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 .
DETAILED ACTION
Acknowledgment is made for the applicant’s response and amendment filed on 05/13/2026.
Remarks
The claims are presented as follows:
Claims 1-20 are pending.
Response to Amendment
Applicant's arguments filed 05/13/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. The amendment submitted by the applicant does not overcome the rejection made by the examiner in the last office action. The applicant’s argument has been considered carefully and does not provide the evidence for lack of motivation.
The applicant recites that the references do not disclose, teach or suggest the following argument:
“N pieces of indication information of a temporary reference signal configuration, wherein the indication information of a temporary reference signal configuration indicates the temporary reference signal configuration that is used by the terminal to activate a secondary cell or a secondary cell group”
HE teaches a terminal device receives from a network device configuration information for configuring a triggering mode. The triggering mode is for triggering activation of a secondary cell of the terminal device and a transmission of a temporary reference signal in the secondary cell. Based on the configured triggering mode, the terminal device receives first triggering information on the activation of the secondary cell and second triggering information on the transmission of the temporary reference signal for performing the activation of the secondary cell, to reduce the latency of activation/de-activation procedure for SCG and secondary cells. in order to activate and/or deactivate the secondary cell 135 for the terminal device 120, the network device 110 may transmit an activation and/or deactivation command 112 to the terminal device 120 to trigger the activation or deactivation of the secondary cell 135. Upon receiving the activation/deactivation command 112, the terminal device 120 may perform the activation and/or deactivation of the secondary cell 135 accordingly (HE: [0050-56] FIG.1A) the activation indicator field can be a repurposed activation indicator field originally indicating a dormancy state of a predetermined group of secondary cells among the set of secondary cells. The repurposed activation indicator field may include the set of bits, each of which indicates an activation/deactivation state of a predetermined group of secondary cells, instead of indicating the dormancy state of the predetermined group of secondary cells , each of the set of bits can indicate an activation/deactivation state of a predetermined group of secondary cells among the set of secondary cells. As such, the signaling overhead for the added activation indicator field can be reduced. (HE: [0095-103] FIG.1A).
HE does not teach indicating the number of temporary reference signal for the activation. However, KIM teaches a UE receiving, from a base station, an RRC message including configuration information indicating a number of temporary reference signals for controlling activation of a cell group (KIM: [0019]) based on whether the terminal supports a dormant BWP for a PSCell of each cell group, or whether the terminal supports a cell group suspension or resume procedure for a PSCell of each cell group, or the number of supported cell groups to the base station as a UE capability can support (KIM: [0231] FIG.1R).
Therefore, the cited art teaches a UE receiving from a network device N pieces of indication information of a temporary reference signal configuration, the indication information of the temporary reference signal configuration indicates the temporary reference signal configuration that is used by the terminal to activate a secondary cell or a secondary cell group.
For clarification, the examiner interpreted the claim to its broadest reason interpretation and has taken the language of the claims As Written, considering the invention as a whole. Applicant argues regarding the temporary reference signal used for activation. However, Applicant did not recite in the claims on how the activation is done and how is it 'associated' with the signal thus the examiner has taken the broadest reasonable interpretation in the claims and provided applicant with a broadest reasonable alternative that still meets the claimed recitations, as written. As such, the rejection is maintained.
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over HE et al. Publication No. (US 2024/0080169 A1) in view of KIM et al. Publication No. (US 2022/0022067 A1).
Regarding claim 1, HE teaches a method for information configuration, comprising:
sending, by a network side device to a terminal (network device 110 serving a terminal device 120 [0051] FIG.1B), first information of a cell group serving the terminal (the network device 110 transmits configuration information 215 to the terminal device 120 [0063] FIG.2A), wherein the first information comprises:
M pieces of activation or deactivation indication information, wherein the activation or deactivation indication information is used to indicate whether to activate a corresponding secondary cell (The configuration information 215 can configure a triggering mode for triggering the activation of a secondary cell 135 of the terminal device 120, the triggering mode can also be referred to as a parameter which may be introduced to indicate one of multiple (for example, two) modes for SCell activation/deactivation operation [0063-65] FIG.2A); and
N pieces of indication information of a temporary reference signal configuration, wherein the indication information of a temporary reference signal configuration indicates the temporary reference signal configuration that is used by the terminal to activate a secondary cell or a secondary cell group (the configuration information may configure the transmission of the temporary reference signal 114 in the secondary cell 135, and may indicate: a first triggering mode (Mode-1) wherein the triggering of the transmission of the temporary reference signal depend on the triggering of the activation of the secondary cell 135 or can indicate a second triggering mode (Mode-2) wherein the triggering of the activation of the secondary cell 135 and the triggering of the transmission of the temporary reference signal 114 may be independent of each other [0065-66] FIG.2A); and the secondary cell group comprises one or more secondary cells (the SCells may be divided into a set of SCell groups and each SAIF bit can correspond to one of the SCell group(s) [0090] FIG.4).
wherein M is equal to the secondary cells that are configured for the terminal, both N and M are integers greater than or equal to 1, and N is less than or equal to M (the MAC CE may include a set of activation/deactivation fields and one or more temporary reference signal (TRS) fields. The set of activation/deactivation fields can be used for a set of secondary cells configured for the terminal device 120, respectively. Each of the set of activation/deactivation fields may indicate an activation/deactivation state of a corresponding number of the set of secondary cells [0079-80] As shown in FIG. 8, the number of TRS transmission bursts may be configured on a per terminal device basis by dedicated RRC signaling [0111] FIG.8).
HE does not explicitly teach indicating the number of temporary reference signal indicating to activate the secondary cell.
KIM teaches indicating the number of temporary reference signal indicating to activate the secondary cell (KIM: the UE receives, from the base station, a radio resource control (RRC) message including configuration information indicating a number of temporary reference signal, and a medium access control (MAC) control element (CE) indicating to activate a secondary cell (SCell) based on the MAC CE and the RRC message [0019-25] FIG.1N).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified HE by the teaching of KIM to indicate the activation of the secondary cell in order to rapidly activate a cell group and rapidly perform channel measurement in a cell (e.g., a PCell, a PSCell, or an SCell) of the cell group (KIM: [0149] FIG.1L).
Regarding claim 2, HE teaches the method according to claim 1, wherein sending, by the network side device to the terminal, the first information comprises: sending, by the network side device, a media access control element (MAC CE) to the terminal, wherein the MAC CE carries the first information (the first triggering information 225 and the second triggering information 235 may be transmitted in a single triggering command, the single triggering command can be carried in a media access control (MAC) control element (CE) [0078-79] FIG.2B).
Regarding claim 3, the modified HE teaches the method according to claim 1, further comprising:
displaying and indicating, by the network side device through a MAC CE, the number of bits occupied by one piece of indication information of a temporary reference signal configuration (TRS fields may be one TRS field commonly applying to multiple secondary cells to be in the activated state or different TRS fields may be included for different CCs and the number of TRS fields may be included in ascending order based on bit(s), the configuration flexibility of the TRS resources for the secondary cells to be activated can be maximized [0081-83 FIG.3); displaying and indicating, by the network side device through first radio resource control (RRC) signaling, the number of bits occupied by one piece of indication information of a temporary reference signal configuration; indirectly indicating, by the network side device through a maximum number of temporary reference signal configurations configured for a secondary cell in first RRC signaling, the number of bits occupied by one piece of indication information of a temporary reference signal configuration (KIM: Configuration information or indicator (e.g., configuration information or indicator for the MCG) for configuring, releasing, adding, deactivating, activating, resuming, modifying, reconfiguring, or suspending dual connectivity, a cell group (e.g., SCG), or a cell [0625] First RRC message (e.g., RRCReconfiguration message) including configuration information or an indicator for configuring, releasing, adding, deactivating, activating, resuming, modifying, reconfiguring, or suspending dual connectivity, a cell group (e.g., SCG), or a cell [0625-626] FIG.1); or indirectly indicating, by the network side device through a maximum number of temporary reference signal configurations configured for a secondary cell group in first RRC signaling, the number of bits occupied by one piece of indication information of a temporary reference signal configuration, wherein the first RRC signaling is used to configure at least one temporary reference signal configuration for the secondary cell or the secondary cell group of the terminal (KIM: A first terminal 1j-10 applying information configured in the RRC message may perform PDCCH monitoring based on the PS-RNTI that is an identifier configured in the short period 1j-02 configured before the next active period 1j-30 of the DRX cycle, and may detect the first DCI format 1j-03 transmitted from the base station in the search space. When the first DCI format 1j-03 is detected, the first terminal 1j-10 may read, through the time information or the position information configured in the RRC message in the first DCI format 1j-03, the bitmap 1j-04 including indication information for the dormant BWP about the first SCell groups of the first terminal 1j-10, or the cell group (or SCG), or the PSCell (or SCell) of the cell group (or SCG), or information indicating to suspend or resume the cell group (or SCG) or the PSCell (or SCell) of the cell group (or SCG) [0415-416] FIG.1J).
Regarding claim 4, HE teaches the method according to claim 1, wherein: a value of N is the same as the number of activated secondary cells; a value of N is the same as the number of activated secondary cell groups; a value of N is the same as the number of secondary cells that are configured with a temporary reference signal configuration through second RRC signaling; a value of N is the same as the number of secondary cell groups that are configured with a temporary reference signal configuration through second RRC signaling; or a value of N is configured or pre-agreed by the network side device (the MAC CE may include a set of activation/deactivation fields and one or more temporary reference signal (TRS) fields. The set of activation/deactivation fields can be used for a set of secondary cells configured for the terminal device 120, respectively. Each of the set of activation/deactivation fields may indicate an activation/deactivation state of a corresponding one of the set of secondary cells [0079-80] As shown in the example 800 of FIG. 8, the number of TRS transmission bursts may be configured on a per terminal device basis by dedicated RRC signaling [0111] FIG.8).
Regarding claim 5, the modified HE teaches the method according to claim 1, further comprising: sending, by the network side device to the terminal, second information of the cell group serving the terminal, wherein the second information is used to indicate that a primary cell supports a resource in being self-scheduled and cross-carrier scheduled (KIM: the terminal may receive the indication via the PDCCH of its own cell through self-scheduling or may receive the indication via the PDCCH for the cell in the PCell through cross-carrier scheduling), or when the BWP hibernation timer is configured and expires [0334] FIG.1G).
Regarding claim 6, the modified HE teaches the method according to claim 5, wherein the second information is cross-carrier scheduling configuration information; and the sending, by the network side device to the terminal, the second information of the cell group serving the terminal comprises: sending, by the network side device to the terminal, third RRC signaling, wherein the third RRC signaling carries the cross-carrier scheduling configuration information (KIM: The third RRC message may include, second RRC message identifier having the same value as a second RRC message identifier, or maybe an indicator or an identifier indicating that the second RRC message is successfully received, or a response indicating the first RRC message generated and transmitted by the secondary base station is successfully received [0648-655] FIG.1J), and the cross-carrier scheduling configuration information comprises a scheduling cell information field, wherein when the scheduling cell information field is set to be scheduled by other cells, the cross-carrier scheduling configuration information indicates that the primary cell supports a resource in being self-scheduled and cross-carrier scheduled (KIM: the MAC CE, or the RRC message, or when the activated BWP of the currently activated cell is the normal BWP, or when the activated BWP of the currently activated cell is not the dormant BWP (when the indication is received through the L1 control signal of the PDCCH, the indication may be received through the PDCCH of its own cell through self-scheduling or the indication may be received through the PDCCH for the cell in the PCell through cross-carrier scheduling), the terminal may perform one or more of the following operations. [0357] It may be switched or activated to the indicated UL or DL BWP. Alternatively, the UL or DL BWP may be switched to the designated BWP (e.g., UL or DL first active BWP) and the BWP may be activated [0356-358] FIG.1I).
Regarding claim 7, the modified HE teaches the method according to claim 6, wherein when the scheduling cell information field is set to be scheduled by other cells, the cross-carrier scheduling configuration information further comprises: a scheduling cell carrier indicator field, wherein a value configured for the carrier indicator field is associated with the primary cell, or a value configured for the carrier indicator field is associated with another secondary cell that can be cross-carrier scheduled by the secondary cell (KIM: The DCI format may include a transmission resource type (resourceAllocation) field, a field for frequency transmission resource allocation (frequency domain resource assignment), a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) field, a new data indicator (NDI) field, a redundancy version (RV) field, an HARQ process number field, an antenna port field, or a DMRS sequence initialization (DMRS SI) field [0433-434] FIG.1L); and the method further comprises: sending, by the network side device, downlink control information to the terminal, wherein the downlink control information carries the carrier indicator field (KIM: the base station may transmit a DCI format to the terminal through a transmission resource of the PDCCH of the active period in the PCell or the SPCell, and the DCI format may include a bitmap 1l-04 including indication information for the dormant BWP about the third SCell groups configured in the terminal or bits indicating to suspend or resume the cell group (or SCG) or the PSCell (or SCell) of the cell group (or SCG). [0436-438] FIG.1K).
Regarding claims 8-14, the independent claim and each dependent claim are related to the same limitation set for hereinabove in claims 1-7, where the difference used is the limitations were presented from a method in the “terminal” side and the wordings of the claims were interchanged within the claim itself or some of the claims were presented as a combination of two or more previously presented limitations. This change does not affect the limitation of the above treated claims. Adding these phrases to the claims and interchanging the wording did not introduce new limitations to these claims. Therefore, these claims were rejected for similar reasons as stated above.
Regarding claims 15-19, the independent claim and each dependent claim are related to the same limitation set for hereinabove in claims 1-7, where the difference used is the limitations were presented in the “terminal” side with a processor and memory (HE: processor 1310 and memory 1320 [0213-216] FIG.13 ) and the wordings of the claims were interchanged within the claim itself or some of the claims were presented as a combination of two or more previously presented limitations. This change does not affect the limitation of the above treated claims. Adding these phrases to the claims and interchanging the wording did not introduce new limitations to these claims. Therefore, these claims were rejected for similar reasons as stated above.
Regarding claim 20, HE teaches the network side device, comprising: a memory storing a computer program; and a processor coupled to the memory and configured to execute the computer program to perform the method according to claim 1 (the terminal device 120 includes one or more processors 1310, one or more memories 1320 coupled to the processor 1310, and one or more communication modules 1340 coupled to the processor 1310 [0213-216] FIG.13).
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 extension fee 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 date of this final action.
When responding to this office action, Applicant is advised to clearly point out the patentable novelty which he or she thinks the claims present, in view of the state of the art disclosed by the references cited or the objections made. He or she must also show how the amendments avoid such references or objections See 37 CFR 1.111(c).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ABDELNABI O MUSA whose telephone number is (571)270-1901, and email address is abdelnabi.musa@uspto.gov ‘preferred’. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F 9:00 am - 5:00 pm.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Kevin Bates, can be reached on 571-2723980. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/ABDELNABI O MUSA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2472
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