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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 05/25/2023. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 01/09/2024. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 12/27/2024. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Response to Amendment
Applicant’s amendment filed on 09/19/2025 has been entered. Independent Claims 1, 7, 11, and 17 have been amended. Dependent claims 3, 4, 8, 10, 13, 14, 18, and 20 have been amended. No claims have been cancelled. No claims are new and have been entered. Claims 1-20 are still pending in this application.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to objections of the disclosure have been considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the objections are withdrawn. Applicant’s arguments with respect to Claim Objections have been considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the Objections are withdrawn.
Applicant's arguments filed 09/19/2025 on pages 9 to 12, with respect to the rejection of Claims 1, 2, 5-12, and 15-20 under 35 USC § 101, have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection of Claims 1, 2, 5-12, and 15-20 has been withdrawn.
Applicant’s arguments filed on 09/19/2025 on pages 13-14 of applicant’s remark regarding Claim 1. The applicant argues that Guo does not teach the amended claim for the repetitions are within one repetition transmission, as the independent claims have been amended to say that.
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1 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 specified challenged in the argument. The combination of Guo in view of Park, teaches the amendment to overcome the rejection.
Applicant’s arguments filed on 09/19/2025 on pages 14-15 of applicant’s remark regarding Claim 2. The applicant argues that Guo fails to teach that the first transmission is equal to the second transmission. However, Fig. 7C describes the transmissions as a repetition, as shown previously in Claim 1. Thus, the applicant here fails to patentably distinguish the claimed invention of that the first transmission is equal to the second transmission from the teachings of Guo. The applicant’s arguments have been fully considered, but are not persuasive.
Applicant’s arguments filed on 09/19/2025 on pages 15-16 of applicant’s remark regarding Claim 3. The applicant argues that Guo fails to teach the transmission bit rate, the initial bit rate, the ratio being a quantity of time, and the product is based on the first ratio. However, relating to the transmission bit rate, Guo uses the term “time resources” to describe for the repetition, and in ¶0106 further describes the time resources as symbols, which coupled with the description of a length, teaches the amount of symbols, e.g. bits in a 5G communication system, for a length of time. One of ordinary skill in the art would understand that is the bits per second, or, a bit rate. The initial bit rate is a similar condition.
As for the ratio being a quantity of time, ¶0106 further describes the time resources as symbols, which coupled with the description of a length, teaches that a repeated transmission has an amount of time to complete the repeated transmissions among the total allotted time to have a set ratio, with the product of the ratio of repetitions within the set boundary to generate a product. Thus, the applicant here fails to patentably distinguish the claimed invention of Guo fails to teach the transmission bit rate, the initial bit rate, the ratio being a quantity of time, and the product is based on the first ratio from the teachings of Guo. The applicant’s arguments have been fully considered, but are not persuasive.
Applicant’s arguments filed on 09/19/2025 on page 16 of applicant’s remark regarding Claim 4. The applicant argues that Guo fails to teach a ratio between the time domain, a fourth preset threshold, and a less than or equal to relationship relating to said fourth preset threshold. However, Guo teaches determining if the repetitions exist within the set boundary, i.e. the fourth preset threshold, as seen in Fig. 8A, and Guo further discloses in ¶0100, determining if the continuous repetitions would extend past the set boundary, i.e. the system’s repetitions would cross the threshold boundary, and according to the length of the set of continuous repetitions, within a set CG configuration, e.g. if the repeated transmission was too long, or the inverse, too short for showing the threshold. Thus, the applicant here fails to patentably distinguish the claimed invention of teaching a ratio between the time domain, a fourth preset threshold, and a less than or equal to relationship relating to said fourth preset threshold from the teachings of Guo. The applicant’s arguments have been fully considered, but are not persuasive.
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) 1-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Guo (Pub.: No.: US 20230217447 A1, hereafter “Guo”) in view of Park (Pub. No.: US 20200100223 A1, hereafter “Park”).
Regarding Claim 1 and Claim 11
Guo teaches a method and apparatus comprising
A data transmission method, comprising: determining (Guo ¶0086: indicate) that a position of a start bit (Guo ¶0086: starting symbol S) of a first bit sequence (Guo Fig. 7C: Rep 0) and a position of an end bit (Guo ¶0086: length L) of a second bit sequence (Guo Fig. 7C: Rep 1) are contiguous in a coded bit sequence (Guo ¶0086: consecutive), wherein the first bit sequence is a bit sequence in first transmission (Guo Fig. 7C: Rep 0), the second bit sequence is a bit sequence in second transmission (Guo Fig. 7C: Rep 1),
and at least one of receiving or sending the first bit sequence (Guo Fig 10: 1020) over a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) (Guo Fig 10: 1010, e.g. indicated quantity of consecutive PUSCH occasions; Guo teaches receiving one or more transport blocks that were transported over a PUSCH).
Guo does not explicitly teach
the first transmission and the second transmission are included in one repetition transmission and carry a same transport block, and the second transmission is previous transmission of the first transmission;
However, Park teaches
the first transmission and the second transmission (Park ¶0229: one TB repeated) are included in one repetition transmission (Park ¶0229: as many times as the number of aggregationFactorUL) and carry a same transport block (Park ¶0229: via upper layer signaling), and the second transmission is previous transmission of the first transmission (Park ¶0229: same symbol assignment; Park teaches a repeated TB contained within the same upper layer signaling system and containing the same information);
It would have been obvious for one skilled in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Guo by way of Park, to include an element that teaches a repeated TB contained within the same upper layer signaling system and containing the same information, as taught by Park in ¶0229, to better improve 5G communication by improving communication resiliency through automatically re-sending information within the same communication signal to reduce the failure rate of a system similar to a UDP communication method.
Claim 11 differs by the following limitation, which is also taught by the prior art,
A communication apparatus, comprising: at least one processor (Guo Fig 2: 280); and a memory storing programming instructions executable by the at least one processor, to instruct the communication apparatus to perform operations comprising (Guo Fig 2: 282; Guo teaches a processor coupled to memory to a processor to instruct the processor):
Regarding Claim 2 and Claim 12
Guo in view of Park teaches the method and apparatus as explained above in Claim 1. Guo further discloses
determining that at least one parameter in the first bit sequence is equal to that in the second bit sequence (Guo Fig. 9: 910), wherein the at least one parameter comprises at least one of a transmit power (Not given patentable weight due to non-selective option in the claim), precoding (Not given patentable weight due to non-selective option in the claim), or an antenna port (Guo ¶0111: antenna; Guo teaches the repetition of one of the transport blocks for resources being an antenna).
Regarding Claim 3 and Claim 13
Guo in view of Park teaches the method and apparatus as explained above in Claim 1. Guo further discloses
in response to a time domain unit (Guo ¶0107: time resources) for the first transmission meeting a first preset condition (Guo ¶0107: threshold value X), determining that the position of the start bit of the first bit sequence and the position of the end bit of the second bit sequence are contiguous in the coded bit sequence (Guo ¶0106: consecutive slots; Guo teaches having a threshold value relating to the repetition, where the first and second sequences are consecutive); wherein the first preset condition is at least one of: an actual transmission bit rate of the first bit sequence (Guo ¶0106: according to the indicated length L) in the first transmission is greater than or equal to a first preset threshold (Guo ¶0107: insufficient for a transmission according to L), or a ratio of a quantity of time domain units for the first transmission to a quantity of time domain units (Not given patentable weight due to non-selective option in the claim) for one repetition transmission is less than or equal to a second preset threshold (Not given patentable weight due to non-selective option in the claim), wherein the actual transmission bit rate (Guo ¶0106: L) of the first bit sequence in the first transmission is a product of a configured initial bit rate of a bit sequence transmitted in a time domain unit used for repetition transmission and a first ratio (Guo ¶0106: TB 1), the initial bit rate is a bit rate configured for the one repetition transmission (Guo ¶0106: repetition), and the first ratio is a ratio of a configured quantity of time domain units for the one repetition transmission to the quantity of time domain units for the first transmission (Guo ¶0107: partial transmission occasion; Guo teaches a partial transmission when the repetition is longer than the allotted TB slot boundary).
Regarding Claim 4 and Claim 14
Guo in view of Park teaches the method and apparatus as explained above in Claim 1. Guo further discloses
in response to a time domain unit for the second transmission meets meeting a second preset condition (Guo ¶0106: indicated length (L)), determining that the position of the start bit of the first bit sequence and the position of the end bit of the second bit sequence are contiguous in the coded bit sequence (Guo ¶0106: consecutive slots; Guo teaches a unit for determining the transition point for consecutive slots); wherein the second preset condition is at least one of: an actual transmission bit rate of the second bit sequence in the second transmission is greater than or equal to a third preset threshold (Not given patentable weight due to non-selective option in the claim), or a ratio of a quantity of time domain units for the second transmission to a configured quantity of time domain units for the one repetition transmission is less than or equal to a fourth preset threshold (Guo ¶0101: slot boundary), wherein the actual transmission bit rate of the second bit sequence in the second transmission is a product of a configured initial bit rate of a bit sequence transmitted in a time domain unit used for repetition transmission and a second ratio (Guo ¶0101: crosses a slot boundary), the initial bit rate is a bit rate configured for the one repetition transmission (Guo ¶0103: repetitions), and the second ratio is a ratio of the quantity of time domain units (Guo ¶0103: PUSCH occasions) for the second transmission to the configured quantity of time domain units for the one repetition transmission (Guo ¶0103: PUSCH occasions per slot; Guo teaches determining if the length of a repetition would exceed the slot boundary).
Regarding Claim 5 and Claim 15
Guo in view of Park teaches the method and apparatus as explained above in Claim 1. Guo further discloses
sending indication (Guo ¶0057: indicate a Type 1 CG) information (Guo ¶0057: start and length indicator value), wherein the indication information indicates that the position of the start bit of the first bit sequence (Guo ¶0057: starting symbol) and the position of the end bit of the second bit sequence are contiguous in the coded bit sequence (Guo ¶0059: consecutive; Guo teaches sending an indicator for the start and length for a consecutive slot).
Regarding Claim 6 and Claim 16
Guo in view of Park teaches the method and apparatus as explained above in Claim 1. Guo further discloses
receiving indication information (Guo ¶0070: receive a configuration for a CG), wherein the indication information indicates that the position of the start bit of the first bit sequence (Guo ¶0070: CG configuration may be a Type 1 CG) and the position of the end bit of the second bit sequence are contiguous in the coded bit sequence (Guo ¶0059: Type 1 CG may be consecutive; Guo teaches receiving a Type 1 CG configuration, and that configuration containing consecutive sequences); and the determining comprises: determining, based on the indication information, that the position of the start bit of the first bit sequence and the position of the end bit of the second bit sequence are contiguous in the coded bit sequence (Guo ¶0072: the activation may indicate a starting symbol and length value; Guo teaches the starting symbol and length value, e.g. the SLIV).
Regarding Claim 7 and Claim 17
Guo teaches a method and apparatus comprising
determining that a first to-be-coded block (Guo Fig. 7C: Rep 0) comprises at least two second to-be-coded blocks (Guo Fig. 7C: Rep 1), wherein each of the at least two second to-be-coded blocks is a to-be-coded block transmitted in one time domain unit used for repetition transmission (Guo Fig. 7C: Repetitions; Guo teaches two repeating blocks being transmitted in the same overall transmission); performing channel coding and rate matching on the first to-be-coded block to obtain a bit sequence (Guo ¶0085: repetition in a CG; Guo teaches the second code block to be a repetition of the first code block); and at least one of receiving (Not given patentable weight due to non-selective option in the claim) or sending the bit sequence (Guo ¶0075: transmit; Guo teaches transmitting the repetition of one or more code blocks) determining (Guo ¶0086: indicate) that a position of a start bit (Guo ¶0086: starting symbol S) of a first bit sequence (Guo Fig. 7C: Rep 0) and a position of an end bit (Guo ¶0086: length L) of a second bit sequence (Guo Fig. 7C: Rep 1) are contiguous in the coded bit sequence (Guo ¶0086: consecutive), wherein the first bit sequence is a bit sequence in first transmission (Guo Fig. 7C: Rep 0), the second bit sequence is a bit sequence in second transmission (Guo Fig. 7C: Rep 1),
and at least one of receiving or sending the first bit sequence (Guo Fig 10: 1020) over a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) (Guo Fig 10: 1010, e.g. indicated quantity of consecutive PUSCH occasions; Guo teaches receiving one or more transport blocks that were transported over a PUSCH).
Guo does not explicitly teach
the first transmission and the second transmission are included in one repetition transmission and carry a same transport block, and the second transmission is the previous transmission of the first transmission;
However, Park teaches
the first transmission and the second transmission (Park ¶0229: one TB repeated) are included in one repetition transmission (Park ¶0229: as many times as the number of aggregationFactorUL) and carry a same transport block (Park ¶0229: via upper layer signaling), and the second transmission is previous transmission of the first transmission (Park ¶0229: same symbol assignment; Park teaches a repeated TB contained within the same upper layer signaling system and containing the same information);
It would have been obvious for one skilled in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Guo by way of Park, to include an element that teaches a repeated TB contained within the same upper layer signaling system and containing the same information, as taught by Park in ¶0229, to better improve 5G communication by improving communication resiliency through automatically re-sending information within the same communication signal to reduce the failure rate of a system similar to a UDP communication method.
Claim 17 Differs by
A communication apparatus, comprising: at least one processor (Guo Fig 2: 280); and a memory storing programming instructions executable by the at least one processor, to instruct the communication apparatus to perform operations comprising (Guo Fig 2: 282; Guo teaches a processor coupled to memory to a processor to instruct the processor):
Regarding Claim 8 and Claim 18
Guo in view of Park teaches the method and apparatus as explained above in Claim 7. Guo further discloses
wherein in response to a quantity of bits of one or more of the at least two second to-be-coded blocks meeting a preset condition (Guo ¶0107: threshold value X), the channel coding and the rate matching are performed on the first to-be-coded block to obtain the coded bit sequence (Guo ¶0106: repetition; Guo teaches a threshold value known in comparison to a repeated channel coding).
Regarding Claim 9 and Claim 19
Guo in view of Park teaches the method and apparatus as explained above in Claim 8. Guo further discloses
a maximum quantity of bits of a to-be-coded block in the at least two second to-be-coded blocks (Gao Fig. 7C: slot boundary) is less than or equal to a first preset threshold (Guo ¶0107: insufficient for a transmission according to L; Gao teaches a known slot boundary compared to a known value); or a sum of quantities of bits of the at least two second to-be-coded blocks is less than or equal to a second preset threshold (Not given patentable weight due to non-selective option in the claim).
Regarding Claim 10 and Claim 20
Guo in view of Park teaches the method and apparatus as explained above in Claim 7. Guo further discloses
sending indication (Guo ¶0057: indicate a Type 1 CG) information (Guo ¶0057: start and length indicator value), wherein the indication information indicates that the bit sequence (Guo ¶0057: starting symbol) is a coded bit sequence obtained by performing the channel coding and the rate matching on the first to-be-coded block (Guo ¶0059: Type 1 CG may be consecutive; Guo teaches sending a Type 1 CG that includes a start and length value, as well as the start symbol, where the type can be consecutive).
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.
/JUSTIN MICHAEL WHITAKER/Examiner, Art Unit 2415
/JEFFREY M RUTKOWSKI/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2415
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