DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
1. The instant application No. 18990743 has claims 1-14, 16-17 and 20-23 are pending.
2 The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Interpretation
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(f):
(f) Element in Claim for a Combination. – An element in a claim for a combination may be expressed as a means or step for performing a specified function without the recital of structure, material, or acts in support thereof, and such claim shall be construed to cover the corresponding structure, material, or acts described in the specification and equivalents thereof.
The following is a quotation of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph:
An element in a claim for a combination may be expressed as a means or step for performing a specified function without the recital of structure, material, or acts in support thereof, and such claim shall be construed to cover the corresponding structure, material, or acts described in the specification and equivalents thereof.
This application includes one or more claim limitations that do not use the word “means,” but are nonetheless being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, because the claim limitation(s) uses a generic placeholder that is coupled with functional language without reciting sufficient structure to perform the recited function and the generic placeholder is not preceded by a structural modifier. Such claim limitation(s) is/are: “a communication unit, configured to perform the…”in claims 21-23.
Because this/these claim limitation(s) is/are being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, it/they is/are being interpreted to cover the corresponding structure described in the specification as performing the claimed function, and equivalents thereof.
If applicant does not intend to have this/these limitation(s) interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, applicant may: (1) amend the claim limitation(s) to avoid it/them being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph (e.g., by reciting sufficient structure to perform the claimed function); or (2) present a sufficient showing that the claim limitation(s) recite(s) sufficient structure to perform the claimed function so as to avoid it/them being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph.
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) 10-13 and 22 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Moon (Pub. No. US 2025/0274883 A1; hereinafter Moon).
Regarding claim 10, Moon discloses a wireless communication method for use in a network function, the method comprising: transmitting, to a wireless device, time synchronization subscription information associated with a time synchronization service for a wireless terminal. (20250274883 See 0011, access and mobility management function (AMF) device in a wireless communication system includes acquiring subscription data related to a time synchronization service for a terminal from a unified data management (UDM) device in order to provide a time synchronization service)
Regarding claim 11, Moon discloses the time synchronization subscription information comprises at least one of: a time synchronization indication associated with a time synchronization subscription of the wireless terminal, (20250274883 See 0011, access and mobility management function (AMF) device in a wireless communication system includes acquiring subscription data related to a time synchronization service for a terminal from a unified data management (UDM) device in order to provide a time synchronization service) or a time synchronization service area associated with providing a time synchronization service to the wireless terminal.
Regarding clam 12, Moon discloses the network function comprises at least one of a unified data management or a policy control function. ( 20250274883 See 0011, access and mobility management function (AMF) device in a wireless communication system includes acquiring subscription data related to a time synchronization service for a terminal from a unified data management (UDM) device in order to provide a time synchronization service)
Regarding claim 13, Moon discloses the wireless device is the wireless terminal or an access and mobility management function. ( 20250274883 See 0011, access and mobility management function (AMF) device in a wireless communication system includes acquiring subscription data related to a time synchronization service for a terminal from a unified data management (UDM) device in order to provide a time synchronization service)
Regarding claim 22, Moon disclose a network node, comprising: a communication unit, (See 0112, The transceiver 610 may transmit and receive signals to and from another network entity) configured to perform the transmitting, to a wireless device, time synchronization subscription information associated with a time synchronization service for a wireless terminal. (20250274883 See 0011, access and mobility management function (AMF) device in a wireless communication system includes acquiring subscription data related to a time synchronization service for a terminal from a unified data management (UDM) device in order to provide a time synchronization service)
Claim(s) 14, 16 and 23 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Zhang et al. (Pub. No. US 2024/0365265 A1; hereinafter Zhang).
Regarding claim 14, Zhang discloses a wireless communication method for use in a wireless terminal, the method comprising: receiving, from a wireless device, time synchronization subscription information associated with a time synchronization service for the wireless terminal. (20240365265-See 0135, he TNF notifies the base station 1 to provide the time service for the UE, so that the base station 1 sends clock information to the UE, and then the UE implements clock synchronization based on the clock information; See 0218, a clock network element that provides a time service for the UE, and then the clock network element provides the time service for the UE based on the time service precision to which the UE subscribes.)
Regarding claim 16, Zhang discloses the wireless device comprises an access and mobility management function. (See 0138, he base station 1 sends the context of the UE to the AMF, and the AMF forwards the context of the UE to the base station 2; See 0137, the context includes the identification information of the UE and the time service precision required by the UE.)
Regarding claim 23, Zhang discloses a wireless terminal, comprising: a communication unit, (inherent the UE uses a transceiver to transmit and receive signals) configured to perform the receiving, from a wireless device, time synchronization subscription information associated with a time synchronization service for the wireless terminal. (20240365265-See 0135, he TNF notifies the base station 1 to provide the time service for the UE, so that the base station 1 sends clock information to the UE, and then the UE implements clock synchronization based on the clock information; See 0218, a clock network element that provides a time service for the UE, and then the clock network element provides the time service for the UE based on the time service precision to which the UE subscribes.)
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, 2, 4, 9 and 20-21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Moon (Pub. No. US 2025/0274883 A1; hereinafter Moon) in view of Gummadi et al. (Pub. No. US 2022/0103976 A1; hereinafter Gumm).
Regarding claim 1, Moon fails to disclose a wireless communication method for use in an access and mobility management function, the method comprising: receiving, from a network function, time synchronization subscription information associated with a time synchronization service for a wireless terminal, (20250274883-See 0011, an access and mobility management function (AMF) device in a wireless communication system includes acquiring subscription data related to a time synchronization service for a terminal from a unified data management (UDM) device in order to provide a time synchronization service)
However, Moon fails to disclose transmitting, to a wireless network node, a location subscription request for the wireless terminal.
Gumm discloses transmitting, to a wireless network node, a location subscription request for the wireless terminal. (20220103976-See 0067, The AMF 154 may then forward the location request to either gNB 110-1 or LMF 152 which may obtain one or more location estimates for UE 102 (e.g. according to the request from external client 130); See 0179, data transmitted in the TSN may include the PTP message for timing and a service-related data packet.)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify time synchronization service for terminal to include location subscription of the UE. The motivation to combine is facilitation may include improving signal acquisition and measurement accuracy by UE 102 and, in some cases, enabling UE 102 to compute its estimated location based on the location measurements (See 0060).
Regarding claim 2, Moon discloses the time synchronization subscription information comprises at least one of: a time synchronization indication associated with a time synchronization subscription of the wireless terminal, (20250274883-See 0011, an access and mobility management function (AMF) device in a wireless communication system includes acquiring subscription data related to a time synchronization service for a terminal from a unified data management (UDM) device in order to provide a time synchronization service) or a time synchronization service area associated with providing the time synchronization service to the wireless terminal.
Regarding claim 4, Moon discloses transmitting, to the wireless network node, a request associated with providing the time synchronization service to the wireless terminal. (See 0066, the AMF may transmit an AS sync request to the TSCTSF using the information received from the UE in step 2. For example, the AMF may transmit an AS sync request including an UE ID and a sync service description to the TSCTSF.)
However, Moon fails to disclose receiving, from the wireless network node, a notification in response to the location subscription request
Gumm discloses receiving, from the wireless network node, a notification in response to the location subscription request (See 0067, The AMF 154 may then forward the location request to either gNB 110-1 or LMF 152 which may obtain one or more location estimates for UE 102 (e.g. according to the request from external client 130) and may return the location estimate(s) to AMF 154, which may return the location estimate(s) to external client 130 via GMLC 1)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify time synchronization service for terminal to include location subscription of the UE. The motivation to combine is facilitation may include improving signal acquisition and measurement accuracy by UE 102 and, in some cases, enabling UE 102 to compute its estimated location based on the location measurements (See 0060).
Regarding claim 9, Moon discloses the network function comprises at least one of a unified data management or a policy control function. (20250274883-See 0011, an access and mobility management function (AMF) device in a wireless communication system includes acquiring subscription data related to a time synchronization service for a terminal from a unified data management (UDM) device in order to provide a time synchronization service)
Regarding claim 20, Moon discloses a non-transitory computer readable medium having code stored thereupon, wherein the code, when executed by a processor, causes the processor (See 0116, One or more programs stored in the computer readable storage medium are configured for execution by one or more processors in an electronic device.) receiving, from a network function, time synchronization subscription information associated with a time synchronization service for a wireless terminal, (20250274883-See 0011, an access and mobility management function (AMF) device in a wireless communication system includes acquiring subscription data related to a time synchronization service for a terminal from a unified data management (UDM) device in order to provide a time synchronization service)
However, Moon fails to disclose transmitting, to a wireless network node, a location subscription request for the wireless terminal.
Gumm discloses transmitting, to a wireless network node, a location subscription request for the wireless terminal. (20220103976-See 0067, The AMF 154 may then forward the location request to either gNB 110-1 or LMF 152 which may obtain one or more location estimates for UE 102 (e.g. according to the request from external client 130); See 0179, data transmitted in the TSN may include the PTP message for timing and a service-related data packet.)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify time synchronization service for terminal to include location subscription of the UE. The motivation to combine is facilitation may include improving signal acquisition and measurement accuracy by UE 102 and, in some cases, enabling UE 102 to compute its estimated location based on the location measurements (See 0060).
Regarding claim 21, Moon discloses an access and mobility management node, comprising: a communication unit, (See 0013, an access and mobility management function (AMF) device in a wireless communication system includes a transceiver) configured to perform the receiving, from a network function, time synchronization subscription information associated with a time synchronization service for a wireless terminal, (20250274883-See 0011, an access and mobility management function (AMF) device in a wireless communication system includes acquiring subscription data related to a time synchronization service for a terminal from a unified data management (UDM) device in order to provide a time synchronization service)
However, Moon fails to disclose transmitting, to a wireless network node, a location subscription request for the wireless terminal.
Gumm discloses transmitting, to a wireless network node, a location subscription request for the wireless terminal. (20220103976-See 0067, The AMF 154 may then forward the location request to either gNB 110-1 or LMF 152 which may obtain one or more location estimates for UE 102 (e.g. according to the request from external client 130); See 0179, data transmitted in the TSN may include the PTP message for timing and a service-related data packet.)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify time synchronization service for terminal to include location subscription of the UE. The motivation to combine is facilitation may include improving signal acquisition and measurement accuracy by UE 102 and, in some cases, enabling UE 102 to compute its estimated location based on the location measurements (See 0060).
Claim(s) 3 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Moon in view of Gumm and, further in view of Jiang et al. (WO 2019/052434 A1; hereinafter Jiang).
Regarding claim 3, Moon in view of Gumm fails to disclose the location subscription request is for subscribing to a notification associated with the wireless terminal being in or out of a time synchronization area or a notification associated with a location of the wireless terminal.
Jiang discloses the location subscription request is for subscribing to a notification associated with the wireless terminal being in or out of a time synchronization area or a notification associated with a location of the wireless terminal. (WO 2019052434 A1- page 8, an access and mobility management function entity sends a location subscription request to an access network AN, where the subscription request is used to indicate The AN notifies the access and mobility management function entity if the UE moves in or out of a particular area)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method and system disclosed by Moon in view of Gumm to include determine if the UE moves in or out of a area. The motivation to combine is the AN can report the location of the UE when the UE moves in or out of a specific area, and the location between the different cells in the specific area does not need to report the location, thereby reducing the number of location information reported by the AN (Page 6).
Claim(s) 7-8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Moon in view of Gumm and, further in view of Zhang et al. (Pub. No. US 2024/0365265 A1; hereinafter Zhang)
Regarding claim 7, Moon in view of Gumm fails to disclose transmitting, to the wireless terminal, the time synchronization subscription information.
Zhang discloses transmitting, to the wireless terminal, the time synchronization subscription information. (20240365265-See 0135, The UE sends a time service request message to the base station 1, where the time service request message includes identification information of the UE and the time service precision required by the UE. The base station 1 sends the time service request message to an AMF, and the AMF sends the time service request message to the TNF. If the TNF determines that the base station 1 meets the time service precision required by the UE, the TNF notifies the base station 1 to provide the time service for the UE, so that the base station 1 sends clock information to the UE, and then the UE implements clock synchronization based on the clock information.)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method and system disclosed by Moon in view of Gumm to include synchronization of clocks between UE and core network. The motivation to combine is clock information of a proper time service precision can be provided for the terminal device, thereby helping implement normal clock synchronization of the terminal device (See 0006).
Regarding claim 8, Moon in view of Gumm fails to disclose receiving, from the wireless terminal, a request associated with the time synchronization subscription information.
Zhang discloses receiving, from the wireless terminal, a request associated with the time synchronization subscription information. (20240365265-See 0135, The UE sends a time service request message to the base station 1, where the time service request message includes identification information of the UE and the time service precision required by the UE. The base station 1 sends the time service request message to an AMF, and the AMF sends the time service request message to the TNF. If the TNF determines that the base station 1 meets the time service precision required by the UE, the TNF notifies the base station 1 to provide the time service for the UE, so that the base station 1 sends clock information to the UE, and then the UE implements clock synchronization based on the clock information.)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method and system disclosed by Moon in view of Gumm to include synchronization of clocks between UE and core network. The motivation to combine is clock information of a proper time service precision can be provided for the terminal device, thereby helping implement normal clock synchronization of the terminal device (See 0006).
Claim(s) 17 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang in view of Moon (Pub. No. US 2025/0274883 A1; hereinafter Moon).
Regarding claim 17, Zhang fails to disclose transmitting, to the wireless device, a request associated with the time synchronization subscription information.
Moon disclose transmitting, to the wireless device, a request associated with the time synchronization subscription information. (See 0066, the AMF may transmit an AS sync request to the TSCTSF using the information received from the UE in step 2. For example, the AMF may transmit an AS sync request including an UE ID and a sync service description to the TSCTSF.)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method and system disclosed by Zhang to include to transmit a request for time sync for a service to the TSCTSF. The motivation to combine is reduces unnecessary event exposure updates by synchronizing only when needed.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5-6 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Talebi Fard et al. (Pub. No. US 2020/0267785 A1)-See 0368, n access and mobility management function (AMF) may receive from a wireless device, a registration request message for a network that supports time sensitive network (TSN). The AMF may determine that the wireless device may support TSN bridge capability. The AMF may send to a policy control function (PCF), a policy association request message comprising a TSN bridge capability support parameter.
Qu et al. (Pub. No. US 2023/0092723 A1)-See 0252, After receiving the time synchronization information from the UE, the RAN device may send the time synchronization information to the AMF network element. After the AMF network element receives the time synchronization information from the RAN device, the AMF network element may store the time synchronization information, so that the AMF network element may subsequently determine an appropriate time precision budget between the UPF network element and the RAN device based on the time synchronization information, to reserve a sufficient budget for an air interface.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to TEJIS DAYA whose telephone number is (571)270-7817. The examiner can normally be reached 6:30-4:30.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Nicholas Jensen can be reached at 571-270-5443. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/Tejis Daya/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2472
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