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 .
Receipt is acknowledged of IDS filed on 03/28/2025.
Claims 1-3, 6-8, 14-15,17-19 and 22-30 are presented for examination.
This application is a 371 of PCT/CN2022/123756 filed on 10/08/2022.
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)(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.
Claim(s) 1-3, 6, 8, 14-15,17-19 and 22-30 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Spiss et al. (US 2022/0321173).
Re Claims 1 and 18: Spiss et al. {hereinafter referred as “Spiss”} teaches NFC device, operating method and computer program, which includes receiving, with an NFC device {herein device 302}, a plurality of first polling cycles {Spiss further teaches a polling profile matching process 500. The process 500 contains an initialization step 502, a first loop 504, a second loop 506 executed within the first loop 504, and a third loop 508 executed within the second loop 506} from an NFC reader {herein terminal/reader 316} without responding to the NFC reader (see fig.# 3; ¶ 37-42+); analyzing, with the NFC device, characteristics of the first polling cycles {herein the number of RF transmission events and their timing (i.e., the time differences between the consecutive events) may provide a suitable characterization of a polling profile} (see ¶ 32-39+); selecting, with the NFC device, a digital emulated card from a plurality of digital emulated cards {herein a card selection unit 106 configured to select a specific one of said emulated cards for use by the processing unit in dependence on the polling profile} based on the characteristics of the first polling cycles (¶ 27-38+); and presenting the selected digital emulated card to the NFC reader from the NFC device via NFC communication (¶ 43+).
Spiss also teaches selecting one of the digital emulated cards from the plurality of digital emulated cards based on the matching (see ¶ 35-37+).
Re Claims 2-3: Spiss teaches device and method, wherein each polling cycle includes receiving an interrogation signal in a carrier field, wherein analyzing the characteristics includes determining whether the carrier field is an ON/OFF type carrier field, wherein analyzing the characteristics includes determining a duration of the ON state of the carrier field, determining a duration of the OFF state of the carrier field, and determining a timing of the interrogation signals within the carrier field {herein a polling profile may be characterized by timestamps which are indicative of the timing of predefined RF transmission events (for example, a FieldOn event, a FieldOff event} (¶ 31+).
Re Claim 6: Spiss teaches device and method, wherein analyzing the characteristics includes determining a central frequency of the carrier field (¶ 31+).
Re Claim 8: Spiss teaches device and method, comprising: storing, in the NFC device, NFC reader profile data including profiles for each of a plurality of NFC reader types, wherein analyzing the characteristics of the first polling cycles includes comparing the characteristics of the first polling cycles to the reader profile data; identifying a type of the NFC reader by matching {herein the determination of the polling profile may be based on a probability metric which is indicative of the extent or degree to which a detected sequence of events matches with predetermined candidate sequences} the characteristics of the first polling cycles to one of the NFC reader types; and selecting the digital emulated card based on the characteristics of the first polling cycles (see ¶ 35-37+).
Re Claim 14: Spiss teaches device and method, comprising: receiving, after selecting the digital emulated card, a second polling cycle from the NFC reader; and presenting the digital emulated card after receiving the second polling cycle (see fig.# 4, ¶ 39+).
Re Claims 15, 22-23 and 27: Spiss teaches device and method, wherein selecting a digital emulated card from a plurality of digital emulated cards based on the characteristics of the first polling cycles includes selecting a set of digital emulated cards from the plurality of digital emulated cards, wherein presenting the selected digital emulated card to the NFC reader includes successively {herein the card selection unit is configured to select said specific emulated card using a programmable mapping table in which predetermined sequences are mapped to said emulated cards} presenting the digital emulated cards of the set of digital emulated cards (¶ 33+), the method comprising, if one of the digital emulated cards is accepted by the NFC reader, augmenting stored information related to the accepted digital emulated with information related to the NFC reader (¶ 41+).
Re Claim 17: Spiss teaches device and method, comprising, if the digital emulated cards is accepted by the NFC reader, augmenting {herein the NFC device, and in particular the profile determination unit of the NFC device, may be configured to operate in a learning mode, which allows a user to add a new mapping of a card to a specific reader} stored information related to the accepted digital emulated with information related to the NFC reader (see ¶ 41+).
Re Claim 19: Spiss teaches device and method, wherein the profile data indicates one or more of: locations in which an NFC reader type is utilized {herein cards may be enabled based on the location of the mobile device}; services for which an NFC reader type is utilized; and companies by which an NFC reader type is utilized; a manufacturer of an NFC reader type; and a model of an NFC reader (see ¶ 29+).
Re Claim 24: Spiss teaches device and method, comprising: an NFC antenna (¶ 37+); a memory configured to store digital emulated card data of a plurality of digital emulated cards (¶ 37+); and a controller coupled to the memory and the NFC antenna and configured to implement a silent monitoring phase responsive to the NFC antenna receiving a carrier field from an NFC reader (¶ 46+).
Re Claim 25: Spiss teaches device and method, wherein the controller is configured to record, during the silent monitoring phase {herein Spiss a learning mode and a regular mode}, characteristics of a plurality of polling cycles received by the NFC antenna from the NFC reader (see ¶ 33-41).
Re Claim 26: Spiss teaches device and method, wherein the controller is configured to identify a type of the NFC reader based on the characteristics of the polling cycles and to select one of the digital emulated cards based on the type of the NFC reader (¶ 31-37+).
Re Claims 28-30: Spiss teaches device and method, wherein the memory is configured to store NFC reader profile data including profiles for each of a plurality of NFC reader types {herein a profile determination unit of said NFC device determines a polling profile of the NFC reader} (¶ 34+), wherein the analyzing the characteristics of the polling cycles includes comparing {herein a comparator} the characteristics of the polling cycles to the reader profile data, wherein the controller is configured to identify the type of the NFC reader by matching the characteristics of the polling cycles to one of the NFC reader types (¶ 14-16+,32+).
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.
Claim(s) 7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Spiss et al. (US 2022/0321173) in view of Wolf et al. (US 2015/0381238).
The teachings of Spiss et al. have been discussed above. Spiss et al. further teaches that NFC RF terminals may check whether communication counterparts are present by enabling their RF field and using modulation techniques and polling commands (see ¶ 36+).
Spiss et al. fails to specifically teach analyzing the characteristics includes determining an amplitude of the carrier field.
Wolf et al. teaches apparatus, system and method of detecting an activity of a wireless communication device, wherein analyzing the characteristics includes determining an amplitude of the carrier field (¶ 72-78+, 103-116+).
In view of Wolf et al.’s teachings, it would have been obvious to one skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to employ into the teachings of Spiss et al. analyzing the characteristics includes determining an amplitude of the carrier field so as to trigger full poling. Such modification would be beneficial wherein an amplitude of a filtered received signal may change depending on a physical distance between the NFC reader and the NFC device.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Kim (US 2020/0169297) teaches operating method of electronic device performing NFC functions.
Stahl et al. (US 2023/0291437) teaches NFC-based method and system for state detection.
Garrett (US 2023/0169489) teaches method and apparatus for completing credit card transactions from n MST and NFC capable module affixed to a smart card phone.
Ravani et al. (US 2016/0043775) teaches NFC mode adjustment based on a screen state.
Kang (US 2021/0184728) teaches contactless card reading employing gain and attenuation control.
Kulkarni et al. (US 2017/0257732) teaches NFC power management device and method.
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/EDWYN LABAZE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2876