CTFR 18/813,134 CTFR 80305 Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status 07-03-aia AIA 15-10-aia 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 Response to Amendment Claims 1, 9, 12-13 and 19 have been amended. 12-151-10 AIA 12-51-10 Claim s 7-8 have been canceled. Claims 1-19 are pending . Response to Arguments Applicant’s arguments with respect to the pending claims have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102 07-07-aia AIA 07-07 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 – 07-08-aia AIA (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. 07-12-aia AIA (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. 07-15 AIA CLAIMS 1-3, 5, 9, 14, 17 and 19 a re rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1)/(2) as bein g anticip ated by LI et al (US 2022 /0 264355). Per claim 13, LI et a l teach a communication method causing a computer to execute the following, the communication method comprising: acquiring packet identification information that identifies a packet received from a transmission source ( paras 0130, 0175-176, 0179-184—packet stream identifier from the transmit end ); storing the packet identification information in a storage area ( paras 0154, 0245—storing transport information for the data stream ); transferring the packet received to at least one other communication apparatus that is different from a transmission destination of the packet and that generates a desired communication delay ( paras 0128-129, 0134-137, 0141—forwarding a packet to a data terminal or another switching node, switching node information includes port information and delay information; paras 0176, 0179-181—the first delay information indicating a transmission delay of forwarding a packet between the side port of the first terminal device ); collating response packet identification information that identifies a response packet from the at least one other communication apparatus with the packet identification information stored in the storage area to determine whether or not the response packet and the packet are the same or corresponding packets ( paras 0139—determining matching of a stream request of a transmit end and a stream request of a receive end ); transmitting the packet to the transmission destination on a basis of a determination result ( paras 0139-142—when destination MAC addresses of data streams requested by two data terminals are the same, the data streams requested by the two data terminals are the same, the matching succeeds, and the data stream can be created ); and holding a delay policy, which is information regarding an element that generates a delay ( paras 0141, 0172-176—determine a transmission delay in the PCC rule of the policy control function network element, and after detecting an internal transmission delay of the switching node, reports the detected transmission delay to the configuration network element ), wherein, in the transferring, the packet is transferred on a basis of the delay policy that is held ( paras 0170-171, 0174-176—transferring the packet based on the delay information in the PCC rule of the policy control function network element ), wherein the delay policy includes, for each transmission destination, the at least one other communication apparatus to which the packet is to be transferred ( paras 0175-176—the PCC rule includes a stream identifier of the data stream, first delay information, an identifier of a port corresponding to the first session, the identifier of the first session, a direction of the data stream, and an identifier of a port corresponding to the second session ), and wherein each of the at least one other communication apparatus generates a different communication delay ( paras 0179-182, 0192-193—the PCC rule for the second session includes but is not limited to: a stream identifier of the data stream, second delay information ). Claims 1 and 19 contain limitations that are substantially equivalent to the claim limitations of claim 13, and are therefore rejected under the same basis. Per claim 14, LI et al teach the communication method according to Claim 13, wherein the packet identification information includes at least destination address information of the packet received, and a second destination address of the response packet is rewritten to a destination address in the destination address information stored in the storage area and the response packet rewritten is transmitted as the packet to the transmission destination ( paras 0130, 0135, 0139, 0154, 0242, 0245—packet stream identification information includes destination MAC address stored by the CUC network element ). Claim 2 contains limitations that are substantially equivalent to the claim limitations of claim 14, and are therefore rejected under the same basis. Per claim 3, LI et al teach the communication apparatus according to Claim 2, wherein the packet identification information acquisition part acquires packet identification information based on data of a packet received from the transmission source, and the packet identification information collation determination part performs collation using the response packet identification information based on the data of the response packet ( paras 0130, 0139-142, 0154, 0175-176, 0179-184—obtaining the transport information for the data stream from the CNC network element which includes packet stream identifier from the transmit end, determining matching of a stream request of a transmit end and a stream request of a receive end ). Per claim 5, LI et al teach the communication apparatus according to Claim 1, wherein when the packet identification information collation determination part collates the response packet identification information with the packet identification information held in the packet identification information holding part and determines that the response packet and the packet are the same or corresponding packets, the transmission part transmits the packet to the transmission destination and deletes the packet identification information of the packet that is determined to be the same or corresponding to the response packet, the packet identification information being held in the packet identification information holding part ( paras 0139-142— determining matching of a stream request of a transmit end and a stream request of a receive end, when destination MAC addresses of data streams requested by two data terminals are the same, the data streams requested by the two data terminals are the same, the matching succeeds, and the data stream can be created; when destination MAC addresses of data streams requested by two data terminals are different, only the stream creation request of the transmit end or the receive end is available, and the data stream cannot be created ). Per claim 9, LI et al teach the communication apparatus according to Claim 1, wherein the delay policy is one of a plurality of delay policies, the delay policy holding part further holds predicted amounts of delay as the delay policies, the communication apparatus further comprises: a required delay amount reception part that receives a required amount of delay; and a delay policy selection part that selects a delay policy satisfying the required amount of delay from the delay policies held in the delay policy holding part, wherein the transferring part transfers a packet on a basis of the delay policy selected by the delay policy selection part ( paras 0073-75, 0179-183, 0192-193—policy control function network element obtains first delay information, a residence delay of the first terminal device, and a packet delay budget (PDB) between the first terminal device and the UP network element) for calculating the first delay information, and then calculate the first delay information by using the information for calculating the first delay information, the PDB indicates a maximum delay budget for transmitting a data stream between UP nodes, the policy control function network element may configure the PCC rule per session is based on the delay information ). Per claim 17, LI et al teach the communication method according to Claim 13, wherein the packet received is transferred on a basis of a delay policy, which is information regarding an element that generates a delay ( paras 0170-172, 0174-176—transferring the packet based on the delay information in the PCC rule of the policy control function network element ). Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103 07-20-aia AIA III. 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. IV. CLAIMS 4, 6, 12 and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over LI et al (US 2022/0264355) in view of DOSHI et al (US 2022/0224776). Per claim 4, LI et al teach the communication apparatus according to Claim 3, yet fail to explicitly teach “wherein the packet identification information acquisition part acquires packet identification information including a hash value of a payload of a packet received from the transmission source, and the packet identification information collation determination part performs collation using the response packet identification information including the hash value of the payload of the response packet as the response packet identification information“. However, DOSHI et al teach data packets including cryptographic hash of its payload contents ( paras 0155, 0386-387 ). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed the invention was made to combine the teachings of LI et al with DOSHI et al for the purpose of provisioning a hash value of a payload of a packet, which is well-known in the art for securing packet using encryption. Claim 12 contains limitations that are substantially equivalent to the claim limitations of claim 4, and are therefore rejected under the same basis. Per claim 6, LI et al teach the communication apparatus according to Claim 1, yet fail to explicitly teach the apparatus “further comprising: a timeout processing part that deletes the packet identification information, which is held in the packet identification information holding part corresponding to the packet, when the response packet from the at least one other communication apparatus has not been received within a predetermined time after being transferred the packet by the transferring part”. However, DOSHI et al teach timeouts and time-to-live (TTL) intervals for deleting packet information ( paras 0025, 0030, 0316 ). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed the invention was made to combine the teachings of LI et al with DOSHI et al for the purpose of provisioning a timeout process that deletes the packet information, which is well-known in the removing data after a timeout period has elapsed. Claim 16 contains limitations that are substantially equivalent to the claim limitations of claim 6, and are therefore rejected under the same basis. V. CLAIM 10 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over LI et al (US 2022/0264355) in view of KE (US 2024/0430209). Per claim 10, LI et al teach the communication apparatus according to Claim 9 and a packet delay budget (PBD) that indicates a maximum delay budget for transmitting a data stream between UP nodes ( para 0180 ), as applied above, yet fail to explicitly teach “wherein the delay policy selection part selects a delay policy on a basis of an actual record of round trip times”. However, KE teaches performing delay guarantee according to a round trip delay budget, schedule timing for determining delays paras 0008, 0033, 0052, 0316-331 ). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed the invention was made to combine the teachings of LI et al with KE for the purpose of provisioning the selection of delay policies based on a round trip delay budget, which is well-known in the art for selecting a delay policy based on the determined communication preferences. VI. CLAIMS 11 and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over LI et al (US 2022/0264355) in view of SEO et al (US 2021/0028956). Per claim 18, LI et al teach the communication method according to Claim 13, as applied above, yet fail to explicitly teach the method “further comprising: determining whether or not a communication bandwidth to a transmission destination can be secured, wherein the packet received is transferred to the at least one other communication apparatus or is transmitted to the transmission destination, on a basis of a determination result of whether or not the communication bandwidth to the transmission destination can be secured”. SEO et al teach implementing determining if the required bandwidth is secured ( paras 0045, 0117-118, 0125 ). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed the invention was made to combine the teachings of LI et al with SEO et al for the purpose of provisioning if a communication bandwidth to the transmission destination can be secured, which is well-known in the art to control performance and traffic management. Claim 11 contains limitations that are substantially equivalent to the claim limitations of claim 18, and are therefore rejected under the same basis. VII. CLAIM 15 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over LI et al (US 2022/0264355) in view of DILLON et al (US 2017/0155590). Per claim 15, LI et al teach the communication method according to Claim 13, as applied above, yet fail to explicitly teach “wherein the packet is transmitted to the transmission destination and the packet identification information of the packet that is stored in the storage area and is determined to be the same or corresponding to the response packet is deleted, when the determination result is that the response packet and the packet are the same or corresponding packets”. However, DILLON et al determine that the packets consist of a duplicate transmission discarding the second packet (paras 0088-89). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed the invention was made to combine the teachings of LI et al with DILLON et al for the purpose of provisioning of deleting the response packet that determined to be the same or corresponding to the stored packet, which is well-known in the art for deleting/discarding data that has been duplicated or determined to be the same. Conclusion VIII. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure: SOFUOGLU (US 2024/0348523), GOLDFARB et al (US 2017/0366395). 07-40 AIA IX. Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL . See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a). A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action. X. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KRISTIE D. SHINGLES whose telephone number is (571) 272-3888. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Thursday 10am-7pm. 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, Kamal Divecha can be reached on 571-272-5863. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000. /KRISTIE D SHINGLES/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2453 Application/Control Number: 18/813,134 Page 2 Art Unit: 2453 Application/Control Number: 18/813,134 Page 5 Art Unit: 2453 Application/Control Number: 18/813,134 Page 6 Art Unit: 2453 Application/Control Number: 18/813,134 Page 7 Art Unit: 2453 Application/Control Number: 18/813,134 Page 8 Art Unit: 2453 Application/Control Number: 18/813,134 Page 9 Art Unit: 2453 Application/Control Number: 18/813,134 Page 10 Art Unit: 2453
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