DETAILED ACTION
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 42, 45, 55 are 58 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cirik (US Pub. 20220030620) in view of Yang (US Pub. 2020/0015229).
Regarding claims 42 and 55, Cirik discloses an apparatus, comprising:
at least one processor; and at least one memory comprising computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured, with the at least one processor (par.0190), to cause the apparatus at least to
detect that a pathloss reference reference-signal is not provided (par.0242, 0253 “the uplink resource not being provided with at least one pathloss reference”);
determine a first reference signal resource and a second reference signal resource as a result of the detecting (par.0310 “the first reference signal may comprising a downlink pathloss estimate”, par.0311 “the second reference signal may comprising a downlink pathloss estimate”);
calculate two pathloss values using the first reference signal resource and the second reference signal resource (par.0310-311 “calculating…..a first downlink pathloss”, “calculating…..a second downlink pathloss”); and
perform separate uplink power control for repetitions or transmissions toward different transmission reception points according to the two pathloss values (par.0216 “PUSCH transmission repletion to multiple TRPs”, par.0310-311 “the first transmission power based on the first reference signal”, “the second transmission power passed on the second reference signal”).
Cirik discloses communicate via multiple TRPs….first repetition(s)…to a first TRP…..second repetitions(s)……to a second TRP”, par.0211 “A base station may schedule uplink transmission via a plurality of TRPs” (par.0201). However, Cirik is specific for multi-transmission reception point uplink repetition or transmission scheme.
Yang discloses multi-transmission reception point uplink repetition or transmission scheme (par.005). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify the system of Cirik with the above teaching of Yang in order to provide transmitting feedback to at least on of the TRPs based on downlink control signaling and a coordinated transmission mode in which the UE is configured to operate.
The modified Cirik disclsoes determination of the first reference signal resource and the second reference signal resource depends at least partially on at least one of:
a transmission reception point scheme in downlink (consideration is optional), or a transmission configuration indicator state or a qluasi co-location assumption of at least one control resource set or transmission configuration indicator state of a physical downlink shared channel (Cirik par.0267 “the first CORESET bing quasi co-located with the first reference signal indicated by the first TCI state”), and
wherein the transmission reception point scheme in downlink comprises at least one of:
a multi-downlink control information multi-transmission reception point scheme (consideration is optional),
a single-downlink control information multi-transmission reception point scheme (consideration is optional),
a single transmission reception point based physical downlink shared channel reception scheme (Yang, par.0160), or
a physical downlink control channel repetition scheme with multi- transmission reception point (consideration is optional), and
wherein, in case of the multi-downlink control information multi-transmission reception point scheme, the first reference signal resource and the second reference signal resource are determined to be a reference signal of the transmission configuration indicator state of the latest physical downlink shared channel scheduled by a physical downlink control channel on a control resource set in the control resource set pool with control resource set pool index value of 0, and a reference signal of the transmission configuration indicator state of a latest physical downlink shared channel scheduled by a physical downlink control channel on a control resource set in the control resource set pool with control resource set pool index value of 1, respectively (consideration is optional).
Regarding claims 45 and 58, the modified Cirik discloses in case of the multi-downlink control information multi-transmission reception point scheme, the first reference signal resource is a reference signal of a transmission configuration indicator or a quasi co-location assumption of a control resource set with a lowest control resource set index in a control resource set pool with a control resource set pool index value of 0, and the second reference signal resource is a reference signal of the transmission configuration indicator or the quasi co-location assumption of the control resource set with a lowest control resource set index in the control resource set pool with a control resource set pool index value of 1 (Cirik, par.0213, 262).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 49-54 objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
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.
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/TU X NGUYEN/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2642