DETAILED ACTION
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 05/17/2026 has been entered.
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
Applicant’s arguments with respect to the amendment 05/17/2026 filed have been considered but are moot in view of new grounds of rejection.
Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1, 29, 30, 45, 46, 48, 52, 53 and 55 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Huang et al (US 2022/0015187 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Huang teaches a method for starting a discontinuous reception (DRX) timer, performed by a terminal (Huang: Fig. 5, [0402] UE), comprising:
starting the DRX timer according to a transmission type of at least one of an uplink transmission and/or or a downlink transmission, wherein the transmission type comprises one of: an uplink transmission based on configured grant (CG), an uplink transmission based on physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) dynamic scheduling (Huang: Fig. 5; [0402], UE monitors PDCCHs; UE starts DRX HARQ RTT timer for uplink transmission) or a downlink transmission based on configured downlink assignment;
determining that the transmission type of the uplink transmission is the uplink transmission based on PDCCH dynamic scheduling (Huang: Fig. 5; [0046], [0402], UE monitors PDCCH for uplink transmission);
wherein starting the DRX timer further comprises: starting an uplink DRX hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) round- trip-time (RTT) timer according to a predetermined processing pattern (Huang: Fig. 5; [0402], [0405], start the RTT timer at the completion of the initial transmission).
Regarding claim 29, Huang teaches a communication device (Huang: Fig. 5, [0402] UE), comprising: a memory storing computer-executable instructions; and a processor connected to the memory, and configured to
start the DRX timer according to a transmission type of at least one of an uplink transmission and/or or a downlink transmission, wherein the transmission type comprises one of: an uplink transmission based on configured grant (CG), an uplink transmission based on physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) dynamic scheduling (Huang: Fig. 5; [0402], UE monitors PDCCHs; UE starts DRX HARQ RTT timer for uplink transmission) or a downlink transmission based on configured downlink assignment;
determine that the transmission type of the uplink transmission is the uplink transmission based on PDCCH dynamic scheduling (Huang: Fig. 5; [0046], [0402], UE monitors PDCCH for uplink transmission);
wherein starting the DRX timer further comprises: starting an uplink DRX hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) round- trip-time (RTT) timer according to a predetermined processing pattern (Huang: Fig. 5; [0402], [0405], start the RTT timer at the completion of the initial transmission).
Regarding claim 30, Huang teaches a computer non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon computer executable instructions that, when executed by a processor of a communication device (Huang: Fig. 5, [0402] UE), cause the communication device to perform a method for starting a discontinuous reception (DRX) timer, the method comprising:
starting the DRX timer according to a transmission type of at least one of an uplink transmission and/or or a downlink transmission, wherein the transmission type comprises one of: an uplink transmission based on configured grant (CG), an uplink transmission based on physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) dynamic scheduling (Huang: Fig. 5; [0402], UE monitors PDCCHs; UE starts DRX HARQ RTT timer for uplink transmission) or a downlink transmission based on configured downlink assignment;
determining that the transmission type of the uplink transmission is the uplink transmission based on PDCCH dynamic scheduling (Huang: Fig. 5; [0046], [0402], UE monitors PDCCH for uplink transmission);
wherein starting the DRX timer further comprises: starting an uplink DRX hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) round- trip-time (RTT) timer according to a predetermined processing pattern (Huang: Fig. 5; [0402], [0405], start the RTT timer at the completion of the initial transmission).
Regarding claims 45 and 52, Huang teaches wherein the predetermined processing pattern comprises: a pattern of starting the uplink DRX HARQ RTT timer after receiving data on the PDCCH; or a pattern of starting the uplink DRX HARQ RTT timer from a first orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol after the uplink transmission ends (Huang: Fig. 5; [0403]-[0404]); or a pattern of starting the uplink DRX HARQ RTT timer from an initial orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol of the uplink transmission; or a pattern of starting the uplink DRX HARQ RTT timer from a first orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol after a first retransmission of the uplink transmission; or a pattern of starting the uplink DRX HARQ RTT timer after generating a corresponding physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) data packet according to a PDCCH indication; or a pattern of starting the uplink DRX HARQ RTT timer after a processing delay when the PDCCH is received.
Regarding claims 46 and 53, Huang teaches determining that the transmission type of the downlink transmission is the downlink transmission based on configured downlink assignment; wherein starting the DRX timer comprises: starting a downlink DRX hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) round-trip-time (RTT) timer according to a predetermined processing pattern (Huang: Fig. 5; [0468]-[0470]).
Regarding claims 48 and 55, Huang teaches wherein the predetermined processing pattern comprises: a pattern of starting the downlink DRX HARQ RTT timer from a first orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol after the downlink transmission ends; or a pattern of starting the downlink DRX HARQ RTT timer from an initial orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol of the downlink transmission (Huang: Fig. 5; [0468]-[0470]); or a pattern of starting the downlink DRX HARQ RTT timer from a first orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol after a first retransmission of the downlink transmission; or a pattern of starting the downlink DRX HARQ RTT timer after a processing delay when a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) is received.
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 42-44, 47, 49-51, 54 and 56-58 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Huang et al (US 2022/0015187 A1) in view of Tsai et al (US 2022/0311558 A1).
Regarding claims 42, 49 and 56, Huang does not explicitly disclose determining that the transmission type of the uplink transmission is the uplink transmission based on CG; and disabling an uplink DRX hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) round-trip-time (RTT) timer.
Tsai teaches determining that the transmission type of the uplink transmission is the uplink transmission based on CG; and disabling an uplink DRX hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) round-trip-time (RTT) timer (Tsai: [0136], drx-HARQ-RTT-TimerUL may be disabled).
It would have been obvious to a person having an ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Huang by determining that the transmission type of the uplink transmission is the uplink transmission based on CG; and disabling an uplink DRX hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) round-trip-time (RTT) timer as disclosed by Tsai to provide a system for HARQ operation (Tsai: Abstract).
Regarding claims 43, 50 and 57, Huang in view of Tsai teaches wherein disabling the uplink DRX HARQ RTT timer comprises: determining that an HARQ retransmission is disabled, and disabling the uplink DRX HARQ RTT timer; or determining that an HARQ blind retransmission is allowed, and disabling the uplink DRX HARQ RTT timer; or determining that a network configures a timing period of the uplink DRX HARQ RTT timer to be a preset value, and disabling the uplink DRX HARQ RTT timer (Tsai: [0136], drx-HARQ-RTT-TimerUL may be disabled and set to value “0”).
Regarding claims 44, 51 and 58, Huang in view of Tsai teaches wherein starting the uplink DRX HARQ RTT timer according to the predetermined processing pattern comprises: determining that an HARQ retransmission is disabled, and starting the uplink DRX HARQ RTT timer according to the predetermined processing pattern (Tsai: [0130], [0133]); or determining that an HARQ blind retransmission is allowed, and starting the uplink DRX HARQ RTT timer according to the predetermined processing pattern; or determining that a network configures a timing period of the uplink DRX HARQ RTT timer to a preset value, and starting the uplink DRX HARQ RTT timer according to the predetermined processing pattern.
Regarding claims 47 and 54, Huang in view of Tsai teaches wherein starting the downlink DRX HARQ RTT timer according to the predetermined processing pattern comprises: determining that an HARQ retransmission is disabled, and starting the downlink DRX HARQ RTT timer according to the predetermined processing pattern (Tsai: [0130], [0133]); or determining that an HARQ blind retransmission is allowed, and starting the downlink DRX HARQ RTT timer according to the predetermined processing pattern; or determining that a network configures to disable the downlink DRX HARQ RTT timer, and starting the downlink DRX HARQ R II timer according to the predetermined processing pattern; or determining that a network configures a timing period of the downlink DRX HARQ RTT timer to a preset value, and starting the downlink DRX HARQ RTT timer according to the predetermined processing pattern.
Conclusion
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/KODZOVI ACOLATSE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2478
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