DETAILED ACTION
The previous final Office Action has been vacated and is replaced by this instant Office Action in view of the preliminary amendments dated May 22, 2025.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 6, 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipate by Yang (US 2014/0198762).
Regarding claims 6 and 12, Yang describes a terminal (fig. 3, UE 10)/radio communication method comprising:
[a reception unit that] receives an indication of deactivation of a secondary cell group (fig. 3 step S31 & para. 38, base station 20 transmits first MAC CE message to UE for deactivating 1+ activated secondary cell in secondary cepp group SG); and
[a control unit that] considers a Time Alignment Timer (TAT) as expired and releases a resource of the secondary cell group, in response to the indication (para. 7, terminating the uplink transmission (releasing a resource of secondary cell group) when the TAT expires. See also abstract)).
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 7-9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yang as applied to claim 6 above, and further in view of Dinan (US 12,206,621).
Regarding claim 7, Yang fails to further explicitly describe:
wherein the control unit notifies a radio resource control layer of release of an uplink control channel of all serving cells when considering the TAT as expired.
Dinan also describes use of TAT for SCells (SCG) (col. 9, lines 33-36), further describing:
wherein the control unit notifies a radio resource control layer of release of an uplink control channel of all serving cells when considering the TAT as expired (col. 9, lines 41-46, when the associated TAT expires, UE’s RRC [layer] releases PUCCH (uplink control channel)/SRS for all configured serving cells).
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective date of the claimed invention to specify that the control unit of Yang to have its RRC releases PUCCH of all serving cells when TAT has expired as in Dinan.
The motivation for combining the teachings is that this implementation yields flexibility and capacity improves across PUCCH SCells (Dinan, col. 12 lines 38-40).
Regarding claim 8, Yang fails to further explicitly describe:
wherein the control unit notifies a radio resource control (RRC) layer of release of a Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) of all serving cells when considering the TAT has expired.
Dinan also describes use of TAT for SCells (SCG) (col. 9, lines 33-36), further describing:
wherein the control unit notifies a radio resource control (RRC) layer of release of a Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) of all serving cells when considering the TAT has expired (col. 9, lines 41-46, when the associated TAT expires, UE’s RRC [layer] releases PUCCH/SRS for all configured serving cells).
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective date of the claimed invention to specify that the control unit of Yang to have its RRC releases SRS of all serving cells when TAT has expired as in Dinan.
The motivation for combining the teachings is that this implementation yields flexibility and capacity improves across PUCCH SCells (Dinan, col. 12 lines 38-40).
Regarding claim 9, Yang fails to further explicitly describe:
wherein the control unit clears configured DL assignments and configured UL grants when considering the TAT as expired.
Dinan also describes use of TAT for SCells (SCG) (col. 9, lines 33-36), further describing:
wherein the control unit clears configured DL assignments and configured UL grants when considering the TAT as expired (col. 9 lines 41-45, when the associated TAT expires, UE clears any configured downlink (DL) assignments and uplink (UL) grants).
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective date of the claimed invention to specify that the control unit of Yang to clear configured DL assignmnts & UL grants when TAT has expired as in Dinan.
The motivation for combining the teachings is that this implementation yields flexibility and capacity improves across PUCCH SCells (Dinan, col. 12 lines 38-40).
Claim 10 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yang as applied to claim 6 above, and further in view of Adjakpie (US 2025/0056639).
Regarding claim 10, Yang fails to further explicitly describe:
wherein the control unit clears an uplink shared channel for semi-persistent Channel State Information reporting when considering the TAT as expired.
Adjakpie also describes wireless uplink time alignment (para. 420), further describing:
wherein the control unit clears an uplink shared channel for semi-persistent Channel State Information (CSI) reporting when considering the TAT as expired (para. 422-423 & 432, when TAT expires, it clears any PUSCH (uplink shared channel) for semi-persistent CSI reporting).
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective date of the claimed invention to specify that the control unit of Yang to clear uplink shared channel for semi-persistent CSI reporting as in Adjakpie.
The motivation for combining the teachings is that this reduces negative impact on user experience & overall system performance in multi-SIM operations (Adjakpie, para. 2).
Claim 11 is a system claim comprising a base station with transmission unit to transmit the deactivation indication of a secondary cell group to a receiving terminal. Since claim 6 already describes all the limitations regarding the terminal and that Examiner explained the deactivation indication is sent by a base station, it is rejected under the same rationale.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to WARNER WONG whose telephone number is (571)272-8197. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 7am - 3:30pm.
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WARNER WONG
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2469
/WARNER WONG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2469