The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
DETAILED ACTION
In the amendment filed January 14, 2026, claims 1-3, 5-7, 9-11, and 13-15 have been amended, claims 4, 8 and 12 cancelled, claims 1-3, 5-7, 9-11, and 13-15 are currently pending for examination.
Response to Arguments
Regarding claim objections applicant’s arguments, see page 13 Section II, filed January 14, 2026, with respect to claims 5, 6 and 8-15 have been fully considered and are persuasive. The claim objections of claims 5, 6 and 8-15 have been withdrawn.
Regarding 35 U.S.C. 103 applicant’s arguments, see page 13 Section III, filed January 14, 2026, with respect to claims 1-3, 5-7, 9-11, and 13-15 have been fully considered and are not persuasive.
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1-3, 5-7, 9-11, and 13-15 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.
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Hence a new ground of rejection is further made in view of Liu et al (US Pub. No.:2022/0124675).
Notice re prior art available under both pre-AIA and AIA
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 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.
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, 5, 9 and 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kim et al. (US Pub. No.: 2004/0131026), and further in view of Liu et al (US Pub. No.:2022/0124675).
As per claim 1, Kim disclose A method performed by a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system (see para. 0026, there is provided a method for switching a type of a transmission scheme to a point-to-multipoint (PTM) scheme, by a Node B, which provides an MBMS (Multimedia Broadcast/Multicast Service) service to a user equipment (UE) in a point-to-point (PTP) scheme as the transmission scheme, in a mobile communication system), the method comprising:
receiving, from a base station, a first radio resource control (RRC) including a first configuration associated with reception of a multicast service in a connected state (see Fig.6, para. 0083, the RNC performs an RBR process together with the UE1 and UE2 (Steps 616 and 617). In the RBR process, the RNC transmits a Radio Bearer Reconfiguration (RBR) message to the UE1 and UE2, and in the RBR message, radio bearer information to be applied to a common channel for the PTM scheme and an activation time at which the common channel is to be applied are written and the RNC performs MBMS data transmission over a common channel assigned according to the PTM scheme (Steps 618 and 207) / reception of a multicast service in a connected state);
Kim however does not explicitly disclose receiving, from the base station, a second RRC message with a suspend configuration, for transitioning a lE state from the connected state to an inactive state, the second RRC message including a second configuration associated with reception of the multicast service in the inactive state; and receiving, from the base station, the multicast service in the inactive state based on information on a common frequency resource (CFR).
Liu however receiving, from a base station (see Fig. 4, Base Station 110), a second RRC message with a suspend configuration (see para. 0029, the multicast service configuration information may be sent by a network side. Specifically, the network side may send a radio resource control release (RRCRelease) message containing a suspend configuration (SuspendConfig) to the terminal. After receiving the RRCRelease message containing the suspend configuration sent by the network side, the terminal extracts inactive-state multicast service configuration information from the RRCRelease message), for transitioning a lE state from the connected state to an inactive state, the second RRC message including a second configuration associated with reception of the multicast service in the inactive state (see para. 0055-0056, 0059, 0071, 0086, a second RRC message with a suspend configuration, to enable BWP switching using unicast, multicast, and broadcast BWPs, a UE receive an indication of a BWP/CFR associated with multicast downlink communications and an indication of a BWP/CFR associated with broadcast downlink communications. The UE determine whether to switch a BWP/CFR for receiving downlink communications based at least in part on the indication of the BWP/CFR associated with multicast downlink communications and the indication of the BWP/CFR associated with broadcast downlink communications, the indications configure a multicast BWP/CFR for the UE in an RRC connected mode and a broadcast BWP/CFR for the UE in the RRC connected mode, and transition to an RRC idle mode, and an RRC inactive mode, see also Fig.4, steps 405-430, para. 0101, the base station 110 transmit, and the UE 120 receive, broadcast downlink communications, such as public safety information, in the broadcast BWP while the UE 120 is in the RRC idle mode or the RRC inactive mode); and
receiving, from the base station, the multicast service in the inactive state based on information on a common frequency resource (CFR) (see Fig.4, para. 0043, 0075, 0096, 0099, 0101, 0148, 0150, process 900 includes receiving, in the second CFR {information on a common frequency resource (CFR)} while in a radio resource control idle mode or a radio resource control inactive mode, a broadcast downlink communication / the multicast service in the inactive state, see also para. 0101, the base station 110 transmit multicast and broadcast services in a configured multicast CFR associated with the unicast BWP, a common frequency resource (CFR)).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide the functionality of receiving, from the base station, a second RRC message with a suspend configuration, for transitioning a lE state from the connected state to an inactive state, the second RRC message including a second configuration associated with reception of the multicast service in the inactive state; and receiving, from the base station, the multicast service in the inactive state based on information on a common frequency resource (CFR), as taught by Liu, in the system of Kim, so the power consumption associated with the UE monitoring and receiving unicast, multicast, and broadcast downlink communications is reduced when a UE transition to an RRC idle mode, or an RRC inactive mode, see paragraph 0086.
As per claim 5, claim 5 is rejected the same way as claim 1.
As per claim 9, claim 9 is rejected the same way as claim 1.
As per claim 13, claim 13 is rejected the same way as claim 1.
Claims 2, 6, 10 and 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kim et al. (US Pub. No.: 2004/0131026), in view of Liu et al (US Pub. No.:2022/0124675) and further in view of Chen et al (US Pub. No.:2024/0015618).
As per claim 2, the combination of Kim and Liu disclose the method of claim 1.
The combination of Kim and Liu however does not explicitly disclose receiving, from the base station, downlink control information (DCI) including a change indication associated with a multimedia broadcast multicast service (MBMS) control channel (MCCH) information; and receiving, from the base station, an MCCH message.
Chen however disclose receiving, from the base station, downlink control information (DCI) including a change indication associated with a multimedia broadcast multicast service (MBMS) control channel (MCCH) information; and receiving, from the base station, an MCCH message (see para. 0079, the DCI is transmitted to notify the first terminal device 520 of monitoring a control channel, such as the MCCH, by means of the DCI, the network device 110 is capable of notifying the first terminal device 520 of change on MCCH, and thus the first terminal device 520 receive information on the MCCH, see also para. 0003, within a given MBMS area, a terminal device receive MBMS signals from any network device(s) within the radio range, the terminal device then decode the MBMS signal with configuration information received on Multicast Control Channel (MCCH)).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide the functionality of receiving, from the base station, downlink control information (DCI) including a change indication associated with a multimedia broadcast multicast service (MBMS) control channel (MCCH) information; and receiving, from the base station, an MCCH message, as taught by Chen, in the system of Kim and Liu, so that a dynamic and efficient switching process between multicast mode and unicast mode can be autonomously triggered at the terminal device, see Chen, paragraphs 0005-0008.
As per claim 6, claim 6 is rejected the same way as claim 2.
As per claim 10, claim 10 is rejected the same way as claim 2.
As per claim 14, claim 14 is rejected the same way as claim 2.
Claims 3, 7, 11 and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kim et al. (US Pub. No.: 2004/0131026), in view of Liu et al (US Pub. No.:2022/0124675) and further in view of Fujishiro et al (US Pub. No.:2023/0262423).
As per claim 3, the combination of Kim and Liu disclose the method of claim 1.
The combination of Kim and Liu however does not explicitly disclose transmitting, to the base station, a message associated with a resume procedure for receiving the multicast service in the connected state.
Fujishiro however disclose transmitting, to a base station, a message associated with a resume procedure for receiving a multicast service in a connected state (see Fig.8, Fig.9, para. 0112, the UE 100 in the RRC inactive state initiates an RRC Resume procedure. In the RRC Resume procedure, the UE 100 include information indicating that the UE 100 intends to acquire an MBS reception configuration as an information element (for example, Cause) in an RRC Resume Request message, see also para. 0113, After the UE 100 transitions to the RRC connected state through the connection processing with the gNB 200 (Step S213), in Step S212, the UE 100 receives an RRC Reconfiguration message including a new MBS configuration from the gNB 200).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide the functionality of receiving, from the base station, downlink control information (DCI) including a change indication associated with a multimedia broadcast multicast service (MBMS) control channel (MCCH) information; and receiving, from the base station, an MCCH message, as taught by Fujishiro, in the system of Kim and Liu, so as to provide a multicast and broadcast service (MBS) from a base station to a user equipment and includes receiving, by the user equipment in a Radio Resource Control (RRC) connected state and from the base station, unicast signaling including an MBS configuration used for MBS reception, and performing, by the user equipment having transitioned from the RRC connected state to an RRC idle state or an RRC inactive state, the MBS reception by using the MBS configuration received in the RRC connected state, see Fujishiro, paragraphs 0005-0009.
As per claim 7, claim 7 is rejected the same way as claim 3.
As per claim 11, claim 11 is rejected the same way as claim 3.
As per claim 15, claim 15 is rejected the same way as claim 3.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Pazos (EP2845411B1) - see Fig.25, para. 0103, “A description of each step may be as follows: 2512. The application requests a content. The UE 602 discovers it is within a UC only coverage area for content delivery. The UE 602 may send an HTTP-GET message to the network. This step may use unicast DASH procedures as specified in 3GPP TS 26.247. 2516A-B. The UE 602 may detect a new cell with BC delivery of the content, e.g., by receiving SIB messages from the new cell. 2518. The UE 602 may acquire a USD either via a unicast channel or a broadcast channel. 2520. If the UE 602 determines that the broadcast service is sent on another frequency from the USD received from the BM-SC 612 and from the SIB15 received from the eNB 604, the UE 602 may send an MBMSInterestIndication to the eNB 604. 2522. The eNB 640 may send an RRC Connection Reconfiguration to the UE 602 including mobility control information to handoff the UE to another frequency. 2524. The UE 602 may send an RRC connectionReconfiguration message to the eNB 604. 2526. The UE 602 may acquire the SIB13 including the MCCH radio configuration. 2528. The UE 602 may acquire an MBSFNAreaConfiguration message from the MCCH to obtain TMGI information. 2530. The UE 602 may determine that the TMGI of interest is sent over a broadcast channel. 2536”.
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 LAKERAM JANGBAHADUR whose telephone number is (571)272-1335. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F 7 am - 4 pm.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Ian Moore can be reached on 571-272-3085. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/LAKERAM JANGBAHADUR/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2469