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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The references listed in the Information Disclosure Statement(s) filed on 11/5/2024 have been considered by the examiner (see attached PTO-1449 form or PTO/SB/08A and 08B forms).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 13-16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter. The claim(s) does/do not fall within at least one of the four categories of patent eligible subject matter because the claimed “computer-readable medium encoded with a computer program” is directed to non-statutory subject matter, since the claims include non-statutory transitory mediums such as electromagnetic signals or carrier waves encoded with the computer program.
It is suggested to applicant to amend claims 13-16 to specify “a non-transitory computer-readable medium” to specifically exclude the non-statutory transitory mediums.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 17-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 17 is an apparatus claim, but does not recite any structural elements. Rather, claim 17 only recites “a scheduler” that performs functional steps without any corresponding structure to perform the steps. As such, it is unclear and indefinite as to what the claimed structure of apparatus claim 17 should be.
Claims 18-20 are dependent on claim 17, and also do not recite any structure for performing the claimed functions. Claims 18-20 are also rejected.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-12 are allowed.
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance: The claims of the present application are directed to a method of scheduling sessions in an Ultra-wideband (UWB) communications system, the method comprising:
using a scheduling algorithm to produce an order of a plurality of UWB sessions.
The closest prior art of Lim (US 2023/0283319) and Lee at al. (US 2023/0170933) disclose the subject matter described above.
However, the prior art does not further disclose:
using a predictive scheduling algorithm to produce a predicted order of appearance of a plurality of UWB sessions in a UWB session sequence;
storing the predicted order in a buffer; and
performing a plurality of iterations of:
on completion of a preceding UWB session in the UWB session sequence, inspecting the buffer to determine a next UWB session in the UWB session sequence; and
initiating said next UWB session.
These limitations, in combination with the rest of the recited subject matter, distinguish the claims over the prior art, rendering them allowable.
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
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DAVID S HUANG whose telephone number is (571)270-1798. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday, 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m., EST.
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, Hannah Wang can be reached at (571) 272-9018. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/David S Huang/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2631 1/10/2026