DETAILED ACTION
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 12/30/2025 has been entered
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 .
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 20, 22, 40, 42, 44 and 46 are allowed.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to the amendment filed 07/25/2025 have been considered but are not persuasive. See rejection below.
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.
Claims 1, 5, 8 and 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sun et al (US 2018/0014298 A1) in view of Mukherjee et al (US 2020/0267752 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Sun teaches a method in a wireless communication device (WCD), the method comprising:
the WCD receiving from a base station serving the WCD information indicating a plurality of transmission resources for a first channel between the WCD and the serving base station that have been allocated to the WCD, wherein the plurality of transmission resources allocated to the WCD comprises a first transmission occasions allocated to the WCD and one or more second transmission occasions allocated to the WCD (Sun: Fig. 4B; [0109]-[0110], UE receives multi-TTI grant from the bae station; the multi-TTI grant comprising TTI3 to TTI10 (8 TTIs/slots)/first slot and TTI0 to TTI2/second slot).
Sun does not explicitly disclose prior to the occurrence of the one or more second transmission occasions, the WCD transmitting to the network node an indication indicating that the WCD will not use at least one of the one or more second transmission occasions allocated to the WCD to transmit any information on the first channel, wherein the indication indicates at least one index corresponding to at least one of the one or more second transmission occasions.
Mukherjee teaches prior to the occurrence of the one or more second transmission occasions, the WCD transmitting to the network node an indication indicating that the WCD will not use at least one of the one or more second transmission occasions allocated to the WCD to transmit any information on the first channel, wherein the indication indicates at least one index corresponding to at least one of the one or more second transmission occasions (Mukherjee: Fig. 13; [0085]-[0087], UE transmits NULL BSR indication 1339; [0046]-[0047], [0066], the null BSR indicates the at least one or more slots that the UE will not use).
It would have been obvious to a person having an ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Sun wherein prior to the occurrence of the one or more second transmission occasions, the WCD transmitting to the network node an indication indicating that the WCD will not use at least one of the one or more second transmission occasions allocated to the WCD to transmit any information on the first channel, wherein the indication indicates at least one index corresponding to at least one of the one or more second transmission occasions as disclosed by Mukherjee to provide a system for efficient scheduling of uplink resources (Mukherjee: Abstract).
Regarding claim 5, Sun in view of Mukherjee teaches wherein transmitting the indication comprises transmitting the indication on a second channel different to than the first channel (Mukherjee: Fig. 13; [0040], [0085], the NULL BSR indication on a licensed carrier that is different from the unlicensed carrier).
Regarding claim 8, Sun in view of Mukherjee teaches wherein the method further comprises the WCD determining, based on a buffer status, an amount of information to be transmitted in a transmission occasion, a number of earlier Listen Before Talk (LBT) failures, and/or a channel occupancy of the first channel, that the second transmission resource allocated to the WCD can be allocated to another WCD (Mukherjee: Fig. 13; [0040], [0085]).
Regarding claim 14, Sun teaches wherein the transmission resources comprise transmission resources of a PUSCH transmission (Sun: [0112]).
Conclusion
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/KODZOVI ACOLATSE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2478
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