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 .
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.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 06/27/2025 and 07/08/2025 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Priority/Benefit
Acknowledgment is made of domestic priority data as claimed by applicant application is a provisional application 63/692,885 filed on 09/10/2024.
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 of this title, 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 set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied 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.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zisimopoulos et al. (WO 2019220215, hereinafter “Zisimopoulos”).
Regarding claim 1: Zisimopoulos teaches: A method comprising:
detecting, by a mobile device, an indication of an emergency; responsive to detecting the indication of the emergency (Zisimopoulos - [0169]: an emergency function of a communications system may be established and used to track close contacts between devices in an emergency scenario … Once an emergency declaration has been made), transmitting, by the mobile device and to a tracking device, authorization information including at least one or more device addresses to cause the tracking device to generate an authorized request for ranging information based on the authorization information (Zisimopoulos - [0169]: The broadcasted signals may include codes that protect the privacy of the broadcasting device — e.g., neither the monitoring device nor a network entity that supports proximity-based services may be able to determine an identity of the broadcasting device without outside assistance. [0253]: emergency ProSe Function 426 may authenticate visitor UE 417 by matching an IP address obtained for the visitor UE 417), the ranging information including an indication of a distance between the mobile device and the tracking device (Zisimopoulos - [0324]: a means for calculating a distance between the UE and the first UE based on the portion of the global positioning coordinate);
receiving, by the mobile device, the authorized request for ranging information from the tracking device; responsive to receiving the authorized request, establishing, by the mobile device, a secure connection with the tracking device (Zisimopoulos - [0253]: emergency ProSe Function 426 may authenticate visitor UE 417 by matching an IP address obtained for the visitor UE 417 when visitor UE 417 accesses the web address with a mobile identifier for visitor UE 417 (e.g., an IMSI) … The security messaging be exchanged between visitor UE 417 and emergency ProSe Function 426 using a PC3 interface. See also [0254-0255]); and
transmitting, by the mobile device and using the secure connection with the tracking device, the ranging information to the tracking device (Zisimopoulos - [0273] monitoring UE 515 may determine (e.g., calculate) a distance between monitoring UE 515 and announcing UE 520 — e.g., based on a received signal power, partial GPS coordinates, and the like).
Zisimopoulos discloses the above features in different embodiments. However, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings in these embodiments in different ways. The motivation to do so would be to authenticate a device for use with an emergency as taught by Lahtinen (Col. 1, lines 35-47).
Regarding claim 2: Zisimopoulos teaches: further comprising:
responsive to detecting the indication of the emergency, transmitting, by the mobile device and to the tracking device, credential information including one or more of a key, a nonce, or challenge-response information (Zisimopoulos - [0253]: emergency ProSe function 426 may send a request to visitor UE 417 to enter authentication credentials that authenticate visitor UE 417 .. visitor UE 417 may include the passcode in a request to gain access to the emergency ProSe function 426),
wherein the tracking device generates the authorized request for the ranging information based on the authorization information and the credential information (Zisimopoulos - [0254] At 449, emergency ProSe Function 426 may authorize visitor UE 417 for access. Emergency ProSe Function 426 may also generate a ProSe code for visitor UE 417. [0255]: At 451, emergency ProSe Function 426 may send a ProSe code to visitor UE 417).
Regarding claim 3: Zisimopoulos teaches: wherein transmitting the authorization information to the tracking device comprises transmitting, by the mobile device, the authorization information to a computing system to cause the computing system to store and transmit the authorization information to the tracking device (Zisimopoulos -Fig. 3, [0241] HSS 345 may store subscription information for visitor UE 305. Home data manager 350 be configured to connect a UE to a data network — e.g., to a home ProSe Function).
Regarding claim 4: Zisimopoulos teaches: wherein the ranging information comprises one or more indications of signal strength of the mobile device (Zisimopoulos - [0273] monitoring UE 515 may determine (e.g., calculate) a distance between monitoring UE 515 and announcing UE 520 — e.g., based on a received signal power, partial GPS coordinates, and the like).
Regarding claim 5: Zisimopoulos teaches: wherein the one or more device addresses are one or more of a BLUETOOTH device address, a media access control (MAC) address, or an ultra-wideband address (Zisimopoulos - [0189]: User IP packets may be transferred through the user plane entity, which may provide IP address allocation as well as other functions. [0124]: the code may be broadcasted via a PC5 communication interface using Bluetooth radio technology).
Regarding claim 6: Zisimopoulos teaches: wherein detecting the indication of the emergency comprises detecting, by the mobile device, a user input corresponding to activation of an emergency mode of the mobile device (Zisimopoulos - [0215] To support the autonomous tracking of persons within a region while protecting privacy, honoring legal standards, obtaining ubiquitous adoption of the tracking service, and limiting an amount of generated data, an emergency function (or layer) of a proximity service provided by a wireless communications system may be established and used to track close contacts between wireless devices).
Regarding claim 7: Zisimopoulos teaches: wherein transmitting, to the tracking device, the authorization information comprises periodically transmitting, by the mobile device, the authorization information (Zisimopoulos - [0255]: visitor UE 417 may be configured to periodically refresh ProSe codes).
Regarding claims 8-14: Claims are directed to apparatus/device claims and do not teach or further define over the limitations recited in claims 1-7. Therefore, claims 8-14 are also rejected for similar reasons set forth in claims 1-7.
Regarding claims 15-20: Claims are directed to computer readable medium claims and do not teach or further define over the limitations recited in claims 1-7. Therefore, claims 15-20 are also rejected for similar reasons set forth in claims 1-7.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Knas et al. US 10832560 - an efficient and accurate method for presenting victim locations to emergency responders. The method disclosed can be used to track individuals still remaining in a building in case of an emergency.
Narang et al. US 2018/0070222 - Methods and devices may be used to remotely hushing alarms by receiving an indication of an alarm event occurring at a remote device and presenting a visual indicator of the alarm event including a hush option to alter an audible and/or visual alarm notification of the remote device Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MENG LI whose telephone number is (571)272-8729. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:30-5:30.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Alexander Lagor can be reached on (571) 270-5143. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/MENG LI/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2437
