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 .
Response to Arguments
The objection to the Specification/Abstract is hereby withdrawn, in view of the Abstract submitted by Applicant.
The indefiniteness rejections are hereby withdrawn.
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 48 and 49 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
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.
Claim(s) 48 and 49 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Patent Publication No. 2017/0303157 A1 to Siomina et al., in view of U.S. Patent Publication No. 2018/0115430 A1 to Seo.
As to claim 49, Siomina discloses a user equipment (UE), comprising: an antenna for use in transmitting electromagnetic signals; a memory for storing computer readable code; and a processor for executing the computer readable code, the computer readable code causing the UE to: (Figs. 5,6,8, paragraphs 28-35, disclosing the UE receiving a “plurality of Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS) transmissions” and performing “parallel multicast measurement[s]” on them, teaching the recited “UE”)
receive more than one multicast broadcast services (MBSs) (Figs. 5,6,8, paragraphs 28-35, disclosing the UE receiving a “plurality of Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS) transmissions” and performing “parallel multicast measurement[s]” on them) ;
receive one or more messages including more than one measurement configurations associated with the more than one MBSs (Figs. 5,6,8, paragraphs 28-35, disclosing the UE receiving a “plurality of Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS) transmissions” and performing “parallel multicast measurement[s]” on them; paragraphs 95-120, disclosing that in step 504, the UE receives “a configuration for performing parallel multicast measurements of MBMS transmissions” from the network node 115, where such “configuration” may configure or re-configure the one or more MBMS measurements [paragraph 98], teaching the recited “one or more messages including more than one measurement configurations …”, pursuant to BRI; also see steps 608 and 610, and step 804, paragraphs 145, 160-176, all teaching this limitation) ;
perform measurements for the more than one MBSs based on the more than one measurement configurations (Figs. 5,6,8, paragraphs 28-35, steps 506,508,610,612: “perform the plurality of parallel multicast measurements of the plurality of MBMS transmissions …”, teaching this limitation); and
drop one or more measurement reports with lower priority among more than one measurement reports associated with the more than one MBSs (Figs. 5,6,8, paragraphs 28-35, steps 506,508,610,612: “perform the plurality of parallel multicast measurements of the plurality of MBMS transmissions …”; further see paragraphs 31,146-153, 218, 229, disclosing prioritizing and dropping MBMS measurements, teaching this limitation)
Siomina does not appear to explicitly disclose RRC messages.
Seo discloses RRC messages (paragraphs 62,133,155,162,214: RRC messages/signaling).
Before the effective filing date, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to utilize the teachings as disclosed in Seo, in conjunction with the method as disclosed and taught by Siomina, to reject the limitations of this claim. In particular, the messages disclosed in Siomina’s teaching of “receive one or more messages including more than one measurement configurations associated with the more than one MBSs” may be combined/incorporated with, and/or embodied by, the RRC messages disclosed in Seo, to reject “receive one or more RRC messages including more than one measurement configurations associated with the more than one MBSs”, at least since RRC messages in Seo are employed for control signaling, much like the messages disclosed in Seo’s teachings, and because both Seo and Siomina are in the same field of endeavor with regard to multicast/broadcast/MBS services. The suggestion/motivation would have been to improve the quality and efficiency of wireless control signaling, especially with regard to multicast/broadcast/MBS services (Seo, paragraphs 1-25; Siomina, paragraphs 1-35). Furthermore, please note that the features of the limitations above have been shown to be known or disclosed in the cited references, and one skilled in the art could have combined the elements as claimed by known methods with no change in their respective functions and the combination would have yielded predictable results to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention.
As to claim 48, see rejection for claim 49.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CHI TANG P CHENG whose telephone number is (571)272-9021. The examiner can normally be reached M-F, 9:30AM - 6PM.
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, Asad M Nawaz can be reached at (571)272-3988. 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.
/CHI TANG P CHENG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2463