Detailed Action
1. This Office Action is responsive to the Application 18/741,622 filed 06/12/2024. Claims 1-20 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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
2. 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)(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.
3. Claims 1, 3-7 and 9-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Liu (US 2015/0229699 A1).
4. As to claim 1, Liu teaches a method comprising:
receiving, by a computing device (linking system 102), a message indicative of a user identifier associated with a user device (second device 105) and a network address associated with a first network device (first device 104) located at a premises ([0047]: an input or action from user of the first device 104 can be wrapped in a trigger signal and transmitted to the linking system 102 for the preparation of second content to be delivered to the second device 105; [0036]:the user identifier or device identifier 108a (i.e., user/device 108a) can be part of the trigger signal; [0037]: the user/device identifier 108a can comprise an address element 109a associated with the first device 104 and a service element 110a);
determining, based on the user identifier, that the user device is associated with at least one tier of service ([0036]: the user/device identifier 108a can identify a user or user device as belonging to a particular class of users or user devices; [0038]: the particular class of users or user devices can be related to a type of device, capability of device, type of service being provided, and/or a level of service (e.g., business class, service tier, service package, etc.)); and
causing, based on the network address associated with the first network device, establishment of at least one service flow between the user device and a second network device (content provider 101) located external to the premises, wherein the at least one service flow is associated with the at least one tier of service ([0049-0051]: Upon receiving the request for information from a second device 105, the linking system 102 can associate the request for information from the second device 105 with the trigger signal from the first device 104 … if the device identifiers in the request for information and the trigger signal are associated with the same user … the second content can be transmitted from the content provider 101 to the second device 105 directly or via the linking system 102).
5. As to claim 3, Liu teaches the method of claim 1, wherein determining, based on the user identifier, that the user device is associated with the at least one tier of service comprises determining that the user identifier corresponds to a service entity that provides the at least one tier of service to a group of devices ([0036]: the user/device identifier 108a can identify a user or user device as belonging to a particular class of users or user devices).
6. As to claim 4, Liu teaches the method of claim 1, further comprising: determining, based on the user identifier, at least one service flow identifier associated with establishment of the at least one service flow ([0036]: the user/device identifier 108a can identify a user or user device as belonging to a particular class of users or user devices; [0038]: the particular class of users or user devices can be related to a type of device, capability of device, type of service being provided, and/or a level of service (e.g., business class, service tier, service package, etc.))
7. As to claim 5, Liu teaches the method of claim 1, wherein causing, based on the network address associated with the first network device, establishment of the at least one service flow between the second network device and the user device comprises sending the network address associated with the first network device to the second network device ([0032], [0036-0057] and [0050]: the linking system 102 can transmit a user identifier and/or device identifier associated with the first device 104 to the billing system 106 to determine whether the user of the first device 104 is entitled to access the second content, wherein the billing system 106, the content provider 101 and the linking system 102 can be implemented in the same network entity).
8. As to claim 6, Liu teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the second network device is configured to establish the at least one service flow between the second network device and the user device based on determining that the network address associated with the first network device is associated with the at least one tier of service ([0036-0038]: the user/device identifier 108a can comprise an address element 109a associated with the first device 104, and a service element 110a identifying a user or user device as belonging to a particular class of users or user devices, wherein the particular class of users or user devices can be related to a type of device, capability of device, type of service being provided, and/or a level of service (e.g., business class, service tier, service package, etc.)).
9. As to claim 7, Liu teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the at least one service flow comprises a first service flow associated with upstream traffic and a second service flow associated with downstream traffic ([0039]: the address element 109b can be relied upon to establish a communication session (upstream traffic-request second content and downstream traffic-receive second content from the content provider 101) between the second device 105 and other network devices or systems, such as the content provider 101, or the linking system 102).
10. As to claim 9, Liu teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the user identifier comprises an international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI) ([0030]: the second device 105 can comprise a set-top box, smart phone, computer, tablet, mobile device, PDA, television, or the like; [0065]: the request for information can comprise a user/device identifier 108b including address element 109b of the second device 105b, if the second device is a mobile/smart phone, then the user/device identifier 108b should include an IMSI).
11. As to claim 10, Liu teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the network address comprises an Internet Protocol (IP) address ([0037]: the address element 9a can comprise or provide an internet protocol (IP) address, a network address, a media access control MAC address, an Internet address, or the like).
12. As to claim 11, Liu teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the first network device (the first device 104) comprises at least one of a router device, a gateway device, a computing device, or an access point, and wherein the second network device comprises at least one of a gateway device, a computing device, or an access point ([0029-0030] and [0072]: the first device 104 and the second device 105 can comprise a set-top-box, programmable consumer electronic device, smart phone, computer, tablet, mobile device, PDA, smart television, communications terminal, or the like).
13. As to claim 12, Liu teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the computing device (the linking system 102) comprises a server device located external to the premises ([0031]: the linking system 102 can be a personal computer, portable computer, server, router, network computer, peer device, common network node, and the like).
14. As to claims 13-15, claims 13-15 recite similar limitations as of claims 1, 4 and 7 and do not contain any additional limitations with respect to novelty and/or inventive steps; therefore, they are rejected under the same rationale.
15. As to claim 16, Liu teaches the method of claim 13, further comprising: determining, based on the network address, a device identifier associated with the first network device; and causing storage of an association between the device identifier associated with the first network device and the at least one service flow ([0041]: the database 111 can store information relating to the first device 104 and the second device 105, such as device identifiers 108a,b, address elements 109a,b and/or the service element 110a,b. Specially, the linking system 102 can obtain the device identifier 108a of a first device 104 and retrieve information from the database 111 such as the address element 109a and the service element 110a of the first device 104. As a further example, the linking system 102 can obtain the address element 109a from a first device 104 and can retrieve the service element 110a of the first device 104 from the database 111, or vice versa).
16. As to claims 17-19, claims 17-19 recite similar limitations as of claims 1, 3 and 7 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
17. 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 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.
18. Claim 2 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liu, in view of Zhang (US 2023/0328070 A1).
19. As to claim 2, Liu teaches the method of claim 1, but does not explicitly teach “receiving, by the computing device, the message indicative of the user identifier associated with the user device and the network address associated with the first network device comprises receiving the message from the user device”.
In an analogous art, Zhang teaches “receiving, by the computing device, the message indicative of the user identifier associated with the user device and the network address associated with the first network device comprises receiving the message from the user device” ([0054]: the user computing device transmits system configuration data to the provider system that is used to evaluate a user or authenticate the user computing device. System configuration data can include, without limitation: (i) a unique identifier or the user computing device; (ii) a MAC address for the local network of a user computing device (e.g., a router MAC address); (iii) …; and (v) any other data useful [read as user ID, password, subscription data, etc.] for evaluating users and authenticating a user or user computing device).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the teachings of Zhang into Liu’s to achieve “receiving, by the computing device, the message indicative of the user identifier associated with the user device and the network address associated with the first network device comprises receiving the message from the user device” to enable the system to authenticate the user and/or the user device to determine whether the user and/or the user device is entitled to access the content/service from the provider.
20. Claims 8 and 20 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liu, in view of Siddiqui et al. (US 2018/0288077 A1), hereinafter “Siddiqui”.
21. As to claim 8, Liu teaches the method of claim 1, but does not explicitly teach “the at least one tier of service is associated with one or more of an increased download speed, an increased upload speed, a spam filtering service, a malware detection service, or a parental control service”.
In an analogous art, Siddiqui teaches “the at least one tier of service is associated with one or more of an increased download speed, an increased upload speed, a spam filtering service, a malware detection service, or a parental control service” ([0036]: The customer can pay a premium fee to obtain a higher subscription level that guarantees minimal delays (low latencies) for commencement or completion of analysis of submissions; [0037]: the malware detection system may limit the data submissions based on a prescribed amount of content based on the level of service per the subscription (e.g., 1 gigabytes/second “GPS” of traffic for Tier 1 service level and 2 GPS for Tier 2 service level).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the teachings of Siddiqui, into Liu’s to achieve “the at least one tier of service is associated with one or more of an increased download speed, an increased upload speed, a spam filtering service, a malware detection service, or a parental control service” to allow the system to provide different levels of services to users based on their corresponding subscription fees.
22. As to claim 20, claim 20 recites similar limitations as of claim 8 and does not contain any additional limitations with respect to novelty and/or inventive steps; therefore, it is rejected under the same rationale.
23. Further references of interest are cited on Form PTO-892, which is an attachment to this Office Action.
24. 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