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
This office action is in response to the RCE and amendment filed on 05/08/2026.
Claims 1-5, 9-13 are currently pending.
Claims 6-8, 14-15 are canceled in the RCE amendment.
Claims 1-5, 9-13 are rejected.
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 allowance or after an Office action under Ex Parte Quayle, 25 USPQ 74, 453 O.G. 213 (Comm'r Pat. 1935). 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, prosecution in this application has been reopened pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 05/08/2026 has been entered.
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 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 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 1-4, 9-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Krzysztof Kordybach et al (US 20240040442 A1) in view of Ahmad Awada et al (US 20230422108 A1) & Mengjie Zhang et al (US 20230171652 A1).
For Claim 1, Kordybach discloses a method for controlling a master node (MN) in a wireless communication system (Kordybach teaches, in FIG. 8, a wireless communication system, comprising, a Master Node (MN), Source SN, Target SN and UE), the method comprising:
receiving, from a source secondary node (SN), a first message including a conditional primary secondary cell (PSCell) change (CPC) configuration indication and a list of at least one candidate PSCell (Kordybach teaches, in FIG. 8, step 802, a SN Change Required message is transmitted from the source SN 166 to the MN 164. The SN Change Required message comprises information about the maximum number of target PSCells that can be prepared);
transmitting, to a target SN, a second message as a result of receiving the first message, the second message including information on the list of the at least one candidate PSCell (Kordybach teaches, in FIG. 8, step 804, a SgNB Addition Request message is transmitted from the MN 164 to a target SN 166. The SgNB Addition Request message comprises information about the maximum number of target PSCells that can be prepared);
and receiving, from the target SN, a third message including a list of at least one target PSCell (Kordybach teaches, in FIG. 8, step 808, a SgNB Addition Response message is transmitted from the target SN 166 to the MN 164).
Kordybach teaches that The CPC configuration information can comprise one or more change execution conditions for one or more PSCells and one or more measurement configurations for configuring measurements for PSCell change (¶ 0136).
Kordybach fails to expressly teach that the first message further includes at least one execution condition associated with the at least one candidate PSCell.
However, Awada in analogous art discloses that the first message further includes at least one execution condition associated with the at least one candidate PSCell (Awada teaches, in FIG. 2, step 1, that source SN 230 initiates the process and provides MN 220 with the common measurement ID, i.e. CPC execution condition, for one or more prepared target PSCells).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the wireless communication system taught in Kordybach with the identifiers of the CPC execution condition taught in Awada. The motivation is so that the MN can generate the conditional reconfiguration message by providing a dedicated CPC execution condition, identified by the measurement ID, for each of the prepared target PSCells [Awada teaches, in ¶ 0027].
Kordybach & Awada fail to expressly teach a secondary cell group (SCG) cell (PSCell) change (CPC) configuration indication.
However, Zhang in analogous art discloses a secondary cell group (SCG) cell (PSCell) change (CPC) configuration indication (Zhang teaches, in ¶ 0162, that the MN 502 may send/transmit a X2 or Xn interface message (e.g., a SN addition request message) to the target SN 504 …The message may include the identification information of the PSCell to be added/modified (e.g., frequency, frequency and PCI and/or CGI), the updated SCG configuration, the updated measurement results).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the wireless communication system taught in Kordybach & Awada with the identification information of the selected candidate PSCell taught in Zhang, The motivation is to cause the wireless communication device to perform a CPAC procedure to the target SN when a candidate PSCell satisfies at least one of the one or more CPAC execution conditions [Zhang: ¶ 0005].
For Claim 2, Kordybach discloses a method, further comprising: transmitting, to a terminal, a fourth message including a conditional reconfiguration for the CPC, wherein the conditional reconfiguration for the CPC includes execution conditions associated with the at least one target PSCell, SCG configuration information associated with the at least one target PSCell, and a master cell group (MCG) (Kordybach teaches, in ¶ 0410, lines 2-3, that At block 810, a Conditional Reconfiguration message is transmitted from the MN 164 to the UE 204. The Conditional Reconfiguration message comprises RRC Reconfigurations of prepared target PSCells).
For Claim 3, Kordybach & Awada teach all of the claimed subject matter with the exception that the second message further includes measurement results.
However, Zhang in analogous art discloses that the second message further includes measurement results (Zhang teaches, in ¶ 0163, that the source SN 604 may send/transmit a message (e.g., SN change required message, CPAC modification request message, and/or other messages) to the MN 602 (810) …The message may include the measurement results related to the target SN 606, the source SCG configuration, the identification information of the PSCell to be modified (e.g., frequency, frequency and PCI, and/or CGI) and/or other information).
Zhang also teaches, in ¶ 0031, that the SN change required message may include an indication of the maximum number of candidate PSCells that can be configured by a target SN. In some embodiments, the indication of a maximum number of candidate PSCells may be included in an information element of the message.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the wireless communication system taught in Kordybach & Awada with the identification information of the selected candidate PSCell taught in Zhang, The motivation is to cause the wireless communication device to perform a CPAC procedure to the target SN when a candidate PSCell satisfies at least one of the one or more CPAC execution conditions [Zhang: ¶ 0005].
For Claim 4, Kordybach & Awada teach all of the claimed subject matter with the exception that the third message further includes SCG configuration information associated with the at least one target PSCell.
However, Zhang in analogous art discloses that the third message further includes SCG configuration information associated with the at least one target PSCell (Zhang teaches, in ¶ 0162, that the MN 502 may send/transmit a X2 or Xn interface message (e.g., a SN addition request message) to the target SN 504 …The message may include the identification information of the PSCell to be added/modified (e.g., frequency, frequency and PCI and/or CGI), the updated SCG configuration, the updated measurement results).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the wireless communication system taught in Kordybach & Awada with the identification information of the selected candidate PSCell taught in Zhang, The motivation is to cause the wireless communication device to perform a CPAC procedure to the target SN when a candidate PSCell satisfies at least one of the one or more CPAC execution conditions [Zhang: ¶ 0005].
For Claims 9-10, please refer to the rejection of Claims 1-2, above.
For Claims 11-12, please refer to the rejection of Claims 3-4, above.
Claims 5, 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Krzysztof Kordybach et al (US 20240040442 A1) in view of Mengjie Zhang et al (US 20230171652 A1) & Srinivasan Selvaganapathy et al (US 20230379771 A1).
For Claim 5, Kordybach discloses a method for controlling a target secondary node (SN) in a wireless communication system (Kordybach teaches, in FIG. 8, a wireless communication system, comprising, a Master Node (MN), Source SN, Target SN and UE), the method comprising:
receiving, from a master node (MN), a first message including information on a list of at least one candidate primary secondary cell group (SCG) cell (PSCell) and measurement results
(Kordybach teaches, in FIG. 8, step 804, a SgNB Addition Request message is transmitted from the MN 164 to a target SN 166. The SgNB Addition Request message comprises information about the maximum number of target PSCells that can be prepared).
Kordybach also teaches in FIG. 8, step 808, a SgNB Addition Response message is transmitted from the target SN 166 to the MN 164.
Kordybach fails to expressly teach deciding a list of at least one target PSCell based on the measurement results; and transmitting, to the MN, a second message including the SCG configuration information associated with the at least one target PSCell.
However, Zhang in analogous art discloses deciding a list of at least one target PSCell based on the measurement results (Zhang teaches, in ¶ 0090, lines 1-3, that the target SN may select/identify/specify the target PSCell. The target SN may utilize one or more measurement results related to the target SN to select the candidate PSCell).
Zhang also teaches, in ¶ 0031, that the SN change required message may include an indication of the maximum number of candidate PSCells that can be configured by a target SN. In some embodiments, the indication of a maximum number of candidate PSCells may be included in an information element of the message.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the wireless communication system taught in Kordybach & Awada with the identification information of the selected candidate PSCell taught in Zhang, The motivation is to cause the wireless communication device to perform a CPAC procedure to the target SN when a candidate PSCell satisfies at least one of the one or more CPAC execution conditions [Zhang: ¶ 0005].
Kordybach & Zhang fail to expressly teach a second message including the SCG configuration information associated with the at least one target PSCell.
However, Selvaganapathy in analogous art discloses deciding a list of at least one target PSCell based on the measurement results (Selvaganapathy teaches, in ¶ 0130, that The (target) SN replies with an acknowledgement such as an SgNB/SN Addition Request Acknowledge, as shown in operation 606. The acknowledgement may comprise reconfiguration message information indicative of a new configuration such as the target SCG configuration of SN2 114, comprising a target PSCell).
Selvaganapathy also teaches, in ¶ 0031, that the SN change required message may include an indication of the maximum number of candidate PSCells that can be configured by a target SN. In some embodiments, the indication of a maximum number of candidate PSCells may be included in an information element of the message.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the wireless communication system taught in Kordybach & Zhang with the SCG configuration taught in Selvaganapathy, The motivation is to improve the mobility robustness and fasten the execution of UE mobility between PSCells while maintaining the PCell [Selvaganapathy: ¶ 0143].
For Claim 13, please refer to the rejection of Claim 5, above.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure includes: PURKAYASTHA (US 20210352543 A1) is pertinent to wireless communication and to techniques and apparatuses for signaling aspects of a conditional primary secondary cell (PSCell) change procedure in multi-radio access technology (multi-RAT) dual connectivity (DC).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MOHAMED A KAMARA whose telephone number is (571)270-5629. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F 9AM-4PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, CHARLES C JIANG can be reached on (571) 270-7191. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/MOHAMED A KAMARA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2412
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