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 .
Claims 1-14 and 16 are pending.
Claim Objections
Claims 2-3 and 6 are objected to because of the following informalities: There are typographical errors in the claims. For the purpose of this office action the Examiner is interpreting the claims to read:
“…zero or more allowed secondary channels”.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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.
(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 1, 11-14 and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Hedayat (US 2023/0043655)(“Hedayat”).
As per claim 1, Hedayat teaches a method comprising:
receiving, by a station (STA), a quiet channel element including information indicating one combination among a plurality of combinations (i.e., a combination/list of RUs, see ¶0092-0094) for a channel through which communication to a first access point (AP) is allowed or a channel through which the communication to the first AP is not allowed within a bandwidth (i.e., “Inclusion of the Quiet RUs field disallows STAs from using said Quiet RUs for uplink transmission”, also see Fig. 4, wherein the RUs are with respect to an RLAN operational channel within a particular bandwidth, e.g., 40Mhz); and
performing, by the STA, the communication to the first AP on at least one channel based on the one combination (see for example, ¶0103).
As per claim 11, Hedayat further teaches wherein: the plurality of combinations correspond to different values of an AP quiet mode field of the quiet channel element, respectively (see ¶0092-0094, where impliedly the RUs in the Quiet Control Element (IE) are identified using distinct values).
As per claim 12, Hedayat further teaches wherein: the plurality of combinations include one combination indicating that the communication to the first AP is not allowed in all channels within the bandwidth (see ¶0070, i.e., “The STAs, that associated with this AP and want to transmit frames in the uplink have to puncture the identified RUs whenever the bandwidth of the frame encompasses one or more of the restricted RUs”, which anticipates puncturing across all channels that encompass one or more restricted RUs).
As per claim 13, Hedayat further teaches wherein: the quiet channel element is included in a beacon frame or a probe response frame (e.g., Beacon frames, see ¶0094).
Claims 14 and 16 are rejected under the same rationale as claim 1 since they recite substantially identical subject matter. Any differences between the claims do not result in patentably distinct claims and all of the limitations are taught by the above cited art.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-10 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.
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance:
Hedayat, considered the closest prior art of record, teaches the invention as noted above. Furthermore, Hedayat also teaches broadcasting information by an AP on a combination/set of channels that are not to be used for transmission (see abstract and Fig. 12B). However, as shown in Figs. 12A-12B the combination/set of channels are indicated in an information field format separate from the quiet channel information element. As such, Hedayat does not teach or render obvious, prior to the earliest effective filing date of the claimed invention, the quiet channel element indicating, as per claims 2-6, “a combination of one allowed primary channel and zero or more allowed secondary channels”; and, as per claims 7-9, “a combination of at least one secondary channel through which the communication to the first AP is not allowed among a plurality of secondary channels”.
Moreover, as per claims 9-10, Hedayat does not expressly teach or render obvious, prior to the earliest effective filing date of the claimed invention, “…at least one secondary channel through which the communication to the first AP is not allowed, based on the one combination indicated by the information, includes at least one channel used by a second AP of a multi-AP operation.”
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure (see PTO 892).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Brendan Higa whose telephone number is (571)272-5823. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 8:30 AM - 5:00 PM.
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, James Hwang can be reached at (571) 272-4036. 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.
/BRENDAN Y HIGA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2447
Prosecution Insights