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 statement (IDS) submitted on 05/08/2024 was filed after filing the instant application on 01/30/2024. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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.
Claims 15-29 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kim et al (US 2022/0286868 A1), hereinafter, “Kim” in view of Wang et al (US 11,910,382 B2), hereinafter, “Wang”.
Regarding claim 15, Kim discloses: A method performed by a user equipment (UE) for beam indication in a multi-transmission and reception point (MTRP) (Kim: fig 14-15, para [0239] and [0260], where, the UE 404 in the system 400, where, the system 400 includes MTRP (multiple Transmission and Reception Point)), the method comprising:
receiving, from a base station (BS) first downlink control information (DCI) (Kim: fig 7-8, step S702 or S802, para [0180]), where, the UE receive the DCI from BS, see para [0168]), including a first transmission configuration indication (TCI) field indicating a first TCI state, the first DCI being associated with a first value (Kim: fig 7, para [0030] and para [0168], where, “wherein the DCI includes a transmission configuration indication (TCI) field, wherein a plurality of TCI states are indicated based on the TCI field”, where, the TCI field may include at least first and second value, para [0324], first and second value are explained);
receiving, from the BS, second DCI including a second TCI field indicating a second TCI state, the second DCI being associated with a second value (Kim: fig 7, para [0030] and para [0168], where, “wherein the DCI includes a transmission configuration indication (TCI) field, wherein a plurality of TCI states are indicated based on the TCI field”, where, the TCI field may include at least first and second value, para [0324], first and second value are explained);
performing, based on the first TCI state, a first uplink (UL) transmission (Kim: fig 8, step S803, para [0180], where, “BS schedules uplink transmission (equivalent to “first UL transmission”) such as the frequency/time resource, the transport layer, an uplink precoder, the MCS, and the like (step S801)”); and
performing, based on the second TCI state, a second UL transmission (Kim: fig 8, step S803, para [0183], where, “DCI format 0_1 (equivalent to “second TCI State”), When the PUSCH is scheduled by DCI format 0_1 (equivalent to “second UL transmission”)”), Kim does not explicitly teach: wherein: the first UL transmission is scheduled by third DCI associated with the first value, and the second UL transmission is scheduled by fourth DCI associated with the second value.
Wang teaches: wherein: the first UL transmission is scheduled by third DCI associated with the first value (Wang: fig 5, Section (295), col 44, lines 38-42, where, “The UE determines a fourth number of resource elements in the first PUSCH for the first HARQ-ACK codebook based on the first set of offset values and a first value (e.g., beta offset indicator) of a field in the third DCI format, where the first value is used for indicating an offset value of the first set of offset values”), and the second UL transmission is scheduled by fourth DCI associated with the second value (Wang: fig 5, Section (296), col 44, lines 49-53, where, “the UE may receive the second RRC configuration including a third set of offset values and a fourth set of offset values and receive a fourth DCI format that schedules a second PUSCH of a second priority that is indicated by the fourth DCI format”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to use “wherein: the first UL transmission is scheduled by third DCI associated with the first value, and the second UL transmission is scheduled by fourth DCI associated with the second value” as taught by Wang into Kim in order to increase spectral efficiency (Wang: Section (29)).
Regarding claim 20, the claim includes features identical to the subject matter mentioned in the rejection to claim 15 above. The claims are mere reformulation of claim 15 in order to define the corresponding packet transmission method for user equipment (UE) or terminal, and the rejection to claim 15 is applied hereto.
Regarding claim 25, the claim includes features identical to the subject matter mentioned in the rejection to claim 15 above. The claims are mere reformulation of claim 15 in order to define the corresponding packet transmission method for a Base Station (BS) or terminal, and the rejection to claim 15 is applied hereto. Additionally, the claim includes a Base Station. However, Kim discloses the Base Station (Kim: fig 7, para [0168]).
Regarding claims 16 and 21, Kim modified by Wang disclose: further comprising: receiving, from the BS, a radio resource control (RRC) configuration including an RRC parameter (Kim: fig 11(b) and 13, para [0236], where, “the UE receives, from the BS, NZP CSI-RS resource set IE including higher layer parameter repetition through RRC signaling (step S1310)”) indicating a TCI state type in a serving cell , wherein: the RRC parameter indicates a joint TCI state type (Kim: para [0259] and TABLE-US-00007 TABLE 7, where, “a UE receives an initial higher layer configuration of TCI states and before reception of the activation command, the UE may assume that the DM-RS ports of PDSCH of a serving cell are quasi co-located with the SS/PDCH block determined in the initial access procedure with respect to ‘QCL-TypeA’”), and the first TCI state and the second TCI state are configured in a joint TCI state list (Kim: para [0442]-[0444], and Table 24, where, “the transmission occasion with the (order may be changed) first (or second) TCI state second (or first) TCI state 00 0 0 01 0 2 10 3 0 11 1 3”).
Regarding claims 17 and 22, Kim modified by Wang disclose: wherein the one or more computer-executable instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the UE to: receive, from the BS, a radio resource control (RRC) configuration including an RRC parameter indicating a TCI state type in a serving cell (Kim: fig 11(b) and 13, para [0236], where, “the UE receives, from the BS, NZP CSI-RS resource set IE including higher layer parameter repetition through RRC signaling (step S1310)”), wherein: the RRC parameter indicates a separate TCI state type, and the first TCI state and the second TCI state are configured in a UL TCI state list (Kim: para [0259] and TABLE-US-00007 TABLE 7, where, “a UE receives an initial higher layer configuration of TCI states and before reception of the activation command, the UE may assume that the DM-RS ports of PDSCH of a serving cell are quasi co-located with the SS/PDCH block determined in the initial access procedure with respect to ‘QCL-TypeA’).
Regarding claims 18, 23 and 28, Kim modified by Wang disclose: The method of claim 15, wherein the first DCI and the second DCI are downlink (DL) DCI (Wang: fig 5, Section (293), col 43, lines 57-60, where, “In action 504, the UE receives a first DCI format that schedules a first PDSCH and a second DCI format that schedules a second PDSCH”).
Regarding claims 16, 24 and 29, Kim modified by Wang disclose: wherein the third DCI and the fourth DCI are UL DCI (Wang: fig 5, Section (295), col 44, lines 38-42, where, “The UE determines a fourth number of resource elements in the first PUSCH for the first HARQ-ACK codebook based on the first set of offset values and a first value (e.g., beta offset indicator) of a field in the third DCI format, where the first value is used for indicating an offset value of the first set of offset values” and fig 5, Section (296), col 44, lines 49-53, where, “the UE may receive the second RRC configuration including a third set of offset values and a fourth set of offset values and receive a fourth DCI format that schedules a second PUSCH of a second priority that is indicated by the fourth DCI format”).
Regarding claims 26, Kim modified by Wang disclose: The BS of claim 25, wherein the one or more computer-executable instructions, when executed by the one or more processors (Kim: para [0028], where, the base station includes plurality of processors), further cause the BS to: transmit, to the UE, a radio resource control (RRC) configuration including an RRC parameter indicating a TCI state type in a serving cell (Kim: para [0259] and TABLE-US-00007 TABLE 7, where, “a UE receives an initial higher layer configuration of TCI states and before reception of the activation command, the UE may assume that the DM-RS ports of PDSCH of a serving cell are quasi co-located with the SS/PDCH block determined in the initial access procedure with respect to ‘QCL-TypeA’) wherein: the RRC parameter indicates a joint TCI state type, and the first TCI state and the second TCI state are configured in a joint TCI state list (Kim: para [0442]-[0444], and Table 24, where, “the transmission occasion with the (order may be changed) first (or second) TCI state second (or first) TCI state 00 0 0 01 0 2 10 3 0 11 1 3”).
Regarding 27, Kim modified by Wang disclose: The BS of claim 25, wherein the one or more computer-executable instructions, when executed by the one or more processors (Kim: para [0028], where, the base station includes plurality of processors), further cause the BS to: transmit, to the UE, a radio resource control (RRC) configuration including an RRC parameter indicating a TCI state type in a serving cell (Kim: para [0259] and TABLE-US-00007 TABLE 7, where, “a UE receives an initial higher layer configuration of TCI states and before reception of the activation command, the UE may assume that the DM-RS ports of PDSCH of a serving cell are quasi co-located with the SS/PDCH block determined in the initial access procedure with respect to ‘QCL-TypeA’), wherein: the RRC parameter indicates a separate TCI state type, and the first TCI state and the second TCI state are configured in a UL TCI state list (Kim: para [0442]-[0444], and Table 24, where, “the transmission occasion with the (order may be changed) first (or second) TCI state second (or first) TCI state 00 0 0 01 0 2 10 3 0 11 1 3”).
Conclusion
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/NIZAM U AHMED/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2461