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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election of group I identified as claims 1-8 and 17-20 without traverse in the reply filed on 7/29/2026 is acknowledged.
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.
Claims 1, 4-7, 17 and 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by U.S. Pre-Grant Publication No US 2018/0115947 to Kim et al. (hereinafter Kim)
As to claims 1 and 17, Kim discloses a station (STA) comprising:
one or more processors (Kim; Fig.32; [0275]-[0276]); and
memory storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors (Kim; Fig.32; [0275]-[0276]), cause the STA to:
receive, from an access point (AP), a first frame (Kim; [0239]; [0242]; [0247] discloses a STA receiving a trigger frame from an AP) indicating:
a first time period (Kim; [0248] discloses a specific duration is (i) a UL PPDU duration (e.g., indicated by the trigger frame)); and
a first association identifier (AID) (Kim; [0247] discloses trigger frame includes STA AID/address information); and
transition a power state of the STA to a doze state based on the first AID being different from a second AID of the STA (Kim; [0247]; [0239] discloses Upon receiving a trigger frame, an STA confirms whether a resource is allocated thereto through the trigger frame (e.g., through BSS ID and STA AID/address information). If the trigger frame does not include address/ID information of the STA, the STA may transition to a doze state during a specific duration (e.g., based on a UL PPDU duration). The specific duration may be set by the STA based on the UL PPDU duration. [0145]; [0150] discloses The information per allocation may include at least one of an AID (AIDs corresponding to the number of STAs are added in the case of MU)).
As to claim 4, the rejection of claim 1 as listed above is incorporated herein. In addition, Kim discloses wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the STA to transition the power state of the STA to the doze state after receiving the first frame but before receiving a second frame transmitted in response to the first frame (Kim; [0239]-[0254]).
As to claim 5, the rejection of claim 1 as listed above is incorporated herein. In addition, Kim discloses wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the STA to transition the power state of the STA to the doze state after receiving a second frame transmitted in response to the first frame (Kim; [0239]-[0254]).
As to claim 6, the rejection of claim 1 as listed above is incorporated herein. In addition, Kim discloses wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the STA to transition the power state of the STA to the doze state based on not receiving a second frame during a second time period after receiving the first frame (Kim; [0239]-[0254])
As to claims 7 and 20, the rejection of claim 1 as listed above is incorporated herein. In addition, Kim discloses when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the STA to maintain the power state in the doze state during at least a portion of the first time period (Kim; [0239]-[0254])
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
1. 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.
2. 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 2-3, 8, 18 and 19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Pre-Grant Publication No US 2018/0115947 to Kim et al. (hereinafter Kim) in view of U.S. Publication No US 2023/0180047 to Ajami et al. (hereinafter Ajami)
As to claims 2 and 18, Kim discloses trigger frame but fails to disclose triggering frame indicating TXS. However, Ajami discloses
wherein the first frame further indicates a triggered transmission opportunity (TXOP) sharing (TXS) mode (Ajami; [0093]; [0108]; [0111] discloses the AP transmits an MU-RTS TXS Trigger frame over the wireless medium to the STA at time t.sub.4. The MU-RTS TXS Trigger frame allocates a portion of the TXOP to the STA for P2P communications associated with the client device. Specifically, the MU-RTS TXS Trigger frame may include a TXOP sharing mode subfield indicating a TXOP sharing mode for the P2P communications between the STA and the client device. In some instances, the MU-RTS TXS Trigger frame may include the MAC address or AID of the STA, and also may include the MAC address of the client device, so that the client device does not set its NAV to the period of time indicated in the duration field of the MU-RTS TXS Trigger frame, and instead remains awake to receive transmissions from the STA).
It is obvious for a person of ordinary skilled in the art to combine the teachings before the effective filing date of the invention. One would be motivated to combine the teachings in order to use the limited resources in an effective way by receiving a TXS frame that allocates resources to a particular station.
As to claims 3 and 19, the rejection of claim 2 as listed above is incorporated herein. In addition, Kim-Ajami discloses wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the STA to transition the power state of the STA to the doze state further based on the TXS mode having a non-zero value (Kim; [0253] discloses if the PS mode field is set to 1 (=non zero value), this may indicate that the STAs should transition to the doze mode during the entire TXOP duration including the UL PPDU duration)
As to claim 8, Kim discloses trigger frame but fails to disclose (MU-RTS) triggered transmission opportunity (TXOP) sharing (MRTT) frame. However, Ajami discloses
wherein the first frame is a multi-user request to send (MU-RTS) triggered transmission opportunity (TXOP) sharing (MRTT) frame (Ajami; [0093] discloses MU-RTS TXS Trigger frame)
It is obvious for a person of ordinary skilled in the art to combine the teachings before the effective filing date of the invention. One would be motivated to combine the teachings in order to use the limited resources in an effective way by receiving a TXS frame that allocates resources to a particular station
Conclusion
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/FAISAL CHOUDHURY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2478
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