DETAILED ACTION
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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of papers submitted under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d), which papers have been placed of record in the file.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 11/18/2024 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the Examiner.
Preliminary Amendment
The present Office Action is based upon the original patent application filed on 11/18/2024 as modified by the preliminary amendment filed also on 11/18/2024.
Claims 15-27 are pending in the present application.
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 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)(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 15-19 and 21-27 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Lin et al. (U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2023/0379963)
Referring to Claim 15, Lin et al. disclose a method performed in a wireless communication network (par 103, procedure), the method comprising: transmitting, from user equipment (UE), a Msg3-message to the wireless communication network (par 103, UE transmits Msg3) comprising an indicator indicating an emergency included as a special cause value in an Radio Resource Control (RRC) establishment cause (par 103, cause, emergency, RRC establishment); processing, by the wireless communication network, the message comprising the indicator (par 103, network decodes); and prioritizing, by the wireless communication network, the message among other messages (pars 103-105, admit or reject; Also, par 132).
Referring to Claim 16 as applied to Claim 15 above, Lin et al. disclose the method, wherein the indicator is a message type indicator (par 103, type; connection).
Referring to Claim 17 as applied to Claim 15 above, Lin et al. disclose the method, wherein a 2-bit field represents the indicator (pars 103 and 131, 2-bit).
Referring to Claim 18 as applied to Claim 15 above, Lin et al. disclose the method, wherein the Msg3-message is a Radio Resource Control, Establishment Request (RRC ER), RRC-Resume or RRC-re-establishment, more preferably a message according to RRC connection resume request, RRC Connection Request (RRC CR), RRCEarlyDataRequest, or RRC Setup Request (par 103, connection establishment request).
Referring to Claim 19 as applied to Claim 15 above, Lin et al. disclose the method, wherein the wireless communication network is a telecommunication network according to the 2G, 3G, 4G or 5G standard (par 103, 5G).
Referring to Claim 21 as applied to Claim 15 above, Lin et al. disclose the method, wherein the processing comprises: requesting, on a network layer of the wireless communication network, particularly a non-access stratum (NAS) layer, an RRC layer to establish an RRC connection; and starting, by the RRC layer, an initial access procedure on a Random Access Channel (RACH), that has been broadcast by a Radio Access Network (RAN), of the wireless communication network (par 103, establish RRC connection, UE, network/base station, random access channel).
Referring to Claim 22 as applied to Claim 21 above, Lin et al. disclose the method, further comprising: receiving, by the RAN, the RACH; and starting a prioritization of radio resources based on the indicator (pars 103-106 and 126-132, random access channel, priority).
Referring to Claim 23 as applied to Claim 22 above, Lin et al. disclose the method, wherein the radio resources are resources related to time, frequency and/or code domain (pars 16-17, time/frequency domain).
Referring to Claim 24 as applied to Claim 15 above, Lin et al. disclose the method, wherein the indicator enables a prioritizing on transport layer level (pars 103-106 and 128-32, priority).
Referring to Claim 25, Lin et al. disclose a system comprising: user equipment (UE), which is configured to transmit an Msg3-message to a wireless communication network (par 103, UE transmits Msg3) comprising an indicator indicating an emergency included as a special cause value in an RRC establishment cause (par 103, cause, emergency, RRC establishment); and the wireless communication network, which is configured to process the message comprising the indicator and to prioritize the message among other messages (pars 103-105, cause, emergency, RRC establishment, admit or reject; Also, par 132).
Referring to Claim 26, Lin et al. disclose User equipment (UE), comprising: a transceiver; and a processor operably coupled to the transceiver and configured to transmit an Msg3-message to a wireless communication network (par 103, UE transmits Msg3) comprising an indicator indicating an emergency included as a special cause value in an RRC establishment cause (par 103, cause, emergency, RRC establishment).
Referring to Claim 27, Lin et al. disclose a base station (BS), comprising: a transceiver; and a processor operably coupled to the transceiver and configured to: receive, from user equipment (UE), an Msg3-message (par 103, UE transmits Msg3) comprising an indicator indicating an emergency included as a special cause value in an RRC establishment cause (par 103, cause, emergency, RRC establishment); and process the message by transmitting, to a core network, a second message comprising the indicator, wherein the second message allows the core network to prioritize the message among other messages (pars 103-106 and 126-132, random access channel, priority).
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 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.
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.
Claim 20 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lin et al. (U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2023/0379963) in view of Manithara Vamanan et al. (U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2023/0262576)
Referring to Claim 20 as applied to Claim 15 above, Lin et al. disclose the method, wherein the message is transmitted in accordance with a Short Message Service (SMS) (par 103, communication/message, services).
However, Lin et al. do not explicitly disclose short message service.
In the same field of endeavor, Manithara Vamanan et al. discloses short message service (par 48, SMS).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate short message service, as taught by Manithara Vamanan et al., in the method of Lin et al., for the purpose of improving reliability of cellular service, such as emergency service (Manithara Vamanan et al., Abstract).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SUHAIL KHAN whose telephone number is (571)270-7187. The examiner can normally be reached on M-TH 8:30am-6:30pm. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Rafael Perez-Gutierrez can be reached on 5712727915. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. 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.
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/Suhail Khan/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2642
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