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 .
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 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.
Claim(s) 1-3, 17, 21 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Byun US 20180338277 in view of Park US 20190215726
A method of a first unit of a base station, the method comprising:
receiving, from a second unit of the base station, a message including information related to System Information (SI) (Byun: fig. 11 [0107-0114] Referring to FIG. 11, in step S1130, the DU of the BS may transmit the request for the system information, received from the UE, to the CU (herein the request from the UE considered as the list including at least one UE is part of the message). A message including a container piggybacking the request for the system information may be transmitted from the DU to the CU. The request for the system information may be included in an initial UL RRC message transfer message. The initial UL RRC message transfer message may be transmitted by the DU to forward an initial layer 3 message to the CU on the F1 interface); and
transmitting, to the second unit in response to the message, a list indicating at least one User Equipment (UE) that needs to receive the SI via dedicated signaling (Byun: fig. 11 [0115-0118] Referring to FIG. 11, in step S1140-S1150, the DU of the BS may receive, from the CU, a message of a command to broadcast the requested system information. The message may be a system information broadcast request message. The message may be a system information delivery command message. The message may include information indicating the requested system information. For example, the message may include an identity, an index, or a number for the requested system information…….. In step S1150, the DU of the BS may provide the requested system information to the UE on the basis of the received message. The system information may be provided to the UE through broadcast signaling or dedicated signaling)
Park further teaches wireless device identifier/gNB-CU UE FIAP ID (Park: [0214, 0219, 0228-0229] - (e.g., gNB-CU UE F1AP ID)). Thus, it would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claim invention to include the above recited limitation into Byun’s invention in order to include a wireless device identifier of the wireless device (e.g., gNB-CU UE F1AP ID) into the request or message, as taught by the Park.
2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: receiving, from the second unit, an updated SI included in a Radio Resource Control (RRC) message (Byun: fig. 11-16 - when the CU determines to update the information related to the SIB, the CU may transmit the updated information related to the SIB to the DU); and transmitting the updated SI included in the RRC to a UE which is one of the at least one UE in the list, wherein the RRC message is included in a transfer message (Byun: fig. 12-16 - the DU of the BS may provide the requested system information to the UE on the basis of the received message. The system information may be provided to the UE through broadcast signaling or dedicated signaling).
3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the list includes a gNB-CU UE FIAP ID (Park: [0214, 0219, 0228-0229] - (e.g., gNB-CU UE F1AP ID)). Thus, it would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claim invention to include the above recited limitation into Byun’s invention in order to include a wireless device identifier of the wireless device (e.g., gNB-CU UE F1AP ID) into the request or message, as taught by the Park.
17. The method according to claim 1, wherein the message includes the SI to be broadcast (Byun: [0185] fig. 11-16).
21. The method according to claim 1, wherein the at least one UE, indicated by the list, is unable to receive the SI from broadcast (Byun: [0137, 0142-0143] fig. 11-16).
Regarding claims 5-7, 9-11, 13-15, 18-20, 22-24 the independent claim and each dependent claim are related to the same limitation set for hereinabove in claims 1-3, 17, 21 where the difference used is a “base station” with a processor and a memory (Byun: referring to FIG. 12 the station includes a processor, a memory [0185]) and the wordings of the claims were interchanged within the claim itself or some of the claims were presented as a combination of two or more previously presented limitations. This change does not affect the limitation of the above treated claims. Adding these phrases to the claims arid interchanging the wording did not introduce new limitations to these claims. Therefore, these claims were rejected for similar reasons as stated above.
Response to Amendment
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed on 6/16/26 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicant Argument:
According to amended claim 1, receiving, from a second unit of the base station, a message including information related to System Information (SI); and
transmitting, to the second unit in response to the message, a list indicating at least one User Equipment (UE) that needs to receive the SI via dedicated signaling. Such a distinction is not disclosed in Prior Art(s).
Response to Arguments:
With respect to the above argument, Examiner would like to draw attention to that it is the claims that define the claimed invention, and it is claims, not specifications that are anticipated or unpatentable. Constant v. Advanced Micro-Devices Inc., 7 USPQ2d 1064.
In addition, the Examiner would like to draw attention to (fig. 11,unit 1110-1130 [0107-0114]) of Byun, for example: Referring to FIG. 11, in step S1130, the DU of the BS may transmit the request for the system information, received from the UE, to the CU (herein the request from the UE considered as the list including at least one UE is part of the message). A message including a container piggybacking the request for the system information may be transmitted from the DU to the CU. The request for the system information may be included in an initial UL RRC message transfer message (i.e., gNB-DU UE F1AP considered same the list of UE included in the message). The initial UL RRC message transfer message may be transmitted by the DU to forward an initial layer 3 message to the CU on the F1 interface (herein it’s considered same as receiving, from a second unit of the base station, a message including information related to System Information).
In addition, the Examiner would like to draw attention to (fig. 11,unit 1140-1150 [0115-0119]) of Byun, for example: Referring to FIG. 11, in step S1140-S1150, the DU of the BS may receive, from the CU, a message of a command to broadcast the requested system information. The message may be a system information broadcast request message. The message may be a system information delivery command message. The message may include information indicating the requested system information. For example, the message may include an identity, an index, or a number for the requested system information…….. In step S1150, the DU of the BS may provide the requested system information to the UE on the basis of the received message. The system information may be provided to the UE through broadcast signaling or dedicated signaling (herein it’s considered same as transmitting, to the second unit in response to the message, a list indicating at least one User Equipment (UE) that needs to receive the SI via dedicated signaling).
Thus, for the above reason, the prior art meet the claim limitation.
The examiner stresses that the claims are too broad and require detail or specialization of the steps as recited in the claims. Alone and as claimed, the limitations are too open.
Examiner has cited particular portions of the references as applied to each claim limitation for the convenience of the applicant. Although the specified citations are representative of the teachings of the art and are applied to the specific limitations within the individual claim, other passages and figures may apply as well. It is respectfully requested from the applicant in preparing responses, to fully consider the references in entirety as potentially teaching all or part of the claimed invention, as well as the context of the passage as taught by the prior art or disclosed by the Examiner.
Regarding all other arguments presented by applicant, the arguments are substantially the same as those which have already been addressed above and in the interest of brevity; the Examiner directs the applicant to those responses above.
Conclusion
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 extension fee 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 date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Sulaiman Nooristany whose telephone number is 571-270-1929. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday thru Friday: 8:30am to 5:00pm (EST). If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Jeff Rutkowski can be reached on 571-270-1215. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/SULAIMAN NOORISTANY/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2415
Prosecution Insights