DETAILED ACTION
Status of Case
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 in response to the RCE filed on 4/29/2026.
Claims 1-30 are pending.
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 4/29/2026 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments filed on 1/7/2026 with respect to the pending claims have been considered but are moot because the arguments do not apply to any of the references being used in the current 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, 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, 20, 21, 27, 29, and 30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang (EP3737147A1) (cited in Applicant’s IDS filed on 8/8/2023) in view of Chin (USPAN 2012/0257550) and Cheng (USPAN 2021/0051584).
Consider claims 1 and 29, Zhang discloses a method for wireless communication at a user equipment (UE) (see figure 2, reproduced below for convenience, wherein disclosed is said method) and a corresponding apparatus for wireless communication at a user equipment (UE) (see figure 1, wherein disclosed is UE 20), comprising a processor; memory coupled with the processor; and instructions stored in the memory and executable by the processor to cause the apparatus (see figure 11, wherein disclosed is a processor 31, memory 32, and instructions 34)to:
transmit, to a base station, signaling indicating UE capability information (see paragraph 57 and step S101 in figure 2: “…terminal device sends capability information to a network device”);
receive, from the base station, control signaling indicating a measurement gap sequence configuration based at least in part on the UE capability information (see paragraph 70: “…network device determines, based on…the capability information, whether the target measurement frequency requires a measurement gap…”; see paragraph 80 and steps S102 and S103 in figure 2: “…network devices sends measurement gap configuration information to the terminal device when determining that the target measurement frequences requires the measurement gap…”);
determine a measurement gap occasion based at least in part on the measurement gap sequence configuration, the measurement gap occasion including one or more of a first measurement gap occasion associated with a first measurement gap sequence (see paragraph 85: “…first measurement gap configuration includes a period and/or a length of the first measurement gap…”), a second measurement gap occasion associated with a second measurement gap sequence (see paragraph 85: “…second measurement gap configuration includes a period and/or a length of the second measurement gap…”), or a combination of the first measurement gap occasion and the second measurement gap occasion (see paragraph 85); and
perform a set of channel measurements during the determined measurement gap occasion (see paragraph 86 and step S104 in figure 2: “…terminal device measures the target measurement frequency based on the measurement gap configuration information…”).
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Although Zhang discloses a first measurement gap occasion and a second measurement gap occasion and performing a set of channel measurements during the determined measurement gap occasions (see above), Zhang does not specifically disclose determining a duration between a first measurement and a second duration and performing a measurement based at least in part on the duration between the first measurement and the second measurement satisfying a threshold.
Chin discloses determining a duration between a first measurement and a second duration and performing a measurement based at least in part on the duration between the first measurement and the second measurement satisfying a threshold (see claims 1 and 3: when a time period between a first time when a first measurement is performed and a second time period when a second measurement is performed is greater than a threshold, performing a new measurement).
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 Zhang and combine it with the noted teachings of Chin. The motivation to combine these references is to provide a measurement based on a duration between two measurement occasions and a desired threshold, as well as providing an efficient method of performing measurements for a channel (see paragraph 17 of Chin).
Zhang does not specifically disclose ignoring the first measurement gap occasion or the second measurement gap occasion based at least in part on one or more of a criterion or that the duration between the first measurement gap occasion and the second measurement gap occasion satisfies a threshold.
Cheng discloses ignoring the first measurement gap occasion or the second measurement gap occasion based at least in part on one or more of a criterion or that the duration between the first measurement gap occasion and the second measurement gap occasion satisfies a threshold (see paragraph 52: “On the other hand, the UE may not need to monitor the PDCCH for the power saving signaling (e.g., on the configured power saving signaling monitoring occasion) during the measurement gap and the UE may ignore the power saving signaling monitoring occasion during the measurement gap.” The language “on the other hand” is based from the criterion in paragraph 51 which states that “if the power saving signaling monitoring occasion overlaps the measurement gap,” so “on the other hand” indicates that if the power saving signaling monitoring occasion does not overlap the measurement gap [which is said “one or more of a criterion”], then ignoring the first measurement gap occasion).
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 Zhang and combine it with the noted teachings of Cheng. The motivation to combine these references is to provide a method for monitoring a physical downlink (DL) control channel (PDDCH) for a power saving signaling (see paragraph 2 of Cheng).
Consider claims 20 and 27, Zhang discloses that the control signaling includes radio resource control signaling (see paragraphs 80-81: the signaling between the network device and terminal device is impliedly RRC signaling) and the measurement gap sequence configuration indicates one or more of a beginning of the measurement gap occasion or a number of measurement gap occasions associated with a measurement gap sequence including the measurement gap occasion (see paragraph 85, wherein disclosed is said measurement gap sequence configuration).
Consider claims 21 and 30, Zhang discloses a method for wireless communication at a base station (see figure 2, reproduced below for convenience, wherein disclosed is said method)and a corresponding apparatus for wireless communication at a base station (see figure 1, wherein disclosed is base station 10), comprising a processor; memory coupled with the processor; and instructions stored in the memory and executable by the processor to cause the apparatus (see figure 11, wherein disclosed is a processor 31, memory 32, and instructions 34) to:
receive, from a user equipment (UE), signaling indicating UE capability information (see paragraph 57 and step S101 in figure 2: “…terminal device sends capability information to a network device”);
transmit, to the UE, control signaling indicating a measurement gap sequence configuration based at least in part on the UE capability information (see paragraph 70: “…network device determines, based on…the capability information, whether the target measurement frequency requires a measurement gap…”; see paragraph 80 and steps S102 and S103 in figure 2: “…network devices sends measurement gap configuration information to the terminal device when determining that the target measurement frequences requires the measurement gap…”); and
perform a set of reference signal transmissions for a set of channel measurements during a measurement gap occasion associated with the measurement gap sequence configuration, the measurement gap occasion including one or more of a first measurement gap occasion associated with a first measurement gap sequence, a second measurement gap occasion associated with a second measurement gap sequence, or a combination of the first measurement gap occasion and the second measurement gap occasion (see paragraph 86 and step S104 in figure 2: “…terminal device measures the target measurement frequency based on the measurement gap configuration information…”; see paragraph 85: “…first measurement gap configuration includes a period and/or a length of the first measurement gap… second measurement gap configuration includes a period and/or a length of the second measurement gap”).
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Although Zhang discloses a first measurement gap occasion and a second measurement gap occasion and performing a set of channel measurements during the determined measurement gap occasions (see above), Zhang does not specifically disclose determining a duration between a first measurement and a second duration and performing a measurement based at least in part on the duration between the first measurement and the second measurement satisfying a threshold.
Chin discloses determining a duration between a first measurement and a second duration and performing a measurement based at least in part on the duration between the first measurement and the second measurement satisfying a threshold (see claims 1 and 3: when a time period between a first time when a first measurement is performed and a second time period when a second measurement is performed is greater than a threshold, performing a new measurement).
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 Zhang and combine it with the noted teachings of Chin. The motivation to combine these references is to provide a measurement based on a duration between two measurement occasions and a desired threshold, as well as providing an efficient method of performing measurements for a channel (see paragraph 17 of Chin).
Zhang does not specifically disclose ignoring the first measurement gap occasion or the second measurement gap occasion based at least in part on one or more of a criterion or that the duration between the first measurement gap occasion and the second measurement gap occasion satisfies a threshold.
Cheng discloses ignoring the first measurement gap occasion or the second measurement gap occasion based at least in part on one or more of a criterion or that the duration between the first measurement gap occasion and the second measurement gap occasion satisfies a threshold (see paragraph 52: “On the other hand, the UE may not need to monitor the PDCCH for the power saving signaling (e.g., on the configured power saving signaling monitoring occasion) during the measurement gap and the UE may ignore the power saving signaling monitoring occasion during the measurement gap.” The language “on the other hand” is based from the criterion in paragraph 51 which states that “if the power saving signaling monitoring occasion overlaps the measurement gap,” so “on the other hand” indicates that if the power saving signaling monitoring occasion does not overlap the measurement gap [which is said “one or more of a criterion”], then ignoring the first measurement gap occasion).
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 Zhang and combine it with the noted teachings of Cheng. The motivation to combine these references is to provide a method for monitoring a physical downlink (DL) control channel (PDDCH) for a power saving signaling (see paragraph 2 of Cheng).
Claims 6-7 and 25-26 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang (EP3737147A1) (cited in Applicant’s IDS filed on 8/8/2023) in view of Chin (USPAN 2012/0257550), Cheng (USPAN 2021/0051584), and Tenny (USPAN 2019/0124533).
Consider claims 6 and 25, although Zhang discloses a first measurement gap occasion and a second measurement gap occasion (see above), Zhang does not specifically disclose that the gap occasions are contiguous or overlapping in a time domain.
Tenny discloses gap occasions that are contiguous or overlapping in a time domain (see paragraph 50: gap patterns that do not overlap in time).
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 Zhang and combine it with the noted teachings of Tenny. The motivation to combine these references is to provide a method that supports extreme variations in supported frequency bands and deployment scenarios (see paragraph 3 of Tenny).
Consider claims 7 and 26, although Zhang discloses a first measurement gap occasion and a second measurement gap occasion (see above), Zhang does not specifically disclose that the gap occasions are noncontiguous or nonoverlapping in a time domain.
Tenny discloses gap occasions that are noncontiguous or nonoverlapping in a time domain (see paragraph 50: gap patterns that are non-overlapping).
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 Zhang and combine it with the noted teachings of Tenny. The motivation to combine these references is to provide a method that supports extreme variations in supported frequency bands and deployment scenarios (see paragraph 3 of Tenny).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-5, 8-19, 22-24, and 28 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Jamal Javaid whose telephone number is 571-270-5137 and email address is Jamal.Javaid@uspto.gov.
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/JAMAL JAVAID/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2412
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