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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 4 June 2026 has been entered.
Response to Amendment
Applicant’s amendment, filed 4 June 2026, has been entered and carefully considered.
Claims 1-11, 14 and 20 are canceled.
Claims 12, 13, 15, 16, 18, 19, 21 and 22 are amended.
Claims 12, 13, 15-19 and 21-29 are currently pending.
The outstanding rejection of Claims 12, 13, 15-19 and 21-29 under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) is withdrawn in light of Applicant’s amendment to Claims 12, 13, 15, 18, 19 and 21.
The outstanding rejection of Claims 12, 13, 17-19, 23, 26 and 29 under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) and Claims 15, 16, 21, 22, 24, 25, 27 and 28 under 35 U.S.C. 103 are withdrawn in light of Applicant’s amendment to at least Claims 12 and 18.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim 12 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.
Specification
The lengthy specification has not been checked to the extent necessary to determine the presence of all possible minor errors. Applicant’s cooperation is requested in correcting any errors of which applicant may become aware in the specification.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claims 12, 13, 17-19, 23, 26 and 29 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Matsumura et al (United States Pre-Grant Publication 20240154667), hereinafter Matsumura.
Regarding Claim 12, Matsumura discloses a communication apparatus (Figure 26 and paragraph 0282 – user terminal (UE) 20), comprising:
a receiver (Figure 26 – transmitting/receiving section 220), which, in operation,
receives first information relating to beams of a first Transmitter/Receiver point (TRP), the first information including identification information associated with a first set of reference signals (Figure 1D and paragraph 0090 – a first TRP transmits first control signal (DCI) to the UE; paragraphs 0045 and 0048 – the DCI comprises parameters, related to CSI report configuration of reference signals (described in paragraphs 0039-0042); and
receives second information relating to beams of a second TRP, the second information including identification information associated with a second set of reference signals (Figure 1D and paragraph 0090 – a second TRP transmits second control signal (DCI) to the UE; paragraphs 0045 and 0048 – the DCI comprises parameters related to CSI report configuration of reference signals (described in paragraphs 0039-0042 describing the CSI-RS resource); and
circuitry (Figure 26 and paragraph 0297 – measurement section 223), which, in operation:
estimates, based on the first information, signal quality of beams of the first TRP (paragraphs 0039-0040 and 0297 - a UE measures a channel state by using a certain reference signal (or a resource for the reference signal), using a channel state information-reference signal (CSI-RS), a synchronization signal/broadcast channel (Synchronization Signal/Physical Broadcast Channel (SS/PBCH)) block, a synchronization signal (SS), a demodulation reference signal (DMRS), and the like); and
estimates, based on the second information, signal quality of beams of the second TRP (paragraphs 0039-0040 and 0297 - a UE measures a channel state by using a certain reference signal (or a resource for the reference signal), using a channel state information-reference signal (CSI-RS), a synchronization signal/broadcast channel (Synchronization Signal/Physical Broadcast Channel (SS/PBCH)) block, a synchronization signal (SS), a demodulation reference signal (DMRS), and the like).
Claim 18 is a method claim comprising the same steps performed by the communication apparatus of Claim 12. Therefore, Claim 18 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) for the same reasons as presented above for Claim 12.
Regarding Claims 13 and 19, Matsumura discloses transmitting, to the first TRP, information relating to the estimated signal quality of beams of the first TRP; and information related to the estimated signal quality of beams of the second TRP (paragraph 0168 – group-based beam reporting (CSI report) is applied and RSs of the serving cell and the non-serving cell are included in the same CSI report configuration (e.g., refer to Figures 15-16 and paragraphs 0179-0180, showing a report comprising measurements for both serving cell and non-serving cell beams). Further regarding Claim 13, Matsumura further discloses the radio communication apparatus comprising a transmitter (Figure 26 and paragraph 0286 – transmitting/receiving section 220).
Regarding Claims 17 and 23, Matsumura discloses transmitting control information relating to a capability of communication with the first TRP and the second TRP (paragraphs 0186-0195 – the UE transmits UE capabilities related to communication with the cells). Further regarding Claim 17, Matsumura further discloses the radio communication apparatus comprising a transmitter (Figure 26 and paragraph 0286 – transmitting/receiving section 220).
Regarding Claims 26 and 29, Matsumura discloses a downlink transmission is received from only one of the first TRP or the second TRP (Figure 1D – the UE receives respective downlink data transmissions for the respective TRPs).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claims 15, 16, 21 and 22 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Matsumura in view of Landis et al (United States Pre-Grant Publication 2022/0201695), hereinafter Landis.
Regarding Claims 15 and 21, Matsumura discloses the limitations of Claims 12 and 18, as described above. However, while Matsumura discloses at least one of the estimated signal quality of beams of the first TRP and the estimated signal quality of beams of the second TRP is determined based on a reception power of a reception beam (paragraph 0042), Matsumura does not disclose performing this determination based on a threshold. In an analogous art, Landis discloses this. Specifically, Landis discloses obtaining a beam quality metric from each received beam from a multi-TRP RAN entity such as a measurement of RSRP and selecting a beam that has a highest RSRP (paragraphs 0136-0137). Thus, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Matsumura and Landis. One would have been motivated to do so in order to improve network coverage and signal reliability.
Regarding Claims 16 and 22, Matsumura discloses the received beam is one of a plurality of received beams (paragraph 0169- – the number of beams to be reported can be configured in the CSI report configuration (e.g., one beam from each respective TRP as described in paragraph 0173)).
Claims 24, 25, 27 and 28 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Matsumura in view of Raghavan et al (United States Pre-Grant Publication 20220166472), hereinafter Raghavan, and Iyer et al (United States Pre-Grant Publication 20220369225), hereinafter Iyer.
Regarding Claims 24 and 27, Matsumura discloses a transmitter (Figure 26 and paragraph 0286 – transmitting/receiving section 220). However, Matsumura does not disclose using one method selected from a plurality of multiplexing methods, wherein the plurality of multiplexing methods include a first multiplexing with a partial overlapping in a time domain or in a frequency domain. In an analogous art, Raghavan discloses this. Specifically, at Figure 4 at step 455-a/455-b and paragraph 0133, Raghavan discloses the UE and the TRPs perform joint/multi-TRP transmission which may refer to simultaneous transmission (i.e., overlapping in a time domain) of a same signal or message over the beams selected in earlier steps). Thus, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Matsumura and Raghavan. One would have been motivated to do so in order to establish more diversity and reliable communication links between the UE and the multiple TRPs (refer to paragraph 0046 of Raghavan). However, the aforementioned references do not disclose separately transmitting a first signal from a first panel antenna and transmits a second signal from a second panel antenna toward the first TRP and the second TRP. In an analogous art, Iyer discloses a UE performing multi-panel transmissions, where each panel has a different orientation, and selecting a best beam for each UE panel (paragraph 0011 and Figure 3). Thus, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Matsumura / Raghavan and Iyer. One would have been motivated to do so in order to increase spectral efficiency (paragraph 0011 of Iyer).
Regarding Claims 25 and 28, the combination of Matsumura, Raghavan and Iyer further discloses the plurality of multiplexing methods include a second multiplexing with a partial overlapping in the time domain and in the frequency domain (paragraph 0125 of Raghavan – the TRPs may operate over a same radio frequency spectrum band; Figure 4 at step 455-a/455-b and paragraph 0133 – the UE and the TRPs perform joint/multi-TRP transmission which may refer to simultaneous transmission (i.e., overlapping in a time domain) of a same signal or message over the beams selected in earlier steps). Thus, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to further combine Matsumura and Raghavan. One would have been motivated to do so in order to establish more diversity and reliable communication links between the UE and the multiple TRPs (refer to paragraph 0046 of Raghavan).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Zhou et al (United States Pre-Grant Publication 20240073727) discloses group-based beam reporting for serving and non-serving cells (Figure 4).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ANDREW W. CHRISS whose telephone number is (571)272-1774. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday, 8am-4pm ET.
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/ANDREW W CHRISS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2472
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