CTFR 18/060,443 CTFR 98881 DETAILED ACTION This Final Office Action is in response to application number 18/060,443 filed on November 30 th 2022. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA. Information Disclosure Statements The information disclosure statements (IDS), submitted on March 3 rd , 2026, November 25 th , 2025, July 25 th , 2025, January 30 th , 2025, January 27 th , 2025, November 1 st , 2024 and February 2 nd , 2024, are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103 07-20 AIA 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 may not be obtained though the invention is not identically disclosed or described as set forth in section 102 of this title, 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. 07-21-aia AIA Claim s 1,7-8,14-15,21-22 and 28-32 are rejected under 35 U.S.C.103 as being unpatentable over Kim (US 20240237125 A1) in view of Zhou et al. (US 20210184809 A1) . Regarding claims 1,8,15 and 22, Kim discloses a method for wireless communication, comprising: receiving, by a first node, a downlink control information (DCI) command scheduling a transmission of a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) (US 20240237125 A1 Paragraph 0111 discloses “DCI scheduling PDSCH”) ; In response to a transmission parameter from a radio resource control (RRC) signaling indicating to the first node whether to determine a beam state for transmitting an uplink sounding reference signal (SRS) based on information included in the DCI command, and in response to the transmission parameter being configured as enabled based on a value included in the transmission parameter (US 20240237125 A1 Paragraph 0549 discloses “The followUnifiedTCIstateSRS may be enumerated with a single value. If this field is present (or set to enabled) for a SRS resource set, the UE may apply to the SRS resource set (or SRS resource of the SRS resource set) associated with one or more TCI states indicated in a PDSCH-config.”). Claims 15 and 22 are rejected on same grounds of rejection as claim 1 from the perspective of the transmitter.; Kim fails to explicitly disclose determining, by the first node, after one or more symbols after a time that a response signal associated with the DCI command is communicated the beam state for the uplink SRS based on the DCI command . And communicating, by the first node, the uplink SRS to a second node according to the beam state, wherein the beam state comprises a transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state and is indicated by at least one TCI field. However, in an analogous art, Zhou et al. teaches determining, by the first node, after one or more symbols after a time that a response signal associated with the DCI command is communicated the beam state f or transmission of an uplink sounding reference signal (SRS) the uplink SRS based on the DCI command (US 20210184809 A1 Paragraph 0107 discloses “For example, the UE (e.g., using antenna 252, DEMOD 254, MIMO detector 256, receive processor 258, controller/processor 280, and/or the like) may receive DCI, as shown by reference numbers 310, 410, 510, 610, 710, and 810. The DCI may include one or more parameters relating to activating at least one of an uplink beam configuration (for example, the PUCCH/SRS spatial relation of FIG. 6 or the uplink TCI state of FIG. 7),…”). Additionally paragraph 0115 discloses “the DCI indicates one or more spatial relation reference signal identifiers corresponding to one or more physical uplink control channels, or one or more sounding reference signal resource identifiers.”). And communicating, by the first node, the uplink SRS to a second node according to the beam state, wherein the beam state comprises a transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state and is indicated by at least one TCI field. (US 20210184809 A1 Paragraph 0089 discloses “As shown in FIG. 7, and by reference number 710, the BS 110 may provide configuration information to the UE 120. As further shown, the configuration information may include configuration information for a plurality of uplink TCI states. In some aspects, an uplink TCI state may be referred to as an uplink beam configuration. An uplink TCI state may include a TCI state to be used to generate a transmit beam in order to transmit an uplink signal, such as a PUCCH, a PUSCH, a PRACH, an SRS, and/or the like.”) . Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified Kim to incorporate the teachings of Zhou et al., to enable, transmit and communicate an uplink SRS signal based on the DCI RRC and spatial relations, in order to allow the network to dynamically adjust the uplink connection quality. Regarding claims 7,14, 21 and 28, Kim discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the response signal comprises a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) signal for the PDSCH scheduled by the DCI command, or a second HARQ signal for the DCI command (US 20240237125 A1 Paragraph 0111 discloses “The UE may transmit the HARQ acknowledgement for the MAC PDU at a point of time. The point of time may be indicated by DCI scheduling PDSCH for the MAC PDU.”) . Regarding claims 29,30,31 and 32 Kim disclose the method of claim 1, Kim fails to explicitly disclose wherein the information included in the DCI comprises the beam state for transmitting the uplink SRS. However in an analogous art Zhou et al. teaches wherein the information included in the DCI comprises the beam state for transmitting the uplink SRS (US 20210184809 A1 Paragraph 0107 discloses “ For example, the UE (e.g., using antenna 252, DEMOD 254, MIMO detector 256, receive processor 258, controller/processor 280, and/or the like) may receive DCI, as shown by reference numbers 310, 410, 510, 610, 710, and 810. The DCI may include one or more parameters relating to activating at least one of an uplink beam configuration (for example, the PUCCH/SRS spatial relation of FIG. 6 or the uplink TCI state of FIG. 7),…”). Additionally paragraph 0115 discloses “the DCI indicates one or more spatial relation reference signal identifiers corresponding to one or more physical uplink control channels, or one or more sounding reference signal resource identifiers.”). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified Kim to incorporate the teachings of Zhou et al., wherein the information included in the DCI comprises the beam state for transmitting the uplink SRS, in order to reduce beam switching latency and reduce control plane overhead. Response to Arguments Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1,8,15 and 22 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. Conclusion 07-39 AIA 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 Samuel Dilan Rutnam whose telephone number is 703-756-1374. The examiner can normally be reached between 8:30am-5:00pm Mon-Fri. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Sujoy Kundu can be reached on 571-272-8586. Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). /Samuel Dilan Rutnam/ Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2471 /SUJOY K KUNDU/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2471 Application/Control Number: 18/060,443 Page 2 Art Unit: 2471 Application/Control Number: 18/060,443 Page 3 Art Unit: 2471 Application/Control Number: 18/060,443 Page 4 Art Unit: 2471 Application/Control Number: 18/060,443 Page 5 Art Unit: 2471 Application/Control Number: 18/060,443 Page 6 Art Unit: 2471 Application/Control Number: 18/060,443 Page 7 Art Unit: 2471
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