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 Office Action is in response to the amendments received on 11/12/2025. Upon further search and consideration of the claims, the subject matters indicated as allowable in the previous office action are rejected now as follows.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1, 3, 14, 16, and 20 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.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement submitted on 11/12/2025 has been considered and made of record by the examiner.
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.
Claims 1, 2, 9, 13, 14, 15, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Raghavan et al. (hereinafter, referred to as Raghavan) (US 2023/0006721), in view of Raghavan et al. (US 2020/0195336).
As to claims 1, 14, and 20, Raghavan discloses an apparatus at a user equipment (UE) (see paragraph 0049), the apparatus comprising: a plurality of antenna arrays configured for beamforming (see paragraphs 0049 and 0116 and Fig. 4), wherein the plurality of antenna arrays comprises a first antenna array and a second antenna array coupled to the first antenna array (see paragraph 0116 and Fig. 4, antenna arrays 410-a, 410-b, and 410-c); one or more memories; and one or more processors coupled to the one or more memories, wherein the one or more processors are configured to cause the UE to (see paragraph 0005): identify a current foldable state (see paragraph 0129) of a plurality of foldable states of the UE (see paragraphs 0095 and 0129); transmit a request for a codebook update to a network entity (see paragraph 0053); receive a grant of at least one of one or more downlink reference signals or one or more uplink reference signals from the network entity (see the abstract and paragraphs 0053, 0098, and 0108-0109); communicate the at least one of the one or more downlink reference signals or the one or more uplink reference signals with the network entity (see paragraphs 0098-0100 and 0108-0109); update a beamforming codebook of a plurality of beamforming codebooks of the UE based on the current foldable state (see paragraphs 0099 and 0135) and further based on communication of the at least one of the one or more downlink reference signals or the one or more uplink reference signals (see paragraph 0108) to produce an updated beamforming codebook (see paragraphs 0108 and 0135), wherein each of the plurality of beamforming codebooks is associated with a respective configured foldable state of the plurality of foldable states (see paragraph 0124); and communicate with the network entity using the updated beamforming codebook (see paragraph 0135). Raghavan discloses all the subject matters claimed in claims 1, 14, and 20 except that each of the plurality of foldable states is defined by a respective angular separation between a first tile of the UE and a second tile of the UE, wherein the first tile comprises the first antenna array and the second tile comprises the second antenna array. Raghavan et al., in the same field of endeavor, discloses an apparatus at a user equipment (UE) (see the abstract), the apparatus comprising: a plurality of antenna arrays configured for beamforming (see the abstract and paragraph 0065), wherein the plurality of antenna arrays comprises a first antenna array and a second antenna array (see the abstract, and paragraph 0114, antenna arrays 210 in Figs. 2-6) and coupled to the first antenna array (for instance see Fig. 4, antenna arrays 210-h and 210-i); one or more memories (see paragraphs 0005, 0038, and 0192, see also Fig. 14, block 1430); and one or more processors coupled to the one or more memories (see paragraphs 0005, 0038, and 0192, see also Fig. 14, block 1440), wherein the one or more processors are configured to cause the UE to (see paragraph 0005): identify a current foldable state of a plurality of foldable states of the UE, wherein each of the plurality of foldable states is defined by a respective angular separation between a first tile of the UE and a second tile of the UE, wherein the first tile comprises the first antenna array and the second tile comprises the second antenna array (see paragraphs 0009-0010, 0016, 0067, and 0117-0118). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention was made to modify the teachings of Raghavan, as suggested by Raghavan et al., in order to determine the foldable states more accurately.
As to claims 2 and 15, Raghavan discloses that the one or more processors are further configured to cause the UE to: compare the current foldable state to each of the respective configured foldable states associated with the plurality of beamforming codebooks; and update the beamforming codebook in response to the current foldable state being different than any of the configured foldable states (see the abstract, Fig. 7, blocks 715 and 730, and paragraphs 0106 and 0130-0135).
As to claim 9, Raghavan discloses that the one or more processors are further configured to cause the UE to: re-calibrate the updated beamforming codebook for uplink-downlink radio frequency circuit level mismatches (see paragraphs 0110 and 0125).
As to claim 13, Raghavan et al. discloses calculating a current angular separation between the first tile and the second tile based on a set of sensor data (see paragraph 0011); and identify the current foldable state based on the current angular separation (see paragraphs 0016, 0117-0118, and 0121).
Claims 3, 5, 6, 16, 18, and 19, are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Raghavan and Raghavan et al., further in view of Raghavan et al. (US 2016/0198474) (hereinafter, referred to as Raghavan 474).
As to claims 3 and 16, Raghavan discloses an apparatus at a user equipment (UE) (see paragraph 0049), the apparatus comprising: a plurality of antenna arrays configured for beamforming (see paragraphs 0049 and 0116 and Fig. 4), wherein the plurality of antenna arrays comprises a first antenna array and a second antenna array coupled to the first antenna array (see paragraph 0116 and Fig. 4, antenna arrays 410-a, 410-b, and 410-c); one or more memories; and one or more processors coupled to the one or more memories, wherein the one or more processors are configured to cause the UE to (see paragraph 0005): identify a current foldable state (see paragraph 0129) of a plurality of foldable states of the UE (see paragraphs 0095 and 0129); select a first beamforming codebook of the a plurality of beamforming codebooks of the UE , wherein each of the plurality of beamforming codebooks is associated with a respective configured foldable state of the plurality of foldable states (see the abstract and paragraphs 0053, 0098, and 0099), wherein the first beamforming codebook is associated with a first configured foldable state (see the abstract and paragraphs 0053, 0098, and 0099), wherein the angular separation associated with the first configured foldable state is nearest to the angular separation associated with the current foldable state among each of the plurality of beamforming codebooks (see paragraphs 0099 and 0106, wherein the “foldable state” is interpreted as the angular separation); update a beamforming codebook of a plurality of beamforming codebooks of the UE based on the current foldable state (see paragraphs 0099 and 0135); and communicate with the network entity using the updated beamforming codebook (see paragraph 0135). Raghavan discloses all the subject matters claimed in claims 3 and 16, except that each of the plurality of foldable states is defined by a respective angular separation between a first tile of the UE and a second tile of the UE, wherein the first tile comprises the first antenna array and the second tile comprises the second antenna array. Raghavan also does not disclose analyzing a current performance of the first beamforming codebook and updating the first beamforming codebook to produce an updated beamforming codebook in response to the current performance failing to meet an expected performance. Raghavan et al., in the same field of endeavor, discloses an apparatus at a user equipment (UE) (see the abstract), the apparatus comprising: a plurality of antenna arrays configured for beamforming (see the abstract and paragraph 0065), wherein the plurality of antenna arrays comprises a first antenna array and a second antenna array (see the abstract, and paragraph 0114, antenna arrays 210 in Figs. 2-6) and coupled to the first antenna array (for instance see Fig. 4, antenna arrays 210-h and 210-i); one or more memories (see paragraphs 0005, 0038, and 0192, see also Fig. 14, block 1430); and one or more processors coupled to the one or more memories (see paragraphs 0005, 0038, and 0192, see also Fig. 14, block 1440), wherein the one or more processors are configured to cause the UE to (see paragraph 0005): identify a current foldable state of a plurality of foldable states of the UE, wherein each of the plurality of foldable states is defined by a respective angular separation between a first tile of the UE and a second tile of the UE, wherein the first tile comprises the first antenna array and the second tile comprises the second antenna array (see paragraphs 0009-0010, 0016, 0067, and 0117-0118). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention was made to modify the teachings of Raghavan, as suggested by Raghavan et al., in order to determine the foldable states more accurately. Raghavan and Raghavan et al. disclose all the subject matters claimed in claims 3 and 16, except for analyzing a current performance of the first beamforming codebook and updating the first beamforming codebook to produce an updated beamforming codebook in response to the current performance failing to meet an expected performance. Raghavan 474, in the same field of endeavor, discloses selecting a first beamforming codebook of the plurality of beamforming codebooks (see paragraphs 0017 and 0073-0074, where the first beamforming codebook is a default codebook (e.g., a coarse codebook)); analyze a current performance of the first beamforming codebook (see paragraphs 0073-0074, wherein the SNR represents the performance); and update the first beamforming codebook to produce the updated beamforming codebook in response to the current performance failing to meet an expected performance (see paragraph 0074). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention was made to modify the teachings of Raghavan and Raghavan et al., as suggested by Raghavan 474, in order to obtain the optimal codebook for transmitting the signals and improve the performance of the communication system.
As to claims 5 and 18, Raghavan discloses that the first beamforming codebook comprises a first set of beam weights associated with a respective predetermined set of beam directions from each of the first antenna array and the second antenna array (see paragraphs 0076-0077). Raghavan and Raghavan et al. do not disclose analyzing the current performance utilizing the first set of beam weights (i.e., the first beamforming codebook). However, as explained above, Raghavan 474, in the same field of endeavor, discloses selecting a first beamforming codebook of the plurality of beamforming codebooks (see paragraphs 0017 and 0073-0074, where the first beamforming codebook is a default codebook (e.g., a coarse codebook)); analyzing a current performance of the first beamforming codebook (see paragraphs 0073-0074, wherein the SNR represents the performance); and updating the first beamforming codebook to produce the updated beamforming codebook in response to the current performance failing to meet an expected performance (see paragraph 0074). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention was made to modify the teachings of Raghavan and Raghavan et al., as suggested by Raghavan 474, in order to obtain the optimal codebook for transmitting the signals and improve the performance of the communication system.
As to claims 6 and 19, Raghavan discloses that the one or more processors are further configured to cause the UE to: determine a set of one or more co-phasing factors, each indicating a respective phase deviation across the first antenna array and the second antenna array based on the current foldable state (see paragraphs 0076-0077, 0097, and 0109); and modify one or more beam weights in the first beamforming codebook using the set of one or more co-phasing factors to produce the updated beamforming codebook (see paragraphs 0076-0077, 0097, and 0109).
Claims 10-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Raghavan and Raghavan et al., further in view of Shen et al. (hereinafter, referred to as Shen) (WO 2019/114690).
As to claim 10, Raghavan and Raghavan et al. disclose all the subject matters claimed in claim 10, except for transmitting the one or more uplink reference signals to the network entity; receiving feedback from the network entity based on the one or more uplink reference signals; and updating the beamforming codebook using the feedback to produce the updated beamforming codebook. Shen, in the same field of endeavor, discloses a communication system comprising a UE and a network entity (see Fig. 1, UE 110 and network entity 100 and page 5, lines 19-31). Shen further discloses transmitting the one or more uplink reference signals to the network entity; receiving feedback from the network entity based on the one or more uplink reference signals; and updating the beamforming codebook using the feedback to produce the updated beamforming codebook (see page 5, lines 19-31). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention was made to modify the teachings of Raghavan and Raghavan et al., as suggested by Shen, in order to increase the performance of the precoding/beamforming process.
As to claim 11, Shen discloses that the feedback comprises one or more beamforming weights, each indicating a respective phase deviation across the first antenna array and the second antenna array based upon respective combinations of the one or more uplink reference signals (see page 5, lines 19-31). Shen does not disclose any relationship between the beamforming weights and co-phasing factors. However, this limitation is disclosed by Raghavan. Raghavan discloses that the one or more processors are further configured to cause the UE to: determine a set of one or more co-phasing factors, each indicating a respective phase deviation across the first antenna array and the second antenna array based on the current foldable state (see paragraphs 0076-0077, 0097, and 0109); and modify one or more beam weights in the first beamforming codebook using the set of one or more co-phasing factors to produce the updated beamforming codebook (see paragraphs 0076-0077, 0097, and 0109).
As to claim 12, Shen further discloses that the feedback comprises one or more updated beam weights to produce the updated beamforming codebook (see page 5, lines 19-31).
Conclusion
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LEILA . MALEK
Examiner
Art Unit 2632
/LEILA MALEK/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2632