DETAILED ACTION
Applicant's response filed on 11/24/2025 has been entered and made of record.
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 .
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 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.
Claim Status
Claims 2-9, 12, and 19 are cancelled.
Claims 1, 11, 13, 15-18, and 20 are amended.
New claims 21-30 have been added.
Claims 1, 10, 11, 13-18, and 20-30 are currently pending for examination.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's Remarks (on page 10), filed 11/24/2025, regarding Claim Objections have been fully considered and the claims have been amended or deleted. The objections to claims 1-3, 11-13, 15-17, and 20 have been withdrawn in view of the amendment.
Applicant's Remarks (on page 11), filed 11/24/2025, regarding Claim Rejections under 35 U.S.C. § 112 have been fully considered and claim 3 has been deleted. Thus, the rejection to claim 3 under 35 U.S.C. § 112(b) is moot.
Applicant's arguments, filed 11/24/2025, with respect to claims 1, 15, and 20 have been fully considered but are moot in view of the new ground(s) of rejection. The amendments to the claims necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection discussed below.
This Office action is made Final.
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)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1, 10, 13-18, 20-21, and 23-30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by LI (US 2023/0403759 A1, along with Provisional Application No. 63/091,990) hereinafter “Li”. The U.S. reference, Li, was cited in PTO-892 mailed on 08/27/2025.
Regarding claims 1 and 20, Li discloses Claim 1 of a configuration method for a multicast broadcast service (MBS) service (see FIG. 3; see ¶ [0086]), and Claim 20 of a terminal device comprising: a processor and a memory storing a computer program, wherein the computer program, when executed by the processor, enables the terminal device to perform: (see FIG. 26F; see ¶ [0371], a WTRU may include a processor and a memory), comprising:
receiving, by a terminal device, configuration information of the MBS service (see ¶ [0202], the MBS PDSCH transmission in RRC idle/inactive may be configured by the RRC signaling, e.g., by a BWP configuration for MBS in RRC idle/active), the MBS service being transmitted via multicast (see ¶ [0147], Multicast/Broadcast Service Multicast Control Channel (MBS-MCCH));
wherein the configuration information of the MBS service comprises first indication information, the first indication information being configured to indicate whether the terminal device is configured to receive the MBS service when the terminal device is in a state of radio resource control (RRC)_INACTIVE (see ¶ [0202] [0204], the UE may monitor and receive the associated MBS PDSCH transmission when the UE is in the RRC idle/inactive state).
Regarding claims 10 and 21, Li discloses wherein the configuration information of the MBS service is carried in a first RRC dedicated signaling (see ¶ [0202], configured by the RRC signaling).
Regarding claims 13 and 23, Li discloses further comprising:
continuing to monitor, by the terminal device, a MBS physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) after the terminal device enters the state of RRC_INACTIVE, in response to the terminal device determining to receive the MBS service in the state of RRC_INACTIVE based on the configuration information of the MBS service;
wherein the MBS PDCCH carries scheduling information of an MBS physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), and the MBS PDSCH is configured for transmitting the MBS service.
Regarding claims 14 and 24, Li discloses wherein the MBS PDCCH is scrambled by a group radio network temporary identifier (G-RNTI) (see ¶ [0150] [0185], the MBS transmission scrambled by G-RNTI).
Regarding claim 15, Li discloses a configuration method for a multicast broadcast service (MBS) service, comprising:
sending, by a network device, configuration information of the MBS service to a terminal device, the MBS service being transmitted via multicast (see ¶ [0202], the MBS PDSCH transmission in RRC idle/inactive may be configured by the RRC signaling, e.g., by a BWP configuration for MBS in RRC idle/active and see ¶ [0147], Multicast/Broadcast Service Multicast Control Channel (MBS-MCCH));
wherein the configuration information of the MBS service comprises first indication information, the first indication information being configured to indicate whether the terminal device is configured to receive the MBS service when the terminal device is in a state of radio resource control (RRC)_INACTIVE (see ¶ [0202] [0204], the UE may monitor and receive the associated MBS PDSCH transmission when the UE is in the RRC idle/inactive state).
Regarding claims 16, 25 and 28, Li discloses further comprising:
receiving, by the terminal device, third indication information from the network device, the third indication information being configured to indicate at least one of first serving cell or first BWP used by the terminal device to receive the MBS services after the terminal device enters the state of RRC_INACTIVE, wherein first serving cell comprises at least one cell (see ¶ [0202] [0206] [0208], the UE may be configured by the eNB through RRC signaling with the resources used for configured scheduling PDSCH transmission in RRC idle/inactive state and the resources may contain an index of the configured scheduling configuration, e.g., MBS-cs-ConfigIndex, which configures the unique identity of an configured scheduling configuration among all of the configured scheduling configurations within the BWP of the serving cell).
Regarding claims 17, 26 and 29, Li discloses wherein the third indication information comprises at least one of: an index of the first BWP (see ¶ [0154] [0208], when a UE is operating with the dedicated MBS BWP, the gNB may configure the bandwidth and the starting point of the MBS BWP to the UE, the starting point may indicate the frequency offset with respect to the PRB with the lowest PRB index, or with the highest PRB index within the initial BWP used in the RRC idle/inactive).
Regarding claim 18, Li discloses wherein the first serving cell indicated by the third indication information is the same as a cell in which the terminal device receives the MBS service in a state of RRC_CONNECTED (see ¶ [0148] [0218], UE may receive the configuration of the MBS BWP to be used in RRC idle/inactive when the UE is in the RRC connected mode through UE dedicated signaling).
Regarding claim 27 and 30, Li discloses wherein the third indication information is carried in a second RRC dedicated signaling; wherein at least one of a first RRC dedicated signaling is an RRC release message (see ¶ [0149] [0219], the configuration of the configured MBS BWP/scheduling PDSCH may be configured via RRCRelease message when the UE transits from RRC connected state to RRC idle/inactive state).
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 may not be obtained though the invention is not identically disclosed or described as set forth in section 102 of this title, if the differences between the subject matter sought to be patented and the prior art are such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains. Patentability shall not be negatived by the manner in which the invention was made.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied 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.
Claims 11 and 22 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Li in view of KIM et al. (US 2021/0392467 A1) hereinafter “Kim”.
Regarding claims 11 and 22, Li discloses wherein in response to the terminal device receiving the MBS service after entering the state of RRC_INACTIVE (see ¶ [0202] [0204], when the UE is in the RRC idle/inactive state), but does not explicitly disclose all secondary cells (SCells) are in deactivated state.
However, Kim discloses all secondary cells (SCells) are in a deactivated state, the all SCells comprising at least one of: SCells at a master cell group (MCG) and/or SCells at a secondary cell group (SCG) (see ¶ [0142], the SCell is in a deactivated state and see ¶ [0138], MCG or SCG).
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to provide all secondary cells (SCells) are in deactivated state as taught by Kim, in the system of Li, so that it would provide the MBS serviced to a terminal via multicast bearer (Kim: see ¶ [0008]).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record (see attached PTO-892) and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
BABAEI (US 2023/0361926 A1) teaches a user equipment receives a multicast broadcast services (MBS) transport block, wherein the UE corresponds to a defined state which can be an RRC inactive or idle state, and determines to transmit a HARQ feedback for the received MBS transport block (see Abstract).
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.
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/PETER CHEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2462