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 .
This is in response to the Applicant’s arguments, and amendments filed on February 26, 2026, in which claims 1-9, 11-14, and 16-21 have been amended, and claims 10 and 15 have been canceled. Claims 1-9, 11-14, and 16-21 are currently pending.
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 12-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wang et al. (US 2022/0167445) in view of KIM et al. (US 2023/0262540).
Regarding claim 12, Wang teaches a user equipment (figs. 12-13) (UE) for wireless communications, comprising: at least one memory and at least one processor couple with at least one processor (figs. 12-13) and configured to cause the UE to: receiving receive a deactivation indication from a network, wherein the deactivation indication is associated with a secondary node (SN) (i.e., The first access network device sends a deactivation indication to the terminal, where the deactivation indication is used to indicate that a PSCell in the SCG is in a deactivated state [0193]-[0194]).
Wang does not specifically teach determining determine whether a timer for fast master cell group (MCG) link recovery is running.
However the preceding limitation is known in the art of communications. Kim teaches if the UE receives RRCReconfiguration message comprising reconfigurationWithSync for the PCell in response to the MCGFailureInformation message, the UE may determine that the fast MCG recovery succeeds, and stop the timer T316. For another example, if the UE receives MobilityFromNRCommand message in response to the MCGFailureInformation message, the UE may determine that the fast MCG recovery succeeds, and stop the timer T316. The UE may also stop the timer T316 upon receiving RRCRelease message, and/or upon initiating the RRC connection re-establishment procedure. On the other hand, if T316 expires (i.e., fast MCG recovery fails), the UE may initiate the RRC connection re-establishment procedure ([0233]-[0234]); the wireless device may transmit an MCG failure information message to report the MCG failure via SCG during the fast MCG recovery procedure. The timer T316 may keep running during the fast MCG recovery procedure ([0259], [0280], [0410]). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, at the time of the invention, to have implemented the technique of Kim within the system of Wang in order to perform both of the fast MCG recovery and the CHO based failure handling.
Regarding claim 13, Wang in view of Kim teaches all the limitations above. “in response to the timer for fast MCG link recovery running when the deactivation indication is received, ignore the deactivation indication” could have been derived by one of ordinary skill in the art from Kim’s reference which discloses if the UE receives RRCReconfiguration message comprising reconfigurationWithSync for the PCell in response to the MCGFailureInformation message, the UE may determine that the fast MCG recovery succeeds, and stop the timer T316. For another example, if the UE receives MobilityFromNRCommand message in response to the MCGFailureInformation message, the UE may determine that the fast MCG recovery succeeds, and stop the timer T316. The UE may also stop the timer T316 upon receiving RRCRelease message, and/or upon initiating the RRC connection re-establishment procedure. On the other hand, if T316 expires (i.e., fast MCG recovery fails), the UE may initiate the RRC connection re-establishment procedure ([0233]-[0234]); the wireless device may transmit an MCG failure information message to report the MCG failure via SCG during the fast MCG recovery procedure. The timer T316 may keep running during the fast MCG recovery procedure ([0259], [0280], [0410]). Accordingly, one of ordinary skill in the art, could have easily conceived the invention in claim 13 from a combination of Wang and Kim.
Regarding claim 14, Wang in view of Kim teaches all the limitations above. “in response to initiating a fast MCG link recovery procedure, stopping a timer for deactivating a SN state of the UE” could have been derived by one of ordinary skill in the art from Kim’s reference which discloses if the UE receives RRCReconfiguration message comprising reconfigurationWithSync for the PCell in response to the MCGFailureInformation message, the UE may determine that the fast MCG recovery succeeds, and stop the timer T316. For another example, if the UE receives MobilityFromNRCommand message in response to the MCGFailureInformation message, the UE may determine that the fast MCG recovery succeeds, and stop the timer T316. The UE may also stop the timer T316 upon receiving RRCRelease message, and/or upon initiating the RRC connection re-establishment procedure. On the other hand, if T316 expires (i.e., fast MCG recovery fails), the UE may initiate the RRC connection re-establishment procedure ([0233]-[0234]); the wireless device may transmit an MCG failure information message to report the MCG failure via SCG during the fast MCG recovery procedure. The timer T316 may keep running during the fast MCG recovery procedure ([0259], [0280], [0410]). Accordingly, one of ordinary skill in the art, could have easily conceived the invention in claim 14 from a combination of Wang and Kim.
Claims 20-21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wang et al. (US 2022/0167445) in view of KIM et al. (US 2018/0092118).
Regarding claim 20, Wang et al. (US 2022/0167445) teaches network entity, comprising: a processor (figs. 12-13); and a memory coupled with the processor, the processor configured to cause the network entity (figs. 12-13)) to: transmit, to a user equipment (ULE), configuration information for at least one of a master node (MN) and a secondary node (SN) (i.e., the MN sends configuration information to the terminal, to indicate the terminal to use the configuration information after the SCG is deactivated [0193], [0212]); and transmit, to the UE, a deactivation indication associated with the SN, wherein the deactivation indication is used for setting a SN state of the UE as a deactivated state (i.e., The transceiver unit 1205 may be configured to receive a deactivation indication from an access network device. The deactivation indication is used to indicate that a primary secondary cell (PSCell) in a secondary cell group (SCG) is in a deactivated state. The processor 1201 may be configured to perform a deactivation operation on the secondary cell group according to the deactivation indication [0121], [0229]-[0232], [0237], [0246], [0291]-[0292]).
Wang teaches all the limitations above except receive a power headroom report (PHR) from the UE in the deactivated state.
However, the preceding limitation is known in the art of communications. KIM teaches the PHR allows the terminal to report the available transmission power to the base station and if the predetermined condition is satisfied, the terminal transmits the PHR to the base station. Three kinds of PHAR formats of a normal PHR format, an extended PHR format, and a dual connectivity PHR format may be present ([0234]-[0235]). The PHR format transmitted from the terminal to the base station is determined by parameter of extendedPHR and dualconnectivityPHR. If either of the two information is not signaled, the normal PHR format is used, if the extendedPHR is signaled, the extendedPHR format is used, and if the dualconnectivityPHR is signaled, the dualconnectivity PHR format is used. The base station determines what format is applied in consideration of the current situation ([0241]-[0242], [0247]-[0248]). If the instruction to activate the SCell in the deactivation state in the A/D MAC CE is issued, in step 4240, the terminal starts the activation of the SCell in the deactivation state ([0371]-[0375]). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in art, at the time of the invention, to have implemented a PHR MAC CE taught by Kim within the system of Wang in order to allow the terminal to report available power information which may be used for the uplink transmission and optimize signaling overhead.
Regarding claim 21, Wang in view of KIM teaches all the limitations above. Wang further teaches the network entity is the MN or the SN (i.e., The access network device is a master node or a secondary node of the terminal [abstr.], [0006], [0024], [0271]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-9, 11, and 16-19 allowed.
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance: claims 1-9, 11, and 16-19 are allowable in view of the Applicant’s arguments filed on 02/26/2026.
Any comments considered necessary by applicant must be submitted no later than the payment of the issue fee and, to avoid processing delays, should preferably accompany the issue fee. Such submissions should be clearly labeled “Comments on Statement of Reasons for Allowance.”
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 02/26/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
The Applicant argues that claims 12-16 and 20-21 recite features similar to those recited in claim 1 and are likewise patentable for the reasons state in the arguments, as well as for the additional features recited by the claims. However, the Examiner disagrees with the preceding assertion. The additional limitations that render claim 1 and 16 allowable are not recited in claims 12 and 20. Therefore, the rejections of claims 12-14 and 20-21 are maintained as recited in the rejections above.
Note: Please clarify the phrase “at least one processor couple with at least one processor” in the independent claims.
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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JEAN ALLAND GELIN whose telephone number is (571)272-7842. The examiner can normally be reached MON-FR 9-6 PM.
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/JEAN A GELIN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2643
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