Detail Action
The office action is in response to the communication filed on 09/27/2025.
Notice of 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 .
Claims Status
Claims 1-10, 12-18, 20-26, 31, 34, 39, 42, and 47 have been cancelled.
Claims 11, 19, 27-30, 32-33, 35-38, 40-41, and 43-46 are pending in this application.
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 09/27/2025 has been entered.
Prior Art Made of Record
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Hedayat et al. (US Publication No. 2016/0254884), the prior art relates to a HE Compressed Beamforming frame has been defined as a modification of the VHT Compressed Beamforming feedback; see ¶ 0094. The HE Compressed Beamforming frame is an Action No Ack frame of category HE. The Action field of a HE Compressed Beamforming frame contains the following: category, HE Action, HE MIMO Control, HE Compressed Beamforming Report, MU Exclusive Beamforming Report; see ¶ 0094.
Response to Arguments
Regarding claim 11, Applicant remarks, filed on 09/27/2025, argues that the cited portion of the prior art, individually or in combination, fails to discloses the features in claim 11. Examiner agrees, based on the remarks, that the amendments to claim 1 overcome the prior art rejection. However, a new ground of rejection necessitated by the claim amendments are presented below.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of AIA 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent may not be obtained though the invention is not identically disclosed or described as set forth in section 102 of this title, if the differences between the subject matter sought to be patented and the prior art are such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains. Patentability shall not be negatived by the manner in which the invention was made.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under AIA 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 11, 27-30, 32, 35-38, 40, and 43-46 are rejected under AIA 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liu et al. (Publication No. US 2023/0132850, hereinafter referred as Liu) in view of Da Silva et al. (Publication No. US 2021/0273735, hereinafter referred as Da Silva).
Regarding Claims 11 and 32, Liu discloses an apparatus for a Station (STA), comprising (A station; see figure 6 second station.):
interface circuitry (It is inherent that the station includes interface circuitry in order to exchange signals with other station(s) in the network.); and
processor circuitry coupled with the interface circuitry and configured to (It is inherent that the station includes a processor circuitry couple to the interface circuitry in order to exchange signals with other station(s) in the network.):
encode a sensing measurement report frame comprising a sensing measurement report frame action field (A station generate a sensing measurement report information, wherein the sensing measurement report information includes at least one of public action field; see figure 6 S601 & ¶ 0180.);
provide the sensing measurement report frame to the interface circuitry for transmission to a receiving station (The station sends the sensing measurement report information; see figure 6 S602.).
Liu fails to disclose that the receiving station comprises a high-efficiency (HE) station or an extremely high throughput (EHT) station, and
wherein the sensing measurement report frame action field comprises a measurement report control field and a measurement report field, and
wherein the sensing measurement report frame is a HE or EHT frame, and the control field of the sensing measurement report frame is a HE or EHT control field. However, in analogous art, Da Silva discloses that the sensing measurement report frame comprise a CSI Measurement Report Control field and a CSI Measurement Report field,
wherein the CSI measurement report control field includes a high-efficiency (HE) bandwidth (BW) subfield, and
wherein the CSI Measurement Report field includes signal to noise ratio (SNR); see table 7 subfield HE BW, table 8 subfield SNR, and ¶ 0065. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Liu with the field in order to support a higher throughput.
Regarding Claims 27, 35, and 43, Liu fails to disclose that the measurement report control field comprises a bandwidth subfield. However, in analogous art, Da Silva discloses that the sensing measurement report frame comprise a CSI Measurement Report Control field and a CSI Measurement Report field,
wherein the CSI measurement report control field includes a high-efficiency (HE) bandwidth (BW) subfield; see table 7 subfield HE BW and ¶ 0065. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Liu with the field in order to support a higher throughput.
Regarding Claims 28, 36, and 44, Liu, fails to disclose that a value of the bandwidth subfield is set to 0 to indicate a bandwidth of 20 MHz, set to 1 to indicate a bandwidth of 40 MHz, set to 2 to indicate a bandwidth of 80 MHz, and set to 3 to indicate a bandwidth of 160 MHz. However, in analogous art, Da Silva discloses that the sensing measurement report frame comprise a CSI Measurement Report Control field and a CSI Measurement Report field,
wherein the CSI measurement report control field includes a high-efficiency (HE) bandwidth (BW) subfield, and
wherein the HE BW is set to 0 for 20MHz, set to 1 for 40MHz, set to 2 for 80MHz, and set to 6 for 160MHz ; see table 7 subfield HE BW and ¶ 0065. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Liu with the field in order to support a higher throughput.
Regarding Claims 29, 37, and 45, Liu fails to disclose that the measurement report control field comprises a subfield to indicate a subcarrier grouping setting. However, in analogous art, Da Silva discloses that the sensing measurement report frame comprise a CSI Measurement Report Control field and a CSI Measurement Report field,
wherein the CSI measurement report control field includes a grouping subfield; see table 7 subfield Grouping and ¶ 0065. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Liu with the field in order to support a higher throughput.
Regarding Claims 30 and 38, Liu discloses the sensing measurement comprises Channel State Information (CSI) (The station (i.e. second station) obtains channel state information (CSI) based on the M first sounding frames; see ¶ 0148.).
Regarding Claim 40, Liu discloses a communication device comprising (A first station; see figure 6 first station.):
communications circuitry configured to receive a signal from a transmission station (It is inherent that the station includes communications circuitry in order to exchange signals with other station(s) in the network.); and
processor circuitry coupled to the communications circuitry (It is inherent that the station includes a processor circuitry couple to the interface circuitry in order to exchange signals with other station(s) in the network.) and
configured to process the signal to obtain a sensing measurement report frame, the sensing measurement report frame comprising a sensing measurement report frame action field (The first station receive the sensing measurement report information, wherein the sensing measurement report information includes at least one of public action field; see figure 6 S601-S602 & ¶ 0180.).
Liu fails to disclose that the receiving station comprises a high-efficiency (HE) station or an extremely high throughput (EHT) station, and
wherein the sensing measurement report frame action field comprises a measurement report control field and a measurement report field, and
wherein the sensing measurement report frame is a HE or EHT frame, and the control field of the sensing measurement report frame is a HE or EHT control field. However, in analogous art, Da Silva discloses that the sensing measurement report frame comprise a CSI Measurement Report Control field and a CSI Measurement Report field,
wherein the CSI measurement report control field includes a high-efficiency (HE) bandwidth (BW) subfield, and
wherein the CSI Measurement Report field includes signal to noise ratio (SNR); see table 7 subfield HE BW, table 8 subfield SNR, and ¶ 0065. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Liu with the field in order to support a higher throughput.
Regarding Claim 46, Liu discloses the sensing measurement comprises Channel State Information (CSI) (The station (i.e. second station) obtains channel state information (CSI) based on the M first sounding frames; see ¶ 0148.).
Claims 19, 33, and 41 are rejected under AIA 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liu et al. (US Publication No. 2023/0132850, hereinafter referred as Liu) in view of Da Silva et al. (Publication No. US 2021/0273735, hereinafter referred as Da Silva) and further in view of Grandhi et al. (US Publication No. 2011/0116488, hereinafter referred as Grandhi).
Regarding Claims 19, 33, and 41, Liu, as modified by Da Silva, fails to disclose that the sensing measurement report frame is an action no ack frame of category public. However, in analogous art, Grandhi discloses that the frames of the subtypes "Action" and "Action No Acknowledgement (ACK)" are used for extended management actions related to various categories such the Category field set to Public; see ¶ 0054. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Liu-Da Silva with the control field in order to support data rates greater; see ¶ 0004.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to HECTOR REYES whose telephone number is (571)270-0239. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 6-5.
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/H.R/Examiner, Art Unit 2472
/KEVIN T BATES/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2472
