DETAILED ACTION
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 .
Response to Arguments
Examiner is persuaded by Applicants’ arguments regarding restriction of the claims.
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 – 4, 6 – 8, 10 – 12, 30, 31 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Elshafie et al. (US 2022/0352751).
Regarding Claim 1, Elshafie teaches a data transmission method, applied to a first communication node, the method comprising: receiving an energy supply request message sent by a second communication node (Section 0036, the another UE or BS is the first communication node which receives the energy request); and sending an energy supply request response message to the second communication node (Section 0036, the UE is the second communication node, RF energy harvesting signal is the energy supply request response).
Regarding Claim 30, Elshafie teaches a data transmission method, applied to a second communication node, the method comprising: sending an energy supply request message to a first communication node (Section 0036, the another UE or BS is the first communication node which receives the energy request); and receiving an energy supply request response message, an energy supply request confirmation message, or an energy supply request rejection message sent by the first communication node (Section 0036, RF energy harvesting signal is the energy supply request response).
Regarding Claim 2, Elshafie teaches all of the claimed limitations recited in Claim 1. Elshafie further teaches sending the energy supply request message to a third communication node (Figure 1, Section 0043, plurality of BSs and UEs thus rendering a third UE or BS).
Regarding Claim 3, Elshafie teaches all of the claimed limitations recited in Claim 1. Elshafie further teaches sending supplying energy to the second communication node according to the energy supply request response message (Section 0036, receiving RF energy harvesting signal, said RF energy harvesting signal is converted to energy).
Regarding Claim 4. Elshafie teaches all of the claimed limitations recited in Claim 1. Elshafie further teaches controlling, according to the energy supply request response message, a fourth communication node to supply energy to the second communication node (Section 0035, another UE, which reads on the fourth node, that operates as a relay can supply the energy harvesting message).
Regarding Claim 6. Elshafie teaches all of the claimed limitations recited in Claim 1. Elshafie further teaches wherein the energy supply request message comprises at least one of: an energy supply type; energy supply periodicity information; energy supply frequency-domain information; energy supply start time information; energy supply end time information; energy supply duration information; energy supply intensity information; an energy supply level; energy supply permission; a last energy supply result; a plurality of latest energy supply results; or a beam direction of energy supply (Section 0038, energy harvesting duration reads on energy supply duration information).
Regarding Claim 7, Elshafie teaches all of the claimed limitations recited in Claim 1. Elshafie further teaches wherein sending an energy supply request response message to the second communication node comprises: sending an energy supply request confirmation message to the second communication node; or sending an energy supply request rejection message to the second communication node (Section 0036, the RF energy harvesting signal is the supply request confirmation).
Regarding Claim 8, Elshafie teaches all of the claimed limitations recited in Claim 1. Elshafie further teaches wherein the energy supply request response message further comprises at least one of: an energy supply type; a frequency-domain position of an energy supply signal; an energy supply periodicity; energy supply start time; energy supply end time; a duration of an energy supply signal; sequence information of an energy supply signal; a strength of an energy supply signal; a transmit power of an energy supply signal; a beam direction of energy supply; an energy supply key; an energy supply region indication; or a list of energy supply cells (Section 0038, energy harvesting duration reads on energy supply duration information).
Regarding Claim 10, Elshafie teaches all of the claimed limitations recited in Claim 8. Elshafie further teaches wherein a configuration mode of the energy supply key comprises one of the following that: an energy supply cell corresponds one-to-one to an energy supply key; one energy supply key corresponds to a plurality of cells; an energy supply region corresponds one-to-one to an energy supply key; or the second communication node corresponds one-to-one to an energy supply key (Section 0036, battery cell of the first wireless communication device is one-to-one to the RF energy harvesting signal).
Regarding Claim 11, Elshafie teaches all of the claimed limitations recited in Claim 1. Elshafie further teaches wherein the energy supply type in the energy supply request message or the energy supply request response message comprises at least one of: an energy supply bandwidth; an energy supply frequency; an energy supply intensity; an energy supply spectrum; or an energy supply mode (Section 0036, allocation of resources (subcarriers in frequency) is related to bandwidth).
Regarding Claim 12, Elshafie teaches all of the claimed limitations recited in Claim 1. Elshafie further teaches wherein the first communication node comprises a control unit and a data unit (Section 0036, BSs comprises a processors (control unit) and transmitters (data unit)); and a process of supplying energy to the second communication node comprises: receiving, by the control unit, the energy supply request message sent by the second communication node (Section 0036, energy request); sending, by the control unit, the energy supply request response message to the data unit (Section 0036, RF energy harvesting signal); and supplying, by the data unit, energy to the second communication node (Section 0036, RF energy harvesting signal is converted to energy).
Regarding Claim 31, Elshafie teaches all of the claimed limitations recited in Claim 30. Elshafie further teaches performing energy harvesting according to the energy supply request response message or the energy supply request confirmation message; or abandoning energy harvesting from the first communication node according to the energy supply request rejection message (Section 0036, RF energy harvesting signal is the energy supply request response).
Claim(s) 14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Xu et al. (US 2022/0312315)
Regarding Claim 14, Xu teaches a data transmission method, applied to a fifth communication node, the method comprising: receiving an energy supply release message or an energy harvesting completion message sent by a second communication node (Section 0072, reference signal (RS) indicates the stopping or completion of energy harvesting, Figure 1 shows that there are plurality of BSs and mobile devices thus there will be a plurality of nodes).
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, 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.
Claim(s) 5 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Elshafie et al. (US 2022/0352751) in view of Li et al. (US 2014/0011543).
Regarding Claim 5, Elshafie teaches all of the claimed limitations recited in Claim 1. Elshafie further teaches sending energy supply request response message to the second communication node (Section 0036, the UE is the second communication node, RF energy harvesting signal is the energy supply request response).
Elshafie does not teach wherein before sending an energy supply request response message to the second communication node, the method further comprises: receiving an energy supply request response message fed back by a third communication node.
Li, which also teaches energy harvesting, teaches receiving an energy supply request response message fed back by a third communication node (Figure 6, Sections 0074, 0077, BS can request energy thus receive response to said request).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Elshafie with the above features of Li for the purpose of providing energy trade off for the purpose of conserving energy as taught by Li. The combination of Elshafie and Li teaches wherein before sending an energy supply request response message to the second communication node, the method further comprises: receiving an energy supply request response message fed back by a third communication node.
Claim(s) 9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Elshafie et al. (US 2022/0352751) in view of Fan et al. (US 2023/0006467)
Regarding Claim 9, Elshafie teaches all of the claimed limitations recited in Claim 1. Elshafie does not teach wherein the energy supply request message further comprises: terminal device identity information.
Fan, which also teaches energy harvesting, teaches terminal device identity information (Section 0023, identifier of the energy harvesting device).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Elshafie with the above features of Fan for the purpose of effectively demodulating AM signals in an IoT environment as taught by Fan.
Claim(s) 13, 32 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Elshafie et al. (US 2022/0352751) in view of Xu et al. (US 2022/0312315)
Regarding Claim 13, Elshafie teaches all of the claimed limitations recited in Claim 1. Elshafie does not teach receiving an energy supply release message or an energy harvesting completion message sent by the second communication node.
Xu, which also teaches energy harvesting, teaches receiving an energy supply release message or an energy harvesting completion message sent by the second communication node (Section 0072, reference signal (RS) indicates the stopping or completion of energy harvesting).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Elshafie with the above features of Xu for the purpose of controlling RF energy harvesting based on availability of RF energy as taught by Xu.
Regarding Claim 32, Elshafie teaches all of the claimed limitations recited in Claim 30. Elshafie does not teach sending an energy supply release message or an energy harvesting completion message to the first communication node; or sending an energy supply release message or an energy harvesting completion message to a fifth communication node.
Xu, which also teaches energy harvesting, teaches sending an energy supply release message or an energy harvesting completion message to the first communication node; or sending an energy supply release message or an energy harvesting completion message to a fifth communication node (Section 0072, reference signal (RS) indicates the stopping or completion of energy harvesting).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Elshafie with the above features of Xu for the purpose of controlling RF energy harvesting based on availability of RF energy as taught by Xu.
Claim(s) 15 – 17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xu et al. (US 2022/0312315) in view of Roy et al. (US 2016/0029403).
Regarding Claim 15, Xu teaches all of the claimed limitations recited in Claim 13. Xu further teaches sending the energy supply release message or the energy harvesting completion message to a third communication node (Figure 5, Sections 0070, 0072; reference signal (RS) indicates the stopping or completion of energy harvesting, Figure 1 shows that there are plurality of BSs and mobile devices thus there will be a plurality of nodes).
Xu does not teach receiving an energy supply release response message or an energy harvesting completion response message fed back by the third communication node.
Roy, which also teaches DRX mode, teaches an energy supply release response message or an energy harvesting completion response message fed back by the third communication node (Section 0154, notification of going to sleep reads on the energy supply release response message).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Xu with the above features of Roy for the purpose of providing a mesh network thus providing wider coverage as taught by Roy.
Regarding Claim 16, Xu in view of Roy teaches all of the claimed limitations recited in Claim 15. Xu does not teach sending the energy supply release response message or the energy harvesting completion response message to the second communication node.
Roy, which also teaches DRX mode, teaches sending the energy supply release response message or the energy harvesting completion response message to the second communication node (Section 0154, notification of going to sleep reads on the energy supply release response message, Figure 1D mesh network with multiple UEs thus there will be a plurality of nodes).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Xu with the above features of Roy for the purpose of providing a mesh network thus providing wider coverage as taught by Roy.
Regarding Claim 17, Xu in view of Roy teaches all of the claimed limitations recited in Claim 15. Xu further teaches stopping supplying energy to the second communication node (Section 0072, stopping harvesting energy).
Xu does not teach stopping, according to the energy supply release response message or the energy harvesting completion response message, supplying energy to the second communication node.
Roy, which also teaches DRX mode, teaches the energy supply release message or the energy harvesting completion message (Figure 5, Sections 0070, 0072; reference signal (RS) indicates the stopping or completion of energy harvesting).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Xu with the above features of Roy for the purpose of providing a mesh network thus providing wider coverage as taught by Roy.
Conclusion
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/RAYMOND S DEAN/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2645 Raymond S. Dean
August 25, 2026
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