CTNF 18/775,120 CTNF 73852 DETAILED ACTION Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status 07-03-aia AIA 15-10-aia The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA. This Office Action is in response to Application filed on July 17, 2024 in which claims 1-19 are presented for examination. Priority 02-26 AIA Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55. Information Disclosure Statement The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on August 20, 2024 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner. Reference is made to the following documents: ITRI. R2-2305457. Discussion on the issues of PDU-Set discard. 3GPP TSG-RAN WG2 Meeting #122, Incheon, Korea, 22 - 26 May 2023. [online], 2023-05-12. SAMSUNG. R2-2305784. Discard Operation for XR. 3GPP TSG-RAN WG2 Meeting #122, Incheon, Korea, 22 - 26 May 2023. [online], 2023-05-12. NOKIA. R2-2306565. Offline 204 on XR Discard. 3GPP TSG-RAN WG2 Meeting #122, Incheon, South Korea, 22 - 26 May 2023. [online], 2023-05-30. 3GPP TR 38.835 V18.0.1 (2023-04). 3rd Generation Partnership Project; Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; NR; Study on XR enhancements for NR (Release 18). [online], 2023-04-05. NOKIA ET AL. R2-2308339. Details of PSI-based Discard. 3GPP TSG-RAN WG2 Meeting #123, Toulouse, France, 21 - 25 August 2023. [online], 2023-08-11. ITRI. R2-2305457 and SAMSUNG. R2-2305784. are relevant to the patentability, while documents NOKIA. R2-2306565 and 3GPP TR 38.835 V18.0.1 (2023-04) represent the general state of the art. NOKIA ET AL. R2-2308339 is a later document published after the international filing date and not in conflict with the application, but it is cited to understand the principle or theory underlying the invention. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102 07-06 AIA 15-10-15 In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status. 07-07-aia AIA 07-07 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 – 07-08-aia AIA (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. 07-15-aia AIA Claim(s) 1-4, 7, 10-13, 16 and 18-19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102 (a)(1) as being anticipated by ITRI. R2-2305457. Discussion on the issues of PDU-Set discard. 3GPP TSG-RAN WG2 Meeting #122, Incheon, Korea, 22 - 26 May 2023. [online], 2023-05-12 . Regarding claim 1, ITRI. R2-2305457 (the whole document, in particular, Sections 1, 2.2, 2.4) discloses a 3GPP TSG-RAN WG2 contribution on Discussion on the issues of PDU-Set discard. In particular, the document discusses the issues of PDU-set discard based on the existing PDCP modelling, including PDU-set delay budget (PSDB), PDU-set importance (PSI) and PDU-set integrated handling indication (PSIHI). Notifications of PDCP discard from the network due to UL congestion are also proposed. In particular, ITRI. R2-2305457 discloses “transmitting, by a network apparatus to a user equipment (UE) based on a first condition, a first command to activate a protocol data unit set importance (PSI)-based discard at the UE” ( See Section 2.4 ), “wherein the PSI-based discard includes discarding a protocol data unit (PDU) set based on a PSI level of the PDU set satisfying a PSI criterion” ( See Section 2.2 ), and “wherein the PDU set includes one or more PDUs carrying a payload of one unit of information at an application level” ( See Section 1 ); and “transmitting, by the network apparatus to the UE based on a second condition, a second command to cancel the PSI-based discard at the UE” ( See Section 2.4 ). Features “transmitting, by a network apparatus to a user equipment (UE) based on a first condition, a first command to activate a protocol data unit set importance (PSI)-based discard at the UE” and “transmitting, by the network apparatus to the UE based on a second condition, a second command to cancel the PSI-based discard at the UE” of claim 1 are disclosed by the following passage of ITRI. R2-2305457 ( See Section 2.4 describing Option 2: The network detects an UL congestion, and sends a broadcast/dedicated PDCP discarding indication to UE(s) to start/stop discarding PDCP SDUs for XR traffic.When a UE receives the PDCP discarding activation indication, the UE starts the PDCP discarding procedure for XR traffic. When the UE receives the PDCP discarding deactivation indication, the UE stops the PDCP discarding procedure for XR traffic ). Feature “wherein the PSI-based discard includes discarding a protocol data unit (PDU) set based on a PSI level of the PDU set satisfying a PSI criterion” of claim 1 is disclosed by the following passage of ITRI. R2-2305457 ( See Section 2.2 describing Option 1: Discard differentiation is proceeded directly based on PSI If its PSI is high, i.e., the PSI value is smaller than an importance threshold, no discard is proceeded for this PDCP SDU. Otherwise, this PDCP SDU should be discarded ). Feature “wherein the PDU set includes one or more PDUs carrying a payload of one unit of information at an application level” of claim 1 is disclosed by the following passage of ITRI. R2-2305457 ( See Section 1 describing PDU-Set discard based on the existing PDCP modelling ). As per claims 10, and 18-19, the same reasoning as for claim 1 applies, mutatis mutandis, to the subject matter of the corresponding independent claims 10 and 18-19. Therefore, claims 10 and 18-19 are rejected for the same reason set forth in paragraph above. - claims 2, 11: see ITRI. R2-2305457 (Section 2.4) and note in particular the passage: II PDCP discarding procedure for XR traffic.”; - claims 3-4, 7, 12-13, 16: see document ITRI. R2-2305457 (Section 2.4) and note in particular the passage: "If this indication is broadcast, for example, 1-bit PDCP discarding indication may be introduced. The alternative is a dedicated indication, for example, a bitmap of PDCP discarding for DRBs may be introduced. So the PDCP discarding indication can activate/deactivate the PDCP discarding for XR traffic for specific DRBs." 07-15-aia AIA Claim(s) 1, 10 and 18-19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102 (a)(1) as being anticipated by SAMSUNG. R2-2305784. Discard Operation for XR. 3GPP TSG-RAN WG2 Meeting #122, Incheon, Korea, 22 - 26 May 2023. [online], 2023-05-12 . Regarding claim 1, SAMSUNG. R2-2305784 (the whole document, in particular, Fig. 3; Section 2.3) discloses a 3GPP TSG-RAN WG2 contribution on Discard Operation for XR. In particular, SAMSUNG. R2-2305784 discusses the procedures of the timer-based discarding with different timer values for different PSI and the PSI threshold based discarding (regardless of expiry of discard timer). Features “transmitting, by a network apparatus to a user equipment (UE) based on a first condition, a first command to activate a protocol data unit set importance (PSI)-based discard at the UE”; “wherein the PSI-based discard includes discarding a protocol data unit (PDU) set based on a PSI level of the PDU set satisfying a PSI criterion”; and “wherein the PDU set includes one or more PDUs carrying a payload of one unit of information at an application level” of claim 1: ( see SAMSUNG. R2-2305784 Fig. 3; Section 2.3 describing Option 2: PSI threshold based discarding (regardless of expiry of discard timer) This option involves discarding lower priority PDU Set based on PSI threshold (i.e., discard PDU Set with a lower PSI than a certain threshold) when a congestion is encountered Upon receiving the congestion indication from the gNB, as depicted in the Figure 3, the UE can immediately discard packets with low importance in the buffer. The UE can keep discarding low importance packets regardless of expiry of discard timer until the end of congestion ). Feature “transmitting, by the network apparatus to the UE based on a second condition, a second command to cancel the PSI-based discard at the UE” of claim 1 (see SAMSUNG. R2-2305784 ( See Fig. 3 describing Congestion indication (w/o congestion ). As per claims 10, and 18-19, the same reasoning as for claim 1 applies, mutatis mutandis, to the subject matter of the corresponding independent claims 10 and 18-19. Therefore, claims 10 and 18-19 are rejected for the same reason set forth in paragraph above . Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103 07-06 AIA 15-10-15 In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status. 07-20-aia AIA 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. 07-20-aia AIA 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. 07-21-aia AIA Claim (s) 1, 10 and 18-19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over NOKIA. R2-2306565 in view of 3GPP TR 38.835 V18.0.1 (2023-04) . NOKIA. R2-2306565 (the whole document, in particular, Section 4) presents a 3GPP TSG-RAN WG2 contribution on Offline 204 on XR Discard. The document is the report of the offline email discussion: Clarify the options for PSI-based discard based on online discussion: "How does each option work?". 3GPP TR 38.835 V18.0.1 (2023-04) (the whole document, in particular, Sections 5.1.1, 5.3.2) presents the output of the study item on XR Enhancements for NR, which aims at investigating power saving and capacity enhancements techniques tailored for XR services, as well as means to provide XR-awareness in RAN. In particular, the enhancements for PDCP discard operation in uplink are presented in Section 5.3.2. The subject matter of independent claim 1 differs from the teachings of NOKIA. R2-2306565 in view of 3GPP TR 38.835 V18.0.1 (2023-04) in that NOKIA. R2-2306565 and do not explicitly disclose, at least, feature “transmitting, by the network apparatus to the UE based on a second condition, a second command to cancel the PSI-based discard at the UE” of claim 1. 3GPP TR 38.835 V18.0.1 (2023-04) on the other hand, achieved the aforementioned claimed limitations. Therefore, the subject matter of independent claim 1 is unpatentable over documents NOKIA. R2-2306565 in view of 3GPP TR 38.835 V18.0.1 (2023-04). Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to have combined the teachings of Nokia and 3GPP TR 38.835 V18.0.1 because that would have enhanced the versatility of Nokia by allowing it to effectively provide the options for PSI-based discard which aims at investigating power saving and capacity enhancements techniques tailored for XR services, as well as means to provide XR-awareness in RAN. In particular, the enhancements for PDCP discard operation in uplink As per claims 10, and 18-19, the same reasoning as for claim 1 applies, mutatis mutandis, to the subject matter of the corresponding independent claims 10 and 18-19. Therefore, claims 10 and 18-19 are rejected for the same reason set forth in paragraph above . Allowable Subject Matter 12-151-08 AIA 07-43 12-51-08 Claim s 5-6, 8-9, 14-15 and 17 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. 13-03-01 AIA The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: the prior art of record failed to show “ wherein the control PDU further includes a timer value indicating a duration during which the PSI-based discard is to be cancelled .” These claimed if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims would render claim 5 allowable over the prior art of record . The difference between the invention defined in dependent claim 5 and the closest prior art disclosed in ITRI. R2-2305457 is essentially that document ITRI. R2-2305457 does not disclose the features that in addition to including a flag value, the control PDU further includes a timer value indicating a duration during which the PSI-based discard is to be cancelled. The technical effect obtained by the difference between the invention defined in dependent claim 5 and the closest prior art disclosed in ITRI. R2-2305457is essentially that the reliability of cancelling the PSI-based discard is improved because the control PDU also indicates a duration during which a PSI-based discard is to be cancelled. The objective technical problem to be solved by the invention according to dependent claim 5 is therefore how to modify the teachings of document ITRI. R2-2305457 in order to improve the reliability of cancelling the PSI-based discard. The solution presented in dependent claim 5 to this objective technical problem is, in view of the prior art disclosed in document ITRI. R2-2305457, obvious to a person skilled in the art due to the following reasons: ITRI. R2-2305457 (Section 2.4) teaches: the network is able to dynamically change the value of discard timer for specific DRB via RRC signalling." and "When the UE receives the PDCP discarding deactivation indication, the UE stops the PDCP discarding procedure for XR traffic." Although document ITRI. R2-2305457 does not explicitly teach how to improve the reliability of cancelling the PSI-based discard by indicating a duration during which the PSI-based discard is to be cancelled, it is obvious for a person skilled in the art. Therefore, the subject matter of dependent claim 5 lacks an inventive step in view of ITRI. R2-2305457. The same reasoning as above for dependent claim 5 applies the subject matter of dependent claim 14, which lacks an inventive step in view of ITRI. R2-2305457 also. A similar reasoning as above for dependent claim 5 applies to the subject matter of dependent claims 8 and 17, which lacks an inventive step in view of ITRI. R2-2305457, The additional features of dependent claim 6 are related to transmitting, by the network apparatus to the UE, a control PDU including a threshold PSI value set to a highest allowable PSI value to indicate the second command to cancel the PSI-based discard. Although document ITRI. R2-2305457 does not explicitly refer to setting the threshold PSI value to the highest allowable PSI value to indicate cancelation of the PSI-based discard, using the highest/lowest parameter value for implicit indication is obvious to a person skilled in the art. Therefore, the subject matter of dependent claim 6 lacks an inventive step in view of ITRI. R2-2305457. The same reasoning as above for dependent claim 6 applies the subject matter of dependent claim 15, which lacks an inventive step in view of document ITRI. R2-2305457. Additional features of dependent claim 9 are related to defining that the second command (PSI-based discard cancellation) further overrides the duration during which the PSI-based discard is activated. Although document ITRI. R2-2305457 does not explicitly refer to cancelling the PSI-based discard at the UE before the end of the activation duration, it is obvious to a person skilled in the art. Therefore, the subject matter of dependent claim 9 lacks an inventive step in view of document ITRI. R2-2305457. In summary, the subject matter of dependent claims 2-9 and 11-17 lacks an inventive step over the prior art. Other Reference(s) Cited US 12108281 B2 describing "receiving, from the terminal, a first PDCP protocol data unit (PDU) via a primary radio link control (RLC) entity of the terminal," "generating a first PDCP protocol data unit (PDU) and submitting the first PDCP PDU to a primary radio link control (RLC) entity;" "transmitting the first PDCP PDU to the first base station and the second PDCP PDU to a second base station." US 8885615 B2 describing "generating at least one RLC PDU for a later TTI based on the selected RLC PDU data field size." ", XRLC PDU size))." "Method and apparatus for generating a radio link control protocol data unit for multi-carrier operation" US 20220038951 A1 describing "instructing the lower layer to discard the first data unit;" ", a first data unit with performing data compression algorithm to the first data unit; receive, from a network, a control data unit for resetting the data compression algorithm; instruct the lower layer to discard the first data unit" ": Radio Resource Control (RRC) protocol" US 20150043514 A1 describing "wherein the first data stored in the uplink buffers comprises at least one packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) service data unit (SDU) and at least one PDCP protocol data unit (PDU), and" transmitting the at least one PDCP PDU to the base station." "wherein the at least one PDCP SDU has not been uncompressed and the at least one PDCP PDU has been compressed using a robust header compression (ROHC) scheme." US 20210006644 A1 describing "processing the PDCP SDU or a data unit generated based on the PDCP SDU according to the discard timer." "the processing unit 320 is configured to process the PDCP SDU or a data unit generated based on the PDCP SDU according to the discard timer." "determining a duration of a discard timer according to the type of the PDCP SDU. US 20200359449 A1 describing "identifying that a PDCP discard timer of a third PDCP PDU is expired;" "Timer-based SDU discard (Timer-based SDU discard in uplink)" "performing a first PDCP processing for a PDCP service data unit (SDU) corresponding to the first PDCP PDU; US 9397791 B2 describing A user equipment for transmitting protocol data unit (PDU) in a mobile communication system, the user equipment comprising: " "transmit each second PDU to a network," "TABLE 3SNC/D/SControl PDU" US 20180317115 A1 describing "determining to discard a first PDCP PDU that is assigned an RLC header;" "determining to discard a first PDCP PDU that is assigned an RLC header; and" "The method 600 starts, and in one embodiment, the processor 405 determines 605 to discard a first PDCP PDU 250. The processor 405 may determine 605 to discard the first PDCP PDU 250 based on expiry of PDCP discard timer" Conclusion Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to FRANTZ COBY whose telephone number is (571)272-4017. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Thursday 7AM-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, Tonia Dollinger can be reached at (571) 272-4170. 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. /FRANTZ COBY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2459 May 13, 2026 Application/Control Number: 18/775,120 Page 2 Art Unit: 2459 Application/Control Number: 18/775,120 Page 3 Art Unit: 2459 Application/Control Number: 18/775,120 Page 4 Art Unit: 2459 Application/Control Number: 18/775,120 Page 5 Art Unit: 2459 Application/Control Number: 18/775,120 Page 6 Art Unit: 2459 Application/Control Number: 18/775,120 Page 7 Art Unit: 2459 Application/Control Number: 18/775,120 Page 8 Art Unit: 2459 Application/Control Number: 18/775,120 Page 9 Art Unit: 2459 Application/Control Number: 18/775,120 Page 10 Art Unit: 2459 Application/Control Number: 18/775,120 Page 11 Art Unit: 2459 Application/Control Number: 18/775,120 Page 12 Art Unit: 2459 Application/Control Number: 18/775,120 Page 13 Art Unit: 2459 Application/Control Number: 18/775,120 Page 14 Art Unit: 2459
Prosecution Insights