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 .
Claims 7-13 are pending.
Information Disclosure Statement
The IDS statements filed to date have been considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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)(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.
Claim(s) 7, 11, 12, and 13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Khoshnevisan et al., US 2025/0038934, (“Khoshnevisan”).
Regarding claim 1, Khoshnevisan teaches “A terminal (Fig. 12, UE 1205) comprising:
a receiver that receives indication information of a plurality of transmission configuration indication (TCI) states to be applied to a plurality of signals and a radio resource control (RRC) parameter indicating, among the plurality of TCI states, a TCI state to apply (Fig. 12, transceiver 1215; paragraph no. 0095, “a UE 115 that has been configured with two transmission configuration indicator (TCI) states may determine which TCI state of the two (e.g., if any) the UE 115 is to apply to reference signal resources. The UE 115 may be configured with a set of TCI states. A base station 105 may activate a subset of the TCI states, and may indicate one or two of the activated TCI states for communication on a channel for a time period (e.g., until otherwise indicated or changed). The base station 105 may transmit, to the UE 115, an indication of which of the two TCI states the UE 115 is to apply for reference signal resources (e.g., channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) resources or sounding reference signal (SRS) resources). The indication may be included in a radio resource control (RRC) message”); and
a processor that determines, based on the RRC parameter, whether to apply the plurality of TCI states or to apply a first or second TCI state among the plurality of TCI states” (Fig. 12, processor 1240; paragraph no. 0095, “a UE 115 that has been configured with two transmission configuration indicator (TCI) states may determine which TCI state of the two (e.g., if any) the UE 115 is to apply to reference signal resources. The UE 115 may be configured with a set of TCI states. A base station 105 may activate a subset of the TCI states, and may indicate one or two of the activated TCI states for communication on a channel … The base station 105 may transmit, to the UE 115, an indication of which of the two TCI states the UE 115 is to apply for reference signal resources (e.g., channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) resources or sounding reference signal (SRS) resources). The indication may be included in a radio resource control (RRC) message”; see also, Fig. 5 which shows that the UE applies both TCI states to a PDSCH; see also, Fig. 8 which shows that the one or more TCI states are applied, by the UE, to the CSI-RS and/or SRS).
Regarding independent claims 11, 12, and 13, these independent claims are corresponding method, base station, and system claims of the apparatus claim 1 and recite similar subject matter. As such, the rationale behind the above rejection of claim 1 applies with equal force to these independent claims and as further amplified below to highlight the minor differences between the claims.
Regarding further independent claim 12, see Fig. 2 for a base station 105-a which includes a transmitter (antennas) and a processor (paragraph no. 0241 or implicit in the base station).
Regarding further independent claim 13, note that this claim is a combination of claims 7 and 12 and hence, the above rationale behind the rejection of claims 7 and 12 applies to this claim.
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 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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim(s) 8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Khoshnevisan in view of Koskela et al., US 2025/0080200, (“Koskela”).
Khoshnevisan teaches “wherein when a first RRC parameter indicates to apply the plurality of TCI states for a first control resource set (CORESET), the processor determines to apply the plurality of TCI states” (paragraph no. 0098, “the UE 115-a may receive a configuration of TCI states from the base station 105-a, such as in a RRC message 210 via RRC signaling … a scheduling DCI (e.g., a DCI subsequent to DCI 220, that provides a resource allocation for an uplink or downlink transmission) may indicate TCI state(s) for a communication based at least in part on one or more of a format of the control information (e.g., a DCI format), a payload field in the control information, a number of scheduled repetitions indicated in the control information, a control channel candidate or CORESET associated with the control information”).
Khoshnevisan does not teach but Koskela teaches “when a second RRC parameter indicates to apply the first or second TCI state for a second CORESET, the processor determines to apply the first or second TCI state” (paragraph no. 0031, “Both the first CORESET 1 and the second CORESET 2 have the same TCI state TCI1 indicated … since the second CORESET 2 is configured via RRC”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of this claimed invention to modify Khoshnevisan by incorporating the teachings of Koskela to facilitate the use of different CORESETs with different TCIs.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 9-10 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.
Regarding claim 9, the prior art of record does not teach or fairly suggest the claim limitations “wherein the receiver receives configuration information related to a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) resource set corresponding to the plurality of TCI states and information indicating a TCI state associated with a PUCCH resource included in the PUCCH resource set; and the processor determines, based on the configuration information and the information indicating the TCI state, to apply the plurality of TCI states to one or more specific PUCCH resources, and to apply one of the plurality of TCI states to a PUCCH resource other than the one or more specific PUCCH resources.”
Claim 10 depends from claim 9.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. See paragraph nos. 0051 and 0059 of Matsumura et al., US 2026/0163677, which disclose subject matter which appears to anticipate at least the limitations of each independent claim.
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/WON TAE C KIM/Examiner, Art Unit 2414
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