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 Amendment
Applicant’s amendment filed 11/05/2025 has been entered. Claims 1 and 11 are amended. Claims 1-20 are pending. The rejection of claims 1-20 under 112(a) are withdrawn.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1, 6, 11, and 16 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.
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 1-9, and 11-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wang et al. (US 2022/0150744), Wang hereinafter, in view of Na et al. (US 2009/0322614), Na hereinafter, further in view of Haustein et al. (US 2023/0043847), Haustein hereinafter.
Re. Claims 1 and 11, Wang teaches a method (Wang, ¶0006: This application provides a measurement reporting method and an apparatus, so that when a plurality of carriers share one radio frequency channel, a network device can simultaneously use the plurality of carriers to communicate with a terminal device, thereby improving communication efficiency.) and
a transceiver (Wang, 0270-0271: FIG. 5 is a schematic block diagram of a communication apparatus 500 according to an embodiment. The communication apparatus 500 includes a transceiver unit 510 and a processing unit 520. … The communication apparatus 500 may be configured to perform an action performed by the terminal device in the foregoing method embodiments.) comprising:
receiving, by a first transceiver, a beam management reference signal (BM-RS) transmitted from a second transceiver for reference signal measurements (Wang, 0154: The pilot in the embodiments of this application represents a beam, and the pilot resource in the embodiments of this application represents a resource corresponding to the beam. It may be understood that the pilot and the beam are two mutually replaceable representations. And 0157-0158: S210: A network device sends pilot measurement configuration information of a plurality of carriers to a terminal device, where the pilot measurement configuration information of the plurality of carriers indicates a pilot association relationship of the plurality of carriers, and the pilot association relationship of the plurality of carriers indicates that pilots of the plurality of carriers correspond to a same spatial domain transmit filter. As described above, the "spatial domain transmit filter" in this specification may be replaced with any one of the following descriptions: "downlink spatial domain transmission filter", "spatial domain filter", "analog beam", or "analog weight vector". And 0168: S220: The terminal device performs measurement based on the pilot measurement configuration information of the plurality of carriers, to obtain measurement report results of the plurality of carriers. 0044: In an embodiment, the pilot measurement value may be represented by any one of the following indicators: reference signal received power (RSRP), reference signal received quality (RSRQ), a reference signal received strength indicator (RSSI), a signal to noise ratio (SNR), a signal to interference and noise ratio (SINR), a block error rate (BLER), and a signal quality indicator (CQI). [To clarify, the terminal device is equivalent to the first transceiver, and the network device is equivalent to the second transceiver. To further clarify, the “the pilot measurement configuration information … indicates a pilot association relationship” which “indicates that pilots … correspond to a same … ‘analog beam’ or ‘analog weight vector’” equates the “pilot measurement configuration information” with beam management reference signals.]),
wherein the first transceiver comprises an antenna array applied with analog beamforming (Wang, 0133-0134: The antenna panel may alternatively be represented as an antenna array or an antenna subarray. … In the embodiments of this application, the terminal device may include a plurality of antenna panels, and each antenna panel includes one or more beams. And 0087, 0158: As described above, the "spatial domain transmit filter" in this specification may be replaced with any one of the following descriptions: "downlink spatial domain transmission filter", "spatial domain filter", "analog beam", or "analog weight vector". For example, "the pilot association relationship of the plurality of carriers indicates that pilots of the plurality of carriers correspond to a same spatial domain transmit filter" in this embodiment of this application may be replaced with "the pilot association relationship of the plurality of carriers indicates that pilots of the plurality of carriers correspond to a same analog weight vector". [To clarify, the phrase “the pilot association relationship of the plurality of carriers indicates that pilots of the plurality of carriers correspond to the same analog weight vector” is taken to mean “the pilots of the plurality of carriers” is equivalent to beam candidates of aggregated component carriers or aggregated CC candidate beams.]).
Yet, Wang does not explicitly teach performing channel measurements for each of a set of selected component carriers (CCs) based on the received BM-RS under carrier aggregation; deriving a beam vector from the channel measurements over the set of selected CCs, wherein the beam vector is obtained from the channel measurements for the set of selected CCs applied with a carrier weight factor of a corresponding CC; and applying the beam vector in subsequence data reception or transmission by the first transceiver.
However, in the related art, Na teaches deriving a beam vector from the channel measurements over the set of selected CCs (Na, 0024:To do so, the BS computes estimated uplink channel coefficients in the frequency domain for a MS based on signals received from that MS, as
H
U
L
=
H
U
L
,
1
,
H
U
L
,
2
,
…
H
U
L
,
M
T
, where T stands for Transpose operation, `UL` stands for uplink and M is the number of antennas at the BS.
R
U
L
is the uplink channel covariance
R
U
L
=
1
N
e
∑
i
=
1
N
e
H
i
,
U
L
H
i
,
U
L
H
and average uplink channel covariance, where
N
e
is the number of received signals ([1,
∞
)) with the same direction of arrivals (DOAs) during a coherence time interval (i.e., the time interval during which phase and magnitude of a propagating wave are, on average, predictable or constant) and H stands for Hermitian operation. 0040: At 224, the M eigenvectors {
U
1
,
U
2
,
…
,
U
M
} of the average uplink channel covariance matrix are computed. Then, at 226, values for the candidate beamforming weight vectors are computed based on a weighted linear combination of the eigenvectors, such as,
w
=
c
1
U
1
+
c
2
U
2
+
…
c
M
U
M
/
n
o
r
m
c
1
U
1
+
c
2
U
2
+
…
c
M
U
M
, where
{
c
j
}
j
=
1
M
are complex weighting values (some of which may be set to zero).);
wherein the beam vector is obtained from the channel measurements for the set of selected CCs applied with a carrier weight factor of a corresponding CC (0024:To do so, the BS computes estimated uplink channel coefficients in the frequency domain for a MS based on signals received from that MS, as
H
U
L
=
H
U
L
,
1
,
H
U
L
,
2
,
…
H
U
L
,
M
T
, where T stands for Transpose operation, `UL` stands for uplink and M is the number of antennas at the BS.
R
U
L
is the uplink channel covariance
R
U
L
=
1
N
e
∑
i
=
1
N
e
H
i
,
U
L
H
i
,
U
L
H
and average uplink channel covariance, where
N
e
is the number of received signals ([1,
∞
)) with the same direction of arrivals (DOAs) during a coherence time interval (i.e., the time interval during which phase and magnitude of a propagating wave are, on average, predictable or constant) and H stands for Hermitian operation. 0040: At 224, the M eigenvectors {
U
1
,
U
2
,
…
,
U
M
} of the average uplink channel covariance matrix are computed. Then, at 226, values for the candidate beamforming weight vectors are computed based on a weighted linear combination of the eigenvectors, such as,
w
=
c
1
U
1
+
c
2
U
2
+
…
c
M
U
M
/
n
o
r
m
c
1
U
1
+
c
2
U
2
+
…
c
M
U
M
, where
{
c
j
}
j
=
1
M
are complex weighting values (some of which may be set to zero).) and
applying the beam vector in subsequence data reception or transmission by the first transceiver (Na, 0009: The sequence of orthogonal/partially orthogonal beamforming weight vectors are applied to multiple signal streams for simultaneous transmission to the second device via the plurality of antennas of the first device.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the measurement reporting method and apparatus of Wang with the method for computing the average uplink channel covariance of Na. The resulting invention would provide for reducing complex computations for orthogonal beamforming weight computation (Na, 0003).
Neither Wang nor Na explicitly teaches performing channel measurements for each of a set of selected component carriers (CCs) based on the received BM-RS under carrier aggregation; wherein the beam vector is obtained from the channel measurements for the set of selected CCs applied with a carrier weight factor of a corresponding CC.
However, in the related art, Haustein teaches performing channel measurements for each of a set of selected component carriers (CCs) based on the received BM-RS under carrier aggregation (Haustein, 0167: At 722, the communication partner or a different entity, e.g., the base station may instruct the device 20 activate an additional carrier so as to activate or aggregate a secondary carrier for data and/or control signals in 724. At 726/727, the UE may report about beam measurement results, for example, channel state information (CSI). An aperiodic or periodic reporting for both carriers may be requested in 728 which may result in additional beam measurement reports on both carriers, using CSI, 730.);
wherein the beam vector is obtained from the channel measurements for the set of selected CCs applied with a carrier weight factor of a corresponding CC (Hausten, 0194: After having determined the sets based on the frequency, it may be decided to apply either the first set or the second set for both frequencies in order to have it to be optimum for at least one of the two frequencies. As an alternative, a third set may be chosen for beamforming weights which is suboptimal for both frequencies but which degrades less according to a joint matrix across the two bands/frequencies/carriers.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the measurement reporting method and apparatus of Wang as modified by the teaching of Na with the beamforming weight determining method of Haustein. The resulting invention would provide for the determining of a joint set of beamforming weights (Haustein, 0193).
Re. Claims 2 and 12, Wang in view of Na and Haustein teaches claims 1 and 11.
Wang further teaches
wherein the BM-RS is one of a synchronization signal (SS) block (SSB), a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS), a CSI-RS for tracking, a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) Demodulation Reference Signal (DMRS), and a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) DMRS (Wang, 0093: The downlink signal includes but is not limited to: a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS), a cell-specific reference signal (CS-RS), a VE-specific reference signal (US-RS), a demodulation reference signal (DMRS), and a synchronization signal/physical broadcast channel block (SS/PBCH block). The SS/PBCH block may be referred to as a synchronization signal block (SSB) for short. And 0112: In an embodiment, the beam management resource may include a synchronization signal, a broadcast channel, a downlink channel measurement reference signal, a tracking signal, a downlink control channel demodulation reference signal, a downlink shared channel demodulation reference signal, an uplink sounding reference signal, an uplink random access signal, and the like.).
Re. Claims 3 and 13, Wang in view of Na and Haustein teaches claims 1 and 11.
Wang further teaches
wherein the set of selected CCs is based on at least one of a criterium including a CC index (Wang, 0237: In an embodiment, the measurement report results of the plurality of carriers include at least one of the following: a carrier identifier, a pilot measurement value, and a pilot identifier.), a CC channel quality, and intersection of uplink or downlink (UL/DL) CC.
Re. Claims 4 and 14, Wang in view of Na and Haustein teaches claim s 1 and 11.
Wang further teaches wherein the channel measurements on a CC are associated with an indicator related to a channel quality indicator (Wang, 0216: The pilot measurement value may be represented by any one of the following indicators: RSRP, RSRQ, an RSSI, an SNR, an SINR, a BLER, and a [Channel Quality Indicator] CQI. The measurement result of the pilot may further include a pilot identifier. [As noted above, pilot and beam are interchangeable.])
Re. Claim 5 and 15, Wang in view of Na and Haustein teaches claims 1 and 11.
Wang further teaches wherein the channel measurements on a CC are based on at least one of a signal to noise ratio (SNR), a reference signal received power (RSRP), a signal-to-noise and interference (SINR), a throughput, a bit error rate, a block error rate, an interference power, a noise power, a beamforming gain, a mutual information, a receive signal strength indicator (RSSI), a reference signal received quality (RSRQ), and a received signal code power (RSCP) (Wang, 0216: The pilot measurement value may be represented by any one of the following indicators: RSRP, RSRQ, an RSSI, an SNR, 35an SINR, a BLER, and a CQI. The measurement result of the pilot may further include a pilot identifier. [As noted above, pilot and beam are interchangeable.]).
Re. Claims 6 and 16, Wang in view of Na and Haustein teaches claims 1 and 11.
Yet, Wang does not explicitly teach wherein the carrier weight factor of a corresponding CC is based on a number of received BM-RS resource elements (REs) of the corresponding CC.
However, in the related art Na teaches wherein the carrier weight factor of a corresponding CC is based on a number of received BM-RS resource elements (REs) of the corresponding CC.
(Na, 0024:To do so, the BS computes estimated uplink channel coefficients in the frequency domain for a MS based on signals received from that MS, as
H
U
L
=
H
U
L
,
1
,
H
U
L
,
2
,
…
H
U
L
,
M
T
, where T stands for Transpose operation, `UL` stands for uplink and M is the number of antennas at the BS.
R
U
L
is the uplink channel covariance
R
U
L
=
1
N
e
∑
i
=
1
N
e
H
i
,
U
L
H
i
,
U
L
H
and average uplink channel covariance, where
N
e
is the number of received signals ([1,
∞
)) with the same direction of arrivals (DOAs) during a coherence time interval (i.e., the time interval during which phase and magnitude of a propagating wave are, on average, predictable or constant) and H stands for Hermitian operation. 0040: At 224, the M eigenvectors {
U
1
,
U
2
,
…
,
U
M
} of the average uplink channel covariance matrix are computed. Then, at 226, values for the candidate beamforming weight vectors are computed based on a weighted linear combination of the eigenvectors, such as,
w
=
c
1
U
1
+
c
2
U
2
+
…
c
M
U
M
/
n
o
r
m
c
1
U
1
+
c
2
U
2
+
…
c
M
U
M
, where
{
c
j
}
j
=
1
M
are complex weighting values (some of which may be set to zero).)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the measurement reporting method and apparatus of Wang with the method for computing the average uplink channel covariance of Na. The resulting invention would provide for reducing complex computations for orthogonal beamforming weight computation (Na, 0003).
Re. Claims 7 and 17, Wang in view of Na and Haustein teaches claims 1 and 11.
While Wang teaches a network device sending a downlink signal on a resource element, a terminal measuring the downlink signal (Wang, 0107), and that the downlink signal used for beam measurement may be a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) (Wang, 0089-0093), Wang does not explicitly teach wherein the carrier weight factor of a corresponding CC is based on a number of received Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) Demodulation Reference Signal (DMRS) resource elements (REs) of the corresponding CC.
In the related art, Na teaches wherein the carrier weight factor of a corresponding CC is based on a number of received Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) Demodulation Reference Signal (DMRS) resource elements (REs) of the corresponding CC (Na, 0024:To do so, the BS computes estimated uplink channel coefficients in the frequency domain for a MS based on signals received from that MS, as
H
U
L
=
H
U
L
,
1
,
H
U
L
,
2
,
…
H
U
L
,
M
T
, where T stands for Transpose operation, `UL` stands for uplink and M is the number of antennas at the BS.
R
U
L
is the uplink channel covariance
R
U
L
=
1
N
e
∑
i
=
1
N
e
H
i
,
U
L
H
i
,
U
L
H
and average uplink channel covariance, where
N
e
is the number of received signals ([1,
∞
)) with the same direction of arrivals (DOAs) during a coherence time interval (i.e., the time interval during which phase and magnitude of a propagating wave are, on average, predictable or constant) and H stands for Hermitian operation. 0040: At 224, the M eigenvectors {
U
1
,
U
2
,
…
,
U
M
} of the average uplink channel covariance matrix are computed. Then, at 226, values for the candidate beamforming weight vectors are computed based on a weighted linear combination of the eigenvectors, such as,
w
=
c
1
U
1
+
c
2
U
2
+
…
c
M
U
M
/
n
o
r
m
c
1
U
1
+
c
2
U
2
+
…
c
M
U
M
, where
{
c
j
}
j
=
1
M
are complex weighting values (some of which may be set to zero).)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the measurement reporting method and apparatus of Wang with the method for computing the average uplink channel covariance of Na. The resulting invention would provide for reducing complex computations for orthogonal beamforming weight computation (Na, 0003).
Re. Claims 8 and 18, Wang in view of Na and Haustein teaches claims 1 and 11.
Yet, Wang does not explicitly teach wherein the carrier weight factor of a corresponding CC is based on a signal to noise ratio (SNR) or a reference signal received power (RSRP) of the corresponding CC.
However, in the related art, Na teaches the carrier weight factor of a corresponding CC (Na, 0024:To do so, the BS computes estimated uplink channel coefficients in the frequency domain for a MS based on signals received from that MS, as
H
U
L
=
H
U
L
,
1
,
H
U
L
,
2
,
…
H
U
L
,
M
T
, where T stands for Transpose operation, `UL` stands for uplink and M is the number of antennas at the BS.
R
U
L
is the uplink channel covariance
R
U
L
=
1
N
e
∑
i
=
1
N
e
H
i
,
U
L
H
i
,
U
L
H
and average uplink channel covariance, where
N
e
is the number of received signals ([1,
∞
)) with the same direction of arrivals (DOAs) during a coherence time interval (i.e., the time interval during which phase and magnitude of a propagating wave are, on average, predictable or constant) and H stands for Hermitian operation. 0040: At 224, the M eigenvectors {
U
1
,
U
2
,
…
,
U
M
} of the average uplink channel covariance matrix are computed. Then, at 226, values for the candidate beamforming weight vectors are computed based on a weighted linear combination of the eigenvectors, such as,
w
=
c
1
U
1
+
c
2
U
2
+
…
c
M
U
M
/
n
o
r
m
c
1
U
1
+
c
2
U
2
+
…
c
M
U
M
, where
{
c
j
}
j
=
1
M
are complex weighting values (some of which may be set to zero).)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the measurement reporting method and apparatus of Wang with the method for computing the average uplink channel covariance of Na. The resulting invention would provide for reducing complex computations for orthogonal beamforming weight computation (Na, 0003).
Neither Wang nor Na explicitly teaches the carrier weight factor of a corresponding CC is based on a signal to noise ratio (SNR) or a reference signal received power (RSRP) of the corresponding CC.
In the related art, Haustein teaches wherein the carrier weight factor of a corresponding CC is based on a signal to noise ratio (SNR) or a reference signal received power (RSRP) (Haustein, 0167: An aperiodic or periodic reporting for both carriers may be requested in 728 which may result in additional beam measurement reports on both carriers, using CSI, 730. In 734, it may be evaluated whether a carrier aggregation (CA) beam adjustment trigger condition is met, e.g., as described for steps 550 and/or 660.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the measurement reporting method and apparatus of Wang as modified by the teaching of Na with the beamforming weight determining method of Haustein. The resulting invention would provide for the determining of a joint set of beamforming weights (Haustein, 0193).
Re. Claims 9 and 19, Wang in view of Na and Haustein teaches claims 1 and 11.
Yet, Wang does not explicitly teach wherein the carrier weight factor of a corresponding CC is based on an indicator related to a channel quality of the corresponding CC.
However, in the related art, Na teaches the carrier weight factor of a corresponding CC (Na, 0024:To do so, the BS computes estimated uplink channel coefficients in the frequency domain for a MS based on signals received from that MS, as
H
U
L
=
H
U
L
,
1
,
H
U
L
,
2
,
…
H
U
L
,
M
T
, where T stands for Transpose operation, `UL` stands for uplink and M is the number of antennas at the BS.
R
U
L
is the uplink channel covariance
R
U
L
=
1
N
e
∑
i
=
1
N
e
H
i
,
U
L
H
i
,
U
L
H
and average uplink channel covariance, where
N
e
is the number of received signals ([1,
∞
)) with the same direction of arrivals (DOAs) during a coherence time interval (i.e., the time interval during which phase and magnitude of a propagating wave are, on average, predictable or constant) and H stands for Hermitian operation. 0040: At 224, the M eigenvectors {
U
1
,
U
2
,
…
,
U
M
} of the average uplink channel covariance matrix are computed. Then, at 226, values for the candidate beamforming weight vectors are computed based on a weighted linear combination of the eigenvectors, such as,
w
=
c
1
U
1
+
c
2
U
2
+
…
c
M
U
M
/
n
o
r
m
c
1
U
1
+
c
2
U
2
+
…
c
M
U
M
, where
{
c
j
}
j
=
1
M
are complex weighting values (some of which may be set to zero).)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the measurement reporting method and apparatus of Wang with the method for computing the average uplink channel covariance of Na. The resulting invention would provide for reducing complex computations for orthogonal beamforming weight computation (Na, 0003).
Neither Wang nor Na explicitly teaches the carrier weight factor of a corresponding CC is based on an indicator related to a channel quality of the corresponding CC.
In the related art, Haustein teaches wherein the carrier weight factor of a corresponding CC is based on an indicator related to a channel quality of the corresponding CC (Haustein, 0167: An aperiodic or periodic reporting for both carriers may be requested in 728 which may result in additional beam measurement reports on both carriers, using CSI, 730. In 734, it may be evaluated whether a carrier aggregation (CA) beam adjustment trigger condition is met, e.g., as described for steps 550 and/or 660.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the measurement reporting method and apparatus of Wang as modified by the teaching of Na with the beamforming weight determining method of Haustein. The resulting invention would provide for the determining of a joint set of beamforming weights (Haustein, 0193).
Claims 10 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wang in view of Na and Haustein as applied to claims 1 and 11 above, further in view of Kotecha et al. (US 8934565).
Re. Claims 10 and 20, Wang teaches claims 1 and 11.
Yet, Wang does not explicitly teach wherein the beam vector is an Antenna Weight Vector (AWV) to be applied for the antenna array.
However, in the related art, Kotecha teaches wherein the beam vector is an Antenna Weight Vector (AWV) to be applied for the antenna array (Kotecha, Col. 2, lines 47-54: The transmission signal
x
i
is determined in accordance with Equation [1]:
x
i
=
w
i
⋅
s
i
[1] where
w
i
is the
i
t
h
beamforming, N dimensional transmission weight vector (also referred to as a “transmit beamformer”), and each coefficient -
w
j
of weight vector
w
i
represents a weight and phase shift on the
j
t
h
transmit antenna 105.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to further combine the invention of Wang as modified by the teachings of Na and Haustein with the reference signaling scheme using compressed feedforward codebooks for multi-user, multiple-input multiple-output (MU-MIMO) systems of Kotecha. The resulting combination would provide a multi-user MIMO system which efficiently conveys precoding matrix information to a particular receiver without requiring advance knowledge of the other receiver or the base station scheduling algorithm (Kotecha, Col. 4, lines 45-55).
Conclusion
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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CASON H MORSE whose telephone number is (571)270-5235. The examiner can normally be reached 8:30-6:00 Mon.-Thurs., Fri. varies.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Rebecca Song can be reached at (571) 270-3667. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/C.H.M./Examiner, Art Unit 2417
/REBECCA E SONG/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2417