DETAILED ACTION
This communication is in response to applicant’s response filed under 37 C.F.R. §1.111 in response to a non-final office action. Claims 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 10, 12, 14, 16, 19, and 21, have been amended; Claims 2, 11, and 20 have been canceled; Claims 22 and 23 have been added. Claims 1, 3-10, 12-19, and 21-23 are subject to examination.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments dated 12/05/2025 with respect to the claims have been considered but are moot in view of the new grounds of rejection.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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.
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1, 10, and 21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Dai et al. (Dai hereafter) (US 20230031875 A1).
Regarding claim 1 Dai teaches, A user equipment (UE) for wireless communication, comprising:
at least one memory (Dai; Fig. 2, Memory 282); and
at least one processor coupled with the at least one memory and configured to cause the UE to (Dai; Fig. 2, controller/processor 280):
receive scheduling information for scheduling the UE ([0034] schedule UEs for data transmission on the uplink) to transmit at least one physical uplink control channel (PUCCH transmission) and at least one physical uplink shared channel that includes at least one physical uplink shared channel repetition type B (repetitions of a PUSCH transmission, [0046] transmit one repetition per slot, may transmit multiple repetitions per slot) transmission, wherein the at least one physical uplink control channel overlaps with the at least one physical uplink shared channel in time, and wherein the at least one physical uplink control channel comprises at least one type of uplink control information (first repetitions of a PUSCH transmission and one or more second repetitions of the PUSCH transmission at least partially overlaps with a PUCCH transmission) (Dai; [0034] A scheduler 246 may schedule UEs for data transmission on the downlink and/or uplink. [0035] In some aspects, UE 120 may include means for determining a starting symbol of an RF retuning gap between a first plurality of repetitions of an uplink transmission in a first frequency hop and a second plurality of repetitions of the uplink transmission in a second frequency hop [0046] transmit one repetition per slot, may transmit multiple repetitions per slot) [0087] in FIG. 6A, and by reference number 602, the UE may determine that an RF retuning gap between one or more first repetitions of a PUSCH transmission and one or more second repetitions of the PUSCH transmission at least partially overlaps with a PUCCH transmission).
multiplex the at least one type of uplink control information in at least one actual repetition of a physical uplink shared channel of the at least one physical uplink shared channel repetition type B transmission (multiplex the UCI of the PUCCH transmission into a repetition, reference number 604) based at least in part on the at least one actual repetition of the physical uplink shared channel repetition type B transmission comprising more than one symbol (starting symbol for the first repetition of a PUSCH transmission) ([0088] in FIG. 6A, and by reference number 604, the UE may multiplex the UCI of the PUCCH transmission into a repetition of the one or more second repetitions …[0100] in FIG. 7A, and by reference number 702, in some aspects, the UE may determine a starting symbol for the first repetition of a PUSCH transmission in frequency hop 1); and
transmit a physical uplink shared channel including the multiplexed at least one type of uplink control information, wherein the physical uplink shared channel overlaps with a physical uplink control channel of the at least one physical uplink control channel (Dai; [0088] the UE may multiplex the UCI of the PUCCH transmission into the repetition that is included in the same slot as the PUCCH transmission. The multiplexing of the UCI of the PUCCH transmission to the repetition of the PUSCH transmission may be referred to as UCI on PUSCH, UCI piggyback).
{Examiner contends that it is well known in the art that Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) repetition Type B means multiple repetitions within a single slot}
Regarding claim 10 Dai teaches, a method performed by a user equipment (UE), the method comprising:
receiving scheduling information for scheduling the UE ([0034] schedule UEs for data transmission on the uplink) to transmit at least one physical uplink control channel (PUCCH transmission) and at least one physical uplink shared channel that includes at least one physical uplink shared channel repetition type B (repetitions of a PUSCH transmission [0046] transmit one repetition per slot, may transmit multiple repetitions per slot)) transmission, wherein the at least one physical uplink control channel overlaps with the at least one physical uplink shared channel in time, and wherein the at least one physical uplink control channel comprises at least one type of uplink control information (first repetitions of a PUSCH transmission and one or more second repetitions of the PUSCH transmission at least partially overlaps with a PUCCH transmission) (Dai; [0034] A scheduler 246 may schedule UEs for data transmission on the downlink and/or uplink. [0035] In some aspects, UE 120 may include means for determining a starting symbol of an RF retuning gap between a first plurality of repetitions of an uplink transmission in a first frequency hop and a second plurality of repetitions of the uplink transmission in a second frequency hop [0046] transmit one repetition per slot, may transmit multiple repetitions per slot) [0087] in FIG. 6A, and by reference number 602, the UE may determine that an RF retuning gap between one or more first repetitions of a PUSCH transmission and one or more second repetitions of the PUSCH transmission at least partially overlaps with a PUCCH transmission).
multiplexing the at least one type of uplink control information in at least one actual repetition of a physical uplink shared channel of the at least one physical uplink shared channel repetition type B transmission (multiplex the UCI of the PUCCH transmission into a repetition, reference number 604) based at least in part on the at least one actual repetition of the physical uplink shared channel repetition type B transmission comprising more than one symbol (starting symbol for the first repetition of a PUSCH transmission) ([0088] in FIG. 6A, and by reference number 604, the UE may multiplex the UCI of the PUCCH transmission into a repetition of the one or more second repetitions …[0100] in FIG. 7A, and by reference number 702, in some aspects, the UE may determine a starting symbol for the first repetition of a PUSCH transmission in frequency hop 1); and
transmitting a physical uplink shared channel including the multiplexed at least one type of uplink control information, wherein the physical uplink shared channel overlaps with a physical uplink control channel of the at least one physical uplink control channel (Dai; [0088] the UE may multiplex the UCI of the PUCCH transmission into the repetition that is included in the same slot as the PUCCH transmission. The multiplexing of the UCI of the PUCCH transmission to the repetition of the PUSCH transmission may be referred to as UCI on PUSCH, UCI piggyback).
{Examiner contends that it is well known in the art that Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) repetition Type B means multiple repetitions within a single slot }
Regarding claim 21 Dai teaches, a processor for wireless communication, comprising:
at least one controller coupled with at least one memory and configured to cause the processor to: (Dai; Fig. 2, controller/processor 280):
receive scheduling information for scheduling the UE ([0034] schedule UEs for data transmission on the uplink) to transmit at least one physical uplink control channel (PUCCH transmission) and at least one physical uplink shared channel that includes at least one physical uplink shared channel repetition type B (repetitions of a PUSCH transmission [0046] transmit one repetition per slot, may transmit multiple repetitions per slot)) transmission, wherein the at least one physical uplink control channel overlaps with the at least one physical uplink shared channel in time, and wherein the at least one physical uplink control channel comprises at least one type of uplink control information (first repetitions of a PUSCH transmission and one or more second repetitions of the PUSCH transmission at least partially overlaps with a PUCCH transmission) (Dai; [0034] A scheduler 246 may schedule UEs for data transmission on the downlink and/or uplink. [0035] In some aspects, UE 120 may include means for determining a starting symbol of an RF retuning gap between a first plurality of repetitions of an uplink transmission in a first frequency hop and a second plurality of repetitions of the uplink transmission in a second frequency hop [0046] transmit one repetition per slot, may transmit multiple repetitions per slot) [0087] in FIG. 6A, and by reference number 602, the UE may determine that an RF retuning gap between one or more first repetitions of a PUSCH transmission and one or more second repetitions of the PUSCH transmission at least partially overlaps with a PUCCH transmission).
multiplex the at least one type of uplink control information in at least one actual repetition of a physical uplink shared channel of the at least one physical uplink shared channel repetition type B transmission (multiplex the UCI of the PUCCH transmission into a repetition, reference number 604) based at least in part on the at least one actual repetition of the physical uplink shared channel repetition type B transmission comprising more than one symbol (starting symbol for the first repetition of a PUSCH transmission) ([0088] in FIG. 6A, and by reference number 604, the UE may multiplex the UCI of the PUCCH transmission into a repetition of the one or more second repetitions …[0100] in FIG. 7A, and by reference number 702, in some aspects, the UE may determine a starting symbol for the first repetition of a PUSCH transmission in frequency hop 1); and
transmit a physical uplink shared channel including the multiplexed at least one type of uplink control information, wherein the physical uplink shared channel overlaps with a physical uplink control channel of the at least one physical uplink control channel (Dai; [0088] the UE may multiplex the UCI of the PUCCH transmission into the repetition that is included in the same slot as the PUCCH transmission. The multiplexing of the UCI of the PUCCH transmission to the repetition of the PUSCH transmission may be referred to as UCI on PUSCH, UCI piggyback).
{Examiner contends that it is well known in the art that Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) repetition Type B means multiple repetitions within a single slot}
Regarding claims 3, 12, and 22 Dai teaches, the claim 1, 10, 21, wherein the at least one physical uplink shared channel repetition type B transmission comprises a first actual repetition, and wherein the at least one controller is further configured to cause the processor to:
Dai further teaches, transmit a second actual repetition of the physical uplink shared channel without multiplexing the at least one type of uplink control information in the second actual repetition (Dai; [0052]in FIG. 3C, and by reference number 304, the UE may determine an ending symbol of the RF retuning gap… the UE may determine the ending symbol of the RF retuning gap based at least in part on the starting symbol of the one or more second repetitions of frequency hop 2… the ending symbol of the RF retuning gap may be the adjacent symbol prior to the starting symbol of repetition 1 of the one or more second repetitions (See also Fig. 7) ).
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 6-8, and 15-17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Dai as applied to claim 1 and 10 above, and further in view of Yang et al. (Yang hereafter) (US 20200329486 A1).
Regarding claims 6 and 15 Dai teaches, the claims 1 and 10,
Dai fails to explicitly teach, wherein the physical uplink shared channel is an earliest physical uplink shared channel among the at least one physical uplink shared channel
However, in the same field of endeavor Yang teaches, wherein the physical uplink shared channel is an earliest physical uplink shared channel among the at least one physical uplink shared channel (Yang; [0114] … UE 115-a may identify that UCI 430 is scheduled for transmission by UE 115-a via PUCCH 415, which may overlap with one or more overlapping PUSCH 410 of the PUSCH repetition 405. UE 115-a may determine to multiplex the UCI 430 on one or more selected PUSCH 410 of the PUSCH repetition).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to create the invention of Dai to include the above recited limitations as taught by Yang in order to support enhanced solutions to handle collisions between PUSCH repetitions and a PUCCH transmission (Yang; [0101]).
Regarding claims 7 and 16 Dai teaches, the claims 1 and 10,
Dai fails to explicitly teach, wherein the at least one physical uplink shared channel repetition type B transmission includes an earliest physical uplink shared channel repetition type B transmission overlapping with the physical uplink control channel
However, in the same field of endeavor Yang teaches, wherein the at least one actual repetition of the physical uplink shared channel repetition type B transmission (405) includes an earliest actual physical uplink shared channel repetition type B transmission overlapping (410-a, 410-b) with the physical uplink control channel (415) (Yang; [0111] Fig. 4 UE 115-a may determine to multiplex the UCI 430 on only PUSCH 410 repetitions of the PUSCH repetition 405 that are scheduled to be transmitted within a duration of time corresponding to slot 420-a of the PUCCH 415).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to create the invention of Dai to include the above recited limitations as taught by Yang in order to support enhanced solutions to handle collisions between PUSCH repetitions and a PUCCH transmission (Yang; [0101]).
Regarding claims 8 and 17 Dai teaches, the claims 1 and 10,
Dai fails to explicitly teach, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the UE to determine a quantity of resource elements required for transmission of the at least one type of uplink control information based on a quantity of symbols for a nominal repetition of the physical uplink shared channel
However, in the same field of endeavor Yang teaches, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the UE to determine a quantity of resource elements required for transmission of the at least one type of uplink control information based on a quantity of symbols for a nominal repetition of the physical uplink shared channel (Yang; [0105] … if the PUSCH 310-a has two symbols 325 (for example, non-demodulation reference signals (nDMRS) OFDM symbols) and the PUSCH 310-b has one symbol 330 (for example, a single nDMRS OFDM symbol), resources of the PUSCH 310-a and the PUSCH 310-b for the UCI 335 may have a resource allocation ratio (or simply a ratio) of 2:1. UE 115-a may therefore determine a ratio of coding rates of the PUSCH 310 and the PUCCH 315 appropriately).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to create the invention of Dai to include the above recited limitations as taught by Yang in order to support enhanced solutions to handle collisions between PUSCH repetitions and a PUCCH transmission (Yang; [0101]).
Claims 4, 5, 13, 14, and 23 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Dai as applied to claims 1, 10, and 21 above, and further in view of Khoshnevisan et al. (Khoshnevisan hereafter) (US 20230209509 A1).
Regarding claims 4, 13, and 23 Dai teaches, the claims 1, 10, and 21,
Dai fails to explicitly teach, wherein the at least one physical uplink control channel comprises multiple overlapping physical uplink control channels,
wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the UE to determine the physical uplink control channel for multiplexing uplink control information of the multiple overlapping physical uplink control channels, and
wherein the uplink control information of the multiple overlapping physical uplink control channels includes the at least one type of uplink control information.
However, in the same field of endeavor Khoshnevisan teaches, wherein the at least one physical uplink control channel comprises multiple overlapping physical uplink control channels (determine that PUCCH 1 and PUCCH 2), wherein the controller determines the physical uplink control channel for multiplexing uplink control information of the multiple overlapping physical uplink control channels, and wherein the uplink control information of the multiple overlapping physical uplink control channels includes the at least one type of uplink control information (determining that the PUCCH resource of PUCCH 2 overlaps in a time domain with at least one PUCCH resource of the multiple repetitions of PUCCH 1) (Khoshnevisan; [0086] … The UE 120 may determine that PUCCH 1 and PUCCH 2 should be multiplexed based at least in part on determining that the PUCCH resource of PUCCH 2 overlaps in a time domain with at least one PUCCH resource of the multiple repetitions of PUCCH 1 (See fig. 6)).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to create the invention of Dai to include the above recited limitations as taught by Khoshnevisan in order to facilitate communication between BS and UE (Khoshnevisan; [0030]).
Regarding claims 5 and 14 Dai teaches, the claims 1 and 10,
Dai fails to explicitly teach, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the UE to determine which physical uplink shared channel of the at least one physical uplink shared channel to transmit with multiplexing the at least one type of uplink control information, and
determine which at least one actual repetition of the determined physical uplink shared channel to use for uplink control information multiplexing, and
wherein the transceiver transmits the determined physical uplink shared channel including the determined at least one actual repetition
However, in the same field of endeavor Khoshnevisan teaches, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the UE to determine which physical uplink shared channel of the at least one physical uplink shared channel to transmit with multiplexing the at least one type of uplink control information (that PUCCH 1 and PUSCH 1 should be multiplexed), and determine which at least one actual repetition of the determined physical uplink shared channel to use for uplink control information multiplexing, and wherein the transceiver transmits the determined physical uplink shared channel including the determined at least one actual repetition (Khoshnevisan; [0087]… The UE 120 may identify multiple (e.g., two) repetitions of a PUSCH transmission (e.g., PUSCH 1) using multiple (e.g., two) PUSCH resources (multiple sets of consecutive OFDM symbols for transmission of the multiple PUSCH repetitions) in slot 620. The UE may determine that PUSCH 1 should not be dropped based at least in part on PUSCH 1 having multiple repetitions. The UE 120 may determine that PUCCH 1 and PUSCH 1 should be multiplexed based at least in part on determining that at least one PUCCH resource of the multiple repetitions of PUCCH 1 overlaps in the time domain with at least one symbol of any of the multiple repetitions of PUSCH 1).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to create the invention of Dai to include the above recited limitations as taught by Khoshnevisan in order to facilitate communication between BS and UE (Khoshnevisan; [0030]).
Claim 18 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Dai as applied to claim 10 above, and further in view of NPL1- Remaining issues on URLLC PUSCH enhancement (NPL1 hereafter) (R1-2000589) (IDS provided).
Regarding claim 18 Dai teaches, the method according to claim 10,
Dai fails to explicitly teach, further comprising determining a quantity of resource elements required for transmission of the at least one type of uplink control information based on a quantity of symbols for an actual repetition of the physical uplink shared channel.
However, in the same field of endeavor NPL1 teaches, determining a quantity of resource elements required for transmission of the at least one type of uplink control information based on a quantity of symbols for an actual repetition of the physical uplink shared channel (NPL1; [2.4] UCI piggyback on PUSCH for PUSCH repetition type B is concluded. Potential remaining issue would be if the nominal repetition is segmented to multiple actual repetition, which actual repetition is used for UCI piggyback? Following alternatives can be considered. Alt.3: UCI is piggybacked in actual repetition with a greater number of symbols).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to create the invention of Dai to include the above recited limitations as taught by NPL1 in order to which actual repetition is used for UCI piggyback (NPL1; [2.4]).
Claims 9 and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Dai as applied to claim 1 and 10 above, and further in view of NPL - Corrections on PUSCH enhancement (R1-2001028) (IDS provided).
Regarding claims 9 and 19 Dai teaches, the claims 1 and 10,
Dai fails to explicitly teach, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the UE to determine whether one or more timing conditions required for multiplexing the at least one type of uplink control information in at least one physical uplink shared channel repetition type B transmission are satisfied; and
multiplex the at least one type of uplink control information in the at least one physical uplink shared channel repetition type B transmission in response to determining the one or more timing conditions are satisfied
However, in the same field of endeavor NPL teaches, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the UE to determine whether one or more timing conditions required for multiplexing the at least one type of uplink control information in at least one physical uplink shared channel repetition type B transmission are satisfied, and multiplex the at least one type of uplink control information in the at least one actual repetition of the physical uplink shared channel in response to determining the one or more timing conditions are satisfied (NPL; [2.4 para 5th] …piggyback UCI on PUSCH depends on if the timeline conditions are satisfied between the overlapping PUSCH repetition(s) and the PUCCH carrying ACK/NACK. …, if all the PUSCH repetitions overlapped with the PUCCH satisfy the timeline condition, the UCI on PUCCH would piggyback on the first PUSCH repetition that overlaps with the PUCCH).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to create the invention of Dai to include the above recited limitations as taught by NPL in order to facilitate communication between BS and UE (NPL; [0030]).
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to WILFRED THOMAS whose telephone number is (571)270-0353. The examiner can normally be reached Mon -Thurs 9:00 am-4:00 pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Noel R Beharry can be reached at 571-270-5630. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/W. T/ Examiner, Art Unit 2416
/NOEL R BEHARRY/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2416