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
Applicant’s response, filed 18 June 2026, has been entered and carefully considered.
Claims 2 and 5 are canceled.
Claims 1, 3, 4 and 6 are amended and currently pending.
The outstanding rejections of Claims 4 and 6 under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) and 35 U.S.C. 112(b) are withdrawn in light of Applicant’s amendment to said claims.
The outstanding rejection of Claims 1, 3, 4 and 6 under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) is withdrawn in light of Applicant’s amendment to said claims.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1-3 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 1, 3, 4 and 6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hwang et al (United States Pre-Grant Publication 2022/0369172), hereinafter Hwang, in view of Da Silva (United States Pre-Grant Publication 2023/0189095).
Regarding Claim 1, Hwang discloses a terminal which connects with a master node associated with a master cell group and a secondary node associated with a secondary cell group (Figure 18A, UE associated with master node (MN) and secondary node (SN)), the terminal comprising:
at least one processor (Figure 19 – multi-connection processor 19-42 as part of controller 19-40; refer also to paragraph 0292 ) with a memory storing computer program code (Figure 19 – storage unit 19-30; refer also to paragraph 0291), the at least one processor with the memory being configured to:
receive, from the master node, a radio resource control (RRC) reconfiguration message including a list identifying a plurality of reconfigurations for primary secondary cell addition, wherein each of the plurality of reconfigurations is associated with an identifier of the reconfiguration, reconfiguration information for a candidate primary secondary cell, and execution condition information (Figure 7 at step 7-35 and paragraph 0157 - the MN may transmit, to the terminal, an RRC reconfiguration message including information (e.g., a conditional PSCell change (CPSC) condition or a conditional PSCell addition condition) on the determined condition, and candidate configuration information (e.g., candidate target PSCell config). Configuration information of a particular candidate target PSCell, and information on a condition to perform addition of the corresponding PSCell may be associated with one ID, and a list type in which multiple IDs, individual conditions, and PSCell configuration information are bound for multiple candidate target PSCells may be transmitted through the RRC message of the MN...The RRC message transmitted by the MN may include, in a list type, source cell reconfiguration information (if needed) of the MN, candidates cells of conditional PSCell addition, node information based on a candidate T-SN ID, and pairs of configuration information to be used in a cell and condition information associated with this cell, and the RRC message may be transferred to the terminal; refer to Figure 9 at step 9-50 and paragraph 0179 for similar disclosure with respect to receiving the RRC connection reconfiguration);
store the plurality of reconfigurations for the primary secondary cell addition (paragraph 0179 – the terminal stores the received reconfiguration information in the terminal);
in a case where a candidate primary secondary cell is selected based on fulfillment of an execution condition associated with the candidate primary secondary cell, apply the stored reconfiguration information for the selected candidate primary secondary cell (paragraphs 0159 and 0180 – the terminal determines that a condition for reconfiguration is satisfied);
perform a random access procedure on the selected candidate primary secondary cell (Figure 7 at step 7-60; Figure 9 at step 9-90; Figure 18A at step 18-45);
transmit, to the master node, a secondary cell group failure information message in a case where the random access procedure for the selected candidate primary secondary cell fails (Figure 18A at operation 18-50 and paragraph 0273 – the UE transmits a SCG failure information message to the MN when the random access fails to succeed (e.g., until a timer expires or the change is not successfully complete)),
wherein the secondary cell group failure information message includes a physical cell identifier of the selected candidate primary secondary cell for which the random access procedure fails and information indicating failure of the random access procedure for the selected candidate primary secondary cell (Figure 18B and paragraphs 0273-0274 – the SCGFailureInformationNR element contains information regarding the failure type and failed cell info (including physical cell ID)).
However, Hwang does not disclose stor(ing) the plurality of reconfigurations for the primary secondary cell addition within a terminal variable or remov(ing) the plurality of reconfigurations for the primary secondary cell addition within the terminal variable after applying the stored reconfiguration information for the selected candidate primary secondary cell. In an analogous art, Da Silva discloses this. Specifically, Da Silva discloses a UE configured to perform Configured to perform a conditional PSCell change/addition, where the UE variable VarConditionalReconfig includes the accumulated configuration of the conditional handover or conditional PSCell change configurations including the pointers to conditional handover or conditional PSCell change execution condition (associated measId(s)) and the stored target candidate SpCell RRCReconfiguration (Figure 9 and paragraph 0060). The user further performs an MR-DC release after cell selection, whereby the variables where the configurations are stored are deleted (paragraphs 0061-0063 and Figure 15). Thus, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Hwang and Da Silva. One would have been motivated to do so in order to avoid state/configuration mismatch between the UE and the target cell (refer to paragraph 0045 of Da Silva).
Claim 3 is a method claim comprising the same operations as performed by the terminal in Claim 1. Therefore, Claim 3 is rejected for the same reasons as presented above for Claim 1.
Regarding Claims 4 and 6, Hwang discloses the candidate primary secondary cell corresponds to a primary secondary cell (PSCell), the primary secondary cell being a special cell (SpCell) of the secondary cell group (paragraph 0273 – the terminal attempts a change to a primary secondary cell (PSCell), which is synonymous with SpCell; paragraph 0211 – in an embodiment, conditional SPCell change/addition may be indicated by an information element).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. 3GPP TS 38.331 V16.0.0 discloses variables associated with RRC reconfiguration (refer to clause 5.3.5) and MR-DC release (refer to clause 5.3.5.10).
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 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 ANDREW W. CHRISS whose telephone number is (571)272-1774. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday, 8am-4pm ET.
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/ANDREW W CHRISS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2472
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