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 .
The Examiner thanks the Applicant for the well-prepared amendment. The Examiner appreciates the Applicant’s effort to carefully analyze the Office action, and make appropriate arguments and amendments.
The Examiner left voice message with concierge about examiner’s amendment of independent claims on March 6th 2026. No response is received.
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 02 2026 has been entered.
Status of Claims
Claims 1, 3, 6-7, 11, 13, 16-17 and 21-44 responded on February 02 2026 are pending, claims 1, 6, 11, and 16 are amended, claims 21-36 are canceled and claims 37-44 are new.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see pg. 15-17, filed February 02 2026, with respect to claim have been fully considered but they are Not persuasive. Claims 1, 6, 11 and 16 do not positively recite Wf(0), Wf(1), Wf(2), Wf(3), Wt(0), Wt(1) in the table.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1, are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention. the claims recite Wf(0), Wf(1), Wf(2), Wf(3) is frequency domain OCC, Wt(0), Wt(1) is time domain OCC, but Wf and Wt are omitted in the table.
Claims 3, 7, 13, 17 and 37-44 are similarly rejected based upon claim dependency to claims 1, 6, 11 and 16.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1, 3, 6-7 would be allowable if rewritten or amended to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action.
Claims 1 and are potentially allowable over the prior art of record Zhou (CN 111416692 A, hereinafter "Zhou") in view of Muruganathan et al. (US 11,979,865 B2, hereinafter "Muruganathan").
Regarding claims 1 and 11, Zhou (CN 111416692 A) discloses a communication method and apparatus, comprising:
Sending indication information to a terminal device, wherein the indication information indicates a first demodulation reference signal (DMRS) port index in [0073-81]; the first DMRS port index is among a first table, wherein the first table includes the following mapping relationships among a DMRS port index, a frequency domain orthogonal cover code (OCC), a code division multiplexing (CDM) group index, and a time domain OCC, wherein P is a DMRS port index, λ is a CDM group index, Δ is a CDM group frequency domain location offset, Wf(0), Wf(1), Wf(2), Wf(3) is frequency domain OCC, Wt(0), Wt(1) is time domain OCC in [0091].
Muruganathan et al. (US 11,979,865 B2) discloses wherein P is a DMRS port index from 0-11 with frequency domain OCC in table 5, but does not explicitly port 12-23 with time domain OCC in table.
Zhou in view of Muruganathan fails to teach alone or in combination "
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Claims 6 and 16 are potentially allowable over the prior art of record Zhou (CN 111416692 A, hereinafter "Zhou") in view of Muruganathan et al. (US 11,979,865 B2, hereinafter "Muruganathan").
Regarding claims 1 and 11, Zhou (CN 111416692 A) discloses a communication method and apparatus, comprising:
receiving indication information, wherein the indication information indicates a first demodulation reference signal (DMRS) port index in [0073-81]; the first DMRS port index is among a first table, wherein the first table includes the following mapping relationships among a DMRS port index, a frequency domain orthogonal cover code (OCC), a code division multiplexing (CDM) group index, and a time domain OCC, wherein P is a DMRS port index, λ is a CDM group index, Δ is a CDM group frequency domain location offset, Wf(0), Wf(1), Wf(2), Wf(3) is frequency domain OCC, Wt(0), Wt(1) is time domain OCC in [0091].
Muruganathan et al. (US 11,979,865 B2) discloses wherein P is a DMRS port index from 0-11 with frequency domain OCC in table 5, but does not explicitly port 12-23 with time domain OCC in table.
Zhou in view of Muruganathan fails to teach alone or in combination "
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450
626
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Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to LUNA WEISSBERGER whose telephone number is (571)272-3315. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8:00am-5:30pm.
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/LUNA WEISSBERGER/ Examiner, Art Unit 2415