DETAILED ACTION
Status of Case
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
This Office Action is in response to the amendment filed on 5/3/2026.
Claims 1-9 are pending.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments filed on 5/3/2026 with respect to the pending claims have been considered but are moot because the arguments do not apply to any of the references being used in the current rejection.
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.
Claims 1, 4, and 7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lin (USPAN 2021/0243741) in view of Lai (USPAN 2022/0330215) and Zhou (USPAN 2019/0215896).
Consider claims 1 and 7, Lin discloses a communication apparatus (see figure 3, wherein disclosed is said apparatus), and a corresponding method (see figure 12, reproduced below for convenience, wherein disclosed is said method) comprising:
a controller (see processor 340 in figure 3) to perform physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) monitoring during active time in discontinuous reception (DRX) operation (see paragraph 129: PDCCH monitoring during active DRX); and
a communicator (see RF transceiver 310 in figure 3) configured to receive, from a base station, a message including information configuring a skipping duration for which the PDCCH monitoring is skipped (see paragraphs 132-133: skipping duration), wherein
the communicator is configured to receive on the PDCCH, from the base station, downlink control information (DCI) including an information field related to the PDCCH monitoring (see paragraph 132: the UE detects a DCI format with a wake-up indication filed in a PDCCH monitoring occasion; see paragraph 133: when there is a value of “00” of the wake-up indication field of the DCI, the UE skips PDCCH monitoring for the associated DCI format for the number of next DRX ON durations, at step 1204 of figure 12), and
the controller is configured to control, based on a value set in the information field, skipping of the PDCCH monitoring for the skipping duration (see paragraph 133: when there is a value of “00” of the wake-up indication field of the DCI, the UE skips PDCCH monitoring for the associated DCI format for the number of next DRX ON durations and see step 1204 of figure 12).
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Although Lin discloses receiving a message including information configuring a skipping duration for which PDCCH monitoring is skipped (see above), Lin does not specifically disclose receiving a radio resource control (RRC) message including said message.
Lai discloses receiving a radio resource control (RRC) message including information configuring a skipping duration for which PDCCH monitoring is skipped (see paragraph 180: PDCCH skipping duration may be configured by an RRC message).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Lin and combine it with the noted teachings of Lai. The motivation to combine these references is to provide a method for determining a skipping duration to skip PDCCH monitoring, as well as a method of search space monitoring (see paragraph 2 of Lai).
Lin does not specifically disclose to receive on the PDCCH during the active time in the DRX operation downlink control information (DCI) related to the PDCCH monitoring.
Zhou discloses to receive on the PDCCH during the active time in the DRX operation downlink control information (DCI) related to the PDCCH monitoring (see paragraph 334: the UE may monitor a PDCCH for detecting a DCI for new data transmission in the Active Time if DRX operation is configured).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Lin and combine it with the noted teachings of Zhou. The motivation to combine these references is to provide a method for performing PDCCH monitoring while a PDCCH indicates a new transmission addressed to a C-RNTI of a MAC entity (see paragraph 334 of Zhou).
Consider claim 4, Lin disclose a base station (see figure 2, wherein disclosed is said base station) comprising:
a controller (see controller 225 in figure 2) configured to control physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) monitoring of a communication apparatus during active time in discontinuous reception (DRX) (see paragraph 129: PDCCH monitoring during active DRX); and
a communicator (see element 210 in figure 2) configured to transmit, to the communication apparatus, a message including information configuring a skipping duration for which the physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) monitoring is skipped (see paragraphs 132-133: skipping duration),
the communication is configured to transmit on the PDCCH, to the communication apparatus, downlink control information (DCI) including an information field related to the PDCCH monitoring (see paragraph 132: the UE detects a DCI format with a wake-up indication filed in a PDCCH monitoring occasion; see paragraph 133: when there is a value of “00” of the wake-up indication field of the DCI, the UE skips PDCCH monitoring for the associated DCI format for the number of next DRX ON durations, at step 1204 of figure 12); and
the controller is configured to control, based on a value set in the information field, skipping of the PDCCH monitoring for the skipping duration (see paragraph 133: when there is a value of “00” of the wake-up indication field of the DCI, the UE skips PDCCH monitoring for the associated DCI format for the number of next DRX ON durations and see step 1204 of figure 12).
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Although Lin discloses receiving a message including information configuring a skipping duration for which PDCCH monitoring is skipped (see above), Lin does not specifically disclose receiving a radio resource control (RRC) message including said message.
Lai discloses receiving a radio resource control (RRC) message including information configuring a skipping duration for which PDCCH monitoring is skipped (see paragraph 180: PDCCH skipping duration may be configured by an RRC message).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Lin and combine it with the noted teachings of Lai. The motivation to combine these references is to provide a method for determining a skipping duration to skip PDCCH monitoring, as well as a method of search space monitoring (see paragraph 2 of Lai).
Lin does not specifically disclose to transmit on the PDCCH during the active time in the DRX operation related to PDCCH monitoring.
Zhou discloses to transmit on the PDCCH during the active time in the DRX operation related to PDCCH monitoring (see paragraph 334: the UE may monitor a PDCCH for detecting a DCI for new data transmission in the Active Time if DRX operation is configured).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Lin and combine it with the noted teachings of Zhou. The motivation to combine these references is to provide a method for performing PDCCH monitoring while a PDCCH indicates a new transmission addressed to a C-RNTI of a MAC entity (see paragraph 334 of Zhou).
Claims 2-3, 5-6, and 8-9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lin (USPAN 2021/0243741) in view of Lai (USPAN 2022/0330215), Zhou (USPAN 2019/0215896), and Aiba (USPAN 2015/0181539).
Consider claims 2, 5, and 8, Lin in view of Lai do not specifically disclose that the DCI is used for scheduling of a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) or a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH).
Aiba discloses that a DCI is used for scheduling of a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) or a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) (see paragraph 232: PDSCH that is schedule by the DCI).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Lin and combine it with the noted teachings of Aiba. The motivation to combine these references is to provide a method for efficient transmission power control in a wireless communication system (see paragraph 10 of Aiba).
Consider claims 3, 6, and 9, Lin in view of Lai do not specifically disclose that a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) scrambled by a configured scheduling radio network temporary identifier (CS-RNTI) is attached to the DCI.
Aiba discloses that a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) scrambled by a configured scheduling radio network temporary identifier (CS-RNTI) is attached to the DCI (see paragraph 107: the terminal apparatus attempts to decode the DCI format to which the CRC parity bits scrambled by the RNTI are attached).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Lin and combine it with the noted teachings of Aiba. The motivation to combine these references is to provide a method for efficient transmission power control in a wireless communication system (see paragraph 10 of Aiba).
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 Jamal Javaid whose telephone number is 571-270-5137 and email address is Jamal.Javaid@uspto.gov.
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/JAMAL JAVAID/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2412
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