DETAILED ACTION
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
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 October 01, 2025 has been entered.
This Office Action is in response to claim amendment filed on October 01, 2025 and wherein claims 1, 7 and 13 being currently amended, claims 3, 4, 9, 10, 15 and 16 being cancelled.
In virtue of this communication, claims 1-2, 5,7-8, 11, 13-14 and 17 are currently pending in this Office Action.
The Office appreciates the explanation of the amendment and analyses of the prior arts, and however, 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) and MPEP 2145.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see Remarks, Pages 9-19, filed on October 01, 2025, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 1, 7, 13 under 35 USC §103 have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of Sungjin.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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- 2, 5, 7-8, 11, 13-14, 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yang et al. (US 20200329486 A1, hereinafter Yang) in view of Park et al. (US 20190037586 A1, hereinafter Park), and further in view of Sungjin Park et al.(US 20210266941 A1, hereinafter Sungjin).
Claim 1: Yang teaches a method for channel resource transmission, comprising (abstract, “more particularly uplink transmissions on one or more of a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) and a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH)”):
Determining (Fig. 3, [0105], “UE 115-a may determine the length (for example, number of resource elements) for UCI 335 based on a length of the one or more PUSCH 310 in the PUSCH repetition 305”), by a terminal device, a number of first resource elements (REs) for a first uplink control information (UCI) and a number of second REs for a second UCI respectively ([0007], “determining, for each of the multiple repetitions, a quantity of resources available for carrying multiplexed UCI”, [0098], “base station 105-a may schedule time and frequency resources for one or more uplink transmissions (for example, PUSCH, PUCCH). In some examples, base station 105-a may allocate a quantity of resource elements or a quantity of resource blocks for one or more uplink transmissions”),
the first UCI being carried on a first physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), the second UCI being carried on a second physical uplink control channel PUCCH ([0088], “PUSCH may carry uplink data, while PUCCH may carry uplink control signaling (for example, UCI). In some other examples, PUSCH may carry both uplink data, as well as uplink control signaling (for example, UCI)”),
wherein the first PUSCH overlaps with the second PUCCH in time domain (Fig.2, [0096], “FIG. 2 illustrates an example of a wireless communications system 200 that supports enhanced solutions to handle collisions between PUSCH repetitions and a PUCCH transmission in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure”),
mapping, by the terminal device, the second UCI into REs of the first PUSCH with the number of the second Res ([0092], “If a PUCCH within a slot collides with a PUSCH of a PUSCH repetition in multiple slots, UCI of the PUCCH may be multiplexed on all colliding PUSCHs”, Fig. 4, [0114], “even if the PUCCH 415 collides with one or some of the PUSCH 410 of the PUSCH repetition 405, UE 115-a may piggyback the UCI 430 on all PUSCH 410 of the PUSCH repetition 405. In some other examples, UE 115-a may multiplex the PUCCH 415 on all PUSCH 410 on and after a first colliding PUSCH 410 (for example, PUSCH 410-a). In other examples, UE 115-a may multiplex the PUCCH 415 on one overlapping PUSCH 410 that has a maximum number of resource elements (or lowest coding rate)”);
and transmitting, by the terminal device, the first PUSCH carrying the first UCI and the second UCI to an access-network device (Fig.5, element 525, [0100], “handling collisions between PUCCH 215 and one or more of the PUSCH 210 may enable efficient operation of a transceiver of the UE 115-a by efficiently and effectively providing UCI to the base station 105-a according to collision management schemes, thereby improving the reliability of subsequent transmissions that may be optimized by the UCI.”).
However, Yang does not explicitly teach the first UCI has a higher priority than the second UCI, wherein the first UCI is a channel state information (CSI), and the second UCI is a Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request Acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK).
wherein target REs of the first PUSCH are used for demodulation reference signal (DMRS) transmission, and the mapping, by the terminal device, the second UCI into the REs of the first PUSCH with the number of the second REs comprises: and the mapping, by the terminal device, the first UCI, starting from first non-target RE in the first PUSCH in an order of firstly frequency domain and then time domain; and mapping, by the terminal device, the second UCI, starting from first non-target RE in remaining REs of the first PUSCH in the order of firstly frequency domain and then time domain.
wherein the determining, by the terminal device, the number of the first REs for the first UCI and the number of the second REs for the second UCI respectively comprises:
receiving, by the terminal device, indication information from the access-network device, wherein the indication information indicates a first offset-parameter group for the first UCI and a second offset-parameter group for the second UCI, the first offset-parameter group and the second offset-parameter group are selected from offset-parameter groups, and the offset- parameter groups are configured via higher-layer signaling; wherein each offset-parameter group comprises multiple offset parameters;
determining, by the terminal device, the number of the first REs for the first UCI according to the first offset-parameter group;
and determining, by the terminal device, the number of the second REs for the second UCI according to the second offset-parameter group;
and wherein the offset-parameter groups comprise a first set of offset-parameter groups and a second set of offset-parameter groups, and the first set of offset-parameter groups and the second set of offset-parameter groups each comprise m offset parameter groups, the indication information indicates that the first offset-parameter group is an i' group among the first set of offset-parameter groups and the second offset-parameter group is an i' group among the second set of offset-parameter groups.
Park, from the same or similar field of endeavor, teaches the first UCI has a higher priority than the second UCI ([0529], “if the UE receives a DL assignment (or PDSCH) prior to the UL grant, this may mean that the BS has scheduled PUCCH transmission through the UL grant even though it knows that the resource for the PUSCH to be transmitted by the UE will collide with the resource of the PUCCH (that has been scheduled first). In this case, the preference for PUSCH transmission may be higher than or PUCCH transmission”, [0856], “in the case of UCI information having a considerably large payload size like CSI part 2, the UE may perform UCI piggyback transmission, omitting some of the entire UCIs depending on the size of the resource region of the PUCCH
and/PUSCH to be transmitted. At this time the UCI carried on the PUSCH may be assigned a priority determined according to the type”, wherein UCI carried on the PUSCH is reading as first UCI, and UCI carried on the PUCCH is reading as second UCI), wherein the first UCI is a channel state information (CSI) ([0022],”the UCI including the acknowledgement information and the CSI on the PUSCH on the basis of the number of the first coded modulation symbols and the number of the second coded modulation symbols”, [0220-0254], teach the formular to calculate the number of coded modulation symbols per layer for CSI transmission in PUSCH, [0157], disclose two UCI bit sequences are generated for CSI on PUSCH ), and the second UCI is a Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request Acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) ([0323], “UL transmission information may be broadly divided into UCI and data. In general, according to the characteristics of information, UCI transmission is performed using a PUCCH, which is a dedicated physical channel, and data transmission is performed using a PUSCH, which is a dedicated physical channel”, [0370], “The PUCCH may be a PUCCH for transmission of HARQ-ACK”, [0328], “the PUCCH for transmitting uplink control information (UCI) such as HARQ-ACK or CSI for the PDSCH scheduled through the DL assignment may be classified into PUCCH formats”, [0394], “the UE transmits HARQ-ACK on a short PUCCH”).
wherein target REs of the first PUSCH are used for demodulation reference signal (DMRS) transmission ([0202], “N.sub.symb,all.sup.PUSCH−1, and N.sub.symb,all.sup.PUSCH is the total number of OFDM symbols of the PUSCH, including all OFDM symbols used for DMRS”), and the mapping, by the terminal device, the second UCI into the REs of the first PUSCH with the number of the second REs comprises:
mapping, by the terminal device, the first UCI, starting from first non-target RE in the first PUSCH in an order of firstly frequency domain and then time domain([0020-0021], disclose UCI is transmitted may be determined to be a PUSCH to be transmitted first among first grant PUSCH when PUSCH overlapped with PUCCH); and mapping, by the terminal device, the second UCI, starting from first non-target RE in remaining REs of the first PUSCH (Fig. 11, [0381], “When the (minimum) transmission time of the PUCCH is earlier than or equal to the transmission time of the PUSCH as shown in FIG. 11, the UE may expect the same processing time (=given time for processing such as PDSCH decoding+UCI encoding) for the UCI piggyback of the UCI for the PUCCH from the PUSCH transmission start time as in transmitting the UCI on the PUCCH or greater processing time”, Fig. 19, 20, [0392-0395], the UE may puncture the PUCCH transmission interval within the PUSCH, and transmit the PUSCH and the PUCCH by performing TDM when PUCCH is short and within PUSCH TX window, for example HARQ-ACK is carried on PUCCH. Fig. 25, [0420], “the UE may perform UCI piggyback of PUCCH 1 UCI in a time interval corresponding to the PUCCH transmission interval in the PUSCH as a PUCCH 1 transmission method, and may puncture a PUSCH region and transmit PUCCH 2 in a TDM scheme as a PUCCH 2 transmission method”, [0815], “when the HARQ-ACK can be transmitted based on puncturing on the PUSCH, the positions of REs in which HARQ-ACK transmission is expected may be reserved first and CSI (e.g., CSI part 1) may not be RE-mapped to the reserved REs in order to prevent the HARQ-ACK from puncturing the REs for CSI”) in the order of firstly frequency domain and then time domain (Fig. 4, [0395], “the UE may puncture the PUCCH transmission interval within the PUSCH, and transmit the PUSCH and the PUCCH by performing TDM”).
Yang and Park are both considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of wireless communication. Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the system disclosed by Yang, to support the first UCI being a higher priority than the second UCI, as taught by Park, for the benefit of reducing the collision, and improving transmission efficiency when UE receives a DL assignment (or PDSCH) prior to the UL grant (paragraph [0529]), and supporting the enhanced mobile broadband communication, massive MTC, Ultra-reliable and low latency communication (URLLC) (paragraph [0098]), further supporting HARQ-ACK transmission on PUSCH with UL-SCH (paragraph [0191]).
Sungjin, from the same or similar field of endeavor, teaches wherein the determining, by the terminal device, the number of the first REs for the first UCI and the number of the second REs for the second UCI respectively comprises:
receiving, by the terminal device, indication information from the access-network device, wherein the indication information indicates a first offset-parameter group for the first UCI and a second offset-parameter group for the second UCI, the first offset-parameter group and the second offset-parameter group are selected from offset-parameter groups, and the offset- parameter groups are configured via higher-layer signaling; wherein each offset-parameter group comprises multiple offset parameters ([0148], “in the case where the pieces of UCI in the PUCCHs overlapping the PUSCH have different requirements … when the number Q′ of resources including UCI rate-matched to the PUSCH is determined, different beta offset values or different scaling values may be applied to the pieces of UCI included in the PUCCHs having different priority information values. The multiple different beta offset values and the multiple different scaling values may be provided in advance via a higher-layer signal”, [0146], “the number O′ of resources including UCI is determined by a UCI size O, a CRC size L, a beta offset â, a PUSCH modulation order Q, a PUSCH code rate R, and alpha α. Some values of the beta offset are configured via a higher-layer signal”, [0223], TABLE 10, “multiple beta offset values may be configured through a scheme of configuring two beta offset values for each beta offset indicator value in advance … multiple PUCCHs having different priority values are multiplexed to the corresponding PUSCH scheduled by the particular piece of DCI, the terminal determines the resource amount by which the corresponding UCI piggybacks on the PUSCH by applying the beta offset value corresponding to each priority … the beta
offset field of the DCI indicates two beta offset values, but this may be extended to the case of indicating three or more beta offset values”, [0192], “The configuration of a beta offset value for CSI is similar to the configuration shown in Table 9, and different values may be applied when compared with the case of HARQ-ACK”);
determining, by the terminal device, the number of the first REs for the first UCI according to the first offset-parameter group ([0146], “the number Q′ of resources including UCI is determined by a UCI size O, a CRC size L, a beta offset β, the number M of resources used for PUSCH data transmission, a PUSCH information size K, and alpha α …The number M of resources used for PUSCH data transmission corresponds to resource element REs remaining after excluding an RE used for DMRS and PT-RS transmission or reception”);
and determining, by the terminal device, the number of the second REs for the second UCI according to the second offset-parameter group ( [0148], “ in the case where the pieces of UCI in the PUCCHs overlapping the PUSCH have different requirements …when the number Q′ of resources including UCI rate-matched to the PUSCH is determined, different beta offset values or different scaling values may be applied to the pieces of UCI included in the PUCCHs having different priority information values”, [0275], “where (RE)j is total number of resource elements of j-th PUCCH resource, Q is modulation order, is max code rate for UCI with priority value of 0, is max code rate for UCI with priority value of 1, O0 is total number of UCIs including CRC bits with priority value of 0, O1 is total number of UCIs including CRC bits with priority value of 1, j+1-th PUCCH resource is used”. [0148], disclose how the number Q′ of resources in PUCCH is determined based on multiple UCI beta offset);
and wherein the offset-parameter groups comprise a first set of offset-parameter groups and a second set of offset-parameter groups, and the first set of offset-parameter groups and the second set of offset-parameter groups each comprise m offset parameter groups, the indication information indicates that the first offset-parameter group is an i' group among the first set of offset-parameter groups and the second offset-parameter group is an i' group among the second set of offset-parameter groups (Fig. 7, [0151] “ OACK denotes the size of HARQ-ACK included in the PUSCH 720, OACK1 denotes HARQ-ACK information bits included in the PUCCH 718, OACK2 denotes HARQ-ACK information bits included in the PUCCH 720, and U may be a set of the PUCCHs 718 and 722 overlapping the PUSCH 720”, [0154], “
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is the number of HARQ-ACK bits for i-th PUCCH where U is the set of PUCCHs overlapped with the PUSCH”. [0223], TABLE 10, “multiple beta offset values may be configured through a scheme of configuring two beta offset values for each beta offset indicator value in advance … the beta offset field of the DCI indicates two beta offset values, but this may be extended to the case of indicating three or more beta offset values”, [0275], “where (RE)j is total number of resource elements of j-th PUCCH resource, Q is modulation order, is max code rate for UCI with priority value of 0, is max code rate for UCI with priority value of 1, O0 is total number of UCIs including CRC bits with priority value of 0, O1 is total number
of UCIs including CRC bits with priority value of 1, j+1-th PUCCH resource is used”).
Yang and Sungjin are both considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of wireless communication. Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the system disclosed by Yang, to determine number of REs based on set of configured offset parameters, as taught by Sungjin, for the benefit of flexibly managing/controlling PUCCH and PUSCH transmission resource via higher level configuration when PUCCH is overlapped with PUSCH (paragraph [0147]), it also provide capability to manage PUCCH and PUSCH transmission resource when multiple PUCCHs have different priority (paragraph [0223]).
Claim 7 has been analyzed and rejected according to claim 1 and Yang further teaches a transceiver (Fig. 9, element 920, [0150], “ the transceiver 920 may represent a wireless transceiver and may communicate bi-directionally with another wireless transceiver”); a processor (Fig. 9, element 940, [0153], “The processor 940 may be configured to execute computer-readable instructions stored in a memory (for example, the memory 930) to cause the device 905 to perform various functions (for example, functions or tasks supporting enhanced solutions to handle collisions between PUSCH repetitions and a PUCCH transmission)”); and a memory storing computer-readable programs which, when executed by the processor, are operable with the processor to (Fig.9 element 930, [0151],” The memory 930 may store computer-readable, computer-executable code 935 including instructions that, when executed, cause the processor to perform various functions described herein”).
Claim 13 has been analyzed and rejected according to claim 1 and Yang further teaches A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing computer-readable programs (Fig. 9, elements 930,935, [0151], “The memory 930 may store computer-readable, computer-executable code 935 including instructions that, when executed, cause the processor to perform various functions described herein”).
Claim 2: The combination of Yang, Park and Sungjin teaches the method of claim 1, Sungjin additionally teaches wherein the determining, by the terminal device, the number of the first REs for the first UCI and the number of the second REs for the second UCI respectively comprises:
determining, by the terminal device, the number of the first REs for the first UCI according to a first offset-parameter group for the first UCI ([0146], “the number Q′ of resources including UCI is determined by a UCI size O, a CRC size L, a beta offset β, the number M of resources used for PUSCH data transmission, a PUSCH information size K, and alpha α …The number M of resources used for PUSCH data transmission corresponds to resource element REs remaining after excluding an RE used for DMRS and PT-RS transmission or reception”); and determining, by the terminal device, the number of the second REs for the second UCI according to a second offset-parameter group for the second UCI ([0148], “ in the case where the pieces of UCI in the PUCCHs overlapping the PUSCH have different requirements …when the number Q′ of resources including UCI rate-matched to the PUSCH is determined, different beta offset values or different scaling values may be applied to the pieces of UCI included in the PUCCHs having different priority information values”, [0275], “where (RE)j is total number of resource elements of j-th PUCCH resource, Q is modulation order, is max code rate for UCI with priority value of 0, is max code rate for UCI with priority value of 1, O0 is total number of UCIs including CRC bits with priority value of 0, O1 is total number of UCIs including CRC bits with priority value of 1, j+1-th PUCCH resource is used”),
wherein the first offset-parameter group for the first UCI and the second offset-parameter group for the second UCI are configured via higher-layer signaling ([0148], “in the case where the pieces of UCI in the PUCCHs overlapping the PUSCH have different requirements … when the number Q′ of resources including UCI rate-matched to the PUSCH is determined, different beta offset values or different scaling values may be applied to the pieces of UCI included in the PUCCHs having different priority information values. The multiple different beta offset values and the multiple different scaling values may be provided in advance via a higher-layer signal”, [0146], “the number O′ of resources including UCI is determined by a UCI size O, a CRC size L, a beta offset â, a PUSCH modulation order Q, a PUSCH code rate R, and alpha α. Some values of the beta offset are configured via a higher-layer signal”).
The motivation for combining Yang and Sungjin regarding to the claim 1 is also applied to claim 2.
Claim 8 has been analyzed and rejected according to claim 7 and claim 2.
Claim 14 has been analyzed and rejected according to claim 13 and claim 2.
Claim 5: The combination of Yang, Park and Sungjin teaches the method of claim 1, Sungjin additionally teaches wherein the offset-parameter groups comprise n sets of offset-parameter groups, and each set of offset-parameter groups comprises two offset parameter groups ([0223], “multiple beta offset values may be configured through a scheme of configuring two beta offset values for each beta offset indicator value in advance”, [0148], disclose how the number Q′ of resources in PUCCH is determined based on multiple UCI beta offset), the indication information indicates that the first offset-parameter group is first group among ajth set of offset-parameter groups and the second offset-parameter group is second group among the Jth set of offset-parameter groups ([0154], “
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is the number of HARQ-ACK bits for i-th PUCCH where U is the set of PUCCHs overlapped with the PUSCH”. [0275], “where (RE)j is total number of resource elements of j-th PUCCH resource, Q is modulation order, is max code rate for UCI with priority value of 0, is max code rate for UCI with priority value of 1, O0 is total number of UCIs including CRC bits with priority value of 0, O1 is total number of UCIs including CRC bits with priority value of 1, j+1-th PUCCH resource is used”), and the jth set of offset-parameter groups is selected from the n sets of offset-parameter groups ([0223], TABLE 10, “multiple beta offset values may be configured through a scheme of configuring two beta offset values for each beta offset indicator value in advance … multiple PUCCHs having different priority values are multiplexed to the corresponding PUSCH scheduled by the particular piece of DCI, the terminal determines the resource amount by which the corresponding UCI
piggybacks on the PUSCH by applying the beta offset value corresponding to each priority … the beta offset field of the DCI indicates two beta offset values, but this may be extended to the case of indicating three or more beta offset values”, [0192], “The configuration of a beta offset value for CSI is similar to the configuration shown in Table 9, and different values may be applied when compared with the case of HARQ-ACK”).
The motivation for combining Yang and Sungjin regarding to the claim 1 is also applied to claim 5.
Claim 11 has been analyzed and rejected according to claim 9 and claim 5.
Claim 17 has been analyzed and rejected according to claim 15 and claim 5.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to YONGHONG ZHAO whose telephone number is (571)272-4089. The examiner can normally be reached Monday -Friday 9:00 am - 5:00pm.
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/Y.Z./Examiner, Art Unit 2472
/NICHOLAS A JENSEN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2472