DETAILED ACTION
Applicant's response filed on 02/05/2026 has been entered and made of record.
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 .
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 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.
Claim Status
Claims 1, 4, 8, 11, 12, 15, 16, 19, 23, 26, and 27 have been amended.
No new claims have been added.
Claims 1-30 are currently pending for examination.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments, filed 02/05/2026, with respect to claims 1, 11, 16, and 26 have been fully considered but are moot in view of the new ground(s) of rejection. The amendments to the claims necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection discussed below.
This Office action is made Final.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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 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 1-30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chung et al. (US 2023/0354301 A1) hereinafter “Chung” in view of VENUGOPAL et al. (US 2021/0185688 A1) hereinafter “Venugopal”.
Regarding claims 1 and 16, Chung discloses Claim 1 of a user equipment (UE) for wireless communication (see FIG. 10; see ¶ [0330-31], terminal/apparatus), and Claim 16 of a method of wireless communication performed by a user equipment (UE) (see FIG. 10; see ¶ [0330-31], terminal/apparatus), comprising:
one antenna (see FIG. 10; see ¶ [0371], transceiver); and
a processing system that includes one processor and one memory that store code and are coupled with the one processor, the processing system configured to cause the UE (see FIG. 10; see ¶ [0331], one or more processors and one or more memory):
receive, from a network node, a beam indication that is associated with a unified transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state indication, wherein the unified TCI state indication includes an indication of one downlink single frequency network (SFN) TCI state (see FIG. 8; see ¶ [0332-33] [0340], the terminal may receive configuration information on the unified TCI scheme for beam indication for the SFN-based scheme).
Chung does not explicitly disclose receive configuration information including another TCI state indication signal other than the beam indication.
However, Venugopal discloses receive, from the network node, configuration information including another TCI state indication signal other than the beam indication (see FIG. 10; see ¶ [0103], receiving, by a UE, an uplink transmission configuration indication (TCI) indicating one or more quasi co-location (QCI) types, from a plurality of uplink QCL types, for one or more source RSs).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to provide receive configuration information including another TCI state indication signal other than the beam indication as taught by Venugopal in the system of Chung, so that it would provide advantages that include improved communication between access points and stations in a wireless network (Venugopal: see ¶ [0007]).
The combined system of Chung and Venugopal discloses transmit, to the network node and using an uplink TCI state, an uplink communication using an uplink resource that is not indicated the unified TCI state indication (Chung: see ¶ [0101], DCI includes control information such as a resource allocation information for a terminal; see ¶ [0266], uplink using configured grant (CG) based PUSCH and/or SRS resource and Venugopal: see FIG. 10; see ¶ [0106], the UE sends an uplink transmission in accordance with the uplink TCI),
wherein one parameter associated with the uplink TCI state are based in part on the other TCI state indication signal (Venugopal: see FIG. 10; see ¶ [0105], the UE may determine one or more parameters for the uplink transmission based on the uplink TCI and the one or more source RSs), and wherein the one parameter include at least one of: a source quasi co-location (QCL) signal (Venugopal: see FIG. 10; see ¶ [0103] [0106], an uplink transmission configuration indication (TCI) indicating one or more quasi co-location (QCI) types, from a plurality of uplink QCL types, for one or more source RSs and different types of uplink transmissions may be associated with different sets of uplink QCL types).
Regarding claims 2 and 17, the combined system of Chung and Venugopal discloses wherein the uplink resource is associated with at least one of: a configured grant (Chung: see ¶ [0266], uplink using configured grant (CG)).
Regarding claims 3 and 18, the combined system of Chung and Venugopal discloses wherein the one parameter further include at least one of: spatial relation information (Chung: see ¶ [0196] [0260], the UL TCI state may mean spatial relationship information and Venugopal: see ¶ [0103], one of the plurality of uplink QCL types may indicate a spatial relation between one of the source RSs and the uplink transmission).
Regarding claims 4, 12, 19, and 27, the combined system of Chung and Venugopal discloses wherein the other TCI state indication signal includes uplink spatial relationship information, and wherein the one parameter is further based at least in part on the uplink spatial relation information (Venugopal: see ¶ [0103], the uplink TCI may indicate multiple QCL types from the plurality of uplink QCL types for multiple source RSs and one of the plurality of uplink QCL types may indicate a spatial relation between one of the source RSs and the uplink transmission).
Regarding claims 5, 13, 20, and 28, the combined system of Chung and Venugopal discloses wherein the one parameter is further based at least in part on a downlink TCI state from the one downlink SFN TCI state (Chung: see ¶ [0336] [0340], perform uplink transmission or downlink transmission based on at least one TCI state among the plurality of TCI states configured in SFN-based scheme).
Regarding claims 6, 14, 21, and 29, the combined system of Chung and Venugopal discloses wherein downlink TCI states, associated with the one downlink SFN TCI state, are associated with respective index values, and wherein the downlink TCI state is associated with a lowest index value or a highest index value among the respective index values (Chung: see ¶ [0169] [0323], multiple TCI state indexes and each TCI state may be applied in association with a COREST pool index).
Regarding claims 7, 15, 22, and 30, the combined system of Chung and Venugopal discloses wherein the one processor is further configured to:
receive, from the network node, an indication that the downlink TCI state is to be used to derive the one parameter (Chung: see ¶ [0334], the terminal may receive information indicating a plurality of TCI states based on the unified TCI scheme through DCI and/or MAC-CE; see ¶ [0196] [0260], the UL TCI state may mean spatial relationship information).
Regarding claims 8 and 23, the combined system of Chung and Takeda discloses wherein the processing system is further configured to:
monitor a control resource set (CORESET) using a TCI state that is associated with the other TCI state indication signal, wherein the CORESET is associated with a lowest index value among index values of CORESETs monitored by the UE in a slot, and wherein the one parameter is further based at least in part on the TCI state (Chung: see ¶ [0131], a CORESET associated with a monitored search space having the lowest CORESET-ID in the latest slot where one or more CORESETs in an activated BWP of a serving cell is monitored by UE and Venugopal: see ¶ [0095], the TCI state may be selected from the set of TCI states conveyed by the CORESET IE).
Regarding claims 9 and 24, the combined system of Chung and Takeda discloses wherein the CORESET is a last monitored CORESET that is associated with a type of CORESET (Chung: see ¶ [0131], QCL parameter used for PDCCH QCL indication of a CORESET associated with a monitored search space and Venugopal: see ¶ [0095], the TCI state may be selected from the set of TCI states conveyed by the CORESET IE).
Regarding claims 10 and 25, the combined system of Chung and Takeda discloses wherein the type of CORESET is an SFN CORESET (Chung: see ¶ [0243], for SFN PDCCH transmission, configures a plurality of TCI states in one CORESET and Venugopal: see ¶ [0095], the TCI state may be selected from the set of TCI states conveyed by the CORESET IE).
Regarding claims 11 and 26, Chung discloses Claim 11 of a network node for wireless communication (see FIG. 10; see ¶ [0031], a base station), and Claim 16 of a method of wireless communication performed by a network node (see FIG. 10; see ¶ [0031], a base station), comprising:
one antenna (see FIG. 10; see ¶ [0371], transceiver); and
a processing system that includes one processor and one or more memories that store code and are coupled with the one processor, the processing system configured to cause the network node to (see FIG. 10; see ¶ [0031] [0331], one or more processors and one or more memory):
transmit a beam indication, associated with a user equipment (UE), that is associated with a unified transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state indication, wherein the unified TCI state indication includes an indication of one downlink single frequency network (SFN) TCI state (see FIG. 8; see ¶ [0332-33] [0340], the terminal may receive configuration information on the unified TCI scheme for beam indication for the SFN-based scheme).
Chung does not explicitly disclose transmit configuration information including another TCI state indication signal other than the beam indication.
However, Venugopal discloses transmit configuration information, associated with the UE, including another TCI state indication signal other than the beam indication (see FIG. 10; see ¶ [0103], receiving, by a UE, an uplink transmission configuration indication (TCI) indicating one or more quasi co-location (QCI) types, from a plurality of uplink QCL types, for one or more source RSs).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to provide receive configuration information including another TCI state indication signal other than the beam indication as taught by Venugopal in the system of Chung, so that it would provide advantages that include improved communication between access points and stations in a wireless network (Venugopal: see ¶ [0007]).
The combined system of Chung and Venugopal discloses receive an uplink communication using an uplink resource that is not indicated the unified TCI state indication (Chung: see ¶ [0101], DCI includes control information such as a resource allocation information for a terminal; see ¶ [0266], uplink using configured grant (CG) based PUSCH and/or SRS resource and Venugopal: see FIG. 10; see ¶ [0106], the UE sends an uplink transmission in accordance with the uplink TCI),
wherein one parameter associated with the uplink TCI state are based in part on the other TCI state indication signal (Venugopal: see FIG. 10; see ¶ [0105], the UE may determine one or more parameters for the uplink transmission based on the uplink TCI and the one or more source RSs), and wherein the one parameter include at least one of: a source quasi co-location (QCL) signal (Venugopal: see FIG. 10; see ¶ [0103] [0106], an uplink transmission configuration indication (TCI) indicating one or more quasi co-location (QCI) types, from a plurality of uplink QCL types, for one or more source RSs and different types of uplink transmissions may be associated with different sets of uplink QCL types).
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). 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 PETER CHEN whose telephone number is (571)270-7241. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 8:00am to 5:00pm.
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, Yemane Mesfin can be reached at (571) 272-3927. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/PETER CHEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2462
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