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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
As required by M.P.E.P. 609(c), the Applicant's submissions of the Information Disclosure Statement is acknowledged by the examiner and the cited references have been considered in the examination of the claims now pending. As required by M.P.E.P. 609 C(2), a copy of the PTOL-1449 initialed and dated by the examiner is attached to the instant office action.
Applicant’s Information Disclosure Statement has been received, entered into the record, and considered. See attached form PTO-1449.
Restriction Remarks
Claims 1-20 are pending.
Claims 7-18 and 20 are withdrawn as of April 1, 2026, traverse.
Claims 1-6 and 14 are examined.
This application contains are drawn to an invention nonelected without traverse in the reply filed on August 5, 2026. A complete reply to the final rejection must include cancellation of nonelected claims or other appropriate action (37 CFR 1.144) See MPEP § 821.01.
Applicants are reminded that upon the cancellation of claims to a non-elected invention, the inventorship must be amended in compliance with 37 CFR 1.48(b) if one or more of the currently named inventors is no longer an inventor of at least one claim remaining in the application. Any amendment of inventorship must be accompanied by a request under 37 CFR 1.48(b) and by the fee required under 37 CFR 1.17(i).
Applicant is reminded cancellation of claims, to a non-elected invention with Applicant’s amendment and in response to this Non-final office action, is required.
The requirement is still deemed proper and is therefore made FINAL.
Reconsideration
Applicant states that "There are two criteria for proper requirement for restriction between patentably distinct inventions”:
“The inventions must be independent”.
Examiner agrees for reasons stated below:
Claims 1-6 and 19 are drawn to a report arrangement, classified in a distinct classification, (i.e., H04W, subclass 24). Claims 7-12, 18 and 20, drawn to a network architecture, classified in a distinct classification (i.e., H04L, subclass 63) and Claims 13-17, drawn distinctly to key distribution, a distinct classification (i.e. H04N, subclass 12). These are three (3) different classification, differently by the claims to search, and patentably distinct invention. [as particularly noted in MPEP subsections, 802.01; 806.06,808.01, 906.5-806.05J]. Ergo, these are separate and distinct.
“There would be a serious search and/or examination burden on the Examiner if restrictions are not required.”
Examiner agrees that a serious burden would occur.
Examiner asserts, searching for three separate and distinct sets of potential inventions in the claims is a serious burden for the Examiner to search based on the merits. Examiner respectfully affirms that Restriction is required and will be maintained.
Searching three separate and distinct sets of potential inventions in the claims is a serious burden for the Examiner to search based on the merits. [MPEP subsections 803.02, 808 and 808.02]. In addition, Examiner firmly asserts that Independent Claims 1, 7 and 13 are unrelated technologies and are not overlapping. Relevant search concepts are not substantially the same in all three independent claims, (i.e., Independent Claims 1, 7 and 13. Additionally, examination and searching requires different electronic resources such as, search strategy/query of different prior art. Examiner respectfully affirms that Restriction is required and will be maintained.
Searching three separate and distinct sets of potential inventions in the claims is a serious burden for the Examiner to search based on the merits. Examiner respectfully affirms that Restriction is required and will be maintained.
Examiner, respectfully, will not conduct search/examine multiple, claimed, and separate inventions. Examiner affirms and asserts that it is a serious burden to examine multiple potential claimed inventions based on the merits at a time.
It is efficient and logical for the Examiner to conduct and search, one Group of claims at time, on the merits and does provide a serious burden to consider anything otherwise.
Examiner has respectfully reconsidered Applicant’s arguments and disagrees.
Group 1, claims 1-6 and 19, only be examined at this time.
Applicants are required to cancel Groups 2 and 3, when submitting the amendment to this non-final office action. Withdrawal of the restriction of claims 1-20 is respectfully not persuasive.
Applicants are reminded of cancellation of claims of a non-elected invention with Applicant’s amendment and in response to this Non-final office action, is required.
The requirement is still deemed proper and is therefore made FINAL.
Drawings
The drawings are objected to because Figures 1-11 and 14-16 do not contain element numbers.
Figures 11-13 and 17-18 should be designated by a legend such as --Prior Art-- because only that which is old is illustrated. See MPEP § 608.02(g). Corrected drawings in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. The replacement sheet(s) should be labeled “Replacement Sheet” in the page header (as per 37 CFR 1.84(c)) so as not to obstruct any portion of the drawing figures. 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.
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. No new matter is allowed.l
The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Specification
The disclosure is objected to because of the following informalities:
The specification is riddled with trademarks throughout and must be corrected.
The entire specification must be reviewed and corrected for trademarks.
The use of the term Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, etc, which are a trade name or a mark used in commerce, has been noted in this application. The term should be accompanied by the generic terminology; furthermore the term should be capitalized wherever it appears or, where appropriate, include a proper symbol indicating use in commerce such as ™, SM , or ® following the term.
Although the use of trade names and marks used in commerce (i.e., trademarks, service marks, certification marks, and collective marks) are permissible in patent applications, the proprietary nature of the marks should be respected and every effort made to prevent their use in any manner which might adversely affect their validity as commercial marks.
The incorporation of essential material in the specification by reference to an unpublished U.S. application, foreign application or patent, or to a publication is improper.
Applicant is required to amend the disclosure to include the material incorporated by reference, if the material is relied upon to overcome any objection, rejection, or other requirement imposed by the Office. The amendment must be accompanied by a statement executed by the applicant, or a practitioner representing the applicant, stating that the material being inserted is the material previously incorporated by reference and that the amendment contains no new matter. 37 CFR 1.57(g).
The abstract of the disclosure is objected to because the abstract contains abbreviations which should formally be spelled out, such as CTSs or UWB.
A corrected abstract of the disclosure is required and must be presented on a separate sheet, apart from any other text. See MPEP § 608.01(b).
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1-6 and 19 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Regarding Independent Claim 1, Examiner is unclear what the Applicant means by the claimed, “a related parameter”. What particularly defines what is “a related parameter”?
In addition, Examiner is unclear as to what exactly does the Applicant means by the claimed, “time of flight of the ranging frame” (see Claim 3, for example). Examiner reviewed the entire specification, and the phrase, “time of flight of ranging frame” is used by not defined. For the purposes of examination, Examiner will interpret, “time of flight of ranging frame” as “time”.
Dependent Claims 2-6 and 19 are rejected based on the rejected Independent Claim 1.
Explanation, clarification and correction are required.
Appropriate correction is required.
Pertinent Prior Art
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Wang et al. (US Patent Publication No. 20060153355 A1), “System and method for providing RBT in communication network” (July 13, 2006) discloses a subscriber is a ring back tone service register subscriber is judged with a certain triggering mode, such as intelligent network triggering, signaling interception triggering, call forwarding triggering or switching device triggering. The subscriber is a ring back tone service registered subscriber, a connection between the originating switching device and the terminating switching device and a connection between a switching device and the ring back tone device is established. When the called terminal is idle, the ring back tone device provides a piece of customized ring back tone to the calling subscriber for replacing traditional ring back tone.
Communication
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DIANE D MIZRAHI whose telephone number is 571- 272-4079. The examiner can normally be reached on 7:30-3:30 PM (7:30 - 4:30 p.m.).
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Alison T. Slater can be reached on (571) 270-0375. The fax phone numbers for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned are (703) 872-9306 for regular communications and for After Final communication.
Any inquiry of a general nature or relating to the status of this application or proceeding should be directed to the receptionist whose telephone number is (571) 272-2600.
Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only.
For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.qov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll free).
/DIANE D MIZRAHI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2647
Diane.Mizrahi@USPTO.gov
