DETAILED ACTION
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
Applicant's arguments filed 06/29/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Page 8 of the Remarks, Applicant argued:
Applicant submits that Grant does not disclose, teach, or suggest the subject matter of amended claim 25. For example, Applicant submits that Grant fails to disclose, teach, or suggest the feature of a "MAC CE comprises a 6-bit PUCCH-spatialRelationInfo identifier field comprising an indication of a single spatial relations value for the PUCCH resources indicated by the MAC CE" and that "the single spatial relations value representing a spatial relations value selected from 64 possible spatial relations values.”
And page 9:
“Due to its limitations, Grant's 3-bits PUCCH-SpatialRelationlnfo identifier field is not capable of indicating "one of 64 spatial relations" and thus for at least this reason, Applicant submits that due to the differences between Applicant's claims and Grant, Applicant's is capable of performing differently than Grant. Thus, the Office's stated rationale for analogizing Grant to Applicant's claimed subject matter is overcome.
Further, Applicant has further clarified claim 1 to recite that "the single spatial relations value representing a spatial relations value selected from 64 possible spatial relations values." This added feature further emphasizes the distinction of the claimed subject matter over Grant. As such, Applicant requests that the § 103 rejection of claim 25 be withdrawn.”
Examiner respectfully disagrees. According to MAC protocol specification 3GPP TS 38.321 V15.0.0, the relevant MAC-CE message contains: (1) the ID of the PUCCH resource; and (2) configured spatial relations in PUCCH_SpatialRelationInfo has up to 8 bits. Therefore, it is a designer’s option to select any n bits for PUCCH_SpatialRelationInfo subfield, wherein n ≤ 8. The number of spatial relation values are 2n. Thus, the 6 bits PUCCH_SpatialRelationInfo subfield that would have up to 26 = 64 spatial relation values is a option of designer.
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.
Claims 25, 28-32, 35-40, 42-43 and 45-50 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Grant et al (hereinafter “Grant”), US Pub. 2020/0119778 A1.
With respect to claims 25, 32, 39 and 45, Grant discloses system and method that relates to efficient configuration of spatial relations for Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) resources used in communication between a user equipment (UE) and a network node in a wireless communication network. The method and system comprising at least one memory (fig. 12, program memory 1220; fig. 13, program memory 1320); and at least one processor coupled with the at least one memory (figures 12, processors 1210 coupled to program memory 1220; and processors 1310 coupled to program memory 1320) and configured to cause the apparatus to configured to: indicate a spatial relation of PUCCH resources sharing a same PUCCH- SpatialRelationlnfo value (p. [0061]: the spatial relation for all configured PUCCH resources carrying DL related feedback is the same. To support this more typical scenario, the gNB would need to transmit potentially very many (e.g., up to 128) MAC-CE messages with exactly the same spatial relation ID; [0068]: applying the received Spatial Relation ID to all other Spatial Relation IDs that are associated with the same PUCCH format (e.g., 0 or 1) as the received Spatial Relation ID; [0069]: the particular Spatial Relation ID provided in the same messages should apply commonly to all PUCCH resources); and transmit a media access control-control element (MAC-CE) to indicate the PUCCH-SpatialRelationlnfo value for the one or more PUCCH resources (fig. 8, step 820: the network node can send, to the UE, one or more control messages comprising: 1) configuration of a plurality of PUCCH resources; and 2) identification of a plurality of spatial relations associated with the one or more reference signal (RS); step 830, p. [0087]: the network node can send, to the UE the resource identifier comprises a first value indicating that the first spatial relation applies to all of the configured PUCCH resources). Grant discloses the MAC-CE comprises a 3-bits PUCCH-SpatialRelationlnfo identifier field (fig. 2 and 4, 3-bits spatial relation ID field) comprising an indication of a single spatial relations value for the PUCCH resources indicated by the MAC-CE ([0028]: exemplary embodiments can provide an efficient technique to signal a spatial relation for PUCCH resources (e.g., via a MAC-CE message) to be used by the UE when communicating with the network node. For example, such techniques can flexibly signal whether a spatial relation should apply to a single PUCCH resource, or to a plurality of PUCCH resources, such as to all configured PUCCH resources or to a group, set, and/or subset of all configured PUCCH resources; and p. [0063] and [0067]); configure one or more PUCCH groups including the PUCCH resources (abstract: a control message comprising: indication of whether the first spatial relation applies to a single PUCCH resource of the configured PUCCH resources, or to at least one group of PUCCH resources of the configured PUCCH resources; [0031]-[0032], [0036]-[0037]: the configured PUCCH resources can be arranged into a plurality of predetermined groups, with each group comprising a plurality of the configured PUCCH resources, and [0072]-[0074]). Grant discloses the MAC-CE comprises a 3-bits PUCCH-SpatialRelationlnfo identifier field instead of 6-bits as recited in the claims. However, according to 3GPP TS 38.321 V15.0.0, the configured spatial relations in PUCCH_SpatialRelationInfo has up to 8 bits. One of ordinary skill in the art can design subfield size to obtain an expected number of spatial relation values. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify 3-bits SpatialRelationlnfo identifier field disclosed by Grant to 6-bits for allowing more SpatialRelationlnfo values (26 = 64 Spatial Relation values).
With respect to claims 28, 35, 42 and 46, Grant discloses wherein when two or more PUCCH groups are configured, the MAC-CE includes a PUCCH group identifier field to indicate an identity of a PUCCH group for which the MAC-CE applies (fig. 6: spatial group ID 0-3; fig. 7: Spatial relation ID for PUCCH spatial groups 1 and 2).
With respect to claims 29, 36, 43 and 47, Grant discloses wherein each PUCCH resource is indicated with a PUCCH group identifier (see figs. 6 and 7) and 3 bits in the MAC-CE, instead of 1 bit as recited in the claims; Grant also discloses wherein the PUCCH group identifier indicates a PUCCH group (see figs. 6-7), and the 3 bit indicates the PUCCH resource identifier within the PUCCH group, instead of 1 bit as recited in the claims. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify MAC-CE disclosed by Grant as a designer’s option.
With respect to claims 30, 37, 40 and 48, Grant does not disclose wherein the MAC-CE comprises a serving cell identifier field with 5 bits, a bandwidth part identifier field with 2 bits. All these fields are well-known in the art. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify MAC-CE disclosed by Grant as a designer’s option.
With respect to claims 31, 38 and 49, Grant does not disclose wherein the MAC-CE comprises an activation/deactivation MAC-CE identified by a media access control protocol data unit sub-header with a dedicated logical channel identifier. All these fields are well-known in the art. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify MAC-CE disclosed by Grant as a designer’s option.
With respect to claim 50, Grant discloses the system comprises a base unit (fig. 10-11 gNB).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
MÄÄTTANEN et al, US Pub 2022/0393840 A1, discloses The method for receiving a Medium Access Control (MAC) Control Element (CE) from a network, wherein the MAC CE contains respective spatial relation information relating to PUCCH resources configured for at least one specific bandwidth part.
Kim et al, US Pub 2022/0046691 A1, discloses a method for a base station transmitting/receiving data in a wireless communication system.
Nory et al, WO 2019/049107A1, discloses A user equipment (UE) being configured to receive a downlink, DL, information; determine a spatial association for an uplink, UL, transmission based on the DL information; and determine UL power control, PC, parameters based on the DL information.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to THAI D HOANG whose telephone number is (571)272-3184. The examiner can normally be reached 10:30 am-18:30pm.
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 Nawaz can be reached on (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.
/THAI DINH HOANG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2463
Prosecution Insights