Ex Parte Baker et al

Patent Trial and Appeal Board

Jun 7, 2018

12293289 (P.T.A.B. Jun. 7, 2018)

UNITED STA TES p A TENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
APPLICATION NO. FILING DATE FIRST NAMED INVENTOR
12/293,289 09/17/2008 Matthew P.J. Baker
24737 7590 06/11/2018
PHILIPS INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY & STANDARDS
465 Columbus A venue
Suite 340
Valhalla, NY 10595
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
United States Patent and Trademark Office
Address: COMMISSIONER FOR PATENTS
P.O. Box 1450
Alexandria, Virginia 22313-1450
www .uspto.gov
ATTORNEY DOCKET NO. CONFIRMATION NO.
2006P00916WOUS 9360
EXAMINER
TRAN,PAULP
ART UNIT PAPER NUMBER
2649
NOTIFICATION DATE DELIVERY MODE
06/11/2018 ELECTRONIC
Please find below and/or attached an Office communication concerning this application or proceeding.
The time period for reply, if any, is set in the attached communication.
Notice of the Office communication was sent electronically on above-indicated "Notification Date" to the
following e-mail address( es):
patti. demichele@Philips.com
marianne.fox@philips.com
katelyn.mulroy@philips.com
PTOL-90A (Rev. 04/07)
UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
BEFORE THE PATENT TRIAL AND APPEAL BOARD
Ex parte MATTHEW P.J. BAKER and TIMOTHY J. MOULSLEY
Appeal2018-000390
Application 12/293,289 1
Technology Center 2600
Before JOSEPH L. DIXON, JAMES W. DEJMEK, and
MATTHEW J. McNEILL, Administrative Patent Judges.
DEJMEK, Administrative Patent Judge.
DECISION ON APPEAL
Appellants appeal under 35 U.S.C. § 134(a) from a Final Rejection of
claims 1-17. We have jurisdiction over the pending claims under 35 U.S.C.
§ 6(b).
We affirm.
1 Appellants identify Koninklijke Phillips N.V. as the real party in interest.
App. Br. 3.
Appeal2018-000390
Application 12/293,289
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Introduction
Appellants' disclosed and claimed invention is directed to
"provid[ing] improved signal quality reporting." Spec. 1 :27. According to
the Specification, by using up-to-date channel quality information in a time-
varying communications channel, improved downlink scheduling and the
more efficient use of adaptive modulation and coding may be possible.
Spec. 2:8-10. In a disclosed embodiment, rather than requiring an
independent means to transmit the channel quality indication, a first signal
used to assign resources for transmission of a second signal serves an
additional function to initiate transmission of a channel quality indication
prior to transmitting the second signal. Spec. 2: 13-15. Further, according to
the Specification, the disclosed approach improves the efficiency (by
reducing overhead transmissions) and provides a channel quality indication
that is more representative of the current channel conditions, thereby
improving reliability and efficiency in the transmission of the second signal.
Spec. 2:13-18.
Claim 1 is representative of the subject matter on appeal and is
reproduced below with the disputed limitation emphasized in italics:
1. A method of operating a radio station, comprising:
receiving a first signal indicative of a scheduled resource,
said scheduled resource configured for use in receiving a second
signal at the radio station, wherein the indication of said
scheduled resource includes a transmission time slot, a
transmission frequency, or a transmission channelization code,
or any combination thereof;
in response to receiving the first signal, adapting the radio
station to receive the second signal using the scheduled resource
indicated by said first signal; and
2
Appeal2018-000390
Application 12/293,289
prior to receiving the second signal and responsive to the
first signal, transmitting an indication of channel quality, the
indication of channel quality configured to enable a transmission
format of the second signal to be selected for transmission of the
second signal to the radio station, wherein for the second signal
the transmission format includes a modulation scheme, a coding
scheme, or a combination thereof.
The Examiner's Rejections
1. Claims 1-3, 6-9, and 12-15 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C.
§ 103(a) as being unpatentable over Takano (US 2005/0249151 Al; Nov.
10, 2005) and Yoon et al. (US 2007 /0254595 Al; Nov. 1, 2007) ("Yoon").
Final Act. 3-7.
2. Claims 4, 5, 10, 11, 16, and 17 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C.
§ 103(a) as being unpatentable over Takano, Yoon, and Vannithamby et al.
(US 2005/0201296 Al; Sept. 15, 2005) ("Vannithamby"). Final Act. 7-8.
ANALYSIS 2
In rejecting independent claims 1, 6, 7, and 12, the Examiner relies on
the combined teachings and suggestions of Takano and Yoon. Final Act. 3-
7. We begin our analysis with a review of these prior art references.
Takano is generally directed to "wireless communications that carry
out closed-loop MIMO [(Multi Input Multi Output)] transmission, using
singular value decomposition (SVD) of a channel matrix with elements that
are channels for pairs of transmit antennas and receive antennas."
2 Throughout this Decision, we have considered the Appeal Brief, filed
April 19, 2017 ("App. Br."); the Reply Brief, filed October 11, 2017 ("Reply
Br."); the Examiner's Answer, mailed August 11, 2017 ("Ans."); and the
Final Office Action, mailed November 18, 2016 ("Final Act."), from which
this Appeal is taken.
3
Appeal2018-000390
Application 12/293,289
Takano i-f 4. In particular, Takano discloses an approach that requires a
fewer number of high-load calculations for SVD processing of a channel
matrix. Takano i-fi-1 4, 68. In a disclosed embodiment, "both the transmitter
and the receiver are equipped with multiple antennas, the transmitter
allocates transmit data to multiple streams and transmits weighted streams
from the transmit antennas and the receiver weights the streams received by
the receive antennas." Takano i-f 71. Takano discloses that in an open-loop
MIMO transmission scheme, channel information may be communicated
from the transmitter to the receiver, which performs spatial multiplexing
transmission independently from each other. Takano i-f 14. Additionally, in
a closed-loop MIMO transmission scheme, "spatially orthogonal channels
are created by feedback of preamble information [(i.e., known information to
communicate channel information)] from the receiver to the transmitter as
well." Takano i-f 14.
Figure 1 of Takano is illustrative and is reproduced below:
Ila-~ 31a 12a
11b
l ~ RECEIVE ---- SW ---- -- ~~gmsffi~LOG --
UNlT
26a
TRANSMIT
S HlNAL ANALOG _
PROGfSS I !lG
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F I G. 1
33 34 35
'
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UNIT ~ULn-
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37 CHANMEL
CHARACTERISTICS
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