DETAILED ACTION
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 .
Claim Objections
Claim 1 is objected to because of the following informalities: on line 1, delete “(1500).” Appropriate correction is required.
Claim 12 objected to because of the following informalities: on lines 3 and 5, change “DRX on” to “DRX-on.” Appropriate correction is required.
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.
Claim 12 is 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 applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention. Claim 12 recites the limitation “and initiating the inactivity timer if the DRX on timer or the inactivity timer was running.” It is unclear as to how the inactivity timer can be initiated if the DRX on timer or an inactivity timer is determined to be running when determining that the inactivity timer is running implies that the inactivity timer is already initiated, thus contradicting said limitation of “initiating the inactivity timer if the DRX on timer or the inactivity timer was running.” Therefore, the claim is indefinite.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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 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)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1, 2, 5, 6, 8, 9, 13, 21, 22, and 25-28 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by He et al US 11,523,457 (hereinafter He).
Regarding claim 1, He discloses a method (1500) performed by a user equipment (UE) (UE, see figs. 5 and 8, col. 16, line 5) for supporting multiple discontinuous reception (DRX) cycle configurations (see figs. 6-8), the method comprising:
obtaining multiple DRX cycle configurations (810, 812, see fig. 8, col. 16, line 44 – col. 17, line 3); and
for each DRX cycle configuration, identifying a set of one or more flows associated with the DRX cycle configuration (PCell associated with a first DRX group, SCell associated with a second DRX group; PCell used for voice applications, SCell used for voice/data streaming and applications that prefer to use high bandwidth carriers, see col. 13, lines 1-15 and 41-65, col. 17, lines 1-6).
Regarding claim 2 as applied to claim 1, He further disclose combining the DRX cycle configurations for a DRX operation (see fig. 6, col. 14, lines 39-48).
Regarding claim 5 as applied to claim 1, He further discloses wherein obtaining the multiple DRX cycle configurations comprises obtaining a first DRX cycle configuration, and obtaining the first DRX cycle configuration comprises receiving from a network node one or more of the following parameters: drx-SlotOffset, Long DRX, drx-StartOffset, drx-onDurationTimer, and drx-InactivityTimer (see col. 12, lines 9-24).
Regarding claim 6 as applied to claim 5, He further discloses wherein the multiple DRX cycle configurations comprises a general drx-InactivityTimer to be applied to any DRX cycle configuration which is not explicitly configured with a specific value (see col. 12, lines 9-16).
Regarding claim 8 as applied to claim 1, He further discloses wherein the multiple DRX cycle configurations comprises a default DRX cycle configuration, the default DRX cycle configuration consists of a first set of DRX parameters (PCell DRX configuration, see col. 13, lines 1-6, col. 16, lines 20-30 and 63-65), the multiple DRX cycle configurations further comprises a non-default DRX cycle configuration consisting of a second set of DRX parameters (SCell DRX configuration, see col. 13, lines 1-6, col. 16, lines 20-30 and 63-65), and none of the DRX parameters included in the second set of DRX parameters are included in the first set of DRX parameters (see col. 16, lines 44-62).
Regarding claim 9 as applied to claim 1, He further discloses initiating multiple DRX timers in parallel (see fig. 7, col. 14, lines 18-42, col. 15, lines 13-29).
Regarding claim 13 as applied to claim 1, He further discloses wherein the set of one or more flows comprises a logical channel identified by a logical channel identifier, a data radio bearer, and/or a traffic flow (PCell associated with a first DRX group, SCell associated with a second DRX group; PCell used for voice applications, SCell used for voice/data streaming and applications that prefer to use high bandwidth carriers, see col. 13, lines 1-15 and 41-65, col. 17, lines 1-6).
Regarding claim 21, He discloses a user equipment (UE) (UE, see figs. 3, 5 and 8, col. 16, line 5) for supporting multiple DRX configurations (see fig. 8), the UE comprising:
processing circuitry (see fig. 3); and
a power source configured to supply power to the processing circuitry (see col. 2, lines 7-20, col. 21, lines 39-40), wherein the UE is configured to:
obtaining multiple DRX cycle configurations (810, 812, see fig. 8, col. 16, line 44 – col. 17, line 3); and
for each DRX cycle configuration, identifying a set of one or more flows associated with the DRX cycle configuration (PCell associated with a first DRX group, SCell associated with a second DRX group; PCell used for voice applications, SCell used for voice/data streaming and applications that prefer to use high bandwidth carriers, see col. 13, lines 1-15 and 41-65, col. 17, lines 1-6).
Regarding claim 22 as applied to claim 21, He further discloses to combine the DRX cycle configurations for DRX operation (see fig. 6, col. 14, lines 39-48).
Regarding claim 25 as applied to claim 21, He further discloses wherein obtaining the multiple DRX cycle configurations comprises obtaining a first DRX cycle configuration, and obtaining the first DRX cycle configuration comprises receiving from a network node one or more of the following parameters: drx-SlotOffset, Long DRX, drx-StartOffset, drx-onDurationTimer,and drx-InactivityTimer (see col. 12, lines 9-24).
Regarding claim 26 as applied to claim 21, He further discloses wherein the multiple DRX cycle configurations comprises a general drx-InactivityTimer to be applied to any DRX cycle configuration which is not explicitly configured with a specific value (see col. 12, lines 9-16).
Regarding claim 27 as applied to claim 21, He further discloses wherein the multiple DRX cycle configurations comprises a default DRX cycle configuration (PCell DRX configuration, see col. 13, lines 1-6, col. 16, lines 20-30 and 63-65).
Regarding claim 28 as applied 27 wherein the default DRX cycle configuration consists of a first set of DRX parameters (PCell DRX configuration, see col. 13, lines 1-6, col. 16, lines 20-30 and 63-65), the multiple DRX cycle configurations further comprises a non-default DRX cycle configuration consisting of a second set of DRX parameters (SCell DRX configuration, see col. 13, lines 1-6, col. 16, lines 20-30 and 63-65), and none of the DRX parameters included in the second set of DRX parameters are included in the first set of DRX parameters (see col. 16, lines 44-62).
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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 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 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 3 and 23 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over He et al US 11,523,457 (hereinafter He) in view of Kim et al US 20220225377 (hereinafter Kim).
Regarding claims 3 and 23 as applied to claims 1 and 21, He discloses the claimed invention except obtaining a legacy DRX cycle configuration that is not associated with any specific flow. In the same field of endeavor, Kim discloses a UE indicating preferredDRX-Purpose set to false as a legacy DRX configuration.
It would therefore have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Kim with He by obtaining a legacy DRX cycle configuration as taught by Kim for the benefit of enabling efficient data scheduling for multiple DRX cycle configurations based on an indicated preference by the UE (see [0204]-[0210]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4, 10, 11, and 24 objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Lin et al US 20230239793 discloses sidelink DRX configurations derived from QoS flow, SL radio bearer, or QoS profile.
Freda et al US 20230063472 discloses a method performed by a transmitting, TX, wireless/transmit receive unit, WTRU, to conduct discontinuous transmission on sidelink, SL, to a receiving, RX, WTRU, the method comprising: receiving a plurality of discontinuous reception, DRX, configurations from a network entity, each DRX configuration associated with a Quality of Service, QoS, flow, the plurality of DRX configurations associated with one or more RX WTRUs, each of the one or more RX WTRUs having an associated destination identifier, ID, periodicity, and active time duration of a SL DRX cycle.
Fu et al US 20240215107 discloses receiving the first configuration information sent by the network device through the terminal device. The first configuration information is used to indicate one DRX configuration or multiple DRX configurations. The Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) is monitored by the terminal device based on the one DRX configuration or the multiple DRX configurations. The first configuration information is used to indicate multiple DRX configurations, and parameters configured in different DRX configurations in the multiple DRX configurations are different.
Jeong et al US 20220030661 discloses RRC connection reconfiguration)/pre-configuration may include multiple default SL DRX cycles according to the QoS level and in the case the UE can select the most appropriate default SL DRX cycle according to the required QoS level for the L1/L2 destination id.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to OLUMIDE T AJIBADE AKONAI whose telephone number is (571)272-6496. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8AM-4PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, CHARLES N APPIAH can be reached at 571-272-7904. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/OLUMIDE AJIBADE AKONAI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3648