DETAILED ACTION
This office action is responsive to communications filed on January 2, 2026. Claims 1, 2, 4-7, 9-12, 14-17, 19, and 20 have been amended. Claims 1-20 are pending in the application.
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 § 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 1-20 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.
As currently amended, claim 1 recites “transmitting or receiving a first signal based on … a first transmission configuration indicator (TCI); receiving a second DCI including an indication of a second TCI, … and transmitting or receiving a second signal based on the configuration information and the second TCI.”
However, the written description refers to a TCI in only three instances (See [0111]-[0113] of the written description as originally filed). Nowhere in this portion of the written description is the presence of two TCIs (i.e., a first TCI and a second TCI) disclosed. Furthermore, the written description does not disclose that a first signal is transmitted or received based on a first TCI and a second signal is transmitted or received based on a second TCI. Accordingly, claim 1 fails to comply with the written description requirement.
Claims 6, 11, and 16 are rejected based on the same reasoning. Additionally, since claims 2-5 depend from claim 1, claims 7-10 depend from claim 6, claims 12-15 depend from claim 11, and claims 17-20 depend from claim 16, these claims are also rejected based on the same reasoning.
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, 2, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 15, 16, 17, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kwon et al. (US 2019/0141691) in view of Moon et al. (US 2018/0131473) and Harada et al. (US 2020/0099437).
Regarding Claim 1, Kwon teaches a method, comprising:
receiving a first downlink control information (DCI) including configuration information of frequency-domain resources (“QCL relationships may refer to time, frequency, code, or spatial relationships between two or more reference signals” – See [0058]; “For sharing of QCL configuration of the PDSCH: When TCI states are used for sharing of QCL configuration, the UE receives an N-bit TCI field in DCI” – See [0078]-[0079]; The UE receives a first DCI indicating frequency configuration information);
transmitting or receiving a first signal based on the configuration information and a multi-antenna related parameter indicated by a first transmission configuration indicator (TCI) (“The one or more processors execute the instructions to receive a first frame on a first channel associated with a first beam identified during a beam failure recovery procedure, and determine that an assumed quasi-co-located relationship exists between the first channel and the first beam, and based thereon, decode the first frame in accordance with a first reference signal on the first channel and using a first spatial domain receive filter that was used to decode the first beam” – See [0022]; The UE receives a first frame (first signal) based on a configuration information/TCI state in the first DCI);
receiving a second DCI including an indication of a second TCI (“It is noted that the access node may further update a mapping between TCI states and the TCI field in the DCI” – See [0174]; “The access node updates the TCI table (block 636). The updated TCI table includes a second group of states where each of the states represents a RS that may be used for spatial QCL configuration, and one state from the second group of states corresponds to the first RS (the new beam), for example” – See [0176]; The UE receives a second DCI including an indication of a second/updated TCI);
transmitting or receiving a second signal based on the configuration information and the second TCI (“decode the second frame in accordance with the first reference signal on the first channel and the updated quasi-co-located relationship between the first channel and the second beam” – See [0023]; The UE receives/decodes a second frame (second signal) based on the second/updated TCI).
Kwon does not explicitly teach that the second DCI does not include resource allocation.
However, Moon teaches that the second DCI does not include resource allocation (“Table 1 shows information omittable from a UL grant of a Long Term Evolution (LTE) DCI format 0 to indicate the fast UL grant” – See [0174]; See also Table 1; The resource allocation is omitted from DCI).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Kwon such that the second DCI does not include resource allocation. Motivation for doing so would be to enable resource allocation information to be omitted from the DCI if there is no change in resource allocation (See Moon, Table 1).
Kwon does not explicitly teach receiving a Synchronization Signal (SS) block, a Channel Status Information Reference Signal (CSI-RS) or a Demodulation Reference Signal (DMRS) and performing a measurement on the Synchronization Signal block (SSB), CSI-RS or DMRS.
However, Harada teaches receiving a Synchronization Signal (SS) block, a Channel Status Information Reference Signal (CSI-RS) or a Demodulation Reference Signal (DMRS) and performing a measurement on the Synchronization Signal block (SSB), CSI-RS or DMRS (“In step S102, a user terminal (UE) performs beam measurement (for example, the CSI measurement of FIG. 1B and/or L1-RSRP measurement)” – See [0066]; “as for the signal for detecting beam failures (and/or candidate BPLs to switch to), for example, at least one of the mobility measurement signal, the CSI-RS, the time and/or frequency tracking reference signal, the SS block, the PDCCH DMRS and the PDSCH DMRS may be used” – See [0069]; The UE measures any of a CSI-RS, SSB, or DMRS to detect beam failure).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Kwon to include receiving a Synchronization Signal (SS) block, a Channel Status Information Reference Signal (CSI-RS) or a Demodulation Reference Signal (DMRS) and performing a measurement on the Synchronization Signal block (SSB), CSI-RS or DMRS. Motivation for doing so would be to enable the UE to detect the beam failure (See Harada, [0069]).
Regarding Claim 2, Kwon in view of Moon and Harada teaches the method of Claim 1. Kwon further teaches that the first DCI includes the configuration information of the frequency-domain resources of a semi-persistent transmission (“QCL relationships may refer to time, frequency, code, or spatial relationships between two or more reference signals” – See [0058]; “a TCI field is present in a DCI of a PDCCH that schedules a PDSCH. Potential scenarios include: [0109] An access node configures a first downlink RS (such as a synchronization signal block; a periodic, aperiodic, or semi-persistent CSI-RS; and so on) to be QCL'ed with a DMRS for PDSCH for a UE, and the first downlink RS is used as a current beam” – See [0108]; The DCI includes frequency configuration of a semi-persistent reference signal transmission).
Regarding Claim 5, Kwon in view of Moon and Harada teaches the method of Claim 1. Harada further teaches receiving the first signal and the second signal, and the multiantenna related parameter includes a vector generating a beamforming employed by a receiving beam for receiving the second signal (“beams (also referred to as “Rx beams,” “receiving beams,” and/or the like) for use for receiving these NR-PDCCH/PDSCH are managed” – See [0049]; “Furthermore, the beam recovery signal may indicate that a beam failure has been detected in a user terminal, and may also indicate the beam ID of one or more candidate beams to switch to (or the ID of a beam group comprised of one or more beams). This beam ID (or beam group ID) may be any information as long as it represents a beam” – See [0172]; First and second signals (e.g., PDSCH, PDCCH, etc.) are received based on the beamforming vector that represents a receiving beam).
Claims 6, 11, and 16 are rejected based on reasoning similar to Claim 1.
Claims 7, 12, and 17 are rejected based on reasoning similar to Claim 2.
Claims 10, 15, and 20 are rejected based on reasoning similar to Claim 5.
Claims 3, 4, 8, 9, 13, 14, 18, and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kwon et al. (US 2019/0141691) in view of Moon et al. (US 2018/0131473) and Harada et al. (US 2020/0099437) and further in view of Seo et al. (US 2015/0029964).
Regarding Claim 3, Kwon in view of Moon and Harada teaches the method of Claim 1. Moon further teaches that the first configuration information indicates frequency-domain resources, and an MCS for the second signal (See Table 1; The DCI indicates the resource block/frequency domain resources and MCS for the second signal).
Kwon, Moon, and Harada do not explicitly teach that the first configuration information indicates a HARQ process number for the second signal.
However, Seo teaches that the first configuration information indicates a HARQ process number for the second signal (“CSI reporting periods for DL CCs which are targets of the multiple CSIs may be set to be equal. CSI reporting periods which are set to be equal may be selected from, for example, a period of a UL HARQ process, an integer multiple of the UL HARQ process period” – See [0213]; The configuration information indicates a HARQ process number for the CSI report/second signal).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Kwon such that the first configuration information indicates a HARQ process number for the second signal. Motivation for doing so would be to enable the second signal to be transmitted through the PUSCH without UL grant (See Seo, [0221]).
Regarding Claim 4, Kwon in view of Moon, Harada, and Seo teaches the method of Claim 3. Seo further teaches receiving RRC information indicating a time unit set including a plurality of time units; receiving the second signal in a first time unit of the time unit set, wherein adjacent time units of the time unit set have an interval that is indicated by the RRC information (“In a DL or UL SPS, a higher-layer signal such as radio resource control (RRC) can be used to report to a UE about specific subframes in which semi-persistent transmission/reception is performed” – See [0081]; The UE receives RRC information indicating a subframe period (time unit set including a plurality of time units), wherein adjacent subframes have a period/offset (interval) indicated in the information).
Claims 8, 13, and 18 are rejected based on reasoning similar to Claim 3.
Claims 9, 14, and 19 are rejected based on reasoning similar to Claim 4.
Response to Arguments
On page 13 of the remarks, Applicant argues “However, Tang does not disclose or suggest two DCIs that include a first DCI including configuration information of frequency-domain resources and a second DCI including an indication of a second TCI without resource allocation. Tang does not disclose that the frequency-domain resources of the first DCI are used for both a first signal and a second signal, but the TCIs used for the two signals are different, whereby the first signal is based on a first TCI and the second signal is based on a second TCI of the second DCI.” Applicant’s arguments have been considered but are moot based on the new grounds of rejection. In response to the amended limitations, the Examiner relies upon the newly-cited Kwon and Moon references.
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 Scott M Sciacca whose telephone number is (571)270-1919. The examiner can normally be reached Monday thru Friday, 7:30 A.M. - 5:00 P.M. EST.
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/SCOTT M SCIACCA/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2478
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