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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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, 2, 6, 7, 12, 13, 16, 17, and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Gu et al (US Publication 2025/0081061 A1).
Regarding to claims 1, 12, and 19, Gu discloses a baseband processor 810 (fig. 8) comprising: processing circuitry (page 17 paragraph 0316) to: process S602 (fig. 6) configuration information to configure a transmission configuration indicator TCI (page 7 paragraph 0120) state associated with a candidate cell (page 15 paragraph 0272); generate 603, for transmission to a serving cell (source cell), a measurement report (page 17 paragraph 0275) based on measurements of one or more reference signals (page 9 paragraph 0157); select a reference signal from the one or more reference signals based on a predefined rule (page 10 paragraph 0178; beam direction); determine the reference signal is associated with the TCI state (page 10 paragraph 0178); and activate 605 the TCI state for communication with the candidate cell based on said selecting the reference signal and determining the reference signal is associated with the TCI state (page 15 paragraph 0286); and interface circuitry 820 coupled with the processing circuitry (page 17 paragraph 0313), the interface circuitry to communicatively couple the processing circuitry with a component of a device (page 17 paragraph 0314).
Regarding to claims 2 and 13, Gu discloses the configuration information is a 2. serving cell configuration that: configures a TCI-state list that includes the TCI state; and associates the TCI state with an additional physical cell identifier PCI index associated with a PCI of the candidate cell (page 13 paragraphs 0232-0233).
Regarding to claims 6 and 16, Gu discloses the beam-indication message is to indicate one or more TCI states associated with at least one candidate cell for activation, wherein the at least one candidate cell includes the candidate cell and the one or more TCI states includes the TCI state (page 15 paragraph 0286).
Regarding to claims 7 and 17, Gu discloses the beam-indication message is indicate one or more reference signal identifiers associated with at least one candidate cell, wherein the at least one candidate cell includes the candidate cell and the method further comprises: mapping a first reference signal identifier of the one or more reference signal indexes to the TCI state (page 10 paragraph 0180); and activating the TCI state based on said mapping (page 15 paragraph 0286).
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.
Claim 20 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Gu in view of Wallentin et al (US Publication 2026/0040157 A1).
Regarding to claim 20, Gu discloses all the limitations with respect to claim 19 including the reference signal is associated with a highest layer 1 (page 13 paragraph 0240). However, Gu fails to teach for select the reference signal associated with a highest layer 1-reference signal receive power L1-RSRP value of the one or more reference signals. Wallentin discloses a processing circuitry QQ202 (fig. 15) for select the reference signal associated with a highest layer 1-reference signal receive power L1-RSRP value of the one or more reference signals (page 7 paragraph 0126). Thus, it would have obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to arrange for L1-RSRP reference signal as taught by Wallentin into Gu’s system since such signal is well-known in the art used for channel quality measurement.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-5, 8-11, 14, 15, and 18 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Duc T Duong whose telephone number is (571)272-3122. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri; 9am-6pm.
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/DUC T DUONG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2467