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
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.
Claim(s) 1 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Patent Publication No. 2024/0171997 A1 to Du et al., in view of U.S. Patent Publication No. 2025/0358863 A1 to Cao et al.
As to claim 1, Du discloses A method of a user equipment (UE), comprising: receiving a first synchronization signal block (SSB) search request message including SSB search options through a base station (BS) (paragraph 67: configuration information which may indicate a measurement configuration);
searching for a plurality of SSBs based on the SSB search options (paragraph 75-77);
in response to a condition as a result of the searching, transmitting a first SSB search result report message to the BS, the first SSB search result report message including information on the at least one SSB (paragraphs 69-77: “first device 110-1 can transmit 2030 the beam information of the second cell 140 to the device 120-1 on the first cell 130 on the resource”, where “the beam information can comprise at least an index of SSB of the beam which has the best quality”);
receiving a first physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) order including an SSB index (paragraph 78).
Du does not appear to explicitly disclose “through a first transmission and reception point (TRP) connected to a base station (BS)”; in response to presence of a beam transmitting at least one SSB having a received signal strength equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold as a result of the searching; receiving a first physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) order including a preamble index from the first TRP; performing a random access procedure with a second TRP transmitting a beam corresponding to the SSB index included in the first PDCCH order.
Cao discloses “through a first transmission and reception point (TRP) connected to a base station (BS)” (Fig. 4, 7A and 7B);
in response to presence of a beam (see, e.g., paragraph 72, disclosing beam used for transmission; Figs. 7A/B and 10) transmitting at least one SSB having a received signal strength equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold as a result of the searching (paragraph 84);
receiving a first physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) order including a preamble index from the first TRP (paragraph 72; Figs. 7A/B, 10: communication through first TRP; paragraph 130); performing a random access procedure with a second TRP transmitting a beam corresponding to the SSB index included in the first PDCCH order. (paragraphs 72, 120, 124,125,130-133,135,139-144: random access procedure to the target TRP)
Before the effective filing date, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to combine Du’s teachings discussed above with Cao’s teachings discussed above, to reject this claim. IN particular, Du’s teaching of “receiving a first synchronization signal block (SSB) search request message including SSB search options through a base station (BS)” may be modified/combined with Cao’s teaching of “through a first transmission and reception point (TRP) connected to a base station (BS)” to reject “receiving a first synchronization signal block (SSB) search request message including SSB search options through a first transmission and reception point (TRP) connected to a base station (BS)” since it would have been obvious to a phosita to perform Du’s step of receiving through Cao’s trp. Du’s teaching of “in response to a condition as a result of the searching, transmitting a first SSB search result report message to the BS, the first SSB search result report message including information on the at least one SSB” and Cao’s teachings of “in response to presence of a beam transmitting at least one SSB having a received signal strength equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold as a result of the searching” and “through a first trp connected to the base station”, to reject “in response to presence of a beam transmitting at least one SSB having a received signal strength equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold as a result of the searching, transmitting a first SSB search result report message to the BS through the first TRP, the first SSB search result report message including information on the at least one SSB having the received signal strength equal to or greater than the predetermined threshold”, since it would have been obvious that the condition in Du’s teaching may be embodied by the Cao’s disclosed condition of the presence of a beam transmitting at least one SSB having a received signal strength equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold as a result of the searching, and SSB reported on in Du is the SSB in Cao having a large enough signal strength, and that the transmitting in Du may be performed through the first trp disclosed in Cao. To a phosita, Du’s teaching of “receiving a first physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) order including an SSB index” and Cao’s teaching of “receiving a first physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) order including a preamble index from the first TRP” are clearly combinable to reject “receiving a first physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) order including an SSB index and a preamble index from the first TRP” because both teachings pertain to PDCCH orders. The cited references are directed to control signaling in wireless communication infrastructures. The suggestion/motivation would have been to improve resource allocation and signaling for wireless communications (Cao, paragraphs 1-9; Du, paragraphs 1-16). Furthermore, note that with regard to the claimed invention, especially the limitation above, all of the claimed elements have been shown to be known in the cited art, and one skilled in the art could have combined the elements as claimed by known methods with no change in their respective functions and the combination would have yielded predictable results to one of ordinary skill in the art as of and before the effective filing date.
Claim(s) 16,20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Patent Publication No. 2022/0330192 A1 to Zhang et al., in view of U.S. patent publication No. 2025/0358863 A1 to Cao et al.
As to claim 16, Zhang discloses
A method of a user equipment (UE), comprising:receiving a message including information on timing advance group(s) (TAG(s)) through a first transmission and reception point (TRP) connected to a base station (BS). (paragraphs 68-70,85: UE receiving TA information that includes TA indication that includes info on TAG; Fig. 1, paragraphs 3, 24-25, TRP connected to a BS).
Zhang does not appear to explicitly disclose receiving a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) order including a preamble index for accessing a second TRP from the first TRP; and performing a random access procedure with the second TRP based on the PDCCH order.
Cao discloses receiving a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) order including a preamble index for accessing a second TRP from the first TRP; and performing a random access procedure with the second TRP based on the PDCCH order. (paragraphs 72, 120, 124,125,130-133,135,139-144: random access procedure to the target TRP)
Before the effective filing date, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to combine Zhang’s teachings discussed above with Cao’s teachings discussed above, to reject this claim. The cited references are directed to control signaling in wireless communication infrastructures. The suggestion/motivation would have been to improve resource allocation and signaling for wireless communications (Cao, paragraphs 1-9; Zhang, paragraphs 1-10). Furthermore, note that with regard to the claimed invention, especially the limitation above, all of the claimed elements have been shown to be known in the cited art, and one skilled in the art could have combined the elements as claimed by known methods with no change in their respective functions and the combination would have yielded predictable results to one of ordinary skill in the art as of and before the effective filing date.
As to claim 20, Zhang and Cao teach the method as in the parent claim 16.
Zhang discloses include a TAG identifier based on the information on the TAG(s). (paragraphs 68-70,85: UE receiving TA information that includes TA indication that includes info on TAG)
Zhang does not explicitly disclose wherein the PDCCH order further include certain data.
Cao discloses wherein the PDCCH order further include certain data (paragraph 130)
Before the effective filing date, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to combine Zhang’s teachings discussed above with Cao’s teachings discussed above, to reject this claim, by recognizing that the PDCCH order disclosed in Cao may include the TAG identifier disclosed in Zhang. The cited references are directed to control signaling in wireless communication infrastructures. The suggestion/motivation would have been to improve resource allocation and signaling for wireless communications (Cao, paragraphs 1-9; Zhang, paragraphs 1-10). Furthermore, note that with regard to the claimed invention, especially the limitation above, all of the claimed elements have been shown to be known in the cited art, and one skilled in the art could have combined the elements as claimed by known methods with no change in their respective functions and the combination would have yielded predictable results to one of ordinary skill in the art as of and before the effective filing date.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-7, 17-19 are 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CHI TANG P CHENG whose telephone number is (571)272-9021. The examiner can normally be reached M-F, 9:30AM - 6PM.
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/CHI TANG P CHENG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2463