DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present U.S. non-provisional application is being examined under the first-inventor-to-file provisions of the AIA . The present U.S. non-provisional application, filed on April 20, 2023, is the U.S. national stage of an international PCT application, filed on October 20, 2020.
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 January 23, 2026 has been entered.
Response to Amendment
This Office action is responsive to the amendment and arguments on December 23, 2025. Claims 1, 3, 4, 8, 10 and 15 were amended. Claims 2, 9 and 21 were canceled. Claims 1, 3-8, 10-12 and 15-20 are pending for re-consideration in the present U.S. non-provisional application.
Response to Arguments
The arguments (page 7) directed to the rejections under 35 U.S.C. 103 have been considered, and they are considered as partially sufficient to overcome the rejections. The arguments indicate that the independent claims were amended to incorporate subject matter deemed allowable. Independent claim 1 was however amended to incorporate subject matter indicated as rejected. The arguments therefore fail to comply with 37 CFR 1.111(b) because they amount to a general allegation that the claims define a patentable invention without specifically pointing out how the language of the claims patentably distinguishes them from the references. Independent claims 8 and 15 were sufficiently amended to incorporate subject matter indicated as allowable. Accordingly, the rejections under 35 U.S.C. 103 are partially withdrawn.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3, 4 and 7 would be considered as allowable if rewritten into independent form to include all of the limitations of the respective base claim and any intervening claims. Claims 8, 10-12 and 15-20 are considered as allowable. The claimed invention is neither anticipated by the prior art of record, nor considered as obvious in view thereof to a person having ordinary skill in the art.
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 1, 5 and 6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kim et al. (US 2023/0379739 A1) in view of Manolakos et al. (US 2023/0141785 A1) and Zhang et al. (US 2022/0376855 A1).
1. A remote unit for wireless communication, comprising: at least one memory; and at least one processor coupled with the at least one memory and configured to cause the remote unit (Kim, FIG. 18) to:
receive a configuration of a channel state information (CSI} Resource Setting associated with a CSI Report Setting for Doppler shift reporting, wherein the CSI Resource Setting includes one or more tracking resource signal (TRS} resources (Kim, paras. [0431], [0432], “…For example, when a single CSI resource setting (e.g., CSI-ResourceConfig) is configured in a single CSI reporting setting (e.g., CSI-ReportConfig), the reportQuantity of the CSI reporting setting may be configured to a value that means reporting on the DL Doppler shift value/information. And/or, the CSI resource setting may include information on a specific TRS/SSB (e.g., a specific NZP CSI-RS resource ID/SSB index). The UE may report the DL Doppler shift value/information measured based on the specific TRS/SSB configured in the CSI resource setting to the BS based on the above configuration.”);
estimate a Doppler shift for each of the one or more TRS resources included in the CSI Resource Setting (Kim, paras. [0431], [0432], “…For example, when a single CSI resource setting (e.g., CSI-ResourceConfig) is configured in a single CSI reporting setting (e.g., CSI-ReportConfig), the reportQuantity of the CSI reporting setting may be configured to a value that means reporting on the DL Doppler shift value/information. And/or, the CSI resource setting may include information on a specific TRS/SSB (e.g., a specific NZP CSI-RS resource ID/SSB index). The UE may report the DL Doppler shift value/information measured based on the specific TRS/SSB configured in the CSI resource setting to the BS based on the above configuration.” Id.),
wherein the Doppler shift is represented by an N-bits value in a range [ΔF, 0] and a 1-bit sign (Manolakos, paras. [0022], [0027], “Some examples of the method, apparatuses, and non-transitory computer-readable medium described herein may further include operations, features, means, or instructions for identifying a number of bits allocated for reporting the one or more Doppler shift parameters, and determining a granularity for reporting the one or more Doppler shift parameters based on the range of resolvable Doppler shift values and the number of bits. […] In some examples of the method, apparatuses, and non-transitory computer-readable medium described herein, transmitting the measurement report further may include operations, features, means, or instructions for generating a bit that indicates the estimated one or more Doppler shift parameters as having a positive or negative value.”); and
transmit the estimated Doppler shift using a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) resource or a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH} resource (Zhang, paras. [0093], [0094], “At 1050, UE 1005 transmits a Doppler offset report measured from TRS2 to gNB2 1015. In some embodiments, a report is determined for each periodic TRS independently; in some embodiments, the UE can report the Doppler offset measured for multiple periodic TRS resource sets. Further, a UE can report a differential Doppler offset measurement between two TRPs. In some embodiments, UE 1005 reports the measured Doppler offset via PUCCH, PUSCH, or via a MAC CE. A determination of whether UE 1005 reports the Doppler offset measurement for each periodic TRS can be configured by higher layer signaling (e.g., RRC signaling) or via DCI…”)
Kim et al. may not seem to describe the identical claimed invention, however in the same field of endeavor, Manolakos et al. provides prior art disclosure for the claimed invention, such as wherein the Doppler shift is represented by an N-bits value in a range [ΔF, 0] and a 1-bit sign (Manolakos, paras. [0022], [0027], Id.) The prior art disclosure and suggestions of Manolakos et al. are for reasons of determining a granularity (Manolakos, paras. [0022], [0027], Id.) In view of the prior art of record, the claimed invention 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, for reasons of determining a granularity.
Kim et al. may not seem to describe the identical claimed invention, however in the same field of endeavor, Zhang et al. provides prior art disclosure for the claimed invention, such as transmit the estimated Doppler shift using a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) resource or a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH} resource (Zhang, paras. [0093], [0094], Id.) The prior art disclosure and suggestions of Zhang et al. are for reasons of pre-compensating future DL signals (Zhang, paras. [0093], [0094], Id.) In view of the prior art of record, the claimed invention 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, for reasons of pre-compensating future DL signals.
5. The remote unit of claim 1, wherein, when a number of the one or more TRS resources included in the CSI Resource Setting is K, OCPU=1 CSI processing unit (CPU) or K CPUs are occupied for estimating and reporting K estimated Doppler shifts, and wherein K is a positive integer (Kim, paras. [0431], [0432], Id.)
6. The remote unit of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the remote unit to: receive each of the one or more TRS resources transmitted with a frequency that has not been compensated by the Doppler shift (Zhang, paras. [0093], [0094], Id.)
Conclusion
The prior art made of record (PTO-1449, PTO-892) and not relied upon is considered pertinent to the subject matter of the present U.S. non-provisional application.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Timothy J. Weidner whose telephone number is (571) 270-1825. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday, 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM, Eastern Standard Time.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing by using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, the applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) form provided at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Ayaz R. Sheikh can be reached on (571) 272-3795. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. In order to file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for more information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/TIMOTHY J WEIDNER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2476