Prosecution Insights
Last updated: May 29, 2026
Application No. 18/294,511

CSI-RS RESOURCE CONFIGURATION FOR CSI MEASUREMENT

Non-Final OA §103
Filed
Feb 01, 2024
Priority
Sep 30, 2021 — nonprovisional of PCTCN2021122182
Examiner
TON, DANG T
Art Unit
2476
Tech Center
2400 — Computer Networks
Assignee
Qualcomm Incorporated
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
89%
Grant Probability
Favorable
1-2
OA Rounds
0m
Est. Remaining
90%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 89% — above average
89%
Career Allowance Rate
532 granted / 600 resolved
+30.7% vs TC avg
Minimal +1% lift
Without
With
+0.9%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Fast prosecutor
2y 2m
Avg Prosecution
29 currently pending
Career history
626
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
2.6%
-37.4% vs TC avg
§103
62.4%
+22.4% vs TC avg
§102
12.8%
-27.2% vs TC avg
§112
7.3%
-32.7% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 600 resolved cases

Office Action

§103
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 . 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. 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 1,3,4, 21,and 23 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ZTE ( ON UE Adaptation to Maximum Number of MMO Layers) in view of Khoshnevisan et al. (2023/0344578). For claims 1,3,4, 21,and 23 , ZTE ( ON UE Adaptation to Maximum Number of MMO Layers) discloses a method of wireless communication at a user equipment (UE) (sections 1-3): In this contribution, the aspects of CSI reporting when UE adapts to maximum number of MIMO layer are discussed. When adapting to DL maximum number of MIMO layers, UE can save considerable power consumption. If the rank indicator restriction is not properly configured, the UE might traverse several ranks to find a proper value for a CSI report (e.g., from rank one to rank two, then to rank three, then to rank four). This will not only consume more power, but also cause more computation complexity. An appropriate configuration on rank indicator restriction can further reduce power consumption for CSI measurement (corresponding to obtaining a channel state information (CSI) report configuration from a base station, wherein the CSI report configuration includes one or more measurement resource sets). From the power consumption perspective, it would be helpful to let UE turn off some antenna panels. However , in Rel-15 NR, the standard does not well support any scheme to enable UE to efficiently turn on-off or activate/deactivate any antenna ports. It lacks coordination between UE and gNB for antenna ports activation/deactivation. Therefore, to improve UE power efficiency, gNB can inform UE to activate or de-activate some non-useful panels through L1 or L2 signaling. Meanwhile, UE may need to report some information so that gNB can make a proper decision considering performance, power consumption and latency. The mechanism of activating/de-activating some UE antenna ports for CSI/beam measurement is helpful for UE power saving (corresponding to sending a CSI report to the base station in response to a CSI measurement in the one or more measurement resource sets; supporting deactivation of antenna ports ( See sections 1-3) , wherein the one or more measurement resource sets each comprise a first resource subset and a plurality of second resource subsets, the second resource subsets each supporting the deactivation of base station antenna ports, the method further comprising: obtaining a message from the base station indicating at least one of the first resource subsets and the second resource subsets for the CSI measurement, wherein the message comprises a medium access control (MAC) control element (MAC-CE) or downlink control information (DCI) ( See sections 1-3), and wherein the one or more measurement resource sets each comprise a first resource subset and a plurality of second resource subsets, the second resource subsets each supporting the deactivation of base station antenna ports, and the CSI report includes a resource identifier and a resource subset identifier associated with the CSI measurement in response to the CSI report configuration including the second resource subsets( See sections 1-3). For independent and dependent claims 1,3,4,21,and 23, ZTE ( ON UE Adaptation to Maximum Number of MMO Layers) discloses all the subject matter of the claimed invention with the exception of one or more measurement resource sets supporting deactivation of base station antenna ports in a communications network. Khoshnevisan et al. (2023/0344578) from the same or similar fields of endeavor teaches a provision of one or more measurement resource sets supporting deactivation of base station antenna ports in a communications network ( See paragraphs 046 lines 1-15, 0049 lines 1-5, and details of claim 39). Thus, it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use one or more measurement resource sets supporting deactivation of base station antenna ports in a communications network as taught by Khoshnevisan et al. (2023/0344578) in the communications of ZTE for the purpose of setting to support the activation/deactivation of the ports to save power. 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 14,16, 17, 26, and 28 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ZTE ( ON UE Adaptation to Maximum Number of MMO Layers) in view of Khoshnevisan et al. ( 2023/0344578) and further in view of Nam (2016?0157218). For claims 14,16, 17, 26, and 28 , ZTE ( ON UE Adaptation to Maximum Number of MMO Layers) discloses a method of wireless communication at a user equipment (UE) (sections 1-3): In this contribution, the aspects of CSI reporting when UE adapts to maximum number of MIMO layer are discussed. When adapting to DL maximum number of MIMO layers, UE can save considerable power consumption. If the rank indicator restriction is not properly configured, the UE might traverse several ranks to find a proper value for a CSI report (e.g., from rank one to rank two, then to rank three, then to rank four). This will not only consume more power, but also cause more computation complexity. An appropriate configuration on rank indicator restriction can further reduce power consumption for CSI measurement (corresponding to obtaining a channel state information (CSI) report configuration from a base station, wherein the CSI report configuration includes one or more measurement resource sets). From the power consumption perspective, it would be helpful to let UE turn off some antenna panels. However , in Rel-15 NR, the standard does not well support any scheme to enable UE to efficiently turn on-off or activate/deactivate any antenna ports. It lacks coordination between UE and gNB for antenna ports activation/deactivation. Therefore, to improve UE power efficiency, gNB can inform UE to activate or de-activate some non-useful panels through L1 or L2 signaling. Meanwhile, UE may need to report some information so that gNB can make a proper decision considering performance, power consumption and latency. The mechanism of activating/de-activating some UE antenna ports for CSI/beam measurement is helpful for UE power saving (corresponding to sending a CSI report to the base station in response to a CSI measurement in the one or more measurement resource sets; supporting deactivation of antenna ports ( See sections 1-3) , wherein the one or more measurement resource sets each comprise a first resource subset and a plurality of second resource subsets, the second resource subsets each supporting the deactivation of base station antenna ports, the method further comprising: obtaining a message from the base station indicating at least one of the first resource subsets and the second resource subsets for the CSI measurement, wherein the message comprises a medium access control (MAC) control element (MAC-CE) or downlink control information (DCI) ( See sections 1-3), and wherein the one or more measurement resource sets each comprise a first resource subset and a plurality of second resource subsets, the second resource subsets each supporting the deactivation of base station antenna ports, and the CSI report includes a resource identifier and a resource subset identifier associated with the CSI measurement in response to the CSI report configuration including the second resource subsets( See sections 1-3). For independent and dependent claims 14,16, 17, 26, and 28 , ZTE ( ON UE Adaptation to Maximum Number of MMO Layers) discloses all the subject matter of the claimed invention with the exception of one or more measurement resource sets supporting deactivation of base station antenna ports in a communications network. Khoshnevisan et al. (2023/0344578) from the same or similar fields of endeavor teaches a provision of one or more measurement resource sets supporting deactivation of base station antenna ports in a communications network ( See paragraphs 046 lines 1-15, 0049 lines 1-5, and details of claim 39). Thus, it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use one or more measurement resource sets supporting deactivation of base station antenna ports in a communications network as taught by Khoshnevisan et al. (2023/0344578) in the communications of ZTE for the purpose of setting to support the activation/deactivation of the ports to save power. For Claims 14,16, 17, 26,and 28, ZTE ( ON UE Adaptation to Maximum Number of MMO Layers) in view of Khoshnevisan et al. ( 2023/0344578) disclose all the subject matter of the claimed invention with the exception of memory and processor in a communications network. Nam et al. from the same or similar fields of endeavor teaches a provision of the memory and processor ( See paragraphs 0014 and 0052). Thus, it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to use memory and processor as taught by Nam et al. in the communication network of , ZTE ( ON UE Adaptation to Maximum Number of MMO Layers) in view of Khoshnevisan et al. ( 2023/0344578) for the purpose of storing codes in the memory to execute the process by the processor. Claims 2,5-13,15,18,19,20,22,24,25,27,29,and 30 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Zhou et al. (2023/0344592) and Abdelghaffar et al. (2023/015660) are all cited to show system which are considered pertinent to the claimed invention. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DANG T TON whose telephone number is (571)272-3171. The examiner can normally be reached Monday to Friday 5:30 AM to 3:00 PM. Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Ayaz Sheikh can be reached at 571-272-3795. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000. /DANG T TON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2476 /D.T.T/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2476
Read full office action

Prosecution Timeline

Feb 01, 2024
Application Filed
Jan 21, 2026
Non-Final Rejection mailed — §103
Apr 20, 2026
Response Filed

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Prosecution Projections

1-2
Expected OA Rounds
89%
Grant Probability
90%
With Interview (+0.9%)
2y 2m (~0m remaining)
Median Time to Grant
Low
PTA Risk
Based on 600 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allowance rate.

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