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 .
Claim Objections
Claims 6, 10-16 and 21-22 are objected to because of the following informalities: Regarding claim 10, Applicant is requested to change conditional language “when” at line 6 to “in response to” for a positive claiming limitation, since if the condition for performing a contingent step is not satisfied, the performance recited by the step need not be carried out in order for the claimed method to be performed, see MPEP 2111.04. The same remark applies to claims 21-22.
Regarding claim 6, Applicant is requested to change “transmitting a plurality of pieces of TRS/CSI-RS configuration information” to --- transmitting a plurality of pieces of the preset TRS/CSI-RS configuration information --- for consistency with the claiming language of claim 1.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
3.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.
4. The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
5. Claims 10-12, and 21-22 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Ly et al. (US 2021/0227496), hereinafter referred to as Ly.
Regarding claim 10, Ly discloses the UE 115-fig.1 may receive a default configuration for TRS/CSI-RS occasions, and the base station 105-fig.1 may update a TRS/CSI-RS configuration. The UE 115 may receive an indication of the updated TRS/CSI-RS occasions 310-fig.3 (target configuration information) while operating in the inactive mode or the idle mode, see 0143 (non-connected state).
Regarding claim 11, the UE 115-fig.1 may receive an indication of the updated TRS/CSI-RS occasions 310-fig.3 (target configuration information) while operating in the inactive mode or the idle mode, see 0143 (non-connected state).
Regarding claim 12, the UE may enter a low power mode, for example, inactive mode or idle mode, see 0079.
Regarding claim 21, this claim has similar limitations as those of claim 10. Therefore, it is rejected under Ly for the same reasons as set forth in the rejection of claim 10. The UE 115-fig.1 includes a processor (not shown) and a memory (not shown) storing instructions executable by the processor.
Regarding claim 22, this claim has similar limitations as those of claim 10. Therefore, it is rejected under Ly for the same reasons as set forth in the rejection of claim 10. The UE 115-fig.1 includes a processor (not shown) and a memory (not shown) storing non-transitory instructions executable by the processor.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
6. 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 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.
7. The following is a quotation of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
(a) A patent may not be obtained though the invention is not identically disclosed or described as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the subject matter sought to be patented and the prior art are such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains. Patentability shall not be negatived by the manner in which the invention was made.
8. Claims 1-2, 5, 16 and 19-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ly, in view of Ng et al. (US 2013/0114535), hereinafter referred to as Ng.
Regarding claim 1, Ly discloses: (1) when UE 115-fig.1 establishes a connection with a base station 105-fig.1, the UE 115 may receive a default configuration for TRS/CSI-RS occasions, see 0143 (corresponding to preset TRS/CSI-RS configuration information); (2) The UE 115-fig.1 may receive an indication of the updated TRS/CSI-RS occasions 310-fig.3 while operating in the inactive mode or the idle mode (non-connected state); (3) A base station 105-fig.1 may have an antenna array with a number of rows and columns of antenna ports (corresponding to a plurality of pieces) that the base station 105 may use to support beamforming of communications with a UE 115-fig.1, see 0105. In other words, a base station with a plurality of antenna ports can transmit a default TRS/CSI-RS or an updated TRS-CSI-RS configuration to a UE, and the UE may be in the idle mode.
Ly, however, fails to mention target configuration [from a plurality of pieces of preset trs/csi-rs configuration information].
Ng discloses the configuration parameters of TRS can be the same as that of CSI-RS, i.e., the number of antenna ports (target configuration information), see 0088, 0014-0015, and 0024.
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to employ a configuration parameter including antenna ports for TRS or CSI-RS, taught by Ng into the system of Ly. The suggestion/motivation for doing so would have been to provide DL time tracking purposes and deriving RSRP measurement.
Regarding claim 2, this claim has similar limitations as those of claim 1. Therefore, it is rejected under Ly-Ng for the same reasons as set forth in the rejection of claim 1. Ng discloses the number of antenna ports (target configuration information) for TRS or CSI-RS, see 0088.
Regarding claim 5, Ly teaches the UE 115-fig.1 may receive an indication of the updated TRS/CSI-RS occasions 310-fig.3 (target configuration information) while operating in the inactive mode or the idle mode, see 0143 (non-connected state).
Regarding claim 9, this claim has similar limitations as those of claim 16. Therefore, it is rejected under Ly-Ng for the same reasons as set forth in the rejection of claim 16.
Regarding claim 16, Ly discloses all claimed limitations, except the target configuration information comprises at least a port number.
Ng discloses the configuration parameters of TRS can be the same as that of CSI-RS, i.e., the number of antenna ports (target configuration information), see 0088, 0014-0015, and 0024.
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to employ a configuration parameter including antenna ports for TRS or CSI-RS, taught by Ng into the system of Ly. The suggestion/motivation for doing so would have been to provide DL time tracking purposes and deriving RSRP measurement.
Regarding claim 19, this claim has similar limitations as those of claim 1. Therefore, it is rejected under Ly-Ng for the same reasons as set forth in the rejection of claim 1. The BS 105-fig.1 includes a processor (not shown) and a memory (not shown) storing instructions executable by the processor to perform the claimed steps.
Regarding claim 20, this claim has similar limitations as those of claim 1. Therefore, it is rejected under Ly-Ng for the same reasons as set forth in the rejection of claim 1. The BS 105-fig.1 includes a processor (not shown) and a memory (not shown) storing non-transitory instructions executable by the processor to perform the claimed steps.
9. Claim 3 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ly, in view of Ng, and further in view of Saggar et al. (US 2022/0078735), hereinafter referred to as Saggar.
Regarding claim 3, Ly and Ng disclose all claims limitations, except based on capability information of the terminal.
Sagger discloses a capability of a UE, that is the capability to receive a request for the second synchronization signal comprising configuration parameters, see 0014.
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to employ a capability information of a UE
into the combined system of Ly and Ng. The suggestion/motivation for doing so would have been to enable a UE to perform cell search to acquire time and frequency synchronization with the cell and to identify the physical cel identity (PCI) of the cell, wherein the PCI may be carried in a primary of secondary synchronization signal of a synchronization signal block (SSB).
Allowable subject matter
10. Claims 4, 6-8, and 13-15 would be allowable if rewritten or amended to include all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
11. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Maleki et al. (US 2023/0078444); Babaei (US 2022/0124674); Liu et al. (US 2021/0288773) are cited, and considered pertinent to the instant specification.
12. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DUC C HO whose telephone number is (571)272-3147. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F 8am-4pm.
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Patent Examiner
/DUC C HO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2465