DETAILED ACTION
1. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA . Claims 1-20 are presented for examination on the merits.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112.
2. 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.
3. Claims 7, 9 and 23 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b), as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor, regards as the invention.
a. Claim 9 recites: "...wherein the user device is present in the location or the area indicated as part of the indication of the target user device." Looking back at Claim 8 which claim 9 depends on, recites "...a location of the user device or an area of the user device." Because Claim 8 uses the disjunctive "or," claim 9's reference to "the location or the area" creates a conditional antecedent basis issue. If the indication only comprised an identifier (and not a location), Claim 9 limitation become broken/ambiguous. Examiner suggests to clean up the phrasing to ensure it accounts for the disjunctive options presented in claim 8.
Appropriate correction required.
b. Claims 7 and 23, recitation "wherein the action... indicates a policy action or rule to apply to the network traffic..." is purely functional and extremely broad. It fails to specify what the rule or policy is, leaving the boundaries of the claim unclear.
4. The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112(a):
(a) IN GENERAL.—The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor or joint inventor of carrying out the invention.
5. Claim 16 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112(a), as failing to comply with the written description requirement. The claim contains subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to reasonably convey to one skilled in the relevant art that the inventor or a joint inventor, or for pre-AIA the inventor(s), at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention.
Claim 16 maps standard 5G Core (5GC) network functions (NEF, AMF, UPF, AF) to these sensory management roles. 3GPP standards do not natively define "sensorial information" processing inside an AMF or UPF.
The specification does not mentions these 3GPP nodes without showing how an AMF (which normally handles signaling and mobility) or a UPF (which handles packet routing) is modified to parse and react to sensorial capability data, the claim fails the written description requirements. Claim 16 claims a result without disclosing the structural or programmatic modifications needed to achieve it.
Citation of pertinent Prior Arts
6. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
i. Rushing (US 11444906 B1) discloses in update user interfaces for users of a communication platform is described. The communication platform can determine, for a first user of the communication platform, a first location of the first user and for at least a second user of the communication platform, a second location of the second user. Based at least in part on a determination that the first location and the second location satisfy a condition, the communication platform can cause a user interface of the communication platform to be updated, wherein the updated user interface indicates at least one of (i) proximity data associated with the first user and the second user or (ii) context data associated with at least one of the first user or the second use, and
ii. Jones (US 20160370863 A1) discloses a wearable device for providing non-visual guidance to users includes one or more wireless interfaces to obtain information about the wearable device's current surroundings; one or more processors to (i) determine whether to provide non-visual guidance to a user wearing the wearable device based on the information obtained by the one or more wireless interfaces, and (ii) identify particular non-visual guidance to output to the user based on the determination of whether to provide non-visual guidance and the information; a haptic feedback array including a plurality of haptic motors arranged across at least a portion of the wearable device so that each of the plurality of haptic motors, when activated, provides haptic feedback from a distinct location of the wearable device; and a haptic engine to control the haptic feedback array to provide particular patterns of pulses that correspond to the particular non-visual guidance.
Conclusion
7. If the claimed invention is amended, Applicant is respectfully requested to indicate the portion(s) of the specification, which dictate(s) the structure/description relied upon to assist the Examiner in proper interpretation of the amended language and also to verify and ascertain the metes and bounds of the claimed invention. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Fekadeselassie Girma whose telephone number is (571) 270-5886. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday thru Friday, 8:30 – 5:00. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Davetta Goins can be reached on (571) 272-2957. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/Fekadeselassie Girma/
Primary Examiner Art Unit 2689
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