DETAILED ACTION
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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 1-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over SABER et al PG PUB 2022/0116971 in view of Zhang et al PG PUB 2019/0273637 and JOHN WILSON et al PG PUB 2019/0229792.
Re Claims 1 and 7, SABER et al teaches in figure 2, a multi-DCI M-TRP transmission for receiving repetitions of DCI [0041] by a UE (includes NTCRM) wherein the DCI is to trigger aperiodic CSI-RS on a CSI-RS resource [0088]; the UE identifying that a scheduling offset between the DCI and the CSI-RS resource is less than a threshold [0090] and if the UE is configured with Default Beam, the UE applies the QCL assumption of the lowest-ID activated TCI state (a default beam) [0095].
SABER et al fails to explicitly teach “a CSI-RS resource associated with a SRS resource set”.
However, ZHANG et al teaches the UE can jointly trigger CSI-RS and SRS [0024] wherein the aperiodic CSI-RS resource is associated with a SRS resource set [0044]. By combining the teachings, the repetition DCI in SABER et al can be modified to jointly trigger CSI-RS and SRS and conform with the 5G system [0018]. One skilled in the art would have been motivated to “CSI-RS resource associated with a SRS resource set” to support joint triggering of CSI-RS and SRS as available in the 5G system.
SABER et al in view of ZHANG et al fails to explicitly “the default beam corresponds to a TCI state associated with the repetitions of the DCI.”. However, JOHN WILSON et al teaches a DCI, triggering a CSI-RS with an offset smaller than a threshold, indicates a default beam [0083 0097] associated with a TCI state.
By combining the teachings, when the scheduling offset is less than a threshold, the repetitions of the DCI in SABER can be modified to indicate the default beam corresponding the TCI state for the transmission of the CSI-RS. One skilled in the art would have been motivated to have indicated the default beam corresponding to the TCI state in the repetition of DCIs to ensure reliable reception of the CSI-RS via the default beam.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one skilled to have combined the teachings.
Re Claims 2, 3, 8, 9, JOHN WILSON et al teaches lowest CORESET ID among the different CORESETs corresponding to the default beam [0083 0097]
Re Claims 4, 5, 10, 11, FANG et al teaches the SRS resource set is non-codebook [0106].
Re Claims 6, 12, SABER et al teaches the threshold is based on a capability of the UE [0083].
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 13-16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by ZHANG et al PG PUB 2019/0273637.
Re Claim 13, ZHANG et al teaches a UE (a memory and processor) receiving and storing measurement configuration [0097] wherein configuration can indicate SRS resource set with usage of non-codebook and a periodic CSI-RS [0018]; further teaches a DCI format to jointly trigger the aperiodic CSI-RS and SRS based on the SRSRequestfield in the DCI [0025] wherein the aperiodic CSI-RS is associated with SRS resource set [0044]; figure 3 the UE decodes in slot n (a first slot K) the DCI to trigger the aperiodic CSI-RS based on the SRSRequestfield of the DCI (the SRS resource set) and based on the configured slot offset K (L…a predefined slot offset) [0032], the UE determines Slot n+K (K+L) for transmission of the CSI-RS wherein K is a slot offset of available slots subsequent to the Slot n (the first slot K).
Re Claims 14-16, ZHANG et al teaches the configured scheduling offset K corresponds to the available slot and the CSI-RS is transmitted in a downlink slot.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 17 is 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:
Re Claim 17, prior art fails to teach different predefined slot offsets for CSI-RSs associated with the respective SRS resource sets as claimed.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1-16 have been considered but are -moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
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.
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/ANDREW LEE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2475