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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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(s) 1, 4, 5, and 6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wang et al (US 20220030511) in view of Shrestha (US 20250142625).
As to claim 1 Wang discloses a method of operating a server, comprising:
forwarding, to a second user equipment (UE) device and a third UE device, a cryptographic key transmitted by a first UE device to terrestrial-based communications equipment (Wang, Fig.6, ¶00665- ¶0068-1st sentence- At operation 604, the user equipment receives (using the terrestrial transceiver 202) a routing command message from the first wireless-communication platform. The routing command message may include one or more of scheduling information, security or cryptography keys,), the first UE device being associated with a first user identifier and the second and third UE devices being associated with a second user identifier (Wang ¶0068-2nd sentence- The routing command message may include …. an identity of a second wireless-communication network, an identity of a second wireless-communication platform (e.g., the satellite 135) associated with the second wireless-communication network,); and forwarding, to the second UE device and the third UE device, the message being encrypted by the first UE device using the cryptographic key (Wang ¶0061-1st sentence- the first wireless-communication platform transmits (using the terrestrial transceiver) a routing command message to the user equipment. The routing command message may include scheduling information, security or cryptography keys, an identity of the second wireless-communication network, an identity of a second wireless-communication platform associated with the second wireless-communication network,).
Wang however is silent where the second user identifier is different from the first user identifier and wherein the message is transmitted by the first UE device to a satellite constellation.
However, in an analogous art Shrestha remedies this deficiency: Shrestha, 102 of Fig. 2, ¶0112; ¶0209- 3rd sentence- In some examples, the uplink common control channel NTN message format is associated with a first identifier that is different from a second identifier associated with an uplink common control channel terrestrial network message format). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skills in the at before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the teachings of Wang with that of Shrestha for the purpose of selecting between a message type associated with a non-terrestrial radio access technology and a second message type associated with a terrestrial radio access technology (Shrestha- Abstract).
As to claim 4 the combined teachings of Wang and Shrestha disclose the method of claim 1, further comprising: forwarding a first acknowledgment to the cryptographic key from the second UE device to the first UE device via the terrestrial-based communications equipment; and forwarding a second acknowledgment to the cryptographic key from the third UE device to the first UE device via the terrestrial-based communications equipment (Wang ¶0069- last sentence- As part of entering the second engaged mode with the second wireless-communication platform, wireless communications may occur between the user equipment and the second wireless-communication platform which include one or more of the user equipment transmitting an engagement request message to the second wireless-communication platform and receiving an engagement acknowledgment (ACK) message from the second wireless-communication platform).
As to claim 5 the combined teachings of Wang and Shrestha disclose method of claim 1, further comprising: forwarding a first additional cryptographic key from the second UE device to the first UE device via the terrestrial-based communications equipment; and forwarding a second additional cryptographic key from the third UE device to the first UE device via the terrestrial-based communications equipment (Wang ¶0075- At 704, and after the terrestrial base station 131 assesses useable QoS's for upcoming transmission of the data at 702, the terrestrial base station 131 transmits, to the user equipment 110, a routing command message. The routing command message may include scheduling information, security or cryptography keys,).
As to claim 6 the combined teachings of Wang and Shrestha disclose the method of claim 1, wherein the terrestrial-based communications equipment comprises a wireless base station or a wireless access point (Wang 131 and 132 of Fig.1).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 7-20 are allowed.
Claims 2 and 3 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.
BÜCHTER et al- Secure Transmission of a message from a Sender to a Receiver by Means of a Non- Terrestrial Communication Link- EP 4408051 A1- ¶0035-¶0037
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DERRICK V ROSE whose telephone number is (571)270-7460. The examiner can normally be reached 9am- 6pm.
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/DERRICK V ROSE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2462
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