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 .
The preliminary amendment filed on 11/06/2024 has been entered. Claims 1-12 are pending in this Office action
Oath/Declaration
The Oath or Declaration is being considered by examiner and complies with PTO requirements.
Drawings
The drawings were received on 09/25/2024. These drawings are reviewed and accepted by the Examiner.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDSs), submitted on 10/30/2024, and 05/30/2025 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CRR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner.
Specification
The disclosure is objected to because of the following informalities:
In [0041], line 3, the term “CRS” should be --CSI-RS--.
Appropriate correction is required.
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.
Claims 1, 5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Qian et al (US 2018/0123659) hereinafter Qian in view of Sahraci et al (US 2021/0359731) coted in IDS filed 10/30/2024 hereinafter Sahraci.
Regarding claim 1, Qian discloses a method comprising: receiving a first precoding matrix indicator (PMI) from a terminal, wherein the first PMI indicates a first weight matrix; determining a second weight matrix based on the first weight matrix (see Abstract, a first generating unit configured to generate a first pre-coding matrix according to first channel information on a channel between a first communication apparatus and a second communication apparatus; a second generating unit configured to generate a second pre-coding matrix according to the first pre-coding matrix and second channel information on the channel). Qian fails to explicitly disclose determining a non-equal power weight matrix based on a non-equal coefficient matrix and the second weight matrix; and sending data to the terminal based on the non-equal power weight matrix.
Sahraci discloses determining a non-equal power weight matrix based on a non-equal coefficient matrix and the second weight matrix; and sending data to the terminal based on the non-equal power weight matrix (see [0094], [0125], [0223], [0262] to [0268]). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to determine a non-equal power weight matrix based on a non-equal coefficient matrix and the second weight matrix; and send data to the terminal based on the non-equal power weight matrix as taught Sahraci into the teachings of Qian in order to determine a redistribution matrix that provides a reduced variance of transmission powers for a number of transmission channels, where a product of the null space matrix and the redistribution matrix may be computed and added to the precoding matrix to generate a modified precoding matrix.
Claim 5 is similar to claim 1. Sahraci also discloses a processor; and a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a program to be executed by the processor (see [0010], [0162]). Therefore, claim 5 is rejected under a similar rationale.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-4, 6-12 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.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Li et al (US 2013/0286884) disclose a method and device for determining channel quality indication information.
Zhang et al (US 2020/0322933) disclose a method and apparatus for obtaining downlink channel information.
Ren et al (US 2022/0094412) disclose a channel measurement method and communications apparatus.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KHAI TRAN whose telephone number is (571)272-3019. The examiner can normally be reached until 4:00PM.
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/KHAI TRAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2632
KT
January 20, 2026