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 .
Response to Amendment
The Amendment filed on 5/5/2026 has been entered. Claims 1-11 and 13 remain pending in the application.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments on pages 7-9 with respect to claims 1, 11 and 13 have been considered but are moot upon a further consideration and a new ground of rejection made under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Nilsson (US PGPub 2025/0080186).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-11 and 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Nilsson (US PGPub 2025/0080186).
Regarding claims 1, 11 and 13, Nilsson teaches A method (Nilsson, see abstract, A method, system and apparatus for a framework and signaling for non-coherent joint transmission (NCJT) channel state information (CSI) selection) comprising:
receiving, by a user equipment (UE) from a base station, first configuration information related to a channel state information (CSI) report and second configuration information related to one or more CSI resource sets associated with the first configuration information (Nilsson, see paragraphs 0030 and 0055, A WD can be Configured with One or Multiple CSI Resource Configurations each with a CSI-ResourceConfigId, for channel and interference measurement. Each CSI resource configuration for channel measurement or for NZP CSI-RS based interference measurement can contain one or more NZP CSI-RS resource sets. CSI measurement associated with a CSI reporting setting, CSI-ReportConfig, for NC-JT);
receiving, by the UE from the base station, a CSI-reference signal (CSI-RS) based on the one or more CSI resource sets (Nilsson, see paragraph 0036, multiple NZP CSI-RS resources are configured in a NZP CSI-RS resource set for channel measurement); and
transmitting, by the UE to the base station, the CSI based on the CSI-RS (Nilsson, see paragraph 0036, A CRI (CSI-RS resource indicator) would be reported as part of the CSI),
wherein a plurality of CSI-RS resources included in the one or more CSI resource sets are configured as N resource pairs for channel measurement and the N is an integer (Nilsson, see paragraph 0142, NC-JT CSI may be represented by a CSI calculated based at least in part on channel measurements performed on a pair of NZP CSI-RS resources), and
wherein, based on a type of joint transmission being configured, the CSI includes at least one of layer indication information regarding a resource pair or layer indication information regarding a CSI-RS resource configuring the resource pair, according to the type (Nilsson, see paragraph 0142, a pair of layer indicators (Lis) may also be fed back as part of the NC-JT CSI. The first LI in the pair of LIs indicates which column of the precoder matrix of the first reported PMI of the NC-JT CSI corresponds to the strongest layer. The second LI in the pair of LIs indicates which column of the precoder matrix of the second reported PMI of the NC-JT CSI corresponds to the strongest layer).
Regarding claim 2, Nilsson teaches wherein the type of the joint transmission is configured based on information regarding a report type for at least one of a concatenated channel for the resource pair or a channel for the CSI-RS resource configuring the resource pair (Nilsson, see paragraph 0055-0057, for CSI measurement associated with a CSI reporting setting, CSI-ReportConfig, for NC-JT, there will be: Ks≥2 NZP CSI-RS resources in a CSI-RS resource set for channel measurement; the Ks resources will be referred to as channel measurement resources (CMR); and Within the Ks channel measurement resources (CMRs), N≥1 NZP CSI-RS resource pairs for NC-JT CSI whereas each pair is used for a NC-JT CSI measurement hypothesis).
Regarding claim 3, Nilsson teaches wherein, based on being configured to report a concatenated channel for the resource pair, the CSI includes layer indication information according to the concatenated channel (Nilsson, see paragraph 0142, a pair of layer indicators (Lis) may also be fed back as part of the NC-JT CSI. The first LI in the pair of LIs indicates which column of the precoder matrix of the first reported PMI of the NC-JT CSI corresponds to the strongest layer. The second LI in the pair of LIs indicates which column of the precoder matrix of the second reported PMI of the NC-JT CSI corresponds to the strongest layer).
Regarding claim 4, Nilsson teaches wherein the concatenated channel is based on a sum of channels to which a precoding matrix estimated from different CSI-RS resources in the resource pair is applied (Nilsson, see paragraph 0142, a pair of layer indicators (Lis) may also be fed back as part of the NC-JT CSI. The first LI in the pair of LIs indicates which column of the precoder matrix of the first reported PMI of the NC-JT CSI corresponds to the strongest layer. The second LI in the pair of LIs indicates which column of the precoder matrix of the second reported PMI of the NC-JT CSI corresponds to the strongest layer).
Regarding claim 5, Nilsson teaches wherein the CSI further includes information for identifying a specific CSI-RS resource among one or more CSI-RS resources configuring the resource pair (Nilsson, see paragraph 0141, the sTRP CSI may also have a CSI-RS resource indicator (CRI), where the CRI indicates a NZP CSI-RS resource among a set or group of NZP CSI-RS resources to which the sTRP CSI corresponds to).
Regarding claim 6, Nilsson teaches wherein, based on the configuration to report a concatenated channel for the resource pair and a channel for the CSI-RS resource configuring the resource pair, the CSI includes layer indication information based on the concatenated channel and layer indication information based on the channel for CSI-RS resource configuring the resource pair (Nilsson, see paragraph 0142, a pair of layer indicators (Lis) may also be fed back as part of the NC-JT CSI. The first LI in the pair of LIs indicates which column of the precoder matrix of the first reported PMI of the NC-JT CSI corresponds to the strongest layer. The second LI in the pair of LIs indicates which column of the precoder matrix of the second reported PMI of the NC-JT CSI corresponds to the strongest layer).
Regarding claim 7, Nilsson teaches wherein the concatenated channel is based on a sum of channels to which a part of a precoding matrix estimated from different CSI-RS resources in the resource pair is applied (Nilsson, see paragraph 0142, The pair of NZP CSI-RS resources used for channel measurement may be from different channel measurement resource groups), and
wherein the channel for the CSI-RS resource configuring the resource pair is based on a channel to which the remaining part of the precoding matrix estimated from the different CSI-RS resources in the resource pair is applied (Nilsson, see paragraph 0142, a pair of layer indicators (Lis) may also be fed back as part of the NC-JT CSI. The first LI in the pair of LIs indicates which column of the precoder matrix of the first reported PMI of the NC-JT CSI corresponds to the strongest layer. The second LI in the pair of LIs indicates which column of the precoder matrix of the second reported PMI of the NC-JT CSI corresponds to the strongest layer).
Regarding claim 8, Nilsson teaches wherein, based on a maximum number of ports for a phase tracking-RS (PT-RS) being configured, whether to report layer indication information based on the concatenated channel is determined according to the maximum number of ports (Nilsson, see paragraph 0010, FIG. 3 shows a beam training phase followed by a data transmission phase. For downlink data/control transmission, the gNB indicates to the WD that the PDCCH/PDSCH demodulation reference signal (DMRS) is spatially quasi-co-located (QCL) with RS6—the RS on which the WD performs measurements during the WD beam sweep in the beam training phase).
Regarding claim 9, Nilsson teaches wherein the first configuration information includes a configuration related to the type of joint transmission (Nilsson, see paragraph 0142, a pair of layer indicators (Lis) may also be fed back as part of the NC-JT CSI. The first LI in the pair of LIs indicates which column of the precoder matrix of the first reported PMI of the NC-JT CSI corresponds to the strongest layer. The second LI in the pair of LIs indicates which column of the precoder matrix of the second reported PMI of the NC-JT CSI corresponds to the strongest layer).
Regarding claim 10, Nilsson teaches wherein the configuration related to the type of joint transmission is based on whether co-phase information is included in a report quantity configuration included in the first configuration information (Nilsson, see paragraphs 0030 and 0055, A WD can be Configured with One or Multiple CSI Resource Configurations each with a CSI-ResourceConfigId, for channel and interference measurement. Each CSI resource configuration for channel measurement or for NZP CSI-RS based interference measurement can contain one or more NZP CSI-RS resource sets. CSI measurement associated with a CSI reporting setting, CSI-ReportConfig, for NC-JT).
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 CHONG G KIM whose telephone number is (571)270-0619. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri @ 9am - 5pm.
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/CHONG G KIM/Examiner, Art Unit 2443
/CHRISTOPHER B ROBINSON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2443
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