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 .
This office action is in response to Applicant’s preliminary amendment filed on 2/1/2024.
Claims 10-22 and 24-30 are currently pending.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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.
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 10, 13-22, and 24-30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Chatterjee et al. (US 2025/0193716 A1; hereafter CHATTERJEE).
With respect to claim 10, CHATTERJEE discloses a radio receiver device (101a, 101b in FIG. 1; paragraph [0043]) for receiving radio signals according to an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing protocol on a plurality of frequency resources (101a, 101b in FIG. 1; paragraph [0043]), wherein the radio receiver device is configured to:
detect a plurality of reference signals in a first subset of the plurality of frequency resources at a first monitoring occasion and a second, later, monitoring occasion (1302, 1304, 1302, 1304 in FIG. 13; paragraphs [0191], [0192], and [0199]);
monitor for paging information in a second subset of the plurality of frequency resources at one or more of the first and second monitoring occasions (1302, 1304, 1302, 1304 in FIG. 13; paragraphs [0191], [0192], and [0199]),
wherein the first subset has a larger frequency span than the second subset (1302, 1304, 1302, 1304 in FIG. 13; paragraphs [0191], [0192], and [0199]); and
use detected reference signals at the first and second monitoring occasions to synchronise the radio receiver device (1302, 1304, 1302, 1304 in FIG. 13; paragraphs [0191], [0192], and [0199]).
With respect to claim 13, CHATTERJEE further discloses the radio receiver device of any of claim 10, wherein the first and second monitoring occasions are separated by four or more OFDM symbols (paragraphs [0010] and [0192] and [0193]).
With respect to claim 14, CHATTERJEE further discloses the radio receiver device of any of claim 10, wherein the first and second monitoring occasions are separated by no more than 14 OFDM symbols (paragraphs ]0010] and [0192] and [0193]).
With respect to claim 15, CHATTERJEE further discloses the radio receiver device of claim 10, wherein the paging information comprises a paging early indication (PEI) comprising at least information regarding a presence of subsequent paging message (1302, 1304, 1302, 1304 in FIG. 13; paragraphs [0191], [0192], and [0199]).
With respect to claim 16, CHATTERJEE further discloses the radio receiver device of claim 15, arranged to wake from a low power mode to monitor for the PEI in the first and/or second monitoring occasions (1302, 1304, 1302, 1304 in FIG. 13; paragraphs [0191], [0192], and [0199]).
With respect to claim 17, CHATTERJEE further discloses the radio receiver device of claim 15, configured to further determine sub-group identification information from the PEI (1302, 1304, 1302, 1304 in FIG. 13; paragraphs [0191], [0192], and [0199]).
With respect to claim 18, CHATTERJEE further discloses the radio receiver device of claim 10, configured to receive the paging information as a physical downlink control channel payload (paragraphs [0015] and [0016]).
With respect to claim 19, CHATTERJEE further discloses the radio receiver device of claim 10, wherein the first and second subsets of frequency resources are within the same control resource set (1302, 1304, 1302, 1304 in FIG. 13; paragraphs [0191], [0192], and [0199]).
With respect to claim 20, CHATTERJEE further discloses the radio receiver device of claim 19, configured to monitor a search space corresponding to the control resource set to detect the paging information (1302, 1304, 1302, 1304 in FIG. 13; paragraphs [0191], [0192], and [0199]).
With respect to claim 21, CHATTERJEE further discloses the radio receiver device of claim 10, wherein the plurality of reference signals comprise demodulation reference symbols (paragraph [0043]).
With respect to claim 22, CHATTERJEE further discloses the radio receiver device of claim 10, arranged to monitor first and second monitoring occasions for each of a plurality of beams (1302, 1304, 1302, 1304 in FIG. 13; paragraphs [0191], [0192], and [0199]).
With respect to claim 24, CHATTERJEE discloses a method of communication between a radio transmitter device and a radio receiver device (101a, 101b in FIG. 1; paragraph [0043]) using an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing protocol on a plurality of frequency resources (101a, 101b in FIG. 1; paragraph [0043]), said method comprising:
the radio transmitter device transmitting a plurality of reference signals within a first subset of said plurality of frequency resources at a first monitoring occasion and a second monitoring occasion (1302, 1304, 1302, 1304 in FIG. 13; paragraphs [0191], [0192], and [0199]); and
the radio transmitter device transmitting paging information within a second subset of said plurality of frequency resources at one or more of the first and second monitoring occasions, wherein the first subset has a larger frequency span than the second subset (1302, 1304, 1302, 1304 in FIG. 13; paragraphs [0191], [0192], and [0199]);
the radio receiver device detecting the plurality of reference signals at the first and second monitoring occasions (1302, 1304, 1302, 1304 in FIG. 13; paragraphs [0191], [0192], and [0199]);
the radio receiver device detecting the paging information; and the radio receiver device using reference signals detected at the first and second monitoring occasions to synchronise the radio receiver device (1302, 1304, 1302, 1304 in FIG. 13; paragraphs [0191], [0192], and [0199]).
With respect to claim 25, CHATTERJEE discloses a radio transmitter device (111a, 111b in FIG. 1; paragraph [0043]) for transmitting radio signals according to an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing protocol using a plurality of frequency resources (111a, 111b in FIG. 1; paragraph [0043]), wherein the radio transmitter device is configured to:
transmit a plurality of reference signals within a first subset of said plurality of frequency resources at a first monitoring occasion and a second monitoring occasion (1302, 1304, 1302, 1304 in FIG. 13; paragraphs [0191], [0192], and [0199]); and
transmit paging information within a second subset of said plurality of frequency resources at one or more of the first and second monitoring occasions (1302, 1304, 1302, 1304 in FIG. 13; paragraphs [0191], [0192], and [0199]),
wherein the first subset has a larger frequency span than the second subset (1302, 1304, 1302, 1304 in FIG. 13; paragraphs [0191], [0192], and [0199]).
With respect to claim 26, CHATTERJEE further discloses the radio transmitter device of claim 25, wherein the paging information comprises a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) payload (paragraphs [0015] and [0016]).
With respect to claim 27, CHATTERJEE further discloses the radio transmitter device of claim 25, wherein the paging information comprises a paging early indication (PEI) comprising information regarding a subsequent paging message and the PEI comprises sub-group identification information (1302, 1304, 1302, 1304 in FIG. 13; paragraphs [0191], [0192], and [0199]).
With respect to claim 28, CHATTERJEE further discloses the radio transmitter device of claim 25, wherein the first and second subsets of frequency resources are within the same control resource set (1302, 1304, 1302, 1304 in FIG. 13; paragraphs [0191], [0192], and [0199]).
With respect to claim 29, CHATTERJEE further discloses the radio transmitter device of claim 25, configured to transmit the plurality of reference signals and the paging information for each of a plurality of beams (paragraph [0092]).
With respect to claim 30, CHATTERJEE further discloses the radio transmitter device of claim 25, configured to transmit paging information within the second subset of said plurality of frequency resources at both of the first and second monitoring occasions (1302, 1304, 1302, 1304 in FIG. 13; paragraphs [0191], [0192], and [0199]).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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.
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.
Claims 11 and 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over CHATTERJEE in view of REIAL et al. (US 2023/0276362; hereafter REIAL).
With respect to claim 11, CHATTERJEE does not disclose the radio receiver device of claim 10, configured to estimate a timing error of the radio receiver by measuring a phase shift between reference signals in different frequency resources at a single monitoring occasion.
REIAL discloses configured to estimate a timing error of the radio receiver by measuring a phase shift between reference signals in different frequency resources at a single monitoring occasion (paragraph [0174]).
REIAL teaches the benefit of reduced power consumption by reducing errors in signal tracking (paragraph [0001]). Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use the tracking as taught by REIAL with the device of CHATTERJEE to produce an expected result.
With respect to claim 12, CHATTERJEE does not disclose the radio receiver device of claim 10, configured to estimate frequency error by measuring a phase shift between reference signals in the first and second monitoring occasions.
REIAL discloses configured to estimate frequency error by measuring a phase shift between reference signals in the first and second monitoring occasions (paragraph [0174]).
REIAL teaches the benefit of reduced power consumption by reducing errors in signal tracking (paragraph [0001]). Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use the tracking as taught by REIAL with the device of CHATTERJEE to produce an expected result.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Brian T O'Connor whose telephone number is (571)270-1081. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri Flex 10am-6:30pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Gary Mui can be reached at 571-270-1420. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/BRIAN T O CONNOR/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2465 January 9, 2026