DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
1. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claims 21-39 have been cancelled.
Status of Claims
2. This Office Action is in response to the application filed on 11/17/27/2023. Claims 1 and through 20 are presently pending and are presented for examination.
3. In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
Response to Arguments
4. Applicant's arguments filed 04/14/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicant argued that Freda teaches that flow direction in the opposite direction of as claimed.
Examiner respectfully disagrees. A person of ordinary skill in the art would find it obvious whether the paging message is from UE Relay or from Remote UE. It is worth noting that in the claim limitation “transmitting to a remote user equipment (UE), by a relay UE, cell change indication information for indicating that a serving cell of the relay UE changes, in a case that the serving cell of the relay UE changes, wherein the remote UE is connected to a network through the relay UE”; the underlined portion is an option (in case). Therefore, the main feature the limitation is that a node sends a message that notifies it intention of changing its serving cell. This message direction does not carry any patentability node since it is only in one direction.
Applicant argued that Freda is silent on that the relay UE itself sends the indication to the remote UE via a PC5 message, as defined in the claimed invention. In response to applicant's argument that the references fail to show certain features of the invention, it is noted that the features upon which applicant relies (i.e.,{ PC5 message }) are not recited in the rejected claim(s). Although the claims are interpreted in light of the specification, limitations from the specification are not read into the claims. See In re Van Geuns, 988 F.2d 1181, 26 USPQ2d 1057 (Fed. Cir. 1993).
Applicant argued that "cell change indication information" is sent for notification when or after the change occurs. In response to applicant's argument that the references fail to show certain features of the invention, it is noted that the features upon which applicant relies (i.e.,{ "cell change indication information" is sent for notification when or after the change occurs. }) are not recited in the rejected claim(s). Although the claims are interpreted in light of the specification, limitations from the specification are not read into the claims. See In re Van Geuns, 988 F.2d 1181, 26 USPQ2d 1057 (Fed. Cir. 1993).
Applicant argued that a combination of Freda and Chai still fails to teach the claimed invention because neither reference provides the motivation or the teaching as to "transmitting to a remote user equipment (UE), by a relay UE, cell change indication information for indicating that a serving cell of the relay UE changes". In response to applicant’s argument that there is no teaching, suggestion, or motivation to combine the references, the examiner recognizes that obviousness may be established by combining or modifying the teachings of the prior art to produce the claimed invention where there is some teaching, suggestion, or motivation to do so found either in the references themselves or in the knowledge generally available to one of ordinary skill in the art. See In re Fine, 837 F.2d 1071, 5 USPQ2d 1596 (Fed. Cir. 1988), In re Jones, 958 F.2d 347, 21 USPQ2d 1941 (Fed. Cir. 1992), and KSR International Co. v. Teleflex, Inc., 550 U.S. 398, 82 USPQ2d 1385 (2007). In this case, Chai's teaching" to keep the remote UE be informed of the relay UE serving cell changes for uninterruptable connections of remote UE to the network" (see Chai: paragraph 4).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
5. 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 1-6 and 8-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Freda et al. (63/091,488-Oct. 14, 2020) provisional of (US 20240098815-A1) in view of Chai (US 2012/0155377 A1).
For claim 1 Freda teaches an information transmission method (see paragraph 34 “a representative method, implemented by a relay WTRU (UE) for determining whether a relay WTRU (UE) may serve a network-initiated connection at a remote WTRU (UE)”), comprising:
transmitting to a remote user equipment (UE), by a relay UE, cell change indication information for indicating that a serving cell of the relay UE changes, in a case that the serving cell of the relay UE changes, wherein the remote UE is connected to a network through the relay UE (see paragraph 38 “a cell may provide coverage for a wireless service to a specific geographical area that may be relatively fixed or that may change over time”, paragraph 93 “remote WTRU informs relay WTRU coverage ( cell) changes”, paragraph 99 “the remote WTRU may send a message to the relay WTRU
to provide the coverage situation at the remote WTRU (e.g. in coverage or out of coverage of a suitable cell)”, paragraph 120 “WTRU informs remote WTRU of cell reselection” and paragraph 148 “The relay WTRU performs cell mobility (cell reselection to a different cell or HO to a different cell”).
Freda does not explicitly teach a serving cell of the relay UE changes.
However, Chai teaches with high-speed moving of the train, the relay device may traverse multiple cells (a serving cell of the relay UE changes). When the relay device traverses multiple cells, a Donor E-UTRAN Node B (DeNB) changes. Therefore, the relay device is handed over between cells, and all UEs on the train are handed over in group handover mode (see Chai: paragraph 4). In addition, Chai teaches sending pre-configuration information to a UE according to the pre-configured parameter so that the UE configures the parameter according to the pre-configuration information wherein the preconfigured parameter may include information of a target cell. In addition, Chai teaches the pre-configured parameter in the configured parameter set may also be updated when configuration of the current network changes (see Chai: paragraphs 40, 42, and 45). In addition, Chai teaches remote/relay WTRU informs the network of its connected relay/remote WTRU (see Chai: paragraph 91).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of claimed invention to use the teachings Chai in the remote UE served by a relay UE system of Freda in order to keep the remote UE be informed of the relay UE serving cell changes for uninterruptable connections of remote UE to the network (see Chai: paragraph 4).
For claim 9 Freda in view of Chai teaches an information transmission method (as discussed in claim 1-reciprocity principle), comprising:
receiving cell change indication information by a remote UE, wherein the cell change indication information is transmitted by a relay UE in a case that a serving cell of the relay UE changes and is used for indicating that the serving cell of the relay UE changes, and the remote UE is connected to a network through the relay UE (as discussed in claim 1).
For claim 16 Freda in view of Chai teaches a relay UE (as discussed in claim 1), comprising:
a memory, a transceiver (see Freda: Fig. 1B “processor 130, Transceiver 120, and processor 118”), and
a processor, wherein the memory is configured to store program instructions, the transceiver is configured to transmit and receive data under control of the processor, and the processor is configured to read the program instructions see Freda: Fig. 1B “processor 130, Transceiver 120, and processor 118” and paragraph 169 “non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing program instruction”) in the memory and perform following operation:
transmitting to a remote UE, via the transceiver, cell change indication information for indicating that a serving cell of the relay UE changes, in a case that the serving cell of the relay UE changes, wherein the remote UE is connected to a network through the relay UE (as discussed in claim 1).
For claim 2 Freda in view of Chai teaches the method, wherein, the cell change indication information comprises at least one of the following:
first indication information, wherein the first indication information is used for indicating that the serving cell of the relay UE changes (see Chai: paragraphs 40, 42, and 45 “sending pre-configuration information to a UE according to the pre-configured parameter so that the UE configures the parameter according to the pre-configuration information wherein the preconfigured parameter may include information of a target cell. In addition, the pre-configured parameter in the configured parameter set may also be updated when configuration of the current network changes… the pre-configured parameter in the configured parameter set may also be updated when configuration of the current network changes”); or,
second indication information, wherein the second indication information is used for indicating the relationship between a target cell after the serving cell of the relay UE changes and a cell before the serving cell of the relay UE changes (see Chai: paragraph 8 “a handover processing system, including a relay device, a source DeNB, and a target DeNB, where: the relay device is configured to send auxiliary information for obtaining the pre-configured parameter”).
For claim 3 Freda in view of Chai teaches the method according to claim 2, wherein in a case that the cell change indication information comprises the second indication information, the relationship between the target cell and the source cell comprises one of the following:
the target cell and the source cell are cells under different base stations (see Chai: pargraph 4 “the device may traverse multiple cells”, paragraph 42 “target cell information”, paragraph 44 “target cell is PLMN”, and paragraph 37 “when the train traverses multiple cells at a high speed, the relay device on the train may be handed over due to the change of the DeNB.”);
or
For claim 4 Freda in view of Chai teaches the method, further comprising:
transmitting, to the remote UE, system information of a target cell after the serving cell of the relay UE changes (see Freda: paragraph 90 “the remote WTRU receives paging, or accesses system information” and paragraph 99 “a remote WTRU may determine whether system information has changed”).
For claim 5 Freda in view of Chai teaches the method, wherein the transmitting to the remote UE by the relay UE, the cell change indication information for indicating that the serving cell of the relay UE changes (see Freda: paragraph 108 “indicated by the relay WTRU (e.g. in a scheduling SCI, MAC CE, or PC5-RRC message)”), comprises:
transmitting a first message to the remote UE, wherein the first message carries the cell change indication information (see Freda: paragraph 108 “indicated by the relay WTRU (e.g. in a scheduling SCI, MAC CE, or PC5-RRC message)”);
wherein the first message comprises one of the following:
a media access control layer control element (MAC CE) (see Freda: paragraph 108 “indicated by the relay WTRU (e.g. in a scheduling SCI, MAC CE, or PC5-RRC message)”);
physical layer sidelink control information (SCI) (see Freda: paragraph 108 “indicated by the relay WTRU (e.g. in a scheduling SCI, MAC CE, or PC5-RRC message)”);
a direct communication interface (PC5) radio resource control (RRC) message (see Freda: paragraph 108 “indicated by the relay WTRU (e.g. in a scheduling SCI, MAC CE, or PC5-RRC message)”); or
For claim 6 Freda in view of Chai teaches the method according to claim 5, wherein the transmitting to the remote UE by the relay UE, the cell change indication information for indicating that the serving cell of the relay UE changes (as discussed in claim 1), comprises:
transmitting to the remote UE through broadcast, multicast or unicast by the relay UE, the cell change indication information (see Freda: paragraph 1 “the design aims to provide support for broadcast, groupcast and unicast communications in both out-of-coverage and in-network coverage scenarios”).
For claim 8 Freda in view of Chai teaches the method, wherein change of the serving cell comprises handover or cell reselection (see Freda: paragraph 4 “performing cell reselection to select a suitable cell” and paragraph 119 “A Handover (HO) or Conditional Handover (CHO) performed by the relay WTRU”).
For claim 10 Freda in view of Chai teaches the method, wherein the cell change indication information comprises at least one of the following:
first indication information, wherein the first indication information is used for indicating that the serving cell of the relay UE changes (as discussed in claim 2); or
second indication information, wherein the second indication information is used for indicating a relationship between a target cell after the serving cell of the relay UE changes and a source cell before the serving cell of the relay UE changes (as discussed in claim 2).
For claim 11 Freda in view of Chai teaches the method according to claim 10, wherein in a case that the cell change indication information comprises the second indication information, the relationship between the target cell and the source cell comprises one of the following:
the target cell and the source cell are cells under different base stations (see Chai: pargraph 4 “the device may traverse multiple cells”, paragraph 42 “target cell information”, paragraph 44 “target cell is PLMN”, and paragraph 37 “when the train traverses multiple cells at a high speed, the relay device on the train may be handed over due to the change of the DeNB.”);
or
For claim 12 Freda in view of Chai teaches the method, further comprising:
receiving, from the relay UE, system information of a target cell after the serving cell of the relay UE changes (as discussed in claim 4).
For claim 13 Freda in view of Chai teaches the method, wherein the receiving the cell change indication information by the remote UE comprises:
receiving a first message, wherein the first message carries the cell change indication information (as discussed in claim 5);
wherein the first message comprises one of the following:
a media access control layer control element (MAC CE) (as discussed in claim 5);
physical layer sidelink control information (SCI) (as discussed in claim 5);
a direct communication interface (PC5) radio resource control (RRC) message (as discussed in claim 5); or
For claim 14 Freda in view of Chai teaches the method according to claim 12, wherein after the receiving the cell change indication information by the remote UE (see Freda: paragraph 120 “cell change event”), the method further comprises:
reading the system information of the target cell based on the cell change indication information (see Freda: paragraph 120 “remote WTRU may trigger the transmission of new system information, whereby the new system information corresponds to the system information acquired from the new cell to which the WTRU has reselected”); and
executing a target event based on the system information of the target cell, wherein the target event comprises relay reselection (see Freda: “update relay reselection”), or
For claim 15 Freda in view of Chai teaches the method, wherein change of the serving cell comprises handover or cell reselection (as discussed in claim 8).
For claim 17 Freda in view of Chai teaches the relay UE, wherein the cell change indication information comprises at least one of the following:
first indication information, wherein the first indication information is used for indicating that the serving cell of the relay UE changes (as discussed in claim 2); or
second indication information, wherein the second indication information is used for indicating a relationship between a target cell after the serving cell of the relay UE changes and a source cell before the serving cell of the relay UE changes (as discussed in claim 2).
For claim 18 Freda in view of Chai teaches the method according to claim 17, wherein in a case that the cell change indication information comprises the second indication information, the relationship between the target cell and the source cell comprises one of the following:
the target cell and the source cell are cells under different base stations (see Chai: pargraph 4 “the device may traverse multiple cells”, paragraph 42 “target cell information”, paragraph 44 “target cell is PLMN”, and paragraph 37 “when the train traverses multiple cells at a high speed, the relay device on the train may be handed over due to the change of the DeNB.”);
or
For claim 19 Freda in view of Chai teaches the method, wherein the transceiver is configured to:
transmit, to the remote UE, system information of a target cell after the serving cell of the relay UE changes (as discussed in claim 4).
For claim 20 Freda in view of Chai teaches the method, wherein the transceiver is configured to:
transmit a first message to the remote UE, wherein the first message carries the cell change indication information (as discussed in claim 5);
wherein the first message comprises one of the following:
a media access control layer control element (MAC CE) (as discussed in claim 5);
physical layer sidelink control information (SCI) (as discussed in claim 5);
a direct communication interface (PC5) radio resource control (RRC) message (as discussed in claim 5); or
.
6. Claims 7 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Freda in view of Chai Further in view of Jang et al. (US 2022/0183101 A1).
For claim 7 Freda in view of Chai does not explicitly teach the method according to claim 5, wherein the MAC CE has a corresponding first logical channel identity (LCID) in a case that the cell change indication information is carried in the MAC CE, and the first LCID is used for indicating that the cell change indication information is carried in the MAC CE.
However, Jang teaches a medium access control (MAC) layer control message (MAC Control Element (MAC CE)) capable of controlling a DRX operation may exist in a MAC layer. When the base station no longer has data to transmit to the UE during the on-duration of the UE or while the Inactivity-Timer is running, the base station may transmit a DRX Command MAC CE message (including only a logical identifier (LCID)) to the UE (see Jang: paragraph 6).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of claimed invention to use the teachings Chai in the combined remote UE served by a relay UE system of Chai and Freda in order to use MAC CE with LCID that provides capability such as DRX operation (see Chai: paragraph 4).
Conclusion
7. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure: Freda et al. (US 2024/0098815 A1) and PALADUGU et al. (US 2023/0247513 A1).
8. 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.
9. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to David M OVEISSI whose telephone number is (571)270-3127. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8Am-5PM.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Jeffrey Rutkowski can be reached at (571) 270 - 1215. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/MANSOUR OVEISSI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2415
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