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 .
Status of Claims
This action is in response to application filed on 10/30/2024.
Claims 1-12 have been examined and are pending with this action.
Priority
Examiner acknowledges that the Applicant claims a priority benefit of KOREA, REPUBLIC OF
10-2021-0081029 filed on 06/22/2021.
Drawings
The drawings were received on 7/11/2024 and these drawings are accepted.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 10/30/2024 & 4/29/2026 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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).
A timely filed terminal disclaimer in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(c) or 1.321(d) may be used to overcome an actual or provisional rejection based on nonstatutory double patenting provided the reference application or patent either is shown to be commonly owned with the examined application, or claims an invention made as a result of activities undertaken within the scope of a joint research agreement. See MPEP § 717.02 for applications subject to examination under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA as explained in MPEP § 2159. See MPEP § 2146 et seq. for applications not subject to examination under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA . A terminal disclaimer must be signed in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(b).
The USPTO Internet website contains terminal disclaimer forms which may be used. Please visit www.uspto.gov/patent/patents-forms. The filing date of the application in which the form is filed determines what form (e.g., PTO/SB/25, PTO/SB/26, PTO/AIA /25, or PTO/AIA /26) should be used. A web-based eTerminal Disclaimer may be filled out completely online using web-screens. An eTerminal Disclaimer that meets all requirements is auto-processed and approved immediately upon submission. For more information about eTerminal Disclaimers, refer to www.uspto.gov/patents/process/file/efs/guidance/eTD-info-I.jsp.
Claims 1-20 are rejected on the ground of, non provisional, nonstatutory double patenting obviousness type as being unpatentable over claims 1-6 & 9-13 of U.S. App # 16808284. Although the conflicting claims are not identical, they are not patentably distinct from each other.
Current claims 1-12
17808284 claims 1-16
1. A method performed by a terminal in a wireless communication system, the method comprising: initiating a small data transmission (SDT) procedure in a radio resource control (RRC) inactive state; logging information related to a failure associated with the SDT procedure; and transmitting, to a base station, the information related to the failure in an RRC connection state.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein the failure is identified based on an expiration of a timer related to the SDT procedure.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein the information related to the failure includes reference signal received power (RSRP) related information.
4. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving, from the base station, a request for a failure report.
5. The method of claim 4, wherein the information related to the failure is transmitted in response to the request from the base station.
6. The method of claim 1, wherein the failure is identified based on an integrity check failure.
7. A terminal in a wireless communication system, the terminal comprising: a transceiver; and at least one processor coupled with the transceiver and configured to: initiate a small data transmission (SDT) procedure in a radio resource control (RRC) inactive state; log information related to a failure associated with the SDT procedure; and transmit, to a base station, the information related to the failure in an RRC connection state.
8. The terminal of claim 7, wherein the failure is identified based on an expiration of a timer related to the SDT procedure.
9. The terminal of claim 7, wherein the information related to the failure includes reference signal received power (RSRP) related information.
10. The terminal of claim 7, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: receive, from the base station, a request for a failure report.
11. The terminal of claim 10, wherein the information related to the failure is transmitted in response to the request from the base station.
12. The terminal of claim 7, wherein the failure is identified based on an integrity check failure.
1. A method performed by a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system, the method comprising: initiating a small data transmission (SDT) procedure, in a radio resource control (RRC) inactive state; obtaining a report for a log connection failure or an SDT procedure failure, based on an expiry of an SDT timer, wherein the report for the log connection failure includes information indicating that the report is for SDT; and in case that the UE enters an RRC connected state, transmitting the report to a base station, based on a request for the report from the base station.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein the report includes information indicating a number of SDT failure, and the number of the SDT failure is increased, based on expiry of the SDT timer.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein the report includes measured reference signal received power (RSRP) of downlink (DL) path loss at a time of initiating the SDT procedure.
4. The method of claim 1, further comprising: setting a measurement result in the report to include reference signal received power (RSRP), reference signal receive quality (RSRQ) and Synchronization Signal Physical Broadcast Channel (SS/PBCH) block (SSB) indexes of failed cell based on available SSB measurements collected up to a time at the UE detected SDT procedure failure.
5. The method of claim 1, further comprising performing an integrity check on data of the SDT procedure, while the SDT timer is running, wherein the obtaining of the report comprises: in case that a failure of the integrity check occurs, obtaining the report for the log connection failure or the SDT procedure failure.
9. A user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system, the UE comprising: a transceiver; and a processor coupled with the transceiver and configured to: initiate a small data transmission (SDT) procedure, in a radio resource control (RRC) inactive state, obtain a report for a log connection failure or an SDT procedure failure, based on an expiry of an SDT timer, wherein the report for the log connection failure includes information indicating that the report is for SDT, and in case that the UE enters an RRC connected state, transmit the report to a base station, based on a request for the report from the base station.
10. The UE of claim 9, wherein the report includes information indicating a number of SDT failure, and the number of the SDT failure is increased, based on expiry of the SDT timer.
11. The UE of claim 9, wherein the report includes measured reference signal received power (RSRP) of downlink (DL) path loss at a time of initiating the SDT procedure.
12. The UE of claim 9, wherein the processor is further configured to: set a measurement result in the report to include reference signal received power (RSRP), reference signal receive quality (RSRQ) and Synchronization Signal/Physical Broadcast Channel (SS/PBCH) block (SSB) indexes of failed cell based on available SSB measurements collected up to a time at the UE detected SDT procedure failure.
13. The UE of claim 9, wherein the processor is further configured to: perform an integrity check on data of the SDT procedure, while the SDT timer is running, and in case that a failure of the integrity check occurs, obtain the report for the log connection failure or the SDT procedure failure.
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 of this title, 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 should not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 1-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Shih (US 20220095410 A1 in view of Shimoda (US 20230119586 A1).
INDEPENDENT:
As per claim 1, Shih a method performed by a terminal in a wireless communication system (Shih: [0002] “the UE initiates a Small Data Transmission (SDT) procedure in RRC_INACTIVE state”), the method comprising:
initiating a small data transmission (SDT) procedure in a radio resource control (RRC) inactive state (Shih: [ABS] “the UE initiates a Small Data Transmission (SDT) procedure in RRC_INACTIVE state”); logging information related (Shih: [0219] “if the UE has logged measurements available for NR and if the RPLMN is included in plmn-IdentityList stored in VarLogMeasReport:”); to a failure associated with the SDT procedure (Shih: [0392] “a UE detects beam failure during a SDT procedure (or subsequent data transmission in the SDT procedure), the UE may suspend the ongoing transmission (e.g. small data transmission or subsequent transmission).”); and
Shih does not explicitly disclose the transmission of failure information.
Shimoda however discloses transmitting, to a base station, the information related to the failure in an RRC connection state (Shimoda: [0420-0422] “ The notification of the failure of the RRC connection reconfiguration and the RRC connection reconfiguration complete notification, which are given from the UE to the CU, may be integrated into one notification & In Steps ST1601 and ST1602 of FIG. 21, the UE notifies the CU of the failure of the RRC connection reconfiguration.”).
Therefore it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Shih in view of Shimoda to figure out transmission of failure information. One would be motivated to do so to so that central unit (CU) can flexibly select the distribution unit (DU) even upon failure of the RRC connection reconfiguration. (Shimoda).
Claim 7 is rejected based on rationale provided for claim 1.
As per claim 2, Shih/Shimoda discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the failure is identified based on an expiration of a timer (Shih: [0286-0287] “if the beamFailureDetectionTimer expires; or [0287] 1> if beamFailureDetectionTimer, beamFailureInstanceMaxCount, or any of the reference signals used for beam failure detection is reconfigured by upper layers associated with this Serving Cell.”) related to the SDT procedure (Shih: [0392] “a UE detects beam failure during a SDT procedure (or subsequent data transmission in the SDT procedure), the UE may suspend the ongoing transmission (e.g. small data transmission or subsequent transmission).”).
As per claim 3, Shih/Shimoda discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the information related to the failure includes reference signal received power (RSRP) related information (Shih: [0266] “rsrp-ThresholdSSB: an RSRP threshold for the beam failure recovery.”).
As per claim 4, Shih/Shimoda discloses the method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving, from the base station, a request for a failure report (Shih: [0332 -0345] “initiate the failure information procedure as specified in 5.7.5 to report RLC failure & initiate the MCG failure information procedure as specified in 5.7.3b to report MCG radio link failure”).
As per claim 5, Shih/Shimoda discloses the method of claim 4, wherein the information related to the failure is transmitted in response to the request from the base station (Shih: [0426] “ The indication may be a Buffer Status Report (BSR), Scheduling Request (SR), and/or Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) signaling. The indication may be a failure report.”).
As per claim 6, Shih/Shimoda discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the failure is identified based on an integrity check failure (Shih: [0148] “ If lower layers indicate an integrity check failure while T319 is running, perform actions specified in 5.3.13.5.”).
Claims 8-12 are rejected based on rationale provided for claims 2-6.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. This includes:
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/SIBTE H BUKHARI/Examiner, Art Unit 2449
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