DETAILED ACTION
Claim(s) 1-20 are presented for examination.
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 .
Priority
As required by M.P.E.P.201.14(c), acknowledgement is made to applicant’s claim for priority based on application(s) CN202111117407.9 submitted on September 23rd, 2021.
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement(s) (IDS) submitted on December 12th, 2024 and August 15th, 2025 follow the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Objections
Claims 19 and 20 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 19 recites a machine claim, “A terminal, comprising …”, and the list of devices (i.e. a memory, a processor, and a program) in the preamble. The body of the claim recites the action steps: “obtaining… determining…” performed by the terminal.
For clarity and placing the claim into a proper machine claim, it is suggested to replace “A terminal, comprising …” with “A terminal, comprising:” so that the aforementioned list of devices, comprised by the terminal, which are performing these actions/steps (see MPEP 2106.03, section I1 ; MPEP 2173.05(p), section II2).
Claim 20 recites a similar limitation.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 U.S.C. § 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.
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 claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claim(s) 1-4, 12, 14 and 18-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over VENUGOPAL et al. (US 2021/0195602 A1) hereinafter “Venugopal” in view of Guo (US 2022/0345272 A1).
Regarding Claims 1 and 19,
Venugopal discloses a terminal [see fig(s). 11 & 15, pg. 8, ¶118 lines 1-14, a communications device or user equipment (UE)], comprising a memory [see fig(s). 11 & 15, pg. 8, ¶118 lines 1-14, a computer-readable medium/memory], a processor [see fig(s). 11 & 15, pg. 8, ¶118 lines 1-14, a processing system], and a program stored in the memory and capable of running on the processor [see fig(s). 11 & 15, pg. 8, ¶118 lines 1-14, the computer-readable medium/memory is configured to store instructions (e.g., computer-executable code)], wherein the program [see fig(s). 11 & 15, pg. 8, ¶118 lines 1-14, the instructions (e.g., computer-executable code)], when executed by the processor [see fig(s). 11 & 15, pg. 8, ¶118 lines 1-14, when executed by the processor], causes the terminal [see fig(s). 11 & 15, pg. 8, ¶118 lines 1-14, triggers the communications device or user equipment (UE)] to perform:
obtaining [see fig. 11: Step “1102”, pg. 8, ¶102 lines 1-3, receiving, from a network entity], by the terminal [see fig. 11: Step “1102”, pg. 8, ¶102 lines 1-3, by the UE], target information [see fig. 11: Step “1102”, pg. 8, ¶102 lines 1-3, signaling of an uplink transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state for a target codebook based uplink transmission signal]; and
determining [see fig. 11: Step “1104”, pg. 8, ¶103 lines 1-2, determining], by the terminal based on the target information [see fig. 11: Step “1104”, pg. 8, ¶103 lines 1-2, by the UE], whether a target object uses a target transmission configuration indicator state (TCI) state [see fig. 11: Step “1104”, pg. 8, ¶103 lines 1-2, if the TCI state has a source downlink reference signal (RS)].
Although Venugopal discloses obtaining target information, Venugopal does not explicitly teach “the target information is specified by a protocol or indicated by a network-side device, the target object is at least one of a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) or a sounding reference signal (SRS), and the target TCI state comprises at least one of the following: a TCI state for a terminal-dedicated physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) and for all or part of dedicated control resource sets; or a TCI state for a dynamic-grant or configured-grant based physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) and for all dedicated physical uplink control channels (PUCCHs)”.
However Guo discloses obtaining target information [see fig. 3: Step(s) “S1-S3”, pgs. 6-7, ¶110 lines 1-9; ¶112 lines 1-13; ¶116 lines 1-15, the terminal device “100” receives a configuration of M (e.g. 64 or 128) TCI states]; and
determining based on the target information [see fig. 3: Step “S4”, pg. 7, ¶118 lines 1-9, the terminal device “100” determines using the selected TCI state], whether a target object uses a target transmission configuration indicator state (TCI) state [see fig. 3: Step “S4”, pg. 7, ¶118 lines 1-9, a transmission beam (i.e., spatial domain transmission filter), and then transmits on the granted PUSCH according to the determined transmission beam];
wherein the target information is indicated by a network-side device [see pg. 6, ¶114 lines 1-9, the terminal device “100” transmits one or more SRS signal(s) as requested (or configured) by a network device “200”], the target object is a sounding reference signal (SRS) [see pg. 6, ¶114 lines 1-9, these SRS signals are used by the network device “200” to select the optimum precoder and rank value for uplink transmission], and the target TCI state [see pg. 7, ¶118 lines 1-9, the selected TCI state] comprises the following:
a TCI state for a dynamic-grant or configured-grant based physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) and for all dedicated physical uplink control channels (PUCCHs) [see pgs. 6-7, ¶116 lines 1-15, the terminal device “100” receives a DCI to schedule the PUSCH transmission (i.e. in DCI format that schedules PUSCH, e.g. DCI Format 0_0 or 0_1), the DCI indicating a selected TCI state among the K TCI states. For example, the DCI comprises an uplink PUSCH grant dynamically scheduling a PUSCH transmission. In another example, the DCI activates a previously configured grant for a PUSCH transmission (e.g. a configured grant Type “2”)].
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide “the target information is specified by a protocol or indicated by a network-side device, the target object is at least one of a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) or a sounding reference signal (SRS), and the target TCI state comprises at least one of the following: a TCI state for a terminal-dedicated physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) and for all or part of dedicated control resource sets; or a TCI state for a dynamic-grant or configured-grant based physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) and for all dedicated physical uplink control channels (PUCCHs)” as taught by Guo in the system of Venugopal to improve the flexibility of PUSCH Tx beam indication by increasing the number of SRS resources in the SRS resource set configured for PUSCH [see Guo, pg. 9, ¶169 lines 1-8].
Regarding Claim 2,
The combined system of Venugopal and Guo discloses the method according to claim 1.
Venugopal further discloses wherein the target information satisfies the following:
the target information is used for indicating whether all of the target objects use the target TCI state [see pg. 8, ¶98 lines 1-6, uplink TCI states provide a mechanism to indicate what parameters to use to (transmit and) decode uplink traffic. The uplink TCI state have downlink source reference signals (RS) to indicate a beam for uplink PUSCH transmissions].
Regarding Claim 3,
The combined system of Venugopal and Guo discloses the method according to claim 1.
Venugopal further discloses wherein in a case that the target information is indicated by the network-side device [see pg. 7, ¶93 lines 1-8, the BS measures the SRS and, based on the measurement, selects one SRS resource and a wideband precoder to be applied to the SRS ports within the selected resource], the target information is carried in the following configuration information [see pg. 7, ¶94 lines 1-7, For a dynamic grant, the SRI and TPMI is configured via DCI format 0_1. For a configured grant (e.g., for semi-persistent uplink), SRI and TPMI is configured via RRC or DCI]:
configuration information for a resource set of the target object [see pg. 7, ¶94 lines 1-7, the BS configures the UE with the selected SRS resource via an SRS resource indictor (SRI) and with the wideband precoder via a transmit precoder matrix indicator (TPMI)].
Regarding Claim 4,
Venugopal discloses the method according to claim 1.
Venugopal does not explicitly teach “in a case that the target object comprises an aperiodic first CSI-RS and a target condition is satisfied, a TCI state for the first CSI-RS is a first TCI state, a second TCI state, a third TCI state, or a fourth TCI state”; and “the target condition comprises: a time domain offset between a first PDCCH triggering the first CSI-RS and the first CSI-RS is less than a first preset value”.
However Guo discloses in a case that the target object comprises an aperiodic first CSI-RS and a target condition is satisfied [see pg. 11, ¶198 lines 1-5, for the power control on the PUSCH transmission, the terminal device “100” uses the periodic CSI-RS resource that is configured as QCL-TypeD for the CORESET where the scheduling DCI is received to measure the path loss], a TCI state for the first CSI-RS is a first TCI state [see pg. 10, ¶195 lines 1-7, if a terminal device “100” is configured with the higher layer parameter “ul-tci-PresentInDCI” that is set as ‘disabled’ for the CORESET scheduling the PUSCH or a terminal device “100” is not configured with the higher layer parameter “ul-tci-PresentInDCI” for the CORESET scheduling the PUSCH];
wherein the target condition [see pg. 10, ¶195 lines 1-7, if the terminal device “100” is configured with the higher layer parameter “ul-tci-PresentInDCI”] comprises:
a time domain offset between a first PDCCH triggering the first CSI-RS and the first CSI-RS is less than a first preset value [see pgs. 10-11, ¶197 lines 1-8, the terminal device “100” assumes to transmit the PUSCH granted by the DCI with a spatial domain transmission filter that is the same as the spatial domain filter used to receive the PDCCH where the scheduling DCI is detected].
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide “in a case that the target object comprises an aperiodic first CSI-RS and a target condition is satisfied, a TCI state for the first CSI-RS is a first TCI state, a second TCI state, a third TCI state, or a fourth TCI state”; and “the target condition comprises: a time domain offset between a first PDCCH triggering the first CSI-RS and the first CSI-RS is less than a first preset value” as taught by Guo in the system of Venugopal for the same motivation as set forth in claim 1.
Regarding Claim 12,
Venugopal discloses the method according to claim 1.
Venugopal does not explicitly teach “in a case that the SRS uses the target TCI state, a power control parameter for the SRS satisfies at least one of the following: a pathloss reference signal uses a pathloss signal in the target TCI state or a pathloss signal associated with the target TCI state, or uses a source reference signal in the target TCI state, a quasi co-location type of the source reference signal being type D”; and “a target power control parameter satisfies a sixth preset condition, and the target power control parameter comprises at least one power control parameter in power control parameters of the SRS other than the pathloss reference signal; wherein the sixth preset condition satisfies at least one of the following: the target power control parameter is associated with the target TCI state”; or “in a case that the target power control parameter is not associated with the target TCI state, a parameter value of the target power control parameter is a default value in candidate values or is a value indicated by the network-side device from the candidate values”.
However Guo discloses wherein in a case that the SRS uses the target TCI state [see pg. 6, ¶114 lines 1-9, the SRS signals used by the network device “200” to select the optimum precoder and rank value for uplink transmission], a power control parameter for the SRS satisfies the following [see pgs. 10-11, ¶198 lines 1-5, for the power control on the PUSCH transmission]:
a quasi co-location type of the source reference signal being type D [see pgs. 10-11, ¶198 lines 1-5, the terminal device “100” uses the periodic CSI-RS resource that is configured as QCL-TypeD for the CORESET where the scheduling DCI is received to measure the path loss]; and
a target power control parameter satisfies a sixth preset condition [see pgs. 10-11, ¶199 lines 1-4, for the power control on the PUSCH transmission, the terminal device “100” assumes P0], and the target power control parameter comprises at least one power control parameter in power control parameters of the SRS other than the pathloss reference signal [see pgs. 10-11, ¶199 lines 1-4, alpha and index of closed loop power control are a specific configured value, for example received via RRC];
wherein the sixth preset condition satisfies the following [see pgs. 10-11, ¶199 lines 1-4, for the power control on the PUSCH transmission]:
the target power control parameter is associated with the target TCI state [see pgs. 10-11, ¶200 lines 1-2, he terminal device “100” assumes the PUSCH transmission is a single-RANK transmission].
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide “in a case that the SRS uses the target TCI state, a power control parameter for the SRS satisfies at least one of the following: a pathloss reference signal uses a pathloss signal in the target TCI state or a pathloss signal associated with the target TCI state, or uses a source reference signal in the target TCI state, a quasi co-location type of the source reference signal being type D”; and “a target power control parameter satisfies a sixth preset condition, and the target power control parameter comprises at least one power control parameter in power control parameters of the SRS other than the pathloss reference signal; wherein the sixth preset condition satisfies at least one of the following: the target power control parameter is associated with the target TCI state”; or “in a case that the target power control parameter is not associated with the target TCI state, a parameter value of the target power control parameter is a default value in candidate values or is a value indicated by the network-side device from the candidate values” as taught by Guo in the system of Venugopal for the same motivation as set forth in claim 1.
Regarding Claim 14,
Venugopal discloses the method according to claim 1.
Venugopal does not explicitly teach the method further comprises: “the terminal is in a carrier aggregation scenario, receiving, by the terminal, configuration information from the network-side device, wherein the configuration information is used to configure target parameter information, and the target parameter information is used to indicate a validation time of the target TCI state”.
However Guo discloses when the terminal is in a carrier aggregation scenario [see pg. 4, ¶55 lines 1-12, prior to the terminal device receiving the DCI to schedule the PUSCH transmission], receiving [see pg. 4, ¶55 lines 1-12, receive], by the terminal [see pg. 4, ¶55 lines 1-12, by the terminal device], configuration information from the network-side device [see pg. 4, ¶55 lines 1-12, configuration information], wherein the configuration information is used to configure target parameter information [see pg. 4, ¶55 lines 1-12, the configuration information indicating whether an indication of a selected TCI state will be present in the DCI to schedule the PUSCH transmission], and the target parameter information is used to indicate a validation time of the target TCI state [see pg. 4, ¶55 lines 1-12, control the communication unit to transmit on the granted PUSCH in a fallback mode using a spatial domain transmission filter that is same as a spatial domain filter used to receive the DCI].
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide “the terminal is in a carrier aggregation scenario, receiving, by the terminal, configuration information from the network-side device, wherein the configuration information is used to configure target parameter information, and the target parameter information is used to indicate a validation time of the target TCI state” as taught by Guo in the system of Venugopal for the same motivation as set forth in claim 1.
Regarding Claims 18 and 20,
Venugopal discloses a network-side device [see fig(s). 12 & 16, pg. 9, ¶121 lines 1-14, a communications device or network entity], comprising a memory [see fig(s). 12 & 16, pg. 9, ¶121 lines 1-14, a computer-readable medium/memory], a processor [see fig(s). 12 & 16, pg. 9, ¶121 lines 1-14, a processing system], and a program or instructions stored in the memory and capable of running on the processor [see fig(s). 12 & 16, pg. 9, ¶121 lines 1-14, the computer-readable medium/memory is configured to store instructions (e.g., computer-executable code)], wherein when the program or instructions are executed by the processor [see fig(s). 12 & 16, pg. 9, ¶121 lines 1-14, the instructions (e.g., computer-executable code) when executed by the processor], causes the network-side device [see fig(s). 12 & 16, pg. 9, ¶121 lines 1-14, triggers the communications device or network entity] to perform:
sending [see fig. 12: Step “1202”, pg. 8, ¶106 lines 1-3, sending], by the network-side device [see fig. 12: Step “1202”, pg. 8, ¶106 lines 1-3, by the network entity], target information to a terminal [see fig. 12: Step “1202”, pg. 8, ¶106 lines 1-3, signaling of an uplink transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state for a target codebook based uplink transmission signal to a user equipment (UE)]; and
wherein the target information is used to indicate whether a target object uses a target transmission configuration indicator state (TCI state) [see fig. 12: Step “1204”, pg. 8, ¶107 lines 1-3, the network entity determines how the UE processed the codebook based uplink transmission, based on whether the TCI state has a source downlink RS].
Although Venugopal discloses obtaining target information, Venugopal does not explicitly teach “the target object is at least one of a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) or a sounding reference signal (SRS), and the target (TCI) state comprises at least one of the following: a TCI state for a terminal-dedicated physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) and for all or part of dedicated control resource sets; or a TCI state for a dynamic-grant or configured-grant based physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) and for all dedicated physical uplink control channels (PUCCHs)”.
However Guo discloses sending [see fig. 5: Step(s) “S21-S23”, pg. 9, ¶155 lines 1-3; ¶156 lines 1-6; ¶157 lines 1-4, transmitting], by a network-side device [see fig. 5: Step(s) “S21-S23”, pg. 9, ¶155 lines 1-3; ¶156 lines 1-6; ¶157 lines 1-4, by a network device “200”], target information to a terminal [see fig. 5: Step(s) “S21-S23”, pg. 9, ¶155 lines 1-3; ¶156 lines 1-6; ¶157 lines 1-4, a configuration of M TCI states to a terminal device “100”];
wherein the target information is used to indicate whether a target object uses a target transmission configuration indicator state (TCI state) [see fig. 5: Step “S24”, pg. 7, ¶158 lines 1-3, the network device “200” receives the PUSCH from the terminal device “100”, which has been transmitted using the selected TCI state];
wherein the target object is a sounding reference signal (SRS) [see pg. 6, ¶114 lines 1-9, the terminal device “100” transmits one or more SRS signal(s) as requested (or configured) by the network device “200”; these SRS signals are used by the network device “200” to select the optimum precoder and rank value for uplink transmission], and the target (TCI) state [see pg. 7, ¶118 lines 1-9, the selected TCI state] comprises the following:
a TCI state for a dynamic-grant or configured-grant based physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) and for all dedicated physical uplink control channels (PUCCHs) [see pgs. 6-7, ¶116 lines 1-15, the terminal device “100” receives a DCI to schedule the PUSCH transmission (i.e. in DCI format that schedules PUSCH, e.g. DCI Format 0_0 or 0_1), the DCI indicating a selected TCI state among the K TCI states. For example, the DCI comprises an uplink PUSCH grant dynamically scheduling a PUSCH transmission. In another example, the DCI activates a previously configured grant for a PUSCH transmission (e.g. a configured grant Type “2”)].
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide “the target object is at least one of a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) or a sounding reference signal (SRS), and the target (TCI) state comprises at least one of the following: a TCI state for a terminal-dedicated physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) and for all or part of dedicated control resource sets; or a TCI state for a dynamic-grant or configured-grant based physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) and for all dedicated physical uplink control channels (PUCCHs)” as taught by Guo in the system of Venugopal to improve the flexibility of PUSCH Tx beam indication by increasing the number of SRS resources in the SRS resource set configured for PUSCH [see Guo, pg. 9, ¶169 lines 1-8].
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim(s) 5-11, 13 and 15-17 is/are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
United States Patent Application Publication: Ge et al. (US 2021/0204276 A1); see fig. 2, pgs. 11-16, ¶168-¶222.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to RUSHIL P SAMPAT whose telephone number is (469) 295-9141. The examiner can normally be reached on Mon-Fri (8 AM - 5 PM).
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/RUSHIL P. SAMPAT/Primary Examiner- TC 2400, Art Unit 2469
1 A machine is a "concrete thing, consisting of parts, or of certain devices and combination of devices." Digitech, 758 F.3d at 1348-49, 111 USPQ2d at 1719 (quoting Burr v. Duryee, 68 U.S. 531, 570, 17 L. Ed. 650, 657 (1863)). This category "includes every mechanical device or combination of mechanical powers and devices to perform some function and produce a certain effect or result." Nuijten, 500 F.3d at 1355, 84 USPQ2d at 1501 (quoting Corning v. Burden, 56 U.S. 252, 267, 14 L. Ed. 683, 690 (1854)).
2 IPXL Holdings v. Amazon.com, Inc., 430 F.3d 1377, 1384, 77 USPQ2d 1140, 1145 (Fed. Cir. 2005)