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)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1, 11, 14, 15 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102a1 as being anticipated by Berliner et al. US 2022/0141875 A1.
Claims 1 and 20:
Berliner discloses an apparatus for wireless communication at a user equipment (UE), comprising: one or more memories (See fig. 9, memory); and one or more processors (See fig. 9, processor), coupled to the one or more memories, configured to cause the UE to: receive configuration information associated with a secondary cell (SCell) (See para 13, “receiving, from the primary cell, a configuration of the SCell, and monitoring, at least in part in response to receiving the configuration, for the one or more SSBs from the SCell”), wherein the SCell has a narrowband channel bandwidth (See para 70, cell configured according to narrowband IoT); receive a synchronization signal block (SSB) on the SCell in accordance with an SSB bandwidth configuration (See para 160, “receiving the configuration, for the one or more SSBs from the SCell”), wherein the SSB bandwidth configuration is associated with at least one of: the configuration information (See para 160, “receiving the configuration, for the one or more SSBs from the SCell”), or a frequency of the SSB being identified by a synchronization raster, wherein the synchronization raster is for cells having the narrowband channel bandwidth; and monitor an initial control resource set (CORESET) using a CORESET bandwidth configuration associated with the configuration information.
Claim 15:
Berliner discloses an apparatus for wireless communication at a network node, comprising: one or more memories; and one or more processors, coupled to the one or more memories, configured to cause the network node to: transmit configuration information associated with a secondary cell (SCell) (See para 13, “receiving, from the primary cell, a configuration of the SCell, and monitoring, at least in part in response to receiving the configuration, for the one or more SSBs from the SCell”), wherein the SCell has a narrowband channel bandwidth (See para 70, cells configured according to narrowband IoT); transmit a synchronization signal block (SSB) on the SCell in accordance with an SSB bandwidth configuration (See para 160, “receiving the configuration, for the one or more SSBs from the SCell”), wherein the SSB bandwidth configuration is associated with at least one of: the configuration information (See para 160, “receiving the configuration, for the one or more SSBs from the SCell”), or a frequency of the SSB being identified by a synchronization raster for cells having the narrowband channel bandwidth; and transmit a communication on an initial control resource set (CORESET) using a CORESET bandwidth configuration associated with the configuration information.
Claim 11:
Berliner discloses that the physical downlink control channel configuration parameter indicates at least one of the SSB bandwidth configuration or the CORESET bandwidth configuration (See para 160, “receiving the configuration, for the one or more SSBs from the SCell”).
Claim 14:
Berliner discloses that the configuration information comprises a measurement object (See para 160, “receiving the configuration, for the one or more SSBs from the SCell”. SSB is used for measuring).
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) 2-3 & 16-17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Berliner et al. in view of Sun et al. US 20260128838 A1.
Claims 2 and 16:
Berliner doesn’t disclose that the SSB bandwidth configuration indicates at least one of: a number of physical resource blocks comprising a bandwidth of the SSB, or a set of physical resource blocks that are excluded from the bandwidth of the SSB.
Sun discloses that the SSB bandwidth configuration indicates at least one of: a number of physical resource blocks comprising a bandwidth of the SSB, or a set of physical resource blocks that are excluded from the bandwidth of the SSB (See para 139, “for a CORESET (or an SSB) that needs to be punctured, a bandwidth of the CORESET (or SSB) is a quantity of RBs after puncturing, and a CORESET corresponding to a parameter configuration is a CORESET obtained after puncturing; and for a CORESET (or an SSB) that does not need to be punctured, a bandwidth of the CORESET (or SSB) and a quantity of RBs actually occupied by the CORESET (or SSB) correspond to a same quantity of physical resources”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Berliner with the teachings of Sun to improve the method disclosed by Berliner by including the feature of SSB bandwidth configuration including PRBs. The motivation to combine would have been to enable UE to receive and implement SSB configuration to receive SSB.
Claims 3 and 17:
Berliner doesn’t disclose that the CORESET bandwidth configuration indicates at least one of: a number of physical resource blocks comprising a bandwidth of the initial CORESET, or a set of physical resource blocks that are excluded from the bandwidth of the initial CORESET.
Sun discloses that the CORESET bandwidth configuration indicates at least one of: a number of physical resource blocks comprising a bandwidth of the initial CORESET, or a set of physical resource blocks that are excluded from the bandwidth of the initial CORESET (See para 139, “for a CORESET (or an SSB) that needs to be punctured, a bandwidth of the CORESET (or SSB) is a quantity of RBs after puncturing, and a CORESET corresponding to a parameter configuration is a CORESET obtained after puncturing; and for a CORESET (or an SSB) that does not need to be punctured, a bandwidth of the CORESET (or SSB) and a quantity of RBs actually occupied by the CORESET (or SSB) correspond to a same quantity of physical resources”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Berliner with the teachings of Sun to improve the method disclosed by Berliner by including the feature of SSB bandwidth configuration including PRBs. The motivation to combine would have been to enable UE to receive and implement SSB configuration to receive SSB.
Claim(s) 6, 10 & 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Berliner et al. in view of Xu et al. US 2024/0223325 A1.
Claim 6:
Berliner doesn’t disclose that the configuration information indicates that a channel bandwidth of the SCell is less than 5 MHz.
Xu discloses that the configuration information indicates that a channel bandwidth of the SCell is less than 5 MHz (See para 418, “The UE may only transmit on or receive from a narrow-bandwidth BWP (e.g., 5MHZ) on the PCell or SCell…”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Berliner with the teachings of Xu to improve the method disclosed by Berliner by including the feature of channel bandwidth of less than 5MHz. The motivation for doing so would have been low power consumption and communicate small data packets.
Claim 10:
Berliner doesn’t disclose that the configuration information comprises a physical downlink control channel configuration parameter that indicates that the channel bandwidth of the SCell is less than 5 MHz.
Xu discloses that the configuration information comprises a physical downlink control channel configuration parameter that indicates that the channel bandwidth of the SCell is less than 5 MHz (See para 418, “The UE may only transmit on or receive from a narrow-bandwidth BWP (e.g., 5MHZ) on the PCell or SCell…”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Berliner with the teachings of Xu to improve the method disclosed by Berliner by including the feature of channel bandwidth of less than 5MHz. The motivation for doing so would have been low power consumption and communicate small data packets.
Claim 13:
Berliner doesn’t disclose that the configuration information indicates that a bandwidth of the SSB is associated with cells having the narrowband channel bandwidth.
Xu discloses that the configuration information indicates that a bandwidth of the SSB is associated with cells having the narrowband channel bandwidth (See para 418, “The UE may only transmit on or receive from a narrow-bandwidth BWP (e.g., 5MHZ) on the PCell or SCell…”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Berliner with the teachings of Xu to improve the method disclosed by Berliner by including the feature of channel bandwidth of less than 5MHz. The motivation for doing so would have been low power consumption and communicate small data packets.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4, 5, 7-9, 12, 18 & 19 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 HASHIM S BHATTI whose telephone number is (571)270-7748. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 9:00am-5:30pm.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Khaled Kassim can be reached at 571-270-3770. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
HASHIM S. BHATTI
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2472
/HASHIM S BHATTI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2475
Prosecution Insights