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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 11/05/2024 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Specification
The title of the invention is not descriptive. A new title is required that is clearly indicative of the invention to which the claims are directed. While the title anticipates “multiple RRC connections,” of a MUSIM UE, as readily understood by a person of ordinary skills in the art from the MUSIM capability, the claims are directed to only one base station and one NR target band. In addition, the multiple RRC connections of a MUSIM UE are subject matter of Application No.18/553,163 (same Assignee) presently under examination. Appropriate correction is requested to distinguish between these two applications.
Claim Objections
Claims 16 and 24 are objected to because of the following informalities:
1. "a current measurement gap requirement information is different from an indicated in a last transmission" should read “a current measurement gap requirement information is different from a[[n]] measurement gap requirement information indicated in a last transmission”;
2. “the current measurement gap requirement information is different from the indicated in the last transmission” should read “the current measurement gap requirement information is different from the measurement gap requirement information indicated in the last transmission;”
3. “the first information configures that the UE is allowed to provide assistance information of the MUSIM for a gap” is difficult to understand by a person of ordinary skills in the art in light of the Specification because the Specification does not offer any details on the meaning of “the UE is allowed to provide assistance information of the MUSIM for a gap.”
Claims 18 and 26 are objected to because of the following informalities:
“in case that the transmitting the another UE assistance information message” should be “in case that the transmitting of the another UE assistance information message”;
“perform[ing] the information to include a field” is difficult to understand by a person of ordinary skills in the art. Using “configuring by the [UE/network]” instead of “performing” may clarify what is required by the claim language.
Claims 21 and 29 are objected to because of the following informalities:
“a measurement gap is required for the UE to perform a measurement on the NR target band is identified” should read “a measurement gap [[is]] required for the UE to perform a measurement on the NR target band is identified.”
Appropriate corrections are required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112(a)
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112(a):
(a) IN GENERAL.—The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor or joint inventor of carrying out the invention.
Claims 16, 20, 24, 28, and their dependent claims are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) as failing to comply with the written description requirement. The claim(s) contains subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to reasonably convey to one skilled in the relevant art that the inventor or a joint inventor, at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention.
Regarding Claim 16, the limitation “the first information configures that the UE is allowed to provide assistance information of the MUSIM for a gap” is neither supported by the present Specification nor easily devised from the knowledge available in the art.
First, the Specification is silent as to any information sent by the network that would “allow” the UE to provide assistance information to the network (emphasis added). The Specification only discloses a “request message” from the network, such as a RRCReconfiguration message or a RRCResume message – See, e.g., [¶20] each of which may receive a response comprising UEAssistanceInformation if the UE meets one or more conditions to send such a message, as known in the art and explained further. Thus, the Specification does not support the required limitation.
Second, the general knowledge available in the art provides for a network to request UEAssistanceInformation comprising MUSIM gap information from the UE upon transmitting to the UE an RRC Information Element (otherConfig) comprising a musim-GapAssistanceConfig information field set to “setup” as explained in Regarding Claim 16 infra. This knowledge is in accord with Spec.:[¶99] (stating: “the first network apparatus (i.e., NW-A) (200a) informs the USIM-A whether to send gap requirements and/or gap and NCSG requirements when the MUSIM capability changes . . . using otherConfig” ).
Because “informing” is functionally different from “allowing” the limitation recited in Claims 16, 20, 24, and 28, lacks sufficient written description, therefore Claims 16, 20, 24, 28 and their dependent claims are rejected under 35 U.S.C. §112(a).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112(b)
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
Claims 16, 20, 24, 28, and their dependent claims, are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
Regarding Claims 16, 20, 24, and 28, each recites the language “provide assistance information of the MUSIM for a gap.” (emphasis added). The meaning of every term used in a claim should be apparent from the prior art or from the specification and drawings at the time the application is filed. Claim language may not be "ambiguous, vague, incoherent, opaque, or otherwise unclear in describing and defining the claimed invention." In re Packard, 751 F.3d 1307, 1311, 110 USPQ2d 1785, 1787 (Fed. Cir. 2014). Applicants need not confine themselves to the terminology used in the prior art, but are required to make clear and precise the terms that are used to define the invention whereby the metes and bounds of the claimed invention can be ascertained. During patent examination, the pending claims must be given the broadest reasonable interpretation consistent with the specification. In re Morris, 127 F.3d 1048, 1054, 44 USPQ2d 1023, 1027 (Fed. Cir. 1997); In re Prater, 415 F.2d 1393, 162 USPQ 541 (CCPA 1969); see also MPEP § 2173.05(a).
Here, the Specification does not define the term “MUSIM for a gap,” the term is not known in the art, hence a person of ordinary skills in the art would not know whether the “gap” pertains to a MUSIM operation or to a measurement operation. Because the Specification defines both types of operations, for examination purposes it is assumed, under the broadest reasonable interpretation consistent with the specification, that the limitation “provide assistance information of the MUSIM for a gap” requires the UE assistance information on either MUSIM gaps or measurement gaps.
Therefore, Claims 16, 20, 24, 28, and their dependent claims, are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) for indefiniteness.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102(a)(2)
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)(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 16-30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Selvaganapathy et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2025/0063413 (hereinafter Selvaganapathy).
Regarding Claim 16, Selvaganapathy teaches in Fig. 4 a method performed by a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system, the method comprising:
receiving, from a base station, a radio resource control (RRC) message including first information (because “Multiple universal subscriber identity module (SIM) (MUSIM) user equipment may benefit from enabling user equipment (UE) switching between network A (NTWKA), where the UE is in radio resource control (RRC) connected mode and network B (NTWK-B) where other USIM is in RRC-IDLE for enabling Idle mode operations with minimum impact to connected mode operation in NTWK-A,” using RRC as “a signaling procedure, for UE providing assistance information indicating need for MUSIM gaps followed by NW configuration of MUSIM gap” – See [¶0021] whereby “UEs may benefit from a gap in RRC connection on one USIM while the UE can perform idle/ inactive procedures on one or more other USIM” – See [¶0027]);
wherein the first information configures that the UE is allowed to provide assistance information of the MUSIM for a gap (“As shown in FIG. 1, network A can indicate, at 1, to the UE that MUSIM gaps are enabled by the network” – See [¶0023], whereby parameters for gap configuration “can be included in the MUSIM Gap configuration field within other-config” – See [¶0040] and Fig. 3 wherein UE behavior upon receiving otherConfig RRC Information Element is specified in § 5.3.5.9, 3GPP TS 38.331 V17.0.0 (2022-03), “Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; NR; Radio Resource Control (RRC) protocol specification (Release 17)” (hereinafter 3GPP TS 38.331)(provided in the IDS) providing, at page 104 that:
“if the received otherConfig includes the musim-GapAssistanceConfig:
2> if musim-GapAssistanceConfig is set to setup:
3> consider itself to be configured to provide MUSIM assistance information without leaving RRC_CONNECTED in accordance with 5.7.4”; and
whereby § 5.7.4 specifies at page 227 the RRC IE UEAssistanceInformation for the UE to inform the network of, inter alia, “its preference on the MUSIM gaps, or; its relaxation state for RLM measurements”)
identifying whether a current measurement gap requirement information is
different from a[[n]] measurement gap requirement information indicated in a last transmission of a UE assistance information message including information to indicate measurement gap requirement information of the UE associated with a multi-subscriber identity module (MUSIM) for a new radio (NR) target band; and in case that the current measurement gap requirement information is different from the measurement gap requirement information indicated in the last transmission of the UE assistance information message (e.g., “if the gap configurations of MUSIM and measurement gaps are overlapping, the connected mode operations may remain unaffected” – See [¶0028] but, “[o]n reception of MUSIM gap assistance information that cannot be pre-empted for measurement gaps, the network may either reconfigure the measurement gaps to avoid the overlap” or “may indicate to the UE in a radio resource control (RRC) reconfiguration (RRCReconfiguration) message that the UE can make use of the gap for NTWK-B operation for specific gap pattern if the gap overlaps with NTWK-A measurement gaps. A new parameter, ‘skip-MG-for-NSG' is included in the Gap-configuration for specific gap pattern” – See [¶0032] e.g., “[t]he reconfiguration can be provided by NTWK-A if NTWK-A deduces that giving away one measurement gap out of N measurement gaps, as per the current periodicity,
does not have a major impact on connected mode measurements” – See [¶033]; therefore, the UE determines a change in the current measurement gap requirement information since the last transmission of a UE assistance information message including information to indicate measurement gap requirement information of the UE associated with a multi-subscriber identity module (MUSIM) through the UEAssistanceInformation RRC procedure as explained supra),
transmitting, to the base station, another UE assistance information message including the information to indicate the measurement gap requirement information of the UE associated with the MUSIM (§ 5.7.4, 3GPP TS 38.331, specifies at page 228 that “[a] UE capable of relaxing its RLM measurements of a cell group in RRC_CONNECTED state shall initiate the [UE Assistance Information] procedure for providing an indication of its [new] relaxation state for RLM measurements upon . . . change of its relaxation state for RLM measurements in RRC_CONNECTED state” whereby a person of ordinary skills in the art would appreciate that a change in the relaxation state for RL measurements is a change in the configured measurement gaps, e.g., skip more or skip fewer measurements gaps) for the NR target band.
Although Selvaganapathy does not explicitly teach the limitation “for the NR target band,” Selvaganapathy teaches RRM measurements whereby, on the one hand “the UE may receive and measure SSB from network B” – See [¶0023] whereby a person of ordinary skills in the art would appreciate that a SSB may be a Cell-Defining SSB (CD-SSB) with a band-specific sub-carrier spacing – See, e.g., § 5.2.4, 3GPP TS 38.300 V17.0.0 (2022-03), “Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; NR; NR and NG-RAN Overall Description; Stage 2 (Release 17)” (hereinafter 3GPP TS 38.300) at page 34-35; and, on the other hand, § 5.5.2.9, 3GPP TS 38.331 specifies, at page 168, that measurement gaps are configured in NR separately for FR1 and FR2, i.e., per NR target band whereby NR frequency band groups for FR1 and FR2 are known to a person of ordinary skills in the art from, e.g., §3.5, 3GPP TS 38.133 V17.5.0 (2022-03), “Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; NR; Requirements for support of radio resource management (Release 17)” (hereinafter 3GPP TS 38.133) specifying in Table 3.5.2-1, at page 41, the NR frequency band groups for FR1, and in Table 3.5.3-1, at page 42, the NR frequency band groups for FR2).
Therefore, Claim 1 is anticipated by Selvaganapathy.
Regarding Claim 17, dependent from Claim 16, Selvaganapathy further teaches the method of claim 16, further comprising:
identifying whether a measurement gap is required for the UE to perform a measurement on the NR target band (“if the gap configurations of MUSIM and measurement gaps are overlapping” – See [¶0028] i.e., the UE is configured with measurement gaps, it is possible that “NTWK-A deduces that giving away one measurement gap out of N measurement gaps, as per the current periodicity, does not have a major impact on connected mode measurements” – See [¶0033] and “the network may indicate to the UE in a radio resource control (RRC) reconfiguration (RRCReconfiguration) message that the UE can make use of the gap for NTWK-B operation for specific gap pattern if the gap overlaps with NTWK-A measurement gaps” – See [¶0032]; therefore the UE identifies a measurement gap is not required for performing a measurement on the NR target band).
Therefore, Claim 17 is anticipated by Selvaganapathy.
Regarding Claim 18, dependent from Claim 16, Selvaganapathy further teaches the method of claim 16, further comprising:
in case that the transmitting of the another UE assistance information message is initiated to provide the information (e.g., because the relaxation of measurement gaps has changed, the UEAssistanceInformation procedure is initiated with the new measurement gaps configuration (and MUSIM gaps) as explained in Regarding Claim 16 supra),
configuring the information to
include a field indicating measurement gap requirement information for a NR intra-frequency measurement (“sending an assistance information message to the first network requesting to skip connected mode measurements for a first period of time” – See [¶0050] whereby “performing measurements gaps [is] less critical when the user equipment is not at cell edge and/or the user equipment is in low mobility,” – See [¶0033] i.e., for NR intra-frequency measurements; see also 3GPP 38.331 specifying at page 397-400 the UEAssistanceInformation message “used for the indication of UE assistance information to the network” comprising the rlm-MeasRelaxationState-r17 and rrm-MeasRelaxationFulfilment-r17 information fields together with ul-GapFR2-Preference-r17 for gaps in UL scheduling for measurement purposes and musim-Assistance-r17 information described in Fig. 2 of Selvaganapathy) and
set the measurement gap requirement information for each supported NR cell (in this “technical approach to overriding for cell reselection measurements” when “MUSIM gap for idle mode RRM measurements overlap with MG, the UE can continue to do the measurements with limited gap configuration for serving cell measurements” – See [¶0035] i.e., for each cell supported by the NR NWRK/base station, as opposed to “a need to trigger neighboring cell measurements on other frequencies using this gap for cell reselection [measurements, whereby] the UE may need to make use of the gaps that were shared” – See id.; see also Table 9.1.2-3, at page 42-43, 3GPP TS 38.133, showing Gap Pattern Configurations supported by the UE with NR standalone operation (with single carrier, NR CA and NR-DC configuration).
Therefore, Claim 18 is anticipated by Selvaganapathy.
Regarding Claim 19, dependent from Claim 18, Selvaganapathy further teaches the method of claim 18, further comprising:
identifying whether a field indicating the NR target band is configured (e.g., the UL-GapFR2-Preference-r17 field in the UEAssistanceInformation IE supra comprises the ul-GapFR2-PatternPreference-r17 configuration for the NR FR2 band),
wherein at least one of RRC reconfiguration complete message or RRC resume complete message includes the information to indicate the measurement gap requirement information of the UE associated with the MUSIM for the NR target band (a person of ordinary skills in the art would know that UEAssistanceInformation IE may be sent in completion of a RRCReconfiguration request – See, e.g., Figure 5.7.4.1-1, 3GPP TS 38.331 at page 227 and §5.3.5.3, at page 81, stating in Note4 that “The UE sets the content of UEAssistanceInformation according to latest configuration (i.e. the configuration after applying the RRCReconfiguration message) and latest UE preference. The UE may include more than the concerned UE assistance information within the UEAssistanceInformation according to 5.7.4.2. Therefore, the content of UEAssistanceInformation message might not be the same as the content of the previous UEAssistanceInformation message”; see also the RRCReconfigurationComplete message “used to confirm the successful completion of an RRC connection reconfiguration,” at page 360-365, comprising the RRCReconfigurationComplete IEs indicating needForGapsInfoNR-r16 “used to indicate the measurement gap requirement information of the UE for NR target bands” and/or needForNCSG-InfoNR-r17 “to indicate the measurement gap and NCSG requirement information of the UE for NR target bands”).
Therefore, Claim 19 is anticipated by Selvaganapathy.
Regarding Claims 20-23, Selvaganapathy teaches in Fig. 5 a method performed by a base station in a wireless communication system, the method comprising: the steps recited in Claims 16-19 using the same language only from the perspective of the base station to which the UE is connected. Because each of the Claims 16-19 is anticipated by Selvaganapathy, Claims 20-23 are also anticipated by Selvaganapathy.
Regarding Claim 24, Selvaganapathy teaches in Fig. 6 a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system (“apparatus 20 may be a node or element in a communications network or associated with such a network, such as a UE” – See [¶0071]), the UE comprising:
a transceiver; and a controller coupled with the transceiver (“apparatus 20 may include one or more processors, one or more computer readable storage medium (for example, memory, storage, or the like), one or more radio access components (for example, a modem, a transceiver, or the like)” – See [¶0072]),
wherein the controller is configured to: execute the method claimed in Claim 16 using the same language (“The instructions stored in memory 24 may include program instructions or computer program code that, when executed by processor 22, enable the apparatus 20 to perform tasks as described herein” – See [¶0075]) Because Claim 16 is anticipated by Selvaganapathy, Claim 24 is also anticipated by Selvaganapathy.
Regarding Claims 25-27, dependent from Claim 24, each claim merely recites the same limitations as in Claims 17-19, using the same language, only applied to the UE of Claim 24. Because each of the Claim 17-19 and 24 is anticipated by Selvaganapathy, Claims 25-27 are anticipated by Selvaganapathy.
Regarding Claim 28, Selvaganapathy teaches in Fig. 6 a base station in a wireless communication system (“apparatus 10 may be a network node, satellite, base station, a Node B, an evolved Node B (eNB), 5G Node B or access point, next generation Node B (NG-NB or gNB) . . . associated with a radio access network, such as a LTE network, 5G or NR” – See [¶0059]), the base station comprising:
a transceiver; and a controller coupled with the transceiver (“Apparatus 10 may further include or be coupled to a transceiver 18 configured to transmit and receive information” – See [¶0065] and “apparatus 10 may include a processor 12 for processing information and executing instructions or operations” – See [¶0061]),
wherein the controller is configured to: execute the method claimed in Claim 20 using the same language (“apparatus 10 may be configured to perform one or more of the processes depicted in any of the flow charts or signaling diagrams described herein, such as those illustrated in FIGS. 1-5, or any other method described” – See [¶0070]). Because Claim 20 is anticipated by Selvaganapathy, Claim 28 is anticipated by Selvaganapathy.
Regarding Claims 29 and 30, dependent from Claim 28, they merely recite the steps of the method in Claim 21 and Claim 23, respectively, only executed by the base station of Claim 28. Because each of the Claims 21, 23 and 28 is anticipated by Selvaganapathy, Claims 29 and 30 are anticipated by Selvaganapathy.
In sum, Claims 16-30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. §102(a)(2) as anticipated by Selvaganapathy.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
Yang et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2022/0014955 discloses measurement gap reconfiguration for a MUSIM UE;
Sabouri-Sichani et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2023/0042849 discloses coordination and use of two different services and activities for MUSIM UEs using an exemplary proposed scheme that has the UE inform to the gNB which periods the UE is not available to be scheduled for UL transmission based on "type 1" for the long-term indication (e.g., where the indication accuracy would be at frame level) and "type 2" for dynamic indications of unavailability ( e.g., where the indication accuracy would be at slot level or lower);
Kim, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2025/0048154 discloses method and apparatus for requesting and activating gap configuration related to bandwidth part by a terminal in wireless mobile communication system;
Purkayastha et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2023/0300923 discloses RRC connections associated with two SIMS have common connections that can both be reconfigured by providing one SIM with the configuration for its RRC connection along with an indication that the other SIM is to use the common configuration for its RRC configuration;
Lovlekar et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2026/0075675 discloses a MUSIM UE configured to stay synchronized with a network whereby the UE sends to a first network a first message comprising an estimated time duration during which the UE conducts the high priority activity related to the second SIM, and receives, from the first network, a second message indicating a time period during which the first network will retain a connection context for the connection associated with the first SIM in an RRC Inactive state;
Report of 3GPP TSG RAN WG2 meeting #118-e Online, R2-2206901, May, 2022, referencing NR-17 Tdoc contributions on Agenda Items 6.0.3 (Gaps coordination) and 6.3 (MultiSIM) published before the effective filing date of the present application, including R2-2204838, 38.306 CR 0703, Title: “Release-17 UE capabilities based on R1 and R4 feature lists (TS38.306),” Source: Intel Corporation, published April 2022 describing in §4.2, at page 8, “The network needs to respect the signalled UE radio access capability parameters when configuring the UE and when scheduling the UE” and § 4.2.2, at page 12, adding two new capability parameters related to MUSIM including: musimGapPreference-r17 that “[i]ndicates whether the UE supports providing MUSIM assistance information with MUSIM gap preference as defined in TS 38.331”; and the corresponding R2-2204839, 38.331 CR2998, Title: “Release-17 UE capabilities based on R1 and R4 feature lists (TS38.331),” Source: Intel Corporation, published April 2022 (hereinafter 3GPP R2-2204839) specifying, at page 97-100, the RRC Information Element UE-NR-Capability “used to convey the NR UE Radio Access Capability Parameters, see TS 38.306,” including musimGapPreference-r17 of type ENUMERATED; and R2-2204892, 38.331 CR 3014, Title: “Correction of NR RRC support for MUSIM,” Source: vivo, draft published May 3, 2022, specifying, at page 51, that RRCReconfiguration message may include the musim-GapConfig whereby a musim-GapID is “included in the received musim-GapToAddModList that is part of the current UE configuration” and defining the new IE MUSIM-GapInfo;
DRAFT Meeting Report for TSG RAN WG4 meeting: 103-e Electronic Meeting, Online, 09/05/2022 to 20/05/2022, R4-22xxxxx, available at https://www.3gpp.org/ftp/tsg_ran/wg4_radio/TSGR4_103-e/Reports?sortby=daterev, referencing NR-17 Tdoc contributions on Agenda Item 5.2.2 (Support for Multi-SIM devices for LTE/NR) published before the filing date of the present application, including R4-2210275, Title: “Email discussion summary for [203] LTE_NR_MUSIM_maintenance,” Source: vivo, published May 2, 2022, discussing a mandatory gap pattern for MUSIM UE;
3GPP TS 38.300 V17.0.0 (2022-03), “Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; NR; NR and NG-RAN Overall Description; Stage 2 (Release 17)”;
3GPP TS 38.133 V17.5.0 (2022-03), “Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; NR; Requirements for support of radio resource management (Release 17)” ;
3GPP TS 38.331 V17.0.0 (2022-03), “Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; NR; Radio Resource Control (RRC) protocol specification (Release 17)” (hereinafter 3GPP Ts 38.331) also specifying in §5.6, at page 211 “how the UE compiles and transfers its UE capability information upon receiving a UECapabilityEnquiry from the network” and further specifying, in § 5.7.4, at page 227, the RRC IE UEAssistanceInformation for the UE to inform the network of, inter alia, “its preference on the MUSIM gaps, or; its relaxation state for RLM measurements,”;
Chakrapani, “On the Design Details of SS/PBCH, Signal Generation and PRACH in 5G-NR,” IEEE Access, Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/ACCESS.2020.3010500, date of publication July 20, 2020, date of current version August 5, 2020.
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/L.G.G./ Examiner, Art Unit 2478
/JOSEPH E AVELLINO/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2478
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