DETAILED ACTION
Claim(s) 4-6 are presented for examination.
Claim(s) 1-3 are canceled.
Claim(s) 4-6 are amended.
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 .
Priority
As required by M.P.E.P.201.14(c), acknowledgement is made to applicant’s claim for priority based on application(s) JP2022-022067 submitted on February 16th, 2022.
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement(s) (IDS) submitted on June 18th, 2024 follow the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Specification
The title of the invention is not descriptive. A new title is required that is clearly indicative of the invention to which the claims are directed (i.e., “PERFORMING USER EQUIPMENT ROUTE SELECTION POLICY (URSP) UPDATES IN FIFTH GENERATION (5G) SYSTEMS”).
Claim Rejections - 35 U.S.C. § 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.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. § 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim(s) 4-6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over KIM et al. (US 2020/0053562 A1) hereinafter “Kim” in view of LEE et al. (US 2022/0386100 A1) hereinafter “Lee”.
Regarding Claims 4 and 6,
Kim discloses a User Equipment (UE) [see fig. 12, pg. 9, ¶189 lines 1-5, a UE “100”] comprising:
transmission and reception circuitry [see fig. 12, pg. 9, ¶189 lines 1-5, a transmission/reception unit “103”];
storage circuitry [see fig. 12, pg. 9, ¶189 lines 1-5, a storage unit “101”]; and
controlling circuitry [see fig. 12, pg. 9, ¶189 lines 1-5, a controller “102”], wherein the transmission and reception circuitry is configured to transmit first information to a network [see fig. 9: Step(s) “1-2”, pg. 8, ¶152 lines 1-3, the UE transmits specific traffic through the PDU session #1 in a state that the PDU session #1 has been established], and the transmission and reception circuitry receives a Manage UE policy command including information related to a first UE Route Selection Policy (URSP) associated with a first Visited Public Land Mobile Network (VPLMN) in a UE policy management procedure [see fig. 9: Step(s) “8-9”, pg. 8, ¶158 lines 1-5; ¶159 lines 1-5, the AMF node sends a message to trigger an establishment of a new PDU session to the UE including information indicating that an additional authentication/authorization procedure is required for specific traffic. The UE stops transmitting the corresponding traffic through the PDU session #1, and also updates routing rules related to the transmission of the traffic. That is, the routing rule is updated so that specific traffic is sent through a new PDU session #2].
Although Kim discloses transmit first information to a network, Kim does not explicitly teach in a case that the transmission and reception circuitry receives a Manage UE policy command, “store information related to the first URSP into the storage circuitry”, and “the first information indicates that the UE supports information related to a URSP associated with a VPLMN”.
However Lee discloses transmit first information to a network [see fig. 7: Step “1”, pg. 9, ¶132 lines 1-12, the UE transmits a registration request message for registration to an (R)AN], in a case that the transmission and reception circuitry receives a Manage UE policy command including information related to a first UE Route Selection Policy (URSP) associated with a first Visited Public Land Mobile Network (VPLMN) in a UE policy management procedure [see fig. 7: Step “16”, pgs. 9-10, ¶146 lines 1-8, when the UE is in a CM-connected state via a 3GPP access or non-3GPP access, the AMF transparently transmits the UE policy container including information associated with UE access selection and PDU session selection related policy information received from the V-PCF to the UE], the controlling circuitry is configured to store information related to the first URSP into the storage circuitry [see fig. 7: Step “17”, pg. 10, ¶147 lines 1-5, the UE updates the UE policy provided from the V-PCF, and then, transmits a result of the update (i.e., the information about the updated policy) to the AMF], and the first information indicates that the UE supports information related to a URSP associated with a VPLMN [see fig. 7: Step “1”, pg. 9, ¶132 lines 1-12, the (R)AN selects an AMF based on the received registration request message, and transmits a registration request message to the selected AMF for the AMF to transmit an information request to a UDM of a home PLMN and receive a response to the information request, thereby the selected AMF receives a visited user equipment route selection policy (V-URSP) allowance indicator … etc.].
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide in a case that the transmission and reception circuitry receives a Manage UE policy command, “store information related to the first URSP into the storage circuitry”, and “the first information indicates that the UE supports information related to a URSP associated with a VPLMN” as taught by Lee in the system of Kim to improve the scalability in terms of a signaling load and function/implementation complexity of the core equipment that is in charge of a control plane [see Lee, pg. 1, ¶10 lines 14-20].
Regarding Claim 5,
Kim discloses the UE according to claim 4.
Kim does not explicitly teach wherein “in a case that the transmission and reception circuitry further receives information related to a second URSP associated with the first VPLMN, the controlling circuitry is configured to replace the information related to the first URSP stored in the storage circuitry with the information related to the second URSP”.
However Lee discloses in a case that the transmission and reception circuitry further receives information related to a second URSP associated with the first VPLMN [see fig. 6: Step “605”, pg. 8, ¶127 lines 1-13, when the message transmitted from the V-PCF does not include the indicator regarding precedence of the V-URSP], the controlling circuitry is configured to replace the information related to the first URSP stored in the storage circuitry with the information related to the second URSP [see fig. 6: Step “605”, pg. 8, ¶127 lines 1-13, the UE selects the policy of the UE based on the H-URSP by applying a higher order of precedence to the H-URSP than the V-URSP].
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide “in a case that the transmission and reception circuitry further receives information related to a second URSP associated with the first VPLMN, the controlling circuitry is configured to replace the information related to the first URSP stored in the storage circuitry with the information related to the second URSP” as taught by Lee in the system of Kim for the same motivation as set forth in claim 4.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
United States Patent Application Publication: Wei et al. (US 2024/0388991 A1); see fig. 7, pgs. 13-15, ¶220-¶250.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to RUSHIL P SAMPAT whose telephone number is (469) 295-9141. The examiner can normally be reached on Mon-Fri (8 AM - 5 PM).
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Ian Moore can be reached on (571) 272-3085. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/RUSHIL P. SAMPAT/Primary Examiner- TC 2400, Art Unit 2469
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