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 .
DETAILED ACTION
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)(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.
(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.
Claims 1-6 and 14- 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Chen et al (US 2021/0099926, “Chen”).
Re claims 1 and 15, Chen discloses a master node (MN) (figure 2, element 204) determining whether an operating status of a conditional primary secondary cell group cell (PSCell) change (CPC) procedure of a user equipment (UE) (figure 2, element 202) will change (figure 2, step 210); and transmitting a first message to a secondary node (SN) (figure 2, element 208), wherein the first message includes a first indication for indicating a change of the operating status of the CPC procedure, in response to determining that the operating status of the CPC procedure will change (figure 2, step 212; paragraph [0122]).
Re claims 2 and 16, Chen discloses a configuration related to the CPC procedure is not released by the UE upon the UE switching to a PSCell during the CPC procedure (paragraphs [0060] and [0084]).
Re claims 3 and 17, Chen discloses the change of the operating status of the CPC procedure includes at least one of: an initiation of the CPC procedure; a start of the CPC procedure; a stop of the CPC procedure; a suspending of the CPC procedure; a resumption of the CPC procedure; or a successful PSCell change during the CPC procedure (paragraph [0128]).
Re claims 4 and 18, Chen discloses the UE is connected to the first SN when receiving a configuration related to the CPC procedure, and wherein the at least one processor is configured to cause the MN to transmit a second message including the first indication to a second SN associated with a candidate PSCell of the UE (paragraph [0129]).
Re claims 5 ad 19, Chen discloses the first SN is associated with a candidate PSCell of the UE during the CPC procedure, wherein the at least one processor is configured to cause the MN to receive a third message including the first indication from a SN to which the UE is connected when receiving a configuration related to the CPC procedure (figure 2, step 214).
Re claim 6, Chen discloses the at least one processor is configured to cause the MN to receive a first reconfiguration complete message associated with the CPC procedure from the UE (figure 2, step 218).
Re claims 14 and 20, Chen discloses a secondary node (SN) (figure 2, element 208) communicating a first message with a master node (MN) (figure 2, element 204), wherein the first message includes a first indication for indicating a change of an operating status of a conditional primary secondary cell group cell (PSCell) change (CPC) procedure of a user equipment (UE) (figure 2, steps 212 and 214; paragraphs [0122] and [0123]).
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 of this title, 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.
Claims 9-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chen in view of Purkayastha et al (US 2022/0322171, “Purkayastha”).
Re claim 9, Kim discloses all of the limitations of the base claim, but fails to disclose the MN to receive a fifth message including the first indication from a sixth SN associated with a current serving PSCell of the UE or from a seventh SN to which the UE is connected when receiving a configuration related to the CPC procedure. However, Purkayastha discloses performing conditional PSCell change with additional Secondary Nodes (figure 3, elements 325 and 330). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Chen to add a plurality of SN of Purkayastha so that CPC procedure of UE would be performed for the benefit of providing conditional PSCell change with a given SN.
Re claim 10, the modified system of Chen discloses the change of the operating status of the CPC procedure includes at least one of: a stop of the CPC procedure; a suspending of the CPC procedure; or a resumption of the CPC procedure (paragraph [0128] of Chen).
Re claim 11, the modified system of Chen discloses in response to the change of the operating status of the CPC procedure including a stop of the CPC procedure, the at least one processor is configured to cause the MN to release one or more configurations of all PSCells related to the CPC procedure (paragraph [0084] of Chen); or keep a connection between the UE and a current serving PSCell of the UE and to release one or more configurations of other PSCells related to the CPC procedure.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 7, 8, 12 and 13 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 Hong Cho whose telephone number is 571-272-3087. The examiner can normally be reached on Mon-Fri during 8 am to 4 pm.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner's supervisor, Hassan Phillips can be reached on 571-272-3940. 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).
/HONG S CHO/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2467
