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 Objections
Claims 25-27 objected to because of the following informalities:
Claims 25-27 are objected to for the use of the phrase “non-transitory readable storage medium” which should read “non-transitory computer readable storage medium”.
Appropriate correction is required.
Response to Amendment
Applicant’s amendments, filed 04/28/2026, with respect to the objection to Claims 5 and 17 have been fully considered and are persuasive due to the claims being cancelled. The objection of Claims 5 and 17 has been withdrawn.
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 text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
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.
Claims 1, 13, 21-27 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xu, Weijie (2021/0136809), herein Xu in view of Cabera Mercader et al. (2024/0129904), hereinafter Cabera Mercader.
Re. Claim 1, A gap execution method, comprising: in a case that a first gap overlaps a second gap (¶0070 - SS1 (Search Space 1) and SS2 (Search Space 2) have an overlapping region in time (they may overlap completely or partially)) OR a measurement occasion corresponding to a first task, performing, by a terminal device, first processing on the first gap (¶0068 - the terminal device determines the first receiving bandwidth of the downlink signal based on first bandwidths of the first control resource sets corresponding to the multiple search spaces respectively. Examiner is not interpreting this determination of bandwidth as the processing which ignores or uses the first gap, rather examiner is citing this as a means to show that Xu teaches the act of performing processing by a terminal device); wherein the terminal device is configured with at least one gap, the first gap and the second gap belong to the at least one gap (¶0070 - a time range of the overlapping of the SS1 and the SS2 in time is [t1, t2]), wherein both the first gap and the second gap are a gap for performing a multi card task (¶0040 - an NR UE monitors PDCCH within a PDCCH search space, and the PDCCH CORESET provides a time-frequency resource location of the PDCCH search space).
However, Xu does not expressly teach wherein the first processing comprises ignoring the first gap or using the first gap.
Yet, Cabera Mercader explicitly teaches wherein the first processing comprises using the first gap and using the second gap after the first gap ends (Fig. 11, & ¶0148 - the UE 115 may be configured to assign the overlap portion 1125 to the first measurement gap occasion 1105 or the second measurement gap occasion 1110 based at least in part on whether the first measurement gap occasion 1105 begins before or after the second measurement gap occasion 1110)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add the teaching of Cabera Mercader to the teaching of Xu. The motivation for such would be as Cabera Mercader provides a means for improving efficiency when handling gap information in that, in the event of an overlap of gaps, the second gap may be used after the first is used (Cabera Mercader, ¶0148). All of the claimed elements were known in the prior art and one skilled in the art could have combined the elements, as claimed by known methods, and the combination would have yielded predictable results to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time of invention.
Re. Claim 13, Claim 13 is functionally the same method as disclosed in Claim 1 and is the matching “hardware” claim. Claim 13 is rejected under the same theory of Claim 1, and additionally, Xu discloses a terminal, comprising a processor, a memory, and a program or instruction stored on the memory and executable on the processor (Fig. 10).
Re. Claim 25, Claim 25 is functionally the same method as disclosed in Claim 1 and is the matching “memory” claim. Claim 25 is rejected under the same theory of Claim 1, and additionally, Xu discloses a non-transitory readable storage medium storing a program or instructions (Fig. 10).
Re. Claims 21, 23 and 26, Xu and Cabera Mercader teach Claims 1, 13 and 25.
Additionally, Xu additionally teaches a power saving signal, wherein the power saving signal at least comprises a DCP signal and/or a wake-up signal (¶0080 - when PDCCH monitoring with a power-saving signal wake-up mechanism is adopted, a downlink receiving bandwidth of the terminal device may be determined based on a bandwidth of a power-saving signal);
However, Xu does not expressly teach wherein the method further comprises: in a case that the first gap is used, canceling, by the terminal device, monitoring of a monitoring occasion.
Yet, Cabera Mercader explicitly teaches wherein the method further comprises: in a case that the first gap is used, canceling, by the terminal device, monitoring of a monitoring occasion (¶0083 - a measurement gap occasion may be a period in which wireless communications between a user-end device (e.g., a UE 115) and a network infrastructure node (e.g., an eNB or a gNB) is temporarily stopped for the purpose of giving at least one of the base station 105 or the UE 115 the opportunity to perform measurements of signals (e.g., reference signals) from other neighboring nodes in the wireless communications system 100. These measurements may be for the purpose of establishing new communication links 125, or for other reasons, such as positioning. Examiner interprets that a pause or cancellation can occur when the gap is being used and that the communication links disclosed in Xu can be reasonably interpreted within the “other reasons” disclosed by Cabera Mercader).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add the teaching of Cabera Mercader to the teaching of Xu. The motivation for such would be as Cabera Mercader provides that, when a first gap is used, other communications are cancelled or paused for the duration of the gap (Cabera Mercader, ¶0083). All of the claimed elements were known in the prior art and one skilled in the art could have combined the elements, as claimed by known methods, and the combination would have yielded predictable results to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time of invention.
Re. Claims 22, 24, and 27, Xu and Cabera Mercader teach Claims 1, 13, and 25.
However, Xu does not expressly teach wherein before performing the first processing on the first gap, the method further comprises at least one of the following: sending, by the terminal device, a first gap request to the network side device, wherein the first gap request carries at least priority information of the first gap and/or purpose information of the first gap; and receiving gap configuration information sent by the network side device, wherein the gap configuration information at least carries priority information of the first gap and/or purpose information of the first gap.
Yet, Cabera Mercader explicitly teaches wherein before performing the first processing on the first gap, the method further comprises AT LEAST ONE OF THE FOLLOWING: sending, by the terminal device, a first gap request to the network side device, wherein the first gap request carries at least priority information of the first gap and/or purpose information of the first gap; and receiving gap configuration information sent by the network side device, wherein the gap configuration information at least carries priority information of the first gap and/or purpose information of the first gap (¶0006 - receiving, from the base station, control signaling indicating a measurement gap sequence configuration based on the UE capability information. Additionally, Examiner interprets that only one of the claimed features needs to be mapped because of the presence of “at least one of the following”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add the teaching of Cabera Mercader to the teaching of Xu. The motivation for such would be as Cabera Mercader provides a means for improving efficiency when handling gap information in that, before a first gap is used, purpose information of the gap is received by the UE (Cabera Mercader, ¶0006). All of the claimed elements were known in the prior art and one skilled in the art could have combined the elements, as claimed by known methods, and the combination would have yielded predictable results to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time of invention.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 04/28/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. Applicant argues on pages 6-9 that no previously presented reference discloses the newly amended elements to the independent claims. To this argument, Examiner respectfully disagrees and presents citations from both Xu and Cabera Mercader in order to disclose using the first gap and using the second gap after the first gap ends (Cabera Mercader: Fig. 11, & ¶0148 - the UE 115 may be configured to assign the overlap portion 1125 to the first measurement gap occasion 1105 or the second measurement gap occasion 1110 based at least in part on whether the first measurement gap occasion 1105 begins before or after the second measurement gap occasion 1110) and wherein both the first gap and the second gap are a gap for performing a multi-card task (Xu: ¶0040 - an NR UE monitors PDCCH within a PDCCH search space, and the PDCCH CORESET provides a time-frequency resource location of the PDCCH search space). While the Examiner is not reading the specification into the claim language, the claim language is silent on what a “multi-card task” is. Spec ¶0033 describes “the terminal device performs corresponding tasks based on the at least one gap, such as paging monitoring tasks, reference signal measurement tasks or other multi-card tasks”, which Examiner used to inform that the PDCCH paging monitoring disclosed by Xu was deemed a “multi-card task” by Applicant’s definition. Additionally, new rejections were provided for the new claims provided under Xu and Cabera Mercader as well, other references previously used in rejections will be maintained in the record for future consideration and clarity of the record. As such, Examiner upholds the rejection of Claims 1, 13, and 25, as well as all claims depending therein under 35 U.S.C. § 103.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Zheng et al. (2022/0174623) - ¶0062-0076
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. 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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/N.J.S./Examiner, Art Unit 2475
/KHALED M KASSIM/supervisory patent examiner, Art Unit 2475
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