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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 1/23/26 has been entered.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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.
Claim(s) 1-2 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102a1 as being anticipated by Butler (US 20120206243) in view of Paidimarri (US 2020/0265285)
Paidimarri discloses
1. A radio frequency identification (RFID) tag, comprising:
a sensing component (par. 23: A tag can also be coupled with a sensor such as a temperature sensor or another sensor device);
an energy storage component (par. 20);
a power control command and beam control command processing unit (i.e. unit in the integrated circuit or PCB to variably output power based on the need and available power; par. 25, 36, 40; and
a waveform generator configured to provide a power signal to the RFID tag during one or more slots allocated for backscatter communication or for generating a responsive waveform (par. 19, 21-22, 25, 28, 30, 47, 50: waveform is generated for backscattering using antenna having desirable characteristics; a tag may start in the lowest power mode, evaluate power availability and then reconfigure itself based on the evaluated power availability applicable to tag scattering; tag can reconfigure components in terms of voltage, frequency, power gating, … and can adjust the mode of operation based on available power and link budgets)
2.1, wherein the RFID tag includes the waveform generator, and wherein the waveform generator is configured to generate a continuous wave signal having one or more frequency configurations (Paidimarri, par. 21, 23, 33).
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.
Claim(s) 3-4 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Paidimarri (US 2020/0265285), further in view of Chang (US 20220296099)
Re claim 3.1, Paidimarri is silent to wherein the power amplifier is configured to amplify a continuous wave signal and a backscatter signal that are generated by the RFID tag.
Chang discloses a tag comprising associated with subject 90 includes an active backscatter transponder 46 includes an antenna 61, matching networks 62 and 63, a low noise amplifier 64, a resonator 65, a phase shifter 66, a power amplifier driver 67, a power amplifier 68, and a signal generator 69 (Fig. 11, par. 51)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective date the invention was made to incorporate the teachings of Chang to provide adequate power for backscattering.
4.3, wherein the power amplifier is configured to amplify the backscatter signal based at least in part on multiplying the backscatter signal by an adjustable amplification factor (Butler, par. 394; Chang, par. 51)
Claim(s) 6-10, 12-13, 15, 17-23, 25-26, 28-31 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Paidimarri (US 2020/0265285) further in view of Feng (US 2023/0342572)
Paidimarri discloses
6. A radio frequency identification (RFID) tag 104, comprising:
one or more memories; and one or more processors, coupled to the one or more memories (par. 33, 36, 40, 54), configured to cause the RFID tag to:
transmit capability information that indicates a waveform generation capability of the RFID tag or a power control capability of the RFID tag
(Paidimarri discloses a processing unit in the integrated circuit or PCB to variably output power based on the need and available power; par. 25, 36, 40;
Paidimarri is silent to a tag transmit capability information that indicates a waveform generation capability of the RFID tag or a power control capability of the RFID tag;
Feng discloses a tag can send capability information to the reader upon request; par. 46. The capability information includes whether the tag is a power consumption saving tag; whether the tag is a tag whose transmission distance is greater than a threshold; whether the tag is a tag that supports channel coding; whether the tag is a tag that supports modulation; or whether the tag is a tag that supports sharing a memory with a sensor; (par. 50-51). The capability to save power consumption is considered to be the ability to adjust the power. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective date the invention was made to incorporate the teachings of Feng to send capabilities of the tag to the reader for conserving power and for managing the power consumption of the tags more efficiently); and
receive, from a network node (reader 102), an indication, identifying one or more backscatter slots or one or more slots to be used by the RFID tag for generating a responsive waveform, and instructing the RFID tag to perform a power control operation in the one or more backscatter slots or the one or more slots, based at least in part on the capability information
(Paidimarri, par. 19, 24-25, 27-29, 32, 42-44, 47, 50: reader makes optimal choice on power consumption and send commands indicating which antenna to use for backscattering and assigning a function of power delivery optimization to a given channel interface (e.g. , an antenna) such as variably adjusting the power per desire or need based on the tag’s capabilities of reconfigurability capabilities for higher power or performance; Paidimarri further discloses the tag’s “response time”; par. 48; thus, although silent to “slot”, it would have also been obvious to extend the prior art teachings to backscatter slot since it merely means the time period for the tag backscatter or respond to the reader’s interrogation).
7.6, see discussion regarding claims above. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective date the invention was made to transmit all capabilities including multiple antennas for more effective management.
8.6, wherein the one or more processors, to transmit the capability information, are configured to transmit a class identifier associated with the RFID tag (Feng, par. 168, 195-197, 211).
9.8, wherein the class identifier is associated with a plurality of class identifiers that respectively indicate whether the RFID tag is an active RFID tag, a passive RFID tag, a semi-passive RFID tag, or a semi-active RFID tag (Feng, par. 109).
10.8, wherein the class identifier is associated with a plurality of class identifiers that respectively indicate whether the RFID tag includes a waveform generator, a power amplifier, a low noise amplifier, an ability to adjust a signal power, an ability to adjust a beam, whether the RFID tag is equipped with multiple antennas, or a combination thereof (see discussion regarding claims above.)
12.6, wherein the one or more processors are configured to cause the RFID tag to receive an indication to perform a beam adjustment operation based at least in part on the capability information, and wherein the indication to perform the beam adjustment operation is an indication to adjust a beamformer or a transmit filter based at least in part on quasi-co-location information associated with a reference signal (see discussion regarding claims above; see also Paidimarri, Fig. 3, par. 21-22, 26, 33, each beam formed and adjusted includes a frequency, polarization, pattern, range, directionality, ..).
13.6, wherein the one or more processors are configured to cause the RFID tag to receive an indication to perform a beam adjustment operation based at least in part on the capability information, and wherein the indication to perform the beam adjustment operation is received during a communication session and includes an indication to adjust a receiver quasi-co-location based at least in part on a reference signal that was sent during the communication session (Paidimarri, par. 26-29: adjustment commands to the tags issued during communication session)
15.6, wherein the indication to perform the power control operation indicates to perform the power control operation in an uplink slot and a downlink slot (Paidimarri, par. 33, 34, 40-41: power optimization during uplink).
17.15, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to cause the RFID tag to activate a waveform generator for generating a waveform that is based at least in part on a backscatter signal (Paidimarri, par. 19, 27-29, 33, 50).
18.6, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to receive an indication of an adjusted power control to be used by the RFID (Paidimarri, par. 26-29, 36, 40, 42).
Re claim 19-23, 25-26, 28, 31, 36 these claims repeat some features that have been addressed above, therefore are also rejected.
Claim(s) 14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Paidimarri (US 2020/0265285) Feng (US 2023/0342572) further in view of NPL (Reader–Tag Commands via Modulation Cutoff Intervals in RFID Systems)
Re claim 14.6, Paidimarri is silent to wherein the indication to perform the power control operation indicates to perform the power control operation in one or more slots that do not include a continuous waveform
NPL discloses the backscatter slot can occur after the continuous waveform is cutoff (Fig. 2)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective date the invention was made to incorporate the teachings of NPL to minimize interference and collisions.
Claim(s) 16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Paidimarri (US 2020/0265285) Feng (US 2023/0342572) further in view of Chang (US 20220296099)
Re claim 16.15, Paidimarri is silent to wherein the one or more processors are further configured to cause the RFID tag to activate an amplification circuit for amplifying a backscatter signal
Chang discloses a tag comprising associated with subject 90 includes an active backscatter transponder 46 includes an antenna 61, matching networks 62 and 63, a low noise amplifier 64, a resonator 65, a phase shifter 66, a power amplifier driver 67, a power amplifier 68, and a signal generator 69 (Fig. 11, par. 51)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective date the invention was made to incorporate the teachings of Chang to provide adequate power for backscattering.
Claim(s) 29-30 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Paidimarri (US 2020/0265285) Feng (US 2023/0342572) further in view of Niu (US 20250016879 )
Re claim 29.19, Paidimarri is silent to wherein the one or more processors are configured to cause the network node to: receive, from another network node, a request to relay the indication to perform the power control operation to the RFID tag; and relay, to the RFID tag, the indication to perform the power control operation.
Niu discloses [0036] FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of another cellular network according to an embodiment. As shown in FIG. 2, considering that some tags or terminals have relatively low receiving sensitivity and require relatively high received signal quality, a coverage range of a downlink signal required by the tags or terminals is smaller than an actual coverage range of the base station. Considering the coverage range, the third node such as the reader-writer or the relay device (Relay) may be deployed under the base station. The base station delivers an instruction to the reader-writer or the Relay, and the reader-writer or the Relay excites or sends a message to the tag or the terminal. After receiving an uplink command sent by the tag or the terminal, the reader-writer or the Relay forwards the uplink command to the base station.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective date the invention was made to incorporate the teachings of Niu so that a central controller, host or base can send a command for the tag via the reader.
30.19, wherein the one or more processors are configured to cause the network node to: transmit, to another network node, a request to relay the indication to perform the power control operation to the RFID tag (Niu, par. 36)
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments have been considered but are moot in view of new ground of rejection.
Conclusion
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/THIEN T MAI/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2876
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