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 .
Allowable Subject Matter
The indicated allowability of claims 1 and 7 is withdrawn in view of the newly discovered reference(s) to Eyuboglu et al US Patent No. 9,380,466 B2 in view of Davis US Patent Application Publication No. US20130258868 A1. Rejections based on the newly cited reference(s) follow1.
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(s) 1 and 7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Eyuboglu et al US Patent No. 9,380,466 B2 in view of Davis US Patent Application Publication No. US20130258868 A1.
As per claim 1, Eyuboglu et al discloses a system (fig. 2A)/(fig. 2B), comprising: at least one controller (60/80), wherein the at least one controller (60/80) is configured to implement at least some functions for one or more layers of a wireless interface (note at least col. 9, lines 35-40) used to communicate with user equipment (70/94) ;one or more remote units (66/90) communicatively coupled to the at least one controller (60/80); and a plurality of antenna elements (note Fig. 2A and Fig. 2B) communicatively coupled to the one or more remote units (60/90). However, it fails to teach each respective antenna element of the plurality of antenna elements is oriented in a respective direction different than other antenna elements of the plurality of antenna elements; wherein the at least one controller is configured to: determine [[a location of a first user equipment in a cell of the system and/or]] channels between the plurality of antenna elements and the first user equipment; select one or more first antenna elements of the plurality of antenna elements for use in transmitting downlink signals to the first user equipment based on [[the location of the first user equipment and/or]]i the channels between the plurality of antenna elements and the first user equipment; and transmit downlink signals to the first user equipment via the one or more first antenna elements of the plurality of antenna elements in a first time period. Davis teaches a system comprises teach each respective antenna element of the plurality of antenna elements is oriented in a respective direction different than other antenna elements of the plurality of antenna elements (note at least para. [0025]); wherein the at least one controller is configured to: determine [[a location of a first user equipment in a cell of the system and/or]] channels between the plurality of antenna elements and the first user equipment (note at least fig. 4, 402); select one or more first antenna elements of the plurality of antenna elements for use in transmitting downlink signals to the first user equipment based on [[the location of the first user equipment and/or]] the channels between the plurality of antenna elements and the first user equipment (note at least para. [0025], or fig. 4, 404 and 406) ; and transmit downlink signals to the first user equipment via the one or more first antenna elements of the plurality of antenna elements in a first time period (note para. [0025] and fig. 4, 408 and 410). Therefore, it would have been obvious to on skill in the art to incorporate such a teaching in Eyuboglu et al in order to enhance the user experience with mobile communication (Davis, para. [0005]).
As per claim 7, Eyuboglu et al and Davis fail to teach that the number of antenna elements selected is only one. As evidence by Sanderovich et al US 20170078013 A1 fig. 6, and para. [0067], it is generally known in the art to select only one antenna element from a plurality of antenna elements to transmit downlink data. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one skill in the art to have modified Eyuboglu et al and Davis by selecting only one antenna element to transmit downlink data in order to reduce signal interference as known in at least 20170078013 A1, para. [0001].
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-6 and 8 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
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/JEAN B CORRIELUS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2633
1 During a phone call on 02/27/2026, applicant was advised to amend claim 1 by replacing “and/or” by “and” to move the case to a final disposition. However, applicant declined to amend at this time and requested that an office action be issued instead to allow time to consider his options.
i The limitations in brackets are not required for patentability.