CTNF 18/779,568 CTNF 82529 DETAILED ACTION This action is in response to the application filed on 22 July 2024. Claims 1-20 are under examination. 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. Double Patenting 08-33 AIA The nonstatutory double patenting rejection is based on a judicially created doctrine grounded in public policy (a policy reflected in the statute) so as to prevent the unjustified or improper timewise extension of the “right to exclude” granted by a patent and to prevent possible harassment by multiple assignees. A nonstatutory obviousness-type double patenting rejection is appropriate where the conflicting claims are not identical, but at least one examined application claim is not patentably distinct from the reference claim(s) because the examined application claim is either anticipated by, or would have been obvious over, the reference claim(s). See, e.g., In re Berg , 140 F.3d 1428, 46 USPQ2d 1226 (Fed. Cir. 1998); In re Goodman , 11 F.3d 1046, 29 USPQ2d 2010 (Fed. Cir. 1993); In re Longi , 759 F.2d 887, 225 USPQ 645 (Fed. Cir. 1985); In re Van Ornum , 686 F.2d 937, 214 USPQ 761 (CCPA 1982); In re Vogel , 422 F.2d 438, 164 USPQ 619 (CCPA 1970); and In re Thorington , 418 F.2d 528, 163 USPQ 644 (CCPA 1969). A timely filed terminal disclaimer in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(c) or 1.321(d) may be used to overcome an actual or provisional rejection based on a nonstatutory double patenting ground provided the conflicting application or patent either is shown to be commonly owned with this application, or claims an invention made as a result of activities undertaken within the scope of a joint research agreement. Effective January 1, 1994, a registered attorney or agent of record may sign a terminal disclaimer. A terminal disclaimer signed by the assignee must fully comply with 37 CFR 3.73(b). Claims 1-20 are rejected on the ground of nonstatutory obviousness-type double patenting as being unpatentable over the claims of U.S. Patent No. 12,047,977 (the ‘977 Patent). Although the conflicting claims are not identical, they are not patentably distinct from each other as shown below. The patented claims recite a base station receiving an MBS interest indication message from a terminal, processing the message including MBS frequencies and MBS services, and transmitting MBS configuration information. The instant claims recite source-base-station and target-base-station operations that process the same MBS interest indication information during handover, including forwarding the information to another base station and utilizing the information for handover-related operations. Modifying the patented base station functionality to include forwarding the received MBS interest information to a target base station and processing the information at the target base station during handover would have been an obvious implementation choice for supporting mobility of a terminal receiving MBS services. Therefore the instant claims are not patentably distinct from claims 9-16 of U.S. Patent No. 12,047,977. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103 07-20-fti The following is a quotation of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action: (a) A patent may not be obtained though the invention is not identically disclosed or described as set forth in section 102 of this title, if the differences between the subject matter sought to be patented and the prior art are such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains. Patentability shall not be negatived by the manner in which the invention was made. 07-20-02 AIA This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims under 35 U.S.C. 103(a), the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned at the time any inventions covered therein were made absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and invention dates of each claim that was not commonly owned at the time a later invention was made in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 103(c) and potential 35 U.S.C. 102(e), (f) or (g) prior art under 35 U.S.C. 103(a). 07-23 AIA The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co. , 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103(a) 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 nonobviousness. 07-21-aia AIA Claim s 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over vivo (R2-2007035, "MBS Service Continuity for RRC Connected UE," Aug. 2020) in view of Chen et al. (US 2018/0206080 A1), both as recited in the IDS . Regarding claim 1, A method performed by a source base station supporting a multicast and broadcast services (MBS) in a wireless communication system, vivo discloses a source node participating in a handover procedure for maintaining MBS service continuity (Section 2.2, Figure 1). receiving, from a user equipment (UE), an interest indication message for the MBS; vivo discloses that when a UE triggers MBS Interest Indication, the UE reports its newest interested or receiving TMGI list and priority information to its serving cell (Section 2.2, Figure 1, Step 2). and transmitting, to a target base station, the interest indication message, vivo discloses that the source node carries the MBS interest indication in a HO REQUEST message to target node(s) (Section 2.2, Figure 1, Step 3; Proposal 5). wherein the interest indication message for the MBS includes a list of MBS frequencies and a list of MBS services that the UE is interested to receive, vivo discloses MBS interest indication information including interested service information but does not expressly disclose both a list of MBS frequencies and a list of MBS services . Chen discloses an MBMSInterestIndication message including an mbms-FreqList identifying MBMS frequencies of interest and an mbms-Services field identifying MBMS services of interest. It would have been obvious to modify vivo to include the frequency-list and service-list information taught by Chen in order to provide complete MBS interest information to the target base station during handover and facilitate MBS service continuity. Regarding claim 2, The method of claim 1, wherein the list of MBS services is set based on interested priority orders for the MBS services. Chen discloses MBMSInterestIndication information including priority information associated with MBMS services. Further, vivo discloses reporting priority information between MBS services and unicast services (Proposal 3; Proposal 5). It would have been obvious to arrange or set the reported MBS services according to priority order in order to enable the network to preferentially preserve higher-priority MBS services during handover and resource allocation. Regarding claim 3, The method of claim 1, wherein the interest indication message is transmitted to the target base station during a handover. vivo discloses that the source node carries the MBS interest indication in a HO REQUEST message to target node(s) during handover preparation (Section 2.2, Figure 1, Step 3; Proposal 5). Therefore, vivo teaches transmitting the interest indication message to the target base station during a handover. Regarding claim 4, The method of claim 1, wherein the interest indication message further includes priority information between a list of MBS frequencies and any unicast bearers and multicast bearers. vivo discloses reporting priority information between MBS service(s) and unicast service(s) (Proposal 3; Proposal 5). Chen further discloses priority information as part of the MBMSInterestIndication message. It would have been obvious to include such priority information together with the reported MBS frequency information in order to assist the network in balancing MBS reception and unicast bearer operation. Regarding claim 5, The method of claim 1, further comprising: transmitting, to the UE, MBS configuration information, vivo discloses that the target node can provide proper configurations to guarantee MBS service continuity and that MBS configuration of target cell(s) should be carried in handover signaling (Section 2.2, Figure 1, Step 3; Proposal 6). wherein the MBS configuration information includes at least one of a discontinuous reception (DRX) configuration, a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) configuration, or a radio link control (RLC) configuration. vivo discloses transmitting MBS configuration information to support MBS service continuity. DRX, PDCP, and RLC configurations were well-known radio protocol configurations used for wireless bearer establishment and maintenance. It would have been obvious to include such protocol-layer configurations within the transmitted MBS configuration information because they represent known configuration parameters used to control MBS reception and bearer operation. Regarding claim 6, The method of claim 1, further comprising: in case that the UE is no longer receiving or the UE is no longer interested in receiving the MBS services, receiving, from the UE, a second interest indication message. vivo discloses that a UE may report or update its MBS Interest Indication upon a change of interest, session, or permission and that the serving node receives the updated indication information (Section 2.2, LTE MBMS Interest Indication discussion). Therefore, vivo teaches receiving a second interest indication message when the UE is no longer receiving or interested in receiving the MBS services. Regarding claim 7, A method performed by a target base station supporting a multicast and broadcast services (MBS) in a wireless communication system, vivo discloses a target node participating in a handover procedure for maintaining MBS service continuity for multicast and broadcast services in a wireless communication system (Section 2.2, Figure 1, Step 3). the method comprising: receiving, from a source base station, an interest indication message for the MBS; vivo discloses that the source node carries the MBS interest indication in a HO REQUEST message to target node(s) (Section 2.2, Figure 1, Step 3; Proposal 5). and as a response to the reception of the interest indication message for the MBS, transmitting, to the source base station, a handover command; vivo discloses that the target node provides proper configurations for MBS service continuity and that MBS configuration of target cell(s) should be carried in HO message to reduce UE MBS reception interruption (Section 2.2, Figure 1, Step 3; Proposal 6). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to transmit handover-response signaling containing handover-related information and configuration information from the target node to the source node in response to receipt of the MBS interest indication as part of a conventional handover procedure. wherein the interest indication message for the MBS includes a list of MBS frequencies and a list of MBS services that a user equipment (UE) is interested to receive. vivo discloses MBS interest indication information including interested TMGI list information and priority information, but does not expressly disclose both a list of MBS frequencies and a list of MBS services. Chen discloses an MBMSInterestIndication message including an mbms-FreqList identifying MBMS frequencies of interest and an mbms-Services field identifying MBMS services of interest. It would have been obvious to incorporate the frequency-list and service-list information taught by Chen into the handover-related MBS interest indication procedure of vivo in order to provide complete MBS interest information for maintaining service continuity during handover. Regarding claim 8, The method of claim 7, wherein the list of MBS services is set based on interested priority orders for the MBS services. vivo discloses reporting priority information between MBS service(s) and unicast service(s) (Proposal 3; Proposal 5), and Chen discloses MBMSInterestIndication information including MBMS service information and priority information. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to arrange the reported MBS services according to priority order so that the network could preferentially preserve higher-priority MBS services during handover and resource allocation. Regarding claim 9, The method of claim 7, wherein the interest indication message is received from the source base station during a handover. vivo discloses that the source node carries the MBS interest indication in a HO REQUEST message to target node(s) during a typical Xn handover procedure regarding MBS service continuity (Section 2.2, Figure 1, Step 3; Proposal 5). Therefore, vivo teaches receiving the interest indication message from the source base station during a handover. Regarding claim 10, The method of claim 7, wherein the interest indication message further includes priority information between a list of MBS frequencies and any unicast bearers and multicast bearers. vivo discloses reporting priority information between MBS service(s) and unicast service(s) (Proposal 3; Proposal 5). Chen further discloses MBMSInterestIndication procedures in which priority information is reported relative to MBMS frequencies of interest and established unicast bearers. It would have been obvious to include such priority information together with the reported MBS frequency information in order to assist the network in balancing MBS reception and unicast bearer operation. Regarding claim 11, A source base station supporting a multicast and broadcast services (MBS) in a wireless communication system, the source base station comprising: a transceiver; and a controller configured to: receive, from a user equipment (UE), an interest indication message for the MBS, and transmit, to a target base station, the interest indication message, wherein the interest indication message for the MBS includes a list of MBS frequencies and a list of MBS services that the UE is interested to receive. Claim 11 recites substantially identical subject matter as recited in claim 1, except in apparatus form, and is thus similarly rejected. Regarding claims 12-16, claims 12-16 recite substantially identical subject matter as recited in claims 2-6, respectively, except in apparatus form, and are thus similarly rejected. Regarding claim 17, A target base station supporting a multicast and broadcast services (MBS) in a wireless communication system, the target base station comprising: a transceiver; and a controller configured to: receive, from a source base station, an interest indication message for the MBS, and as a response to the reception of the interest indication message for the MBS, transmit, to the source base station, a handover command, wherein the interest indication message for the MBS includes a list of MBS frequencies and a list of MBS services that a user equipment (UE) is interested to receive. Claim 17 recites substantially identical subject matter as recited in claim 7, except in apparatus form, and is thus similarly rejected. Regarding claims 18-20, claims 18-20 recite substantially identical subject matter as recited in claims 8-10, respectively, except in apparatus form, and are thus similarly rejected . Conclusion 07-96 AIA The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant’s disclosure (see form 892) . Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to LUAT T PHUNG whose telephone number is (571)270-3126. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F 9 AM - 6 PM. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Asad Nawaz can be reached on (571) 272-3988. 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. /Luat Phung/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2464 Application/Control Number: 18/779,568 Page 2 Art Unit: 2468 Application/Control Number: 18/779,568 Page 3 Art Unit: 2468 Application/Control Number: 18/779,568 Page 4 Art Unit: 2468 Application/Control Number: 18/779,568 Page 5 Art Unit: 2468 Application/Control Number: 18/779,568 Page 6 Art Unit: 2468 Application/Control Number: 18/779,568 Page 7 Art Unit: 2468 Application/Control Number: 18/779,568 Page 8 Art Unit: 2468 Application/Control Number: 18/779,568 Page 9 Art Unit: 2468 Application/Control Number: 18/779,568 Page 10 Art Unit: 2468
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