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
Claims 21-40 received on 6/27/2024 have been examined, of which claims 21, 31 and 40 are independent.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claim 40 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter.
Although claim 40 recites the term “computer readable storage medium”, the specification does not limit the invention to only statutory embodiment of the term. Specifically, an ordinary artisan would readably recognize that the broad term “computer readable media” could be interpreted as a wave or a signal, for example. The specification at para 183 and 186 describe examples of the medium, but are not limited to non-transitory.
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.
Claims 21-40 are 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 pre-AIA the applicant regards as the invention.
Claim 21 recites “the first information” in third, fourth and fifth limitations, which is preceded by multiple recitations of “a first information” (in second and third limitation). It is unclear, which recitation is further limited. The examiner suggests to amend second and subsequent limitations of “first information” to “the first information”.
Similarly, “the HARQ process” is preceded by multiple “a HARQ process”, which raises clarity issue.
Further, it is unclear if the limitations defining first information “the first information is information indicating successful transmission of an initial transmission phase of CG-SDT with a CCCH message” is same or different information in second, third, fourth and fifth limitations.
The metes and bounds of the term “first timer”, “second timer” and “third timer” are unclear. The claim does not define if the timers are similar or different or the significance of configured timer if timer is not running.
Claims 31 and 40 are rejected for same reasons. Dependent claims 22-30, 32-39 are rejected for same reasons.
Claim 22, 32 recite “the second timer”, which is preceded by two recitations of “a second timer”, which makes it unclear which recitation is further limited. Dependent claims are rejected for same reasons.
Claim 23, 33 recite “the initial transmission phase”, which is preceded by multiple recitations of “an initial transmission phase”, which makes it unclear which recitation is further limited. Dependent claims are rejected for same reasons.
Claim 27 recites “the first timer”, which is preceded by two recitations of “a first timer” in claim 21. It makes it unclear which recitation is further limited.
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.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied 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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims, the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 21-22, 24-32, 34-40 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Alfarhan et al. (WO 2021207317)
Regarding claim 21, Alfarhan teaches a communication method (fig 9, procedure implemented by a WTRU using a SDT resource to determine whether or not to transition to connected mode), wherein the method comprises:
sending third information to entity (step 960: sending a request to resume or re-establish a RRC connection to a RAN; para 258: the request to resume the RRC connection may include the information indicating the l-RNTI) when a first condition is met (para 259: at 950, the WTRU 102 may determine whether or not the transmission of the at least the portion of the UL SDT data has been successfully received), wherein the third information indicates a fifth resource (SDT resource in step 940, RRC connection in step 960, fig 9; para 259: the SDT resource may, for example, be any of an UL grant provided in Msg2, a Msg3 PUSCH resource, an UL grant provided in Msg4, a MsgA PUSCH resource, an UL grant provided in MsgB, a CFRA resource, or a CG resource), the fifth resource is used for sending second data, the second data is small data (para 259: the WTRU 102 may, after receiving the information indicating the l-RNTI, transmit at least a portion of UL SDT data present in a buffer of the WTRU using a SDT resource from among the SDT resources), and the first condition comprises:
first information is received, wherein the first information is information indicating successful transmission of an initial transmission phase of configured grant small data transfer (CG-SDT) with a common control channel (CCCH) message (para 225: conditions for successful small data transfer may include reception of Msg4, possibly with l-RNTI or RNTI provided in MsgA or Msg3; step 950-960: the WTRU 102 may determine whether or not the transmission of the at least the portion of the UL SDT data has been successfully received. On condition that the transmission of the at least the portion of the UL SDT data is determined not to have been successfully received for a configured or predetermined amount of time from the transmission of the at least the portion of the UL SDT data, the WTRU 102 may send a request to resume or reestablish a RRC connection to a RAN at 960).
Alfarhan teaches small data transmission and retransmission based on feedback. The reference does not teach a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) entity. However, the reference teaches WTRU and base station communicating the configurations including HARQ process ID and HARQ-ACK, which would be obvious to be considered as HARQ entity. 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 small data transmission as taught by Alfarhan with base station for HARQ process and acknowledgement related to small data transmission as taught by Alfarhan for the benefit of resource-efficient transmission as taught by Alfarhan in para 272.
Regarding claim 31, Alfarhan teaches a communication apparatus (WTRU, fig 1b), comprising:
at least one memory configured to store instructions (memory 130 and 132, fig 1b); and
at least one processor (processor 118, fig 1b) coupled to the at least one memory (fig 1b), wherein the at least one processor execute the instructions to cause the communication apparatus (para 284: a non-transitory computer readable medium may store instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform at least part of the methods for resource- efficient transmission) to:
send third information to entity (step 960: sending a request to resume or re-establish a RRC connection to a RAN; para 258: the request to resume the RRC connection may include the information indicating the l-RNTI) when a first condition is met (para 259: at 950, the WTRU 102 may determine whether or not the transmission of the at least the portion of the UL SDT data has been successfully received), wherein the third information indicates a fifth resource (SDT resource in step 940, RRC connection in step 960, fig 9; para 259: the SDT resource may, for example, be any of an UL grant provided in Msg2, a Msg3 PUSCH resource, an UL grant provided in Msg4, a MsgA PUSCH resource, an UL grant provided in MsgB, a CFRA resource, or a CG resource), the fifth resource is used for sending second data, the second data is small data (para 259: the WTRU 102 may, after receiving the information indicating the l-RNTI, transmit at least a portion of UL SDT data present in a buffer of the WTRU using a SDT resource from among the SDT resources), and the first condition comprises:
first information is received, wherein the first information is information indicating successful transmission of an initial transmission phase of configured grant small data transfer (CG-SDT) with a common control channel (CCCH) message (para 225: conditions for successful small data transfer may include reception of Msg4, possibly with l-RNTI or RNTI provided in MsgA or Msg3; step 950-960: the WTRU 102 may determine whether or not the transmission of the at least the portion of the UL SDT data has been successfully received. On condition that the transmission of the at least the portion of the UL SDT data is determined not to have been successfully received for a configured or predetermined amount of time from the transmission of the at least the portion of the UL SDT data, the WTRU 102 may send a request to resume or reestablish a RRC connection to a RAN at 960).
Alfarhan teaches small data transmission and retransmission based on feedback. The reference does not teach a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) entity. However, the reference teaches WTRU and base station communicating the configurations including HARQ process ID and HARQ-ACK, which would be obvious to be considered as HARQ entity. 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 small data transmission as taught by Alfarhan with base station for HARQ process and acknowledgement related to small data transmission as taught by Alfarhan for the benefit of resource-efficient transmission as taught by Alfarhan in para 272.
Regarding claim 40, Alfarhan teaches a computer-readable storage medium (para 284: a non-transitory computer readable medium), wherein the computer-readable storage medium is configured to store a computer program, and when the computer program is run on a communication apparatus, the communication apparatus is enabled (para 284: a non-transitory computer readable medium may store instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform at least part of the methods for resource- efficient transmission as described) to perform:
sending third information to entity (step 960: sending a request to resume or re-establish a RRC connection to a RAN; para 258: the request to resume the RRC connection may include the information indicating the l-RNTI) when a first condition is met (para 259: at 950, the WTRU 102 may determine whether or not the transmission of the at least the portion of the UL SDT data has been successfully received), wherein the third information indicates a fifth resource (SDT resource in step 940, RRC connection in step 960, fig 9; para 259: the SDT resource may, for example, be any of an UL grant provided in Msg2, a Msg3 PUSCH resource, an UL grant provided in Msg4, a MsgA PUSCH resource, an UL grant provided in MsgB, a CFRA resource, or a CG resource), the fifth resource is used for sending second data, and the second data is small data (para 259: the WTRU 102 may, after receiving the information indicating the l-RNTI, transmit at least a portion of UL SDT data present in a buffer of the WTRU using a SDT resource from among the SDT resources), and the first condition comprises:
first information is received, wherein the first information is information indicating successful transmission of an initial transmission phase of configured grant small data transfer (CG-SDT) with a common control channel (CCCH) message (para 225: conditions for successful small data transfer may include reception of Msg4, possibly with l-RNTI or RNTI provided in MsgA or Msg3; step 950-960: the WTRU 102 may determine whether or not the transmission of the at least the portion of the UL SDT data has been successfully received. On condition that the transmission of the at least the portion of the UL SDT data is determined not to have been successfully received for a configured or predetermined amount of time from the transmission of the at least the portion of the UL SDT data, the WTRU 102 may send a request to resume or reestablish a RRC connection to a RAN at 960).
Alfarhan teaches small data transmission and retransmission based on feedback. The reference does not teach a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) entity. However, the reference teaches WTRU and base station communicating the configurations including HARQ process ID and HARQ-ACK, which would be obvious to be considered as HARQ entity. 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 small data transmission as taught by Alfarhan with base station for HARQ process and acknowledgement related to small data transmission as taught by Alfarhan for the benefit of resource-efficient transmission as taught by Alfarhan in para 272.
Regarding claim 22 and 32, Alfarhan further teaches wherein subsequent new transmission is performed based on the fifth resource, wherein the first condition comprises: the first information is received (para 197: the WTRU may receive a small data response (SDR) during the CG response window, the SDR may include one or more types of information, the SDR may include an uplink grant for a retransmission or a subsequent transmission, the WTRU may receive a dynamic UL grant for the same HARQ process ID for retransmitting the small data TB, the WTRU may receive an UL grant with a different HARQ PID or the same HARQ PID with a new data indicator (NDI) toggled for the purpose of transmitting subsequent or further small data, the WTRU may monitor the PDCCH, possibly for a duration matching the configured window, after transmission or retransmission of small data on a grant provided for retransmission of small data or transmission of subsequent small data).
Regarding claim 24 and 34, Alfarhan further teaches
sending the first data and the CCCH message to an access network device in the initial transmission phase, wherein the first data is a small data (para 259: the WTRU 102 may, after receiving the information indicating the l-RNTI, transmit at least a portion of UL SDT data present in a buffer of the WTRU using a SDT resource from among the SDT resources); and
performing a subsequent transmission phase to the initial transmission phase after the first information is received (para 197: the WTRU may receive a small data response (SDR) during the CG response window, the SDR may include an uplink grant for a retransmission or a subsequent transmission, the WTRU may monitor the PDCCH, possibly for a duration matching the configured window, after transmission or retransmission of small data on a grant provided for retransmission of small data or transmission of subsequent small data).
Regarding claim 25 and 35, Alfarhan further teaches wherein subsequent new transmission is based on the fifth resource, and an NDI bit for the HARQ process corresponding to the fifth resource has been toggled (para 197: the WTRU may receive an UL grant with a different HARQ PID or the same HARQ PID with a new data indicator (NDI) toggled for the purpose of transmitting subsequent or further small data).
Regarding claim 26 and 36, Alfarhan further teaches
sending the first data to an access network device on a first resource, and starting the third timer, wherein the first resource is a preconfigured resource (para 225: the WTRU may start the timer (e.g., only) for the first transmission attempt for a small data packet and/or without consideration to retransmissions and/or subsequent transmissions/segments); and
in response to the first information being received before the third timer expires, stopping the third timer (para 225: the WTRU may stop the timer upon determining a ACK is received).
Regarding claim 27, Alfarhan further teaches wherein the first timer is the third timer that corresponds to a first HARQ process (para 226: the timer can be maintained per MAC entity, per DRB, or per HARQ process), and the first data is sent based on the first HARQ process (para 187: the WTRU may select the HARQ process ID associated with data transmission, e.g. from a pool of configured HARQ process IDs. The WTRU may indicate the selected HARQ process ID associated with small data transmission part of the PUSCH transmission).
Regarding claim 28, Alfarhan further teaches in response to the first timer expiring, retransmitting the first data on a third resource (para 163: The WTRU may start a timer after transmission of uplink data on a conditional/contention-free resource, upon expiry of the timer, the WTRU may attempt to retransmit small data on contention-based resources; para 225-226), wherein the third resource is a preconfigured resource, and the third resource corresponds to the first HARQ process (para 198: the WTRU may also determine a HARQ-ACK value based on the expiry of a timer, such as the CG response window or the CG timer, if configured, the WTRU may determine ACK if the CG response window has expired and the WTRU has not received a subsequent UL grant for the same HARQ process ID).
Regarding claim 29 and 37, Alfarhan further teaches wherein a resource is scheduled based on the first information (para 203: the SDR (small data response) may provide an indication to retransmit a different CG resource, possibly after backoff, or the SDR may provide an indication to retransmit the payload on the same CG resource but with a preamble).
Regarding claim 30 and 38, Alfarhan further teaches the third information indicates HARQ information associated with the fifth resource (para 220: the WTRU may include an acknowledgment (e.g., HARQ-ACK) for a previously received TB, a WTRU may include a HARQ process ID associated with or used to store the small data TB), wherein the HARQ information associated with the fifth resource is used for sending the second data (para 279: receiving a configuration with a set of Hybrid Acknowledgment Repeat Request (HARQ) processes, and determining to use at least one of the HARQ processes for the small data transmission).
Regarding claim 39, Alfarhan further teaches wherein the apparatus comprises a terminal device (WTRU 102, fig 1b) or a chip in a terminal device (processor 118 in WTRU 102, fig 1b).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 23 and 33 would be allowable if rewritten to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action and to include all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to RINA C PANCHOLI whose telephone number is (571)272-2679. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 7:30am-4pm.
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/RINA C PANCHOLI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2477 6/27/2026
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