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 .
DETAILED ACTION
This office action is in response to the amendment and remarks filed on 02/27/2026.
Claims 1-20 are currently pending.
Claims 1-2, 8, 10-11, 14-17 are currently amended.
Claims 1-11, 14, 16-20 are rejected.
Claims 12-13, 15 are objected to for depending from rejected base claims.
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.
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 1-2, 5, 7-9, 16-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being over Rongyi Hu (WO 2022133692 A1) in view of Jayasinghe Laddu et al (US 20230254741 A1).
Claims 1-20 of the instant application are directed to a wireless communication system wherein a user equipment detects a trigger event associated with activating or switching to one or more transmission control indication (TCI) states of a TCI states set associated with a first physical cell ID (PCI), and activating or switching to the one or more TCI states of a TCI state set associated with the first PCI for UL and DL transmission in one serving cell, the method shown in FIG. 6.
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The Hu reference is similarly concerned with a method 200 for TCI-state switching whereby in step S210, the terminal device receives configuration information for activating the transmission configuration indication (TCI) state switching, and in step S220. The terminal device performs the TCI state switch based on the configuration information for activating the TCI state switch, the method shown in FIG. 4 (with translation juxtaposed).
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For Claim 1, Yu discloses a method for wireless communication (Yu teaches, in FIG. 4, a schematic flowchart of a method 200 for state switching), comprising:
detecting, with a user equipment, a trigger event (Yu teaches, on page 15, last para, that … the fast TCI state switching based on the first reference signal is triggered by MAC CE signaling) associated with activating or switching to one or more transmission control indication (TCI) states of a TCI states set (Yu teaches, in FIG. 4, step S210, the terminal device receives configuration information for activating the transmission configuration indication (TCI) state switching) associated with a first physical cell ID (PCI) for uplink (UL) and downlink (DL) transmission (Yu also teaches, on page 11, (1) that K TCI states of the N candidate TCI states are activated through MAC signaling) when one or more TCI states for a TCI state set associated with a second PCI is used by the user equipment for at least one of UL or DL transmission in one serving cell (Yu teaches, on Page 10, lines 1-4, that the TCI state indication for the UE-specific PDCCH MAC CE may include a serving cell ID (Serving Cell ID), a CORESET ID, a TCI state ID (TCI state ID), and the like); and
performing, with the user equipment, a procedure of activating or switching to the one or more TCI states of a TCI state set associated with the first PCI (Yu teaches, in FIG. 4, step S220. The terminal device performs the TCI state switch based on the configuration information for activating the TCI state switch) for UL and DL transmission in one serving cell (Yu teaches, on page 17, para 3, that after receiving and processing the activation signaling of the MAC CE or the RRC activation signaling, the terminal device may use the switched target TCI state to receive the PDCCH after completing the quick adjustment of the QCL information after a first delay interval). Yu further teaches on page 16, last para, that the TCI state before the switch may be referred to as an old (old) TCI state, and the TCI state after the switch may be referred to as a new TCI state or a target TCI state.
Yu fails to expressly disclose wherein the first PCI is different from the second PCI
However, Laddu, in the analogous art, discloses that wherein the first PCI is different from the second PCI (Laddu teaches, in ¶ 0094, that for inter-cell mobility, a TCI state that is associated with another Physical Cell Identifier, PCI, (such as a PCI of second TRP 120b) than the PCI of serving TRP (such as a PCI of first TRP 120a) may be used as the mobility trigger. So if UE 110 receives a TCI state, e.g., via DCI, wherein the TCI state is associated with said another PCI, the secondary set of TCI states may get activated, wherein the secondary set of TCI states may also relate to said another PCI. In other words, the TCI with different PCI than the PCI of the serving TRP may be used as the mobility trigger).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system taught in Yu with the larger number of configured TCI states as taught in Laddu. The motivation is to facilitate more efficient (lower latency and overhead) downlink/uplink beam management to support higher intra/inter-cell layer½-centric mobility [Laddu teaches, in ¶ 0053].
For Claim 2, Yu discloses a method, wherein the triggering event comprises a detection of a deterioration of a reference signal received power (RSRP) or signal-to- interference-plus-noise-ration (SINR) associated with active TCI states (set) associated with the second PCI (Yu teaches, on page 11, in (3) Before the TCI state switch command, the UE sends at least one L1-RSRP report of the target TCI state (The UE has sent at least 1 L1RSRP report for the target TCI state before the TCI state switch command). (6) SNR of the TCI state≥-3dB (SNR of the TCI state≥-3dB)).
For Claim 5, Yu discloses a method, wherein the triggering event comprises a medium access control (MAC) control element (CE) or download control information (DCI) received from a wireless network (Yu teaches, on page 15, last para, that … the fast TCI state switching based on the first reference signal is triggered by MAC CE signaling).
For Claim 7, Yu discloses a method, wherein detecting the triggering event comprises at least two of: detecting deterioration of a RSRP or SINR associated with at the active TCI states (set) associated with a second PCI (Yu teaches, on page 11, in (3) Before the TCI state switch command, the UE sends at least one L1-RSRP report of the target TCI state (The UE has sent at least 1 L1RSRP report for the target TCI state before the TCI state switch command). (6) SNR of the TCI state≥-3dB (SNR of the TCI state≥-3dB));
detecting a radio link failure for the active TCI state set associated with the second PCI;
detecting a beam failure for the active TCI state (set) associated with the second PCI;
detecting a MAC CE or DCI received from a wireless network (Yu teaches, on page 15, last para, that … the fast TCI state switching based on the first reference signal is triggered by MAC CE signaling); or detecting a timeAlignmentTimer expiration of a TAG associated with an active TCI state set associated with the second PCI.
For Claim 8, Yu discloses a method, wherein a procedure of the activating or switching to the one or more TCI states of a TCI states set associated with a first PCI for UL and DL transmission in one serving cell comprises at least one of: sending, with the user equipment, a signal to notify a wireless network of TCI state (set) switching or activation information (Yu teaches, in FIG. 4, step S210, the terminal device receives configuration information for activating the transmission configuration indication (TCI) state switching); receiving, with the user equipment, an acknowledgement of the signal from the wireless network; or switching to or activating, with the user equipment, one or more TCI states of a TCI state set associated with a first PCI for UL and DL transmission for one serving Yu teaches, in FIG. 4, step S220. The terminal device performs the TCI state switch based on the configuration information for activating the TCI state switch).
For Claim 9, Yu discloses a method, wherein the signal to notify the wireless network of TCI state(set) comprises at least one of: a TCI state requirement MAC CE (Yu teaches, on page 11, (6), that For example, TCI-state switching of the following three active configuration modes is supported corresponding to different requirements. MAC-CE-based TCI state switching delay (delay) [wherein the delay is TCI state requirement]); or a preamble.
For Claim 16, Yu discloses a wireless communication apparatus comprising: a memory configured to store computer-readable instructions; and a processor circuitry configured to read the computer-readable instructions, the processor circuitry when executing the computer-readable instructions is configured to (Yu teaches, on page 6, last para, a terminal device, including a processor and a memory. The memory is used for storing a computer program, and the processor is used for calling and running the computer program stored in the memory, so that the terminal device executes the above-mentioned state switching method), comprising:
detect a trigger event (Yu teaches, on page 15, last para, that … the fast TCI state switching based on the first reference signal is triggered by MAC CE signaling) associated with activating or switching to one or more transmission control indication (TCI) states of a TCI states set (Yu teaches, in FIG. 4, step S210, the terminal device receives configuration information for activating the transmission configuration indication (TCI) state switching) associated with a first physical cell ID (PCI) for uplink (UL) and downlink (DL) transmission (Yu also teaches, on page 11, (1) that K TCI states of the N candidate TCI states are activated through MAC signaling) when one or more TCI states for a TCI state set associated with a second PCI is used for at least one of UL or DL transmission in one serving cell (Yu teaches, on Page 10, lines 1-4, that the TCI state indication for the UE-specific PDCCH MAC CE may include a serving cell ID (Serving Cell ID), a CORESET ID, a TCI state ID (TCI state ID), and the like); and
perform a procedure of activating or switching to the one or more TCI states of a TCI state set associated with the first PCI for UL and DL transmission in one serving cell (Yu teaches, in FIG. 4, step S220. The terminal device performs the TCI state switch based on the configuration information for activating the TCI state switch) for UL and DL transmission in one serving cell (Yu teaches, on page 17, para 3, that after receiving and processing the activation signaling of the MAC CE or the RRC activation signaling, the terminal device may use the switched target TCI state to receive the PDCCH after completing the quick adjustment of the QCL information after a first delay interval). Yu further teaches on page 16, last para, that the TCI state before the switch may be referred to as an old (old) TCI state, and the TCI state after the switch may be referred to as a new TCI state or a target TCI state.
Yu fails to expressly disclose wherein the first PCI is different from the second PCI
However, Laddu, in the analogous art, discloses that wherein the first PCI is different from the second PCI (Laddu teaches, in ¶ 0094, that for inter-cell mobility, a TCI state that is associated with another Physical Cell Identifier, PCI, (such as a PCI of second TRP 120b) than the PCI of serving TRP (such as a PCI of first TRP 120a) may be used as the mobility trigger. So if UE 110 receives a TCI state, e.g., via DCI, wherein the TCI state is associated with said another PCI, the secondary set of TCI states may get activated, wherein the secondary set of TCI states may also relate to said another PCI. In other words, the TCI with different PCI than the PCI of the serving TRP may be used as the mobility trigger).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system taught in Yu with the larger number of configured TCI states as taught in Laddu. The motivation is to facilitate more efficient (lower latency and overhead) downlink/uplink beam management to support higher intra/inter-cell layer½-centric mobility [Laddu teaches, in ¶ 0053].
For Claim 17, please refer to the rejection of claim 16, above.
For Claims 18-19, please refer to the rejection of claims 7-8, above.
Claim 3 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Rongyi Hu (WO 2022133692 A1) in view of Jayasinghe Laddu et al (US 20230254741 A1) as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Yunjung Yi et al (US 20200350972 A1).
For Claim 3, Yu & Laddu disclose all of the claimed subject matter with the exception that the triggering event comprises a detection that a radio link failure for the activate TCI state set associated with the second PCI.
However, Yi, in the analogous art, discloses that the triggering event comprises a detection that a radio link failure for the activate TCI state set associated with the second PCI (Yi teaches, in ¶ 0391,lines 1-5, that a wireless device may indicate a RLF when the wireless device detects that one or more RLM reference signals (RLM-RS) across a first TRP and a second TRP fail where the first TRP and the second TRP are activated in a PCell or a sPCell).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system taught in Yu & Laddu with the radio link monitoring (RLM) taught in Yi. The motivation is so that the wireless device could declare a RLF of the group in response to detecting a radio link failure of the first TRP.
Claim 4 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Rongyi Hu (WO 2022133692 A1) in view of Jayasinghe Laddu et al (US 20230254741 A1) as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Young Woo Kwak et al (US 20230216565 A1).
For Claim 4, Yu & Laddu disclose all of the claimed subject matter with the exception that the triggering event comprises a detection of a beam failure for active TCI state (set) associated with the second PCI.
However, Kwak, in the analogous art, discloses that the triggering event comprises a detection of a beam failure for active TCI state (set) associated with the second PCI (Kwak teaches, in ¶ 0129, that WTRU may trigger transmission of a TCI state group indication, for example, based on (e.g., upon) detection of a beam failure).
Kwak also teaches, in ¶ 0127, that A WTRU may trigger transmission of a TCI state group indication, for example, if at least one of the following occurs: a metric for a TCI state group (e.g., a TCI state group in use or currently used) becomes lower than a threshold; or a metric for a TCI state group (e.g., a TCI state group in use or currently used) becomes lower than a metric for another TCI state group, e.g., plus or minus an offset.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system taught in Yu & Laddu with the beam management framework taught in Kwak. The motivation is to support more efficient panel selection mechanisms (e.g., on top of a unified TCI framework) [Kwak: ¶ 0083].
Claim 6 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Rongyi Hu (WO 2022133692 A1) in view of Jayasinghe Laddu et al (US 20230254741 A1) as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Icaro Leonardoet Da Silva al (US 20240023045 A1).
For Claim 6, Yu & Laddu disclose all of the claimed subject matter with the exception of detection of a timeAlignmentTimer expiration of a TAG associated with an active TCI state set associated with the second PCI.
However, Silva, in the analogous art, discloses detection of a timeAlignmentTimer expiration of a TAG associated with an active TCI state set associated with the second PCI (Silva teaches, in ¶ 0031, that The timeAlignmentTimer thus indicates how long time the UE may consider a received TA value as valid. If the UE does not receive an updated value before timeAlignmentTimer expires, the UE is no longer UL synchronized to the serving cells belonging to the corresponding TAG. Silva teaches, in ¶ 0037, that TA is adjusted while the UE is connected to a serving cell either by an explicit MAC CE from the network (e.g., if the network detects a possible misalignment) and/or by the UE (e.g. when the time alignment timer timeAlignmentTimer for a given TAG expires) to the PUSCH).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system taught in Yu & Laddu with the imeAlignmentTimer taught in Silva. The motivation is so that the wireless device may determine how long a received TA value can be considered as valid [Silva: ¶ 0031].
Claim 10 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Rongyi Hu (WO 2022133692 A1) in view of Jayasinghe Laddu et al (US 20230254741 A1) as applied to claim 8 above, and further in view of Yunjung Yi et al (“herein after Yi_2”, US 20230337313 A1).
For Claim 10, Yu & Laddu disclose all of the claimed subject matter with the exception that the acknowledgement of the signal from the wireless network comprises at least one of: receiving a UL grant with a HARQ process ID which is equal to a HARQ process ID for sending a TCI state requirement MAC CE in the same serving cell; receiving an indication that an initiated RACH procedure is successful terminated; or receiving a downlink control signal or TCI state switch confirmation MAC CE in response to the TCI state requirement MAC CE.
However, Yi_2, in the analogous art, discloses that the acknowledgement of the signal from the wireless network comprises at least one of: receiving a UL grant with a HARQ process ID which is equal to a HARQ process ID for sending a TCI state requirement MAC CE in the same serving cell (Yi_2 teaches, in ¶ 0372, that The wireless device may transmit a MAC CE via the PUSCH, where the MAC CE comprises a candidate beam for the secondary cell …the wireless device may receive an UL grant scheduling a PUSCH (e.g., with a first HARQ ID) in response to the transmission of the dedicated SR for BFR of the secondary cell. The DCI/PDCCH comprise/indicate a second UL grant scheduling a PUSCH with a same HARQ ID (e.g., the first HARQ ID) to the PUSCH); receiving an indication that an initiated RACH procedure is successful terminated (Yi_2 teaches, in ¶ 0185, that The UE may determine that a random access procedure successfully completes, for example, if the UE receives an RAR comprising a preamble identifier corresponding to a preamble transmitted by the UE and/or the RAR comprises a MAC sub-PDU with the preamble identifier); or receiving a downlink control signal or TCI state switch confirmation MAC CE in response to the TCI state requirement MAC CE (Yi_2 teaches, in ¶ 0238, that The base station may transmit a DCI (e.g., based on DCI format 1_1) comprising a TCI state (or a TCI state code point) that indicating one TCI of the one or more TCI states. The wireless device may receive a PDSCH based on the DCI via the indicated TCI state).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system taught in Yu & Laddu with the an uplink TCI state taught in Yi_2. The motivation is so that the wireless device may transmit uplink signals based on the first RS of the uplink TCI state.
Claims 11, 14, 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Rongyi Hu (WO 2022133692 A1) in view of Jayasinghe Laddu et al (US 20230254741 A1) as applied to claim 1, or 16 above, and further in view of Olufunmilola Awoniyi-oteri et al (US 20210400586 A1).
For Claims 11, 20, Yu & Laddu disclose all of the claimed subject matter with the exception of determining, with the user equipment, a time advance (TA) value for a TCI state that is being activated or switched to.
However, Awoniyi-oteri, in the analogous art, discloses determining, with the user equipment, a time advance (TA) value for a TCI state that is being activated or switched to (Awoniyi-oteri teaches, in ¶ 0091, that The MAC-CE 810 may include a TCI state activation 812 and/or a timing advance command 814. Conventional MAC-CEs for TCI state activation may specify a specific serving cell. The TCI state activation 812 may be expanded to indicate a TCI state for multiple serving cells (e.g., the PSCell 420 and one or more SCells 430). Similarly, a conventional timing CE may include a timing advance group (TAG) ID and timing advance command. The timing advance command 814 may be expanded to include multiple TAG IDs and corresponding timing advance commands).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system taught in Yu with the parameter change message taught in Awoniyi-oteri. The motivation is so that the UE may utilize an uplink parameter set for the PSCell [Awoniyi-oteri: ¶ 0047].
For Claim 14, Yu discloses all of the claimed subject matter with the exception of configuring, by a wireless network, a TAG ID for a TCI state set associated with the second PCI.
However, Awoniyi-oteri, in the analogous art, discloses configuring, by a wireless network, a TAG ID for a TCI state set associated with the second PCI (Awoniyi-oteri teaches, in ¶ 0091, that The MAC-CE 810 may include a TCI state activation 812 and/or a timing advance command 814. Conventional MAC-CEs for TCI state activation may specify a specific serving cell. The TCI state activation 812 may be expanded to indicate a TCI state for multiple serving cells (e.g., the PSCell 420 and one or more SCells 430). Similarly, a conventional timing CE may include a timing advance group (TAG) ID and timing advance command. The timing advance command 814 may be expanded to include multiple TAG IDs and corresponding timing advance commands).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system taught in Yu & Laddu with the parameter change message taught in Awoniyi-oteri. The motivation is so that the UE may utilize an uplink parameter set for the PSCell [Awoniyi-oteri: ¶ 0047].
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 12-13, 15 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 following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Claims 12-13, 15 are considered allowable because the prior art does not teach limitations including:
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, in addition to other claim limitations as recited in dependent claim 12.
“wherein the time advance value for the TCI state is calculated according to the equation in the case that a TA command MAC CE is not received from RAR:
N.sub.TA_TCI state=N.sub.old_TA+(N.sub.TAreceived+N.sub.TA-offset−31).Math.16.Math.64/2.sup.μ where N.sub.old-TA is a maintained time advanced value for a time advance group (TAG) that a serving cell belongs to, N.sub.TAreceived represents the TA value received in TA command MAC CE, N.sub.TA-OFFSET is derived from a TimeDifferenceFirstPCI value or a MAC CE which represents a time advance difference between TCI states sets associated with the first PCI and the second PCI, and μ represents an exponent value of a carrier space of a current BWP,” in addition to other claim limitations as recited in dependent claim 13.
“determining that all timeAlignmentTimers for all active TCI states sets in one serving cell are expired; determining that the serving cell is an SCell after determining that all timeAlignmentTimers for all active TCI states sets in the serving cell are expired; and in response to determining that the serving cell is an SCell, performing at least one of the following with the user equipment: flushing all hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) buffers; notifying radio resource control (RRC) to release a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH); notifying RRC to release SRS; clearing any configured downlink assignments and configured uplink grants; or clearing any physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) resource for semi-persistent CSI reporting,” in addition to other claim limitations as recited in dependent claim 15.
Response to Amendments
Applicant’s amendment and remarks filed on 02/27/2026 have rendered moot the objection to Claims 2 and 10 contained in the previous office action.
However, Applicant's amendment, filed on 02/27/2026, has also necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed on 02/27/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. Examiner will respond in the rebuttal that follows:
Claim Rejection - 35 USC 103
Examiner respectfully disagrees with Applicant’s argument: Therefore, Hu fails to disclose or teach “to activate or switch from the TCI states associated with second PCI to the TCI states associated with the first PCI different from the second PCI," as claimed in amended claim 1 (see remarks, page 9).
The reason being Laddu teaches, in ¶ 0094, that for inter-cell mobility, a TCI state that is associated with another Physical Cell Identifier, PCI, (such as a PCI of second TRP 120b) than the PCI of serving TRP (such as a PCI of first TRP 120a) may be used as the mobility trigger. So if UE 110 receives a TCI state, e.g., via DCI, wherein the TCI state is associated with said another PCI, the secondary set of TCI states may get activated, wherein the secondary set of TCI states may also relate to said another PCI. In other words, the TCI with different PCI than the PCI of the serving TRP may be used as the mobility trigger.
Thus, the cited references teach or suggest each and every limitation of amended claim 1. For at least this reason, amended independent claim 1 is not yet patentable over the combination of art cited in the current office action.
Independent claims 16 and 17 are amended to recite features similar to amended claim 1. For similar reasons as articulated above for amended claim 1, amended independent claims 16 and 17 are also not yet patentable over the combination of art cited in the current office action.
Similarly, dependent claims 2-11, 14, 18-20 are also not yet patentable for depending from rejected base claims, as well as for being rejected on their own merits.
Accordingly, Examiner respectfully requests that the rejection of claims 1-11, 14, 16-20, under 35 U.S.C. § 103, be maintained as proper.
In light of the above rebuttal and rejection, Examiner believes that this instant rejection should be made final.
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.
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure: ZHANG (US 20220312286 A1) is pertinent to a system, whereby the gNB can configure different PCIs in different TCI states, and the TCI states that share the same PCI may be considered to belong to the same set.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MOHAMED A KAMARA whose telephone number is (571)270-5629. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9AM-4PM.
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, CHARLES JIANG can be reached on 5712707191. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/MOHAMED A KAMARA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2412