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 statements (IDS) submitted on 11/22/24, 6/13/25 and 8/20/25. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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)(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.
Claim(s) 1 – 3, 5 - 15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Laselva et al. (US Publication 2024/0080772) disclosed PCT/FI21/050744.
Regarding claims 1 and 15, Laselva teaches a method and an apparatus comprising at least one processor, and at least one memory including computer program code, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the apparatus to: (i.e. fig. 6b shows an wireless apparatus comprising a memory, processor and transceiver for executing programmed instructions; see paragraphs 102)
evaluate one or more criteria for relaxed measurement on one or more radio cells, wherein at least a subset of the one or more criteria are associated with at least one signal comprising at least one of: a wake-up signal, a wake-up signal beacon, and a signal measured by a wake-up receiver; (i.e. fig, 1 shows a UE (network apparatus) may determine whether a condition for relaxation of measurement conditions is met (element 104) after receiving the condition(s) from a network node (element 102); see paragraphs 52, 53) (See Also; the relaxation conditions are related to wakeup signaling; see paragraphs 53) and
determine, based on the evaluation, whether the relaxed measurement is allowed. (i.e. fig, 1 shows the relaxed measurement may be performed based upon the determination (element 108); see paragraphs 53 - 55)
Regarding claims 2, Laselva teaches the apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the at least subset of the one or more criteria are evaluated in response to fulfilling at least one of: a low-mobility criterion and a not-at-cell-edge criterion. (i.e. the relaxation criteria may be based on low-mobility or not-at-cell-edge; see paragraph 62)
Regarding claims 3, Laselva teaches the apparatus according to claim 1 wherein the one or more criteria are evaluated in response to a path loss of the at least one signal being above or equal to one or more first pre-defined thresholds. (i.e. Laselva discloses RLM (radio link monitoring) at a threshold to implement relaxed measuring, path loss is implicitly included in Radio Link Monitoring (RLM) because RLM evaluates actual received signal quality and error rates; see paragraph 36, 46, 47, 52)
Regarding claims 5, Laselva teaches the apparatus according to claim 1 wherein the one or more criteria comprise at least a criterion for a signal strength of the at least one signal being above or equal to one or more second pre-defined thresholds. (i.e. Laselva discloses RLM (radio link monitoring) at a threshold to implement relaxed measuring, path loss is implicitly included in Radio Link Monitoring (RLM) because RLM evaluates actual received signal quality and error rates; see paragraph 36, 46, 47, 52) (See Also; a threshold may include reference signal power; see paragraph 46, 47, 57)
Regarding claims 6, Laselva teaches the apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the one or more criteria comprise at least a criterion for a variation of the signal strength being less than or equal to one or more third pre-defined thresholds. (i.e. the thresholds for relaxed measurement may be configured by the network based upon required conditions; see paragraphs 51, 52, 55 – 57, 59)
Regarding claims 7, Laselva teaches the apparatus according to any preceding claim 1, wherein the one or more criteria comprise at least a criterion for receiving a pre-defined number of signals within a pre-defined time period. (i.e. a WUS wakeup signal may be utilized as a relaxation condition, including transmission periodicity of the preceding signal; see paragraph 48, 50, 59)
Regarding claims 8, Laselva teaches the apparatus according to claim 1,
wherein the one or more criteria comprise at least a criterion for a number of decoding failures associated with the at least one signal being below or equal to one or more fourth pre-defined thresholds. (i.e. this is a generic embodiment as Radio Link Monitoring (RLM) includes both path loss estimations and decoding failures, as it evaluates the quality of the downlink radio link between a user equipment (UE) and the network. As an example: one metric defined for RLM is Block Error Rate (BLER) wherein the UE measures the physical layer channel quality using Reference Signals. It maps these measurements to a hypothetical control channel transmission (PDCCH) and ff the estimated BLER exceeds a threshold (typically 10%), it counts as a decoding failure or an "out-of-sync" indication.)
Regarding claims 9, Laselva teaches the apparatus according to claim 1, further being caused to: initiate the relaxed measurement on the one or more radio cells in response to the one or more criteria being fulfilled based on the evaluation. (i.e. Figure 1 shows the relaxed measurements may be initiated on the network node in response to the condition being met; see paragraphs 53, 54)
Regarding claims 10, Laselva teaches the apparatus according to any of claims 1, further being caused to: stop the relaxed measurement on the one or more radio cells in response to the one or more criteria not being fulfilled based on the evaluation. (i.e. fig. 1 shows an evaluation of a condition for relaxed measurement (element 104), if the condition is not met, the relaxed measurement may not be performed; see paragraphs 53, 54)
Regarding claims 11, Laselva teaches the apparatus according to claim 10, further being caused to: transmit, to a network element, an indication indicating the stopping of the relaxed measurement. (i.e. if the relaxation condition ceases to be met, it triggers an indication to stop or exit relaxed measurement; see paragraph 58)
Regarding claims 12, Laselva teaches the apparatus according to claim 1
wherein the at least subset of the one or more criteria are applicable to any of the following: radio resource control connected state, radio resource control idle state, and radio resource control inactive state. (i.e. the relaxation of the RLM (radio link monitoring) measurements may be performed by a UE in an RRC connected state; see paragraph 46)
Regarding claims 13, Laselva teaches the apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the relaxed measurement comprises at least one of: radio resource management relaxation, radio link monitoring relaxation, and beam failure detection relaxation. (i.e. the relaxation of the RLM (radio link monitoring) measurements may be performed by a UE in an RRC connected state; see paragraph 46)
Regarding claims 14, Laselva teaches an apparatus comprising at least one processor, and at least one memory including computer program code, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the apparatus to: (i.e. fig. 6a shows a wireless apparatus comprising a memory, processor and transceiver for executing programmed instructions; see paragraphs 100)
indicate, to a user device, one or more criteria for relaxed measurement on one or more radio cells, wherein at least a subset of the one or more criteria are associated with at least one signal comprising at least one of: a wake-up signal, a wake-up signal beacon, (i.e. fig, 1 shows a UE (network apparatus) may determine whether a condition for relaxation of measurement conditions is met (element 104) after receiving the condition(s) from a network node (element 102); see paragraphs 52, 53) (See Also; the relaxation conditions are related to wakeup signaling; see paragraphs 53) and
a signal measured by a wake-up receiver of the user device. (i.e. fig, 1 shows the relaxed measurement may be performed based upon the determination (element 108); see paragraphs 53 - 55)
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 4 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 ROBERT J LOPATA whose telephone number is (571)270-5158. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 10-7 EST.
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ROBERT J. LOPATA
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2471
/ROBERT J LOPATA/
August 31, 2026Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2471
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