DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
1. 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 Claims
2. This Office Action is in response to the application filed on 07/10/2026. Claims 1 and through 20 are presently pending and are presented for examination.
3. 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 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.
Response to Arguments
4. Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1-20 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
5. 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 1-4, 9, and 16-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kahn (US 2021/0250862 A1) in view of Subramani et al. (US 2024/0147375).
For claim 1 Kahn teaches a method (paragraph 7 “method having an intelligent power saving mode for customer-premise equipment or customer-provided equipment (CPE) broadband devices”), comprising:
storing, by a wireless customer premises equipment (CPE) associated with a local area network (LAN), client device collection information for at least one client device connected to the LAN;
detecting, by the CPE a power-saving trigger (paragraph 16 and Fig. 1 “CPE 120 associated with a LAN”, paragraph 6 “CPE enters power saving mode upon power outage (detected)”, paragraph 29 “upon detection of power loss, the CPE enters from a normal mode into solar power or alternative energy generating”); and
in response to detecting the power-saving trigger, implementing, by the wireless CPE, a first action to reduce an amount of power used by the wireless CPE based on the client device collection (paragraph 29 “upon detection of power loss, the CPE enters from a normal mode into solar power; alternative energy generating; or power saving mode”).
Khan does not explicitly teach storing, by a wireless customer premises equipment (CPE) associated with a local area network (LAN), client device collection information for at least one client device connected to the LAN.
However, Subramani teaches a mesh router AP device according to the present disclosure can use received signal strength indicators (client collection information) to determine that peer mesh router AP devices and/or client devices are relatively close to the mesh router AP device, and then reduce the amount of power used for wireless transmissions from the mesh router AP device to nearby devices (Subramani: paragraph 2).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of claimed invention to use the teachings of Subramani in the wireless CPE of Khan in order to adjust the wireless CPE the amount of power based on the client device collection (Subramani: paragraph 2).
For claim 17 Kahn in view of Subramani teaches a wireless customer premises equipment (CPE) (Fig. 1 “CPE 120”), comprising:
a memory (Fig. 6 “memory 608”); and
a processor device (Fig. 6 “processor 604”) operable to:
storing, by a wireless customer premises equipment (CPE) associated with a local area network (LAN), client device collection information for at least one client device connected to the LAN (as discussed in claim 1);
detect a power-saving trigger (as discussed in claim 1); and
in response to detecting the power-saving trigger, implement a first action to reduce an amount of power used by the wireless CPE based on the client device collection (as discussed in claim 1).
For claim 19 Kahn in view of Subramani teaches a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that includes executable instructions configured to cause one or more processor devices of a wireless premises equipment (CPE) to (paragraph 39 “the removable storage unit 618 may be non-transitory computer readable recording media” and as discussed in claim 1):
storing, by a wireless customer premises equipment (CPE) associated with a local area network (LAN), client device collection information for at least one client device connected to the LAN (as discussed in claim 1);
detect a power-saving trigger (as discussed in claim 1); and
in response to detecting the power-saving trigger, implement a first action to reduce an amount of power used by the wireless CPE based on the client device collection (as discussed in claim 1).
For claim 18 Kahn teaches the wireless CPE of claim 17, wherein the power-saving trigger is one of:
an instruction from an operator to enter into a power-saving mode (Fig. 4 “442, 444, 460, and 470 enter PSM”); or
a transition by the wireless CPE from a first power source to a backup power source (paragraph 29 “If it is estimated that a long-term power loss may be in effect in
step 460, then the CPE broadband devices 120 enters power saving mode (PSM)”).
For claim 20 Kahn teaches the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the power-saving trigger is one of:
an instruction from an operator of the wireless CPE to enter into a power-saving mode (Fig. 4 “442, 444, 460, and 470 enter PSM”); or
a transition by the wireless CPE from a first power source to a backup power source (paragraph 29 “If it is estimated that a long-term power loss may be in effect in
step 460, then the CPE broadband devices 120 enters power saving mode (PSM)”).
For claim 16 Kahn teaches the method, wherein the wireless CPE is a wireless access point (AP) (paragraph 17 CPE broadband device 120 may provide access to an external network (CPE 120 acts as an AP)…CPE 120 may be a gateway device, and access point, a modem, a wireless router including an embedded modem, a wireless network extender or any other device operable to deliver, for example, data and/or video services from the provider 110 and/or a wide area network (WAN) 160 ”).
For claim 2 Kahn teaches the method, wherein detecting the power-saving trigger comprises detecting, by the wireless CPE, a transition from a first power source to a backup power source (paragraphs 25-31 “events to cause CPE enters into PSM”).
For claim 3 Kahn teaches the method of claim 2, wherein the first power source is a grid power source, and wherein the wireless CPE comprises a battery backup unit (BBU), the BBU comprising the backup power source (paragraph 31 “CPE includes a UPS”).
For claim 4 the method of claim 2, wherein detecting the transition from the first power source to the backup power source comprises one of:
detecting, by the wireless CPE, a voltage drop indicative of an outage associated with the first power source (Fig. 2 and paragraph 22 “the CPE broadband device 120 enters the power saving mode immediately. In the example, if the battery level is 80 percent or less, and the power is lost, the CPE broadband device 120 enters power savings mode immediately”); or
For claim 9 Kahn teaches the method, wherein detecting the power-saving trigger comprises receiving, by the wireless CPE, an instruction to enter into a power-saving mode (Fig. 4 “442, 444, 460, and 470 enter PSM”).
Allowable Subject Matter
6. Claims 5-8 and 10-15 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.
7. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure: Chen (US 6,195,421 B1), Pietrowicz (US 6,275,582 B1), Smith et al. (US 8,818,192 B1) and Mishra et al. (US 2025/0141740 A1).
Conclusion
8. 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.
9. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to David M OVEISSI whose telephone number is (571)270-3127. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8Am-5PM.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Jeffrey Rutkowski can be reached at (571) 270 - 1215. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/MANSOUR OVEISSI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2415
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