DETAILED ACTION
This action is responsive to application filed on April 10th, 2025.
Claims 1~25 are examined.
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
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 07/14/25, 08/12/25, and 10/09/25 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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.
Claims 1, 3, 5, 6, 9, 13, 15, 17, 18, 21, and 25 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Baron et al. hereinafter Baron (WO 2025099056).
Regarding Claim 1,
Baron taught a method of generating a synthetic network, the method comprising:
providing, by an access point (AP), a first communication indicating that the AP supports a randomized Media Access Control (MAC) address rotation management protocol (Pg. 14: 15~21, AP station 105 manages a set of stations that together organize their accesses to the wireless medium for communication purposes; Pg. 2:25~Pg.3: 1~3, when the RCM mechanism is operated in the non-AP station, the MAC address of the non-AP station is randomly changed);
establishing a wireless communications link between the AP and a wireless station, wherein establishing the wireless communications link comprises assigning the wireless station to an Enhanced Data Privacy (EDP) group, the EDP group associated with timing information for rotating wireless frame anonymization parameters at epoch transitions (Pg. 5: 3~24, group EDP Epoch is a time window in which each non-AP MLD of a set of non- AP MLDs applies a set of EDP parameters that is valid for the duration of that Group EDP Epoch;
generating, by the AP, a list of N association identifiers (AIDs) for the wireless station, each of the N AIDs to be used in a corresponding epoch of N epochs associated with the EDP group (Pg. 5: 19~24, EDP aka Frame Anonymization parameters (CPE) are used to enhance the data privacy by anonymizing the frame exchanges; Pg. 19: 5~7, the AP station computes the next values of the CPE parameters for the non-AP station associated with this Individual Epoch start Time; Pg. 8: 22~25, the at least one CPE parameter may comprise a MAC address or an Association Identifier, AID; Pg. 12: 19~24, instants of change of CPE parameters define successive usage periods (indexed 0, 1 , ... , n, n+1 , etc.), referred to as ‘Epoch’, during each of which given values of the CPE parameters (e.g., a MAC address) are to be used);
transmitting, to the wireless station in a protected wireless frame, information indicating the list of N AIDs for the wireless station (Pg. 19: 20~22, the station stores in memory all the computed CPE parameters’ values. In the case of an AP, it stores all the CPE parameters’ values of the considered non-AP station); and
maintaining, by the AP, the wireless communications link with the wireless station based at least in part on the timing information for randomized MAC address rotation for the EDP group, and including using each AID in the list of N AIDs during corresponding epochs (Pg. 9: 33~35, both AP and non-AP STA can compute at any time, CPE parameters. This includes CPE parameters currently in use, previous CPE parameters or even future CPE parameters and associated usage time; Fig. 2A, associated description).
Regarding Claim 3,
Baron taught wherein each AID in the list of N AIDs is to be used in a corresponding epoch of a set of future, consecutive epochs (Pg. 9:33~35, the non-AP STA and AP compute at once both future Epoch start time, and associated CPE params for the non- AP STA).
Regarding Claim 5,
Baron taught further comprising transmitting one or more wireless frames between the AP and the wireless station to negotiate the EDP group the EDP group assigned to the wireless station (Pg. 37:29~34, if the requester station wants to join an already created Group EDP Sequence, the Starting Time is set to 0. In response to the EDP Epoch Request frame 950, the requester station may receive from the requester station an EDP Epoch Response frame 960 that may comprise an agreement or an alternative proposal for the EDP Epoch sequence creation, as described above. For EDP Epoch negotiation, the usage of dedicated protected Action frames during an EDP Epoch negotiation process allows to negotiate the EDP Epoch parameter set between a non-AP MLD and its associated AP MLD).
Regarding Claim 6,
Baron taught wherein the transmitting one or more wireless frames between the AP and the wireless station to negotiate the EDP group comprises: receiving, by the AP, one or more wireless frames including time scheduling information for randomized MAC address information requested by the wireless station; and transmitting, by the AP, a response to the one or more wireless frames indicating acceptance of the time scheduling information requested by the wireless station (Pg. 37:29~34, if the requester station wants to join an already created Group EDP Sequence, the Starting Time is set to 0. In response to the EDP Epoch Request frame 950, the requester station may receive from the requester station an EDP Epoch Response frame 960 that may comprise an agreement or an alternative proposal for the EDP Epoch sequence creation, as described above. For EDP Epoch negotiation, the usage of dedicated protected Action frames during an EDP Epoch negotiation process allows to negotiate the EDP Epoch parameter set between a non-AP MLD and its associated AP MLD).
Regarding Claim 9,
Baron taught wherein the protected wireless frame indicating the list of N AIDs is an encrypted wireless action frame (Pg. 15:16~17, epoch parameters can be sent in an encrypted IE, or encrypted frame as described with reference to Figures 7b to 7g).
Regarding Claims 13, 15, 17, 18, 21, and 25, the claims are similar in scope to claims 1, 3, 5, 6, and 9 and therefore, rejected under the same rationale.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
Claims 2 and 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Baron in view of Dong (US 2023/0164806).
Regarding Claims 2 and 14,
Baron-Dong taught wherein the AIDs in the list of N AIDs is assigned from a preexisting range of AIDs [¶34, in the access point device, an AID table is stored. Each AID is bound with a MAC address of its corresponding terminal. A range of AID is 0-2007, such that one AP may be associated with 2007 nodes at most in the protocol].
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention was made, to combine, Dong’s teaching of limitations with the teachings of Baron, because the combination would improve a transmission efficiency [¶3].
Claims 4, 7, 8, 11, 12, 16, 19, 20, 23, and 24 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Baron in view of Kneckt et al. hereinafter Kneckt (US 2024/0406906).
Regarding Claim 4,
Baron-Kneckt taught wherein each AID in the list of N AIDs is unique to the wireless station during an epoch corresponding to the AID [¶23, adjacent AIDs in the predefined set of AIDs may be unique relative to corresponding AIDs in another predefined set of AIDs provided by the electronic device].
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention was made, to combine, Kneckt’s teaching of limitations with the teachings of Baron, because the combination protects the privacy of the associated station(s) from eavesdroppers [¶99].
Regarding Claim 7,
Baron taught further comprising, before an end of the N epochs: generating, by the AP, a second list of N association identifiers (AIDs) for the wireless station, each of the N AIDs to be used in a corresponding second epoch of N second epochs associated with the EDP group; and transmitting, to the wireless station in a second protected wireless frame, information indicating the second list of N AIDs for the wireless station [claim 19]. The rationale to combine as discussed in claim 4, applies here as well.
Regarding Claim 8,
Baron-Kneckt taught wherein the list of N AIDs comprises a first AID as a first entry in the list, and a delta value for a second entry in the list of N AIDs, the delta value expressing a difference between the first entry in the list and the second entry [¶150, the associated stations change their AID values at different times from each other. Moreover, as noted previously, the access point may track the AID values to avoid collisions. In some embodiments, adjacent AID values in a set or group of AID values may be unique among associated stations, so that a new AID value or the previous AID value do not have collisions with the AID value(s) of other stations]. The rationale to combine as discussed in claim 4, applies here as well.
Regarding Claim 11,
Baron-Kneckt taught further comprising receiving, by the AP, a wireless frame indicating a request for a new list of AIDs [¶98, access point may provide a new AID, e.g., every 10 min., or may provide a set of AIDs for subsequent use]. The rationale to combine as discussed in claim 4, applies here as well.
Regarding Claim 12,
Baron-Kneckt taught wherein the wireless frame indicating the request for a new list of AIDs further identifies one or more epochs corresponding to the new list of AIDs [Kneckt: ¶98, access point may provide a new AID, e.g., every 10 min., or may provide a set of AIDs for subsequent use]; [Baron: (Pg. 5: 19~24)]. The rationale to combine as discussed in claim 11, applies here as well.
Regarding Claims 16, 19, 20, 23, and 24, the claims are similar in scope to claims 4, 7, 8, 11, and 12 and therefore, rejected under the same rationale.
Claims 10 and 22 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Baron in view of Kandagadla et al. hereinafter Kandagadla (US 2017/0064760).
Regarding Claims 10 and 22,
Baron-Kandagadla taught further comprising protected wireless frame indicating the list of N AIDs is an Extensible Authentication Protocol over LAN (EAPoL) M4 message [¶49, intercept EAPoL frames transmitted by the AP (e.g., which may include the MAC address and/or AID for the STA); ¶6].
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention was made, to combine, Kandagadla’s teaching of limitations with the teachings of Baron, because the combination would establish a wireless connection and/or initiate secure communications with the AP [¶43].
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to HEE SOO KIM whose telephone number is (571) 270-3229. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9AM-5PM.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Nicholas Taylor can be reached on (571) 272-3889. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/HEE SOO KIM/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2443
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