DETAILED ACTION
Election/Restrictions
Applicant's election without traverse of claims 1-8 and 20 in the reply filed on 04/17/2026 is acknowledged. Claims 9-19 are withdrawn from further consideration by the examiner, 37 CFR 1.142(b), as being drawn to a non-elected invention.
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 of this title, 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, 2, 4-8 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xu et al. (US 2019/0387446)(“Xu”) in further in view of ETSI, LTE; Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); Radio Resource Control (RRC); Protocol specification (3GPP TS 36.331 version 16.4.0 Release 16), ETSI TS 136 331 V16.4.0, Apr. 2021. (“TS 136 331”).
As per claim 1, Xu teaches:
receiving configuration information from a first network device (i.e., first base station, see Fig. 5, ref. S510 and ¶0179, i.e., “the second message is an RRC connection reconfiguration message”), wherein the configuration information is for configuring a second terminal device (i.e., eRemote UE) to switch to communicate with a third network device (i.e., second base station) via a first terminal device (i.e., eRelayUE) (see ¶0179, “the second message is used to instruct the eRemote UE to perform the communication path switching”) …; and
in response to receiving the configuration information, sending a radio resource control (RRC) reconfiguration complete message to the first terminal device (see Fig. 5, ref. S511 and ¶0180).
As per clam 1, Xu does not expressly teach the configuration information comprises information about a first timer, and the information about the first timer is for a path switch; and further starting the first timer.
Nevertheless, starting a handover/path switching timer, e.g., T304 timer, based on configuration information received in an RRC connection reconfiguration message was well known in the art prior to the earliest effective filing date of the claimed invention (see for example, TS 136 331, §5.3.5.4, pp. 130, i.e., “…If the RRCConnectionReconfiguration message includes the mobilityControlInfo and the UE is able to comply with the configuration included in this message, the UE shall: … start timer T304 with the timer value set to t304, as included in the mobilityControlInfo”, also see §5.4.2.3, pp. 201-202, “If the UE is able to comply with the configuration included in the RRCConnectionReconfiguration message, the UE shall … start timer T304 with the timer value set to t304, as included in the mobilityControlInfo”).
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art, prior to the earliest effective filing date of the claimed invention, to configure and start a T304 timer for path switching based on a timer value included in the mobilityControlInfo of the RRC reconfiguration message (i.e., configuration information) in Xu. The obvious motivation for doing so would have been to ensure timely recovery from an RRC Reconfiguration failure.
As per claim 2, Xu further teaches wherein the RRC reconfiguration complete message is sent by using a default PC5 radio link control (RLC) configuration (see ¶0094).
As per claim 4, Xu further teaches: the RRC reconfiguration complete message is sent by the second terminal device (i.e., eRemote UE) to the third network device (i.e., second base station) via the first terminal device (i.e., eRelay UE)(see Fig. 5, ref. S511 and ¶0180, i.e., “…the eRemote UE sends an RRC connection reconfiguration complete message to the second base station by using the eRelay UE.”).
As per claim 5, Xu does not expressly teach, however, TS 136 331 further teaches configuring, by the second terminal device, the first timer based on the information about the first timer (i.e., based on the timer value as included in the mobilityControlInfo, see §5.3.5.4, pp. 130 and/or §5.4.2.3, pp. 202).
The same motivation that was utilized for combining Xu and TS 136 331 in claim 1 applies equally well to claim 5.
.
As per claim 6, Xu does not expressly teach, however, TS 136 331 further teaches wherein the method further comprises:
stopping the first timer when one or more of the following conditions are satisfied:
…
the second terminal device succeeds in random access to the third network device (see pp. 204, i.e., “…if MAC successfully completes the random access procedure, 2> stop timer T304”) …
The same motivation that was utilized for combining Xu and TS 136 331 in claim 1 applies equally well to claim 6.
As per claim 7, Xu does not expressly teach, however, TS 136 331 further teaches wherein the method further comprises: performing reestablishment when the first timer expires (see pp. 139-140, §5.3.5.6 “If T304 expires (handover failure) the UE shall … 2> initiate the connection re-establishment procedure as specified in 5.3.7, upon which the RRCreconfiguration procedure ends”).
The same motivation that was utilized for combining Xu and TS 136 331 in claim 1 applies equally well to claim 7.
As per claim 8, Xu does not expressly teach, however, TS 136 331 further teaches wherein the performing reestablishment comprises: … performing reestablishment by using a cell (see §5.3.7, Fig. 5.4.7.1-2, i.e., sending a RRCConnectionRestablishmentRequest to a EUTRAN [cell]).
The same motivation that was utilized for combining Xu and TS 136 331 in claim 1 applies equally well to claim 8.
Claim 20 is rejected under the same rationale as claim 1 since they recite substantially identical subject matter. Any differences between the claims do not result in patentably distinct claims and all of the limitations are taught by the above cited art.
Claim 3 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xu and TS 136 331, in further view of Chang et al. (US 2024/0284545)(“Chang”).
As per claim 3, Xu does not expressly teach wherein the RRC reconfiguration complete message is for triggering the first terminal device in an RRC idle state or an RRC inactive state to enter an RRC connected state
Nevertheless, in the same art of UE-to-Network relay communication, Chang teaches triggering a relay UE device (i.e., first terminal device) to switch from an RRC idle state or an RRC inactive state to an RRC connected state in response to receiving an RRC reconfiguration complete message from a Remote UE (see Fig. 5 and ¶0057-0064)
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art, prior to the earliest effective filing date of the claimed invention, to enable the eRelay UE in Xu to switch from an Idle/Inactive state to an RRC Connected state in response to the reception of the RRC reconfiguration complete message from the eRemote UE. The obvious motivation for doing so would have been to facilitate indirect communications between the Remote UE and base station (see Xu, Fig. 5) while still allowing for battery/power saving while the eRelay UE is in an Idle/Inactive state.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure (see PTO 892).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Brendan Higa whose telephone number is (571)272-5823. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 8:30 AM - 5:00 PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, James Hwang can be reached at (571) 272-4036. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/BRENDAN Y HIGA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2441
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