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 .
Response to Amendment
This communication is considered fully responsive to the Arguments/Remarks filed on 7/23/2026.
Claims 1, 12, 28 and 31-33 have been amended.
Claims 11, 13, 15 and 29 have been cancelled.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 28 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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 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) 28 and 31 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Grant et al. (US 2024/0430899, hereinafter “Grant”) in view of Davydov et al. (US 2024/0260010, hereinafter “Davydov”).
For claim 28, Grant discloses A processor of a base station configured to perform operations (see Grant Fig. 13) comprising:
transmitting multi-slot physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) monitoring (MSM) parameters to a user equipment (UE), wherein the UE utilizes multiple slot groups to perform MSM (FIG. 9 is a flow diagram that shows exemplary operations performed by a user equipment for multi-slot PDCCH monitoring according to an embodiment. FIG. 9 is described with respect to the exemplary embodiments 1A, 1B, and 3. At operation 905, a UE receives a search space configuration from a network node such as a gNB; see Grant par. 0134 and Fig. 9); and
Grant does not explicitly disclose wherein the MSM parameters include one or more parameters for monitoring a Type 2 Common Search Space (CSS) within a slot group including a set of bits indicating a location of the Type 2 CSS within the slot group. Davydov discloses wherein the MSM parameters include one or more parameters for monitoring a Type 2 Common Search Space (CSS) within a slot group including a set of bits indicating a location of the Type 2 CSS within the slot group (gNB may configure extra PDCCH monitoring occasions for a CAT-2 search space set in slots other than the Y slots that UE can monitored based on the multi-slot PDCCH monitoring capability. That is, it relies on dropping one or multiple slots for the CAT-2 search space sets to satisfy the slot pattern of the multi-slot PDCCH monitoring capability (X, Y). The configured MOs of the SS set within the Y slots in a X-slot group can be actually monitored by the UE. The remaining MOs outside the Y slots are not monitored. The MOs of the SS set can be configured in the X slots in a X-slot group. The MOs of the SS set in the X slots can be configured by a bitmap of 14X bits, which enables the configuration of MO from any symbol in the X slots. Alternatively, certain compression can be considered. If the MO of the SS set can only start from a fixed symbol, e.g., symbol 0 in a slot, the configuration can be reduced to X bits. Further, MOs of the SS set in each slot can be same, i.e., monitoringSymbolsWithinSlot is commonly applied for all the Y slots within X-slot group, and X bits may indicate which slot in X slots are configured with MOs. If the MO of the SS set can only start from up to two fixed symbols, e.g., symbol 0 and/or 7 in a slot, the configuration can be reduced to 2 bits; see Davydov par. 0097).
Grant does not explicitly disclose transmitting information to the UE on the PDCCH. Davydov discloses transmitting information to the UE on the PDCCH (Though gNB can transmit an arbitrary subset of SSBs, there is a limitation on the indicated SSBs by ssbPositionsinBurst in SIB1. In every group of 8 consecutive SSBs, the same pattern of transmitted SSBs is indicated by inOneGroup. With this option, the configured MOs for a search space set can be aligned with the search space set 0 associated with the indicated SSBs by ssb-PositionsinBurst in SIB1. That is, assuming the search space set 0 is determined in slot offset no in a X-slot group for the k_th SSB, the k_th MO for the search space set can be configured in the same slot offset no in the X-slot group. This property is especially useful for the configuration ofType0A/2 CSS sets with search space set non-zero. Without change of the existing high layer procedure for paging and SI update in 3GPPTS 38.304 and 38.331, the MO to monitoring DCI for paging or for other system information for a SSB can be in a same slot offset in the X-slot group as the MO to monitoring search space set 0 for the same SSB. Therefore, no matter the SSB for the UE changes or not, UE can monitor both search space set 0 and Type0A/2 CSS sets in the same Y2 slots in the X-slot group; see Davydov par. 0117). It would have been obvious to the ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to use Davydov's arrangement in Grant's invention to allow for PDCCH monitoring that consider the slot pattern of the PDCCH monitoring occasions of all configured search space sets (see Davydov par. 0004).
For claim 31, Grant discloses The processor of claim 28, wherein the MSM parameters comprise a slot group size, a span of PDCCH to be monitored within a slot group and a time offset relative to the slot group size (At operation 410, a UE receives a search space configuration from a network node (e.g., SearchSpace). The search space configuration may include the following: a period in terms of X-slot groups; an offset in terms of X-slot groups within the period; a duration in terms of X-slot groups within the period; and a parameter that indicates which one or more symbols to monitor within a slot (e.g., monitoringSymbolsWithinSlot); see Grant par. 0087-0091).
Claim(s) 32 and 33 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Grant and Davydov, and further in view of “Li” (US 2024/0196414).
For claim 32, the combination of Grant and Davydov does not explicitly disclose The processor of claim 28, wherein the MSM parameters comprise a slot group size and wherein a span of PDCCH to be monitored within a slot group and a time offset relative to the slot group size are implicitly provided to the UE. Li discloses The processor of claim 28, wherein the MSM parameters comprise a slot group size and wherein a span of PDCCH to be monitored within a slot group and a time offset relative to the slot group size are implicitly provided to the UE (2. The PDCCH monitoring capability information includes at least one of the following: whether the multislot-based PDCCH monitoring capability is supported may be explicitly or implicitly indicated (for example, whether a specified SCS is supported); whether a fixed-slot-group-based PDCCH monitoring capability is supported; and if so, one or more of the following are included: group; a size X of a fixed slot group; a time offset O of a start slot of the fixed slot the number Y of configurable PDCCH monitoring occasions within the fixed slot group; whether a slot-granularity-span-based PDCCH monitoring capability is supported; and if so, one or more of the following are included: the minimum number X of gap slots between consecutive spans based on the slot granularity; the maximum number Y of consecutive slots for a span based on the slot granularity; the number M of slots included in a time unit for the span based on the slot granularity; a time offset O for the time unit of the span based on the slot granularity; whether mixed PDCCH monitoring capabilities are supported for different BWPs of a same cell; or whether mixed PDCCH monitoring capabilities are used for different cells. The mixed PDCCH monitoring capabilities include one or more of any combination of multislot-based, slot-based, and/or symbol-level-span-based PDCCH monitoring capabilities; see Li par. 0375-0389). It would have been obvious to the ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to use Li's arrangement in Grant's invention to increase the probability that the SS configurations for the N cells satisfies the PDCCH monitoring capability corresponding to the N cells (see Li par. 0215).
For claim 33, the combination of Grant and Davydov does not explicitly disclose The processor of claim 28, wherein the MSM parameters comprise a slot group size and a time offset relative to the slot group size and wherein a span of PDCCH to be monitored within a slot group is implicitly provided to the UE. Li discloses The processor of claim 28, wherein the MSM parameters comprise a slot group size and a time offset relative to the slot group size and wherein a span of PDCCH to be monitored within a slot group is implicitly provided to the UE (2. The PDCCH monitoring capability information includes at least one of the following: whether the multislot-based PDCCH monitoring capability is supported may be explicitly or implicitly indicated (for example, whether a specified SCS is supported); whether a fixed-slot-group-based PDCCH monitoring capability is supported; and if so, one or more of the following are included: group; a size X of a fixed slot group; a time offset O of a start slot of the fixed slot the number Y of configurable PDCCH monitoring occasions within the fixed slot group; whether a slot-granularity-span-based PDCCH monitoring capability is supported; and if so, one or more of the following are included: the minimum number X of gap slots between consecutive spans based on the slot granularity; the maximum number Y of consecutive slots for a span based on the slot granularity; the number M of slots included in a time unit for the span based on the slot granularity; a time offset O for the time unit of the span based on the slot granularity; whether mixed PDCCH monitoring capabilities are supported for different BWPs of a same cell; or whether mixed PDCCH monitoring capabilities are used for different cells. The mixed PDCCH monitoring capabilities include one or more of any combination of multislot-based, slot-based, and/or symbol-level-span-based PDCCH monitoring capabilities; see Li par. 0375-0389). It would have been obvious to the ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to use Li's arrangement in Grant's invention to increase the probability that the SS configurations for the N cells satisfies the PDCCH monitoring capability corresponding to the N cells (see Li par. 0215).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1, 2, 4-8, 12, 21-24 are allowed.
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance: claims 1, 2, 4-8, 12, 21-24 are allowed because the closest prior arts listed above either alone or in combination, fail to anticipate or render obvious, the claimed invention of “configure an updated second SS set of the second slot group for MSM; process, based on signals received from the network, a medium access control (MAC) control element (CE) activation command indicating a location to be used for the updated second SS set, wherein the UE receives a radio resource control (RRC) configuration of a transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state indication for the updated second SS set and wherein the TCI state is associated with a synchronization signal block (SSB) or a channel state information (CSI)-reference signal (RS); and perform MSM using the updated first SS set and the updated second SS set”, in combination with all other limitations in the claim(s) above as defined by applicant.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CHAE S LEE whose telephone number is (571)272-8236. The examiner can normally be reached 8:30AM - 5:00PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Jeffrey Rutkowski can be reached at (571) 270-1215. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/CHAE S LEE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2415
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