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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 1/26/24 and 12/29/23 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 filing of a terminal disclaimer by itself is not a complete reply to a nonstatutory double patenting (NSDP) rejection. A complete reply requires that the terminal disclaimer be accompanied by a reply requesting reconsideration of the prior Office action. Even where the NSDP rejection is provisional the reply must be complete. See MPEP § 804, subsection I.B.1. For a reply to a non-final Office action, see 37 CFR 1.111(a). For a reply to final Office action, see 37 CFR 1.113(c). A request for reconsideration while not provided for in 37 CFR 1.113(c) may be filed after final for consideration. See MPEP §§ 706.07(e) and 714.13.
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Claims 21-44 are rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claims 1 and 7-14 of U.S. Patent No. 12,328,676 in view of Liu et al (Pub No: 2019/0349856).
As to claim 21, Patent ‘676 teaches a method (Patent ‘676, Claim 1, a method), comprising: a user equipment (UE) operating in a paging discontinuous reception (DRX) cycle, a wake-up signal (WUS) indicating whether a first group of UEs are to wake-up or remain asleep during a first paging occasion (PO) and whether a second group of UEs are to wake-up or remain asleep during a second PO (Patent ‘676, Claim 1, a plurality of user equipment (UE) operating in a paging discontinuous reception (DRX) cycle, wherein a first group of UEs are associated with a first paging occasion (PO) and a second group of UEs are associated with a second PO, wherein the WUS indicates whether the first group of UEs are to wake-up or remain asleep during the first PO and whether the second group of UEs are to wake-up or remain asleep during the second PO, wherein the WUS comprises a first common indication indicating whether the first group of UEs and the second group of UEs are to wake-up or remain asleep for the respective first PO or second PO)
Patent ‘676 does not explicitly teach processing, by a user equipment (UE); determining whether the UE is associated with the first PO or the second PO; and operating in accordance with information provided by the WUS.
However, Liu teaches processing, by a user equipment (UE); determining whether the UE is associated with the first PO or the second PO; and operating in accordance with information provided by the WUS (Liu, [0126], the UE processes the WUS and determines if it is identified in the first group or second group PO, and operates based on the WUS (duration, gap, etc)).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing data of the claimed invention to provide a UE processing, determining and operating in accordance as taught by Liu in the system of Patent ‘676, so that it would improve overall power consumption of the wireless system (Liu [0006]).
As to claim 22, Patent ‘676 teaches wherein the WUS comprises a first common indication indicating whether the first group of UEs and the second group of UEs are to wake-up or remain asleep for the respective first PO or second PO (Patent ‘676, Claim 1).
As to claim 23, Patent ‘676 teaches wherein the first PO and the second PO each comprise a plurality of POs and wherein the WUS further comprises a second common indication of a number of consecutive first POs and second POs to which the first common indication applies (Patent ‘676, Claim 1).
As to claim 24, Patent ‘676 teaches wherein the WUS comprises a first indication indicating whether the first group of UEs are to wake-up or remain asleep for first PO and a second indication indicating whether the second group of UEs are to wake-up or remain asleep for second PO (Patent ‘676, Claim 1).
As to claim 25 As to claim wherein the first PO and the second PO each comprise a plurality of POs and wherein the WUS further comprises a first common indication of a number of consecutive first POs to which the first indication applies and a number of consecutive second POs to which the second indication applies (Patent ‘676, Claim 1).
As to claim 26, Patent ‘676 teaches a method, comprising: a user equipment (UE) operating in a paging discontinuous reception (DRX) cycle, a wake-up signal (WUS) comprising a plurality of WUSs, wherein a first group of UEs are associated with a first WUS and a second group of UEs are associated with a second WUS, wherein the first WUS indicates whether the first group of UEs are to wake-up or remain asleep during a paging occasion (PO) and the second WUS indicates whether the second group of UEs are to wake-up or remain asleep during the PO (Patent ‘676, Claim 1, a plurality of user equipment (UE) operating in a paging discontinuous reception (DRX) cycle, wherein a first group of UEs are associated with a first paging occasion (PO) and a second group of UEs are associated with a second PO, wherein the WUS indicates whether the first group of UEs are to wake-up or remain asleep during the first PO and whether the second group of UEs are to wake-up or remain asleep during the second PO, wherein the WUS comprises a first common indication indicating whether the first group of UEs and the second group of UEs are to wake-up or remain asleep for the respective first PO or second PO)
Patent ‘676 does not explicitly teach determining whether the UE is associated with the first group of UEs or the second group of UEs; and operating in accordance with information provided by the first WUS or the second WUS based on whether the UE is associated with the first group of UEs or the second group of UEs.
However, Liu teaches processing and determining whether the UE is associated with the first group of UEs or the second group of UEs; and operating in accordance with information provided by the first WUS or the second WUS based on whether the UE is associated with the first group of UEs or the second group of UEs (Liu, [0126], the UE processes the WUS and determines if it is identified in the first group or second group PO, and operates based on the WUS (duration, gap, etc)).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing data of the claimed invention to provide a UE processing, determining and operating in accordance as taught by Liu in the system of Patent ‘676, so that it would improve overall power consumption of the wireless system (Liu [0006]).
As to claim 27, Patent ‘676 teaches wherein the first WUS comprises an identification of the first group of UEs and the second WUS comprises an identification of the second group of UEs (Patent ‘676, Claim 1).
As to claim 28, Patent ‘676 teaches wherein the identification of the first group of UEs comprises a radio network temporary identifier (RNTI) for the first group of UEs or a paging radio network temporary identifier (P-RNTI) for the first group of UEs (Patent ‘676, Claim 9).
As to claim 29, Patent ‘676 teaches a method, comprising:, one or more synchronization signals, wherein the synchronization signals correspond to a wake-up signal (WUS) that is to be transmitted to a user equipment (UE) when the UE is operating in a paging discontinuous reception (DRX) cycle that includes a paging occasion (PO); and during a WUS occasion, the WUS indicating that the UE is to utilize an active mode during the PO when the WUS includes the group ID and the UE is to utilize a sleep mode during the PO when the WUS does not include the group ID, wherein the WUS is received using multiple beams during the WUS occasion that each include a same WUS (Patent ‘676, Claim 7).
Patent ‘676 does not explicitly teach processing, based on signals received from a base station; processing, based on signals received from a base station.
However, Liu teaches processing, based on signals received from a base station; processing, based on signals received from a base station (Liu, [0126], the UE processes the received WUS and determines if it is identified in the first group or second group PO, and operates based on the WUS (duration, gap, etc)).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing data of the claimed invention to provide a UE processing, determining and operating in accordance as taught by Liu in the system of Patent ‘676, so that it would improve overall power consumption of the wireless system (Liu [0006]).
As to claim 30, Patent ‘676 teaches wherein the WUS is received via downlink control information (DCI) in a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) (Patent ‘676, Claim 8).
As to claim 31, Patent ‘676 teaches wherein the WUS is scheduled via one of a WUS specific radio network temporary identifier (RNTI) for the UE or a paging radio network temporary identifier (P-RNTI) for the UE (Patent ‘676, Claim 9).
As to claim 32, Patent ‘676 teaches wherein the WUS occasion is associated with the PO based on a predefined timing offset (Patent ‘676, Claim 10).
As to claim 33, Patent ‘676 teaches wherein the paging DRX cycle includes multiple WUS occasions and each WUS occasion is located in time prior to any PO included in a paging frame (Patent ‘676, Claim 11).
As to claim 34, Patent ‘676 teaches wherein the UE is included in a first paging group, and wherein the WUS occasion is associated with the first paging group and a second different paging group (Patent ‘676, Claim 12).
As to claim 35, Patent ‘676 teaches wherein the WUS includes i) an indication that is common to both the first paging group and the second paging group or ii) a first indication for the first paging group and a second different indication for the second paging group (Patent ‘676, Claim 13).
As to claim 36, Patent ‘676 teaches wherein the WUS occasion is included in a WUS occasion set and wherein each WUS occasion in the WUS occasion set is associated with the same PO (Patent ‘676, Claim 14).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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.
Claims 21-27, 29, 32-26 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Liu et al (Pub No: 2019/0349856).
As to claim 21, Liu teaches a method (Liu, [0071], a method), comprising:
processing, by a user equipment (UE) operating in a paging discontinuous reception (DRX) cycle (Liu, [0071] [0007], a UE processes a WUS while in a DRX cycle), a wake-up signal (WUS) indicating whether a first group of UEs are to wake-up or remain asleep during a first paging occasion (PO) and whether a second group of UEs are to wake-up or remain asleep during a second PO (Liu, [0071], the base station configuring a WUS for a first UE group and a second WUS for a second UE group);
determining whether the UE is associated with the first PO or the second PO (Liu, [0007][0126], determining by the UE if it is in the group identified); and
operating in accordance with information provided by the WUS (Liu, [0126], the UE processes the WUS and determines if it is identified in the first group or second group PO, and operates based on the WUS (duration, gap, etc)).
As to claim 22, Liu teaches wherein the WUS comprises a first common indication indicating whether the first group of UEs and the second group of UEs are to wake-up or remain asleep for the respective first PO or second PO (Liu, [0114], the WUS comprises a common WUS to wake up all the first and second group of UEs).
As to claim 23, Liu teaches wherein the first PO and the second PO each comprise a plurality of Pos (Liu, [0127], the UE group associated with a PO can have sub-groups) and wherein the WUS further comprises a second common indication of a number of consecutive first POs and second POs to which the first common indication applies (Liu, [0121], the WUS comprises a common G1 WUS that is capable of being detected by UE’s in grouping G2).
As to claim 24, Liu teaches wherein the WUS comprises a first indication indicating whether the first group of UEs are to wake-up or remain asleep for first PO and a second indication indicating whether the second group of UEs are to wake-up or remain asleep for second PO (Liu, [0114], the WUS comprises a common WUS to wake up all the first and second group of UEs)..
As to claim 25, Liu teaches wherein the first PO and the second PO each comprise a plurality of POs (Liu, [0127], the UE group associated with a PO can have sub-groups) and wherein the WUS further comprises a first common indication of a number of consecutive first POs to which the first indication applies and a number of consecutive second POs to which the second indication applies (Liu, [0121], the WUS comprises a common G1 WUS that is capable of being detected by UE’s in grouping G2).
As to claim 26, Liu teaches a method (Liu, [0071], a method), comprising:
processing, by a user equipment (UE) operating in a paging discontinuous reception (DRX) cycle (Liu, [0071] [0007], a UE processes a WUS while in a DRX cycle), a wake-up signal (WUS) comprising a plurality of WUSs, wherein a first group of UEs are associated with a first WUS and a second group of UEs are associated with a second WUS, wherein the first WUS indicates whether the first group of UEs are to wake-up or remain asleep during a paging occasion (PO) and the second WUS indicates whether the second group of UEs are to wake-up or remain asleep during the PO (Liu, [0071], the base station configuring a WUS for a first UE group and a second WUS for a second UE group); and
determining whether the UE is associated with the first group of UEs or the second group of UEs (Liu, [0007][0126], determining by the UE if it is in the group identified); and
operating in accordance with information provided by the first WUS or the second WUS based on whether the UE is associated with the first group of UEs or the second group of UEs (Liu, [0126], the UE processes the WUS and determines if it is identified in the first group or second group PO, and operates based on the WUS (duration, gap, etc)).
As to claim 27, Liu teaches wherein the first WUS comprises an identification of the first group of UEs and the second WUS comprises an identification of the second group of UEs (Liu, [0007][0010], the WUS each comprise a group identification)..
As to claim 29, Liu teaches a method, comprising: processing, based on signals received from a base station, one or more synchronization signals, wherein the synchronization signals correspond to a wake-up signal (WUS) that is to be transmitted to a user equipment (UE) (Liu, [0051], receiving synchronization signals for initialization corresponding to the later WUS connection) when the UE is operating in a paging discontinuous reception (DRX) cycle (Liu, [0080], in a paging DRX cycle) that includes a paging occasion (PO) (Liu, [0071], the base station configuring a WUS for a first UE group and a second WUS for a second UE group); and processing, based on signals received from a base station during a WUS occasion, the WUS indicating that the UE is to utilize an active mode during the PO when the WUS includes the group ID (Liu, [0065][0007], when the UE does not receive a WUS (no group ID for it in the WUS) it uses a sleep mode. If a WUS is received for the identified UEs then it wakes and goes active) and the UE is to utilize a sleep mode during the PO when the WUS does not include the group ID, wherein the WUS is received using multiple beams during the WUS occasion that each include a same WUS (Liu, [0043][0044], transmitting multiple beams with the WUS to the UE (beamforming))..
As to claim 32, Liu teaches wherein the WUS occasion is associated with the PO based on a predefined timing offset (Liu, [0010-0011], the WUS is associated with a PO and starting time offset) .
As to claim 33, Liu teaches wherein the paging DRX cycle includes multiple WUS occasions and each WUS occasion is located in time prior to any PO included in a paging frame (Liu, [0010], the paging cycle includes a WUS multiplexed with other WUS and paging carriers from a plurality of carriers).
As to claim 34, Liu teaches wherein the UE is included in a first paging group, and wherein the WUS occasion is associated with the first paging group and a second different paging group (Liu, [0071], a WUS indication for the first group and any corresponding group 502, 504).
As to claim 35, Liu teaches wherein the WUS includes i) an indication that is common to both the first paging group and the second paging group or ii) a first indication for the first paging group and a second different indication for the second paging group (Liu, [0114], the WUS comprises a common WUS to wake up all the first and second group of UEs).
As to claim 36, Liu teaches wherein the WUS occasion is included in a WUS occasion set and wherein each WUS occasion in the WUS occasion set is associated with the same PO (Liu, [0127], the UE group associated with a PO can have sub-groups)..
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.
Claims 28, 30, 31 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liu as applied to claims above, and further in view of Zhou et al (Pub No: 2020/0092814).
As to claim 28, Liu teaches a group of UE’s (Liu, [0065], a group of UE’s identified).
Liu does not explicitly teach wherein the identification of the first group of UEs comprises a radio network temporary identifier (RNTI) for the first group of UEs or a paging radio network temporary identifier (P-RNTI) for the first group of UEs.
However, Zhou teaches the identification of the first group of UEs comprises a radio network temporary identifier (RNTI) for the first group of UEs or a paging radio network temporary identifier (P-RNTI) for the first group of UEs. (Zhou, [0272], an RNTI for a group of UEs).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to combine the teachings of Liu and Zhou to use an RNTI because it would identify the group of UEs that the transmission is directed (Zhou, [0272]).
As to claim 30, Liu teaches transmitting the WUS control information in a PDCCH (Liu, [0051], carried in a PDCCH).
Liu does not explicitly teach wherein control information is transmitted as downlink control information (DCI) in a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH).
However, Zhou teaches the control information is transmitted as downlink control information (DCI) in a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH). (Zhou, [0221], transmitting via DCI in a PDCCH).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to combine the teachings of Liu and Zhou to use DCI and PDCCH because it is an efficient way to configure a plurality of channels for a wireless device (Zhou, [0221]).
As to claim 31, Liu teaches the limitations of claim 29.
Liu does not explicitly teach the WUS is scheduled via one of a WUS specific radio network temporary identifier (RNTI) for the UE or a paging radio network temporary identifier (P-RNTI) for the UE.
However, Zhou teaches the WUS is scheduled via one of a WUS specific radio network temporary identifier (RNTI) for the UE or a paging radio network temporary identifier (P-RNTI) for the UE.. (Zhou, [0272], an RNTI for a group of UEs).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to combine the teachings of Liu and Zhou to use an RNTI because it would identify the group of UEs that the transmission is directed (Zhou, [0272]).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Liu et al (Pub No: 2019/0320490) [0086]
Rostami et al (Pub No: 2021/0127335) [0080][0082]
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to AFSHAWN M TOWFIGHI whose telephone number is (571)270-7296. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:00 AM -5:00 PM.
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/AFSHAWN M TOWFIGHI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2469
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