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 .
The preliminary amendment filed 1/29/25 has been entered.
Claims 21-40 are pending, after the entry of the preliminary amendment.
Information Disclosure Statement
The IDS statements filed to date have been 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.
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) 21, 31, and 39 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cui et al., US 2025/0071589, (“Cui”), in view of Yuan et al., US 2025/0203474, (“Yuan”).
Regarding claim 1, Cui teaches “An apparatus for a user equipment (UE) configured for operation in a fifth- generation new radio (5G NR) network, the apparatus comprising: processing circuitry; and memory, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to (Fig. 3, UE 106; processor 302, memory 306):
encode a UE capability information element for transmission to the network indicating that the UE has a capability for performing inter-RAT measurements without measurement gaps (Fig. 5, steps 506, 508; paragraph nos. 0099, “In 506, the wireless device may determine whether it has the capability to perform any or all of the inter-RAT measurement(s) without a measurement gap”, 0102, “In 508, the wireless device may provide capability information indicating whether the wireless device is capable of performing the inter-RAT measurements without a measurement gap. The capability information may include information indicating whether the wireless device is capable of performing inter-RAT measurements that are within a current active bandwidth part without a measurement gap”, 0118, “a new UE capability indication may be introduced, which may be referred to as “InterRATMeas-NoGap”, “InterRATMeas-NoGap-E-UTRAN”, or according to any of various other possible naming conventions. The UE capability indication may indicate whether the UE can perform inter-RAT LTE measurements without measurement gaps”);
decode signalling from the network, the signalling to configure the UE to perform inter- RAT measurements (Fig. 5, step 504; paragraph no. 0097, “In 504, the cellular base station may configure the wireless device to perform one or more inter-RAT measurements, which may include at least a “first” inter-RAT measurement. For example, the wireless link may operate according to LTE, and the first measurement may be for a NR carrier frequency, or the wireless link may operate according to NR, and the first measurement may be for a LTE carrier frequency”, 0118, “A new flag indication from the network to the UE may also be introduced, which may be referred to as “InterRATConfig-NoGap”, “InterRATConfig-NoGap-E-UTRAN”, or according to any of various other possible naming conventions. If the field is set to true, the UE may be configured to perform inter-RAT LTE measurement without measurement gaps”);
wherein when the UE is configured with a measurement gap pattern comprising measurement gaps, the processing circuitry is to:
configure the UE to perform an inter-RAT measurement outside of the measurement gaps when there is no scheduling restriction (paragraph no. 0108, “Otherwise, if the wireless device can support mixed numerology, it may be the case that no such scheduling restriction or communication interruption is applied by either the cellular base station or the wireless device, at least according to some embodiments”; as an alternative grounds of rejection, note also that paragraph nos. 0097, 0118 disclose that the base station configures the UE to perform the inter-RAT measurements without a measurement gap without mentioning a scheduling restriction associated with these measurements, thus also teaching the negative limitation “when there is no scheduling restriction”), and
configure the UE to perform the inter-RAT measurement within the measurement gaps” (paragraph no. 0118, “Otherwise, it may be the case that the inter-RAT LTE measurement is performed within measurement gaps”).
Cui does not teach the limitation “when there is a scheduling restriction” in relation to the performing of the inter-RAT measurement within the measurement gaps as recited in claim 21.
Yuan teaches that a scheduling restriction may be applied with the measurement gap when making inter-frequency measurements, see paragraph no. 0098.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of this claimed invention to modify Cui by incorporating the teachings of Yuan to facilitate the inter-RAT measurements, especially when a reference signal is outside of an active downlink BWP or when the active downlink BWP associated with the reference signal is different from an initial downlink BWP, as suggested by Yuan in paragraph no. 0098.
Regarding independent claims 31 and 39, these independent claims are corresponding computer-readable medium and UE claims of the apparatus claim 21 and recite similar subject matter. As such, the rationale behind the above rejection of claim 21 applies with equal force to these independent claims.
Claim(s) 29 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cui an Yuan as applied to claim 21 above, and further in view of Tao, US 2024/0422602, (“Tao”).
Regarding claim 29, Cui does not teach but Tao teaches “wherein the UE capability information element is a Measurement and Mobility Parameters (MeasAndMobParameters) information element (IE) to convey UE capabilities related to measurements for radio resource management (RRM), radio link monitoring (RLM) and mobility” (see paragraph no. 0045).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of this claimed invention to modify Cui and Yuan by incorporating the teachings of Tao to facilitate the inter-RAT measurements by using a known information element to carry the UE’s capability information to the network. Note that Cui suggests this modification in paragraph no. 0118 with its disclosure “any of various other possible naming conventions” may be used to carry the UE’s capability information.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 22-28, 30, 32-38, and 40 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.
Regarding claims 22, 32, and 40, the prior art of record does not teach or fairly suggest “wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to encode the UE capability information element for transmission to the network to indicate whether the UE has a capability for simultaneous reception of NR data and a EUTRAN cell-specific reference signal (CRS) with different subcarrier spacings” as recited in claim 22 and similarly recited in claims 32 and 40.
The dependent claims 23-28 and 33-38 depend from claims 22 and 32, respectively.
Regarding claim 30, the prior art of record does not teach or fairly suggest “wherein the MeasAndMobParameters IE is encoded to: indicate whether the UE has the capability for performing inter-RAT measurements without measurement gaps; indicate whether the UE has a capability for simultaneous reception of NR data and a EUTRAN cell-specific reference signal (CRS) with different subcarrier spacings; and include a NeedForGap information element indicating that no gap is needed for an inter- RAT EUTRAN measurement.”
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to WON TAE C. KIM whose telephone number is (571)270-1812. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8:00 am - 5:00 pm.
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/WON TAE C KIM/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2414
