Ex Parte Palat et al

Patent Trial and Appeal Board

Sep 14, 2018

14374898 (P.T.A.B. Sep. 14, 2018)

UNITED STA TES p A TENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
APPLICATION NO. FILING DATE
14/374,898 07/26/2014
48116 7590
FAY SHARPE/NOKIA
1228 Euclid Avenue, 5th Floor
The Halle Building
Cleveland, OH 44115-1843
09/18/2018
FIRST NAMED INVENTOR
Sudeep K. Palat
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
United States Patent and Trademark Office
Address: COMMISSIONER FOR PATENTS
P.O. Box 1450
Alexandria, Virginia 22313-1450
www .uspto.gov
ATTORNEY DOCKET NO. CONFIRMATION NO.
LUTZ 201860US01 4610
EXAMINER
CAIRNS, THOMAS R
ART UNIT PAPER NUMBER
2468
NOTIFICATION DATE DELIVERY MODE
09/18/2018 ELECTRONIC
Please find below and/or attached an Office communication concerning this application or proceeding.
The time period for reply, if any, is set in the attached communication.
Notice of the Office communication was sent electronically on above-indicated "Notification Date" to the
following e-mail address(es):
docketing@faysharpe.com
Nokia.IPR@nokia.com
PTOL-90A (Rev. 04/07)
UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
BEFORE THE PATENT TRIAL AND APPEAL BOARD
Ex parte SUDEEP K. P ALAT and
CHANDRIKA K. WORRALL
Appeal 2018-003361
Application No. 14/374,898 1
Technology Center 2400
Before MARC S. HOFF, JOHN A. EVANS, and
JOHN D. HAMANN, Administrative Patent Judges.
HOFF, Administrative Patent Judge.
DECISION ON APPEAL
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Appellants appeal under 35 U.S.C. § 134 from a Final Rejection of
claims 1-3, 5-10, and 12-15. 2 We have jurisdiction under 35 U.S.C. § 6(b).
We reverse.
Appellants' invention is a system and method for providing
information on a mobile terminal to a Radio Resource Management entity of
a wireless communication network. Upon establishment of a Radio
1 The real party in interest is Alcatel Lucent. App. Br. 1.
2 Claims 4 and 11 have been cancelled.
Appeal 2018-003361
Application No. 14/374,898
Resource Control connection, information indicative of an estimate of a
radio resource utilization for the connection is provided. See Abstract.
Claim 1 is reproduced below:
1. An apparatus for providing information on a mobile
terminal to a Radio Resource Management entity of a wireless
communication network, the apparatus comprising:
information providing circuitry operable to provide
information of radio resource utilization in a Radio Resource
Control connection with a mobile terminal to a Mobility
Management entity of the wireless communication network and
to store said information in a memory device of the Mobility
Management entity;
the information providing circuitry being operable to,
during an establishment of a new Radio Resource Control
connection between the mobile terminal and the wireless
communication network after a period of inactivity of the mobile
terminal, provide information indicative of an estimate of a radio
re-source utilization for the newly established Radio Resource
Control connection based on past or expected values of radio
resource utilization of the mobile terminal by providing at least
a part of the stored information to a base station to which the
mobile terminal is attached when the Radio Resource Control
connection is being established, the base station comprising the
Radio Resource Management entity.
The Examiner relies upon the following prior art in rejecting the
claims on appeal:
Aminaka, (US 2013/0137431 Al; May 30, 2013)
3GPP TS 136.331 vl0.4.0
3GPP TS 36.300 vl 1.0.0
Claims 1-3, 5-10, and 12-15 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § I03(a)
as being unpatentable over Aminaka, 3GPP TS 136.331 vl0.4.0 (hereinafter
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Appeal 2018-003361
Application No. 14/374,898
"TS 136.331 "), and 3GPP TS 36.300 v 11.0.0 (hereinafter "TS 36.300").
Final Act. 4.
Throughout this decision, we make reference to the Appeal Brief
("App. Br.," filed July 10, 2017), the Reply Brief ("Reply Br.," filed Feb.
12, 2018), and the Examiner's Answer ("Ans.," mailed Dec. 12, 2017) for
their respective details.
ISSUE
Does the combination of Aminaka, TS 136.331, and TS 36.300
disclose or fairly suggest providing stored information of radio resource
utilization to a base station to which the mobile terminal is attached?
ANALYSIS
Appellants argue, inter alia, that the Examiner erred in finding that
Aminaka discloses stored information "of radio resource utilization," a
limitation found in each of the independent claims (1, 12, and 14). App. Br.
6. According to Appellants, "bearer configuration information" is not
described in Aminaka as including "required bandwidth," contrary to the
Examiner's finding. App. Br. 6 (citing Aminaka ,r 64).
The Examiner, for his part, finds that Aminaka Figure 8 discloses the
exchange of Bearer Configuration information between a mobile terminal
and a wireless communication network. Final Act. 4; Aminaka Fig. 8, ,r 64.
The Examiner further finds that bearer configuration information "is
understood to comprise a provision of information related to the bearer
attempted to be formed, such as a required bandwidth, which is information
of radio resource utilization in a Radio Resource Control connection." Final
Act. 4--5. (The Examiner does not cite evidence in support of this statement.)
In the Answer, the Examiner cites to paragraph 108 of Aminaka as
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Application No. 14/374,898
disclosing donor cell information, which the Examiner equates to "radio
resource configuration" for the mobile terminal, because it is disclosed as
"from previous[ly] configured donor cell information." Ans. 6-7; Aminaka
,r 108.
We find that the Examiner erred in equating "donor cell information"
with "stored information of radio resource utilization" as is claimed. The
"donor cell information" of Aminaka is disclosed as "attaching configuration
information." Aminaka ,r 107. "Attaching configuration information" is
described in Aminaka as "information for designating a donor base station, a
cell, or a sector to which the RN should attach. Specifically, the attaching
configuration information includes a frequency of a De NB 3 cell and a
Physical Cell ID (PCI), for example. The RN specifies the DeNB to which
the RN should attach, based on the attaching configuration information."
Aminaka ,r 7.
In contrast, the claimed "radio resource utilization" may comprise "a
mobile terminal specific data traffic profile and/or a mobility profile." Spec.
15. Radio resource utilization may comprise information indicative of the
duration of inactivity "while the mobile terminal has not received or
transmitted any user specific data to or from the wireless communication
network." Spec. 6. A mobility profile may include "information indicative
of the mobile terminal's last visited cells of the wireless communication
network during the previous RRC connection." Spec. 8.
Comparing the disclosures of Appellants' Specification and Aminaka,
we find that Aminaka does not disclose information of radio resource
3 Donor eNB, i.e., donor base station. Aminaka ,r 5.
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Application No. 14/374,898
utilization, either in terms of (a) amounts of data transmitted, (b) bandwidth
previously used, or anticipated, ( c) duration of inactivity, or ( d) information
concerning a mobile terminal's last visited cells. At most, Aminaka teaches
information concerning to which base station or cell a mobile terminal
should attach ("attaching configuration information"). We have reviewed
the cited portions of TS 136.331 and TS 36.300, and we find that they also
do not disclose information of radio resource utilization as contemplated by
Appellants.
We find that the combination of Aminaka, TS 136.331, and TS 36.300
fails to disclose all the limitations of independent claims 1, 12, and 14.
Therefore, we do not sustain the Examiner's § 103(a) rejection of claims 1-
3, 5-10, and 12-15 as beingunpatentable over Aminaka, TS 136.331, and
TS 36.300.
CONCLUSION
The combination of Aminaka, TS 136.331, and TS 36.300 does not
disclose or fairly suggest providing stored information of radio resource
utilization to a base station to which the mobile terminal is attached.
ORDER
The Examiner's decision to reject claims 1-3, 5-10, and 12-15 under
35 U.S.C. § 103(a) is reversed.
REVERSED
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