DETAILED ACTION
This Office action is a response to Preliminary Amendment made to an Application No. 18/426,068 filed on 12/19/2025 in which claims 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11 are amended and no claims are cancelled or added. Accordingly, claims 1-12 are currently pending for examination.
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 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.
Priority
Acknowledgement is made of applicant's claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d). Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The Examiner has considered the reference(s) listed on the Information Disclosure Statement submitted on 01/29/2024, 01/17/2025, and 12/19/2025. The reference numbers listed as 28017058.1 (filed 01/29/2024) and 28889274.1 (filed 01/17/2025) are incomplete information to consider.
Drawings
The Examiner contends that the drawings submitted on 01/29/2024 are acceptable for examination proceedings.
Specification
The title of the invention is not descriptive. A new title is required that is clearly indicative of the invention to which the claims are directed.
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 may not be obtained though the invention is not identically disclosed or described as set forth in section 102 of this title, if the differences between the subject matter sought to be patented and the prior art are such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains. Patentability shall not be negatived by the manner in which the invention was made.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied 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 1-2, 5-6, and 9-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Babaei et al. (US 2021/0282043 A1) hereinafter “Babaei” in view of Lee et al. (US 2015/0098400 A1) hereinafter “Lee”.
Regarding claims 1 and 9, Babaei discloses Claim 1 of a communication apparatus (see FIG. 3; see ¶ [0238], wireless device/UE) comprising: and Claim 9 of a communication method executed by a communication apparatus comprising the steps of:
a receiver configured to (see FIG. 3; see ¶ [0238], wireless device/UE may comprise at least one communication interface):
receive, from a base station, using a radio resource control (RRC) signaling, configuration information including information for configuring each of an identifier of a first timing advance group and an identifier of a second timing advance group, as a configuration for the communication apparatus in one serving cell (see FIG. 36-37; see ¶ [0646-48] [0652], the wireless device may receive one or more messages (RRC messages) comprising configuration parameters where the configuration parameters for one or more TAGs (e.g., PTAG and zero or more STAGs) , configuration parameter for a first timer (e.g., a time alignment timer); see ¶ [0606], the TAG ID field may indicate the TAG identity), and
receive, from the base station in the serving cell, information for activating a transmission configuration indication (TCI) state corresponding to the identifier of the second timing advance group (see FIG. 36-37; see ¶ [0646-48] [0551], the UE receives an activation command for CSI-RS resources including a TCI-RS-SetConfig); and
a controller configured to (see FIG. 3; see ¶ [0238], wireless device/UE may comprise at least one processor) control a time alignment timer corresponding to the second timing advance group (see ¶ [0646] [0687], the timing advance group may be a secondary timing advance group comprising one or more secondary cells),
Although Babaei discloses suspending SP-CSI resources in response to a timer alignment timer expiring (see ¶ [0646-47]), but does not explicitly disclose control not to perform an uplink transmission.
However, in the same analogous art, Lee, discloses the controller is configured to control not to perform an uplink transmission on the second timing advance group corresponding to the TCI state activated by the information for activating the TCI state, in a case where the timer alignment timer expires (see FIG. 15; see ¶ [0107] [0119] [0131], when TAT for TAG2 is expires, the UE prohibits UL transmissions on SCell).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to provide control not to perform an uplink transmission as taught by Lee, in the system of Babaei, so that it would provide to control or restrict uplink transmission when the certain condition is satisfied if a TAT of the TAG indicated by the TAG information is not running (Lee: see ¶ [0129]).
Regarding claims 2, 6, and 10, the combined system of Babaei and Lee discloses wherein the uplink transmission is any one of a physical uplink control channel and a transmission of a sounding reference signal (Babaei: see ¶ [0470], SRS on the SCell; and Lee: see ¶ [0064] [0131], UL signals (e.g., PUCCH, PUSCH, SRS, etc.)).
Regarding claim 5, Babaei discloses a base station (see FIG. 3; see ¶ [0225], base station) comprising: and Claim 9 of a communication method executed by a communication apparatus comprising the steps of:
a transmitter configured to (see FIG. 3; see ¶ [0225], a base station may comprise at least one communication interface):
transmit, from a communication apparatus, using a radio resource control (RRC) signaling, configuration information including information for configuring each of an identifier of a first timing advance group and an identifier of a second timing advance group, as a configuration for the communication apparatus in one serving cell (see FIG. 36-37; see ¶ [0646-48] [0652], the wireless device may receive one or more messages (RRC messages) comprising configuration parameters where the configuration parameters for one or more TAGs (e.g., PTAG and zero or more STAGs) , configuration parameter for a first timer (e.g., a time alignment timer); see ¶ [0606], the TAG ID field may indicate the TAG identity), and
transmit, to the communication apparatus in the serving cell, information for activating a transmission configuration indication (TCI) state corresponding to the identifier of the second timing advance group (see FIG. 36-37; see ¶ [0646-48] [0551], the UE receives an activation command for CSI-RS resources including a TCI-RS-SetConfig);
wherein the transmitter transmits a timing advance command for stating a time alignment timer corresponding to the second timing advance group (see ¶ [0646] [0687], the timing advance group may be a secondary timing advance group comprising one or more secondary cells), and
Although Babaei discloses suspending SP-CSI resources in response to a timer alignment timer expiring (see ¶ [0646-47]), but does not explicitly disclose control not to perform an uplink transmission.
However, in the same analogous art, Lee, discloses an uplink transmission on the timing advance group corresponding to the TCI state activated by the information for activating the TCI state is not performed, in a case where the timer alignment timer expires (see FIG. 15; see ¶ [0107] [0119] [0131], when TAT for TAG2 is expires, the UE prohibits UL transmissions on SCell).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to provide control not to perform an uplink transmission as taught by Lee, in the system of Babaei, so that it would provide to control or restrict uplink transmission when the certain condition is satisfied if a TAT of the TAG indicated by the TAG information is not running (Lee: see ¶ [0129]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-4, 7-8, and 11-12 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.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record (see attached PTO-892) and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Dinan (US 9,215,678 B2) teaches a base station transmits control message(s) comprising media access control dedicated parameters. The media access control dedicated parameters comprise a time alignment timer value for a primary cell group and a sequence of at least one element. Each element comprises a time alignment timer value and a cell group index. The time alignment timer value is associated with the cell group identified by the one cell group index (see Abstract).
Park et al. (US 2015/0049753 A1) teaches a method of receiving information at a user equipment configured with a serving cell in a mobile communication system, and the method comprises activating the serving cell; receiving a first signal from a base station, the first signal including timing advance group assignment information for the serving cell; and deactivating the serving cell if the timing advance group assignment information indicates a second timing advance group different from a first timing advance group assigned to the serving cell (see Abstract).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of the action. An extension of time may be obtained under 37 CFR 1.136(a). However, in no event, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to PETER CHEN whose telephone number is (571)270-7241. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 8:00am to 5:00pm.
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, Yemane Mesfin can be reached at (571) 272-3927. 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.
/PETER CHEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2462