Prior art

To identify the most relevant prior art for US patent 8976714, I will search the USPTO Patent Public Search database. I will look for the "Cited By" or "References Cited" section of US8976714 to find the prior art references listed by the examiner and applicant. For each identified prior art reference, I will extract the full citation, publication/filing date, and a brief description of its relevance to US8976714, with an assessment of which claims it potentially anticipates under 35 U.S.C. § 102.

US Patent 8976714 Prior Art Analysis

To provide the most relevant prior art for US Patent 8976714, it is necessary to examine the "References Cited" section of the patent document itself, as these are the documents that the patent examiner and the applicant considered relevant during the prosecution of the patent. The USPTO's Patent Public Search tool is the authoritative source for this information.

As of the current date, April 26, 2026, a direct search for the cited references within US Patent 8976714 on the USPTO Patent Public Search platform is required to obtain this specific information. I will outline the general approach to analyzing such prior art.

General Approach to Prior Art Analysis (as would be performed using USPTO Patent Public Search):

1. Access USPTO Patent Public Search: Navigate to the USPTO Patent Public Search website.
2. Search for US8976714: Enter the patent number "8976714" into the search interface (e.g., using "PPUBS Basic" or "Advanced Search" with the publication number field).
3. Locate "References Cited": Once the patent document for US8976714 is retrieved, locate the "References Cited" section. This section typically lists both U.S. patents and non-patent literature that were considered as prior art.
4. Extract Information for Each Reference: For each entry in the "References Cited" list, the following information would be extracted:
   • Full Citation: The complete patent number, publication number, or literature citation (e.g., US X,XXX,XXX B2; US 20XX/XXXXXXX A1; Journal Article Title, Author, Date).
   • Publication/Filing Date: The relevant date for prior art assessment (e.g., publication date for patents/applications, or date of publication for non-patent literature).
   • Brief Description: A concise summary of the reference's disclosure, particularly as it relates to system information acquisition or transmission in wireless networks, especially in TDD LTE systems. This description would highlight aspects like scheduling, windowing, DL/UL subframe considerations, and user equipment (UE) behavior.
   • Potential Anticipation (35 U.S.C. § 102): An assessment of which claim(s) of US8976714 the prior art reference could potentially anticipate. Anticipation under 35 U.S.C. § 102 means that every element of a claim is found in a single prior art reference. This would involve comparing the elements of the independent claims (Claim 1 and Claim 5 as summarized previously) with the teachings of each prior art reference. For example, if a prior art reference clearly describes:
     • A network element generating an SI message and a variable SI-WindowLength parameter.
     • Determining downlink availability.
     • Transmitting the SI message and parameter in a variable length window, with the start time or duration based on the SI-WindowLength, transmission order, and downlink availability.
       Then, that reference would potentially anticipate Claim 1. A similar comparison would be made for Claim 5 regarding the UE's reception aspects.

Note: Without direct access to the live USPTO Patent Public Search results for the cited references of US8976714 at this moment, I cannot provide the specific list of prior art and detailed analysis for each. However, the patent text itself indicates that the invention aims to address problems with the "current LTE standard in TS 36.331" and the "known process" of determining SI windows, which did not adequately consider TDD frame configurations, leading to blocked or unreliable SI message delivery. Therefore, prior art would likely include earlier versions or related specifications of 3GPP LTE standards, as well as other patents or publications detailing system information broadcast and acquisition procedures in wireless communication systems.