DETAILED ACTION
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 4 December 2025 has been entered. Claims 1, 15, and 26 are currently amended; claims 2, 3, 6a, 11-13, 16, 17 are cancelled; claims 4-10, 14, and 18-25 are previously presented; claims 27 and 28 have been added. Claims 1, 4-10, 14, 15, and 18-28 are pending and ready for examination.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see page 7, filed 4 December 2025, with respect to “Claim Rejections – 35 USC 112” have been fully considered and the examiner notes the applicant has cancelled claims 3 and 17 rendering the previous rejection moot.
Applicant’s arguments with respect to the claims have been considered but are moot in view of the new grounds of rejection.
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 1, 4-7, 10, 15, 18-20, 22, and 25-28 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bang et al. (US 2021/0100024 A1), hereafter referred Bang, in view of WO 2018174564 A1, further in view of Bala et al. (US 2020/0213057 A1), hereafter referred Bala. A machine translation of WO 2018174564 A1 is provided and is hereafter referred Hwang.
Regarding claim 1, Bang teaches a method of communication at a user equipment (UE), comprising:
determining to transmit uplink control information (UCI) on a multi-slot physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmission (Bang, [0009]; a method performed by a terminal in a communication system includes receiving, from a base station, configuration information on a configured grant for a PUSCH by higher layer signaling, the configuration information including an indicator indicating whether to multiplex a HARQ-ACK information and configured grant uplink control information); and
performing the PUSCH transmission including the UCI REs (Bang, [0009]-[0011]; the method performed by a terminal includes transmitting, to the base station, uplink data on the PUSCH configured by the configuration information with the HARQ-ACK information and the CG-UCI, in case that the indicator indicates to multiplex the HARQ-ACK and the CG-UCI).
While Bang teaches identifying a number of UCI resource elements (REs) in at least one slot of the PUSCH transmission based on a multiplexing rule (Bang, [0176]; in NR communication system, each piece of uplink control information may be mapped to PUSCH according to a predetermined multiplexing rule), Bang does not expressly teach identifying a number of UCI resource elements (REs) in at least one slot of the PUSCH transmission based at least on a scaling rate that is greater than a value of one to obtain a lower code rate than one indicated by a modulation and coding scheme.
However, Hwang teaches identifying a number of UCI resource elements (REs) in at least one slot of the PUSCH transmission based at least on a scaling rate that is greater than a value of one to obtain a lower code rate than one indicated by a modulation and coding scheme (Hwang, p. 12-20; the number of REs available is the number of REs used only for the actual data mapping except for DMRS among the REs allocated for the PUSCH where the RE to which the UCI is mapped may be excluded in calculating the available RE and a scaling factor may be a value set according to the number of available REs and may consist of a combination of {2, 3/2, 4/3} and the like).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing date of the invention to create the invention of Bang to include the above recited limitations as taught by Hwang in order to enable the wireless device to efficiently select and manage TBS and MSC for uplink transmission (Hwang, p. 3).
Bang in view of Hwang does not expressly teach wherein identifying the number of UCI REs in the at least one slot of the PUSCH transmission includes obtaining a minimum of a first value and a second value, wherein the first value is associated with the scaling rate and a total number of REs per layer of the PUSCH in at least one slot of UCI mapping, and wherein the second value is associated with a portion factor and the total number of REs per layer of the PUSCH in at least one slot for UCI mapping.
However, Bala teaches wherein identifying the number of UCI REs in the at least one slot of the PUSCH transmission includes obtaining a minimum of a first value and a second value, wherein the first value is associated with the scaling rate and a total number of REs per layer of the PUSCH in at least one slot of UCI mapping, and wherein the second value is associated with a portion factor and the total number of REs per layer of the PUSCH in at least one slot for UCI mapping (Bala, [0166]-[0170]; the multiplexing of UCI may be determined according to a number of REs used for UCI transmission within the scheduled PUSCH resource, where the number of REs used for UCI transmission is smaller than a threshold, a UE may determine that UCI is not multiplexed for a PUSCH transmission to determine the DM-RS density, where the threshold determined as a function of the number of available REs for a PUSCH transmission and any other numerical value).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing date of the invention to create the invention of Bang in view of Hwang to include the above recited limitations as taught by Bala in order to support the UCI type requirements for PUSCH transmission (Bala, [0173]).
Regarding claim 15, Bang teaches an apparatus for wireless communication, comprising:
a transceiver (Bang, [0011] and [0048]; a terminal includes a transceiver and a processor coupled with the transceiver, where the methods can be implemented by computer program instructions stored in a computer readable memory that direct an apparatus to function according to the computer program);
a memory configured to store instructions (Bang, [0011] and [0048]; a terminal includes a transceiver and a processor coupled with the transceiver, where the methods can be implemented by computer program instructions stored in a computer readable memory that direct an apparatus to function according to the computer program); and
at least one processor communicatively coupled with the transceiver and the memory (Bang, [0011] and [0048]; a terminal includes a transceiver and a processor coupled with the transceiver, where the methods can be implemented by computer program instructions stored in a computer readable memory that direct an apparatus to function according to the computer program), wherein the at least one processor is configured to:
determine to transmit uplink control information (UCI) on a multi-slot physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmission (Bang, [0009]; a method performed by a terminal in a communication system includes receiving, from a base station, configuration information on a configured grant for a PUSCH by higher layer signaling, the configuration information including an indicator indicating whether to multiplex a HARQ-ACK information and configured grant uplink control information); and
perform the PUSCH transmission including the UCI REs (Bang, [0009]-[0011]; the method performed by a terminal includes transmitting, to the base station, uplink data on the PUSCH configured by the configuration information with the HARQ-ACK information and the CG-UCI, in case that the indicator indicates to multiplex the HARQ-ACK and the CG-UCI).
While Bang teaches identify a number of UCI resource elements (REs) in at least one slot of the PUSCH transmission based on a multiplexing rule (Bang, [0176]; in NR communication system, each piece of uplink control information may be mapped to PUSCH according to a predetermined multiplexing rule), Bang does not expressly teach identify a number of UCI resource elements (REs) in at least one slot of the PUSCH transmission based at least on a scaling rate that is greater than a value of one to obtain a lower code rate than one indicated by a modulation and coding scheme.
However, Hwang teaches identify a number of UCI resource elements (REs) in at least one slot of the PUSCH transmission based at least on a scaling rate that is greater than a value of one to obtain a lower code rate than one indicated by a modulation and coding scheme (Hwang, p. 12-20; the number of REs available is the number of REs used only for the actual data mapping except for DMRS among the REs allocated for the PUSCH where the RE to which the UCI is mapped may be excluded in calculating the available RE and a scaling factor may be a value set according to the number of available REs and may consist of a combination of {2, 3/2, 4/3} and the like).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing date of the invention to create the invention of Bang to include the above recited limitations as taught by Hwang in order to enable the wireless device to efficiently select and manage TBS and MSC for uplink transmission (Hwang, p. 3).
Bang in view of Hwang does not expressly teach wherein to identify the number of UCI REs in the at least one slot of the PUSCH transmission, the at least one processor is further configured to obtain a minimum of a first value and a second value, wherein the first value is associated with the scaling rate and a total number of REs per layer of the PUSCH in at least one slot of UCI mapping, and wherein the second value is associated with a portion factor and the total number of REs per layer of the PUSCH in at least one slot for UCI mapping.
However, Bala teaches wherein to identify the number of UCI REs in the at least one slot of the PUSCH transmission, the at least one processor is further configured to obtain a minimum of a first value and a second value, wherein the first value is associated with the scaling rate and a total number of REs per layer of the PUSCH in at least one slot of UCI mapping, and wherein the second value is associated with a portion factor and the total number of REs per layer of the PUSCH in at least one slot for UCI mapping (Bala, [0166]-[0170]; the multiplexing of UCI may be determined according to a number of REs used for UCI transmission within the scheduled PUSCH resource, where the number of REs used for UCI transmission is smaller than a threshold, a UE may determine that UCI is not multiplexed for a PUSCH transmission to determine the DM-RS density, where the threshold determined as a function of the number of available REs for a PUSCH transmission and any other numerical value).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing date of the invention to create the invention of Bang in view of Hwang to include the above recited limitations as taught by Bala in order to support the UCI type requirements for PUSCH transmission (Bala, [0173]).
Regarding claim 26, Bang teaches an apparatus for wireless communication (Bang, [0011] and [0048]; a terminal includes a transceiver and a processor coupled with the transceiver, where the methods can be implemented by computer program instructions stored in a computer readable memory that direct an apparatus to function according to the computer program), comprising:
means for determining to transmit uplink control information (UCI) on a multi-slot physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmission (Bang, [0009]; a method performed by a terminal in a communication system includes receiving, from a base station, configuration information on a configured grant for a PUSCH by higher layer signaling, the configuration information including an indicator indicating whether to multiplex a HARQ-ACK information and configured grant uplink control information); and
means for performing the PUSCH transmission including the UCI REs (Bang, [0009]-[0011]; the method performed by a terminal includes transmitting, to the base station, uplink data on the PUSCH configured by the configuration information with the HARQ-ACK information and the CG-UCI, in case that the indicator indicates to multiplex the HARQ-ACK and the CG-UCI).
While Bang teaches means for identifying a number of UCI resource elements (REs) in at least one slot of the PUSCH transmission based on a multiplexing rule (Bang, [0176]; in NR communication system, each piece of uplink control information may be mapped to PUSCH according to a predetermined multiplexing rule), Bang does not expressly teach means for identifying a number of UCI resource elements (REs) in at least one slot of the PUSCH transmission based at least on a scaling rate that is greater than a value of one to obtain a lower code rate than one indicated by a modulation and coding scheme.
However, Hwang teaches means for identifying a number of UCI resource elements (REs) in at least one slot of the PUSCH transmission based at least on a scaling rate that is greater than a value of one to obtain a lower code rate than one indicated by a modulation and coding scheme (Hwang, p. 12-20; the number of REs available is the number of REs used only for the actual data mapping except for DMRS among the REs allocated for the PUSCH where the RE to which the UCI is mapped may be excluded in calculating the available RE and a scaling factor may be a value set according to the number of available REs and may consist of a combination of {2, 3/2, 4/3} and the like).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing date of the invention to create the invention of Bang to include the above recited limitations as taught by Hwang in order to enable the wireless device to efficiently select and manage TBS and MSC for uplink transmission (Hwang, p. 3).
Bang in view of Hwang does not expressly teach wherein identifying the number of UCI REs in the at least one slot of the PUSCH transmission includes obtaining a minimum of a first value and a second value, wherein the first value is associated with the scaling rate and a total number of REs per layer of the PUSCH in at least one slot of UCI mapping, and wherein the second value is associated with a portion factor and the total number of REs per layer of the PUSCH in at least one slot for UCI mapping.
However, Bala teaches wherein identifying the number of UCI REs in the at least one slot of the PUSCH transmission includes obtaining a minimum of a first value and a second value, wherein the first value is associated with the scaling rate and a total number of REs per layer of the PUSCH in at least one slot of UCI mapping, and wherein the second value is associated with a portion factor and the total number of REs per layer of the PUSCH in at least one slot for UCI mapping (Bala, [0166]-[0170]; the multiplexing of UCI may be determined according to a number of REs used for UCI transmission within the scheduled PUSCH resource, where the number of REs used for UCI transmission is smaller than a threshold, a UE may determine that UCI is not multiplexed for a PUSCH transmission to determine the DM-RS density, where the threshold determined as a function of the number of available REs for a PUSCH transmission and any other numerical value).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing date of the invention to create the invention of Bang in view of Hwang to include the above recited limitations as taught by Bala in order to support the UCI type requirements for PUSCH transmission (Bala, [0173]).
Regarding claims 4 and 18, Bang in view of Hwang further in view of Bala teaches the method of claim 1 and the apparatus of claim 15 above. Further, Bang teaches wherein the at least one slot of the PUSCH transmission overlaps in a time domain with a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) (Bang, [0011] and [0079]; identify that a transmission of the HARQ-ACK information overlaps with a PUSCH transmission configured by the configuration information, where a PUCCH resource used for an HARQ-ACK report).
Regarding claims 5 and 19, Bang in view of Hwang further in view of Bala teaches the method of claim 1 and the apparatus of claim 15 above. Further, Bang teaches wherein the at least one slot is a first slot of the PUSCH transmission including a triggered aperiodic channel state information (CSI) (Bang, [0210]; for aperiodic CSI reporting based on DCI, the UE may perform a joint encoding method for generating uplink control information so as to generate the uplink control information to be included in CG-PUSCH).
Regarding claims 6 and 20, Bang in view of Hwang further in view of Bala teaches the method of claim 1 and the apparatus of claim 15 above. Further, Bang teaches further comprising:
determining a starting bit of a different slot of the PUSCH transmission irrespective of whether the at least one slot includes multiplexed UCI (Bang, [0123]-[0125]; the UE may determine slot i+K or a PUSCH start symbol or time in slot i+K via received offset information K on the basis of a CORESET in which the PDCCH has been received); and
mapping data according to a continuous manner to the different slot based on determining the starting bit (Bang, [0177]-[0181]; the UE may map CSI part1 to PUSCH from the first OFDM symbol of PUSCH).
Regarding claims 7 and 22, Bang in view of Hwang further in view of Bala teaches the method of claim 1 and the apparatus of claim 15 above. Further, Bang teaches wherein performing the PUSCH transmission includes:
allocating a set of bits of the UCI by a number corresponding to the at least one slot (Bang, Fig. 7, [0180]; it is assumed that the number of HARQ-ACK symbols to be mapped to PUSCH is 5 and one resource block is scheduled to PUSCH); and
mapping the UCI to the PUSCH transmission (Bang, Fig. 7, [0180]; a UE may map the HARQ-ACK with 5 symbols from a lowest RE index of a first OFDM symbol of the PUSCH).
Regarding claims 10 and 25, Bang in view of Hwang further in view of Bala teaches the method of claim 1 and the apparatus of claim 15 above. Further, Bang teaches wherein the UCI corresponds to at least one of a hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgment (HARQ-ACK), channel state information part 1 (CSI-Part 1), or CSI-Part 2 (Bang, [0176]; HARQ-ACK, CSI Part 1, CSI part 2, these three pieces of uplink control information may be transmitted via the uplink data channel and each piece of uplink control information may be mapped to PUSCH according to a predetermined multiplexing rule).
Regarding claims 27 and 28, Bang in view of Hwang further in view of Bala teaches the method of claim 1 and the apparatus of claim 15 above. Bang in view of Hwang does not expressly teach wherein the portion factor is configured to limit a maximum portion of resource that UCI can occupy.
However, Bala teaches wherein the portion factor is configured to limit a maximum portion of resource that UCI can occupy (Bala, [0166]-[0170]; the threshold determined as a function of the number of available REs for a PUSCH transmission and any other numerical value).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing date of the invention to create the invention of Bang in view of Hwang to include the above recited limitations as taught by Bala in order to support the UCI type requirements for PUSCH transmission (Bala, [0173]).
Claims 8 and 23 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bang in view of Hwang further in view of Bala as applied to claims 7 and 22 above, and further in view of WO 2008/147122 A1, hereafter referred Khan.
Regarding claims 8 and 23, Bang in view of Hwang further in view of Bala teaches the method of claim 7 and the apparatus of claim 22 above. Bang in view of Hwang further in view of Bala does not expressly teach wherein the set of bits are allocated equally or semi-equally according to the number corresponding to the at least one slot.
However, Khan teaches wherein the set of bits are allocated equally or semi-equally according to the number corresponding to the at least one slot (Khan, p. 24, paragraph 1; when there is only one resource region, the number of coded bit is almost equally allocated among the multiple code blocks, where the number of coded bits assigned to code block j can be given by equation (5)).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing date of the invention to create the invention of Bang in view of Hwang further in view of Bala to include the above recited limitations as taught by Khan in order to ensure about equal error protection on each code block (Khan, p. 21, paragraph 1).
Claims 9 and 24 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bang in view of Hwang further in view of Bala as applied to claims 1 and 15 above, and further in view of Nam et al. (US 2014/0286255 A1), hereafter referred Nam.
Regarding claims 9 and 24, Bang in view of Hwang further in view of Bala teaches the method of claim 1 and the apparatus of claim 15 above. Bang in view of Hwang further in view of Bala does not expressly teach wherein identifying the number of UCI REs includes a sequentially mapping of the UCI to the at least one slot.
However, Nam teaches wherein identifying the number of UCI REs includes a sequentially mapping of the UCI to the at least one slot (Nam, [0141]-[0147]; when the UE determines to use the second HARQ-ACK/RI mapping method, the UE maps HARQ-ACK/RI in two SC-FDM symbols in the subframe in the embodiment associated with Fig. 8).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing date of the invention to create the invention of Bang in view of Hwang further in view of Bala to include the above recited limitations as taught by Nam in order to reduce UL DMRS overhead (Nam, [0118]).
Claims 14 and 21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bang in view of Hwang further in view of Bala as applied to claims 1 and 15 above, and further in view of Davydov et al. (US 2019/0045390 A1), hereafter referred Davydov.
Regarding claims 14 and 21, Bang in view of Hwang further in view of Bala teaches the method of claim 1 and the apparatus of claim 15 above. Bang in view of Hwang further in view of Bala does not expressly teach wherein the number of REs is further identified based on a number of non-priori slots of the multi-slot PUSCH transmission.
However, Davydov teaches wherein the number of REs is further identified based on a number of non-priori slots of the multi-slot PUSCH transmission (Davydov, [0036]; a UE can determine an available number of REs and then determine a byte-aligned TBS according to the expression, where assuming a nominal data allocation is a rectangular grid of time-frequency resources, the overhead include guard periods or symbols indicated as unknown via slot format information).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing date of the invention to create the invention of Bang in view of Hwang further in view of Bala to include the above recited limitations as taught by Davydov in order to ensure proper matching of the payload (Davydov, [0035]).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. See PTO-892.
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/R.M./Examiner, Art Unit 2416
/NOEL R BEHARRY/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2416