Obviousness

Obviousness Analysis under 35 U.S.C. § 103 for US Patent 8,738,040

This analysis examines the obviousness of US Patent 8,738,040 (hereafter '040 patent) in light of the prior art references explicitly mentioned and described within its own text: US20020094801 (hereafter US'801) and International Application WO 00/27152 (hereafter WO'152).

The '040 patent aims to provide a method for monitoring the presence of a mobile station in at least one special area with enhanced flexibility. The invention's core distinguishing feature, as articulated in Claim 1, is that the "special area is associated to the mobile station by transmitting to the mobile station a checking data, this checking data being used by the mobile station for determining whether or not the defining signal received is a distinctive defining signal... and the same checking data being sent to any mobile station whose presence in this special area is monitored." This contrasts with prior art systems, particularly WO'152, where the radio communication defining device (guide unit) had to know and transmit the specific identity code of the mobile station, thus lacking flexibility and scalability. [cite: WO 00/27152]

A person having ordinary skill in the art (PHOSITA) in mobile communication network design, facing the problems of inflexibility and scalability presented by the cited prior art, would have been motivated to combine elements of these references with general knowledge of network architecture and mobile device provisioning to achieve the claimed invention.

Combination 1: WO 00/27152 in view of general knowledge of mobile network design and device provisioning

WO'152 discloses a method for locating a mobile station in a "home area" defined by a short-range radio signal broadcast by a guide unit [cite: WO 00/27152]. In this system, the mobile station identifies its own identity code within the received signal to determine its location and then transmits a "home message" to a mobile switching center, which can be used to define price/service for telephone calls. [cite: WO 00/27152]

WO'152 therefore teaches several elements of Claim 1:

• Step a: A radio communication defining device (guide unit) transmits a distinctive defining signal (short-range radio signal) that defines a special area (home area) by its coverage. [cite: WO 00/27152]
• Step b & c (partially): The mobile station observes and processes the received signal to determine if it is a defining signal, specifically by identifying if the signal contains its own identity code. [cite: WO 00/27152]
• Step d: The mobile station sends an updating signal ("home message") to a mobile telephone network (mobile switching center) about its presence in the special area. [cite: WO 00/27152]
• Step e: The mobile telephone network routes the updating signal to special operating means (implied by the mobile switching center) that adapt the value of at least one operating parameter (defining price/service). [cite: WO 00/27152]

The '040 patent itself identifies a key drawback of WO'152: "the guide unit has to know the identity of the mobile station" [cite: WO 00/27152]. This requires modifying guide units when new special areas or mobile stations are added, leading to a "lack of flexibility" and scalability issues, especially in environments with many mobile stations, as it would necessitate storing all mobile station identity codes at the radio communication defining device. [cite: WO 00/27152]

A PHOSITA, seeking to overcome this recognized problem of flexibility and scalability in WO'152, would be motivated to simplify the guide unit and centralize mobile station-specific configuration. It is a well-known architectural principle in telecommunications to decouple client-specific data from broadcast or access devices.

To achieve this, a PHOSITA would find it obvious to modify WO'152 as follows:

1. Generic Area Identifier: Instead of the guide unit broadcasting a mobile station's specific identity code, the guide unit would broadcast a generic area identifier (e.g., a "Home Zone ID" or "Special Area ID") that identifies the special area itself, rather than a specific mobile station. This makes the guide unit generic and eliminates the need for it to store or transmit individual mobile station identities.
2. Network Provisioning of Checking Data: For the mobile station to recognize this generic area identifier as defining its special area, it would need to be provisioned with this identifier. The mobile telephone network, which already manages subscriber information and services as taught by WO'152, is the logical entity to transmit this generic area identifier (the "checking data") to the mobile station. Such "over-the-air" (OTA) provisioning or configuration updates to mobile devices are conventional techniques in mobile networks.
3. Mobile Station Processing: The mobile station would then use this received "checking data" (the generic area identifier) to compare against the identifier received in the signal from the guide unit. If they match, the mobile station determines it is in the special area.

This combination renders the characterizing clause of Claim 1 obvious:

• "the special area is associated to the mobile station by transmitting to the mobile station a checking data": The generic area identifier (checking data) is transmitted from the mobile network to the mobile station via known provisioning methods.
• "this checking data being used by the mobile station for determining whether or not the defining signal received is a distinctive defining signal": The mobile station uses this provisioned checking data to compare with the generic area identifier broadcast by the guide unit.
• "and the same checking data being sent to any mobile station whose presence in this special area is monitored": Since the guide unit broadcasts a generic area identifier for a given special area, this same generic identifier (as checking data) would be transmitted to any mobile station registered to receive services in that special area, thus achieving the desired flexibility and scalability by making the guide unit independent of individual mobile station identities.

The motivation to combine these elements is clear: to enhance the flexibility and scalability of the WO'152 system, allowing the mobile network to add or modify special areas for mobile stations without altering the radio communication defining devices. This directly addresses the "lack of flexibility" explicitly identified in the '040 patent as a problem with WO'152. [cite: WO 00/27152]

Combination 2: US20020094801 in view of WO 00/27152 and/or general knowledge

US'801 describes a fixed station sending an encoded first signal whose coverage defines a special area, and a mobile station is "linked... via the signal code" to this fixed station for using the special area. [cite: US20020094801] US'801 also suggests providing the fixed station with "receiving and comparison means for an access code that is to be applied to the fixed station via the mobile station in order to put the fixed station into operation." [cite: US20020094801]

While US'801 teaches a system for defining a special area and linking a mobile station to it, it is less explicit about the mobile station sending an "updating signal" to a mobile telephone network for the purpose of "adapting an operating parameter" as in Claim 1. However, the concept of a mobile station reporting its location or status to its home network for service adjustments is a well-established practice in mobile telecommunications, as explicitly taught by WO'152's use of a "home message... for defining the price/service connected to telephone calls." [cite: WO 00/27152] A PHOSITA would be motivated to combine the location-defining aspects of US'801 with the service adaptation capabilities of WO'152 to provide location-dependent services or tariffs, thereby fully addressing steps d and e of Claim 1.

The '040 patent itself notes that its invention is not required "to store all the mobile stations activation codes in the radio communication defining device, as in one embodiment of the published patent application no US20020094801." [cite: US20020094801] This highlights a similar scalability problem in US'801 where the fixed station might need to manage mobile-specific access or activation codes.

A PHOSITA, motivated to address this scalability issue and improve the flexibility of the US'801 system, would consider simplifying the fixed station by removing the requirement for it to store or process mobile-specific codes. This leads to the same architectural change described above:

1. The fixed station in US'801 would broadcast its "signal code" (or an area identifier) as a generic distinctive defining signal.
2. This "signal code" would be transmitted from the mobile network to the mobile station as "checking data" (using conventional provisioning methods).
3. The mobile station would then use this "checking data" to determine if the received encoded signal from the fixed station is distinctive for its associated special area.
4. Since the fixed station broadcasts a generic signal code for the area, the "same checking data" would be sent to "any mobile station whose presence in this special area is monitored."

The motivation for this combination is to simplify the fixed station's management, improve the system's scalability, and integrate the location-based area definition of US'801 with the service adaptation capabilities commonly found in mobile networks, as explicitly taught by WO'152.

Therefore, Claim 1 of US Patent 8,738,040 would have been obvious over US20020094801 in view of WO 00/27152 and/or general knowledge of mobile network architecture and provisioning.