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 § 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.
Claims 18, 29-31 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Alfarhan (US 2023/0164773 A1) in view of Agiwal (US 2022/0201659 A1).
Regarding Claims 18, 31, Alfarhan discloses a method/apparatus for wireless communication (e.g. Fig. 1A-1D), the method implemented in a user equipment (UE) (e.g. Fig. 1A, and Paragraph [0022]) and the apparatus comprising: a transceiver (e.g. Fig. 1B and Paragraph [0039]); and a processing hardware (e.g. Fig. 1B and Paragraph [0040]) configured to: receive, from a radio access network (RAN) (e.g. Fig. 1A and Paragraph [0022]), a small data transmission (SDT) configuration (e.g. Fig. 2 Paragraph [0251] step 210); obtain an uplink (UL) grant during an SDT session (e.g. Paragraph [0092, 0093]); when the UE has UL data for transmission during the SDT session, transmit, to the RAN and using the UL grant (e.g. Fig. 2 and Paragraph [0251]), a first UL packet including at least a portion of the UL data (e.g. Fig. 2 and Paragraph [0252]); and when the UE does not have UL data for transmission during the SDT session, transmit, to the RAN and using the UL grant (e.g. Fig. 4 and Paragraph [0261, 0262]), a second UL packet including non-SDT data.
Alfrarhan fails to explicitly disclose to transmit a second UL packet including non-SDT data when the UE does not have UL data for transmission.
However, Agiwal teaches to transmit a second UL packet including non-SDT data when the UE does not have UL data for transmission (e.g Paragraph [0159-0160]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at time of the invention to incorporate transmitting non-SDT data as taught as Agiwal into method/apparatus of Alfarhan in order to handle SDT procedure failure or termination.
Regarding Claim 29, Alfarhan discloses the UL grant includes a configured UL grant (e.g. Paragraph [0092, 0093]).
Regarding Claim 30, Alfarhan discloses the UL grant includes a dynamic UL grant (e.g. Paragraph [0092, 0093]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 19-28, 32-37 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
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Tsai (US 2021/0337625 A1), discloses small data transmission;
Lei (US 2023/0262631 A1), discloses timing advance validation.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to YULIN SUN whose telephone number is (571)270-1043. The examiner can normally be reached 10AM - 6PM.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Jay Patel can be reached at 571-272-2988. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/YULIN SUN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2485
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