DETAILED ACTION
Claim(s) 1, 8, and 15 have been examined and are pending.
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 .
Response to Remarks/Comments
Double Patenting Rejection
Amendments made to the claim(s) in response to the Double Patenting Rejection made in the Non-Final Rejection mailed June 4, 2025 are effective. Accordingly, the Double Patenting Rejection is withdrawn.
Prior Art Rejections under 35 USC 102/USC 103
With respect to the Non-Final Rejection mailed June 4, 2025, in light of the prior art of record the status of the claim(s) was as follows: Claim(s) 1, 2, 5, 8, 9, 12, 15, were rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over KUNDU (US Patent No. 11,330,569) in view of WILUS (“Discussion on Intra-UE multiplexing/prioritization for IIoT/URLLC” cited in April 12, 2023 IDS). Claim(s) 3 and 10, were rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over KUNDU (US Patent No. 11,330,569) in view of WILUS (“Discussion on Intra-UE multiplexing/prioritization for IIoT/URLLC” cited in April 12, 2023 IDS) in view of INTEL (“UL signals and channels for NR-unlicensed”, cited in the IDS received April 12, 2023 ). Claim (s) 4, 6, 7, 11, 13, and 14, were objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
In response to the prior art rejection(s) Applicants’ have amended at least independent claim(s) 1, 8, and 15, to incorporate some of the subject matter indicated as allowable in claim(s) 4, 6, and/or 7. However, since the amended independent claim(s) also removed subject matter from the independent claim(s) (i.e. the claim(s) no longer recite, PUCCH format 0/PUCCH format 1), additional search and consideration was necessary. Consequently, a new ground of rejection has been made. Furthermore Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1, 8, and 15, have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
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.
Claim(s) 1, 8, and 15, is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over KUNDU (US Patent No. 11,330,569) in view of INTEL (“Intra-UE multiplexing and prioritization in Release 17 URLLC/IIoT”, cited in April 12, 2023 IDS) in view of CHOI (“US 20230284227 A1”)
In regards to claim(s) 1 and 15, KUNDU (US Patent No. 11,330,569) teaches a user equipment (UE), comprising: a processor configured to (KUNDU [Col. 3, Line(s) 10 – Col. 5, Line 40] teaches a user equipment, wireless device, comprising a processor configured to: “(21) FIG. 1 illustrates a simplified network or a wireless communication system 100 in accordance with some embodiments. The network 100 may include a user equipment (UE) 104 communicatively coupled with an access node or a base station, e.g., a Next Generation NodeB (gNB) 108. The UE 104 and access node or base station 108 may correspond to and be substantially interchangeable with like-named elements described with respect to FIGS. 5-13. (22) In embodiments, the network 100 may be a 5G NR system. A NR system may support a large variety of frequency bands ranging from sub-GHz to 100 GHz. 5G NR system uses physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), and physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) between the UE 104 and the base station 108 to perform various communications, e.g., data transfer, physical layer control functions such as scheduling the downlink (DL) broadcast and DL/uplink (UL) unicast data transmission, and signaling various triggers for aperiodic and periodic transmission/reception. However, various design elements of NR make PUCCH, PUSCH, PDCCH, and PDSCH for a NR system different from the corresponding designs in LTE…(27) In embodiments, as shown in FIG. 1, the processing circuitry 102 of the UE 104 may perform various functions, e.g., to determine a first physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) resource with a payload of a first size carrying a first uplink control information (UCI) in a first format; determine a second PUCCH resource with a payload of a second size carrying a second UCI in a second format; determine that the first PUCCH resource and the second PUCCH resource at least partially overlap; and multiplex the first UCI and the second UCI to obtain a combined payload to be carried by the first PUCCH resource in the first format or by the second PUCCH resource in the second format… In addition, the network controller circuitry 106 of the UE 104 may be coupled with the processing circuitry 102 to deliver to the base station 108 the combined payload carried by the first PUCCH resource in the first format or by the second PUCCH resource in the second format.”): determine that joint reporting of uplink control information (UCI) ([Col. 6, Line(s) 21 - 58] teach a feature to determine that joint reporting, multiplexing, of UCI, of different types, is configured and a multiplexing timeline is satisfied, the handling of multiplexing when the UCI of different types overlap ); and determine a PUCCH with a
transmit the
([Col. 6, Line(s) 21 - 58] teach a feature to multiplex a HARQ-ACK and a SR with a PUCCH and transmitting circuitry configured to transmit the multiplexed HARQ-ACK and SR on a PUCCH, “…(35) In one example, for the scenario 1-1, when PUCCH 311 in format 2 carrying HARQ-ACK collides with PUCCH 312 in format 0 carrying SR, UE would append SR after HARQ-ACK information bit and carry HARQ-ACK/SR into the PUCCH 321 in format 2…" ).
KUNDU’s feature for the joint reporting of uplink control information (UCI) differs from that of claim 1, in that KUNDU is silent on the following, a feature to:(1) determine that joint reporting of uplink control information (UCI) with different priorities is configured and a multiplexing timeline is satisfied (2) determine a PUCCH with a low priority HARQ-ACK overlaps with a PUCCH with a positive high priority SR, transmit the low priority HARQ-ACK and positive high priority SR on the PUCCH for the low priority HARQ-ACK with power boosting, or transmit the low priority HARQ-ACK on a high priority HARQ-ACK PUCCH resource. Despite these differences similar features have been seen in other prior art involving the multiplexing of uplink control information. INTEL (“Intra-UE multiplexing and prioritization in Release 17 URLLC/IIoT”) for example suggests a feature to (1) determine that joint reporting of uplink control information (UCI)with different priorities is configured, see section titled, “SR, HARQ-ACK and/or CSI collisions of different priorities”
INTEL (“Intra-UE multiplexing and prioritization in Release 17 URLLC/IIoT”) further suggests a feature to determine a PUCCH with a low priority hybrid automatic repeat request-acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) overlaps with a PUCCH with a
transmit the low priority HARQ-ACK on a
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Thus based upon the teachings of INTEL it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the KUNDU’s feature for the joint reporting of uplink control information (UCI), by adopting features seen in INTEL feature for the same, to arrive at a feature to (1) determine that joint reporting of uplink control information (UCI) with different priorities is configured and a that a multiplexing timeline is satisfied (2) determine a PUCCH with a low priority HARQ-ACK overlaps with a PUCCH with a high priority SR and transmit the low priority HARQ-ACK on a HARQ-ACK PUCCH resource, as arranged with the remaining elements of claim 1, in order to provide a benefit of prioritization of uplink channels for Rel-17 IIoT/URLLC. The combined teachings of KUNDU in view of INTEL further differ from claim 1, in that the combined teachings are silent on where the high priority scheduling request, comprises a positive high priority scheduling request and in that the combined teachings are silent on where the HARQ-ACK PUCCH resource comprises a high priority HARQ-ACK PUCCH resource.
Despite these differences similar features have been seen in other prior art involving the multiplexing of uplink control information (UCI). CHOI (US 20230284227 A1) teaches where an HARQ-ACK PUCCH resource comprises a high priority HARQ-ACK PUCCH resource (“[0450] The HP PUCCH format 0 and the HP PUCCH format 0 may collide in the same symbol. In this case, the UE can transmit 1-bit LP-HARQ of low priority and 1-bit HP-HARQ of high priority through one PUCCH format 0. That is, 2 bits should be transmitted through the one PUCCH format 0. The methods for this are as follows. (First method) The UE may generate 2-bit HARQ-ACK by combining the 1-bit LP-HARQ of low priority and the 1-bit HP-HARQ of high priority without considering the priority therebetween. And, the UE may transmit the 2-bit HARQ through PUCCH format 0 according to the HARQ of 2 bits transmission method of Rel-15. That is, the HARQ-ACK of 2 bits transmission method is shown in Table 8.”) CHOI also teaches a positive high priority scheduling request (“[0436] That is, among (‘a’, ‘b’, ‘c’), ‘a’ indicating ACK or NACK of the first HARQ-ACK bit may indicate whether the SR of high priority is positive or negative, and the third ‘c’ may indicate whether the first HARQ-ACK bit is ACK or NACK. More specifically, among (‘a’, ‘b’, ‘c’), ACK of ‘a’ indicating ACK or NACK of the first HARQ-ACK bit is used to indicate that the SR of high priority is negative, NACK of ‘a’ is used to indicate that the SR of high priority is positive, the negative SR of the third ‘c’ is used to indicate ACK of the first low priority HARQ-ACK, and the positive SR of ‘c’ is used to indicate NACK of the first low priority HARQ-ACK.”).
Thus based upon the teachings of CHOI it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the UCI multiplexing feature suggested by KUNDU in view of INTEL, by adopting UCI multiplexing support for a positive high priority SR and by further adopting use of high priority HARQ-ACK PUCCH resource as seen in CHOI, to thus arrive at claim 1, in order to provide a benefit of more expansive support for UCI multiplexing by supporting usage of additional UCI types and PUCCH resource types.
In regards to claim 8, KUNDU (US 20200344032 A1) teaches a base station (gNB), comprising: a processor configured to (KUNDU [Col. 3, Line(s) 10 – Col. 5, Line 40], teaches a base station, comprising a processor configured to: “(21) FIG. 1 illustrates a simplified network or a wireless communication system 100 in accordance with some embodiments. The network 100 may include a user equipment (UE) 104 communicatively coupled with an access node or a base station, e.g., a Next Generation NodeB (gNB) 108. The UE 104 and access node or base station 108 may correspond to and be substantially interchangeable with like-named elements described with respect to FIGS. 5-13. (22) In embodiments, the network 100 may be a 5G NR system. A NR system may support a large variety of frequency bands ranging from sub-GHz to 100 GHz. 5G NR system uses physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), and physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) between the UE 104 and the base station 108 to perform various communications, e.g., data transfer, physical layer control functions such as scheduling the downlink (DL) broadcast and DL/uplink (UL) unicast data transmission, and signaling various triggers for aperiodic and periodic transmission/reception. However, various design elements of NR make PUCCH, PUSCH, PDCCH, and PDSCH for a NR system different from the corresponding designs in LTE…(27) In embodiments, as shown in FIG. 1, the processing circuitry 102 of the UE 104 may perform various functions, e.g., to determine a first physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) resource with a payload of a first size carrying a first uplink control information (UCI) in a first format; determine a second PUCCH resource with a payload of a second size carrying a second UCI in a second format; determine that the first PUCCH resource and the second PUCCH resource at least partially overlap; and multiplex the first UCI and the second UCI to obtain a combined payload to be carried by the first PUCCH resource in the first format or by the second PUCCH resource in the second format… In addition, the network controller circuitry 106 of the UE 104 may be coupled with the processing circuitry 102 to deliver to the base station 108 the combined payload carried by the first PUCCH resource in the first format or by the second PUCCH resource in the second format.”): determine that joint reporting of uplink control information (UCI) ([Col. 6, Line(s) 21 - 58] teach a feature to determine that joint reporting, multiplexing, of UCI, of different types, is configured and a multiplexing timeline is satisfied, the handling of multiplexing when the UCI of different types overlap ); and receiving circuitry configured to determine that a
([Col. 6, Line(s) 21 - 58] teach a feature to receive a multiplexed HARQ-ACK and a SR with a PUCCH, “…(35) In one example, for the scenario 1-1, when PUCCH 311 in format 2 carrying HARQ-ACK collides with PUCCH 312 in format 0 carrying SR, UE would append SR after HARQ-ACK information bit and carry HARQ-ACK/SR into the PUCCH 321 in format 2…" ).
KUNDU’s feature for the joint reporting of uplink control information (UCI) differs from that of claim 8, in that KUNDU is silent on the following, a feature to:(1) determine that joint reporting of uplink control information (UCI) with different priorities is configured and that the multiplexing timeline is satisfied (2) to determine that a positive high priority scheduling request (SR) is reported in a case that:
a low priority hybrid automatic repeat request-acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) is received on a low priority physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) resource and power boosted is detected on the low priority PUCCH resource; or the low priority HARQ-ACK is received on a high priority PUCCH resource. Despite these differences similar features have been seen in other prior art involving the multiplexing of uplink control information. INTEL (“Intra-UE multiplexing and prioritization in Release 17 URLLC/IIoT”) for example suggests a feature to (1) determine that joint reporting of uplink control information (UCI)with different priorities is configured, see section titled, “SR, HARQ-ACK and/or CSI collisions of different priorities”
INTEL (“Intra-UE multiplexing and prioritization in Release 17 URLLC/IIoT”) further suggests a feature to determine a PUCCH with a low priority hybrid automatic repeat request-acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) overlaps with a PUCCH with a determine that a
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Thus based upon the teachings of INTEL it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the KUNDU’s feature for the joint reporting of uplink control information (UCI), by adopting features seen in INTEL feature for the same, to arrive at a feature to (1) determine that joint reporting of uplink control information (UCI) with different priorities is configured such that the receiving circuitry configured to determine that a as arranged with the remaining elements of claim 8, in order to provide a benefit of prioritization of uplink channels for Rel-17 IIoT/URLLC.
The combined teachings of KUNDU in view of INTEL further differ from claim 8, in that the combined teachings are silent on where the high priority scheduling request, comprises a positive high priority scheduling request and in that the combined teachings are silent on where the HARQ-ACK PUCCH resource comprises a high priority HARQ-ACK PUCCH resource. Despite these differences similar features have been seen in other prior art involving the multiplexing of uplink control information (UCI). CHOI (US 20230284227 A1) teaches where an HARQ-ACK PUCCH resource comprises a high priority HARQ-ACK PUCCH resource (“[0450] The HP PUCCH format 0 and the HP PUCCH format 0 may collide in the same symbol. In this case, the UE can transmit 1-bit LP-HARQ of low priority and 1-bit HP-HARQ of high priority through one PUCCH format 0. That is, 2 bits should be transmitted through the one PUCCH format 0. The methods for this are as follows. (First method) The UE may generate 2-bit HARQ-ACK by combining the 1-bit LP-HARQ of low priority and the 1-bit HP-HARQ of high priority without considering the priority therebetween. And, the UE may transmit the 2-bit HARQ through PUCCH format 0 according to the HARQ of 2 bits transmission method of Rel-15. That is, the HARQ-ACK of 2 bits transmission method is shown in Table 8.”) CHOI also teaches a positive high priority scheduling request (“[0436] That is, among (‘a’, ‘b’, ‘c’), ‘a’ indicating ACK or NACK of the first HARQ-ACK bit may indicate whether the SR of high priority is positive or negative, and the third ‘c’ may indicate whether the first HARQ-ACK bit is ACK or NACK. More specifically, among (‘a’, ‘b’, ‘c’), ACK of ‘a’ indicating ACK or NACK of the first HARQ-ACK bit is used to indicate that the SR of high priority is negative, NACK of ‘a’ is used to indicate that the SR of high priority is positive, the negative SR of the third ‘c’ is used to indicate ACK of the first low priority HARQ-ACK, and the positive SR of ‘c’ is used to indicate NACK of the first low priority HARQ-ACK.”).
Thus based upon the teachings of CHOI it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the UCI multiplexing feature suggested by KUNDU in view of INTEL, by adopting UCI multiplexing support for a positive high priority SR and by further adopting use of high priority HARQ-ACK PUCCH resource as seen in CHOI, to thus arrive at claim 8, in order to provide a benefit of more expansive support for UCI multiplexing by supporting usage of additional UCI types and PUCCH resource types.
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.
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/TARELL A HAMPTON/Examiner, Art Unit 2476 /AYAZ R SHEIKH/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2476
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