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 Objections
Claim 6 is objected to because of the following informalities: the acronym, TCI, should be spelled out first. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim 9 is objected to because of the following informalities: the acronym, CORESET, should be spelled out first. Appropriate correction is required.
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.
Claim(s) 1, 2, 6, 8-12, 16, 18, 19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang et al., US Patent Application Publication Number 2020/0169907 (hereinafter Zhang) in view of Park et al., US Patent Application Publication Number 2020/0252847 (hereinafter Park), further in view of Xu et al., US Patent Application Publication Number 2021/0100059 (hereinafter Xu).
Regarding claims 1, 11, and 18, Zhang discloses a first node for wireless communications [fig. 5], comprising: a first receiver, receiving a first message, the first message being used to determine a first reference signal resource pool, the first reference signal resource pool comprising at least one reference signal resource [fig. 5; paragraph 0354]; and a first transmitter, transmitting a first radio signal for beam management, the first radio signal indicating a first reference signal resource [fig. 5; paragraph 0354]; and determining a first target reference signal resource set from the first reference signal resource pool according to at least the first reference signal resource [fig. 5: S16]. What Zhang does not specifically discloses is a first transceiver, whenever a first-type radio link quality evaluated according to the first target reference signal resource set is worse than a first threshold, incrementing a first counter by 1; and as a response to the first counter reaching a first value, transmitting a second radio signal, the second radio signal being used for beam failure recovery; wherein the second radio signal indicates a second reference signal resource; the second reference signal resource is related to the first target reference signal resource set. However, Park and Xu disclose these limitations.
Park discloses receiving a first message, the first message being used to determine a first reference signal resource pool [paragraphs 0211, 0460]. Therefore, Park is analogous art. Park further teaches a first transceiver, whenever a first-type radio link quality evaluated according to the first target reference signal resource set is worse than a first threshold [paragraph 0423], and as a response to the first counter reaching a first value, transmitting a second radio signal, the second radio signal being used for beam failure recovery [paragraph 0296]; wherein the second radio signal indicates a second reference signal resource; the second reference signal resource is related to the first target reference signal resource set [paragraph 0431].
Though Park teaching monitoring the threshold level of radio link quality, Park does not specifically reference a counter. Xu discloses beam management and failure recovery which makes it analogous art. Xu further discloses monitoring radio link quality by incrementing a first counter by 1 [paragraph 0221]. Before the invention was effectively filed, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify Zhang to include the teachings of Park and Xu. The motivation for this modification would have been to combine prior art elements according the known methods to yield predictable results.
Regarding claims 2, 12, and 19, Park discloses a first node, characterized in that the first reference signal resource pool comprises a first reference signal resource set and a second reference signal resource set [paragraph 0431]; the first reference signal resource set and the second reference signal resource set are respectively associated with a first physical cell identifier and a second physical cell identifier [paragraphs 0401, 0428]; when the first reference signal resource is associated with the first physical cell identifier, the first target reference signal resource set is the first reference signal resource set [paragraphs 0401, 0428]; when the first reference signal resource is associated with the second physical cell identifier, the first target reference signal resource set is the second reference signal resource set [paragraphs 0401, 0428].
Regarding claims 6 and 16, Xu discloses that the first node updates a reference signal resource associated with a first TCI state to the first reference signal resource, the first radio signal being used to determine the first TCI state [paragraph 0150].
Regarding claim 8, Park discloses the beam management is not a part of beam failure detection and recovery procedure; or the beam management does not include receiving indications from lower layers [paragraph 0241]; or the beam management does not include starting or restarting a timer as a response to receiving the indications from lower layers; or the beam management does not include incrementing a first counter by 1 whenever a first-type radio link quality evaluated according to the first reference signal resource set is worse than a first threshold.
Regarding claim 9, Xu discloses that the beam management includes changing a TCI state of a physical channel; or the beam management includes changing a TCI state corresponding to a CORESET of a physical channel; or the beam management includes changing a correspondence between a TCI and a reference signal resource, or the beam management includes Channel State Information (CSI) reporting [paragraph 0150].
Regarding claim 10, Park discloses that the feedback for the first radio signal includes a Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest Acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK), or the feedback for the first radio signal includes a PDCCH, or the feedback for the first radio signal includes Medium Access Control (MAC) Control Elements (CE) [paragraph 0257].
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-5, 7, 13-15, 17, and 20 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
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Jiang et al., US Patent Application Publication Number 2024/0214154, disclose a method and device in nodes used for wireless communication.
Yi et al., US Patent Application Publication Number 2020/0350972, disclose beam failure recovery in multi-TRP scenarios.
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/EAW/
April 16, 2026
/ERIKA A WASHINGTON/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2644
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