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.
Claim(s) 16-17, 20-21, 24-25 and 28-29 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Chen (US 20230370945).
With respect to independent claims:
Regarding claim(s) 16/20/24/28, Chen teaches A method performed by a distributed unit (DU) of a base station ([Fig.9], DU) in a wireless communication system, the method comprising:
receiving ([Fig.9, step 4 and 0110], “The CU may send an F1AP signaling (e.g., UEContext setup or UEContext modification request message) to the DU for the relay UE.”), from a central unit (CU) of the base station ([Fig.9], CU), a first message including ([0110], “F1AP signaling”) first configuration information ([0110], “a request for configuring a PC5 RLC channel between the relay UE and the remote UE.”) on a path switch for a user equipment (UE) from a direct path to an indirect path ([0102], “a UE may be switched from a direct connection to the gNB to an indirect connection.”) associated with a relay UE ([Fig.9], Relay UE); and
transmitting, to the CU, a second message as a response to the first message ([Fig.9, step 5 and 0116], “The DU may then send an F1AP signaling (e.g., UEContext setup response message or UEContext modification response message) to the CU.”),
wherein the first configuration information includes information on an identity (ID) of the relay UE ([0110], “The CU may send an F1AP signaling (e.g., UEContext setup or UEContext modification request message) to the DU for the relay UE (i.e., the signaling targets the relay UE), which may include at least one of following fields: [0111] a CU level relay ID identifying the relay UE in the CU; [0112] a DU level relay ID identifying the relay UE in the DU.”).
With respect to dependent claims:
Regarding claim(s) 17/21/25/29, Chen teaches receiving ([Fig.9, step 1 and 0104], “The gNB determines that the remote UE needs to be switched to an indirect access via the relay UE. The CU may allocate a local ID for the remote UE via an RRCReconfiguration message.”), from the CU, a third message ([0104], “RRCReconfiguration message.”) including second configuration information on the path switch ([0104], “a local ID for the remote UE” for the path switch.); and
transmitting, to the UE, the third message ([Fig.9,step 1], the “RRCReconfiguration message” is transmitted from the CU to the remote UE.).
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.
Claim(s) 19, 23, 27 and 31 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chen in view of Luo (US 20210368417).
Regarding claim(s) 19/23/27/31, Luo teaches wherein the second message includes cell group configuration information for the UE ([0136], “the DU further generates the RRC configuration information for the remote UE, the DU may add an information element (for example, CellGroupConfig-for remote UE) to the UE context modification response message, to carry a cell group configuration for the remote UE, so that the DU may send the RRC configuration information of the relay UE and the RRC configuration information of the remote UE to the CU by using the UE context modification response message.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filing date of the claim invention to have modified the method of Chen to specify cell group information as taught by Luo. The motivation/suggestion would have been because there is a need to indicate which cell group the remote UE will be in.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim(s) 18, 22, 26 and 30 is/are 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ZHIREN QIN whose telephone number is (571)272-5444. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F 9-6 PM.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Derrick Ferris can be reached on 571-272-3123. 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.
/ZHIREN QIN/Examiner, Art Unit 2411
Prosecution Insights