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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1, 4, 5, 11-13, 15 and 16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Luo (US 10,312,973).
Regarding claims 1 and 11, Luo discloses a method and an apparatus comprising:
processing circuitry configured to be communicatively coupled to a plurality of antennas (Figure 12, processor 180 coupled to antenna structures 111-114 via control switch 130) and further configured to:
generate grip data indicating a user grip of a user equipment (UE) (Column 13 lines 36-37, 49-50, 57-58; Column 16 lines 64-Column 17 line 8; Column 17 lines 9-10, 23-24, 30-32; Column 18 line 28, hand modes [grip data] of a mobile phone [UE]), the UE including a plurality of antennas (Figures 6-12 and 15, antenna structures 111-114 of electronic device 10 being the mobile phone);
select, based on antenna data, an antenna optimization parameter that includes at least one of: an antenna subset of the plurality of antennas (Column 13 lines 36-37, 49-50, 57-58; Column 16 lines 64-Column 17 line 8; Column 17 lines 9-10, 23-24, 30-32; Column 18 line 28, antenna structure selection as master antenna for signal transmission/reception and remaining antenna structures as diversity antennas) or a tuner state, the antenna data indicating that, based on the grip data, the antenna optimization parameter is associated with a likelihood of providing the best antenna performance from among the plurality of antennas (Column 13 lines 36-37, 49-50, 57-58; Column 16 lines 64-Column 17 line 8; Column 17 lines 9-10, 23-24, 30-32; Column 18 line 28, antenna structure selection as master antenna for signal transmission/reception and remaining antenna structures as diversity antennas; Column 16 lines 64-66, antenna structure selected as master antenna based on providing maximum signal quality for the current hand mode [grip data])or from among a plurality of tuner states; and
exchange, using at least one of: an antenna of the antenna subset or the tuner state, data (Column 13 lines 36-37, 49-50, 57-58; Column 16 lines 64-Column 17 line 8; Column 17 lines 9-10, 23-24, 30-32; Column 18 line 28, antenna structure selection as master antenna for signal transmission/reception).
Regarding claim 4, Luo discloses wherein the user grip is one of candidate user grips (Column 13 lines 36-37, 49-50, 57-58; Column 16 lines 64-Column 17 line 8; Column 17 lines 9-10, 23-24, 30-32; Column 18 line 28, hand modes [grip data] of a mobile phone [UE]), wherein the antenna data associates, each one of the candidate user grips, with a corresponding antenna subset of the plurality of antennas (Column 13 lines 36-37, 49-50, 57-58; Column 16 lines 64-Column 17 line 8; Column 17 lines 9-10, 23-24, 30-32; Column 18 line 28, antenna structure selection as master antenna for signal transmission/reception and remaining antenna structures as diversity antennas; Column 16 lines 64-66, antenna structure selected as master antenna based on providing maximum signal quality for the current hand mode [grip data]).
Regarding claim 5, Luo discloses wherein at least two antenna subsets indicated by the antenna data differ by at least one antenna (Figures 6-12 and 15, antenna structures 111-114 of electronic device 10 being the mobile phone).
Regarding claim 12, Luo discloses wherein the antenna subset includes a first antenna and a second antenna of the plurality of antennas (Figures 6-12 and 15, antenna structures 111-114 of electronic device 10), and wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:
determine a first reference signal measurement corresponding to the first antenna and a second reference signal measurement corresponding to the second antenna (Column 16 lines 35-54, The signal quality of the first antenna structure 111, the second antenna structure 112 and the third antenna structure 113 is detected and acquired…a parameter such as Signal to Interference plus Noise Ratio (SINR), Reference Signal Receiving Power (RSRP) and Received Signal Strength Indication (RSSI) is detected to judge the signal quality of the antenna structure);
determine a first maximum transmit power level (MTPL) correspond to the first antenna and a second maximum transmit power level (MTPL) corresponds to the second antenna (Figure 13 step S101, acquiring transmit power of the antenna structures); and
select the antenna optimization parameter based on the first reference signal measurement, the second reference signal measurement (Column 16 lines 46-56, antenna structure selection based on signal quality from RSRP/RSSI measurement), the first maximum transmit power level, and the second maximum transmit power level (Figure 13 step S102, antenna structure selection as master antenna based on power levels of respective antenna structures compared to a threshold).
Regarding claim 13, Luo discloses wherein the first reference signal measurement includes at least one of: a first reference signal received power (RSRP) measured based on a first reception of a reference signal by the first antenna, a first received signal strength indicator (RSSI) measured based on the first reception, or a first signal to interference and noise ratio (SINR) measured based on the first reception, and wherein the second reference signal measurement includes at least one of: a second RSRP measured based on a second reception of the reference signal by the second antenna, a second RSSI measured based on the second reception, or a second SINR measured based on the reception (Column 16 lines 35-54, The signal quality of the first antenna structure 111, the second antenna structure 112 and the third antenna structure 113 is detected and acquired…a parameter such as Signal to Interference plus Noise Ratio (SINR), Reference Signal Receiving Power (RSRP) and Received Signal Strength Indication (RSSI) is detected to judge the signal quality of the antenna structure).
Regarding claim 15, Luo discloses wherein the antenna data includes, for each antenna that belongs to the antenna subset, a bias offset relative to one or more remaining antennas excluded from the antenna subset (Figures 6-12 and 15, antenna structures 111-114 of electronic device 10, each antenna structure corresponding to an antenna subset and excluding other antennas in other antenna structures).
Regarding claim 16, Luo discloses one or more computer-readable storage media storing instructions that, upon execution at a user equipment (UE) (Inherent in the UE of figures 6-12 and 15), configure the UE to perform operations comprising:
receiving network data by using a first antenna of a plurality of antennas of the UE (Column 5 lines 42-44, electronic device 10 including antenna structure to transmit and receive signals; Figures 6-12 and 15, antenna structures 111-114 of electronic device 10 being the mobile phone);
generating grip data indicating a user grip of the UE (Column 13 lines 36-37, 49-50, 57-58; Column 16 lines 64-Column 17 line 8; Column 17 lines 9-10, 23-24, 30-32; Column 18 line 28, hand modes [grip data] of a mobile phone [UE]);
selecting, based on antenna data, an antenna optimization parameter that includes at least one of: an antenna subset of the plurality of antennas (Column 13 lines 36-37, 49-50, 57-58; Column 16 lines 64-Column 17 line 8; Column 17 lines 9-10, 23-24, 30-32; Column 18 line 28, antenna structure selection as master antenna for signal transmission/reception and remaining antenna structures as diversity antennas) or a tuner state, the antenna data indicating that, based on the grip data, the antenna optimization parameter is associated with a likelihood of providing the best antenna performance from among the plurality of antennas (Column 13 lines 36-37, 49-50, 57-58; Column 16 lines 64-Column 17 line 8; Column 17 lines 9-10, 23-24, 30-32; Column 18 line 28, antenna structure selection as master antenna for signal transmission/reception and remaining antenna structures as diversity antennas; Column 16 lines 64-66, antenna structure selected as master antenna based on providing maximum signal quality for the current hand mode [grip data])or from among a plurality of tuner states;
selecting a second antenna of the antenna subset, the second antenna being the same as or different from the first antenna (Column 13 lines 36-37, 49-50, 57-58; Column 16 lines 64-Column 17 line 8; Column 17 lines 9-10, 23-24, 30-32; Column 18 line 28, remaining antenna structures selected as diversity antennas); and
exchanging, using at least one of: the second antenna or the tuner state for the first antenna, data (Column 13 lines 36-37, 49-50, 57-58; Column 16 lines 64-Column 17 line 8; Column 17 lines 9-10, 23-24, 30-32; Column 18 line 28, antenna structure selection as master antenna for signal transmission/reception and remaining antenna structures [second antenna] as diversity antennas for receiving signals).
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claim(s) 2, 3, 17 and 18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Luo as applied to claims 1 and 16 above, and further in view of Kezys et al. (US 2006/0192724).
Regarding claim 2, Luo discloses the claimed invention above as well as wherein the user grip is one of candidate user grips (Luo, Column 13 lines 36-37, 49-50, 57-58; Column 16 lines 64-Column 17 line 8; Column 17 lines 9-10, 23-24, 30-32; Column 18 line 28, hand modes [candidate user grips] of a mobile phone [UE]), wherein the candidate user grips include: a landscape grip and a portrait grip (Luo, Column 18 lines 27-37, portrait state and landscape state hand modes).
Luo does not disclose the following limitations that are disclosed by Kezys et al.: a non-grip and a double-hands grip (Kezys et al., Paragraphs 3 and 19, handheld device held in various positions such as by either, both or no hands, leads to the antenna environment being modified; Abstract, human interface diversity controller is connected to the wireless transceiver to preferentially operate with the plurality of antennas based upon a relative position of the portable handheld housing with respect to a hand of a human user. The device can select or weight the antennas based upon the position of the device when being held by a user).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Luo with the cited disclosure from Kezys et al. in order to further operate antennas based on user hand position (Kezys et al., Abstract).
Regarding claim 3, Luo discloses wherein the landscape grip is one of a left-hand landscape grip or a landscape right-hand grip (Column 18 lines 27-37, hand in left landscape state or right landscape state), and wherein the portrait grip includes a left-hand portrait grip or a right-hand portrait grip (Column 18 lines 27-37, portrait sate (hand mode)).
Regarding claim 17, Luo discloses the claimed invention above as well as wherein the grip data is generated based on an output of an operating system of the UE or an application executing on the UE and generating the data (Luo, Column 13 lines 36-37, 49-50, 57-58; Column 16 lines 64-Column 17 line 8; Column 17 lines 9-10, 23-24, 30-32; Column 18 line 28, hand modes [candidate user grips] of a mobile phone [UE]), wherein the output indicates whether the UE is being used in a landscape grip and a portrait grip (Luo, Column 18 lines 27-37, portrait state and landscape state hand modes).
Luo does not disclose the following limitations that are disclosed by Kezys et al.: a non-grip and a double-hands grip (Kezys et al., Paragraphs 3 and 19, handheld device held in various positions such as by either, both or no hands, leads to the antenna environment being modified; Abstract, human interface diversity controller is connected to the wireless transceiver to preferentially operate with the plurality of antennas based upon a relative position of the portable handheld housing with respect to a hand of a human user. The device can select or weight the antennas based upon the position of the device when being held by a user).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Luo with the cited disclosure from Kezys et al. in order to further operate antennas based on user hand position (Kezys et al., Abstract).
Regarding claim 18, Luo in view of Kezys et al. disclose wherein the grip data is further generated based on a reference signal measurement for each one of the plurality of antennas (Luo, Column 16 lines 35-54, The signal quality of the first antenna structure 111, the second antenna structure 112 and the third antenna structure 113 is detected and acquired…a parameter such as Signal to Interference plus Noise Ratio (SINR), Reference Signal Receiving Power (RSRP) and Received Signal Strength Indication (RSSI) is detected to judge the signal quality of the antenna structure…signal quality of the antenna structures may also be judged through a power coupler…Specifically, the power coupler detects impedance matching performance of the first antenna structure 111, the second antenna structure 112 or the third antenna structure 113 respectively, then compares impedance changes of different antenna structures to judge which antenna structure 110 is covered, for example, held by a hand of a user) and indicates a left-hand landscape grip, landscape right-hand grip (Luo, Column 18 lines 27-37, hand in left landscape state or right landscape state), a left-hand portrait grip, a right-hand portrait grip (Luo, Column 18 lines 27-37, portrait sate (hand mode)), or a non-grip (Kezys et al., Paragraphs 3 and 19, handheld device held in various positions such as by either, both or no hands, leads to the antenna environment being modified).
Claim(s) 6 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Luo as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Son et al. (US 2023/0121342).
Regarding claim 6, Luo discloses the claimed invention above but does not disclose the following limitations that are disclosed by Son et al.: wherein the antenna data corresponds to possible antenna selections across different signal angle of arrivals (Son et al., Abstract, electronic device including first and second antennas facing first and second directions [angle of arrivals] respectively, the electronic device obtaining received beam [angle of arrivals] signal quality values of the first and second antennas respectively, and enabling first and second antennas based on signal quality compared to a threshold).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Luo with the cited disclose from Son et al. in order to enhance communication quality with adaptive execution (Son et al., Paragraph 163).
Claim(s) 7 and 8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Luo as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Reed (US 2016/0233970).
Regarding claim 7, Luo discloses the claimed invention above but does not disclose the following limitations that are disclosed by Reed: wherein the antenna data is generated based on a simulation of an antenna selection per signal angle of arrival (Reed, Paragraph 62, One of the test conditions is to sweep or step the AoA of the spatial signal to evaluate the ability of the adaptive antenna to track and optimize the SNR of the desired signal; Paragraph 12, the device under test (DUT) includes adaptive antennas; Paragraph 48, The DUT has an adaptive antenna system that actively adapts antenna configuration).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Luo with the cited disclosure from Reed in order to optimize SNR (Reed, Paragraph 62).
Regarding claim 8, Reed discloses wherein the simulation indicates, for each antenna of the plurality of antennas, a corresponding likelihood of being selected across different signal angle of arrivals (Paragraph 62, One of the test conditions is to sweep or step the AoA of the spatial signal to evaluate the ability of the adaptive antenna to track and optimize the SNR of the desired signal; Paragraph 12, the device under test (DUT) includes adaptive antennas).
Claim(s) 9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Luo in view of Reed as applied to claim 8 above, and further in view of Szini et al. (US 2014/0192845).
Regarding claim 9, Luo in view of Reed discloses the claimed invention above as well as wherein the corresponding likelihood of each antenna is specific to frequency band (Luo, Column 6 lines 33-37, Column 6 line 67-Column 7 line 8, Column 7 line 67-Column 8 line 8, different frequency bands assigned to different antenna structures; Column 13 lines 6-19, antenna structure selection so that different signal bands are covered to enhance signal strength, to improve antenna performance of the antenna component 100 and to improve signal transmission efficiency; Column 13 lines 41-48, antenna selection based hand grip and presently used band) and candidate user grip (Luo, Column 13 lines 36-37, 49-50, 57-58; Column 16 lines 64-Column 17 line 8; Column 17 lines 9-10, 23-24, 30-32; Column 18 line 28, hand modes [candidate user grip] of a mobile phone [UE]).
Luo in view of Reed does not disclose the following limitations that are disclosed by Szini et al.: the corresponding likelihood be specific to a type (Szini et al., wireless devices types which include multiple antenna elements; Paragraph 23, wireless device having different antenna configuration [antenna modes]; Paragraphs 29-30, 32, antenna topology configured to antenna mode according to the type of wireless device size and shape).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Luo and Reed with the cited disclosure from Szini et al. in order to maximize transmission and reception capability while minimizing device area needed to support antenna structure, leading to higher data rates and more reliable and robust data transmissions (Szini et al., Paragraph 15).
Claim(s) 10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Luo as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Szini et al. (US 2014/0192845).
Regarding claim 10, Luo discloses the claimed invention above as well as wherein the antenna optimization parameter is selected further based on a type of the UE wherein the antenna optimization parameter is selected further based on a frequency band of the transmitting, wherein the likelihood is further associated in the antenna data with frequency band (Luo, Column 6 lines 33-37, Column 6 line 67-Column 7 line 8, Column 7 line 67-Column 8 line 8, different frequency bands assigned to different antenna structures; Column 13 lines 6-19, antenna structure selection so that different signal bands are covered to enhance signal strength, to improve antenna performance of the antenna component 100 and to improve signal transmission efficiency; Column 13 lines 41-48, antenna selection based hand grip and presently used band).
Luo does not disclose the following limitations that are disclosed by Szini et al.: selection based a type of the UE and the likelihood is further associated with the type (Szini et al., wireless devices types which include multiple antenna elements; Paragraph 23, wireless device having different antenna configuration [antenna modes]; Paragraphs 29-30, 32, antenna topology configured to antenna mode according to the type of wireless device size and shape).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Luo with the cited disclosure from Szini et al. in order to maximize transmission and reception capability while minimizing device area needed to support antenna structure, leading to higher data rates and more reliable and robust data transmissions (Szini et al., Paragraph 15).
Claim(s) 19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Luo as applied to claim 16 above, and further in view of Raghavan et al. (US 2023/0039254).
Regarding claim 19, Luo discloses the claimed invention above but does not disclose the following limitations that are disclosed by Raghavan et al.: wherein the grip data is generated based on an input to an artificial intelligence model (Raghavan et al., Paragraph 94, learnable states communicated from UE to ML server, the learnable states including information that may allow a NN to estimate an impact of hand grip on radio performance of an antenna module; Also see paragraphs 82 and 88-92), wherein the input is generated based on signal measurements corresponding to the plurality of antennas (Raghavan et al., Paragraph 83, hand blockage measurement data. The measurement data may be based on a blockage loss in dB relative to a cumulative density function (CDF). The per antenna element losses of the graph 600 may correspond to a median loss for an individual antenna element that ranges from 2 dB to 8 dB. In the 90th percentile, losses may be in the range of 12-13 dB. The losses indicated via the graph 600 caused by hand blockages may be incurred in addition to regular channel losses; Paragraph 97, the sensor input(s) may be indicative of measurements associated with a hand grip and/or a hand orientation relative to the first UE 802 (e.g., firmness of hand grip, number of fingers covering an antenna module, one-handed grip/two-handed grip, left/right hand grip etc.)).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention Luo with the cited disclosure from Raghavan et al. in order to mitigate beam blockage using machine learning (Raghavan et al., Title and Abstract).
Claim(s) 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Luo in view of Raghavan et al. as applied to claim 19 above, and further in view of Luo (US 2021/0320678, hereinafter referred to as Luo II).
Regarding claim 20, Luo in view of Raghavan et al. discloses the claimed invention above but does not disclose the following limitations that are disclosed by Luo II: wherein the input includes a measurement of interference between a transmit antenna and a receive antenna of the plurality of antennas (Luo II, Paragraph 64, self-interference calculation provided to neural network in order to compensate for the self-interference; Also see Abstract).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Luo and Raghavan et al. with the cited disclosure from Luo II in order to compensate for self-interference (Luo II, Paragraph 64 and Abstract).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 14 is 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: the prior art does not disclose or adequately suggest antenna selection based on a difference between reference signal measurements of respective antennas being larger than a difference between maximum power levels of respective antennas.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to OTIS L THOMPSON, JR whose telephone number is (571)270-1953. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday, 6:30am - 7:00pm.
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/OTIS L THOMPSON, JR/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2477
July 13, 2026
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