DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
1. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claims 2-10 and 22-30 have been cancelled.
Status of Claims
2. This Office Action is in response to the application filed on 09/16/2025. Claims 1, 11-21, and 31-40 are presently pending and are presented for examination.
3. 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 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.
Response to Arguments
4. Applicant's arguments filed 09/16/2025 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicant argued that The instant application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 63/104,802 filed October 23, 2020. Samsung is a document submitted to the 3GPP TSG RAN WG1 #103-e Rl-2008135 e-Meeting, October 26th-November 13th, 2020 (annotated document header reproduced below). Applicant further argued that even assuming the earliest possible public disclosure date of Samsung as October 26, 2020, the priority date of the instant application, October 23, 2020, predates the Samsung availability date.
Examiner respectfully disagrees. The Samsung was public knowledge. The Samsung reference was retrieved on 2020-10-16. The incoming ISR, 237 and reference from IB filed on 04/20/2023 (SAMSUNG: "Remaining issues on PDCCH as 1-4,
POSCH SLIV reference", 8-14,
3GPP DRAFT; R1-2008135, 3RD GENERATION 18-24,
PARTNERSHIP PROJECT (3GPP) , MOBILE 28-34,
COMPETENCE CENTRE ; 650, ROUTE DES 38-40
LUCIOLES ; F-06921 SOPHIA-ANTIPOLIS CEDEX
; FRANCE
,
vol. RAN WG1, no. e-Meeting; 20201026 -
20201113
16 October 2020 (2020-10-16), XP051939485,
Retrieved from the Internet:
URL:https://ftp.3gpp.org/tsg_ran/WG1_RL1/T
SGR1_103-e/Docs/R1-2008135.zip R1-2008135
Remaining issues on PDCCH as POSCH SLIV
reference.docx
[retrieved on 2020-10-16])
The retrieved of document “R1-2008135” was obtained from the following link https://www.3gpp.org/ftp/tsg_ran/WG1_RL1/TSGR1_103-e/Docs which produced the
PNG
media_image1.png
58
926
media_image1.png
Greyscale
Therefore the Samsung reference was in public knowledge before the priority date of the instant application, October 23, 2020.
However, in view speedy prosecution of the instant application examiner has searched the Zhang et al. reference (WO 2021/101251 A1) that is believed to read on the claim 1 (see at least paragraph 612 “At this time, the Type-1 HARQ-ACK codebook
would transmit HARQ-ACK information for 2 PDSCHs… the position of HARQ-ACK information for a PDSCH scheduled by DCI 1 in the 3GPP TS 38.213 Type-1 HARQ-ACK codebook is determined by the starting OFDM symbol”).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
5. 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)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1, 11-13, 18, 32-33, and 38-40 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 10(a)(1) as being anticipated by the reference SAMSUNG: "Remaining issues on PDCCH as POSCH SUV reference",
3GPP DRAFT; R1-2008135, 3RD GENERATION PARTNERSHIP PROJECT; vol. RAN WG1, no. e-Meeting; 20201026 - 20201113 16 October 2020 provided by the applicant hereafter D1.
For claim 1 D1 teaches a method performed by a wireless device capable of operating in a wireless network where physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) monitoring occasions vary by slot (Fig. 1, “Slot 0 and Slot 1 have different monitoring occasions”), the method comprising:
Obtaining a starting symbol S of a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) (page 4 first square, “second bullet defining S0, being starting symbol S”),
wherein S is relative to a reference symbol related to a PDCCH monitoring occasion where the PDSCH is scheduled (page 4 first square, “starting symbol S is relative to the starting symbol S0 of the PDCCH monitoring occasion”);
deriving a Type-1 hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) acknowledgement (ACK) codebook based on the starting symbol S (heading of the section 9.1.2.1 “this step is also implicit because HARQ-ACK codebook depends on PDSCH that in turn depends on starting symbol S0, being the start of the monitoring occasion”, see also first half of page 3); and
transmitting to a network node one or more HARQ-ACKs based on the HARQ- ACK codebook (9.1.2.1 “UE can transmit corresponding HARQ-ACK).
For claim 11 D1 teaches a wireless device (9.1.2.1 “UE can transmit corresponding HARQ-ACK) capable of operating in a wireless network where physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) monitoring occasions vary by slot (Fig. 1, “Slot 0 and Slot 1 have different monitoring occasions”), the wireless device comprising processing circuitry operable to:
obtain a starting symbol S of a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), wherein S is relative to a reference symbol related to a PDCCH monitoring occasion where the PDSCH is scheduled (as discussed in claim1);
derive a Type-1 hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) acknowledgement (ACK) codebook based on the starting symbol S; and
transmit to a network node one or more HARQ-ACKs based on the HARQ-ACK codebook (as discussed in claim1).
For claim 21 D1 teaches a method performed by a network node capable of operating in a wireless network where physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) monitoring occasions vary by slot (as discussed in claim 1), the method comprising:
transmitting to a wireless device a starting symbol S of a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), wherein S is relative to a reference symbol related to a PDCCH monitoring occasion where the PDSCH is scheduled (as discussed in claim 1); and
receiving from the wireless device a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) acknowledgement (ACK) based on a HARQ-ACK codebook and the starting symbol S (as discussed in claim 1).
For claim 31 D1 teaches a network node capable of operating in a wireless network where physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) monitoring occasions vary by slot (as discussed in claim 1 and 11), the network node comprising processing circuitry operable to:
transmit to a wireless device a starting symbol S of a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), wherein S is relative to a reference symbol related to a PDCCH monitoring occasion where the PDSCH is scheduled (as discussed in claim 1); and
receive from the wireless device a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) acknowledgement (ACK) based on a HARQ-ACK codebook and the starting symbol S (as discussed in claim 1).
For claims 12 and 32 D1 teaches the wireless device, wherein deriving the Type-1 HARQ-ACK codebook comprises deriving a set R (table) containing time-domain resource allocation (TDRA) entries for PDSCH reception with possible starting symbol of PDCCH monitoring occasions (page 2 b) “ asset of row indexes R…SLIV” and Fig. 1 “SLIV configured in TDRA table RRC”).
For claims 13 and 33 D1 teaches the wireless device of claim 12, wherein the set R is common for all slots (Fig. 1 “same SLIV”).
For claims 18 and 38 D1 teaches the wireless device of claim 12, wherein the set R varies across slots (Fig. 1 “slot 0 and slot 1 have different set”).
For claims 19 and 39 D1 teaches the wireless device of claim 12, wherein deriving the set R is based on monitoring limits of the wireless device (implicit that monitoring depends on the capability of the device, power for example while avoidance of overlapping is implicit die to unambiguity of the meaning of HARDQ cookbook).
For claims 20 and 40 D1 teaches the wireless device of claim 2, wherein deriving the set R comprises avoiding entries that result in overlapping PDSCH reception candidates (implicit that monitoring depends on the capability of the device, power for example while avoidance of overlapping is implicit die to unambiguity of the meaning of HARDQ cookbook).
Conclusion
6. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure: Liu et al. (US 2022/0201725 A1), Noh et al. (US 2022/0029746 A1) Gao (US 2022/0255682 A1), and Jacobsen et al. (US 2021/0288757 A1) and Zhang et al. (WO 2021/101251 A1).
7. THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. 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.
7. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to David M OVEISSI whose telephone number is (571)270-3127. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8Am-5PM.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Jeffrey Rutkowski can be reached at (571) 270 - 1215. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/MANSOUR OVEISSI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2415