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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS), submitted on 01/02/2025, is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Specification
Proper content of an abstract of the disclosure:
The abstract should not refer to purported merits.
Proper language and format for an abstract of the disclosure:
The language should avoid using phrases which can be implied, such as, “The disclosure concerns,” “The disclosure defined by this invention,” “The disclosure describes,” etc. In addition, the form and legal phraseology often used in patent claims, such as “means” and “said,” should be avoided.
The abstract of the disclosure is objected to because: Line 1, “Provided are” “effectively”, line 2 “may” should be deleted. A corrected abstract of the disclosure is required and must be presented on a separate sheet, apart from any other text. See MPEP § 608.01(b).
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.
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.
(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.
Claims 1-6, 8-12 and 14-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Baek (US 20190394675 A1).
Claim 1. Baek teaches a method for processing data by a user equipment (UE), the method comprising: receiving a radio resource control (RRC) message including information for configuring and transmitting a discard status report that indicates a gap of a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) sequence number according to a discard of a PDCP service data unit (SDU) (Figures 1,3,13,14; [0081-82] [0089-91] [0138-0146] [0186]); controlling to compile the discard status report in an event that the discard status report is triggered by discarding one or more PDCP SDUs; and transmitting the discard status report (Figures 1,3; [0081-82] [0089-90] [0092-93] [0186]).
Claim 2. Baek teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the information for configuring and transmitting the discard status report is included in PDCP configuration information ([0014] [0082] [0089-90] [0186]).
Claim 3. Baek teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the discard status report is transmitted through a PDCP control PDU having a PDU type field value distinguished from a PDCP status report (Figures 32,33; [0203] [0206] [0207]).
Claim 4. Baek teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the discard status report includes a field for indicating a COUNT value of a first discarded PDCP SDU (Figure 23; [0158] [0164] [0169-178] [0206-209]).
Claim 5. Baek teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the discard status report includes a bitmap field indicating whether to discard the PDCP SDU (Figures 14,15; [0143] [0146] [0148] [0151]).
Claim 6. Baek teaches the method of claim 5, wherein the bitmap field is set to have a length of 0 (Figure 15; [0031] [0148]- [0151] [0203] [0206] [0207]).
Claims 8-10 and 12 are rejected substantially the same as the corresponding Claims 1-3 and 6, with the addition of: Baek teaches a method for controlling UE (Figure 3:30) to process data by a base station (Figure 3:31).
Claim 11 is rejected substantially the same as the corresponding Claims 4-5.
Claims 14-19 are rejected substantially the same as the corresponding Claims 1-6, with the addition of: Baek teaches a user equipment (UE) processing data (Figure 3:30).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 non-obviousness.
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 7, 13 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Baek as applied to claims 5, 11 and 18, above, and further in view of {3GPP, "3rd Generation Partnership Project; Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; NR; Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) specification (Release 16), 3GPP TS 38.323 V16.0.0, March 2020, pp. 1-37}, hereinafter 3GPP.
Claim 7. Baek teaches the method of claim 5,
Baek does not explicitly teach the combination of these features: the bitmap field is allocated in multiples of 8, excluding a first discarded PDCP SDU, including a last discarded PDCP SDU, and is set to have the same bit length as a COUNT number, not exceeding 9,000 bytes which is a maximum size of a PDCP control PDU.
The missing elements are disclosed by 3GPP (e.g., page 17, section 5.4.1).
(AIA ) 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, because: e.g., see 3GPP, pp. 1-37, and, Baek, Abstract, [0002]- [0016].
Therefore, the combination of references, discloses the combination of the claimed limitations.
Claims 13 and 20 are rejected substantially the same as the corresponding Claim 7.
Conclusion
Prior art made of record and considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure and claims:
LEE (US 20190215717 A1) [0102]
Kim (US 20240373288 A1) Abstract
SHRIVASTAVA (US 20260255215 A1) [0024] [0072] [0186]
KIM (US 20260239041 A1) [1371]- [1375]
KOU (US 20240305559 A1) [0080] [0108]
KIM (US 20230309173 A1) [0348] [0359]
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/H.H/Examiner, Art Unit 2465
/AYMAN A ABAZA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2465