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 .
Drawings
Applicant has questioned the status of the drawings.
I. ACCEPTABILITY OF DRAWINGS
The Office no longer considers drawings as formal or informal. Drawings are either acceptable or unacceptable. Drawings will be accepted by the Office of Patent Application Processing (OPAP) if the drawings are readable and reproducible for publication purposes. See MPEP § 507.
Examiners should review the drawings for disclosure of the claimed invention and for proper use of reference numerals. Unless applicant is otherwise notified in an Office action, objections to the drawings in a utility or plant application will not be held in abeyance. A request to hold objections to the drawings in abeyance will not be considered a bona fide attempt to advance the application to final action (37 CFR 1.135(c) ). Drawing corrections should be made promptly before allowance of the application in order to avoid delays in issuance of the application as a patent or a reduction to any term adjustment. See 37 CFR 1.704(c)(10). [AltContent: rect]
II. NOTIFYING APPLICANT
If the original drawings are unacceptable, applicant will be notified and informed of what the objections are and that new corrected drawings are required. In either case, the drawings will be accepted as satisfying the requirements of 37 CFR 1.51. The examiners are directed to advise the applicants (see MPEP § 707.07(a)) in the first Office action of the reasons why the drawings are unacceptable. If the examiner discovers a defect in the content of the drawing, one or more of the form paragraphs reproduced below may be used to notify applicant.
Applicant is advised that current US practice dictates that drawings are accepted and can be considered acceptable upon receipt of first action on the merits by default, if not otherwise notified of any objection.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 6/10/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicant argues the method of claim 1 is patentable because of the possibilities that can be obtained by broadcasting a parameter.
The examiner considers claim 1 to be a method comprising the step of broadcasting data (a parameter). The ‘wherein’ clauses only limit the details of the parameter and intended uses of the parameter. However the claims scope does not extend past the single recited step of ‘broadcasting’ and does not include a step of configuring or using the parameter in any way. Reciting that the parameter “is configured to configure a first list…” is not the same as writing that the method actually includes a step of determining what and why should be included in the parameter and then an actual step of performing the configuration, or reciting a step of “configuring”. Instead, the recitation clearly indicates a single step (broadcasting) of the method and then a series of intended uses literally outside the scope of the claimed method.
The ‘wherein’ clauses fail to patently affect the recited method comprising the step of broadcasting, as claimed, but instead recite intended uses for the parameter once it is received.
Claim 10 recites a method comprising steps of “obtaining” a parameter and “determining” information associated with a PO according to the parameter. Reciting (in the wherein clauses) that the parameter “is configured to configure a first list…” and further details about the first list, are intended uses and nonfunctional descriptive limitations not affecting the recited steps of the claim. That is, the method recited in the claim can be performed in its entirety without regard to anything recited in the wherein clauses. Therefore the information recited in the wherein clauses does not carry patentable weight.
Other independent claims correspond to either claim 1 or claim 10 in scope.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claim(s) 1-2, 4-9 and 19-22 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Zhou et al. (2023/0403679) hereinafter “Zhou”.
As to claim 1, Zhou discloses A paging early indication (PEI) detection method, comprising:
broadcasting, by a network side device, a configuration parameter ([0301]: “…configuration parameters of a PEI occasion” / [0318]: “…configuration parameters… dedicated for the PEI”) related to a paging early indication occasion (PEI-O). See [0301]-[0318].
The language of “wherein the configuration parameter is configured to configure a first list corresponding to a paging early indication frame (PEI-frame), the PEI-frame comprises M PEI-Os, each PEI-O of the M PEI-Os comprises one or more paging early indication monitoring occasion (PEI-MOs), and the first list is used to configure relevant parameters of the M PEI-Os, wherein M is a positive integer; wherein the first list comprises M first parameters, and each first parameter of the first parameters is used to indicate a time-domain position of 1st PEI-MO of the PEI-O corresponding to the each first parameter, values of the first parameters are determined by a reference point, and the reference point comprises a starting point of the PEI-frame” has not been given patentable weight as it does not affect the steps of the claimed method nor structure of a claimed apparatus.
As to claim 2, (Currently Amended) The method according to claim 1, wherein the configuration parameter is further configured to configure at least one of following: a frequency-domain resource occupied by the PEI-MO set PEI-frame; the PEI-MO set PEI-frame comprising the M PEI-Os; indexes of the M PEI-Os; the PEI-MO set PEI-frame being associated with W paging occasions (POs), wherein W is a positive integer; indexes of the W POs; or an association relationship between the M PEI-Os and the W POs.
See [0130], [0274], [0279], [0311]-[0313], [0335], etc. It is noted that the BRI of the claim does not include intended uses and merely reciting the intended use of information fails to carry patentable weight. Thus the limitation “is used to configure…” has been treated for compact prosecution however carries no patentable weight. To instead carry weight as a step of the claim, the action of configuring should be recited as a step of the method.
As to claim 4, Zhou discloses The method according to claim 1, wherein the reference point comprises a first PO in at least one PO indicated by PEI-Os corresponding to the first parameters. See [0311]-[0313].
As to claim 5, Zhou discloses The method according to claim 2, wherein the association relationship between the M PEI-Os and the W POs meets: each of the M PEI-Os is used to indicate at least one of the W Pos; wherein the number of POs indicated by each of the M PEI-Os is same or different, and/or, one PO is only capable of being indicated by one PEI-O. See [0311]-[0313].
As to claim 6, Zhou discloses The method according to claim 2, wherein the W POs are all or part of POs comprised in at least one paging frame (PF). See [0311]-[0313].
As to claim 7, Zhou discloses The method according to claim 2, wherein in a case that an overlap exists between PEI-MOs respectively corresponding to at least two of the M PEI-Os, first downlink control information (DCI) transmitted on overlapping PEI-MOs comprises: PEI information corresponding to a PO indicated by a first PEI-O; wherein the first PEI-O comprises the at least two PEI-Os, and the first DCI is used to carry PEI. See [0311]-[0313].
As to claim 8, Zhou discloses The method according to claim 7, wherein the PEI information corresponding to the PO indicated by the first PEI-O is placed in the first DCI according to a first rule, and the first rule comprises at least one of following: an index value of the first PEI-O; an index value of the PO indicated by the first PEI-O; or an index value of a paging frame (PF) where the PO indicated by the first PEI-O is located. See [0274], [0311]-[0313].
As to claim 9 Zhou discloses The method according to claim 3, wherein the number of the PEI-Os comprised in the PEI-frame set is related to at least one of following: the number of the POs associated with the PEI-frame set; or the number of the first parameters comprised in the first list corresponding to the PEI-frame set. See [0301]-[0302].
As to claim 19, Zhou discloses A network side device (1504), comprising a processor, a memory, and a program or an instruction stored in the memory and executable on the processor (1508), wherein when the program or the instruction, when executed by the processor, causes the network side device to perform: broadcasting a configuration parameter related to a paging early indication occasion (PEI-O), as applied above to claim 1.
As to claim 20, Zhou discloses A non-transitory readable storage medium (1508), wherein the non-transitory readable storage medium stores a program or an instruction, and when the program or the instruction is executed by a processor, steps of the PEI detection method according to claim 1 are implemented. See above wrt claim 1.
As to claim 21, (New) Zhou discloses The network side device according to claim 19, wherein the configuration parameter is further configured to configure at least one of following: a time-domain resource occupied by the PEI-O; a frequency-domain resource occupied by the PEI-frame; the PEI-frame comprising the M PEI-Os; indexes of the M PEI-Os; the PEI-frame being associated with W paging occasions (POs), wherein W is a positive integer; indexes of the W POs; or an association relationship between the M PEI-Os and the W POs. See above wrt claim 2.
As to claim 22, (New) Zhou discloses The network side device according to claim 19, wherein the reference point further inherently comprises: a first PO in at least one PO indicated by PEI-Os corresponding to the first parameters.
Claim(s) 10-12 and 14-18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Ma et al. (2024/0430860) hereinafter “Ma”.
As to claim 10, A paging early indication (PEI) detection method, further comprising:
obtaining, by a terminal, a configuration parameter ([0096]: “indication information”), the configuration parameter being related to a paging early indication occasion (PEI-O), (see [0099] / Fig 2 step 101); and
determining, by the terminal, PEI-O information associated with a paging occasion (PO) corresponding to the terminal according to the configuration parameter ([0101]: “…the terminal determines, according to the indication, a specific PEI message in DCI detected on a PEI occasion”.
The language of wherein the configuration parameter is configured to configure a first list corresponding to a paging early indication frame (PEI-frame), the PEI-frame comprises M PEI-Os, each PEI-O of the M PEI-Os comprises one or more paging early indication monitoring occasion (PEI-MOs), and the first list is used to configure relevant parameters of the M PEI-Os, wherein M is a positive integer; wherein the first list comprises M first parameters, and each first parameter of the first parameters is used to indicate a time-domain position of 1st PEI-MO of the PEI-O corresponding to the each first parameter, values of the first parameters are determined by a reference point, and the reference point comprises a starting point of the PEI-frame has not been given patentable weight as it does not affect the steps of the claimed method nor structure of a claimed apparatus.
As to claim 11, Ma discloses The method according to claim 10, further comprising:
detecting, by the terminal, target PEI information (step 201), according to the PEI-O information and a second rule (step 203);
the second rule comprising at least one of following: an index value of the PO corresponding to the terminal; or an index value of a paging frame (PF) where the PO corresponding to the terminal is located;
wherein the target PEI information is PEI information corresponding to the PO corresponding to the terminal. Also See [0089], [0091]-[0092], [0104]-[0112] & [0085]: “…When one paging frame corresponds to a plurality of Pos, the terminal determines , according to a rule and a
parameter, that one of the plurality of Pos is a PO monitored by the terminal…”
As to claim 12, Ma discloses The method according to claim 10, wherein the configuration parameter is used to further configure at least one of following:
a time-domain resource occupied by the PEI-O [0080]; a frequency-domain resource occupied by the PEI-MO set [0081]-[0082]; the PEI-MO set comprising the M PEI-Os [0082]; indexes of the M PEI-Os [0089],[0091]; the PEI-MO set being associated with W POs, wherein W is a positive integer; indexes of the W POs; or an association relationship between the M PEI-Os and the W POs.
As to claim 14, The method according to claim 10, wherein the reference point comprises a first PO in at least one PO indicated by the PEI-Os corresponding to the first parameters. See [0091]
As to claim 15, Ma discloses The method according to claim 12, wherein the association relationship between the M PEI-Os and the W POs meets: each of the M PEI-Os is used to indicate at least one of the W POs; wherein the number of POs indicated by each of the M PEI-Os is same or different, and/or, one PO is only capable of being indicated by one PEI-O. See [0087]-[0089].
As to claim 16, Ma discloses The method according to claim 10, wherein the PEI-O information comprises at least one of following: the PEI-O; an index of the PEI-O; a PEI-frame set corresponding to the PEI-O; or a first parameter corresponding to the PEI-O. See [0087]-[0089], [0091].
As to claim 17, Ma inherently discloses The method according to claim 12, wherein in a case that an overlap exists between PEI-MOs respectively corresponding to at least two of the M PEI-Os, first downlink control information (DCI) received on overlapping PEI-MOs comprises: PEI information corresponding to a PO indicated by a first PEI-O; wherein the first PEI-O comprises the at least two PEI-Os, and the first DCI is used to carry PEI.
As to claim 18, Ma discloses A terminal (Fig 9), comprising a processor (601), a memory (602), and a program or an instruction stored in the memory and executable on the processor [0153], wherein when the program or the instruction is executed by the processor, steps of the PEI detection method according to claim 10 are implemented. See above wrt claim 10.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. 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 LESTER KINCAID whose telephone number is (571)272-7922. The examiner can normally be reached M-Th: 7-5.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Yuwen Pan can be reached at 571-272-7855. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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LESTER G. KINCAID
Primary Patent Examiner
Art Unit 2649
/LESTER G KINCAID/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2649
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