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 statement (IDS) submitted on 11/26/24 is/are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Specification
The lengthy specification has not been checked to the extent necessary to determine the presence of all possible minor errors. Applicant's cooperation is requested in correcting any errors of which applicant may become aware in the specification.
Drawings
The drawings were received on 11/26/24. These drawings are acceptable.
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 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 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.
Claims ??? are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Song et al. (US 2017/0111928) in view of Siomina et al. (US 2022/0353938).
Regarding claim 1, Song discloses an apparatus for wireless communications at a user equipment (UE) (see fig. 1), comprising: a processor; memory coupled with the processor; and instructions stored in the memory (see 3300 in fig. 23) and executable by the processor to cause the apparatus to: receive control signaling on a first component carrier (e.g. see “first cell” in ¶ [0138]), the control signaling comprising an indication of a first transmission indicator state and a grant of resources for receiving a data transmission or an aperiodic channel state information transmission on a second component carrier that is different from the first component carrier (e.g. see ¶ [0138]); determine whether a first physical cell identifier associated with the first transmission indicator state in an active bandwidth part of the second component carrier (e.g. see ¶ [0138], [0113]) and a second physical cell identifier associated with a serving cell of the second component carrier are the same (e.g. see ¶ [0138]); and receive, via the first transmission indicator state based at least in part on the determining, the data transmission or the aperiodic channel state information transmission via the second component carrier according to the grant of resources.
Although Song discloses the first transmission indicator state, it is noted that Song does not provide the particular wherein the first transmission indicator is a transmission configuration indicator.
However, Siomina discloses that an apparatus for wireless communications wherein the first transmission indicator is a transmission configuration indicator state (e.g. see ¶ [0057]).
Given the teachings as a whole, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to incorporate Siomina well-known teachings of transmission configuration indicator state into Song transmission indicator state for the benefit of defining physical downlink channel.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim(s) 2-8, 10-16, 18-23 and 25-30 is/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.
The following is an Examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance:
Claims 2, 10, 18 and 25 discloses wherein the instructions are further executable by the processor to cause the apparatus to: determine that a duration of time between receiving the control signaling and the granted resources does not satisfy a threshold time period, wherein the first physical cell identifier and the second physical cell identifier are not the same; identify a plurality of transmission configuration indicator states comprising the first transmission configuration indicator state activated for the second component carrier, each of the plurality of transmission configuration indicator states corresponding to a respective index value of a plurality of index values; and select the first transmission configuration indicator state from the plurality of transmission configuration indicator states activated for the second component carrier based at least in part on the first transmission configuration indicator state corresponding to a lowest index value of the plurality of index values and the duration of time not satisfying the threshold time period.
Claims 7, 15, 22 and 29 discloses wherein the instructions are further executable by the processor to cause the apparatus to: select the first transmission configuration indicator state based at least in part on the determining, wherein the first physical cell identifier and the second physical cell identifier are the same, and wherein receiving the data transmission or the aperiodic channel state information transmission is based at least in part on the selecting.
The closest prior arts Song and Siomina fail to anticipate or render the above underlined limitation obvious.
Any comments considered necessary by applicant must be submitted no later than the payment of the issue fee and, to avoid processing delays, should preferably accompany the issue fee. Such submissions should be clearly labeled “Comments on Statement of Reasons for Allowance.”
Citation of Pertinent Art
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
1. Lee et al. (US 2021/0037592), discloses multiple carriers with active and grant status.
2. Kim et al. (US 2018/0220447), discloses multiple carriers with active and grant status.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to RICHARD T TORRENTE whose telephone number is (571)270-3702. The examiner can normally be reached M-F: 6:45-3:15 pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Jay Patel can be reached at (571) 272-2988. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/RICHARD T TORRENTE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2485
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