DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
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 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.
Double Patenting
Terminal disclaimer filed on 07/03/25 has been approved.
Response to Argument
Applicant's arguments filed 01/30/26 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Claims 9-10, 16 and 20-21 have been canceled.
Claims 1-8, 11-15, 17-19 and 22-29 are pending.
Applicant, on page 12 of the remark, argues that EZHamss fails to teach or suggest transmission (of at least a portion of a UCI) on a different uplink data channel. Claim 29 specifically requires "transmitting ... UCI on an uplink data channel." In contrast, EZHamss discloses transmission on a PUCCH carrier, which is an uplink control channel rather than an uplink data channel. However, the Examiner respectfully disagrees.
Firstly, the claim merely recites an uplink data channel. Therefore, the Examiner broadly and reasonably interprets the uplink data channel is a communication path used to send data, voice and control signal from a wireless transmit receive unit (WTRU) to a base station. However, a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) is used to send Uplink Control Information (UCI) from the WTRU to the base station. In this case, the Examiner considers the uplink data channel as the PUCCH.
Secondly, El Hamss et al. disclose at least paragraphs 108-109 that the WTRU may have a UCI transmission in a first PUCCH carrier. The WTRU determines that the UCI transmission is not possible in the first PUCCH carrier. The WTRU may be configured to select a different PUCCH carrier, second PUCCH carrier, to transmit the UCI when the first PUCCH carrier does not have an available opportunity for UCI transmission. For the reason above, the Examiner contends that El Hamss et al. disclose that the WTRU transmits, to a network entity, at least a portion of the UCI on the uplink data channel based on the determination.
Applicant, on page 1. of the remark, argues that a person of ordinary skill in the art would recognize the fundamental distinction between an uplink control channel (PUCCH) and an uplink data channel (PUSCH) in wireless communications. PUCCH is specifically designed for transmitting control information, while PUSCH is an uplink data channel used for transmitting user data. These are distinct channel types with different purposes, structures, and resource allocations in 3GPP/NR systems. However, the Examiner respectfully disagrees.
Firstly, Applicant’s argument is not commensurate with the scope of the claim because 1 does not recite “PUSCH is an uplink data channel,” but instead recites, “uplink data channel".
Secondly, in response to applicant's argument that the references fail to show certain features of applicant’s invention, it is noted that the features upon which applicant relies (i.e., PUSCH is an uplink data channel) are not recited in the rejected claim(s). Although the claims are interpreted in light of the specification, limitations from the specification are not read into the claims. See In re Van Geuns, 988 F.2d 1181, 26 USPQ2d 1057 (Fed. Cir. 1993).
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 of this title, 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 15, 17-19, 22-23, 25-26 and 29 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over El Hamss et al. (U.S. 20240187160) in view of Jung et al. (U.S. 20240155667) and further in view of Park et al. (U.S. 20230309102).
For claim 15, El Hamss et al. disclose an apparatus for wireless communication at a user equipment (UE), comprising: a memory comprising computer-executable instructions; and one or more processors configured to execute the computer-executable instructions and cause the UE to:
determine that a scheduled transmission of uplink control information (UCI) on an uplink control channel will be dropped, wherein the determination that the scheduled transmission will be dropped comprises a determination that the UCI scheduled on the uplink control channel will overlap with resources scheduled for another uplink transmission (at least [0108] and [0111]. The WTRU may have a first UCI transmission in a first PUCCH carrier and have a second UCI overlapping with the first UCI. The WTRU may determine, based on the priority of the overlapping UCIs, to drop the first UCI.); and
transmit, to a network entity, at least a portion of the UCI on an uplink data channel based on the determination (at least [0108] and [0111]. The WTRU may be configured to select a different PUCCH carrier to transmit the first UCI when dropping occurs.) However, El Hamss et al. do not disclose the UCI comprises a repetition of another UCI; and the other uplink transmission comprises ACK or NACK for a data channel configured using semi-persistent scheduling (SPS).
In the same field of endeavor, Jung et al. disclose the UCI comprises a repetition of another UCI (at least [0037]. When a UE transmits LP UCI in a first PUCCH and transmits HP UCI in a second PUCCH overlapping with the first PUCCH in time, if configured, the UE multiplexes the LP UCI with the HP UCI into a third PUCCH and further applies repetitions of the third PUCCH over multiple slots or multiple sub-slots.)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to modify the invention of El Hamss et al. as taught by Jung et al. for purpose of enhancing multiplexing of uplink control information of different priorities.
In the same field of endeavor, Park et al. disclose the other uplink transmission comprises ACK or NACK for a data channel configured using semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) ([0539]. When a PUCCH resource (hereinafter, PUCCH 5) on which the UE is instructed to transmit HARQ-ACK for a semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) PDSCH partially or fully overlaps a PUCCH resource (hereinafter, PUCCH 6) for (periodic/semi-persistent) CSI (or SR) transmission in the time domain, the UE may omit PUCCH 6 transmission and transmit the CSI (or SR) and the HARQ-ACK on PUCCH 5 (or the PUCCH for HARQ-ACK transmission).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to modify the invention of El Hamss et al. as taught by Park et al. for purpose of transmitting and receiving uplink control information between a terminal and a base station.
For claim 17, the combination of El Hamss et al., Park et al. and Jung et al. disclose the apparatus of claim 15. El Hamss et al. disclose wherein the uplink control channel repetition provides acknowledgment (ACK) or negative ACK (NACK) for a downlink data channel (at least [0077]-[0078] and [0601]. A WTRU may be configured with two uplink carriers (e.g., carrier 301 and carrier 302) for PUCCH transmission(s) that may carry uplink control information (UCI). The UCI transmission includes HARQ-ACK feedback, CSI transmission, and/or SR).
For claim 18, the combination of El Hamss et al., Park et al. and Jung et al. disclose the apparatus of claim 15. El Hamss et al. disclose wherein the downlink data channel is configured using semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) (at least [0087]. A WTRU may receive an indication in a scheduling DCI of the PUCCH resource and carrier on which the WTRU may report HARQ-ACK for a scheduled PDSCH. For semi-persistent scheduling (SPS), the WTRU may receive an indication in the DCI activating an SPS resource. The WTRU may determine the one or more PUCCH resources on the one or more carriers where the WTRU may report the HARQ-ACK for the SPS activation or the SPS PDSCH, in the SPS activation DCI.)
For claim 19, the combination of El Hamss et al., Park et al. and Jung et al. disclose the apparatus of claim 15. El Hamss et al. disclose wherein the uplink data channel is configured using a configured grant (at least [0104]. WTRU may be configured with allowed pairs of carriers on which it may transmit simultaneous uplink transmission (e.g., PUCCH transmission).)
For claim 22, the combination of El Hamss et al., Park et al. and Jung et al. disclose the apparatus of claim 15. El Hamss et al. disclose wherein the one or more processors are further configured to cause the UE to receive, from the network entity, an indication of cancellation of the scheduled transmission of the UCI, wherein the determination that the scheduled transmission will be dropped comprises a determination that the scheduled transmission of the UCI has been cancelled based on the indication from the network entity ([0110]. The WTRU receives a DCI indicating that the configured UCI transmission is to be canceled due to a higher priority transmission being scheduled for another WTRU. The WTRU may be configured to select a different PUCCH carrier to transmit the UCI when an uplink canceling indication is received.)
For claim 23, the combination of El Hamss et al., Park et al. and Jung et al. disclose the apparatus of claim 15. El Hamss et al. disclose wherein the one or more processors are further configured to cause the UE to receive downlink control information (DCI) configuring the UCI ([0110]. The WTRU receives a DCI indicating that the configured UCI transmission is to be canceled due to a higher priority transmission being scheduled for another WTRU. The WTRU may be configured to select a different PUCCH carrier to transmit the UCI when an uplink canceling indication is received.)
For claim 25, the combination of El Hamss et al., Park et al. and Jung et al. disclose the apparatus of claim 15. El Hamss et al. disclose wherein the one or more processors are further configured to cause the UE to: receive radio resource control (RRC) signaling indicating a set of uplink control channel resources, each of the set of uplink control channel resources being mapped to a configured grant; and receive DCI identifying one of the set of uplink control channel resources for the UCI, wherein the uplink data channel is associated with the configured grant mapped to the identified one of the set of uplink control channel resources (at least [0079]. A WTRU may be configured with a PUCCH configuration that associates a PUCCH resource with an uplink carrier. For example, a carrier ID may be part of the PUCCH resource parameters. A WTRU may determine the PUCCH carrier based on the procedure of determining the PUCCH resource to use for a PUCCH transmission. For example, the WTRU may receive a DCI with scheduling information for a PDSCH transmission, and the PUCCH Resource Indication (PRI) bitfield in the DCI may indicate a PUCCH resource for HARQ-ACK feedback, which the WTRU may then use to determine to use a different uplink carrier. In one instance, the PUCCH configuration may be an RRC configuration that configured the WTRU with a set of PUCCH resources. The PRI in the DCI may dynamically indicate which PUCCH resource from the RRC configured resources to use.)
For claim 26, the combination of El Hamss et al., Park et al. and Jung et al. disclose the apparatus of claim 15. Jung et al. disclose the UCI is one of multiple UCI repetitions, wherein one or more other UCI repetitions of the multiple UCI repetitions are transmitted using one or more uplink control channels (at least [0037]. When a UE transmits LP UCI in a first PUCCH and transmits HP UCI in a second PUCCH overlapping with the first PUCCH in time, if configured, the UE multiplexes the LP UCI with the HP UCI into a third PUCCH and further applies repetitions of the third PUCCH over multiple slots or multiple sub-slots.)
For claim 29, the claim has features similar to claim 15. Therefore, the claim is also rejected for the same reason in claim 15.
Claim 24 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over El Hamss et al. (U.S. 20240187160) in view of Jung et al. (U.S. 20240155667) and further in view of Park et al. (U.S. 20230309102) and further in view of Takeda et al. (U.S. 20220110066).
For claim 24, the combination of El Hamss et al., Park et al. and Jung et al. do not disclose the apparatus of claim 23, wherein the DCI further indicates a transmission power to be used for transmitting the at least the portion of the UCI on the uplink data channel.
In the same field of endeavor, Takeda et al. disclose the DCI further indicates a transmission power to be used for transmitting the at least the portion of the UCI on the uplink data channel (at least [0068]. Controlling a transmission power of a PUCCH to be used for transmission of UCI including HARQ-ACKs for PDSCHs to be scheduled by respective one or more pieces of DCI.)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to modify the invention of El Hamss et al. as taught by Takeda et al. for purpose of controlling a transmission power of an uplink control channel.
Claim 27 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over El Hamss et al. (U.S. 20240187160) in view of Jung et al. (U.S. 20240155667) and further in view of Park et al. (U.S. 20230309102) and further in view of Yi et al. (U.S. 20210360616).
For claim 27, the combination of El Hamss et al., Park et al. and Jung et al. do not disclose the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the uplink data channel comprises another UCI, wherein the at least the portion of the UCI and the other UCI are transmitted using different resources of the uplink data channel.
In the same field of endeavor, Yi et al. disclose wherein the uplink data channel comprises another UCI, wherein the at least the portion of the UCI and the other UCI are transmitted using different resources of the uplink data channel (at least [0371]. The wireless device may receive one or more radio resource control (RRC) messages indicating configuration parameters for a cell. The configuration parameters may indicate: a first physical resource block (PRB) of a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) resource; a second PRB of the PUCCH resource; and a hopping pattern for the first PRB and the second PRB of the PUCCH resource. The wireless device may send, via the PUCCH resource and based on the hopping pattern, uplink control information (UCI). Sending the UCI may comprise sending at least a first portion of the UCI via the first PRB and using a first control resource set (CORESET) pool of the cell, and sending at least a second portion of the UCI via the second PRB and using a second CORESET pool of the cell using a second CORESET pool of the cell.)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to modify the invention of El Hamss et al. as taught by Yi et al. for purpose of improving reliability and decreasing latency.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-8, 11-14 and 28 are allowed.
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowed:
Please see the reason cited, on pages 9-11 of the remarks, by applicant filed on 01/30/26.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DAI PHUONG whose telephone number is 571-272-7896. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday, 8am-5pm.
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/DAI PHUONG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2644