Response to Amendment
This Office Action is in response to claim amendment filed on December 15, 2025.
Claims 1 and 7 are amended.
Claims 2-6 were previously cancelled.
Claims 1, and 7 are currently pending in this application.
Response to Arguments
The 35 U.S.C §112(b) rejection of claims 1 and 7 has been withdrawn in light of applicant’s amendments and remarks (see remarks Pg. 4-5).
Applicant’s arguments (see remarks Pg. 5-9) with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 1 and 7 under 35 U.S.C. §103 have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn.
However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made as necessitated by the claim amendments.
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.
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 non-obviousness.
Claim(s) 1 and 7, are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over FUJISHIRO, US 20230022611 A1, (hereinafter FUJISHIRO) in view of CHANG et al., US 20240147547 A1, (hereinafter CHANG).
Regarding claim 1 and 7, A processing method performed by a user equipment (UE) that acts as a remote UE, the processing method comprising (Fig. 10, e.g., REMOTE UE 110-1):
receiving, from a relay UE, a Proximity Communication 5 (PC5) Radio Resource Control (RRC) message that causes the remote UE to perform an operation based on an RRC state of the remote UE, wherein the PC5 RRC message indicates a radio link failure between the relay UE and a network (see ¶ [0082] - ¶ [0083], wherein the RLF of Uu (radio link (Uu link) between the relay UE 100-2 and the gNB 200-1) has been detected or in a case in which reestablishment has failed, the PC5 RRC layer of the relay UE 100-2 transmits the Uu RLF Notification to the PC5 RRC layer of the remote UE 100-1. Also see Fig. 11, e.g., element S104, ¶ [0091], e.g., In Step S104, the remote UE 100-1 starts RRC reestablishment processing from the relay UE 100-2 to a target gNB 200-2 in response to detection of occurrence of a communication failure. Here, Step S104 may be a step corresponding to “(1) Notification Operation from PC5 RRC to Uu RRC in Remote UE” described above);
determining that the RRC state is an RRC CONNECTED state rather than an RRC IDLE/INACTIVE state when the PC5 RRC message is received, wherein the operation is based on the RRC CONNECTED state (see Fig. 11, e.g., element S101, S102, S103; see RRC Reestablishment Operation of Remote UE from Relay UE to gNB, ¶ [0087] - ¶ [0089], e.g., the remote UE 100-1 and the gNB 200-1 are in a state in which RRC connection has been established via the relay UE 100-2 (Step S103)), and
initiating an RRC connection re-establishment procedure as the operation based on the RRC CONNECTED state when the PC5 RRC message is received (see Fig. 11, e.g., element S105, ¶ [0092], e.g., In Step S105, the remote UE 100-1 transmits an RRC reestablishment request message to the target gNB 200-2 in the RRC reestablishment processing. Note that the RRC reestablishment request message is transmitted from the remote UE 100-1 to the target gNB 200-2 without intervention of the relay UE 100-2.).
however, it does not explicitly teach different RRC connection re-establishment operation based on the RRC IDLE/INACTIVE state.
CHANG teaches, RRC connection re-establishment operation based on the RRC IDLE/INACTIVE state (see ¶ [0034], e.g., In some examples, the first RRC message may be an RRC Resume Request message (e.g., when remote UE device 104 is in RRC_INACTIVE), an RRC Setup Request message (e.g., when remote UE device 104 is in RRC_IDLE), or an RRC Reestablishment Request message. Also see ¶ [0047] - ¶ [0049], wherein the remote UE device 104 begins in the RRC_INACTIVE transmits an RRC Resume Request message 402 to relay UE device 102 and the RLF occurs while the relay UE device attempts to perform connection to the base station. At this point, relay UE device 102 remains in the RRC IDLE state and transmits a PC5-RRC message 408 containing an RRC connection failure indicator. Upon receipt of message 408, remote UE device 104 remains in the RRC_INACTIVE state).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective
filing date of the claimed invention to have modified RRC connection re-establishment operation of FUJISHIRO to incorporate the teachings of CHANG to include RRC connection re-establishment operation based on the RRC IDLE/INACTIVE state scenario. Doing so would facilitate in achieving transmitting a PC5-RRC message containing an RRC connection failure indicator on which the remote UE can act upon and may decide to perform relay reselection to find another relay UE device as suggested by CHANG (see ¶ [0049], At this point, relay UE device 102 remains in the RRC_IDLE state (with respect to base station 106) and transmits a PC5-RRC message 408 containing an RRC connection failure indicator. Upon receipt of message 408, remote UE device 104 remains in the RRC_INACTIVE state (with respect to base station 106). In some cases, remote UE device 104 may decide to perform relay reselection to find another relay UE device that may be camped on a different cell. The discovery message sent by the other relay UE device (and received by remote UE device 104) will contain the Cell ID of the cell on which the other relay UE device is camped.).
Conclusion
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 POONAM SHARMA whose telephone number is (571)272-6579. The examiner can normally be reached Monday thru 8:30-5:30 pm, ET.
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/POONAM SHARMA/Examiner, Art Unit 2472
/KEVIN T BATES/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2472
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