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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to an abstract idea without significantly more.
Claim(s) 11, 11 and 20 recite(s) “utiliz[ing] a probabilistic constellation shaping mechanism comprising a shaping encoder, a channel encoder, and a modulator to generate one or more QAM symbols; set a shaping output block to have a fixed length of output bits; and set shaping input bits used in the shaping encoder, wherein the input bits are a multiple of the first number of bits”. Each of these functions can be performed as mental processes with the aid of paper and pencil and/or basic calculator. This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application because there is no output data signal that is transmitted. The claim(s) does/do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception because the generic structure of a device comprising generic processing circuitry coupled to circuitry to perform the recited functions, or computer readable medium storing computer executable instructions comprising the recited functions do not go beyond a generic linking of the use of the judicial exception.
Dependent claims 2-10 and 12-19 only further specify the abstract ideas without any practical applications, and are rejected similarly to claims 1 and 11.
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.
Claim(s) 1-3, 5, 10-13, 15, and 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wu et al. (US 2024/0214256, hereinafter “Wu” in view of Kim et al. (US 11, 012,187, hereinafter “Kim”).
Regarding claims 1, 11 and 20, Wu discloses a device, the device comprising processing circuitry coupled to storage (also a processor, memory/computer-readable medium storing computer executable instructions, Fig. 3, para. 0333-0334), the processing circuitry configured to:
utilize a probabilistic constellation shaping mechanism comprising a shaping encoder, a channel encoder, and a modulator to generate one or more quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) symbols (distribution matcher 310, FEC encoder 320, and constellation mapper 335, Fig. 3, para. 0121, PCS, see also para. 0002, 0122-0127; QAM, see para. 0052, 0054; and distribution matching can be fixed-to-fixed or variable-to-fixed, para. 0133).
However, Wu does not expressly disclose the circuitry is further configured to:
set a shaping output block to have a fixed length of output bits; and
set shaping input bits used in the shaping encoder, wherein the input bits are a multiple of a first number of bits.
Kim discloses a similar probabilistic constellation shaping system using distribution matching, encoding, and QAM symbol mapping for data transmission (see Fig. 4, col. 18, ll. 32-35). Kim further discloses a number of inputs bits per block is 8, and the number of output bits is 12 (col. 35, ll. 35-46). Thus, Kim suggests implementing a fixed output of 12 bits, and set of input bits as a multiple of 8.
Because both Wu and Kim disclose probabilistic constellation shaping systems, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, at the time the application was filed, to substitute one input and output bit length implementation for another for the predictable result of implementing a fixed output length of 12 bits, and an input of 8 bits (i.e. 1x multiple of 8).
Regarding claims 2 and 12, Kim further discloses the first number of bits is equal to 32 bits, 16 bits, or 8 bits (8 bits, col. 35, ll. 41-42).
Regarding claims 3 and 13, Wu further discloses the shaping output block is a payload of a number of low-density parity-check (LDPC) codewords (LDPC encoding, para. 0106).
Regarding claims 5 and 15, Wu further discloses the shaping output block is comprised of a payload of a number of subcarriers (subcarriers, para. 0070, 0107).
Regarding claims 10, Wu further discloses the channel encoder is an LDCP encoder (LDPC encoding, para. 0106).
Conclusion
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/David S Huang/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2631 2/7/2026