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 Arguments
Following response to arguments is based on Applicant’s arguments filed on 09 July 2026.
Regarding Previous Rejection Under 35 USC § 103
Applicant’s arguments [Pages 8-9] with respect to rejection of claims 1, 5, 9, 13, 17 have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of newly found prior art reference(s).
Regarding claim 1, on pages 8-9, Applicant argues that prior art of record fails to teach the newly incorporated limitations.
The combination of newly found references Huang and Wei disclose a system where second timer is started upon expiration of first timer while receiving SIBs and stopped after receiving the SIBs (Huang | abstract | Paragraph 258 | Figs. 12-18) and further specifying that the command interchanged are SIBs (Wei | Paragraphs 25-26, 35-37).
Regarding claims 5, 9, 13, 17, these claims have been amended to incorporate similar limitations to those set forth in independent claim 1, and are rejected based on similar reasoning.
Therefore, in view of the above reasons, the Examiner maintains the rejections.
Claim Status
Claims 1-20 have been amended. Thus, claims 1-20 are presented for examination.
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 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Shin et al. (US Patent Application Publication No. 2022/0330191) in view of Huang et al. (US Patent Application Publication No. 2023/0413364) and further in view of Wei et al. (US Patent Application Publication No. 2020/0278451).
Regarding claim 1, Shin teaches a method performed by a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system (Figs. 7B, 10, 12), the method comprising:
receiving, from a base station, a first system information block (SIB) including first satellite assistance information for a serving cell (UE receives, via SIB, satellite assistance info from BS [Paragraphs 9-10, 172-173, 179-180, 185-186, 220]);
starting a first timer, based on the first SIB (step 1010);
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However, Shin does not explicitly mention:
a) starting a second timer upon expiration of the first timer;
b) receiving, from the base station, a second (SIB) including the first satellite assistance information;
c) [receiving, from the base station, a third SIB including second satellite assistance information for a neighbor cell]; and
d) [stopping the second timer upon receiving the second SIB and the third SIB].
Huang teaches, in a similar field of endeavor of communication systems, the following:
a) starting a second timer upon expiration of the first timer (for the disclosed system (Figs. 12-18), a validity timer is started again (second timer) upon expiration of a first time [abstract | Paragraph 258]);
b) receiving, from the base station, a second (SIB) including the first satellite assistance information (and thus the UE receives further SIBs, including the first assistance info [abstract | Paragraphs 176, 183-184, 258]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the communication system (as taught by Shin) by starting second timer (as taught by Huang) for the purpose of reconfiguring the communication between UE and BS (Huang – Paragraph 6).
But, the combination of Shin and Huang does not explicitly mention:
c) receiving, from the base station, a third SIB including second satellite assistance information for a neighbor cell; and
d) stopping the second timer upon receiving the second SIB and the third SIB.
Wei teaches, in a similar field of endeavor of communication systems, the following:
c) receiving, from the base station, a third SIB including second satellite assistance information for a neighbor cell (for the disclosed system (Fig. 3), third and more SIBs are being receiving after a second timer is being started when receiving SIBs [Paragraphs 25-26, 35-37]);
d) stopping the second timer upon receiving the second SIB and the third SIB (and thus the second timer is stopped upon reception of the several SIBs [Paragraphs 25-26, 35-37]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the communication system (as taught by Shin) by starting second timer (as taught by Huang) by stopping second timer (as taught by Wei) for the purpose of identifying the position of satellite (Wei – Paragraph 4).
Regarding claim 2, Wei further teaches the method of claim 1,
wherein the second SIB is associated with the first SIB ([Paragraphs 35-36]), and
wherein the first satellite assistance information includes first information on a serving cell ephemeris and second information on a validity duration of the serving cell ephemeris ([Paragraphs 35-36]).
Regarding claim 3, Shin further teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the second satellite assistance information included in the third SIB is received via a terrestrial network (TN) ([Paragraph 170]).
Regarding claim 4, Shin further teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the serving cell and the neighbor cell are associated with non-terrestrial network (NTN) (secondary ephemeris’ duration is explicitly signaled and established [Paragraph 122]).
Regarding claims 5-8, these claims are rejected as applied to claims 1-4.
Regarding claims 9-12, these claims are rejected as applied to claims 1-4.
Regarding claims 13-16, these claims are rejected as applied to claims 1-4.
Regarding claims 17-20, these claims are rejected as applied to claims 1-4.
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 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 FABRICIO R MURILLO GARCIA whose telephone number is (571)270-5708. The examiner can normally be reached 9-5pm.
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July 23, 2026
/FABRICIO R MURILLO GARCIA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2633
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