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. 18/420,899 filed on 24 January 2024. The application claims FOR priority to FI20235085 filed on 31 January 2023. Claims 1-20 are presented for examination.
Claim Interpretation
Claims 3-6, 8, and 13-15 recites the limitation "with the at least one processing core." Paragraph 0057 of Applicant’s specification states “Comprised in device 500 is processor 510, which may comprise, for example, a single- or multi-core processor wherein a single-core processor comprises one processing core and a multi-core processor comprises more than one processing core.” For the purpose of this examination, Examiner will interpret this limitation to mean limitation "with the at least one processor" to maintain consistent language with independent claim 1.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4 and 20 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
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)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
(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 1-3, 5-14, and 16-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by US PGPUB 2021/0400590 A1 to Li et al
Regarding Claim 1, Li discloses a terminal device (FIG. 2, UE 1), comprising: at least one processor; and at least one memory comprising a computer program code; wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the terminal device (FIG. 2, UE 1) to: obtain, via a first radio entity in the terminal device, a configuration for a wake-up signal from a wireless network node (FIG. 2 and 0088 provides for UE obtains, via a main radio interface, a synchronization frame used to instruct user equipment to wake up from a base station/wireless network node); monitor, via a second radio entity in the terminal device, the wake-up signal from the wireless network node based at least on the configuration (FIG. 2 and 0089 provides for UE monitors, via WUR interface, for wake-up signals), wherein the first and second radio entities are different (FIG. 2 provides for the Main radio interface is different from the WUR interface); and activate the first radio entity based on an indication from the second radio entity (FIG. 2 and 0089 provides for UE activates the main radio interface after receiving the wake-up signal at the WUR interface).
Regarding Claim 2, Li discloses the terminal device according to claim 1, wherein the first radio entity is a main radio of the terminal device for communicating with the wireless network node and the second radio entity is a radio receiver for receiving the wake-up signal from the wireless network node (FIG. 2 and 0088-0089 provides for the main radio interface and the WUR interface).
Regarding Claim 3, Li discloses the terminal device according to claim 1, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are further configured to, with the at least one processing core, cause the terminal device at least to: monitor, by the first radio entity, a downlink control channel from the wireless network node based on the indication (0124 provides for monitoring for descrambling the physical downlink control channel).
Regarding Claim 5, Li discloses the terminal device according to claim 1, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are further configured to, with the at least one processing core, cause the terminal device at least to: turn on or off the first radio entity based on the indication (FIG. 2 and 0088-0089 provides for UE activates the main radio interface after receiving the wake-up signal at the WUR interface).
Regarding Claim 6, Li discloses the terminal device according to claim 1, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are further configured to, with the at least one processing core, cause the terminal device at least to: acquire, by the first radio entity, the indication from the second radio entity (FIG. 2 and 0088-0089 provides for UE activates the main radio interface after receiving the wake-up signal at the WUR interface).
Regarding Claim 7, Li discloses the terminal device according to claim 1, wherein the indication is based on the wake-up signal monitored at the second radio entity (FIG. 2 and 0088-0089 provides for UE activates the main radio interface after receiving the wake-up signal at the WUR interface).
Regarding Claim 8, Li discloses the terminal device according to claim 1, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are further configured to, with the at least one processing core, cause the terminal device at least to: provide, by the first radio entity to the second radio entity, information indicating when the second radio entity is to inform the first radio entity about the wake-up signal received at the second radio entity (FIG. 2 and 0088-0089 provides for UE activates the main radio interface after receiving the wake-up signal at the WUR interface).
Regarding Claim 9, Li discloses the apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the information indicates when the wake-up signal is addressing the terminal device (FIG. 2 and 0088-0089 and 0097 provides for UE activates the main radio interface after receiving the wake-up signal at the WUR interface corresponding to a wake-up window).
Regarding Claim 10, Li discloses the terminal device according to claim 8, wherein the information comprises an identification of the terminal device or an identification of a group which the terminal device is associated with (0113 provides for system information of a UE is updated).
Regarding Claim 11, Li discloses the terminal device according to claim 8, wherein the information comprises information about an occasion indicating the wake-up signal to be received at the second radio entity (FIG. 2 and 0088-0089 and 0097 provides for UE activates the main radio interface after receiving the wake-up signal at the WUR interface corresponding to a wake-up window).
Regarding Claim 12, Li discloses the terminal device according to claim 8, wherein the occasion is preceded or associated with a paging occasion of the terminal device (0004 provides for a paging window).
Regarding Claim 13, Li discloses the terminal device according to claim 1, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are further configured to, with the at least one processing core, cause the terminal device at least to: activate the first radio entity when the terminal device determines at least one of: a signal strength or quality of the wake-up signal is below a threshold; a rate of wake-up signal reception is below a threshold; the wake-up signal is not received after a certain number of occasions; the wake-up signal is not received for a certain amount of time (0097 provides for “the wake-up signal is only received within a time period corresponding to a wake-up window”); the terminal device performs handover; or the terminal device receives an indication indicating that the network does not support wake-up signalling.
Regarding Claim 14, Li discloses t e terminal device according to claim 1, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are further configured to, with the at least one processing core, cause the terminal device at least to: communicate, between the first radio entity and the second radio entity, via at least one of physical, medium access control or radio resource control layer of the terminal device or of the first radio entity (0088 provides for “a wake-up signal is a wake-up frame or a synchronization frame, and is used to instruct user equipment to wake up a main radio interface of the user equipment and instruct a main radio interface of the user equipment to receive updated system information”).
Regarding Claim 16, Li discloses the terminal device of according to claim 1, wherein communication between the first radio entity and the second radio entity is performed when the terminal device is in one of IDLE mode, INACTIVE mode (0089 provides for “The main radio interface is typically in an inactive state”), or CONNECTED mode.
Regarding Claim 17, similar rejection where the terminal device of claim 1 teaches the method of claim 17.
Regarding Claim 18, similar rejection where the terminal device of claim 2 teaches the method of claim 18.
Regarding Claim 19, similar rejection where the terminal device of claim 3 teaches the method of claim 19.
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.
Claim 15 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Li as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of US PGPUB 2024/0064818 A1 to Demir et al.
Regarding Claim 15, Li discloses the terminal device according to claim 1. Li doesn’t explicitly disclose communicate, between the first radio entity and the second radio entity, via at least one of physical, medium access control or radio resource control layer of the first radio entity without specifying layer information on the second radio entity. Demir, in a similar field of endeavor, discloses communicate, between the first radio entity and the second radio entity, via at least one of physical, medium access control or radio resource control layer of the first radio entity without specifying layer information on the second radio entity (0189 provides for the information includes a range). 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 Demir for information contained in activation requests. The range of Demir, when implemented with the signal updates of the Li system, will allow one of ordinary skill in the art to not specify layer information in order to trigger a change in the UE. 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 range of Demir with the signal updates of the Li system for the desirable purpose of optimizing wake-up signals and updates in a network.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
US PGPUB 2024/0275532 A1 to Luo et al discloses enter dormancy due to inaction.
US PGUB 2020/0037251 A1 to Du et al discloses the main radio is usually in an off mode.
US Patent 11,910,391 B2 to Chou discloses NOMA asynchronous transmissions.
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/SCHQUITA D GOODWIN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2459