DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA . This action is in response to the communication filed on 11/20/2025. Claims 7-12 are pending.
Examiner Note
The examiner is here to serve, to assist, and to help applicant to the very best of his ability. The Primary Patent Examiner position is a position of serving and it is an honor to externally serve the applicant and attorney and to internally serve junior examiners and supervisors. The goal of the examiner is to work with and assist applicant to move cases along as efficiently as possible.
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Priority
This application claims priority of PCT/JP2022/025082, filed 6/23/2022. The assignee of record is NTT DOCOMO, INC. The listed inventor(s) is/are: Matsumura, Yuki; Nagata, Satoshi; Sun, Weiqi; Wang, Jing; Chen, Lan.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement(s) (IDS) submitted on 12/9/2024 & 4/15/2026 is/are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the IDS(s) is/are being considered by the examiner.
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.
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.
Claim(s) 7, 10-12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Farmanbar et al. (US 20200100201 A1, published 3/26/2020; hereinafter Far) in view of Ng et al. (US 20120300714 A1, published 11/29/2012; hereinafter Ng).
For Claim 7, Far teaches a terminal comprising: a receiver that receives a timing advance command in a random access response, for a serving cell configured with a plurality of transmission and reception points (Far ¶ 0047 UE may receive an initial timing advance from the base station in a Random Access Response (RAR) command during a random access procedure
Far ¶ 0048 The signals transmitted from the UE to the multiple network devices may experience different propagation delays. In one embodiment, the multiple network devices are base stations (sometimes known as Transmit and Receive Points (TRPs)) located in different positions. The UE transmits the first signal to a first base station, and transmits the second signal to a second base station. The first base station and the second base station may have the same NR cell ID
Please see Far Fig. 2 below, thank you:
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a processor that, when a configuration of timing advance for each of the plurality of transmission and reception points is supported (Far ¶ 0044 a different timing advance may be configured for each TAG. Please also see Far ¶ 0045-0048, thank you).
Far does not explicitly teach determines, based on a field included in a medium access control (MAC) payload for the random access response, a transmission and reception point, among the plurality of transmission and reception points, to which the timing advance command is applied.
However, Ng teaches determines, based on a field included in a medium access control (MAC) payload for the random access response, a transmission and reception point, among the plurality of transmission and reception points, to which the timing advance command is applied (Far teaches the configured association with respective transmit and receive points and Ng teaches payload-field placement and target determination.
Ng ¶ 0136 Method A: The TAG ID or cell ID that indicates the target TAG/cell for the RAR is included in MAC RAR payload. A design example is shown in FIG. 12, where the TAG/carrier indicator field (i.e., the TIF or CIF) is added and serves as the indication of the TAG/cell. The MAC RAR with TIF/CIF is of a different size compared to the legacy MAC RAR, but it has a fixed payload size. MAC RARs with TIF/CIF can be appended at the end of the MAC PDU for RAR, as shown in FIG. 13A. Please also see Ng ¶ 0147.
Please see screenshot of NG Figs. 12, 13A & 13B below, thank you:
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Far and Ng are analogous art because they are both related to random access responses that associate timing advance commands with timing advance groups.
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to use the RAR techniques of Ng with the system of Far because the UE is able to determine the target TAG/cell of the RAR without ambiguity (Ng ¶ 0147).
For Claim(s) 10 & 12, the claim(s) is/are substantially similar to claim 1 and therefore is/are rejected for the same reasoning set forth above.
For Claim 11, Far teaches a base station comprising: a transmitter that transmits a timing advance command in a random access response, for a serving cell configured with a plurality of transmission and reception points; and a processor that, when a configuration of timing advance for each of the plurality of transmission and reception points is supported (Far ¶ 0075-0076, 0047-0048, Fig. 2), Far does not explicitly teach indicates, by a field included in a medium access control (MAC) payload for the random access response, a transmission and reception point, among the plurality of transmission and reception points, to which the timing advance command is applied, however, Ng teaches indicates, by a field included in a medium access control (MAC) payload for the random access response, a transmission and reception point, among the plurality of transmission and reception points, to which the timing advance command is applied (Ng ¶ 0136, Figs. 12, 13A, & 13B).
Claim(s) 8-9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Far-Ng as applied to claim 7 above, and further in view of 3GPP (3GPP TS 38.321 version 16.8.0 Release 16, 2022-05; hereinafter 3GPP321).
For Claim 8, Far-Ng teaches the terminal according to claim 7, Far-Ng does not explicitly teach wherein the processor determines, based on a field included in a message for a special cell, a transmission and reception point, among the plurality of transmission and reception points, to which a timing advance command received in the message is applied.
However, 3GPP321 teaches wherein the processor determines, based on a field included in a message for a special cell, a transmission and reception point, among the plurality of transmission and reception points, to which a timing advance command received in the message is applied (3GPP321 5.1.3, 5.1.4 preamble transmission on the SpCell and processing of the RAR timing command for the cell where the preamble was transmitted).
3GPP321 and Far-Ng are analogous art because they are both related to timing advance commands.
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to use the special-cell random access techniques of 3GPP321 with the system of Far-Ng to provide for random-access preamble transmissions on the SpCell and process the received timing-advance command for the serving cell where the preamble was transmitted (3GPP321 5.1.3).
For Claim 9, Far-Ng teaches the terminal according to claim 7, Far-Ng does not explicitly teach terminal according to claim 7, wherein the processor controls to start or restart a time alignment timer associated with the transmission and reception point to which the timing advance command is applied, however, 3GPP321 teaches wherein the processor controls to start or restart a time alignment timer associated with the transmission and reception point to which the timing advance command is applied (3GPP321 5.2 MAC entity applies the timing command and starts/restarts the associated TAG timer when Random Access Preamble was not selected by the MAC entity among the contention-based Random Access Preamble).
Citation of Pertinent Prior Art
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure is listed below, thank you:
i. 3GPP (3GPP TS 38.213 version 17.1.0 Release 17, 2022-05; hereinafter 3GPP213)
Please see PTO-892 for additional listing of relevant prior art made of record but not relied upon, thank you.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning communications from the examiner should be directed to Michael Keller at (571)270-3863 or michael.keller@uspto.gov. If attempts to reach the examiner are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Moo Jeong can be reached on 571-272-9617.
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/MICHAEL A KELLER/
Primary Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2418
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