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 filed on 07/28/2026 have been fully considered. Applicant’s arguments, together with the claim amendments with respect to the rejection under 35 U.S.C. §112(a) are persuasive. Accordingly, the rejection under 35 U.S.C. §112 (a) is withdrawn.
Applicant’s arguments with respect to the rejection under 35 U.S.C. §103 are moot in view of new ground of rejection presented in this office action, which is necessitated by applicant’s amendment.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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.
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 and 10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over WANG et
al. (US 20230269607 A1) in view of Rugeland et al. (US 20230262501 A1), and further in view of AWONIYI-OTERI (US 20220052906 A1) hereinafter OTERI.
Regarding claim 1,
WANG discloses “A method performed by a user equipment, the method comprising the
following steps: upon receiving a Radio Resource Control (RRC) reconfiguration message,
which includes an indication to perform Secondary Cell Group (SCG) deactivation” (See
[0063] In the process 300, the network device 110 transmits 302 to the terminal
device 130 an indication to suspend or deactivate the SCG 160 of the network device 120.
[0064] the network device 110 may transmit an RRCReconfiguration message to indicate the
SCG suspension); “re-establishing a Radio Link Control (RLC) entity of an SCG bearer” (See
[0081] upon receiving the SCG suspension indication, the terminal device 130 may perform
one or more of the following: re-establishing the RLC entity of the SCG bearer) “and upon activating an SCG that was deactivated by the SCG deactivation, initiating a random- access procedure on the SCG” (See [0049] the terminal device receives an indication from the first network device to activate the SCG, which has been previously deactivated. This indication is also referred to as a SCG resumption indication. Upon receiving the SCG resumption indication, the terminal device performs a procedure to resume the SCG. The terminal device starts a timer and initiates a random-access procedure on PSCell of the SCG).
WANG does not explicitly disclose re-establishing a RLC entity of an SCG bearer for a
measurement report.
However, Rugeland discloses “for a measurement report” (See [0134] the UE can be
configured to perform measurements of a suspended SCG for a limited time and only report
the measurement results once the SCG need to be re-activated. Relative to continuous
SCG measurement reporting, such embodiments can reduce UE energy consumption (e.g.,
due to fewer measurements) and signaling with the network (e.g., since only one report is
transmitted). On the other hand, relative to stopping SCG-related measurements when the
SCG is suspended, such embodiments can enable faster re-activation of the SCG when
needed (e.g., when data arrives for an SCG-terminated bearer) due to the network having
up-to-date SCG measurements).
Note: Rugeland discloses that when the SCG is suspended, the UE performs SCG
measurements and transmits measurement reports in order to enable faster SCG re-activation and reduce UE energy consumption. Transmission of such measurement reports
requires signaling via bearers implemented over RLC entities. WANG discloses re-
establishing the RLC entity of the SCG bearer upon SCG deactivation/ suspension.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the
effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the teachings of WANG, with
the teachings of Rugeland, to utilize the RLC re-establishment procedure upon SCG
deactivation, to enable transmission of the SCG measurement report, and the motivation to
do so would have been to achieve faster SCG re-activation and reduce UE energy
consumption (Rugeland [0134]).
WANG in view of Rugeland does not explicitly disclose that radio link monitoring is performed on a PSCell of the SCG.
However, OTERI discloses “wherein radio link monitoring is performed on a Primary SCG Cell (PSCell) of the SCG” (See [0024] an RLM procedure may be enabled on the PSCELL when the SCG is in the dormant SCG state to detect a radio link failure (RLF) on the PSCell. In an example, the RLM procedure may be performed on the PSCell and not secondary cells (SCells) of the SCG).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the teachings of WANG and Rugeland, with the teachings of OTERI, and the motivation to do so would have been to detect radio link failures, (OTERI [0024]), thereby improving the reliability and robustness of the SCG operation.
Regarding claim 10,
WANG discloses “A user equipment, comprising: at least one processor; and at least one
non-transitory machine-readable medium that is in electronic communication with the
processor, and that stores one or more computer-executable instructions that when
executed by the at least one processor, cause the user equipment to” (See Fig. 11, [0136]
The device 1100 can be considered as a further example implementation of the terminal
device 130): “upon receiving a Radio Resource Control (RRC) reconfiguration message
which includes an indication to perform Secondary Cell Group (SCG) deactivation” (See
[0063] In the process 300, the network device 110 transmits 302 to the terminal device 130
an indication to suspend or deactivate the SCG 160 of the network device 120. [0064] the
network device 110 may transmit an RRCReconfiguration message to indicate the SCG
suspension); “re-establish a Radio Link Control (RLC) entity of a SCG bearer” (See [0081]
upon receiving the SCG suspension indication, the terminal device 130 may perform one or
more of the following: re-establishing the RLC entity of the SCG bearer); “and upon activating an SCG that was deactivated by the SCG deactivation, initiating a random- access procedure on the SCG” (See [0049] the terminal device receives an indication from the first network device to activate the SCG, which has been previously deactivated. This indication is also referred to as a SCG resumption indication. Upon receiving the SCG resumption indication, the terminal device performs a procedure to resume the SCG. The terminal device starts a timer and initiates a random-access procedure on PSCell of the SCG).
WANG does not explicitly disclose re-establishing a RLC entity of an SCG bearer for a
measurement report.
However, Rugeland discloses “for a measurement report” (See [0134] the UE can be
configured to perform measurements of a suspended SCG for a limited time and only report
the measurement results once the SCG need to be re-activated. Relative to continuous
SCG measurement reporting, such embodiments can reduce UE energy consumption (e.g.,
due to fewer measurements) and signaling with the network (e.g., since only one report is
transmitted). On the other hand, relative to stopping SCG-related measurements when the
SCG is suspended, such embodiments can enable faster re-activation of the SCG when
needed (e.g., when data arrives for an SCG-terminated bearer) due to the network having
up-to-date SCG measurements).
Note: Rugeland discloses that when the SCG is suspended, the UE performs SCG
measurements and transmits measurement reports in order to enable faster SCG re-activation and reduce UE energy consumption. Transmission of such measurement reports
requires signaling via bearers implemented over RLC entities. WANG discloses re-
establishing the RLC entity of the SCG bearer upon SCG deactivation/ suspension.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the
effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the teachings of WANG, with
the teachings of Rugeland, to utilize the RLC re-establishment procedure upon SCG
deactivation, to enable transmission of the SCG measurement report, and the motivation to
do so would have been to achieve faster SCG re-activation and reduce UE energy
consumption (Rugeland [0134]).
WANG in view of Rugeland does not explicitly disclose that radio link monitoring is performed on a PSCell of the SCG.
However, OTERI discloses “wherein radio link monitoring is performed on a Primary SCG Cell (PSCell) of the SCG” (See [0024] an RLM procedure may be enabled on the PSCELL when the SCG is in the dormant SCG state to detect a radio link failure (RLF) on the PSCell. In an example, the RLM procedure may be performed on the PSCell and not secondary cells (SCells) of the SCG).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the teachings of WANG and Rugeland, with the teachings of OTERI, and the motivation to do so would have been to detect radio link failures, (OTERI [0024]), thereby improving the reliability and robustness of the SCG operation.
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 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 SALMA A AYAD whose telephone number is (571)270-0285. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8:00 to 5:30.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Yemane Mesfin can be reached at 5712723927. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/SALMA AYAD/Examiner, Art Unit 2462 /YEMANE MESFIN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2462
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