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
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.
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.
Claim(s) 1-2, 9-10, 15-16, is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over DAO et al (EP 2563074) in view of YANG et al (US 2016/0330653).
Regarding claim 1, 9, 15 DAO et al (EP 2563074) discloses a cell reselection method/termina/non-volatile memory, comprising:
obtaining at least one candidate cell when a serving cell of a terminal satisfies a cell reselection condition (DAO: ¶16 the terminal/UE determines an end of data transfer/call, a cell reselection condition is met); and selecting one target cell from the at least one candidate cell to perform a cell reselection procedure of the terminal, wherein the target cell and the serving cell belong to a same tracking area (DAO: ¶16-17, UE selects a second (target) cell within a same tracking/location area (candidate cells are all the cells that are with the same LA/TA and have a higher than a threshold signal quality));
wherein the method further comprises: when all the at least one candidate cell and the serving cell belong to different tracking areas, increasing a quantity of candidate cells to be searched for (DAO: Fig. 10, Fig. 9, ¶23, when none of the cells that belong to the location area to which the serving cell belongs, the candidate search is performed for a cell that is outside the location area of the serving cell (including the number of candidate cells in the new location area) ).
DAO remains silent regarding the serving cell is of a first SIM card in the terminal and the cell reselection procedure being of the SIM card.
However, YANG et al (US 20160330653) discloses a serving cell is of a first SIM card in the terminal and the cell reselection procedure being of the SIM card (YANG: ¶46, ¶44, serving cell is of a first SIM and the reselection procedure is of the first SIM).
A person of ordinary skill in the art working with the invention of DAO would have been motivated to use the teachings of YANG as it provides a way to improve cell reselection as the information regarding the SIM available locally on the UE and can be predefined and prestored by the operator at the time of manufacturing of the SIM or through downlink control information once the SIM was installed. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify invention of DAO with teachings of YANG in order to improve reselection information storage and access.
Regarding claim 2, 10, 16, DAO modified by YANG discloses a cell reselection method according to claim 1/11/15, wherein the selecting one target cell from the at least one candidate cell to perform a cell reselection procedure of the first SIM card comprises:
determining that a candidate cell, in the at least one candidate cell, that belongs to the same tracking area as the serving cell and that satisfies a target condition is the target cell, and performing the cell reselection procedure of the first SIM card based on the target cell (DAO: ¶17-18, ¶20, a target condition is determined of the cell within the same tracking/location area i.e. the quality of the cell selected within a same LA/TA area has a quality above a certain threshold).
Claim(s) 5, 12, 18, is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over DAO modified by YANG as applied to claim 3, 11, 17, above, further in view of LEE et al (US 2017/0257800).
Regarding claim 5, 12, 18, DAO modified by YANG discloses cell reselection method according to claim 3/11/17, wherein the when all the at least one candidate cell and the serving cell belong to different tracking areas, increasing a quantity of candidate cells to be searched for (DAO: Fig. 10, Fig. 9, ¶23, when none of the cells that belong to the location area to which the serving cell belongs, the candidate search is performed for a cell that is outside the location area of the serving cell (thereby increasing the number of candidate cells))
DAO modified by YANG remains silent regarding, however, LEE et al (US 2017/0257800) discloses the increasing the quantity of candidate cells comprises:
when all the at least one candidate cell and the serving cell belong to different tracking areas and a frequency corresponding to the at least one candidate cell is a part of frequencies supported by the terminal, continuing, by the terminal, to search for an unassessed frequency, to increase the quantity of candidate cells (LEE: ¶58-61, Fig. 6A, at least one cell not assessed by the UE using Table 61, is assessed when at least one cell not assessed has a frequency as the already candidate cell; ARFCN-5 and ARFCN-3, are searched and are supported by the UE);
when all the at least one candidate cell and the serving cell belong to different tracking areas and the at least one candidate cell is a part of cells on a frequency corresponding to the at least one candidate cell, continuing, by the terminal, to assess an unassessed cell, to increase the quantity of candidate cells; or when all the at least one candidate cell and the serving cell belong to different tracking areas, adjusting, by the terminal, a reselection threshold, to increase the quantity of candidate cells (LEE: ¶58-61, Fig. 6A, at least one cell not assessed by the UE using Table 61, is assessed when at least one cell not assessed has a frequency as the already candidate cell; cell with ARFCN-5 and cell with ARFCN-3, for example, are assessed);.
A person of ordinary skill in the art working with the invention of DAO modified by YANG would have been motivated to use the teachings of LEE as it provides a way to improve connection and coverage availability for the UE in different directions of movement. This reduces probability of an incoming call failure (¶8). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify invention of DAO modified by YANG with teachings of LEE in order to improve connection reliability (¶8).
Claim(s) 6-8, 13-14, 19-20, is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over DAO modified by YANG as applied to claim 1/9/15 above, further in view of ADJAKPLE et al (US 2022/0408328).
Regarding claim 6, 13, 19, DAO modified by YANG discloses a cell reselection method according to claim 1/9/15, wherein the obtaining at least one candidate cell when a serving cell of a first SIM card in a terminal satisfies a cell reselection condition comprises: obtaining the at least one candidate cell when the terminal uses a second SIM card for and the serving cell of the first SIM card in the terminal satisfies the cell reselection condition (DAO: ¶16, the terminal/UE determines an end of data transfer/call, a cell reselection condition is met; YANG: ¶46, a reselection procedure on the first SIM card is performed and a second SIM card is used by the multi/dual-SIM UE)
DAO modified by YANG remains silent regarding the second SIM card is for latency-sensitive data service.
However, ADJAKPLE et al (US 2022/0408328) discloses that the second SIM card is for a latency-sensitive data service (ADJAKPLE: ¶180, second SIM card is of NR, ¶64, which includes data service including the URLLC).
A person of ordinary skill in the art working with the invention of DAO modified by YANG would have been motivated to use the teachings of ADJAKPLE as it provides a way to improve throughput on-demand based on the type of service requested when a second SIM is available. This reduces probability of an incoming call failure (¶8). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify invention of DAO modified by YANG with teachings of ADJAKPLE in order to improve user-experience.
Regarding claim 7, DAO modified by YANG discloses a cell reselection method according to claim 2, wherein the obtaining at least one candidate cell when a serving cell of a first SIM card in a terminal satisfies a cell reselection condition comprises: obtaining the at least one candidate cell when the terminal uses a second SIM card for and the serving cell of the first SIM card in the terminal satisfies the cell reselection condition (DAO: ¶16, the terminal/UE determines an end of data transfer/call, a cell reselection condition is met; YANG: ¶46, a reselection procedure on the first SIM card is performed and a second SIM card is used by the multi/dual-SIM UE)
DAO modified by YANG remains silent regarding the second SIM card is for latency-sensitive data service.
However, ADJAKPLE et al (US 2022/0408328) discloses that the second SIM card is for a latency-sensitive data service (ADJAKPLE: ¶180, second SIM card is of NR, ¶64, which includes data service including the URLLC).
A person of ordinary skill in the art working with the invention of DAO modified by YANG would have been motivated to use the teachings of ADJAKPLE as it provides a way to improve throughput on-demand based on the type of service requested when a second SIM is available. This reduces probability of an incoming call failure (¶8). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify invention of DAO modified by YANG with teachings of ADJAKPLE in order to improve user-experience.
Regarding claim 8, 14, 20, DAO modified by YANG modified by ADJAKPLE discloses cell reselection method according to claim 6/13/19, wherein the selecting one target cell from the at least one candidate cell to perform a cell reselection procedure of the first SIM card comprises: when all the at least one candidate cell and the serving cell belong to different tracking areas and a data link of the second SIM card is idle, selecting a first candidate cell from the at least one candidate cell to perform the cell reselection procedure of the first SIM card (DAO: Fig. 10, Fig. 9, ¶23, when none of the cells that belong to the location area to which the serving cell belongs, the candidate search is performed for a cell that is outside the location area of the serving cell (thereby increasing the number of candidate cells and including the out of LA cell in the candidates and to be selected); YANG: ¶46, ¶42, a reselection procedure on the first SIM card is performed while the other SIM card for the second RAT is in idle mode e.g. monitoring paging).
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 6/26/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicants argue,
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Examiner respectfully disagees with te above argument. Applicants take a positon that DAO does not disclose, “…when all the at least one candidate cell and the service cell belong to different tracking areas, increasing a quantity of candidate cells to be search for…” In order to support this position, Applicants argue that DAO’s UE, “…determines a cell with a best quality from the active sets” i.e. the UE selects at least one cell from the current/same location area which is a cell from the “active sets”.
Examiner, as an initial note, indicates that the claim is completely silent regarding excluding such a feature from the invention of claim 1. There is not language in the claim suggesting that when “all the at least one candidate cell and service cell belonging to different tracking areas” and “increasing a quantity of candidate cells to be searched for” occur, no temporary selection based on a separate criterion can be performed by the UE.
In response to applicant's argument that the references fail to show certain features of the invention, it is noted that the features upon which applicant relies (i.e., “when “all the at least one candidate cell and service cell belonging to different tracking areas” and “increasing a quantity of candidate cells to be searched for” occur, no temporary selection based on a separate criterion can be performed by the UE”) are not recited in the rejected claim(s). Although the claims are interpreted in light of the specification, limitations from the specification are not read into the claims. See In re Van Geuns, 988 F.2d 1181, 26 USPQ2d 1057 (Fed. Cir. 1993).
Examiner respectfully submits, as a further note, that “the at least one candidate cell” is interpreted as cells that are selectable and of quality above threshold. In ¶23, the UE, even though selects a cell, it is not a target cell from the at least one candidate cell. While UE is a location area, it can only scan the cells of that location area and an update is not occurring until signal quality of all the location area cells are “lower than the threshold”, the UE just picks a cell from candidate cells (NOTE: candidate cells are below the threshold quality, “the at least one candidate cell” are above threshold quality) as a serving cell and performs a location area update. According to Fig. 1, the location area update will change the location area of the UE and thus amount of candidate cells will increase by number of candidate cells (not necessarily above the threshold) in the new area. This increases amount of candidate cells which the UE scans/searches for to find at least one candidate cell with quality higher than the threshold and select a target cell from the at least one candidate cell.
A person of ordinary skill in the art would reasonably interpret the teachings of DAO, as explained above, as teaching “…when all the at least one candidate cell and the service cell belong to different tracking areas, increasing a quantity of candidate cells to be searched for.”
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.
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OMER S. MIAN
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2461
/OMER S MIAN/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2461
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