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 .
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.
Claim(s) 1, 2, 11, 15-18, and 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Pezeshki US 20200329395 in view of Chen US 20210022128 and Bai 20220217725.
Regarding claims 1, 15-17, Pezeshki teaches a method performed by a base station, the method comprising:
transmitting downlink control information (DCI) with a transmission configuration indicator (TCI), spatial information, or a combination thereof and a transmission configuration indicator TCI bitmap field / “three-bit indicator”, wherein each bit in the transmission configuration indicator TCI bitmap field indicates whether the TCI transmission configuration indicator, the spatial information, or the combination thereof applies to a channel / (PDSCH, PUSCH) or resource group (The DCI may include a three-bit indicator, which may indicate the TCI state or spatial relation for a scheduled PDSCH or PUSCH, respectively, [0044]).
Pezeshki is silent on wherein the TCI, the spatial information, or the combination thereof applies to channels in a carrier indicated by a carrier indicator field of the DCI and to a bandwidth part indicated by a bandwidth part indicator field of the DCI.
Chen teaches wherein the TCI applies to channels in a carrier indicated by a carrier indicator field of the DCI (claim 11) and to a bandwidth part indicated by a bandwidth part indicator field of the DCI ([0099, 0102, 0103]).
Therefore 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 system of Pezeshki by wherein the TCI, applies to channels in a carrier indicated by a carrier indicator field of the DCI and to a bandwidth part indicated by a bandwidth part indicator field of the DCI, as shown by Chen. This modification would benefit the system by associating the TCI with both channels in a carrier indicated by a carrier indicator field of the DCI and to a bandwidth part indicated by a bandwidth part indicator field of the DCI.
The combination is silent on wherein the TCI bitmap field is configured by radio resource control (RRC) signaling.
Bai teaches wherein the TCI bitmap field is configured by
radio resource control (RRC) signaling ([0094] To configure the TCI states for the multiple channels and/or reference signals, the TCI state information within the message 210 (e.g., RRC signaling).
Therefore 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 system of the combination by wherein the TCI bitmap field is configured by radio resource control (RRC) signaling, as shown by Bai. This modification would benefit the system by providing a proven, reliable method for transmitting TCI information.
Regarding claim 2, 18, the channel comprises a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), or a combination thereof (PDSCH or PUSCH, [0044]), and the resource group comprises a control resource set (CORESET) group, a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) resource group, or a combination thereof.
Regarding claim 11, although Pezeshki teaches DCI, the reference is silent on DCI downlink control information format 0_1, 0 2,1 1, or 1_2. However, these were common DCI formats at the time of the instant application and would have been obvious implementations at the time of the instant application.
Regarding claim 20, wherein the TCI, the spatial information, or the combination thereof applies to channels in a carrier indicated by a carrier indicator field of the DCI and to a bandwidth part indicated by a bandwidth part indicator field of the DCI (Chen: claim 11, [0099, 0102, 0103]).
Claim(s) 3 and 19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over the combination of Pezeshki and Chen as applied to claims 2 and 18 above, and further in view of Yu US 20200322109 and Ji US 20230023719.
The combination is silent on the CORESET group is defined by radio resource control (RRC) signaling to be a set of CORESETs that share the same TCI state
Yu teaches a CORESET group is defined by radio resource control (RRC) signaling ([0035]) and Ji teaches a CORESET group
to be a set of CORESETs that share the same TCI state ([0367]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5-10, 12-14 are 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.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to RONALD B ABELSON whose telephone number is (571)272-3165. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:00-4:30.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Ayaz Sheikh can be reached at 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. 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 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.
/RONALD B ABELSON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2476