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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 November 20, 2025 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see Applicants’ remarks, filed November 6, 2025, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 10, 19 under 35 U.S.C. 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 Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn.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 newly found prior art Zhang et al. (US 2019/0349864).
Zhang teaches receiving a plurality of power control parameter sets in a radio-resource-control (RRC) message (Section 0123).
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.
Claim(s) 10, 14, 15, 19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sebeni et al. (US 2019/0116552) in view of Gotoh et al. (US 2021/0045092) in view of Zhang et al. (US 2019/0349864) in view of Tiirola et al. (US 2018/0279291) in view of Wikstrom et al. (US 2019/0110332) and in further view of Zhang et al. (US 2020/0266922), hereafter Zhang922
Regarding Claim 10, Sebeni teaches a terminal comprising: a receiver, which, in operation, receives a fallback downlink-control-information (DCI) format (Section 0130) that conveys an uplink (UL) grant (Section 0142, PDCCH uses DCI formats thus rendering a scenario wherein the fall DCI format conveys a UL grant), the UL grant being a control channel message used for transmission of assignment information for an uplink signal, receives an UL grant detection cycle of the UL grant (Section 0142, monitoring PDCCH for UL grants for a detection period).
Sebeni does not teach receives a plurality of power control parameters sets in a radio-resource-control (RRC) messages, circuitry, which, in operation, and in response to the UL grant including no SRS resource indicator field and no information indicating a power control parameter set that is used to calculate a transmission power, selects the power control parameter set from the plurality of power control parameter sets according to a value of the received UL grant detection cycle, and calculates the transmission power using the selected power control parameter set; and a transmitter, which, in operation, transmits the uplink signal using the calculated transmission power, wherein the circuitry, in operation, determines whether or not the value of the UL grant detection cycle is less than or equal to a determined value, selects a first power control parameter set from the plurality of power control parameter sets as the power control parameter set in response to the value of the received UL grant detection cycle being determined to be less than or equal to the determined value, and selects a second power control parameter set, which is different from the first power control parameter set, from the plurality of power control parameter sets as the power control parameter set, in response to the value of the received UL grant detection cycle being determined to be greater than the determined value.
Gotoh, which also teaches the use of DCI, teaches circuitry, which, in operation, and in response to the UL grant including no SRS resource indicator field (no SRI field (Sections 0051, 0128)) and no information indicating a power control parameter that is used to calculate a transmission power (Section 0051, DCI format 00 includes fields which include a DCI format identifier, a frequency domain resource assignment information on resource block allocation for transmitting the PUSCH and a time domain resource assignment, a frequency hopping flag, information on the MCS for the PUSCH, RV, NDI, information indicating the HARQ process number in the uplink, a TPC command for the PUSCH, and a Supplemental UL (UL/SUL) indicator all of which are implicit indications, there is no explicit indication of a power control parameter), selects the power control parameter according to the received UL grant (Section 0051, a power control parameter such as power value for the PUSCH based on the TPC command is determined); and calculates the transmission power using the selected power control parameter (Section 0051, transmission power for the PUSCH based on the power value); and a transmitter, which, in operation, transmits the uplink signal using the calculated transmission power (Section 0051, transmit the PUSCH using the determined transmission power for said PUSCH).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Sebeni with the above features of Gotoh for the purpose of improving reliability in a case of transmitting a transport block one time as taught by Gotoh.
Zhang, which also teaches power control, teaches receiving a plurality of power control parameter sets in a radio-resource-control (RRC) message (Section 0123).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Sebeni combination with the above features of Zhang for the purpose of providing efficient beam management as taught by Zhang.
Tiirola, which also teaches the use of the URLLC and eMBB service types, teaches determining whether or not the detection cycle is less than or equal to a determined value (Figure 4, Section 0067, short PUCCH, Figure 4 shows that the short PUCCH is associated with a time cycle or period that is less than a particular time value), a detection cycle associated with a URLLC that is less than or equal to a value (Figure 4, Section 0067, short PUCCH, Figure 4 shows that the short PUCCH is associated with a time cycle or period that is less than a particular time value) and a detection cycle associated with an eMBB that is greater than a value (Figure 4, Section 0067, long PUCCH, Figure 4 shows that the long PUCCH is associated with a time cycle or period that is greater than a particular time value).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of the Sebeni combination with the above features of Tiirola for the purpose of performing coordination of the sending and/or receiving data, control information and other functions performed by different data service types of the UE thus enabling the UE to have multiple applications running simultaneously as taught by Tiirola.
Wikstrom, which also teaches the use of a UL grant detection, teaches a value of a UL grant detection cycle (Section 0103, period for detecting the UL grant, which will have a value).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of the Gotoh combination with the above features of Wikstrom for the purpose of providing reduction in latency and higher throughput, which is a benefit of shortened transmission time intervals.
Zhang922, which also teaches the use of the URLLC and eMBB service types, teaches a first power control parameter is selected or determined for power control when there is a URLLC service type and a second power control parameter, which is different from the first power control parameter, is selected or determined for power control when there is an eMBB service type (Section 0103, URLLC requires a boosted power and thus a power control parameter associated with said boosted power, eMBB requires a normal pre-allocated power and thus a power control parameter associated with said normal pre-allocated power).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of the Sebeni combination with the above features of Zhang922 for the purpose of providing an efficient way to implicitly detect at the receiver the puncturing information (i.e. time/frequency resources, Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS), Transport Block Size (TBS) etc.) of the Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communication (URLLC) in the punctured Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) area, wherein puncturing provides improved performance of eMBB applications as taught by Zhang. The combination of Wikstrom, Zhang, Gotoh, Tiirola and Zhang922 teaches wherein the circuitry selects a first power control parameter set from the plurality of power control parameter sets as the power control parameter set in response to the value of the received UL grant detection cycle being determined to be less than or equal to the determined value, and the circuitry selects a second power control parameter set, which is different from the first power control parameter set, from the plurality of power control parameters sets as the power control parameter set, in response to the value of the received UL grant detection cycle being determined to be greater than the determined value.
Regarding Claim 19, Sebeni teaches a communication method comprising: receiving a fallback downlink-control-information (DCI) format (Section 0130) that conveys an uplink (UL) grant (Section 0142, PDCCH uses DCI formats thus rendering a scenario wherein the fall DCI format conveys a UL grant), the UL grant being a control channel message used for transmission of assignment information for an uplink signal, receives an UL grant detection cycle of the UL grant (Section 0142, monitoring PDCCH for UL grants for a detection period).
Sebeni does not teach receiving a plurality of power control parameters sets in a radio-resource-control (RRC) messages, in response to the UL grant including no SRS resource indicator field and no information indicating a power control parameter set that is used to calculate a transmission power, selecting the power control parameter set from the plurality of power control parameter sets according to a value of the received UL grant detection cycle, and calculating the transmission power using the selected power control parameter set; and transmitting the uplink signal using the calculated transmission power, wherein the selecting of the power control parameter set from the plurality of power control parameter sets includes: determining whether or not the value of the UL grant detection cycle is less than or equal to a determined value, selecting a first power control parameter set from the plurality of power control parameter sets as the power control parameter set in response to the value of the received UL grant detection cycle being determined to be less than or equal to the determined value, and selecting a second power control parameter set, which is different from the first power control parameter set, from the plurality of power control parameter sets as the power control parameter set, in response to the value of the received UL grant detection cycle being determined to be greater than the determined value.
Gotoh, which also teaches the use of DCI, teaches in response to the UL grant including no SRS resource indicator field (no SRI field (Sections 0051, 0128)) and no information indicating a power control parameter that is used to calculate a transmission power (Section 0051, DCI format 00 includes fields which include a DCI format identifier, a frequency domain resource assignment information on resource block allocation for transmitting the PUSCH and a time domain resource assignment, a frequency hopping flag, information on the MCS for the PUSCH, RV, NDI, information indicating the HARQ process number in the uplink, a TPC command for the PUSCH, and a Supplemental UL (UL/SUL) indicator all of which are implicit indications, there is no explicit indication of a power control parameter), selecting the power control parameter according to the received UL grant (Section 0051, a power control parameter such as power value for the PUSCH based on the TPC command is determined); and calculating the transmission power using the selected power control parameter (Section 0051, transmission power for the PUSCH based on the power value); and transmitting the uplink signal using the calculated transmission power (Section 0051, transmit the PUSCH using the determined transmission power for said PUSCH).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Sebeni with the above features of Gotoh for the purpose of improving reliability in a case of transmitting a transport block one time as taught by Gotoh.
Zhang, which also teaches power control, teaches receiving a plurality of power control parameter sets in a radio-resource-control (RRC) message (Section 0123).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Sebeni combination with the above features of Zhang for the purpose of providing efficient beam management as taught by Zhang.
Tiirola, which also teaches the use of the URLLC and eMBB service types, teaches determining whether or not the detection cycle is less than or equal to a determined value (Figure 4, Section 0067, short PUCCH, Figure 4 shows that the short PUCCH is associated with a time cycle or period that is less than a particular time value), a detection cycle associated with a URLLC that is less than or equal to a value (Figure 4, Section 0067, short PUCCH, Figure 4 shows that the short PUCCH is associated with a time cycle or period that is less than a particular time value) and a detection cycle associated with an eMBB that is greater than a value (Figure 4, Section 0067, long PUCCH, Figure 4 shows that the long PUCCH is associated with a time cycle or period that is greater than a particular time value).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of the Sebeni combination with the above features of Tiirola for the purpose of performing coordination of the sending and/or receiving data, control information and other functions performed by different data service types of the UE thus enabling the UE to have multiple applications running simultaneously as taught by Tiirola.
Wikstrom, which also teaches the use of a UL grant detection, teaches a value of a UL grant detection cycle (Section 0103, period for detecting the UL grant, which will have a value).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of the Sebeni combination with the above features of Wikstrom for the purpose of providing reduction in latency and higher throughput, which is a benefit of shortened transmission time intervals.
Zhang922, which also teaches the use of the URLLC and eMBB service types, teaches a first power control parameter is selected or determined for power control when there is a URLLC service type and a second power control parameter, which is different from the first power control parameter, is selected or determined for power control when there is an eMBB service type (Section 0103, URLLC requires a boosted power and thus a power control parameter associated with said boosted power, eMBB requires a normal pre-allocated power and thus a power control parameter associated with said normal pre-allocated power).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of the Gotoh combination with the above features of Zhang for the purpose of providing an efficient way to implicitly detect at the receiver the puncturing information (i.e. time/frequency resources, Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS), Transport Block Size (TBS) etc.) of the Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communication (URLLC) in the punctured Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) area, wherein puncturing provides improved performance of eMBB applications as taught by Zhang. The combination of Wikstrom, Zhang, Gotoh, Tiirola and Zhang922 teaches wherein the circuitry selects a first power control parameter set from the plurality of power control parameter sets as the power control parameter set in response to the value of the received UL grant detection cycle being determined to be less than or equal to the determined value, and the circuitry selects a second power control parameter set, which is different from the first power control parameter set, from the plurality of power control parameters sets as the power control parameter set, in response to the value of the received UL grant detection cycle being determined to be greater than the determined value.
Regarding Claim 14, Sebeni combination teaches all of the claimed limitations recited in Claim 10. Sebeni does not teach wherein the circuitry, in operation, calculates the transmission power using the selected power control parameter set in response to the UL grant including no information indicating a service type.
Gotoh further teaches wherein the circuitry, in operation, calculates the transmission power using the selected power control parameter in response to the received UL grant including no information indicating a service type (Section 0128, no SRI field, Section 0051, a power control parameter such as power value for the PUSCH based on the TPC command is determined, PLEASE NOTE: Examiner has made the assumption that Applicants’ are claiming that the indication of service type is included, Section 0011, URLLC service).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Sebeni combination with the above features of Gotoh for the purpose of improving reliability in a case of transmitting a transport block one time as taught by Gotoh.
Regarding Claim 15, Sebeni combination teaches all of the claimed limitations recited in Claim 14. Sebeni does not teach wherein the service type includes one of Ultra- Reliable and Low Latency Communications (URLLC) and eMBB.
Gotoh teaches wherein the service type includes one of Ultra- Reliable and Low Latency Communications (URLLC) and eMBB (Section 0011, URLLC).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Sebeni combination with the above features of Gotoh for the purpose of improving reliability in in a case of transmitting a transport block one time as taught by Gotoh.
Conclusion
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/RAYMOND S DEAN/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2645 Raymond S. Dean
December 2, 2025