CTNF 18/704,192 CTNF 85916 Detailed Action Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status 07-03-aia AIA 15-10-aia The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA. Priority 23-19 AIA Should applicant desire to obtain the benefit of foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d) prior to declaration of an interference, a certified English translation of the foreign application must be submitted in reply to this action. 37 CFR 41.154(b) and 41.202(e). Failure to provide a certified translation may result in no benefit being accorded for the non-English application. Applicant cannot rely upon the certified copy of the foreign priority application to overcome this rejection because a translation of said application has not been made of record in accordance with 37 CFR 1.55. When an English language translation of a non-English language foreign application is required, the translation must be that of the certified copy (of the foreign application as filed) submitted together with a statement that the translation of the certified copy is accurate. See MPEP §§ 215 and 216. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102 07-07-aia AIA 07-07 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 – 07-12-aia AIA (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. 07-15-03-aia AIA Claim (s) 1, 11, 16, 20-21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Dai (US 2023/0087862 A1) . Regarding claims 1 & 16, Dai discloses communication method, applied to a first communication node/a second communication mode (see [0005], “The first wireless node” or “second wireless node”), comprising: sending/receiving array element activation signaling to a second communication node/first communication node (see [0005], “transmit, …a first signal modulated using a first modulation signature,” and see “received by the second wireless node” or interchangeable visa versa) so that the second communication node adjusts a working state (see state change for the RIS, [0094]) of an array element through the array element activation signaling (see [0036], “each reconfigurable element may be independently configured such that the combination of configured states of the reconfigurable elements reflects an incident signal or waveform in a controlled manner. For example, the reconfigurable elements may be configured to reflect or redirect an impinging signal in a controlled manner, such as by reflecting the impinging signal in a desired direction”), wherein the array element is coupled to the second communication node and is configured to transmit a cell signal (see antennas of first and second wireless nodes 234a-234t and 252a-252r, can be “antenna arrays” etc). Regarding 11, Dai discloses the method according to claim 1, wherein the array element activation signaling is comprised in one of the following signaling: a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) (see PDCCH, [0112]), medium access control-control element (MAC-CE) signaling (see MAC-CE, [0112]), or radio resource control (RRC) signaling (see RRC, [0112]). Regarding 20, Dai discloses the communication device, comprising a communication module (see fig. 2, note3 comm unit), a memory (see fig. 2, note memory), and at least one processor (see fig. 2, note processor), wherein the communication module is configured to perform communication interaction with another communication node (see communication between nodes in fig. 2); the memory is configured to store at least one program (see program [0284]); and when the at least one program is executed by the at least one processor (see processor [0284]), the at least one processor is caused to implement the communication method according to claim 1. Regarding 21, Dai discloses the non-transitory storage medium storing a computer program, wherein the communication method according to claim 1 is implemented when the computer program is executed by a processor (see computer program and processor in [0284]) . Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103 07-20-aia AIA 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. 07-21-aia AIA Claim 19 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Dai et al. (US 2023/0087862 A1) in view of Gopalakrishnan et al (US 2017/0034720 A1) in further view of Li (CN 112732639 A)(Machine Translation) . Regarding 19, Dai discloses communication method, applied to a third communication node, comprising: sending instruction a first communication node (first wireless node [0005]) so that the first communication node sends array element activation signaling to a second communication node (see [0005] “The first wireless node may be configured to transmit, to a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS), a first signal modulated using a first modulation signature” and “ received by the second wireless node.”) and the second communication node adjusts a working state of (see state change [0094]) an array element through the array element activation signaling (see [0036], “each reconfigurable element may be independently configured such that the combination of configured states of the reconfigurable elements reflects an incident signal or waveform in a controlled manner. For example, the reconfigurable elements may be configured to reflect or redirect an impinging signal in a controlled manner, such as by reflecting the impinging signal in a desired direction”), wherein the array element is coupled to the second communication node and is configured to transmit a cell signal (see antennas of first and second wireless nodes 234a-234t and 252a-252r, can be “antenna arrays” etc), Dai does not specifically disclose however Gopalakrishnan discloses determining a to-be-optimized cell according to key performance indicator (KPI) statistical information (see “Key Performance Indicators” via “statistical” [0026]) and user experience feedback information (see user feedback [0065] ); It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to combine the teachings of Gopalakrishnan with that of Dai. Doing so would improve efficiency and accuracy. Dai in view of Gopalakrishnan do not specifically disclose however Li (CN 112732639 A) discloses sending a coverage performance optimization instruction (see signal for “coverage and performance optimization, page 9, 3 rd para. near bottom) and the coverage performance optimization instruction is used for instructing (see “generates a selection signal ”; page 9, 3 rd para. near bottom) that a coverage performance optimization operation is performed on the to-be-optimized cell in the second communication node (see signal for “coverage and performance optimization, page 9, 3 rd para. near bottom); It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to combine the teachings of Li with that of Dai in view of Gopalakrishnan. Doing so would conform to well-known techniques in the field of invention . 07-21-aia AIA Claim (s) 2-3 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Dai et al. (US 2023/0087862 A1) in view of Li (CN 112732639 A) . Regarding 2, Dai discloses method according to claim 1, further comprising Dai discloses by a third communication node (see [0135 implies a third wireless node]) Dai does not specifically disclose however Li best discloses receiving a coverage performance optimization instruction sent or generating a coverage performance optimization instruction in advance (see signal for “coverage and performance optimization, page 9, 3 rd para. near bottom), wherein the coverage performance optimization instruction is used for instructing that a coverage performance optimization operation is performed on a to-be-optimized cell in the second communication node (see signal for “coverage and performance optimization, page 9, 3 rd para. near bottom); It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to combine the teachings of Li with that of Dai. Doing so would conform to well-known techniques in the field of invention. Regarding 3, Dai discloses method according to claim 1, further comprising: Li best discloses determining an optimal array element activation mode of the to-be-optimized cell in the second communication node (see [0039], “the Tx UE may sweep the sensing signal over different beam directions to attempt to determine a beam direction that results in the sensing signal being reflected by the RIS”) according to current coverage performance of the to-be-optimized cell and expected coverage performance of the to-be-optimized cell (see signal for “coverage and performance optimization, page 9, 3 rd para. near bottom). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to combine the teachings of Li with that of Dai. Doing so would conform to well-known techniques in the field of invention . 07-21-aia AIA Claim (s) 4-5 & 17-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Dai et al. (US 2023/0087862 A1) in view of Metwaly Saad et al. (US 2023/0170976 A1) . Regarding 4 , method according to claim 1, further comprising: Dai discloses “and corresponds to the array element activation signaling” (see signaling [0005]) Dai does not specifically disclose however Metwaly Saad discloses receiving first reception acknowledgement signaling (see ack feedback [0048]) which is fed back by the second communication node; and sending codebook indication signaling (see UE beam codebook [0101]) or directivity signaling to the second communication node so that the second communication node switches to a corresponding beam (see switch beam, [0101]) according to the codebook indication signaling or the directivity signaling. (see UE beam codebook [0101]); It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to combine the teachings of Dai in view of Metwaly Saad. Doing so would conform to well-known techniques in the field of invention. Regarding claim 5, Dai discloses the method according to claim 1, further comprising: receiving second reception acknowledgement signaling which is fed back (see ack feedback [0048]) by -the second communication node and corresponds to the codebook indication signaling or the directivity signaling (see UE beam Codebook [0101]). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to combine the teachings of Dai in view of Metwaly Saad. Doing so would conform to well-known techniques in the field of invention. Regarding claim 17, Dai discloses the method according to claim 16, further comprising: Dai discloses signaling corresponding to the array element activation signaling to the first communication node (see [0005] see signaling) Dai does not specifically disclose however Metwaly Saad discloses feeding back first reception acknowledgement (see ack feedback [0048]) signaling; receiving codebook indication (see UE beam codebook [0101]) signaling or directivity signaling sent by the first communication node; and switching to a corresponding beam according to the codebook indication signaling or the directivity signaling (see UE beam codebook [0101]). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to combine the teachings of Dai in view of Metwaly Saad. Doing so would conform to well-known techniques in the field of invention. Regarding 18 , Dai discloses the method according to claim 17, further comprising: feeding back second reception acknowledgement signaling (see ack feedback [0048]) corresponding to the codebook indication signaling or the directivity signaling to the first communication node (see UE beam codebook [0101]). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to combine the teachings of Dai in view of Metwaly Saad. Doing so would conform to well-known techniques in the field of invention . 07-21-aia AIA Claim 12 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Dai et al. (US 2023/0087862 A1) in view of Li et al. in further view of Dhanda et al. (US 2022/0046586 A1) . Regarding 12, method according to claim 2, Dai does not specifically disclose however wherein the coverage performance optimization instruction Li best discloses however Dhanda discloses wherein the coverage performance optimization instruction (see signal for “coverage and performance optimization, page 9, 3 rd para. near bottom) It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to combine the teachings of Li with that of Dai. Doing so would conform to well-known techniques in the field of invention. Dai and Li do not specifically disclose however Dhanda specifically discloses comprises at least one of the following: a maximum coverage distance, a maximum coverage range, a horizontal width of a coverage region and a vertical width of the coverage region, or an RSRP threshold of a coverage region (see [0070], RSRP threshold indication). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to combine the teachings of Li with that of Dai in view of Dhanda. Doing so would improve accuracy and efficiency in communications . 07-21-aia AIA Claim 13 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Dai et al. (US 2023/0087862 A1) in view of Metwaly Saad et al. (US 2023/0170976 A1) in view of Park et al. (US 2019/0053193 A1) . Regarding 13, method according to claim 4, Dai in view of Metwaly Saad does not specifically disclose however Park discloses wherein each of the codebook indication signaling (see indicate that a coverage, [0382]) and the directivity signaling is used for indicating at least one of the following parameters: a horizontal width of a beam and a vertical width of the beam, a number of radiated beams (see number of beams [0383]), a beam shape, or a beam form; wherein the codebook indication signaling carries one of the following: a codebook index number or a codebook. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to combine the teachings of Metwaly Saad with that of Dai in view of Park. Doing so would improve accuracy and efficiency in communications . Allowable Subject Matter 12-151-08 AIA 07-43 12-51-08 Claim s 6-10 & 14 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 K. WILFORD SHAHEED whose telephone number is (469) 295-9175. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday 9 am-6pm; CST; ALT Friday. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. The examiner’s Supervisor, Jinsong Hu, can be reached at (571)272-3965, where attempts to reach the examiner are unsuccessful. 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. /KHALID W SHAHEED/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2643 Application/Control Number: 18/704,192 Page 2 Art Unit: 2643 Application/Control Number: 18/704,192 Page 3 Art Unit: 2643 Application/Control Number: 18/704,192 Page 4 Art Unit: 2643 Application/Control Number: 18/704,192 Page 5 Art Unit: 2643 Application/Control Number: 18/704,192 Page 6 Art Unit: 2643 Application/Control Number: 18/704,192 Page 7 Art Unit: 2643 Application/Control Number: 18/704,192 Page 8 Art Unit: 2643 Application/Control Number: 18/704,192 Page 9 Art Unit: 2643 Application/Control Number: 18/704,192 Page 10 Art Unit: 2643 Application/Control Number: 18/704,192 Page 11 Art Unit: 2643
Prosecution Insights