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 Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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, 5, 9-10*************** are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Zhao et al (US 2021/0,068,061; hereinafter Zhao).
Regarding claim 1, 5, 9, and 10, Zhao disclose a method, an apparatus for a user equipment (UE), a user equipment (UE) (Fig. 10; terminal) in a wireless communication system, a non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing at least one computer program comprising instructions that, when executed by at least one processor the UE comprising:
at least one transceiver (1010); at least one processor (1000); and
at least one computer memory (1020) operably connectable to the at least one processor (1000) and storing instructions that, when executed, cause the at least one processor to perform operations (paras. [0232]-[0235]) comprising:
based on a power headroom report (PHR) triggering condition being met, determining power headroom information of the plurality of cells (the terminal determines that there is a PHR trigger, and when the PHR trigger condition is met, the terminal will trigger the PHR, when the terminal reports the PHR MAC CE to each base station, the PHR MAC CE includes PH information of all cells configured or activated for the terminal; paras. [0008], [0130]);
generating a PHR medium access control (MAC) control element (CE) including the power headroom information (PHR implements reporting using a Power Headroom MAC Control Element (PHR MAC CE), the terminal reports power headroom information to the network side; ¶ [0008]); and transmitting the PHR MAC CE to a network (the terminal reports power headroom information to the network side to assist the network side to perform uplink scheduling, the terminal reports the PHR MAC CE to each base station; paras. [0008], [0130]); wherein a first cell (e.g. a serving cell) of the plurality of cells is associated with a second cell (a primary serving cell (Pcell)) of the plurality of cells (all cells configured or activated for the terminal) (paras. [0018]-[0019]),
wherein, based on there being no transmission through the first cell (e.g. serving cell) when the power headroom information for the first cell is determined, the PHR MAC CE includes power headroom information for the second cell (e.g. the primary serving cell (Pcell)) and further includes a first logical channel identifier (LCID) indicating that the PHR MAC CE includes only the power headroom information for the second cell (when the target network side device is a secondary node (SN) of the terminal, the PHR MAC CE includes only the power headroom (PH) information of the second cell, e.g. a primary serving cell (Pcell) of the target network side in all cells configured or activated for the terminal, the PHR MAC CE includes only PH information of a cell, e.g. Pcell, that is identifiable, e.g. via a logical channel identifier (LCID), by the target network side device in all cells configured or activated for the terminal; paras. [0010], [0016]-[0019]; Fig. 2).
Regarding claim 2 and 6, Zhao disclose the method and UE of claim 1 and 5 respectively, wherein, based on there being a transmission through the first cell when the power headroom information for the first cell is determined, the PHR MAC CE includes power headroom information for the first cell and power headroom information for the second cell (in a multiple entry PHR MAC CE, PHR MAC CE includes PH information of multiple cells, e.g. for both the primary serving cell (Pcell) and the serving cell (Scell); paras. [0011], [0021], [0142]); Figs. 3, 4), and further includes a second LCID indicating that the PHR MAC CE includes the power headroom information for the first cell and the power headroom information for the second cell (for a multiple entry PHR MAC CE, using different logical channel identifiers (for the multiple entry PHR MAC CE, the MAC sub-header corresponding to the PHR MAC CE includes at least two LCIDs; paras. [0108], [0110]).
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 3 and 7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhao et al (US 2021/0,068,061; hereinafter Zhao) in view of Dinan (US 2018/0,279,234).
Regarding claim 3 and 7, Zhao disclose the method and UE of claim 1 and 5 respectively, wherein, Zhao do not disclose based on the PHR MAC CE including at least one of the power headroom information for the first cell and the power headroom information for the second cell, a power headroom information presence field associated with the first cell is set to 1. In the same field of endeavor, Dinan disclose based on the PHR MAC CE including at least one of the power headroom information for the first cell and the power headroom information for the second cell, a power headroom information presence field associated with the first cell is set to 1 (according to an embodiment, a bit in the presence field may indicate that one or more power headroom fields are present for a corresponding secondary cell when the bit is set to one; ¶ [0210], [0212]). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to do so in order to indicate that one or more power headroom fields are present for a corresponding secondary cell (Dinan, ¶ [0212]).
Claims 4 and 8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhao et al (US 2021/0,068,061) in view of Uchino et al (US 2022/0,210,852; hereinafter Uchino).
Regarding claim 4 and 8, Zhao disclose the method and UE of claim 1 and 5 respectively, wherein the first cell is a secondary serving cell (e.g. Scell), and the second cell is a primary serving cell (e.g. Pcell) associated with the first cell (Figs. 3, 4). Zhao do not disclose a non-serving cell associated with the first cell. In the same field of endeavor, Uchino disclose the second cell can be a non-serving cell associated with the first cell (¶ [0115]). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to do so in order to have another cell, e.g. neighboring cell associated with the serving cell, outside the set of serving cells activated for the mobile terminal be included in the power headroom report when the first cell is not activated for the terminal due to no transmission being detected through the first cell.
Conclusion
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/LANA N LE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2648
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