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 .
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.
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.
Claims 1 and 9-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Gerami et al. (WO 2023/075655).
Regarding claim 1, Gerami discloses a method for measuring a common signal for a terminal (figs. 8-9), comprising: determining whether a current terminal is a master terminal in a terminal cluster to which the current terminal belongs (steps 900, 902A and 902C; page 26, line 20 through page 27, line 19); and acquiring, when the current terminal is not the master terminal, first common signal data measured by the master terminal in the terminal cluster (902A and 902C; note: “measured” in its broadest reasonable interpretation is obtaining information from a received signal; specification of the instant application, page 3, line 36 and page 4, lines 5-6 (“measurement to obtain information”); note: 902A and 90C indicate information to provide a coordinator role and the group of WCDs), and acquiring second common signal data corresponding to the current terminal according to the first common signal data (fig. 8, step 810; page 24, lines 23-30; note: the coordinator WCD sends sidelink data to the group of WCDs).
Regarding claim 9, these limitations are rejected on the same ground as claim 1. In addition, Gerami discloses a terminal (fig. 13; page 33, lines 9-18 and 29-32), comprising a memory, a processor, a program stored on the memory and executable on the processor, and a data bus for implementing connection and communication between the processor and the memory, the program is configured to cause, when executed by a processor, the processor to perform the method of claim 1.
Regarding claim 10, these limitations are rejected on the same ground as claim 1. In addition, Gerami discloses a non-transitory storage medium (figs. 13-14; page 33, lines 9-18 and 29-32, and page 34, lines 3-22), located at a computer readable storage, wherein the storage medium stores one or more programs, and the one or more programs can be executed by one or more processors to implement the method of claim 1.
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 2, 11 and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Gerami in view of Kwak et al. (US 2020/0229189).
Regarding claim 2, Gerami discloses the method for measuring the common signal for the terminal according to claim 1, wherein after determining whether the current terminal is the master terminal in the terminal cluster to which the current terminal belongs (steps 900, 902A and 902C; page 26, line 20 through page 27, line 19), the method comprises: when the current terminal is the master terminal to obtain the first common signal data (steps 900-902A; page 25, lines 2-9 and page 26, line 20 through page 27, line 19) and sending the first common signal data to a secondary terminal in the terminal cluster (fig. 8, step 810; page 24, lines 23-30; note: the coordinator WCD sends sidelink data to the group of WCDs).
However, Gerami fails to disclose switching to a carrier bandwidth including common broadcast information to perform common signal measurement. Kwak discloses switching to a Uu BWP for communication with a network node, where the Uu BWP is different from a SL BWP (para. 111; note: Uu BWP for receiving downlink control information from a base station; note: broadcast information in the broadest reasonable interpretation is information that is transmitted in a BWP; specification of the instant application, page 6, lines 8-11 (“a carrier bandwidth including common broadcast information includes but is not limited to a BWP including CD-SSB”). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have switching to a carrier bandwidth including common broadcast information to perform common signal measurement in the invention of Gerami. The motivation to have the modification and/or well-known benefits of the modification include, but are not limited to, providing separate frequency resources for communication with a base station and peer devices as is known in the art (Kwak, fig. 9 and paras. 111-112; MPEP 2143(I)(A)(B)(C)(D) - note: e.g., applying known techniques having predictable results).
Regarding claims 11 and 18, these limitations are rejected on the same ground as claim 2.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-8, 12-17 and 19-20 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. Sharma et al. (US 2023/0130297) discloses a RedCap UE for measuring SSBs by switching BWPs (fig. 7 and para. 76). Aldana et al. (US 2020/0120458) discloses a leader device for sharing a radio measurement with other devices (figs. 49A-49B, 52-53, 55A-55B and 62, and para. 554).
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/Kevin C. Harper/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2462
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