Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application is being examined under the pre-AIA first to invent provisions.
DETAILED ACTION
This office action is in response to the amendments filed on 07/20/2026.
Claims 1-27 are currently pending.
Claims 1-27 are rejected.
Claims 1, 10 and 19 are independent claims.
Response to Amendment
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) 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.
8. Claims 1-4, 6, 8-13, 15, 17-21, 23 and 25-27 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Mo-Han Fong et al. (US 2011/0034175 A1), hereinafter Fong, in view of Sandip Sarkar et al. (US 2009/0046582 A1), hereinafter Sarkar, and Taesang Yoo et al. (US 2011/0235601 A1), hereinafter Yoo and Hanbyul Seo et al. (US 2013/0295949 A1), hereinafter Seo.
For claim 1, Fong teaches a computing device (Fong, Fig. 8) comprising:
one or more processors (Fong, Fig. 8 item 810); and memory (Fong, Fig. 8 item 804) storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the computing device to:
receive information indicating configuration for a first physical downlink control channel of a first transmission point (Fong, Fig. 5 and paragraphs 22-24.);
configure a second transmission channel on a cooperating node, where control on the first channel allocates resources on the second channel, and the first and second channels use different transmission resources (Fong, Fig. 5 and paragraphs 22-24.); and
cause transmission, via the second physical downlink control channel and using the determined radio resources, of control information (Fong, Fig. 5 and paragraphs 22-24.).
Sarkar further teaches receiving information indicating beamforming configuration for a first physical downlink control channel of a first transmission point (Sarkar, Figs. 4-5 and paragraph 31 teach the Node B may send control information with beamforming in the same or similar manner as traffic data. The precoding matrix W may be selected to provide good performance for traffic data. The same precoding matrix W may be used for beamforming of control information. Beamforming may improve coverage for control information and/or provide other advantages.).
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 method taught in Fong to have receiving information indicating beamforming configuration for a first physical downlink control channel of a first transmission point taught in Sarkar in order to achieve good performance [Sarkar: background].
Yoo further teaches a base station selects PDSCH and guard resource blocks based on the resource usage of a neighboring cell so as to reduce overlap and inter-cell interference (Yoo, Fig. 7A and paragraph 75.).
Seo further teaches a plurality of PDCCHs can be transmitted in a control region and a user equipment is able to monitor a plurality of the PDCCHs and a format of PDCCH and the number of bits of an available PDCCH are determined depending on correlation between the number of CCEs and a code rate provided by the CCEs (Seo, Fig. 4 and paragraph 55 teach a plurality of PDCCHs can be transmitted in a control region and a user equipment is able to monitor a plurality of the PDCCHs. PDCCH is transmitted with the aggregation of at least one or more contiguous CCEs (control channel elements). CCE is a logical assignment unit used to provide PDCCH with a code rate in accordance with a state of a radio channel. CCE corresponds to a plurality of REGs (resource element groups). A format of PDCCH and the number of bits of an available PDCCH are determined depending on correlation between the number of CCEs and a code rate provided by the CCEs. A base station determines PDCCH format in accordance with DCI transmitted to a user equipment and attaches CRC (cyclic redundancy check) to control information).
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 method taught in Fong and Sarkar with “a base station selects PDSCH and guard resource blocks based on the resource usage of a neighboring cell so as to reduce overlap and inter-cell interference” taught in Yoo and “a plurality of PDCCHs can be transmitted in a control region and a user equipment is able to monitor a plurality of the PDCCHs and a format of PDCCH and the number of bits of an available PDCCH are determined depending on correlation between the number of CCEs and a code rate provided by the CCEs” taught in Seo to have determining, based on the beamforming configuration for the first physical downlink control channel of the first transmission point, radio resources for a second physical downlink control channel of a second transmission point, to manage overlap with the first physical downlink control channel in order to manage overlap between their control channels according to Yoo’s inter-cell resource-selection principles [Yoo: summary].
For claim 2, Fong, Sarkar, Yoo and Seo further teach the computing device of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the computing device to: cause transmission, via the first physical downlink control channel, of second control information (Fong, Fig. 5 and paragraphs 22-24.).
For claim 3, Fong, Sarkar, Yoo and Seo further teach the computing device of claim 1, wherein the first physical downlink control channel is transmitted via a first downlink carrier associated with the first transmission point, and wherein the second physical downlink control channel is transmitted via a second downlink carrier associated with the second transmission point (Fong, Fig. 5 and paragraphs 22-24.).
For claim 4, Fong, Sarkar, Yoo and Seo further teach the computing device of claim 1, wherein the first physical downlink control channel occurs in fewer than all time intervals of a frame (Yoo, Fig. 7A and paragraph 75. 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 method taught in Fong and Sarkar with a base station selects PDSCH and guard resource blocks based on the resource usage of a neighboring cell so as to reduce overlap and inter-cell interference taught in Yoo to have wherein the first physical downlink control channel occurs in fewer than all time intervals of a frame in order to manage overlap between their control channels according to Yoo’s inter-cell resource-selection principles [Yoo: summary].).
For claim 6, Fong, Sarkar, Yoo and Seo further teach the computing device of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the computing device to determine the radio resources by at least one of reducing overlap or avoiding overlap between the first physical downlink control channel and the second physical downlink control channel (Sarkar, Fig. 8 and paragraphs 62-64, 75.).
For claim 8, Fong, Sarkar, Yoo and Seo further teach the computing device of claim 1, wherein a first base station comprises the first transmission point, and wherein a second base station comprises the second transmission point (Fong, Fig. 5 itmes 202, 204 and paragraphs 22-24.).
For claim 9, Fong, Sarkar, Yoo and Seo further teach the computing device of claim 1, wherein the computing device comprises the first transmission point and the second transmission point (Fong, Fig. 5 item 208 and paragraphs 22-24.).
For claim 10, Fong teaches a method comprising:
receiving, by a computing device, information indicating configuration for a first physical downlink control channel of a first transmission point (Fong, Fig. 5 and paragraphs 22-24.);
configuring a second transmission channel on a cooperating node, where control on the first channel allocates resources on the second channel, and the first and second channels use different transmission resources (Fong, Fig. 5 and paragraphs 22-24.); and
causing transmission, via the second physical downlink control channel and using the determined radio resources, of control information (Fong, Fig. 5 and paragraphs 22-24.).
Sarkar further teaches receiving information indicating beamforming configuration for a first physical downlink control channel of a first transmission point (Sarkar, Figs. 4-5 and paragraph 31 teach the Node B may send control information with beamforming in the same or similar manner as traffic data. The precoding matrix W may be selected to provide good performance for traffic data. The same precoding matrix W may be used for beamforming of control information. Beamforming may improve coverage for control information and/or provide other advantages.).
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 method taught in Fong to have receiving information indicating beamforming configuration for a first physical downlink control channel of a first transmission point taught in Sarkar in order to achieve good performance [Sarkar: background].
Yoo further teaches a base station selects PDSCH and guard resource blocks based on the resource usage of a neighboring cell so as to reduce overlap and inter-cell interference (Yoo, Fig. 7A and paragraph 75.).
Seo further teaches a plurality of PDCCHs can be transmitted in a control region and a user equipment is able to monitor a plurality of the PDCCHs and a format of PDCCH and the number of bits of an available PDCCH are determined depending on correlation between the number of CCEs and a code rate provided by the CCEs (Seo, Fig. 4 and paragraph 55 teach a plurality of PDCCHs can be transmitted in a control region and a user equipment is able to monitor a plurality of the PDCCHs. PDCCH is transmitted with the aggregation of at least one or more contiguous CCEs (control channel elements). CCE is a logical assignment unit used to provide PDCCH with a code rate in accordance with a state of a radio channel. CCE corresponds to a plurality of REGs (resource element groups). A format of PDCCH and the number of bits of an available PDCCH are determined depending on correlation between the number of CCEs and a code rate provided by the CCEs. A base station determines PDCCH format in accordance with DCI transmitted to a user equipment and attaches CRC (cyclic redundancy check) to control information).
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 method taught in Fong and Sarkar with “a base station selects PDSCH and guard resource blocks based on the resource usage of a neighboring cell so as to reduce overlap and inter-cell interference” taught in Yoo and “a plurality of PDCCHs can be transmitted in a control region and a user equipment is able to monitor a plurality of the PDCCHs and a format of PDCCH and the number of bits of an available PDCCH are determined depending on correlation between the number of CCEs and a code rate provided by the CCEs” taught in Seo to have determining, based on the beamforming configuration for the first physical downlink control channel of the first transmission point, radio resources for a second physical downlink control channel of a second transmission point, to manage overlap with the first physical downlink control channel in order to manage overlap between their control channels according to Yoo’s inter-cell resource-selection principles [Yoo: summary].
For claim 11, Fong, Sarkar, Yoo and Seo further teach the method of claim 10, further comprising: causing transmission, via the first physical downlink control channel, of second control information (Fong, Fig. 5 and paragraphs 22-24.).
For claim 12, Fong, Sarkar, Yoo and Seo further teach the method of claim 10, wherein the first physical downlink control channel is transmitted via a first downlink carrier associated with the first transmission point, and wherein the second physical downlink control channel is transmitted via a second downlink carrier associated with the second transmission point (Fong, Fig. 5 and paragraphs 22-24.).
For claim 13, Fong, Sarkar, Yoo and Seo further teach the method of claim 10, wherein the first physical downlink control channel occurs in fewer than all time intervals of a frame (Yoo, Fig. 7A and paragraph 75. 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 method taught in Fong and Sarkar with a base station selects PDSCH and guard resource blocks based on the resource usage of a neighboring cell so as to reduce overlap and inter-cell interference taught in Yoo to have wherein the first physical downlink control channel occurs in fewer than all time intervals of a frame in order to manage overlap between their control channels according to Yoo’s inter-cell resource-selection principles [Yoo: summary].).
For claim 15, Fong, Sarkar, Yoo and Seo further teach the method of claim 10, wherein the determining the radio resources comprises at least one of reducing overlap or avoiding overlap between the first physical downlink control channel and the second physical downlink control channel (Sarkar, Fig. 8 and paragraphs 62-64, 75.).
For claim 17, Fong, Sarkar, Yoo and Seo further teach the method of claim 10, wherein a first base station comprises the first transmission point, and wherein a second base station comprises the second transmission point (Fong, Fig. 5 items 202, 204 and paragraphs 22-24.).
For claim 18, Fong, Sarkar, Yoo and Seo further teach the method of claim 10, wherein the computing device comprises the first transmission point and the second transmission point (Fong, Fig. 5 item 208 and paragraphs 22-24.).
For claim 19, Fong teaches one or more non-transitory, computer-readable media (Fong, Fig. 8 item 804) storing instructions that, when executed, cause:
receiving, by a computing device, information indicating configuration for a first physical downlink control channel of a first transmission point (Fong, Fig. 5 and paragraphs 22-24.);
configuring a second transmission channel on a cooperating node, where control on the first channel allocates resources on the second channel, and the first and second channels use different transmission resources (Fong, Fig. 5 and paragraphs 22-24.); and
causing transmission, via the second physical downlink control channel and using the determined radio resources, of control information (Fong, Fig. 5 and paragraphs 22-24.).
Sarkar further teaches receiving information indicating beamforming configuration for a first physical downlink control channel of a first transmission point (Sarkar, Figs. 4-5 and paragraph 31 teach the Node B may send control information with beamforming in the same or similar manner as traffic data. The precoding matrix W may be selected to provide good performance for traffic data. The same precoding matrix W may be used for beamforming of control information. Beamforming may improve coverage for control information and/or provide other advantages.).
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 method taught in Fong to have receiving information indicating beamforming configuration for a first physical downlink control channel of a first transmission point taught in Sarkar in order to achieve good performance [Sarkar: background].
Yoo further teaches a base station selects PDSCH and guard resource blocks based on the resource usage of a neighboring cell so as to reduce overlap and inter-cell interference (Yoo, Fig. 7A and paragraph 75.).
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 method taught in Fong and Sarkar with a base station selects PDSCH and guard resource blocks based on the resource usage of a neighboring cell so as to reduce overlap and inter-cell interference taught in Yoo to have determining, based on the beamforming configuration for the first physical downlink control channel of the first transmission point, radio resources for a second physical downlink control channel of a second transmission point, to manage overlap with the first physical downlink control channel in order to manage overlap between their control channels according to Yoo’s inter-cell resource-selection principles [Yoo: summary].
For claim 20, Fong, Sarkar, Yoo and Seo further teach the one or more non-transitory, computer-readable media of claim 19, wherein the first physical downlink control channel is transmitted via a first downlink carrier associated with the first transmission point, and wherein the second physical downlink control channel is transmitted via a second downlink carrier associated with the second transmission point (Fong, Fig. 5 and paragraphs 22-24.).
For claim 21, Fong, Sarkar, Yoo and Seo further teach the one or more non-transitory, computer-readable media of claim 19, wherein the first physical downlink control channel occurs in fewer than all time intervals of a frame (Yoo, Fig. 7A and paragraph 75. 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 method taught in Fong and Sarkar with a base station selects PDSCH and guard resource blocks based on the resource usage of a neighboring cell so as to reduce overlap and inter-cell interference taught in Yoo to have wherein the first physical downlink control channel occurs in fewer than all time intervals of a frame in order to manage overlap between their control channels according to Yoo’s inter-cell resource-selection principles [Yoo: summary].).
For claim 23, Fong, Sarkar, Yoo and Seo further teach the one or more non-transitory, computer-readable media of claim 19, wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the determining the radio resources by at least one of reducing overlap or avoiding overlap between the first physical downlink control channel and the second physical downlink control channel (Sarkar, Fig. 8 and paragraphs 62-64, 75.).
For claim 25, Fong, Sarkar, Yoo and Seo further teach the one or more non-transitory, computer-readable media of claim 19, wherein a first base station comprises the first transmission point, and wherein a second base station comprises the second transmission point (Fong, Fig. 5 items 202, 204 and paragraphs 22-24.).
For claim 26, Fong, Sarkar, Yoo and Seo further teach the one or more non-transitory, computer-readable media of claim 19, wherein the computing device comprises the first transmission point and the second transmission point (Fong, Fig. 5 item 208 and paragraphs 22-24.).
For claim 27, Fong, Sarkar, Yoo and Seo further teach the method of claim 10, further comprising: causing transmission, via the second physical downlink control channel, of scheduling information for transmission of transport blocks via a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) (Seo, Fig. 4 and paragraph 55).
9. Claims 5, 14 and 22 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Mo-Han Fong et al. (US 2011/0034175 A1), hereinafter Fong, in view of Sandip Sarkar et al. (US 2009/0046582 A1), hereinafter Sarkar, and Taesang Yoo et al. (US 2011/0235601 A1), hereinafter Yoo, Hanbyul Seo et al. (US 2013/0295949 A1), hereinafter Seo and Wanshi Chen et al. (US 2013/0114529 A1 based on provisional application No. 61/556,144 filed on Nov. 4, 2011), hereinafter Chen.
For claim 5, Fong, Sarkar, Yoo and Seo teach all the limitations of parent claim 1. Fong, Sarkar, Yoo and Seo do not explicitly teach the second physical downlink control channel is an enhanced physical downlink control channel (ePDCCH).
However, Chen explicitly teaches the second physical downlink control channel is an enhanced physical downlink control channel (ePDCCH) (Chen, Figs. 7-8 and paragraphs 91-93.).
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 method taught in Fong, Sarkar, Yoo and Seo with the second physical downlink control channel is an enhanced physical downlink control channel (ePDCCH) taught in Chen. Because all Fong, Sarkar, Yoo, Seo and Chen teach PDCCH, Chen explicitly teach ePDCCH for secondary cell.
For claim 14, Fong, Sarkar, Yoo and Seo teach all the limitations of parent claim 10. Fong, Sarkar, Yoo and Seo do not explicitly teach the second physical downlink control channel is an enhanced physical downlink control channel (ePDCCH).
However, Chen explicitly teaches the second physical downlink control channel is an enhanced physical downlink control channel (ePDCCH) (Chen, Figs. 7-8 and paragraphs 91-93.).
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 method taught in Fong, Sarkar, Yoo and Seo with the second physical downlink control channel is an enhanced physical downlink control channel (ePDCCH) taught in Chen. Because all Fong, Sarkar, Yoo, Seo and Chen teach PDCCH, Chen explicitly teach ePDCCH for secondary cell.
For claim 22, Fong, Sarkar, Yoo and Seo teach all the limitations of parent claim 19. Fong, Sarkar, Yoo and Seo do not explicitly teach the second physical downlink control channel is an enhanced physical downlink control channel (ePDCCH).
However, Chen explicitly teaches the second physical downlink control channel is an enhanced physical downlink control channel (ePDCCH) (Chen, Figs. 7-8 and paragraphs 91-93.).
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 method taught in Fong, Sarkar, Yoo and Seo with the second physical downlink control channel is an enhanced physical downlink control channel (ePDCCH) taught in Chen. Because all Fong, Sarkar, Yoo, Seo and Chen teach PDCCH, Chen explicitly teach ePDCCH for secondary cell.
10. Claims 7, 16 and 24 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Mo-Han Fong et al. (US 2011/0034175 A1), hereinafter Fong, in view of Sandip Sarkar et al. (US 2009/0046582 A1), hereinafter Sarkar, and Taesang Yoo et al. (US 2011/0235601 A1), hereinafter Yoo, Hanbyul Seo et al. (US 2013/0295949 A1), hereinafter Seo and Yufei Wu Blankenship et al. (US 2013/0039291 A1 based on provisional application No. 61/523,118 filed on Aug. 12, 2011), hereinafter Blankenship.
For claim 7, Fong, Sarkar, Yoo and Seo teach all the limitations of parent claim 1. Fong, Sarkar, Yoo and Seo do not explicitly teach to determine the radio resources further based on a bitmap indicating radio resources for the first physical downlink control channel.
However, Blankenship explicitly teaches to determine the radio resources further based on a bitmap indicating radio resources for the first physical downlink control channel (Blankenship, paragraphs 94, 97.).
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 method taught in Fong, Sarkar, Yoo and Seo with to determine the radio resources further based on a bitmap indicating radio resources for the first physical downlink control channel taught in Blankenship. Because all Fong, Sarkar, Yoo, Seo and Chen teach PDCCH, Blankenship explicitly teach to determine the radio resources further based on a bitmap indicating radio resources for the first physical downlink control channel.
For claim 16, Fong, Sarkar, Yoo and Seo teach all the limitations of parent claim 10. Fong, Sarkar, Yoo and Seo do not explicitly teach to determine the radio resources further based on a bitmap indicating radio resources for the first physical downlink control channel.
However, Blankenship explicitly teaches to determine the radio resources further based on a bitmap indicating radio resources for the first physical downlink control channel (Blankenship, paragraphs 94, 97.).
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 method taught in Fong, Sarkar, Yoo and Seo with to determine the radio resources further based on a bitmap indicating radio resources for the first physical downlink control channel taught in Blankenship. Because all Fong, Sarkar, Yoo, Seo and Chen teach PDCCH, Blankenship explicitly teach to determine the radio resources further based on a bitmap indicating radio resources for the first physical downlink control channel.
For claim 24, Fong, Sarkar, Yoo and Seo teach all the limitations of parent claim 19. Fong, Sarkar, Yoo and Seo do not explicitly teach to determine the radio resources further based on a bitmap indicating radio resources for the first physical downlink control channel.
However, Blankenship explicitly teaches to determine the radio resources further based on a bitmap indicating radio resources for the first physical downlink control channel (Blankenship, paragraphs 94, 97.).
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 method taught in Fong, Sarkar, Yoo and Seo with to determine the radio resources further based on a bitmap indicating radio resources for the first physical downlink control channel taught in Blankenship. Because all Fong, Sarkar, Yoo, Seo and Chen teach PDCCH, Blankenship explicitly teach to determine the radio resources further based on a bitmap indicating radio resources for the first physical downlink control channel.
Response to Arguments
11. Applicant's arguments filed 07/20/2026 have been fully considered but they are moot because of the new ground of rejection.
Conclusion
12. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to WILL W LIN whose telephone number is (571)272-8749. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:00-5:00.
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/WILL W LIN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2412
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