Prosecution Insights
Last updated: October 01, 2026
Application No. 18/930,204

METHOD FOR WIRELESS COMMUNICATION, USER EQUIPMENT, AND NETWORK DEVICE

Non-Final OA §102§103
Filed
Oct 29, 2024
Priority
May 18, 2022 — continuation of PCTCN2022093691
Examiner
SMARTH, GERALD A
Art Unit
Tech Center
Assignee
Guangdong OPPO Mobile Telecommunications Corp., Ltd.
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
83%
Grant Probability
Favorable
1-2
OA Rounds
1y 0m
Est. Remaining
96%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 83% — above average
83%
Career Allowance Rate
658 granted / 789 resolved
+23.4% vs TC avg
Moderate +13% lift
Without
With
+12.6%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
2y 11m
Avg Prosecution
20 currently pending
Career history
807
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
5.3%
-34.7% vs TC avg
§103
61.8%
+21.8% vs TC avg
§102
12.2%
-27.8% vs TC avg
§112
6.7%
-33.3% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 789 resolved cases

Office Action

§102 §103
DETAILED ACTION 1. It is hereby acknowledged that 18/930204 the following papers have been received and placed of record in the file: Remark date 10/29/24 2. The present application is being examined under the pre-AIA first to invent provisions. Claim Objections 3.Claim1-20 are objected to because of the following informalities: Claim 1, 8 and 14 states.. first information… Information is considered vague. It also has one questioning is there supposed to be a second information. Claim 2, 9 and 15 states.. in a case… This can be interpreted as the limitation does not necessarily have to occur. Applicant may choose to replace with when. Claims 5 12 and 18 states…. UE supports the first capability by a value of a certain bit in the first information . It is unclear what is meant by this statement. Having a value of a certain bit in an information is unclear since information is vague and not further explained and leaves one questioning what the value is or consist of as well as the information. Claim 6 and 19 states wherein a mobile country code (MCC) and a mobile network code (MNC) of the VPLMN are not completely same as the MCC and MNC contained in an international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI) of the UE. This limitation is unclear. It leaves one questioning if the MCC and MNC of the VPLMN is the focus of the limitation or difference of the MCC and MNC of the VPLMN and IMSI of the UE. As well as questioning what the difference is. Appropriate correction is required. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102 4. 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. 5. Claim(s) 1, 3 and 8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102 (a)(1) as being anticipated by NPL-3GPP TSG-WG SA2 Meeting #151E e-meeting S2-2204406 Regarding claim 1, 3GPP teaches a method for wireless communication, applicable to a user equipment (UE), the method comprising: transmitting first information to a network device, wherein the first information indicates whether the UE supports a first capability, the first capability comprising: receiving a UE policy rule corresponding to a visited public land mobile network (VPLMN). (3GPP 6.x.2 ….This solution requires the UE to support the handling of UE behaviour control policies received from the network. The UE can receive policies from both the VPLMN and the HPLMN. The policies are subject to HPLMN control, or, only if allowed by the HPLMN, to VPLMN control. Whether there are VPLMN-only policies or V-PLMN driven policies that require no HPLMN authorization can be studied (e.g. whether some policies can condition the UE behaviour only based on information available in the VPLMN or VPLMN decision is FFS)… Each policy is associated to an indication of whether it is a VPLMN policy or a HPLMN policy. A Version number of the policy is also provided to the UE (a version number can apply to a VPLMN policies and one for HPLMN policy). When the UE is powered off it should be able to store the policies for the last N visited PLMNs with N based on UE implementation, if any serving VPLMN policy applies. The UE shall store the HPLMN policies in permanent memory when received and use these unless an overriding VPLMN policy is received. When the UE registers, it indicates to the network it supports this feature, the Version identifier of any VPLMN policies it stores, and the version identifier of the HPLMN policies. Based on information the AMF receives from the UDM and based on local policy and based on checking whether the versions of the policies are up to date, the AMF decides whether and with which policies to update the UE. ) Regarding claim 8, 3GPP teaches a user equipment (UE), comprising: a transceiver and a memory configured to store one or more programs, which when executed by a processor, causes the UE to: transmit first information to a network device, wherein the first information indicates whether the UE supports a first capability, the first capability comprising: receiving a UE policy rule corresponding to a visited public land mobile network (VPLMN). (3GPP 6.x.2 ….This solution requires the UE to support the handling of UE behaviour control policies received from the network. The UE can receive policies from both the VPLMN and the HPLMN. The policies are subject to HPLMN control, or, only if allowed by the HPLMN, to VPLMN control. Whether there are VPLMN-only policies or V-PLMN driven policies that require no HPLMN authorization can be studied (e.g. whether some policies can condition the UE behaviour only based on information available in the VPLMN or VPLMN decision is FFS)… Each policy is associated to an indication of whether it is a VPLMN policy or a HPLMN policy. A Version number of the policy is also provided to the UE (a version number can apply to a VPLMN policies and one for HPLMN policy). When the UE is powered off it should be able to store the policies for the last N visited PLMNs with N based on UE implementation, if any serving VPLMN policy applies. The UE shall store the HPLMN policies in permanent memory when received and use these unless an overriding VPLMN policy is received. When the UE registers, it indicates to the network it supports this feature, the Version identifier of any VPLMN policies it stores, and the version identifier of the HPLMN policies. Based on information the AMF receives from the UDM and based on local policy and based on checking whether the versions of the policies are up to date, the AMF decides whether and with which policies to update the UE. ) Regarding claim 14, 3GPP teaches a network device, comprising: a processor and a memory configured to store one or more programs, which when executed by the processor, causes the network device to: receive first information from a uscr equipment (UE), wherein the first information indicates whether the UE supports a first capability, the first capability comprising: receiving a UE policy rule corresponding to a visited public land mobile network (VPLMN). (3GPP 6.x.2 ….This solution requires the UE to support the handling of UE behaviour control policies received from the network. The UE can receive policies from both the VPLMN and the HPLMN. The policies are subject to HPLMN control, or, only if allowed by the HPLMN, to VPLMN control. Whether there are VPLMN-only policies or V-PLMN driven policies that require no HPLMN authorization can be studied (e.g. whether some policies can condition the UE behaviour only based on information available in the VPLMN or VPLMN decision is FFS)… Each policy is associated to an indication of whether it is a VPLMN policy or a HPLMN policy. A Version number of the policy is also provided to the UE (a version number can apply to a VPLMN policies and one for HPLMN policy). When the UE is powered off it should be able to store the policies for the last N visited PLMNs with N based on UE implementation, if any serving VPLMN policy applies. The UE shall store the HPLMN policies in permanent memory when received and use these unless an overriding VPLMN policy is received. When the UE registers, it indicates to the network it supports this feature, the Version identifier of any VPLMN policies it stores, and the version identifier of the HPLMN policies. Based on information the AMF receives from the UDM and based on local policy and based on checking whether the versions of the policies are up to date, the AMF decides whether and with which policies to update the UE. ) Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103 6. 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) A patent may not be obtained through the invention is not identically disclosed or described as set forth in section 102 of this title, if the differences between the subject matter sought to be patented and the prior art are such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains. Patentability shall not be negatived by the manner in which the invention was made. The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied 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. 7. Claims 2-7, 9-13, 15-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. §103 as being unpatentable over NPL-3GPP TSG-WG SA2 Meeting #151E e-meeting S2-2204406 in view of JICHEOL (KR20210055417A) referred to as KR, Regarding claim 2, 3GPP taught the method according to claim 1, as described above. 3GPP alone does not explicitly disclose these limitations however combined with KR further teaches comprising: receiving a first indication from the network device in a case that the first information indicates that the UE supports the first capability, wherein the first indication indicates a corresponding relationship between one or more PLMN identifiers (PLMN IDs) and one or more UE policy rules. (see KR paragraphs [0050], [0051] explains….In one embodiment, a UE policy container may contain multiple policy sections. Additionally, multiple policy sections are assigned 8 policy section identifier (PSI) and PLMN ID to distinguish each policy section…. 3GPP 6.x.3.3 ….This solution requires the UE to support the handling of UE behaviour control policies received from the network. The UE can receive policies from both the VPLMN and the HPLMN. The policies are subject to HPLMN control, or, only if allowed by the HPLMN, to VPLMN control. Whether there are VPLMN-only policies or V-PLMN driven policies that require no HPLMN authorization can be studied (e.g. whether some policies can condition the UE behaviour only based on information available in the VPLMN or VPLMN decision is FFS)…) It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling data of the claimed invention to combine Yang with JICHEOL’s method for transmitting and performing user equipment policy using subscription information. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification before the effective filling data of the claimed invention to further improve network communication such as improve scalability in terms of functional/implementation complexity and signaling load of the core equipment responsible for the control plane. (see paragraph [0010]) Regarding claim 3, 3GPP taught the method according to claim 1, as described above. 3GPP alone does not explicitly disclose these limitations however combined with KR further teaches wherein the UE policy rule is a UE route selection policy (URSP) rule. (see KR paragraphs [0031] ,[0033], [0036], [0069] explains …. according to one embodiment, a UE Route Selection Policy Rule (URSP rule) may include information … 3GPP 6.x.3.2, 6.x3.2-1, 6.x.3.2-3 …) It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling data of the claimed invention to combine Yang with JICHEOL’s method for transmitting and performing user equipment policy using subscription information. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification before the effective filling data of the claimed invention to further improve network communication such as improve scalability in terms of functional/implementation complexity and signaling load of the core equipment responsible for the control plane. (see paragraph [0010]) Regarding claim 4, 3GPP taught the method according to claim 1, as described above. 3GPP alone does not explicitly disclose these limitations however combined with KR further teaches wherein the network device is a policy control function (PCF), and the first information is transmitted by the UE to the PCF via an access and mobility management function (AMF). (see KR paragraphs [0069] explains …. AMF receives a terminal policy container, and if PCF PCF has subscribed to a notification service for receiving a terminal policy container from AMF, AMF can transmit the result received from the terminal to PCF… 3GPP 6.x.3.2, 6.x3.2-1, 6.x.3.2-3 …) It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling data of the claimed invention to combine Yang with JICHEOL’s method for transmitting and performing user equipment policy using subscription information. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification before the effective filling data of the claimed invention to further improve network communication such as improve scalability in terms of functional/implementation complexity and signaling load of the core equipment responsible for the control plane. (see paragraph [0010]) Regarding claim 5, 3GPP taught the method according to claim 1, as described above. 3GPP alone does not explicitly disclose these limitations however combined with KR further teaches wherein the first information indicates whether the UE supports the first capability by a value of a certain bit in the first information. (KR paragraph [0103] explains…. the AMF may determine whether to create a terminal policy connection for terminal policy transfer between the AMF and the PCF by considering the terminal policy container received from the terminal, an indicator indicating whether ANDSP is supported, the PEI of the terminal, the operating system identifier transmitted by the terminal…3GPP 6.x.2 ….This solution requires the UE to support the handling of UE behaviour control policies received from the network. The UE can receive policies from both the VPLMN and the HPLMN. The policies are subject to HPLMN control, or, only if allowed by the HPLMN, to VPLMN control. Whether there are VPLMN-only policies or V-PLMN driven policies that require no HPLMN authorization can be studied (e.g. whether some policies can condition the UE behaviour only based on information available in the VPLMN or VPLMN decision is FFS)… Each policy is associated to an indication of whether it is a VPLMN policy or a HPLMN policy. A Version number of the policy is also provided to the UE (a version number can apply to a VPLMN policies and one for HPLMN policy). When the UE is powered off it should be able to store the policies for the last N visited PLMNs with N based on UE implementation, if any serving VPLMN policy applies. The UE shall store the HPLMN policies in permanent memory when received and use these unless an overriding VPLMN policy is received. When the UE registers, it indicates to the network it supports this feature, the Version identifier of any VPLMN policies it stores, and the version identifier of the HPLMN policies. Based on information the AMF receives from the UDM and based on local policy and based on checking whether the versions of the policies are up to date, the AMF decides whether and with which policies to update the UE. KR paragraph [0103] explains …. the AMF may determine whether to create a terminal policy connection for terminal policy transfer between the AMF and the PCF by considering the terminal policy container received from the terminal, an indicator indicating whether ANDSP is supported, the PEI of the terminal, the operating system identifier transmitted by the terminal…. ) It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling data of the claimed invention to combine Yang with JICHEOL’s method for transmitting and performing user equipment policy using subscription information. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification before the effective filling data of the claimed invention to further improve network communication such as improve scalability in terms of functional/implementation complexity and signaling load of the core equipment responsible for the control plane. (see paragraph [0010]) Regarding claim 6, 3GPP taught the method according to claim 1, as described above. 3GPP alone does not explicitly disclose these limitations however combined with KR further teaches wherein a mobile country code (MCC) and a mobile network code (MNC) of the VPLMN are not completely same as the MCC and MNC contained in an international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI) of the UE. (see KR paragraphs [0069], [0074] and [0076]-[0077]… …. 3GPP 6.x.3.2, 6.x3.2-1, 6.x.3.2-3 …) It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling data of the claimed invention to combine Yang with JICHEOL’s method for transmitting and performing user equipment policy using subscription information. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification before the effective filling data of the claimed invention to further improve network communication such as improve scalability in terms of functional/implementation complexity and signaling load of the core equipment responsible for the control plane. (see paragraph [0010]) Regarding claim 7, 3GPP taught the method according to claim 5, as described above. 3GPP alone does not explicitly disclose these limitations however combined with KR further teaches wherein the first information is carried in a UE policy rule container. (KR paragraph [0103] explains…. the AMF may determine whether to create a terminal policy connection for terminal policy transfer between the AMF and the PCF by considering the terminal policy container received from the terminal, an indicator indicating whether ANDSP is supported, the PEI of the terminal, the operating system identifier transmitted by the terminal…3GPP 6.x.2 ….This solution requires the UE to support the handling of UE behaviour control policies received from the network. The UE can receive policies from both the VPLMN and the HPLMN. The policies are subject to HPLMN control, or, only if allowed by the HPLMN, to VPLMN control. Whether there are VPLMN-only policies or V-PLMN driven policies that require no HPLMN authorization can be studied (e.g. whether some policies can condition the UE behaviour only based on information available in the VPLMN or VPLMN decision is FFS)… Each policy is associated to an indication of whether it is a VPLMN policy or a HPLMN policy. A Version number of the policy is also provided to the UE (a version number can apply to a VPLMN policies and one for HPLMN policy). When the UE is powered off it should be able to store the policies for the last N visited PLMNs with N based on UE implementation, if any serving VPLMN policy applies. The UE shall store the HPLMN policies in permanent memory when received and use these unless an overriding VPLMN policy is received. When the UE registers, it indicates to the network it supports this feature, the Version identifier of any VPLMN policies it stores, and the version identifier of the HPLMN policies. Based on information the AMF receives from the UDM and based on local policy and based on checking whether the versions of the policies are up to date, the AMF decides whether and with which policies to update the UE. KR paragraph [0103] explains …. the AMF may determine whether to create a terminal policy connection for terminal policy transfer between the AMF and the PCF by considering the terminal policy container received from the terminal, an indicator indicating whether ANDSP is supported, the PEI of the terminal, the operating system identifier transmitted by the terminal…. ) Regarding claim 9, 3GPP taught the user equipment according to claim 8, as described above. 3GPP alone does not explicitly disclose these limitations however combined with KR further teaches wherein the or more programs, which when executed by the processor, further causes the UE to: receive a first indication from the network device in a case that the first information indicates that the UE supports the first capability, wherein the first indication indicates a corresponding relationship between one or more PLMN identifiers (PLMN IDs) and one or more UE policy rules. (see KR paragraphs [0050], [0051] explains….In one embodiment, a UE policy container may contain multiple policy sections. Additionally, multiple policy sections are assigned 8 policy section identifier (PSI) and PLMN ID to distinguish each policy section…. 3GPP 6.x.3.3 ….This solution requires the UE to support the handling of UE behaviour control policies received from the network. The UE can receive policies from both the VPLMN and the HPLMN. The policies are subject to HPLMN control, or, only if allowed by the HPLMN, to VPLMN control. Whether there are VPLMN-only policies or V-PLMN driven policies that require no HPLMN authorization can be studied (e.g. whether some policies can condition the UE behaviour only based on information available in the VPLMN or VPLMN decision is FFS)…) It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling data of the claimed invention to combine Yang with JICHEOL’s method for transmitting and performing user equipment policy using subscription information. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification before the effective filling data of the claimed invention to further improve network communication such as improve scalability in terms of functional/implementation complexity and signaling load of the core equipment responsible for the control plane. (see paragraph [0010]) Regarding claim 10, 3GPP taught the user equipment according to claim 8, as described above. 3GPP alone does not explicitly disclose these limitations however combined with KR further teaches wherein the UE policy rule is a UE route selection policy (URSP) rule. . (see KR paragraphs [0069] …3GPP 6.x.3.2, 6.x3.2-1, 6.x.3.2-3 …) It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling data of the claimed invention to combine Yang with JICHEOL’s method for transmitting and performing user equipment policy using subscription information. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification before the effective filling data of the claimed invention to further improve network communication such as improve scalability in terms of functional/implementation complexity and signaling load of the core equipment responsible for the control plane. (see paragraph [0010]) Regarding claim 11. The user equipment according to claim 8, as described above. 3GPP alone does not explicitly disclose these limitations however combined with KR further teaches wherein the network device is a policy control function (PCF), and the first information is transmitted by the UE to the PCF via an access and mobility management function (AMF). (see KR paragraphs [0069] …. 3GPP 6.x.3.2, 6.x3.2-1, 6.x.3.2-3 …) It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling data of the claimed invention to combine Yang with JICHEOL’s method for transmitting and performing user equipment policy using subscription information. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification before the effective filling data of the claimed invention to further improve network communication such as improve scalability in terms of functional/implementation complexity and signaling load of the core equipment responsible for the control plane. (see paragraph [0010]) Regarding claim 12, 3GPP taught the user equipment according to claim 8, as described above. 3GPP alone does not explicitly disclose these limitations however combined with KR further teaches wherein the first information indicates whether the UE supports the first capability by a value of a certain bit in the first information. (KR paragraph [0103] explains…. the AMF may determine whether to create a terminal policy connection for terminal policy transfer between the AMF and the PCF by considering the terminal policy container received from the terminal, an indicator indicating whether ANDSP is supported, the PEI of the terminal, the operating system identifier transmitted by the terminal…3GPP 6.x.2 ….This solution requires the UE to support the handling of UE behaviour control policies received from the network. The UE can receive policies from both the VPLMN and the HPLMN. The policies are subject to HPLMN control, or, only if allowed by the HPLMN, to VPLMN control. Whether there are VPLMN-only policies or V-PLMN driven policies that require no HPLMN authorization can be studied (e.g. whether some policies can condition the UE behaviour only based on information available in the VPLMN or VPLMN decision is FFS)… Each policy is associated to an indication of whether it is a VPLMN policy or a HPLMN policy. A Version number of the policy is also provided to the UE (a version number can apply to a VPLMN policies and one for HPLMN policy). When the UE is powered off it should be able to store the policies for the last N visited PLMNs with N based on UE implementation, if any serving VPLMN policy applies. The UE shall store the HPLMN policies in permanent memory when received and use these unless an overriding VPLMN policy is received. When the UE registers, it indicates to the network it supports this feature, the Version identifier of any VPLMN policies it stores, and the version identifier of the HPLMN policies. Based on information the AMF receives from the UDM and based on local policy and based on checking whether the versions of the policies are up to date, the AMF decides whether and with which policies to update the UE. KR paragraph [0103] explains …. the AMF may determine whether to create a terminal policy connection for terminal policy transfer between the AMF and the PCF by considering the terminal policy container received from the terminal, an indicator indicating whether ANDSP is supported, the PEI of the terminal, the operating system identifier transmitted by the terminal…. ) It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling data of the claimed invention to combine Yang with JICHEOL’s method for transmitting and performing user equipment policy using subscription information. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification before the effective filling data of the claimed invention to further improve network communication such as improve scalability in terms of functional/implementation complexity and signaling load of the core equipment responsible for the control plane. (see paragraph [0010]) Regarding claim 13, 3GPP taught the user equipment according to claim 12, as described above. 3GPP alone does not explicitly disclose these limitations however combined with KR further teaches wherein the first information is carried in a UE policy rule container. (KR paragraph [0103] explains…. the AMF may determine whether to create a terminal policy connection for terminal policy transfer between the AMF and the PCF by considering the terminal policy container received from the terminal, an indicator indicating whether ANDSP is supported, the PEI of the terminal, the operating system identifier transmitted by the terminal…3GPP 6.x.2 ….This solution requires the UE to support the handling of UE behaviour control policies received from the network. The UE can receive policies from both the VPLMN and the HPLMN. The policies are subject to HPLMN control, or, only if allowed by the HPLMN, to VPLMN control. Whether there are VPLMN-only policies or V-PLMN driven policies that require no HPLMN authorization can be studied (e.g. whether some policies can condition the UE behaviour only based on information available in the VPLMN or VPLMN decision is FFS)… Each policy is associated to an indication of whether it is a VPLMN policy or a HPLMN policy. A Version number of the policy is also provided to the UE (a version number can apply to a VPLMN policies and one for HPLMN policy). When the UE is powered off it should be able to store the policies for the last N visited PLMNs with N based on UE implementation, if any serving VPLMN policy applies. The UE shall store the HPLMN policies in permanent memory when received and use these unless an overriding VPLMN policy is received. When the UE registers, it indicates to the network it supports this feature, the Version identifier of any VPLMN policies it stores, and the version identifier of the HPLMN policies. Based on information the AMF receives from the UDM and based on local policy and based on checking whether the versions of the policies are up to date, the AMF decides whether and with which policies to update the UE. KR paragraph [0103] explains …. the AMF may determine whether to create a terminal policy connection for terminal policy transfer between the AMF and the PCF by considering the terminal policy container received from the terminal, an indicator indicating whether ANDSP is supported, the PEI of the terminal, the operating system identifier transmitted by the terminal…. ) Regarding claim 15, 3GPP taught the network device according to claim 14, as described above. 3GPP alone does not explicitly disclose these limitations however combined with KR further teaches wherein the one or more programs, which when executed by the processor, further causes the network device to: transmit a first indication to the UE in a case that the first information indicates that the UE supports the first capability, wherein the first indication indicates a corresponding relationship between one or more PLMN identifiers (PLMN IDs) and one or more UE policy rules. (see KR paragraphs [0050], [0051] explains….In one embodiment, a UE policy container may contain multiple policy sections. Additionally, multiple policy sections are assigned 8 policy section identifier (PSI) and PLMN ID to distinguish each policy section…. 3GPP 6.x.3.3 ….This solution requires the UE to support the handling of UE behaviour control policies received from the network. The UE can receive policies from both the VPLMN and the HPLMN. The policies are subject to HPLMN control, or, only if allowed by the HPLMN, to VPLMN control. Whether there are VPLMN-only policies or V-PLMN driven policies that require no HPLMN authorization can be studied (e.g. whether some policies can condition the UE behaviour only based on information available in the VPLMN or VPLMN decision is FFS)…) It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling data of the claimed invention to combine Yang with JICHEOL’s method for transmitting and performing user equipment policy using subscription information. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification before the effective filling data of the claimed invention to further improve network communication such as improve scalability in terms of functional/implementation complexity and signaling load of the core equipment responsible for the control plane. (see paragraph [0010]) Regarding claim 16, 3GPP taught the network device according to claim 14, as described above. 3GPP alone does not explicitly disclose these limitations however combined with KR further teaches wherein the UE policy rule is a UE route selection policy (URSP) rule. (see KR paragraphs [0069] …. 3GPP 6.x.3.2, 6.x3.2-1, 6.x.3.2-3 …) It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling data of the claimed invention to combine Yang with JICHEOL’s method for transmitting and performing user equipment policy using subscription information. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification before the effective filling data of the claimed invention to further improve network communication such as improve scalability in terms of functional/implementation complexity and signaling load of the core equipment responsible for the control plane. (see paragraph [0010]) Regarding claim 17, 3GPP taught the network device according to claim 14, as described above. 3GPP alone does not explicitly disclose these limitations however combined with KR further teaches wherein the network device is a policy control function (PCF), and the first information is transmitted by the UE to the PCF via an access and mobility management function (AMF). (see KR paragraphs [0069] explains …. 3GPP 6.x.3.2, 6.x3.2-1, 6.x.3.2-3 …) It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling data of the claimed invention to combine Yang with JICHEOL’s method for transmitting and performing user equipment policy using subscription information. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification before the effective filling data of the claimed invention to further improve network communication such as improve scalability in terms of functional/implementation complexity and signaling load of the core equipment responsible for the control plane. (see paragraph [0010]) Regarding claim 18, 3GPP taught the network device according to claim 14, as described above. 3GPP alone does not explicitly disclose these limitations however combined with KR further teaches wherein the first information indicates whether the UE supports the first capability by a value of a certain bit in the first information. (KR paragraph [0103] explains…. the AMF may determine whether to create a terminal policy connection for terminal policy transfer between the AMF and the PCF by considering the terminal policy container received from the terminal, an indicator indicating whether ANDSP is supported, the PEI of the terminal, the operating system identifier transmitted by the terminal…3GPP 6.x.2 ….This solution requires the UE to support the handling of UE behaviour control policies received from the network. The UE can receive policies from both the VPLMN and the HPLMN. The policies are subject to HPLMN control, or, only if allowed by the HPLMN, to VPLMN control. Whether there are VPLMN-only policies or V-PLMN driven policies that require no HPLMN authorization can be studied (e.g. whether some policies can condition the UE behaviour only based on information available in the VPLMN or VPLMN decision is FFS)… Each policy is associated to an indication of whether it is a VPLMN policy or a HPLMN policy. A Version number of the policy is also provided to the UE (a version number can apply to a VPLMN policies and one for HPLMN policy). When the UE is powered off it should be able to store the policies for the last N visited PLMNs with N based on UE implementation, if any serving VPLMN policy applies. The UE shall store the HPLMN policies in permanent memory when received and use these unless an overriding VPLMN policy is received. When the UE registers, it indicates to the network it supports this feature, the Version identifier of any VPLMN policies it stores, and the version identifier of the HPLMN policies. Based on information the AMF receives from the UDM and based on local policy and based on checking whether the versions of the policies are up to date, the AMF decides whether and with which policies to update the UE. KR paragraph [0103] explains …. the AMF may determine whether to create a terminal policy connection for terminal policy transfer between the AMF and the PCF by considering the terminal policy container received from the terminal, an indicator indicating whether ANDSP is supported, the PEI of the terminal, the operating system identifier transmitted by the terminal…. ) It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling data of the claimed invention to combine Yang with JICHEOL’s method for transmitting and performing user equipment policy using subscription information. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification before the effective filling data of the claimed invention to further improve network communication such as improve scalability in terms of functional/implementation complexity and signaling load of the core equipment responsible for the control plane. (see paragraph [0010]) Regarding claim 19, 3GPP taught the network device according to claim 14, as described above. 3GPP alone does not explicitly disclose these limitations however combined with KR further teaches wherein a mobile country code (MCC) and a mobile network code (MNC) of the VPLMN are not completely same as the MCC and MNC contained in an international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI) of the UE. (see KR paragraphs [0069], [0074] and [0076]-[0077]… …. 3GPP 6.x.3.2, 6.x3.2-1, 6.x.3.2-3 …) It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling data of the claimed invention to combine Yang with JICHEOL’s method for transmitting and performing user equipment policy using subscription information. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification before the effective filling data of the claimed invention to further improve network communication such as improve scalability in terms of functional/implementation complexity and signaling load of the core equipment responsible for the control plane. (see paragraph [0010]) Regarding claim 20, 3GPP taught the network device according to claim 19, as described above. 3GPP alone does not explicitly disclose these limitations however combined with KR further teaches wherein the first information is carried in a UE policy rule container. (KR paragraph [0103] explains…. the AMF may determine whether to create a terminal policy connection for terminal policy transfer between the AMF and the PCF by considering the terminal policy container received from the terminal, an indicator indicating whether ANDSP is supported, the PEI of the terminal, the operating system identifier transmitted by the terminal…3GPP 6.x.2 ….This solution requires the UE to support the handling of UE behaviour control policies received from the network. The UE can receive policies from both the VPLMN and the HPLMN. The policies are subject to HPLMN control, or, only if allowed by the HPLMN, to VPLMN control. Whether there are VPLMN-only policies or V-PLMN driven policies that require no HPLMN authorization can be studied (e.g. whether some policies can condition the UE behaviour only based on information available in the VPLMN or VPLMN decision is FFS)… Each policy is associated to an indication of whether it is a VPLMN policy or a HPLMN policy. A Version number of the policy is also provided to the UE (a version number can apply to a VPLMN policies and one for HPLMN policy). When the UE is powered off it should be able to store the policies for the last N visited PLMNs with N based on UE implementation, if any serving VPLMN policy applies. The UE shall store the HPLMN policies in permanent memory when received and use these unless an overriding VPLMN policy is received. When the UE registers, it indicates to the network it supports this feature, the Version identifier of any VPLMN policies it stores, and the version identifier of the HPLMN policies. Based on information the AMF receives from the UDM and based on local policy and based on checking whether the versions of the policies are up to date, the AMF decides whether and with which policies to update the UE. KR paragraph [0103] explains …. the AMF may determine whether to create a terminal policy connection for terminal policy transfer between the AMF and the PCF by considering the terminal policy container received from the terminal, an indicator indicating whether ANDSP is supported, the PEI of the terminal, the operating system identifier transmitted by the terminal…. ) Conclusion Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Gerald Smarth whose telephone number is (571) 270-1923. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Thursday 6am-4:30pm ET. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Joseph Avellino can be reached on 571-272-3905. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000. /GERALD A SMARTH/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2478
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Prosecution Timeline

Oct 29, 2024
Application Filed
Aug 11, 2026
Non-Final Rejection mailed — §102, §103 (current)

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Prosecution Projections

1-2
Expected OA Rounds
83%
Grant Probability
96%
With Interview (+12.6%)
2y 11m (~1y 0m remaining)
Median Time to Grant
Low
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