DETAILED ACTION
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 .
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.
The factual inquiries 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 1-3, 6-10, 13-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Abe (Pub. No.: US 2013/0077518 A1) and further in view of Santhanam (Pub. No.: US 2022/0174522 A1).
With respect to claim 1:
Abe discloses a method for determining a low mobility state, comprising: in a case that a terminal is configured with multiple serving cells (fig. 2, with UE representing terminal configured with eNode 1-2), obtaining, by the terminal, a measurement result of a first serving cell (abstract and parag. 0004), wherein the first serving cell is one of the multiple serving cells (fig. 2 with eNode 1-3 representing multiple serving cells); and determining, by the terminal based on the measurement result, whether the terminal is in a low mobility state (parag. 0031-0035).
Abe discloses user terminal with eNode 1-3 but did not explicitly mention the word serving cell).
Santhanam discloses serving cell in (fig. 2, item 205-a, 205-b). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to utilize the teaching of Santhanam into the teaching of Abe in order to save power.
With respect to claims 2, 16:
Santhanam discloses the method for determining a low mobility state according to claim 1, wherein the first serving cell is determined by the terminal based on a configuration manner of low mobility state determining criterion sent by a network-side device. (Abstract and parag. 0102).
With respect to claims 3, 10, 17, 19:
Santhanam discloses the method for determining a low mobility state according to claim 2, wherein in a case that the configuration manner of low mobility state determining criterion is terminal-based, in presence of a new radio (NR) primary cell (PCell), the first serving cell is the NR PCell; or in absence of an NR PCell, the first serving cell is the first primary secondary cell (PSCell) configured by the network-side device (parag. 0005, 0092 and 0138).
With respect to claim 6:
Santhanam discloses the method for determining a low mobility state according to claim 1, wherein the method further comprises: in a case that when in an idle state, the terminal has determined that the terminal is in a low mobility state, upon entering a connected state, reporting to a network-side device that the terminal is in a low mobility state (parag, 0005 and 0161).
With respect to claims 7, 14:
Santhanam discloses the method for determining a low mobility state according to claim 1, wherein the determining, by the terminal based on the measurement result, whether the terminal is in a low mobility state comprises: determining that the terminal is in a low mobility state in a case that a measurement result of at least one reference signal of the first serving cell satisfies a low mobility state determining criterion; determining that the terminal is in a low mobility state in a case that measurement results of all reference signals of the first serving cell satisfy a low mobility state determining criterion; (parag. 0005, 0016-0017).
With respect to claim 8:
Santhanam discloses the method for determining a low mobility state according to claim 7, wherein the low mobility state determining criterion is a difference between a measurement reference value and the measurement result being less than or equal to a target threshold, wherein the measurement reference value is obtained based on a cell measurement result of the terminal in a connected state or a measurement reference value of the terminal in an idle state (parag. 0020 and 0039).
With respect to claim 9:
Abe discloses a method for determining a low mobility state, comprising: configuring, by a network-side device, a low mobility state determining criterion for a terminal (parag. 0032-0033); and receiving, by the network-side device, first indication information from the terminal, wherein the first indication information is used to indicate whether the terminal is in a low mobility state (abstract and parag. 0004), the low mobility state is determined by the terminal based on a measurement result of a first cell and low mobility serving criterion and a first cell is one of multiple serving cells configured for the terminal (parag. 0031-0035).
Abe discloses user terminal with eNode 1-3 but did not explicitly mention the word serving cell).
Santhanam discloses serving cell in (fig. 2, item 205-a, 205-b). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to utilize the teaching of Santhanam into the teaching of Abe in order to save power.
With respect to claim 13:
Santhanam disclose the method for determining a low mobility state according to claim 9, wherein the method further comprises: receiving, by the network-side device, second indication information from the terminal, wherein the second indication information is sent by the terminal upon entering a connected state and used to indicate that the terminal is in a low mobility state, and the low mobility state is determined by the terminal in an idle state (parag. 0005, 0092 and 0135).
With respect to claim 15:
The rejection of claim 1 is incorporated. Santhanam further disclose a terminal, comprising a processor (fig. 11, item 1140) a memory (fig. 11, item 1130), and a program or instructions stored in the memory and capable of running on the processor (fig. 11, item 1140 which is the processor and memory 1130 as in parag. 0301).
With respect to claim 18:
The rejection of claim 9 is incorporated; Santhanam further disclose a network-side device, comprising a processor, a memory, and a program or instructions stored in the memory and capable of running on the processor (fig. 11 with processor 1140 and memory 1130).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4, 5, 11, 12, 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.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 05/06/26 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. Regarding claim 1, applicant argued that none of the cited prior arts discloses obtaining, by the terminal, a measurement result of a first serving cell, wherein the first serving cell is one of the multiple serving cells; and determining, by the terminal based on the measurement result, whether the terminal is in a low mobility state. Examiner respectfully disagrees with this statement because the claim limitation says obtaining by the terminal, a measurement result of a serving cell wherein the first serving cell is one of multiple serving cell. Examiner gave the broadest reasonable interpretation to this limitation. Abe discloses how a measurement report is being obtained from a base station in parag. 0010 and 0033, CQI measurement is performed only for the serving cell, which is the transmission source of the data channel signals. CQI measurement is possible if the position, sequence and transmission power of the CRS of the cell of the measurement target (serving cell) can be specified. Examiner will welcome a phone interview if applicant believe this will move the case forward.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. 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 AJIBOLA A AKINYEMI whose telephone number is (571)270-1846. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8:00am-5:00pm, EST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, YUWEN PAN can be reached at (571)-272-7855. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/AJIBOLA A AKINYEMI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2649
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