DETAILED ACTION
Response received on 6/5/2026 has been entered and made of record.
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 status
Claims 1-2, 10, 15-16, and 32 are amended.
Claims 20-31 are cancelled.
Claims are pending for examination.
Response to arguments
Re: 35 U.S.C. § 112 rejection
In view of addition of expanded form before use of abbreviation, in clm.1, 35 U.S.C. § 112 rejection is withdrawn.
Re: 35 U.S.C. § 103 rejection.
Applicant’s response has been fully considered but is not persuasive.
Applicant argues: “The applied CATT NPL is directed to basic SCG activation and deactivation procedures. While CATT mentions that a UE can perform "relaxed measurement" (i.e., changing from a normal periodicity to a longer periodicity) when the SCG is deactivated, CATT is entirely silent regarding a link monitoring pattern that is dynamically activated in response to specific operational triggers-such as the expiry of a TA timer, detection of RLF/BF, or Ll/L2 signaling (DCI/MAC CE)-while the cell group is already in the deactivated state”.
Examiner’s response: Examiner respectfully disagrees. Ahn teaches the pattern in the deactivated state and proposal 1 of CATT teaches RLF as disclosed, “be reused to inform the NW of SCG RLF while in SCG deactivation”. Combination of Ahn and CATT teaches the change of pattern. Link monitoring pattern will be different, as disclosed by Ahn as aperiodic reporting, “the measurement result is transmitted upon receiving an event or request from the BS is referred to as 'aperiodic reporting'. For example, in the case of the aperiodic reporting, a request bit contained in uplink scheduling information received from the BS may be transmitted to the user equipment (UE) as necessary.” (Ahn: Col.5, ll. 24-29).
Applicant argues: “Ahn does not teach or suggest dynamically activating a specific link monitoring pattern based on real-time conditions (such as TA timer expiry, RLF/BF detection, or DCI/MAC CE signaling) while in a deactivated state. In Ahn, the measurement pattern is statically applied based on RRC configuration and does not transition states based on the dynamic, real-time operational triggers recited in the amended independent claims”.
Examiner’s response: Examiner respectfully disagrees. CATT, as disclosed above, RLF detection, as well as beam failure detection and recovery.
35 U.S.C. 103 rejection is not withdrawn.
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 1-19 and 32 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over R2-2101235, “Further Considerations on Efficient SCG Activation/Deactivation”, source CATT, 3GPP TSG-RAN WG2 Meeting #113 electronic, Online, Jan 25 – Feb 5, 2021, hereinafter “CATT”, in view of Ahn et al. (US 9,253,627 B2), hereinafter ‘Ahn”.
Claims 1, 15, and 32:
Regarding claim 1, CATT teaches, a method receiving, by a wireless device, (CATT: Title “Further Considerations on Efficient SCG Activation/Deactivation”), the method comprising:
a link monitoring configuration for measurements of a cell group (implied by following disclosures:
(§ 1) “MN-configured RRM measurement/reporting procedures do not depend on the SCG activation state (deactivated or activated)”;
(§ 1) “While the SCG is deactivated, PSCell mobility is supported. MN- and SN-configured measurements are supported for deactivated SCG”;
“5: When the SCG is in deactivated state, the UE sends MeasurementReport messages for measurement results of SN-configured measurements embedded in the E-UTRA (if the MCG is EUTRA) or in the NR (if the MCG is NR) ULInformationTransferMRDC message via SRB1”;
“6a: When the SCG is in deactivated state, the UE can receive an SCG RRCReconfiguration message embedded in an MCG RRC(Connection)Reconfiguration message on SRB1, like when the SCG is activated”.
CATT however fails to expressly teach but in the same field of endeavor, Ahn teaches,
wherein the link monitoring configuration includes (i) a first index of a first radio resource among a periodic radio resource set, and (ii) information on a first pattern for a deactivated state (Clm.1, “wherein, for a first downlink component carrier being in a deactivated state among the plurality of downlink component carriers, the channel measurement is carried out for a first available subframe set in a first periodic subframe pattern including the first available subframe set and an unavailable subframe set,”).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine disclosure by Ahn regarding measurement reporting and resource with that of cell group disclosed by CATT, to come up with the claimed invention motivated by handling the situation of activated and deactivated cells in a cell group.
CATT teaches, determining, by the wireless device, a state of the cell group among an activated state and the deactivated state ((§1, “SCG activation state (activated/deactivated) can be configured at PSCell addition/change, RRC resume or HO); and
performing, by the wireless device, link monitoring for the first radio resource (implied by disclosure regarding relax measurement, “It is important to balance the latency and power consumption for deactivated SCG. Relax measurement can be considered as a solution for the balance. The UE can change the RRM/CSI-RS/RLM measurement from the normal periodicity to longer periodicity i.e. relax measurement periodicity when the SCG is deactivated,”).
Regarding the claim element, with the first pattern based on the state of the cell group being the deactivated state, first pattern is disclosed above by Ahn and it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine disclosures by Ahn with CATT to come up with the claim motivated by handling the situation of activated and deactivated cells in a cell group, as discussed above .
CATT teaches, wherein the first pattern is activated based on a condition being met while the cell group is in the deactivated state, the condition comprising at least one of: (i) expiry of a Timing Advance (TA) timer, (ii) detection of a Radio Link Failure (RLF), (iii) detection of a Beam Failure (BF), or (iv) reception of a Downlink Control Information (DCI) or a Medium Access Control (MAC) Control Element (CE) indicating activation of the first pattern (CATT: “Proposal 1: UE should perform RLM while the SCG is deactivated. SCG failure reporting procedure can be reused to inform the NW of SCG RLF while in SCG deactivation.”).
Claim 15 is for a wireless device implementing method of claim 1. Claim is a change in category and is rejected based on rejection of claim 1. Existence of transceiver and memory in a device is implied.
Claim 32 is for a base station implementing method complementary to methods implemented by device of claim 15. Claim elements are discussed above in claim 1. Claim is rejected based on rejection of claims 1 and 15.
Claims 2 and 16:
Regarding claim 2, combination of CATT and Ahn teaches the method of claim 1 (discussed above).
The claim, wherein the link monitoring configuration includes (i) a second index of a second radio resource among the periodic radio resource set, and (ii) information on a second pattern for the deactivated state, is not expressly disclosed by CATT but taught by Ahn (Ahn: Clm.1, “wherein, for a second downlink component carrier being in the deactivated state among the plurality of downlink component carriers, the channel measurement is carried out for a second available subframe set in a second periodic subframe pattern including the second available subframe set and an unavailable subframe set,”).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine disclosure by Ahn with that of CATT and come up with the claimed invention for the purpose of link monitoring and measurement using two different sets of resources as per availability.
Claim 16 is for a wireless device implementing method of claim 2. Claim is a change in category and is rejected based on rejection of claim 2.
Claims 3 and 17:
Regarding claim 3, combination of CATT and Ahn teaches the method of claim 2 (discussed above).
The claim, wherein the second pattern is different from the first pattern, is not expressly taught by CATT but disclosed by Ahn (Clm.1 “the first and second periodic time patterns are configured to have different time offsets through a radio resource control (RRC) signaling so that the first and second available subframe sets are exclusive from each other in a time domain,”).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine disclosure by Ahn with that of CATT and come up with the claimed invention for the purpose of link monitoring and measurement using two different sets of resources as per availability.
Claim 17 is for a wireless device implementing method of claim 3. Claim is a change in category and is rejected based on rejection of claim 3.
Claims 4 and 18:
Regarding claim 4, combination of CATT and Ahn teaches the method of claim 1 (discussed above).
The claim, wherein the first pattern includes a time pattern, is not expressly taught by CATT but disclosed by Ahn (Clm.1 “the first and second periodic time patterns are configured to have different time offsets).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine disclosure by Ahn with that of CATT and come up with the claimed invention for the purpose of link monitoring and measurement using two different sets of resources as per availability at different times.
Claim 18 is for a wireless device implementing method of claim 4. Claim is a change in category and is rejected based on rejection of claim 4.
Claims 5 and 19:
Regarding claim 5, combination of CATT and Ahn teaches the method of claim 1 (discussed above), wherein the first pattern includes a frequency pattern (implied by disclosure in CATT, “performed measurements (e.g. all SN configured measurements or subset based on certain criteria, restrictions on inter-frequency/RAT)”; restrictions may dictate frequency pattern for measurement).
Claim 19 is for a wireless device implementing method of claim 5. Claim is a change in category and is rejected based on rejection of claim 5.
Regarding claim 6, combination of CATT and Ahn teaches the method of claim 1 (discussed above), wherein the first pattern includes both a time pattern and a frequency pattern (discussed above in claims 4 and 5; both conditions may apply).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine disclosure by Ahn with that of CATT and come up with the claimed invention for the purpose of link monitoring and measurement using two both the time and frequency patterns for proper resource utilization, as configured from the network.
Regarding claim 7, combination of CATT and Ahn teaches the method of claim 1 (discussed above), wherein the first pattern is applicable for the periodic radio resource set (implied by disclosure in Ahn Clm.1, “channel measurement is carried out for a first available subframe set in a first periodic subframe pattern”; available subframe sets include the resource).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine disclosure by Ahn with that of CATT and come up with the claimed invention for the purpose of link monitoring and measurement as discussed above in claim 1.
Regarding claim 8, combination of CATT and Ahn teaches the method of claim 1 (discussed above).
The claim, wherein the link monitoring configuration includes information on multiple radio resources, is not expressly taught by CATT but is disclosed by Ahn (Ahn: Col.7, lines 61-66, “the user equipment (UE) may receive information and establish the non-contiguous time duration (e.g., at least part of period/length/time offset of the time duration) during which DL channel monitoring is to be performed so as to measure RSRP, RSRQ, and the like of each non-anchor CC or all the allocated non-anchor CCs.”; multiple radio resource implied).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine disclosure by Ahn with that of CATT and come up with the claimed invention for the purpose of link monitoring and measurement using multiple resources as configured.
Regarding claim 9, combination of CATT and Ahn teaches the method of claim 1 (discussed above), wherein the link monitoring configuration further includes a purpose related to a first radio resource (CATT: “Proposal 1: UE should perform RLM while the SCG is deactivated. SCG failure reporting procedure can be reused to inform the NW of SCG RLF while in SCG deactivation.”).
Regarding claim 10, combination of CATT and Ahn teaches the method of claim 9 (discussed above), wherein the purpose includes at least one of
(i) RLF detection,
(ii) BF detection, and
(iii) both RLF detection and BF detection (CATT: “Proposal 1: UE should perform RLM while the SCG is deactivated. SCG failure reporting procedure can be reused to inform the NW of SCG RLF while in SCG deactivation.”).
Regarding claim 11, combination of CATT and Ahn teaches the method of claim 1 (discussed above), wherein the first radio resource includes a reference signal or a synchronization signal block (SSB) (implied by disclosure in CATT: Proposal 4, “It is important to balance the latency and power consumption for deactivated SCG. Relax measurement can be considered as a solution for the balance. The UE can change the RRM/CSI-RS/RLM measurement from the normal periodicity to longer periodicity i.e. relax measurement periodicity when the SCG is deactivated,”.
Regarding claim 12, combination of CATT and Ahn teaches the method of claim 1 (discussed above), wherein the cell group is a secondary cell group (SCG) or a master cell group (MCG) (implied by disclosure in CATT: § 1, item 6a, “When the SCG is in deactivated state, the UE can receive an SCG RRCReconfiguration message embedded in an MCG RRC(Connection)Reconfiguration message on SRB1, like when the SCG is activated”).
Regarding claim 13, combination of CATT and Ahn teaches the method of claim 1 (discussed above), wherein the method further comprises, receiving a radio resource control (RRC) reconfiguration including a deactivation command for the cell group (CATT: Proposal 6: Deactivation/activation SCG command should be sent by the MN to the UE considering the UE does not monitor the PDCCH of deactivated SCG. ).
Regarding claim 14, combination of CATT and Ahn teaches the method of claim 1 (discussed above).
The claim, wherein the wireless device is in communication with at least one of a user equipment, a network, or an autonomous vehicle other than the wireless device, is not expressly disclosed by CATT but taught by Ahn (Ahn: Fig.4 shows the wireless device is connected with a BS, which is part of the network).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine disclosure by Ahn with that of CATT and come up with the claimed invention for the purpose of link monitoring and measurement when user equipment is connected with the base station and needs to monitor the link.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
US 2017/0347270 A1 teaches activation and deactivation of secondary cell groups; and
US 20240049017 A1 teaches methods of performing radio link monitoring.
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
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/INTEKHAAB A SIDDIQUEE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2462
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