DETAILED ACTION
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 (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.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claim(s) 1, 3, 11, 13, 15, 17, 22, 23, 25, 27, 28 and 29 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xu (US 2025/0351125) in view of Shukair (US 2019/0320491).
Regarding Claims 1, 15, 23 and 28, Xu teaches a user equipment (UE) for wireless communication (¶ [0254], see specifically UE), comprising:
one or more antennas (¶ [0255], see specifically memory); and
a processing system that includes one or more processors, and one or more memories that store code for the one or more processors, the processing system configured to cause the UE to (¶ [0254], see specifically processor and ¶ [0255], see specifically memory), to:
receive a dynamic indication to skip reception or transmission of one or more channels during a time interval (¶ [0045], see specifically prohibiting command based on the length of the timer); and
apply the dynamic indication by skipping the reception or transmission of the one or more channels during the time interval (¶ [0087], see specifically skips a transmission on a LCH).
Xu fails to explicitly teach wherein skipping the reception or transmission of the one or more channels includes re-scheduling or delaying the reception or transmission of the one or more channels.
Shukair from the same or similar field of endeavor teaches skipping the reception or transmission of the one or more channels includes re-scheduling or delaying the reception or transmission of the one or more channels (¶ [0009], see specifically delay the transmission and skips the transmission grant).
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art of telecommunications at the time of the filing of the invention to delay transmission when skipping a grant in the system of Xu as taught by Shukair.
The motivation is that a UE may still have non-stale data to transmit or receive after skipping a window and it would be obvious that that data would still need to be sent and one would be motivated to do so.
With respect to Claim 3, 17, 25 and 29, Xu teaches the processing system, receive the dynamic indication, are configured to: receive downlink control information that includes the dynamic indication (¶ [0100], see specifically DCI)
Regarding Claim 11, 22 and 27, Xu teaches the processing system, receive the dynamic indication, are configured to: receive a media access control (MAC) control element (MAC-CE) message that includes the dynamic indication (¶ [0100], see specifically MAC CE)
Regarding Claim 13, Xu teaches a length of time during which the dynamic indication is applied ends based on a duration (¶ [0045], see specifically prohibiting command based on the length of the timer).
Claim(s) 2, 4, 5, 16, 18, 19 and 24 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xu (US 2025/0351125) in view of Shukair (US 2019/0320491) as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Hong (WO 2024/155117).
Regarding Claim 2, 16 and 24, Xu fails to explicitly teach the time interval corresponds to a cell discontinuous reception or discontinuous transmission restriction window.
Hong from the same or similar field of endeavor teaches the time interval corresponds to a cell discontinuous reception or discontinuous transmission restriction window (¶ [0208], see specifically DRX configuration.)
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art of telecommunications at the time of the filing of the invention to use DCI to convey power saving information in the system of Xu as taught by Hong.
The motivation is that Xu teaches to use various means to convey information to the UE, it would be obvious to use mechanisms such as short message field within DCI to convey the signaling information in the system of Xu as taught by Hong.
Regarding Claim 4 and 18, Xu fails to explicitly teach the processing system, receive the dynamic indication, are configured to: receive a value of a short message bit field of the downlink control information.
Hong from the same or similar field of endeavor the one or more processors, to receive the dynamic indication, are configured to: receive a value of a short message bit field of the downlink control information (¶ [0208], see specifically DCI short message field)
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art of telecommunications at the time of the filing of the invention to use DCI to convey power saving information in the system of Xu as taught by Hong.
The motivation is that Xu teaches to use various means to convey information to the UE, it would be obvious to use mechanisms such as short message field within DCI to convey the signaling information in the system of Xu as taught by Hong.
Regarding Claim 5 and 19, Xu fails to explicitly teach the processing system, receive the dynamic indication, are configured to: receive a short message indicator bit field of the downlink control information.
Hong from the same or similar field of endeavor the one or more processors, to receive the dynamic indication, are configured to: receive a short message indicator bit field of the downlink control information (¶ [0208], see specifically DCI short message field)
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art of telecommunications at the time of the filing of the invention to use DCI to convey power saving information in the system of Xu as taught by Hong.
The motivation is that Xu teaches to use various means to convey information to the UE, it would be obvious to use mechanisms such as short message field within DCI to convey the signaling information in the system of Xu as taught by Hong.
Claim(s) 6 and 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xu (US 2025/0351125) in view of Shukair (US 2019/0320491) as applied to claim 3 above, and further in view of Sun (US 2021/0007135).
Regarding Claim 6 and 20, Xu fails to explicitly teach the processing system, receive the downlink control information, are configured to: receive an uplink grant or a downlink grant that includes the dynamic indication.
Sun from the same or similar field of endeavor teaches receive an uplink grant or a downlink grant that includes the dynamic indication (¶ [0050], see specifically reception of UL grant triggers prohibit timer.)
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art of telecommunications at the time of the filing of the invention to include an indication in the grant to trigger the prohibit timer in the system of Xu as taught by Sun.
The motivation to include an explicit prohibit is that it allows the configuration of additional parameters about the prohibit.
Claim(s) 7 and 12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xu (US 2025/0351125) in view of Shukair (US 2019/0320491) as applied to claim 3 above, and further in view of Zhang (US 2019/0281652).
Regarding Claim 7, Xu fails to explicitly teach a start time of a length of time during which the dynamic indication is applied occurs a quantity of symbols after a symbol associated with the downlink control information.
Zhang from the same or similar field of endeavor a start time of a length of time during which the dynamic indication is applied occurs a quantity of symbols after a symbol associated with the downlink control information (¶ [0103], see specifically number of symbols.)
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art of telecommunications at the time of the filing of the invention to sleep a number of symbols after receiving a DC in the system of Xu as taught by Zhang.
The motivation is that Xu states in ¶ 0095 that the sleep may begin after a time offset, in wireless communications, time is divided into superframes, frames, subframes, slots and symbols, and it would be obvious to have the offset of Xu be a number of symbols as it a certain amount of symbols occur in a certain period of time.
Regarding Claim 12, Xu fails to explicitly teach a length of time during which the dynamic indication is applied begins a quantity of symbols after a symbol of an acknowledgement transmitted by the UE in response to receiving the MAC-CE message.
Zhang teaches a length of time during which the dynamic indication is applied begins a quantity of symbols after a symbol of an acknowledgement transmitted by the UE in response to receiving the MAC-CE message (¶ [0103], see specifically number of symbols.)
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art of telecommunications at the time of the filing of the invention to sleep a number of symbols after receiving a DC in the system of Xu as taught by Zhang.
The motivation is that Xu states in ¶ 0095 that the sleep may begin after a time offset, in wireless communications, time is divided into superframes, frames, subframes, slots and symbols, and it would be obvious to have the offset of Xu be a number of symbols as it a certain amount of symbols occur in a certain period of time.
Claim(s) 8 and 10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xu (US 2025/0351125) in view of Shukair (US 2019/0320491) as applied to claim 3 above, and further in view of Zhou (US 2025/0280466).
Regarding Claim 8, Xu fails to explicitly teach the dynamic indication is received in an inactive time of a connected-mode discontinuous reception cycle
Zhou teaches the dynamic indication is received in an inactive time of a connected-mode discontinuous reception cycle (¶ [0374], see specifically that the UE may receive DCI regardless of whether the wireless device is active or inactive.)
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art of telecommunications at the time of the filing of the invention to receive power control DCI’s in regardless of being in the active or inactive time in the system of Xu as taught by Zhou.
The motivation is that the ability to extend or set a sleep timer during any mode allows the device to better save power as it is allowed to sleep for a specific amount of time, rather than necessarily using a cycle to see if the UE is needed at a given moment.
Regarding Claim 10, Xu fails to explicitly teach the time interval corresponds to an inactive time of a connected-mode discontinuous reception cycle, and the processing system, receive the dynamic indication, are configured to: receive the dynamic indication during an active time of the connected-mode discontinuous reception cycle.
Zhou from the same or similar field of endeavor teaches the time interval corresponds to an inactive time of a connected-mode discontinuous reception cycle, and the processing system, receive the dynamic indication, are configured to: receive the dynamic indication during an active time of the connected-mode discontinuous reception cycle (¶ [0374], see specifically that the UE may receive DCI regardless of whether the wireless device is active or inactive.)
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art of telecommunications at the time of the filing of the invention to receive power control DCI’s in regardless of being in the active or inactive time in the system of Xu as taught by Zhou.
The motivation is that the ability to extend or set a sleep timer during any mode allows the device to better save power as it is allowed to sleep for a specific amount of time, rather than necessarily using a cycle to see if the UE is needed at a given moment.
Claim(s) 9, 21, 26 and 30 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xu (US 2025/0351125) in view of Shukair (US 2019/0320491) as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Lee (US 2017/0105166).
Regarding Claim 9, 21, 26 and 30, Xu fails to explicitly teach the processing system, receive the dynamic indication, are configured to: receive a paging message that includes the dynamic indication.
Lee from the same or similar field of endeavor teaches to receive the dynamic indication, are configured to: receive a paging message that includes the dynamic indication (¶ [0054], see specifically receive a page to get system information changes.)
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art of telecommunications at the time of the filing of the invention to use a page to convey control changes in the system of Xu as taught by Lee.
The motivation is that paging messages are used to convey information in the 3GPP system, it would have been obvious to adapt it to convey information such as the information of the system of Xu.
Claim(s) 14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xu (US 2025/0351125) in view of Shukair (US 2019/0320491) as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Agiwal (US 2024/0292243).
Regarding Claim 14, Xu fails to explicitly teach a length of time during which the dynamic indication is applied ends based on a dynamic indication to stop skipping the reception or transmission of the one or more channels.
Agiwal from the same or similar field of endeavor teaches a length of time during which the dynamic indication is applied ends based on a dynamic indication to stop skipping the reception or transmission of the one or more channels (¶ [0163], see specifically the during the time of the skipping UE and gNB may cancel.)
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art of telecommunications at the time of the filing of the invention to stop skipping the reception or transmission during the time interval in the system of Xu as taught by Agiwal.
The motivation is that canceling the skipping time is that it allows the system to come back to active mode and communicate data.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see remarks, filed July 31, 2026, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 1-30 under 35 USC 102 and the Xu reference have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of Shukair
Conclusion
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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should b3e directed to ROBERT M MORLAN whose telephone number is (571)270-5674. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday, 10 AM - 4PM.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Hadi Armouche can be reached at 571-270-3618. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/ROBERT M MORLAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2409
ROBERT M. MORLAN
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2409
