DETAILED ACTION
This action is responsive to claims filed on 07/02/2026 and Information Disclosure Statements filed on 04/19/2023.
Claims 11-12 are pending for examination.
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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Response to Amendment
Applicant’s arguments, see Remarks, Pages 4-6, filed 07/02/2026, with respect to the rejection(s) of Claims 11 and 12 were rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over Lee et al. (US 20230276458 A1) in view of Kwon et al. (US 20250309969 A1). have been fully considered and are persuasive. Lee teaches the base station provides an explicit indicator of whether HARQ feedback transmission is activated or deactivated for each MBS service ID (to G-RNTI) See FIG. 12, ¶[0241], [0005], [0128], [0188]-[0189], [0197], [0211], [0207-[0209]. The UE determines this based on received configuration, and if enabled, transmits HARQ-ACK/NACK based on the decoding result ¶[0193]. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 102 (a)(2) as being unpatentable over Wang et al (WO 2022016364 A1).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 11 and 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 102 (a)(2)as being unpatentable Wang et al (WO 2022016364 A1).
With regarding Claim 11: Wang disclose A user equipment (UE), comprising a processor configured to (See FIG. 1 (b), ¶[0018]): receive a medium access control (MAC) packet data unit (PDU) or a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) for a multicast broadcast service (MBS) identifier, which is a group- radio network temporary identifier (G-RNTI) (See FIG. 4, and ¶[0019], [0035]). Disclosed that the UE receives a PDCCH scrambled with G-RNTI to decode the MTCH data (which carries the MBS service data/MAC PDU) via the multicast PDSCH (which carries the Transport Block (TB). MTCH is the logical channel for MBS data, and the TB is the physical layer equivalent of the MAC PDU.)); and in response to receiving the MAC PDU or the PDCCH for the G-RNTI, determine whether hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback is enabled for the G-RNTI See FIG. 4, and ¶[0019]-[0022], [0028], [0035]. Disclosed that the UE for the AlT-4B reception mode, which is defined as Point-to-Multipoint (PTM) / Point-to-Point (PTP) reception with HARQ layer uplink feedback. ¶[0019] that initial PTM transmission is scheduled by the G-RNTI, configuring the UE for Alt-4B inherently means the UE determines that HARQ feedback is enabled for the G-RNTI-scheduled multicast service.), and in a case that the HARQ feedback is enabled for the G-RNTI, monitor a PDCCH for a cell-radio network temporary identifier (C-RNTI) or a configured scheduling RNTI (CS-RNTI) corresponding to retransmission of MBS service data. (See FIG. 4, and ¶[0028], [0032],
[0035], [0039]. Disclosed the UE monitors the C-RNTI scrambled PDCCH for PTP reception, this C-RNTI monitoring in the Alt-4B mode “from PTP leg the UE can only receive the HARQ retransmission of a TB” (where the TB is the multicast/MBS data). Therefore, when HARQ feedback is enabled for the G-RNTI (Alt-4B), the UE monitors the C-RNTI specifically to receive the HARQ retransmission of the multicast data.). With regarding Claim 12: Wang disclose A user equipment (UE), comprising a processor configured to (See FIG. 1 (b), ¶[0018]): receive a medium access control (MAC) packet data unit (PDU) or a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) for a multicast broadcast service (MBS) identifier, which is a group- radio network temporary identifier (G-RNTI) (See FIG. 4, and ¶[0019], [0035]). Disclosed that the UE receives a PDCCH scrambled with G-RNTI to decode the MTCH data (which carries the MBS service data/MAC PDU) via the multicast PDSCH (which carries the Transport Block (TB). MTCH is the logical channel for MBS data, and the TB is the physical layer equivalent of the MAC PDU.)); and in response to receiving the MAC PDU or the PDCCH for the G-RNTI, determine whether hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback is enabled for the G-RNTI See FIG. 4, and ¶[0019], [0028], [0035]. Disclosed that the UE for the AlT-4B reception mode, which is defined as Point-to-Multipoint (PTM) / Point-to-Point (PTP) reception with HARQ layer uplink feedback. ¶[0019] that initial PTM transmission is scheduled by the G-RNTI, configuring the UE for Alt-4B inherently means the UE determines that HARQ feedback is enabled for the G-RNTI-scheduled multicast service.), and in a case that the HARQ feedback is enabled for the G-RNTI, monitor a PDCCH for a cell-radio network temporary identifier (C-RNTI) or a configured scheduling RNTI (CS-RNTI) corresponding to retransmission of MBS service data. (See FIG. 4, and ¶[0028], [0032],
[0035], [0039]. Disclosed the UE monitors the C-RNTI scrambled PDCCH for PTP reception, this C-RNTI monitoring in the Alt-4B mode “from PTP leg the UE can only receive the HARQ retransmission of a TB” (where the TB is the multicast/MBS data). Therefore, when HARQ feedback is enabled for the G-RNTI (Alt-4B), the UE monitors the C-RNTI specifically to receive the HARQ retransmission of the multicast data.).
Conclusion
The prior art made record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicants disclosure US 20180049060 A1(hereafter Fujishiro). Fujishiro teaches that the base station performs an initial multicast transmission using a Group-RNTI (G-RNTI). Where HARQ feedback is enabled and the UE fails to decode the data, it transmits a NACK. In response, the base station performs a retransmission of the SC-PTM (multicast) data using a unicast transmission addressed to the UE’s specific Cell-RNTI (C_RNTI), furthermore, the network notifies the UE of the mapping information between the G-RNTI applied for the first transmission and the C-RNTI applied for the retransmission See FIG. 06, 09-12, ¶[0076]-[0080], [0101], [0118], [0125], [0129]-[0132], [0140]-[0143], [0156], [0193].
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SHIVAKRISHNA VALLAMDASU whose telephone number is (571)272-5249. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM EST.
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SHIVAKRISHNA . VALLAMDASU
Examiner
Art Unit 2468
/MARCUS SMITH/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2468
