DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
A preliminary amendment received on 6/06/2024 amending claims 1-14 and canceling claims 15-26 has been entered by the examiner.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDSs) submitted on 6/06/2024, 5/14/2025, and 9/17/2025 have been entered and considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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.
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)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-6 and 13-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Prabhakar et al (US2021/0297844 A1) IDS submitted by Applicant.
Regarding claims 1 and 4, Prabhakar teaches a method/UE for a User Equipment (UE) (Abstract), comprising:
a memory; and at least one processor configured to access the memory and configured to (Para. 0256):
receiving, from an Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF), a Registration Accept message which includes a validity time (Figs. 6-9; Paras. 0176-0185; the validity timer period may be provided to the UE as part of a registration accept as shown in FIG. 9; i.e. Fig. 9 shows the validity timer is included in the Accept message from the AMF); and
removing network slice information from an Allowed Network Slice Selection Assistance Information (NSSAI) based on the validity time indicating the network slice information is not available (Paras. 0138-0147; the UE may send a registration request to the HPLMN. The registration request may include a list of S-NSSAIs that identify corresponding network slices to which the UE requests access; the value of the supporting PLMN list for a given allowed S-NSSAI shall be valid in the UE even after power cycle, until the expiry of the validity timer period, or until a UE Configuration Update command with an updated supporting PLMN list for the allowed S-NSSAI is received by the UE; i.e. once the timer expires, the PLMN/slice would not be allowed/removed).
Regarding claims 2 and 5, Prabhakar teaches the limitations of the previous claims. Prabhakar further teaches comprising: establishing a Protocol Data Unit (PDU) session associated with the network slice information based on the validity time indicating the network slice information is available (Paras. 0112-0122 and 0184; When a PDU [Protocol Data Unit] Session is established, the CN [Core Network] provides to the AN [Access Network] the S-NSSAI with the value from the VPLMN corresponding to this PDU Session, as described in clause 5.15.5.3 of TS 25.501).
Regarding claims 3, 6, 13, and 14, Prabhakar teaches the limitations of the previous claims. Prabhakar further teaches wherein the network slice information is Single Network Slice Selection Assistance Information (S-NSSAI) (Paras. 0112-0126, 0184, and 0230; the registration request (or other message) may include a requested S-NSSAI (Single-Network Slice Selection Assistance Information) value associated with the given network slice, e.g., as variously described above. The S-NSSAI value may include an information element (IE) indicating whether the list of one or more PLMNs is requested).
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 of this title, 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 7-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Prabhakar et al (US2021/0297844 A1) IDS submitted by Applicant in view of Lee et al (US 2020/0053643 A1).
Regarding claims 7 and 10, Prabhakar teaches a method/AMF for an Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF) (Abstract), comprising:
a memory; and at least one processor configured to access the memory and configured to (Para. 0256):
receiving, from a User Equipment (UE), a registration request message including information for temporarily support for a network slice (Paras. 0138-0147; the UE may send a registration request to the HPLMN. The registration request may include a list of S-NSSAIs that identify corresponding network slices to which the UE requests access; the value of the supporting PLMN list for a given allowed S-NSSAI shall be valid in the UE even after power cycle, until the expiry of the validity timer period, or until a UE Configuration Update command with an updated supporting PLMN list for the allowed S-NSSAI is received by the UE); and
sending, to the UE, based on the information, a Registration Accept message which includes a validity time (Figs. 6-9; Paras. 0176-0185; the validity timer period may be provided to the UE as part of a registration accept as shown in FIG. 9; i.e. Fig. 9 shows the validity timer is included in the Accept message from the AMF).
However, while Prabhakar teaches UEs may be subscribed to network slices with the HPLMN and a roaming UE may receive network slice information from an entitlement server (Paras. 0010, 0113-0114, and 0210-0214), he does not specifically disclose receiving, from a Unified Data Management (UDM), information.
Lee teaches supporting access to network slices in a wireless communication system (Abstract). He further teaches receiving, from a Unified Data Management (UDM), information (Fig. 6; Para. 0114; The AMF 620 receiving the registration request message 650 of the UE 610 may request a user data management (UDM) for subscription information of the UE 610, and may obtain the subscription information of the UE 610 from the UDM. Network slice information to which the UE 610 subscribes may be included in the subscription information of the UE 610. S-NSSAI information and slice group ID information which may be used by the UE 610 may be included in the network slice information to which the UE 610 subscribes).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to utilize the teachings as in Lee with the teachings as in Prabhakar. The motivation for doing so would have been to check service use authentication (Lee at para. 0115).
Regarding claims 8 and 11, the combination of references Prabhakar and Lee teach the limitations of the previous claims. Prabhakar further teaches wherein the validity time is related to a configured Network Slice Selection Assistance Information (NSSAI) (Figs. 6-9; Paras. 0138-0147 and 0176-0185; the validity timer period may be provided to the UE as part of a registration accept as shown in FIG. 9;; the UE may send a registration request to the HPLMN. The registration request may include a list of S-NSSAIs that identify corresponding network slices to which the UE requests access; the value of the supporting PLMN list for a given allowed S-NSSAI shall be valid in the UE even after power cycle, until the expiry of the validity timer period, or until a UE Configuration Update command with an updated supporting PLMN list for the allowed S-NSSAI is received by the UE).
Regarding claims 9 and 12, the combination of references Prabhakar and Lee teach the limitations of the previous claims. Prabhakar further teaches wherein the validity time is related to the temporary support for the network slice (Paras. 0138-0147; the UE may send a registration request to the HPLMN. The registration request may include a list of S-NSSAIs that identify corresponding network slices to which the UE requests access; the value of the supporting PLMN list for a given allowed S-NSSAI shall be valid in the UE even after power cycle, until the expiry of the validity timer period, or until a UE Configuration Update command with an updated supporting PLMN list for the allowed S-NSSAI is received by the UE; i.e. once the timer expires, the PLMN/slice would be removed so it is temporary).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KENT KRUEGER whose telephone number is (303)297-4238. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F 8:00-5:00 MT.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Michael Thier can be reached on (571) 272-2832. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/KENT KRUEGER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2474
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