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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of Group I: Claim 1-14 and 19-27, in the reply filed on 04/09/2026 is acknowledged.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1, 9-13, 19, and 25-27 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Cirik et al. (US 2025/0365736 A1, hereinafter “Cirik”).
Regarding claim 1:
Cirik discloses a method for wireless communications at a user equipment (UE) (e.g., Fig. 1, 110),
comprising:
receiving, from a base station (e.g., Fig. 1, 120), a first downlink control information message of a two-stage set of downlink control information (e.g., [0358], DCI-1); receiving, from the base station, a second downlink control information message of the two-stage set of downlink control information (e.g., [0358], DCI-2), wherein the first downlink control information message and the second downlink control information message comprise scheduling information for a downlink data message on a physical downlink channel (e.g., [0358], PDSCH); selecting between the first downlink control information message and the second downlink control information message as a timing reference point (e.g., [0359]-[0361], a selected DCI, may be the latest DCI); and receiving, from the base station, the downlink data on the physical downlink channel based at least in part on a timing offset between the selected timing reference point and the scheduled downlink data (e.g., [0358], [0362], the time offset between a reception of the DCI message and the scheduled PDSCH).
Regarding claim 9:
Cirik further discloses wherein the communicating comprises: receiving the downlink data message on the physical downlink channel based at least in part on the timing offset from the selected timing reference point satisfying a threshold offset value (e.g., [0203], [0346], [0363], threshold).
Regarding claim 10:
Cirik further discloses wherein the selecting comprises: selecting the first downlink control information message as the timing reference point, wherein the timing offset comprises a time period between a last transmission time interval boundary of the first downlink control information message and a first transmission time interval boundary of the downlink data message (e.g., [0359], [0361], the selected DCI may be the latest/most recent DCI, and/or a DCI comprising information of a beam for receiving data).
Regarding claim 11:
Cirik further discloses wherein receiving the first downlink control information message comprises: receiving, in the first downlink control information message, an indication of a starting point and a length of the downlink data message (e.g., [0098], resource blocks and slots, and a starting symbol), wherein selecting the first downlink control information message as the timing reference point is based at least in part on receiving the indication of the starting point and the length in the first downlink control information message (e.g., [0358], the time offset is between a DCI that schedules a PDSCH and the PDSCH).
Regarding claim 12:
Cirik further discloses selecting the second downlink control information message as the timing reference point, wherein the timing offset comprises a time period between a last transmission time interval boundary of the second downlink control information message and a first transmission time interval boundary of the downlink data message (e.g., [0359], [0361], the selected DCI may be the latest/most recent DCI, and/or a DCI comprising information of a beam for receiving data).
Regarding claim 13:
Cirik further discloses receiving, in the second downlink control information message, an indication of a starting point and a length of the downlink data message (e.g., [0098], resource blocks and slots, and a starting symbol), wherein selecting the second downlink control information message as the timing reference point is based at least in part on receiving the indication of the starting point and the length in the second downlink control information message. (e.g., [0358], the time offset is between a DCI that schedules a PDSCH and the PDSCH).
Regarding claim 19:
Cirik discloses an apparatus for wireless communications at a user equipment (UE) (e.g., Fig. 3, 110), comprising: a processor (Fig. 3, 314); memory (Fig. 3, 315) coupled with the processor; instructions (Fig. 3, 316) stored in the memory and executable by the processor to cause the apparatus to; receive, from a base station, a first downlink control information message of a two-stage set of downlink control information; receive, from the base station, a second downlink control information message of the two-stage set of downlink control information, wherein the first downlink control information message and the second downlink control information message comprise scheduling information for a downlink transmission on a physical downlink channel; select between the first downlink control information message and the second downlink control information message as a timing reference point; and receive, from the base station, the downlink transmission on the physical downlink channel based at least in part on a timing offset between the selected timing reference point and the scheduled downlink transmission. (See similar claim limitations discussed in rejection of claim 1.)
Regarding claims 25-27:
See rejection of similar limitations with respect to claims 9, 11, and 13.
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.
Claims 2-8 and 20-24 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cirik in view of Bhamri et al. (US 2023/0396307 A1, “Bhamri”).
Regarding claim 2:
Cirik further discloses a time duration during which a quasi-co-location relationship is valid (e.g., [0203], [0346], [0363], threshold (e.g. timeDurationForQCL, Threshold-Sched-Offset), Fig. 18A-18C, 1810), the quasi-co-location relationship indicating that one or more antenna ports of the UE used to receive one or more reference signals are quasi co-located with one or more antenna ports of the UE used to receive the downlink data (e.g., [0203], [0332], [0338], DM-RS ports of the PDSCH quasi co-located with RS(s) in the TCI state); comparing the timing offset from the selected timing reference with a time duration; and selecting a receive beam on which to receive the downlink data message on the physical downlink channel based at least in part on the comparing (e.g., [0203], [0295], [0296], [0346], [0356], [0362]-[0364]).
Cirik is silent with regard to receiving, from the base station, an indication of the time duration during which a quasi-co-location relationship is valid.
Bhamri teaches receiving, from a base station, an indication of a time duration during which a quasi-co-location relationship is valid (e.g., Abstract, Fig. 9, 900, duration of validity).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the system of Cirik in view of Bhamri to include the feature receiving, from the base station, an indication of the time duration during which a quasi-co-location relationship is valid, in order to optimize the latency and overhead for beam management.
Regarding claim 3:
Cirik further discloses receiving, from the base station in the first downlink control information message or the second downlink control information message, a beam configuration indication comprising an indication of the receive beam (e.g., [0359], [0361], the second TCI state set); and
determining, based at least in part on the comparing, that the time duration is less than the timing offset, wherein selecting the receive beam indicated by the beam configuration indication is based at least in part on the determining, and wherein the receive beam is not associated with the quasi-co-location relationship (e.g., [0203], [0358], the time offset between the DCI and the scheduled PDSCH is greater than or equal to the threshold, receiving the scheduled PDSCH based on the TCI state/TCI state set indicated in the DCI).
Regarding claim 4:
Cirik further discloses determining, based at least in part on the comparing, that the time duration is greater than the timing offset, wherein the receive beam comprises a default receive beam associated with the one or more reference signals according to the quasi-co-location relationship (e.g., [0332], [0338], [0346], [0363], the time offset is less than the threshold, receiving scheduled PDSCH based on default RS quasi-co-located with the PDSCH).
Regarding claim 5:
Cirik further discloses selecting the first downlink control information message as the timing reference point, wherein the timing offset comprises a time period between a last transmission time interval boundary of the first downlink control information message and a first transmission time interval boundary of the downlink data message (e.g., [0359], [0361], the selected DCI may be the latest/most recent DCI).
Regarding claim 6:
Cirik further discloses wherein receiving the first downlink control information message comprises: receiving a beam configuration indication in the first downlink control information message, wherein selecting the first downlink control information message as the timing reference point is based at least in part on receiving the beam configuration indication in the first downlink control information message (e.g., [0359], [0361], the selected DCI comprising information of a beam for receiving data).
Regarding claim 7:
Cirik further discloses selecting the second downlink control information message as the timing reference point, and wherein the timing offset comprises a time period between a last transmission time interval boundary of the first downlink control information message and a first transmission time interval boundary of the downlink data message (e.g., [0359], [0361], the selected DCI may be the latest/most recent DCI, and/or a DCI comprising information of a beam for receiving data).
Regarding claim 8:
Cirik further discloses wherein receiving the second downlink control information message comprises: receiving a beam configuration indication in the second downlink control information message, wherein selecting the second downlink control information message as the timing reference point is based at least in part on receiving the beam configuration indication in the first downlink control information message (e.g., [0359], [0361], the selected DCI comprising information of a beam for receiving data).
Regarding claims 20-24:
See rejection for similar limitations with respect to claims 2-4, 6, and 8.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 14 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Alvin ZHU whose telephone number is (571)270-1086. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 6am-9am and 2pm-7pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Gary Mui can be reached at 571-270-1420. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/BO HUI A ZHU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2465
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