DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
1. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Information Disclosure Statement (IDS)
2. The IDS submitted on 01/12/26 has been entered and considered by the Examiner.
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
3. A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after Final Rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office Action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 04/03/26 has been entered.
Response to Remarks/Arguments
4. With respect to the rejections (112b) of the previous Office Action, mailed on 01/05/26, have been withdrawn due to proper amendments and/or persuasive arguments.
In response to Applicant’s arguments (103 rejections), with regard to independent claims and their dependent claims filed on 03/02/26 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. Applicant argues that although Duan discloses in paragraph 94 1T6R, Duan does not disclose or suggest the claimed A)… D)… items, and Duan discloses in paragraph 94 2T8R/4T8R, Duan does not disclose or suggest the claimed A)… F)…. items. Examiner respectfully disagrees because in Table 1 Duan discloses A)… D)… items: 1T6R, 2T6R and 4T6R and in Table 2 Duan discloses A)… F)… items: 1T8R, 2T8R, 1T6R and 4T8R.
Therefore, the arguments are not persuasive as the cited references disclose all the limitations as claimed in the independent claims and their dependent claims, thus the rejections are maintained.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
5. 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 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 may not be obtained though the invention is not identically disclosed or described as set forth in section 102 of this title, if the differences between the subject matter sought to be patented and the prior art are such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains. Patentability shall not be negatived 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:
I. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
II. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
III. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
IV. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
6. Claims 1, 8-9, 11 and 14-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Duan (US 2021/0112498 A1 –Cited Earlier) and in view of Shi (US 2022/0369214 A1 –Cited Earlier).
Regarding claims 14-19, 11 & 1, Duan teaches a terminal (Figure 12: 1200, Paragraph 137: the wireless communication device 1200 is any of the base stations 102 or 310 described with reference to Figures 1 and 3, respectively & Figure 13: 1300, Paragraph 140: the wireless communication device 1300 is any of the UEs 104 or 350 described with reference to Figures 1 and 3, respectively), comprising: a processor (Figure 3: “Processor” & Paragraph/s 138/141: non-transitory instructions/code); and a memory storing computer programs executable by the processor (Figure 3: “Memory”); wherein the processor is configured to (Figure 3: “Processor”): determine an antenna switching configuration combination supported by capability of the terminal according to a target classification principle (Figure 10A: 1002 “determining an antenna switching capability of a user equipment (UE), the antenna switching capability representing a number of receive (RX) antenna ports of the UE” & Paragraph 94: 1T6R/2T8R), wherein the target classification principle comprises a classification principle of a number of antennas or a classification principle of a number of antenna ports (Paragraph 121: a number of RX antenna port… 1, 2 or 4), and wherein the processor is further configured to determine that the capability of the terminal supports the antenna switching configuration combination at least comprising 6 or 8 receiving antennas according to the target classification principle (Paragraph 121: the number of RX antenna ports of the UE is equal to 6 or 8), wherein in a case that the number of antennas is classified as 6, the antenna switching configuration combination only supported by the capability of the terminal at least comprises one or more of the following A)-D) items: A) two transmitting channels and six receiving channels (Table 1: 2T6R); B) four transmitting channels and six receiving channels (Table 1: 4T6R); C) one transmitting channel and six receiving channel (Table 1: 1T6R), two transmitting channels and six receiving channels (Table 1: 2T6R); and D) one transmitting channel and six receiving channels (Table 1: 1T6R), two transmitting channels and six receiving channels (Table 1: 2T6R), four transmitting channels and six receiving channels (Table 1: 4T6R), wherein each of the transmitting channels and the receiving channels in the A)-D) items corresponds to an antenna or an antenna port (Paragraph 121: the number of RX antenna ports of the UE is equal to 6 or 8), or in a case that the number of antennas is classified as 8, the antenna switching configuration combination only supported by the capability of the terminal at least comprises one or more of the following A)-F) items: A) one transmitting channel and eight receiving channels (Table 2: 1T8R); B) one transmitting channel and eight receiving channels (Table 2: 1T8R), two transmitting channels and eight receiving channels (Table 2: 2T8R); C) one transmitting channel and eight receiving channels (Table 2: 1T8R), two transmitting channels and eight receiving channels (Table 2: 2T8R), four transmitting channels and eight receiving channels (Table 2: 4T8R); D) one transmitting channel and six receiving channels (Table 2: 1T6R), one transmitting channel and eight receiving channels (Table 2: 1T8R), two transmitting channels and eight receiving channels (Table 2: 2T8R), four transmitting channels and eight receiving channels (Table 2: 4T8R); E) one transmitting channel and six receiving channels (Table 2: 1T6R), two transmitting channels and six receiving channels (Table 2: 2T6R), two transmitting channels and eight receiving channels (Table 2: 2T8R), four transmitting channels and eight receiving channels (Table 2: 4T8R); and F) one transmitting channel and six receiving channels (Table 2: 1T6R), two transmitting channels and six receiving channels (Table 2: 2T6R), one transmitting channel and eight receiving channels (Table 2: 1T8R), two transmitting channels and eight receiving channels (Table 2: 2T8R), four transmitting channels and eight receiving channels (Table 2: 4T8R). Although Duan in Figure 10A Step 1006 teaches receiving from the UE sounding reference signal (SRS) that includes 1, 2, 4 or more ports, Duan does not explicitly disclose send terminal capability reporting information to a network device, the terminal capability reporting information being configured to represent the antenna switching configuration combination supported by the capability of the terminal. In a related field of endeavor, Shi discloses send terminal capability reporting information to a network device, the terminal capability reporting information being configured to represent the antenna switching configuration combination supported by the capability of the terminal (Figure 1: 110/120, Figure 2: S210 “A first terminal device sends a first UE capability, where the first UE capability indicates at least one antenna switching capability supported by the first terminal device; at least part of the at least one antenna switching capability supports that the first terminal device has more than 4 receiving antennas”, Paragraph 69: an antenna switching capability determined according to a predetermined rule & Paragraph 187: 1T6R/2T8R). It would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Duan’s determined antenna switching to include sending the determined antenna switching as in Shi. One of ordinary skill in the art would be motivated to do so to improve receiving capability, Paragraph 4.
Regarding claim 8, the combination of Duan and Shi discloses the method according to claim 1. In addition, Duan discloses wherein the number of antennas is classified as 6 (Paragraph 121: the number of RX antenna ports of the UE is equal to 6 or 8), and the antenna switching configuration combination supported by the capability of the terminal at least comprises one or more of the following A)-E) items: A) one transmitting channel and two receiving channels (Paragraph 75: 1T2R), one transmitting channel and four receiving channels (Paragraph 75: 1T4R), one transmitting channel and six receiving channels (Table 1: 1T6R); B) one transmitting channel and two receiving channels (Paragraph 75: 1T2R), two transmitting channels and four receiving channels (Paragraph 75: 2T4R), two transmitting channels and six receiving channels (Table 1: 2T6R); C), one transmitting channel and two receiving channels (Paragraph 75: 1T2R), one transmitting channels and four receiving channels (Paragraph 75: 1T4R), one transmitting channel and six receiving channels (Table 1: 1T6R), two transmitting channel and four receiving channels (Paragraph 75: 2T4R), two transmitting channels and six receiving channels (Table 1: 2T6R); D) four transmitting channels and six receiving channels (Table 1: 4T6R); E) one transmitting channel and two receiving channels (Paragraph 75: 1T2R), one transmitting channel and four receiving channels (Paragraph 75: 1T4R), one transmitting channel and six receiving channels (Table 1: 1T6R), two transmitting channels and four receiving channels (Paragraph 75: 2T4R), two transmitting channels and six receiving channels (Table 1: 2T6R), four transmitting channels and six receiving channels (Table 1: 4T6R). However, Duan fails to disclose one transmitting channel and one receiving channel, two transmitting channels and two receiving channels, four transmitting channels and four receiving channels. In a related field of endeavor, Shi discloses one transmitting channel and one receiving channel (Paragraph 121: 1T1R), two transmitting channels and two receiving channels (Paragraph 150: 2T2R), four transmitting channels and four receiving channels (Paragraph 193: 4T4R). It would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Duan’s determined TX/RX antenna to include 1T1R, 2T2R and 4T4R as in Shi. One of ordinary skill in the art would be motivated to do so to improve receiving capability, Paragraph 4.
Regarding claim 9, the combination of Duan and Shi discloses the method according to claim 1. In addition, Duan discloses wherein the number of antennas is classified as 8 (Paragraph 121: the number of RX antenna ports of the UE is equal to 6 or 8), and the antenna switching configuration combination supported by the capability of the terminal at least comprises one or more of the following A)-E) items: A) one transmitting channel and two receiving channels (Paragraph 75: 1T2R), one transmitting channel and four receiving channels (Paragraph 75: 1T4R), one transmitting channel and eight receiving channels (Table 2: 1T8R); B) one transmitting channel and two receiving channels (Paragraph 75: 1T2R), two transmitting channels and four receiving channels (Paragraph 75: 2T4R), two transmitting channels and eight receiving channels (Table 2: 2T8R); C) one transmitting channel and two receiving channels (Paragraph 75: 1T2R), two transmitting channels and four receiving channels (Paragraph 75: 2T4R), one transmitting channel and four receiving channels (Paragraph 75: 1T4R), one transmitting channel and six receiving channels (Table 2: 1T6R), two transmitting channels and six receiving channels (Table 2: 2T6R), two transmitting channels and eight receiving channels (Table 2: 2T8R); D) four transmitting channels and eight receiving channels (Table 2: 4T8R); E) one transmitting channel and two receiving channels (Paragraph 75: 1T2R), one transmitting channel and four receiving channels (Paragraph 75: 1T4R), one transmitting channel and six receiving channels (Table 2: 1T6R), one transmitting channel and eight receiving channels (Table 2: 1T8R), two transmitting channels and four receiving channels (Paragraph 75: 2T4R), two transmitting channels and six receiving channels (Table 2: 2T6R), two transmitting channels and eight receiving channels (Table 2: 2T8R), four transmitting channels and six receiving channels (Table 2: 4T6R), four transmitting channels and eight receiving channels (Table 2: 4T8R). However, Duan fails to disclose one transmitting channel and one receiving channel, two transmitting channels and two receiving channels, four transmitting channels and four receiving channels. In a related field of endeavor, Shi discloses one transmitting channel and one receiving channel (Paragraph 121: 1T1R), two transmitting channels and two receiving channels (Paragraph 150: 2T2R), four transmitting channels and four receiving channels (Paragraph 193: 4T4R). It would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Duan’s determined TX/RX antenna to include 1T1R, 2T2R and 4T4R as in Shi. One of ordinary skill in the art would be motivated to do so to improve receiving capability, Paragraph 4.
Conclusion
7. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the Examiner should be directed to SHAWKAT M. ALI whose telephone number is (571) 270-1639. The Examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Thursday 8:30AM-3:30PM ET.
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 AIR at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the Examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the Examiner’s Supervisor, SAM K. AHN can be reached on (571) 272-3044. 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.
/SHAWKAT M ALI/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2633
Prosecution Insights