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.
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.
Claim(s) 1-19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hamlin et al. (US20210352764) (hereinafter Hamlin).in view of Rozendaal et al. (US20230269009) (hereinafter Rozendaal)
Per claim 1, Hamlin discloses a Bluetooth Mesh network networking method, comprising: accessing a first network, by a device to-be-networked, based on a first key; receiving, from a networking device via the first network (paragraph 0027, i.e. The connection to the mesh provisioning service may occur automatically if the user indicates via the smart device that access to the mesh network is desired, or if the user attempts to configure or control a mesh node (e.g., a lighting device). In response to smart device 102 connecting to the mesh provisioning service hosted by a node (which now becomes the provisioner as a result of the connection), the node transmits a provisioning invite to smart device 102, wherein a standard [e.g., Bluetooth, provisioning process is followed and the provisioner and smart device 102 may then exchange their public keys], examiner interprets that smart device is outside of the mesh network and is a part of another network not shown, therefore examiner concludes that the smart device is first network outside of the mesh network), a second key for accessing the Bluetooth mesh network; and accessing the Bluetooth mesh network based on the second key (paragraph 0031, i.e. After successful completion of the authentication process, a session key may be derived by the provisioner and smart device 102 from their private keys and the exchanged public keys. The session key may then be used to secure transmission of provisioning information and a security key [e.g., a network key] from the provisioner to smart device 102 to complete the provisioning process. Upon completion of the provisioning process, smart device 102 may disconnect from the mesh provisioning service and connect to the mesh proxy service and smart device 102 may now be joined to mesh network 100 and may be configured to communicate with and/or control the various devices in mesh network 100 using a mesh proxy GATT service),but fails to explicitly disclose wherein the networking device is in both the first network and the Bluetooth Mesh network.
In an analogous field of endeavor, Rozendaal discloses wherein the networking device is in both the first network and the Bluetooth Mesh network (paragraph 0100 Fig 3, i.e. the communication device 300 receives beacon-response signals from a collection of communication devices, for instance located in the same room, in other rooms in same home, in neighbors houses, or from nodes located on the street and For other communication devices, in particular for neighbor communication devices such as device 340 which does not belong to the wireless communication network 350, examiner interprets that device 300 is inside network 350 and parallel network 354, also see paragraph 0015, Bluetooth Mesh, WIFI protocols).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have incorporated the teachings of Rozendaal into the invention of Hamlin, where Hamlin provides after the establishment of a mesh network (e.g., a Bluetooth mesh network), a smart device (not the original provisioner) may be provisioned to the mesh network by a node of the mesh network, which acts a provisioner. Network keys and other provisioning information may be provided to the smart device from the provisioner node using a standard mesh provisioning process implemented in reverse (i.e., from the node to the smart device) and Rozendaal provides the signal-quality determination device further comprises a network-determination unit that is connected to the receiver unit and configured to determine, using the device-identification information, whether the respective received beacon-response signal is an inter-network response signal provided by a neighbor-communication device not belonging to the wireless communication network or an intra-network response signal provided by a transmitting wireless communication device belonging to the wireless communication network in order to provide a better quality of service by enabling a reduction of complexity in a radiofrequency based presence or movement sensing function to determine other devices that maybe in range to provide a communication link to exchange data, see Rozendaal, paragraphs 0006, 0007, 0027 and 0100.
Per claim 2, the combination discloses the method of claim 1, wherein Hamlin discloses a device(s) in the first network and/or the Bluetooth Mesh network relays communication between the networking device and the device to-be-networked (paragraph 0031, i.e. Upon completion of the provisioning process, smart device 102 may disconnect from the mesh provisioning service and connect to the mesh proxy service and smart device 102 may now be joined to mesh network 100 and may be configured to communicate with and/or control the various devices in mesh network 100 using a mesh proxy GATT service).
Per claim 3, the combination discloses the method of claim 1, Hamlin discloses further comprising: after accessing the Bluetooth Mesh network, the device to-be-networked remains in the first network (paragraph 0031, i.e. After successful completion of the authentication process, a session key may be derived by the provisioner and smart device 102 from their private keys and the exchanged public keys. The session key may then be used to secure transmission of provisioning information and a security key [e.g., a network key] from the provisioner to smart device 102 to complete the provisioning process. Upon completion of the provisioning process, smart device 102 may disconnect from the mesh provisioning service).
Per claim 4, the combination discloses the method of claim 1, further comprising: Rozendaal discloses transmitting address information of the device to-be-networked to the networking device via the first network, wherein the address information of the device to-be-networked includes a unicast address of the device to-be-networked (paragraph 0048, i.e. the wireless communication devices are configured to provide, in response to receiving the beacon-request signal, a beacon-response signal as a unicast signal).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have incorporated the teachings of Rozendaal into the invention of Hamlin in order to provide a better quality of service by enabling a reduction of complexity in a radiofrequency based presence or movement sensing function to determine other devices that maybe in range to provide a communication link to exchange data via Unicast signal, see Rozendaal , paragraphs 0028 and 0048.
Per claim 5, refer to the same rationale as explained in claim 4, see paragraph 0058, refers to presence of movement of an object, where examiner interprets may lead to changes in the unicast address when a device or node becomes out of range.
Per claim 6, the combination discloses the method of claim 4, Rozendaal discloses further comprising: in case a message confirming its unicast address is received from the networking device (paragraph 0048, response message), transmitting at least one of received signal strength indication (RSSI) (paragraph 0017, RSSI) and time-to-live (TTL) of the device to-be-networked to the networking device in response to receiving a ready-to-provision message (paragraph 0024, i.e. where the beacon-response signals cannot be univocally linked to a particular beacon-request signal, the number of beacon-response signals provided in response to a given beacon-request signal is assumed to be the number of beacon-response signals received within a predetermined time span after provision of the beacon-request signal .
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have incorporated the teachings of Rozendaal into the invention of Hamlin in order to provide a better quality of service by enabling a reduction of complexity in a radiofrequency based presence or movement sensing function to determine other devices that maybe in range to provide a communication link to exchange data via Unicast signal as well as RSSI and time span, see Rozendaal , paragraphs 0017 and 0024.
Per claim 7, the combination discloses the method of claim 6, Hamlin discloses further comprising: storing the information communicated with the networking device in a memory of the device to-be-networked (paragraph 0020, Fig 2, ref.212, i.e. memory); and reading the information from the memory for resuming communication in case of an interruption of communication with the networking device (paragraph 0025, i.e. In some embodiments, each full-power node may have the proxy capability enabled until a smart device disables it (e.g., after the smart device joins the mesh network and no longer needs the mesh proxy service). In other embodiments, the proxy capability may be enabled by a smart device via a standard mesh message, or by manually entering a pushbutton code into the device (node), or via firmware stored in the device (node) that can make pre-programmed decisions (e.g., enable proxy capability) based on initial communications between the provisioner and a smart device seeking to be provisioned).
Per claim 8, refer to the same rationale as explained in claim 1, see paragraph 0048, network address of the smart device
Per claim 9, refer to the same rationale as explained in claim 2.
Per claim 10, the combination discloses the method of claim 8, wherein Hamlin discloses transmitting, to the device to-be-networked, the second key for accessing the Bluetooth Mesh network further comprises: (paragraph 0031,refer to claim 1) and transmitting the second key to the device to-be-networked in response to the priority of the device to-be-networked being higher than priority(ies) of other device(s) to-be-networked. (paragraph 0030 and 0031, i.e. After successful completion of the authentication process, a session key may be derived by the provisioner and smart device 102 from their private keys and the exchanged public keys. The session key may then be used to secure transmission of provisioning information and a security key [e.g., a network key] from the provisioner to smart device 102 to complete the provisioning process, where users have different levels access privileges, where examiner interprets at higher levels better or more access privileges), Rozendaal discloses determining a priority of the device to-be-networked based on at least one of a distance of the networking device from the device to-be-networked and a number of hops required to send a message from the networking (paragraph 0026, i.e. the signal-quality determination device further comprises a communication-device data ascertainment unit configured to ascertain communication-device data pertaining to one or more of those wireless communication devices that are within a single-hop distance from the signal-quality determination device, i.e. that are communicatively reachable by the signal-quality determination device within one hop and paragraph 0016, i.e. all the devices in single-hop distance of this ‘requesting’ device will hear this message and respond with a beacon-response signal).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have incorporated the teachings of Rozendaal into the invention of Hamlin in order to provide a better quality of service by enabling a reduction of complexity in a radiofrequency based presence or movement sensing function to determine other devices that maybe in range to provide a communication link to exchange data based on certain distances and the number hops, see Rozendaal , paragraphs 0016 and 0026.
Per claim 11, refer to the same rationale as explained in claim 6, see Rozendaal, paragraph 0016 and 0026, for the number of hops).
Per claim 12, refer to the same rationale as explained in claim 6.
Per claim 13, refer to the same rationale as explained in claim 4., see Rozendaal, paragraph 0048, Enhanced Beacon Request command and paragraph 0096, availability of the device.
Per claim 14, refer to the same rationale as explained in claim 5.
Per claim 15, refer to the same rationale as explained in claim 7.
Per claim 16, refer to the same rationale as explained in claim 1 see Hamlin, paragraph 0006, processor and memory., The memory is operable to store instructions executable on the processor to cause the processor to perform the following: provide a mesh provisioning service.
Per claim 17, the combination discloses the device of claim 16, wherein Hamlin discloses the Bluetooth device comprises at least one of a smart light system (paragraph 0016, A wireless lighting control system) , a downlight, and a switch.
Per claim 18, refer to the same rationale as explained in claim 8 see Hamlin, paragraph 0006, processor and memory., The memory is operable to store instructions executable on the processor to cause the processor to perform the following: provide a mesh provisioning service.
Per claim 19, refer to the same rationale as explained in claim 1 see Hamlin, paragraph 0049, a machine-readable medium having non-transient instructions stored thereon, which may be used to program a computer system, paragraph 0006, i.e. processor).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JOSEPH E DEAN, JR whose telephone number is (571)270-7116. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 7:30-3:30.
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/JOSEPH E DEAN, JR/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2647
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