DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA . This action is in response to the communication filed on 8/26/2026. Claims 1-14, 45-50 are pending.
Examiner Note
The examiner is here to serve, to assist, and to help applicant to the very best of his ability. The Primary Patent Examiner position is a position of serving and it is an honor to externally serve the applicant and attorney and to internally serve junior examiners and supervisors. The goal of the examiner is to work with and assist applicant to move cases along as efficiently as possible.
Applicant is encouraged to call examiner to schedule an interview if applicant has any questions about this action, wants to discuss any possible paths forward, has proposed amendments to the claims to run by the examiner, or for any other issues that applicant would like to discuss.
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Priority
This application claims priority of 63/270,324, filed 10/21/2021. The assignee of record is GOOGLE LLC. The listed inventor(s) is/are: Wu, Chih-Hsiang.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement(s) (IDS) submitted on 7/27/2026 is/are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the IDS(s) is/are being considered by the examiner.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-8, 12-13, & 47-50 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 provided that all other rejections under 35 USC 101/112 (if any) are obviated upon upcoming amendments/arguments without raising new issues that necessitate further consideration/search.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments filed 8/26/2026 have been considered but are moot because the arguments do not apply to any of the references being used in the current rejection.
Response to Amendment
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.
Claim(s) 1-2, 9-11, 14, & 45-46 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xu (EP 3796745 A1, published 3/24/2021; hereinafter EP5) in view of Park (EP 3534651 A1, published 9/4/2019; hereinafter EP1), and further in view of Zhang et al. (US 20150201354 A1, published 7/16/2015; hereinafter Zha).
For Claim 1, EP5 teaches a method, performed by a distributed unit (DU) of a distributed base station, for configuring a radio bearer, the method comprising: receiving, from a central unit (CU) of the distributed base station, a request to configure radio resources for a radio bearer (EP5 ¶ 0045 The present disclosure further provides a method for performing access for a UE, including: receiving, by a DU, an RRC connection request message from the UE; sending, by the DU, an initial UE message transfer message to a CU through a user plane tunnel or control plane between the DU and the CU; receiving, by the DU, a radio bearer configuration request message from the CU; configuring, by the DU, a resource according to the received radio bearer configuration request message, and sending a radio bearer configuration response message to the CU; receiving, by the DU, a downlink RRC transfer message from the CU; forwarding, by the DU, a received RRC connection establishment message to the UE; receiving, by the DU, an RRC connection establishment completion message from the UE; and sending, by the DU, the received RRC connection establishment completion message to the CU through a control plane or a user plane).
EP5 does not explicitly teach based on one or more factors associated with the radio bearer, either including or refraining from including in a response one or more configuration parameters for the radio bearer; and transmitting the response to the CU.
However, EP1 teaches based on one or more factors associated with the radio bearer, either including or refraining from including in a response one or more configuration parameters for the radio bearer (EP1 ¶ 0159 The base station DU 1602 and/or the base station CU 1603 may send (e.g., transmit, forward, etc.) at least one system information block comprising one or more radio resource configuration parameters. The at least one system information blocks may comprise at least one of the system information block type 1 to 21. The base station DU 1602 and/or the base station CU 1603 may send (e.g., transmit, forward, etc.) at least one cell configuration parameter for one or more wireless devices (e.g., via MAC CE, DCI, and/or an RRC message). The one or more wireless devices may comprise the wireless device 1601. The base station DU 1602 may send (e.g., transmit, forward, etc.) a second message 1612 (e.g., at least one system information blocks comprising one or more radio resource configuration parameters) to the base station CU 1603. The second message 1612 may comprise configuration parameters (e.g., one or more radio resource configuration parameters). The base station CU 1603 may send (e.g., transmit, forward, etc.), to the base station DU 1602, a second RRC message 1613-A. The second RRC message 1613-A may comprise the configuration parameters. The configuration parameters may be for the wireless device 1601. The base station DU 1602 may send (e.g., transmit, forward, etc.), to the wireless device 1601, a second RRC message 1613-B. The second RRC message 1613-B may comprise at least some of the same information as the second RRC message 1613-A. The second RRC message 1613-B may comprise the configuration parameters (e.g., configuration parameters for the wireless device 1601)); and transmitting the response to the CU (EP1 ¶ 0159).
EP1 and EP5 are analogous art because they are both related to RRC.
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to use the RRC messaging techniques of EP1 with the system of EP5 to improve wireless communications without adversely increasing signaling overhead and/or decreasing spectral efficiency (EP1 ¶ 0002).
EP5-EP1 does not explicitly teach determining one of more factors associated with the radio bearer and based on the determining of the one or more factors associated with the radio bearer, either including or refraining from including in a response.
However, Zha teaches determining one of more factors associated with the radio bearer and based on the determining of the one or more factors associated with the radio bearer, either including or refraining from including in a response (Zha Claim 1 in response to determining that the signaling radio bearer transmission connection is interrupted, receiving signaling radio bearer configuration parameters sent by the macro base station, wherein the signaling radio bearer configuration parameters comprise a signaling radio bearer (SRB) identification, a radio link control layer configuration, and a logic channel configuration).
Zha and EP5-EP1 are analogous art because they are both related to RRC.
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to use the radio bearer techniques of Zha with the system of EP5-EP1 to reduce service interruption time of the UE and guaranteeing continuity of service (Zha ¶ 0035).
For Claim 2, EP5-EP1-Zha teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the one or more configuration parameters for the radio bearer include one or more configuration parameters for an uplink for the radio bearer (EP1 ¶ 0159).
For Claim 9, EP5-EP1-Zha teaches the method of claim 1, comprising: including the one or more configuration parameters in the response when determining that a first factor of the one or more factors is an indication, in the request, that uplink resources are required (EP1 Fig. 5A-B and related description regarding uplink/downlink).
For Claim 10, EP5-EP1-Zha teaches the method of claim 9, comprising: refraining from including the one or more configuration parameters in the response when determining that the first factor is an indication, in the request, that uplink resources are not required (EP1 Fig. 5A-B and related description regarding uplink/downlink).
For Claim 11, EP5-EP1-Zha teaches the method of claim 10, comprising: refraining from including the one or more configuration parameters in the response when determining that the first factor is an indication, in the request, that downlink-only resources are required (EP1 Fig. 5A-B and related description regarding uplink/downlink).
For Claim 14, EP5-EP1-Zha teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the one or more configuration parameters include one or more of: a logical channel configuration; Preliminary Amendment uplink configuration parameters for a medium access control (MAC) layer; a logical channel group; a subcarrier spacing list; a scheduling request identifier; a timer value; a physical priority index; a channel access priority; and a bitrate multiplier (EP1 Figs. 2A-B and related description).
For Claim(s) 45, the claim(s) is/are substantially similar to claim 1 and therefore is/are rejected for the same reasoning set forth above.
For Claim(s) 46, the claim(s) is/are substantially similar to claim 2 and therefore is/are rejected for the same reasoning set forth above.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
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 extension fee 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 date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning communications from the examiner should be directed to Michael Keller at (571)270-3863 or michael.keller@uspto.gov. If attempts to reach the examiner are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Moo Jeong can be reached at 571-272-9617.
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/MICHAEL A KELLER/
Primary Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2418
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