DETAILED ACTION
This communication is in response to Application No. 18/780,083 filed on 7/22/2024. Claims 1-19 have been examined.
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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 7/22/2024 and 12/9/2025 is being considered by the examiner.
Specification
The specification is objected to because:
The title of the invention is not descriptive.
A new title is required that is clearly indicative of the invention to which the claims are directed.
Claim Objections
Claim 9 is objected to because of the following informalities:
In claim 9, line 6, the acronym “CSI-RS” should be corrected as –channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS)--.
Appropriate correction is required.
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, 4, 10-11, 13, and 18-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Park et al. (hereinafter Park)(US 2021/0051653) in view of Wu et al. (hereinafter Wu)(US 2021/0091834).
Regarding claims 1 and 10, Park teaches as follows:
A wireless communication method, comprising:
obtaining, by a first terminal device (interpreted as the first wireless device 2512 in figure 25), first information and/or second information (the first wireless device 2512 may receive, from the second wireless device 2516, at least one message (e.g., a sidelink message via a sidelink channel) comprising sidelink capability information 2520 (equivalent to applicant’s first and/or second information) of the second wireless device 2516, see, ¶ [0255] and figure 25),
wherein the first information is used to indicate whether a second terminal device (interpreted as the second wireless device 2516 in figure 25) supports a spatial domain reception filter (the wireless device may or may not have a capability of beam correspondence. The wireless device may determine a spatial domain filter of a transmit (Tx) beam, for example, based on a spatial domain filter of the corresponding Rx beam (equivalent to applicant’s spatial domain reception filter), if the wireless device has the capability of beam correspondence, see, ¶ [0159]), and
the second information is used to indicate whether the second terminal device supports beam correspondence, or the second information is used to indicate whether the second terminal device has a beam correspondence capability (the sidelink capability information 2520 of the second wireless device 2516 may indicate whether or not the second wireless device 2516 supports multiple beam operation (e.g., beam switching, beam failure recovery procedure, beam correspondence, etc.), see, ¶ [0264]).
Park does not explicitly teach the first information indicating whether the second terminal device supports a spatial domain reception filter.
Wu teaches as follows:
The terminal device reports the capability value, so that the network device can directly determine a capability of the terminal device based on the capability value, and no additional calculation process is required. This can reduce calculation overheads (see, ¶ [0038]); and
the terminal device may further report, by using the capability indication information, whether a single spatial domain receive filter is supported (see, ¶ [0044]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Park with Wu to include reporting the capability indication information as taught by Wu in order for a receiving terminal device to directly determine a capability of the transmitting terminal device and also reduce calculation overheads at the receiving terminal device.
Regarding claims 2 and 11, Park teaches as follows:
Sending, by the first terminal device, first indication information to the second terminal device, wherein the first indication information is used to instruct the second terminal device to select a spatial domain reception filter (the wireless device may receive a downlink transmission with an Rx beam determined based on the one or more TCI states. The wireless device may or may not have a capability of beam correspondence. The wireless device may determine a spatial domain filter of a transmit (Tx) beam, for example, based on a spatial domain filter of the corresponding Rx beam, if the wireless device has the capability of beam correspondence, see, ¶ [0159]).
Regarding claims 4 and 13, Park teaches as follows:
Sending, by the first terminal device, second indication information to the second terminal device, wherein the second indication information is used to configure at least one transmission configuration indication (TCI) state, and each TCI state in the at least one TCI state is associated with one reference signal resource (the base station may configure the wireless device with a reporting configuration, and the wireless device may report the RSRP measurements to a network based on the reporting configuration. The base station may determine, based on the reported measurement results, one or more transmission configuration indication (TCI) states comprising a number of reference signals. The base station may indicate one or more TCI states to the wireless device. The wireless device may receive a downlink transmission with an Rx beam determined based on the one or more TCI states, see, ¶ [0159]).
Regarding claims 18-19, Park teaches as follows:
A terminal device (interpreted as the computing device (1530 in figure 15B) used to implement the wireless device (2512 and 2516 in figure 25)), wherein the terminal device is a first and second terminal device and, comprising a processor (1531 in figure 15B) and a memory (RAM 1533 in figure 15B), wherein the memory is configured to store a computer program, and the processor is configured to invoke the computer program stored in the memory and run the computer program (the computing device 1530 may include one or more processors 1531, which may execute instructions stored in the random-access memory (RAM) 1533, see, ¶ [0208] and figure 15B).
Claims 3 and 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Park et al. (hereinafter Park)(US 2021/0051653) in view of Wu et al. (hereinafter Wu)(US 2021/0091834), and further in view of Park et al. (hereinafter Park ‘594)(US 2021/0360594).
Regarding claims 3 and 12, Park in view of Wu teaches all limitations as presented above except for selecting a spatial domain reception filter based on the value of the firs information field.
Park ‘594 teaches as follows:
The wireless device may determine, in response to the value being indicated as the first value, a spatial domain filter, for transmission of a UL signal, based on applying the activated DL TCI state. The wireless device may transmit the UL signal using the spatial domain filter (see, ¶ [0333]); and
the wireless device may receive a second control command comprising the field to indicate a second value of the one or more UL TCI codepoints. The wireless device may determine, in response to the value being indicated as the second value, a second spatial domain filter, for transmission of a UL signal, based on applying the SRI. The wireless device may transmit the UL signal using the second spatial domain filter (see, ¶ [0334]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Park in view of Wu with Park ‘594 to include using a value in a control command as taught by Park ‘594 in order to efficiently select appropriate spatial domain filter.
Claims 5 and 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Park et al. (hereinafter Park)(US 2021/0051653) in view of Wu et al. (hereinafter Wu)(US 2021/0091834), and further in view of Gulati et al. (hereinafter Gulati)(US 2024/0015527).
Regarding claims 5 and 14, Park in view of Wu teaches all limitations as presented above except for the TCI state associated with sidelink data.
Gulati taches as follows:
The first wireless device may transmit a sidelink communication to other wireless devices using a transmit beam associated with a particular TCI state, where the sidelink communication may indicate that the first wireless device supports a beam correspondence and may further indicate the particular TCI state. Another wireless device that receive the sidelink communication may determine link qualities of its various beams based on the sidelink communication, and select a receive beam that corresponds to the transmit beam of the first wireless device based on the link qualities (see, ¶ [0131]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Park in view of Wu with Gulati to include the sidelink communication with TCI state as taught by Gulati in order for the wireless device receiving the sidelink communication to efficiently select a receive beam.
Claims 6-7 and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Park et al. (hereinafter Park)(US 2021/0051653) in view of Wu et al. (hereinafter Wu)(US 2021/0091834), and further in view of Zhang et al. (hereinafter Zhang)(US 2022/0149901).
Regarding claims 6-7 and 15, Park in view of Wu teaches all limitations as presented above except for the determining a spatial domain filter based on the target reference signal.
Zhang teaches as follows:
The terminal device may receive a target signal based on receive beam information that is of the source reference signal and that is indicated by using the QCL information. For another example, the terminal device may send a target signal based on transmit beam information that is of the source reference signal and that is indicated by using the spatial relation information. The spatial relation parameter information may be equivalent to a spatial filter (spatial domain transmission/receive filter)(see, ¶ [0106]); and
the QCL information may be used to indicate a QCL relationship between two reference signals. The target reference signal may be usually a demodulation reference signal (DMRS), a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS), or the like. A referenced reference signal or the source reference signal may be usually a CSI-RS, a synchronization signal and physical broadcast channel block, a sounding reference signal (SRS), or the like (see, ¶ [0108]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Park in view of Wu with Zhang to include utilizing target reference signal as taught by Zhang in order to efficiently select appropriate spatial domain reception/transmission filter from multiple spatial domain filters.
Claims 8 and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Park et al. (hereinafter Park)(US 2021/0051653) in view of Wu et al. (hereinafter Wu)(US 2021/0091834), and further in view of Ganesan et al. (hereinafter Ganesan)(US 2020/0260231).
Regarding claims 8 and 16, Park in view of Wu teaches all limitations as presented above except for the physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH) carrying sidelink feedback information.
Ganesan teaches as follows:
Transmission of a feedback message may be based on sidelink control information (SCI), physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH), a medium access control (“MAC”) control element (“CE”), or multiplexing of a feedback message with a PSSCH (see, ¶ [0070]); and
if a UE is capable of beam-correspondence, then multiple resource occasions for PSFCH are configured corresponding to each beam, panel, and/or spatial filter on which PSSCH is transmitted, where the same spatial filter is used to transmit PSFCH as used to receive the corresponding PSSCH. Each of the PSFCH resources corresponding to each transmission of PSSCH in a certain spatial direction, beam, panel, and/or spatial filter is configured with a certain offset (see, ¶ [0097]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Park in view of Wu with Ganesan to include the physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH) as taught by Ganesan in order to efficiently transmit sidelink feedback message.
Claims 9 and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Park et al. (hereinafter Park)(US 2021/0051653) in view of Wu et al. (hereinafter Wu)(US 2021/0091834), and further in view of Xu et al. (hereinafter Xu)(US 2020/0260428).
Regarding claims 9 and 17, Park in view of Wu teaches all limitations as presented above except for using CSI-RS to select a spatial domain reception/transmission filter.
Xu teaches as follows:
The wireless device may determine a spatial domain transmission filter based on the RS (e.g., the wireless device may determine the spatial domain transmission filter according to UE capability of beam correspondence based on an SSB or a CSI-RS indicated by the DCI). The UE capability of beam correspondence may comprise UE capability of determining an uplink transmission beam based on a downlink reception beam. The UE capability of beam correspondence may comprise UE capability of determining a downlink reception beam based on an uplink transmission beam (see, ¶ [0442]);
a wireless device may receive, from a base station, one or more messages comprising spatial relation configuration parameters of a physical uplink control channel, wherein the configuration parameters may indicate a plurality of reference signal (RS) sets (see, ¶ [0447]);
each of the plurality of RS sets may comprise a set of RSs. The set of RSs may comprise one or more CSI-RSs (see, ¶ [0461]); and
a wireless device may further use CSI-RS in the multi-beam operation for estimating a beam quality of a links between a wireless device and a base station (see, ¶ [0279]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Park in view of Wu with Xu to include determining a spatial domain transmission filter based on the CSI-RS as taught by Xu in order to efficiently select a spatial domain transmission/receive filter based on estimated a beam quality in a multi-beam operation.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Jeong S Park whose telephone number is (571)270-1597. The examiner can normally be reached Monday through Friday 8:00-4:30 ET.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Rebecca E Song can be reached at 571-270-3667. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JEONG S PARK/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2417
July 10, 2026
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