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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDSs) submitted on 09/24/2025 and 10/24/2024 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner.
Double Patenting
The nonstatutory double patenting rejection is based on a judicially created doctrine grounded in public policy (a policy reflected in the statute) so as to prevent the unjustified or improper timewise extension of the “right to exclude” granted by a patent and to prevent possible harassment by multiple assignees. A nonstatutory double patenting rejection is appropriate where the conflicting claims are not identical, but at least one examined application claim is not patentably distinct from the reference claim(s) because the examined application claim is either anticipated by, or would have been obvious over, the reference claim(s). See, e.g., In re Berg, 140 F.3d 1428, 46 USPQ2d 1226 (Fed. Cir. 1998); In re Goodman, 11 F.3d 1046, 29 USPQ2d 2010 (Fed. Cir. 1993); In re Longi, 759 F.2d 887, 225 USPQ 645 (Fed. Cir. 1985); In re Van Ornum, 686 F.2d 937, 214 USPQ 761 (CCPA 1982); In re Vogel, 422 F.2d 438, 164 USPQ 619 (CCPA 1970); In re Thorington, 418 F.2d 528, 163 USPQ 644 (CCPA 1969).
A timely filed terminal disclaimer in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(c) or 1.321(d) may be used to overcome an actual or provisional rejection based on nonstatutory double patenting provided the reference application or patent either is shown to be commonly owned with the examined application, or claims an invention made as a result of activities undertaken within the scope of a joint research agreement. See MPEP § 717.02 for applications subject to examination under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA as explained in MPEP § 2159. See MPEP § 2146 et seq. for applications not subject to examination under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA . A terminal disclaimer must be signed in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(b).
The filing of a terminal disclaimer by itself is not a complete reply to a nonstatutory double patenting (NSDP) rejection. A complete reply requires that the terminal disclaimer be accompanied by a reply requesting reconsideration of the prior Office action. Even where the NSDP rejection is provisional the reply must be complete. See MPEP § 804, subsection I.B.1. For a reply to a non-final Office action, see 37 CFR 1.111(a). For a reply to final Office action, see 37 CFR 1.113(c). A request for reconsideration while not provided for in 37 CFR 1.113(c) may be filed after final for consideration. See MPEP §§ 706.07(e) and 714.13.
The USPTO Internet website contains terminal disclaimer forms which may be used. Please visit www.uspto.gov/patent/patents-forms. The actual filing date of the application in which the form is filed determines what form (e.g., PTO/SB/25, PTO/SB/26, PTO/AIA /25, or PTO/AIA /26) should be used. A web-based eTerminal Disclaimer may be filled out completely online using web-screens. An eTerminal Disclaimer that meets all requirements is auto-processed and approved immediately upon submission. For more information about eTerminal Disclaimers, refer to www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/applying-online/eterminal-disclaimer.
Gao, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2025/0294549
Claims 1,8, 3, 17, 21, 43, and 44 are provisionally rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claims 1, 8, 9, 13, 14, 31 and 32, respectively, of copending Application No. 18/860,477 (PGPub US 2025/0294549) (reference application). Although the claims at issue are not identical, they are not patentably distinct from each other as shown in the table below.
Present Application
Reference Application
1
A method for configuring an uplink transmission, comprising: for the uplink transmission,
1
A method for configuring a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), comprising: for single frequency network (SFN) transmission of an
uplink PUSCH
configuring different transmission configuration indications (TCIs) for different antenna panels of a terminal.
configuring different transmission configuration indications (TCIs) for different antenna panels of a terminal, . . .
8(1)
wherein one TCT is associated with one demodulation reference signal (DMRS) port combination of the terminal; wherein, one DMRS port combination comprises one or more DMRS ports of the terminal.
8(2)
wherein the different TCIs are
associated with a same demodulation reference signal (DMRS) port set, wherein each DMRS port set comprises one or more DMRS ports
3(1)
wherein different TCIs are associated with different control resource pool indexes (CORESTPoolindex), wherein different control resource pool indexes are associated with different transmission and reception points (TRPs) of a base station.
9(1)
wherein the different TCIs
correspond to different transmission reception point (TRP)
directions of a base station.
17(1)
wherein the TCI comprises one of:
a joint TCI;or
a separate TCI.
13
(11)
wherein the unified TCI
comprises one of the following:
a joint TCI; or
a separate TCI.
21(1)
wherein the uplink transmission comprises a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmission, and a PUSCH type of the PUSCH transmission comprises at least one of:
14
(1)
wherein the PUSCH comprises
at least one of the following:
a PUSCH scheduled with multiple downlink control information (M-DCl); a grant free configured grant (CG) PUSCH type l; or a grant free CG PUSCH type 2.
a PUSCH scheduled by downlink control information
(DCI); a schedule-free Type-1 configured grant (CG) PUSCH; or
a schedule-free Type-2 CG PUSCH.
43
A communication device, . . . executing Claim 1
31
A communication device . . . executing Claim 1
44
A non-transitory computer storage medium . . . executing Claim 1
32
A non-transitory_storage medium . . . executing Claim 1
Although Claim 9 of the Reference Application does not recite the CoresetPoolIndex, a person of ordinary skill sin the art would know that different TRPs are associated with different CoresetPoolIndices – See, e.g., 3GPP TS 38.331 v17.0.0 (2022-03), “Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; NR; Radio Resource Control (RRC) protocol specification (Release 17)” (hereinafter 3GPP TS 38.331), specifying at page 522-524 the Information Element ControlResourceSet “used to configure a time/frequency control resource set (CORESET) in which to search for downlink control information (see TS 38.213 [13], clause 10.1)”, indicating two values for coresetPoolIndex {0,1} and the followUnifiedTCIstate parameter.
This is a provisional nonstatutory double patenting rejection because the patentably indistinct claims have not in fact been patented.
Claims 1, 43 and 44 are rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claims 3 combined with 13, 21 combined with 3, and 22 combined with 3 of U.S. Patent No. 12362814. Although the claims at issue are not identical, they are not patentably distinct from each other as shown in the table below.
Present Application
Reference US Patent
1
A method for configuring an uplink transmission, comprising: for the uplink transmission,
1
A method for data transmission, comprising: determining a default uplink transmission beam,
wherein the default uplink transmission beam comprises one or more uplink transmission beams . . .
. . . the one or more uplink transmission beams corresponding to the one or more reception beams are in a beam direction of a same antenna panel
configuring different transmission configuration indications (TCIs)
2(1)
. . . wherein the default uplink transmission beam has a correspondence with uplink beam information in the one or more uplink beam information sets
for different antenna panels of a terminal.
3(2)
wherein a terminal comprises a plurality of antenna panels, the plurality of antenna panels determine the default uplink transmission beam based on different uplink beam information sets configured by different RRC signalings;
13(2)
wherein the uplink beam information comprises spatial relation information, or a transmission configuration indication or an uplink transmission configuration indication.
Claim 3 of the Reference Patent discloses all elements of Claim 1 of the Present Application because a person of ordinary skills in the art would know that a transmission beam is synonymous with a TCI state. To be sure, Claim 13 of the Reference Patent recites this relationship.
Claim 21 combined with Claim 3 of the Reference Patent anticipates all elements of Claim 21 of the Present Application. Similarly, the combination of Claims 22 and Claim 3 of the Reference Patent does the same for Claim 44 of the Present Application.
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)(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) 1-5, 8-10, 17, 19-21, and 43-49 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Muruganathan et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2025/0030512 (hereinafter Muruganathan).
Regarding Claim 1, Muruganathan teaches a method for configuring an uplink transmission (“Systems and methods for configured grant for multi-panel Uplink (UL) transmission are provided” – See [¶0067]), comprising:
for the uplink transmission, configuring different transmission configuration
indications (TCIs) for different antenna panels of a terminal (“receiving a configuration of at
least one unified Transmission Configuration Indicator (TCI) state, indicating Multiple TRP (mTRP) operation” with the “mTRP operation using . . . Simultaneous Transmission Across Multiple Panels (STxMP); and transmitting a PUSCH according to the configuration of unified
TCI state” whereby “[w]ith the unified TCI state framework, separate spatial relations do not have to be configured for UL transmission” – See [¶0067] because “a single TCI state indicate
QCL properties for multiple different DL and/or UL signals/channels” – See [¶0034], i.e., “For Joint DL/UL TCI, a single TCI state (which for example can be a DL TCI state or a Joint TCI state) is used to determine a transmit/receive spatial filter for both DL signals/channels and UL signals/channels. For Separate DL/UL TCI, one TCI state (for example a DL TCI state) can be used to indicate a receive spatial filter for DL signals/channels and a separate TCI state
(for example an UL TCI state) can be used to indicate a transmit spatial filter for UL signals/channels” – See [¶0036] and one spatial filter corresponds to one antenna panel).
Therefore, Muruganathan anticipates Claim 1.
Regarding Claim 2, dependent from Claim 1, Muruganathan further teaches the method according to claim 1, wherein the uplink transmission comprises one of:
an uplink transmission scheduled with downlink control information (DCI) (“the received configuration for the at least one unified TCI state indicates UL transmission to two TRPs by applying two Joint/UL TCI states” – See [¶0071] whereby “the explicit indication is indicated in a field in UL DCI where one codepoint indicates mTRP operation . . . using STxMP” – See [¶0076]).
Therefore, Muruganathan anticipates Claim 2.
Regarding Claim 3, dependent from Claim 1, Muruganathan further teaches the method according to claim 1,
wherein different TCIs are associated with different control resource pool indexes (CORESETPoolindex) (“[a] CORESET pool index can be configured in each CORESET with a value of 0 or 1” and “[f]or each CORESET Pool, the same TCI state operation method in terms of activation/deactivation/indication . . . is assumed,” e.g., “the two DCIs,” scheduling UL to each TRP “are transmitted in two CORESETs belonging to different CORESET pools (i.e., with CORESETPoolIndex 0 and 1 respectively)” – See [¶0026] and Fig 5; see also 3GPP TS 38.331 v17.0.0 (2022-03), “Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; NR; Radio Resource Control (RRC) protocol specification (Release 17)” (hereinafter 3GPP TS 38.331), referenced for describing the TCI state information – See [¶0008], specifying the UE Phy-Parameters Information Element (IE) used to convey the physical layer capabilities specifying, at page 934, the supportRetx-Diff-CoresetPool-Multi-DCI-TRP parameter, indicating whether the UE supports “retransmission scheduled by a different CORESETPoolIndex for multi-DCI multi-TRP”; and, at page 522-524, the ControlResourceSet IE “used to configure a time/frequency control resource set (CORESET) in which to search for downlink control information (see TS 38.213 [13], clause 10.1” specifying the coresetPoolIndex-r16 and followUnifiedTCIstate-r17 parameters whereby when the latter is enabled “for PDCCH reception on this CORESET, the UE applies the "indicated" Rel-17 DL only or joint TCI as specified in TS 38.214 clause 5.1.5” and the “index of the CORESET pool for this CORESET [is set] as specified in TS 38.213 [13] (clauses 9 and 10) and TS 38.214 [19] (clauses 5.1 and 6.1)”)
wherein different control resource pool indexes are associated with different transmission and reception points (TRPs) of a base station (for “multi-TRP operation, a UE needs to be configured with two CORESET pools, each associated with a TRP” – See id.).
Therefore, Muruganathan anticipates Claim 3.
Regarding Claim 4, dependent from Claim 3, Muruganathan further teaches the method according to claim 3, wherein the uplink transmission comprises:
a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmission (the “method performed by a User Equipment (UE) [is] for transmitting Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH)” – See [¶0067]);
wherein one TCI is associated with one transport block (TB) of the PUSCH (“Different data may be sent to different TRPs and may be associated with a single or multiple Transport Blocks (TBs)” whereby for “a single TB, the TB would be encoded in a single Codeword (CW) and allocated with a single MCS . . . one for each TRP”– See [¶0104], i.e., one TCI is associated with one transport block (TB) of the PUSCH to one TRP).
Therefore, Muruganathan anticipates Claim 4.
Regarding Claim 5, dependent from Claim 4, further teaches the method according to claim 4, wherein
different TCIs are used for transmission of a same TB (e.g., when “a transport block may be transmitted over multiple TRPs to improve transmission reliability” – See [¶0058] as explained in Regarding Claim 4 supra whereby “[f]or PUSCH transmission to multiple TRPs, a TRP may be represent by a unified TCI state or a UL TCI state” with “[a] precoding matrix with a number of layers (in case of codebook based PUSCH) and a set of power control parameters may be configured for each TRP” – See [¶0105]); or,
different TCIs are used for transmission of different TBs (“In case of multiple TBs, they would be encoded in different CWs, one for each TRP” – See [¶0104], i.e., different TCIs for different TBs transmitted to different TRPs).
Therefore, Muruganathan anticipates Claim 5.
Regarding Claim 8, dependent from Claim 1, Muruganathan further teaches the method according to claim 1,
wherein one TCI is associated with one demodulation reference signal (DMRS) port combination of the terminal (“In case of SDM, different DMRS ports would be allocated for PUSCH transmission to different TRPs” and “then DMRS port x is associated with the first TRP while DMRS ports {y, z} are associated with the second TRP”– See [¶0107] whereby “For simultaneous PUSCH transmission by a UE to multiple TRPs, the transmission to multi-TRPs may share the same time/frequency resource, referring here as Spatial Division Multiplexing (SDM)” – See [¶0103] and “For PUSCH transmission to multiple TRPs, a TRP may be represent by a unified TCI state or a UL TCI state” – See [¶0105]);
wherein, one DMRS port combination comprises one or more DMRS ports of the terminal (“DMRS ports may be allocated together, e.g., DMRS ports {x, y, z}”– See [¶0107]).
Therefore, Muruganathan anticipates Claim 8.
Regarding Claim 9, dependent from Claim 8, Muruganathan further teaches the method according to claim 8, wherein one TCI is associated with a data transmission layer set (“the association of the ports to each TRP may be identified by the number of layers associated with each TRP” – See [¶0107] whereby “a TRP may be represent by a unified TCI state or a UL TCI state” – See [¶0105]); and
one data transmission layer set comprises one or more data transmission layers (“For example, if one layer is allocated to a first TRP and two layers are allocated to the second TRP” – See [¶0107]).
Therefore, Muruganathan anticipates Claim 9.
Regarding Claim 10, dependent from Claim 9, Muruganathan further teaches the method according to claim 9, wherein
time-frequency resources of different uplink transmissions completely overlap (“For simultaneous PUSCH transmission by a UE to multiple TRPs, the transmission to multi-TRPs may share the same time/frequency resource, referring here as Spatial Division Multiplexing (SDM)” – See [¶0103]).
Therefore, Muruganathan anticipates Claim 10.
Regarding Claim 17, dependent from Claim 1, Muruganathan further teaches the method according to claim 1, wherein (“In 3GPP Rel-17, a new unified TCI state framework will be specified, which aims to streamline the indication of transmit/receive spatial filter (and other QCL properties) to the UE by letting a single TCI state indicate QCL properties for multiple different DL and/or UL signals/ Channels,” i.e., PUCCH/PUSCH – See [¶0034]), the TCI comprises one of ("Joint DL/UL TCI" and "Separate DL/UL TCI" – See [¶0049]):
a joint TCI (“For Joint DL/UL TCI, a single TCI state (which for example can be a DL TCI state or a Joint TCI state) is used to determine a transmit/receive spatial filter for both DL signals/channels and UL signals/ channels” – See [¶0036]); or
a separate TCI (“For Separate DL/UL TCI, one TCI state (for example a DL TCI state) can be used to indicate a receive spatial filter for DL signals/channels and a separate TCI state (for example an UL TCI state) can be used to indicate a transmit spatial filter for UL signals/channels” – See id.).
Therefore, Muruganathan anticipates Claim 17.
Regarding Claim 19, dependent from Claim 1, Muruganathan further teaches the method according to claim 1, wherein indication information of the TCI has a TCI field (“receiving a configuration of at least one unified Transmission Configuration Indicator (TCI) state, indicating Multiple TRP (mTRP) operation” – See [¶0067] whereby “TCI states are activated via MAC-CE signaling and associated to different TCI field codepoints” – See [¶0035] and “TCI state ID i,j: This field indicates the TCI state identified by TCI-Stateld as specified in TS 38.331 [5], where i is the index of the codepoint of the DCI Transmission configuration indication field as specified in TS 38.212 [9] and TCI state IDi,j denotes the jth TCI state indicated for the ith codepoint in the DCI Transmission Configuration Indication field” – See [¶0032]);
code points of the TCI field indicate TCIs corresponding to a plurality of antenna panels of the terminal (in “multi-TRP mode . . . when a TCI field codepoint in DCI indicates two TCI states, each TCI state corresponds to a different beam or different TRP” whereby “The activation and mapping of 2 TCI states for a codepoint in the TCI field of DCI is done with the below MAC CE from 3GPP TS 38.321 Enhanced TCI States Activation/Deactivation for UE-Specific PDSCH MAC CE” – See [¶0027] and “mTRP operation [is] using . . . Simultaneous Transmission Across Multiple Panels (STxMP)” – See [¶0067], i.e., a plurality of antenna panels of the terminal form a UL beam towards a TRP with the TCI-StateId indicated by the TCI codepoint in the DCI);
Therefore, Muruganathan anticipates Claim 19.
Regarding Claim 20, dependent from Claim 1, further teaches the method according to claim 1, wherein the TCI is carried by downlink control information (DCI) (“a UE may receive two DCIs each scheduling a PDSCH/PUSCH” – See [¶0025] whereby, the “single DCI based mTRP, needs two DL TCI states to be associated to one DCI codepoint in the TCI field in DCI. That is, when a TCI field codepoint in DCI indicates two TCI states, each TCI state corresponds to a different beam or different TRP” – See [¶0027]).
Therefore, Muruganathan anticipates Claim 20.
Regarding Claim 21, dependent from Claim 1, further teaches the method according to claim 1, wherein
the uplink transmission comprises a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmission (“a method performed by a User Equipment (UE) for transmitting Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH)” – See [¶0067]), and a PUSCH type of the PUSCH transmission comprises at least one of:
a PUSCH scheduled with multiple downlink control information (M-DCI) (“multiple DCI scheduling is for multi-TRP in which a UE may receive two DCIs each scheduling a PDSCH/PUSCH” – See [¶0025];
a grant free configured grant (CG) PUSCH type l (“a method in a UE for transmitting PUSCH configured grant to multiple-TRPs using the unified TCI state framework” – See [¶0095] includes “type 1 CG PUSCH . . . where the new bitfield indicates whether the UE shall perform CG based mTRP PUSCH repetition or CG based mTRP PUSCH simultaneous transmission over multiple panels (STxMP) in case the UE is indicated with mTRP UL transmission (for example if the UE is configured with two applied Joint/UL TCI states)” – See [¶0099]); or
a grant free CG PUSCH type 2 (“a UE with two Joint/UL TCI states applied and where the UE is configured with a type 2 CG, a new (or old re-purposed) bitfield in a UL DCI is used to indicate whether the UE shall perform CG based mTRP PUSCH repetition or CG based mTRP PUSCH STxMP” – See [¶0102]).
Therefore, Muruganathan anticipates Claim 21.
Regarding Claim 43, Muruganathan teaches a communication device, comprising: a processor, a memory (“The UE 900 includes processing circuitry 902 that is operatively coupled via a bus 904 to an input/output interface 906, a power source 908, memory 910, a communication interface 912, and/or any other component, or any combination thereof” – See [¶0133] and Fig. 9), having an executable program stored thereon (“The processing circuitry 902 is configured to process instructions and data and may be configured to implement any sequential state machine operative to execute instructions stored as machine-readable computer programs in the memory 910” – See [¶0134] and Fig. 9), wherein the processor is configured to: execute the steps of the method recited in Claim 1 using the same language. Because Claim 1 is anticipated by Muruganathan Claim 43 is also anticipated by Muruganathan.
Regarding Claim 44, Muruganathan teaches a non-transitory computer storage medium having an executable program stored thereon that, when executed by a processor and (“some or all of the functionality described herein may be provided by processing circuitry executing instructions stored in memory, which in certain embodiments may be a computer program product in the form of a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium” – See [¶0182], e.g., “The memory 910 may allow the UE 900 to access instructions, application programs, and the like stored on transitory or non-transitory memory media, to off-load data, or to upload data. An article of manufacture, such as one utilizing a communication system, may be tangibly embodied as or in the memory 910, which may be or comprise a device-readable storage medium” – See [¶0138]), the processor is configured to: execute the steps of the method recited in Claim 1 using the same language. Because Claim 1 is anticipated by Muruganathan Claim 44 is also anticipated by Muruganathan.
Regarding Claims 45-49, dependent from Claim 43, each claim teaches the same limitations as recited in Claims 2-5 and 8, respectively, only from the perspective of the UE described in Claim 43 executing the method in Claims 1-5 and 8. Because each of the Claims 1-5, 8 and 43 are anticipated by Muruganathan, each of the Claims 45-49 is anticipated by Muruganathan.
In sum, Claims 1-5, 8-10, 17, 19-21, and 43-49 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. §102(a)(2) as anticipated by Muruganathan.
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.
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 12 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Muruganathan as applied to Claim 8 above, and further in view of Nilsson et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2024/0396692 (hereinafter Nilsson).
Regarding Claim 12, dependent from Claim 8, anticipated by Muruganathan, while Muruganathan further teaches the method according to claim 8, wherein DMRS ports are grouped and allocated to a TRP/TCI state (“The DMRS ports may be allocated together, e.g., DMRS ports {x, y, z}, and the[n] association of the ports to each TRP” – See [¶0107] whereby “Each TCI state contains QCL information related to one or two RSs”– See [¶0009] therefore a DMRS group will be QCL according to the qcl-Type parameter in QCL Info of the unified TCI state or separated UL TCI state associated with the respective TRP), Muruganathan does not explicitly teach different CDM groups.
Nilsson, like Muruganathan teaches that “In 3GPP Rel-17, a new unified TCI state framework is to be specified” – See [¶0047] wherein “For Joint DL/UL TCI, a single TCI state (which can be a DL TCI state or a Joint DL/UL TCI state) is used to determine a transmit/receive spatial filter for both DL signals/channels and UL signals/ channels. For Separate DL/UL TCI, one TCI state (for example, a DL TCI state) can be used to indicate a receive spatial filter for DL signals/channels and a separate TCI state (for example, an UL TCI state) can be used to indicate a transmit spatial filter for UL signals/channels” – See [¶0057] and “extend[s] the new unified TCI framework to support STxMP” – See [¶0084], and, like Muruganathan teaches “DRMS ports associated to the simultaneous transmissions” – See [¶0086]. Nilsson teaches in Fig. 21 “an explicit indication in a dedicated bitfield ( or at least one codepoint in a dedicated bitfield) in UL DCI formats are used to indicate a multi-TRP PUSCH transmission scheme for the triggered PUSCH” distinguishing between TDM multipanel-transmissions and three modes for the STxMP transmissions, including “Codepoint '10', corresponds to STxMP transmission where the two WD panels transmit the same data to two different TRPs, and where the data is overlapping in time and frequency. Codepoint '11 ', corresponds to STxMP transmission where the two WD panels transmit different data (for example different transport blocks or different layers of the same transport block) to two different TRPs using the same frequency and time allocations” – See [¶0176], also taught in Muruganathan.
Nilsson further teaches DMRS ports with different CDM groups have different quasi-co-located (QCL) type D associations (“the simultaneous transmission is implicitly indicated when the first subset of DMRS ports are in a first code division multiplex, CDM, group and the second subset of DMRS ports are in a second CDM group, wherein the first and second CDM groups are different” – See [¶0086]; in addition “DMRS ports associated with different TRPs should be from different CDM groups” – See [¶0181] and because “a STxMP transmission for the PUSCH is triggered implicitly when two UL TCI states are applied (i.e., two TX spatial filters are applied for UL)” – See [¶0172] and “[a] TRP may be represented by a TCI state” – See [¶0167] then DMRS ports with different CDM groups have different QCL Information of the same QCL-type for spatial multiplexing, e.g., “To maintain orthogonality” – See [¶0181]; also “if the antenna Port bit field codepoint indicates DMRS ports in two CDM groups for the PUSCH DMRS, the WD 22 may assume that STxMP PUSCH transmission should be applied” – See [¶0175]); or
Thus, Muruganathan and Nilsson each discloses uplink STxMP transmissions whereby groups of DMRS ports are each associated with a TRP in a mTRP PUSCH transmission. A person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have understood that the different CDM groups of DMRS ports each group having a different quasi-co-located (QCL) type D association, as taught by Nilsson could have been applied to the groups of DMRS ports in Muruganathan because in both cases the UE having the DMRS port groups must send STxMP transmissions to different TRPs and those transmission must be as orthogonal as possible to avoid interference. Furthermore, a person of ordinary skill in the art would have been able to carry out the improvement through techniques known in the art. Finally, the improvement achieves the predictable result of allowing DMRS ports associated with different TRPs to be from different CDM groups to assure orthogonality of STxMP PUSCH transmissions, as taught by Nilsson.
Therefore, Claims 12 is obvious over Muruganathan in view of Nilsson.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
References listed in IDSs as used in other Offices examination reports;
Cao et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2025/0007658 discloses a method of receiving first indication information sent by a first TRP of multiple transmission reception points TRPs, where the first indication information is used to indicate or update at least one unified transmission configuration indication TCI state;
Go et al, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2025/0294559, discloses method performed by a user equipment (UE) receiving configuration information related to a plurality of control resource sets (CORESETs) from a base station, receiving downlink control information (DCI) from the base station, transmitting a random access preamble to the base station, and receiving a random access response (RAR) from the base station;
Park et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2023/0292335 discloses joint TCI states, mDCI and mTRP transmissions;
Park et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2025/0240134 discloses Unified TCI for mTRP and simultaneous BFR;
Yang et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2025/0015965 discloses determining, by the terminal, a unified TCI state of a channel or a reference signal in a component carrier CC group based on the unified TCI state ID;
Yang et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2025/0015868 discloses the unified TCI framework for BFR;
Zhu et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2023/0224995 discloses beam management and failure recovery under unified TCI framework;
Yuan et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2025/0106869 discloses improved methods of configuring a user equipment (UE) with a TCI state, such as a unified TCI state, while communicating in a multiple transmission reception point (mTRP) environment;
Matsumura et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2023/0328539 discloses method of appropriately determining information relating to QCL;
3GPP TS 38.321 V17.0.0 (2022-03), “Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; NR; Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol specification (Release 17)”;
3GPP TS 38.213 V17.0.0 (2022-03), “Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; NR; Physical layer procedures for control (Release 17)”;
3GPP TS 38.214 V17.0.0 (2022-03), “Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; NR; Physical layer procedures for data (Release 17)”;
3GPP TS 38.331 v17.0.0 (2022-03), “Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; NR; Radio Resource Control (RRC) protocol specification (Release 17)”;
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/L.G.G./ Examiner, Art Unit 2478
/JAY L VOGEL/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2478
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