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 1-15 are pending.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The IDS statements filed to date have been considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claim 15 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter. The claim(s) does/do not fall within at least one of the four categories of patent eligible subject matter because the claim by use of the term “computer-readable storage medium” encompasses both transitory (e.g., a signal) and non-transitory computer-readable media. Since the claim can encompass a transitory (e.g., a signal) computer-readable medium, the claim is not statutory under 35 U.S.C. 101 (see MPEP 2106.03, sections I and II).
Examiner suggests inserting “non-transitory” before the term “computer-readable storage medium” in claim 15 to overcome this rejection.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
In each of the independent claims 1, 10, 14, and 15, and taking claim 1 as an example, the limitation “the control link” (line 4 – claim 1) lacks an antecedent basis. The remaining dependent claims fall with their respective independent claims.
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)(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) 1-2, 10-12, and 14-15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Abedini et al., US 2022/0053486, (“Abedini”).
Independent Claims
Regarding claim 1, Abedini teaches “A method for setting a beam for a backhaul link for forwarding by an NCR (network-controlled repeater) in a wireless communication system, the method comprising:
reporting capability information related to beam setting of the backhaul link to a base station through the control link (paragraph no. 0159, “During call 1108, the BS 1102 and the repeater device 1104 may identify the beams they will use to communicate with each other. In addition, the BS 1102 and the repeater device 1104 may exchange configuration information, capability information” and paragraph no. 0160, “Here, the repeater device (e.g., the MT) may identify itself as a repeater device and share its capabilities. The shared information may include, for example, beam-related information”; see Fig. 9 which shows a control link 912 and a backhaul link 916; see, e.g., paragraph no. 0143 which describes these two links in more detail); and
configuring a beam for the backhaul link based on indication information received from the base station or a predefined rule based on the report of the capability information (paragraph nos. 0161, 0162 and in particular 0162, “At call 1114, the BS 1102 and the repeater device 1104 perform an RU configuration procedure. Here, the BS 1102 may send control information (e.g., control messages) to configure the operation of an RU. For example, the BS 1102 may send configuration information for an RU … of the repeater device 1104 to the MT unit (not shown) of the repeater device 1104. Thus, in some examples, the RU configuration procedure may control the operation of a first RU 1104 a (as represented by a line 1116) for DL traffic and control and may control the operation of a second RU 1104 b (as represented by a line 1118) for UL traffic. New messages may be defined to configure the RU operation … The configuration may include, for example, beamforming configurations and TDD configurations (e.g., Rx & Tx (forwarding) beamforming)”; note that the first claimed alternative “indication information received from the base station” is taught by the RU configuration received from the BS),
wherein the indication information includes a TCI (Transmission Configuration Indicator) state ID (identifier) or a SRI (scheduling request indicator) related to the control link for configuring the beam for the backhaul link” (paragraph no. 0184, “A second parameter may be a fronthaul-link TCI state index 1408. The range of values 1420 of the fronthaul-link TCI state index 1408 may be 0, . . . , g−1. The variable g is an integer. By way of example, a downlink fronthaul-link TCI state index value, if indicated, may be an index to one of up to a given number, g, of MT unit activated TCI states … an uplink fronthaul-link TCI state index value, if indicated, may be given by an SRS resource indicator (SRI), where the SRI is an index referring to a configured sounding reference symbol (SRS) resource set of an MT … In another aspect, a (UL or DL) fronthaul-link TCI state index value may be an index to one of up to g fronthaul-link TCI states activated for a relay unit (RU) of the repeater device … each fronthaul-link TCI state may be an index to a set of beam identifiers”; note that the downlink and uplink fronthaul-link TCI state index values refer to the backhaul link/traffic 916 as shown in Fig. 9 and these TCI state index values are conveyed to the repeater 904 via the control link 912 and MT 908; see also, paragraph no. 0180 and Fig. 14).
Regarding independent claims 10, 14, and 15, these independent claims are corresponding apparatus (i.e., NCR), chipset, and computer readable medium claims of the method 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 claims 10, 14, and 15, see Fig. 18 for the claimed structural elements of these claims.
Dependent Claims
Regarding claim 2, Abedini teaches “wherein the capability information includes information related to whether the beam for the backhaul link can be indicated” (paragraph no. 0160).
Regarding claim 11, Abedini teaches “wherein the capability information includes information related to whether or not the beam for the backhaul link can be configured based on the indication information” (paragraph no. 0160).
Regarding claim 12, Abedini teaches “wherein a downlink reception beam for the backhaul link is configured to the beam corresponding to the TCI state ID included in the indication information among a plurality of beams for the control link based on the reception of the indication information through the report of the capability information” (paragraph no. 0184 discloses a downlink fronthaul-link TCI state index value which relates to the downlink beam of the backhaul/traffic link of Fig. 9; the TCI state index value is transmitted to the repeater by the BS after the repeater transmits its capability information to the BS, see paragraph nos. 0159, 0160, 0161, 0162).
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.
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) 3 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Abedini.
Regarding claim 3, Abedini does not teach “wherein the capability information includes information on whether the beam different from the beam for the control link can be used for the backhaul link.” Abedini discloses transmitting capability information including beam-related information (see paragraph no. 0160). However, the beam-related information does not appear to include information distinguishing between beams for the control link 912 and the backhaul/traffic link 916 as shown in Fig. 9. However, this is an obvious modification.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of this claimed invention to modify Abedini by including in the capability information beam-related information distinguishing between the control and backhaul links to allow different beam parameters to be set for each link, thereby optimizing the use of each link for either control information or downlink/uplink traffic data.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4-9 and 13 would be allowable if rewritten to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action and to include all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
The prior art of record does not teach or fairly suggest the claim limitations recited in each of claims 4, 5, and 13. The dependent claims 6-9 depend from claim 5.
Conclusion
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.
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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.
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/WON TAE C KIM/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2414
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