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 .
DETAILED ACTION
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 05/21/2026 has been entered. Claims 1, 4-6, 10, 12, 15-17, 19, and 20 have been amended. No claims have been added; Claims 2, 3, 9, 13, 14, and 18 canceled previously. Claims 1, 4-8, 10-12, 15-17, 19, and 20 are subject to examination.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claim 1, 4-8, 10-12, 15-17, 19, and 20 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor, or for pre-AIA the applicant regards as the invention.
Claim 1, 12, and 20 recite “determining a target Reference Signal (RS) as a RS of a neighboring cell … the RS of the neighboring cell comprises a Synchronization Signal Block (SSB) … wherein the target RS comprises a RS in spatial relation information of the first object”. It is not clear what relation this RS (SSB) has with the target RS, whether SSB is the target RS.
Claim(s) 4-8, 10-11, 15-17, and 19 are also rejected because they are dependent upon rejected claims 1 and 12 as set forth above and include limitations of the claims 1 and 12 respectively.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims have been considered but are moot in view of the new grounds of rejection.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1, 5, 7-8, 10, 12, 16, and 19-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by ZARIFI et al. (ZARIFI hereinafter) (US 20210050963 A1).
Regarding claim 1, claim 12, and claim 20, ZARIFI teaches, A method for determining a reference signal, performed by a communications device, comprising:
determining a target Reference Signal (RS) as a RS of a neighboring cell in response to related configuration information of a first object comprising an identifier (ID) of the neighboring cell (ZARIFI; some parameters are required to uniquely identify the spatialRelationInfo RS … the spatialRelationInfo RS can be from the neighboring cells, spatialRelationInfo RS configuration may indicate all parameters that are required to detect a DL RS. This, depending on the DL RS type (SSB, CSI-RS, or DL PRS), includes … PCID, Par. 0074),
wherein the first object comprises a channel Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) (ZARIFI; the configuration of CSI-RS and/or DL-PRS from the serving and/or the neighboring cells as a spatialRelationInfo RS for the positioning SRS, Par. 0073; the serving cell may need to indicate the DL PRS resource ID and the PCID of the corresponding cell to configure the DL PRS as the spatialRelationInfo RS in the SRS-Config information element (IE) in RRC, Par. 0131); and
the RS of the neighboring cell comprises a Synchronization Signal Block (SSB) (ZARIFI; For positioning purposes, in addition to SSB, support configuring CSI-RS and DL-PRS from the serving and the neighboring cells as a spatialRelationInfo RS, Par. 0073);
performing measurement on the target RS, wherein the target RS comprises a RS in spatial relation information of the first object (ZARIFI; the DL PRS from the serving and/or the neighbouring cells may be indicated as a spatialRelationInfo RS for the positioning SRS. If UE is configured to measure DL PRS from the serving and/or the neighbouring cells, Par. 0072).
Specifically regarding claim 12, LEE teaches, A communications device, comprising: a memory having a computer program stored therein; and a processor, wherein the computer program, when is executed by the processor, causes the processor to perform a method for determining a reference signal, comprising (ZARIFI; the UE, Par. 0072).
Specifically regarding claim 20, LEE teaches, A non-transitory computer readable storage medium, storing a computer program, wherein the computer program, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to perform a method for determining a reference signal, comprising (ZARIFI; the UE, Par. 0072).
Regarding claim 5 and claim 16, ZARIFI teaches, The method according to claim 1 and The communications device according to claim 12 respectively. wherein the first object further comprises: a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH), a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH), or a Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH); or
the target RS is a Path Loss calculation reference Reference Signal (PL RS) of the first object (ZARIFI; the DL PL RS may be in the form of a CSI-RS, a SSB, or DL positioning reference signal (PRS), Par. 0065).
Regarding claim 7, ZARIFI teaches, The method according to claim 1, further comprising:
determining at least one of the following as the RS of the neighboring cell:
a RS in a list configured by a network device or reported by a terminal; or
a measured RS of the neighboring cell (ZARIFI; A UE can be configured in MeasObjectNR to measure multiple groups of CSI-RS resources where each group is transmitted from a serving or a neighbouring cell, Par. 0071).
Regarding claim 8, ZARIFI teaches, The method according to claim 7, wherein when multiple measured RSs exist in the neighboring cell, the measured RSs of the neighboring cell meet at least one of the following:
the multiple measured RSs have the best quality;
the multiple measured RSs have the largest ID or the smallest ID;
the multiple measured RSs have the highest priority; or
the multiple measured RSs are selected by the terminal or indicated by the network device (ZARIFI; To detect each DL TF RS or DL PL RS, or both, the ED 110 typically uses spatial domain receive beam sweeping and determines which spatial domain receive beam is best to receive the DL TF RS from a serving cell 382 or non-serving cell 384, Par. 0108).
Regarding claim 10, ZARIFI teaches, The method according to claim 1, wherein the RS of the neighboring cell further comprises: a Channel State Information-Reference Signal(CSI-RS), or the SRS (ZARIFI; DL RS type (SSB, CSI-RS, or DL PRS), Par. 0074).
Regarding claim 19, ZARIFI teaches, The communications device according to claim 1, wherein the RS of the neighboring cell further comprises: a Channel State Information-Reference Signal(CSI-RS), or the SRS (ZARIFI; DL RS type (SSB, CSI-RS, or DL PRS), Par. 0074).
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 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.
Claim 4 and 15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ZARIFI in view of LEE et al. (LEE hereinafter) (US 20210111846 A1).
Regarding claim 4 and claim 15, ZARIFI teaches, The method according to claim 1 and The communications device according to claim 12 respectively.
ZARIFI failed to explicitly teach,
wherein the first object further comprises:
a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH), a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH), a Synchronization Signal Block (SSB), a Channel State Information-Reference Signal (CSI-RS), a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH), or a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH); and
the target RS further comprises: a RS in Quasi-CoLocation (QCL) information of the first object, or a RS in Transmission Configuration Indication (TCI) information of the first object.
However, in the same field of endeavor, LEE teaches,
wherein the first object further comprises:
a Channel State Information-Reference Signal(CSI-RS) (LEE; CSI-RS-ResourceConfigMobility, Par. 0222); and
the target RS further comprises: a RS in Quasi-CoLocation (QCL) information of the first object (LEE; If the BS configures QCL-Type C, the UE may receive the CSI-RS by configuring the time and/or frequency synchronization of NZP-CSI-RS-Resource with respect to a cell with a cell ID indicated by CSI-RS-CellMobility, Par. 0289).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to incorporate the teachings of ZARIFI to include the use of CSI-RS-ResourceConfigMobility as taught by LEE in order to configure CSI-RS of neighbor (LEE; Par. 0289).
Claim 6 and 17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ZARIFI in view of MAATTANEN et al. (MAATTANEN hereinafter) (US 20220386154 A1).
Regarding claim 6 and claim 17, ZARIFI teaches, The method according to claim 1 and The communications device according to claim 12 respectively.
ZARIFI failed to explicitly teach,
wherein the first object is at least one of a target object set, wherein the target object set comprises the following: a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH),a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH), a Synchronization Signal Block (SSB),a Channel State Information-Reference Signal (CSI-RS), a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH),a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH), or a Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH); and
the target RS further comprises at least one of the following: a RS in QCL information of a second object, a RS in Transmission Configuration Indication (TCI) information of a second object, a RS in spatial relation information of a second object, or a Path Loss calculation reference Reference Signal (PL RS) of a second object, wherein
the second object is associated with the first object.
However, in the same field of endeavor, MAATTANEN teaches,
wherein the first object is at least one of a target object set, wherein the target object set comprises the following: PUCCH (MAATTANEN; TABLE 6; the UE may be configured with a pathloss reference RS. In this case, the added SSB(PCI) may be indicated in the corresponding RRC configuration, Par. 0088); and
the target RS further comprises at least one of the following: a Path Loss calculation reference Reference Signal (PL RS) of a second object (MAATTANEN; TABLE 6, PUCCH-PathlossReferenceRS, Par. 0089); and
the second object is associated with the first object (MAATTANEN; TABLE 6, Par. 0089; in order to perform UL power control, the UE may be configured with a pathloss reference RS, Par. 0088).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to incorporate the teachings of ZARIFI to include the use of PUCCH IE as taught by MAATTANEN in order to configure RS (MAATTANEN; TABLE 6).
Claim 11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ZARIFI in view of Cirkic et al. (Cirkic hereinafter) (US 20210076267 A1).
Regarding claim 11, ZARIFI teaches, The method according to claim 1.
ZARIFI failed to explicitly teach,
wherein the determining a target RS as a RS of a neighboring cell is activated through signaling from a network device.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Cirkic teaches,
wherein the determining a target RS as a RS of a neighboring cell is activated through signaling from a network device (Cirkic; If the UE wishes to measure on a … CSI-RS from the neighboring cell, this may need to be activated by the neighboring cell, Par. 0004).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to incorporate the teachings of ZARIFI to include the use of activating RS as taught by Cirkic in order to measure (Cirkic; Par. 0004).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Reference MANOLAKOS et al. (US 20210067382 A1) teaches “Configuration of the spatial relation between a reference RS and the target SRS. Reference RS can be SSB/CSI-RS/SRS” in Fig. 8.
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/SHARMIN CHOWDHURY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2416
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