DETAILED ACTION
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
The information disclosure statement filed on 04/15/2024 and 08/12/2025 has been considered and placed of record in the file.
Oath/Declaration
The Oath or Declaration is being considered by examiner and complies with PTO requirements.
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) 11, 6-7, 10-12, 21, 26-27, and 30 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Haghighat et al. US 2024/0178883 in view of Yang et al. US 2024/0073882.
Consider claim 1, Haghighat discloses An apparatus for wireless communication by a network entity (see FIG. 4, transmitter 400), comprising: at least one processor and a memory (see FIG. 18, processor 1801 and memory 1804) configured to:
define a size of reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) elements (see FIG. 2 and ¶ [0100]);
define a set of patterns representing one or more active RIS elements or one or more inactive RIS elements, based on the size of the RIS elements (see FIG. 5 and ¶ [0107] and [0110-0111], wherein subset of unit cells i.e. set of patterns, that representing selecting (activating) and unselecting (deactivating) of unit cell); and
transmit, to a RIS controller, an indication of the size of the RIS elements and the set of patterns (see ¶ [0115], wherein the information representative of unit cell selection is transmitted to NP-RIS controller).
However Haghighat does not explicitly disclose define the set of patterns via a radio recourse control (RRC) configuration. Yang teaches define the set of patterns via a radio recourse control (RRC) configuration (see FIG. 4 and ¶ [0102-0104], wherein the control information includes an operating status of each passive unit of the intelligent surface device, may be carried in RRC). Yang further discloses providing beam control method and apparatus for an intelligent surface device (see ¶ [0002]). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to modify the invention of Haghighat, and to include define the set of pattern via a radio recourse control (RRC) configuration, as taught by Yang for the purpose of providing beam control method and apparatus for an intelligent surface device.
Claim 21 is rejected on the same ground as for claim 1 because of similar scope.
Consider claims 6 and 26 Haghighat discloses wherein a coefficient value of the one or more inactive RIS elements is determined using a function, and wherein the function is based at least on a coefficient value of the one or more active RIS elements (see ¶ [0107] and [0110]).
Consider claims 7 and 27, Haghighat discloses wherein the coefficient value is a phase value (see ¶ [0107]).
Consider claims 10 and 30, Haghighat discloses wherein a function is determined and parametrized based on a channel type (see ¶ [0112]).
Consider claim 11, Haghighat discloses wherein a coefficient value of the one or more inactive RIS elements is determined using a parametrized function (see ¶ [0110]).
Consider claim 12, Haghighat discloses wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: determine one or more channel parameters (see ¶ [0102-0103]); and transmit, to the RIS controller, the one or more channel parameters (see ¶ [0134]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 13, 15-16, and 18-20 are allowed.
Claims 3-5, 8-9, 23-25, and 28-29 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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/JANICE N TIEU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2633