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 Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 5/19/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Argument: Applicant argued:
(REM 5/19/2026, page 9, lines 10+): For example, Applicant submits that Wu and Zhang fail to disclose or render obvious "wherein the PMI indicates information related to UE-side vectors and base station-side vectors."
(REM 5/19/2026, page 11, 2nd – 4th paragraphs): Applicants respectfully point out that the vertical and horizontal dimensions relate to antenna array geometry, namely elevation and azimuth. Whereas, the claimed PMI conveys information associated with spatial vectors corresponding to the UE and the base station, which represent different channel characteristics.
As would be readily appreciated by persons of ordinary skill in the art, the channel characteristics are different because vertical and horizontal CSI describe how the channel varies across antenna elements within a particular antenna array dimension, whereas UE-side and base-station-side vectors describe spatial channel responses associated with different communication endpoints (transmit-side VS receive-side) of the link. The former relates to antenna array geometry (elevation versus azimuth), while the latter relates to spatial information of the channel associated with the UE-side vectors and the base station-side vectors, as represented by the PMI.
In view of the above, Applicants respectfully submit that a disclosure of CSI corresponding to vertical and horizontal antenna dimensions does not disclose or suggest that a PMI indicates information related to UE-side vectors and base-station- side vectors, because the two concepts characterize different aspects of the MIMO channel.
Response: Though Applicant’s arguments regarding to vertical and horizontal antenna dimensions and antenna geometry may be partly true, Applicant’ independent claim 1 recites “wherein the PMI indicates information related to UE-side vectors and base station-side vectors.”.
“Information” is a real broad term and Applicant has not specifically stated in independent claim 1 what that information is. Above, Applicant states that the information is related to “spatial information of the channel associated with the UE-side vectors and the base station-side vectors,”, as argued above. Claim 4 also recites such a limitation. Further, the channel between the UE and the base station is dependent on the antenna configuration i.e. dependent on the horizontal and vertical antenna dimensions, geometry, spatial resolution, polarization, coupling etc. Hence, sending horizontal and vertical antenna dimensions includes sending at least partial channel information.
Hence, Examiner argues that Zhang does disclose “… the PMI indicates information related to UE-side vectors and base station-side vectors.” in the form of antenna information.
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 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.
Claims 1, 3 - 4, 6, 8 - 9, 11, 13 - 14, 16, 18 - 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wu et al. (US 10056950 B2) in view Zhang et al. (US 20150318909 A1) (which have been provided in the International Search Report 6/4/2024).
Regarding claim 1, Wu discloses a method performed by a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system (column 1, lines 14 – 16; Title; Fig. 1), the method comprising:
receiving, from a base station, configuration information for a channel state information (CSI) report (Fig. 1, steps 101, 102; column 9, lines 16 – 20; wherein the configuration is the number of antenna ports);
identifying a precoding matrix indicator (PMI) of at least one code book based on the configuration information (Fig. 1, step 103; column 9, lines 21 – 37);
and transmitting, to the base station, the CSI report including the PMI (Fig. 1, step 104; column 1, lines 52 - 53; column 9, lines 38 - 40).
Wu discloses using horizontal and vertical dimension vectors (column 1, lines 64 - 67).
Wu does not explicitly disclose wherein the PMI indicates information related to UE-side vectors and base station-side vectors.
In the same field of endeavor, however, Zhang discloses wherein the PMI indicates information related to UE-side vectors and base station-side vectors (Abstract discloses “The method for feeding back includes: feeding back respectively, by UE, CSI corresponding to the vertical dimension and CSI corresponding to the horizontal dimension..”; Fig. 2; [0064] – [0069]; Other embodiments also shown in Figs. 3 - 11).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the invention, to use the method, as taught by Zhang, in the system of Wu because this would allow for both the UE and base station to apply precoding. Precoding is known to improve performance (e.g. increasing data rates) in MIMO systems.
Regarding claim 3, Wu discloses use of codebooks (column 11, lines 39+).
Wu does not disclose wherein the at least one code book is related to UE-side codebook and base station-side codebook.
In the same field of endeavor, however, Zhang discloses wherein the at least one code book is related to UE-side codebook and base station-side codebook (claim 6; [0091] – [0095]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the invention, to use the method, as taught by Zhang, in the system of Wu because this would allow for both the UE and base station to apply precoding, where the precoding vectors are obtained from codebooks. Having different vectors in the codebooks for different scenarios could optimize system performance different scenarios.
Regarding claim 4, Wu discloses wherein the PMI indicates a joint spatial domain (SD) basis matrix ([0077] discloses use of DFT matrix with horizontal and vertical dimensions with spatial domain resolution).
UE-side vectors and the base station-side vectors is analyzed as in claim 1 above.
Claim 6 is similarly analyzed as claim 1, with claim 6 reciting similar operations as seen from the base station side.
Claim 8 is similarly analyzed as claim 3.
Claim 9 is similarly analyzed as claim 4.
Claim 11 is similarly analyzed as claim 1, with claim 11 reciting similar apparatus limitations. Transceiver and processor are disclosed by Wu (column 44, lines 1 – 3, 8+).
Claim 13 is similarly analyzed as claim 3.
Claim 14 is similarly analyzed as claim 4.
Claim 16 is similarly analyzed as claim 6, with claim 16 reciting similar apparatus limitations. Transceiver and processor are disclosed by Wu (column 44, lines 1 – 3, 8+).
Claim 18 is similarly analyzed as claim 3.
Claim 19 is similarly analyzed as claim 4.
Claims 2, 7, 12, 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wu et al. (US 10056950 B2) in view Zhang et al. (US 20150318909 A1) and further in view of Bhat et al. (US 20230344488 A1).
Regarding claim 2, Wu does not disclose receiving, from the base station, a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) based on the PMI.
In the same field of endeavor, however, Bhat discloses receiving, from the base station, a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) based on the PMI ([0084] discloses “At S1150, the base station can perform PDSCH transmission from the TRPs 1101 based on the reported PMI, RI, and CQI.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the invention, to use the method, as taught by Bhat, in the system of Wu because this would allow the transmission parameters to be configured based on channel conditions, thereby optimizing transmission.
Claim 7 is similarly analyzed as claim 2.
Claim 12 is similarly analyzed as claim 2.
Claim 17 is similarly analyzed as claim 2.
Claims 5, 10, 15, 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wu et al. (US 10056950 B2) in view Zhang et al. (US 20150318909 A1) and further in view of Gao et al. (US 20250266871 A1).
Regarding claim 5, Wu discloses the configuration information includes first configuration information related to the UE-side vectors (Fig. 1, steps 101, 102; column 9, lines 16 – 20; wherein the UE configuration is the number of antenna ports).
Wu does not disclose second configuration information related to the base station-side vectors, and wherein the first configuration information has a higher priority than the second configuration information.
In the same field of endeavor, however, Zhang discloses second configuration information related to the base station-side vectors (Fig. 14; [0147 – [0149]; wherein the 2nd configuration is information on which vertical and horizontal elements are used).
In the same field of endeavor, however, Gao discloses the UE assigns a priority index to the coefficients (Title; Abstract; [0111] discloses “The processing circuitry is further configured to cause the UE to assign a priority index to each of the set of coefficients, wherein a different priority index is assigned to different coefficients and wherein the priority indices are allocated from low index value to high index value to the coefficients in an increasing order …. wherein the lowest priority index is allocated to one of the set of coefficients ….. and the highest priority index is allocated to one of the set of coefficients ….”.).
Under Rationales for Obviousness (MPEP 2143, Rationale F), one of ordinary skill in the art can assign a higher priority to UE vectors or base station vectors, as necessary.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the invention, to use the methods, as taught by Zhang and Gao, in the system of Wu because prioritizing vectors according to different scenarios would allow for optimizing system performance.
Claim 10 is similarly analyzed as claim 5.
Claim 15 is similarly analyzed as claim 5.
Claim 20 is similarly analyzed as claim 5.
Other Prior Art Cited
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to the applicant’s disclosure.
The following patents/publications are cited to further show the state of the art with respect to CSI reporting:
Muruganathan et al. (US 20250159518 A1) discloses TYPE II CSI Reporting for CJT With Angle and Delay Reciprocity.
Sun et al. (US 20240014865 A1) discloses methods and apparatus for port selection codebook enhancement.
Chou et al. (US 20230291454 A1) discloses Multiple-Transmission-Reception-Point Measurement and Transmission in Wireless Communication System.
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.
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ADOLF DSOUZA whose telephone number is (571)272-1043. The examiner can normally be reached Mon - Fri 9 AM - 5 PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Chieh M Fan can be reached at 571-272-3042. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ADOLF DSOUZA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2632
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