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 ACTION
This office action is in response to the application filed on 02/01/2024.
Claims 1-6, 8-12, 25-26 and 31-37 are currently pending.
Claims 1-6, 8-12, 25-26 and 31-37 are rejected.
Claims 1, 12 and 25 are independent claims.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
5. 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 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.
6. 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 of this title, 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.
7. The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) 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.
8. Claims 1-6, 8-12, 25-26 and 31-37 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yuki Matsumura et al. (US 2024/0187178 A1), hereinafter Matsumura.
For claim 1, Matsumura teaches a method for beam application, performed by a terminal device, the method comprising:
receiving downlink control information (DCI) from a network device, wherein the DCI comprises a transmission configuration indication (TCI) state (Matsumura, Fig. 12 and paragraph 239.); and
determining at least one of a beam application time for uplink (UL) transmission or a beam application time for downlink (DL) transmission corresponding to the TCl state (Matsumura, Fig. 11 and paragraphs 223, 235.).
Matsumura further teaches DCI comprises a unified TCI state (Matsumura, Fig. 12 and paragraphs 240, 249.).
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 method taught in Matsumura to have a method for beam application, performed by a terminal device, the method of receiving downlink control information (DCI) from a network device, wherein the DCI comprises a unified transmission configuration indication (TCI) state; and determining at least one of a beam application time for uplink (UL) transmission or a beam application time for downlink (DL) transmission corresponding to the unified TCl state to appropriately perform TCI state indication[Matsumura: paragraph 10].
For claim 2, Matsumura further teaches the method according to claim 1, wherein the at least one of the beam application time for UL transmission or the beam application time for DL transmission is after a transmission time of a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) acknowledgment character (ACK) feedback for the DCI, with a plurality of symbols therebetween (Matsumura, Fig. 11 and paragraphs 295, 317, 337.).
For claim 3, Matsumura further teaches the method according to claim 2, wherein the plurality of symbols are at least one of: a first number of symbols determined based on a subcarrier space (SCS) of the DL transmission, wherein the beam application time is the beam application time for DL transmission; or a second number of symbols determined based on a SCS of the UL transmission, wherein the beam application time is the beam application time for UL transmission (Matsumura, Fig. 1 and paragraph 337.).
For claim 4, Matsumura further teaches the method according to claim 2, wherein
the plurality of symbols are a third number of symbols determined based on a subcarrier space (SCS) of the UL transmission or a SCS of the DL transmission, and the beam application time is the beam application time for UL transmission and DL transmission (Matsumura, Fig. 1 and paragraph 337.).
For claim 5, Matsumura further teaches the method according to claim 3, wherein
the DCI and at least one of the UL transmission or the DL transmission correspond to a component carrier of a same carrier; or the DCI and at least one of the UL transmission or the DL transmission correspond to component carriers of different carriers, and a SCS corresponding to the DCI is greater than or equal to at least one of a SCS of the UL transmission or a SCS of the DL transmission (Matsumura, Fig. 5 and paragraphs 54, 83, 95-102.).
For claim 6, Matsumura further teaches the method according to claim 2, wherein the plurality of symbols comprise at least one of: a fourth number of symbols and a fifth number of symbols, wherein the fourth number of symbols are determined based on a subcarrier space (SCS) of the DL transmission, the fifth number of symbols are determined based on a SCS of the DCI and a SCS of the DL transmission, and the beam application time is the beam application time for DL transmission; a sixth number of symbols and a seventh number of symbols, wherein the sixth number of symbols are determined based on a SCS of the UL transmission, the seventh number of symbols are determined based on a SCS of the DCI and a SCS of the UL transmission, and the beam application time is the beam application time for UL transmission, or an eighth number of symbols and a ninth number of symbols, wherein the eighth number of symbols are determined based on a subcarrier space (SCS) of the UL transmission, the ninth number of symbols are determined based on a SCS of the DCI and a SCS of the UL transmission; or the eighth number of symbols are determined based on a SCS of the DL transmission, the ninth number of symbols are determined based on a SCS of the DCI and a SCS of the DL transmission; wherein the beam application time is the beam application time for UL transmission and DL transmission (Matsumura, Figs . 2A, 2B and paragraphs 95-102.).
For claim 8, Matsumura further teaches the method according to claim 6, wherein the DCI and at least one of the UL transmission or the DL transmission correspond to component carriers of different carriers, and a SCS corresponding to the DCI is smaller than at least one of a SCS of the UL transmission or a SCS of the DL transmission (Matsumura, Fig. 5 and paragraphs 54, 83, 95-102.).
For claim 9, Matsumura further teaches the method according to claim 1, wherein
the DL transmission comprises at least one of a DL channel or a DL reference signal (Matsumura, Figs.4-5 and paragraphs 41-43.),
the DL channel comprises at least one of: a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), or a physical broadcast channel (PBCH) (Matsumura, Figs. 5 and paragraph 41.), and
the DL reference signal comprises at least one of: a synchronization signal block (SSB), a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS), a demodulation reference signal (DMRS), or a positioning reference signal (PRS)
(Matsumura, Fig. 4 and paragraphs 42, 127.).
For claim 10, Matsumura further teaches the method according to claim 1, wherein
the UL transmission comprises at least one of a UL channel or a UL reference signal (Matsumura, Figs. 2A, 2B and paragraphs 41-43, 276.),
the UL channel comprises at least one of: a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), or a physical random access channel (PRACH) (Matsumura, Figs. 5 and paragraphs 41, 266.), and
the UL reference signal comprises at least one of: a sounding reference signal (SRS), or a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) (Matsumura, Fig. 4 and paragraph 276.).
For claim 11, Matsumura further teaches the method according to claim 5, wherein different component carriers corresponding to the DCI and at least one of the UL transmission or the DL transmission comprise: different component carriers corresponding to different serving cells, or different component carriers corresponding to serving cells and non-serving cells (Matsumura, Fig. 3 and paragraphs 87-88, 139).
For claim 12, Matsumura teaches a method for beam application, performed by a network device, the method comprising:
sending downlink control information (DCI) to a terminal device, wherein the DCI comprises a transmission configuration indication (TCI) state (Matsumura, Fig. 12 and paragraph 239.); and
applying a beam according to the DCI (Matsumura, Fig. 11 and paragraphs 223, 235.).
Matsumura further teaches DCI comprises a unified TCI state (Matsumura, Fig. 12 and paragraphs 240, 249.).
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 method taught in Matsumura to have sending downlink control information (DCI) to a terminal device, wherein the DCI comprises a unified transmission configuration indication (TCI) state; and applying a beam according to the DCI to appropriately perform TCI state indication [Matsumura: paragraph 10].
For claim 25, Matsumura teaches a terminal device (Matsumura, Fig. 16), comprising:
a processor (Matsumura, Fig. 16 item 1001); and
a memory (Matsumura, Fig. 16 item 1002) storing computer programs executable by the processor,
wherein the processor is configured to:
receive downlink control information (DCI) from a network device, wherein the DCI comprises a transmission configuration indication (TCI) state (Matsumura, Fig. 12 and paragraph 239.); and
determining at least one of a beam application time for uplink (UL) transmission or a beam application time for downlink (DL) transmission corresponding to the TCl state (Matsumura, Fig. 11 and paragraphs 223, 235.).
Matsumura further teaches DCI comprises a unified TCI state (Matsumura, Fig. 12 and paragraphs 240, 249.).
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 method taught in Matsumura to have a method for beam application, performed by a terminal device, the method of receiving downlink control information (DCI) from a network device, wherein the DCI comprises a unified transmission configuration indication (TCI) state; and determining at least one of a beam application time for uplink (UL) transmission or a beam application time for downlink (DL) transmission corresponding to the unified TCl state to appropriately perform TCI state indication[Matsumura: paragraph 10].
For claim 26, Matsumura further teaches a network device (Matsumura, Fig. 16), comprising:
a processor (Matsumura, Fig. 16 item 1001); and
a memory (Matsumura, Fig. 16 item 1002) storing computer programs executable by the processor, wherein the processor is configured to perform the method according to claim 12
For claim 31, Matsumura further teaches the terminal device according to claim 25, wherein the at least one of the beam application time for UL transmission or the beam application time for DL transmission is after a transmission time of a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) acknowledgment character (ACK) feedback for the DCI, with a plurality of symbols therebetween (Matsumura, Fig. 11 and paragraphs 295, 317, 337.).
For claim 32, Matsumura further teaches the terminal device according to claim 31, wherein the plurality of symbols are at least one of: a first number of symbols determined based on a subcarrier space (SCS) of the DL transmission, wherein the beam application time is the beam application time for DL transmission; a second number of symbols determined based on a SCS of the UL transmission, wherein the beam application time is the beam application time for UL transmission; or a third number of symbols determined based on a subcarrier space (SCS) of the UL transmission or a SCS of the DL transmission, and the beam application time is the beam application time for UL transmission and DL transmission (Matsumura, Fig. 1 and paragraph 337.).
For claim 33, Matsumura further teaches the terminal device according to claim 32, wherein the DCI and at least one of the UL transmission or the DL transmission correspond to a component carrier of a same carrier; or the DCI and at least one of the UL transmission or the DL transmission correspond to component carriers of different carriers, and a SCS corresponding to the DCI is greater than or equal to at least one of a SCS of the UL transmission or a SCS of the DL transmission (Matsumura, Fig. 5 and paragraphs 54, 83, 95-102.).
For claim 34, Matsumura further teaches the terminal device according to claim 31, wherein the plurality of symbols comprise at least one of: a fourth number of symbols and a fifth number of symbols, wherein the fourth number of symbols are determined based on a subcarrier space (SCS) of the DL transmission, the fifth number of symbols are determined based on a SCS of the DCI and a SCS of the DL transmission, and the beam application time is the beam application time for DL transmission; a sixth number of symbols and a seventh number of symbols, wherein the sixth number of symbols are determined based on a SCS of the UL transmission, the seventh number of symbols are determined based on a SCS of the DCI and a SCS of the UL transmission, and the beam application time is the beam application time for UL transmission; or an eighth number of symbols and a ninth number of symbols, wherein the eighth number of symbols are determined based on a subcarrier space (SCS) of the UL transmission, the ninth number of symbols are determined based on a SCS of the DCI and a SCS of the UL transmission; or the eighth number of symbols are determined based on a SCS of the DL transmission, the ninth number of symbols are determined based on a SCS of the DCI and a SCS of the DL transmission; wherein the beam application time is the beam application time for UL transmission and DL transmission (Matsumura, Figs . 2A, 2B and paragraphs 95-102.).
For claim 35, Matsumura further teaches the terminal device according to claim 34, wherein the DCI and at least one of the UL transmission or the DL transmission correspond to component carriers of different carriers, and a SCS corresponding to the DCI is smaller than at least one of a SCS of the UL transmission or a SCS of the DL transmission (Matsumura, Fig. 5 and paragraphs 54, 83, 95-102.).
For claim 36, Matsumura further teaches the terminal device according to claim 25, wherein
the DL transmission comprises at least one of a DL channel or a DL reference signal (Matsumura, Figs.4-5 and paragraphs 41-43.),
the DL channel comprises at least one of: a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), or a physical broadcast channel (PBCH) (Matsumura, Figs. 5 and paragraph 41.), and
the DL reference signal comprises at least one of: a synchronization signal block (SSB), a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS), a demodulation reference signal (DMRS), or a positioning reference signal (PRS)
(Matsumura, Fig. 4 and paragraphs 42, 127.).
For claim 37, Matsumura further teaches the terminal device according to claim 25, wherein
the UL transmission comprises at least one of a UL channel or a UL reference signal (Matsumura, Figs. 2A, 2B and paragraphs 41-43, 276.),
the UL channel comprises at least one of: a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), or a physical random access channel (PRACH) (Matsumura, Figs. 5 and paragraphs 41, 266.), and
the UL reference signal comprises at least one of: a sounding reference signal (SRS), or a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) (Matsumura, Fig. 4 and paragraph 276.).
Conclusion
9. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to WILL W LIN whose telephone number is (571)272-8749. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:00-5:00.
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/WILL W LIN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2412