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 .
Specification
The lengthy specification has not been checked to the extent necessary to determine the presence of all possible minor errors. Applicant’s cooperation is requested in correcting any errors of which applicant may become aware in the specification.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Nam et al. (US 2021/0360586 A1). Regarding claims 1, 11, 12, Nam et al. discloses a user equipment (UE) (See Fig 3), comprising: a transceiver (See Fig 3, item 302) which, in operation, receives a signalling; and circuitry which, in operation: obtains from the signalling an availability indication, and determines, out of a plurality of configured reference signals (RSs), one or more RSs, for which the availability indication indicates an availability state (Para 66-71 teaches of receiving an indication to multiplex one or more UE-RS with one or more broadcast message that includes TRS/CSI-RS, during and idle or inactive state of a UE) , wherein the circuitry determines the one or more RSs based on at least one of: a number of the plurality of configured RSs, a subset configuration received via radio resource control (RRC) or from a system information Block (SIB), a quasi co-location (QCL) reference of the signalling, and a timing occasion where the signalling is transmitted (Para 110 teaches “ indication to multiplex the UE-RS includes a parameter for TRS rate match pattern included in a system information, and wherein the system information corresponds to at least one of a master information block (MIB), system information block 1 (SIB1), or other system information (OSI).”)
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) 2 and 3 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Nam et al. (US 2021/0360586 A1) in view of Tsai et al. (US 2023/0051117 A1). Regarding claim 2, Nam et al. discloses the claimed invention as set forth in claim 1 above and a UE wherein the circuitry, in operation, determines:- when the number of the configured RSs is smaller than or equal to a threshold value, that the availability indication indicates, for each of the configured RSs, an availability state of the RS (Para 66-71 teaches of receiving an indication to multiplex one or more UE-RS with one or more broadcast message that includes TRS/CSI-RS, during and idle or inactive state of a UE). Nam et al. does not explicitly discloses a UE, where the circuity in operation determines when the number of configured RSs is larger than the threshold value, that the availability indication indicates, for a number of the one or more RSs that is smaller than the number of the configured RSs, an availability state of the RS. However Tsai et al. discloses a UE, where the circuity in operation determines when the number of configured RSs is larger than the threshold value, that the availability indication indicates, for a number of the one or more RSs that is smaller than the number of the configured RSs, an availability state of the RS (Para 200-202 teaches of providing indication for a set/group of TRS/CSI-RS). It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use the method of providing indication for a set/group of TRS/CSI-RS of Tsai et al. with the system of Nam et al. in order to provide a system that provides enhanced UE power saving by optimizing it monitoring and measurement cycles. Regarding claim 3, Nam et al. discloses the claimed invention as set forth in claim 1 above. Nam et al. does not explicitly discloses a UE, wherein the subset configuration includes:- an indication indicating a number of the one or more RSs; and/or - an indication indicating the one or more RSs. However Tsai et al. discloses a UE, wherein the subset configuration includes:- an indication indicating a number of the one or more RSs; and/or - an indication indicating the one or more RSs (Para 200-202 teaches of providing indication for a set/group/Index of TRS/CSI-RS). It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use the method of providing indication for a set/group of TRS/CSI-RS of Tsai et al. with the system of Nam et al. in order to provide a system that provides enhanced UE power saving by optimizing it monitoring and measurement cycles.
Claim(s) 4 and 5 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Nam et al. (US 2021/0360586 A1) in view of Zhou et al. (US 2020/0137741 A1). Regarding claim 4, Nam et al. discloses the claimed invention as set forth in claim 1 above. Nam et al. does not explicitly discloses a UE, wherein the transceiver, in operation, receives a plurality of subset configurations for a plurality of QCL references, respectively, wherein each of the subset configurations indicates a respective subset of the configured RSs, and the plurality of QCL references includes the QCL reference of the signalling; and the circuitry, in operation, determines that the one or more RSs are the RSs of the subset indicated by the subset configuration for the QCL reference of the signalling.. However Zhou et al. discloses a UE, wherein the transceiver, in operation, receives a plurality of subset configurations for a plurality of QCL references, respectively, wherein each of the subset configurations indicates a respective subset of the configured RSs, and the plurality of QCL references includes the QCL reference of the signalling; and the circuitry, in operation, determines that the one or more RSs are the RSs of the subset indicated by the subset configuration for the QCL reference of the signalling. (Para 90 and Para 98 teaches “a subset of the TCI states provide quasi co-location (QCL) relationships between DL RS(s) in one RS set (e.g., TCI-Set) and PDCCH demodulation RS (DMRS) ports. A particular TCI state for a given UE (e.g., for unicast PDCCH) may be conveyed to the UE by the Medium Access Control (MAC) Control Element (MAC-CE). The particular TCI state is generally selected from the set of TCI states conveyed by the CORESET IE, with the initial CORESET (CORESET #0) generally configured via MIB”). It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use the method of providing QCL reference for the indication for of TRS/CSI-RS of Zhou et al. with the system of Nam et al. in order to provide a system that reduces processing complexity and enables faster beam switching. Regarding claim 5, Nam et al. discloses the claimed invention as set forth in claim 1 above. Nam et al. does not explicitly discloses a UE, wherein the QCL reference of the signalling corresponds to a synchronization signal block; SSB);index of a SSB with which the signalling is QCLed, each RS of the configured RSs is QCLed with a respective SSB , and the circuitry, in operation, determines the one or more RSs based on: - the SSB index QCLed with the signalling, and - SSB indices with which the configured RSs are QCLed. However Zhou et al. discloses a UE, wherein the QCL reference of the signalling corresponds to a synchronization signal block; SSB (Para 90 teaches “The RS set contains a reference to either one or two DL RSs and an associated quasi co-location type (QCL-Type) for each one configured by the higher layer parameter QCL-Type.”) ;index of a SSB with which the signalling is QCLed, each RS of the configured RSs is QCLed with a respective SSB , and the circuitry, in operation, determines the one or more RSs based on: - the SSB index QCLed with the signalling, and - SSB indices with which the configured RSs are QCLed (Para 102 teaches “CORESET #0 is that, unlink other CORESETs, the interpretation of the TCI state and time domain configuration may change from UE to UE, based on the SSB index which is used for initial access. As noted above, each SSB may be transmitted with a different beam and, as such, each SSB index may inherently include spatial QCL/beam-related information and may be mapped to a different PDCCH search space.). It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use the method of providing QCL reference the corresponds to SSB index of Zhou et al. with the system of Nam et al. in order to provide a system that reduces processing complexity and enables faster beam switching.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 6-10 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
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to AJAY P CATTUNGAL whose telephone number is (571)270-7525. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:00-5:00 PM.
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/AJAY CATTUNGAL/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2467