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 .
DETAILED ACTION
Response to Amendment
Acknowledgement is made of the amendment filed on June 8, 2026, in which:
Claims 1, 4, 5, 6, 9, 12, 16, 21, and 27 are Currently Amended; and
Claims 2, 3, 7, 8, 10, 13, 14, 15, 17-20, 22-26, and 28-30 are Original.
Claims 1-30 are currently pending and an Office action on the merits follows.
Response to Arguments
On pages 10-15 of the applicant’s remarks, the applicant argues that the rejection under 35 U.S.C. § 101 directed to claims 21-30 be withdrawn. Applicant’s arguments have been fully considered and are persuasive. The 35 U.S.C. § 101 rejection of claims 21-30 has been withdrawn.
On pages 16-18 of the applicant’s remarks, the applicant argues that Ijaz fails to teach “evaluate, based on a policy including a change initiation flag and a change policy, whether the USS device is authorized to initiate reallocation of the UE; determine, based on the evaluation indicating that the USS device is permitted to initiate the reallocation of the UE, a target USS device based at least in part on the first notification. The examiner respectfully disagrees. Ijaz paragraphs [0245]-[0246] explain that the home USS owns the configuration, including change-initiation flag and change policy, for a particular UAV and that each UAV may have secondary USS(s). Ijaz [0248] explains that the USS change policy includes rules that indicate whether UAE initiated USS change is authorized for a given USS based on conditions/criteria. Ijaz [0252]-[0253] provide an examples such as a when a USS change maybe be allowed by a USS-1 to USS-2 when the UAV enters a given area X based on the change policy. Therefore, the examine respectfully maintains the rejection under 35 USC § 102 as further explained below.
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.
Claim(s) 1-30 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Pub No.: US-20240267817-A1 (herein “Ijaz”).
Claims 1 and 16
Consider claim 1, Ijaz teaches an unmanned aircraft system service supplier (USS) device (see Ijaz Fig. 10, note USS 1 1010) for wireless communication, comprising:
one or more memories (see Ijaz [0257] note memory); and one or more processors (see Ijaz [0257] note processor), coupled to the one or more memories, individually or collectively, configured to cause the USS device to:
receive a first notification indicating that a user equipment (UE) is moving out of an area associated with the USS device (see Ijaz Fig. 8, Fig. 9, Fig. 10, Fig. 13, [0171], [0182]-[0185], [0219]-[0220] note when the UAV moves out of the coverage range of the serving USS 1 1360 receiving an indication, QoS Degradation indication 861, from the PLMN component, UAS-NF 130 of PLMN 1040, and in response to the indication initiating handoff from the serving USS 1 1360 to a target USS 2 1370, handoff 1361);
evaluate, based on a policy including a change initiation flag and a change policy, whether the USS device is authorized to initiate reallocation of the UE (see Ijaz [0245]-[0246], [0248], [0252]-[0253] note USS owns the configuration for a particular UAV, where all UAVs that belong to a particular USS may have a particular secondary USS and the configuration including a change-initiation flag and change policy may be set per secondary USS for all USS, where when a UAV enters a given area X the change from USS-1 to USS-2 maybe triggered based on the change policy);
determine, based on the evaluation indicating that the USS device is permitted to initiate the reallocation of the UE, a target USS device based at least in part on the first notification (see Ijaz Fig. 9, Fig. 13, [0220], [0248], [0252]-[0253] note handoff 1361 from first USS 1 1360 to USS 2 1370); and
transmit, to an unmanned aircraft system network function (UAS-NF), a second notification, wherein the second notification indicates that the UE is reallocated to the target USS device (see Ijaz Fig. 9, Fig. 13, [0221] note handoff notification 1362).
Claim(s) 16 is/are rejected for at least the same reason(s) set forth in claim 1.
Claims 2 and 17
Consider claim 2, Ijaz teaches wherein the target USS device is determined based at least in part on a current location of the UE, and wherein the current location of the UE is indicated in the first notification (see Ijaz Fig. 9, Fig. 13, [0182]-[0183], [0219]-[0220] note UAV moves out of the coverage range of the serving USS it can have some connection issue).
Claim(s) 17 is/are rejected for at least the same reason(s) set forth in claim 2.
Claims 3 and 18
Consider claim 3, Ijaz teaches wherein a context associated with the UE is provided to the target USS device based at least in part on determining the target USS device (see Ijaz Fig. 13, [0220], [0224], [0228] note GPSI, PDU session information, and UAV IP address) .
Claim(s) 18 is/are rejected for at least the same reason(s) set forth in claim 3.
Claims 4 and 19
Consider claim 4, Ijaz teaches wherein the one or more processors are individually or collectively configured to cause the USS device to:
transmit a context associated with the UE to the target USS device (see Ijaz Fig. 13, [0220], [0224], [0228] note GPSI, PDU session information, and UAV IP address).
Claim(s) 19 is/are rejected for at least the same reason(s) set forth in claim 4.
Claims 5 and 20
Consider claim 5, Ijaz teaches wherein the one or more processors are individually or collectively further configured to cause the USS device to: transmit a context associated with the UE to the UAS-NF, wherein the UAS-NF provides the context to the target USS device (see Ijaz [0221] note Handoff Notification with GPSI, CAA level, UAV ID, and USS2 information).
Claim(s) 20 is/are rejected for at least the same reason(s) set forth in claim 5.
Claims 6 and 21
Consider claim 6, Ijaz teaches a network device (see Ijaz Fig. 10, note UAS-NF 1030) for wireless communication, comprising:
a memory(see Ijaz [0257] note memory); and one or more processors (see Ijaz [0257] note processor), coupled to the memory, configured to:
determine a target unmanned aircraft system service supplier (USS) based at least in part on information indicating a location of a user equipment (UE) (see Ijaz Fig. 9, Fig. 10, Fig. 13, [0171], [0182]-[0185], [0219]-[0220] note when the UAV moves out of the coverage range of the serving USS 1 1360 receiving an indication, QoS Degradation Indication 861, from the PLMN component, UAS-NF 130 of PLMN 1040, and in response to the indication initiating handoff from the serving USS 1 1360 to a target USS 2 1370, handoff 1361), wherein the target is determined based on evaluation of a policy including a change initiation flag and a change policy (see Ijaz [0245]-[0246], [0248], [0252]-[0253] note USS owns the configuration for a particular UAV, where all UAVs that belong to a particular USS may have a particular secondary USS and the configuration including a change-initiation flag and change policy may be set per secondary USS for all USS where when a UAV enters a given area X the change from USS-1 to USS-2 maybe triggered based on the change policy); and
transmit, to a current USS associated with the UE, a notification, wherein the notification indicates that a context associated with the UE is to be transferred from the current USS to the target USS (see Ijaz Fig. 9, Fig. 10, Fig. 13, [0182]-[0185], [0220] note when the UAV moves out of the coverage range of the serving USS 1 1360 transmitting an indication from the PLMN component, UAS-NF 130 of PLMN 1040, and in response to the indication initiating handoff from the serving USS 1 1360 to a target USS 2 1370, handoff 1361).
Claim(s) 21 is/are rejected for at least the same reason(s) set forth in claim 1.
Claims 7 and 22
Consider claim 7, Ijaz teaches wherein a context associated with the UE is provided to the target USS based at least in part on the current USS receiving the notification (see Ijaz Fig. 13, [0220], [0224], [0228] note GPSI, PDU session information, and UAV IP address).
Claim(s) 22 is/are rejected for at least the same reason(s) set forth in claim 7.
Claims 8 and 23
Consider claim 8, Ijaz teaches wherein the notification indicates a network address associated with the target USS (see Ijaz Fig. 13, [0220], [0224], [0228] note GPSI, PDU session information, and UAV IP address).
Claim(s) 23 is/are rejected for at least the same reason(s) set forth in claim 8.
Claims 9 and 24
Consider claim 9, Ijaz teaches wherein the one or more processors are individually or collectively further configured to cause the network device to:
receive, from the current USS, a context associated with the UE based at least in part on the current USS receiving the notification (see Ijaz Fig. 13, [0221] note handoff notification 1362 with GPSI, CAA-level UAV Id, and USS2 information); and
transmit the context to the target USS (see Ijaz Fig. 13, [0223], [0228] note the Handoff Ack may be forwarded to USS2 and the Handoff Notification response with GPSI, PDU Session Info, and UAV IP address).
Claim(s) 24 is/are rejected for at least the same reason(s) set forth in claim 9.
Claims 10 and 25
Consider claim 10, Ijaz teaches wherein the target USS is determined based at least in part on the location of the UE and an identifier associated with the UE (see Ijaz Fig. 9, Fig. 10, Fig. 12B, Fig. 13, [0171], [0182]-[0185], [0211], [0219]-[0220] note when the UAV moves out of the coverage range of the serving USS 1 1360 receiving an indication, QoS Degradation Indication 861, from the PLMN component, UAS-NF 130 of PLMN 1040, and in response to the indication initiating handoff from the serving USS 1 1360 to a target USS 2 1370, handoff 1361. The UAS NF receives the GPSI, CAA-level ID, Authentication Msg, UUAA Result, USS 2 IP, and Token 1 for the UAV and stores the USS 2 info) .
Claim(s) 25 is/are rejected for at least the same reason(s) set forth in claim 10.
Claims 11 and 26
Consider claim 11, Ijaz teaches wherein the notification includes a general public subscription identifier (GPSI) associated with the UE (see Ijaz [0210], [0221], [0224] note GPSI).
Claim(s) 26 is/are rejected for at least the same reason(s) set forth in claim 11.
Claims 12 and 27
Consider claim 12, Ijaz teaches wherein the information indicating the location of the UE is received from a wireless node based at least in part on the network device subscribing to a service associated with receiving presence monitoring events associated with the UE from the wireless node, wherein the wireless node is included in a wireless network associated with the network device (see Ijaz [0187], [0197], [0245] note USS 1 performs the subscription to service from the network for location updates).
Claim(s) 27 is/are rejected for at least the same reason(s) set forth in claim 12.
Claims 13 and 28
Consider claim 13, Ijaz teaches wherein the wireless node includes an access and mobility management function (AMF) or a gateway mobile location center (GMLC) (see Ijaz Fig. 13, note AMF 1320).
Claim(s) 28 is/are rejected for at least the same reason(s) set forth in claim 13.
Claims 14 and 29
Consider claim 14, Ijaz teaches wherein the network device receives serving information associated with the current USS and the target USS, and wherein the target USS is determined based at least in part on the serving information (see Ijaz Fig. 13, [0211], [0219] note the UAS-NF stores USS1 information as well as USS2 information, where the stored information allow the UAS-NF to enable the authorized USSs to start query location of the UAV before, during, or after handoff).
Claim(s) 29 is/are rejected for at least the same reason(s) set forth in claim 14.
Claims 15 and 30
Consider claim 15, Ijaz teaches wherein the network device includes an unmanned aircraft system network function (UAS-NF) (see Ijaz Fig. 10, note UAS-NF 1030).
Claim(s) 30 is/are rejected for at least the same reason(s) set forth in claim 15.
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.
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MARCUS C HAMMONDS whose telephone number is (571)270-3193. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 10:00AM-6:00PM.
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, ALISON T. SLATER can be reached at (571)270-0375. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/MARCUS HAMMONDS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2647
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