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 .
1. Claims 1-17 and 20-22 are currently pending in this application.
Claims 18-19 are canceled as filed on 07/05/2026.
Claims 21-22 are new as filed on 07/08/2026.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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.
Claim(s) 1-3, 5-17, and 20-22 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Chun et al. (Pre-Grant Publication No. US 2024/0292254 A1), hereinafter Chun.
2. With respect to claims 1, 20, and 22, Chun taught an apparatus for wireless communication at a first wireless device (Title & figure 1, item 100), comprising: one or more memories storing processor-executable code (0042); and one or more processors coupled with the one or more memories and individually or collectively operable to execute the code to cause the first wireless device to: receive, from a second wireless device, an initial frame requesting a response from the first wireless device (0288, where the second wireless device can be seen in figure 1, item 200); and transmit a first control frame comprising first control information, the first control information comprising one or more sets of fields associated with one or more wireless devices (0284), wherein: a first set of fields of the one or more sets of fields comprises a first information field indicating an identifier associated with one or more second wireless devices comprising the second wireless device and a first feedback field comprising first control feedback (0284, where ethe identifier can be seen in, at least, 0072); and the first information field comprises a first bit sequence indicating that the first set of fields comprises the first feedback field (0232).
3. As for claim 2, it is rejected on the same basis as claim 1. In addition, Chun taught wherein the identifier indicates a plurality of the one or more second wireless devices (0047, where the one or more antennas is a plurality of antennas).
4. As for claim 3, it is rejected on the same basis as claim 1. In addition, Chun taught wherein the first control frame comprises a trigger frame (0122).
5. As for claim 5, it is rejected on the same basis as claim 1. In addition, Chun taught wherein the first control feedback comprises a control feedback unit that indicates an identifier associated with the first control feedback, an identifier of a link associated with the first control feedback, a length associated with the first control feedback, or any combination thereof (0231, where this, at least, teaches the link limitation).
6. As for claim 6, it is rejected on the same basis as claim 1. In addition, Chun taught wherein the first control frame comprises one or more feedback fields comprising at least the first control feedback, and wherein each of the one or more feedback fields comprises respective control feedback for the one or more second wireless devices (0284).
7. As for claim 7, it is rejected on the same basis as claim 1. In addition, Chun taught wherein the first control frame comprises one or more padding bits that follow the first set of fields (0097), and wherein the one or more padding bits follow a frame check sequence included in the first control frame (0195, where the padding bits follow the control list, which includes the PPDU in accordance with figure 14. Accordingly, the PPDU contains the Frame Check Sequence in accordance with 0098. Thus, the paddings bits follow the FCS under broadest reasonable interpretation).
8. As for claim 8, it is rejected on the same basis as claim 1. In addition, Chun taught to transmit, to the second wireless device, a message requesting the second wireless device to initiate frame exchange with the first wireless device using a control frame that solicits the first control feedback, wherein the initial frame comprises an initial control frame and the first control frame comprises an initial control response based at least in part on transmission of the message (0288).
9. As for claim 9, it is rejected on the same basis as claim 1. In addition, Chun taught wherein: the initial frame comprises a request for the first wireless device to initiate frame exchanges with the second wireless device using a control frame that includes the first control feedback; and the first control frame comprises an initial control frame based at least in part on reception of the initial frame comprising the request (0288).
10. As for claim 10, it is rejected on the same basis as claim 1. In addition, Chun taught wherein the first feedback field indicates a request for the second wireless device to respond with a second control frame indicating whether the first control feedback was successfully received, and the request is based at least in part on the first bit sequence and a first bit associated with a subfield of the first information field (0288 & 0232, where the bit indicators can be seen).
11. As for claim 11, it is rejected on the same basis as claim 10. In addition, Chun taught to receive the second control frame comprising second control information based at least in part on the first feedback field indicating the request, the second control information comprising a second set of fields, wherein: the second set of fields comprises a second information field indicating the first wireless device and a second feedback field comprising second control feedback, the second control feedback indicating whether the first control feedback was successfully received; and the second information field comprises a second bit sequence indicating that the second set of fields comprises the second control feedback (0078, where a system ACK is in a second set of fields that indicates successful reception of the frame under broadest reasonable interpretation).
12. As for claim 12, it is rejected on the same basis as claim 10. In addition, Chun taught wherein the second control frame comprises a block acknowledgement control frame (0081).
13. As for claim 13, it is rejected on the same basis as claim 1. In addition, Chun taught wherein the first control frame is a flexible control frame (0081, where block ack frames utilize actions frames, which are flexible control frames).
14. As for claims 14 and 21, they are rejected on the same basis as claims 1 and 20 (respectively). In addition, Chun taught wherein the first control feedback indicates information associated with link adaptation, a buffer status report, a bandwidth query report, peer-to-peer communications, power management, coexistence, unavailability periods, a periodicity of the unavailability periods, an operating mode, an uplink power headroom, one or more scheduling parameters, one or more interference patterns, a solicited physical protocol data unit type, a solicited physical protocol data unit duration, a number of spatial streams, or any combination thereof (0284, where this, at least, teaches the link adaptation limitation).
15. As for claim 15, it is rejected on the same basis as claim 1. In addition, Chun taught wherein the first bit sequence indicates a first value, and the first set of fields comprises the first feedback field based at least in part on the first value being one or more reserved values associated with the first information field (0232, where 0 or 1 are reserved for the purposes of indicating the field’s information under broadest reasonable interpretation. See also: 0136, the reserved field).
16. As for claim 16, it is rejected on the same basis as claim 1. In addition, Chun taught wherein the first control information comprises feedback information indicating whether the initial frame was successfully received (0078).
17. As for claim 17, it is rejected on the same basis as claim 1. In addition, Chun taught wherein the first control frame comprises a block acknowledgment control frame (0081).
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.
Claim(s) 4 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chun, in view of Shafin et al. (Pre-Grant Publication No. US 2023/0021113 A1), hereinafter Shafin.
18. As for claim 4, it is rejected on the same basis as claim 1. However, Chun did not explicitly state wherein the first control feedback indicates one or more operating parameters associated with peer-to-peer communications between the second wireless device and a third wireless device. On the other hand, Shafin did teach wherein the first control feedback indicates one or more operating parameters associated with peer-to-peer communications between the second wireless device and a third wireless device (0128 & Table 4). Both of the systems of Chun and Shafin are directed towards managing wireless communication using control frames and therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art, at the time of the effective filing of the invention, to modify the teachings of Chun, to utilize peer-to-peer feedback information, as taught by Shafin, in order to provide p2p information that would thus, increase the system’s feedback for use with networks that work contemporary to the time of the invention.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
(a) Kammachi et al. (Patent No. US 12,659,363 B2), column 58.
(b) Zhang et al. (Pre-Grant Publication No. US 2025/0374092 A1), Table 14.
(c) Takata et al. (Pre-Grant Publication No. US 2024/0251287 A1), 0153.
(d) Huang et al. (Pre-Grant Publication No. US 2024/0205742 A1), 0091, 0294.
(e) Lim et al. (Pre-Grant Publication No. US 2022/0150973 A1), 0275-0304.
(f) Han et al. (Pre-Grant Publication No. US 2021/0234579 A1), 0114.
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/JOSEPH L GREENE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2443
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