DETAILED ACTION
Notice of 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.
Priority
Applicant’s claim for the benefit of a prior-filed application under 35 U.S.C. 119(e) or under 35 U.S.C. 120, 121, 365(c), or 386(c) is acknowledged. In particular, this Application is the bypass application of an international application that claims foreign priority to a Chinese application, filed on 11 Apr 2022. Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statements
The information disclosure statements, submitted on 3 Jan 2025 and 9 Jul 2025, are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner.
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)(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 1-7, 9-16, and 18-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Kwon (US 20220132419).
Regarding claims 1, 10, and 19, Kwon teaches a communication method, a first access point (AP) of a first access point multi-link device (AP MLD), comprising a memory, configured to store computer instructions; and a processor, and a non-transitory computer-readable medium configured to execute the computer instructions stored in the memory (Kwon, ¶¶44, 96 – elements of EHT AP include processor and memory), to enable the AP to execute the method, comprising:
generating, by a first access point (AP) of a first access point multi-link device (AP MLD), first information that indicates whether a key basic service set (BSS) parameter corresponding to at least one AP of the first AP MLD changes (Kwon, ¶51 – AP generates a management frame with a Change Sequence value; Kwon, ¶¶48, 55 – the change sequence number informs the STA MLD of events and/or updates to the link between the AP and STA); and
sending, by the first AP, the first information to a first station multi-link device (STA MLD). Kwon, ¶48 (AP MLD 104 sends information via a management frame to STA MLD 108).
Regarding claims 2, 11, and 20, Kwon also teaches wherein the first information is a count value. Kwon, ¶55 (change sequency value starts at zero and then is incremented, thereby counting the update events).
Regarding claims 3 and 12, Kwon also teaches wherein a value of the first information is increased when the key BSS parameter corresponding to the at least one AP of the first AP MLD changes. Kwon, ¶55 (value of change sequence number is incremented when an update event occurs).
Regarding claims 4 and 13, Kwon also teaches wherein a value of the first information remains unchanged when no key BSS parameters corresponding to APs of the first AP MLD change. Kwon, ¶55 (conversely to the rejection of claims 3 and 12, if an update event does not occur, then the value of the change sequence number does not change).
Regarding claims 5 and 14, Kwon also teaches wherein the first information is carried in a check beacon field. Kwon, ¶¶69-70 and figure 6 (field 606).
Regarding claims 6 and 15, Kwon also teaches wherein the check beacon field is carried in a traffic indication map (TIM) frame. Kwon, figure 6 and ¶70 (TIM frame 600 includes check beacon field 606).
Regarding claims 7 and 16, Kwon also teaches receiving, by the first AP, a first frame that is for requesting a key BSS parameter corresponding to an AP associated with a second STA, and the second STA is a station in the first STA MLD that is associated with the first AP MLD (Kwon, ¶65 – probe request is sent by a non-AP STA of a non-AP MLD to the AP MLD); and
sending, by the first AP, a second frame that comprises the key BSS parameter corresponding to the AP associated with the second STA. Kwon, ¶75 (AP MLD sends a probe response frame that can include the change sequence field); Kwon, ¶¶50 and figure 2 (probe response frame may include the fields shown in figure 2 that define a BSS, such as BSS ID 210).
Regarding claims 9 and 18, Kwon also teaches wherein the key BSS parameter comprises at least one or more of the following:
inclusion of a channel switch announcement element,
inclusion of an extended channel switch announcement element,
modification of an enhanced distributed channel access (EDCA) parameters element,
inclusion of a quiet element,
modification of a direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) parameter set,
modification of a contention free (CF) parameter set element,
modification of a high throughput (HT) operation element,
inclusion of a wide bandwidth channel switch element,
inclusion of a channel switch wrapper element,
inclusion of an operating mode notification element,
inclusion of a quiet channel element,
modification of a very high throughput (VHT) operation element,
modification of a high efficiency (HE) operation element,
insertion of a broadcast target wake up time (TWT) element,
inclusion of a BSS color change announcement element,
modification of a multi-user EDCA parameter set element,
modification of a spatial reuse parameter set element, or
modification of an extremely high throughput operation element. Kwon, ¶57.
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.
Claims 8 and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kwon (US 20220132419) in view of Kim (US 20230413165).
Regarding claims 8 and 17, Kwon teaches the method according to claim 7 and first AP according to claim 16, but does not explicitly teach “wherein the second STA is all STAs of the first STA MLD.” However, Kim teaches an AP receiving a probe request and transmitting a probe response that includes critical update information. Kim, ¶584. The critical update information can be requested for all links. Kim, ¶581 and figure 63. At the time of the effective filing date of the invention, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to enable all STAs in the STA MLD to request and receive critical update information in one response, as taught by Kim, when indicating an update event, as taught by Kwon, in order to compress the amount of signaling required in a critical update event. Kim, ¶584.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to BENJAMIN S LAMONT whose telephone number is (571)270-7514 and email address is benjamin.lamont@uspto.gov (see MPEP 502.03 for using EFS or mail, but not email to authorize electronic communications). The examiner can normally be reached M-F 7am to 3pm EST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Huy Vu can be reached at 571-272-3155. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/Benjamin Lamont/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2461
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