DETAILED ACTION
In response to communication filed on 3/27/2026.
Claims 1,2,4-12, and 14-20 are pending.
Claims 1,2,4-12, and 14-20 are rejected.
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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 3/27/2026 has been entered.
Response to Amendments
This communication is in response to Applicant’s reply filed under 3 CFR 1.111 on 3/27/2026. Claims 1 and 11 were amended and claims 1,2,4-12, and 14-20 remain pending.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claims 1,2,4-12, and 14-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cui et al. (WO 2024/030764)(C1 hereafter) in view of Harada et al. (US Pub. 2021/0297884)(H1 hereafter).
Regarding claims 1 and 11, C1 teaches an apparatus implementable in a user equipment (UE) [refer Fig. 4; 402], comprising:
a transceiver [refer Fig. 4; 410] configured to communicate wirelessly [paragraph 0082]; and
a processor coupled to the transceiver [refer Fig. 4; 404] and configured to perform, via the transceiver, operations [paragraph 0082] comprising:
determining a quasi-co-location (QCL) assumption (i.e. QCL with type D) with respect to a received signal strength indicator (RSSI) responsive to not receiving a transmission configuration indicator (TCI) from a network (the UE is able to use the QCL type D of a latest PDSCH reception or latest control resource set (CORESET) for RSSI measurements if explicit TCI state is not configured)[paragraph 0016]; and
performing, via the transceiver, an RSSI measurement [paragraph 0053] based on the determined QCL assumption in an expanded Frequency Range 2 (FR2-2) band [paragraph 0055] according to a 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) specification [paragraph 0069],
RSSI measurement resources are quasi-co-located with TypeD to a downlink reference signal (DL RS) associated with a TCI state provided in a RSSI Measurement Timing Configuration (RMTC) configuration (for performing RSSI measurement in FR2-2, a UE can assume the configured RSSI measurement resources are QCL-ed with TypeD to the downlink resource associated with the TCI state provided in the RMTC configuration)[paragraph 0019] and
In response to no TCI state being provided in the RMTC configuration, the RSSI measurement resources are quasi-co-located with TypeD to one of a latest received physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) and a latest monitored control resource set (CORSET) in an active bandwidth part (BWP) of a current carrier in the FR2-2 band (If no TCI state is provided in the RMTC configuration, UE can assume the configured RSSI measurement resources are QCL-ed with TypeD to one of the latest received PDSCH and the latest monitored CORESET in the active bandwidth part (BWP) of the carrier on which the RMTC configuration is provided)[paragraph 0019].
However, C1 fails to disclose the RSSI is an intra-frequency RSSI, and the determining of the QCL assumption comprises referring to a respective TCl of another RSSI or a reference signal (RS) in the FR2-2 band.
H1 discloses that measurements of RSSI, RSRP, and RSRQ may be measured with respect to both intra-frequency and inter-frequency measurements [paragraph 0036], a TCI state may indicate/include QCL information, the information including information about QCL of a target channel (or reference signal (RS) for the channel) or another signal such as another downlink reference signal [paragraph 0132].
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of C1 for a UE that can assume that measurement resources are QCL’d with a type D to downlink reference signal associated with a TCI state of an active BWP using a carrier in a serving cell in FR2-2 (i.e. FR2-2 band)[refer C1; paragraph 0056] to incorporate explicit intra-frequency RSSI measurements and QCL information from a TCI state that can indicate a reference signal for measurement as taught by H1. One would be motivated to do so to provide a means of controlling data reception and transmission with simultaneous measurement to be controlled [refer H1; paragraph 0013].
Regarding claims 2 and 12, C1 teaches the determining of the QCL assumption comprises responsive to no receiving the TCI, referring to a respective received TCl (i.e. TCI state) of each of one or more other component carriers (CCs) (i.e. carrier on which RMTC configuration is provided) in the FR2-2 band (i.e. RSSI measurement in FR2-2)[paragraph 0019].
Regarding claims 4 and 14, C1 teaches the RSSI comprises an inter-frequency RSSI [paragraph 0057], and the determining of the QCL assumption comprises assuming the inter-frequency RSSI as being type-D quasi-co-located (i.e. QCL with TypeD) to another TCl of another RSSI in the FR2-2 band [paragraph 0056].
Regarding claims 5 and 15, C1 teaches the performing of the RSSI measurement comprises applying a respective TCl of a reference signal (RS) or a channel of a serving cell in the FR2-2 band in performing the RSSI measurement [paragraph 0056].
Regarding claims 6 and 16, C1 teaches the performing of the RSSI measurement comprises performing an intra-frequency RSSI measurement (i.e. intra-band serving carrier) RSSI [paragraph 0057], and the determining comprises, further responsive to not receiving a TCl state in one or more RSSI Measurement Timing Configuration (RMTC) configurations [paragraph 0016] that configure one or more intra-frequency (i.e. intra-band serving carrier) RSSI measurements [paragraph 0056], determining that one or more resources used in the RSSI measurement as being quasi-co-located with TypeD [paragraph 0055] to either: a reference signal (RS) or a channel of a serving cell in the FR2-2 band, or another inter-frequency RSSI with a respective TCI provided by the network in the FR2-2 band [paragraph 0056].
Regarding claims 7 and 17, C1 teaches the performing of the RSSI measurement comprises performing an inter-frequency RSSI measurement [paragraph 0054], and the determining comprises determining the QCL assumption further responsive to not receiving a TCI state (i.e. TCI of QCLed type D is not provided)[paragraph 0052] in one or more RSSI Measurement Timing Configuration (RMTC) configurations that configure one or more inter-frequency RSSI measurements [paragraph 0054].
Regarding claims 8 and 18, C1 teaches the determining further comprises, further responsive to not receiving a TCI in any of one or more RMTC configurations [paragraph 0016] that configure one or more intra-frequency (i.e. intra-band serving carrier) RSSI measurements or the one or more inter-frequency RSSI measurements in the FR2-2 band [paragraph 0056], determining that the one or more inter-frequency RSSI measurements as being quasi-co-located with TypeD [paragraph 0055] to either: a reference signal (RS) of a respective TCI provided by the network in an RMTC associated with the one or more intra-frequency RSSI measurements, or another RS of another respective TCI provided by the network in another RMTC associated with the one or more inter-frequency RSSI measurements [paragraph 0056].
Regarding claims 9 and 19, C1 teaches the determining further comprises, further responsive to not receiving a TCI state in one or more RMTC configurations [paragraph 0016] that configure one or more intra-frequency (i.e. intra-band serving carrier) RSSI measurements in the FR2-2 band [paragraph 0056], determining that one or more resources used in the RSSI measurement as being quasi-co-located with TypeD to a reference signal (RS) or a channel of a serving cell in the FR2-2 band (the serving cell is in FR2-2 and if the downlink reference signal is not provided to the UE, the UE can use the QCL type-D of the latest PDSCH reception or latest CORESET monitoring resource)[paragraph 0056].
Regarding claims 10 and 20, C1 teaches wirelessly communicating, via the transceiver, in the FR2-2 band with beamforming [paragraph 0015] based on a result of the RSSI measurement [paragraph 0016].
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 3/27/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Regarding claims 1,2,4-12, and 14-20, applicant argues that the applied reference, Cui et al. (WO 2024/030764)(C1 hereafter), does not teach newly added claim limitation, namely, “RSSI measurement resources are quasi-co-located with TypeD to a downlink reference signal (DL RS) associated with a TCI state provided in a RSSI Measurement Timing Configuration (RMTC) configuration and in response to no TCI state being provided in the RMTC configuration, the RSSI measurement resources are quasi-co-located with TypeD to one of a latest received physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) and a latest monitored control resource set (CORSET) in an active bandwidth part (BWP) of a current carrier in the FR2-2 band.” Refer pages 15-17 of Applicants arguments filed on 3/27/2026.
In response to the above-mentioned argument, examiner respectively disagrees. Regarding the applicant’s arguments that the applied reference C1 does not teach the new limitations, examiner respectively directs the applicant to paragraph 0019 of C1: “For performing RSSI measurement in FR2-2, a UE can assume the configured RSSI measurement resources are QCL-ed with TypeD to the downlink resource associated with the TCI state provided in the RMTC configuration. If the configured RSSI measurement resources are not confined within the bandwidth of any serving cell, UE can assume that the measurement resources are QCL-ed with TypeD to the DL RS associated with the TCI state of the active BWP of the carrier on which the RMTC configuration is provided. If no TCI state is provided in the RMTC configuration, UE can assume the configured RSSI measurement resources are QCL-ed with TypeD to one of the latest received PDSCH and the latest monitored CORESET in the active bandwidth part (BWP) of the carrier on which the RMTC configuration is provided.”
This explicit disclosure appears to be directed towards the fallback mechanism that the applicant is referencing [refer Applicant’s arguments; page 17], since C1 explicitly discloses a condition if a TCI state is not present within an RMTC configuration.
In response to applicant's argument that the references fail to show certain features of the invention, it is noted that the features upon which applicant relies (i.e., how to deterministically determine the QCL relationship for RSSI measurement resources in FR2-2 environments when explicit measurement configuration may or may not provide beam-related information) are not recited in the rejected claim(s). Although the claims are interpreted in light of the specification, limitations from the specification are not read into the claims. See In re Van Geuns, 988 F.2d 1181, 26 USPQ2d 1057 (Fed. Cir. 1993).
In response to applicant's argument that “the architecture introduces a configuration-layer driven measurement control mechanism that is fundamentally different from the serving-cell-driven QCL deviation mechanisms described by Cui and Harada,” the test for obviousness is not whether the features of a secondary reference may be bodily incorporated into the structure of the primary reference; nor is it that the claimed invention must be expressly suggested in any one or all of the references. Rather, the test is what the combined teachings of the references would have suggested to those of ordinary skill in the art. See In re Keller, 642 F.2d 413, 208 USPQ 871 (CCPA 1981). Given the broadest reasonable interpretation of the claimed invention, as required by MPEP 2111, the claimed limitations can be reasonably read in view of C1 as noted in the above rejection, and noted in the above arguments, since, like the applicant has argued, there is a conditional means of how RSSI measurements are performed.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to RYAN C KAVLESKI whose telephone number is (571)270-3619. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 6:30am-3pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Charles C Jiang can be reached on 571-270-7191. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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Ryan Kavleski
/R.C.K/Examiner, Art Unit 2412
/CHARLES C JIANG/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2412
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