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 .
Response to Amendment
This communication is considered fully responsive to the amendment filed on 03/24/2026.
Claims 1, 3, 8, 13 and 15 have been amended.
New title has been filed.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to independent claims filed on 03/24/2026 have been considered but are moot because the arguments are related solely to newly added limitations addressed in the instant Office Action with previously identified prior art, thus rendering the applicant’s arguments moot.
The applicant also presented other arguments drawn to the various dependent claims. However, said other arguments are all dependency based, depending from the arguments drawn to the independent claims’ limitations discussed above.
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 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.
Claim(s) 1-2, 8 and 13-14 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a) (1) as being anticipated by Chen et al. (US 2023/0354200, “Chen”).
Examiner’s note: in what follows, references are drawn to Chen unless otherwise mentioned.
Chen comprises the following features:
With respect to independent claims:
Regarding claim 1, a communication method, performed by a terminal device, wherein the method comprising:
receiving wake-up information from a network device ([0074] “the terminal receives a wake-up signal or an activation signal,”);
switching from a first state to a second state in response to the wake-up information ([0074] “the wake-up signal or the activation signal is used to instruct the terminal to switch from the first state to the second state”),
wherein the wake-up information comprises one or more of the following information ([0090] “the terminal receives a system information change instruction. For example, the system information change indication may be carried by using a wake-up signal or sequence”):
a first cell bar indication, indicating whether a terminal device is allowed to select or reselect a first cell; a second cell bar indication, indicating whether a terminal device having a wake-up radio (WUR) capability is allowed to select or reselect a first cell; a resource configuration change indication, indicating that a WUR resource changes (These alternatives are not examined.);
a resource configuration, indicating a WUR resource ([0115] “the terminal receives signaling (a configuration such as an SIB or an MIB) from the network, where the signaling includes a time location, a frequency domain resource, code resource information, and the like configured for the wake-up signal (such as a reception cycle in time, an offset, a density in frequency domain, a code domain resource, and the like)”);
cell identification information, indicating an identifier of a cell to which a terminal device belongs; or an alarm information indication, indicating an alarm information notification (These alternatives are not examined.); and
performing, based on the received wake-up information, at least one of:
determining whether access to a current cell is barred and, based on the determining, performing cell selection or cell reselection (This alternative is not examined.);
obtaining a WUR resource configuration based on the resource configuration change indication or the resource configuration ([0116] “the terminal calculates, based on received network signaling and terminal ID information, resource information for receiving the wake-up signal, including a time location, a frequency domain location, a code resource, and the like.”); or
obtaining alarm information based on the alarm information indication (This alternative is not examined.).
Regarding claim 8, a communication method, comprising:
generating wake-up information ([0075] “the wake-up signal or the activation signal may be a preset sequence, which may be a sequence specified in a protocol or configured by a network.”);
sending the wake-up information ([0074] “the terminal receives a wake-up signal or an activation signal,”),
wherein the wake-up information comprises one or more of the following information ([0090] “the terminal receives a system information change instruction. For example, the system information change indication may be carried by using a wake-up signal or sequence”):
a first cell bar indication, indicating whether a device is allowed to select or reselect a cell; a second cell bar indication, indicating whether a device having a wake-up radio (WUR) capability is allowed to select or reselect a cell; a resource configuration change indication, indicating that a WUR resource changes (These alternatives are not examined.);
a resource configuration, indicating a WUR resource ([0115] “the terminal receives signaling (a configuration such as an SIB or an MIB) from the network, where the signaling includes a time location, a frequency domain resource, code resource information, and the like configured for the wake-up signal (such as a reception cycle in time, an offset, a density in frequency domain, a code domain resource, and the like)”);
cell identification information, indicating an identifier of a cell to which a device belongs; or an alarm information indication, indicating an alarm information notification (These alternatives are not examined.); and
performing, based on the received wake-up information, at least one of:
determining whether access to a current cell is barred and, based on the determining, performing cell selection or cell reselection (This alternative is not examined.);
obtaining a WUR resource configuration based on the resource configuration change indication or the resource configuration ([0116] “the terminal calculates, based on received network signaling and terminal ID information, resource information for receiving the wake-up signal, including a time location, a frequency domain location, a code resource, and the like.”); or
obtaining alarm information based on the alarm information indication (This alternative is not examined.).
Regarding claim 13, it is an apparatus claim corresponding to the method claim 1, except the limitations, “one or more processors; and one or more memories coupled to the one or more processors and storing programming instructions for execution by the one or more processors” ([0046] “The terminal includes a processor, a memory, and a program or an instruction stored in the memory and executable on the processor, where when the program or the instruction is executed by the processor, steps of the method according to the first aspect are implemented.”), and is therefore rejected for the similar reasons set forth in the rejection of claim 1.
With respect to dependent claims:
Regarding claims 2 and 14, the method according to claim 1 and the apparatus according to claim 13, respectively, wherein the first state is a doze state, and the second state is an awake state ([0062] “switch a terminal from a first state to a second state, where the second state is an idle state, a connected state, or an inactive state, and communication power consumption of the terminal in the first state is less than communication power consumption of the terminal in the second state.”, [0069] “a first state is a newly introduced terminal state, which may be referred to as a sleep state” and [0072] “to enter a non-SLEEP state (namely, a second state) from the SLEEP state”).
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(s) 3 and 15 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chen et al. (US 2023/0354200, “Chen”) in view of Lee et al. (US 2023/0319626, “Lee”).
Examiner’s note: in what follows, references are drawn to Chen unless otherwise mentioned.
Regarding claims 3 and 15, it is noted that while disclosing a wake-up signal, Chen does not specifically teach about staying sleep mode in a cell. It, however, had been known in the art before the effective date of the instant application as shown by Lee as follows;
the method according to claim 1 and the apparatus according to claim 13, respectively, wherein
the first cell bar indication indicates that access to the current cell is barred ([Lee, 0105] “the second block of the first WUS may include a {0, 000} indication for second UE 115-b, which indicates for second UE 115-b to not wake up any cells for first on duration 225-a.”); or
the second cell bar indication indicates that access to a current cell is barred (This alternative is not examined.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of instant application to modify Chen by using the features of Lee in order to conserve power usage at UEs such that “improved methods, systems, devices, and apparatuses that support wake-up signal (WUS) error handling.” [Lee, 0004].
Claim(s) 4-6, 9-11 and 16-18 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chen et al. (US 2023/0354200, “Chen”) in view of Sharma et al. (US 2024/0098701, “Sharma”).
Examiner’s note: in what follows, references are drawn to Chen unless otherwise mentioned.
Regarding claims 4, 9 and 16, it is noted that while disclosing a wake-up signal, Chen does not specifically teach about a wake-up signal including a TA. It, however, had been known in the art before the effective date of the instant application as shown by Sharma as follows;
the method according to claim 1, the method according to claim 8 and the apparatus according to claim 13, respectively, wherein
the wake-up information further comprises area information, and the area information comprises at least one of tracking area (TA) information or radio access network-based notification area (RNA) information ([Sharma, 0048] “a terminal device may be configured with WUS settings for the network access nodes in a tracking area containing the network access node to which it was attached when it established the multiple WUS configurations.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of instant application to modify Chen by using the features of Sharma in order to reduce power consumption for all types of terminal devices such that “This approach has the benefit of being able to allow a terminal device to enter a more power efficient state, while reducing the signalling between the CN and the RAN.” [Sharma, 0026].
Regarding claims 5, 10 and 17, the method according to claim 1, the method according to claim 8 and the apparatus according to claim 13, respectively, wherein the wake-up information further comprises a first identifier, and the first identifier is an identifier of a terminal device ([Sharma, 0028] “For terminal devices operating in a discontinuous reception (DRX) mode this occurs when they wake-up for their DRX awake time. Paging signals for a specific terminal device are transmitted in defined frames (Paging Frames)/sub-frames (Paging Occasions) which for a given terminal device may be derived from the International Mobile Subscriber Identifier (IMSI) of the terminal device”) or a group identifier of the terminal device (This alternative is not examined.).
Regarding claims 6, 11 and 18, the method according to claim 5, the method according to claim 8 and the apparatus according to claim 13, respectively, wherein the wake-up information further comprises identification type information of the first identifier (See aforesaid [Sharma, 0028] “International Mobile Subscriber Identifier (IMSI)”), and the identification type information indicates that the first identifier is the identifier of the terminal device (See aforesaid [Sharma, 0028]) or the group identifier of the terminal device (This alternative is not examined.).
Claim(s) 7, 12 and 19 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chen et al. (US 2023/0354200, “Chen”) in view of Sharma et al. (US 2024/0098701, “Sharma”) and further in view of Ahn et al. (US 2025/0039790, “Ahn”).
Examiner’s note: in what follows, references are drawn to Chen unless otherwise mentioned.
Regarding claims 7, 12 and 19, it is noted that while disclosing a wake-up signal, Chen does not specifically teach about a size of the ID in the wake-up signal. It, however, had been known in the art before the effective date of the instant application as shown by Ahn as follows;
the method according to claim 5, the method according to claim 8 and the apparatus according to claim 13, respectively, wherein the wake-up information further comprises length information of the first identifier ([Ahn, 0151] “the WUR mode element may include a Starting Group ID (SGID) field indicating a range of a location corresponding to a WUR group ID in a bitmap. The wireless communication terminal may obtain a WUR group ID allocated to a group including the wireless communication terminal based on a Group ID Bitmap Size field value and a Starting Group ID value.”, and [0211] “when the ID field of a fixed-length wake-up frame includes a first WUR group ID, wake-up of all of the wireless communication terminals included in a first group identified by the first WUR group ID may be induced.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of instant application to modify Chen by using the features of Ahn in order to develop power saving techniques using a separate low-power wake-up receiver such that “an object to perform a power saving operation by utilizing a low-power wake-up receiver in a wireless LAN environment” [Ahn, 0008].
Conclusion
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 extension fee 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 date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Harry H. Kim whose telephone number and email address are as follows; 571-272-5009, harry.kim2@uspto.gov.
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, Derrick Ferris can be reached at 571-272-3123.
Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from www.uspto.gov. For questions or assistance, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (in USA or Canada) or 571-272-1000.
/HARRY H KIM/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2411
Prosecution Insights