DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA . This action is in response to the communication filed on 2/5/2024. Claims 1-20 are pending in this application.
Examiner Note
The examiner is here to serve, to assist, and to help applicant to the very best of his ability. The Primary Patent Examiner position is a position of serving and it is an honor to externally serve the applicant and attorney and to internally serve junior examiners and supervisors. The goal of the examiner is to work with and assist applicant to move cases along as efficiently as possible.
Applicant is encouraged to call examiner to schedule an interview if applicant has any questions about this action, wants to discuss any possible paths forward, has proposed amendments to the claims to run by the examiner, or for any other issues that applicant would like to discuss.
Examiner can normally be reached at (571) 270-3863 or michael.keller@uspto.gov, Monday-Friday, from about 6 AM - 10 PM EST and if your call is missed examiner will try to return call quickly, thank you.
Priority
This application claims priority of PCT/CN2021/113218, filed 8/18/2021. The assignee of record is GUANGDONG OPPO MOBILE TELECOMMUNICATIONS CORP., LTD. The listed inventor(s) is/are: ZHAO, Zhenshan; ZHANG, Shichang.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement(s) (IDS) submitted on 2/5/2024 & 12/18/2024 is/are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the IDS(s) is/are being considered by the examiner.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4-17 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 provided that all other rejections under 35 USC 101/112 (if any) are obviated upon upcoming amendments/arguments without raising new issues that necessitate further consideration/search.
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.
Claim(s) 1-3 & 18-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kwak et al. (US 20210184824 A1, published 6/17/2021; hereinafter Kwa) in view of Farag et al. (US 20210359745 A1, filed 5/6/2021; hereinafter Far).
For Claim 1, Kwa teaches a method for wireless communication, comprising:
sending, by a first terminal device, M Channel State Information Reference Signals (CSI-RSs) to a second terminal device by using spatial domain transmission filters, the M CSI-RSs being configured to select a target spatial domain transmission filter, wherein the M CSI-RSs correspond to a plurality of CSI-RS resources in a target CSI-RS resource set (Kwa ¶ 0290).
Kwa does not explicitly teach M is a positive integer.
However, Far teaches M is a positive integer (Far ¶ 0332, 0365, 0378, 0386, 0398, 0400, 0406, 0434, 0463).
Far and Kwa are analogous art because they are both related to CSI-RS.
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to use the CSI-RS resource techniques of Far with the system of Kwa to provide beamforming gain and support increased capacity (Far ¶ 0003).
For Claim 2, Kwa-Far teaches the method of claim 1, wherein a repetition field in configuration information of the target CSI-RS resource set takes a first value, wherein the first value is configured to indicate that the first terminal device does not use a same spatial domain transmission filter to send the CSI-RS resources in the target CSI-RS resource set (Kwa ¶ 0287).
For Claim 3, Kwa-Far teaches the method of claim 1, further comprising: sending, by the first terminal device, first indication information to a network device, the first indication information being configured to indicate that the first terminal device requests the network device to allocate transmission resources for sending CSI-RSs, wherein the first indication information comprises a value of M (Far Claim 15).
For Claim 18, Kwa teaches the method for wireless communication, comprising: receiving, by a second terminal device, M Channel State Information Reference Signals (CSI-RSs) from a first terminal device, wherein the M CSI-RSs are configured to select a target spatial domain transmission filter, the M CSI-RSs correspond to a plurality of CSI-RS resources in a target CSI-RS resource (Kwa ¶ 0290).
Kwa does not explicitly teach M is a positive integer.
However, Far teaches M is a positive integer (Far ¶ 0332, 0365, 0378, 0386, 0398, 0400, 0406, 0434, 0463).
Far and Kwa are analogous art because they are both related to CSI-RS.
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to use the CSI-RS resource techniques of Far with the system of Kwa to provide beamforming gain and support increased capacity (Far ¶ 0003).
For Claim(s) 19, the claim(s) is/are substantially similar to claim 1 and therefore is/are rejected for the same reasoning set forth above.
For Claim(s) 20, the claim(s) is/are substantially similar to claim 18 and therefore is/are rejected for the same reasoning set forth above.
Citation of Pertinent Prior Art
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure is listed below, thank you:
i. US 20210352649 A1, Method For Receiving Downlink Signal By Terminal In Wireless Communication System, Involves Transmitting Capability Information Of Terminal To Base Station, Where Capability Information Includes Information Related To Quasi-colocation Reference Signal
Conclusion
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/MICHAEL A KELLER/
Primary Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2446