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 .
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 text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 1-6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable by Ishii (2019/0349841), hereinafter Ishii in view of Iwahashi et al (JP 2005260610 A), hereinafter Iwahashi.
Re. Claims 1 and 4, Ishii teaches a terminal device comprising: a storage unit that stores type 1 identification information for indicating an unspecified base station device and type 2 identification information for indicating a specified base station device (Fig. 23, & ¶0189 - FIG. 23 shows an example of such electronic machinery or circuitry, whether node or terminal, as comprising one or more processor(s) circuits 190, program instruction memory 192; other memory 194 (e.g., RAM, cache, etc.); input/output interfaces 196; peripheral interfaces 198; support circuits 199; and busses 200 for communication between the aforementioned units); a transmitter that includes (Fig. 23); a receiver that receives a second signal, designating the terminal device as a transmission destination, from the base station device in response to the first signal (¶0083 - The Minimum SI may contain information about the Other SI, including the delivery method, e.g., periodic broadcast/on-demand, scheduling information, validity information, etc. Based on the information, the wireless terminal in act 3-2 may determine which SI message(s) to acquire by on-demand. As act 3-3, the wireless terminal may send a request message (depicted as message 2-2 of FIG. 2) to the access node, the request message indicating the SI message(s) that the wireless terminal desires to obtain. As act 3-4 the wireless terminal 26 may attempt to receive the requested SI message(s) which, e.g., was sent using message 2-3 of FIG. 2); a processor that: extracts, from the second signal received by the receiver, the type 2 identification information for identifying the base station device transmitting the second signal (Fig. 2 & ¶0078 - The terminal processor 40 of wireless terminal 26 comprises, e.g., SI processor 56, to facilitate obtaining and use of system information), and measures a period of time elapsed since extraction of the type 2 identification information (¶0092 – [T]he wireless terminal starts a timer at the beginning of the SI reception procedure. In this configuration, the SI reception procedure may end when the requested SI message(s) are successfully received, or when the timer expires), wherein when the period of time measured by the processor does not exceed a threshold value and when the second signal is received from the base station device (¶0092 - The SI reception procedure may end when the requested SI message(s) are successfully received, or when the timer expires), the transmitter transmits the first signal designating the base station device at the destination by the type 2 identification information (Fig. 9B & ¶0094 - The access node may include in Minimum SI a set of Preamble indices, each of which is designated for requesting on-demand delivery of one or more specific SI messages… the wireless terminal in any RRC state may transmit Random Access Preamble sequence given by the Preamble Index associated with the SI message(s)), and when the period of time measured by the processor exceeds the threshold value, the transmitter transmits the first signal designating the base station device at the destination by the type 1 identification information, instead of the type 2 identification information Fig. 12 & ¶0106 – [T]he terminal processor 40 is configured, upon a failure of the SI message acquisition process involving a periodically broadcasted second type SI message, to initiate acquisition of the first type system information, e.g., to again request the first type system information (Minimum SI) from the radio access node 22(17)).
Yet, Ishii does not expressly teach when transmitting, in communication between terminal devices performed via a base station device, a first signal including information designating a further terminal device as a transmission destination to the base station device, the type 1 identification information in the first signal when the type 2 identification information is not stored in the storage unit and includes the type 2 identification information in the first signal when the type 2 identification information is stored in the storage unit.
However, Iwahashi explicitly teaches when transmitting, in communication between terminal devices performed via a base station device, a first signal including information designating a further terminal device as a transmission destination to the base station device (Pg. 1, Paragraph 3 - The terminal device receives the signal transmitted from the base station device, extracts the identification number included in the received signal, and is included in the received signal when the extracted identification number is its own identification number), the type 1 identification information in the first signal when the type 2 identification information is not stored in the storage unit and includes the type 2 identification information in the first signal when the type 2 identification information is stored in the storage unit (Pg. 1, Paragraph 3 - The terminal device receives the signal transmitted from the base station device, extracts the identification number included in the received signal, and is included in the received signal when the extracted identification number is its own identification number. Pg. 2, Paragraph 4- if the signal or identification number for notifying the terminal device included in the payload is removed, even if the power consumption problem can be solved, communication with these base station devices and terminal devices becomes impossible. Examiner interprets that the identifying information given to the terminal from the base station satisfies the Type 2 information requirement.)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add the teaching of Iwahashi to the teaching of Ishii. The motivation for such would be as Iwahashi provides a means for terminal-to-terminal communication via a base station that includes the base station transferring location information, including the location of the base station to the terminal (Pg. 1, Paragraph 3, Iwahashi). All of the claimed elements were known in the prior art and one skilled in the art could have combined the elements, as claimed by known methods, and the combination would have yielded predictable results to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time of invention.
Re. Claim 2, Ishii and Iwahashi teaches Claim 1.
Additionally, Ishii further teaches wherein the processor extracts the type 2 identification information (¶0133 - [W]hen acquiring an SI message, the UE may perform the following acts… & ¶0136 - Receive DL-SCH using the SI-RNTI from the start of the SI-window and continue until the end of the SI-window whose absolute length in time is given by si-WindowLength, or until the SI message was received) and resets the period of time when the receiver receives the second signal before the period of time measured by the processor exceeds the threshold value (¶0133 – [W]hen acquiring an SI message, the UE may perform the following acts… & ¶0139 - Set the SI window counter 82 to 0 (or Start SI message acquisition process timer 84)).
Re. Claims 3 and 5, Ishii and Iwahashi teach Claims 1 and 4.
Additionally, Ishii expressly teaches wherein the type 1 identification information is a first tone signal (¶0043 – [A] first type of the system information is Minimum System Information (Minimum SI)… periodically broadcasted by each access node), the type 2 identification information is a second tone signal (¶0043-0044 – [S]econd type system information contains all the other types of information… the access node may choose to broadcast the SIB periodically, similar to the SIBs in Minimum SI), and the first tone signal and the second tone signal are different (¶0043-0044 - A first type of the system information is Minimum System Information (Minimum SI), minimally containing information required for UEs initially access to the network… A second type of system information, e.g., "Other system information, "Other SI", or second type system information contains all the other types of information, i.e., all types of system information except the Minimum System Information).
Re. Claim 4, this claim contains limitations similar to the limitations presented in the terminal device claimed in Claim 1 that has been rejected above. Applicant’s attention is directed to the rejection of Claim 1.
Additionally, Ishii expressly teaches a wireless communication system which contains a base station device (¶0003 - In wireless communication systems, a radio access network generally comprises one or more access nodes (such as a base station) which communicate on radio channels over a radio or air interface with plural wireless terminals.) which includes: a receiver that receives the first signal from the terminal device (Fig. 2 & ¶0056 – [T]he access node 22 comprises node processor 30, e.g., node processor circuitry 30, transmitter circuit 34, and, receiver circuit 36... The receiver circuit 36 is configured to receive from the wireless terminal a request message to request delivery of the SI message which is available by on-demand basis); an output circuit that outputs, when information on the transmission destination included in the first signal received by the base station receiver designates the type 1 identification information OR the type 2 identification information indicating the base station device, the information included in the signal (¶0056 – [T]he access node 22 comprises node processor 30, e.g., node processor circuitry 30, transmitter circuit 34, and, receiver circuit 36… The transmitter circuit 34 is configured to transmit the first type system information over a radio interface, the first type system information including availability of a SI message belonging to the second type system information); a base station receiver that receives the first signal (¶0081 - The receiver circuit 36 is configured to receive from the wireless terminal a request message to request delivery of the SI message which is available by on-demand basis) and a base station transmitter that transmits a signal including the type 2 identification information indicating the base station device (¶0056 – [T]he access node 22 comprises node processor 30, e.g., node processor circuitry 30, transmitter circuit 34, and, receiver circuit 36… The transmitter circuit 34 is further configured to transmit the SI message to the wireless terminal).
Re. Claim 6, Claim 6 recites that method as disclosed in Claims 1 and 4 as rejected above. Likewise, Claim 6 is rejected on the same grounds as outlined previously.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, filed on 10/06/2025, with respect to claims 1-5 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection. Applicant has amended Claims 1 and 4 to reflect that the Type 1 and Type 2 identification information indicates the availability of a base station as stored in the terminal device. In response to this amendment, Examiner has removed previously used reference Eitoku and introduced new reference Iwahashi which discloses a system of terminal devices which receive and store location and identification information regarding a base station used to help relay terminal-to-terminal communications (Pg. 1, Paragraph 3 - The terminal device receives the signal transmitted from the base station device, extracts the identification number included in the received signal, and is included in the received signal when the extracted identification number is its own identification number). Examiner finds that Ishii’s methods of using identifier data to be applicable to the identification information disclosed in Iwashashi and maintains the previous rejection is most part. Additionally, claims 2, 3, and 5 are rejected as being dependent on the rejected Claims 1 and 4. Further still, newly introduced Claim 6 is rejected under the same grounds as Claims 1 and 4 as it provides the methods outlined therein.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
• Yang et al. (2017/0208523) - Figs. 1, 5, and 7, ¶0006-0010, 0045-0051
• Lee et al. (2022/0232408) - ¶0109
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. 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 NOAH JAMES SUGDEN whose telephone number is (571)270-7406. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Thurs 9:00-6:00 ET, Fri 9:00-1:00 ET.
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, Khaled Kassim can be reached at (571) 270-3770. 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.
/N.J.S./Examiner, Art Unit 2475
/KHALED M KASSIM/supervisory patent examiner, Art Unit 2475
Prosecution Insights