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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 January 8th, 2026 has been entered.
Response to Amendment
Examiner acknowledges receipt of Applicant’s RCE filled 01/08/2026.
Applicant amended claims 1, 3-6, 8-10, 16, 18-21, and 23-25.
Claims 1, 3-10, and 16-26 are currently pending.
Claim 2 is cancelled.
Claim 26 is being added.
Claims 11-15 were previously cancelled.
Claims 5, 10, 20, and 25 are objected to.
Response to Arguments
Examiner has fully considered Applicant's amendment, filed on 12/08/2025.
Applicant’s objections, on page 14-15, of the claim 1, 6, 16, and 21, under 35 U.S.C. 103, which were amended have been considered and are persuasive. However, the claims have been amended and the following new grounds of rejection (using the previous references to Cirik et al. (US 12389424 B2) were necessitated by these amendments.
The Applicant in the remark stressed in the amendment done in the independent claims and in the light argues the claims are patentable.
The Applicant argues: “nowhere does Gao teach or suggest two different sets of two TCI states, let alone receiving PDSCH transmissions using TCI states of the two sets of two TCI states”.
The Examiner’s Response to the above argument: Cirik et al. (US 12389424 B2) recites: A first TCI state set (e.g., first TCI state set in FIG. 23) of the one or more TCI state sets may be indicated/identified by a first TCI set index (e.g., indicated/provided by TCI-StateSetId in FIG. 22, first TCI state set Id in FIG. 23). The first TCI state set may comprise one or more first parameters (e.g., qcl-Type1, qcl-Type2, referenceSignal, etc.). The wireless device 2316 may use the one or more first parameters in the first TCI state set to configure one or more first quasi co-location relationships between at least one first DL RS and at least one first DM-RS port of the PDSCH (e.g., first DM-RS ports of a PDSCH 2308-1) scheduled by the DCI..." [col. 72; line 16-26]). See claim1 for detail.
The Applicant argues: Gao '103 does not teach or suggest "a first scheduling offset failing to satisfy a threshold value," let alone receiving the first PDSCH transmission using the first TCI state of the second set of two TCI states based at least in part on the first scheduling offset failing to satisfy the threshold value…
The Examiner’s Response to the above argument: Cirik et al. (US 12389424 B2) recites, ("...The time offset 1916-2 between a reception of the second DCI and a second reception of the second PDSCH may be equal to or greater than the threshold. The first cell 1904-1-specific index may be greater than the second cell-specific index." [col. 65; line 59-63], and , "...The at least one second DM-RS port for the scheduled PDSCH transmission may be quasi co-located with the second reference signal with respect to a quasi co-location type indicated by the second TCI state. The wireless device may receive second DCI associated with a second PDSCH. The wireless device may receive, based on a determination that the scheduled PDSCH transmission overlaps in time with a second scheduled PDSCH transmission associated with the second DCI, the second scheduled PDSCH transmission." [col. 92; line 43-52]. See Claim 1 for more detail.
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 1, 6-7, 16-17, 21-22 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Gao et al. (US 20230144103 A1, hereinafter, Gao) in view of Cirik et al. (US 12389424 B2, hereinafter, Cirik).
Regarding Claim 1, Gao discloses, A method performed by a user equipment (UE), the method comprising:
receiving a media access control-control element (MAC CE) comprising an activation command for an activated band width part (BWP) of a serving cell, wherein the activation command indicates a plurality of sets of two transmission configuration indication (TCI) states ("The UE receives an activation command, as described in clause “TCI States Activation/Deactivation for UE-specific PDSCH MAC CE” (for example, clause 6.1.3.14) of [TS 38.321] or in clause “Enhanced TCI States Activation/Deactivation for UE-specific PDSCH MAC CE” (for example, clause 6.1.3) of [TS 38.321], used to map up to 8 TCI states to the codepoints of the DCI field ‘Transmission Configuration Indication’ in one CC/DL BWP or in a set of CCs/DL BWPs, respectively. When a set of TCI state IDs are activated for a set of CCs/DL BWPs, where the applicable list of CCs is determined by indicated CC in the activation command, the same set of TCI state IDs are applied for all DL BWPs in the indicated CCs..." [¶0060]);
Gao don’t explicitly disclose, receiving a single downlink control information (DCI) that schedules a plurality of physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) transmission occasions corresponding to a plurality of PDSCH transmissions from a plurality of transmission-reception points (TRPs), wherein the DCI comprises at least one parameter that indicates a first set of two TCI states of the plurality of sets of two TCI states.
receiving, based at least in part on a first scheduling offset between the DCI and a first PDSCH transmission occasion of the plurality of PDSCH transmission occasions failing to satisfy a threshold value, a first PDSCH transmission of the plurality of PDSCH transmissions during the first PDSCH transmission occasion and using a first TCI state of a second set of two TCI states of the plurality of sets of two TCI states; and
receiving, based at least in part on the at least one parameter and a second scheduling offset between the DCI and a second PDSCH transmission occasion of the plurality of PDSCH transmission occasions satisfying the threshold value, a second PDSCH transmission of the plurality of PDSCH transmissions during the second PDSCH transmission occasion and using a second TCI state of the set of two TCI states.
Cirik, in analogous art relates, receiving a single downlink control information (DCI) that schedules a plurality of physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) transmission occasions corresponding to a plurality of PDSCH transmissions from a plurality of transmission-reception points (TRPs), wherein the DCI comprises at least one parameter that indicates a first set of two TCI states of the plurality of sets of two TCI states (FIG. 18A, FIG. 18B and FIG. 18C, also see "...The first DCI may schedule a first PDSCH (e.g., PDSCH-1 1812-1) for the first cell. The first cell may be indicated/identified by a first cell-specific index (e.g., indicated/provided by a higher layer parameter such as a servCellIndex). One or more TRPs of the cell-1 1804-1 may send (e.g., transmit) the first DCI in/via the PDCCH-1 1808-1 and send (e.g., transmit) data in/via the PDSCH-1 1812-1." [col. 59; line 30-35], also see, "A wireless device may detect a second PDCCH (e.g., PDCCH-2 1808-2), for a second cell (e.g., Cell-2 1804-2). The PDCCH-2 1808-2 may comprise second DCI. The wireless device may receive the second DCI, for example, based on monitoring the PDCCH-2 1808-2. The second DCI may schedule a second PDSCH transmission (e.g., PDSCH-2 1812-2) for the second cell..." [col. 59; line 63-67 and [col. 60; line 1-2], see also, "A first TCI state set (e.g., first TCI state set in FIG. 23) of the one or more TCI state sets may be indicated/identified by a first TCI set index (e.g., indicated/provided by TCI-StateSetId in FIG. 22, first TCI state set Id in FIG. 23). The first TCI state set may comprise one or more first parameters (e.g., qcl-Type1, qcl-Type2, referenceSignal, etc.). The wireless device 2316 may use the one or more first parameters in the first TCI state set to configure one or more first quasi co-location relationships between at least one first DL RS and at least one first DM-RS port of the PDSCH (e.g., first DM-RS ports of a PDSCH 2308-1) scheduled by the DCI..." [col. 72; line 16-26]).
receiving, based at least in part on a first scheduling offset between the DCI and a first PDSCH transmission occasion of the plurality of PDSCH transmission occasions failing to satisfy a threshold value, a first PDSCH transmission of the plurality of PDSCH transmissions during the first PDSCH transmission occasion and using a first TCI state of a second set of two TCI states of the plurality of sets of two TCI states ("The time offset 1916-1 between a reception of the first DCI and a first reception the first PDSCH may be equal to or greater than a threshold (e.g., timeDurationForQCL, Threshold-Sched-Offset)..." [col. 65; line 56-59], see also, "FIG. 27... At step 2708, the wireless device may receive DCI that schedules a first PDSCH for the first cell. The DCI may schedule the first PDSCH with a first QCL assumption. At step 2716, the wireless device may receive the first PDSCH with the first QCL assumption, for example, if the first PDSCH does not overlap with a second PDSCH for the second cell. At step 2720, the wireless device may perform a PDSCH selection/prioritization based on one or more criteria.." [col. 89; line 15-25], see also, "The first DCI may comprise a first TCI field indicating a first TCI state (e.g., TCI-State-1 in FIGS. 25-27). The first TCI state may indicate the at least one first RS (e.g., RS-1 2612-2) for the first QCL assumption. The wireless device may determine, for the first QCL assumption and based on a default PDSCH RS selection, the at least one first RS (e.g., Default RS-1 2612-1)..."[col. 83; line 5-10]; and
receiving, based at least in part on the at least one parameter and a second scheduling offset between the DCI and a second PDSCH transmission occasion of the plurality of PDSCH transmission occasions satisfying the threshold value, a second PDSCH transmission of the plurality of PDSCH transmissions during the second PDSCH transmission occasion and using a second TCI state of the set of two TCI states ("...The time offset 1916-2 between a reception of the second DCI and a second reception of the second PDSCH may be equal to or greater than the threshold. The first cell 1904-1-specific index may be greater than the second cell-specific index." [col. 65; line 59-63], see also, "...The second time offset 1916-2 between a reception of the second DCI and a second reception of the second PDSCH may be equal to or greater than the threshold..." [col. 65; line 40-43], see also, "...At step 2720, the wireless device may perform a PDSCH selection/prioritization based on one or more criteria, for example, if the first PDSCH overlaps with the second PDSCH. At step 2724, the wireless device may determine/select the second PDSCH may be based on the one or more criteria. The wireless device may select/prioritize the second PDSCH based on procedures described with reference to FIGS. 18-20. At step 2736, the wireless device may receive the first PDSCH with a second QCL assumption of the second PDSCH,.." [col. 89; line 23-34], see also, "...The at least one second DM-RS port for the scheduled PDSCH transmission may be quasi co-located with the second reference signal with respect to a quasi co-location type indicated by the second TCI state. The wireless device may receive second DCI associated with a second PDSCH. The wireless device may receive, based on a determination that the scheduled PDSCH transmission overlaps in time with a second scheduled PDSCH transmission associated with the second DCI, the second scheduled PDSCH transmission." [col. 92; line 43-52]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to combine the idea of Gao and with the idea of UE receiving PDSCH transmissions based on whether the scheduling offset satisfies a predefined threshold value or not as disclosed by Cirik. The rationale for doing so is to enables efficient, dynamic PDSCH reception from multiple TRPs, adapting TCI states to the scheduling delay.
Regarding Claim 7, Combination of Gao and Cirik disclose the UE of claim 6.
Gao also discloses, wherein, a value indicated by RepNumR16 in PDSCH-TimeDomainResourceAllocation is equal to or larger than two and CycMapping is enabled ("...In some embodiments, when the value indicated by RepNumR16 in PDSCH-TimeDomainResourceAllocation is larger than two, the UE may be further configured to enable CycMapping or SeqMapping in RepTCIMapping..." [¶0148]), and
wherein the method further comprises receiving one or more remaining PDSCH transmissions of the plurality of PDSCH transmissions based at least in part on a TCI mapping pattern associated with the CycMapping ("...When CycMapping is enabled, the first and second TCI states are applied to the first and second PDSCH transmission occasions, respectively, and the same TCI mapping pattern continues to the remaining PDSCH transmission occasions..." [¶0075]).
Claims 3, 8, 18, and 23 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Gao and Cirik in view of Yi et al. (US 20200351892 A1, hereinafter, Yi).
Regarding Claim 3, Combination of Gao and Cirik disclose the method of claim 1.
Gao also discloses, wherein, a value indicated by RepNumR16 in PDSCH-TimeDomainResourceAllocation is equal to or larger than two and CycMapping is enabled ("...In some embodiments, when the value indicated by RepNumR16 in PDSCH-TimeDomainResourceAllocation is larger than two, the UE may be further configured to enable CycMapping or SeqMapping in RepTCIMapping..." [¶0148]), and wherein the method further comprises:
receiving one or more remaining PDSCH transmissions of the plurality of PDSCH transmissions based at least in part on a TCI mapping pattern associated with the CycMapping ("...When CycMapping is enabled, the first and second TCI states are applied to the first and second PDSCH transmission occasions, respectively, and the same TCI mapping pattern continues to the remaining PDSCH transmission occasions..." [¶0075]). and
Gao doesn’t explicitly disclose, receiving, based at least in part on a third scheduling offset between the DCI and a third PDSCH transmission occasion of the plurality of PDSCH transmission occasions failing to satisfy the threshold value, a third PDSCH transmission of the plurality of PDSCH transmissions during the third PDSCH transmission occasion and using a first TCI state of the second set of two TCI states;
Yi, in related art relates, receiving, based at least in part on a third scheduling offset between the DCI and a third PDSCH transmission occasion of the plurality of PDSCH transmission occasions failing to satisfy the threshold value, a third PDSCH transmission of the plurality of PDSCH transmissions during the third PDSCH transmission occasion and using a second TCI state of the first set of two TCI states ("...The third PDSCH (e.g., PDSCH #3, P3) may be indicated with an explicit TCI state by a scheduling DCI (e.g., the first DCI) from CORESET #1. For example, if the third PDSCH (e.g., P3) is indicated with TCI state #3 (e.g., TCI3) and the timing gap between the first DCI and the third PDSCH is greater than or equal to the Threshold-Sched-Offset, the wireless device applies TCI state #3 to the third PDSCH." [¶0166];
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to combine the idea of Gao and Cirik with the idea of scheduling offset is less than the timeDurationForQCL threshold as disclosed by Yi. The rationale for doing so is that since UE does not have enough time to change its beam it falls back to a different, pre-determined TCI state, i.e. a second TCI state.
Claims 4, 9, 19, and 24 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Gao and Cirik in view of Gao et al. (20230127381, hereinafter, Gao-2).
Regarding Claim 4, Combination of Gao and Cirik disclose the method of claim 1.
Combination of Gao and Cirik don’t explicitly disclose, wherein, a value indicated by RepNumR16 in PDSCH-TimeDomainResourceAllocation is equal to or larger than three and SeqMapping is enabled, and wherein the method further comprises:
receiving a third PDSCH transmission of the plurality of PDSCH transmissions during a third PDSCH transmission occasion and using the first TCI state of the second set of two TCI states receiving a fourth PDSCH transmission of the plurality of PDSCH transmissions during a fourth PDSCH transmission occasion and using the secondfirst set of two TCI states; and
receiving one or more remaining PDSCH transmissions of the plurality of PDSCH transmissions based at least in part on a TCI mapping pattern associated with the SeqMapping.
Gao-2 discloses, wherein, a value indicated by RepNumR16 in PDSCH-TimeDomainResourceAllocation is equal to or larger than three and SeqMapping is enabled ("FIG. 7 is an example of NR Rel-16 slot based PUSCH repetition configured with sequential mapping of TCI states by higher layer parameter SeqMapping. Again, 2 TCI states (i.e., TCI states x and y) and RepNumR16=4 are indicated in the DCI. In this case, the same TCI state applies over two consecutive slots." [¶0091]), and wherein the method further comprises:
receiving a third PDSCH transmission of the plurality of PDSCH transmissions during a third PDSCH transmission occasion and using the first TCI state of the second set of two TCI states; receiving a fourth PDSCH transmission of the plurality of PDSCH transmissions during a fourth PDSCH transmission occasion and using the second TCI state of the first set of two TCI states ("Alternatively, the indicated TCI states can be applied to the remaining PDSCH occasions according to the regular TCI state order for those PDSCH occasions when the time offset between the reception of the DCI and the 1st PDSCH is greater than or equal to a threshold configured by timeDurationForQCL. An example is shown in FIG. 13, where TCI mapping with CycMapping is shown in FIG. 13(a) and TCI mapping with higher layer parameter SeqMapping is shown FIG. 13(b)." [¶0116]); Here both third and fourth PDSCH transmission during second-TCI state while SeqMapping is enabled in Fig. 13 (below), and
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receiving one or more remaining PDSCH transmissions of the plurality of PDSCH transmissions based at least in part on a TCI mapping pattern associated with the SeqMapping ("Alternatively, the indicated TCI states can be applied to the remaining PDSCH occasions according to the regular TCI state order for those PDSCH occasions when the time offset between the reception of the DCI and the 1st PDSCH is greater than or equal to a threshold configured by timeDurationForQCL…” [¶0116]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to combine the idea of Gao and Cirik with the idea of specifying the use of different Transmission Configuration Indicator (TCI) states across consecutive transmission occasions and refers to a mapping pattern as disclosed by Gao-2. The rationale for doing so is to support multi-beam scheduling, reduce overhead, achieve higher data rates.
Regarding claims [6, 8-9], [16, 18-19], and [21, 23-24] “UE / NE/ NE Method”, are rejected under the same reasoning as claims [1, 3-4] “UE Method”, where Gao, Cirik, Yi, and Gao-2 teaches UE / NE/ NE Method.
Regarding claims 17 and 22, “UE / NE/ NE Method”, are rejected under the same reasoning as claim 7 “UE Method”, where Gao, Cirik, Yi, and Gao-2 teaches UE / NE/ NE Method.
Claim 26 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Gao and Cirik in view of Cirik et al. (US 20210136802 A1, hereinafter, Cirik-2).
Regarding Claim 26, Combination of Gao and Cirik disclose the UE of claim 6.
Combination of Gao and Cirik don’t explicitly disclose, wherein the at least one processor is further operable to cause the lE to determine the second set of two TCI states based at least in part on a codepoint associated with the second set of two TCI states.
Cirik-2 in analogous art relates, wherein the at least one processor is further operable to cause the lE to determine the second set of two TCI states based at least in part on a codepoint associated with the second set of two TCI states ("FIG. 17 shows an example TCI state information element (IE) for downlink beam management. A base station may configure a wireless device with one or more TCI states. The one or more TCI states may be configured by a higher layer parameter (e.g., PDSCH-Config) for a serving cell (e.g., PCell, SCell). The wireless device may detect/receive a PDCCH transmission comprising DCI for the serving cell. The DCI may indicate a TCI state (e.g., among one or more activated TCI states of the one or more TCI states)..." [¶0204], see also, "A TCI codepoint (e.g., TCI codepoint 01 and TCI codepoint 10) of the one or more TCI codepoints 2428 may comprise/indicate at least two TCI states). At least one TCI codepoint (e.g., TCI codepoint 01 and TCI codepoint 10) of the one or more TCI codepoints 2428 may comprise/indicate at least two TCI states." [¶0336]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to combine the idea of Gao and Cirik with the idea UE determines a second set of two Transmission Configuration Indication (TCI) states based on a codepoint as disclosed by Cirik-2. The rationale for using a single codepoint which can be mapped to two TCI states, enables the UE to receive PDSCH repetitions from different TRPs using different beams.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5, 10, 20, and 25 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
References cited but not used: Zhang et al. (US 20220077982 A1) can be used for independent claims 1, 6, 16 and 21 in addition to the one used.
References cited but not used: Kim et al. (US 20230096196 A1) can be used for independent claims 1, 6, 16 and 21 in addition to the one used.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MUHAMMAD AINUL HUDA whose telephone number is (703)756-1594. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:30 - 6:30 ET.
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/MUHAMMAD AINUL HUDA/Examiner, Art Unit 4126
/HASSAN A PHILLIPS/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2467