DETAILED ACTION
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on March 23, 2026 has been entered.
Claims 1-9 and 11-21 are pending.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1-9 and 11-21 have been considered but are moot in view of the new ground of rejection based on Applicant’s amended claims.
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.
Claims 1-9 and 11-21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kim et al. (US 2022/0014966)(“Kim”) in further view of Kim et al. (US 2021/0211956)(“Kim ‘956”).
As per claim 1, Kim teaches a wireless communication method, comprising:
performing a compression operation on a first data packet based on at least one compression protocol (see Fig. 1F, and ¶0133);
wherein the at least one compression protocol comprises an uplink data compression (UDC) protocol (see Fig. 1F, and ¶0135);
wherein the method further comprises:
receiving a UDC configuration (see ¶0132, “The base station transmits RRCConnectionSetup message so that the UE sets an RRC connection (1le-10). The message may include information indicating whether to use an uplink data compression method (UDC)...”).
However, Kim does not expressly teach wherein the UDC configuration meets:
the UDC configuration being configured not simultaneously with at least one of the following configurations: a dual active protocol stack (DAPS) configuration.
Nevertheless, in the same art of 5G communication technology, Kim ‘956 teaches, in a case of DAPS handover (see for example, ¶0221, read as a DAPs configuration), releasing a configuration tied to an uplink data compression (UDC) protocol (see ¶0234, read as a UDC configuration not configured simultaneously with DAPs).
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art, prior to the earliest effective filing date of the claimed invention, to suspend or release the UDC configuration during a DAPS handover. The obvious motivation for doing so would have been to support communication with a target base station during a DAPS handover.
As per claim 2, Kim further teaches wherein a service data adaptation protocol (SDAP) header in the first data packet is not compressed (see ¶0172); and/or,
when the first data packet is an SDAP control protocol data unit (PDU), the SDAP control PDU is not compressed. Id.
As per claim 3, Kim further teaches wherein the first data packet is a PDCP service data unit (SDU) (see ¶0010).
As per claim 4, Kim further teaches wherein the PDCP SDU comprises a SDAP control PDU, the SDAP control PDU is not compressed (see ¶00172).
As per claim 5, Kim further teaches wherein the UDC protocol is used to compress at least one of: … a payload (see Fig. 1f, ref. 1f-20) … or a remaining portion of the first data packet except a packet header (see Fig. 1f, ref. 1f-20); wherein a compressed packet of the first data packet comprises at least one of: a PDCP header (see Fig. 1F, ref. 1f-30) … a UDC header (see Fig. 1F, ref. 1f-25) or a data block (see Fig. 1F, ref. 1f-20).
As per claim 6, Kim further teaches, wherein performing the compression operation on the first data packet based on the at least one compression protocol, comprises: performing the compression operation on the first data packet based on the UDC protocol (see Fig. 1F, ref. 1f-20).
As per claim 7, Kim further teaches wherein performing the compression operation on the first data packet based on the UDC protocol, comprises:
when at least one of the following is met, performing the compression operation on the first data packet based on the UDC protocol:
UDC configuration being configured (see ¶0135, i.e., “when it set to use the UDC in the PDCP layer by the RRC message…”, read as a UDC configuration being configured by RRC messaging);
…
wherein a compressed packet of the first data packet comprises at least one of the following in sequence: a PDCP header (see Fig. 1F, ref. 1f-30)… a UDC header (see Fig. 1, ref. 1f-25), or a data block (see Fig. 1F, ref. 1f-30).
As per claim 8, Kim further teaches wherein the method further comprises:
wherein the UDC configuration meets at least one of:
…
the UDC configuration being carried in packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) configuration (see ¶0135, i.e., “when it is set to use the UDC in the PDCP layer…”, read as a PCDP configuration);
wherein the UDC configuration is configured when a PDCP reestablishment configuration is configured (see Fig 1E, which describes a re-establishing a connection with the UE/PDCP, see also ¶0147, wherein the RRCConnectionSetup message 1e-10, for re-establishing the connection, includes configuring UDC for each PDCP device, “PDCP-config”).
As per claim 9, Kim further teaches wherein performing the compression operation on the first data packet based on the at least one compression protocol, comprises:
performing the compression operation based on the UDC protocol (see Fig. 1F, ref. 1f-20), and generating a UDC packet (see Fig. 1F);
wherein the UDC packet comprises a UDC header (see Fig. 1, ref. 1F-25) and a UDC data block (see Fig. 1F, ref. 1f-20).
Claims 11-20 are rejected under the same rationale as claims 1-9 since they recite substantially identical subject matter. Any differences between the claims do not result in patentably distinct claims and all of the limitations are taught by the above cited art.
As per claim 21, Kim further teaches wherein the UDC protocol is used to compress at least one of: an Internet protocol (IP) header, a payload … (see Fig 1F, ref. 1f-15/1f-20);
wherein a compressed packet of the first data packet comprises at least one of: a PDCP header (Fig. 1F, ref. 1f-30) …, a UDC header (Fig. 1F, ref. 1f-25) or a data block (Fig. 1F, ref. 20).
Conclusion
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/BRENDAN Y HIGA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2441