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 .
Response to Amendment
Applicant’s amendment filed on January 22, 2026 has been entered. Claims 1, 4, 12, 14, 19, 21, 27 and 29 have been amended. Claims 2-3, 8, 11, 15-18 and 20 were previously canceled. Claims 7 and 24 are newly canceled. Claims 30-31 have been added. Claims 1, 4-6, 9-10, 12-14, 19, 21-23 and 25-31 are still pending in this application, with claims 1 and 19 being independent.
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.
Claims 1, 12, 19, 27 and 30-31 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang et al. (U.S. PGPub 2022/0124463), hereinafter referred to as Zhang in view of Zhao (U.S. PGPub 2023/0354459), hereinafter referred to as Zhao.
Regarding claim 1, Zhang teaches a User Equipment (UE) (UE; See Fig. 1, #101), comprising:
a receiver (transceiver; See Fig. 1, #163); and
a processor (processor; See Fig. 1, #162);
the receiver configured to receive a Radio Resource Control (RRC) message (The UE monitors and detects one or more establishment conditions 801 for the MRB configuration. At step 810, upon detecting one or more establishment conditions, the UE can establish an MRB for an active MBS and a UE protocol stack based on the configured MRB, wherein the MRB is associated with one or two channels comprising a multicast channel and/or a unicast channel. The UE establishes/adds a MRB when one of the establishment conditions is met. The establishment conditions comprise initiating the active MBS, entering the multi-cast service area, re-entering the multi-cast service area, an indication of interest to receive the active MBS, and receiving a command, e.g., RRC reconfiguration message, to establish/add the MRB; See [0040]); and
wherein data transmitted through any of the first one or more logical channels and data transmitted through any of the second one or more logical channels are associated with a Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) entity (The packet retransmission is L2 retransmission (e.g., RLC retransmission and/or PDCP retransmission). In the PDCP-based retransmission 490, there is one PDCP entity 491 per MRB. Two logical channels, i.e., MTCH and DTCH are associated to the PDCP entity; See [0030]-[0031]), wherein the first one or more logical channels and the second one or more logical channels are configured for a Multicast/Broadcast (MBS) Radio Bearer (MRB) (the MRB 311 is configured to be associated to a MTCH and a DTCH, wherein MTCH is interpreted as the first logical channel and DTCH is interpreted as the second logical channel; See [0029]); and
wherein the first one or more logical channels and the second one or more logical channels are respectively associated with a first Radio Link Control (RLC) entity and a second RLC entity (Each logical channel is corresponding to a RLC entity, RLC 492 corresponding to the MTCH and RLC 493 corresponding to the DTCH; See Fig. 4 and [0031]), and the first RLC entity and the second RLC entity are associated with the PDCP entity (Two logical channels, i.e., MTCH and DTCH are associated to the PDCP entity; See [0031]).
While Zhang teaches releasing one or more logical channels (An MRB releasing module 194 releases the MRB upon detecting one or more releasing conditions. The release conditions comprise stop of the active MBS, leaving the multi-cast service area, an indication of stop receiving the active MBS, losing interest in the multicast services, receiving a command to release the MRB, and performing a state transition away from a UE CONNECTED state; See [0027], [0041]), but fails to teach of the processor configured to determine the release based on the RRC message and wherein the release of the first one or more logical channels or the second one or more logical channels is determined based on one or more of: an identifier indicated by the RRC message, a threshold associated with the RRC message, or monitoring of signaling on at least one interface.
Zhao teaches determining the release based on the RRC message (the RRC signaling of the sidelink interface carries at least one of the following information: a full configuration identifier of the sidelink interface; an identifier of the first terminal; an identifier of the second terminal; a radio bearer identifier or a logical channel identifier corresponding to an SLRB to be released between the first terminal and the second terminal; See [0016]) and wherein the release of the first one or more logical channels or the second one or more logical channels is determined based on one or more of: an identifier indicated by the RRC message (the RRC signaling of the sidelink interface carries at least one of the following information: a full configuration identifier of the sidelink interface; an identifier of the first terminal; an identifier of the second terminal; a radio bearer identifier or a logical channel identifier corresponding to an SLRB to be released between the first terminal and the second terminal; See [0016]), a threshold associated with the RRC message, or monitoring of signaling on at least one interface.
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify the apparatus of Zhang to include the processor configured to determine the release based on the RRC message and wherein the release of the first one or more logical channels or the second one or more logical channels is determined based on one or more of: an identifier indicated by the RRC message, a threshold associated with the RRC message, or monitoring of signaling on at least one interface taught by Zhao in order to minimize loss during movement.
Regarding claim 12, Zhang further teaches the UE according to claim 1, wherein:
the second one or more logical channels are associated with a Point-to-Point (PTP) branch of the MRB (the MRB 311 is configured in point-to-multipoint (PTM) leg 312 & point-to-point (PTP) leg 313, wherein the MTCH is associated with the PTP leg; See Fig. 3 and [0029]); and the first one or more logical channels are associated with a Point-to-MultiPoint (PTM) branch of the MRB (the MRB 311 is configured in point-to-multipoint (PTM) leg 312 & point-to-point (PTP) leg 313, wherein the MTCH is associated with the PTM leg; See Fig. 3 and [0029]).
Regarding claim 19, Zhang teaches a method performed by a user equipment (UE) (UE; See Fig. 1, #101), the method comprising:
receiving a Radio Resource Control (RRC) message (The UE monitors and detects one or more establishment conditions 801 for the MRB configuration. At step 810, upon detecting one or more establishment conditions, the UE can establish an MRB for an active MBS and a UE protocol stack based on the configured MRB, wherein the MRB is associated with one or two channels comprising a multicast channel and/or a unicast channel. The UE establishes/adds a MRB when one of the establishment conditions is met. The establishment conditions comprise initiating the active MBS, entering the multi-cast service area, re-entering the multi-cast service area, an indication of interest to receive the active MBS, and receiving a command, e.g., RRC reconfiguration message, to establish/add the MRB; See [0040]); and
wherein data transmitted through any of the first one or more logical channels and data transmitted through any of the second one or more logical channels are associated with a Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) entity (The packet retransmission is L2 retransmission (e.g., RLC retransmission and/or PDCP retransmission). In the PDCP-based retransmission 490, there is one PDCP entity 491 per MRB. Two logical channels, i.e., MTCH and DTCH are associated to the PDCP entity; See [0030]-[0031]), wherein the first one or more logical channels and the second one or more logical channels are configured for a Multicast/Broadcast (MBS) Radio Bearer (MRB) (the MRB 311 is configured to be associated to a MTCH and a DTCH, wherein MTCH is interpreted as the first logical channel and DTCH is interpreted as the second logical channel; See [0029]); and
wherein the first one or more logical channels and the second one or more logical channels are respectively associated with a first Radio Link Control (RLC) entity and a second RLC entity (Each logical channel is corresponding to a RLC entity, RLC 492 corresponding to the MTCH and RLC 493 corresponding to the DTCH; See Fig. 4 and [0031]), and the first RLC entity and the second RLC entity are associated with the PDCP entity (Two logical channels, i.e., MTCH and DTCH are associated to the PDCP entity; See [0031]).
Zhang fails to teach determining release of a first one or more logical channels or a second one or more logical channels based on the RRC message, wherein the release of the first one or more logical channels or the second one or more logical channels is determined based on one or more of: an identifier indicated by the RRC message, a threshold associated with the RRC message, or monitoring of signaling on at least one interface.
Zhao teaches determining the release based on the RRC message (the RRC signaling of the sidelink interface carries at least one of the following information: a full configuration identifier of the sidelink interface; an identifier of the first terminal; an identifier of the second terminal; a radio bearer identifier or a logical channel identifier corresponding to an SLRB to be released between the first terminal and the second terminal; See [0016]) and wherein the release of the first one or more logical channels or the second one or more logical channels is determined based on one or more of: an identifier indicated by the RRC message (the RRC signaling of the sidelink interface carries at least one of the following information: a full configuration identifier of the sidelink interface; an identifier of the first terminal; an identifier of the second terminal; a radio bearer identifier or a logical channel identifier corresponding to an SLRB to be released between the first terminal and the second terminal; See [0016]), a threshold associated with the RRC message, or monitoring of signaling on at least one interface.
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify the method of Zhang to include the processor configured to determine the release based on the RRC message and wherein the release of the first one or more logical channels or the second one or more logical channels is determined based on one or more of: an identifier indicated by the RRC message, a threshold associated with the RRC message, or monitoring of signaling on at least one interface taught by Zhao in order to minimize loss during movement.
Regarding claim 27, Zhang further teaches the method according to claim 19, wherein: the second one or more logical channels are associated with a Point-to-Point (PTP) branch of the MRB (the MRB 311 is configured in point-to-multipoint (PTM) leg 312 & point-to-point (PTP) leg 313, wherein the MTCH is associated with the PTP leg; See Fig. 3 and [0029]); and the first one or more logical channels are associated with a Point-to-MultiPoint (PTM) branch of the MRB (the MRB 311 is configured in point-to-multipoint (PTM) leg 312 & point-to-point (PTP) leg 313, wherein the MTCH is associated with the PTM leg; See Fig. 3 and [0029]).
Regarding claim 30, Zhang fails to teach the UE of claim 1, wherein the identifier indicated by the RRC message is an identifier of the first one or more logical channels or an identifier of the second one or more logical channels.
Zhao teaches wherein the identifier indicated by the RRC message is an identifier of the first one or more logical channels or an identifier of the second one or more logical channels (the RRC signaling of the sidelink interface carries at least one of the following information: a full configuration identifier of the sidelink interface; an identifier of the first terminal; an identifier of the second terminal; a radio bearer identifier or a logical channel identifier corresponding to an SLRB to be released between the first terminal and the second terminal; See [0016]).
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify the apparatus of Zhang to include the processor configured to wherein the identifier indicated by the RRC message is an identifier of the first one or more logical channels or an identifier of the second one or more logical channels taught by Zhao in order to minimize loss during movement.
Regarding claim 31, Zhang fails to teach the method of claim 19, wherein the identifier indicated by the RRC message is an identifier of the first one or more logical channels or an identifier of the second one or more logical channels.
Zhao teaches wherein the identifier indicated by the RRC message is an identifier of the first one or more logical channels or an identifier of the second one or more logical channels (the RRC signaling of the sidelink interface carries at least one of the following information: a full configuration identifier of the sidelink interface; an identifier of the first terminal; an identifier of the second terminal; a radio bearer identifier or a logical channel identifier corresponding to an SLRB to be released between the first terminal and the second terminal; See [0016]).
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify the method of Zhang to include the processor configured to wherein the identifier indicated by the RRC message is an identifier of the first one or more logical channels or an identifier of the second one or more logical channels taught by Zhao in order to minimize loss during movement.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4-6, 9-10, 13-14, 21-23, 25-26 and 28-29 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Claim 4 appears to be novel and inventive because prior art fails to show or teach the UE according to claim 1, wherein the RRC message indicates a first threshold, the first threshold being used to determine release of the second one or more logical channels; wherein: when a second sequence number is greater than or equal to a first threshold, the second one or more logical channels are released; wherein, when a difference between a second sequence number and a first sequence number is less than a first threshold, the second one or more logical channels are released; wherein the first sequence number comprises: a sequence number of a first- type packet occupied by data transmitted through the first one or more logical channels; and the sequence number of the first-type packet comprises at least one of an Sequence Number (SN) or a COUNT value.
Claim 5 appears to be novel and inventive because prior art fails to show or teach the UE according to claim 1, wherein a first timer is started upon reception of the RRC message; and, when the first timer expires, the second one or more logical channels are released.
Claim 6 appears to be novel and inventive because prior art fails to show or teach the UE according to claim 1, comprising: a transmitter configured to transmit control information, the control information indicating that the second one or more logical channels are released, wherein the control information is transmitted via a signaling; the control information is transmitted through a logical channel that is not part of the first one or more logical channels or the second one or more logical channels
Claims 9-10 appear to be novel and inventive because prior art fails to show or teach the UE according to claim 1, wherein a scheduling signaling received on an air interface for the data transmitted through any of the first one or more logical channels is identified by a non-unicast RNTI, and a scheduling signaling received on an air interface for the data transmitted through any of the second one or more logical channels is identified by a unicast RNTI.
Claims 13-14 appear to be novel and inventive because prior art fails to show or teach the UE according to claim 12, wherein: a scheduling signaling received on an air interface for the data transmitted through any of the first one or more logical channels is identified by a non-unicast RNTI, and a scheduling signaling received on an air interface for the data transmitted through any of the second one or more logical channels is identified by a unicast RNTI.
Claim 21 appears to be novel and inventive because prior art fails to show or teach the method according to claim 19, wherein the RRC message indicates a first threshold, the first threshold being used to determine release of the second one or more logical channels group; wherein: when a second sequence number is greater than or equal to a first threshold, the second one or more logical channels are released; when a difference between a second sequence number and a first sequence number is less than a first threshold, the second one or more logical channels are released;
wherein the first sequence number comprises: a sequence number of a first- type packet occupied by data transmitted through the first one or more logical channels; and the sequence number of the first-type packet comprises at least one of an Sequence Number (SN) or a COUNT value.
Claim 22 appears to be novel and inventive because prior art fails to show or teach the method according to claim 19, wherein a first timer is started upon reception of the RRC message; and, when the first timer expires, the second one or more logical channels are released.
Claim 23 appears to be novel and inventive because prior art fails to show or teach the method according to claim 19, further comprising: transmitting control information indicating that the second one or more logical channels are released, wherein the control information is transmitted via a signaling; the control information is transmitted through a logical channel that is not part of the first one or more logical channels or the second one or more logical channels.
Claims 25-26 appear to be novel and inventive because prior art fails to show or teach the method according to claim 19, wherein a scheduling signaling received on an air interface for the data transmitted through any of the first one or more logical channels is identified by a non-unicast RNTI, and a scheduling signaling received on an air interface for the data transmitted through any of the second one or more logical channels is identified by a unicast RNTI.
Claims 28-29 appear to be novel and inventive because prior art fails to show or teach the method according to claim 27, wherein: a scheduling signaling received on an air interface for the data transmitted through any of the first one or more logical channels is identified by a non-unicast RNTI, and a scheduling signaling received on an air interface for the data transmitted through any of the second one or more logical channels is identified by a unicast RNTI.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see pages 11-12, filed January 22, 2026, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 1 and 19 under Wu (U.S. PGPub 2019/0132891), hereinafter referred to as Wu 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 using Zhang et al. (U.S. PGPub 2022/0124463), hereinafter referred to as Zhang in view of Zhao (U.S. PGPub 2023/0354459), hereinafter referred to as Zhao.
After further search and consideration, Examiner has found that Wu still fails to teach the amended claim language. Examiner has introduced the Zhang reference which teaches wherein the first one or more logical channels and the second one or more logical channels are configured for a Multicast/Broadcast (MBS) Radio Bearer (MRB) (the MRB 311 is configured to be associated to a MTCH and a DTCH, wherein MTCH is interpreted as the first logical channel and DTCH is interpreted as the second logical channel; See [0029]).
Claims 4-6, 9-10, 13-14, 21-23, 25-26 and 28-29 appear to still claim allowable subject matter and have thus been indicated as allowable again.
Conclusion
Any response to this action should be mailed to:
Commissioner for Patents,
P.O. Box 1450
Alexandria, VA 22313-1450
Hand delivered responses should be brought to:
Customer Service Window
Randolph Building
401 Dulany Street
Alexandria, VA 22314
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ASHLEY L SHIVERS whose telephone number is (571)270-3523. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 9:00am-5:00pm.
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, Chirag Shah can be reached at 571-272-3144. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/ASHLEY SHIVERS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2477 5/29/2026
Prosecution Insights