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 .
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.
Priority
The instant application is the national stage entry under 35 U.S.C. 371 of Application No. PCT/JP2023/025338, having claims 1-108 and claiming priority to Japan Patent Application No. 2022-118616, filed 26 July 2022. In a preliminary amendment filed on 16 December 2024, claims 22-108 were cancelled. In a supplementary preliminary amendment filed on 4 April 2025, claims 1-21 were also cancelled and claims 109-117 were added. Claims 109-117 have been examined.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on 16 December 2024 and 23 October 2025 were filed before the mailing date of the first action on the merits. The submissions are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are 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.
Claims 109-111 and 115-117 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by U.S. Patent Application No. 2024/0019518 to Phuyal et al. (hereinafter Phuyal).
As per claim 109, Phuyal discloses a method of a User Equipment (UE) (see abstract), the method comprising:
receiving a configuration associated with a beam corresponding to an altitude from a Radio Access Network (RAN) (see paragraphs 69-70 and 119-120 and figure 4, Step 410); and
selecting a beam based on information about an altitude and the configuration (see paragraphs 110 and 123).
As per claims 110 and 111, Phuyal further discloses the configuration is transmitted in a configuration associated with a measurement report which is used in a procedure associated with a mobility, i.e. the UE has an aerial UE function (see paragraphs 86 and 116).
As per claim 115, Phuyal discloses a User Equipment (UE)(see abstract) comprising:
at least one memory; and at least one processor coupled to the at least one memory (see paragraph 6) and configured to:
receive a configuration associated with a beam corresponding to an altitude from a Radio Access Network (RAN) node (see paragraphs 69-70 and 119-120 and figure 4, Step 410); and
select a beam based on information about an altitude and the configuration (see paragraphs 110 and 123).
As per claims 116 and 117, the configuration is transmitted in a configuration associated with a measurement report which is used in a procedure associated with a mobility, i.e. an aerial UE function.
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.
Claims 112-114 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Phuyal in view of U.S. Patent Application No. 2019/0182730 to Yeh et al. (hereinafter Yeh)
Regarding claim 112, Phuyal discloses a method of a first Radio Access Network (RAN) node, the method comprising:
transmitting a configuration associated with a beam corresponding form a RAN to an altitude to the UE (see paragraphs 69-70 and 119-120 and figure 4, Step 410).
Phuyal, however, does not discuss handovers between cells, including also transmitting information about a flight path of a User Equipment (UE) to a second RAN node in a procedure associated with a mobility of the UE.
Yeh discloses an analogous aerial vehicle cellular handover system, which is necessary when a UE goes beyond the range of its original cell (see abstract), in which the (flight) route information received in a measurement report by a Source eNB (i.e. a RAN) may be forwarded to the target cell (Target eNB in figure 3) upon handover, in order to allow for the target cell to be prepared sooner (see paragraph 76; also see figures 3 and 4 and paragraph 87).
Therefore it would have obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to have modified the invention of Phuyal to have a Source eNB forward a UE’s filight route to a Target eNB, as per Yeh, so that it could be prepared sooner for a handover.
Regarding claim 113, the configuration is transmitted in a configuration associated with a measurement report which is used in the procedure associated with a mobility (for an aerial vehicle, see abstract).
Regarding claim 114, wherein the configuration causes the UE to select a beam corresponding to an altitude of the UE (see paragraphs 110 and 123).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MATTHEW E HENEGHAN whose telephone number is (571)272-3834. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8-5.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Michael Fuelling can be reached at (571)270-1367. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/MATTHEW E HENEGHAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3992
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