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 . The instant First Office Action on the merits is in response to claims filed on 10/21/2024.
Claims 2-19 are pending. Claims 2 and 11 are the base independent claims.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted was filed before the mailing of a first Office action on the merits. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97(b). Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Priority
Applicant’s claim for the benefit of a prior-filed application under 35 U.S.C. 119(e) or under 35 U.S.C. 120, 121, or 365(c) is acknowledged.
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.
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.
Claims 2-5, 7-9, 11-14 and 16-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Haak et al (US 2017/0126625) in view of Taylor (US 2004/0203803).
Regarding claim 2, Haak discloses a method of providing network access to one or more personal electronic devices (fig. 1; e.g. portable electronic device (PED) 18) within a transport craft via a wireless communications link (par 34; e.g. the aircraft 10 incorporates an in-flight entertainment and communications system 20, the PED via the onboard WLAN, may connect to the system), comprising:
receiving a first request from a first personal electronic device to access a network via the wireless communications link (fig. 3A & par 44-47; e.g. where the request is generated by the client application…the client application 54, either directly or through the API 56, completes a registration process with an onboard connectivity manager 58 in accordance with a sequence step 1006);
obtaining information associated with a transport activity of the transport craft (par 46; e.g. API may update the flight detail data per sequence step 1008…The presence state 59 is understood to encompass the aforementioned flight detail data, as well as other data that pertains to the user or the PED 18);
establishing a first traffic policy for the first personal electronic device for the transport activity based at least in part on the information associated with the transport activity (48-49; e.g. upon storage of the presence states in the remote connectivity manager 60, the application server 38 has access thereto. Certain conditions set by the application server 38 are understood to govern the granting or denial of access to the satellite module 24 by the PED 18).
The reference does not explicitly disclose:
scheduling transmission of network traffic for the first personal electronic device during the transport activity over the wireless communications link according to the first traffic policy (emphasis added).
However, Taylor discloses:
scheduling transmission of network traffic for the first personal electronic device during the transport activity over the wireless communications link according to the first traffic policy (par 7, par 17-18; e.g. the policy algorithm utilizes such information, along with the rules within the database in order to prioritize delivery of the content to the content delivery system, hence scheduling the transmission of the content).
In view of the above, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of communication protocol configured for the electronic system of Taylor with the electronic system of Haak. One is motivated as such to address demands of the traveling public (Taylor, par 3).
Regarding claim 3, Haak discloses:
wherein the information associated with the transport activity is a time remaining in the transport activity (par 49; e.g. along these lines, the remaining flight duration and the connectivity window may help determine whether or not granting access would be beneficial to the provider).
Regarding claim 4, Haak discloses:
wherein establishing the first traffic policy comprises determining that the time remaining in the transport activity satisfies a threshold amount of time (par 49; e.g. but only five minutes remained before the start of landing procedures, paying for access to the Internet for the user to be engaged for that duration would not be worthwhile).
Regarding claim 5, Haak discloses:
wherein the information associated with the transport activity is a waypoint for the transport activity (par 49; e.g. limit access to the application server to certain locations).
Regarding claim 7, Taylor discloses:
wherein establishing the first traffic policy comprises providing access only to a subset of a set of network services (par 18; e.g. the database may contain a rule that an aircraft having a certain tail number requires only certain types of content).
Regarding claim 8, Taylor discloses:
wherein the set of network services comprises one or more of video streaming, text messaging, email messaging, or web browsing (par 18; e.g. specific Internet web sites).
Regarding claim 9, Haak discloses:
wherein the information associated with the transport activity is obtained from a transport management computer of the transport craft (par 34; e.g. the aircraft 10 incorporates an in-flight entertainment and communications (IFEC) system).
Regarding claims 11-14 and 16-18, Haak in view of Taylor also discloses an apparatus comprising an electronic hardware processor (Haak, par 40) for performing the method of claims 2-5 and 7-9 similar to the mapping above.
Claims 6 and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Haak et al (US 2017/0126625) in view of Taylor (US 2004/0203803), further in view of Chambers et al (US 2016/0050214).
Regarding claims 6 and 15, Taylor further discloses:
maintaining a database of traffic policies for accessing the network via the wireless communications link (par 17; the system 10 comprises a policy algorithm 12 in communication with a database 14); determining a set of traffic policies including the first traffic policy from the database based at least in part on the information associated with the transport activity (par 18; the database 14 may contain a rule that an aircraft having a certain tail number requires only certain types of content 18).
The combination does not disclose the following subject matter. However, Chambers discloses:
providing, to the first personal electronic device, data indicating the set of traffic policies for display; and receiving input indicating a selection of the first traffic policy from among the set of traffic policies, wherein the establishing of the first traffic policy is in response to the selection (par 63 & fig. 4A; select the type of device (e.g. "Android smart phone" or "Apple iPhone") from a drop-down list in a graphical user interface (GUI), and then select which pre-defined access control policy they want to apply to that type of device).
In view of the above, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of communication protocol configured for the electronic system of Chambers with the electronic system of Haak and Taylor. One is motivated as such to better manage and improve network access for multiple different devices (Chambers, par 25).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 10 and 19 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to YAOTANG WANG whose telephone number is (571)272-4023. The examiner can normally be reached 10:00-18:00 ET (M, W, TH & alternate F).
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, HADI ARMOUCHE can be reached at 571-270-3618. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/YAOTANG WANG/SCE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2409
Prosecution Insights