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 .
The preliminary amendment filed 1/16/26 has been entered.
Claims 7-11 are pending.
Information Disclosure Statement
The IDS statements filed to date have been considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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) 7, 9-11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over the 3GPP document entitled “Enhancements on Multi-beam Operation” by Lenovo, Motorola Mobility, R1-2109103, (“Lenovo”), in view of Yuan et al., US 2025/0071778, (“Yuan”).
Regarding claim 1, Lenovo teaches “A terminal comprising:
a receiver that receives a configuration of uplink (UL)-transmission configuration indication (TCI) state applied to UL separately from downlink (DL), for a first bandwidth part (BWP) of a first component carrier (CC) in a specific band (section 2.1, page 5, the paragraph with the heading “QCL types for unified TCI” (i.e., the paragraph after Proposal 4), “To support joint DL/UL TCI, separate DL/UL TCI, and only UL-only TCI, it is necessary to introduce new QCL type definitions … A separate DL/UL TCI state contains two reference signals”; see section 1, page 1, which discloses a UE and a receiver is inherent/implicit in the UE; the limitation “for a first bandwidth part (BWP) of a first component carrier (CC) in a specific band” is implicit/inherent in the disclosure above (it appears that this limitation may read on the “reference BWP/CC” disclosed in the paragraph with the heading “Common TCI state across CCs” on page 4) – however, see below for an explicit teaching; note also, that “both CCs are in the same band” is disclosed on page 4 in the paragraph with the heading “Common TCI state across CCs”); and
a processor that, when the configuration is absent for a second BWP of a second CC in the specific band, applies, to the second BWP, the UL-TCI state for the first BWP” (a processor is inherent in the UE disclosed in Lenovo; section 2.1, page 4, in the paragraph with the heading “Common TCI state across CCs” (i.e., the paragraph before Proposal 1), “When the TCI state pool is absent from a BWP/CC, the TCI state pool defined in another BWP/CC can be used as a reference … When a TCI state is used in another BWP in another CC, the QCL-TypeD can be reused when both CCs are in the same band. This gives the possibility for sharing TCI state pools across CCs in the same band”; see also, the paragraph following Proposal 2, page 4).
While Lenovo implicitly teaches the limitation “for a first bandwidth part (BWP) of a first component carrier (CC) in a specific band” of claim 1, Yan teaches this limitation explicitly, see paragraph no. 0027, “In some cases, a UE may be configured with separate DL/UL TCI states. The number of configured TCI states a UE can support is typically a UE capability including the following candidate values per bandwidth part (BWP) per component carrier (CC). For example, depending on UE capability, a UE may support 64 or 128 DL TCI states and 32 or 64 UL TCI states”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of this claimed invention to modify Lenovo by enabling the UE to receive an UL TCI state for a BWP/CC in a specific band as taught by Yuan to facilitate the implementation of a unified TCI framework for different BWPs and CCs in a network.
Regarding independent claims 9, 10, and 11, these independent claims are corresponding terminal method, base station, and system claims of the apparatus (i.e., terminal) claim 7 and recite similar subject matter. As such, the rationale behind the above rejection of claim 7 applies with equal force to these independent claims and as further amplified below to highlight the minor differences between the claims, if any.
Regarding independent claim 10, see Lenovo, page 11 and the paragraph before Proposal 18 for a disclosure of a gNB. The gNB inherently includes a transmitter and a processor.
Claim(s) 8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lenovo and Yuan as applied to claim 7 above, and further in view of Zhou et al., US 2023/0121938, (“Zhou”).
Lenovo does not teach but Zhou teaches “wherein when transmitting specific capability information, the processor applies, to the second BWP, the UL-TCI state for the first BWP; and
the specific capability information is capability information applied in common irrespective of the first BWP and the second BWP” (see paragraph no. 0404, “the capability message includes an indication of whether the UE supports a first unified TCI state pool for each bandwidth part or each component carrier, or supports a second unified TCI state pool that is configured on one bandwidth part or one component carrier and that is shared by multiple bandwidth parts or multiple component carriers”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of this claimed invention to modify Lenovo and Yuan by incorporating the teachings of Zhou to inform the network of the capabilities of the terminal, thereby facilitating the communications between the network and the terminal.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. See the abstracts of Yuan et al., US 2024/0196387, and Liu et al., US 2025/0105977.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to WON TAE C. KIM whose telephone number is (571)270-1812. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8:00 am - 5:00 pm.
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, Edan Orgad can be reached at (571)272-7884. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/WON TAE C KIM/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2414
Prosecution Insights