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 filed 04/17/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. Applicant argued:
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Examiner thank the Applicant for correctly identifying US 2021/0084623 as corresponding US filing of prior art relied upon Zhang, CN 108199819 A, Publication Date: 2018-06-22. However, Examiner disagrees with the Applicant’s argument.
Zhang, PP 149, or USPG Pub, PP114 clearly states: “In an embodiment, the QCL-Type associated with each TCI state in Table 7 includes the Spatial Rx parameter, and the DL-RS set formed by this QCL parameter has a predetermined restriction condition. The restriction condition includes at least one of the following: this DL-RS set includes only one DL-RS; each two DL-RSs in this set are of QCL with respect to the Spatial Rx parameters; the DL-RSs in this set may be received by the terminal simultaneously …”
The Spatial RX parameter means spatial filter, tat is based on TCI state in Table7, reproduced below. Table 7 shows TCI states indicated by the DCI as in the case of TCI field in the DCI.
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PUCCH is indicated as taught in Zhang in the transmitting step. For the foregoing reasons, Applicant’s argument is not persuasive.
Response to Amendment
Claims 4-6 are pending and rejected
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 4-6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang, CN 108199819 A, Publication Date: 2018-06-22 (aka, Zhang, US 2021/0084623) in view of Liou US PG-Pub 2019-0230545.
For claim 6, Zhang teaches a communication method of a user equipment (UE), the communication method comprising: receiving first information, and second information (Zhang, Fig. 9, Step 902 and 904);
receiving a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) and a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) (Fig. 6a teaches PDSCH, page 7/42, paragraph 76 teaches the improvement reduces PDCCH complexity through PDSCH modifications); and
transmitting a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), (Zhang, page 10/42, Paragraph 82, “for example, the first transmission parameter is transmission parameter of number is 14 according to Table 1, when the interval of the DCI and the PDSCH resource indication domain less than K, PUCCH can use number in Table 1 is 14 bit field and the number 17 bit field 5 to indicate up to from 32 selecting one of the PUCCH resources in the PUCCH resource”);
wherein the first information indicates one or more TCI states (Zhang, Table 1)
the second information indicates a presence of a TCI field in downlink control information (DCI) carried by the PDCCH (DCI carried by PDCCH is well understood in the art. Zhang, Table 1, Element 17, TCI indication field, page 16/42, paragraph 0129, “DCI of DL-Grant information the first control signaling associated with the CORESET TCI-PresentInDCI parameters for configuring the CORESET sent in the presence of TCI indication domain, namely whether the indication domain number in Table 1 is 17, for example, when CORESTE associated with TCI-PresentInDCI enabled, then the CORESET does not exist in the TCI field in the DCI”; Zhang’s invention seems to be removing the presence indicator in PDCCH to provide additional fields for PDSCH manipulation to improve communication robustness, See Table 2. This seems to read on the claims),
and the PUCCH is transmitted with a spatial filter based on a TCI state indicated by the DCI in a case that the TCI field in the DCI is present (Zhang, Table 9 teaches TCI State-n and QCL types. QCL or quasi common access location is commonly used for spatial parameters, page 18/42, paragraph 146 and 149; the following citation were presented in previous office actions and included: Table 1, page 10/42, Paragraph 82, “for example, the first transmission parameter is transmission parameter of number is 14 according to Table 1, when the interval of the DCI and the PDSCH resource indication domain less than K, PUCCH can use number in Table 1 is 14 bit field and the number 17 bit field 5 to indicate up to from 32 selecting one of the PUCCH resources in the PUCCH resource” Fig. 8a also illustrates terminal signaling to base station CORESET information).
Furthermore, in the analogous art of 5G communication, Liou, paragraph 414 teaches PUCCH Spatial Relations Info is a TCI-state. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing date of the current invention to implement the TCI state of Liou for PUCCH spatial relations into the TCI state of Zhang. Both inventions are about Quasi Co-location (QCL) Information, to improve robust signaling in 5G networks.
For claims 4 and 5, they claim the identical method of claim 6. The differences between claims 4 and 5 on one hand versus claim 6 are claims 4 and 5 include a higher layer circuitry, and transmission circuitry, and a receiving circuitry. Zhang, Fig. 11 shows a first determination module 112 (higher layer circuitry) and a first sending module 114 (transmission circuitry). Zhang Fig 12 shows a second determination module 122 (higher layer circuitry) and receiving module 124(receiving circuitry). Therefore claims 4 and 5 are rejected under the same grounds as claim 6.
Conclusion
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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Charles C Jiang whose telephone number is (571)270-7191. The examiner can normally be reached Monday to Thursday 7 am to 5 pm Eastern Time.
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/CHARLES C JIANG/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2412
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