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 .
Amendment, filed on 08/11/2026, has been received, entered, and made of record. Currently, claims 1-2, 4-10, 12-14, 17-18, 21-22 and 25-28 remain pending in the application. Claims 3, 11, 15-16, 19-20, and 23-24 have been canceled.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, filed on 08/11/2026, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 1-2, 4-10, 12-14, 17-18, 21-22 have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of new prior art(s).
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 1-2, 6, 9-10, 14, 17-18, 21-22, 26, and 28 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kuang et al. US 2023/0239712 A1 (hereinafter referred to as Kuang).
Referring to claim 1, Kuang discloses a measurement relaxation method, performed by a user equipment (UE) (fig.1, terminal device 20), comprising:
obtaining a relaxation command message sent by a base station (fig.1, network device 10), wherein the relaxation command message comprises a carrying field, the carrying field indicating at least one relaxation type validated by the relaxation command message; and performing a measurement relaxation based on the relaxation command message ([0027] and [0182]) (Note: the terminal device obtains from a network device a message comprising a field used to indicate that the terminal device is allowed to perform radio link monitoring (RLM) measurement relaxation; and the terminal device performs the RLM measurement relaxation based on the message).
Kuang fails to disclose different relaxation types correspond to different carrying fields.
However, it would have been an obvious matter of design choice to have a message with different relaxation types corresponding to different carrying fields because it appears that the invention would perform equally well with a message comprising only a carrying field indicating a relaxation type allowed as taught by Kuang. That is, a message with different relaxation types corresponding to different carrying fields wherein only a carrying field indicating a relaxation type is validated would not change the functioning of the UE and the UE would operate equally well with a message comprising only a carrying field indicating a relaxation type allowed.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention by the applicant to have a message with different relaxation types corresponding to different carrying fields for the advantages of being an engineering design choice.
Referring to claim 2, Kuang discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the relaxation command message indicates at least one of:
at least one relaxation type validated by the relaxation command message and wherein the relaxation type comprises at least one of: a radio link monitoring (RLM) measurement relaxation ([0027]) (Note: the message is used to indicate that the terminal device is allowed to perform the RLM measurement relaxation).
Referring to claim 6, Kuang discloses the method of claim 1, wherein obtaining the relaxation command message sent by the base station comprises: obtaining the relaxation command message sent by the base station through signaling, wherein the signaling comprises at least one of: radio resource control (RRC) signaling ([0077]-[0078]) (Notes: The terminal device 20 may establish an RRC connection to the network device 10, so that data can be transmitted between the terminal device 20 and the network device 10);
Referring to claim 9, the same ground of rejection provided for claim 1 is applicable herein. Kuang further discloses a measurement relaxation method, performed by a base station (fig.1, network device 10), comprising: sending a relaxation command message to a user equipment (UE) (fig.1, terminal device 20) ([0027] and [0182]).
Referring to claim 10, the same ground of rejection provided for claim 2 is applicable herein.
Referring to claim 14, the same ground of rejection provided for claim 6 is applicable herein.
Referring to claim 17, the same ground of rejection provided for claim 1 is applicable herein. Kuang further discloses a communication device (fig.7, communications apparatus 700), comprising: a processor (fig.7, Processor 710); and a memory (fig.7, Memory 730) having a computer program stored thereon ([0278]).
Referring to claim 18, Kuang discloses a communication device (fig.8, communications apparatus 800), comprising: a processor (fig.8, Processor 810); and a memory (fig.8, Memory 830) having a computer program stored thereon, wherein the processor is configured to execute the computer program stored on the memory ([0282]) to cause the communication device to perform the method of claim 9.
Referring to claim 21, Kuang discloses a non-transitory-computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon, wherein when the instructions are executed, the method of claim 1 is performed ([0027], [0182] and [0306]).
Referring to claim 22, Kuang discloses a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon, wherein when the instructions are executed, the method of claim 9 is performed ([0027], [0182] and [0306]).
Referring to claim 26, Kuang discloses the method of claim 2, wherein the at least one relaxation type validated by the relaxation command message is indicated by including at least one carrying fields in the relaxation command message, and the at least one carrying fields correspond to the at least one relaxation type validated by the relaxation command message, respectively ([0182]) (Note: the network device may send an indication field or a field to the terminal device, wherein the indication field or the field is used to indicate that the terminal device is allowed to perform the RLM measurement relaxation).
Referring to claim 28, the same ground of rejection provided for claim 26 is applicable herein.
Claims 4-5, 12-13, 25 and 27 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kuang in view of Chen et al. US 2023/0217276 A1 (hereinafter referred to as Chen).
Referring to claim 4, Kuang discloses the method of claim 2, except wherein indicating, by the relaxation command message, the CG that requires to perform the measurement relaxation comprises at least one of:
the relaxation command message explicitly indicating the CG that requires to perform the measurement relaxation; or
the relaxation command message implicitly indicating the CG that requires to perform the measurement relaxation.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Chen discloses wherein indicating, by the relaxation command message, the CG that requires to perform the measurement relaxation comprises at least one of:
the relaxation command message explicitly indicating the CG that requires to perform the measurement relaxation (fig.11 and [0087]-[0088]) (Note: the message explicitly indicates the SCG that requires to perform the measurement relaxation); or
the relaxation command message implicitly indicating the CG that requires to perform the measurement relaxation ([0090]-[0092]) (Note: while the message indicates SCG suspended state, UE performs RLM measurements on the MN configured neighbor cells during the SCG suspended state. Thus, the message implicitly indicates MN configured neighbor cells that require to perform the measurement relaxation).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention by the applicant to modify the method of Kuang with the concept of Chen to obtain the claimed invention. The suggestion/motivation for doing so would have been to reduce power consumption leading to better power efficiency.
Referring to claim 25, Kuang in view of Chen discloses the method of claim 4.
Chen discloses wherein the relaxation command message implicitly indicating the CG that requires to perform the measurement relaxation comprises: determining the CG that requires to perform the measurement relaxation based on a relaxation type of the base station that sends the relaxation command message ([0087] and [0090]-[0091]) (Note: The MN can transmit a configuration message to the UE, for example, through radio resource control (RRC) signaling. The configuration message can include a RLM measurement configuration on the PSCell that includes one or more of a primary DRX configuration for the MCG, a secondary DRX configuration for the SCG).
The same motivation provided for claim 4 is applicable herein.
Referring to claim 5, Kuang in view of Chen discloses the method of claim 25.
Chen discloses wherein the relaxation command message is sent by a master node (MN) base station or a secondary node (SN) base station ([0088]) (Note: either the MN BS, or the PSCell, or both the MN BS and PSCell can transmit a SCG suspended state message to the UE), and determining the CG that requires to perform the measurement relaxation based on a relaxation type of the base station that sends the relaxation command message comprises at least one of:
in response to the relaxation command message being sent by the SN base station, the relaxation command message indicating that the CG that requires to perform the measurement relaxation is a secondary cell group (SCG) ([0090]) (Note: the UE can maintain the secondary DRX configuration on the SCG to perform relaxed measurements on the PSCell).
The same motivation provided for claim 4 is applicable herein.
Referring to claim 12, the same ground of rejection provided for claim 4 is applicable herein.
Referring to claim 13, the same ground of rejection provided for claim 5 is applicable herein.
Referring to claim 27, the same ground of rejection provided for claim 25 is applicable herein.
Claims 7-8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C.103 as being unpatentable over Kuang in view of Chen, and further in view of Da Silva et al. (hereinafter referred to as Da Silva, US 2023/0276321 A1).
Referring to claim 7, Kuang in view of Chen discloses the method of claim 2, except the method further comprising at least one of: implicitly determining the list of cells that require to perform the measurement relaxation; or explicitly determining the list of cells that require to perform the measurement relaxation.
However, in the same field of endeavor of user equipment (UE) art, Da Silva discloses a concept of implicitly determining the list of cells that require to perform the measurement relaxation ([0049] and [0053]) (Note: The RRM measurement configuration includes a list of ‘blacklisted’ cells and a list of ‘whitelisted’ cells configured by the network. Thus, the UE implicitly determines the list of cells that require to perform the measurement relaxation).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention by the applicant to modify the method of Kuang in view of Chen with the concept of Da Silva to obtain the claimed invention. The suggestion/motivation for doing so would have been to reduce power consumption leading to better power efficiency.
Referring to claim 8, Kuang in view of Chen and Da Silva discloses the method of claim 7. Da Silva discloses wherein implicitly determining the list of cells that require to perform the measurement relaxation comprises at least one of:
determining the list of cells that require to perform the measurement relaxation based on a pre-notification from the base station ([0052]-[0053]) (Note: the UE implicitly determines the list of cells that require to perform the measurement relaxation based on a list of ‘blacklisted’ cells and a list of ‘whitelisted’ cells notified by the network);
The same ground of motivation provided for claim 7 is applicable herein.
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 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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/MOUSTAPHA DIABY/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2683
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