DETAILED ACTION
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 .
The instant office action is in response to communication filed on 09/20/2024.
Claims 41-60 are pending of which independent claims are 41, 52, and 59.
The IDS(s) submitted on 9/20/24, 10/07/24, and 1/07/2026 have been considered.
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.
The factual inquiries 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(s) 41, 42, 52, 53, and 59 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lee et al (US 20250280452 A1) in view of Qiao (US 20250151118 A1)
Regarding claim 41, Lee discloses A user equipment (UE) configured for operation in a fifth-generation (5G) new radio (NR) network (i.e. See paragraph 161 UE in NR network), the UE comprising: processing circuitry; and memory (see paragraph 10 the UE comprising memory and processor), wherein as part of a random-access procedure, the processing circuitry is configured to: decode a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) scheduled by a downlink control information (DCI) format that includes a random-access response (RAR) message with an RAR uplink (UL) grant (see paragraphs 55-56 wherein a RAR message is received in a random access procedure shown in Fig. 4A), the RAR UL grant scheduling a Msg3 physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmission (See paragraphs 55-57 and Fig. 4A where step 1705 where PUSCH is scheduled for transmission in message 3); configure the UE to transmit the Msg3 PUSCH if a time between a last symbol of the PDSCH conveying the RAR message and a first symbol of the Msg3 PUSCH is not smaller than a time value, wherein the time value is based on whether the UE is an See paragraph 157 proposal 4 indicating if the UE type RedCap UE then the time value is relaxed time between a last symbol of the PDSCH conveying the RAR message and a first symbol of the Msg3 PUSCH and meets the threshold and MSG3 PUSCH is transmitted)
Lee fails to disclose the UE is an eRedCap type.
Qiao in the same endeavor discloses the UE is an eRedCap type involved in the transmission of MSG3. (See paragraphs 40 and 42-43 using eRedCap UEs in random access).
In view of the above, having Lee’s random access procedure and then given the well- established teaching of Qiao’s techniques for using eRedCap type UEs in random access procedure, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to modify Lee’s random access procedure as taught by Qiao’s techniques for using eRedCap type UEs in random access procedure, since Qiao states in paragraph 45 that the modification results in allowing Resource(s) corresponding to the random access message may be determined based on the processing capability of the terminal device, so that the network device may determine a random access processing time delay based on the resources to schedule the terminal device, thereby preventing that a reduced-capability terminal device with a relaxed processing capability cannot process or prepare for Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) or Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) in time and achieving the normal sending of the random access message, which is conducive to saving resources and avoiding waste of resources.
Regarding claim 42, Lee modified by Qiao discloses the UE of claim 41, but fails to disclose wherein the time value is increased when the UE is configured as an eRedCap UE.
Qiao discloses wherein the time value is increased when the UE is configured as an eRedCap UE. (See paragraphs 40 and 42-43 using eRedCap UEs in random access time value is increased)
In view of the above, having Lee’s random access procedure and then given the well- established teaching of Qiao’s techniques for using eRedCap type UEs in random access procedure, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to modify Lee’s random access procedure as taught by Qiao’s techniques for using eRedCap type UEs in random access procedure, since Qiao states in paragraph 45 that the modification results in allowing Resource(s) corresponding to the random access message may be determined based on the processing capability of the terminal device, so that the network device may determine a random access processing time delay based on the resources to schedule the terminal device, thereby preventing that a reduced-capability terminal device with a relaxed processing capability cannot process or prepare for Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) or Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) in time and achieving the normal sending of the random access message, which is conducive to saving resources and avoiding waste of resources.
Regarding claim 52, claim 52 is rejected in the same scope as claim 41.
Regarding Claim 53, claim 53 is rejected in the same scope as claim 42.
Regarding Claim 59, claim 59 is rejected in the same scope as claim 41.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 43-51, 54-58 and 60 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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/HABTE MERED/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2474
