DETAILED ACTION
This office action is in reply communication filed on 09/12/2024.
Claim 1 is pending.
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 § 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 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) 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.
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 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.
Claim 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 unpatentable over SHIMODA et al. (US 2022/0287003) in view of Da Silva et al. (US 2024/0107409).
Regarding claim 1, SHIMODA discloses a apparatus [see Fig. 2, 8; user equipment 202], comprising:
at least one processor [see Fig. 8, ¶ 148; control unit 310]; and
at least one memory [see Fig. 8, ¶ 148; transmission data buffer unit 303] storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to:
receive information of transmission schedule from a second cell [see Fig. 27, ¶ 436; receive SS block (ST1602) and system information (ST2307)/(information of transmission schedule) from a gNB #2/second cell (ST1602 and ST1607 of Fig. 16, ¶ 238];
determine, based on the received transmission schedule, that transmissions from the second cell with a gap configuration of a first cell [see Fig. 27, ¶¶ 350, 374; UE determine based on the information of the received synchronization signal, the information (6) configuration, that the active base station may not perform transmission and reception with the UE only at the timing of the SS block received by the UE by using the information],
wherein the apparatus is in radio resource control (RRC) connected state with respect to the first cell [see Fig. 27, ¶¶ 356, 433; wherein the UE 202 is in radio resource control (RRC) connected state with respect to the gNB #1/ (first cell)];
transmit to the second cell an indication that the transmissions from the second cell cannot be received based on the transmission schedule [see Fig. 28, ¶ 441; transmit to the gNB #2 /(second cell) an PRACH/(indication that the transmissions from the second cell cannot be received based on the SS block (ST1602) and system information (ST2307)/(transmission schedule)]; and
receive information of a modified transmission schedule from the second cell [see Fig. 28, ¶ 442; receive RAR (First Modification (5) information)/(information of a modified transmission schedule) from the gNB #2 /(second cell); see ¶ 402, the inactive base station can change the timing of the synchronization signal, the system information, and/or the paging].
SHIMODA does not explicitly disclose wherein the apparatus is capable of receiving from one cell at a time; determine, based on the received transmission schedule, “that transmissions from the second cell cannot be received within limits set by a gap configuration of a first cell”.
However, Da Silva discloses wherein the apparatus is capable of receiving from one cell at a time [see ¶ 66; when all Rx processing units/chains are configured to be used in one of the networks/PLMN can only receive transmissions from one PLMN at a time];
determine, based on the received transmission schedule, that transmissions from the second cell cannot be received within limits set by a gap configuration of a first cell [¶¶ 65, 76; determining that the entry condition of an event is fulfilled and determining a neighbor cell is a triggered cell, e.g., if the neighbor cell fulfills the entry condition of an event like A3 and/or A5, indicating that this may be a good candidate neighbor cell to be a target for a handover, wherein the handover command (e.g., RRC Reconfiguration including a reconfiguration with sync) including a gap configuration (e.g., a measurement gap configuration within measConfig of IE MeasConfigNR; also see ¶¶ 151-152].
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention was made to provide “wherein the apparatus is capable of receiving from one cell at a time; determine, based on the received transmission schedule, that transmissions from the second cell cannot be received within limits set by a gap configuration of a first cell” as taught by Da Silva in the system of SHIMODA, so that it would provide channel quality and feedback information, performs neighboring cell measurements and measurement reporting, acquires system information, and performs immediate minimization of drive test (MDT) measurement together with available location reporting [see Da Silva; ¶ 7].
Conclusion
In additional to references cited that are used for rejection as set forth above, KIM (US 2022/0272662) is also considered as relevant prior arts for rejection of in claim 1 (See KIM; Figs. 3, ¶¶ 76-91, 180-186).
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/PHONG LA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2469
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