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
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1, 2, 7-8, 11, 13, 16, and 18 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument. Regarding the independent claims 1, 16, and 18 along with their respective depending claims, the amended claims failed the written description requirement, where there is no support in the specification for the amended claims.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112(a):
(a) IN GENERAL.—The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor or joint inventor of carrying out the invention.
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112:
The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor of carrying out his invention.
Claims 1,16 and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the written description requirement. The claim(s) contains subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to reasonably convey to one skilled in the relevant art that the inventor or a joint inventor, or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the inventor(s), at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention.
Specifically, amended claims 1, 16, and 18 recites: “based on a TCI state configuration being absent in a second BWP of a second cell, applying, by the terminal, a TCI state configuration from the first BWP of the first cell configured by reference information for the second BWP of the second cell.” However, the original specification does not provide support for this limitation. The closest support the examiner could interpret would be paragraph [0258], “In addition, when there is no PUCCH configured in a corresponding UL BWP (e.g., SCell UL) or when a default beam for a PUCCH is enabled in a state when a spatial relation for a PUCCH is not configured although a PUCCH is configured (e.g., when enableDefaultBeamPlForPUCCH, a RRC parameter based on UplinkConfig information element, is configured to be enabled), a default spatial relation operation may be performed. In this case, a terminal may configure a TCI state/a QCL assumption corresponding to a lowest CORESET ID of a DL CC/a BWP scheduling a PUSCH as a default spatial relation.” However, the claim limitation discloses TCI state using reference information of the first bwp of the first cell not PUCCH and lowest CORESET ID.
Claims 2, 7-8, 11, and 13 are rejected as being dependent on the rejected independent claim 1.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Chen (US 20220330167 A1) discloses a TCI state that includes information such as reference bwp information, however it does not teach the absence of TCI state for second cell.
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). 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.
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/NAM P. CAO/ Examiner, Art Unit 2479 /JAE Y LEE/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2479
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