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 Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 08/07/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Upon further review, the Applicant amended independent claim 1 (i.e. added previously rejected claim 4) and argued that the prior art references on record (Da Silva and Zhang) does not teach the at least claimed limitation (i.e. “wherein the indication of whether the source secondary node is to perform early data forwarding comprises a presence or absence of a parameter, where presence of the parameter having a first value indicates that early data forwarding is to be performed from the source secondary node to the target secondary node, and where the absence of the parameter or the parameter having a second value indicates that early data forwarding is not to be performed from the source secondary node to the target secondary node”). (Emphasis Added).
In response the Examiner respectfully disagrees with the Applicant’s arguments because of the following reasons:
First, the at least claimed limitation in question recited optional and/or alternate limitations (i.e. denoted by “or”), thus the at least limitation has been given its broadest reasonable interpretations.
The phrase "or" refers to alternatives. When a claim covers several alternatives, the claim may be unpatentable if any of the alternatives within the scope of the claim
are taught by the prior art. See Brown V. 3M, 265 F.3d 1349, 1351 (Fed. Cir. 2001).
The broadest reasonable interpretation of the clause in the amended claim requires “presence or absence of a parameter”, therefore the Examiner have reasonably selected the option wherein the indication includes the presence of a parameter that indicates that early data forwarding is to be performed.
Thus, contrary to the Applicant’s arguments (see, pg. 9 of Applicant’s remarks), the Examiner is not required to provide citation and/or prior art teachings for alternate or optional limitation in a claim. In this case, limitations directed to and/or associated with “absence of a parameter” will not be addressed or rejected.
Secondly, the Applicant is kindly directed to Da Silva e.g. fig. 2, and pp0049-pp0050, which discussed the concept wherein early data forwarding indication is provided to a third NW node (i.e. target secondary node). Although, Da Silva does not explicitly mention that the indication includes a first value that indicates that early data forwarding is to be performed.
On the other hand, Zhang discussed the concept of providing information in a wireless communication technology wherein the information includes a cause value corresponding to an early data forwarding indicator, which causes the SN to begin data forwarding (see Zhang, fig. 4, fig. 6, pp0013, pp0014).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Da Silva with the teachings of Zhang to achieve the goal of efficiently improving performance and minimizing interruption in a communication system.
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.
Claim(s) 1-3, 5, and 34, is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Da Silva et al. (US Publication No. 20230180065) in view of Zhang et al. (US Publication No. 20230097891).
As to claims 1 and 34, Da Silva teaches a method and an apparatus comprising: at least one processor; and at least one memory including computer program code; wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, with the at least one processor (fig. 1, fig. 9, network node 12), cause the apparatus at least to: transmit a configuration to a user equipment (fig. 1, fig. 2, #10, pp0049, first network node 12-1 also sends an RRC reconfiguration message to the wireless device 14, with the CHO configuration), the configuration comprising a conditional cell change initiated with a master node (fig. 1, fig. 2, #10, pp0049, first network node 12-1 also sends an RRC reconfiguration message to the wireless device 14, with the CHO configuration, and pp0055, first network node 12-1 may be a M-SN, such as a Source Master gNB (MgNB)); and transmit a notification to a source secondary node from the master node in response to a preparation of the conditional cell change (fig. 1, fig. 2, #1, determine to configure CHO, #5, sends information to the second network node 12-2, to initiate the early data forwarding (Item 5, “INFO. TO INITIATE EARLY DATA FORWARDING”), and pp0055, second network 12-2 may be a S-SN, such as a Source Secondary gNB (SgNB)), the notification being related to the conditional cell change initiated with the master node (fig. 1, fig. 2, #1, determine to configure CHO, #5, sends information to the second network node 12-2, to initiate the early data forwarding (Item 5, “INFO. TO INITIATE EARLY DATA FORWARDING”), and pp0055, second network 12-2 may be a S-SN, such as a Source Secondary gNB (SgNB)); wherein the notification comprises an indication of whether the source secondary node is to perform early data forwarding from the source secondary node to a target secondary node (fig. 1, fig. 2, #1, #5-#9, sends information to the second network node 12-2, to initiate the early data forwarding (Item 5, “INFO. TO INITIATE EARLY DATA FORWARDING”), and pp0050, data is early-forwarded from the second network node 12-2 to the first network node 12-1, which then forwards it to the third network node 12-3). Da Silva further teaches the concept of early data forwarding is to be performed from the source secondary node to the target secondary node (fig. 1, fig. 2, #1, #5-#9, sends information to the second network node 12-2, to initiate the early data forwarding (Item 5, “INFO. TO INITIATE EARLY DATA FORWARDING”), and pp0050, data is early-forwarded from the second network node 12-2 to the first network node 12-1, which then forwards it to the third network node 12-3). However, fails to explicitly teach wherein the indication of whether the source secondary node is to perform early data forwarding comprises a presence or absence of a parameter, where presence of the parameter having a first value indicates that early data forwarding is to be performed from the source secondary node to the target secondary node, and where the absence of the parameter or the parameter having a second value indicates that early data forwarding is not to be performed from the source secondary node to the target secondary node.
In an analogous field of endeavor, Zhang teaches the concept wherein the indication of whether the source secondary node is to perform early data forwarding comprises a presence or absence of a parameter (fig. 4, fig. 6, S405, pp0013, pp0014, the first message includes a cause value corresponding to an early data forwarding indicator and the first message further causes the SN to begin forwarding data, and pp0128), where presence of the parameter having a first value indicates that early data forwarding is to be performed (fig. 4, fig. 6, S405, pp0013, pp0014, the first message includes a cause value corresponding to an early data forwarding indicator and the first message further causes the SN to begin forwarding data, and pp0128), and where the absence of the parameter or the parameter having a second value indicates that early data forwarding is not to be performed from the source secondary node to the target secondary node. Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Da Silva with the teachings of Zhang to achieve the goal of efficiently and reliably improving the mobility performance to meet the requirements for minimal interruption and high reliability in a communication system (Zhang, pp0088).
As to claim 2, Da Silva in view of Zhang teaches the limitations of the independent claims as discussed above. However, fails to explicitly teach wherein the conditional cell change comprises a conditional primary secondary cell change.
In an analogous field of endeavor, Zhang teaches the concept wherein the conditional cell change comprises a conditional primary secondary cell change (fig. 4, fig. 6, S407, the source MN 606 may send an RRCReconfiguration message with CHO configuration to the UE 604. The CHO configuration may include the configuration of the target cell (including both PCell and PSCell configuration) and the corresponding CHO execution condition of the target cell on the target PCell and PSCell frequency). Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Da Silva with the teachings of Zhang to achieve the goal of efficiently and reliably improving the mobility performance to meet the requirements for minimal interruption and high reliability in a communication system (Zhang, pp0088).
As to claim 3, Da Silva in view of Zhang teaches the limitations of the independent claims as discussed above. Da Silva further teaches wherein the notification comprising the indication of whether the source secondary node is to perform early data forwarding is transmitted using at least one of: a modification required procedure or message; an address indication procedure or message (fig. 2, pp0046, the first network node 12-1 may initiate an address indication procedure with the second network node 12-2); or a new message or procedure.
As to claim 5, Da Silva teaches in view of Zhang the limitations of the independent claims as discussed above. However, fails to explicitly teach wherein the notification related to the conditional cell change initiated with the master node is transmitted to the source secondary node when the source secondary node is not configured with early data forwarding.
In an analogous field of endeavor, Zhang teaches the concept wherein the notification related to the conditional cell change initiated with the master node is transmitted to the source secondary node when the source secondary node is not configured (i.e. requested) with early data forwarding (fig. 4, fig. 6, S405, pp0013, pp0014, the first message includes a cause value corresponding to an early data forwarding indicator and the first message further causes the SN to begin forwarding data, and pp0128), and where the absence of the parameter or the parameter having a second value indicates that early data forwarding is not to be performed from the source secondary node to the target secondary node. Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Da Silva with the teachings of Zhang to achieve the goal of efficiently and reliably improving the mobility performance to meet the requirements for minimal interruption and high reliability in a communication system (Zhang, pp0088).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 6-11 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
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 OMONIYI OBAYANJU whose telephone number is (571)270-5885. The examiner can normally be reached M-Thur 10:30-7pm.
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/OMONIYI OBAYANJU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2645
