DETAILED ACTION
The instant application having Application No. 18/927385 filed on 04/17/2024 is presented for examination by the examiner.
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 . 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 for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection.
Priority
As required by M.P.E.P. 201.14(c), acknowledgement is made of applicant's claim for priority based on application filed on CHINA 202311549155.6 (11/20/2023). Receipt is acknowledged of papers submitted under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d), which papers have been placed of record in the file.
Claim Objections
Claims 10-12, 14-16 are objected to because of the following informality:
Regarding claims 10-12, 14-16, the limitation “The storage medium” should be replaced with “The non-transitory computer storage medium”.
Allowable Subject Matters
Claims 1-9, 13 are allowed. Claims 10-12, 14-16 would be allowed if the pending claim objections are overcome. The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance.
Claims 1, 5, 9 are allowed over the prior art of record because the Examiner found neither prior art cited in its entirety, nor based on the prior art found any motivation to combine any of the said prior art reference which teach the limitation “obtaining network configuration information, wherein the network configuration information includes at least one information item including a name or a password of a target router; establishing a connection with a terminal; receiving network segment filtering information sent by the terminal, wherein the network segment filtering information is obtained after the terminal establishes a connection with a target router in response to the terminal selecting any one of the at least two routers included in the local area network as the target router; establishing a connection with the target router according to the network configuration information; and sending an address request instruction to the at least two routers included in the local area network, and obtaining an Internet Protocol (IP) address in a network segment same as the terminal as a target IP address based on the network segment filtering information, to communicate with the terminal through the target IP address” (claims 1 and 9) and “obtaining network segment filtering information through the connection with the target router; establishing a connection with the image forming device; and sending the network segment filtering information to the image forming device through the connection established with the image forming device, wherein: the image forming device is used to establish a connection with the target router according to the obtained network configuration information, and send an address request instruction to the at least two routers included in the local area network, and obtain an IP address in a network segment same as the terminal as a target IP address based on the network segment filtering information, to communicate with the terminal through the target IP address; and the network configuration information includes at least one information item including a name or a password of the target router” (claim 5) with respect to the additional claimed subject matter and in particular the specific boundaries as recited in the claim. It is noted that the closest prior art, Chen et al. (US 2010/0211659 A1) discloses “(par. 0025), In steps 200 and 202, the program 6 retrieves the network bits of the WAN IP address 21 and then the network bits of the IP pool 32 of the router 1. Next, in step 204, the program 6 compares and identifies whether the network bits of the WAN IP address 21 is identical to that of the IP pool 32. If yes, the network bits of the IP pool 32 together with a LAN IP address 31 will then be modified to be different from that of the WAN IP port 2, in step 206. Otherwise, if not, the process 60 will come to an end. Note that the LAN IP address 31 should be modified at the same time because it is selected from the IP pool 32. At least the network bits of the LAN IP address 31 should be changed to be the same with that of each IP addresses in the IP pool 32. After that, in step 208, an instruction will be transmitted to the client terminals associated with the LAN port 3 of the router 1. (par. 0026), Typically, the client terminals 5 are configured to request a new IP address from the DHCP server 30 of the router 1 in accordance with Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol upon reception of the instruction and then replace the original IP address with the new IP address. Therefore, the client terminals 5 will have their IP addresses being updated once the process 60 is finished”.
However, Chen fails to disclose the claim limitations above. Thus, Chen does not disclose or render obvious the above underlined limitations as claimed. Claims 2-4, 6-8, 10-16 are also allowed since they depend on claims 1, 5, 9 respectively.
Any comments considered necessary by applicant must be submitted no later than the payment of the issue fee and, to avoid processing delays, should preferably accompany the issue fee. Such submissions should be clearly labeled “Comments on Statement of Reasons for Allowance.”
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
US Patent Publications:
Hardison et al. (US 2016/0337185 A1) [Hardison discloses (par. 0030), Step S111 preferably includes requesting a DHCP-assigned IP address. If a DHCP-assigned IP address is received, the IP address can be used to perform some analysis of the network path. In particular, receiving a DHCP-assigned IP address can be an indication that a DHCP server (or, possibly, multiple DHCP servers) already exists on the local area network; alternatively or additionally, receiving a DHCP-assigned IP address can indicate the presence of a pre-existing internet connection (or, possibly, multiple pre-existing internet connections), can be used to analyze the network topology between various DHCP servers and other network entities (e.g., other routers, switches, external servers, etc.) on the local area network, or can be used for any other suitable purpose. In addition to receiving a DHCP-assigned IP address, requesting a DHCP-assigned IP address may include receiving additional information that may be used to perform network path analysis; for example, the router address, DNS addresses, DHCP lease time, and/or a subnet mask associated with a DHCP lease may be received along with the DHCP-assigned IP address and may be used to perform network configuration analysis. If a DHCP-assigned IP address is not received, this may be an indication that the router is not connected to a LAN or WAN (or that a DHCP server is not running on a connected LAN). However, Hardison does not disclose “obtaining network configuration information, wherein the network configuration information includes at least one information item including a name or a password of a target router; establishing a connection with a terminal; receiving network segment filtering information sent by the terminal, wherein the network segment filtering information is obtained after the terminal establishes a connection with a target router in response to the terminal selecting any one of the at least two routers included in the local area network as the target router; establishing a connection with the target router according to the network configuration information; and sending an address request instruction to the at least two routers included in the local area network, and obtaining an Internet Protocol (IP) address in a network segment same as the terminal as a target IP address based on the network segment filtering information, to communicate with the terminal through the target IP address” (claims 1 and 9) and “obtaining network segment filtering information through the connection with the target router; establishing a connection with the image forming device; and sending the network segment filtering information to the image forming device through the connection established with the image forming device, wherein: the image forming device is used to establish a connection with the target router according to the obtained network configuration information, and send an address request instruction to the at least two routers included in the local area network, and obtain an IP address in a network segment same as the terminal as a target IP address based on the network segment filtering information, to communicate with the terminal through the target IP address; and the network configuration information includes at least one information item including a name or a password of the target router” (claim 5).]
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MANG HANG YEUNG whose telephone number is (571)270-7319. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F 8:00 am to 5:00 pm.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Rebecca Song can be reached on (571) 270-3667. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/MANG HANG YEUNG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2417
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