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 .
DETAILED ACTION
Claims 1-5 and 11 are presented for examination. Claims 6-10 are canceled in the preliminary amendment.
Information Disclosure Statement
The IDS filed on 12/20/2024 and 5/21/2026 are considered.
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 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)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
(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, 3-4 and 11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Yuan et al (Yuan), US 2025/0063632.
As per claim 1, Yuan teaches the invention including a user equipment (pp. 0061), comprising:
A processor (pp. 0061); and
A memory in electronic communication with the processor (pp. 0064), wherein instructions stored in the memory are executable to:
When a first Time Alignment Timer (TA timer) associated with a first Timing Advance Group (TAG) expires (pp. 0050, 0091),
In a case the UE determines a serving cell is configured with the first and a second TAGs, and a second TA timer associated with the second TAG is not running, or
In a case the UE determines the serving cell is configured with only the first TAG, for the serving cell (pp. 0091), a first group of actions including
flushing all Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) buffers (pp. 0091);
notifying Radio Resource Control (RRC) to release configured Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) (pp. 0091);
notify RRC to release configured Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) (pp. 0091);
In a case the UE determines the serving cell is configured with the first and the second TAG, and the second TA timer associated with the second TAG is running (pp. 0096), for the serving cell, perform a second group of actions including
Clearing configured downlink assignment with the first TAG (pp. 0099-0100);
Clearing configured uplink grant associated with the first TAG (pp. 0099-100).
As per claim 3, Yuan teaches the invention as claimed in claim 1. Yuan further teaches the first group of actions also include clearing any configured downlink assignment and configured uplink grant (pp. 0091); clearing any Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) resource for semi-persistent Channel-State Information (CSI) reporting (pp. 0091); maintaining Timing advance between downlink and uplink (NTA) of the first TAG (pp. 0091).
As per claim 4, Yuan teaches the invention as claimed in claim 1. Yuan further teaches the second group of actions also includes clear PUSCH resource for semi-persistent CSI reporting associated with the first TAG (pp. 0099-0100); maintaining Timing advance between downlink and uplink (NTA) of the first TA (pp. 0099-0100).
As per claim 11, Yuan teaches the invention including a method executed by a user equipment comprising the following steps:
When a first Time Alignment Timer (TA timer) associated with a first Timing Advance Group (TAG) expires (pp. 0050, 0091),
In a case the UE determines a serving cell is configured with the first and a second TAGs, and a second TA timer associated with the second TAG is not running, or
In a case the UE determines the serving cell is configured with only the first TAG, for the serving cell (pp. 0091), a first group of actions including
flushing all Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) buffers (pp. 0091);
notifying Radio Resource Control (RRC) to release configured Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) (pp. 0091);
notify RRC to release configured Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) (pp. 0091);
and
In a case the UE determines the serving cell is configured with the first and the second TAG, and the second TA timer associated with the second TAG is running (pp. 0096), for the serving cell, perform a second group of actions including
Clearing configured downlink assignment with the first TAG (pp. 0099-0100);
Clearing configured uplink grant associated with the first TAG (pp. 0099-100).
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.
Claim(s) 2 and 5 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yuan et al (Yuan), US 2025/0063632, in view of Dinan, US 2017/006640.
As per claim 2, Yuan teaches the invention as claimed in claim 1. Yuan does not further teach wherein
When a first Time Alignment Timer (TA timer) associated with a first Timing Advance Group (TAG) expires,
In a case the UE determines a Special Cell (Spcell) is configured with more than one PTAGs, and a second TA timer associated with the second PTAG is not running, or
In a case the UE determines the Spcell is not configured with more than one PTAGs,
Perform a third group of actions including
Considering all running time Alignment Timers as expired;
Maintaining Timing advance between downlink and uplink (NTA) of all Tags.
Dinan teaches when a first Time Alignment Timer (TA timer) associated with a first Timing Advance Group (TAG) expires (pp. 0107, 0122, 0217),
In a case the UE determines a Special Cell (Spcell) is configured with more than one PTAGs, and a second TA timer associated with the second PTAG is not running, or
In a case the UE determines the Spcell is not configured with more than one PTAGs (pp. 0119-0120, 0202, 0217),
Perform a third group of actions including
Considering all running time Alignment Timers as expired (pp. 0122, 0217);
Maintaining Timing advance between downlink and uplink (NTA) of all Tags (pp. 0218, 0263: A MAC entity stores or maintains NTA upon expiry of associated timeAlignmentTimer).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to combine the teaching of Yuan and Dinan and further support various TAG configurations to group the TAGs to include PTAG and STAGs with their associated time Alignment Timers (Dinan, pp. 0120; figure 8).
As per claim 5, Yuan and Dinan teach the invention as claimed in claim 2. Dinan further teaches the third group of actions also includes: Flushing all HARQ buffers for all Serving Cells (pp. 0122, 0217); Notifying RRC to release configured PUCCH for all Serving Cells (pp. 0122, 0217); Notifying RRC to release configured SRS for all Serving Cells (pp. 0122, 0217); Clearing any configured downlink assignments and configured uplink grants (pp. 0122, 0217). Yuan further teaches the action to also include clearing a PUSCH resource for semi-persistent CSI reporting (pp. 0091, 0099-0100).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Yuan et al, US 2025/184927
Da Silva et al, US 2024/0023045
Abedini et al, US 2020/0084819
Park et al, US 2019/0053183
Jeong, US 2018/0332644
Kim et al, US 2015/0078286
A shortened statutory period for reply to this Office action is set to expire Three MONTHS from the mailing date of this action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KENNY S LIN whose telephone number is (571) 272-3968.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Noel Beharry can be reached on 571-270-5630. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is (571) 273-8300.
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KENNY S. LIN
Examiner
Art Unit 2416
/Kenny S Lin/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2416
September 29, 2026
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