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 .
DETAILED ACTION
Claims 1-20 received on 8/5/2024 have been examined, of which claims 1 and 11 are independent.
Claim Objections
Claim 11 is objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 11 recites “AioT” in the last limitation, which appears to be typographical error for “AIoT” abbreviation (capitalization of I).
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor, or for pre-AIA the applicant regards as the invention.
Claims 1 and 11 recite “the transmission of the AIoT signals” and “the reception of the AIoT signals”, preceded by multiple recitations of “transmission of AIoT signals” and “reception of AIoT signals”. It is unclear, which AIoT signals are further limited. Dependent claims are rejected for same reasons.
Further, claims 3 and 13 recite “the indicated random ID”, which is preceded by two recitations of “indicating a random ID” in respective claim and parent claim. It is unclear which indicated random ID is further limited.
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.
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.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Intel (R2-2404192: Overall procedures for inventory and command use cases; NPL # 3 in IDS 12/29/2025) in view of Lai et al. (US 20250358792)
Regarding claim 1, Intel teaches a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) (reader, fig 2.4.1) configured to:
receive, from a network node, a request message comprising a set of device identifications (IDs), wherein the request message is one of an inventory request message and a command request message (section 2.4.1 and fig 2.4.1 step 0: Core network (CN) sends the message “inventory request” with selection criteria and periodicity to the Reader, to request Reader to perform Inventory Request for Devices under an Area to provide IDs, Note 1: criteria is used to indicate which A-IoT Devices should reply to inventory request, and consist of Device ID, Device ID with mask or particular address));
send, to the network node, a report message comprising information indicating inventory parameters (fig 2.4.1, step 5; section 2.4.1, step 5: Reader sends “Inventory response” with Device ID, Data, etc. information back to CN);
on a condition that the WTRU is configured to be a transmitting WTRU (as described in section 2.4.1 step 0, the Reader is requested to perform Inventory Request for Devices under an Area, based on that, the Reader transmits Inventory request (step 1) and Ack with contention resolution ID (step 3) to AIoT device(s), thus the Reader (WTRU) is considered to be transmitting WTRU):
transmit, to an AIoT device, the information indicating the inventory parameters (section 2.4.1. step 1: Reader sends the message Inventory Request with selection criteria and control info (e.g. scheduling info, RACH related parameters) to request Devices under an Area to provide IDs);
transmit, to the AIoT device, an occasion synchronization message (section 2.4.1. step 1: Reader sends scheduling info to devices; step 3: Reader sends “ACK” with contention resolution ID received from device to confirm the access of the device); and
receive, from the AIoT device, a message indicating a random identification (ID) for the AIoT device (section 2.4.1: step 2: Device (which meets the criteria) sends Device Response with contention resolution ID to the Reader; step 4: Device Response (Device ID and data)).
Intel teaches the AIoT device inventory procedure including the messaging between core network node, Reader (WTRU) and AIoT devices in area. The reference teaches that the inventory request includes scheduling information, random access related parameters and contention resolution. However, the reference does not teach the resource pool allocation for AIoT operations, or structural elements of device. Lai is directed to resource acquisition and operation of intermediate nodes in a wireless communication system, wherein a User Equipment (UE) is capable of acting or operating as an ambient Internet-of-Things (IoT) intermediate node (abstract).
Lai further teaches a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) comprising: a transceiver (control circuit 306 comprising transceiver 314, fig 3); and a processor (CPU 308, fig 3), wherein the transceiver and the processor are configured (para 51) to:
receive, from the network node, an indication of an AIoT resource pool (fig 18, D2R resource from BS to intermediate node 1 for R2D and intermediate node 2 or D2R; para 252: the network may send a second information to the first intermediate node and/or a second intermediate node (of the first device) with the configuration/indication of the set of resources (available) for the (first) device to perform the (subsequent) D2R transmission) comprising information indicating time-frequency resources for transmission of ambient Internet-of-things (AIoT) signals and time-frequency resources for reception of AIoT signals and a linkage between the time-frequency resources for the transmission of the AIoT signals and the time-frequency resources for the reception of the AIoT signals (para 253: the network may send a second information to the first intermediate node with the configuration/indication of a first set of resources to perform R2D transmission, the network may send another second information to the second intermediate node with the configuration/indication of a second set of resources to perform D2R reception, the first set of resources and the second set of resources may be exclusive or non-overlapped or (partially) overlapped, the first set of resources and the second set of resources may be TDMed and FDMed); and
transmit, to an AIoT device, the information indicating the inventory parameters using at least one resource from the indicated time-frequency resources for the transmission of AIoT signals (para 253: the first intermediate node may perform one or more R2D transmissions within the first set of resources (e.g., for one or more ambient IoT devices);
transmit, to the AIoT device, an occasion synchronization message using the at least one resource from the indicated time-frequency resources for the transmission of AIoT signals (fig 21; para 226-227: the first intermediate node may perform R2D transmission to the device after receiving one or more DL signaling(s) (e.g., DCI) from the reader (or the network), the timing/occasion (e.g., frame, subframe, symbol or slot) of R2D transmission from the first intermediate node to the device may be aligned with the timing/occasion of the UL transmission (of the first intermediate node)); and
receive, from the AIoT device, a message using at least one resource from the indicated time-frequency resources for the reception of AIoT signals (para 253: the second intermediate node may monitor/detect/receive one or more D2R transmissions within the second set of resources (e.g., for the one or more ambient IoT devices) that is linked to the at least one resource from the indicated time-frequency resources for transmission of AIoT signals according to the indicated linkage between the time-frequency resources for the transmission of the AIoT signals and the time-frequency resources for the reception of the AIoT signals (para 253: the second intermediate node may monitor/detect/receive one or more D2R transmissions within the second set of resources (e.g., for the one or more ambient IoT devices), the first set of resources and the second set of resources may be exclusive or non-overlapped or (partially) overlapped, the first set of resources and the second set of resources may be TDMed and FDMed). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine AIoT inventory procedure as taught by Intel with resource allocation procedure for the AIoT operations as taught by Lai for the benefit of utilizing proper resources for ambient Internet-of-Things (IoT)-related operations as taught by Lai in para 5.
Regarding claim 11, Intel teaches a method performed by a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) (Reader and inventory procedure with random access, fig 2.4.1) comprising:
receive, from a network node, a request message comprising a set of device identifications (IDs), wherein the request message is one of an inventory request message and a command request message (section 2.4.1 and fig 2.4.1 step 0: Core network (CN) sends the message “inventory request” with selection criteria and periodicity to the Reader, to request Reader to perform Inventory Request for Devices under an Area to provide IDs, Note 1: criteria is used to indicate which A-IoT Devices should reply to inventory request, and consist of Device ID, Device ID with mask or particular address));
send, to the network node, a report message comprising information indicating inventory parameters (fig 2.4.1, step 5; section 2.4.1, step 5: Reader sends “Inventory response” with Device ID, Data, etc. information back to CN);
on a condition that the WTRU is configured to be a transmitting WTRU (as described in section 2.4.1 step 0, the Reader is requested to perform Inventory Request for Devices under an Area, based on that, the Reader transmits Inventory request (step 1) and Ack with contention resolution ID (step 3) to AIoT device(s), thus the Reader (WTRU) is considered to be transmitting WTRU):
transmit, to an AIoT device, the information indicating the inventory parameters (section 2.4.1. step 1: Reader sends the message Inventory Request with selection criteria and control info (e.g. scheduling info, RACH related parameters) to request Devices under an Area to provide IDs);
transmit, to the AIoT device, an occasion synchronization message (section 2.4.1. step 1: Reader sends scheduling info to devices; step 3: Reader sends “ACK” with contention resolution ID received from device to confirm the access of the device); and
receive, from the AioT device, a message indicating a random identification (ID) for the AioT device (section 2.4.1: step 2: Device (which meets the criteria) sends Device Response with contention resolution ID to the Reader; step 4: Device Response (Device ID and data)).
Intel teaches the AIoT device inventory procedure including the messaging between core network node, Reader (WTRU) and AIoT devices in area. The reference teaches that the inventory request includes scheduling information, random access related parameters and contention resolution. However, the reference does not teach the resource pool allocation for AIoT operations. Lai is directed to resource acquisition and operation of intermediate nodes in a wireless communication system, wherein a User Equipment (UE) is capable of acting or operating as an ambient Internet-of-Things (IoT) intermediate node (abstract).
Lai further teaches
receive, from the network node, an indication of an AIoT resource pool (fig 18, D2R resource from BS to intermediate node 1 for R2D and intermediate node 2 or D2R; para 252: the network may send a second information to the first intermediate node and/or a second intermediate node (of the first device) with the configuration/indication of the set of resources (available) for the (first) device to perform the (subsequent) D2R transmission) comprising information indicating time-frequency resources for transmission of ambient Internet-of-things (AIoT) signals and time-frequency resources for reception of AIoT signals and a linkage between the time-frequency resources for the transmission of the AIoT signals and the time-frequency resources for the reception of the AIoT signals (para 253: the network may send a second information to the first intermediate node with the configuration/indication of a first set of resources to perform R2D transmission, the network may send another second information to the second intermediate node with the configuration/indication of a second set of resources to perform D2R reception, the first set of resources and the second set of resources may be exclusive or non-overlapped or (partially) overlapped, the first set of resources and the second set of resources may be TDMed and FDMed); and
transmit, to an AIoT device, the information indicating the inventory parameters using at least one resource from the indicated time-frequency resources for the transmission of AIoT signals (para 253: the first intermediate node may perform one or more R2D transmissions within the first set of resources (e.g., for one or more ambient IoT devices);
transmit, to the AIoT device, an occasion synchronization message using the at least one resource from the indicated time-frequency resources for the transmission of AIoT signals (fig 21; para 226-227: the first intermediate node may perform R2D transmission to the device after receiving one or more DL signaling(s) (e.g., DCI) from the reader (or the network), the timing/occasion (e.g., frame, subframe, symbol or slot) of R2D transmission from the first intermediate node to the device may be aligned with the timing/occasion of the UL transmission (of the first intermediate node)); and
receive, from the AIoT device, a message using at least one resource from the indicated time-frequency resources for the reception of AIoT signals (para 253: the second intermediate node may monitor/detect/receive one or more D2R transmissions within the second set of resources (e.g., for the one or more ambient IoT devices) that is linked to the at least one resource from the indicated time-frequency resources for transmission of AIoT signals according to the indicated linkage between the time-frequency resources for the transmission of the AIoT signals and the time-frequency resources for the reception of the AIoT signals (para 253: the second intermediate node may monitor/detect/receive one or more D2R transmissions within the second set of resources (e.g., for the one or more ambient IoT devices), the first set of resources and the second set of resources may be exclusive or non-overlapped or (partially) overlapped, the first set of resources and the second set of resources may be TDMed and FDMed). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine AIoT inventory procedure as taught by Intel with resource allocation procedure for the AIoT operations as taught by Lai for the benefit of utilizing proper resources for ambient Internet-of-Things (IoT)-related operations as taught by Lai in para 5.
Regarding claim 2 and 12, Intel further teaches wherein the WTRU is configured with the inventory parameters according to a range of a number of device IDs indicated in the set of device IDs (section 2.4.1 and fig 2.4.1 step 0: Core network (CN) sends the message “inventory request” with selection criteria and periodicity to the Reader, to request Reader to perform Inventory Request for Devices under an Area to provide IDs, Note 1: criteria is used to indicate which A-IoT Devices should reply to inventory request, and consist of Device ID, Device ID with mask or particular address), it may indicate a group of devices).
Regarding claim 3 and 13, Intel further teaches wherein the linkage between the time-frequency resources for the transmission of the AIoT signals and the time-frequency resources for the reception of the AIoT signals (section 2.4.1, step 1, scheduling info and fig 2.4.1 showing messages for the inventory procedure with random access) is for each of the following: transmission of control information including paging messages and occasion synchronization messages (fig 2.4.1 step 1, inventory request from Reader to AIoT including control info and criteria); reception of a MSG1 message indicating a random identification (ID) (fig 2.4.1 step 2, device response from AIoT to reader including contention resolution ID); transmission of a MSG2 message echoing the indicated random ID (fig 2.4.1 step 3, Ack from Reader to AIoT including contention resolution ID); and reception of a MSG3 message comprising data for the AIoT device ((fig 2.4.1 step 4, device response from AIoT to reader including device ID and data).
Regarding claim 4 and 14, Intel fails to teach, but Lai further teaches wherein the WTRU determines that the WTRU is configured to be a transmitting WTRU (para 253: the network may send a second information to the first intermediate node with the configuration/indication of a first set of resources to perform R2D transmission) based on at least one of the following factors: network configuration (para 254: the set of resources, the first set of resources for R2D transmission, and/or the second set of resources may be indicated/configured/provided by network). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine AIoT inventory procedure as taught by Intel with resource allocation procedure for the AIoT operations as taught by Lai for the benefit of utilizing proper resources for ambient Internet-of-Things (IoT)-related operations as taught by Lai in para 5.
Regarding claim 5 and 15, Intel fails to teach, but Lai further teaches wherein the WTRU determines that the WTRU is configured to be a transmitting WTRU based on the indicated AIoT resource pool (para 253: the network may send a second information to the first intermediate node with the configuration/indication of a first set of resources to perform R2D transmission). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine AIoT inventory procedure as taught by Intel with resource allocation procedure for the AIoT operations as taught by Lai for the benefit of utilizing proper resources for ambient Internet-of-Things (IoT)-related operations as taught by Lai in para 5.
Regarding claim 6 and 16, Intel fails to teach, but Lai further teaches on a condition that the WTRU is configured to be a receiving-only WTRU (para 253: the network may send another second information to the second intermediate node with the configuration/indication of a second set of resources to perform D2R reception): monitor for AIoT transmissions from one or more AIoT devices using one or more of the indicated time-frequency resources for the reception of AIoT signals (para 253: the second intermediate node may monitor/detect/receive one or more D2R transmissions within the second set of resources (e.g., for the one or more ambient IoT devices)). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine AIoT inventory procedure as taught by Intel with resource allocation procedure for the AIoT operations as taught by Lai for the benefit of utilizing proper resources for ambient Internet-of-Things (IoT)-related operations as taught by Lai in para 5.
Regarding claim 7 and 17, Intel further teaches wherein the received message indicating the random ID is a MSG1 message (as shown in fig 2.4.1 steps 1-4 are related to random access, step 1 including RACH parameter and the step 2 is the device response including contention resolution ID, which is considered similar to random access MSG1).
Regarding claim 8 and 18, Intel further teaches wherein the indicated inventory parameters includes an indication of a number of access rounds and a device ID associated with the AIoT device (section 2.4.1, step 0 and note 1: inventory request message includes selection criteria and periodicity to reader, to request reader to perform inventory request for devices under an Area to provide IDs, the criteria indicate device ID or group of devices; here, the periodicity to request is considered as number of access rounds).
Regarding claim 9 and 19, Intel further teaches the WTRU is configured as an intermediate node (in fig 2.4.1, the Reader is intermediate node between core network and multiple AIoT devices).
Regarding claim 10 and 20, Intel teaches in section 2.3, the RFID procedure for Tag inventory, to be used as reference for AIoT operations.
Further, Lai teaches the WTRU is configured as a radio frequency identification (RFID) reader (para 81: a network/intermediate node in NR may operate with similar functionality/functionalities as an interrogator in RFID), and wherein the AIoT device comprises an RFID tag (para 81: Ambient IoT device/UE in NR may operate with similar functionality/functionalities as a tag in RFID). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine AIoT inventory procedure as taught by Intel with resource allocation procedure for the AIoT operations as taught by Lai for the benefit of utilizing proper resources for ambient Internet-of-Things (IoT)-related operations as taught by Lai in para 5.
Conclusion
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/RINA C PANCHOLI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2477 7/25/2026
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