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 3/9/2026 has been entered. Claims 1-10 remain pending in the application.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed on 3/9/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
In response to applicant’s argument on pages 5-6 that Lu (US PGPub 2013/0336222) in view of Starsinic (US PGPub 2016/0085561) fails to teach the limitation of claims 1 and 6, especially the limitation of “sending, to the second service layer entity, a request associated with the portion of the data, wherein the request to the second service layer entity comprises a request to retrieve the portion of the data from the second service layer entity and comprises the identifier of the second service layer entity”, the examiner cannot concur with the applicant because of the reasons described below.
Lu teaches that SCL-2 may send a communication to access the resource to the SCL-3 (e.g., announced-to SCL). If SCL-3 has the announced resource, it may send an access resource communication to the SCL-4 (e.g., hosting SCL) (Lu, see paragraph 0095). Even though failing to expressly disclosing the term ‘the identifier of the second service layer entity’, Lu teaches that SCL-2 sends a communication to SCL-3 or SCL-4. Including the addresses of a sender (a sending entity/node) and a receiver (a receiving entity/node) during communications is a basic concept of computer networking. Especially, Lu discloses that The announce resource request may be sent over an mId interface. The first entity may receive a first response from the second entity over the mId interface indicating that the second entity created the resource (Lu, see paragraph 0070). And, Lu further teaches that the interconnected computer networks and devices use common communication protocols, such as the transmission control protocol (TCP), user datagram protocol (UDP) and the internet protocol (IP) in the TCP/IP internet protocol suite (Lu, see paragraph 0038). Therefore, a request message from a first service layer entity (a sending entity) to a second service layer entity (a receiving entity) comprising the identifier of the second service layer entity (e.g. the address of the receiving entity) is inherently embedded in the Lu’s disclosure).
The specification of the imminent application discloses to include the identifier of a service layer as a field value of the localSLidentifier or priorLocalSLIdentifier within the request messages. Examiner suggests to further amend the claims to specify the data structure or the content of a request associated with the portion of the data to include the identifier of the second service layer entity.
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 1-3, 5-8 and 10-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lu (US PGPub 2013/0336222) in view of Starsinic (US PGPub 2016/0085561).
Regarding claims 1 and 6, Lu teaches an apparatus comprising one or more processors and memory, the memory storing computer-executable instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, implement a first service layer entity of a communications network (Lu, see figure 6 and paragraphs 0079 and 0095, Referring to FIG. 6, SCL-2 is a local SCL [corresponding to a first service layer entity] that may be an SCL where an application/SCL registers to. The local SCL may be an SCL that receives the request from the original issuer of the request (e.g., an application or an SCL) [corresponding to a data producer]) and cause the first service layer entity to perform operations comprising:
receiving, from a data producer, a data management request, wherein the data management request comprises information associated with data generated by the data producer (Lu, see paragraphs 0075, 0086, 0091 and 0095, Referring to FIG. 6, the SCL-1 or application, (e.g., issuer) [corresponding to a data producer], may send a communication to access a resource to the SCL-2 (e.g., local SCL) [corresponding to a first service layer entity]. An issuer may be an entity that wants to access the announced resource [corresponding to data generated by the data producer]. The issuer may compose a request message to its local (registration) SCL, asking for a resource. The request may comprise one or more Search Strings [corresponding to information associated with data generated by the data producer]. Exemplary resources may include, but are not limited to, smart meters, including data collected from smart meters, and medical equipment (e.g., blood pressure monitoring equipment). When an application (e.g., issuer) creates or updates a resource, the application may indicate if the resource can be announced based on how the application wants the resource to be visible to SCLs);
wherein the second service layer entity comprises one or more processor and memory (Lu, see claim 22, an entity is an application or SCL executed on a network device comprising a process and memory performing data communication and processing functions as disclosed);
sending, to the second service layer entity, a request associated with the portion of the data, wherein the request to the second service layer entity comprises a request to retrieve the portion of the data from the second service layer entity and comprises the identifier of the second service layer entity (Lu, see paragraph 0095, In such a case, SCL-2 may send a communication to access the resource to the SCL-3 (e.g., announced-to SCL). If SCL-3 has the announced resource, it may send an access resource communication to the SCL-4 (e.g., hosting SCL). Even though failing to expressly disclosing the term ‘the identifier of the second service layer entity’, Lu teaches that SCL-2 sends a communication to SCL-3 or SCL-4. Including the addresses of a sender (a sending entity/node) and a receiver (a receiving entity/node) during communications is a basic concept of computer networking. Especially, Lu discloses that The announce resource request may be sent over an mId interface. The first entity may receive a first response from the second entity over the mId interface indicating that the second entity created the resource (Lu, see paragraph 0070). And, Lu further teaches that the interconnected computer networks and devices use common communication protocols, such as the transmission control protocol (TCP), user datagram protocol (UDP) and the internet protocol (IP) in the TCP/IP internet protocol suite (Lu, see paragraph 0038). Therefore, a request message from a first service layer entity (a sending entity) to a second service layer entity (a receiving entity) comprising the identifier of the second service layer entity (e.g. the address of the receiving entity) is inherently embedded in the Lu’s disclosure); and
receiving, from the second service layer entity, a message responsive to the request, wherein the message comprises the portion of the data (Lu, see paragraphs 0078 and 0095, The hosting SCL may check access rights, and if permitted, it may accesses the resource and respond with a success indication. Otherwise, the hosting SCL may respond with an error. The announced resource is an actual resource that may comprise a limited set of attributes, e.g., search strings, the link to the original resource (e.g., URI), etc.).
Lu teaches the above yet fails to teach the information comprising an identifier of a second service layer entity; and determining, based on the identifier of the second service layer entity, that a portion of the data generated by the data producer is at least one of stored or managed by the second service layer entity.
Then Starsinic teaches the information comprising an identifier of a second service layer entity (Starsinic, see paragraph 0050, At 195, D/GSCL 182 sends a handover request message to NSCL 186. The handover request message requests that the resources stored on NSCL 184, which are related to D/GSCL 182); and determining, based on the identifier of the second service layer entity, that a portion of the data generated by the data producer is at least one of stored or managed by the second service layer entity (Starsinic, see paragraphs 0050 and 0052, The handover request message requests that the resources stored on NSCL 184, which are related to D/GSCL 182, be transferred to NSCL 186. At 196, NSCL 186 sends a NSCL-NSCL handover request message to the NSCL 184, requesting the data related to D/GSCL 182 that were stored on NSCL 184).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Lu with Machine-to-machine bootstrapping of Starsinic, because doing so would make Lu more efficient in providing a network service capability layer (NSCL) handover procedure that a device or gateway service capability layer may request its NSCL fetch data that the device or gateway previously stored on a different NSCL so allowing the device or gateway to avoid recreating information on the new NSCL (Starsinic, see paragraph 0010).
Regarding claims 2 and 7, Lu in view of Starsinic teaches wherein the sending the request to the second service layer entity comprises creating a link to the portion of the data (Lu, see paragraph 0070, The announced resource may include one or more of the following: a search string, an attribute, or a URI of the resource upon which the representation is based).
Regarding claims 3 and 8, Lu in view of Starsinic teaches wherein the data management request comprises data to be at least one of stored or managed by the first service layer entity (Lu, see paragraph 0078, An entity may be an SCL or an application. An issuer may be an actor performing a request, e.g., relating to an announced resource. An issuer may be an application or a SCL. An announced resource, which may be referred to as a mirrored resource, may have content that refers to a resource hosted by another SCL (e.g., a master/original resource). The announced resource is an actual resource that may comprise a limited set of attributes, e.g., search strings, the link to the original resource (e.g., URI), etc.).
Regarding claims 5 and 10, Lu in view of Starsinic teaches wherein the instructions, when executed further cause the first service layer entity to perform operations comprising:
sending, to a third service layer entity, a request to retrieve an identifier of the second service layer entity (Lu, see paragraph 0095, In such a case, SCL-2 may send a communication to access the resource to the SCL-3 (e.g., announced-to SCL). If SCL-3 has the announced resource, it may send an access resource communication to the SCL-4 (e.g., hosting SCL)); and
receiving, from the third service layer entity, the identifier of the second service layer entity (Lu, see paragraph 0095, The hosting SCL may check access rights, and if permitted, it may accesses the resource and respond with a success indication. Otherwise, the hosting SCL may respond with an error. Responses may be communicated as shown).
Conclusion
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.
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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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Nicholas R. Taylor can be reached at 571-272-3889. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/CHONG G KIM/Examiner, Art Unit 2443
/NICHOLAS R TAYLOR/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2443
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