CTNF 18/726,306 CTNF 83612 Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status 07-03-aia AIA 15-10-aia 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 This action is responsive to the application filed on 07/02/2024 has a total of 6 claims pending in the application; there are 2 independent claims and 4 dependent claims, all of which are ready for examination by the examiner. Title The title of the invention is not descriptive. A new title is required that is clearly indicative of the invention to which the claims are directed. The examiner suggests the title “Carrier based synchronization in a TDD configuration method and terminal in a wireless communication network”. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112 07-30-02 AIA 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. 07-34-01 Claims 1-5 are 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. As per claim 1-5 , the following limitations are recited: - “a control unit configured to...” as recited in claim 1. - “a communication unit configured to …” as recited in claim 1. Dependent claims 2-5 are also rejected since they are depended upon rejection claims set forth above. 07-34-23 The limitations noted immediately above are means-plus-function limitations that invoke 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph. However, the written description fails to disclose the corresponding structure, material, or acts for the claimed function. However, the written description fails to disclose the corresponding structure, material, or acts for performing the entire claimed function and to clearly link the structure, material, or acts to the function. Therefore, the claim is indefinite and is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, second paragraph. Applicant may add a memory and processor or: (a) Amend the claim so that the claim limitation will no longer be interpreted as a limitation under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph; (b) Amend the written description of the specification such that it expressly recites what structure, material, or acts perform the entire claimed function, without introducing any new matter (35 U.S.C. 132(a)); or (c) Amend the written description of the specification such that it clearly links the structure, material, or acts disclosed therein to the function recited in the claim, without introducing any new matter (35 U.S.C. 132(a)). If applicant is of the opinion that the written description of the specification already implicitly or inherently discloses the corresponding structure, material, or acts and clearly links them to the function so that one of ordinary skill in the art would recognize what structure, material, or acts perform the claimed function, applicant should clarify the record by either: (a) Amending the written description of the specification such that it expressly recites the corresponding structure, material, or acts for performing the claimed function and clearly links or associates the structure, material, or acts to the claimed function, without introducing any new matter (35 U.S.C. 132(a)); or (b) Stating on the record what the corresponding structure, material, or acts, which are implicitly or inherently set forth in the written description of the specification, perform the claimed function. For more information, see 37 CFR 1.75(d) and MPEP §§ 608.01(o) and 2181. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103 07-06 AIA 15-10-15 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. 07-20-aia AIA 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. 07-23-aia AIA 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. 07-21-aia AIA Claim s 1-6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over LI et al. Publication No. (US 2024/0155581 A1) in view of LEE et al. Publication No. (US 2021/0007073 A1) . Regarding claim 1, LI teaches a terminal (terminal device 105 FIG.1) comprising: a control unit (processing module 402 [0241] FIG.10) configured on a first carrier in a device to device direct communication to which carrier aggregation is applied (the terminal device receives scheduling information on a target OFDM symbol to determine a target carrier that has channel transmission on the target OFDM symbol, in which a carrier aggr egation of a plurality of carriers are configured for sidelink communication [0201-202] FIG.2); and a communication unit (transceiver module 401 [0245] FIG.10) configured to perform transmission and reception by using the first carrier and a second carrier that is different from the first carrier, based on the synchronization (the terminal device performs channel transmission on the target carrier on the target OFDM symbol, the terminal device transmits the data and/or the signal on the target carrier on the target OFDM symbol according to the communication direction of the target carrier [0200-201] FIG.7), wherein the control unit (processing module 402 [0241] FIG.10) determines a configuration of the second carrier, based on information that is obtained in the first carrier (the first carrier set includes a first carrier configuration and a second carrier configuration, the first carrier corresponds to a first to a first TDD frame structure configuration, the second carrier corresponds to a second TDD frame structure configuration [0208-209] FIG.8). LI does not explicitly teach the UE to perform synchronization. LEE teaches the UE to perform synchronization (LEE: the UE determines a first carrier used for a sync hronization reference among a plurality of carriers and perform a vehicle-to-X (V2X) transmission based on determining the transmission power of a Side Link Synchronization Signal (SLSS) transmitted by another UE [0014-15] FIG.11). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified LI by the teaching of LEE to perform synchronization of the carriers so that the terminal reduces the transmission power on a second carrier, and maintains the transmission of a packet on the second carrier, or drops a packet on the second carrier based on the transmission power of a Side Link Synchronization Signal (SLSS) transmitted by another UE (LEE: [0144-149] FIG.11). Regarding claim 2, LI teaches the terminal as claimed in claim 1, wherein the control unit assumes that the configuration of the second carrier is same as that of the first carrier (the first carrier and the second carrier represent two different frequency domain resources, the first frequency domain resource and the second frequency domain resource are two BWPs and belong to one same carrier [0164] FIG.8A). Regarding claim 3, LI teaches the terminal as claimed in claim 1, wherein in a case where the configuration of the second carrier is same as that of the first carrier, the control unit determines to use the second carrier (determining the target carrier based on the scheduling information, using the first carrier and the second carrier, the target carrier is one of carriers that are determined based on the scheduling information, that are of the first carrier and the second carrier, and that have channel transmission on the target OFDM symbol [0173-174] FIG.6). Regarding claim 4, LI teaches the terminal as claimed in claim 1, wherein the control unit determines a TDD (Time division duplex) configuration of the second carrier by applying a subcarrier spacing of the second carrier to the TDD configuration of the first carrier (The communication directions of the first carrier and the second carrier on the target OFDM symbol may be determined based on the scheduling information, the frame structure configuration may further include information such as an SCS, a period, and a pattern of the carrier [0167-168] FIG.4). Regarding claim 5, LI teaches the terminal as claimed in claim 1, wherein the control unit determines a TDD configuration of the first carrier by applying a subcarrier spacing of the first carrier and determines a TDD configuration of the second carrier based on the determined TDD configuration of the first carrier and a ratio between a subcarrier spacing of the second carrier and the subcarrier spacing of the first carrier (When the scheduling information is TDD frame structure configurations of the first carrier and the second carrier, the first carrier corresponds to a first TDD frame structure configuration, and the second carrier corresponds to a second TDD frame structure configuration. The TDD frame structure configuration indicates that a corresponding carrier is transmitted in a time division multiplexing manner in specific frequency domain [0167-168] FIG.5). Regarding claim 6, related to the same limitation set for hereinabove in claim 1 , where the difference used is the limitations were presented from a “method” side of the UE, and the wordings of the claim were interchanged within the claim itself or were presented as a combination of two or more previously presented limitations. This change does not affect the limitation of the above treated claims. Adding these phrases to the claim and interchanging the wording did not introduce new limitations to this claim. Therefore, this claim was rejected for similar reasons as stated above. Conclusion When responding to this office action, Applicant is advised to clearly point out the patentable novelty which he or she thinks the claims present, in view of the state of the art disclosed by the references cited or the objections made. He or she must also show how the amendments avoid such references or objections See 37 CFR 1.111 (c). Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ABDELNABI O MUSA whose telephone number is (571)270-1901, and email address is abdelnabi.musa@uspto.gov ‘preferred’. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F 9:00 am - 5:00 pm. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Kevin Bates, can be reached on 571-2723980. 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. /ABDELNABI O MUSA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2472 Application/Control Number: 18/726,306 Page 2 Art Unit: 2472 Application/Control Number: 18/726,306 Page 3 Art Unit: 2472 Application/Control Number: 18/726,306 Page 4 Art Unit: 2472 Application/Control Number: 18/726,306 Page 5 Art Unit: 2472 Application/Control Number: 18/726,306 Page 6 Art Unit: 2472 Application/Control Number: 18/726,306 Page 7 Art Unit: 2472 Application/Control Number: 18/726,306 Page 8 Art Unit: 2472 Application/Control Number: 18/726,306 Page 9 Art Unit: 2472
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