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.
DETAILED ACTION
This communication is in response to Application No. 18/420,118 filed on 23 January 2024. This application claims CON to PCT/CN2021/114703 filed on 26 August 2021. Claims 1-20 are presented for examination.
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 1-6, 9-15, and 18-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by NPL 3GPP TSG WG1 #106-e R1-2106898 (retrieved from 1/23/2024 IDS; hereafter Samsung).
Regarding Claim 1, Samsung discloses a method for determining a transmission resource for a power saving signal (“2. Paging Enhancement Technique #1: Paging Early Indication (PEI)” discloses detecting a RS resource for power-saving), comprising: determining, by a terminal device, a target monitoring occasion set for the power saving signal (“2.1 Physical layer signal/channel” discloses that for SSS-based solution, a UE determines PEI monitoring occasions for an associated PO; “2.3.1 Configuration” discloses Proposal 3 provides for a number of PEI monitoring occasions), wherein the target monitoring occasion set comprises S monitoring occasions, and S is a positive integer (“2.3.1 Configuration” discloses Proposal 3 provides for a number of PEI monitoring occasions).
Regarding Claim 2, Samsung discloses the method of claim 1, wherein determining, by the terminal device, the target monitoring occasion set for the power saving signal comprises: determining, by the terminal device, a target time window, wherein the target time window comprises M monitoring occasions, and M is an integer greater than or equal to S (“2.3.1 Configuration” discloses Proposal 3 provides for a number of PEI monitoring occasions with time offset); and determining, by the terminal device, the S monitoring occasions within the target time window as the target monitoring occasion set (“2.3.1 Configuration” discloses Proposal 3 provides for a number of PEI monitoring occasions).
Regarding Claim 3, Samsung discloses the method of claim 1, wherein determining, by the terminal device, the target monitoring occasion set for the power saving signal comprises: determining, by the terminal device, a first target monitoring occasion, the first target monitoring occasion being a first monitoring occasion in the target monitoring occasion set (“2.3.1 Configuration” discloses Proposal 3 provides for a number of PEI monitoring occasions); and determining, by the terminal device, that the target monitoring occasion set comprises S consecutive monitoring occasions starting from the first monitoring occasion (“2.3.1 Configuration” discloses FIG. 2 for consecutive monitoring occasions with paging PDCCH).
Regarding Claim 4, Samsung discloses the method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving, by the terminal device, first configuration information carried in a system message, the first configuration information being used to determine a plurality of monitoring occasion sets in a time cycle, and the time cycle being a discontinuous reception (DRX) cycle or a paging cycle (“2.3.1 Configuration” discloses FIG. 1 for DRX cycles); and determining, by the terminal device, the target monitoring occasion set from the plurality of monitoring occasion sets (“2.3.1 Configuration” discloses FIG. 1 for consecutive monitoring occasions with DRX cycles).
Regarding Claim 5, Samsung discloses the method of claim 4, wherein the first configuration information comprises at least one of: first information for indicating a number of the monitoring occasion sets comprised in the time cycle (“2.3.1 Configuration” discloses FIG. 2 for consecutive monitoring occasions); second information for indicating a first monitoring occasion in each of the plurality of monitoring occasion sets; or third information for indicating a number of monitoring occasions comprised in each of the plurality of monitoring occasion sets.
Regarding Claim 6, Samsung discloses the method of claim 4, wherein determining, by the terminal device, the target monitoring occasion set from the plurality of monitoring occasion sets comprises: determining, by the terminal device, based on a first time relationship, the target monitoring occasion set from the plurality of monitoring occasion sets, wherein the first time relationship is a time relationship between the target monitoring occasion set and a target paging unit or a time relationship between the target monitoring occasion set and a target synchronization signal/physical broadcast channel block (SSB) set, wherein the target paging unit is a paging occasion (PO) or paging frame (PF) corresponding to the terminal device (“2.3.1 Configuration” discloses FIG. 1 for consecutive monitoring occasions with SSBs and PO within the I-DRX cycle).
Regarding Claim 9, Samsung discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the power saving signal is carried by a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), and the monitoring occasions are monitoring occasions for the PDCCH (Examiner interprets this to be an alternative limitation); and/or, the power saving signal is a paging early indication (PEI) signal (“2. Paging Enhancement Technique #1: Paging Early Indication (PEI)” discloses PEI signals).
Regarding Claim 10, similar rejection where the method of claim 1 teaches the terminal device of claim 10.
Regarding Claim 11, similar rejection where the method of claim 2 teaches the terminal device of claim 11.
Regarding Claim 12, similar rejection where the method of claim 3 teaches the terminal device of claim 12.
Regarding Claim 13, similar rejection where the method of claim 4 teaches the terminal device of claim 13.
Regarding Claim 14, similar rejection where the method of claim 5 teaches the terminal device of claim 14.
Regarding Claim 15, similar rejection where the method of claim 6 teaches the terminal device of claim 15.
Regarding Claim 18, Samsung discloses the terminal device of claim 11, wherein the processor is configured to determine the target time window based on a first configuration parameter (“2.3.1 Configuration” discloses Proposal 3 provides for a number of PEI monitoring occasions with time offset).
Regarding Claim 19, similar rejection where the method of claim 9 teaches the terminal device of claim 19.
Regarding Claim 20, similar rejection where the method of claim 1 teaches the chip of claim 20.
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 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.
Claims 7, 8, 16, and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over NPL Samsung as applied to claims 4 and 6 above, and further in view of US PGPUB 2024/0073862 A1 to Kaikkonen et al.
Regarding Claim 7, Samsung discloses the method of claim 6. Samsung doesn’t explicitly disclose wherein the target monitoring occasion set is an L-th monitoring occasion set, located before the target paging unit, in the plurality of monitoring occasion sets, wherein L is a positive integer and a value of L is network-configured or predefined; or the target monitoring occasion set is a nearest monitoring occasion set, located before the target SSB set, in the plurality of monitoring occasion sets; or the target monitoring occasion set is a nearest monitoring occasion set, located after the target SSB set, in the plurality of monitoring occasion sets. Kaikkonen, in a similar field of endeavor, discloses wherein the target monitoring occasion set is an L-th monitoring occasion set, located before the target paging unit, in the plurality of monitoring occasion sets, wherein L is a positive integer and a value of L is network-configured or predefined (0041-0042 and 0054-0056 provides for target monitoring occasions before a specific paging frame); or the target monitoring occasion set is a nearest monitoring occasion set, located before the target SSB set, in the plurality of monitoring occasion sets; or the target monitoring occasion set is a nearest monitoring occasion set, located after the target SSB set, in the plurality of monitoring occasion sets. One of ordinary skill in the art before the effectively filed date of the claimed invention would have recognized the ability to utilize the teachings of Kaikkonen for targeting multiple paging occasions based on a time offset. The monitoring occasion time offset of Kaikkonen, when implemented with the SSS-based PEI of the Samsung system, will allow one of ordinary skill in the art to configuring a time offset for paging frames in order to continue monitoring throughout changes in location. Therefore, the examiner concludes it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to utilize the monitoring occasion time offset of Kaikkonen with the SSS-based PEI of the Samsung system for the desirable purpose of monitoring through location changes for devices.
Regarding Claim 8, Samsung discloses the method of claim 4, further comprising: determining, by the terminal device, a target time window, the target time window comprising at least one monitoring occasion set (“2.3.1 Configuration” discloses Proposal 3 provides for a number of PEI monitoring occasions). Samsung doesn’t explicitly disclose determining, by the terminal device, the target monitoring occasion set from the plurality of monitoring occasion sets comprises: determining, by the terminal device, the target monitoring occasion set from the at least one monitoring occasion set within the target time window. Kaikkonen, in a similar field of endeavor, discloses determining, by the terminal device, the target monitoring occasion set from the plurality of monitoring occasion sets comprises: determining, by the terminal device, the target monitoring occasion set from the at least one monitoring occasion set within the target time window (0041-0042 and 0054-0056 provides for target monitoring occasions before a specific paging frame). Same motivation as claim 6.
Regarding Claim 16, similar rejection where the method of claim 7 teaches the terminal device of claim 16.
Regarding Claim 17, similar rejection where the method of claim 8 teaches the terminal device of claim 17.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
US PGPUB 2024/0259998 A1 to Peng et al discloses monitoring for the paging message based on a paging configuration.
US PGPUB 2024/0014870 A1 to Ben Hadj Fredj et al discloses paging enhancement studies.
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/SCHQUITA D GOODWIN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2459