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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 February 23, 2026 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments with respect to claims 1, 2, 4-31 have been considered but are moot in view of the new ground(s) of rejection.
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.
Claims 1, 2, 4, 6, 26-28, 31 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lee et al. (U.S. Patent Application Number: 2020/0120634) in view of Jalali (U.S. Patent Application Number: 2017/0325221).
Consider claim 1; Lee discloses a user equipment (UE) for wireless communication, comprising:
one or more memories (par. 31, lines 1-6); and
one or more processors coupled to the one or more memories (par. 31, lines 1-6), the one or more memories storing instructions configurable to be executed by the one or more processors to cause the UE to:
monitor one or more paging search spaces (par. 100, lines 1-3), in a paging occasion (par. 100, lines 1-3), that correspond to the one or more beams other than the serving beam based at least in part on the determination that the SINR of the serving beam does not satisfy the first SIN threshold [e.g. based on beam quality requirement (par. 137, lines 2-18)]; and
stop the monitoring of the one or more paging search spaces in the paging occasion based at least in part on a determination that a paging message in the one or more paging search spaces has been successfully decoded (par. 138, lines 15-17), wherein the UE comprises a mobile device (par. 18, lines 10-27).
Lee discloses the claimed invention except: determine that a signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) of a serving beam does not satisfy a first SINR threshold;
in response to the determination, select one or more beams, other than the serving beam, based at least in part on each beam of the one or more beams satisfying a second SINR threshold that is less than or equal to the first SINR threshold.
In an analogous art Jalali discloses determine that a signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) of a serving beam does not satisfy a first SINR threshold [e.g. the signal quality of a neighboring beam is greater (par. 127, lines 5-17)];
in response to the determination [e.g. the signal quality of a neighboring beam is greater (par. 127, lines 5-17)], select one or more beams (par. 127, lines 18-19), other than the serving beam (par. 127, lines 18-19), based at least in part on each beam of the one or more beams satisfying a second SINR threshold that is less than or equal to the first SINR threshold [e.g. within an acceptable threshold power of the serving beam (par. 66, lines 15-21; par. 89, lines 6-10; par. 127, lines 13-19)]].
It is an object of Lee’s invention to provide a method of transmitting and receiving between devices. It is an object of Jalali’s invention to provide a method for optimally communicating. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teaching of Lee by including multiple thresholds, as taught by Jalali, for the purpose of effectively managing communication in a wireless network.
Consider claim 2, as applied in claim 1; Lee discloses the paging message includes a synchronization signal block (par. 93, lines 1-6; par. 137, lines 22-25).
Consider claim 4, as applied in claim 1; Lee discloses a quantity of the one or more beams does not exceed a maximum quantity of beams [e.g. a subset (par. 137, lines 25-30)].
Consider claim 6, as applied in claim 1; Lee discloses cause the UE to monitor the one or more paging search spaces further based at least in part on a determination that a monitor flag to indicate multiple beam monitoring is true (par. 121, lines 1-15; par. 138, lines 12-17).
Consider claim 26; Lee discloses a method of wireless communication performed by a user equipment (UE), comprising:
monitor one or more paging search spaces (par. 100, lines 1-3), in a paging occasion (par. 100, lines 1-3), that correspond to the one or more beams other than the serving beam based at least in part on the determination that the SINR of the serving beam does not satisfy the first SIN threshold [e.g. based on beam quality requirement (par. 137, lines 2-18)]; and
stop the monitoring of the one or more paging search spaces in the paging occasion based at least in part on a determination that a paging message in the one or more paging search spaces has been successfully decoded (par. 138, lines 15-17), wherein the UE comprises a mobile device (par. 18, lines 10-27).
Lee discloses the claimed invention except: determine that a signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) of a serving beam does not satisfy a first SINR threshold;
in response to the determination, select one or more beams, other than the serving beam, based at least in part on each beam of the one or more beams satisfying a second SINR threshold that is less than or equal to the first SINR threshold.
In an analogous art Jalali discloses determine that a signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) of a serving beam does not satisfy a first SINR threshold [e.g. the signal quality of a neighboring beam is greater (par. 127, lines 5-17)];
in response to the determination [e.g. the signal quality of a neighboring beam is greater (par. 127, lines 5-17)], select one or more beams (par. 127, lines 18-19), other than the serving beam (par. 127, lines 18-19), based at least in part on each beam of the one or more beams satisfying a second SINR threshold that is less than or equal to the first SINR threshold [e.g. within an acceptable threshold power of the serving beam (par. 66, lines 15-21; par. 89, lines 6-10; par. 127, lines 13-19)]].
It is an object of Lee’s invention to provide a method of transmitting and receiving between devices. It is an object of Jalali’s invention to provide a method for optimally communicating. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teaching of Lee by including multiple thresholds, as taught by Jalali, for the purpose of effectively managing communication in a wireless network.
Consider claim 27, as applied in claim 26; Lee discloses a quantity of the one or more beams does not exceed a maximum quantity of beams [e.g. a subset (par. 137, lines 25-30)].
Consider claim 28, as applied in claim 26; Lee discloses cause the UE to monitor the one or more paging search spaces further based at least in part on a determination that a monitor flag to indicate multiple beam monitoring is true (par. 121, lines 1-15; par. 138, lines 12-17).
Consider claim 31, as applied in claim 26; Lee discloses the paging message includes a synchronization signal block (par. 93, 94; par. 138, lines 15-17).
Allowable Subject Matter
Dependent claims 5, 7-10 will all need to be included in independent claims 1 and 26 to clearly indicate the patentable subject matter. All of the independent claims will need to have the embedded limitations as separate limitations that are performed by the UE. For instance, claims 1 and 26, have in the stopping steps “at least in part on a determination.” This also applies to independent claims 11 and 19. “after a determination” in claim 11 and “after a determination” and “at least in part on a determination” in claim 19 will need to be amended to make it clear that these determinations are also performed by the UE in separate limitations.
Conclusion
Any response to this Office Action should be faxed to (571) 273-8300 or mailed to:
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Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the Examiner should be directed to Joel Ajayi whose telephone number is (571) 270-1091. The Examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday from 7:30am to 5:00pm.
If attempts to reach the Examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the Examiner’s supervisor, Matthew Anderson can be reached on (571) 272-4177. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is (571) 273-8300.
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/JOEL AJAYI/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2646