Castro Castro teaches wherein the subscription information is maintained by at least one of: a Unified Data Management function (“UDM”), or a Unified Data Repository (“UDR”) (Castro Castro, see paragraph 0044, The Subscriber Profile Repository (SPR) 325 is a logical entity that contains all subscriber/subscription related information).
Regarding claim 18, Castro Castro teaches wherein the subscription information includes information associating one or more UE identifiers with one or more respective access identities (Castro Castro, see paragraph 0050, The SPR 325 usually stores the subscription information and further the SPR 325 reports to the PCRF 316 the subscription information), and wherein the one or more UE identifiers include a particular Subscription Permanent Identifier (“SUPI”) associated with the particular UE (Castro Castro, see paragraph 0061, The UE's identity and PDN Identifier requested are used to identify the subscriber and in PCRF selection to locate the PCRF function with the corresponding IP-CAN session established by the PDN GW).
Regarding claims 21, 22 and 23, Castro Castro teaches wherein the particular access identity includes: access identity 11, access identity 12, access identity 13, access identity 14, or access identity 15 (Castro Castro, see paragraph 0050, The SPR 325 usually stores the subscription information and further the SPR 325 reports to the PCRF 316 the subscription information. In particular, the SPR 325 usually reports to the PCRF 316 whether the user is a low access priority user, a low access priority user with overriding capabilities or non-low access priority user).
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 CHONG G KIM whose telephone number is (571)270-0619. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri @ 9am - 5pm.
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/CHONG G KIM/Examiner, Art Unit 2443
/CHRISTOPHER B ROBINSON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2443
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