DETAILED ACTION
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 .
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 03/23/2026 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s corrections filed 02/23/2026 with respect to claim objections for claim(s) 21 made on 10/23/2025 have been considered and the objection to the claim is withdrawn.
In view of the amendments and arguments filed 02/23/2026, the previous rejection under 103 based on Yokoyama et al. (US 2019/0174342 A1) and Wang et al. (US 2024/0205875 A1) for claim(s) 1-3, 7-10, 14-17, and 21-22 has/have been withdrawn.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112(a):
(a) IN GENERAL.—The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor or joint inventor of carrying out the invention.
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112:
The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor of carrying out his invention.
Claim(s) 1-3, 7-10, 14-17, and 21-22 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the written description requirement. The claim(s) contains subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to reasonably convey to one skilled in the relevant art that the inventor or a joint inventor, or for pre-AIA the inventor(s), at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention. Independent claims 1, 8, and 15 recite the claim limitation “the bearer context modification request including the information element requesting the data usage report being transmitted in an event of a bearer being an unacknowledged mode (UM) bearer and data forwarding information not requested by a third network node.”
However, only paragraph [0052] of Applicant’s specification (reproduced below) discloses “(UM) bearer and data forwarding information not requested by a … network node.”
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The relevant disclosure is highlighted in blue. First, paragraph [0052] only discloses what the related art is not teaching: “In the event of the bearer being a UM mode bearer and data forwarding information not requested by eNB, there is no IE in the related art for gNB-CU-CP to request for Secondary RAT data usage report towards gNB-CU-UP over E1 interface.” This paragraph and other paragraphs fail to teach an embodiment of the present disclosure that an IE for requesting data usage report is included in the bearer context modification request in an event of a bearer being an unacknowledged mode (UM) bearer and data forwarding information not requested by a third network node. Second, paragraph [0052] merely discloses an eNB in “data forwarding information not requested by eNB.” However, the claim limitation specifically requires a third network node (i.e., data forwarding information not requested by a third network node) which is further defined to be “a master node (MN) of a dual connectivity (DC) using the MN and a secondary node (SN)” in the claims. Third, it appears Applicant admits that the claim limitation is not supported in the specification because it is resolved in the claimed invention, see argument on pg. 10: “[i]n the event of the bearer being a UM mode bearer and data forwarding information not requested by eNB, there is no IE in the related art for gNB-CU-CP to request for Secondary RAT data usage report towards gNB-CU-UP over E1 interface … This problem in this scenario is resolved in the claimed invention … The cited art does not disclose or render obvious these features, nor does it address or resolve the problem identified by inventors of the instant applicant and resolved by the claimed invention.” Therefore, Applicant’s specification fails to disclose the claim limitation and thus have no support for “the bearer context modification request including the information element requesting the data usage report being transmitted in an event of a bearer being an unacknowledged mode (UM) bearer and data forwarding information not requested by a third network node.”
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
US 2019/0069333 A1 teaches in Fig. 9, [0137], [0142]: CUCP sends bearer context modification request and receives response from source CUUP.
US 2026/0025722 A1 teaches in [0488]: The source SN may send the secondary RAT data usage report message to the MN.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to THE HY NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)270-3813. The examiner can normally be reached on Mo-Fr: 8am-4pm.
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, Joseph Avellino, can be reached on (571) 272-3905. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/THE HY NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2478
TheHy.Nguyen@USPTO.gov
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