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 .
DETAILED ACTION
This action is in response to application filed on 6/12/2026.
Claims 1, 2, 4-9, 11-16 & 18-23 have been examined and are pending with this action.
Claims 21-23 are added.
Claims 3, 10 & 17 are canceled.
Priority
Examiner acknowledges that the Applicant claims a priority benefit of PCT/US2022/044895 20220927.
Drawings
The drawings were received on 3/26/2024 and these drawings are accepted.
Arguments
Applicant arguments related to added limitations are not persuasive based on the following arguments.
Applicant:
Applicant argues that the limitation, receive, based on a transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state of a second coreset with a lowest coreset index among a plurality of coresets associated with the first coreset pool index and the first PCI are not disclosed in the provided arts.
Examiner:
Examiner cites that Laddu discloses receive, based on a transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state of a second coreset with a lowest coreset index among a plurality of coresets associated with the first coreset pool index and the first PCI (Laddu, “ receiving, by the user device from a network node….wherein the TCI states for the plurality of CORESETs are associated with a plurality of cells having different physical cell identities (PCIs) or associated with a plurality of cell group & the user device has received control information indicating physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) TCI state activations corresponding to two different CORESETPoolIndex value and a lowest PCI among two PCIs representing the CORESETPoolIndex=0, and the highest PCI among the two PCIs representing CORESETPoolIndex=1;”),
Laddu discloses a method includes determining to perform inter-cell multi downlink control information (multi-DCI) based multi-transmission reception point (multi-TRP) operation for a user device based on the following: receiving, by the user device from a network node, transmission configuration index (TCI) states for a plurality of control resource sets (CORESETS), wherein the TCI states for the plurality of CORESETs are associated with a plurality of cells having different physical cell identities (PCIs). Applicant argument that second coreset is not disclosed by PA is not persuasive as Laddu discloses transmission configuration index (TCI) states for a plurality of control resource sets (CORESETS).
The downlink signal is taught by the secondary reference (NPL Qualcomm: page 17 to 18 section 3.5, “For the ease of multi-DCI based multi-TRP, two default QCL assumption should be specified coffesponding to the PDSCHs from the two TRP”).
Based on above explanation, applicant’s arguments are not persuasive.
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 of this title, 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 1, 2, 4-9, 11-16 & 18-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable of Laddu (US 11632750 ) in view of NPL Qualcomm (Multi-TRP Enhancement R1-1911126).
As per claim 1, Laddu discloses a wireless device (Laddu, “A user device (user terminal, user equipment (UE), mobile terminal, handheld wireless device, etc.)”), comprising:
one or more processors; and memory storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors (Laddu, “at least one processor; and at least one memory including computer program code; the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to”) cause the wireless device to:
receive, via a first control resource set (coreset) associated with a first corset pool index and a first physical cell index (PCI) (Laddu: “transmission configuration index (TCI) states for a plurality of control resource sets (CORESETS), wherein the TCI states for the plurality of CORESETs are associated with a plurality of cells having different physical cell identities (PCIs) & received control information indicating physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) TCI state activations corresponding to two different CORESETPoolIndex value”),
a downlink control information (DCI) scheduling reception of a downlink signal (Laddu“ receiving of downlink data scheduled by DCIs and received via corresponding PDSCH channels, for each of the serving cell ”); and
receive, based on a transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state of a second coreset with a lowest coreset index among a plurality of coresets associated with the first coreset pool index and the first PCI (Laddu, “ receiving, by the user device from a network node….wherein the TCI states for the plurality of CORESETs are associated with a plurality of cells having different physical cell identities (PCIs) or associated with a plurality of cell group & the user device has received control information indicating physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) TCI state activations corresponding to two different CORESETPoolIndex value and a lowest PCI among two PCIs representing the CORESETPoolIndex=0, and the highest PCI among the two PCIs representing CORESETPoolIndex=1;”),
Laddu does not explicitly disclose the downlink signal is less than a threshold.
NPL Qualcomm however discloses the downlink signal (NPL Qualcomm: page 17 to 18 section 3.5, “For the ease of multi-DCI based multi-TRP, two default QCL assumption should be specified coffesponding to the PDSCHs from the two TRP”). in response to:
a time offset between the DCI and the downlink signal is being less than a threshold (NPL Qualcomm: section 3.5, “default QCL assumption (if the offset between the reception of the DL DCI and the corresponding PDSCH is less than the threshold timeDurationForQCL) is based on lowest CORESET ID in the latest slot in which one or more CORESETs within the active BWP of the serving cell are monitored by the UE.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Laddu in view of NPL Qualcomm to figure DCI signal strength. One would be motivated to do so because this technique supports for configuration of periodic/ semi-persistent rate matching resources (NPL Qualcomm proposal 9).
Claims 8 and 15 are rejected based on rationale provided for claim 1.
As per claim 2, Laddu/NPL discloses the wireless device of claim 1, wherein the instructions further cause the wireless device to receive one or more messages comprising one or more configuration parameters of a cell (Laddu: wherein the TCI states for the plurality of CORESETs are associated with a plurality of cells having different physical cell identities (PCIs) or associated with a plurality of cell groups”), wherein the receiving the downlink signal is based on the TCI state being activated for the second coreset of the cell (Laddu: “ the user device has received control information indicating physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) TCI state activations corresponding to two different CORESETPoolIndex values; and performing, by the user device, inter-cell multi-DCI based multi-TRP operation with cells from the plurality of the cells”).
As per claim 4, Laddu/NPL discloses wireless device of claim 2, wherein the instructions further cause the wireless device to receive a control command indicating activation of the TCI state for the second coreset (Laddu: “ the user device has received control information indicating physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) TCI state activations corresponding to two different CORESETPoolIndex values”).
As per claim 5, Laddu/NPL discloses the wireless device of claim 1, wherein the instructions further cause the wireless device to receive a first control command indicating activation of a first TCI state for the coreset (Laddu: “ the user device has received control information indicating physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) TCI state activations corresponding to two different CORESETPoolIndex value”).
As per claim 6, Laddu/NPL discloses the wireless device of claim 1, wherein:
the TCI state is further associated with the first coreset pool index (Laddu: “ TCI state activations corresponding to two different CORESETPoolIndex values”); and
the receiving the downlink signal is further in response to the first coreset being further associated with the first coreset pool index (Laddu: indicating inter-cell multi-DCI based multi-TRP operation, performing by the user device, as if it has been configured with a CORESETPoolIndex value in ControlResourceSet (CORESET), and the user device determines that the CORESET associated with the serving cell PCI as a CORESET having a CORESETPoolIndex=0.”).;
As per claim 7, Laddu/NPL discloses the wireless device of claim 6, wherein the instructions further cause the wireless device to receive one or more messages comprising one or more configuration parameters of a cell (Laddu: “ a multi-DCI based multi-TRP-related high layer parameter has been configured to the user device), wherein the one or more configuration parameters indicate the coreset pool index for the first coreset (Laddu: “the user device has received control information indicating physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) TCI state activations corresponding to two different CORESETPoolIndex values; and, performing inter-cell multi-DCI based multi-TRP operation.”).
Claims 9, 10-14 and 16, 18-20 are rejected based on rationale provided for claims 2 & 4-7.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 21-23 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim but would be allowable if rewritten in all independent form including all the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
This action is FINAL. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. This includes:
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Sibte Bukhari whose telephone number is (571) 270-7122. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F 9:00 - 6:00.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Vivek Srivastava can be reached on (571) 272-7304. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/SIBTE H BUKHARI/Examiner, Art Unit 2449
Prosecution Insights