DETAILED ACTION
This office action is a response to the amendment and arguments filed on May 26, 2026.
Claims 1-3 and 7-9 are pending.
Claims 1-3 and 7-9 are rejected.
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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1-3 and 7-9 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. The rejection has been revised and set forth below according to the amended claims (See Office Action).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1 and 7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Raghavan et al. U.S. Patent Application Publication 2019/0082331, hereinafter Raghavan.
Regarding Claim 1, Raghavan discloses a method performed by a terminal in a wireless communication system, the method (Abstract; Figure 1-3 and 6-8) comprising:
identifying a first beam book including information on a plurality of preconfigured beams (804 of Figure 8; Paragraph [0020, 0058 and0070-0072] Base station and serving cell has a number of candidate preconfigured beams; The UE may generate a beam list (book) and select beams based on a variety of criteria including beam pairs);
identifying whether an event in which the number of beams is changed occurs based on the information (810 of Figure 8; Paragraph [0020 and 0070-0075] The UE may track beams on the beam list. The UE may determine the number of useful beams on the beam list. Beams on the beam list could become blocked or unavailable. If the threshold number of beams available is greater lower than a threshold the UE may generate a new second beam list);
and changing the first beam book to a second beam book, in a case that the event occurs (810 of Figure 8; Paragraph [0020 and 0070-0075] The UE may track beams on the beam list. The UE may determine the number of useful beams on the beam list. Beams on the beam list could become blocked or unavailable. If the threshold number of beams available is greater lower than a threshold the UE may generate a new second beam list; That is the UE identifies a first beam book comprising information on a plurality of preconfigured candidate beams from the base station identifies whether the number of beam is changed due to becoming blocked or unavailable and the UE changes to a new beam book as the number of beams has changed).
Regarding Claim 7, Raghavan discloses a terminal in a wireless communication system, the terminal comprising: a transceiver configured to transmit and receive a signal; and a controller configured to control the transceiver, the controller (Abstract; Figure 1-3 and 6-8) is configured to:
identify a first beam book including information on a plurality of preconfigured beams (804 of Figure 8; Paragraph [0020, 0058 and0070-0072] Base station and serving cell has a number of candidate preconfigured beams; The UE may generate a beam list (book) and select beams based on a variety of criteria including beam pairs);
identify whether an event in which the number of beams is changed occurs based on the information (810 of Figure 8; Paragraph [0020 and 0070-0075] The UE may track beams on the beam list. The UE may determine the number of useful beams on the beam list. Beams on the beam list could become blocked or unavailable. If the threshold number of beams available is greater lower than a threshold the UE may generate a new second beam list),
and change the first beam book to a second beam book, in case that the event occurs (810 of Figure 8; Paragraph [0020 and 0070-0075] The UE may track beams on the beam list. The UE may determine the number of useful beams on the beam list. Beams on the beam list could become blocked or unavailable. If the threshold number of beams available is greater lower than a threshold the UE may generate a new second beam list; That is the UE identifies a first beam book comprising information on a plurality of preconfigured candidate beams from the base station identifies whether the number of beam is changed due to becoming blocked or unavailable and the UE changes to a new beam book as the number of beams has changed).
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.
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.
Claims 2 and 8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Raghavan in view of Li et al. U.S. Patent Application Publication 2013/0237218, hereinafter Li.
Regarding Claim 2 and 8, Raghavan disclose the method, terminal and base station of Claim 1 and 7. Raghavan in disclose beam books with reception and transmission beams but may not explicitly disclose wherein the second beam book is changed according to a resource allocated to the terminal or a frame structure.
However, Li more specifically teaches wherein the second beam book is changed according to a resource allocated to the terminal or a frame structure (Paragraph [0137-0139] a beam forming codebook or codeword change can be applied when the mobile station allocates resources for cell scanning or for data communication. For example, a first codebook can be used for data communication. Then when the mobile station tunes away for cell scanning, a second codebook can be used for data communication. As another example, instead of a codebook, a codebook limitation (e.g., a subset of the general codebook) change can be applied when the mobile station allocates resources for cell scanning or for data communication. As yet another example, a rank change can be applied when the mobile station allocates resources for cell scanning or for data communication).
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 teachings of Raghavan with the teachings of Li. The mobile station with fewer receiver beams can reduce the time used to scan the cells in an asynchronous system. The monitoring time can be reduced when synchronization channel/broadcast channel (SCH/BCH) beams are concurrently sent and repeated. The radio interface efficiency and allocation of new spectrum is improved, so that high growth in mobile data traffic can be achieved. The spectrum utilized in this band can be acquired at a lower cost. The larger bands can be used and higher throughput can be achieved using mobile broadband (MMB) communications. The mobile station can detect a base station using omni-receiving antennas with a very wide beam. The mobile station can easily listen the downlink signal from base station and detect the base station (Li Abstract; Paragraph [0002-0007, 0034-0041 and 0114]).
Claims 3 and 9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Raghavan in view of Singh et al. U.S. Patent Application Publication 2014/0334564, hereinafter Singh.
Regarding Claim 3 and 9, Raghavan disclose the method, terminal and base station of Claim 1 and 7. Raghavan disclose beam books with reception and transmission beams but may not explicitly disclose wherein the first beam book and the second beam book comprise a reception beam book and a transmission beam book.
However, Singh more specifically teaches wherein the first beam book and the second beam book comprise a reception beam book and a transmission beam book (Paragraph [0102-0129] Receiver and transmitter codebooks including different directions and determination of optimal selections).
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 teachings of Raghavan with the teachings of Singh. The method enables achieving performance close to be attained with exhaustive search precoder combinations, while providing exponential reduction in the precoder selection search space. The method enables reducing radio frequency beam selection complexity in the wireless communication system without having significant performance degradation by mapping dominant angles-of-departure and dominant angles-of-arrival to nearest beam directions in transmitter and receiver codebooks and by employing resulting beam directions for communication (Singh Abstract; Paragraph [0002-0008]).
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.
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IVAN O. LATORRE
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2409
/IVAN O LATORRE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2409
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