DETAILED ACTION
Status of claims:
Claims 1 – 14 are pending.
Claims 1 and 3 – 5 are amended.
Claims 7 – 14 are new. This rejection is FINAL.
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
The information disclosure statement (IDS) was submitted on 07/31/2026. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments in the amendments, filed 05/18/2026, have been fully considered and are persuasive. A new ground(s) of rejection is presented based on the amendments and arguments.
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)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1 – 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Vadivelu (US 8537715).
As per claim 1, an information providing device comprising:
processing circuitry configured to:
generate setting information for making a setting for a communication control device installed in a site of a user in accordance with a notification from the communication control device (When client 100 connects with access point 110 and requests connection to a corporate network at central node 160, access point 110 can establish a secure communication path through multi-mode modem 120, which supports multiple types of networks, e.g., 2G networks, 3G networks, 4G networks, etc., See Col. 4, Lines 27 - 37);
transmit the setting information to the communication control device via a first communication network (Modem 120 usually is configured with a factory default setting indicating an Internet Service Provider (ISP) preferred network, for example, a 4G network, See Col. 4, Lines 27 - 37);
determine whether transmission of the setting information to the communication control device via the first communication network succeeded (Access point 110 can determine a network selection or failover among multiple available networks supported by modem 120 based on a plurality of attributes, which help identifying a stable network, See Col. 4, Lines 50 - 56); and
when transmission of the setting information via the first communication network is determined to have failed, transmit the setting information to the communication control device via a second communication network (If modem 120 fails to establish a connection over the ISP-preferred network (e.g., the 4G network), it will select a secondary network (e.g., a 3G network), See Col. 4, Lines 27 - 37).
As per claim 2, the information providing device according to claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to transmit the setting information to the communication control device via the first communication network, which is a fixed communication network, and, when transmission of the setting information via the first communication network fails, transmit the setting information to the communication control device via the second communication network, which is a mobile communication network (FIG. 1 includes a central node 160 and a remote node 130 that are interconnected via a network 140. Network 140 can be a wired network, a wireless network, and/or a hybrid or combination of both, See Col. 2, Line 65 – Col. 3, Line 3 … If modem 120 fails to establish a connection over the ISP-preferred network (e.g., the 4G network (*could also include wired network)), it will select a secondary network (e.g., a 3G network), See Col. 4, Lines 27 – 37).
As per claim 3, an information providing method to be executed by an information providing device, comprising:
generating setting information for making a setting for a communication control device installed in a site of a user in accordance with a notification from the communication control device (When client 100 connects with access point 110 and requests connection to a corporate network at central node 160, access point 110 can establish a secure communication path through multi-mode modem 120, which supports multiple types of networks, e.g., 2G networks, 3G networks, 4G networks, etc., See Col. 4, Lines 27 - 37);
transmitting the setting information to the communication control device via a first communication network (Modem 120 usually is configured with a factory default setting indicating an Internet Service Provider (ISP) preferred network, for example, a 4G network, See Col. 4, Lines 27 - 37);
determining whether transmission of the setting information to the communication control device via the first communication network succeeded (Access point 110 can determine a network selection or failover among multiple available networks supported by modem 120 based on a plurality of attributes, which help identifying a stable network., See Col. 4, Lines 50 - 56); and
when transmission via the first communication network is determined to have failed fails, transmitting the setting information to the communication control device via a second communication network (If modem 120 fails to establish a connection over the ISP-preferred network (e.g., the 4G network), it will select a secondary network (e.g., a 3G network), See Col. 4, Lines 27 - 37).
As per claim 4, a non-transitory computer-readable recording medium storing therein an information providing program that causes a computer to execute a process comprising:
generating setting information for making a setting for a communication control device installed in a site of a user in accordance with a notification from the communication control device (When client 100 connects with access point 110 and requests connection to a corporate network at central node 160, access point 110 can establish a secure communication path through multi-mode modem 120, which supports multiple types of networks, e.g., 2G networks, 3G networks, 4G networks, etc., See Col. 4, Lines 27 - 37);
transmitting the setting information to the communication control device via a first communication network (Modem 120 usually is configured with a factory default setting indicating an Internet Service Provider (ISP) preferred network, for example, a 4G network, See Col. 4, Lines 27 - 37);
determining whether transmission of the setting information to the communication control device via the first communication network succeeded (Access point 110 can determine a network selection or failover among multiple available networks supported by modem 120 based on a plurality of attributes, which help identifying a stable network., See Col. 4, Lines 50 - 56); and
when transmission via the first communication network is determined to have failed fails, transmitting the setting information to the communication control device via a second communication network (If modem 120 fails to establish a connection over the ISP-preferred network (e.g., the 4G network), it will select a secondary network (e.g., a 3G network), See Col. 4, Lines 27 - 37).
As per claim 5, an information providing system comprising:
a communication control device installed in a site of a user (Control device 150 may be communicating with a plurality of other network devices, such as access points (communication control device). Each network device, such as access point, can be communicatively coupled to zero or more client devices via one or more wired and/or wireless interfaces, See Col. 3, Lines 18 - 25); and
an information providing device connected to a fixed communication network and a mobile communication network (FIG. 1 includes a central node 160 (information providing device includes control node150) and a remote node 130 that are interconnected via a network 140. Network 140 can be a wired network, a wireless network, and/or a hybrid or combination of both, See Col. 2, Line 65 – Col. 3, Line 3), wherein the communication control device includes:
first processing circuitry configured to:
relay communication between a user device that is housed and a fixed communication network (Each network device, such as access point, can be communicatively coupled to zero or more client devices via one or more wired and/or wireless interfaces, See Col. 3, Lines 18 - 25);
relay communication between the user device and a mobile communication network (Each network device, such as access point, can be communicatively coupled to zero or more client devices via one or more wired and/or wireless interfaces, See Col. 3, Lines 18 - 25);
notify the information providing device of information for identifying the communication control device (Control device 150 (information providing device) may be communicating with a plurality of other network devices, such as access points (communication control device), See Col. 3, Lines 18 - 25); a
make a setting for the communication control device by using setting information provided from the information providing device (In addition to optional data traffic forwarding, control device 150 handles a variety of traffic on the control plane, including Bridge Protocol Data Units (BPDUs), routing updates, Hot Standby Router Protocol (HSRP), process-switched packets, Address Resolution Protocol (ARP), and management traffic, such as Secure Shell (SSH), Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), Remote Authentication Dial In User Service (RADIUS), etc., See Col. 3, Lines 9 - 16), and the information providing device includes:
second processing circuitry configured to:
generate setting information for making a setting for the communication control device in accordance with a notification from the communication control device (When client 100 connects with access point 110 and requests connection to a corporate network at central node 160, access point 110 can establish a secure communication path through multi-mode modem 120, which supports multiple types of networks, e.g., 2G networks, 3G networks, 4G networks, etc., See Col. 4, Lines 27 - 37);
transmit the setting information to the communication control device via the fixed communication network (Modem 120 usually is configured with a factory default setting indicating an Internet Service Provider (ISP) preferred network, for example, a 4G network, See Col. 4, Lines 27 - 37);
determine whether transmission of the setting information to the communication control device via the first communication network succeeded (Access point 110 can determine a network selection or failover among multiple available networks supported by modem 120 based on a plurality of attributes, which help identifying a stable network., See Col. 4, Lines 50 - 56); and
when transmission of the setting information via the fixed communication network is determined to have failed fails, transmit the setting information to the communication control device via the mobile communication network (If modem 120 fails to establish a connection over the ISP-preferred network (e.g., the 4G network), it will select a secondary network (e.g., a 3G network), See Col. 4, Lines 27 - 37).
As per claim 6, the information providing system according to claim 5, wherein the second processing circuitry is further configured to transmit the setting information to the communication control device by transmitting a packet to the fixed communication network or the mobile communication network without tunneling (Nonetheless, the quality of the connection between access point 110 and control device 150 at central node 160 may not be good enough for establishing a secure communication path, e.g., an encapsulated tunnel such as a Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE) tunnel, for secure data transmission between client 100 and digital devices at central node 160. Accordingly, client 100 will not be able to connect to the corporate network on the ISP-preferred network, although client 100 may access other Internet resources through modem 120 on the ISP-preferred network, See Col. 4, Lines 38 - 49).
As per claim 7, the information providing device according to claim 1, wherein the first communication network is an optical network or an Ethernet network (The "interconnect" may be a wired interconnect, wherein the medium is a physical medium (e.g., electrical wire, optical fiber, cable, bus traces, etc.), See Col. 13, Lines 40 - 47).
As per claim 8, the information providing device according to claim 1, wherein the communication control device receives the setting information without a virtual private network (VPN) network (Nonetheless, the quality of the connection between access point 110 and control device 150 at central node 160 may not be good enough for establishing a secure communication path, e.g., an encapsulated tunnel such as a Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE) tunnel, for secure data transmission between client 100 and digital devices at central node 160. Accordingly, client 100 will not be able to connect to the corporate network on the ISP-preferred network, although client 100 may access other Internet resources through modem 120 on the ISP-preferred network, See Col. 4, Lines 38 - 49).
As per claim 9, the information providing method according to claim 3, wherein the first communication network is an optical network or an Ethernet network (The "interconnect" may be a wired interconnect, wherein the medium is a physical medium (e.g., electrical wire, optical fiber, cable, bus traces, etc.), See Col. 13, Lines 40 - 47).
As per claim 10, the information providing method according to claim 3, wherein the communication control device receives the setting information without a virtual private network (VPN) network (Nonetheless, the quality of the connection between access point 110 and control device 150 at central node 160 may not be good enough for establishing a secure communication path, e.g., an encapsulated tunnel such as a Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE) tunnel, for secure data transmission between client 100 and digital devices at central node 160. Accordingly, client 100 will not be able to connect to the corporate network on the ISP-preferred network, although client 100 may access other Internet resources through modem 120 on the ISP-preferred network, See Col. 4, Lines 38 - 49).
As per claim 11, the non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 4, wherein the first communication network is an optical network or an Ethernet network (The "interconnect" may be a wired interconnect, wherein the medium is a physical medium (e.g., electrical wire, optical fiber, cable, bus traces, etc.), See Col. 13, Lines 40 - 47).
As per claim 12, the non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 4, wherein the communication control device receives the setting information without a virtual private network (VPN) network (Nonetheless, the quality of the connection between access point 110 and control device 150 at central node 160 may not be good enough for establishing a secure communication path, e.g., an encapsulated tunnel such as a Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE) tunnel, for secure data transmission between client 100 and digital devices at central node 160. Accordingly, client 100 will not be able to connect to the corporate network on the ISP-preferred network, although client 100 may access other Internet resources through modem 120 on the ISP-preferred network, See Col. 4, Lines 38 - 49).
As per claim 13, the information providing system according to claim 5, wherein the first communication network is an optical network or an Ethernet network (The "interconnect" may be a wired interconnect, wherein the medium is a physical medium (e.g., electrical wire, optical fiber, cable, bus traces, etc.), See Col. 13, Lines 40 - 47).
As per claim 14, the information providing system according to claim 5, wherein the communication control device receives the setting information without a virtual private network (VPN) network (Nonetheless, the quality of the connection between access point 110 and control device 150 at central node 160 may not be good enough for establishing a secure communication path, e.g., an encapsulated tunnel such as a Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE) tunnel, for secure data transmission between client 100 and digital devices at central node 160. Accordingly, client 100 will not be able to connect to the corporate network on the ISP-preferred network, although client 100 may access other Internet resources through modem 120 on the ISP-preferred network, See Col. 4, Lines 38 - 49).
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to NAZIA NAOREEN whose telephone number is (571)270-7282. The examiner can normally be reached M-F: 9:00 - 6:00.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Umar Cheema can be reached at 571-270-3037. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/NAZIA NAOREEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2458
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