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. The response filed 15 April 2026 amends claims 1, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 15, 17, and 20, cancels claims 2, 4, 11, 13, and 18, adds claims 21-25, and presents arguments is hereby acknowledged. Claims 1, 3, 5-10, 12, 14-17, and 19-25 are presented for examination.
Response to Arguments
Independent Claims 1, 10, and 20
On pages 8-10 of the response filed 15 April 2026, Applicant addresses the 35 U.S.C. 102 rejection made on the 15 January 2026 Non-Final Rejection. Applicant’s arguments, regarding the rejections under 35 U.S.C. 102, have been fully considered.
On pages 8-10, Applicant argues that the Samsung system fails to teach or suggest “receiving, by a 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.” Applicant argues that “it can be seen that the granularity of resource configuration by the network and the behaviors of the UE in Samsung are totally different from that of the amended claim 1.” Examiner respectfully agrees and finds this argument persuasive. Samsung fails to teach the amended limitations. Therefore, Examiner finds this argument persuasive.
Dependent Claims 3, 5-9, 12, 14-17, and 19
On pages 8-10 of the response filed 15 April 2026, Applicant addresses the 35 U.S.C. 102 rejection made on the 15 January 2026 Non-Final Rejection. Applicant submits that these claims are allowable at least as depending from an allowable independent claim, and further in view of the amendments to the independent claims, and the comments provided above. As per the comments above, Examiner found the arguments persuasive. With regards to allowability, Examiner has conducted a search and applied new art. Thus, a new rejection is established against the independent claims.
Newly Added Claims 21-25
On pages 10 of the response filed 15 April 2026, Applicant respectfully requests entry and full consideration of Claims 21-25. Examiner acknowledges this request and will now consider newly added claims 21-25.
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 1, 3, 5, 6, 9, 10, 12, 14, 15, 19, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US PGPUB 2022/0295405 A1 to Seo et al and in view of NPL 3GPP TSG WG1 #106-e R1-2106898 (retrieved from 1/23/2024 IDS; hereafter Samsung).
Regarding Claim 1, Seo discloses a method for determining a transmission resource for a power saving signal, comprising: receiving, by a 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 (FIG. 25 and 0218 provides for receiving information used to determine a plurality of monitoring occasions set for one DRX cycle). Seo doesn’t explicitly disclose determining, by the terminal device, a target monitoring occasion set for the power saving signal from the plurality of monitoring occasion sets, wherein the target monitoring occasion set comprises S monitoring occasions, and S is a positive integer. Samsung, in a similar field of endeavor, discloses determining, by the terminal device, a target monitoring occasion set for the power saving signal from the plurality of monitoring occasion sets (“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). 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 Samsung for PEI monitoring occasions. The PEI monitoring occasions of Samsung, when implemented with the synchronization signal of the Seo 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 PEI monitoring occasions of Samsung with the synchronization signal of the Seo system for the desirable purpose of monitoring through location changes for devices.
Regarding Claim 3, the Seo/Samsung system 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 (Samsung, “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 (Samsung, “2.3.1 Configuration” discloses FIG. 2 for consecutive monitoring occasions with paging PDCCH). Same motivation as claim 1.
Regarding Claim 5, the Seo/Samsung system discloses the method of claim 1, 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 (Samsung, “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. Same motivation as claim 1.
Regarding Claim 6, the Seo/Samsung system discloses the method of claim 1, 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 (Samsung, “2.3.1 Configuration” discloses FIG. 1 for consecutive monitoring occasions with SSBs and PO within the I-DRX cycle). Same motivation as claim 1.
Regarding Claim 9, the Seo/Samsung system 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 (Samsung, “2. Paging Enhancement Technique #1: Paging Early Indication (PEI)” discloses PEI signals). Same motivation as claim 1.
Regarding Claim 10, similar rejection where the method of claim 1 teaches the terminal device of claim 10.
Regarding Claim 12, similar rejection where the method of claim 3 teaches the terminal device of claim 12.
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 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, 17, and 23-25 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over the Seo/Samsung system 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, the Seo/Samsung system discloses the method of claim 6. The Seo/Samsung system 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 Seo/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 Seo/Samsung system for the desirable purpose of monitoring through location changes for devices.
Regarding Claim 8, the Seo/Samsung system the method of claim 1, further comprising: determining, by the terminal device, a target time window, the target time window comprising at least one monitoring occasion set (Samsung, “2.3.1 Configuration” discloses Proposal 3 provides for a number of PEI monitoring occasions). Same motivation as claim 1. The Seo/Samsung system 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.
Regarding Claim 23, the Seo/Samsung/Kaikkonen system discloses the method of claim 8, wherein determining, by the terminal device, the target time window comprises: determining, by the terminal device, the target time window based on a first configuration parameter (Seo, 0205 provides for length of a starting duration).
Regarding Claim 24, similar rejection where the method of claim 23 teaches the terminal device of claim 24.
Regarding Claim 25, the Seo/Samsung/Kaikkonen system discloses the terminal device of claim 24, wherein the first configuration parameter comprises at least one of: a first parameter for determining a start time of the target time window (Kaikkonen, 0088 provides for offset between start time windows); a second parameter for determining an end time of the target time window; or a third parameter for determining a duration of the target time window. Same motivation as claim 7.
Claims 21 and 22 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Samsung and in view of Kaikkonen.
Regarding Claim 21, Samsung discloses a terminal device, comprising: a processor; and a memory for storing a computer program that, when executed by the processor, causes the terminal device to: determine a target time window based on a first configuration parameter (“2.3.1 Configuration” discloses Proposal 3 provides for a number of PEI monitoring occasions), wherein the target time window comprises M monitoring occasions (“2.3.1 Configuration” discloses Proposal 3 provides for a number of PEI 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). Samsung doesn’t explicitly disclose determine the S monitoring occasions within the target time window as the target monitoring occasion set. Kaikkonen, in a similar field of endeavor, discloses determine the S monitoring occasions within the target time window as the target monitoring occasion set (0041-0042 and 0054-0056 provides for target monitoring occasions before a specific paging frame). 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 22, the Samsung/Kaikkonen system discloses the terminal device of claim 21, wherein the first configuration parameter comprises at least one of: a first parameter for determining a start time of the target time window (Kaikkonen, 0088 provides for offset between start time windows); a second parameter for determining an end time of the target time window; or a third parameter for determining a duration of the target time window. Same motivation as claim 21.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
US PGPUB 2024/0267884 A1 to Ly et al discloses DRX cycles indicating paging occasions for a duration.
US PGPUB 2023/0337180 A1 to Park discloses controlling paging operation.
US PGPUB 2022/0232478 A1 to Huang et al discloses a monitoring occasion before a DRX cycle duration.
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 be directed to SCHQUITA GOODWIN whose telephone number is (571)272-5477. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9am - 5pm EST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Tonia Dollinger can be reached on (571) 272-4170. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/SCHQUITA D GOODWIN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2459
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