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 (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.
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 08 December 2025 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 08 December 2025 concerning a portion of the newly added limitations have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. Specifically, Applicant argued Guan in view of Kim or Nam fails to teach and make obvious the newly added limitations related to a beam state list, the index of a second CC as a reference CC in RRC signaling, and the first command. However, Examiner disagrees.
As noted in the updated rejection below, Guan discloses a beam state list, the index of a second CC as a reference CC in RRC signaling, and the first command as claimed (see citations below). Therefore, Guan in view of Kim or Nam fairly teaches and makes obvious the claimed invention aside from the limitation addressed by Tabet.
Applicant’s remaining arguments concerning the limitation of a first RRC signaling in a second CC have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of Tabet.
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.
Claims 1-2, 8-11 and 17-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Guan et al. (US 2022/0173848 as supported by CN 202010087025.5) in view of Kim et al. (2020/0267730) or Nam et al. (US 2019/0312621), and Tabet et al. (US 2015/0230206).
Regarding claim 1, Guan discloses a method, comprising: receiving, by a wireless communication device (fig. 1, item 120a), a beam state list via a first radio resource control (RRC) signaling (fig. 6, step 610; para. 455-462); determining, by the wireless communication device, the second CC as a reference CC according to a second RRC signaling which indicates an index of the second CC (step 620; paras. 465-467; para. 247; note: CC ID); determining, by the wireless communication device, a first reference signal in a first CC (fig. 6; paras. 469-474; note: CSI-RS #2 for CC #1 after a beam update for CC #0; para. 270; note: the active BWPs of CCs used for transmitting or receiving reference signals) based on a reference signal identifier in a beam state in the beam state list that is configured in the second CC (fig. 6; paras. 289 and 469-474; note: TCI for a beam update for CC #0 where the TCI includes a reference signal identifier; paras. 207, 241 and 244; note: TCI of a beam where the TCI has a BWP ID resource parameter); and determining, by the wireless communication device, based on a first command (paras. 339-350 and 469; note: RRC signaling indicating the QCLs of the CCs are the same) that the beam state is applicable to the target signal in the first CC (fig. 6, steps 610-630; paras. 318, 357 and 399; para. 466-468; note: a change in a beam state of CC #0 causes the UE to change the beam state of CC #1 based on having the same QCL, where the TCI state represents a beam state applicable to a PDSCH or PDCCH – paras. 257 and 264).
However, Guan fails to disclose determining, by the wireless communication device, first information of a target signal in the first CC according to the first reference signal. However, Kim teaches determining information of a target signal according to a reference signal (para. 165; note: the resource location of a PDSCH is determined based on the CSI-RS). Nam also teaches this feature (fig. 7, steps 711-715 and paras. 70-71; note: the reception of a PDSCH is aided by the CSI-RS). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have determining, by the wireless communication device, first information of a target signal in the first CC according to the first reference signal in the invention of Guan. The motivation to have the modification and/or well-known benefits of the modification include, but are not limited to, determining resource locations of a PDSCH or aiding in the reception of a PDSCH as is known in the art (Kim, para. 165; Nam, fig. 7 and paras. 70-71; MPEP 2143(I)(A)(B)(C)(D) - note: e.g., applying known techniques having predictable results).
Further, Guan in view of Kim or Nam fails to teach and make obvious receiving the beam state list via a first radio resource control (RRC) signaling (Guan, fig. 6, step 610; para. 455-462) in a second component carrier (CC). However, Tabet discloses sending RRC signaling on a component carrier of component carriers (fig. 5, item 508; para. 40). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have receiving the beam state list via a first radio resource control (RRC) signaling in a second component carrier (CC) in the invention of Guan in view of Kim or Nam. The motivation to have the modification and/or well-known benefits of the modification include, but are not limited to, implementing a transmission of downlink signaling as is known in the art (Tabet, fig. 5 and para. 40; MPEP 2143(I)(A)(B)(C)(D) - note: e.g., applying known techniques having predictable results).
Regarding claim 2, Guan in view of Kim or Nam and Tabet teaches and makes obvious the method of claim 1, further comprising: determining, by the wireless communication device, that the beam state is applicable to the target signal in a CC list including the first CC (Guan, paras. 329, 333-334 and 339-349; note: list of CCs in RRC signaling having a same TCI /QCL state).
Regarding claim 8, Guan in view of Kim or Nam and Tabet teaches and makes obvious the method of claim 1, wherein the information includes a beam (Guan, paras. 288-293; note: beam update information details for a CC).
Regarding claim 9, Guan in view of Kim or Nam and Tabet teaches and makes obvious the method of claim 1, wherein the target signal includes at least one of a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS), a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), or a sounding reference signal (SRS) (Guan, para. 430; note: the terminal updates TCI of a CSI-RS of a CC and the beam of a PUCCH/PUSCH of another CC; paras. 418-419; note: the terminal uses the TCI of a PDCCH of one CC to update the TCI / beam of a PUSCH of another CC; para. 387; note: a CSI-RS update for one CC is used to update the CSI-RS of other CCs; para. 424; note: a TCI of a PDSCH of one CC is used to update the TCI of a PDSCH of another CC; paras. 608; note: TCI for PDCCHs of CCs/BWPs are updated based on one CC).
Regarding claim 10-11 and 17-18, these limitations are rejected on the same ground as claims 1-2 and 8-9, respectively. In addition, Guan discloses a wireless communication device (fig. 1, item 120), comprising: at least one processor (fig. 12, item 1220; paras. 718-719) configured to (para. 704) perform the method of claims 1-2 and 8-9.
Conclusion
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/Kevin C. Harper/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2462