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 Objections
Claim(s) 2-11 and 13-17 is/are objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 2, the Examiner suggests changing to “[[An]] The apparatus according to claim 1 ...” claims 3-11 and 13-17 are objected for the same reason as stated above.
Appropriate correction(s) is/are required.
Election/Restrictions
Restriction to one of the following inventions is required under 35 U.S.C. 121:
A. Claims 1-17 are drawn to an invention which is directed to a UE evaluating expected handover (HO) delay and transmitting an indication of the HO delay to a serving node.
B. Claims 18-20 are drawn to an invention which is directed to a UE receiving an indication of expected HO delay from distributed network node, then the UE generates a HO indication, the HO indication is sent to the distributed network node.
The distinct inventions require different searching considerations because prior art search required for Group A is not required for Group B, so restriction for examination purposes as indicated is proper.
The Examiner has conducted a telephone interview with Applicant’s representative, Robin, to discuss the restriction requirement regarding Groups A and B. Mr. Robin elected Group A without traverse in the interview conducted on 06/23/2026.
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) 1-4, 7, 10-13 and 17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Lin (US 20260012908).
With respect to independent claims:
Regarding claim(s) 1, Lin teaches An apparatus, comprising:
at least one processor; and
at least one memory storing instructions that when executed by the at least one processor cause the apparatus at least to perform:
evaluating an expected handover delay to at least one ([0068], “the UE may perform UL/DL synchronization with the LTM candidate cell in advance, to reduce an interruption delay during handover.”) of a plurality of candidate cells ([0063], “The base station may send the RRC message (that is, an RRCReconfiguration message) containing configuration of the LTM candidate cell to the UE, there may be one or more candidate cells.”);
generating an indication of said handover delay ([0069], “the UE sends an L1 measurement result to the base station.”); and
causing transmission of said indication to a network node of a serving cell ([0070], “The UE performs L1 measurement on each candidate cell, and reports the L1 measurement result to the base station.”).
Regarding claim(s) 12, Lin teaches An apparatus, comprising at least one processor; and at least one memory storing instructions that when executed by the at least one processor cause the apparatus at least to perform:
causing transmission to a user equipment of a plurality of candidate cell configurations, said plurality of candidate cells being potential target cells for a user equipment to handover to ([0063], “The base station may send the RRC message (that is, an RRCReconfiguration message) containing configuration of the LTM candidate cell to the UE, there may be one or more candidate cells.”);
in response to receipt of at least one indication of an expected handover delay for at least one of said candidate cells ([0070], “The UE performs L1 measurement on each candidate cell, and reports the L1 measurement result to the base station.”), generating a message regarding said handover ([0073], “the base station sends a cell handover command to the UE.”); and
causing transmission of said message to said user equipment ([0073], “the base station sends a cell handover command to the UE.”).
With respect to dependent claims:
Regarding claim(s) 2, Lin teaches receiving a request from a network node ([0063], “The base station may send the RRC message (that is, an RRCReconfiguration message) containing configuration of the LTM candidate cell to the UE, there may be one or more candidate cells.”); a predetermined point in a cell switch procedure; a signal strength measurement status detection of one or more cells.
Regarding claim(s) 3, Lin teaches wherein the apparatus is caused to perform said step of evaluating in response to receiving a request from said network node, said request being received within at least one of the following: a message indicating a configuration of said candidate cells ([0063], “The base station may send the RRC message (that is, an RRCReconfiguration message) containing configuration of the LTM candidate cell to the UE, there may be one or more candidate cells.”); a message indicating a cell switch is to be performed; or a separate dedicated request.
Regarding claim(s) 4, Lin teaches wherein the apparatus is caused to perform said step of evaluating in response to receiving a request from said network, said request indicating said at least one of said plurality of candidate cells for which said evaluating is to be performed ([0063], “The base station may send the RRC message (that is, an RRCReconfiguration message) containing configuration of the LTM candidate cell to the UE, there may be one or more candidate cells.”).
Regarding claim(s) 7, Lin teaches wherein said apparatus is caused to transmit said handover delay indication within at least one of the following: a UE assistance information message; a L1 measurement report ([0069], “the UE sends an L1 measurement result to the base station.”); a L3 measurement report; a message indicating configuration of the candidate cells is complete; . a response to a cell switch command; a MAC CE control element; or uplink control information.
Regarding claim(s) 10, Lin teaches wherein said handover delay indication comprises one of the following: a time delay value; an indication of said delay lying in one of a plurality of predefined ranges of values; an indication that said delay meets or does not meet a threshold value an index indicative of a value ([0069], “the UE sends an L1 measurement result to the base station.”); an offset value.
Regarding claim(s) 11, Lin teaches wherein said apparatus comprises a user equipment ([0069], “the UE sends an L1 measurement result to the base station.”).
Regarding claim(s) 13, Lin teaches wherein said message comprises at least one of the following: a modification of said plurality of candidate cell configurations; an indication for said user equipment to perform a layer 3, L3 handover a cell switch indication ([0073], “the base station sends a cell handover command to the UE.”) an indication for said user equipment to perform further measurements, or an indication not to perform a handover.
Regarding claim(s) 17, Lin teaches generating a message requesting a user equipment to perform an evaluation of a handover delay; and causing transmission of said message to said user equipment ([0063], “The base station may send the RRC message (that is, an RRCReconfiguration message) containing configuration of the LTM candidate cell to the UE, there may be one or more candidate cells.”)
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) 5 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lin in view of DAMNJANOVIC (US 20240155449).
Regarding claim(s) 5, DAMNJANOVIC teaches wherein the apparatus is caused to perform said evaluating for a subset of said plurality of candidate cells ([0009], “the UE to identify the subset of candidate cells.”).
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 Lin to specify identify candidate cells as taught by DAMNJANOVIC. The motivation/suggestion would have been because there is a need to perform cell switch.
Claim(s) 14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lin in view of Aki (US 20250063455).
Regarding claim(s) 14, Aki teaches comparing a value of said at least one expected handover delay with a threshold value; and in response to said comparing generating said message ([0272], “gNB2 receives the delay thresholds and compares them with the respective handover delay period for the UE.”).
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 Lin to specify comparing handover delay with a threshold as taught by Aki. The motivation/suggestion would have been because there is a need to perform handover.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim(s) 6, 8-9 and15-16 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
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/ZHIREN QIN/Examiner, Art Unit 2411
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