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 .
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).
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Claims 1-15 rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claims 1-6 of U.S. Patent No. 12176982. Although the claims at issue are not identical, they are not patentably distinct from each other because
Regarding claims 1, 6, 11, the Patent No. 12176982 teaches, the Patent No. 12176982 teaches a method for channel information feedback, comprising:
receiving, by a first beamformee of at least two beamformees, a null data packet announcement (NDPA) frame from a beamformer, wherein the NDPA frame indicates that the at least two beamformees are to feed back channel information to the beamformer, wherein the NDPA frame comprises a frame control field, a duration field, a receiver address (RA) field, a transmitter address (TA) field, and one or more station (STA) info fields, and wherein the one or more STA info fields comprise an association identifier (AID) field, a feedback type field, and an Nc index field (claim 1);
receiving, by the first beamformee, a null data packet (NDP) frame from the beamformer, wherein the NDP frame is usable by each beamformee of the at least two beamformees for performing channel estimation with respect to a channel between the beamformee and the beamformer (claim 1);
receiving, by the first beamformee, a frame that carries indication information after receiving the NDPA frame and the NDP frame, wherein the indication information indicates a corresponding frequency at which each beamformee of the at least two beamformees is to feed back channel information (claim 1); and
performing, by the first beamformee, channel estimation to obtain channel information according to the NDP frame (claim 1); and
sending, by the first beamformee, channel information to the beamformer (claim 1).
Regarding claim 2, 7, 12, the Patent No. 12176982 teaches the method according to claim 1, wherein the at least two beamformees comprise: a beamformee in a same basic service set (BSS) as the beamformer, and a beamformee in a different BSS from that of the beamformer (claim 2).
Regarding claim 3, 8, 13, the Patent No. 12176982 teaches the method according to claim 1, wherein the frame that carries the indication information further comprises order indicating information, wherein the order indicating information indicates that another beamformer will start to send a new NDPA frame to the at least two beamformees after the beamformer has received the channel information (claim 1).
Regarding claim 4, 9, 14, the Patent No. 12176982 teaches the method according to claim 3, further comprising: determining, by the first beamformee, that the received NDP frame was sent by a last beamformer indicated in the order indicating information (claim 1).
Regarding claims 5, 10, 15, the Patent No. 12176982 teaches the method according to claim 4, wherein determining that the received NDP frame was sent by the last beamformer indicated in the order indicating information comprises: comparing, by the first beamformee, a beamformer identifier corresponding to the received NDP frame with the order indicating information (claim 1); and determining, by the first beamformee, that the beamformer corresponding to the beamformed identifier was the last beamformer (claim 1).
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.
Claim(s) 1, 6, 11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ABRAHAM et al. (US 20120250543) in view of ZHANG et al. (US 20080069031).
Regarding claim 1, 6, 11, ABRAHAM et al. (US 201202500543) teaches a method for channel information feedback, comprising:
receiving, by a first beamformee of at least two beamformees, a null data packet announcement (NDPA) frame from a beamformer (fig. 4, 5, 7; par. 71, 76, 83, 85, 87, 88, transmitting a NPDA frame to one or more user stations (STAs)), wherein the NDPA frame indicates that the at least two beamformees are to feed back channel information to the beamformer (par. 71, 72, 109, 127, The NDPA frame 402 may comprise Association Identifiers (AIDs) of the STAs that should transmit computed CSI feedback messages to the AP…A first listed STA within the NDPA frame 402 may transmit CSI Feedback 408 subsequent to a SIFS period after the transmission of the NDP frame 404, as illustrated in FIG. 4),
wherein the NDPA frame comprises a frame control field, a duration field, a receiver address (RA) field, a transmitter address (TA) field, and one or more station (STA) info fields (par. 76, The NDPA frame 422 may comprise one or more of a frame control field 502, a duration field 504, an RA broadcast field 506, a TA field 508, a CSI sequence field 512, an STA information field 514, and a CRC field 516), and wherein the one or more STA info fields comprise an association identifier (AID) field (par. 85, STA information 612a may comprise one or more of an AID field 702), a feedback type field (par. 84, STA information 612 may communicate to an STA parameters that the STA may use to report CSI), and an Nc index field (par. 85, 129, 132, Nss sub-field 704 in the STA information 612 is used to determine Nc);
receiving, by the first beamformee, a null data packet (NDP) frame from the beamformer (fig. 4, 5, 7; par. 71, 76, 83, 85, 87, 88, An access point (AP) may transmit to one or more user stations (STAs) a Null Data Packet Announcement (NDPA) frame 402 followed by a Null Data Packet (NDP) frame 404 after a Short Inter-Frame Symbol (SIFS) period 406), wherein the NDP frame is usable by each beamformee of the at least two beamformees for performing channel estimation with respect to a channel between the beamformee and the beamformer (par. 72, The NDP frame 404 may comprise a sounding frame utilized by each of the STAs to compute corresponding CSI (Channel State Information) feedback);
receiving, by the first beamformee, a frame that carries indication information after receiving the NDPA frame and the NDP frame (fig. 4, 5, 7; par. 71, 76, 83, 85, 87, 88, An access point (AP) may transmit to one or more user stations (STAs) a Null Data Packet Announcement (NDPA) frame 402 followed by a Null Data Packet (NDP) frame 404 after a Short Inter-Frame Symbol (SIFS) period 406), wherein the NDP frame is used for each beamformee of the at least two beamformees to estimate a channel between the beamformee and the beamformer (fig. 4, 10, par. 72, 73, 75, 114, the AP may transmit a CSI Poll 412 to request an additional portion of the complete CSI feedback from the first listed STA; par. 111, wherein the indication information indicates a MCS at which a beamformee of the at least two beamformees feeds back channel information); and
performing, by the first beamformee, channel estimation to obtain channel information according to the NDP frame (par. 72, The NDP frame 404 may comprise a sounding frame utilized by each of the STAs to compute corresponding CSI (Channel State Information) feedback); and
sending, by the first beamformee, channel information to the beamformer (par. 72, The NDP frame 404 may comprise a sounding frame utilized by each of the STAs to compute corresponding CSI (Channel State Information) feedback);.
However, ABRAHAM does not teach wherein the indication information indicates a corresponding frequency at which each beamformee of the at least two beamformees is to feed back channel information.
But, ZHANG et al. (US 20080069031) in a similar or same field of endeavor teaches wherein the indication information indicates a corresponding frequency at which each beamformee of the at least two beamformees is to feed back channel information (par. 60, 128, 140, 142, the base station transmits a unique identifier associated with a respective wireless terminal for which the feedback channel resource assignment is being assigned and at step 1830 a location of the feedback channel resources in the data frame; par. 3, wherein channel being OFDM resource including the frequency; the channel resource assignment unique identifier would indicating the frequency for channel for feeds back information).
Thus, it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art before the effectively filing date of the claimed invention to implement the system or method as taught by ZHANG in the system of ABRAHAM to implement the indication of frequency for feeding back the channel information.
The motivation would have been to control the feedback and adjust and acquire different feedback information (ZHANG, par. 5).
Claims 2, 7, 12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ABRAHAM et al. (US 20120250543) and ZHANG et al. (US 20080069031) as applied to claim 1, 6, 11 above, and further in view of CHOUDHURY et al. (US 20140153415).
Regarding claim 2, 7, 12, ABRAHAM does not teach the method according to claim 1, wherein the at least two beamformees comprise: a beamformee in a same basic service set (BSS) as the beamformer, and a beamformee in a different BSS from that of the beamformer.
But, CHOUDHURY in a similar or same field of endeavor teaches a beamformee in a same basic service set (BSS) as the beamformer, and a beamformee in a different BSS from that of the beamformer (par. 158, 160, 167, 177, measurement of beacon from other base station in SSID=X, indicating different basic service ID).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the filed application to implement the system or method as taught by CHOUDHURY in the system of ABRAHAM and ZHANG to transmit first channel measurement and second channel measurement.
The motivation would have to been to provide measurement for the associated STA with the associated AP.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
STEPHENS et al. (US 20140044112) teaches The NDP announcement frame is transmitted to the stations to indicate that the beamforming sequence is beginning and the order of the stations responses are in accordance with a user list included in the NDP announcement frame (par. 66).
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/THINH D TRAN/for /Thinh Tran/, Patent Examiner of Art Unit 2466 09/05/2026
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