Detailed Action
1. This Office Action is responsive to the Preliminary Amendment filed 03/08/2024. Claims 1, 3, 5, 6, 8-12, 25, 27, 29-32, 42, 43, 46 and 47 have been amended. Claims 13-24, 33-41, 44, 45 and 48-51 have been cancelled. Claims 52-54 have been added as new claims. Claims 1-12, 25-32, 42, 43, 46, 47 and 52-54 are presented for examination. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Priority
2. Applicant’s claim for the benefit of a prior-filed application under 35 U.S.C. 119(e) or under 35 U.S.C. 120, 121, or 365(c) is acknowledged.
Information Disclosure Statement
3. The information disclosure statements (IDSes) submitted on 04/03/2024, 05/08/2024 and 10/28/2025 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
4. 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.
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.
5. Claims 1-2, 5-6, 8-11, 25-26, 29-31, 42-43, 46-47 and 52-54 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by S BYKAMPADI et al. (US 2022/0353255 A1), hereinafter “BYKAMPADI”.
6. As to claim 1, BYKAMPADI teaches a method performed by a sender network function (NF), the method comprising: sending a first message to a receiver NF ([0065]: the first instance of the NF service consumer 22 sends to the authorization server 20 an access token request; and [0092]: the first instance of the NF service consumer 22 sends to the network function service producer 24 a request to access the service provided by the network function service producer 24. This request referred to as a service request including the access token), the first message comprising a new Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) header which comprises an NF instance identifier (ID) of the sender NF and an NF instance ID of the receiver NF ([0065-0071]: The access token request referred to as “Nnrf_AccessToken_Get_request” [via HTTP signaling] may include an NF instance identifier of the requesting first instance of the NF service consumer 22 and an NF instance identifier of the specific NF service producer 24 for which the access token is requested).
7. As to claim 2, BYKAMPADI teaches the method according to claim 1, wherein the NF instance ID of the sender NF and the NF instance ID of the receiver NF are used to identify a message exchanged between the sender NF and the receiver NF ([0065-0071] and [0092]: the NF instance ID of the NF service consumer 22 and the NF service producer 24 used to identify the sender and receiver of the service/access token request message).
8. As to claim 5, BYKAMPADI teaches the method according to any of claim 1, wherein the first message is a service request message ([0065]: an access token request message; and [0092]: a service request message) or a notification request message.
9. As to claim 6, BYKAMPADI teaches the method according to any of claim 1, further comprising: receiving a second message from the receiver NF ([0090]: the authorization server 20 may send the access token to the first instance of the NF service consumer 22), wherein the second message comprises the NF instance ID of the sender NF and the NF instance ID of the receiver NF ([0077-0082]: the authorization server 20 authorizes the requesting first instance of the NF service consumer 22 and generates an access token including an NF instance of the requesting first instance of the NF service consumer 22 and an NF instance identifier of the specific NF service producer 24 to which the access token relates).
10. As to claim 8, BYKAMPADI teaches the method according to any of claim 6, wherein the second message is an HTTP message ([0090]: the authorization server 20 may send the access token to the first instance of the NF service consumer 22. This may be sent via the Nnrf service-based interface, i.e., via an Nnrf_AccessToken_Get Response).
11. As to claim 9, BYKAMPADI teaches the method according to claim 6, wherein the second message is a service response message ([0061]: In response to the request, the authorization server authorizes the requesting NF service consumer and generates and returns an access token to the requesting NF service consumer) or a notification response message.
12. As to claim 10, BYKAMPADI teaches the method according to claim 1, wherein the sender NF is an NF service consumer or an NF service producer (Figs. 2A-C: the requesting NF service consumer 22) and the receiver NF is an NF service producer or an NF service consumer (Fig. 2A-C: the authorization server 20 or the NF service producer 24).
13. As to claim 11, BYKAMPADI teaches the method according to claim 1, wherein the sender NF is an HTTP client and the receiver NF is an HTTP server ([0060]: The authorization server may be implemented by another network function, for instance the Network Repository Function (NRF); and [0065]: the access token request may be sent via the service-based interface exhibited by the NRF, hence, the requesting NF service consumer 22 can be referred as an HTTP client requesting an access token from the authorization sever 20 referred as an HTTP server).
14. As to claim 25, claim 25 recites similar limitations as of the combination of method claims 1 and 6, wherein the limitations are performed by a service communication proxy (SCP) (FIGS. 2B-C and [0107]: the NF service consumer instance 22 may communicate with the NF service producer instance 24 via the SCP), and does not contain any additional limitations with respect to novelty and/or inventive steps; therefore, it is rejected under the same rational as claims 1 and 6.
15. As to claims 26, 29-31, claims 26, 29-31 are method claims that recite similar limitations as of method claims 2, 5, 9-11 and do not contain any additional limitations with respect to novelty and/or inventive steps; therefore, they are rejected under the same rationale.
16. As to claims 42-43 and 52-53, claims 42-43 and 52-53 are corresponding sender NF claims that recite similar limitations as of method claims 1-2, 6, 8 and 11 and do not contain any additional limitations with respect to novelty and/or inventive steps; therefore, they are rejected under the same rationale.
17. As to claims 46-47 and 54, claims 46-47 and 54 are corresponding SCP claims that recite similar limitations as of method claims 25-26 and 31 and do not contain any additional limitations with respect to novelty and/or inventive steps; therefore, they are rejected under the same rationale.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
18. 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.
19. Claims 3-4, 7 and 27-28 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over BYKAMPADI, in view of BELLING et al (US 2023/0035572 A1), hereinafter “BELLING”.
20. As to claim 3, BYKAMPADI teaches the method according to claim 1, but does not explicitly teach “the new HTTP header further comprises an NF service instance ID of the sender NF and an NF service instance ID of the receiver NF”.
In an analogous art, BELLING teaches “the new HTTP header further comprises an NF service instance ID of the sender NF and an NF service instance ID of the receiver NF” ([0080-0082]: during explicit or implicit notification subscription, or in response to notification requests, a NF service consumer may provide a Binding Indication to a NF service producer, wherein the Binding Indication may include, NF Set ID, NF instance ID, NF Service Set ID, NF service instance ID, and service name related to the service of the NF service consumer that will handle the notification; and [0076-0078]: a NF service producer may provide a Binding Indication to a NF service consumer as part of a direct or indirect communication procedure, to be used in subsequent related service requests, wherein the Binding Indication may include NF Service Set ID , NF Set ID, NF Instance ID, NF service set ID, NF service instance ID, for use by the NF consumer or SCP for NF Service Producer selection or reselection).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of claimed invention to combine the teachings of BYKAMPADI and BELLING to include these scope parameters in a binding indication to indicate suitable target NF producer instance(s) for NF service instance selection, reselection and routing of subsequent requests associated with a specific content ([0071]).
21. As to claim 4, BYKAMPADI-BELLING teaches the method according to claim 3, wherein the NF instance ID of the sender NF, the NF instance ID of the receiver NF, the NF service instance ID of the sender NF and the NF service instance ID of the receiver NF are used to identify a message exchanged between the sender NF and the receiver NF ([0071] and [0074]: The scope parameters (such as NF instance ID and NF service instance ID of the NF service consumer and producer) can indicate that the bindings relates to notifications to subscriptions events, notification to other events, or to other services that the NF service consumer produces).
22. As to claim 7, claim 7 is a method claim that recite similar limitations as of method claim 3 and does not contain any additional limitations with respect to novelty and/or inventive steps; therefore, it is rejected under the same rationale.
23. As to claims 27-28, claims 27-28 are method claims that recite similar limitations as of method claims 3-4 and do not contain any additional limitations with respect to novelty and/or inventive steps; therefore, they are rejected under the same rationale.
24. Claims 12 and 32 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over BYKAMPADI, in view of BYKAMPADI et al (US 2022/0240089 A1), hereinafter “BYKAMPADI-089”.
25. As to claim 12, BYKAMPADI teaches the method according to claim 6, wherein the first message and second message further comprises an NF set ID of the sender NF ([0065]: the access token request includes an identifier of the set of network function service consumers of which the first network function service consumer 22 is a member), but does not explicitly disclose “the first message and second message further comprises an NF set ID of the receiver NF”.
In an analogous art, BYKAMPADI-089 teaches “the first message and second message further comprises an NF set ID of the receiver NF” ([0071-0072]: the NF service consumer 302 includes the NF Set ID of the target NF producer in the request to NRF 304); [0076]: NRF 304 sends an access token response to NF Consumer 302; and [0088]: NRF 304 may just include the NF Set ID in the access token).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of BYPAMPADI and BYKAMPADI-089 to include the NF Set ID of the target NF producer in the token access request to enable the NRF/authorization server to remove NF producers from the list of NF producers available for the NF consumer to select, based on readily-available factors such as location of the UE, location of the NF consumer, whether the load on the NF producer has crossed the overload threshold limit, etc. ([0065]).
26. As to claim 32, claim 32 is a method claim that recites similar limitations as of method claim 12 and does not contain any additional limitations with respect to novelty and/or inventive steps; therefore, it is rejected under the same rationale.
27. Further references of interest are cited on Form PTO-892, which is an attachment to this Office Action.
28. A shortened statutory period for reply to this action is set to expire THREE (3) months from the mailing date of this communication. See 37 CFR 1.134.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to QUANG N NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571) 272-3886.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, KAMAL B. DIVECHA, can be reached at (571) 272-5863. The fax phone number for the organization is (571) 273-8300.
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/QUANG N NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2441