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 . This Office Action is in reply to communication filed on 03/26/2025. Claimed priority is granted from foreign application CN202211214775.X, with a priority date of 09/30/2022.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 04/24/2025 and 12/02/2025 were filed after the mailing date of the original application filed on . The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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.
Claims 1-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lv et al., US 2021/0029777 A1 (ZTE) in view of Sammour et al., US 8,855,047 B2.
Regarding claim 1 teaches substantially as claimed. Lv discloses a data transmission method, applied for a first communication apparatus, wherein the method comprises: obtaining fourth data; starting a discard timer #4 which is associated with the fourth data, and each packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) protocol data unit (PDU) or PDCP service data unit (SDU) corresponds to one discard timer (0042, 0055 and 0062; one discard timer associated with one PDCP SDU and when the discard time expires, the PDCP entity multiple PDCP SDU and corresponding PDCP Data PDU, see par. 0049); in response to the discard timer #4 expiring, discarding the fourth data and fifth data, or a first data set; wherein the fourth data and the fifth data belong to the first data set, and the first data set is a PDU set (0050 and 0059).
Sammour further teaches that, upon expiration of a PDCP discard timer, the PDCP entity discards the associated SDU/PDU or multiple SDUs/PDUs when more than one SDU/PDU is associated with the timer (See Sammour, col. 5, lines 49-65; col. 6, lines 1-3). Sammour additionally teaches stating a separate discard timer for every SDU received (see col. 6, lines 48-51, and discarding the corresp0onding SDU/PDU upon expiration, col. 6, lines 51-67). Thus, the combined teachings suggest a plurality/set of related PDCP SDUs/PDUs. Each having an associated discard timer, wherein expiration of a timer results in discarding the associated data and other data belonging to the same set.
It would have been obvious for an ordinary skill to apply Sammour’s grouped discard operation to Lv’s per-SDU discard-timer arrangement to avoid retaining or transmitting related data that is no longer useful after expiration of the applicable discard timer, thereby reducing unnecessary transmission and buffer usage. By this rationale, claim 1 is rejected.
Likewise, regarding claims 2-12 the combination Lv-Sammour teaches:
2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the obtaining fourth data includes: obtaining, by a PDCP entity of the first communication apparatus, the fourth data from an upper layer of the first communication apparatus (Lv, par. 0042, 0055 and 0062; see also Sammour, col. 5, lines 49-65).
3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the method further comprises: obtaining the fifth data (See Lv, 0050, and 0059; abstract and disclosure of claim 1).
4. The method according to claim 1, wherein in response to the discard timer #4 expiring, discarding the fourth data and fifth data, or the first data set comprises: in response to the discard timer #4 expiring, and at least one of a packet loss rate, a quantity of lost packets or a data amount of lost packets corresponding to the first data set reaches a specific degree, discarding the fourth data and fifth data, or the first data set (See Lv, 009, 0073-0082, see also Sammour, Col. 11, lines 16-27, and 38-48), col. 13, 10-35).
5. An apparatus, comprising: one or more processors; and one or more memories coupled to the one or more processors and storing programming instructions for execution by the one or more processors to configure the one or more processors to perform: obtaining fourth data; starting a discard timer #4 which is associated with the fourth data, and each packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) protocol data unit (PDU) or PDCP service data unit (SDU) corresponds to one discard timer; in response to the discard timer #4 expiring, discarding the fourth data and fifth data, or a first data set; wherein the fourth data and the fifth data belong to the first data set, and the first data set is a PDU set (see Lv, 0042, 0049, 0050, 0055, 0059 and 0062; see also Sammour col. 5, lines 49-65; col. 6, lines 1-3, 48-57). The same motivation and reason to combine the rejection of claim 1 is also valid for this claim.
6. The apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the one or more processors are configured to obtain fourth data by: obtaining, by a PDCP entity of a first communication apparatus, the fourth data from an upper layer of the first communication apparatus (Lv, par. 0042, 0055 and 0062; see also Sammour, col. 5, lines 49-65).
7. The apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the one or more processors are configured for: obtaining the fifth data (See Lv, 0050, and 0059; abstract and disclosure of claim 1).
8. The apparatus according to claim 5, wherein in response to the discard timer #4 expiring, the one or more processors are configured for discarding the fourth data and fifth data, or the first data set by: in response to the discard timer #4 expiring, and at least one of a packet loss rate, a quantity of lost packets or a data amount of lost packets corresponding to the first data set reaching a specific degree, the one or more processors discard the fourth data and fifth data, or the first data set (See Lv, 009, 0073-0082, see also Sammour, Col. 11, lines 16-27, and 38-48), col. 13, 10-35).
9. A non-transitory storage medium, wherein the non-transitory storage medium stores a computer program or instructions; and in response to the computer program or the instructions being executed, a computer is enabled to perform a method comprising: obtaining fourth data; starting a discard tirner #4 which is associated with the fourth data, and each packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) protocol data unit (PDU) or PDCP service data unit (SDU) corresponds to one discard timer; in response to the discard timer #4 expiring, discarding the fourth data and fifth data, or a first data set; wherein the fourth data and the fifth data belong to the first data set, and the first data set is a PDU set (see Lv, 0042, 0049, 0050, 0055, 0059 and 0062; see also Sammour col. 5, lines 49-65; col. 6, lines 1-3, 48-57). The same motivation and reason to combine the rejection of claim 1 is also valid for this claim.
10. The storage medium according to claim 9, wherein the obtaining fourth data includes: obtaining, by a PDCP entity of the first communication apparatus, the fourth data from an upper layer of the first communication apparatus (Lv, par. 0042, 0055 and 0062; see also Sammour, col. 5, lines 49-65).
11. The storage medium according to claim 9, wherein the method further comprises: obtaining the fifth data (See Lv, 0050, and 0059; abstract and disclosure of claim 1).
12. The storage medium according to claim 9, wherein in response to the discard timer #4 expiring, discarding the fourth data and fifth data, or the first data set by: in response to the discard timer #4 expiring, and at least one of a packet loss rate, a quantity of lost packets or a data amount of lost packets corresponding to the first data set reaching a specific degree, discarding the fourth data and fifth data, or the first data set (See Lv, 009, 0073-0082, see also Sammour, Col. 11, lines 16-27, and 38-48), col. 13, 10-35).
CONCLUSION
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Jude Jean-Gilles whose telephone number is 571-272-3914. The examiner can normally be reached on Mon-Fri, from 9:00AM-5:00PM.
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/JUDE JEAN GILLES/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2459
September 2, 2026
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