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 .
This office action is a response to an application filed on 04/13/2026 in which claims 1-3, 6-14, 16-22 and 24 are pending. Claims 4-5, 15 and 23 were canceled.
Response to Amendments
Applicant’s Arguments/Remarks filed on 04/13/2026 with respect to amended independent claim 1 have been fully 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. The claims have not overcome the claim rejections as shown below.
Claims 1-3, 6-14, 16-22 and 24 are pending.
Claims 4-5, 15 and 23 were canceled.
Response to Arguments
Regarding amended independent claim 1, Applicant argues that nowhere does Guo describe how the PUCCH becomes associated with the CORESETPoolIndex value. Therefore, Guo does not teach or suggest “receiving signaling that indicates an association between a plurality of PUCCH resources and a plurality of CORESET pool index values” let alone transmitting a PUCCH resource that is associated with a CORESET pool index value “based at least in part on the association”.
Based on the amendments to the claim, further consideration and search were conducted and the newly found prior art of Xu et al. (US 2022/0240224), hereinafter “Xu” was found to disclose the amended feature as discussed below in the Office Action.
Therefore, based on the new grounds of rejection, the independent claim 1 is rendered unpatentable. Independent claims 8, 16 and 24 recite similar distinguishing features as claim 1, thus are rendered unpatentable. As a result the features of the claims are shown by the cited references as set forth below.
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 1-3, 6-14, 16-22 and 24 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xu et al. (US 2022/0240224), hereinafter “Xu” in view of Guo (US 2023/0171771).
As to claim 1, Xu teaches a method performed by a user equipment (UE) (Xu, Fig. 26A, a method performed by a wireless device 2615), the method comprising:
receiving signaling (Xu, Fig. 26A, [0246], “A wireless device (e.g., wireless device 2615) may receive, from a base station (e.g., base station 2610), one or more RRC messages (e.g., RRC messages 2620) comprising configuration parameters”) that indicates an association between a plurality of PUCCH resources and a plurality of CORESET pool index values (Xu, Fig. 26A, [0246], “The configuration parameters may indicate one or more first PUCCH resources associated with a first CORESET pool index. The configuration parameters may indicate one or more second PUCCH resources associated with a second CORESET pool index”);
receiving, during respective CORESETs, a plurality of physical downlink control channels (PDCCHs) (Xu, Fig. 26A, [0246], “The wireless device may receive the one or more PDCCHs, from the base station, for example, as described herein concerning FIGS. 23A-23C”. Fig. 23A, [0235], “The one or more first PDCCHs may be associated with the first CORESET pool index, and the one or more second PDCCHs may be associated with the second CORESET pool index. The wireless device may receive the one or more first PDCCH transmissions (e.g., PDCCHs 2330) based on the first RS (e.g., as shown at element 2335 of FIG. 23A). The wireless device may receive the one or more second PDCCH transmissions (e.g., PDCCHs 2340) based on the second RS (e.g., as shown at element 2345 of FIG. 23A)”) that separately indicate respective transmission configuration indication (TCI) states of a plurality of joint or uplink common TCI states (Xu, [0234], “The configuration parameters may indicate a plurality of TCI states for PDCCHs”, [0247], “one or more TCI states, of the plurality of TCI states, for the one or more first PUCCH resources and the one or more second PUCCH resources”), wherein the respective CORESETs are associated with respective CORESET pool index values of the plurality of CORESET pool index values (Xu, Fig. 23A, [0235], “The one or more first PDCCHs may be associated with the first CORESET pool index, and the one or more second PDCCHs may be associated with the second CORESET pool index”, Xu, Fig. 26A, [0246], the first CORESET pool index and second CORESET pool index received in the RRC message); and
for a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) resource associated with a CORESET pool index value of the plurality of CORESET pool index values based at least in part on the association (Xu, Fig. 26A, [0246], “The configuration parameters may indicate one or more first PUCCH resources associated with a first CORESET pool index. The configuration parameters may indicate one or more second PUCCH resources associated with a second CORESET pool index”), transmitting the PUCCH resource (Xu, Fig. 26A, [0247], “The wireless device may send (e.g., transmit) the one or more first PUCCH resources (e.g., PUCCH resources 2635) to the base station via the first TRP (e.g., at time T3). The wireless device may send (e.g., transmit) the one or more first PUCCH resources based on the first RS (e.g., as shown at element 2640 of FIG. 26A). The one or more first PUCCH resources may be associated with the first CORESET pool index”) according to a joint or uplink common TCI state of the plurality of joint or uplink common TCI state (Xu, [0247], “one or more TCI states, of the plurality of TCI states, for the one or more first PUCCH resources and the one or more second PUCCH resources”).
Xu teaches the claimed limitations as stated above. Xu does not explicitly teach the following features: regarding claim 1, wherein the joint or uplink common TCI state is indicated by a PDCCH of the plurality of PDCCHs received during a CORESET associated with the CORESET pool index value .
However, Guo teaches wherein the joint or uplink common TCI state is indicated by a PDCCH of the plurality of PDCCHs received during a CORESET associated with the CORESET pool index value (Guo, [0048], “apply information of a spatial filter and/or a pathloss reference signal included in the second TCI state on the transmission of one or more of the following channels or signals:…a PUCCH transmission associated with the CORESETPoolIndex with the value of 1; a PUCCH transmission that is triggered by a PDCCH transmitted in the CORESET configured or associated with the CORESETPoolIndex with the value of 1…the one or more TCI states are configured through downlink control information (DCI)…a value of the DCI field transmission configuration indication indicates one TCI state for the UE and the UE applies an indicated TCI state on a PDCCH, a PDSCH, a PUSCH, a PUCCH, a CSI-RS resource, and/or an SRS resource that is associated with the same value of CORESETPoolIndex as the PDCCH carrying the DCI that indicates the TCI state”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Xu to have the features, as taught by Guo in order to achieve a good balance between a resource overhead and a good positioning performance in a system deployment, improve system capacity, beam switch latency and provide high reliability and good communication performance (Guo, [0038]).
As to claim 2, Xu teaches wherein the signaling comprises a radio resource control (RRC) parameter (Xu, Fig. 26A, [0246], “A wireless device (e.g., wireless device 2615) may receive, from a base station (e.g., base station 2610), one or more RRC messages (e.g., RRC messages 2620) comprising configuration parameters”) configured in at least one of first configuration information of the PUCCH resource (Xu, [0246], “The configuration parameters may indicate a plurality of spatial relation information for PUCCH resources. The configuration parameters may indicate a plurality of TCI states for PUCCH resources. The configuration parameters may indicate one or more first PUCCH resources associated with a first CORESET pool index. The configuration parameters may indicate one or more second PUCCH resources associated with a second CORESET pool index”) or second configuration information of a PUCCH resource group at least comprising the PUCCH resource, and wherein the RRC parameter indicates the CORESET pool index value for respective PUCCH resources of the plurality of PUCCH resources (Xu, Fig. 26A, [0246], “A wireless device (e.g., wireless device 2615) may receive, from a base station (e.g., base station 2610), one or more RRC messages (e.g., RRC messages 2620) comprising configuration parameters”, “The configuration parameters may indicate one or more first PUCCH resources associated with a first CORESET pool index. The configuration parameters may indicate one or more second PUCCH resources associated with a second CORESET pool index”).
As to claim 3, Xu teaches wherein the signaling comprises a medium access control (MAC) control element (CE) (Xu, Fig. 26A, [0247], “The wireless device may receive the MAC CE from the base station (e.g., at time T5 as shown in FIG. 26A)”).
Xu teaches the claimed limitations as stated above. Xu does not explicitly teach the following features: regarding claim 3, and wherein the MAC CE indicates an identity of a serving cell for which the MAC CE is applied and an identity of a bandwidth part (BWP) for which the MAC CE is applied.
However, Guo teaches and wherein the MAC CE indicates an identity of a serving cell for which the MAC CE is applied (Guo, [0050], “the MAC CE comprises at least one of following fields: a serving cell ID”) and an identity of a bandwidth part (BWP) for which the MAC CE is applied (Guo, [0054], “indicate a first TCI state for example through DCI or MAC CE for the TRP associated with CORESETPoolIndex with a value of 0 and the system can indicate a second TCI state for example through DCI or MAC CE for the TRP associated with CORESETPoolIndex with a value of 1”, [0053], the TCI state includes “bwp-Id”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Xu to have the features, as taught by Guo in order to achieve a good balance between a resource overhead and a good positioning performance in a system deployment, improve system capacity, beam switch latency and provide high reliability and good communication performance (Guo, [0038]).
As to claim 6, Xu teaches wherein the MAC CE indicates the CORESET pool index value (Xu, [0024], “The system can send one MAC CE indicating one TCI state ID and one CORESET index”, [0050], “the MAC CE comprises at least one of following fields: a serving cell ID; a TCI state ID; or a CORESET pool ID”), and an identity of a PUCCH resource group at least comprising the PUCCH resource (Xu, [0028], “To reduce the overhead of MAC CE for indicating spatial relation information for PUCCH, the system can use a single MAC CE to indicate one spatial relation information for a group of PUCCH resources”, [0221], “a MAC CE activating one or more spatial relation information for: the one or more first PUCCH resources associated with the first CORESET pool index; and the one or more second PUCCH resources associated with the second CORESET pool index”).
As to claim 7, Xu teaches wherein the PUCCH resource and the CORESET pool index value are associated via a predefined association between an identity of a PUCCH resource group at least comprising the PUCCH resource and the CORESET pool index value (Xu, [0028], “To reduce the overhead of MAC CE for indicating spatial relation information for PUCCH, the system can use a single MAC CE to indicate one spatial relation information for a group of PUCCH resources”, [0221], “a MAC CE activating one or more spatial relation information for: the one or more first PUCCH resources associated with the first CORESET pool index; and the one or more second PUCCH resources associated with the second CORESET pool index”, [0229], “The first CORESET pool index may be CORESET pool index0. The second CORESET pool index may be CORESET pool index1”).
Regarding Claims 8-14 and 23, the base station/transmitter claims disclose similar features as of Claims 1-3, 6 and 7, and are rejected accordingly. Further, Xu discloses memory, processor and transmitter in Fig 15A.
Regarding Claims 16-22, the user equipment/receiver claims disclose similar features as of Claims 1-3, 6 and 7, and are rejected accordingly. Further, Xu discloses memory, processor and receiver in Fig 15A.
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 RICARDO H CASTANEYRA whose telephone number is (571)272-2486. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:00am - 5:30pm.
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/RICARDO H CASTANEYRA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2473
