CTNF 17/371,696 CTNF 97059 DETAILED ACTION This communication is responsive to Application #17371696 response filed 03/13/2026. Claim(s) 1, 5, 11, 13, 21, 24, 29-30, 32, 34, and 36 amended; Claim(s) 6, 10, 23, 25-28, and 31 canceled. Claim(s) 1-5, 7-9, 11-22, 24, 29-30, and 32-37 is/are subject to examination. Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status 07-03-aia AIA 15-10-aia The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA. 12-187 AIA 12-239 In view of the appeal brief filed on 03/13/2026 , PROSECUTION IS HEREBY REOPENED. A new ground of rejection is set forth below. To avoid abandonment of the application, appellant must exercise one of the following two options: (1) file a reply under 37 CFR 1.111 (if this Office action is non-final) or a reply under 37 CFR 1.113 (if this Office action is final); or, (2) initiate a new appeal by filing a notice of appeal under 37 CFR 41.31 followed by an appeal brief under 37 CFR 41.37. The previously paid notice of appeal fee and appeal brief fee can be applied to the new appeal. If, however, the appeal fees set forth in 37 CFR 41.20 have been increased since they were previously paid, then appellant must pay the difference between the increased fees and the amount previously paid. A Supervisory Patent Examiner (SPE) has approved of reopening prosecution by signing below: /NOEL R BEHARRY/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2416 Response to Arguments 07-38-02 AIA Applicant’s arguments, see Appeal Brief pg 8-16 , filed 03/13/2026 , with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 1-5, 7-9, 11-22, 24, 29-30, and 32-37 under 35 U.S.C. 103 have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of CAO et al. (US 20230096215 A1), JASSAL et al. (US 11856468 B2), and KIM (US 20220394581 A1) . Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112 07-30-02 AIA 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. The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA), second paragraph: The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention. 07-34-01 Claims 1-5, 7-9, 11-22, 24, 29-30, and 32-37 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention. 07-34-12 AIA Claim s 1, 21, and 29-30 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA), second paragraph, as being incomplete for omitting essential steps, such omission amounting to a gap between the steps. See MPEP § 2172.01. The omitted steps are: at what step the PHY layer or MAC layer mobility signaling is received/transmitted by the user equipment in order to perform “participating, based on PHY layer or MAC layer mobility signaling”. For the purpose of examination, the examiner will interpret the limitation of “PHY layer or MAC layer mobility signaling” is the same signaling as the “receiving a selection command via PHY layer or MAC layer signaling”. Claims 2-5, 7-9, 11-20, 22, 24, and 32-37 are rejected as being dependent on claim 1, 21, and 29-30 . 07-34-14 AIA Claim s 1, 21, and 29-30 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA), second paragraph, as being incomplete for omitting essential structural cooperative relationships of elements, such omission amounting to a gap between the necessary structural connections. See MPEP § 2172.01. The omitted structural cooperative relationships are: who is receiving/transmitting PHY layer or MAC layer mobility signaling. While the first instance of “PHY layer or MAC layer mobility signaling” is defined in relation to being supported by at least one candidate target cell, it is unclear whether PHY layer or MAC layer mobility signaling is transmitted or received by the user equipment from/to the at least one candidate target cell or from/to somewhere else. For the purpose of examination, the examiner will interpret the claim as meaning: first, the user equipment receiving PHY layer or MAC layer mobility signaling from the target cell; then, participating, based on the user equipment receiving the PHY layer or MAC layer mobility signaling from the target cell, in a handover. Claims 2-5, 7-9, 11-20, 22, 24, and 32-37 are rejected as being dependent on claim 1, 21, and 29-30 . Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103 07-20-aia AIA 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. 07-21-aia AIA Claim (s) 1-5, 7-9, 11-17, 21-22, 24, 29-30, and 32-37 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over CAO et al. (US 20230096215 A1), hereby referred to as CAO, in view of JASSAL et al. (US 11856468 B2) (see 892 05/09/2024), and KIM (US 20220394581 A1) (see 892 05/09/2024) . Claim 1: CAO teaches A method for wireless communications by a user equipment (UE), comprising: receiving signaling configuring multiple candidate target physical cell identifiers (PCIs) of at least one candidate target cell that supports physical (PHY) layer or medium access control (MAC) layer mobility signaling (CAO: FIG. 5 (“RRC configuration for Mobility RS and universal TCI state”); FIG. 16 and para 93-95 (“…the universal uplink TCI state is provided, which is similar to the universal TCI state…a cell may be selected. The cell may be a serving cell or a non-serving cell. The non-serving cell may be indicated by the PCI…The serving gNB configures multiple uplink TCI states of multiple non-serving cells for the UE via RRC signaling…”) wherein multiple non-serving/target cells are indicated via PCIs in the a configuring RRC signal for lower layer mobility signaling ) ; receiving a selection command via PHY layer or MAC layer signaling indicating a selected one or more of the candidate target PCIs (CAO: FIG. 5 item (“MAC-CE including activation information of a downlink control beam”); FIG. 7, para 64 (“The serving gNB determines…that the UE is to be handed over to the target cell…the serving gNB activates one or more TCI states configured for the target cell through MAC CE…”) and para 69 (“…MAC CE signaling…the ID of the target cell is represented by 10 bits of PCI…”) wherein the MAC-CE is the selection command of a target cell indicated by a target PCI ) ; participating, based on PHY layer or MAC layer mobility signaling, in a handover to the target cell associated with the selected one or more of the candidate target PCIs, wherein the handover is initiated by a network entity (CAO: para 64 (“The serving gNB determines…that the UE is to be handed over to the target cell…the serving gNB activates one or more TCI states configured for the target cell through MAC CE…”) wherein serving gNB initiates UE to be handed over by selection command in a MAC CE ) While CAO teaches sending an uplink signal to a target cell, wherein the uplink signal comprises at least one of a physical random access channel (PRACH) preamble or a physical uplink shared channel (CAO: para 90-91 (“…to obtain the activation information of the downlink beam of the target cell to activate a corresponding receiving beam…the UE may perform uplink transmission using the receiving beam…so as to activate the uplink beam. For example, the UE may emit a…PUCCH…all of the sounding reference signal…the PUCCH…PRACH…PUSCH…may be emitted using the beam…”) wherein uplink signal to the target including PRACH or PUSCH ) ; CAO does not explicitly disclose after receiving the selection command, sending a cell selection request, receiving, from the target cell, a response message indicating success of the handover; and terminating activity with one or more source PCIs after receiving the response message. JASSAL, in the same field of endeavor, teaches after receiving the selection command (JASSAL: FIG. 7B and FIG. 8B the selection command being the MAC-CE ) , sending a cell selection request (JASSAL: FIG. 7B and FIG. 8B wherein uplink signal sent to a target cell as a cell selection request can be a RA preamble (which is sent over a PRACH) or a PUSCH ) ; and receiving, from the target cell, a response message indicating success of the handover (JASSAL: FIG. 8B item 870 wherein successful reception of RA response in response to the RA preamble is an indication of the success of the handover ) . It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to have modified CAO with JASSAL, the combination hereby referred to as CAO-JASSAL, for the benefit of efficient management of inter-cell mobility (JASSAL: col 1 line 47-50) . However, CAO-JASSAL does not explicitly disclose terminating activity with one or more source PCIs after receiving the response message. KIM581, in the same field of endeavor, teaches receiving, from the target cell, a response message indicating success of the handover procedure and terminating activity with one or more source PCIs after receiving the response message (KIM581: FIG. 1H, para 213 (“…when the second condition is satisfied, the UE…may stop receiving downlink data from the source gNB…and may release the connection with the source gNB. The second condition may be one of the following…”), and para 214 (“When the UE performs the random access procedure to the target gNB through the layers…and receives the RAR…”) wherein the UE releases the connection with the source PCI/source gNB once it UE has successfully received the RAR/response message and para 388 (“…when the source gNB receives, from the UE, an indication indicating the release of connection with the source gNB…MAC CE…”) wherein releasing the connection with the source as a result of receiving a response message involves sending an indication which may be interpreted to act as a confirmation that the UE received the response message ) . It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to have modified CAO-JASS with KIM581, hereby referred to as CAO-JAS-KIM, for the benefit of low transmission delay without data interruption (KIM581: para 7) . Claim 2: CAO-JAS-KIM teaches the method of claim 1, but does not explicitly disclose wherein the response message is conveyed via at least one of a downlink control information (DCI) (JASSAL: col 34 (“…the UE monitors for the RA response (i.e., PDCCH transmission)…for a DCI format scrambled with the UE RNTI…”) wherein response message/RA response is in DCI ) . It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to have modified CAO and KIM581 with JASSAL for the benefit of efficient management of inter-cell mobility (JASSAL: col 1 line 47-50) . Claim 3: CAO-JAS-KIM teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the terminated activity comprises at least one of: communications with the one or more source PCIs (JASSAL: col 17 line 44-46 (“…the source cell using PCI-1…”) wherein the UE is in communication with a source PCI ) & (KIM581: para 213 (“…when the second condition is satisfied, the UE…may stop receiving downlink data from the source gNB…and may release the connection with the source gNB. The second condition may be one of the following…”) wherein the terminated activity is terminating communications with the source cell ) . It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to have modified CAO and KIM581 with JASSAL for the benefit of efficient management of inter-cell mobility (JASSAL: col 1 line 47-50) . Claim 4: CAO-JAS-KIM teaches the method of claim 1, comprising sending an indication confirming receipt of the response message to at least one of: the one or more of the source PCIs (KIM581: para 213 (“…when the second condition is satisfied, the UE…may stop receiving downlink data from the source gNB…and may release the connection with the source gNB. The second condition may be one of the following…”) and para 214 (“When the UE performs the random access procedure to the target gNB through the layers…and receives the RAR…”) wherein the UE releases the connection with the source PCI/source gNB once it UE has successfully received the RAR/response message and para 388 (“…when the source gNB receives, from the UE, an indication indicating the release of connection with the source gNB…MAC CE…”) wherein releasing the connection with the source as a result of receiving a response message involves sending an indication which may be interpreted to act as a confirmation that the UE received the response message ) . It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to have modified CAO-JASSAL with KIM581 for the benefit of low transmission delay without data interruption (KIM581: para 7) . Claim 5: CAO-JAS-KIM teaches the method of claim 4, wherein the indication is conveyed via at least one of another PRACH, preamble, uplink reference signal, uplink control information (UCI) or a MAC control element (MAC-CE) (KIM581: para 388 (“…when the source gNB receives, from the UE, an indication indicating the release of connection with the source gNB…MAC CE…”) wherein the indication can be conveyed in a MAC-CE ) . It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to have modified CAO-JASSAL with KIM581 for the benefit of low transmission delay without data interruption (KIM581: para 7) . Claim 7: CAO-JAS-KIM teaches the method of claim 1, further comprising, after receiving the selection command: monitoring for a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) on a cell associated with the selected one or more candidate target PCIs (CAO: para 131 (“…the MAC CE includes the activation information of the downlink control beam (PDCCH) of the target cell…By parsing the MAC CE, the UE knows the target5 cell to which the UE will be handed over to, the downlink beam to be used by the target cell for emission, and a position of the time-frequency resource of the PDCCH. Therefore, the UE prepares a corresponding receiving beam to receive the PDCCH of the target cell.”)) Claim 8: CAO-JAS-KIM teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the response message is conveyed via a downlink control information (DCI) scrambled by a radio network temporary identifier (RNTI) assigned to the UE for the selected one or more of the candidate target PCIs (JASSAL: col 34 line 6-11 (“…the UE monitors for the RA response (i.e. PDCCH transmission) on the newly acquired initial DL BWP for a DCI format scrambled with the UE RNTI indicated in the MAC-CE command, within the RA response window indicated in the MAC-CE command; and…”) wherein the response message/RA response message is conveyed in DCI format scrambled by UE RNTI for the MAC-CE command which indicated the one or more candidate target PCIs ) . It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to have modified CAO and KIM581 with JASSAL for the benefit of efficient management of inter-cell mobility (JASSAL: col 1 line 47-50) . Claim 9: CAO-JAS-KIM teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the response message is conveyed within a time window starting from when the network entity sends the selection command (JASSAL: col 34 line 6-11 (“…the UE monitors for the RA response (i.e. PDCCH transmission) on the newly acquired initial DL BWP for a DCI format scrambled with the UE RNTI indicated in the MAC-CE command, within the RA response window indicated in the MAC-CE command; and…”) wherein the time window is conveyed from the MAC-CE command/selection command ) . It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to have modified CAO and KIM581 with JASSAL for the benefit of efficient management of inter-cell mobility (JASSAL: col 1 line 47-50) . Claim 11: CAO-JAS-KIM teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the uplink signal further comprises at least one of an uplink reference signal or a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) (CAO: para 90-91 (“…to obtain the activation information of the downlink beam of the target cell to activate a corresponding receiving beam…the UE may perform uplink transmission using the receiving beam…so as to activate the uplink beam. For example, the UE may emit a…PUCCH…all of the sounding reference signal…the PUCCH…PRACH…PUSCH…may be emitted using the beam…”) and para 102 (“The uplink control beam…used for transmitting SRS, PUCCH, PRACH, and the like.”) wherein uplink signal to includes uplink reference signal/SRS and PUCCH ) . Claim 12: CAO-JAS-KIM teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the target cell sends the response message after receiving the uplink signal from the UE (JASSAL: FIG. 8B item 870 (“RA response”) the response message ) . It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to have modified CAO and KIM581 with JASSAL for the benefit of efficient management of inter-cell mobility (JASSAL: col 1 line 47-50) . Claim 13: CAO-JAS-KIM teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the handover procedure is initiated by the UE by: selecting one or more of the candidate target PCIs that satisfy the cell selection condition (JASSAL: col 36 line 47-57 (“…the UE attempts to detect and measure the indicated RRM-RS from the network for the indicated neighbor cell…is above a certain threshold for every measurement instance in the measurement window, then the UE continues to monitor transmissions…from the network for the indicated neighbor cell…below a certain threshold…the UE stops monitoring…”) wherein the UE initiates handover procedure by only selecting an indicated neighbor cell is it satisfies the certain threshold/cell selection condition ) ; and initiating a random access channel (RACH) procedure with the target cell (JASSAL: FIG. 8B step 865 (“YE transmits RA preamble to neighbor cell”) the initiation of RACH ) . It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to have modified CAO and KIM581 with JASSAL for the benefit of efficient management of inter-cell mobility (JASSAL: col 1 line 47-50) . Claim 14: CAO-JAS-KIM teaches the method of claim 13, wherein, for contention-free random access (CFRA) RACH: after sending a RACH preamble, the UE starts monitoring the physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) on the target cell (JASSAL: col 34 line 6-8 (“…the UE monitors for the RA response (i.e. PDCCH) transmission…”) wherein after RA preamble is sent, UE starts monitoring PDCCH for response & KIM581: para 226 (“…when the indicated random access is a CFRA procedure…”) wherein the RA is part of CFRA RACH ) . It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to have modified CAO and KIM581 with JASSAL for the benefit of efficient management of inter-cell mobility (JASSAL: col 1 line 47-50) . Claim 15: CAO-JAS-KIM teaches the method of claim 14, wherein the target cell sends the response message after receiving the RACH preamble from the UE (JASSAL: FIG. 8B step 870 (“RA response”) the response after the preamble ) . It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to have modified CAO and KIM581 with JASSAL for the benefit of efficient management of inter-cell mobility (JASSAL: col 1 line 47-50) . Claim 16: CAO-JAS-KIM teaches the method of claim 13, wherein the response message is conveyed via a downlink control information (DCI) scrambled by a radio network temporary identifier (RNTI) assigned to the UE for the selected one or more of the candidate target PCIs (JASSAL: col 34 line 6-11 (“…the UE monitors for the RA response (i.e. PDCCH transmission) on the newly acquired initial DL BWP for a DCI format scrambled with the UE RNTI indicated in the MAC-CE command, within the RA response window indicated in the MAC-CE command; and…”) wherein the response message/RA response message is conveyed in DCI format scrambled by UE RNTI for the MAC-CE command which indicated the one or more candidate target PCIs ) . It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to have modified CAO and KIM581 with JASSAL for the benefit of efficient management of inter-cell mobility (JASSAL: col 1 line 47-50) . Claim 17: CAO-JAS-KIM teaches the method of claim 13, wherein the response message is conveyed within a time window starting from when the network entity sends a selection command (JASSAL: col 34 line 6-11 (“…the UE monitors for the RA response (i.e. PDCCH transmission) on the newly acquired initial DL BWP for a DCI format scrambled with the UE RNTI indicated in the MAC-CE command, within the RA response window indicated in the MAC-CE command; and…”) wherein the time window is conveyed from the MAC-CE command/selection command ) . It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to have modified CAO and KIM581 with JASSAL for the benefit of efficient management of inter-cell mobility (JASSAL: col 1 line 47-50) . Claim 21: CAO teaches A method for wireless communications by a network entity, comprising: transmitting, to a user equipment (UE), signaling configuring multiple candidate target physical cell identifiers (PCIs) of at least one candidate target cell that supports physical (PHY) layer or medium access control (MAC) layer mobility signaling (CAO: FIG. 5 (“RRC configuration for Mobility RS and universal TCI state”); FIG. 16 and para 93-95 (“…the universal uplink TCI state is provided, which is similar to the universal TCI state…a cell may be selected. The cell may be a serving cell or a non-serving cell. The non-serving cell may be indicated by the PCI…The serving gNB configures multiple uplink TCI states of multiple non-serving cells for the UE via RRC signaling…”) wherein multiple non-serving/target cells are indicated via PCIs in the a configuring RRC signal for lower layer mobility signaling ) ; transmitting, to the UE, a selection command via PHY layer or MAC layer signaling indicating a selected one or more of the candidate target PCIs (CAO: FIG. 5 item (“MAC-CE including activation information of a downlink control beam”); FIG. 7, para 64 (“The serving gNB determines…that the UE is to be handed over to the target cell…the serving gNB activates one or more TCI states configured for the target cell through MAC CE…”) and para 69 (“…MAC CE signaling…the ID of the target cell is represented by 10 bits of PCI…”) wherein the MAC-CE is the selection command of a target cell indicated by a target PCI ) ; participating, based on PHY layer or MAC layer mobility signaling, in a handover of the UE to the target cell associated with the selected one or more of the candidate target PCIs, wherein the handover is initiated by the network entity (CAO: para 64 (“The serving gNB determines…that the UE is to be handed over to the target cell…the serving gNB activates one or more TCI states configured for the target cell through MAC CE…”) wherein serving gNB initiates UE to be handed over by selection command in a MAC CE ) While CAO teaches after transmitting the selection command, a target cell receiving an uplink signal, from the UE wherein the uplink signal comprises at least one of a physical random access channel (PRACH) preamble or a physical uplink shared channel (CAO: para 90-91 (“…to obtain the activation information of the downlink beam of the target cell to activate a corresponding receiving beam…the UE may perform uplink transmission using the receiving beam…so as to activate the uplink beam. For example, the UE may emit a…PUCCH…all of the sounding reference signal…the PUCCH…PRACH…PUSCH…may be emitted using the beam…”) wherein uplink signal to the target including PRACH or PUSCH ) ; CAO does not explicitly disclose receiving a cell selection request from the UE, via a target cell, wherein the uplink signal comprises at least one of a physical random access channel (PRACH) preamble or a physical uplink shared channel; transmitting, via the target cell, a response message indicating success of the handover; and terminating activity with one or more source PCIs after receiving the response message. JASSAL, in the same field of endeavor, teaches after transmitting the selection command (JASSAL: FIG. 7B and FIG. 8B the selection command being the MAC-CE ) , receiving from the UE, via a target cell a cell selection request (JASSAL: FIG. 7B and FIG. 8B wherein uplink signal sent to a target cell as a cell selection request can be a RA preamble (which is sent over a PRACH) or a PUSCH and FIG. 1B and col 9 line 30-35 (“…a base station may transmit phsycial layer signals that correspond to one or more cells…one cell may only be transmitted by one base station…”) wherein a base station is the network entity consisting of a source cell and target cell(s) ) ; and transmitting, via the target cell, a response message indicating success of the handover (JASSAL: FIG. 8B item 870 wherein successful reception of RA response in response to the RA preamble is an indication of the success of the handover ) . It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to have modified CAO with JASSAL, the combination hereby referred to as CAO-JASSAL, for the benefit of efficient management of inter-cell mobility (JASSAL: col 1 line 47-50) . However, CAO-JASSAL does not explicitly disclose receiving an indication directly from the UE confirming receipt of the response message by: the selected one or more of the candidate target PCIs; or one or more source PCIs with which the UE has terminated activity. KIM581, in the same field of endeavor, teaches receiving an indication from the UE confirming receipt of the response message to at least one of: the selected one or more of the source PCIs (KIM581: para 213 (“…when the second condition is satisfied, the UE…may stop receiving downlink data from the source gNB…and may release the connection with the source gNB. The second condition may be one of the following…”), para 214 (“When the UE performs the random access procedure to the target gNB through the layers…and receives the RAR…”), and para 277 (“UE…receives the a RAR message, the UE may determine that the random access procedure has been successfully completed…the UE may determine that the second condition is satisfied…”) wherein the UE releases the connection with the source PCI/source gNB once it UE has successfully received the RAR/response message ; para 235-237 (“…second condition is satisfied…UE 1h-20 may release the first bearer for the source gNB…release the connection with the source gNB..”) and para 388 (“…when the source gNB receives, from the UE, an indication indicating the release of connection with the source gNB…MAC CE…”) wherein releasing the connection with the source as a result of receiving a response message involves sending an indication, wherein the indication sent to release connection with the source gNB acts as a confirmation of receipt of response message/RAR as it happens as a result of receiving the response message ) . It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to have modified CAO-JASS with KIM581, hereby referred to as CAO-JAS-KIM, for the benefit of low transmission delay without data interruption (KIM581: para 7) . Claim 22: CAO-JAS-KIM teaches the method of 21, wherein the response message is conveyed via a downlink control information (DCI) (JASSAL: FIG. 8 col 34 (“…the UE monitors for the RA response (i.e., PDCCH transmission)…for a DCI format scrambled with the UE RNTI…”) wherein response message/RA response is in DCI ) . It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to have modified CAO and KIM581 with JASSAL for the benefit of efficient management of inter-cell mobility (JASSAL: col 1 line 47-50) . Claim 24: CAO-JAS-KIM teaches the method of 21, wherein the indication is conveyed via a MAC control element (MAC-CE) (KIM581: para 388 (“…when the source gNB receives, from the UE, an indication indicating the release of connection with the source gNB…MAC CE…”) wherein the indication is conveyed via MAC CE ) . Claim 29: JASSAL teaches an apparatus for wireless communications by a user equipment (UE), comprising: one or more processors coupled to memory (CAO: FIG. 30) . For further limitations, see rejection or claim 1. Claim 30: CAO teaches an apparatus for wireless communications by a network entity, comprising: one or more processors coupled to memory, the one or more processors being configured, individually or collectively (CAO: FIG. 28) . For further limitations, see rejection for claim 21. Claim 32: CAO-JAS-KIM teaches the method of claim 21 and the uplink signal, wherein the uplink signal comprises at least one of a physical random access channel (PRACH) preamble, uplink reference signal, physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), or physical uplink shared channel (CAO: para 90-91 (“…to obtain the activation information of the downlink beam of the target cell to activate a corresponding receiving beam…the UE may perform uplink transmission using the receiving beam…so as to activate the uplink beam. For example, the UE may emit a…PUCCH…all of the sounding reference signal…the PUCCH…PRACH…PUSCH…may be emitted using the beam…”) and para 102 (“The uplink control beam…used for transmitting SRS, PUCCH, PRACH, and the like.”) wherein uplink signal to includes uplink reference signal/SRS and PUCCH ) .. Claim 33: CAO-JAS-KIM teaches the method of claim 31, wherein the target cell sends the response message after receiving the uplink signal from the UE (JASSAL: FIG. 8B item 870 (“RA response”) the response message ) . It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to have modified CAO and KIM581 with JASSAL for the benefit of efficient management of inter-cell mobility (JASSAL: col 1 line 47-50) . Claim 34: CAO-JAS-KIM teaches the apparatus of claim 29. For further limitations, see rejection for claim 11 above. Claim 35: CAO-JAS-KIM teaches the apparatus of claim 29. For further limitations, see rejection for claim 12 above. Claim 36: CAO-JAS-KIM teaches the apparatus of claim 30. For further limitations, see rejection for claim 32 above. Claim 37: CAO-JAS-KIM teaches the apparatus of claim 30. For further limitations, see rejection for claim 33 above . 07-21-aia AIA Claim (s) 18-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over CAO-JAS-KIM in further view of DA SILVA et al. (US 20230007499 A1) (see 892 05/09/2024), hereby referred to as SILVA . Claim 18: CAO-JAS-KIM teaches the method of claim 13, wherein for contention-based random access (CBRA) RACH procedure (KIM581: para 228 (“…when the indicated random access is a CBRA procedure…”) wherein UE participates in CFBA RACH ) , after sending a RACH preamble, the UE: receives a random access response (RAR) message from the target cell that schedules a subsequent message (JASSAL: FIG. 8B step 865 (“UE transmits RA preamble to neighbor cell”) and step 870 (“RA response”) wherein after sending RACH preamble, UE receives RA response (RAR) and col 35 line 45-49 (“After receiving the RA response from the network for the neighbor cell…the UE monitors for PDCCH transmission from the network for the new serving cell using UE-RNTI=249.”) wherein UE waits for subsequent message after RAR ) . However, CAO-JAS-KIM does not explicitly disclose wherein the UE transmits an indication of its own identity in an uplink transmission after receiving the RAR message. SILVA, in the same field of endeavor, teaches wherein the UE transmits an indication of its own identity in an uplink transmission after receiving the RAR message (SILVA: para 373 (“UE…receiving a RAR and transmitting a MAC MSG.3 with its current Cell Radio Network Identifier (C-RNTI)…”) and para 396 (“...the uplink to the target cell that contains a UE identifier enabling the target to identify an incoming UE via MAC CE…The UE identifier may be the UE’s C-RNTI…”) wherein after RAR, UE indicates its identity/C-RNTI for the target cell/PCI ) . It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to have modified CAO-JAS-KIM with SILVA, the combination herby referred to as CAO-JAS-KIM-SILVA, for the benefit of flexible deployment for a plurality of candidate target PCIs that are not synchronized with the UE (SILVA: para 277) . Claim 19: CAO-JAS-KIM-SILVA teaches the method of claim 18 wherein the UE indicates its identity via a radio network temporary identifier (RNTI) assigned to the UE for the selected one or more of the candidate target PCIs (SILVA: para 373 (“UE…receiving a RAR and transmitting a MAC MSG.3 with its current Cell Radio Network Identifier (C-RNTI)…”) and para 396 (“...the uplink to the target cell that contains a UE identifier enabling the target to identify an incoming UE via MAC CE…The UE identifier may be the UE’s C-RNTI…”) wherein after RAR, UE indicates its identity/C-RNTI for the target cell/PCI ) . It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to have modified CAO-JAS-KIM with SILVA for the benefit of flexible deployment for a plurality of candidate target PCIs that are not synchronized with the UE (SILVA: para 277) . Claim 20: CAO-JAS-KIM-SILVA teaches the method of claim 18, wherein the UE receives the response message after transmitting the indication of the identity to the target cell (SILVA: para 194 (“That leads the UE 120 to perform random access in the new SPCell (possibly relying on contention free or contention based resources)…”) wherein contention-based random access has a msg4 acting as the response message ) . It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to have modified CAO-JAS-KIM with SILVA for the benefit of flexible deployment for a plurality of candidate target PCIs that are not synchronized with the UE (SILVA: para 277) . Conclusion 07-96 AIA The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. ZHANG et al. (US 20220303858 A1) teaches L1/L2-based handover procedure where the uplink signal is a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) (see FIG. 5). 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If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000. /A.T.N./Examiner, Art Unit 2416 /NOEL R BEHARRY/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2416 Application/Control Number: 17/371,696 Page 2 Art Unit: 2416 Application/Control Number: 17/371,696 Page 3 Art Unit: 2416 Application/Control Number: 17/371,696 Page 4 Art Unit: 2416 Application/Control Number: 17/371,696 Page 5 Art Unit: 2416 Application/Control Number: 17/371,696 Page 6 Art Unit: 2416 Application/Control Number: 17/371,696 Page 7 Art Unit: 2416 Application/Control Number: 17/371,696 Page 8 Art Unit: 2416 Application/Control Number: 17/371,696 Page 9 Art Unit: 2416 Application/Control Number: 17/371,696 Page 10 Art Unit: 2416 Application/Control Number: 17/371,696 Page 11 Art Unit: 2416 Application/Control Number: 17/371,696 Page 12 Art Unit: 2416 Application/Control Number: 17/371,696 Page 13 Art Unit: 2416 Application/Control Number: 17/371,696 Page 14 Art Unit: 2416 Application/Control Number: 17/371,696 Page 15 Art Unit: 2416 Application/Control Number: 17/371,696 Page 16 Art Unit: 2416 Application/Control Number: 17/371,696 Page 17 Art Unit: 2416 Application/Control Number: 17/371,696 Page 18 Art Unit: 2416 Application/Control Number: 17/371,696 Page 19 Art Unit: 2416 Application/Control Number: 17/371,696 Page 20 Art Unit: 2416 Application/Control Number: 17/371,696 Page 21 Art Unit: 2416 Application/Control Number: 17/371,696 Page 22 Art Unit: 2416 Application/Control Number: 17/371,696 Page 24 Art Unit: 2416 Application/Control Number: 17/371,696 Page 25 Art Unit: 2416
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