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
Applicant’s amendment filed on 01/23/2026 has been entered. Independent Claims 1 and 11 have been amended. Dependent claims 2, 7, 10, 12, 17, and 20 have been amended. No claims have been cancelled. No claims are new. Claims 1-20 are still pending in this application.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments filed on 01/23/2026 on pages 8-9 of applicant’s remark regarding Claim 1. The applicant argues that Shibaike does not teach the amended claim.
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1, under 35 USC § 102, are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specified challenged in the argument.
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.
Claim(s) 1-3, 6, 8, 10-13, 16, 18, and 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Shibaike (Pub.: No.: US 20220094497 A1, hereafter “Shibaike”) in view of Zhou (Pub.: No.: US 20200196336 A1, hereafter “Zhou”).
Regarding Claim 1 and Claim 11
Shibaike teaches a Method and UE comprising
A method of a user equipment (UE) (Shibaike Fig. 8: 200) in a wireless communication network (Shibaike ¶0115: transmits), the method comprising: configuring (Shibaike Fig. 8: ST 103), by the UE (Shibaike Fig. 8: 200), a channel status information (CSI)-reference signal (RS) reception occasion (Shibaike ¶0115-¶0115: CSI-RS; Shibaike teaches a UE receiving a DCI report containing a CSI-RS in a wireless network);
Shibaike does not explicitly teach
determining, by the UE, whether to cancel a reception of a CSI-RS based on whether any part of the CSI-RS reception occasion is not within a channel occupancy time (COT);
and cancelling, by the UE, the reception of the CSI-RS if it is determined that any part of the CSI-RS reception occasion not within the COT.
However, Zhou teaches
determining (Zhou ¶0048: UE may limit monitoring), by the UE (Zhou Fig. 3: 310, i.e. a UE), whether to cancel a reception of a CSI-RS (Zhou ¶0048: may not monitor outside of IS monitor occasions) based on whether any part of the CSI-RS reception occasion (Zhou ¶0048: IS may contain a CSI-RS) is not within a channel occupancy time (COT) (Zhou ¶0048: duration of the COT; Zhou teaches a UE limiting monitoring by a UE outside of a COT duration for a CSI-RS);
and cancelling, by the UE, the reception of the CSI-RS if it is determined that any part of the CSI-RS reception occasion not within the COT (Not given patentable weight due to non-selective option in the claim; Examiner’s Note, it is additionally obvious that if a message falls at a time period where listening is not happening, that no message is received).
It would have been obvious for one skilled in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Shibaike by way of Zhou, to include an element that teaches a UE limiting monitoring by a UE outside of a COT duration for a CSI-RS, as taught by Zhou in Fig. 3 and ¶0048, to better improve spectral efficiency for a UE in a network communication system and overall improve throughput and reduce energy loss for the UE for unnecessary communication detection.
Claim 11 differs by the following limitation, which is also taught by the prior art, Shibaike teaches
A user equipment (UE), comprising: a transceiver (Shibaike Fig. 5: 214); a memory (Shibaike ¶0010: storage medium); and a processor (Shibaike Fig. 5: 212; Shibaike teaches the UE having a transmitter, storage medium, and controller)
Regarding Claim 2 and Claim 12
Shibaike in view of Zhou teaches a Method and UE comprising the method and UE as explained above in Claim 1. Shibaike further discloses
wherein a portion of the CSI-RS is determined to be cancelled (Shibaike ¶0210: terminal aborts transmission of CSI report) when a part of the CSI-RS reception occasion is not within the COT (Shibaike ¶0210: outside the configured time of the COT; Shibaike teaches aborting a transmission of a CSI report outside of the configured time of the COT).
Regarding Claim 3 and Claim 13
Shibaike in view of Zhou teaches a Method and UE comprising the method and UE as explained above in Claim 2. Shibaike further discloses
further comprising monitoring (Shibaike ¶0213: Base Station reporting to the UE), by the UE, downlink control information (DCI) (Shibaike ¶0213: DCI), wherein the COT is indicated in the DCI (Shibaike ¶0213: next COT; Shibaike teaches the UE receiving a DCI reporting when the next COT is).
Regarding Claim 6 and Claim 16
Shibaike in view of Zhou teaches a Method and UE comprising the method and UE as explained above in Claim 1. Shibaike further discloses
wherein a downlink (DL) transmission (Shibaike ¶0222: DCI) is determined to be configured by a higher layer (Shibaike ¶0222: RRC signaling) if the DL transmission (Shibaike Fig. 8: ST 107) is fully overlapped with a set of DL transmissions (Shibaike ¶0213: CSI reporting for the next COT by DCI; Shibaike teaches a DCI being configured by an RRC, which is used in the DCI for determining COT and its associated overlap).
Regarding Claim 8 and Claim 18
Shibaike in view of Zhou teaches a Method and UE comprising the method and UE as explained above in Claim 1. Shibaike further discloses
wherein reception of a DL transmission (Shibaike ¶0222: in the above embodiments) configured by a higher layer (Shibaike ¶0222: RRC signaling) is cancelled (Shibaike ¶0208: does not transmit) when any part of the DL transmission is not within a transmission duration (Shibaike ¶0208: LBT; Shibaike teaches RRC signaling in relation to the listen before talk systems causing the system to not transmit).
Regarding Claim 10 and Claim 20
Shibaike in view of Zhou teaches a Method and UE comprising the method and UE as explained above in Claim 1. Shibaike further discloses
monitoring, by the UE, for a slot format indicator (SFI) (Shibaike ¶004: SFI indicating a slot format of each COT), wherein the reception of the CSI-RS is determined to be cancelled (Shibaike ¶0041: carrier sense) when no SFI is detected (Shibaike ¶0041: Listen Before Talk, e.g. LBT; Shibaike teaches a SFI being taught by the COT to be used for LBT at the beginning of transmission).
Claim(s) 4-5, 7, 14-15, and 17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Shibaike (Pub.: No.: US 20220094497 A1, hereafter “Shibaike”), in view of Zhou (Pub.: No.: US 20200196336 A1, hereafter “Zhou”), further in view of Kim (Pub. No.: US 20220132342 A1, hereafter “Kim”).
Regarding Claim 4 and Claim 14
Shibaike in view of Zhou teaches a Method and UE comprising the method and UE as explained above in Claim 1. Shibaike in view of Zhou does not explicitly teach
further comprising configuring a timer for a predetermined duration, wherein reception of a portion of a downlink (DL) transmission configured by a higher layer is determined to be cancelled when a part of the DL transmission is not within the predetermined duration.
However, Kim teaches
further comprising configuring a timer (Kim ¶0913: timer value) for a predetermined duration (Kim ¶0913: timer value provided by a higher-layer parameter), wherein reception of a portion of a downlink (DL) transmission (Kim ¶0911: UE is provided) configured by a higher layer (Kim ¶0911: higher-layer parameter) is determined to be cancelled when a part of the DL transmission is not within the predetermined duration (Kim ¶0914: channel occupancy; Kim teaches a timer value determined by a higher-layer parameter for not within the channel occupancy duration).
It would have been obvious for one skilled in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Shibaike in view of Zhou, by way of Kim, to include an element that teaches a timer value determined by a higher-layer parameter for not within the channel occupancy duration, as taught by Kim in ¶0911-¶0914, to improve mobile broadband communication, massive MTC, ultra-reliable and low latency communication.
Regarding Claim 5 and Claim 15
Shibaike in view of Zhou, further in view of Kim teaches a Method and UE comprising the method and UE as explained above in Claim 4. Kim further teaches
wherein the timer comprises a timer introduced for switching groups of search space sets (Kim ¶0911: indicating a position of a search space; Kim teaches the timer parameter being related to a search space).
It would have been obvious for one skilled in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Shibaike by way of Kim, to include an element that teaches the timer parameter being related to a search space, as taught by Kim in ¶0911, to improve mobile broadband communication, massive MTC, ultra-reliable and low latency communication.
Regarding Claim 7 and Claim 17
Shibaike in view of Zhou teaches a Method and UE comprising the method and UE as explained above in Claim 1. Kim further teaches
wherein the reception of the CSI-RS is determined to be cancelled (Kim ¶0347: UE cancels) when the CSI-RS reception occasion (Kim ¶0347: CSI-RS) is not between a detected downlink control information (DCI) (Kim ¶0347: DCI format) and a scheduled physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) (Kim ¶0347: PDSCH; Kim teaches canceling a reception of a CSI-RS based off of a DCI and PDSCH).
It would have been obvious for one skilled in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Shibaike in view of Zhou, further by way of Kim, to include an element that teaches canceling a reception of a CSI-RS based off of a DCI and PDSCH, as taught by Kim in ¶0347, to improve mobile broadband communication, massive MTC, ultra-reliable and low latency communication.
Claim(s) 9 and 19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Shibaike (Pub.: No.: US 20220094497 A1, hereafter “Shibaike”), further in view of Zhou (Pub.: No.: US 20200196336 A1, hereafter “Zhou”), and even further in view of Lim (Pub. No.: US 20220110152 A1, hereafter “Lim”).
Regarding Claim 9 and Claim 19
Shibaike in view of Zhou teaches a Method and UE comprising the method and UE as explained above in Claim 1. Shibaike in view of Zhou does not explicitly teach
wherein the UE comprises a frame based equipment (FBE).
However, Lim teaches
wherein the UE (Lim ¶0039: UE) comprises a frame based equipment (FBE) (Lim ¶0039: FBE; Lim teaches a UE using FBE).
It would have been obvious for one skilled in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Shibaike in view of Zhou, by way of Lim, to include an element that teaches a UE using FBE, as taught by Lim in ¶0039, to improve gNB configuration by allowing additional embodiments of a gNB such as UL initiated transmissions on resources where PRACH and AUL resources are configured.
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 JUSTIN MICHAEL WHITAKER whose telephone number is (703)756-4763. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Thursday 7:30am - 4:00pm.
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/JUSTIN MICHAEL WHITAKER/Examiner, Art Unit 2415
/Sudesh M. Patidar/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2415