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 .
This office action is in response to the amendment filed on 12/23/2025. Claims 21, 23-28, 30-35, 37-40 are pending in this application and have been considered below.
Response to Amendment
Applicant's arguments with respect to claims have been considered but are moot in view of the new ground(s) of rejection because of the amendment changes the scope of the invention.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112(a):
(a) IN GENERAL.—The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor or joint inventor of carrying out the invention.
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112:
The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor of carrying out his invention.
Claims 21, 23-28, 30-35, 37-40 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the written description requirement. The claim(s) contains subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to reasonably convey to one skilled in the relevant art that the inventor or a joint inventor, or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the inventor(s), at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention.
Re Claim 21, Claim recites “wherein the SCell is configured with two beam failure detection (BFD)-reference signal (RS) sets” and “wherein a single field of the MAC CE is configured to indicate whether beam failure has been detected for both of the two BFD-RS sets”. Specifically, Paragraph [0051] and [0054] of the specification disclose “For multi-TRP operations, beam failure may be triggered for each TRP. Thus, each set of beams may include reference signals (e.g., Radio Link Monitoring RS) configured to beam failure detection. The UE 110 may collect measurement data corresponding to these reference signals and declare beam failure when a predetermined condition is met (e.g., one or more measurement values fall below a predetermined threshold, etc.).” and “If the beam failure event at a TRP that is operating as a primary cell (PCell), different physical random access channel (PRACH) sequences/configuration may be used to indicate which TRP has beam failure. To provide an example, for a contention free RACH (CFRA) based beam failure request, a radio resource control (RRC) or medium access channel control element (MAC-CE) may be used to indicate which TRP has beam failure. If the beam failure event at a TRP that is operating as a secondary cell (SCell), a MAC-CE may be used to indicate which TRP has beam failure.” The whole specifications also fail to discloses “the SCell is configured with two beam failure detection (BFD)-reference signal (RS) sets” and “a single field of the MAC CE is configured to indicate whether beam failure has been detected for both of the two BFD-RS sets”. Therefore, the claim(s) contains subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to reasonably convey to one skilled in the relevant art that the inventor or a joint inventor, or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the inventor(s), at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention.
Re Claim 28 and Claim 35, the same reason for rejection in claim 21 is applied for claim 28 and claim 35.
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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KENNETH T LAM whose telephone number is (571)270-1862. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:30-5:00 PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Hannah S. Wang can be reached at (571) 272-9018. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/KENNETH T LAM/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2631