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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 04/01/2026 has been entered.
Response to Amendment
The amendment filed on 04/01/2026 has been entered. Claims 48, 51 and 54 are amended. Claims 60-66 are new. Therefore, claims 48, 50-51, 53-54, and 56-66 are pending and addressed below.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
Claims 48, 50-51, 53-54, and 56-66 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the written description requirement. The claim(s) contains subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to reasonably convey to one skilled in the relevant art that the inventor or a joint inventor, or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the inventor(s), at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention.
With respect to independent claims 48, 51, 54, amendment in the claims recite “in response to receiving the DCI sent by the network device within a skip period of the plurality of skip periods, skipping monitoring the PDCCH by the UE for at least one skip period corresponding to remaining time of an active time associated with a first discontinuous reception (DRX) cycle.”. Applicant cited Fig. 6 and para [55] for the support of the amendment. However, para [55] discloses that a GTS, not DCI, triggers skipping or stopping of PDCCH monitoring. Para [55] further teaches GTS, as a reception moment, may be received with a time period of multiple time periods of the ON Duration of a DRX cycle. These time periods are not disclosed as plurality of skip periods in the claim. Moreover, Fig. 6 and para [55] discloses initiation of a skip period, not the adaptation of a skip period, as claimed in the first limitation.
Amendment further recites “wherein the RRC signaling indicates a plurality of skip periods;”. However, disclosure does not teach that RRC indicates plurality of skip periods dividing the ON Duration time-span of a DRX cycle. Spec para [114]-[120] recite different multiple skip periods, carried in RRC (see para [121]), which does not recite plurality of skip periods spanning the ON Duration of a DRX cycle.
Moreover, claim feature “DCI notifies the UE to adapt a skip period” is disclosed in para [47] as changing the skip period between DRX short cycle skip period and DRX long cycle skip period. There is no disclosure about changing or adapting of a skip period in On Duration time periods.
Therefore, amendment introduces new matter.
Dependent claims are subjected to the same rejection because of their dependency on the above rejected claims.
Examiners Note
Applicant is further advised to check regulatory rules when combining alternative embodiments in the disclosure.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed on 04/01/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive, in view of new matter situation of the amendment.
Conclusion
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/MAHBUBUL BAR CHOWDHURY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2475
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