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 Under 37 CFR 1.114
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 February 13, 2026 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see pages 1-3 in the Remarks, filed February 13, 2026, with respect to the rejection(s) of claims 1-3 under 35 U.S.C. 102 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 Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn.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 Yang et al (US Publication 2023/0114925 A1).
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.
Claims 1-3 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Haghighat et al (US Publication 2023/0300806 A1) in view of Yang et al (US Publication 2023/0114925 A1).
Regarding to claims 1 and 3, Haghighat discloses a user equipment UE 102 (fig. 1B) comprising: higher layer circuitry 118 configured to receive information (SRS configuration) to configure more than one sounding reference signal SRS resource sets for aperiodic SRS transmission (page 7 paragraph 0078) and a plurality values of a slot offset for the aperiodic SRS transmission (fig. 3 page 8 paragraph 0083); and receiving circuitry 120 configured to receive downlink control information DCI carried by a physical downlink control channel PDCCH (fig. 2 page 7 paragraph 0079); and transmitting circuitry 120 configured to transmit an SRS, wherein an SRS request field in the DCI indicates one SRS resource set from the more than one SRS resource sets (page 7 paragraph 0078), and the DCI indicates one value of the more than one values of the slot offset (page 9 paragraphs 0102-0103).
Haghighat fails to teach for the plurality values of a slot offset for each of the plurality of SRS resource sets.
However, Yang discloses a user equipment UE16 (fig. 1) configured to receive a downlink control information DCI include a plurality values of a slot offset for each of the plurality of SRS resource sets (fig. 11 page 13 paragraph 0144).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to arrange for the plurality values of a slot offset for each of the plurality of SRS resource sets as taught by Yang into Haghighat’s system to enhance A-SRS transmission by allowing more flexibility with selection of plurality offset values instead of fix offset value.
Regarding to claim 2, Haghighat discloses a base station apparatus 114b (fig. 1A) comprising: higher layer circuitry (page 19 paragraph 0258) configured to transmit information to configure more than one sounding reference signal SRS resource sets for aperiodic SRS transmission (page 7 paragraph 0078) and a plurality values of a slot offset for the aperiodic SRS transmission (fig. 3 page 8 paragraph 0083); and transmitting circuitry (page 19 paragraph 0258) configured to transmit downlink control information DCI carried by a physical downlink control channel PDCCH (fig. 2 page 7 paragraph 0079); and receiving circuitry (page 19 paragraph 0258) configured to receive an SRS, wherein an SRS request field in the DCI indicates one SRS resource set from the more than one SRS resource sets (page 7 paragraph 0078), and the DCI indicates one value of the more than one values of the slot offset (page 9 paragraphs 0102-0103).
Haghighat fails to teach for the plurality values of a slot offset for each of the plurality of SRS resource sets.
However, Yang discloses a user equipment UE16 (fig. 1) configured to receive a downlink control information DCI include a plurality values of a slot offset for each of the plurality of SRS resource sets (fig. 11 page 13 paragraph 0144).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to arrange for the plurality values of a slot offset for each of the plurality of SRS resource sets as taught by Yang into Haghighat’s system to enhance A-SRS transmission by allowing more flexibility with selection of plurality offset values instead of fix offset value.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Duc T Duong whose telephone number is (571)272-3122. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri; 9am-6pm.
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/DUC T DUONG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2467