Prosecution Insights
Last updated: August 17, 2026
Application No. 18/837,092

SINGLE-DCI MULTI-TRP BASED PDSCH RECEPTION WITH UNIFIED TCI FRAMEWORK

Non-Final OA §102§103
Filed
Aug 08, 2024
Priority
Apr 08, 2022 — nonprovisional of PCTCN2022085758
Examiner
BUKHARI, SIBTE H
Art Unit
Tech Center
Assignee
Lenovo (United States) Inc.
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
79%
Grant Probability
Favorable
1-2
OA Rounds
1y 1m
Est. Remaining
99%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 79% — above average
79%
Career Allowance Rate
342 granted / 435 resolved
+18.6% vs TC avg
Strong +37% interview lift
Without
With
+36.6%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
3y 1m
Avg Prosecution
17 currently pending
Career history
457
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
10.0%
-30.0% vs TC avg
§103
65.6%
+25.6% vs TC avg
§102
10.5%
-29.5% vs TC avg
§112
9.5%
-30.5% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 435 resolved cases

Office Action

§102 §103
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 . Status of Claims This action is in response to application filed on 8/8/2024. Claims 1-5, 7-13 & 15-21 have been examined and are pending with this action. Priority Examiner acknowledges that the Applicant claims a priority benefit of PCT/CN2022/085758 filed on 4/8/2022. Drawings The drawings were received on 8/8/2024 and these drawings are accepted. Information Disclosure Statement The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 8/8/2024 & 1/29/2026 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner. Oath/Declaration The oath or declaration filed on 8/8/2024 has been acknowledged. 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. Claims 1, 8, 9 & 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Mostafa (WO # 2021212456 A1). INDEPENDENT CLAIMS: As per claim 1, MOSTAFA discloses the a user equipment (UE) for wireless communication [(Mostafa): “ FIG. 12 is a flow diagram illustrating example operations 1200 for wireless communication”] , comprising: at least one memory [(Mostafa): memories 242 and 282 may store data and program codes for BS 110a and UE 120a”], and at least one processor coupled with the at least one memory and configured to cause the UE [(Mostafa): “ processors 266, 258, 264, and/or controller/processor 280 of the UE 120a and/or antennas 234, processors 220, 230, 238, and/or controller/processor 240 of the BS 110a may be used to perform the various techniques”], to: receive a medium access control (MAC) control element (CE) activating at least one Transmission Configuration Indication (TCI) codepoint with two downlink (DL) or joint TCI states [(Mostafa): “ At 1204, the UE may receive at least one MAC- CE that activates a set of TCI states, indicates one of the first or second index values, and maps at least one TCI codepoint in DCI to two TCI states”]; receive a downlink control information (DCI) indicating one TCI codepoint being activated with two DL or joint TCI states if multiple TCI codepoints [(Mostafa): “ FIG. 5, if the UE 502 determines, at 510a, the time offset between the reception of the DCI 1 and the corresponding PDSCH is equal to or larger than the threshold (e.g., timeDurationForQCL) , then the UE 502 may apply the TCI state indicated in the DCI for the PDSCH at 512a. For example, the UE 502 can determine the receive beam for receiving the PDSCH based on the indicated TCI state at 514.”], are activated with DL or joint TCI states [(Mostafa): “ A MAC-CE can activate a set of TCI states (e.g., up to 8 TCI states) and map the TCI states to TCI codepoints of DCI. FIG. 11 is an example TCI codepoint mapping to one or two TCI state (s) in a single-DCI mTRP scenario. .”] ; and determine the indicated one DL TCI state for reception of physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) scheduled by physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) from a control resource set (CORESET) [(Mostafa): “ In mDCI mTRP, multiple TRPs send DCIs to indicate the QCL assumptions for PDSCH transmission from the TRPs. The control resource set (CORESET) for the DCIs may be associated with different CORESET pool index values, and the different CORESET pool index values associated with separate mappings of TCI codepoints to TCI states, with each TCI codepoint mapped to a single TCI state & a UE configured by higher layer parameter PDCCHConfig that contains two different values of CORESETPoolIndex in ControlResourceSet, if the offset between the reception of the DL DCI and the corresponding PDSCH is less than the threshold timeDurationForQCL, ”], whose TCI state is activated by a second MAC CE [(Mostafa): “ A MAC-CE can activate a set of TCI states (e.g., up to 8 TCI states) and map the TCI states to TCI codepoints of DCI. FIG. 11 is an example TCI codepoint mapping to one or two TCI state (s) in a single-DCI mTRP scenario.”]. Claims 8, 9 and 16 are rejected based on rationale provided from claim 1 rejection. 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 of this title, 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 7, 15 and 21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Mostafa (WO # 2021212456 A1) in view of Zhang et al (US PUB # 20220312485 A1). As per claim 7, Mostafa discloses the UE of claim 1, wherein, the default TCI state is one of: the TCI state activated by the second MAC CE [(Mostafa): “ A MAC-CE can activate a set of TCI states (e.g., up to 8 TCI states) and map the TCI states to TCI codepoints of DCI. FIG. 11 is an example TCI codepoint mapping to one or two TCI state (s) in a single-DCI mTRP scenario.”); Mostafa does not explicitly teach third coreset with PDSCH. Zhang however discloses for the third CORESET the activated TCI state with the lowest index, if the third CORESET is associated with both UE specific search space (USS) and/or Type3-PDCCH common search space (CSS) sets and CSS other than Type3-PDCCH CSS sets [(Zhang: [0141]): “ a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) associated with a third CORESET that overlaps at least one of the PDSCH transmissions; and reconfiguring the first antenna panel with a third default beam to receive at least part of the plurality of PDSCH transmissions based on the third CORESET..”); the TCI state activated by the second MAC CE for the third CORESET or the QCL assumption determined for the third CORESET for the reception of PDSCH scheduled by the scheduling DCI carried in PDCCH associated with CSS other than Type3-PDCCH CSS set from the third CORESET [(Zhang: [0141-0145]): “ a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) associated with a third CORESET that overlaps at least one of the PDSCH transmissions; and reconfiguring the first antenna panel with a third default beam to receive at least part of the plurality of PDSCH transmissions based on the third CORESET. & a method of example 1 or some other example herein, wherein the plurality of PDSCH transmissions are scheduled in a first component carrier and the PDCCH is detected in a second component carrier.”);, and the indicated one TCI state for the reception of PDSCH scheduled by the scheduling DCI carried in the PDCCH associated with USS [(Zhang: [0152]): “ the plurality of PDSCH transmissions are frequency-division multiplexed or spatial-division multiplexed transmissions, the default TCI state is a first default TCI state, and the method further comprises: configuring a second antenna panel to use a third default beam based on the second default TCI state”); 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 the system of Mostafa in view of Zhang to figure out third coreset associated with channel. One would be motivated to do so because this aids in to address spatial collisions between physical downlink control channel and default physical downlink shared channel beams in wireless communication systems.. (Zhang: [Abs]). Claim 15 & 21 are rejected based on rationale provided from claim 7 rejection. Allowable Subject Matter Claims 2-5, 10-13 & 17-20 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. Claims 2 and 10 and 17 are to include any of the dependent claims and then dissolved in independent claims for potential allowance. Conclusion The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. This includes: Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Sibte Bukhari whose telephone number is (571) 270-7122. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F 9:00 - 6:00. Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Vivek Srivastava can be reached on (571) 272-7304. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. 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. /SIBTE H BUKHARI/Examiner, Art Unit 2449
Read full office action

Prosecution Timeline

Aug 08, 2024
Application Filed
Jul 15, 2026
Non-Final Rejection mailed — §102, §103 (current)

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Study what changed to get past this examiner. Based on 5 most recent grants.

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Prosecution Projections

1-2
Expected OA Rounds
79%
Grant Probability
99%
With Interview (+36.6%)
3y 1m (~1y 1m remaining)
Median Time to Grant
Low
PTA Risk
Based on 435 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allowance rate.

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