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 12/16/2025 has been entered. No independent claims have been amended. Dependent claim 9 has been amended. No claims have been cancelled. No claims are new and have been entered. Claims 1-20 are still pending in this application.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments/amendments with respect to Claim Objections have been considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the Objections are withdrawn.
Applicant’s arguments filed on 12/16/2025 on page 10 of applicant’s remark regarding Claim 1 under 35 USC § 103 for element 1.2. The applicant argues that Wong in view Onggosanusi of fails to teach a DCI for a group or UEs, rather than a DCI with multiple UEs. However, the claim is for one piece of information being distributed among multiple UEs, which an identifier within an indexed list of UEs among a plurality of UEs reads for that claimed language, as is shown by Wong. Thus, the applicant here fails to patentably distinguish the claimed invention of a DCI for a group or UEs, rather than a DCI with multiple UEs from the teachings of Wong in view Onggosanusi. The applicant’s arguments have been fully considered, but are not persuasive.
Applicant’s arguments filed on 12/16/2025 on page 11 of applicant’s remark regarding Claim 1 under 35 USC § 103 for element 1.3.1. The applicant argues that Wong in view Onggosanusi fails to teach the difference between a DL beam indication and a frequency resource identifier. However, ¶0123 of the applicant’s specification describe the frequency resource identifier as one of multiple types of IDs, which is similar to the DL beam indication, which includes a SRS resource indicator field linked to one specific RS. Thus, the applicant here fails to patentably distinguish the claimed invention of the difference between a DL beam indication and a frequency resource identifier from the teachings of Wong in view Onggosanusi. The applicant’s arguments have been fully considered, but are not persuasive.
Applicant’s arguments filed on 12/16/2025 on page 12 of applicant’s remark regarding Claim 1 under 35 USC § 103 for element 1.3.2. The applicant argues that Wong in view Onggosanusi fails to teach a TCI field within a DCI and not a TCI state identifier. However, ¶0017 of the applicant’s specification describe the TCI state identifier as simply an element of a TCI state to identify the downlink reference signal, and that is the purpose, usecase, and intention of the TCI field for Onggosanusi which is further described in ¶0115-¶0116. Thus, the applicant here fails to patentably distinguish the claimed invention of a TCI field within a DCI and not a TCI state or a TCI state definition from the teachings of Wong in view Onggosanusi. The applicant’s arguments have been fully considered, but are not persuasive.
Applicant’s arguments filed on 12/16/2025 on page 12 of applicant’s remark regarding Claim 1 under 35 USC § 103 for element 1.3.3. The applicant argues that Wong in view Onggosanusi fails to teach an offset for the context of a carrier frequency. However, the claim is simply for a “carrier frequency offset”, and does not specify that the offset is in the frequency dimension, or the time dimension. Thus, the applicant here fails to patentably distinguish the claimed invention of an offset for the context of a carrier frequency from the teachings of Wong in view Onggosanusi. The applicant’s arguments have been fully considered, but are not persuasive.
Applicant’s arguments filed on 12/16/2025 on page 12-13 of applicant’s remark regarding Claim 1 under 35 USC § 103 for element 1.3.4. The applicant argues that Wong in view Onggosanusi fails to teach a UE being informed of the polarization status. However, ¶0123 of Onggosanusi describes the polarization panel being given analog weight for the UE, and the polarization status is implied in the weight . Thus, the applicant here fails to patentably distinguish the claimed invention of a UE being informed of the polarization status from the teachings of Wong in view Onggosanusi. The applicant’s arguments have been fully considered, but are not persuasive.
Applicant’s arguments filed on 12/16/2025 on page 13-14 of applicant’s remark regarding Claim 2 under 35 USC § 103. The applicant argues that Wong in view Onggosanusi fails to teach an index within a DCI for bean resource related indications. However, ¶0103 clearly describes a TCI field in a DCI for uplink beam indication and measurement through an SRS resource indicator field. Thus, the applicant here fails to patentably distinguish the claimed invention of an index within a DCI for bean resource related indications, from the teachings of Wong in view Onggosanusi. The applicant’s arguments have been fully considered, but are not persuasive.
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) 1-15, 17-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wong (Pub. No.: US 20200014572 A1, hereafter “Wong”) in view of Onggosanusi (Pub. No.: US 20200145866 A1, hereafter “Onggosanusi”).
Regarding Claim 1, Claim 10, Claim 19, and Claim 20
Wong teaches a method and node comprising
A wireless communication method for use in a wireless terminal (Wong Fig. 1: 104, UE), the wireless communication method comprising: receiving (Wong Fig. 10: DL), from a wireless network node (Wong Fig. 1: 101, BS), downlink control information (Wong Fig. 10: A, DCI) based on an identifier of a group of wireless terminals (Wong ¶0099: plurality of UEs), wherein the downlink control information comprises at least one set of beam resource related indications (Wong Fig. 10: DCI allocating PUSCH; Wong teaches a DL transmission from a base station, to a plurality of UEs, containing resource information for transmission),
Wong does not explicitly teach
wherein the set of beam resource related indications comprises at least one of a frequency resource identifier, a transmission configuration indication (TCI) state identifier, a carrier frequency offset or a polarization indicator.
However, Onggosanusi teaches
wherein the set of beam resource related indications (Onggosanusi ¶0116: beam report) comprises at least one of a frequency resource identifier (Onggosanusi ¶0114: DL beam indication), a transmission configuration indication (TCI) state identifier (Onggosanusi ¶0116: TCI field), a carrier frequency offset (Onggosanusi ¶0116: offset) or a polarization indicator (Onggosanusi ¶0123: polarized weight configured from DCI signaling; Onggosanusi teaches a beam report with a DCI containing an indicator, a TCI, an offset in the carrier frequency, and a polarized weight).
It would have been obvious for one skilled in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Wong by way of Onggosanusi, to include an element that teaches a beam report with a DCI containing an indicator, a TCI, an offset in the carrier frequency, and a polarized weight, as taught by Onggosanusi in ¶0114-¶0116, and ¶0123, to improve spectral efficiency through improving a quality report to help adjust parameters during communication and aggregate different quality trackers and reduce downtime.
Claim 19 differs by the following limitation, which is also taught by the prior art, Wong teaches
at least one processor (Wong Fig. 1: 120; Wong teaches a controller being used to perform functions saved in the storage medium)
Regarding Claim 2 and Claim 11
Wong in view of Onggosanusi teaches a method and node as explained above in Claim 1. Onggosanusi further teaches
wherein the downlink control information comprises a group index (Onggosanusi ¶0103: index) associated with the at least one set of beam resource related indications (Onggosanusi ¶0103: DL-related DCI), and wherein the group index is mapped to a sequence of the at least one set of beam resource related indications (Onggosanusi ¶0103: assigned reference RS; Onggosanusi teaches a DL-related DCI with an index and as assigned reference RS).
It would have been obvious for one skilled in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Wong by way of Onggosanusi, to include an element that teaches a DL-related DCI with an index and as assigned reference RS, as taught by Onggosanusi in ¶0103, to improve spectral efficiency through improving a quality report to help adjust parameters during communication and aggregate different quality trackers and reduce downtime.
Regarding Claim 3 and Claim 12
Wong in view of Onggosanusi teaches a method and node as explained above in Claim 1. Onggosanusi further teaches
performing a communication by using a frequency resource corresponding to the frequency resource identifier (Onggosanusi ¶0114: utilizing DL beam indication; Onggosanusi teaches the DL beam indication being utilized for transmission).
It would have been obvious for one skilled in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Wong by way of Onggosanusi, to include an element that teaches the DL beam indication being utilized for transmission, as taught by Onggosanusi in ¶0103, to improve spectral efficiency through improving a quality report to help adjust parameters during communication and aggregate different quality trackers and reduce downtime.
Regarding Claim 4 and Claim 13
Wong in view of Onggosanusi teaches a method and node as explained above in Claim 1. Onggosanusi further teaches
wherein the set of beam resource related indications comprises the TCI state identifier, wherein the wireless communication method further comprises at least one of: applying a quasi-colocation assumption provided by a TCI state corresponding to the TCI state identifier to a reception of at least one of a physical downlink control channel (Not given patentable weight due to non-selective option in the claim), a physical downlink shared channel (Not given patentable weight due to non-selective option in the claim), a periodic channel state information reference signal (Not given patentable weight due to non-selective option in the claim), a semi-persistent channel state information reference signal (Not given patentable weight due to non-selective option in the claim), an access point channel state information reference signal (Not given patentable weight due to non-selective option in the claim), or a demodulation reference signal (Not given patentable weight due to non-selective option in the claim), applying a quasi-colocation assumption provided by a TCI state corresponding to the TCI state identifier to a transmission of at least one of a sounding reference signal (Not given patentable weight due to non-selective option in the claim), a physical uplink control channel (Not given patentable weight due to non-selective option in the claim), a physical uplink shared channel (Not given patentable weight due to non-selective option in the claim) or a physical random access channel (Not given patentable weight due to non-selective option in the claim); or performing a communication (Onggosanusi ¶0104: facilitate DL beam selection) by using the same frequency resource associated with a reference signal included in a configuration of a TCI state (Onggosanusi ¶0104: using the frequency bandwidth from the CS-SINR information) corresponding to the TCI state identifier (Onggosanusi ¶0104: for DL beam selection; Onggosanusi teaches using the DCI state to generate a beam selection with the same bandwidth for communication).
It would have been obvious for one skilled in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Wong by way of Onggosanusi, to include an element that teaches using the DCI state to generate a beam selection with the same bandwidth for communication, as taught by Onggosanusi in ¶0104, to improve spectral efficiency through improving a quality report to help adjust parameters during communication and aggregate different quality trackers and reduce downtime.
Regarding Claim 5 and Claim 14
Wong in view of Onggosanusi teaches a method and node as explained above in Claim 1. Onggosanusi further teaches
performing a communication by applying a synchronization according to the carrier frequency offset (Onggosanusi ¶0103: synchronization signal block; Onggosanusi teaches a TCI being generated with a synchronization signal block).
It would have been obvious for one skilled in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Wong by way of Onggosanusi, to include an element that teaches a TCI being generated with a synchronization signal block, as taught by Onggosanusi in ¶0103, to improve spectral efficiency through improving a quality report to help adjust parameters during communication and aggregate different quality trackers and reduce downtime.
Regarding Claim 6 and Claim 15
Wong in view of Onggosanusi teaches a method and node as explained above in Claim 1. Onggosanusi further teaches
performing communications by using a polarization indicated by the polarization indicator (Onggosanusi ¶0123: polarized; Onggosanusi teaches the UE using the polarized ports for TXRUs and, thus, transmissions).
It would have been obvious for one skilled in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Wong by way of Onggosanusi, to include an element that teaches the UE using the polarized ports for TXRUs and, thus, transmissions, as taught by Onggosanusi in ¶0123, to improve spectral efficiency through improving a quality report to help adjust parameters during communication and aggregate different quality trackers and reduce downtime.
Regarding Claim 7
Wong in view of Onggosanusi teaches a method and node as explained above in Claim 1. Wong further teaches
wherein the downlink control information is received at a slot n (Wong Fig. 10: DCI allocating PUSCH), where n is an integer (Wong Fig. 10: 2), wherein the wireless communication method further comprises at least one of: monitoring a downlink transmission on at least one beam resource of a set of beam resource related indications (Not given patentable weight due to non-selective option in the claim) corresponding to the wireless terminal no earlier than a slot (n+m) (Not given patentable weight due to non-selective option in the claim), wherein m is an integer determined based on a capability of the wireless terminal switching the at least one beam resource (Not given patentable weight due to non-selective option in the claim), or transmitting an uplink transmission on at least one beam resource of a set of beam resource related indications corresponding to the wireless terminal (Wong Fig. 10: A) no earlier than a slot (n+Koffset+I) (Wong Fig. 10: 0), wherein I is an integer determined based on a capability of the wireless terminal switching the at least one beam resource (Wong ¶0098: index set by DCI), and K_offset refers to an additional scheduling offset (Wong Fig. 10: 3) which is configured by the wireless network node (Wong ¶0098: configured by base station; Wong teaches a DCI with a set integer with an earlier slot used in an index).
Regarding Claim 8 and Claim 17
Wong in view of Onggosanusi teaches a method and node as explained above in Claim 1. Wong further teaches
receiving (Wong ¶0080: to the terminal device), from the wireless network node, a switching request indicating a timing (Wong ¶0079: subframe switches) of applying at least one beam resource of a set of beam resource related indication (Wong Fig. 3: PUSCH) corresponding to the wireless terminal in the at least one set of beam resource related indications for communications (Wong Fig. 3: PUCCH Format 1), and applying the at least one beam resource of the set of beam resource related indication corresponding to the wireless terminal at the timing (Wong ¶0080: PDSCH), wherein the switching request is received via a wireless terminal specific downlink control information configured for the wireless terminal or the latest switching request received from the wireless network node (Wong ¶0080: allocated to the terminal device; Wong teaches the terminal device, e.g. UE, receiving information relating to subframe switches for multiple types of PUCCH formats and downlink data associated to enable communication).
Regarding Claim 9 and Claim 18
Wong in view of Onggosanusi teaches a method and node as explained above in Claim 1. Wong further teaches
wherein the at least one set of beam resource related indications is associated with at least one of an uplink communication (Not given patentable weight due to non-selective option in the claim) or a downlink communication (Wong ¶0099: DCI, e.g. Downlink Control Information; Wong teaches the information is related for downlink control).
Claim(s) 16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wong (Pub. No.: US 20200014572 A1, hereafter “Wong”) in view of Onggosanusi (Pub. No.: US 20200145866 A1, hereafter “Onggosanusi”) and further in view of Manolakos (Pub. No.: US 20190254061 A1, hereafter “Manolakos”).
Regarding Claim 16
Wong in view of Onggosanusi teaches a method and node as explained above in Claim 1. Wong in view of Onggosanusi does not explicitly teach
wherein at least one beam resource of a set of beam resource related indication corresponding to the wireless terminal in the at least one set of beam resource related indications is applied at a slot i, wherein i is an integer, wherein the wireless communication method further comprises: transmitting the downlink control information no later than a slot (i-j), wherein j is an integer determined based on the longest propagation delay of the group of wireless terminals
However, Manolakos teaches
wherein at least one beam resource of a set of beam resource related indication (Manolakos ¶0100: DCI) corresponding to the wireless terminal in the at least one set of beam resource related indications (Manolakos ¶0100: SRS resource) is applied at a slot i (Manolakos ¶0100: index), wherein i is an integer (Manolakos ¶0100: slot index), wherein the wireless communication method further comprises: transmitting the downlink control information no later than a slot (i-j) (Manolakos ¶0100: minimum amount of time), wherein j is an integer determined based on the longest propagation delay of the group of wireless terminals (Manolakos ¶0100: a first delay; Manolakos teaches a DCI for an SRS resource relating to an index in a slot index, with a second processing time relating to a delay).
It would have been obvious for one skilled in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Wong in view of Onggosanusi by way of Manolakos, to include an element that teaches a DCI for an SRS resource relating to an index in a slot index, with a second processing time relating to a delay, as taught by Manolakos in ¶0100, to improve resource communication to better handle a dynamic spectral landscape and allow for lower end systems to communicate efficiently with MIMO technology.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. 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