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 .
Specification
The title of the invention is presently listed in the USPTO database as “Terminal and Power Transfer Method19148735”. This appears to reflect a typographical error made by the USPTO internally. Nevertheless, Application should confirm in response to this action the correct title is “Terminal and Power Transfer Method”. At such a time the title will be accordingly corrected.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claim 4 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention. Claim 4 recites the limitation “not feasible” it is unclear the meets and bounds of said limitation, as the practicality or feasibility of an operation is a subjective determination. Applicant should remove it from the claims. Further claims 2 and 3 recite the limitations “signals” which appears to refer to communication signals however claim 4 recites communication. Applicant should consistently use communication or signals, or preferable communication signals.
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 and 6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ohara (WO 2023026378) in view of Cheng (US 10,512,040).
With respect to claims 1 and 6 Ohara teaches a terminal comprising: a communication unit (see Fig. 1: 20 such as a phone or tablet) configured to receive, from a base station (Fig. 1: 10), an indication related to power transfer (see for example claim 5 information indicating whether or not a power supply signal is transmitted further see RRC signaling) ; a power receiving unit (see receiving power supply signal from base station paragraph 0057-60) configured to receive wireless power transfer, according to the indication related to power transfer; and a control unit configured to determine, of reduce power consumption, (see association with periods of wakeup). Ohara however does not teach according to a function to reduce power consumption whether to carry out an operation related to power transfer. Cheng teaches whether or not to carry out an operation related to power transfer as a function of reduced power consumption (see sleep col. 2 lines 55-60, see deriving power during while in power saving mode col. 15 lines 60-65). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to modify Ohara control the reduced power consumption during power transfer for the benefit of reducing power consumption (col. 4 lines 20-25).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 1 and 5-6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Xu et al. (US 2022/0132315).
With respect to claims 1 and 6 Xu teaches a terminal comprising: a communication unit (see UE on cellular network) configured to receive, from a base station (102), an indication (see 530, see paragraph 71-73 harvesting in a PDCCH or idle PEI mode) related to power transfer (related to energy harvesting); a power receiving unit (114) configured to receive wireless power transfer, according to the indication related to power transfer; and a control unit (see control component 140, see Fig. 5 and 6) configured to determine, according to a function to reduce power consumption (see idle state paragraph 0025 see claims 9 and 10), whether or not to carry out an operation related to power transfer (see selecting communication, harvesting or both and activation of corresponding control, Xu’s idle/active mode paging early indication signal paragraph 0069-71).
With respect to claim 5 Xu function to reduce power consumption uses one of: discontinuous reception (DRX, see paragraph 0025) ; a wake-up signal (WUS paragraph 0031) ; a low-power WUS; physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) skipping; search space (SS) set group switching; cross-slot scheduling; cross-carrier scheduling; periodic tracking reference signal (P-TRS) -based paging; and paging early indication (PEI) -based paging (see claims 9 and 10).
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 2-4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xu et al. (US 2022/0312315) in view of Elshafie et al. (US 20220352751).
With respect to claim 2 Xu teaches the control unit causes a power-receiving operation during a time period in which signals are not transmitted or received (see claims 9 and 10 of Xu), according to the function to reduce power consumption. Xu does detail the periods in which signals are not transmitted. Elshafie further teaches the periods wherein a power-receiving operation during a time period (see time switching of harvesting in paragraphs 0070-72) in which signals are not transmitted or received, according to the function to reduce power consumption (paragraph 041). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to modify Xu to provide differentiated time for communication and harvesting for the predictable result of conserving power or increase the predictability of harvested energy.
With respect to claim 3 Xu teaches the control unit and teaches (Fig. 6) harvesting and signal periods, however, does not detail the periods for each. Elshafie teaches the control does not cause a power-receiving operation during a time period in which signals are transmitted and received (paragraph 0070-72), according to the function to reduce power consumption (paragraph 0040-41). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to modify Xu to provide differentiated time for communication and harvesting for the predictable result of reliably decode signals transmitted to the UE.
With respect to claim 4 Xu teaches the control unit the known use of both communication and power (see claim 9 of Xu) however does not detail the basis for determining to carry out the operations. Elshafie teaches different feasible communication and power operations (see operation schemes detailed in Fig. 4-6) related to reduced power consumption. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to modify Xu to apply the communication and power operations detailed in Elshafie for the perform the communication and power operations for differing capabilities.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Michael Fin whose telephone number is (571)272-5921. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 9am-5:30.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Rexford Barnie can be reached at 571-272-7429. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
MICHAEL FIN
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2836
/MICHAEL R. FIN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2836
Prosecution Insights