CTFR 18/249,136 CTFR 90783 DETAILED ACTION Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status 07-03-aia AIA 15-10-aia The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA. This office action is a response to an application filed on 01/26/2026 in which claims 23-25, 27-31 and 33-38 are pending. Claims 1-22, 26 and 32 were canceled. Information Disclosure Statement The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted 02/12/2026 and 03/20/2026 have been considered by the examiner. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Response to Amendment Applicant’s Arguments/Remarks filed on 01/26/2026 with respect to amended independent claim 23 have been fully considered. Based on the amendments to the claims, further consideration and search were performed resulting in a new ground(s) of rejection presented below. The claims have not overcome the claim rejections as shown below. Claims 23-25, 27-31 and 33-38 are pending. Claims 1-22, 26 and 32 were canceled. Response to Arguments Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim 23 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument. Therefore, the amended independent claim 23 is rendered unpatentable. Independent claim 31 recites similar distinguishing features as claim 23, thus is also rendered unpatentable. As a result the features of the claims are shown by the cited references as set forth below. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112 07-30-02 AIA The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b): (b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention. The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA), second paragraph: The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention. 07-34-01 Claim 30 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention. Claim 30 recites “… wherein the determining is based …”. Claim 23 recites “ determining whether to compensate ” and “ determining the propagation delay ”. It is not clear to which of the determining in claim 23 the claim 30 is referring to, thus rendering the claim indefinite. For examination purposes, the Examiner interpreted “… wherein the determining is based …” in claim 30 as referring to the “ determining whether to compensate ” in claim 23. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102 07-06 AIA 15-10-15 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. 07-07-aia AIA 07-07 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 – 07-12-aia AIA (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. 07-15-03-aia AIA Claim s 23-24, 27-28, 30-31, 33, 35-36 and 38 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Lin (US 2023/0300766) . As to claim 23 , Lin teaches a method performed by a user equipment, UE (Lin, Fig. 5, [0057], a method of propagation delay compensation by a UE) , in a wireless network comprising at least one base station (Lin, Fig, 5, gNB) and a plurality of UEs (Lin, Figs. 1-2, [0008], [0045], a communication network system comprising multiple UEs and a gNB (base station)) , the method comprising: receiving a DLInformation Transfer message comprising a reference time corresponding to a reference system frame (Lin, Fig. 5, [0059], in step 2, the UE receives a DLinformationtransfer message from the gNB that updated the reference time information (e.g. ReferenceTimeInfo-r16). [0051], “the subframe indicated by the ReferenceTimeInfo-16”) and information about propagation delay compensation (Lin, Fig. 5, [0059], “The DLinformationTransfer message may include the PropagationDelayCompensationDedicated-r16 and/or the PropagationDelayCompensationThreshold”) , receiving a timing advance, TA, command from the base station (Lin, Fig. 5, [0060], “the gNB transmits Timing Advance Command MAC CE to the UE to maintain synchronization with the UE”) , determining whether to compensate a propagation delay based on the information about propagation delay compensation included in the DLInformation Transfer message (Lin, Fig. 5, [0059], “The DLinformationTransfer message may include the PropagationDelayCompensationDedicated-r16 and/or the PropagationDelayCompensationThreshold which are used for the UE to determine whether to perform PDC”. [0002], “propagation delay compensation (PDC)”) ,and in a case where compensation for the propagation delay is determined to be performed (Lin, [0051], “the gNB may indicate all UEs to perform PDC by configuring PropagationDelayCompensationCommon as true”, [0059], “The PropagationDelayCompensationDedicated-r16 is similar to the PropagationDelayCompensationCommon except that it is UE dedicated”) , determining the propagation delay using the received TA command (Lin, [0009], “Propagation delay compensation should be done by UE implementation (because the indicated time is referenced at the network). (3) Timing advanced should be the method for propagation delay compensation”, [0044], “the gNB can indicate the UE to do PDC when the estimated TA value is larger than or equal to 3. This case is a better one because it is wasteful for a UE always doing PDC though the previous case is also considered possible”, Fig. 5, [0060], [0062], the timing advance is determined based on the Timing Advance Command, which is used for propagation delay”) . As to claim 24 , Lin teaches further comprising, after determining the propagation delay: compensating the received reference time (Lin, Fig. 5, [0062], “Step 4: After receiving the DLinformationTransfer/Timing Advance Command MAC CE, the UE performs PDC based on the PropagationDelayCompensationDedicated-r16/propagation delay compensation indication and the timing advance (or enhanced timing advance), and then restarts timinAlignmentTimer”) , and updating a time counter using the compensated reference time (Lin, Fig. 5, [0062], “Step 4: After receiving the DLinformationTransfer/Timing Advance Command MAC CE, the UE performs PDC based on the PropagationDelayCompensationDedicated-r16/propagation delay compensation indication and the timing advance (or enhanced timing advance), and then restarts timinAlignmentTimer”) . As to claim 27 , Lin teaches wherein the TA command includes a parameter representative of a propagation delay between the base station and the user equipment (Lin, Fig. 9, [0101] “Timing Advance Command: This field indicates the index value TA (0, 1, 2 . . . 63) used to control the amount of timing adjustment that MAC entity has to apply”, Fig. 5, [0060], “the gNB transmits Timing Advance Command MAC CE to the UE to maintain synchronization with the UE. The Timing Advance Command MAC CE may include at least one of timing advance (or enhanced timing advance) and propagation delay compensation indication”) . As to claim 28 , Lin teaches wherein compensating the received reference time uses the propagation delay included in the received TA command (Lin, Fig. 5, [0062], “Step 4: After receiving the DLinformationTransfer/Timing Advance Command MAC CE, the UE performs PDC based on the PropagationDelayCompensationDedicated-r16/propagation delay compensation indication and the timing advance (or enhanced timing advance), and then restarts timinAlignmentTimer”) . As to claim 30 , Lin teaches wherein the determining is based on a flag set by the base station (Lin, [0051], “the gNB may indicate all UEs to perform PDC by configuring PropagationDelayCompensationCommon as true”, [0059], “The PropagationDelayCompensationDedicated-r16 is similar to the PropagationDelayCompensationCommon except that it is UE dedicated”) . As to claim 31 , Lin teaches a method performed by a base station (Lin, Fig. 5, [0057], a method of propagation delay compensation by a gNB) in a wireless network comprising at least one base station and a plurality of user equipment (Lin, Figs. 1-2, [0008], [0045], a communication network system comprising multiple UEs and a gNB (base station)) , the method comprising: sending, to at least one of the plurality of user equipment, a DLlnformation Transfer message comprising a reference time associated with a reference system frame (Lin, Fig. 5, [0059], in step 2, the UE receives a DLinformationtransfer message from the gNB that updated the reference time information (e.g. ReferenceTimeInfo-r16). [0051], “the subframe indicated by the ReferenceTimeInfo-16”) and information about propagation delay compensation (Lin, Fig. 5, [0059], “The DLinformationTransfer message may include the PropagationDelayCompensationDedicated-r16 and/or the PropagationDelayCompensationThreshold”) ; and sending, to the at least one of the plurality of user equipment, a timing advance, TA, command (Lin, Fig. 5, [0060], “the gNB transmits Timing Advance Command MAC CE to the UE to maintain synchronization with the UE”) . As to claim 33 , Lin teaches wherein the information about propagation delay compensation is information regarding whether to compensate for the propagation delay (Lin, Fig. 5, [0059], “The DLinformationTransfer message may include the PropagationDelayCompensationDedicated-r16 and/or the PropagationDelayCompensationThreshold which are used for the UE to determine whether to perform PDC”. [0002], “propagation delay compensation (PDC)”) . As to claim 35 , Lin teaches wherein the DLlnformation Transfer message is received after receiving the TA command (Lin, Fig. 3, [0047], “In block 302 of the method 300, the UE is indicated (the BS indicates to the UE) by a PDC indication…In block 306, the UE is indicated (the BS indicates to the UE) by timing advance…the block 302 may be performed before or after the block 306”. Block 302 is similar to step 2 of Figure 5, where the DLInformationTransfer message indicates the UE whether to perform PDC, and block 306 is similar to step 3 of Figure 5) . As to claim 36 , Lin teaches wherein the information about propagation delay compensation is information regarding whether to compensate for a propagation delay (Lin, Fig. 5, [0059], “The DLinformationTransfer message may include the PropagationDelayCompensationDedicated-r16 and/or the PropagationDelayCompensationThreshold which are used for the UE to determine whether to perform PDC”) . As to claim 38 , Lin teaches wherein the DLlnformation Transfer message is sent after sending the TA command (Lin, Fig. 3, [0047], “In block 302 of the method 300, the UE is indicated (the BS indicates to the UE) by a PDC indication…In block 306, the UE is indicated (the BS indicates to the UE) by timing advance…the block 302 may be performed before or after the block 306”. Block 302 is similar to step 2 of Figure 5, where the DLInformationTransfer message indicates the UE whether to perform PDC, and block 306 is similar to step 3 of Figure 5) . Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103 07-20-aia AIA 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. 07-21-aia AIA Claim s 25, 34 and 37 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lin (US 2023/0300766) in view of Tan et al. (US 2023/0262635), hereinafter “Tan” . Lin teaches the claimed limitations as stated above. Lin does not explicitly teach the following features: regarding claim 25, wherein in a case where the compensation for the propagation delay is determined not to be performed, the method further comprises: updating a time counter using the reference time by the base station. As to claim 25 , Tan teaches wherein in a case where the compensation for the propagation delay is determined not to be performed (Tan, Fig. 7, [0074], “gNB sends information containing the indication not to perform the PDC to the UE through the DLInformationTransfer”) , the method further comprises: updating a time counter using the reference time by the base station (Tan, Fig. 7, [0076], “When the TA needs to be updated, the gNB sends an accurate time information that has been performed with PDC to the UE through the DLInformationTransfer and indicates the UE not to perform the PDC”. The TA is updated using the time information from the base station) . 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 invention of Lin to have the features, as taught by Tan in order for a gNB to perform PDC and update a reference time based on the uplink signal from the UE, thereby sending accurate time information associated with the PDC to the UE (Tan, [0071]-[0072]) . Lin teaches the claimed limitations as stated above. Lin does not explicitly teach the following features: regarding claim 34, wherein the information regarding whether to compensate for the propagation delay is information indicating whether the base station compensates for the propagation delay. As to claim 34 , Tan teaches wherein the information regarding whether to compensate for the propagation delay is information indicating whether the base station compensates for the propagation delay (Tan, Fig. 7, [0074], “gNB sends information containing the indication not to perform the PDC to the UE through the DLInformationTransfer”, [0076], “When the TA needs to be updated, the gNB sends an accurate time information that has been performed with PDC to the UE through the DLInformationTransfer and indicates the UE not to perform the PDC”. As shown in Fig. 7, the gNB indicates the UE whether the UE performs PDC and also indicates that the gNB performs the PDC) . 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 invention of Lin to have the features, as taught by Tan in order for a gNB to perform PDC and update a reference time based on the uplink signal from the UE, thereby sending accurate time information associated with the PDC to the UE (Tan, [0071]-[0072]) . Lin teaches the claimed limitations as stated above. Lin does not explicitly teach the following features: regarding claim 37, wherein the information regarding whether to compensate for a propagation delay is information indicating whether the base station compensates for the propagation delay. As to claim 37 , Tan teaches wherein the information regarding whether to compensate for a propagation delay is information indicating whether the base station compensates for the propagation delay (Tan, Fig. 7, [0074], “gNB sends information containing the indication not to perform the PDC to the UE through the DLInformationTransfer”, [0076], “When the TA needs to be updated, the gNB sends an accurate time information that has been performed with PDC to the UE through the DLInformationTransfer and indicates the UE not to perform the PDC”. As shown in Fig. 7, the gNB indicates the UE whether the UE performs PDC and also indicates that the gNB performs the PDC) . 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 invention of Lin to have the features, as taught by Tan in order for a gNB to perform PDC and update a reference time based on the uplink signal from the UE, thereby sending accurate time information associated with the PDC to the UE (Tan, [0071]-[0072]) . 07-21-aia AIA Claim 29 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lin (US 2023/0300766) in view of Lohr et al. (US 2013/0250925) ( provided in the IDS ), hereinafter “Lohr” . Lin teaches the claimed limitations as stated above. Lin does not explicitly teach the following features: regarding claim 29, wherein the reference time represents an arrival time of the reference system frame at the user equipment. As to claim 29 , Lohr teaches wherein the reference time represents an arrival time of the reference system frame at the user equipment (Lohr, [0345], the timing advance value indicates the shift in time to be applied relative to the beginning/timing of the sub-frames in the reference sub-frame structure received in the downlink by the mobile terminal. [0180], the timing advance can include different information, such as RACH order, second target timing advance, or the timing advance update command) . 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 invention of Lin to have the features, as taught by Lohr in order to ensure that the uplink sub-frame boundaries are aligned for all uplink component carriers (Lohr, [0345]) . Conclusion 07-40 AIA 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 RICARDO H CASTANEYRA whose telephone number is (571)272-2486. 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If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000. /RICARDO H CASTANEYRA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2473 Application/Control Number: 18/249,136 Page 2 Art Unit: 2473 Application/Control Number: 18/249,136 Page 3 Art Unit: 2473 Application/Control Number: 18/249,136 Page 4 Art Unit: 2473 Application/Control Number: 18/249,136 Page 5 Art Unit: 2473 Application/Control Number: 18/249,136 Page 6 Art Unit: 2473 Application/Control Number: 18/249,136 Page 7 Art Unit: 2473 Application/Control Number: 18/249,136 Page 8 Art Unit: 2473 Application/Control Number: 18/249,136 Page 9 Art Unit: 2473 Application/Control Number: 18/249,136 Page 10 Art Unit: 2473 Application/Control Number: 18/249,136 Page 11 Art Unit: 2473 Application/Control Number: 18/249,136 Page 12 Art Unit: 2473 Application/Control Number: 18/249,136 Page 13 Art Unit: 2473
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