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 .
DETAILED ACTION
This action is responsive to the application filed on 10/23/2024 has a total of 20 claims pending in the application; there are 2 independent claims and 18 dependent claims, all of which are ready for examination by the examiner.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 14 is 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 or amend these claims into their base claims, respectively.
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.
Claim 12 is 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.
Claim 12 recites the limitation "the i-th downlink TCI state" in line 3. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim. The “i-th” was indicated in the base claim.
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.
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.
Claims 4-13, 15-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Matsumura et al. Publication No. (US 2025/0279869 A1) in view of LIU et al. Publication No. (US 2025/0233717 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Matsumura teaches a signal transmission apparatus, comprising:
a receiver (reception processing section 2212 FIG.30) configured to receive TCI (Transmission Configuration Indicator) state indication information, the TCI state indication information indicating at least one TCI state (The UE receives higher layer signaling (RRC signaling/MAC CE) that configures/activates application of one or two TCI states to PUSCH transmission [0468-469] FIG.20C);
processor circuitry (control circuit 210 FIG.30) configured to determine an SRS (Sounding Reference Signal) resource set associated with an indicated TCI state in configured multiple SRS resource sets (The UE may determine that a first TCI state and a second TCI state indicated in a common TCI state correspond to an SRI of a first SRS resource set for a PUSCH for multi-TRP and an SRI of a second SRS resource set for the PUSCH for multi-TRP, respectively [0471-472] FIG.20D); and
a transmitter (transmission processing section 2211 FIG.30)configured to:
perform uplink transmission by using a parameter associated with the SRS resource set associated with the TCI state and/or a parameter associated with the TCI state (The UE may determine that a TCI state with a lower TCI state ID and a TCI state with a higher TCI state ID indicated in the common TCI state correspond to an SRI of a first SRS resource set for a PUSCH for multi-TRP and an SRI of a second SRS resource set for the PUSCH for multi-TRP, respectively. The two TCI states may be applied to uplink (UL) transmission (PUSCH) using a multi-panel [0471-476] The UE may determine which one or more TCI states of the two indicated TCI states are applied to transmission of the UL reference signal (for example, the SRS) [0653] FIG.20D), and
perform uplink transmission for dynamic grant PUSCH (Physical Uplink Shared Channel) scheduled by DCI (Downlink Control Information) (the UE may apply two TCI states to at least one of a plurality of all PUSCHs by a dynamic grant (scheduled by DCI) and a plurality of all configured grant PUSCHs [0442-443]) format or Type 2 configured grant PUSCH activated by DCI format, wherein the dynamic grant PUSCH or the Type 2 configured grant PUSCH is associated with a first SRS resource set and/or a first TCI state associated with the first SRS resource set (the DCI includes a plurality of TCI fields for indicating TCI states (in the example in FIG. 10A, TCI field #1 and TCI field #2). The UE may determine, based on a codepoint of the TCI field included in the DCI, one or more UL TCI states. For example, when the TCI field included in the DCI indicates “100,” the UE determines that a first joint TCI state is TCI state #1 and that a second joint TCI state is TCI state #0. A format of the DCI for indicating the TCI states may be a first DCI format (for example, a DCI format for scheduling a PDSCH (for example, DCI format 1_1/1_2) and a second DCI format (for example, a DCI format for scheduling a PUSCH (for example, DCI format 0_1/0_2 [0254-258] The specific DCI may be DCI for activating a configured grant PUSCH or for scheduling retransmission of a configured grant PUSCH [0451-452] FIG.18).
Matsumura does not explicitly teach the DCI format 0_0 for activating PUSCH transmission.
LIU teaches the DCI format 0_0 for activating PUSCH transmission (For Type 2 CG PUSCH transmission activated by DCI (e.g. DCI format 0_0) without SRS resource set indication (SRSI) field or DG PUSCH transmission scheduled by DCI (e.g. DCI format 0_0) without SRSI field, the first TCI state, the PL-RS associated with the first TCI state, and the UL power control parameter set for PUSCH associated with the first TCI state are applied to the activated Type 2 CG PUSCH transmission or the scheduled DG PUSCH transmission [0077-79] FIG.3).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified Matsumura by the teaching of LIU to activate configured grant by DCI format 0_0 in order to activate the configured grant (CG) PUSCH transmission by DCI without SRS resource set indication field (LIU: [0010] FIG.1).
Regarding claim 2, Matsumura teaches the apparatus according to claim 1, wherein, the TCI state indication information is carried by a TCI field in a first DCI format (To indicate one or two TCI states for one codepoint of a TCI field in DCI, an “enhanced TCI states activation/deactivation for UE-specific PDSCH MAC CE” is used. DCI for common beam indication may be a UE-specific DCI format (for example, DL DCI format (for example, 1_1, 1_2)), may be a UL DCI format (for example, 0_1, 0_2), or may be a UE-group common DCI format [0094-95]).
Regarding claim 3, Matsumura teaches the apparatus according to claim 1, wherein, the TCI state indication information indicates one uplink TCI state and/or one downlink TCI state; or the TCI state indication information indicates a joint TCI state used for indicating an uplink TCI state and a downlink TCI state (By DCI-based beam management (DCI level beam indication), a common beam/unified TCI state may be indicated from the same TCI pool (joint common TCI pool, joint TCI pool, set) for both UL and DL. X (>1) TCI states may be activated by a MAC CE [0160-162]).
Regarding claim 4, Matsumura teaches the apparatus according to claim 1, wherein, in a case where the TCI state indication information indicates an uplink TCI state or a joint TCI state, the processor circuitry determines an SRS resource set associated with the uplink TCI state or the joint TCI state in the multiple SRS resource sets (The UE may determine that a TCI state with a lower TCI state ID and a TCI state with a higher TCI state ID indicated in the common TCI state correspond to an SRI of a first SRS resource set for a PUSCH for multi-TRP and an SRI of a second SRS resource set for the PUSCH for multi-TRP, respectively [0472-476]).
Regarding claim 5, Matsumura teaches the apparatus according to claim 4, wherein, before the TCI state indication information indicates an uplink TCI state or a joint TCI state, the TCI state indication information indicated two uplink TCI states or two joint TCI states (the UE receives higher layer signaling that configures/activates application of one or two TCI states. In the example shown in FIG. 20C, the higher layer signaling configures application of two TCI states. Thus, the UE applies two TCI states to PUSCH transmission [0468]).
Regarding claim 6, Matsumura teaches the apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the TCI state indication information indicates at least one of the following TCI states: a joint TCI state; two joint TCI states; two downlink TCI states and two uplink TCI states; one downlink TCI state and one uplink TCI state; two downlink TCI states and one uplink TCI state; two uplink TCI states and one downlink TCI state; two downlink TCI states; two uplink TCI states; one downlink TCI state; or one uplink TCI state (Two joint TCI states/separate DL TCI states may be indicated for a UE [0490]).
Regarding claim 7, Matsumura teaches the apparatus according to claim 1, wherein that the processor circuitry determines the SRS resource set associated with the TCI state comprises: determining based on a predetermined SRS resource set in the multiple SRS resource sets; determining based on an indication of a second DCI format; determining based on a reference signal; or determining based on an indication of the first DCI format (A format of the DCI for indicating the TCI states may be a first DCI format (for example, a DCI format for scheduling a PDSCH (for example, DCI format 1_1/1_2) and a second DCI format (for example, a DCI format for scheduling a PUSCH (for example, DCI format 0_1/0_2). Based on the first DCI format, a certain TCI state set (joint TCI states/separate (DL/UL) TCI states) may be indicated for the UE. Based on the second DCI format, another TCI state set may be indicated for the UE [0258-259]).
Regarding claim 8, Matsumura teaches the apparatus according to claim 7, wherein, the SRS resource set associated with the TCI state is a first SRS resource set in the multiple SRS resource sets (multiple SRS resource sets, a first SRS resource set may mean an SRS resource set with a lower (or higher) ID, and a second SRS resource set may mean an SRS resource set with a higher (or lower) ID [0473]).
Regarding claim 9, Matsumura teaches the apparatus according to claim 7, wherein, the SRS resource set associated with the TCI state is indicated by an SRS resource set indicator field in the second DCI format; or the SRS resource set associated with the TCI state is indicated by an SRS request field in the second DCI format (The UE may determine that a first TCI state and a second TCI state indicated in a common TCI state correspond to a first SRI/SRI field/SRS resource set/panel in multi-panel transmission and a second SRI/SRI field/SRS resource set/panel in multi-panel transmission, respectively [0475-477]).
Regarding claim 10, Matsumura teaches the apparatus according to claim 9, wherein, when the TCI state indication information indicates one uplink TCI state or one joint TCI state, the SRS resource set associated with the TCI state is indicated by the SRS resource set indicator field or the SRS request field (The UE receives an activation command [request field] for mapping up to eight TCI states to a codepoint of a DCI field (TCI field) in one CC/DL BWP or in one set of CCs/BWPs. When one set of TCI state IDs is activated for one set of CCs/DL BWPs, an applicable CC list is determined by a CC(s) indicated in an activation command, and a set of TCI states being the same is applied to all the DL BWPs in the indicated CC [0150-152]).
Regarding claim 11, Matsumura teaches the apparatus according to claim 9, wherein, the second DCI format also schedules transmission of uplink data in a case of indicating the SRS resource set associated with the TCI state; or the second DCI format does not schedule transmission of uplink data in a case of indicating the SRS resource set associated with the TCI state (A format of the DCI for indicating the TCI states may be a first DCI format (for example, a DCI format for scheduling a PDSCH (for example, DCI format 1_1/1_2) and a second DCI format (for example, a DCI format for scheduling a PUSCH (for example, DCI format 0_1/0_2) [0258] FIG.10B).
Regarding claim 12, Matsumura teaches the apparatus according to claim 1, wherein, a TCI codepoint indicates whether the i-th downlink TCI state is present or not and whether the j-th uplink TCI state is present or not, where i = 1, 2 and j = 1, 2 (A format of the DCI for indicating the TCI states may be a first DCI format (for example, a DCI format for scheduling a PDSCH (for example, DCI format 1_1/1_2) and a second DCI format (for example, a DCI format for scheduling a PUSCH (for example, DCI format 0_1/0_2) [0258-259]).
Regarding claim 13, Matsumura teaches the apparatus according to claim 7, wherein, indicating by the TCI field of the first DCI format; and/or indicating by an unused field of the first DCI format; and/or indicating by a new field of the first DCI format (Based on the first DCI format, a certain TCI state set (joint TCI states/separate (DL/UL) TCI states) may be indicated for the UE. Based on the second DCI format, another TCI state set may be indicated for the UE [0258-259]).
Claim 14 (allowable subject matter). However, the claim is rejected since its based on a rejected base claim
Regarding claim 15, Matsumura teaches the apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the multiple SRS resource sets are SRS resource sets associated with at least one of the following signals/channels: a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) based on a dynamic grant; a PUSCH based on a Type 1 configured grant; a PUSCH based on a Type 2 configured grant; a periodic SRS (Periodic SRS); a semi-persistent sounding reference signal (SRS); an aperiodic SRS; or a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) (a DCI format for scheduling a PDSCH (for example, DCI format 1_1/1_2) and a second DCI format (for example, a DCI format for scheduling a PUSCH (for example, DCI format 0_1/0_2) [0258]).
Regarding claim 16, Matsumura teaches the apparatus according to claim 15, wherein transmission of the PUSCH and/or the PUCCH based on a dynamic grant are(is) transmission of PUSCH and/or PUCCH based on single DCI (sDCI) scheduling multiple transmission and reception point (multiple TRP, mTRP) (use of multi-DCI-based multi-TRP being configured may mean a CORESET pool index with two different values (for example, 0 and 1) being configured [0264-265]).
Regarding claim 17, Matsumura teaches the apparatus according to claim 1, wherein, when the TCI state indication information indicates one uplink TCI state or one joint TCI state, the transmitter transmits all PUSCH repetitions, wherein all the PUSCH repetitions are associated with the uplink TCI state or the joint TCI state (The joint TCI states/separate DL TCI states may not be applicable to at least one of a PDCCH and PDCCH repetition transmission. The UE may assume that the joint TCI states/separate DL TCI states are not applied to at least one of the PDCCH and the PDCCH repetition transmission [0542-543]).
Regarding claim 18, Matsumura teaches the apparatus according to claim 1, wherein, the parameter associated with the SRS resource set associated with the TCI state comprises at least one of the following parameters: an SRS resource indicator (SRI), a precoding matrix indicator (PMI), the number of layers, the number of antennas, an antenna index, or a power control parameter; the parameter associated with the TCI state comprises a power control parameter (The UE may determine that a first TCI state and a second TCI state indicated in a common TCI state correspond to an SRI of a first SRS resource set for a PUSCH for multi-TRP and an SRI of a second SRS resource set for the PUSCH for multi-TRP, respectively [0471-472]).
Regarding claim 19, Matsumura teaches the apparatus according to claim 7, wherein, the first DCI format indicates TCI state indication information; the second DCI format indicates or activates at least one of the following: physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmission based on a dynamic grant; PUSCH transmission based on a Type 2 configured grant; physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) transmission; semi-persistent sounding reference signal (SRS) transmission; or aperiodic SRS transmission (A format of the DCI for indicating the TCI states may be a first DCI format (for example, a DCI format for scheduling a PDSCH (for example, DCI format 1_1/1_2) and a second DCI format (for example, a DCI format for scheduling a PUSCH (for example, DCI format 0_1/0_2) [0258] FIG.10B).
Regarding claim 20, related to the same limitation set for hereinabove in claim 1, where the difference used is the limitations were presented from the “reception point” and the wordings of the claim were interchanged within the claim itself or were presented as a combination of two or more previously presented limitations. This change does not affect the limitation of the above treated claims. Adding these phrases to the claim and interchanging the wording did not introduce new limitations to this claim. Therefore this claim was rejected for similar reasons as stated above.
Conclusion
When responding to this office action, Applicant is advised to clearly point out the patentable novelty which he or she thinks the claims present, in view of the state of the art disclosed by the references cited or the objections made. He or she must also show how the amendments avoid such references or objections See 37 CFR 1.111 (c).
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/ABDELNABI O MUSA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2472
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