DETAILED ACTION
Response to Amendment
The Amendment filed 3/31/26 has been entered. Claims 1-20 are pending for examination, of which claims 1 and 11 were amended.
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 2/26/26 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 3/31/26, have been fully considered and entered. The rejections of claims 1-20 are supported in view of Yi and Muruganathan.
a/ Applicant states Yi and Muruganathan fail to teach or suggest the features emphasized in claim 1, particularly that the plurality of serving TCls comprises a first subset and a second subset based on RRC parameters.
Examiner respectfully disagrees.
Yi, from his disclosure, states receiving first RRC messages to indicate one or more first TCI states, e.g., first subset, [0175] and one or more second TCI states, e.g., second subset [0175], and determining at least one serving TCI from the first subset or the second subset based on RRC parameters (expecting first selected TCI state from the first TCI states and the second selected TCI state from the second TCI states based on configuration [0182].
Thus, Yi and Muruganathan does teach or suggest the features emphasized in claim 1, particularly that the plurality of serving TCls comprises a first subset and a second subset based on RRC parameters.
b/ Applicant further submits that there is no proper motivation to combine the timing-threshold-based rules of Yi with the unified TCI mapping of Muruganathan. Such a combination would require a substantial reconfiguration of the UE's TCI handling circuit to reconcile conflicting determination logics, which would not be obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention.
Examiner respectfully disagrees.
Yi and Muruganathan disclose performing communications between UE and at least two TRPs by receiving and applying configured TCI states to channels. While Yi only specifies applying to downlink {DL} channel, e.g., PDSCH, Muraganathan adds in by mentioning also applying TCI states to other DL channels, e.g., PDCCH, and uplink {UL} channels, e.g., PUSCH) for data reception and data transmissions. The motivation of the combination of Yi and Muruganathan is to allow UE and BS to stay perfectly aligned even when it moves – Yi [0159] – resulting in good quality reception or listening, and transmission or talking to BS.
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 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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
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 claim at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or non-obviousness.
Claims 1-2, 5-12, and 15-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being unpatentable over Yi (US 20200351892 A1), hereinafter referred to as Yi, in view of Muruganathan et al. (US 20240080843 A1), hereinafter referred to as Muruganathan.
Regarding claim 1:
Yi discloses a method, comprising:
receiving, by a user equipment (UE), a radio resource control (RRC) configuration of a control resource set (CORESET) (receiving, by wireless device, an RRC message indicating CORESET carrying a DCI comprising a resource assignment for a downlink [0164]) or a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) resource (or receiving RRC messages indicating resources allocations for uplink data transmission, e.g., uplink grant for wireless device [0097].
receiving, by the UE, at least one command from a network, wherein the at least one command indicates a plurality of serving transmission configuration indications (TCIs) (receiving, by wireless device, DCI indicating TCIs states [0223, lines 14-17]) or MAC CE commands indicating up to K TCI sates from RRC configured TCI states [0163]) comprising a first subset of serving TCIs and a second subset of serving TCIs (comprising set of first TCI states and set of second TCI states associated with first and second TRP, respectively [0209]);
determining, by the UE, at least one of the serving TCIs from the first subset or the second subset, according to at least one parameter in the RRC configuration (determining, by wireless device, one TCI state from activated states, e.g., first subset, and codepoints, e.g., parameter, associated with TCI states in DCI field associated with RRC message [0163]);
applying, by the UE, the at least one of the serving TCIs to a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) reception on the CORESET (applying, by wireless device, one TCI state to downlink channels, e.g., PDSCH or PDCCH [0163, 0106], received and monitored by wireless device [0094]).
Yi does not explicitly disclose determining one of the serving TCIs according to at least and one parameter in the RRC configuration and applying, by the UE, the at least one of the serving TCIs to a PUCCH transmission on the PUCCH resource; which are known in the art and commonly applied in communications field for data communications, as suggested in Muruganathan’s disclosure as below.
Muruganathan, from the same field of endeavor, discloses determining one of the serving TCIs according to at least and one parameter in the RRC configuration (determining activated DL/UL TCI state(s) to use for downlink reception or uplink transmission based on codepoint of TCI field [0179] which include TCI states being configured via RRC [0144, lines 1-3]) and applying, by the UE, the at least one of the serving TCIs to a PUCCH transmission on the PUCCH resource (applying UL TCI state(s) to UL channels or PUCCH [0120]). Also, Muruganathan indicates applying DL TCI state(s) to PDCCH [0119].
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the claimed invention was filed to apply serving TCIs to PDCCH reception on CORESET or a PUCCH transmission on PUCCH resource; thus enhancing users’ performance in receiving and transmitting data by efficiently using transmission resources associated with TCIs - Yi [0168]).
Regarding claim 2: Yi in view of Muruganathan discloses all features of claim 1, and –
Yi further discloses the serving TCIs include a first serving TCI and a second serving TCI, and the step of determining the at least one of the serving TCIs according to the least one parameter in the RRC configuration further comprises:
determining, by the UE, the first serving TCI, the second serving TCI, or both first and second serving TCIs according to the least one parameter in the RRC configuration (determining TCI1 for PDSCH#1 and TCI2 for PDSCH#2 [0166] according to codepoint [0163, lines 20-30]).
Regarding claim 5: Yi in view of Muruganathan discloses all features of claim 2, and –
Yi does not, while Muruganathan further discloses applying, by the UE, both first and second serving TCIs to the PDCCH reception on the CORESET or the PUCCH transmission on the PUCCH resource (applying DL TCI state and UL TCI states to PDCCH and PUCCH [0118, lines 6-11]) when both first and second serving TCIs are determined by the UE according to the least one parameter in the RRC configuration (determining {both} TCI state(s) to use based on codepoint of TCI field [0179] including TCI states being configured via RRC [0144, lines 1-3]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the claimed invention was filed to apply serving TCIs to PDCCH reception on CORESET or a PUCCH transmission on PUCCH resource; thus enhancing users’ performance by efficiently using transmission resources associated with TCIs - Yi [0168]).
Regarding claim 6: Yi in view of Muruganathan discloses all features of claim 1, and –
Yi further discloses the at least one command is a downlink control information (DCI) (command is DCI [0166]), and the DCI includes at least one TCI field indicating the plurality of serving TCIs [DCI includes TCI field corresponding to a first TCI state and a second TCI state [0180, lines 15-18]).
Regarding claim 7: Yi in view of Muruganathan discloses all features of claim 1, and –
Yi further discloses the at least one command is a media access control-control element (MAC-CE) from the network (receiving MAC-CE command from base station [0163, lines 8-18]).
Regarding claim 8: Yi in view of Muruganathan discloses all features of claim 1, and –
Yi further discloses the at least one command indicates one of the serving TCIs, and the at least one command is received on a PDCCH, by the UE applying the one of the serving TCIs (receiving, by wireless device, a Downlink Control Information {DCI} via Physical Downlink Control Channel {PDCCH} [0047, lines 7-12] which applies one TCI state to downlink channels, e.g., PDCCH/PDSCH [0163, lines 8-19]).
Regarding claim 9: Yi in view of Muruganathan discloses all features of claim 1, and –
Yi further discloses RRC messages/configuration of TCI states (RRC configuration of TCI states associated with a serving cell and mapped with codepoints [0163, lines 1-12]).
In addition, Muruganathan teaches at least one parameter in the RRC configuration comprises at least one index corresponding to one of the serving TCIs (DCI indicates TCI state index, [0035-0036]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the claimed invention was filed to include index corresponding to serving TCIs; thus getting low signaling overhead by mapping TCI index to associated paramenters - Muruganathan [0040]).
Regarding claim 10: Yi in view of Muruganathan discloses all features of claim 1, and –
Yi further discloses at least one command indicates the one of the serving TCIs (RRC configuration of TCI states associated with a serving cell and mapped with codepoints [0163, lines 1-12]), and the at least one command is received on a PDCCH reception on a CORESET configured by the RRC configuration comprising the at least one index corresponding to the one of the serving TCIs (receiving DCI via PDCCH indicating resources mapped to CORESET and TCI states [0047]).
In addition, Muruganathan teaches at least one parameter in the RRC configuration comprises at least one index corresponding to one of the serving TCIs (DCI indicates TCI state index, [0035-0036]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the claimed invention was filed to receive a command on a CORESET configured with RRC configuration comprising TCIs index; thus efficiently activating TCI states for communications -Muruganathan [0040]).
Regarding claim 11: Claim 11 is rejected for substantially same reason as applied to claim 1, except that claim 11 is in a device claim format, and wherein Yi [in claim 11] also discloses a user equipment {UE} (wireless device, element 110 in Fig.3), comprising: a transceiver (communications interface(s), element 310 in Fig.3) and a transmission configuration indication (TCI) handling circuit (processor(s), element 314 in Fig.3) to perform claimed functionalities.
Regarding claims 12 and 15-20: Claims 12 and 15-20 disclose all features of claim 11, and -
Claims 12 and 15-20 are rejected for substantially same reason as applied to claims 2 and 5-10, respectively, except that claims 12 and 15-20 are in a device claim format.
Claims 3-4 and 13-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being unpatentable over Yi in view of Muruganathan, as applied to claims 2 and 11 above, respectively, and further in view of Yao et al. (US 20230354359 A1), hereinafter referred to as Yao.
Regarding claim 3: Yi in view of Muruganathan discloses all features of claim 2, and –
Yi discloses applying, by the UE, the first serving TCI to the PDCCH reception on the CORESET (applying, by wireless device, one TCI state to downlink channels, e.g., PDCCH/ PDSCH [0163], which are received and monitored by wireless device [0094]). Also, Yi discloses applying {first} TCI state to uplink and downlink, data and control channels [0045].
Yi in view of Muruganathan does not explicitly disclose applying, by the UE, the first serving TCI to the PDCCH reception on the CORESET or on the PUCCH transmission on the PUCCH resource when the first TCI is determined according to the at least one parameter in the RRC configuration; which is known in the art and commonly applied in communications field for data communications, as suggested in Yao’s disclosure as below.
Yao, from the same field of endeavor, discloses applying the first serving TCI to the PDCCH reception on the CORESET or on the PUCCH transmission on the PUCCH resource (applying {first} unified TCI state to uplink and downlink, data and control channels [0045] and TCI states are represented by codepoints, e.g, parameter [0055]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the claimed invention was filed to apply a {first} unified serving TCI to PDCCH reception on CORESET or a PUCCH transmission on PUCCH resource; thus simplifying a beam management procedure for downlink and uplink channels, data and control channels, - Yao [0084).
Regarding claim 4:
Yi in view of Muruganathan discloses all features of claim 2, and –
Yi discloses applying, by the UE, the second serving TCI to the PDCCH reception on the CORESET (applying, by wireless device, one {second} TCI state to downlink channels, e.g., PDCCH/PDSCH [0163], which are received and monitored by wireless device [0094]). Also, Yi discloses applying {second} TCI state to uplink and downlink, data and control channels [0045].
Yi in view of Muruganathan does not explicitly disclose applying, by the UE, the second serving TCI to the PDCCH reception on the CORESET or on the PUCCH transmission on the PUCCH resource when the second TCI is determined according to the at least one parameter in the RRC configuration; which is known in the art and commonly applied in communications field for data communications, as suggested in Yao’s disclosure as below.
Yao, from the same field of endeavor, teaches applying the second serving TCI to the PDCCH reception on the CORESET or on the PUCCH transmission on the PUCCH resource (applying {second} unified TCI state to uplink and downlink, data and control channels [0045] and TCI states are represented by codepoints, e.g, parameter [0055]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the claimed invention was filed to apply a {second} unified serving TCI to PDCCH reception on CORESET or a PUCCH transmission on PUCCH resource; thus simplifying a beam management procedure for downlink and uplink channels, data and control channels, - Yao [0084).
Regarding claims 13-14: Claims 13-14 disclose all features of claim 12, and -
Claims 13-14 are rejected for substantially same reason as applied to claims 3-4, respectively, except that claims 13-14 are in a device claim format.
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 extension fee 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 date of this final action.
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/C.Q.T./
Patent Examiner, AU 2465
/John Pezzlo/
Primary Examiner, AU 2465B
18 June 2026
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