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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 04/08/2026 has been entered.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) was submitted on 04/08/2026. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s Amendments and Arguments filed 04/08/2026 have been considered for examination.
With regard to the 112(b) rejections, Applicant’s arguments filed 04/08/2026 in view of the amendments have been fully considered and are persuasive. Thus, the 112(b) rejections have been withdrawn.
With regard to the 103 rejections, Applicant’s arguments filed 04/08/2026 in view of the amendments have been fully considered but are moot because the arguments are applied to any of the references being used in the current rejection.
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.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 1, 3-9, 17, 21 and 38 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over “Efficient Bit Map Signaling for MU-MIMO CSI enhancement”, 3GPP Draft; R1-1905828 (hereafter, “3GPP1”)1 in view of Yuan et al (US Publication No. 2022/0239362).
Regarding claim 1, 3GPP1 discloses, a method for transmitting channel state information [sections 1 and 2, a method for signaling for MU-MIMO CSI enhancement], comprising: transmitting, by a terminal, following pieces of information:
first indication information and third indication information, wherein the first indication information is configured to indicate a first object in a combination coefficient matrix of a transport layer [see, section 2; FIGS. 1-2 and their related descriptions, one solution would involve reporting the indices (e.g., see, “x” of FIGS. 2-3) of the utilized beams, leading to further overhead reduction. For example, one can introduce an additional bitmap (beam bitmap) of size 2L to indicate the utilized beams as follows; note that each of the indices of FIGS. 2-3 in a combination coefficient matrix of each transport layer represents a column or a row with non-zero coefficients];
wherein the first object is a column or row with non-zero coefficients. [see, section 2; FIGS. 1-2 and their related descriptions, note that each of the additional bitmap of size 2L represents a column or a row with non-zero coefficients].
Although 3GPP1 discloses, “first indication information . . ., wherein the first indication information is configured to indicate a first object in a combination coefficient matrix of a transport layer”, 3GPP1 does not explicitly disclose (see, italicized and bold limitations), transmitting, by a terminal, following pieces of information to a network side device . . . transmitting, by a terminal, . . . third indication information, and the third indication information is used to determine whether to ignore location indication of non-zero coefficients of the transport layer.
However, Yuan discloses, transmitting, by a terminal, following pieces of information to a network side device [¶0060, the CSI report is received by the network device], third indication information is used to determine whether to ignore location indication of non-zero coefficients of the transport layer [¶0060, the network device after receiving the CSI report . . . the terminal device 120 may discard the non-zero coefficients based on the position of the corresponding bits in the bitmap and the network device 110 may be aware of non-zero coefficients for which pair(s) of SD basis and FD basis have been discarded; note that the terminal device indicates the non-zero coefficients (based on the position of the bits) which it wants to discard and wants the network device to be aware of the non-zero coefficients being discarded, which is interpreted as the terminal devices indicates the network device to discard the non-zero coefficient of which positions are indicated to be discarded by the terminal device].
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide the above-mentioned feature(s) as taught by Liu in the system of 3GPP1 in order to cause the system to able to reduce signaling overhead in reporting CSI to a network [e.g., ¶0094 of Yuan].
Regarding claim 3, 3GPP1 in view of Yuan discloses, the method according to claim 1 as set forth above.
3GPP1 discloses, wherein when transmitting the first indication information and the third indication information to the network side device, the first indication information comprises N1 pieces of first information, N1 is an integer greater than or equal to 1 and less than or equal to L, and L is a quantity of transport layers [see, section 2; FIGS. 1-2 and their related descriptions, note that the first indication information with respect to the first object (column or row with non-zero coefficients) comprises the bitmap information of size 2L for a layer, where N1=1 and L1=1 in the claimed limitations are read on 3GPP1 as above; further note that even if multiple layers (L>1) are applied, N1 (pieces of the first information) increases as the number of layers increases].
Regarding claim 4, 3GPP1 in view of Yuan discloses, the method according to claim 3 as set forth above.
3GPP1 discloses, wherein in a case that a quantity of columns of the combination coefficient matrix is 2, a size of the first information is 1 bit [see, section 2; FIGS. 1-2 and their related descriptions, note that the number of bits required for the number of coefficients in column is given by log2(number of coefficients in column =2); for example, the number of bits is 1 when the number of coefficients in column =2].
Regarding claim 5, 3GPP1 in view of Yuan discloses, the method according to claim 3 as set forth above.
3GPP1 discloses, wherein a size of the first information is determined by a size in a first dimension of the combination coefficient matrix [see, section 2; FIGS. 1-2 and their related descriptions, note that the first indication information with respect to the first object (column or row with non-zero coefficients) comprises the bitmap information of size 2L which is determined by the size in the column/first dimension of the matrix]; wherein when the first object is the column with non-zero coefficients in the combination coefficient matrix, the first dimension is column [see, section 2; FIGS. 1-2 and their related descriptions, note that the additional bitmap information is the column with the non-zero coefficients in the matrix]; and wherein [see, section 2; FIGS. 1-2 and their related descriptions, note that the additional bitmap information is the row with the non-zero coefficients in the matrix; note that in FIG. 2, the bitmap can be in column or row].
Regarding claim 6, 3GPP1 in view of Yuan discloses, the method according to claim 5 as set forth above.
3GPP1 discloses, the size of the first information is equal to the size in the first dimension [see, section 2; FIGS. 1-2 and their related descriptions, note that the first indication information with respect to the first object (column or row with non-zero coefficients) comprises the bitmap information of size 2L which is equal to the size in the column/first dimension of the matrix].
Regarding claim 7, 3GPP1 in view of Yuan discloses, the method according to claim 1 as set forth above.
3GPP1 discloses, wherein when transmitting the second indication information and the third indication information to the network side, the second indication information comprises N2 pieces of second information, N2 is an integer greater than or equal to 1 and less than or equal to L, and L is a quantity of transport layers [see, section 2; FIGS. 1-2 and their related descriptions, note that the second indication information comprises the bitmap information of size L’M for a layer, where N1=1 and L1=1 in the claimed limitations are read on 3GPP1 as above; further note that even if multiple layers (L>1) are applied, N2 (pieces of the second information) increases as the number of layers increases].
Regarding claim 8, 3GPP1 in view of Yuan discloses, the method according to claim 7 as set forth above.
3GPP1 discloses, a size of the second information is determined by a size in a second dimension of the combination coefficient matrix, and a quantity of columns or rows of the first object [see, section 2; FIGS. 1-2 and their related descriptions, note that the size of the bitmap information of size L’M is determined by the size in a row (M)of the coefficient matrix and the size in a column (L’) of the coefficient matrix which corresponds to the number of column of the additional bitmap information of size 2L with non-zero coefficient], wherein the second dimension of the combination coefficient matrix and the first dimension of the combination coefficient matrix are different dimensions of the combination coefficient matrix [see, section 2; FIGS. 1-2 and their related descriptions, note that the row/second dimension and the column/first dimension are different dimensions of the coefficient matrix].
Regarding claim 9, 3GPP1 in view of Yuan discloses, the method according to claim 8 as set forth above.
3GPP1 discloses, wherein in a case that the size of the second information is determined by the size in the second dimension of the combination coefficient matrix, and the quantity of columns or rows of the first object [see supra rejections as set forth above in claim 8], the size of the second information is ZY; wherein Z is the size in the second dimension, Y is the quantity of columns or rows of the first object [see, section 2; FIGS. 1-2 and their related descriptions, note that the size of the bitmap information corresponds to L’M wherein M is the size of row and L’ is size of column which corresponds to the size of the additional bitmap information with non-zero coefficient]2.
Regarding claim 17, since claim 17 is merely different from claim 1 in that it recites claimed features from the perspective of a network device, but recites similar features to claim 1 without further additional features, claim 17 is rejected at least based on a similar rationale applied to claim 1.
Regarding claim 21, 3GPP1 discloses, a device for transmitting channel state information [see, section 2; FIGS. 1-2 and their related descriptions, efficient bit map Signaling for MU-MIMO CSI Enhancement; one solution would involve reporting the indices (e.g., see, “x” of FIGS. 2-3) of the utilized beams, leading to further overhead reduction. For example, one can introduce an additional bitmap (beam bitmap) of size 2L to indicate the utilized beams as follows; note that a device to report/transmit indices of the utilized beams is implicit], comprising: a memory [see, section 2; FIGS. 1-2 and their related descriptions, note that every wireless device has at least one memory], a transceiver [see, section 2; FIGS. 1-2 and their related descriptions, note that every wireless device has at least one transceiver], and a processor [see, section 2; FIGS. 1-2 and their related descriptions, note that every wireless device has at least one processor]. Thus, claim 21 is rejected at least based on a similar rationale applied to claim 1.
Regarding claim 38, 3GPP1 discloses, a device for receiving channel state information [see, section 2; FIGS. 1-2 and their related descriptions, efficient bit map Signaling for MU-MIMO CSI Enhancement; one solution would involve reporting the indices (e.g., see, “x” of FIGS. 2-3) of the utilized beams, leading to further overhead reduction. For example, one can introduce an additional bitmap (beam bitmap) of size 2L to indicate the utilized beams as follows; note that a device to receive the reported/transmitted indices of the utilized beams is implicit], comprising: a memory [see, section 2; FIGS. 1-2 and their related descriptions, note that every network device has at least one memory], a transceiver [see, section 2; FIGS. 1-2 and their related descriptions, note that every network device has at least one transceiver], and a processor [see, section 2; FIGS. 1-2 and their related descriptions, note that every network device has at least one processor]. Thus, claim 17 is rejected at least based on a similar rationale applied to claim 17.
Claims 11-16 and 19-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over “Efficient Bit Map Signaling for MU-MIMO CSI enhancement”, 3GPP Draft; R1-1905828 (hereafter, “3GPP1”) in view of Yuan et al (US Publication No. 2022/0239362) and further in view of Liu et al (WO 2020156136)3
Regarding claim 11, 3GPP1 in view of Yuan discloses, the method according to claim 1 as set forth above.
3GPP1 in view of Yuan does not explicitly disclose (see, italicized limitations), but Liu discloses, in a case that the terminal transmits the second indication information, the second indication information is carried in a second part of the channel state information [¶0050, if the non-zero coefficient indication information includes the position information of the non-zero coefficients of each layer in the combined coefficient matrix of each layer of the enhanced Type II codebook structure, the position information of the non-zero coefficients of each layer in the combined coefficient matrix of each layer in the enhanced Type II codebook structure being carried in a first part or a second part of the channel state information and sent to the network side device];
in a case that the terminal transmits the third indication information, the third indication information is carried in the first part of the channel state information [¶0051, if the non-zero coefficient indication information includes the quantity of non-zero coefficients of each layer, the quantity of non-zero coefficients of each layer being carried in the first part of the channel state information and sent to the network side device].
It is noted that the above-mentioned feature is a known technique in the field Applicant's endeavor, e.g., telecommunication art.
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to combine the system of 3GPP1 in view of Yuan with "the above-mentioned known feature(s)" taught by Liu to reach the claimed invention as set forth above. Since one having ordinary skill in the art could have recognized that applying the known technique taught by Liu into the system of 3GPP1 in view of Yuan would have yield predictable results and/or resulted in the improved system, such as e.g., ensure to balance accuracy and efficiency by dividing information types into two parts, such a modification (or application) would have involved the mere application of a known technique to a piece of prior art ready for improvement," the claim is unpatentable under 35 U.S.C. 103(a). Ex Parte Smith, 83 USPQ.2d 1509, 1518-19 (BPAI, 2007) (citing KSR v. Teleflex, 127 S.Ct. 1727, 1740, 82 USPQ2d 1385, 1396 (2007)).
Regarding claim 12, 3GPP1 in view of Yuan discloses, the method according to claim 1 as set forth above.
3GPP1 in view of Yuan does not explicitly disclose (see, italicized limitations), but Liu discloses, wherein the third indication information comprises at least one of following pieces of information: third information, wherein the third information is configured to indicate a quantity of non-zero coefficients of each transport layer; fourth information, wherein the fourth information is configured to indicate a quantity of non-zero coefficients of all transport layers; or fifth information, wherein the fifth information is configured to indicate whether to ignore location indication of non-zero coefficients of the combination coefficients matrix of the transport layer [¶0051, if the non-zero coefficient indication information includes the quantity of non-zero coefficients of each layer, the quantity of non-zero coefficients of each layer being carried in the first part of the channel state information and sent to the network side device].
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide the above-mentioned feature(s) as taught by Liu in the system of 3GPP1 in view of Yuan for similar rationales set forth above in claim 11.
Regarding claim 13, 3GPP1 in view of Yuan and Liu discloses, the method according to claim 12 as set forth above.
3GPP1 discloses, wherein . . . a size of the third information is
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, wherein [.] denotes an operation of routing up, X is a size in a first dimension of the combination coefficient matrix, Z is a size in a second dimension of the combination coefficient matrix, and β is a second parameter [see, section 2; FIGS. 1-2 and their related descriptions, the bitmap above corresponds to a case where K0= ⌈β2LM⌉=14 non-zero coefficients are reported at β=1/4. Obviously, the bitmap shown above is sparse, with many rows and/or columns that are unutilized; note that the number of bits required for the number of non-zero coefficients is given by log2(number of coefficients)].
Regarding claim 14, 3GPP1 in view of Yuan and Liu discloses, the method according to claim 12 as set forth above.
3GPP1 discloses, wherein . . . a size of the fourth information is [log2 (P)] bits, wherein P is a preset maximum quantity of non-zero coefficients allowed to be reported by all layers [see, section 2; FIGS. 1-2 and their related descriptions, report q*, an indication of the aggregate bitmap sizes for all RI layers in UCI part 1, so as to allocate the appropriate overhead required for bitmaps in UCI part 2; further see “Overhead: UCI part 1: [log2q*] bits].
Regarding claim 15, 3GPP1 in view of Yuan and Liu discloses, the method according to claim 13 as set forth above.
3GPP1 in view of Yuan does not explicitly disclose (see, italicized limitations), but Liu discloses, wherein a size of the fifth information is 1*N3 bits, wherein N3 is an integer greater than or equal to 1 and less than or equal to L, and L is a quantity of layers of the transport layer [¶0051, if the non-zero coefficient indication information includes the quantity of non-zero coefficients of each layer, the quantity of non-zero coefficients of each layer being carried in the first part of the channel state information and sent to the network side device; note that a size of every information is at least one bit which is the case when N3 is one. If the number of layers is one, N3 is equal to L].
Regarding claim 16, 3GPP1 in view of Yuan and Liu discloses, the method according to claim 1 as set forth above.
3GPP1 in view of Yuan does not explicitly disclose (see, italicized limitations), but Liu discloses, determining whether to transmit at least two of the first indication information, the second indication information, or the third indication information based on configuration information of a network side device; wherein the configuration information comprises at least one of following: a quantity of ports of the terminal; a quantity of frequency-domain basis vectors; or, a first parameter [FIG. 1; its related descriptions; ¶0234-0238, note that the terminal sends the quantity of beams and the quantity of base vectors of each layer in the combined coefficient matrix of each layer according to the codebook parameter information].
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide the above-mentioned feature(s) as taught by Liu in the system of 3GPP1 in view of Yuan for similar rationales set forth above in claim 11.
Regarding claim 19, claim 19 is rejected at least based on a similar rationale applied to claim 16.
Regarding claim 20, claim 20 is rejected at least based on a similar rationale applied to claim 12.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 10 would be allowable if rewritten to include all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon are considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Li e al (CN 112187324 A) [abstract, “the CSI discard rule is used for indicating to discard the non-zero coefficient position indication information with the first granularity as the unit and/or to discard the non-zero coefficient with the second granularity as the unit; the terminal sends the CSI of the discarded part information to the base station].
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SUN JONG KIM whose telephone number is (571)270-3216. The examiner can normally be reached on 7:30am-5:30pm (M-T).
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.f attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Ian Moore can be reached on (571) 272-3085. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/SUN JONG KIM/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2469
1 3GPP1 was filed in an IDS dated 12/18/2024 by the applicant.
2 Note that the limitation “K' is a quantity of non-zero coefficients in the combination coefficient matrix” is not considered since the optional feature “
[
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is not selected.
3 Hereinafter, US patent family (US Publication No. 2022/0116093) is used for English translation of Liu and mapping to the claim limitations.
Prosecution Insights