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 .
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.
DETAILED ACTION
This communication is in response to Application No. 18/580,662 filed on 19 January 2024. The response filed 28 April 2026 amends claims 19, 24-26, 34, and 36-38, cancels claims 1-18, and presents arguments is hereby acknowledged. Claims 19-38 are presented for examination.
Response to Arguments
Independent Claims 19 and 36-38
On pages 8-9 of the response filed 27 May 2015, Applicant addresses the 35 U.S.C. 103 rejection made on the 29 December 2025 Non-Final Rejection. Applicant’s arguments, regarding the rejections under 35 U.S.C. 103, have been fully considered.
On pages 8-9, Applicant argues that the Ma/Baig system fails to teach or suggest “determining to initiate the beam switching to a beam in the set based on a result of the measurements.” Applicant argues that paragraph 0117 of Ma discloses a beam measurement configuration may include a condition to start measuring candidate beams. Further, Applicant argues that paragraph 0047 of Baig discloses a network node determines a beam switching command. Examiner respectfully disagrees and finds this argument unpersuasive. Applicant's arguments fail to comply with 37 CFR 1.111(b) because they amount to a general allegation that the claims define a patentable invention without specifically pointing out how the language of the claims patentably distinguishes them from the references. Paragraph 0117 of Ma discloses a beam candidate configuration. Paragraph 0047 of Baig discloses a network node determining a beam switch command. One having ordinary skill in the art would combine the beam switching command of Baig with the beam candidate configuration of Ma in order to utilize parameters to be used for initialization of a set of available beams. Therefore, Examiner finds this argument unpersuasive.
Dependent Claims 20-35
On pages 8-9 of the response filed 27 May 2015, Applicant addresses the 35 U.S.C. 103 rejection made on the 29 December 2025 Non-Final Rejection. Applicant submits that these claims are allowable at least as depending from an allowable independent claim, and further in view of the amendments to the independent claims, and the comments provided above. As per the comments above, Examiner found the arguments unpersuasive.
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.
Claims 19-38 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US PGPUB 2022/0038168 A1 to Ma et al and in view of US PGPUB 2023/0224015 A1 to Baig et al.
Regarding Claim 19, Ma discloses a method performed by a user equipment (UE) configured to communicate via a non-terrestrial network (FIG. 2 and 0114 provides for UE 115-a via NTN), the method comprising: receiving, from a network node via the non-terrestrial network, information identifying a set of at least one candidate beam for beam switching, the set of the at least one candidate beam corresponding to the network node in the non-terrestrial network (0113 and 0121 provides for receiving, from satellite 120-a via the NTN, beam identifiers for a set of respective beams 230 to support beam switching); performing measurements of reference signals transmitted via the at least one candidate beam in the set (0115-0016 and 0127 provides for UE 115 performing measurements based on reference signals via beam-granularity measurement reporting); determining to initiate the beam switching to a beam in the set based on a result of the measurements (0117 and 0128 provides for configuring UE 115-a to start to measure a candidate/neighboring beam 230 based on the result of the current beam being worse than a threshold); and transmitting, to the network node via the non-terrestrial network, an indication (0119 and 0137 provides for transmitting a channel quality report of beams 230). Ma doesn’t explicitly disclose wherein the indication is for indicating the beam switching. Baig, in a similar field of endeavor, discloses transmitting, to the network node via the non-terrestrial network, an indication for indicating the beam switching (0044, 0047, and 0052 provides for transmitting, to network node 200, when in time the beam switching command is to be executed per user equipment). One of ordinary skill in the art before the effectively filed date of the claimed invention would have recognized the ability to utilize the teachings of Baig for communicating details of a beam switch. The beam switch details of Baig, when implemented with the beam measurement reporting of the Ma system, will allow one of ordinary skill in the art to amend the beam reports in order to detail the beam switching commands into the transmission to the network node. Therefore, the examiner concludes it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to utilize the beam switch details of Baig with the beam measurement reporting of the Ma system for the desirable purpose of improved communication with beam measurements.
Regarding Claim 20, the Ma/Baig system discloses the method according to claim 19, wherein each beam in the set of the at least one candidate beam employs mutually exclusive Channel State Information Reference Signal (CSI-RS) resources to the CSI-RS resources employed by other beams in the set (Ma, 0117 and 0137 provides for an indication of CSI resources on various beams 230).
Regarding Claim 21, the Ma/Baig system discloses the method according to claim 19, wherein the set of the at least one candidate beam is configured based on load balancing or interference coordination at the network node (Ma, 0112 and 0227 provides for reducing interference by using respective bandwidth part).
Regarding Claim 22, the Ma/Baig system discloses the method according to claim 19, wherein the initiating the beam switching is performed without transmitting a measurement report regarding the measurements to the network node (Baig, 0052 provides for reporting the time of a beam switch having been performed and the success/failure of it as a network statistic being reported to the network node). Same motivation as claim 19.
Regarding Claim 23, the Ma/Baig system discloses the method according to claim 19, wherein the beam switching is performed taking a channel condition of the UE into account (Ma, 0105 provides for event conditions being satisfied for a beam).
Regarding Claim 24, the Ma/Baig system discloses the method according to claim 19, wherein the UE is configured to determine to initiate the beam switching in a case where the UE is determined to be within or substantially within a coverage of another beam in the set based on the result of the measurements (Ma, 0117-0118 provides for beam switching triggers comprises the UE measuring candidate beams/neighboring beams associated with beam coverage areas).
Regarding Claim 25, the Ma/Baig system discloses the method according to claim 19, wherein the UE is configured to determine to initiate the beam switching based on a quality of a reference signal in a current serving beam being below a threshold based on measurement of the reference signal (Ma, 0117-0118 provides for beam switching triggers comprises the UE measuring candidate beams/neighboring beams associated with beam coverage areas based on a threshold).
Regarding Claim 26, the Ma/Baig system discloses the method according to claim 19, wherein the UE is configured to determine to initiate the beam switching based on a Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) of a candidate beam in the set being higher than a threshold or higher than the RSRP of a current serving beam by at least a parameter value (Ma, 0117-0118 provides for beam switching triggers comprises the UE measuring candidate beams/neighboring beams associated with beam coverage areas using an indication of RSRP measurements).
Regarding Claim 27, the Ma/Baig system discloses the method according to claim 19, wherein the receiving is performed by using at least one of: Radio Resource Control (RRC) signalling (Ma, 0116 provides for RRC signaling); Medium Access Control (MAC) signalling; and system information.
Regarding Claim 28, the Ma/Baig system discloses the method according to claim 27, wherein the system information (Examiner interprets this limitation to be dependent on an alternative limitation from the Markush group of claim 27) identifies respective sets of at least one candidate beam for each of a plurality of possible serving beams.
Regarding Claim 29, the Ma/Baig system discloses the method according to claim 19, wherein the indication identifies the beam (Ma, 0113 and 0137 provides for a beam identifier).
Regarding Claim 30, the Ma/Baig system discloses the method according to claim 19, wherein the indication indicates the strongest beam in the set based on the result of the measurements (Ma, 0117-0118 provides for beam switching triggers comprises the UE measuring candidate beams/neighboring beams associated with beam coverage areas using an indication of RSRP measurements).
Regarding Claim 31, the Ma/Baig system discloses the method according to claim 19, wherein the transmitting the indication is performed in a case where a Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) of the beam is higher than a threshold value or higher than the RSRP of a current serving beam by at least a parameter value (Ma, 0117-0118 provides for beam switching triggers comprises the UE measuring candidate beams/neighboring beams associated with beam coverage areas using an indication of RSRP measurements).
Regarding Claim 32, the Ma/Baig system discloses the method according to claim 31, wherein the parameter value is configured by a base station serving the UE (Ma, 0103 and 0105 provides for satellite 120 provides service for multiple service beam coverage areas in an area).
Regarding Claim 33, the Ma/Baig system discloses the method according to claim 19, wherein the transmitting the indication is performed in a case where a quality of a reference signal in a current serving beam is below a threshold based on measurements of the reference signal (Ma, 0117-0118 provides for beam switching triggers comprises the UE measuring candidate beams/neighboring beams associated with beam coverage areas using an indication of RSRP measurements).
Regarding Claim 34, the Ma/Baig system discloses the method according to claim 19, wherein the transmitting is performed via at least one of: Layer 1 (L1) signalling; Medium Access Control (MAC) layer signalling; and Radio Resource Control (RRC) signalling (Ma, 0116 provides for RRC signaling).
Regarding Claim 35, the Ma/Baig system discloses the method according to claim 19, further comprising: receiving, from the network node via the non-terrestrial network, a response to the indication before initiating the beam switching (Baig, 0047 provides for performance feedback is used to determine when in time the beam switching command is to be executed per user equipment 160). Same motivation as claim 19.
Regarding Claim 36, Ma discloses a method performed by a network node configured to communicate with a user equipment (UE) via a non-terrestrial network (FIG. 2 and 0114 provides for satellite 120-a configured to communicate with UE 115-a via NTN), the method comprising: transmitting, to the UE, information identifying a set of at least one candidate beam for beam switching, the set of the at least one candidate beam corresponding to a movement of the network node in the non-terrestrial network (0113 and 0121 provides for satellite 120-a transmitting, to the UE 115-a, beam identifiers for a set of respective beams 230 to support beam switching due to mobility of the UE); and receiving an indication from the UE (0117 and 0128 provides for configuring UE 115-a to start to measure a candidate/neighboring beam 230 based on the result of the current beam being worse than a threshold) based on a result of measurements of reference signals transmitted via the at least one candidate beam in the set (0115-0016 and 0127 provides for UE 115 performing measurements based on reference signals via beam-granularity measurement reporting). Ma doesn’t explicitly disclose receiving an indication from the UE in a case where the beam switching to a beam in the set is determined, by the UE, to be initiated based on a result of measurements of reference signals transmitted via the at least one candidate beam in the set Baig, in a similar field of endeavor, discloses receiving an indication from the UE in a case where the beam switching to a beam in the set is determined, by the UE, to be initiated based on a result of measurements of reference signals transmitted via the at least one candidate beam in the set (0044, 0047, and 0052 provides for receiving an indication from the UE wherein the UE reports when in time the beam switching command is to be executed per user equipment). Same motivation as claim 19.
Regarding Claim 37, similar rejection where the method of claim 19 teaches the user equipment of claim 37.
Regarding Claim 38, similar rejection where the method of claim 36 teaches the network node of claim 38.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
US Patent 11,490,275 B2 to Xu et al discloses beam failure recovery in a radio system.
US Patent 12,244,456 B2 to Cirik et al discloses indication for failure recovery in wireless communications.
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 SCHQUITA GOODWIN whose telephone number is (571)272-5477. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9am - 5pm EST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Tonia Dollinger can be reached on (571) 272-4170. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/SCHQUITA D GOODWIN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2459
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