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
1. Applicant's arguments/amendments received on February 10, 2026 have been carefully considered but they are not persuasive because the teaching of all the cited reference reads on the rejected claims (1-18 and 24-31) as set forth in the previous rejection. Therefore, the finality of this Office Action is deemed proper.
Contrary to the assertions at pages 7-8 of the Arguments, specifically, claims 1, 13, 24, and 26 are not patentable.
During examination, the USPTO must give claims their broadest reasonable interpretation.
Re claims 1, 13, 24, and 26: Applicant argues Khoshnevis et al. (US 2013/0040578) combined Zhang et al. (US 2015/0358960) do not teach the limitation “each configuration from the set of configurations comprises one or more distinct types of reference signals compared to at least one other configuration from the set”. However, the Examiner respectfully disagrees with Applicant’s assertion that Khoshnevis and Zhang do not teach the claimed invention. Contrary to Applicant’s assertion, the Examiner is of the opinion that specially, Zhang teaches a transmission point in the CoMP transmission technology generally refers to different cells (cell) or different channel state information-reference signal (Channel State Information-Reference Signal, CSI-RS) configurations in a cell, that is, one transmission point may correspond to one cell or one set of configurations in one cell, and the resource configuration information (set of the configurations) may include one or more types of the following information: maximum allowable transmit power of a cell, uplink power control common configuration information, uplink sounding reference signal common configuration information, Multimedia Broadcast multicast service Single Frequency Network subframe configuration information, physical uplink shared channel common configuration information, physical downlink shared channel common configuration information, channel state reference signal configuration information. Furthermore, Zhang also teaches uplink power control common configuration information of the first cell and uplink power control common configuration information of the second cell to the user equipment, and each configuration information includes but is not limited to one or more of the following parameters: an uplink power control common configuration parameter (which may be indicated by “uplinkPowerControlCommon”) and an uplink power control common configuration parameter (which may be indicated by “UplinkPowerControlCommonSCell-r10”) of a secondary serving cell, where the uplink power control common configuration parameter includes nominal physical uplink control channel (Physical Uplink Control Channel, PUCCH for short) reference transmit power (which may be indicated by “p0-Nominal PUCCH”), nominal PUCCH reference transmit power expected to be received by a base station (which may be indicated by “p0-Nominal PUSCH”), a downlink path loss compensation factor (alpha), a PUCCH format power offset configuration (which may be indicated by “deltaFList-PUCCH”), a transmit power offset configuration for a random access preamble and message 3 (which may be indicated by “delta Preamble Msg3”), and the like, and the uplink power control common configuration parameter of a secondary serving cell includes nominal PUSCH reference transmit power (which may be indicated by “p0-Nominal PUSCH”), a downlink path loss compensation factor (alpha) (see pages 4, paragraphs 91, pages 5, paragraphs 97, Fig. 1, 2, and pages 7, paragraphs 139 – pages 8, paragraphs 150), regarding the claimed limitation. It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to modify the Khoshnevis’s system as taught by Zhang, provide the motivation to achieve an efficient controlling resource allocation in wireless communication system in order to improve uplink power control.
Applicant’s attention is directed to the rejection below for the reasons as to why this limitation is not patentable.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
2. 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.
3. Claims 13-16, 26-27, and 30-31 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Khoshnevis et al. (US 2013/0040578) in view of Zhang et al. (US 2015/0358960).
Regarding claim 13, Khoshnevis teaches that a method implemented in a transmission point (eNB see FIG. 12). Khoshnevis teaches that transmitting configuration data representing a set of configurations (the eNodeB transmits a RRC signaling message to a UE, see FIG. 3 and pages 5, paragraphs 64 - pages 6, paragraphs 70 and teaches the RRC signaling message represents a set of configurations such as first CRS transmit power and reference signal configurations) related to uplink power control of a wireless device to be served by the transmission point (pages 5, paragraphs 66 – pages 7, paragraphs 80 and Fig. 3, 4, where teaches the UE determines the uplink power allocation of multipoint reception using the path-loss parameter, where the path-loss parameter is determined using information from the RRC signaling message), and transmitting at least one reference signal (pages 5, paragraphs 64 - pages 6, paragraphs 70, Fig. 1, 4, 5, and pages 2, paragraphs 32 – pages 3, paragraphs 38, where teaches the eNodeB transmits one or more reference signals to the UE). Khoshnevis does not specifically disclose the limitation “each configuration from the set of configurations comprises one or more distinct types of reference signals compared to at least one other configuration from the set”. However, Zhang teaches the limitation “each configuration from the set of configurations comprises one or more distinct types of reference signals compared to at least one other configuration from the set” (pages 4, paragraphs 91, pages 5, paragraphs 97, Fig. 1, 2, and pages 7, paragraphs 139 – pages 8, paragraphs 150, where teaches a transmission point in the CoMP transmission technology generally refers to different cells (cell) or different channel state information-reference signal (Channel State Information-Reference Signal, CSI-RS) configurations in a cell, that is, one transmission point may correspond to one cell or one set of configurations in one cell, and the resource configuration information (set of the configurations) may include one or more types of the following information: maximum allowable transmit power of a cell, uplink power control common configuration information, uplink sounding reference signal common configuration information, Multimedia Broadcast multicast service Single Frequency Network subframe configuration information, physical uplink shared channel common configuration information, physical downlink shared channel common configuration information, channel state reference signal configuration information. Furthermore, Zhang also teaches uplink power control common configuration information of the first cell and uplink power control common configuration information of the second cell to the user equipment, and each configuration information includes but is not limited to one or more of the following parameters: an uplink power control common configuration parameter (which may be indicated by “uplinkPowerControlCommon”) and an uplink power control common configuration parameter (which may be indicated by “UplinkPowerControlCommonSCell-r10”) of a secondary serving cell, where the uplink power control common configuration parameter includes nominal physical uplink control channel (Physical Uplink Control Channel, PUCCH for short) reference transmit power (which may be indicated by “p0-Nominal PUCCH”), nominal PUCCH reference transmit power expected to be received by a base station (which may be indicated by “p0-Nominal PUSCH”), a downlink path loss compensation factor (alpha), a PUCCH format power offset configuration (which may be indicated by “deltaFList-PUCCH”), a transmit power offset configuration for a random access preamble and message 3 (which may be indicated by “delta Preamble Msg3”), and the like, and the uplink power control common configuration parameter of a secondary serving cell includes nominal PUSCH reference transmit power (which may be indicated by “p0-Nominal PUSCH”), a downlink path loss compensation factor (alpha)). It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to modify the Khoshnevis’s system as taught by Zhang, provide the motivation to achieve an efficient controlling resource allocation in wireless communication system in order to improve uplink power control.
Regarding claim 14, Khoshnevis and Zhang teaches all the limitation as discussed in claim 13. Furthermore, Khoshnevis further teaches that the set of configurations is specific to the uplink channel or signal or group thereof (pages 5, paragraphs 66 – pages 7, paragraphs 80, Fig. 3, 4, and pages 4, paragraphs 56 - 57, where teaches the UE determines the uplink power allocation of multipoint reception using the path-loss parameter, where the path-loss parameter is determined using information from the RRC signaling message, moreover, the UE determines the uplink power allocation for transmitting UCI on PUCCH or PUSCH).
Regarding claim 15, Khoshnevis and Zhang teaches all the limitation as discussed in claim 13. Furthermore, Khoshnevis further teaches that the configuration data indicates a size of a set of reference signals in each configuration (Fig. 3 and pages 5, paragraphs 66 – pages 7, paragraphs 80, where teaches reference signal configurations includes time/frequency resource allocation, which inherently indicates the size of the resource allocated for the one or more reference signals).
Regarding claim 16, Khoshnevis and Zhang teaches all the limitation as discussed in claim 13. Furthermore, Khoshnevis further teaches that the configuration data is transmitted in semi-static signaling (pages 4, paragraphs 56 – 57, Fig. 3, 4, and pages 5, paragraphs 66 – pages 7, paragraphs 80, where teaches the configuration/scheduling of the UCI transmission can be performed semi-statically via RRC signaling).
Regarding claim 26, Khoshnevis and Zhang teaches all the limitation as discussed in claim 13. Furthermore, Khoshnevis further teaches that a transmission point (an eNodeB, see FIG. 12) comprising a receiver (receiver see FIG. 12), a transmitter (transmitter see FIG. 12), processing circuitry (processor see FIG. 12) and a memory storing instructions executable by the processing circuitry (memory storing instructions see FIG. 12).
Regarding claim 27, Khoshnevis and Zhang teaches all the limitation as discussed in claim 13. Furthermore, Khoshnevis further teaches that the transmission point is a base station comprising a gNB (the eNodeB, see FIG. 12).
Regarding claim 30, Khoshnevis and Zhang teaches all the limitation as discussed in claim 13. Furthermore, Khoshnevis further teaches that a non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising computer-readable instructions (memory storing instructions, see FIG. 12) for causing a programmable processor to perform (processor, see FIG. 12).
Regarding claim 31, Khoshnevis and Zhang teaches all the limitation as discussed in claim 13. Furthermore, Khoshnevis further teaches that an apparatus product comprising a computer-readable medium storing the computer program (memory storing instructions, see FIG. 12).
4. Claims 1-12, 17-18, 24-25, and 28-29 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Khoshnevis in view of Li et al. (US 2020/0205085) in further view of Zhang.
Regarding claim 1, Khoshnevis teaches that a method implemented in a wireless device (a UE, see FIG. 11). Khoshnevis teaches that determining configuration data representing a set of configurations (FIG. 3 and pages 5, paragraphs 64 - pages 6, paragraphs 70, where teaches the UE receives a RRC signaling message from an eNodeB, and the RRC signaling message represents a set of configurations such as first CRS transmit power and reference signal configurations), receiving at least one reference signal from a transmission point (pages 5, paragraphs 64 - pages 6, paragraphs 70, Fig. 1, 4, 5, and pages 2, paragraphs 32 – pages 3, paragraphs 38, where teaches the UE receives one or more reference signals from one or more transmission points), measuring a propagation-related quantity on the basis of the at least one reference signal (pages 5, paragraphs 64 - pages 6, paragraphs 70 and Fig. 1, 4, 5, where teaches the UE measures path-loss parameter PLc using the received one or more reference signals), and deriving an uplink power setting on the basis of the measured propagation-related quantity (pages 7, paragraphs 79 - 82 and Fig. 4, 5, where teaches the UE determines the uplink power allocation of multi-point reception using the path-loss parameter), and the configuration is related to uplink power control (pages 5, paragraphs 66 – pages 7, paragraphs 80 and Fig. 3, 4, where teaches the UE determines the uplink power allocation of multipoint reception using the path-loss parameter, where the path-loss parameter is determined using information from the RRC signaling message), and is specific to an uplink channel or signal or a group thereof (Fig. 2, 3 and pages 4, paragraphs 53 - 57, where teaches the UE determines the uplink power allocation for transmitting UCI on PUCCH or PUSCH).
Khoshnevis does not explicitly disclose the limitation “the receiving of at least one reference signal is performed in accordance with a configuration selected from the set”.
However, Li teaches the limitation “the receiving of at least one reference signal is performed in accordance with a configuration selected from the set” (Fig. 1, 7 (steps 1-2), pages 12, paragraphs 176 – 193, and pages 9, paragraphs 86 – 93, where teaches a UE receives a set of RS configuration and a RS configuration indication, where the RS configuration indication includes information, such as activation for aperiodic, time duration, transmit power, QCL type, moreover, a RS configuration can be specific to a particular RS, which means receiving of a RS can be performed in accordance with a RS configuration for that specific RS). It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to modify the Khoshnevis’s system as taught by Li, provide the motivation to achieve enables the UE to determine if the path loss change is caused by beam misalignment or by dynamic blocking and perform proper adjustment based on the determination, thereby performing more optimal adjustment based on the actual cause of the path loss.
Khoshnevis and Li do not specifically disclose the limitation “each configuration from the set of configurations comprises one or more distinct types of reference signals compared to at least one other configuration from the set”. However, Zhang teaches the limitation “each configuration from the set of configurations comprises one or more distinct types of reference signals compared to at least one other configuration from the set” (pages 4, paragraphs 91, pages 5, paragraphs 97, Fig. 1, 2, and pages 7, paragraphs 139 – pages 8, paragraphs 150, where teaches a transmission point in the CoMP transmission technology generally refers to different cells (cell) or different channel state information-reference signal (Channel State Information-Reference Signal, CSI-RS) configurations in a cell, that is, one transmission point may correspond to one cell or one set of configurations in one cell, and the resource configuration information (set of the configurations) may include one or more types of the following information: maximum allowable transmit power of a cell, uplink power control common configuration information, uplink sounding reference signal common configuration information, Multimedia Broadcast multicast service Single Frequency Network subframe configuration information, physical uplink shared channel common configuration information, physical downlink shared channel common configuration information, channel state reference signal configuration information. Furthermore, Zhang also teaches uplink power control common configuration information of the first cell and uplink power control common configuration information of the second cell to the user equipment, and each configuration information includes but is not limited to one or more of the following parameters: an uplink power control common configuration parameter (which may be indicated by “uplinkPowerControlCommon”) and an uplink power control common configuration parameter (which may be indicated by “UplinkPowerControlCommonSCell-r10”) of a secondary serving cell, where the uplink power control common configuration parameter includes nominal physical uplink control channel (Physical Uplink Control Channel, PUCCH for short) reference transmit power (which may be indicated by “p0-Nominal PUCCH”), nominal PUCCH reference transmit power expected to be received by a base station (which may be indicated by “p0-Nominal PUSCH”), a downlink path loss compensation factor (alpha), a PUCCH format power offset configuration (which may be indicated by “deltaFList-PUCCH”), a transmit power offset configuration for a random access preamble and message 3 (which may be indicated by “delta Preamble Msg3”), and the like, and the uplink power control common configuration parameter of a secondary serving cell includes nominal PUSCH reference transmit power (which may be indicated by “p0-Nominal PUSCH”), a downlink path loss compensation factor (alpha)). It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to modify the Khoshnevis and Li systems as taught by Zhang, provide the motivation to achieve an efficient controlling resource allocation in wireless communication system in order to improve uplink power control.
Regarding claim 2, Khoshnevis, Zhang, and Li teaches all the limitation as discussed in claims 1 and 13. Furthermore, Khoshnevis further teaches that the set of configurations is specific to the uplink channel or signal or group thereof (pages 5, paragraphs 66 – pages 7, paragraphs 80, Fig. 3, 4, and pages 4, paragraphs 56 - 57, where teaches the UE determines the uplink power allocation of multipoint reception using the path-loss parameter, where the path-loss parameter is determined using information from the RRC signaling message, moreover, the UE determines the uplink power allocation for transmitting UCI on PUCCH or PUSCH).
Regarding claim 3, Khoshnevis, Zhang, and Li teaches all the limitation as discussed in claims 1 and 13. Furthermore, Khoshnevis further teaches that the configuration data indicates a size of a set of reference signals in each configuration (Fig. 3 and pages 5, paragraphs 66 – pages 7, paragraphs 80, where teaches reference signal configurations includes time/frequency resource allocation, which inherently indicates the size of the resource allocated for the one or more reference signals).
Regarding claim 4, Khoshnevis, Zhang, and Li teaches all the limitation as discussed in claims 1 and 13. Furthermore, Khoshnevis further teaches that the configuration data is received in semi-static signaling (pages 4, paragraphs 56 – 57, Fig. 3, 4, and pages 5, paragraphs 66 – pages 7, paragraphs 80, where teaches the configuration/scheduling of the UCI transmission can be performed semi-statically via RRC signaling).
Regarding claim 5, Khoshnevis does not explicitly disclose the limitation “receiving first control information indicating the selected configuration in the set of configurations”. However, Li teaches the limitation “receiving first control information indicating the selected configuration in the set of configurations” (Fig. 1, 7 (steps 1-2), pages 12, paragraphs 176 – 193, and pages 9, paragraphs 86 – 93, where teaches a UE receives a set of RS configuration and a RS configuration indication, where the RS configuration indication includes information, such as activation for aperiodic, time duration, transmit power, QCL type, moreover, a RS configuration can be specific to a particular RS, which means receiving of a RS can be performed in accordance with a RS configuration for that specific RS). It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to modify the Khoshnevis’s system as taught by Li, provide the motivation to achieve enables the UE to determine if the path loss change is caused by beam misalignment or by dynamic blocking and perform proper adjustment based on the determination, thereby performing more optimal adjustment based on the actual cause of the path loss.
Regarding claim 6, Khoshnevis, Zhang, and Li teaches all the limitation as discussed in claims 1 and 13. Furthermore, Khoshnevis further teaches that first control information is specific for an uplink channel or signal or group thereof (pages 5, paragraphs 66 – pages 7, paragraphs 80, Fig. 3, 4, and pages 4, paragraphs 56 - 57, where teaches the UE determines the uplink power allocation of multipoint reception using the path-loss parameter, where the path-loss parameter is determined using information from the RRC signaling message, moreover, the UE determines the uplink power allocation for transmitting UCI on PUCCH or PUSCH).
Regarding claim 7, Khoshnevis, Zhang, and Li teaches all the limitation as discussed in claims 1 and 13. Furthermore, Khoshnevis further teaches that first control information is received in dynamic signaling (pages 5, paragraphs 66 – pages 7, paragraphs 80, Fig. 3, 4, and pages 4, paragraphs 56 - 57, where teaches the configuration/scheduling of the UCI transmission can be performed dynamically).
Regarding claim 8, Khoshnevis, Zhang, and Li teaches all the limitation as discussed in claims 1 and 13. Furthermore, Khoshnevis further teaches that first control information is received in semi-static signaling (pages 4, paragraphs 56 – 57, Fig. 3, 4, and pages 5, paragraphs 66 – pages 7, paragraphs 80, where teaches the configuration/scheduling of the UCI transmission can be performed semi-statically via RRC signaling).
Regarding claim 9, Khoshnevis, Zhang, and Li teaches all the limitation as discussed in claims 1 and 13. Furthermore, Khoshnevis further teaches that receiving second control information, wherein the second control information is related to a same time or frequency position as the first control information but is specific to a different uplink channel or signal or group thereof (pages 5, paragraphs 64 - pages 6, paragraphs 70 and Fig. 1, 4, 5, where teaches the UE receives reference signal configurations (one of them being second control information), where one reference signal configuration is specific to a reference signal and another reference signal configuration is specific to another reference signal, moreover, multiple reference signals can be transmitted at around same time for path loss calculation).
Regarding claim 10, Khoshnevis, Zhang, and Li teaches all the limitation as discussed in claims 1 and 13. Furthermore, Khoshnevis further teaches that the channel or signal or group thereof is one or more of: physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), and/or sounding reference signal (SRS) (pages 4, paragraphs 56 – 57, Fig. 3, 4, and pages 5, paragraphs 66 – pages 7, paragraphs 80, where teaches the UE determines the uplink power allocation for transmitting UCI on PUCCH or PUSCH).
Regarding claim 11, Khoshnevis, Zhang, and Li teaches all the limitation as discussed in claims 1 and 13. Furthermore, Khoshnevis further teaches that the propagation-related quantity is one or more of: path loss relative to the transmission point, a path loss-related quantity (pages 5, paragraphs 64 - pages 6, paragraphs 70 and Fig. 1, 4, 5, where teaches the UE measures path-loss parameter PLc using the received one or more reference signals).
Regarding claim 12, Khoshnevis, Zhang, and Li teaches all the limitation as discussed in claims 1 and 13. Furthermore, Khoshnevis further teaches that the configuration is independently selectable from the set for each time segment or each frequency segment or each time-frequency tile (pages 4, paragraphs 56 – 57, Fig. 3, 4, and pages 5, paragraphs 66 – pages 7, paragraphs 80, where teaches the configuration/scheduling of the UCI transmission can be performed dynamically).
Regarding claim 17, Khoshnevis, Zhang, and Li teach all the limitation as discussed in claims 1 and 5.
Regarding claim 18, Khoshnevis, Zhang, and Li teach all the limitation as discussed in claims 1 and 6.
Regarding claim 24, Khoshnevis, Zhang, and Li teach all the limitation as discussed in claim 1. Furthermore, Khoshnevis further teaches that a wireless device (a UE, see FIG. 11) comprising a receiver (receiver see FIG. 11), a transmitter (transmitter see FIG. 11), processing circuitry (processor see FIG. 11) and a memory storing instructions executable by the processing circuitry (memory storing instructions, see FIG. 11).
Regarding claim 25, Khoshnevis teaches that the wireless device is a user equipment (UE in Fig. 11).
Regarding claim 28, Khoshnevis teaches that a non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising computer readable instructions for causing a programmable processor to perform (memory storing instructions in Fig. 11).
Regarding claim 29, Khoshnevis teaches that an apparatus comprising a computer-readable medium storing the computer program (memory storing instructions in Fig. 11).
5. THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the
examiner should be directed to JOHN J LEE whose telephone number is (571)272-7880. The examiner can normally be reached on Mon-Fri (8:00am-5:00pm).
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J.L
May 27, 2026
John J Lee
/JOHN J LEE/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2649
Prosecution Insights