DETAILED ACTION
Status of Case
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
This Office Action is in response to the claims filed on 2/7/2023.
Claims 1-3, 5-6, 8-10, 12-17, 19, 21, and 24-27 are pending.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) filed on 2/7/2023 has been considered by Examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 1-3, 5-6, 8-10, 12, 17, 19, 21, 2427 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Zhou (USPAN 2020/0015258).
Consider claims 1, 19, and 21, Zhou discloses a method (see paragraph 111, wherein disclosed is said method; also, see figure 13, reproduced below for convenience, wherein disclosed is said method), and a corresponding terminal, comprising a processor, a memory, a communication interface, and one or more programs, wherein the one or more programs are stored in the memory and configured to be executed by the processor (see figure 15, wherein disclosed is a processor 1504, a communication interface 1510, and a memory 1506) and a corresponding non-transitory computer readable storage medium configured to store a computer program which, when running on a user equipment, is operable with the user equipment (see element 1506 in figure 15, wherein disclosed is a memory comprising instructions that are executed by processor 1504) for determining a configuration for physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) repetitions, comprising: obtaining a higher layer parameter, and determining a configuration for PDCCH repetitions according to the higher layer parameter (see paragraph 111: “[t]he UE 504 may further receive configuration information 516 from the second base station 502b. For example, the UE 504 may acquire PDCCH configuration information associated with a MSG2 from the second base station 502b. The PDCCH configuration may be acquired in one or more IEs or fields, which may be UE-specific (e.g., PDCCH-Config) and/or cell-specific (e.g., PDCCH-ConfigCommon). The configuration information 516 may indicate a start (e.g., a start time, such as a symbol or slot, or a start index) and a number of repetitions for a MSG2 PDCCH for one or more monitoring occasions.”)
PNG
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478
668
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Greyscale
Consider claims 2 and 24, Zhou discloses that the configuration for PDCCH repetitions comprises a starting monitoring occasion (see paragraph 111: “the configuration information 516 may indicate a start…for one or more monitoring occasions”).
Consider claim 3, Zhou discloses that the starting monitoring occasion is a starting slot of PDCCH repetitions (see paragraph 111: “the configuration information 516 may indicate a start (e.g., a start time, such as a symbol or slot…”).
Consider claims 5 and 25, Zhou discloses that the configuration for PDCCH repetitions comprises an offset of a starting slot of PDCCH repetitions relative to a start time of a PDCCH monitoring occasion (see paragraph 129: “[t]he UE 504 may receive the search space IE that indicates a monitoring slot periodicity and offset…[f]or example, a field that indicates the monitoring slot periodicity and offset may indicate the starting slot index of a monitoring occasion”).
Consider claim 6, Zhou discloses that the starting monitoring occasion is a starting symbol of PDCCH repetitions (see paragraph 111: “the configuration information 516 may indicate a start (e.g., a start time, such as a symbol or slot…”).
Consider claims 8 and 26, Zhou discloses that the configuration for PDCCH repetitions comprises an offset of a starting symbol of PDCCH repetitions relative to a PDCCH monitoring occasion (see paragraph 129: “[t]he UE 504 may receive the search space IE that indicates a monitoring slot periodicity and offset…[f]or example, a field that indicates the monitoring slot periodicity and offset may indicate the starting slot index of a monitoring occasion”; when the starting monitoring occasion is a starting symbol (as disclosed in paragraph 111), then the offset will be for a starting symbol of a monitoring occasion).
Consider claims 9 and 27, Zhou discloses that the configuration for PDCCH repetitions comprises the quantity of PDCCH repetitions (see paragraph 111: “the configuration information 516 may indicate…a number of repetitions”).
Consider claim 10, Zhou discloses that the configuration for PDCCH repetitions comprises a starting monitoring occasion for all PDCCH repetitions (see paragraph 111: “the configuration information 516 may indicate a start…for one or more monitoring occasions”).
Consider claim 12, Zhou discloses that the configuration for PDCCH repetitions comprises an offset of a starting monitoring occasion for all PDCCH repetitions relative to a PDCCH monitoring occasion (see paragraph 129: “[t]he UE 504 may receive the search space IE that indicates a monitoring slot periodicity and offset…[f]or example, a field that indicates the monitoring slot periodicity and offset may indicate the starting slot index of a monitoring occasion”).
Consider claim 17, Zhou discloses that the configuration for PDCCH repetitions comprises a starting control resource set (see paragraph 111: “the configuration information 516 may indicate a start (e.g., a start time, such as a symbol or slot, or a start index”).
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 13-16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhou (USPAN 2020/0015258) in view of Morioka (USPAN 2018/0270795).
Consider claim 13, Zhou does not specifically disclose that the configuration for PDCCH repetitions comprises a maximum repetition quantity.
Morioka discloses that the configuration for PDCCH repetitions comprises a maximum repetition quantity (see paragraph 7: NMAX; see paragraph 59: the maximum number of repetitions for the PDCCH).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Zhou and combine it with the noted teachings of Morioka. The motivation to combine these references is to provide a method for indicating a maximum number of downlink repetitions currently accepted by a terminal device (see paragraph 7 of Morioka).
Consider claim 14, Zhou does not specifically disclose that the maximum repetition quantity corresponds to one or more repetition quantities of PDCCH repetitions, and the one or more repetition quantities are not greater than the maximum repetition quantity.
Morioka discloses that the maximum repetition quantity corresponds to one or more repetition quantities of PDCCH repetitions, and the one or more repetition quantities are not greater than the maximum repetition quantity (see paragraph 7: NMAX; see paragraph 59: the maximum number of repetitions for the PDCCH).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Zhou and combine it with the noted teachings of Morioka. The motivation to combine these references is to provide a method for indicating a maximum number of downlink repetitions currently accepted by a terminal device (see paragraph 7 of Morioka).
Consider claim 15, Zhou does not specifically disclose that the one or more repetition quantities of PDCCH repetitions are determined by a user equipment (UE) according to the maximum repetition quantity, and the one or more repetition quantities are not greater than the maximum repetition quantity
Morioka discloses that the one or more repetition quantities of PDCCH repetitions are determined by a user equipment (UE) according to the maximum repetition quantity, and the one or more repetition quantities are not greater than the maximum repetition quantity (see paragraph 7: NMAX, which is the “maximum number of downlink repetitions…currently accepted by a terminal device”; see paragraph 59: the maximum number of repetitions for the PDCCH, wherein the UE signals that NMAX parameter to the base station; thus, NMAX is determined by the UE).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Zhou and combine it with the noted teachings of Morioka. The motivation to combine these references is to provide a method for indicating a maximum number of downlink repetitions currently accepted by a terminal device (see paragraph 7 of Morioka).
Consider claim 16, although Zhou discloses different starting monitoring occasions (see above), Zhou does not specifically disclose different repetition quantities of PDCCH repetitions determined by the UE correspond to different starting monitoring occasions.
Morioka discloses different repetition quantities of PDCCH repetitions determined by the UE (see paragraph 59: “…the terminal is capable of receiving repeated signals and has indicated different maximum number of repetitions for the two traffic types”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Zhou and combine it with the noted teachings of Morioka. The motivation to combine these references is to provide a method for indicating a maximum number of downlink repetitions currently accepted by a terminal device (see paragraph 7 of Morioka).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Jamal Javaid whose telephone number is 571-270-5137 and email address is Jamal.Javaid@uspto.gov.
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/JAMAL JAVAID/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2412