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 .
DETAILED OFFICE ACTION
This action is responsive to the communication received December 30th, 2025. Claims 7, 9-10, 12, 15-18, 20 have been canceled. Claims 1-6, 8, 11-14, 19, 21-28 have been entered and are presented for examination.
Application 18/285,250 is a 371 of PCT/CN2021/085117 04/01/2021.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, filed December 30th, 2025, have been fully considered, but deemed moot in view of the new grounds of rejection which has been necessitated by Applicant’s amendments.
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim(s) 1-2, 4-5, 6, 8, 11, 13-14, 19, 21-22, 24-28 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yu et al. (US 2024/0008011) in view of Zhu et al. (CN 115150816).
Regarding claims 1, 11, 19, 21, 28, Yu et al. discloses a triggering method for joint channel estimation, applied to a user equipment (UE) and comprising: sending, in response to determining that the UE meets a predetermined condition for the joint channel estimation, a message related to the joint channel estimation to a network device (paragraph 0031 [The second capability information indicates that the terminal device supports the joint channel estimation, so that the network device learns of a capability of the terminal device, so as to indicate to the terminal device to perform repeated transmission of the joint channel estimation; the terminal device has to determine its capabilities before sending its capability information]) to trigger the network device to perform the joint channel estimation (paragraph 0196, 0202 [network sends signaling to perform joint channel estimation]).
Yu et al. does not explicitly disclose wherein the predetermined condition for the joint channel estimation comprises at least one of followings: modulation order remaining unchanged, resource block (RB) allocation remaining unchanged, power consistency, or no beam switching and antenna switching occurring, and the message comprises information indicating a time window in which the UE meets the predetermined condition.
However, Zhu et al. discloses wherein the predetermined condition for the joint channel estimation comprises at least one of followings: modulation order remaining unchanged, resource block (RB) allocation remaining unchanged, power consistency, or no beam switching and antenna switching occurring, and the message comprises information indicating a time window in which the UE meets the predetermined condition (page 6 [in a fixed window scene, the user terminal maintains power consistency and phase continuity in a preset periodic manner, and the capability of maintaining power consistency and phase continuity is associated with the time slot number, and the reported terminal capability information further includes the time slot number. That is, the user terminal reports the corresponding continuous time slot number or symbol number by reporting the time slot number and keeping the power consistency and phase continuity; in a sliding window scenario, the user terminal triggers the ability to maintain power consistency and phase continuity according to an indication of the network side, and the ability to maintain power consistency and phase continuity is independent of the time slot number. That is, the user terminal reports the corresponding continuous time slot number or symbol number by reporting the time length for keeping power consistency and phase continuity]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the invention, to recognize the terminal device could report with its capability of maintaining power consistency and phase continuity with a slot number or a corresponding continuous time slot number or symbol number by reporting the time length for keeping power consistency and phase continuity.
Regarding claims 2, 22, Yu et al. discloses wherein the UE non- periodically sends the message to the network device (paragraph 0031 [The second capability information indicates that the terminal device supports the joint channel estimation, so that the network device learns of a capability of the terminal device, so as to indicate to the terminal device to perform repeated transmission of the joint channel estimation]).
Regarding claims 4, 13, 24, Yu et al. further discloses wherein the message comprises at least one of following information: information indicating whether the UE meets a predetermined condition for the joint channel estimation (paragraph 0031 [The second capability information indicates that the terminal device supports the joint channel estimation, so that the network device learns of a capability of the terminal device, so as to indicate to the terminal device to perform repeated transmission of the joint channel estimation]).
Regarding claims 5, 14, 25, Yu et al. further discloses wherein the message is any one of following messages: a UE-specific message (paragraph 0031 [The second capability information indicates that the terminal device supports the joint channel estimation, so that the network device learns of a capability of the terminal device, so as to indicate to the terminal device to perform repeated transmission of the joint channel estimation]); a UE group-specific message, wherein all UEs belonging to a same UE group share the UE group-specific message; and or a cell-specific message, wherein all UEs located within a same cell share the cell-specific message.
Regarding claims 6, 26, Yu et al. further discloses wherein sending the message related to the joint channel estimation to the network device comprises: sending the message to the network device in an explicit manner (paragraph 0031 [The second capability information indicates that the terminal device supports the joint channel estimation, so that the network device learns of a capability of the terminal device, so as to indicate to the terminal device to perform repeated transmission of the joint channel estimation]), wherein the explicit manner comprises at least one of following acts: sending the message via additional dedicated signaling configured for representing the message (paragraphs 0019, [terminal device sends first capability information to a network device. The first capability information indicates a capability of the terminal device to expand the frequency domain resource unit, so that the network device obtains the capability of the terminal device.; The second capability information indicates that the terminal device supports the joint channel estimation]), or sending the message via existing uplink signaling comprising an additional item configured for representing the message.
Regarding claims 8, 27, Yu et al. further discloses wherein sending the message related to the joint channel estimation to the network device comprises: sending the message to the network device in an implicit manner (paragraph 0219 [the capability information 1 may be indicated by using a preset quantity of bits. For example, a quantity of bits may be 1. When a value of the bit is “1”, it indicates that the terminal device supports joint channel estimation. When a value of this bit is “0”, it indicates that the terminal device does not support joint channel estimation.]), wherein the implicit manner comprises at least one of following acts: sending the message by mapping the message to a specified item of specified uplink signaling according to a predetermined operation (paragraph 0219 [the capability information 1 may be indicated by using a preset quantity of bits. For example, a quantity of bits may be 1. When a value of the bit is “1”, it indicates that the terminal device supports joint channel estimation. When a value of this bit is “0”, it indicates that the terminal device does not support joint channel estimation.]), sending the message by binding a specific resource block according to a pre-configured mapping relationship, or sending the message by multiplexing an existing domain and sending a multiplexing indicator.
Claim(s) 3, 23 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yu et al. (US 2024/0008011) in view of Zhu et al. (CN 115150816) as applied to claims 1, 21 above, and further in view of Zhou et al. (US 2022/0030519)
Regarding claims 3, 23, the references as combined above disclose all the recited subject matter in claims 1, 21, but does not explicitly disclose wherein the UE periodically sends the message to the network device.
However, Zhou et al. discloses wherein the UE periodically sends the message to the network device (paragraph 0125 [UE capabilities may be periodically reported to the base station 105-b using control signaling such as MAC-CE messaging, RRC messaging, UCI, or the like]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the invention, to recognize the UE capability message could be transmitted periodically to ensure any changes to the capabilities of the UE are sent to the network.
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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CHRISTOPHER T WYLLIE whose telephone number is (571)270-3937. The examiner can normally be reached 4pm-11:30pm.
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/CHRISTOPHER T WYLLIE/Examiner, Art Unit 2465