DETAILED ACTION
This Office action is in response to the RCE filed 13 October 2025. Claims 1-8 are pending in this application.
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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 13 October 2025 has been entered.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claim(s) 1, 3, 5, and 7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yi (US 2018/0249509; Please note this is a new primary reference) in view of Chen et al. (US 2017/0181135, hereinafter Chen ‘135).
For Claims 1, 3, 5, and 7, Yi teaches a method of wireless communication, an apparatus of wireless communication comprising: at least one processor and memory coupled to the at least one processor (see paragraphs 152-154), an apparatus of wireless communication, comprising means for performing the method (see paragraphs 152-154), and a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions which when executed by a processor performs a method (see paragraphs 152-154), the method comprising:
configuring two or more narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) Physical Resource Blocks (PRBs) located at different frequency positions for transmission in a same cell (see paragraphs 99-103: multiple PRBs on multiple NB-IoT carriers; paragraphs 113-114: configuration per cell specific values);
configuring a reference signal (CRS) based on a same scrambling sequence for the two or more NB-IoT PRBs located at the different frequency positions for the transmission in the same cell (see paragraphs 130-131, 133, 139: one scrambling sequence used over a resource unit; sequence scrambling of CRS over every NB subframe); and
the CRS in each of the two or more NB-IoT PRBs located at the different frequency positions (see paragraphs 130-131).
Yi as applied above is not explicit as to, but Chen ‘135 teaches the CRS being a cell specific reference signal (see paragraph 32: allocation of REs in a PRB pair for cell specific reference signals), and transmitting the CRS in each of the two or more NB-IoT PRBs located at the different frequency positions (see paragraphs 30, 32, 34-35: PRBs spread over channel frequency; paragraph 32: SFBC)
Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the application was filed to apply the framework and signals of Chen ‘135 when managing reference signals in the NB-IoT system of Yi. The motivation would be to provide for the communication over NB-IoT carriers using known signaling.
Claim(s) 2, 4, 6, and 8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yi (US 2018/0249509) and Chen et al. (US 2017/0181135, hereinafter Chen ‘135) as applied to claims 1, 3, 5, and 7 above, and further in view of Zhang et al. (US 2014/0071936).
For Claims 2, 4, 6, and 8, the references as applied above are not explicit as to, but in a similar field of endeavor, Zhang teaches that it is known to use a UE specific identifier when determining scrambling sequences for a transmission in order to use a same scrambling sequence for resource blocks having different cell identifiers (see paragraphs 7-9, 12: need for same scrambling sequence even when transmission point identifiers are different; paragraphs 55, 59, 61, 63: using a UE id for generating a same scrambling sequence).
Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the application was filed to employ a same scrambling sequence in a pair of physical resource blocks as in Yi and Chen ‘135 even in the case of configuring a different Physical Cell Identifier in each of the two or more RBs as in Zhang. One of ordinary skill would have been able to do so with the reasonably predictable result of ensuring a UE is able to receive and descramble the two or more resource blocks even when the PCIDs differ.
Response to Arguments
The amendment filed 13 October 2025 has been entered.
Applicant’s arguments with respect to rejections under 35 USC 103 have been fully considered, but are either not persuasive as argued in the advisory action of 20 August 2025 or are moot in view of the new grounds of rejection introduced herein. The claims remain rejected under 35 USC 103.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Gao et al. (US 2012/0281567) teaches a system in which CRS share a cell ID but are transmitted on all transmit receive points. Wang et al. (US 2018/0063828) teaches a system in which initialization values of CRS scrambling sequences are fixed.
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/CASSANDRA L DECKER/Examiner, Art Unit 2466 10/14/2025
/FARUK HAMZA/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2466