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 .
Response to Amendment
This communication is in response to the amendment of 3/13/2026. Accordingly, Claims 34-37 are currently pending in the application and claims 38-39 withdrawn.
Election/Restrictions
Claim 38-39 withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected invention, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 3/13/2026.
Drawings
The drawings are objected to under 37 CFR 1.83(a). The drawings must show every feature of the invention specified in the claims. Therefore, the subject matter of “sending to the source SN an SgNB Modification Request message indicating accepted candidate PSCells, receiving from the source SN an SgNB Modification Request Acknowledge message including one or more updated CPC execution condition information items” must be shown or the feature(s) canceled from the claim(s). No new matter should be entered.
Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claim 34 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 34 recites the limitation “SgNB” in line 4, “PSCell” in line 5, “SCG” in line 9, and “RRC” in line 17. However such subject matter is not clearly defined and it is unclear on what is meant by such subject matter. Examiner suggests defining such subject matter.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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.
Claim(s) 34, 35 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Eklof et al. (US 2024/0276320).
Regarding claim 34, Eklof discloses a method performed by a Radio Access Network (RAN) node configured to operate as a Master Node (MN) associated with a Master Cell Group (MCG) in dual connectivity for a User Equipment (UE)(A method performed by a first network node operating as a Master Node (MN) for a user equipment (UE) configured with Multi-Radio Dual Connectivity and UE is connected in a Master Cell Group (MCG), controlled by the Master Node (MN), and in a Secondary Cell Group (SCG) controlled by a Secondary Node (SN) and a telecommunication network 1602 that includes an access network 1604, such as a radio access network (RAN), abstract and [0004] and [0227] and [0028]), the method comprising:
receiving from a source Secondary Node (SN) an SgNB Change Required message sent to initiate an inter-SN Conditional PSCell Change (CPC) procedure, wherein the SgNB Change Required message indicates CPC initiation (the S-SN sends an SN Change Required message 702 to the MN indicating that an SN change is required and receiving a first request for conditional PSCell change (CPC) for the UE from a source secondary node (S-SN) and the request may correspond to an S-NODE CHANGE REQUIRED message including an indication this is for a Conditional Reconfiguration e.g. a CPC, e.g., as in an SN-initiated CPC, [0027]-[0028] and [0117] figure 7 and figure 8A), and the SgNB Change Required message includes one or more CPC execution condition information items indicating a plurality of CPC execution conditions each associated with a respective one of a plurality of candidate Primary SCG Cells (PSCells) (first request indicating a plurality of candidate cells for PSCell configuration and the first request may include…an execution condition for performing CPC towards one or more of the plurality of candidate cells and the request may include at least one execution condition configuration for CPC (e.g. one or two measId(s), possibly in SN format) mapped to at least one target candidate cell in a frequency carrier, [0028] and [0031] and [0117] figure 7 and figure 8A);
sending to a target SN an SgNB Addition Request message indicating a request for a CPC and including information about the plurality of candidate PSCells (transmitting a second request for CPC to a candidate target secondary node (T-SN), the second request indicating one or more candidate cells of the plurality of candidate cells for PSCell configuration and The request can be an S-NODE ADDITION REQUEST message over XnAP possibly including information (e.g. measurements) for candidate target cells, and possibly including an indication that the request is for CPC, [0027]-[0028] and [0120] and figure 7 and 8A);
if not all of the plurality of candidate PSCells have been accepted and instead a subset of the candidate PSCells have been accepted (upon the reception of an SN Addition Request for CPC, the T-SN candidate responds as follows…T-SN only accepts a subset of cells…T-SN accepts a subset of cells, [0112]-[0115]) and 806 of figure 8A), sending to the source SN an SgNB Modification Request message indicating accepted candidate PSCells (The MN then sends an SN Change Refuse message 880 to the S-SN that includes an indication of… of the selected set of cells and The message can correspond to an SN CHANGE REFUSE, and may include an indication of the subset of selected cells by the T-SN, and possibly a cause value, [0172]-[0174] and [0201] and [0164]-[0165] and figure 11), receiving from the source SN an SgNB Modification Request Acknowledge message including one or more updated CPC execution condition information items (The S-SN then sends a SN Change Required message 886 to the MN including the execution conditions and a measurement configuration for…the selected subset of requested cells and the SCG MeasConfig for CPC and the execution conditions mapped to the subset of selected cells in a new S-NODE CHANGE REQUIRED from the S-SN to the MN, [0174] and [0164]-[0165] and [0201] and [0139] and figure 11 and [0171]-[0175]) and sending to the UE an RRC Connection reconfiguration message including one or more configuration information items and the updated CPC execution condition information items (the MN then transmits an RRC Reconfiguration with CPC message 890 to the UE, including the SCG MeasConfig for CPC from the S-SN as an SCG Reconfiguration, and the execution condition for…the subset of requested cells, [0176]-[0178] and figure 11 and [0027] and [0103] and [0182] and [0139]); and
if all of the plurality of candidate PSCells have been accepted (upon the reception of an SN Addition Request for CPC, the T-SN candidate responds as follows…T-SN accepts all cells, [0112]-[0115]) and 806 of figure 8A), skipping the transmission of the SgNB Modification Request message to the source SN, and sending to the UE an RRC Connection reconfiguration message including the one or more CPC execution condition information items and the one or more configuration information items (the MN determines at block 808 whether to configure the UE (correlating to skipping) or not with CPC based on the response and the MN generates a CPC at block 708 and sends an RRCReconfiguration command 710 to the UE and an RRC Reconfiguration message with an SCG configuration (e.g. RRCReconfiguration**) to be provided to the UE and stored, with an execution condition, wherein the UE only applies the message upon the fulfillment of the execution condition. That candidate SN is associated to one or multiple PSCell candidate cell(s) that the UE can be configured with, [0128]-[0129] and [0027] and [0103] and figure 7 and figure 8A and [0025] and [0103]).
Regarding claim 35, Eklof discloses wherein the one or more updated CPC execution condition information items indicate one or more CPC execution conditions for only the accepted candidate PSCells (SN CHANGE REQUIRED, this time only for the subset that has been accepted by the T-SN, the SCG MeasConfig for CPC and the execution conditions mapped to the subset of selected cells in a new S-NODE CHANGE REQUIRED from the S-SN to the MN and The method may further include configuring the UE for CPC with the subset of cells selected by the T-SN, [0201] and [0034]-[0035] and [0139] and [0165] and [0174]-[0176])
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 36-37 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Da Silva et al. (US 2024/0098611) disclosing a method is performed by a radio access node for configuring a Conditional Primary Secondary Cell, PSCell, Change, CPC, the method comprising one or more of: receiving a message indicating a SN change is required; sending a SN addition request to a target candidate SN; receiving a SN addition response from the target candidate SN; and determining execution conditions to be provided to a UE ([0158] and figure 11).
Da Silver et al. (US 2024/0073752) disclosing receiving a message from the S-SN including a request for CPC associated to target candidates in a neighbour SN. The message can be, e.g., S-NODE CHANGE REQUEST ([0206]-[0208]).
Eklof et al. (US 2023/0292192) disclosing Master Node (MN) receives from the S-SN the S-NODE CHANGE REQUIRED message including an indication that the request is for CPC, and information target SN candidate ID information and possibly the current UE's SCG configuration (to support delta configuration), measurement results related to the target SN candidate, and possibly configurations of execution conditions for CPC and SCG measurement configuration ([0296]).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to NGUYEN HOANG NGO whose telephone number is (571)272-8398. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 9am-5pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Kwang Yao can be reached at 571-272-3182. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/NGUYEN H NGO/Examiner, Art Unit 2473
Prosecution Insights