detailed Office 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 office action is response to the communication dated 4/23/24.
Original claims 1-20 are pending.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 9-20 are allowed.
Claim 2 is 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, 3-4, and 6-8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Suh et al. US Application Publication No. 20240147575 A1[Suh].
As per claim 1, Suh discloses a method comprising:
receiving, by a network-connected device(210) from a network entity(220), a network subscription status update, wherein the network subscription status update indicates that the network-connected device is permitted to access a network slice for which the network-connected device has an associated back off timer running(see fig.2 and 0055-0059, par. 0086, determining whether the access type in the update request message received in step S705 is subject to NSAC based on the configuration information. If the access type is not subject to NSAC, the NSACF 530 may accept the update request without increasing or decreasing the number of UEs (that is, a response message transmitted to the SMF 550 may include a result value indicating acceptance)clearing, by the network-connected device, the associated back off timer based on receiving the network subscription status update(see par. 0088); and
transmitting, by the network-connected device to the network entity, a packet data unit (PDU) session request associated with the network slice based on clearing the associated back off timer(see par. 0085-0086, 0115)
As per claim 3, Suh discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the associated back off timer is associated with a period of time during which PDU session requests associated with the network slice are not to be transmitted by the network-connected device.(see par. 0088, 0099, if back-off timer information for a slice exists in the registration accept message, the UE 510 may not transmit a PDU session creation message during time included in the back-off timer information for the slice).
As per claim 4, Suh discloses the method of claim 1, further comprising starting, by the network-connected device, the associated back off timer in response to receiving a permanent failure error code( that is response to receiving rejection message)(see par. 0088, 0115, where the UE 510 may After the time included in the back-off timer information has elapsed, the UE 510 may perform a PDU session creation request for the corresponding slice., that starting new back off timer).
As per claim 6, Suh discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the network slice is associated with a single network slice selection assistance information (S-NSSAI) and data network name (DNN) combination, and wherein the PDU session request indicates the S-NSSAI and DNN combination.(see par.0090, where The NAS message may include S-NSSAI, a data network name (DNN), a PDU Session ID, and an N1 SM container (PDU session establishment request).
As per claim 7, Suh discloses the method of claim 1, further comprising receiving, by the network-connected device from the network entity, a PDU session accept communication based on transmitting the PDU session request(see par. 0097)
As per claim 8, Suh discloses t e method of claim 1, wherein the associated back off timer is associated with one of: a period of time indicated to the network-connected device by the network entity, or a period of time coded on the network-connected device(see par 0110).
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.
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.
Claim 5 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over SUH and further in view of Ianev et al . U.S. Patent Application No. 20250071653 [hereinafter Ianev]
As per claim 5, SUH discloses substantial features of the claimed invention as discussed above with respect to claim 1,
SUH does not disclose wherein the network subscription status update is associated with a user equipment route selection policy rules communication.
Ilene discloses wherein the network subscription status update is associated with a user equipment route selection policy rules communication(see par. 0331, 0361, 0373 where for example, the PCF 73 determines that the UE's URSP validity check passes (e.g. the PCF 73 determines that the UE 3's URSP rule(s) provided by the UE 3 matches with the UE 3's URSP rule(s) stored in the PCF 73 ). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art prior to effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the teachings of Ilene into the system of SUH. In this way, for example, the UE may find the relevant UE policy information and other requested information that correspond to the URSP collection parameter, then the UE may use the updated UE policy for network resource assignment for an indicated an application.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ABDULLAHI ELMI SALAD whose telephone number is (571)272-4009. The examiner can normally be reached 9:30AM-6:PM.
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/ABDULLAHI E SALAD/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2466
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