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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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)(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.
Claims 1, 2, 18, 19, 28 and 29 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Maamari et al. (US Pub. 2024/0090018).
Regarding claims 1 and 28, Maamari teaches a threshold determination method, performed by a user equipment (UE), comprising: determining a numerical value corresponding to the UE (“single threshold for the UE” in [0142]); determining a parameter threshold of the UE based on the numerical value (“threshold configured for RedCap UEs” in [0141]); and performing a corresponding operation based on a size relationship between a first measurement value corresponding to a reference signal and the parameter threshold (“When the RSRP measurement is greater than the threshold, the UE indicates it as a RedCap UE after a RA procedure” in [0141]).
Regarding claims 2 and 19, Maamari teaches the parameter threshold comprises a reference signal receiving power (RSRP) threshold (“RSRP threshold” in [0144]).
Regarding claims 18 and 29, Maamari teaches a threshold determination method, performed by a network device, comprising: configuring a numerical value corresponding to each of a plurality of user equipment (UE) (“single threshold for the UE” in [0142]) with a distinct antenna configuration (“threshold configured for RedCap UEs” in [0141]), wherein the numerical value corresponding to each UE is used to determine a parameter threshold of the respective UE (“When the RSRP measurement is greater than the threshold, the UE indicates it as a RedCap UE after a RA procedure” in [0141]).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 12 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Maamari et al. in view of Jain et al. (US Pub. 2017/0223768).
Regarding claim 12, Maamari teaches the limitations in claim 1 as shown above. Maamari, however, does not teach performing the corresponding operation based on the size relationship between the first measurement value corresponding to the reference signal and the parameter threshold comprises: initiating retransmission in case that the first measurement value corresponding to the reference signal of the UE is less than the parameter threshold of the UE. Jain teaches performing the corresponding operation based on the size relationship between the first measurement value corresponding to the reference signal and the parameter threshold comprises: initiating retransmission in case that the first measurement value corresponding to the reference signal of the UE is less than the parameter threshold of the UE (“When, for example, the RSRP level is relatively low (e.g., less than some predetermined RSRP threshold value), … the adjustable timeout interval(s) may be set to a relatively larger value (e.g., longer intervals between successive retransmissions of the wireless message) ... For example, retransmission of an unacknowledged wireless message may be set to time instances at n, 2n, and 4n (from the time instance at which the current wireless message was first sent by the originating sender device, i.e., the first wireless device), where n may be an initial timeout value (e.g., provided in milliseconds) for the adjustable timeout interval” in [0031]). It would have been obvious to one skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Maamari to have performing the corresponding operation based on the size relationship between the first measurement value corresponding to the reference signal and the parameter threshold comprises: initiating retransmission in case that the first measurement value corresponding to the reference signal of the UE is less than the parameter threshold of the UE as taught by Jain in order to handle possibly weak network transmission environment [0031].
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3, 5- 9, 11, 13-15, 17, 20 and 22 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
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CLEMENCE S HAN whose telephone number is (571)272-3158. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8AM-5PM EST.
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/CLEMENCE S HAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2414
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