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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDSs) submitted on 11/25/2025 and 02/24/2026 have been considered by the Examiner.
The Foreign Reference (JP2023540971) cited in the 02/24/2026 information disclosure statement (IDS) has not been considered by the Examiner. Based on the English language information in the “Bibliographic data” page, reference JP2023540971 is not relevant to the technological field of the instant application.
Allowable Subject Matter
The indicated allowability of claims 1 and 18 is withdrawn in view of the newly discovered references to Cao (U.S. 2021/0184733) and Honglei (U.S. 2019/0215701). Rejections based on the newly cited references follow.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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, 18, 37, 54 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cao (U.S. 2021/0184733) in view of Honglei (U.S. 2019/0215701).
With respect to claim 1, Cao discloses: receiving, first indication information sent
by a network device (Fig. 20B and related Fig. 10, [0236], “MAC-CE” (first indication) transmitted from the base station is received by the UE, [0237], [0144]-[0152], [0156]), wherein the first indication information indicates a receiving beam ([0145] “…and the UE can use the receiving beams corresponding to the Ms transmitting beams to monitor the PDCCH”, [0237] discloses: “after the activation by the MAC CE takes effect, the base station can use the indicated plurality of transmitting beams to perform downlink PDCCH transmission. For the UE, the UE obtains identification information of the transmitting beams, such as the TCI state IDs, from the MAC CE, and can determine the spatial receiving parameters (receiving beams) for monitoring the PDCCH, and receives the PDCCH using the determined plurality of receiving beams.” Refer to one of the determined plurality of receiving beams); and the receiving beam corresponds to a beam of the TRP (the one receiving beam used to receive the PDCCH corresponds to a transmit beam of the TRP used to perform PDCCH transmission); wherein the first indication information is a Medium Access Control Control Element (MAC CE) (as disclosed in Fig. 10, [0144]-[0152], [0156], [0237]), the MAC CE is configured to indicate an ID of a Control Resource Set (CORESET) associated with the TRP and a Transmission Configuration Indicator (TCI) state index corresponding to the beam of the TRP (refer to the MAC-CE format of Fig. 10, and refer to the coreset information CORSET IDx associated with (transmit) beam x (used by the network node (TRP) to transmit the PDCCH) and TCI state IDx corresponding to the beam of the TRP used to perform the PDDCH transmission), wherein the beam of the TRP corresponds to the CORESET ([0149]-[0151] the beam (of the beams) of the TRP is used to transmit the PDDCH corresponds to the respective CORESET IDx).
Cao does not expressly disclose: using a first receiving beam, a second receiving beam (receiving beam used to receive the PDCCH is not described a “second”), wherein the first receiving beam corresponds to a Transmission and Reception Point (TRP), the second receiving beam corresponds to an update beam of the TRP, a Transmission Configuration Indicator (TCI) state index corresponding to the update beam of the TRP, wherein the update beam of the TRP corresponds to the CORESET.
Implementing beam switching between a network device and a UE, using MAC-CE signaling, Honglei disclose: using a first receiving beam (Fig. 1, step 12 [0028] “…user equipment comprises receiving 12, using radio resources on a first antenna beam, an instruction to receive control data on radio resources on a second antenna beam…”, and refer to related Fig. 5, time t1 UE side receiving the transmitted MAC-CE using a first receiving beam corresponding to the old beam (TCI#1)), a second receiving beam (the UE switches to a second receiving (new) beam (corresponding to TCI#2) at t8, step 7 of [0051]. A first receiving (old) beam is used to receive the MAC-CE. [0049]) wherein the first receiving beam corresponds to a Transmission and Reception Point (TRP), the second receiving beam corresponds to an update beam of the TRP (the TCI#2 (new or second transmission beam “…and starts to use new beam TCI#2 for the future PDCCH transmission from the CORESET.”) used by the base station and the UE (corresponding new or second receiving beam, “…UE 300 switches its DL receive beam corresponding to the new transmit beam TCI#2 for the PDCCH reception), a Transmission Configuration Indictor (TCI) state index corresponding to the update beam of the TRP (TCI state #2 (the new or updated state) corresponds to the update beam of the TRP (is used by the network node for future PDCCH transmissions, approximate middle of Step 6, [0051]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to implement the receiving of the MAC CE (Fig. 20B, Fig. 10) by the UE using a first receiving beam, wherein the first receiving beam corresponds to a Transmission and Reception Point as taught by Honglei (corresponds to the base station of Fig. 20B, Fig. 10 of Cao which transmits the MAC CE), the first indication information indicates a second receiving beam (used to perform reception of the PDCCH), and the first receiving beam corresponds to first transmitting beam of the TRP (used to transmit the MAC CE), so that a first receiving beam used to receive the MAC CE is aligned with a first transmit beam used to transmit the MAC CE (Honglei, refer to the beam alignment between receive and transmit beams during t01 and t1, Fig. 5) used by the TRP.
One of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date would have recognized that: the receiving beam of modified Cao used to receive the PDCCH corresponds to a second receiving beam (compared to the first receiving beam used to receive the MAC CE) and corresponds to an update beam of the TRP (update transmit beam used to transmit the PDCCH), the TCI (TCIx of the MAC CE of Fig. 10) corresponding to the update beam of the TRP (Fig. 10, the update beam of the TRP corresponds to a respective TCI state, [0145]-[0152] and [0236]) wherein the update beam of the TRP corresponds to the CORESET (refer to the respective CORSE ID of Fig. 10, [0145]-[0152], [0236]).
Claim 37 is rejected based on the rationale used to reject claim 1 above. Cao discloses the claimed terminal device (UE of Fig. 20B and refer to the UE of at least Fig. 19A, described in detail in [0211]-[0218], 12-16 of [0369])), comprising: a transceiver (communication unit 205 implemented as a transceiver as disclosed in [0217] at least lines 1-6), a processor (processing circuitry 201 includes a processor [0212]) and a memory storing computer programs executed by the processor (memory 206, [0218], lines 1-4 “…programs…” and at least lines 12-16 of [0369]), wherein the processor is configured to perform the method of claim 1 (at least [0211]).
With respect to claim 18, Cao disclose: sending first indication information to a terminal device (Fig. 20B, BS performs sending first indication information (MAC CE activation) and related Fig. 10, [0144]-[0153], [0156], [0236]-[0237]); wherein the first indication information indicates a receiving beam of the terminal device (refer to at least the second half of [0145] “After the activation…”, [0156], [0237]), and the receiving beam corresponds to a beam of the TRP (the receiving beam(s) used by the UE to perform reception of the PDCCH transmission corresponds to transmit beam(s) of the TRP, used to perform the PDCCH transmission, refer to the portions already cited); wherein the first indication information is a Medium Access Control Element (MAC CE) (Fig. 10 and Fig. 20B, refer to the disclosed MAC-CE); the MAC CE is configured to indicate an ID of a Control Resource Set (CORESET) associated with the TRP and a Transmission Configuration Indicator (TCI) state index corresponding to the beam of the TRP (Fig. 10, refer to the field of the MAC-CE, CORSET IDx, and TCI IDx, [0147]-[0152]), wherein the beam of the TRP corresponds to the CORESET (the beam(s) used by the TRP to perform the PDCCH transmission corresponds to the CORESET, refer to the sections already cited above).
Cao does not expressly disclose: using a first sending beam; a second receiving beam of the terminal device, and the first sending beam corresponds to a first receiving beam of the terminal device; and the first receiving beam corresponds to a Transmission and Reception (TRP), and the second receiving beam corresponds to an update a beam of the TRP, corresponding to the updated beam of the TRP, wherein the updated beam of the TRP corresponds to the CORESET.
Implementing beam switching between a network device and a UE, using MAC-CE signaling, Honglei disclose: using a first sending beam (Fig. 5, MAC CE transmitted by a TRP using a first sending beam, old beam corresponding to (TCI#1), [0051] step 2); a second receiving beam of a terminal device (Fig. 5 the switched beam to a new beam corresponds to a second receiving beam (associated with TCI#2) of the UE as comparted to the old beam (associated with TCI#1), Step 7 of [0051]), and the first sending beam corresponds to a first receiving beam of the terminal device (refer to the old transmit and old receive beam); and the first receiving beam corresponds to a Transmission and Reception (TRP)(used to perform the MAC-CE transmission at t0), and the second receiving beam corresponds to an update a beam of the TRP ([0051] approximate middle of Step 6 “At time t7, gNB 400…and starts to use new beam TCI#2 for the future PDCCH transmission).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to implement the sending of the MAC CE (Fig. 20B, Fig. 10) by the TRP using a first sending beam, (as taught by Honglei), and the first sending beam corresponds to a first receiving beam of the terminal (used to receive the MAC CE according to the same TCI state) so that a first sending beam used to transmit the MAC CE is aligned with a first receiving beam used to receive the MAC CE at the UE.
One of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date would have recognized that: the receiving beam of modified Cao (used to receive the PDCCH transmission after reception of the MAC CE) corresponds a second receiving beam,
the Transmission Configuration Indicator (TCI) state index corresponding to the update beam of the TRP (Fig. 10, refer to the TCIx corresponding to the update beam of the TRP(used to perform the PDCCH transmission after MAC-CE activation)), wherein the update beam of the TRP corresponds to the CORESET (Fig. 10, the update beam of the TRP corresponds to the CORESET IDx).
Claim 54 is rejected based on the rationale used to reject claim 1 above. Cao discloses the claimed network device (BS of Fig. 20B and refer to the BS of at least Fig. 19A, described in detail in [0204]-[0210]), comprising: a transceiver (communication unit 105 implemented as a transceiver as disclosed in [0209] at least lines 1-6), a processor (processing circuitry 201 includes a processor [0212]) and a memory storing computer programs executed by the processor (memory 106, [0210], lines 1-4 “…programs…” and at least lines 11-16 of [0346]), wherein the processor is configured to perform the method of claim 1 (at least [0204]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 73-75 are allowed.
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Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SOPHIA VLAHOS whose telephone number is (571)272-5507. The examiner can normally be reached M 8:00-4:00, TWRF 8:00-2:00.
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SOPHIA VLAHOS
Examiner
Art Unit 2633
/SOPHIA VLAHOS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2633 04/20/2026
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