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
Claim Rejection - 35 USC § 102
1. The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
1a. Claims 26, 28-29, 31-34, 36-38, 40 and 42-45 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Babaei (US 20250310815 A1).
1b. Summary of the Cited Prior Art
Babaei discloses a method for multicast and broadcast services in communication system.
1c. Claim Analysis
Regarding Claim 26, Babaei discloses:
An apparatus (Fig 15) for a receiver device, comprising at least one processor (Fig 15, Processor 1540) and at least one memory (Fig 15, Memory 1530) including a computer program code (Fig 15, Code 1535), the at least one memory and computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to:
monitor a control channel (Fig 16, SIB or RRC Messages) configured for carrying information indicating transmission types (Fig 16, MBS service identifiers; see: [0119] … one or more first RNTIs that identify transmissions of the Multicast/Broadcast control channel; one or more second RNTIs that identify transmissions of a Multicast/Broadcast data channels) of point-to-multipoint services (Fig 16, MBS service identifier; Examiner’s Note: MBS, Multicast Broadcast Service is point-to-multipoint service),
detect, based on said monitoring (Fig 16, SIB or RRC Messages), a point-to-multipoint service of interest (Fig 16, MBS interest indication), further detect, based on said monitoring (Fig 16, SIB or RRC Messages), an indication of a transmission type (Fig 16, MBS service identifiers) associated with the point-to-multipoint service of interest, and in response send a request (Fig 18, MBS Configuration Request; see: [0175] …. the UE may transmit an MBS configuration request and/or an MBS interest indication message) for a configuration enabling reception of the indicated transmission type (Fig 16, MBS service identifiers; see: [0051] NR sidelink communication may support one of three types of transmission modes (e.g., Unicast transmission, Groupcast transmission, and Broadcast transmission)) of the point-to-multipoint service of interest on a point-to-multipoint traffic channel (Fig 16, MCCH: MTCH Scheduling; see: [0210] … The Multicast/Broadcast control channel may be a point-to-multipoint downlink channel used for transmitting MBS control information from the network to the UE, for one or several Multicast/Broadcast data channel);
and in the absence of said further detecting (Fig 16, MBS Interest Indication; see: [0121] … The UE may transmit a message (e.g., an MBS interest indication message) message to inform RAN that the UE is receiving/interested to receive or no longer receiving/interested to receive MBS service(s)), refrain from sending the request for the configuration for reception of the transmission type of the point-to-multipoint service (Examiner’s Note: UE may no longer receiving/interested to receive MBS service, implies no request for the configuration for MBS is sent).
Regarding Claim 28, Babaei discloses:
wherein the control channel comprises a multicast control channel (Fig 18, MCCH) and the point-to-multipoint traffic channel comprises a multicast traffic channel (Fig 18, MTCH), (see: [0117] … One or more Multicast/Broadcast control channels (e.g., MCCHs) and one or more Multicast/Broadcast data channels (e.g., MTCHs) may be mapped on DL-SCH).
Regarding Claim 29, Babaei discloses:
configured to receive the requested configuration (Fig 18, MBS Configuration) in a system information block (Fig 16, SIB or RRC messages; see: [0127] In an example, a system information block (SIB) may contain the information required to acquire the control information associated transmission of MBS).
Regarding Claim 31, Babaei discloses:
wherein the at least one processor (Fig 15, Processor 1540) and at the least one memory (Fig 15, Memory 1530) including a computer program code (Fig 15, Code 1535), are further configured to signal information indicating (see: [0105] … the base station may determine a Transmission Configuration Indication (TCI) state and may indicate the TCI state to the UE) which configuration of a multiple of possible configurations is to be used by the receiving devices (see: [0106] … the UE may be configured with a list of up to M TCI-State configurations; Examiner’s Note: TCI is the configuration indicator to be used in UE).
Regarding Claim 32, Babaei discloses:
wherein the at least one receiver device monitoring (Fig 16, SIB or RRC Messages) the control channel (Fig 18, MCCH) is in a radio resource control idle or inactive state (Fig 19, Idle/Inactive UEs; see: [0171] In some examples, MBS data may be delivered to the UEs in both RRC connected state and RRC idle or RRC inactive state).
Regarding Claim 33, Babaei discloses:
wherein the at least one processor (Fig 15, Processor 1540) and at the least one memory (Fig 15, Memory 1530) including a computer program code (Fig 15, Code 1535), are further configured to signal the configuration on a broadcast channel (Fig 18, MBS Configuration, MCCH Configuration IE; see: [0064] … The Broadcast Control Channel (BCCH) is a downlink channel for broadcasting system control information).
Regarding Claims 34 and 36-38, the receiving claims disclose similar features as of Claims 26, 29 and 31-33, and are rejected accordingly.
Regarding Claims 40 and 42-45, the transmitting claims disclose similar features as of Claims 26, 28-29, 31 and 33, and are rejected accordingly. Further, Claims 40 and 42-45 disclose the same operations of Claims 26, 28-29, 31 and 33, but are performed by a transmitter.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
2. 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.
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.
2a. Claims 27, 30, 35, 39 and 41 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Babaei (US 20250310815 A1) in view of Liu (US 20210136532 A1).
2b. Summary of the Cited Prior Art
Babaei discloses a method for multicast and broadcast services in communication system.
Liu discloses a metho for multicast and broadcast service based on TRS.
2c. Claim Analysis
Regarding Claim 27, Babaei does not discloses tracking reference signal.
However, Liu discloses tracking reference signal:
wherein the point-to-multipoint service comprises a multicast and/or broadcast service (Fig 8, MBSFN Transmission 844), and the indication of the transmission type (Fig 8, TRS Configuration 812) comprises an indication of a tracking reference signal (Fig 8, P-TRS/SP-TRS 832; see: [0091] The base station 804 may transmit a TRS 832 to the UE 802. The TRS 832 may be a periodic TRS or a semi-persistent TRS in an active state) for the multicast and/or broadcast service (Fig 8, MBSFN Transmission 844; see: [0092] The UE 802 may, as illustrated at 842, perform time or frequency synchronization or tracking for the MBSFN transmissions such as MBSFN transmission 844 based on the TRS).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to integrate Babaei’s method for multicast and broadcast services in communication system with Liu’s metho for multicast and broadcast service based on TRS with the motivation being to provide multicast/broadcast services with TRS (Liu, Abstract).
Regarding Claim 30, Babaei does not discloses tracking reference signal.
However, Liu discloses tracking reference signal:
wherein the configuration is a tracking reference signal configuration (Fig 8, P-TRS/SP-TRS 832; see: [0091] The base station 804 may transmit a TRS 832 to the UE 802. The TRS 832 may be a periodic TRS or a semi-persistent TRS in an active state) for a multicast broadcast service (Fig 8, MBSFN Transmission 844).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to integrate Babaei’s method for multicast and broadcast services in communication system with Liu’s metho for multicast and broadcast service based on TRS with the motivation being to provide multicast/broadcast services with TRS (Liu, Abstract).
Regarding Claims 35 and 39, the receiving claims disclose similar features as of Claims (27+28) and 33, and are rejected accordingly.
Regarding Claim 41, the transmitting claim discloses similar features as of Claim 27, and is rejected accordingly. Further, Claim 41 disclose the same operations of Claim 27, is are performed by a transmitter.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Jung-Jen Liu whose telephone number is 571-270-7643. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday to Friday, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Kwang B. Yao can be reached on 571-272-3182. 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.
/JUNG LIU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2473