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 .
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 10/30/2025 has been entered.
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.
The factual inquiries 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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim(s) 4-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Gao et al. (US 2023/0132040; hereinafter Gao) in view of Raghavan et al. (US 2020/0229161; hereinafter Raghavan) in further view of Cirik et al. (US 2021/0136802; hereinafter Cirik).
Regarding claim 4, Gao teaches a method, performed by a terminal device (Paragraph[0050] Describes methods performed by User equipment (UE)),
the method comprising: receiving a downlink control information (DCI) for scheduling of a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), the DCI indicating at least one transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state (Paragraphs [0023]; [0034]; [0036]-[0037] Describes the reception of the DCI (DCI for scheduling the PDSCH) and indicates TCI states);
and determining the PDSCH is associated with a plurality of PDSCH transmission occasions, in a case where the PDSCH is configured in multiple slots (Paragraph [0042] describes determining PDSCH transmission occasions. Paragraph [0036] describes PDSCH transmitted “in four consecutive slots.” Paragraph [0113] describes scheduling scenarios involving multiple transmissions, and various embodiments describe PDSCH transmission over multiple TRPs in different slots),
wherein the plurality of PDSCH transmission occasions are associated with two (TCI) states corresponding to a lowest codepoint among TCI codepoints containing two different TCI states (Paragraphs [0023]-[0024]; [0042] describes determining PDSCH transmission occasions associated with two TCI states corresponding to the lowest codepoint),
in a case where at least one TCI state indicates two TCI states and an offset between a reception of the DCI and a reception of a first PDSCH transmission occasion of the plurality of PDSCH transmission occasions is less than a threshold (Paragraphs [0041]-[0043] describes where the timing offset between DCI reception and PDSCH reception is below a threshold, and describe how TCI sates are determined in such cases, including when two TCI states are indicated),
However, Gao doesn’t tech wherein the two TCI states corresponding to the lowest codepoint are determined based on activated TCI states in a slot, among the multiple slots, comprising the first PDSCH transmission occasion, and wherein a value range of a number of the plurality of PDSCH transmission occasions is {2,3,4,5,6,7,8 and 16}.
However, in analogous art Raghavan teaches the two TCI states corresponding to the lowest codepoint are determined based on activated TCI states in a slot, among the multiple slots, comprising the first PDSCH transmission occasion (Paragraphs [0024];[0026] describes how the two TCI states corresponding to the lowest codepoint are selected based on active configurations in the relevant slot),
Raghavan doesn’t teach and wherein a value range of a number of the plurality of PDSCH transmission occasions is {2,3,4,5,6,7,8 and 16}.
However, in analogous art Cirik teaches and wherein a value range of a number of the plurality of PDSCH transmission occasions is {2,3,4,5,6,7,8 and 16} (Paragraphs [0218]; [0223]; [0225] describes the repetition quantity parameter can indicate various numbers of PDSCH transmission occasions including 2, 4, and 8 which falls within the claimed range. The Phrase “or any other quantity” suggest the teaching is not limited and would encompass the full range (2,3,4,5,6,7,8 and 16)).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Gao’s method of determining TCI states for PDSCH transmission occasions under timing constraints and the teaching of Raghavan’s slot specific TCI state determination approach to improve TCI state selection accuracy and reliability in multi-slot PDSCH configurations by incorporating the teaching of Cirik various numbers of PDSCH transmission occasions to improve reliability and robustness of reception of the TB (Cirik, Paragraph [0199]).
Regarding claim 5, Gao in view of Raghavan’s in further view of Cirik, Gao teaches wherein: a first TCI state of the two TCI states corresponding to the lowest codepoint is applied to the first PDSCH transmission occasion of the plurality of PDSCH transmission occasions, and a second TCI state of the two TCI states corresponding to the lowest codepoint is applied to a second PDSCH transmission occasion of the plurality of PDSCH transmission occasions (Paragraphs [0035] describes how different TCI states (associated with TRP1 and TRP2) are applied to different PDSCH transmissions. The PDSCH#1 from TRP1 represent the first transmission occasion with the first TCI state, and PDSCH #2 from TRP2 represents the second transmission occasion with the second TCI. Paragraph [0052] describes different TCI states from a codepoint set being applied to different transmissions. Paragraph [0024] shows the lowest codepoint (value 0) maps to two TCI states that would be applied to different transmissions).
Regarding claim 6, Gao in view of Raghavan’s in further view of Cirik, Gao teaches determining the PDSCH is associated with a single PDSCH transmission occasion (Paragraphs [0133]-[0134] describes if one TCI state is indicated, the corresponding PDSCH is sent),
in a case where a number of the at least one TCI state indicated by the DCI is one (Paragraph [0133] describes after a DCI is decoded and if one TCI state is indicated),
wherein the single PDSCH transmission occasion is associated with a first TCI state of the two TCI states corresponding to the lowest codepoint among the TCI codepoints containing two different TCI states (Paragraphs [0024]; [0042]; [0131]; [0133] “the first default TCI state is the TCI state activated for a CORESET having the lowest ControlResourceSetId” and “the corresponding PDSCH is sent with the default TCI”),
in a case where the at least one TCI codepoint indicates two TCI states, and the offset between the reception of the DCI and a reception of the PDSCH is less than the threshold (Paragraphs [0041]-[0043] describes where the timing offset between DCI reception and PDSCH reception is below a threshold, and describe how TCI sates are determined in such cases, including when two TCI states are indicated).
Claims 7 and 10 are rejected for the same reason as set forth in claim 4 respectively.
Claims 8 and 11 are rejected for the same reason as set forth in claim 5 respectively.
Claims 9 and 12 are rejected for the same reason as set forth in claim 6 respectively.
Conclusion
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/Chandrahas B Patel/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2464
/M.W.K./Examiner, Art Unit 2464