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)(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) 47, 50-51, 53-57, 59-63 and 65-67 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102a2 as being anticipated by Ishi et al. WO 2021/066018 A1.
Claims 47 and 65:
Ishi discloses a method of a User Equipment (UE), the method comprising: receiving, from a Master Node (MN) in dual connectivity, a conditional reconfiguration which includes Secondary Node (SN) counter values (See figs. 51-52, UE receives reconfiguration from a MN in dual connectivity including at least one counter); and deriving a security key for subsequent mobility using a first unused SN counter value selected from the SN counter values (See figs. 51-52, “The at least one counter and the first master key may be used for derivation of a second master key”).
With regards to claim 65, a memory; and a processor (See fig. 53, processor and memory).
Claims 50, 56 & 62:
Ishi discloses that the subsequent mobility includes a conditional PSCell change (See para 178, PSCell).
Claims 51, 57 & 63:
Ishi discloses that each of the SN counter values is sk-Counter (See page 112 and para 195, SK counter).
Claims 53 and 66:
Ishi discloses a method of a Radio Access Network (RAN) node which acts as a Master Node (MN) in dual connectivity, the method comprising: sending, to a User Equipment (UE), a conditional reconfiguration which includes Secondary Node (SN) counter values (See figs. 51-52, MN in dual connectivity sends reconfiguration to a UE including at least one counter), wherein a security key for subsequent mobility is derived in the UE using a first unused SN counter value selected from the SN counter values (See figs. 51-52, “The at least one counter and the first master key may be used for derivation of a second master key”).
With regards to claim 66, a memory; and a processor (See fig. 53, processor and memory).
Claim 55:
Ishi discloses deriving security keys corresponding to the SN counter values; and sending, to an SN, an Xn message which includes the security keys (See fig. 41 and para 175, “The secondary node key K.SN 156 derived in the Master gNodeB 22 may be sent to the secondary node 160 using the SN Addition Request for SN addition, as shown in by way of example in Fig. 41”).
Claims 59 and 67:
Ishi discloses a method of a Radio Access Network (RAN) node which acts as a Secondary Node (SN) in dual connectivity, the method comprising: receiving, from a Master Node (MN), an Xn message which includes security keys corresponding to SN counter values (See fig. 41 and para 175, “The secondary node key K.SN 156 derived in the Master gNodeB 22 may be sent to the secondary node 160 using the SN Addition Request for SN addition, as shown in by way of example in Fig. 41”), wherein a security key for subsequent mobility is derived in the UE using a first unused SN counter value selected from the SN counter values (See figs. 51-52, “The at least one counter and the first master key may be used for derivation of a second master key”).
With regards to claim 67, a memory; and a processor (See fig. 53, processor and memory).
Claim 60:
Ishi discloses choosing the first unused SN counter value of the UE (See figs. 51-52, “The at least one counter and the first master key may be used for derivation of a second master key”).
Claim 61:
Ishi discloses selecting an appropriate security key based on the SN counter values (See fig. 41 and para 175, “The secondary node key K.SN 156 derived in the Master gNodeB 22 may be sent to the secondary node 160 using the SN Addition Request for SN addition, as shown in by way of example in Fig. 41”).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
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) 52, 58 & 64 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ishi et al. in view of Chandrashekar et al. US 2025/0106724 A1
Claim 52, 58 & 64:
Ishi doesn’t disclose that the dual connectivity is Multi-Radio Dual Connectivity (MR- DC).
Chandrashekar discloses that the dual connectivity is Multi-Radio Dual Connectivity (MR- DC) (See para 99, “, the UE is in a multi-radio dual connectivity (MR-DC) …”).
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 Ishi with the teachings of Chandrashekar to improve the method disclosed by Ishi by including the feature of MR-DC. The motivation to combine would have been to allow compatibility among different technologies.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 48, 49 & 54 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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HASHIM S. BHATTI
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2472
/HASHIM S BHATTI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2475
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