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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 6/4/2026 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
The applicant’s arguments regarding the 103 rejection have been considered and they are not persuasive. The combination of Yiu and Li clearly teaches each and every limitation in the claims. For example, Li teaches the UE to make a determination based on both (1) received information AND (2) the UE's reduced capability (Li, [0004][0055][0070], the relaxed measurement mechanism needs to be adjusted to adapt to different types of the terminal devices; a new determination threshold is introduced for the Redcap termina. A network configures a measurement threshold for the terminal, the terminal determines whether to perform the measurement relaxation based on a relaxation criterion and the measurement threshold. Since the measurement threshold depends on the terminal type, when the terminal makes the decision whether the measurement relaxation is allowed, the terminal must use/select the threshold corresponding to its own terminal type, here, redcap. That is, the user equipment determines whether the measurement relaxation is allowed based on BOTH the received threshold and a reduced capability of the user equipment. [0076], [0102]).
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 1,5-6,9-12,14,24,28-29,32-35,37,39 and 46 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yiu (US 2021/0076275) in view of Li (US 20240172020).
Regarding claim 1, Yiu discloses a method, comprising:
receiving , by a user equipment, from a network element a signal comprising information for a measurement relaxation (Yiu, Fig 9, paragraph 255, at step 902 a SIB message is received from gNB which includes an indication of one or more conditions to trigger a relaxation of radio resource management (RRM) measurements by the UE, Fig 1, paragraph 22, any of the UEs 101 may be IoT UEs);
determining, by a user equipment, whether the measurement relaxation is allowed based on the received information and based on a reduced capability of the user equipment (Yiu, paragraph 229, different handling of RRM measurement relaxation may be based on a UEs characteristic such as the UE’s subscription information and the UE’s mobility state, Fig 9, Paragraph 255, at step 906 the flow includes determining whether the one or more conditions for relaxation of RRM measurements are satisfied. Here, the UEs characteristic may implicitly include reduced capacity of the UE, the mobility state of the UE may be associated to a reduced capacity of the UE); and
performing , by a user equipment, relaxed or non-relaxed measurements based on the determination (Yiu, Fig 9, paragraph 255, at step 908 the RRM measurements are relaxed by the UE based on determining that the one or more conditions are satisfied). It is noted that the applicant uses selective language in this claim and the examiner is only showing one of the claimed options.
Yiu only implicitly discloses determining, by a user equipment, whether the measurement relaxation is allowed based on a reduced capability of the user equipment. To further clarify or support this feature, Li discloses determining, by a user equipment, whether the measurement relaxation is allowed based on a reduced capability of the user equipment (Li, [[0004][0055] 0070], the relaxed measurement mechanism needs to be adjusted to adapt to different types of the terminal devices; in order to perform further relaxation or compatibility on an original measurement relaxation framework, a new determination threshold is introduced for the Redcap termina. A network configures a measurement threshold for the terminal, the terminal determines whether to perform the measurement relaxation based on a relaxation criterion and the measurement threshold. Since the measurement threshold depends on the terminal type, when the terminal makes the decision whether the measurement relaxation is allowed, it must use/select the threshold corresponding to its own terminal type, here, redcap. That is, the user equipment determines whether the measurement relaxation is allowed based on the received threshold and a reduced capability of the user equipment. [0076], [0102]).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the time of effective filing to combine the teachings as given by Yiu with the teachings given by Li. The motivation for doing so would have been to introduce a relaxed measurement mechanism which result in the terminal device more energy-efficient.
Claims 24, 39 are rejected similarly noting that Yiu discloses the processor, memory (fig. 8).
Regarding claims 5, 28, Yiu discloses the method according to claim 1, wherein the measurement relaxation is not allowed when the user equipment is mobile, near a cell edge, when a cell power or quality is low, or when a reference signal received power measurement is not static (Yiu, paragraph 223 and 226, UE may activate relaxed measurement criteria if UE is not at a cell edge, meaning that serving cell/beam RSRP/RSRQ/SINR is above a threshold. Note that, when the measurement relaxation is not allowed, it is obvious that the information can be ignored). It is noted that the applicant uses selective language in this claim and the examiner is only showing one of the claimed options.
Regarding claims 6, 29, Yiu discloses the method according to claim 1, wherein the measurement relaxation is
allowed when a threshold is or is not met, or
allowed based on subscription information about a mobility of the user equipment ([0229], handling of RRM measurement relaxation based on a UE's characteristic or on other factors; a UE's characteristic could include for example include the UE's power classes, or the UE's subscription information, or its network indication, or its operational frequency (or bandwidth part (BWP) or multi-beam operation), or the UE's mobility state, or its beam change). It is noted that the applicant uses selective language in this claim and the examiner is only showing one of the claimed options.
Regarding claims 9, 32, Yiu discloses the method according to claim 1, wherein the measurement relaxation is achieved both in a time and frequency manner (Yiu, Paragraph 217, RRM measurement relaxation by allowing measurements with longer intervals, and/or by reducing the number of cells/carriers to be measured).
Regarding claims 10, 33, Yiu and Li disclose the method according to claim 1, wherein the user equipment is a reduced capability user equipment with reduced capabilities (Li, [0004], taking a reduced capability (Redcap) terminal as an example), wherein the reduced capabilities comprise one or more of Rx branches, Rx ports, Tx branches, reduced Tx power class, reduced processing capabilities, or reduced capability user equipment types (Yiu, Fig 1, paragraph 22, any of the UEs 101 may be IoT UEs, which may comprise a network access layer designed for low-power IoT applications utilizing short-lived UE connections). It is noted that the applicant uses selective language in this claim and the examiner is only showing one of the claimed options.
Regarding claims 11, 34, Yiu and Li disclose the method according to claim 1, wherein the signal is received via dedicated signaling or broadcast signaling (Yiu, Fig 9, paragraph 255, at step 902 a broadcast SIB message is received from gNB which includes an indication of one or more conditions to trigger a relaxation of radio resource management (RRM) measurements by the UE). It is noted that the applicant uses selective language in this claim and the examiner is only showing one of the claimed options.
Regarding claims 12, 35, Yiu discloses the method according to claim 1, wherein the information is targeted toward one or more radio resource control states comprising an idle state, an inactive state, and a connected state (Yiu, paragraph 216, network-configured mechanism to relax intra and inter-frequency RRM measurement for neighbor cells for RRC_IDLE/INACTIVE with minimal mobility performance impacts). It is noted that the applicant uses selective language in this claim and the examiner is only showing one of the claimed options.
Regarding claims 14, 37, Yiu discloses the method according to claim 1, wherein the information comprises radio link monitoring or radio resource management relaxation criteria for the user equipment with non-reduced capabilities (Yiu, Fig 9, paragraph 255, at step 908 the RRM measurements are relaxed by the UE based on determining that the one or more conditions are satisfied). It is noted that the applicant uses selective language in this claim and the examiner is only showing one of the claimed options.
Regarding claim 46, Yiu discloses the apparatus according to claim 39, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are further configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the apparatus at least to:
configure a reduced capability user equipment type or a number of Rx branch specific adjustments ([0229], handling of RRM measurement relaxation based on a UE's characteristic or on other factors; a UE's characteristic could include for example include the UE's power classes, or the UE's subscription information. Here the power class indicated the reduced capacity UE type). It is noted that the applicant uses selective language in this claim and the examiner is only showing one of the claimed options.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ZHENSHENG ZHANG whose telephone number is (571)270-1985. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Thursday 8:00am-6:00pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Michael Thier can be reached at 571-272-2832. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ZHENSHENG ZHANG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2474
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