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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
2. 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.
3. Claims 1, 2, 11 and 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Chen US 2017/0093727 A1 (cited by applicant).
4. Consider claim 1. Chen (fig 3) discloses an electronic device (106) comprising: a communication circuit (329, 330); and at least one processor operatively coupled with the communication circuit, wherein the at least one processor (340) is configured to, determine a first resource available (time intervals fig 8, 0095) for an audio service in at least one audio communication link, determine a second resource (see 0126 where BTLE packets of higher priority) of a first priority and a third resource (Wifi packets and A2DP packets) of a second priority lower than the first priority in the first resource, and provide the audio service through the communication circuit to at least one external electronic device through the at least one audio communication link using at least one of the second resource or the third resource (BTLE packets that carry voice commands are prioritized over A2DP packets scheduled for transmission during a connection interval, as well as over WiFi packets scheduled for transmission, in a scenario where BTLE packets are to be processed as higher priority (with respect to concurrent A2DP packets, which is traditional Bluetooth/EDR profile for the distribution of audio packets, and with respect to the WiFi packets. This is done by the client station (106) reallocating one or more time slots from a lower priority packet to a higher priority packet (see 00126-0131). Method claim 11 is rejected for the same reasons as apparatus claim 1 since the recited elements would perform the claimed steps.
5. Regarding claims 2 and 12. Chen teaches wherein the at least one processor (340) is configured to, detect that a first communication task using a frequency band corresponding to a frequency band (2.4 GHz) of the at least one audio communication link is scheduled (from 0118...when packets are available to be received or transmitted between a client station, such as the client station 106, and one or more other wireless devices, the client station 106 may schedule transmission of the packets based at least in part on prioritization of packet types or sources….) while providing the audio service, identify that a third priority (voice data) designated for the first communication task is higher than the second priority (game controller), and perform the first communication task using the third resource, through the communication circuit, based on identifying that the third priority (stylus) designated for the first communication task is higher than the second priority.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
6. 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.
The factual inquiries 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.
7. Claims 3-7 and 13-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chen US 2017/0093727 A1 (cited by applicant) in view of Choudhary et al US 2018/0242339.
8. Regarding claims 3 and 13. Chen fails to teach wherein the first communication task includes at least one of a Bluetooth concurrency operation wherein the Bluetooth concurrency operation a BLE scan. However, Choudhary et al teaches such (see remap BT scan in abstract). It would have been obvious, before the effective date, to implement a BT scan in Chen in order to have readably available data, thus making the system more efficient.
9. Regarding claims 4-7 and 14-17, Chen teaches implementing simultaneous Bluetooth/Wifi coexistence solutions, whereby subevents, which are time slots for the exchange of data packets, may be reallocated based on which packet deemed to have higher or lower priority (see 0118), (0125-128) and Choudhary et al (0045-0057) teaches by referencing of the remapping and modifying intervals for BLE activities such as scanning or advertisement, in order to accommodate WLAN and Bluetooth activities without starving other connections, operating in the same frequency band of 2.4 GHZ.
10. Claims 8, 9, 18 and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chen US 2017/0093727 A1 (cited by applicant) in view of Examiners Official notice.
11. Regarding claims 8 and 18. Chen fails to explicitly state wherein the at least one processor is configured to omit or delay an audio communication task having the second priority scheduled in the third resource, based on the third priority being higher than the second priority. However, the examiner takes official notice that delaying audio communication tasks based on priority is well known in the art and would have been obvious, before the effective date to do so in Chen et al in order to prioritize information based on the user’s needs.
12. Regarding claims 9 and 19. Chen also fails to explicitly teach wherein the at least one processor is configured to perform the first communication task using a fourth resource except for the second resource and the third resource, based on a third priority being lower than the second priority. The examiner again takes official notice that this is very well known in the art for the reasons set forth in the rejection of claim 8.
13. Claims 10 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chen US 2017/0093727 A1 (cited by applicant) in view Huang US 2023/0069016 A1.
14. Regarding claims 10 and 20. Chen fails to teach wherein the at least one audio communication link includes a first connected isochronous stream, CIS, link using a first CIS event and a second CIS link using a second CIS event, at least some subevents of the first CIS event overlapping at least some subevents of the second CIS event, wherein the second resource includes a time period corresponding to the at least some subevents of the second CIS event overlapping the at least some subevents of the first CIS event, and wherein the third resource includes a time period corresponding to at least one of remaining events of the second CIS event overlapping the at least some subevents of the first CIS event or at least some subevents of the second CIS event not overlapping the first CIS event. However, Huang from the same field of endeavor teaches such (from 0037….the above method for receiving Bluetooth packets and correcting error bits therein could be applied to the LE audio standard. In some embodiments, the mobile phone 130 may establish different connection-oriented isochronous channels with the left wireless earbud 110 and the right wireless earbud 120, respectively, and each channel uses the LE Connected Isochronous Stream (LE-CIS) logical transport and supports bi-directional communication. The two CISs form a connected isochronous group (CIG) and each CIS has multiple CIS instances. Within the CIG, and for each CIS, transmission (TX) and reception (RX) time slots are scheduled, referred to as events and subevents. The CIS instances in the same CIG have common timing reference data, which is used in the synchronization of isochronous data processing by the left wireless earbud 110 and the right wireless earbud 120. Each event occurs with a regular interval, called the ISO interval, which may be set in the range from 5 ms to 4 s in multiple of 1.25 ms. Each event is divided into one or more subevents. Each subevent contains a TX slot and a RX slot. During each subevent in a CIS, the mobile phone 130 may transmit a media packet to the left wireless earbud 110 or the right wireless earbud 120 in a TX slot and the left wireless earbud 110 or the right wireless earbud 120 may reply with a response packet to the mobile phone 130 in a RX slot. The media packet may indicate a packet including a link layer data protocol data unit (LL data PDU) for carrying left-channel or right-channel data. The response packet may be an empty packet including information of acknowledgement (ACK) or negative-acknowledgement (NAK). When receiving a NAK from the left wireless earbud 110 or the right wireless earbud 120, the mobile phone 130 may retransmit the corresponding media packet. For example, in a subevent, when the mobile phone 130 finds that the next expected sequence number (NESN) in the response packet is equal to the sequence number (SN) in the media packet that has been sent to a receiver, it means that the response packet includes a NAK. The mobile phone 130 retransmits the media packet in the next subevent. Otherwise, it means that the response packet includes an ACK, and the media packet does not need to be retransmitted). It would have been obvious, before the effective date, to use the teachings of Huang in Chen in order to separate audio data from control data in order to improve the streaming quality.
15. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Cheong et al US 2020/0296793 A1 teaches an electronic device includes a wireless communication circuit and a processor. The processor is configured to establish a first communication link with a first external electronic device and establish a second communication link with a second external electronic device. The electronic device is also configured to transmit connection information associated with the first communication link to the second external electronic device and determine whether configuration information associated with an operation of the first communication link needs to be changed. The electronic device is configured to identify the first operation information of the electronic device for the first communication link and request second operation information of the second external electronic device for the first communication link.
Sridhara et al US 20200044844 A1 teaches transmitting the synchronization information to the wireless network includes broadcasting the synchronization information in at least one first advertising packet. In some implementations, transmitting the authentication information to the wireless network also includes broadcasting the authentication information in the at least one first advertising packet.
Conclusion
16. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CURTIS A KUNTZ whose telephone number is (571)272-7499. The examiner can normally be reached on M-Th from 530am to 330pm and Fri from 530am to 10am.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Matthew D Anderson, can be reached at telephone number 5712724177. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/CURTIS A KUNTZ/Primary examiner, Art Unit 2646
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