DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
1. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claims Status
2. The response filed on December 10, 2025 has been entered and made of record.
3. Claims 1, 4-6, 9-11, 14-16 and 19-20 have been amended.
4. Claims 3, 8, 13 and 18 have been cancelled.
5. Claims 21-24 have been added.
6. Claims 1-2, 4-7, 9-12, 14-17 and 19-24 are currently pending.
Response to Arguments
7. The applicant's arguments filed on December 10, 2025 regarding claims 1-2, 4-7, 9-12, 14-17 and 19-20 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. The rejection has been revised and set forth below according to the amended claims. A response is considered necessary for applicant’s arguments/remarks since the cited references, Zhang in view of Zhu will continue to be cited to meet the amended limitations.
Regarding claims 1, 6, 11 and 16, the applicant argued that Zhu does not describe amended claim feature “when a first condition is satisfied and a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback corresponding to the first DCI is an acknowledgement (ACK), the at least one common beam is successfully indicated by the beam indication information, and wherein the first condition comprises one or more of: the first DCI schedules no physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH); or the at least one common beam is different from a common beam currently used by the terminal device” (Applicant, page 2-3, Remarks Made in an Amendment dated December 10, 2025).
In response to applicant’s argument, the examiner respectfully disagrees with the above argument. Examiner has cited particular paragraphs or columns and line numbers in the references applied to the claims above for the convenience of the applicant. Although the specified citations are representative of the teachings of the art and are applied to specific limitations within the individual claim, other passages and figures may apply as well.
As a support of evidence, Zhou discloses:
“At 602, the UE may receive, from a base station, a MAC-CE activating a subset of configured joint DL and UL TCI states, each activated joint DL and UL TCI state indicating a common beam for communication in DL and UL (e.g., as at 506). The MAC-CE may include a bitmap indicating which configured joint DL and UL TCI states are activated, and at least one of a serving cell ID associated with the base station or a BWP ID for which the activation applies. Each activated joint DL and UL TCI state may be associated with at least one of a PDCCH, a PDSCH, CSI-RS, PRS, or a SSB for DL, and at least one of a PUCCH, a PUSCH, SRS, or a PRACH for UL. The joint DL and UL TCI states activated in the MAC-CE may be mapped with sequential indexes to a TCI codepoint” (Figs. 5-6, paragraph [0102]).
“At 606, the UE may receive, from the base station, a DCI indicating an index of a TCI codepoint, the index corresponding to one of the activated joint DL and UL TCI states (e.g., as at 510). The received DCI may not schedule the communication through DL or UL. The received DCI may schedule the communication through DL or UL, and the communication through DL or UL scheduled through the DCI may be based on the one activated DL and UL TCI state corresponding to the index of the TCI codepoint that is indicated through the DCI. For example, at 510, the UE 502 may receive a DCI indicating an index of a TCI codepoint, the index corresponding to one of the activated joint DL and UL TCI states from the base station 504. Furthermore, 606 may be performed by the activation component 1644” (Figs. 5-6, paragraph [0104]).
“if multiple joint DL/UL TCI states can be activated by the MAC-CE, a DCI may further indicate a TCI codepoint mapped to one activated joint DL/UL TCI state. That is, a TCI codepoint field in DCI may include TCI codepoint indexes, respectively mapped to the activated joint DL/UL TCI states. The base station may transmit a DCI of a TCI codepoint field to the UE, including a TCI codepoint index mapped to an activated joint DL/UL TCI state among the activated multiple joint DL/UL TCI states” (paragraph [0085]).
“The DCI carrying the TCI codepoint may or may not schedule any DL reception/UL transmission. At least for DCI not scheduling any DL reception/UL transmission, an acknowledgement (ACK) may be sent by the UE to confirm the reception of the DCI. That is, the UE may miss the transmission of the DCI carrying the TCI codepoint (or an index of the TCI codepoint), and therefore, to confirm the successful transmission of the DCI, the UE may send an information of acknowledgment back to the base station, in case the DCI does not schedule any DL/UL transmission” (paragraph [0086]).
“At 510, the base station 504 may transmit a DCI indicating an index of a TCI codepoint, the index corresponding to one of the activated joint DL and UL TCI states to the UE 502. The UE 502 may receive a DCI indicating an index of a TCI codepoint, the index corresponding to one of the activated joint DL and UL TCI states from the base station 504” (paragraph [0096]).
“At 512, the UE 502 may transmit an acknowledgment (ACK) to the base station 504 confirming reception of the DCI. The base station 504 may receive, from the UE 502, the acknowledgement confirming the reception of the DCI” (paragraph [0097]).
Accordingly, the UE receives MAC-CE activating a subset of configured joint DL/UL TCI sates. The base station transmits a DCI indicating beam indication information (an index of TCI codepoint corresponding to one of the activated DL/UL TCI states). To confirm the successful reception of the DCI, the UE may send an information of acknowledgement ACK back to the base station, in case the first condition is satisfied. The first condition comprises the DCI does not schedule any DL/UL transmission.
Clearly, cited prior art-Zhou teaches the claim feature.
Additionally, a clear interpretation of independent claims (according to claim limitations i.e. according to claim language “one or more of” and “or”) is that which states the following alternatives:
…the first condition comprises one or more of:
(1) the first DCI schedules no physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH); or
(2) the at least one common beam is different from a common beam currently used by the terminal device.
According to the claim structure, independent claims require only one alternative and in a case that any cited prior art has been disclosed the teaching of only one from the choice, the claim limitation(s) is/are still met.
Not only cited prior art-Zhou teaches the first condition comprises the first DCI schedules no physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), cited prior art-Liu (US 2024/0314804 A1) from dependent claims 4, 9, 14 and 19 also discloses:
“As shown in FIG. 2 , common beam #1 (i.e. old beam) is used as the common beam for DL reception before slot n. The UE detects a common beam change to common beam #2 (i.e. new beam) indicated by the TCI field contained in DCI # 1 received in slot n. DCI # 1 also schedules a PDSCH transmission PDSCH # 1. The scheduling offset (Offset1) between DCI # 1 and the scheduled PDSCH # 1 is less than a threshold timeDurationForQCL. Therefore, the UE receives the scheduled PDSCH # 1 using common beam #1 (i.e. old beam). On the other hand, the UE also detects a common beam change to common beam #2 (i.e. new beam) indicated by the TCI field contained in DCI # 2 received in slot n+1. DCI # 2 also schedules a PDSCH transmission PDSCH # 2. The scheduling offset (Offset2) between DCI # 2 and the scheduled PDSCH # 2 is larger than the threshold timeDurationForQCL. Therefore, the UE receives the scheduled PDSCH # 2 using common beam #2 (i.e. new beam). The UE reports the acknowledgment (ACK) of PDSCH # 1 in slot n+4” (Fig.2, paragraph [0062]).
Accordingly, the UE detects a common beam change to common beam #2 (i.e. new beam) indicated by the TCI field contained in DCI. To confirm the successful reception of the DCI, the UE may send an information of acknowledgement ACK back to the base station, in case the first condition is satisfied. The first condition comprises one common beam is different from a common beam currently used by the terminal device.
It is clear that cited prior art-Liu also teaches alternate feature of the claim.
The dependent claims 2, 4-5, 7, 9-10, 12, 14-15, 17 and 19-20 are not patentable according to the solid prior art teachings. Newly added claims 21-24 are also rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang in view of Zhou in view of Liu.
Therefore, in view of above, while Applicant’s remarks and arguments have been considered, they are not persuasive.
Claim Objections (minor informalities)
8. Claims 9, 21, 22, 23 and 24 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Regarding claim 9, the claim recites “… method according to claim 1, ….”.
Claim 9 depends on claim 6 and it appear that “…method according to claim 1, ….” is a typographical error for “…method according to claim 6, ….”.
Regarding claim 21, the claim recites “…method according to claim 1, wherein….”.
Claim 21 depends on claim 1 and it appears that the whole claim 21 is redundant of the other dependent claim 4.
Regarding claim 22, the claim recites “…method according to claim 6, wherein….”.
Claim 22 depends on claim 6 and it appears that the whole claim 22 is redundant of the other dependent claim 9.
Regarding claim 23, the claim recites “…terminal device according to claim 11, wherein….”.
Claim 23 depends on claim 11 and it appears that the whole claim 23 is redundant of the other dependent claim 14.
Regarding claim 24, the claim recites “…network device according to claim 16, wherein….”.
Claim 24 depends on claim 16 and it appears that the whole claim 24 is redundant of the other dependent claim 19.
[Note: it appears that Applicant missed to cancel claims 4, 9, 14 and 19 after adding new claims 21-24]
Appropriate corrections is required. Applicant’s cooperation is respectfully requested in correcting any errors of which applicant may become aware in the claims. For the purpose of examinations, the examiner will interpret the claims as best understood.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
9. 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.
10. 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.
11. Claims 1, 2, 6, 7, 11, 12, 16 and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ZHANG et al. (US 2022/0225298 A1), hereinafter “Zhang” in view of ZHOU et al. (US 2023/0291533 A1), hereinafter “Zhou”.
Regarding claim 1, Zhang discloses a beam management method performed by a terminal device or a chip of the terminal device (Figs. 3, 6-7, transmission configuration indicator information relating to a common beam TCI indication), wherein the method comprises:
receiving, from a network device (Figs. 6-7, paragraphs [0060], [0075]-[0076], TCI pool configured for UE via RRC signaling), beam configuration information (Figs. 6-7, paragraphs [0060], [0075]-[0076], TCI pool) of one or more common beams (Figs. 6-7, paragraphs [0060], [0075]-[0076], common beam TCI), wherein the one or more common beams comprise a separate common beam used for uplink transmission or downlink transmission (Figs. 6-7, paragraphs [0060], [0075]-[0076], TCI Type 1 (uplink/downlink common beam DCI indication); TCI Type 2 (uplink-only common TCI state activation); TCI type 3 (downlink-only common TCI state activation)), or a joint common beam used for uplink transmission and downlink transmission (paragraphs [0060], [0075]-[0076], joint uplink/downlink common TCI state activation; downlink-only/uplink-only common TCI state activation);
receiving, from the network device (Figs. 6-7, paragraphs [0081], [0083], MAC based beam activation), beam activation information for activating a portion of the one or more common beams (Figs. 6-7, paragraphs [0081], [0083], MAC signaling may indicate one or more TCI states to activate from configured TCI pool for a given TCI type); and
receiving, from the network device (Figs. 6-7, paragraph [0086], as shown by reference number), beam indication information indicating at least one common beam from the portion of the one or more common beams (Figs. 6-7, paragraph [0086], indication including a type field of DCI or MAC-CE).
Assuming Arguendo that Zhang does not explicitly disclose or strongly suggest: “receiving, from the network device, beam activation information for activating a portion of the one or more common beams and receiving, from the network device, beam indication information indicating at least one common beam from the portion of the one or more common beams, wherein the beam indication information is comprised in first downlink control information (DCI), when a first condition is satisfied and a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback corresponding to the first DCI is an acknowledgement (ACK), the at least one common beam is successfully indicated by the beam indication information, and wherein the first condition comprises one or more of: the first DCI schedules no physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH); or the at least one common beam is different from a common beam currently used by the terminal device”, Zhou from the same or similar field of endeavor explicitly discloses receiving, from the network device (Figs. 4, 5-6, paragraphs [0079], [0082], [0102], step 506-510), beam activation information for activating a portion of the one or more common beams (Figs. 4, 5-6, paragraphs [0079], [0082], [0102], MAC-CE activating subsets of configured joint DL/UL TCI states, where each joint DL/UL TCI state indicating common beam for DL/UL); and
receiving, from the network device (Figs. 4, 5-6, paragraphs [0085], [0104], step 506-510), beam indication information indicating at least one common beam from the portion of the one or more common beams (Figs. 4, 5-6, paragraphs [0085], [0104], DCI indicating index of codepoint),
wherein the beam indication information is comprised in first downlink control information (DCI), when a first condition is satisfied and a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback corresponding to the first DCI is an acknowledgement (ACK) (paragraphs [0085]-[0086], [0097], if multiple joint DL/UL TCI states can be activated by the MAC-CE, a DCI may further indicate a TCI codepoint mapped to one activated joint DL/UL TCI state), the at least one common beam is successfully indicated by the beam indication information, and wherein the first condition comprises one or more of: the first DCI schedules no physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH); or the at least one common beam is different from a common beam currently used by the terminal device (paragraphs [0085]-[0086], [0097], [0102], [0104], to confirm the successful reception of the DCI, the UE may send an information of acknowledgement ACK back to the base station, in case the first condition is satisfied; the first condition comprises the DCI does not schedule any DL/UL transmission).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to provide “receiving, from the network device, beam activation information for activating a portion of the one or more common beams and receiving, from the network device, beam indication information indicating at least one common beam from the portion of the one or more common beams, wherein the beam indication information is comprised in first downlink control information (DCI), when a first condition is satisfied and a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback corresponding to the first DCI is an acknowledgement (ACK), the at least one common beam is successfully indicated by the beam indication information, and wherein the first condition comprises one or more of: the first DCI schedules no physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH); or the at least one common beam is different from a common beam currently used by the terminal device” as taught by Zhou, in the system of Zhang, so that it would provide a need for further improvements in 5G New Radio technology applicable to multi-access technologies and the telecommunication standards that employ these technologies (Zhou, paragraph [0004]).
Regarding claim 2, Zhang discloses the beam configuration information comprises a configuration parameter of a first common beam, wherein the configuration parameter comprises at least one of a first parameter or a second parameter (Fig. 6, paragraphs [0055], [0060], [0070], parameters related with TCI state), wherein
the first parameter comprises at least one of:
a reference signal resource used to determine an uplink transmission beam, spatial relation information, an uplink power control parameter, or a sounding reference signal (SRS) resource (Fig. 6, paragraphs [0055], [0060], [0070], [0075]-[0076], TCI state relate with a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), a physical random access channel (PRACH), or a sounding reference signal (SRS)),
wherein the second parameter comprises at least one of:
quasi co-location (QCL) information and a bandwidth part (BWP) parameter (Fig. 6, paragraphs [0055], [0060], [0070], [0075]-[0076], TCI state may be associated with one downlink reference signal set (for example, an SSB and an aperiodic, periodic, or semi-persistent channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS)) for different QCL types (for example, QCL types for different combinations of Doppler shift, Doppler spread, average delay, delay spread, or spatial receive parameters, among other examples)), and
wherein:
if the configuration parameter comprises the first parameter and does not comprise the second parameter, the first common beam is an uplink common beam (Fig. 6, paragraphs [0055], [0060], [0070], [0075]-[0076], Option 1 - TCI Type 2);
if the configuration parameter comprises the second parameter and does not comprise the first parameter, the first common beam is a downlink common beam (Fig. 6, paragraphs [0055], [0060], [0070], [0075]-[0076], Option 1 - TCI Type 3); or
if the configuration parameter comprises the first parameter and the second parameter, the first common beam is a joint common beam (Fig. 6, paragraphs [0055], [0060], [0070], [0075]-[0076], Option 1 - TCI Type 1).
Regarding claim 6, the claim is rejected based on the same reasoning as presented in the rejection of claim 1 (from perspective of the network device).
Regarding claim 7, the claim is rejected based on the same reasoning as presented in the rejection of claim 2 (from perspective of the network device).
Regarding claim 11, the claim is rejected based on the same reasoning as presented in the rejection of claim 1.
Regarding claim 12, the claim is rejected based on the same reasoning as presented in the rejection of claim 2.
Regarding claim 16, the claim is rejected based on the same reasoning as presented in the rejection of claim 6.
Regarding claim 17, the claim is rejected based on the same reasoning as presented in the rejection of claim 2 (from perspective of the network device).
12. Claims 4, 9, 14, 19, 21, 22, 23 and 24 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ZHANG et al. (US 2022/0225298 A1), hereinafter “Zhang” in view of ZHOU et al. (US 2023/0291533 A1), hereinafter “Zhou” in view of Liu et al. (US 2024/0314804 A1), hereinafter “Liu”.
Regarding claim 4, Zhang in view of Zhou disclose the method according to claim 3.
Neither Zhang nor Zhou explicitly discloses “at least one common beam indicated by the beam indication information takes effect in a first slot after a first moment which is determined by adding a first time offset to a second moment, wherein the second moment is a moment at which the terminal device sends the HARQ feedback corresponding to the first DCI”.
However, Liu from the same or similar field of endeavor discloses at least one common beam indicated by the beam indication information takes effect in a first slot after a first moment (Fig. 2, n+7) which is determined by adding a first time offset (Fig. 2, Y symbols after the acknowledgment) to a second moment (Fig. 2, ACK, n+4), wherein the second moment is a moment at which the terminal device sends the HARQ feedback corresponding to the first DCI (Fig. 2, paragraph [0062], UE also detects a common beam change to common beam #2 (i.e. new beam) indicated by the TCI field contained in DCI # 2 received in slot n+1; DCI # 2 also schedules a PDSCH transmission PDSCH # 2; the scheduling offset (Offset2) between DCI # 2 and the scheduled PDSCH # 2 is larger than the threshold timeDurationForQCL; therefore, the UE receives the scheduled PDSCH # 2 using common beam #2 (i.e. new beam); the UE reports the acknowledgment (ACK) of PDSCH # 1 in slot n+4; the indicated common beam #2 (i.e. new beam) will be applied to (i.e. used for receiving) PDCCH transmission, SPS-PDSCH transmission, PDSCH transmission scheduled by DCI without TCI field, starting from slot n+7, i.e., the first slot that is Y symbols after the acknowledgment (the end of slot n+4, or the start of slot n+5) of the PDSCH transmission scheduled by the DCI (e.g. DCI #1) indicating a common TCI state change).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to provide “at least one common beam indicated by the beam indication information takes effect in a first slot after a first moment which is determined by adding a first time offset to a second moment, wherein the second moment is a moment at which the terminal device sends the HARQ feedback corresponding to the first DCI” as taught by Liu, in the combined system of Zhang and Zhou, so that it would provide dynamic common beam or common transmission configuration indication state switching for downlink reception relates to wireless communication (Liu, paragraph [0001]).
Regarding claim 9, the claim is rejected based on the same reasoning as presented in the rejection of claim 4 (from perspective of the network device).
Regarding claim 14, the claim is rejected based on the same reasoning as presented in the rejection of claim 4.
Regarding claim 19, the claim is rejected based on the same reasoning as presented in the rejection of claim 4 (from perspective of the network device).
Regarding claim 21, the claim is rejected based on the same reasoning as presented in the rejection of claim 4.
Regarding claim 22, the claim is rejected based on the same reasoning as presented in the rejection of claim 9 (from perspective of the network device).
Regarding claim 23, the claim is rejected based on the same reasoning as presented in the rejection of claim 14.
Regarding claim 24, the claim is rejected based on the same reasoning as presented in the rejection of claim 19 (from perspective of the network device).
13. Claims 5, 10, 15 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ZHANG et al. (US 2022/0225298 A1), hereinafter “Zhang” in view of ZHOU et al. (US 2023/0291533 A1), hereinafter “Zhou” in view of in view of Liu et al. (US 2024/0314804 A1), hereinafter “Liu” in view of YANG (US 2023/0239032 A1), hereinafter “Yang”.
Regarding claim 5, Zhang in view of Zhou disclose the method according to claim 1.
Neither Zhang nor Zhou explicitly discloses “before the at least one common beam indicated by the beam indication information takes effect, the method further comprises: performing, by the terminal device, transmission by using a synchronization signal and physical broadcast channel (PBCH) block SSB beam used during the initial access”.
However, Yang from the same or similar field of endeavor discloses the at least one common beam is indicated by the beam indication information for a first time after the terminal device performs initial access, and before the at least one common beam indicated by the beam indication information takes effect, the method further comprises: performing, by the terminal device, transmission by using a synchronization signal and physical broadcast channel (PBCH) block SSB beam used during the initial access (paragraphs [0039], [0079], [0137], [0187]-[0188], [0228], after the network configures the TCI state pool and before a TCI state is indicated by using the indication information, default beam information is used, for example, an SSB measured by the UE during initial access).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to provide “the at least one common beam is indicated by the beam indication information for a first time after the terminal device performs initial access, and before the at least one common beam indicated by the beam indication information takes effect, the method further comprises: performing, by the terminal device, transmission by using a synchronization signal and physical broadcast channel (PBCH) block SSB beam used during the initial access” as taught by Yang, in the combined system of Zhang, Zhou and Liu, so that it would provide beam processing method implementing channel or reference signal transmission with development of communications technologies (Yang, paragraph [0003]).
Regarding claim 10, the claim is rejected based on the same reasoning as presented in the rejection of claim 5 (from perspective of the network device).
Regarding claim 15, the claim is rejected based on the same reasoning as presented in the rejection of claim 5.
Regarding claim 20, the claim is rejected based on the same reasoning as presented in the rejection of claim 5 (from perspective of the network device).
Conclusion
14. 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 extension fee 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 date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SITHU KO whose telephone number is 571-272-8647. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday 8:30am-5:00pmEST.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Edan Orgad can be reached on 571-272-7884. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/SITHU KO/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2414