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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
2. The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 11/17/2025, 08//22/2025, and 06/23/2025 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Drawings
3. The drawings were received on 06/23/2025. These drawings are considered by examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
4. 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, would be the same under either status.
5. 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.
6. Claims 1, 3-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Dou et al (US 12/052,685), hereinafter “Dou“, in view of Maattanen et al (US 2023/0362864), hereinafter “Maattanen“.
Regarding claim 1, Dou teaches a method for updating a tracking area (col. 1, lines 36-47), comprising:
obtaining, by a terminal device, a geographical location of the terminal device (col. 6, lines 5-25), wherein the terminal device uses a non-terrestrial network communication function (col. 6, lines 5-25);
determining, by the terminal device, a first tracking area where the terminal device is located based on the geographical location (col. 9, lines 41-64); and
Dou does not explicitly teach in response to determining that a tracking area update procedure needs to be executed, sending, by the terminal device, a request message to a network device, wherein the request message indicates the first tracking area.
Maattanen, in the same field of endeavor, teaches in response to determining that a tracking area update procedure needs to be executed, sending, by the terminal device (pars [0016-0018]), a request message to a network device (pars [0016-0018] [0067]), wherein the request message indicates the first tracking area (pars [0016-0018] [0067-0068]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to one of ordinary skill in the art to provide the above teaching of Dou to Maattanen, in order to provide to the wireless communications more particularly to tracking area update procedures for non-terrestrial networks to support the connectivity to massive machine type communication services (as suggested by Maattanen in paragraph [0003]).
Regarding claim 3, the combination of Dou and Maattanen teach the method for updating the tracking area according to claim 1, Dou does not clearly teach comprising: in response to determining that the first tracking area is different from a second tracking area where the terminal device was previously located, determining that the tracking area update procedure needs to be executed, and sending, by the terminal device, a tracking area update request message as the request message to the network device.
Maattanen, in the same field of endeavor, teaches teach comprising: in response to determining that the first tracking area is different from a second tracking area where the terminal device was previously located (pars [0016-0018]), determining that the tracking area update procedure needs to be executed, and sending, by the terminal device (pars [0016-0018]), a tracking area update request message as the request message to the network device (pars [0016-0018] [0067-0068]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to one of ordinary skill in the art to provide the above teaching of Dou to Maattanen, in order to provide to the wireless communications more particularly to tracking area update procedures for non-terrestrial networks to support the connectivity to massive machine type communication services (as suggested by Maattanen in paragraph [0003]).
Regarding claim 4, the combination of Dou and Maattanen teach the method for updating the tracking area according to claim 1, Dou does not clearly teach comprising: receiving, from the network device, a response message corresponding to the request message, wherein the response message indicates that the tracking area update procedure for the terminal device has been completed.
Maattanen, in the same field of endeavor, teaches receiving, from the network device, a response message corresponding to the request message, wherein the response message indicates that the tracking area update procedure for the terminal device has been completed (pars [0016-0018] [0067-0068]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to one of ordinary skill in the art to provide the above teaching of Dou to Maattanen, in order to provide to the wireless communications more particularly to tracking area update procedures for non-terrestrial networks to support the connectivity to massive machine type communication services (as suggested by Maattanen in paragraph [0003]).
Regarding claim 5, the combination of Dou and Maattanen teach the method for updating the tracking area according to claim 4, Dou does not clearly teach wherein the request message is a registration request corresponding to the non-terrestrial network communication function, and the response message is an accept registration message which does not indicate any tracking area.
Maattanen, in the same field of endeavor, teaches wherein the request message is a registration request corresponding to the non-terrestrial network communication function, and the response message is an accept registration message which does not indicate any tracking area (pars [0016-0018] [0067-0068]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to one of ordinary skill in the art to provide the above teaching of Dou to Maattanen, in order to provide to the wireless communications more particularly to tracking area update procedures for non-terrestrial networks to support the connectivity to massive machine type communication services (as suggested by Maattanen in paragraph [0003]).
Regarding claim 6, the combination of Dou and Maattanen teach the method for updating the tracking area according to claim 4, Dou does not clearly teach wherein the request message is a tracking area update request message, and the response message is an accept tracking area update message which does not indicate any tracking area.
Maattanen, in the same field of endeavor, teaches wherein the request message is a tracking area update request message, and the response message is an accept tracking area update message which does not indicate any tracking area (pars [0016-0018] [0067-0068]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to one of ordinary skill in the art to provide the above teaching of Dou to Maattanen, in order to provide to the wireless communications more particularly to tracking area update procedures for non-terrestrial networks to support the connectivity to massive machine type communication services (as suggested by Maattanen in paragraph [0003]).
Regarding claim 7, the combination of Dou and Maattanen teach the method for updating the tracking area according to claim 1, Dou further teaches comprising: using, by the terminal device, the non-terrestrial network communication function through enabling a non-terrestrial network communication application (col. 5, lines 8-61), wherein the non-terrestrial network communication application records a plurality of preset tracking areas (col. 5, lines 8-61 teaches updating the TAI/TAC of the satellite cell based on the TA planning area. In some cases, an old, or previously being used, TAC/TAI is broadcast in the satellite cell, when satellite moves out of the boundary of the previous TAI planning area with the old TAI/TAC).
Regarding claim 8, the combination of Dou and Maattanen teach the method for updating the tracking area according to claim 7, Dou further teaches wherein the plurality of preset tracking areas comprises a first preset area, and determining the first tracking area where the terminal device is located based on the geographical location comprises: in response to determining that the geographical location is within the first preset area, determining that the first preset area is the first tracking area (col. 5, lines 8-61 teaches updating the TAI/TAC of the satellite cell based on the TA planning area. In some cases, an old, or previously being used, TAC/TAI is broadcast in the satellite cell, when satellite moves out of the boundary of the previous TAI planning area with the old TAI/TAC).
Regarding claim 9, the combination of Dou and Maattanen teach the method for updating the tracking area according to claim 1, Do further teaches wherein the request message indicates a tracking area code of the first tracking area (col. 6, lines 26-62, and col. 9, lines 20-51).
Regarding claim 10, Dou teaches a terminal device (fig. 15 teaches a terminal device), comprising:
a transceiver (fig. 15, Transceiver 1515); and
a processor (fig. 15, Processor 1510), coupled to the transceiver and configured to: (fig. 15)
obtain a geographical location of the terminal device, wherein the terminal device uses a non-terrestrial network communication function (col. 6, lines 5-25);
determine a first tracking area where the terminal device is located based on the geographical location (col. 6, lines 5-25); and
Dou does not explicitly teach in response to determining that a tracking area update procedure needs to be executed, control the transceiver to send a request message to a network device, wherein the request message indicates the first tracking area.
Maattanen, in the same field of endeavor, teaches in response to determining that a tracking area update procedure needs to be executed, control the transceiver to send a request message to a network device (pars [0016-0018] [0067]), wherein the request message indicates the first tracking area (pars [0016-0018] [0067-0068]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to one of ordinary skill in the art to provide the above teaching of Dou to Maattanen, in order to provide to the wireless communications more particularly to tracking area update procedures for non-terrestrial networks to support the connectivity to massive machine type communication services (as suggested by Maattanen in paragraph [0003]).
Allowable Subject Matter
7. Claim 2 is 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.
As to claim 2, the prior art of record fails to disclose determining whether the terminal device is in a registration phase of the non-terrestrial network communication function; in response to determining that the terminal device is in the registration phase of the non-terrestrial network communication function, determining that the tracking area update procedure needs to be executed, and sending, by the terminal device, a registration request corresponding to the non-terrestrial network communication function as the request message to the network device as specified in the claim.
Conclusion
8. The prior arts made of record and not relied upon are considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Kovac et al (2020/0077358) teaches a TA identifier (TAI) is generated for each TA. One or a list of TAIs are signaled to the UEs when the UEs attach to the network. A Tracking Area Update (TAU) notification is sent by the UEs to notify the network (e.g., AMF) of its current location by sending a TAU message (TAU Request message) every time it detects that is had moved to a TA not included in its currently stored TAI list (paragraph [0030]).
Shrestha et al (US 2021/0321357) teaches to improved methods, systems, devices, and apparatuses that support change of tracking area code (TAC) for non-terrestrial networks (NTNs). Generally, the techniques enable a UE to determine that a cell of an NTN serves two or more earth-fixed tracking areas (e.g., terrestrial tracking areas), and enable the UE to select and monitor paging resources associated with at least one terrestrial tracking area served by the cell (paragraphs [0005-0006]).
9. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MICHAEL T VU whose telephone number is (571)272-8131. The examiner can normally be reached on 8:00AM to 6:00PM.
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/MICHAEL T VU/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2641
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