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 .
Double Patenting
The nonstatutory double patenting rejection is based on a judicially created doctrine grounded in public policy (a policy reflected in the statute) so as to prevent the unjustified or improper timewise extension of the “right to exclude” granted by a patent and to prevent possible harassment by multiple assignees. A nonstatutory double patenting rejection is appropriate where the conflicting claims are not identical, but at least one examined application claim is not patentably distinct from the reference claim(s) because the examined application claim is either anticipated by, or would have been obvious over, the reference claim(s). See, e.g., In re Berg, 140 F.3d 1428, 46 USPQ2d 1226 (Fed. Cir. 1998); In re Goodman, 11 F.3d 1046, 29 USPQ2d 2010 (Fed. Cir. 1993); In re Longi, 759 F.2d 887, 225 USPQ 645 (Fed. Cir. 1985); In re Van Ornum, 686 F.2d 937, 214 USPQ 761 (CCPA 1982); In re Vogel, 422 F.2d 438, 164 USPQ 619 (CCPA 1970); In re Thorington, 418 F.2d 528, 163 USPQ 644 (CCPA 1969).
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Claims 1, 3, 6, 8, 16 and 18 are rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claims 1, 6, 10 and 15 of U.S. Patent No. 11,677,447 in view of Seol et al (2013/0045690).
-Regarding claim 1, claims 1, 6 of U.S. Patent No. 11,677,447 teaches a method performed by a base station (“base station”, col. 51, line 48) in a wireless communication system (“wireless communication system”, col. 51, line 47), the method comprising:
transmitting, to a user equipment (UE) (“UE”, col. 51, line 46), a measurement configuration for one or more cells “measurement configuration for one or more cells” (see col. 51, lines 48-49), the measurement configuration includes information for indicating a cell for measurement “information for indicating the cell” (see col. 52, line 23), and
receiving, from the UE, a measurement result for a cell “measurement result for the cell” (see col. 51, lines 54-55),
wherein the measurement result for the cell is in a report form, comprising : a cell quality of the cell “a result of a layer-3 filtering for a cell quality of the cell”, and information for indicating the number of one or more available beams “path diversity information for indicating a number of one or more available beams”, each of the one or more available beams providing a signal quality higher than a configured threshold “threshold” for the measurement (see col. 51, line 56-62),
wherein the cell quality is associated with the one or more available beams for the cell, in a manner that the cell quality is obtained based on an average of signal qualities of downlink signal (“downlink signals among the one or more downlink signals”, col. 51, lines 64-65), that each downlink signal can be associated with, or namely indicated by, a beam on the cell, or vice versa (see col. 51, lines 50-51, 63-65), and that each of the signal qualities is higher than the threshold (see col. 51, lines 63- 67), or in another word, the cell quality is associated with the downlink signals (indicating the one or more available beams having qualities is higher than the threshold).
Claims 1 and 6 of U.S. Patent No. 11,677,447 does not teach whether the measurement configuration includes the configured threshold and a report configuration, wherein the measurement result for the cell is based on the report configuration, as claimed.
In analogous art, Seol et al teaches that a base station ((100), figure 1) can configure a threshold (“reference value”, [0065]) for measurements at a UE ((110), figure 1) and send information on the threshold to the UE (see [0065, 0080]), and that the base station can configure and send to the UE a report configuration (referred to “report form information for feeding back channel information”, [0065]) comprising a report form of results measured at the UE to be reported to the base station, (see [0065, 0080]).
For application, it would have been obvious for one skilled in the art, at the time the invention was made, to implement the method of claims 1, 6 of U.S. Patent No. 11,677,447, in view of Seol et al, in such a way that the base station would configure and send to the UE the threshold, wherein the measurement result for the cell would be based on a report configuration in a manner that and the measurement configuration would include the report configuration, which comprises the report form, so that the base station would be enhanced with capability of configurating the threshold and the report form and informing them to the UE.
-Regarding claim 3, claims 1, 6 of U.S. Patent No. 11,677,447 teaches that the threshold is used to identify signal qualities of multiple available beams (indicated by downlink signals “downlink signals among the one or more downlink signals”) to be averaged for the cell quality (see col. 51, lines 63-67).
-Regarding claim 6, claims 1, 6 of U.S. Patent No. 11,677,447 teaches a method performed by a user equipment (UE) (“UE”, col. 51, line 46) in a wireless communication system (“wireless communication system”, col. 51, line 47), the method comprising:
receiving, from a base station (“base station”, col. 51, line 48), a measurement configuration for one or more cells “measurement configuration for one or more cells” (see col. 51, lines 48-49), the measurement configuration includes information for indicating a cell for measurement “information for indicating the cell” (see col. 52, line23), and
transmitting to the base station a measurement result for a cell “measurement result for the cell” (see col. 51, lines 54-55),
wherein the measurement result for the cell is in a report form, comprising : a cell quality of the cell “a result of a layer-3 filtering for a cell quality of the cell”, and information for indicating the number of one or more available beams “path diversity information for indicating a number of one or more available beams”, each of the one or more available beams providing a signal quality higher than a configured threshold “threshold” for the measurement (see col. 51, line 56-62),
wherein the cell quality is associated with the one or more available beams for the cell, in a manner that the cell quality is obtained based on an average of signal qualities of downlink signal (“downlink signals among the one or more downlink signals”, col. 51, lines 64-65), that each downlink signal can be associated with, or namely indicated by, a beam on the cell, or vice versa (see col. 51, lines 50-51, 63-65), and that each of the signal qualities is higher than the threshold (see col. 51, lines 63- 67), or in another word, the cell quality is associated with the downlink signals (indicating the one or more available beams having qualities is higher than the threshold).
Claims 1 and 6 of U.S. Patent No. 11,677,447 does not teach whether the measurement configuration includes the configured threshold and a report configuration, wherein the measurement result for the cell is based on the report configuration, as claimed.
In analogous art, Seol et al teaches that a base station ((100), figure 1) can configure a threshold (“reference value”, [0065]) for measurements at a UE ((110), figure 1) and send information on the threshold to the UE (see [0065, 0080]), and that the base station can configure and send to the UE a report configuration (referred to “report form information for feeding back channel information”, [0065]) comprising a report form of results measured at the UE to be reported to the base station, (see [0065, 0080]).
For application, it would have been obvious for one skilled in the art, at the time the invention was made, to implement the method of claims 1, 6 of U.S. Patent No. 11,677,447, in view of Seol et al, in such a way that the base station would configure and send to the UE the threshold, wherein the measurement result for the cell would be based on a report configuration in a manner that and the measurement configuration would include the report configuration, which comprises the report form, so that the base station would be enhanced with capability of configurating the threshold and the report form and informing them to the UE.
-Claim 8 is rejected with similar reasons set forth for claim 3.
-Regarding claim 16, claims 10, 15 of U.S. Patent No. 11,677,447 teaches a user equipment (UE) (“UE”, col. 52, line 52) in a wireless communication system (“wireless communication system”, col. 52, lines 52-53) , comprising: at least one transceiver (“at least one transceiver”, col. 52, line 54); and at least one processor (“at least one processor”, col. 52, line 55) operably coupled to the at least one transceiver, necessarily configured to control the at least one transceiver to receive, from a base station (“base station”, col. 52, line 57), a measurement configuration for one or more cells “measurement configuration for one or more cells”, (see col. 52, lines 55-58), and control the at least one transceiver to transmit, to the base station, a measurement result for the cell “measurement result for the cell” (see col. 52, lines 63-64),
wherein the measurement result for the cell are in a report form, comprising : a cell quality of the cell “a result of a layer-3 filtering for a cell quality of the cell”, and information for indicating the number of one or more available beams “path diversity information for indicating a number of one or more available beams”, each of the one or more available beams providing a signal quality higher than a configured threshold “threshold” for the measurement (see col. 52, line 65 to col. 53, line 4),
wherein the cell quality is associated with the one or more available beams for the cell, in a manner that the cell quality is obtained based on an average of signal qualities of downlink signal (“downlink signals among the one or more downlink signals”, col. 53, lines 5-7), that each downlink signal can be associated with, or namely indicated by, a beam on the cell, or vice versa (see col. 52, lines 59-60), and that each of the signal qualities is higher than the threshold (see col. 53, lines 8-9), or in another word, the cell quality is associated with the downlink signals (indicating the one or more available beams having qualities is higher than the threshold).
Claims 10 and 15 of U.S. Patent No. 11,677,447 does not teach whether the measurement configuration includes the configured threshold and a report configuration, wherein the measurement result for the cell is based on the report configuration, as claimed.
In analogous art, Seol et al teaches that a base station ((100), figure 1) can configure a threshold (“reference value”, [0065]) for measurements at a UE ((110), figure 1) and send information on the threshold to the UE (see [0065, 0080]), and that the base station can configure and send to the UE a report configuration (referred to “report form information for feeding back channel information”, [0065]) comprising a report form of results measured at the UE to be reported to the base station, (see [0065, 0080]).
For application, it would have been obvious for one skilled in the art, at the time the invention was made, to implement the UE of claims 10, 15 of U.S. Patent No. 11,677,447, in view of Seol et al, in such a way that the base station would configure and send to the UE the threshold, wherein the measurement result for the cell would be based on a report configuration in a manner that and the measurement configuration would include the report configuration, which comprises the report form, so that the base station would be enhanced with capability of configurating the threshold and the report form and informing them to the UE.
-Claim 18 is rejected with similar reasons set forth for claim 3.
Claims 11 and 13 are rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claims 10 and 15 of U.S. Patent No. 11,677,447 in view of Seol et al and Zhang et al (2019/0150009)
-Regarding claim 11, claims 10, 15 of U.S. Patent No. 11,677,447 teaches a base station (“base station”, col. 52, line 57) in a wireless communication system (“wireless communication system”, col. 52, lines 52-53) , comprising: at least one transceiver (inherently included) to transmit to a UE (“UE”, col. 52, line 52), a measurement configuration for one or more cells “measurement configuration for one or more cells”, (see col. 52, lines 55-58), and to receive from the UE, a measurement result for the cell “measurement result for the cell” (see col. 52, lines 63-64),
wherein the measurement result for the cell are in a report form, comprising : a cell quality of the cell “a result of a layer-3 filtering for a cell quality of the cell”, and information for indicating the number of one or more available beams “path diversity information for indicating a number of one or more available beams”, each of the one or more available beams providing a signal quality higher than a configured threshold “threshold” for the measurement (see col. 52, line 65 to col. 53, line 4),
wherein the cell quality is associated with the one or more available beams for the cell, in a manner that the cell quality is obtained based on an average of signal qualities of downlink signal (“downlink signals among the one or more downlink signals”, col. 53, lines 5-7), that each downlink signal can be associated with, or namely indicated by, a beam on the cell, or vice versa (see (see col. 52, lines 59-60), and that each of the signal qualities is higher than the threshold (see (see col. 53, lines 8-9)), or in another word, the cell quality is associated with the downlink signals (indicating the one or more available beams having qualities is higher than the threshold).
Claims 10 and 15 of U.S. Patent No. 11,677,447 does not teach whether the measurement configuration includes the configured threshold and a report configuration, wherein the measurement result for the cell is based on the report configuration, as claimed.
In analogous art, Seol et al teaches that a base station ((100), figure 1) can configure a threshold (“reference value”, [0065]) for measurements at a UE ((110), figure 1) and send information on the threshold to the UE (see [0065, 0080]), and that the base station can configure and send to the UE a report configuration (referred to “report form information for feeding back channel information”, [0065]) comprising a report form of results measured at the UE to be reported to the base station, (see [0065, 0080]).
For application, it would have been obvious for one skilled in the art, at the time the invention was made, to implement the UE of claims 10, 15 of U.S. Patent No. 11,677,447, in view of Seol et al, in such a way that the base station would configure and send to the UE the threshold, wherein the measurement result for the cell would be based on a report configuration in a manner that and the measurement configuration would include the report configuration, which comprises the report form, so that the base station would be enhanced with capability of configurating the threshold and the report form and informing them to the UE.
Claims 10, 15 of U.S. Patent No. 11,677,447, in view of Seol et al, does not teach whether the base station comprises at least one processor, coupled to the at least one transceiver, to control the transmission and reception of the at least one transceiver, as claimed.
In analogous art, Zhang et al teaches that a base station (150) can comprises a processor (152, 151), coupled to a transceiver (153), to control transmissions and receptions of the transceiver (see figure 1 and [0032]).
For further application, it would have been obvious for one skilled in the art, at the time the invention was made, to implement the base station of claims 10 and 15, in view of Seol et al, as taught by Zhang et al, in such a way that the base station would comprises a processor, coupled to the at least one transceiver, to control the transmission and reception of the at least one transceiver, so that the base station would enhanced with capability of controlling the transmission and reception of the at least one transceiver, as offered by the processor.
-Claim 13 is rejected with similar reasons set forth for claim 3.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 12, 14, 15, 17, 19 and 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
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/PHUONG PHU/
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2632