DETAILED ACTION
This Office Action is in response to the Reply filed on January 20, 2026.
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 January 20, 2026 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, on pages 11-14 of the Reply, with respect to the rejection under 35 U.S.C. §103 of independent claims 1, 7, and 14 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.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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.
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 nonobviousness.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10-12, 14, and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US Pub. No. 2019/0124566 (hereinafter “Liu”) in view of US Pub. No. 2021/0160028 (cited in 12/19/2023 IDS, hereinafter “Park”), and further in view of U.S. Pub. No. 2023/0396347 (Newly cited, hereinafter “Abdelghaffar”).
Liu discloses or suggests:
regarding claim 1, a method of performing communication by a first base station (BS) in a wireless communication system (see at least Fig. 6 and associated description, source base station apparatus 3A), the method comprising:
transmitting, to a user equipment (UE) served by the first BS, configuration information for at least one measurement report (MR) (see at least Fig. 6 and paragraphs 119-120, the source base station apparatus 3A transmits, to the terminal apparatus 1, a measurement control message including a parameter measConfig, which includes a list of measurement object cells and based on the measurement object cells, the terminal apparatus transmits a measurement report indicating a measurement result to the source base station apparatus 3A);
receiving, from the UE, an MR associated with an event detected by the UE based on the configuration information for the at least one MR (see at least Fig. 6 and paragraphs 119-120, the source base station apparatus 3A transmits, to the terminal apparatus 1, a measurement control message including a parameter measConfig, which includes a list of measurement object cells and based on the measurement object cells, the terminal apparatus transmits a measurement report indicating a measurement result to the source base station apparatus 3A); and
transmitting, to at least one second BS for a handover, a first message including overhearing configuration information associated with a sounding reference signal (SRS) transmitted from the UE to the first BS (see at least Fig. 6 and paragraphs 121-125, during a handover procedure, the source base station apparatus 3A transmits, to a target base station 3B, the SRS configuration information with respect to the terminal apparatus 1 and shares the SRS configuration information with the target base station apparatus 3B).
Liu further discloses that the at least one second BS receives an SRS transmitted from the UE based on the shared SRS configuration information (see at least paragraphs 121-125) but Liu does not expressly disclose that the SRS transmitted from the UE to the first BS is overheard by the at least one second BS based on the overhearing configuration information.
However, in an analogous art, Park discloses or suggests that the SRS transmitted from the UE to the first BS is overheard by the at least one second BS based on the overhearing configuration information (see at least Fig. 3 and paragraphs 62-66, the UE may use the UE beam 315 to transmit the SRSs (e.g., SRS transmission by using the beam associated with the selected SSB of the serving cell) and each of the neighbor cell may receive the SRSs that the UE transmits to the serving cell using the UE beam 315 (i.e., each of the neighbor cell overhears the SRS transmitted from the UE using the UE beam 315), where the serving cell may also send (e.g., in the SRS measurement request to the neighbor cells) information about the SRSs including the set of time-frequency resources to be used to transmit the SRSs, the periodicity with which the SRSs are to be transmitted, etc.).
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to implement the technique as taught by Park in to the invention of Liu in order to reduce resource usage for SRS transmission.
Furthermore, Liu, as modified by Park, does not explicitly disclose that the configuration information for MR comprises configuration information relating to a criterion of triggering a multiple transmission-reception-point (TRP) configuration event.
However, in an analogous art, Abdelghaffar discloses or suggests a configuration information for MR comprising configuration information relating to a criterion of triggering a multiple transmission-reception-point (TRP) configuration event (see at least paragraphs 130-133, the network entity can send a message that configures the UE to measure the average delay or delay spread of the TRPs based on reference signals transmitted by the multiple TRPs (e.g., TRP1, TRP2, and TRP3 of Fig. 7)).
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to implement the configuration technique, as taught by, Abdelghaffar, in to the invention of Liu, as modified by Park, in order to use the channel delay report obtained from the UE for delay pre-compensation for a downlink transmission.
Liu further discloses or suggests:
regarding claim 2, the overhearing configuration information comprises at least one of antenna port information or time-frequency resource information in which an SRS for which overhearing is requested is transmitted (see at least paragraphs 90 and 121-125, the shared SRS configuration information allows the target base station apparatus to detect the SRS transmitted from the terminal apparatus, where the SRS is transmitted in a prescribed symbol in a last SC-FDMA symbol or an SC-FDMA symbol in an UpPTS), and
wherein the at least one second BS having received the first message including the overhearing configuration information receives the SRS based on at least one of the time- frequency resource information or the antenna port information (see at least paragraphs 90 and 121-125, the target base station apparatus 3B can detect, based on the shared SRS configuration information, the SRS transmitted from the terminal apparatus 1, where the SRS is transmitted in a prescribed symbol in a last SC-FDMA symbol or an SC-FDMA symbol in an UpPTS); and
regarding claim 4, the configuration information for MR comprises at least one of configuration information relating to a criterion of triggering an event related to overhearing or configuration information relating to a criterion of triggering an event related to the handover (see at least Fig. 6, and paragraphs 118-120 and 127, the source base station apparatus 3A transmits, to the terminal apparatus 1, a measurement control message including a parameter measConfig, which includes a list of measurement object cells and based on the measurement object cells, where the terminal apparatus transmits a measurement report indicating a measurement result to the source base station apparatus 3A, where the source base station apparatus 3A selects, based on the measurement report and RRM information, whether to perform a handover), and
wherein the transmitting of the first message including the overhearing configuration information comprises transmitting the first message including the overhearing configuration information to the at least one second BS when at least one of an MR associated with an event related to overhearing or an MR associated with an event related to the handover is received (see at least paragraphs 121-127, the source base station apparatus 3A transmits, to a target base station 3B, the SRS configuration information with respect to the terminal apparatus 1 and shares the SRS configuration information with the target base station apparatus 3B, where Fig. 6 is a handover procedure and, therefore, the measurement report is associated with an event related to handover).
Regarding claim 5, Liu discloses or suggests transmitting a handover request message for the UE to the at least one second BS (see at least Fig. 6 and paragraph 127, the source base station apparatus 3A transmits a handover request to the target base station apparatus 3B that is selected as the handover destination) but does not explicitly disclose receiving a response message to the overhearing configuration information from the at least one second BS.
Park, from the same or similar fields of endeavor, discloses or suggests receiving a response message to the overhearing configuration information from the at least one second BS (see at least Fig. 3 and paragraphs 63-66, the serving cell may receive the SRS measurement reports from the neighbor cells in response to SRS measurement requests).
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to implement the technique as taught by Park above in to the invention of Liu in order to allow the serving cell to select an appropriate neighbor base station based on the SRS measurement reports.
Regarding claims 7, Liu discloses or suggests a method of performing communication by a second base station (BS) in a wireless communication system (see at least Fig. 6 and associated description, target base station apparatus 3B), the method comprising:
receiving, from a first BS, a first message including overhearing configuration information associated with a sounding reference signal (SRS) transmitted to the first BS from a user equipment (UE) (see at least paragraphs 121-125, the target base station apparatus 3B transmits, from a source base station 3A, the SRS configuration information with respect to the terminal apparatus 1 and shares the SRS configuration information with the target base station apparatus 3B); and
receiving the SRS based on the overhearing configuration information (see at least paragraphs 121-125, the target base station apparatus 3B can detect, based on the shared SRS configuration information, the SRS transmitted from the terminal apparatus 1).
Liu does not explicitly disclose transmitting, to the first BS, a response message in response to receiving the first message and overhearing the SRS transmitted to the first BS from the UE based on the overhearing configuration information.
However, in an analogous art, Park discloses or suggests transmitting, to the first BS, a response message in response to receiving the first message (see at least paragraphs 64-66, the neighbor cell may transmit a measurement report to the serving cell in response to receiving the SRS measurement request) and overhearing the SRS transmitted to the first BS from the UE based on the overhearing configuration information (see at least Fig. 3 and paragraphs 62-66, the UE may use the UE beam 315 to transmit the SRSs (e.g., SRS transmission by using the beam associated with the selected SSB of the serving cell) and each of the neighbor cell may receive the SRSs that the UE transmits to the serving cell using the UE beam 315 (i.e., each of the neighbor cell overhears the SRS transmitted from the UE using the UE beam 315), where the serving cell may also send (e.g., in the SRS measurement request to the neighbor cells) information about the SRSs including the set of time-frequency resources to be used to transmit the SRSs, the periodicity with which the SRSs are to be transmitted, etc.).
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to implement the technique as taught by Park above in to the invention of Liu in order to reduce resource usage for SRS transmission.
Furthermore, Liu, as modified by Park, does not explicitly disclose that the configuration information for MR comprises configuration information relating to a criterion of triggering a multiple transmission-reception-point (TRP) configuration event.
However, in an analogous art, Abdelghaffar discloses or suggests a configuration information for MR comprising configuration information relating to a criterion of triggering a multiple transmission-reception-point (TRP) configuration event (see at least paragraphs 130-133, the network entity can send a message that configures the UE to measure the average delay or delay spread of the TRPs based on reference signals transmitted by the multiple TRPs (e.g., TRP1, TRP2, and TRP3 of Fig. 7)).
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to implement the configuration technique, as taught by, Abdelghaffar, in to the invention of Liu, as modified by Park, in order to use the channel delay report obtained from the UE for delay pre-compensation for a downlink transmission.
Liu further discloses or suggests:
regarding claim 8, the overhearing configuration information associated with the SRS comprises at least one of antenna port information or time-frequency resource information in which an SRS for which overhearing is requested is transmitted (see at least paragraphs 90 and 121-125, the shared SRS configuration information allows the target base station apparatus to detect the SRS transmitted from the terminal apparatus, where the SRS is transmitted in a prescribed symbol in a last SC-FDMA symbol or an SC-FDMA symbol in an UpPTS), and
wherein the second BS receives the SRS based on at least one of the time-frequency resource information or the antenna port information (see at least paragraphs 90 and 121-125, the target base station apparatus 3B can detect, based on the shared SRS configuration information, the SRS transmitted from the terminal apparatus 1, where the SRS is transmitted in a prescribed symbol in a last SC-FDMA symbol or an SC-FDMA symbol in an UpPTS);
regarding claim 10, the configuration information for at least one measurement report (MR) comprises at least one of configuration information relating to a criterion of triggering an event related to overhearing or configuration information relating to a criterion of triggering an event related to a handover (see at least Fig. 6, and paragraphs 118-120 and 127, the source base station apparatus 3A transmits, to the terminal apparatus 1, a measurement control message including a parameter measConfig, which includes a list of measurement object cells and based on the measurement object cells, where the terminal apparatus transmits a measurement report indicating a measurement result to the source base station apparatus 3A, where the source base station apparatus 3A selects, based on the measurement report and RRM information, whether to perform a handover), and
wherein the receiving of the first message including the overhearing configuration information comprises receiving the first message including the overhearing configuration information when the first BS receives at least one of an MR associated with an event related to overhearing or an MR associated with an event related to the handover (see at least paragraphs 121-127, the source base station apparatus 3A transmits, to a target base station 3B, the SRS configuration information with respect to the terminal apparatus 1 and shares the SRS configuration information with the target base station apparatus 3B, where Fig. 6 is a handover procedure and, therefore, the measurement report is associated with an event related to handover); and
regarding claim 11, receiving a handover request message for the UE from the first BS (see at least Fig. 6 and paragraph 128, the target base station apparatus 3B receives a handover request message from the source base station apparatus 3A); and
transmitting a response message to the handover request message to the first BS (see at least Fig. 6 and paragraph 129, the target base station transmits a handover command to the terminal apparatus 1 via the source base station apparatus 3A).
Regarding claim 12, Liu discloses all of the subject matter of the claimed invention except transmitting, to the first BS, information about at least one SRS resource to be received by the second BS along with a non-acknowledgment (NACK) for the overhearing configuration information, when it is not possible to receive an SRS based on the overhearing configuration information.
However, in an analogous art, Park discloses or suggests transmitting, to the first BS, a response message in response to receiving the first message (see at least Fig. 3 and paragraphs 63-66, the serving cell may receive the SRS measurement reports transmitted from the neighbor cells in response to SRS measurement requests) and transmitting, to the first BS, information about at least one SRS resource to be received by the second BS along with a non-acknowledgment (NACK) for the overhearing configuration information, when it is not possible to receive an SRS based on the overhearing configuration information (see at least Fig. 3 and paragraphs 63-66, the serving cell may receive the SRS measurement reports transmitted from the neighbor cells in response to SRS measurement requests).
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to implement the technique as taught by Park above in to the invention of Liu in order to allow the serving cell to select an appropriate neighbor base station based on the SRS measurement reports.
Liu discloses or suggests:
regarding claim 14, a method performing communication by a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system (see at least Fig. 6 and associated description, terminal apparatus 1), the method comprising:
receiving configuration information for at least one measurement report (MR) from a first base station (BS) which is a serving BS (see at least Fig. 6 and paragraphs 119-120, the terminal apparatus 1 receives, from a source base station apparatus 3A, a measurement control message including a parameter measConfig, which includes a list of measurement object cells and based on the measurement object cells, the terminal apparatus transmits a measurement report indicating a measurement result to the source base station apparatus 3A); and
when detecting an event based on the configuration information for the at least one MR, transmitting, to the first BS, an MR associated with the event (see at least Fig. 6 and paragraphs 119-120, the terminal apparatus 1 receives, from a source base station apparatus 3A, a measurement control message including a parameter measConfig, which includes a list of measurement object cells and based on the measurement object cells, the terminal apparatus transmits a measurement report indicating a measurement result to the source base station apparatus 3A),
wherein a first message including overhearing configuration information is received by at least one second BS for a handover from the first BS based on the received MR (see at least Fig. 6 and paragraphs 121-125, during a handover procedure, the source base station apparatus 3A transmits, to a target base station 3B, the SRS configuration information with respect to the terminal apparatus 1 and shares the SRS configuration information with the target base station apparatus 3B based on the measurement report), and
wherein the at least one second BS receives a sounding reference signal (SRS) transmitted from the UE to the first BS, based on the overhearing configuration information (see at least paragraphs 121-125, the target base station apparatus 3B can detect, based on the shared SRS configuration information, the SRS transmitted from the terminal apparatus 1).
Liu does not expressly disclose that the at least one second BS overhears a sounding reference signal (SRS) transmitted from the UE to the first BS, based on the overhearing configuration information.
However, in an analogous art, Park discloses or suggests that the at least one second BS overhears a sounding reference signal (SRS) transmitted from the UE to the first BS, based on the overhearing configuration information (see at least Fig. 3 and paragraphs 62-66, the UE may use the UE beam 315 to transmit the SRSs (e.g., SRS transmission by using the beam associated with the selected SSB of the serving cell) and each of the neighbor cell may receive the SRSs that the UE transmits to the serving cell using the UE beam 315 (i.e., each of the neighbor cell overhears the SRS transmitted from the UE using the UE beam 315), where the serving cell may also send (e.g., in the SRS measurement request to the neighbor cells)information about the SRSs including the set of time-frequency resources to be used to transmit the SRSs, the periodicity with which the SRSs are to be transmitted, etc.).
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to implement the technique as taught by Park in to the invention of Liu in order to reduce resource usage for SRS transmission.
Furthermore, Liu, as modified by Park, does not explicitly disclose that the configuration information for MR comprises configuration information relating to a standard of triggering a multiple transmission-reception-point (TRP) configuration event.
However, in an analogous art, Abdelghaffar discloses or suggests a configuration information for MR comprising configuration information relating to a standard of triggering a multiple transmission-reception-point (TRP) configuration event (see at least paragraphs 130-133, the network entity can send a message that configures the UE to measure the average delay or delay spread of the TRPs based on reference signals transmitted by the multiple TRPs (e.g., TRP1, TRP2, and TRP3 of Fig. 7)).
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to implement the configuration technique, as taught by, Abdelghaffar, in to the invention of Liu, as modified by Park, in order to use the channel delay report obtained from the UE for delay pre-compensation for a downlink transmission.
Regarding claim 15, Liu discloses or suggests the overhearing configuration information comprises at least one of antenna port information or time-frequency resource information in which an SRS for which overhearing is requested is transmitted (see at least paragraphs 90 and 121-125, the shared SRS configuration information allows the target base station apparatus to detect the SRS transmitted from the terminal apparatus, where the SRS is transmitted in a prescribed symbol in a last SC-FDMA symbol or an SC-FDMA symbol in an UpPTS), and
wherein the at least one second BS having received the first message including the overhearing configuration information receives the SRS based on at least one of the time- frequency resource information or the antenna port information (see at least paragraphs 90 and 121-125, the target base station apparatus 3B can detect, based on the shared SRS configuration information, the SRS transmitted from the terminal apparatus 1, where the SRS is transmitted in a prescribed symbol in a last SC-FDMA symbol or an SC-FDMA symbol in an UpPTS).
Claims 3, 9, and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liu in view of Park, further in view of Abdelghaffar and, further in view of US Patent No. 9,264,961 (hereinafter “Shah”).
Regarding claims 3, 9, and 16, Liu discloses or suggests that the configuration information for MR comprises configuration information relating to a criterion of triggering an event related to a handover (see at least Fig. 6, and paragraphs 118-120 and 127, the source base station apparatus 3A transmits, to the terminal apparatus 1, a measurement control message including a parameter measConfig, which includes a list of measurement object cells and based on the measurement object cells, where the terminal apparatus transmits a measurement report indicating a measurement result to the source base station apparatus 3A, where the source base station apparatus 3A selects, based on the measurement report and RRM information, whether to perform a handover) and further discloses that the source base station apparatus 3A transmits a handover request message to the target base station apparatus 3B (see at least paragraph 128). However, Liu, as modified by Park and Abdelghaffar, does not explicitly disclose that the handover request message includes the overhearing configuration information to the at least one second BS when an MR associated with the event related to the handover is received.
Shah, from the same or similar fields of endeavor, discloses or suggests that the handover request message includes the overhearing configuration information to the at least one second BS when an MR associated with the event related to the handover is received (see at least column 7 line 35-column 8 line 40, the handover request message includes a specification of the UE’s SRS including the srs-ConfigIndex value designating when the UE is set to transmit its SRS, where the source eNodeB may transmit to the target eNodeB a measurement request message that gives the target eNodeB sufficient information to allow the target eNodeB to evaluate the UE’s SRS based on the UE being served by the source eNodeB and reporting having detected coverage of a target eNodeB).
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to implement the technique as taught by Shah above in to the invention of Liu, as modified by Park and Abdelghaffar, in order to improve the handover process by selecting the target eNodeB having the highest reported uplink signal strength from the UE.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 6, 13, and 17 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 Pawaris Sinkantarakorn whose telephone number is (571)270-1424. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8:00am-4:00pm.
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/PAO SINKANTARAKORN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2409 09/17/2026
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