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 .
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.
Specification
The title of the invention is not descriptive. A new title is required that is clearly indicative of the invention to which the claims are directed.
Drawings
The drawings are objected to because fig. 10, “Not process first frame” should be --Process first frame-- as described in the specification, para. 286, lines 11-16. Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
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.
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 7 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Smith (US 2023/0328030 as supported by corresponding passages and figures of U.S. Provisional application No. 63/323,693) in view of Anjum (WO 2008/020856).
Smith discloses a method for wireless communication, comprising: receiving, by a first access point (AP), a first frame transmitted by a first station (STA) using a first over-the-air (OTA) media access control (MAC) address (figs. 2 and 10-13; para. 46; note: previously allocated MAC address); and finding, by the first AP, the first OTA MAC address in n OTA MAC addresses of the first STA comprised in an OTA MAC address list maintained by the first AP (steps 1020-1024, 1106, 1220-1224 and 1306; para. 69); wherein the OTA MAC address list comprises at least one OTA MAC address of at least one STA associated with the first AP (steps 1020-1024, 1106, 1220-1224 and 1306; para. 69), and the at least one STA comprises the first STA (para. 69; note: previous MAC address for the STA), wherein n is a positive integer (para. 69); in a case where the first AP has found the first OTA MAC address in the OTA MAC address list, continuing to process, by the first AP, the first frame (steps 1108-1110 and 1308-1310).
However, Smith fails to disclose finding an address, and otherwise, discarding the first frame. Anjum discloses comparing a temporary MAC address to a stored address, and if the addresses do not match, the packet is dropped (para. 53). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have finding an address and otherwise discarding the first frame in the invention of Smith. The motivation to have the modification and/or well-known benefits of the modification include, but are not limited to, determining a valid frame and only processing valid frames as is known in the art (Anjum, para. 53; MPEP 2143(I)(A)(B)(C)(D) - note: e.g., applying known techniques having predictable results).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-6 and 17-20 are allowed.
Claims 8-16 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.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Vegas et al (US 2032/0262464) discloses using a randomized source MAC address (fig. 2 and paras. 16, 22 and 42). Lee et al. (US 2016/0285834) discloses an Address3 or source MAC address in a body of a frame (figs. 6-7 and 15, and para. 153). Fang (US 2020/0351648) discloses a device using an unused MAC address (fig. 3, step 311 and para. 68). Kneckt et al. (US 2023/0089319) discloses stored OTA MAC addresses for a STA or STAs (figs. 4A-5B and 11, and paras. 55 and 57). Henry et al. (WO 2024/231357) discloses OTA address handling for APs (fig. 5).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Kevin Harper whose telephone number is 571-272-3166. The examiner can normally be reached weekdays from 11:00 AM to 7:00 PM ET.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner's supervisor, Yemane Mesfin, can be reached at 571-272-3927. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. For non-official communications, the examiner’s e-mail address is kevin.harper@uspto.gov (MPEP 502.03 – A copy of all received emails relating to an application including proposed amendments and excluding scheduling information for interviews will be placed informally into the application file).
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/Kevin C. Harper/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2462
Prosecution Insights