CTFR 18/166,395 CTFR 97614 DETAILED ACTION This office action is a response to 2/13/2026. Claims 1-18, 29, and 31-41 are pending. Claims 1-18, 29, and 31-41 are rejected. Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status 07-03-aia AIA 15-10-aia The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA. Response to Amendment The amendment filed 2/13/2026 has been entered. Claims 1-18, 29, and 31-41 remain pending in the application. Response to Arguments 07-37 AIA Applicant’s arguments, filed 2/13/2026, with respect to the rejection of claims 1, 29, 38, and 40 under 35 U.S.C. 102 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. With respect to claim 1, Applicant argues Zhao fails to disclose “a control message that indicates a set of two or more channel access types that are available to the first network node for communications,” (see Pg. 11) and “a second channel access type being present in the set of two or more channel access types indicated by the control message” (see Pg. 12). The examiner respectfully disagrees. Zhao, as cited in the previous office action, discloses indication manners of the channel access types under different DCI formats. A higher layer parameter configures indexes supported by a specific DCI format , and a correspondence exists between the configured indexes and supported channel access types. DCI carries the bit information of the index which points to a channel access type for the scheduled transmission (see Zhao [0044-0049, 0068, 0073-0086]). Therefore, the rejection is maintained . 07-38-02 Applicant’s arguments, filed 2/13/2026, with respect to the rejection of claims 17 and 41 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 Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn.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 Zhao et al. US 20240349289 A1. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102 07-07-aia AIA 07-07 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 – 07-12-aia AIA (a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention. 07-15-03-aia AIA Claim s 1-16, 18, 29, and 31-40 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Zhao et al. US 20240237057 A1 (continuation of International Application No. PCT/CN2021/129042, filed on Nov. 5, 2021), hereinafter Zhao . Regarding Claim 1, Zhao discloses a first network node for wireless communication, comprising: a memory; and at least one processor coupled to the memory (see terminal device 120 of communication system 100 of Fig. 1; communication device 600 of Fig. 6) , wherein the at least one processor is configured to: receive, from a second network node (see at least network device 110 of Fig. 1) , a control message that indicates a set of two or more channel access types that are available to the first network node for communications between the first network node and the second network node (Fig. 2, [0051-0053] discloses that the terminal device is able to determine a target channel access type based on a format of the DCI; further, [0044-0049] discloses indication manners of the channel access types under different DCI formats; for example, Table 6 illustrates an example of a correspondence between an entry index configured by the higher layer parameter and a channel access type : Uplink channel access without LBT; Uplink channel access with short LBT; Uplink channel access with conventional LBT) ; receive, from the second network node, a first downlink control information message that schedules an uplink message from the first network node and indicates, for the uplink message, a first channel access type from the set of two or more channel access types (Fig. 2, [0052-0053] the terminal device receives downlink control information (DCI) transmitted by a network device; the terminal device determines a target channel access type for a physical uplink channel transmission among multiple channel access types based on a format of the DCI) ; and transmit, during a channel occupancy time of the second network node and based on whether a second channel access type is present in the set of two or more channel access types indicated by the control message, the uplink message in accordance with the second channel access type, wherein the second channel access type is different from the first channel access type (at least [0178-0182] discloses the terminal device may determine a target channel access type for a to-be-transmitted physical uplink channel based on a resource position of a remaining channel occupancy of the network device and a resource position of the to-be-transmitted physical uplink channel; the terminal device may initiate the uplink transmission in the way of COT sharing … the terminal device may switch the uplink channel access with the conventional LBT to the uplink channel access with the short LBT, which is beneficial to improving the resource utilization rate and reducing the delay of uplink transmission ) . Regarding Claim 2, Zhao discloses the node of claim 1 and further discloses wherein the set of two or more channel access types that are available to the first network node includes the first channel access type and at least one of a first candidate channel access type or a second candidate channel access type, and wherein the second channel access type is one of the first candidate channel access type or the second candidate channel access type (at least [0044-0049] discloses indication manners of the channel access types under different DCI formats; for example, Table 6 discloses 3 different channel access types: Uplink channel access without LBT; Uplink channel access with short LBT; Uplink channel access with conventional LBT ) . Regarding Claim 3, Zhao discloses the node of claim 2 and further discloses wherein, to transmit the uplink message in accordance with the second channel access type, the at least one processor is configured to: transmit the uplink message during the channel occupancy time of the second network node in accordance with the first candidate channel access type based on the first candidate channel access type being present in the set of two or more channel access types or based on the second candidate channel access type being excluded from the set of two or more channel access types (at least [0044-0049] discloses indication manners of the channel access types under different DCI formats; for example, Table 6 discloses 3 different channel access types: Uplink channel access without LBT; Uplink channel access with short LBT; Uplink channel access with conventional LBT ) . Regarding Claim 4, Zhao discloses the node of claim 2 and further discloses wherein, to transmit the uplink message in accordance with the second channel access type, the at least one processor is configured to: transmit the uplink message during the channel occupancy time of the second network node in accordance with the second candidate channel access type based on the second candidate channel access type being present in the set of two or more channel access types or based on the first candidate channel access type being excluded from the set of two or more channel access types (at least [0044-0049] discloses indication manners of the channel access types under different DCI formats; for example, Table 6 discloses 3 different channel access types: Uplink channel access without LBT; Uplink channel access with short LBT; Uplink channel access with conventional LBT ) . Regarding Claim 5, Zhao discloses the node of claim 2 and further discloses wherein the first channel access type includes one or more channel sensing operations associated with a channel sensing count prior to occupation of a channel between the first network node and the second network node, and wherein the first candidate channel access type includes a single channel sensing operation prior to occupation of the channel, and wherein the second candidate channel access type excludes channel sensing operations prior to occupation of the channel (see [0059, 0065-0066] disclosing a conventional LBT versus a short LBT, where the channel detection time is shorter, and without LBT, where the channel detection is not performed; the channel detection time may be performed in N LBT listening slots) . Regarding Claim 6, Zhao discloses the node of claim 1 and further discloses wherein the control message indicates a mapping between each respective permutation of a plurality of permutations of a set of one or more bits and each respective channel access type of the set of two or more channel access types ([0044-0049] discloses indication manners of the channel access types under different DCI formats; for example, Table 6 illustrates an example of a correspondence between an entry index configured by the higher layer parameter and a channel access type : Uplink channel access without LBT; Uplink channel access with short LBT; Uplink channel access with conventional LBT; [0068, 0073-0086] discloses the terminal device may determine based on the target bit field in the DCI and a target correspondence. The target correspondence indicates a correspondence between an index to which the target bit field is mapped and a channel access type) . Regarding Claim 7, Zhao discloses the node of claim 6 and further discloses wherein the first downlink control information message includes a channel access control field including a first permutation of the plurality of permutations of the set of one or more bits, and wherein the first permutation maps to the first channel access type in accordance with the mapping (see at least [0044-0049, 0068, 0073-0086] disclosing correspondence between an index and a channel access type) . Regarding Claim 8, Zhao discloses the node of claim 6 and further discloses wherein the second channel access type is present in the set of two or more channel access types if at least one permutation of the plurality of permutations maps to the second channel access type in accordance with the mapping (see at least [0044-0049, 0068, 0073-0086] disclosing correspondence between an index and a channel access type) . Regarding Claim 9, Zhao discloses the node of claim 1 and further discloses wherein the control message indicates a first mapping between each respective permutation of a plurality of permutations of a set of one or more bits and each respective channel access type of a first set of two or more channel access types, and wherein the control message indicates a second mapping between each respective permutation of the plurality of permutations of the set of one or more bits and each respective channel access type of a second set of two or more channel access types, and wherein the set of two or more channel access types comprises the first set of two or more channel access types and the second set of two or more channel access types (see at least [0044-0049, 0068, 0073-0086] disclosing correspondence between an index and a channel access type; discloses the terminal device maintaining a dedicated table or the same table for different DCI formats, reusing correspondence, etc. for determining the correspondence between an index and a channel access type) . Regarding Claim 10, Zhao discloses the node of claim 9 and further discloses wherein the first downlink control information message includes a channel access control field including a first permutation of the plurality of permutations of the set of one or more bits, and wherein the first permutation maps to the first channel access type in accordance with the first mapping (see at least [0044-0049, 0068, 0073-0086] disclosing correspondence between an index and a channel access type) . Regarding Claim 11, Zhao discloses the node of claim 9 and further discloses wherein the first mapping is associated with downlink control information messages that schedule uplink communication, and wherein the second mapping is associated with downlink control information messages that schedule downlink communication (see at least [0044-0049] disclosing indication manners under different DCI formats for scheduling uplink and downlink communication) . Regarding Claim 12, Zhao discloses the node of claim 9 and further discloses wherein the second channel access type is present in the set of two or more channel access types if at least one permutation of the plurality of permutations maps to the second channel access type in accordance with the first mapping or the second mapping (see at least [0044-0049, 0068, 0073-0086] disclosing correspondence between an index and a channel access type) . Regarding Claim 13, Zhao discloses the node of claim 9 and further discloses wherein the second channel access type is present in the set of two or more channel access types if at least one first permutation of the plurality of permutations maps to the second channel access type in accordance with the first mapping and at least one second permutation of the plurality of permutations maps to the second channel access type in accordance with the second mapping (see at least [0044-0049, 0068, 0073-0086] disclosing correspondence between an index and a channel access type) . Regarding Claim 14, Zhao discloses the node of claim 9 and further discloses wherein the second channel access type is present in the set of two or more channel access types if at least one permutation of the plurality of permutations maps to the second channel access type in accordance with the first mapping (see at least [0044-0049, 0068, 0073-0086] disclosing correspondence between an index and a channel access type) . Regarding Claim 15, Zhao discloses the node of claim 9 and further discloses wherein the second channel access type is present in the set of two or more channel access types if at least one permutation of the plurality of permutations maps to the second channel access type in accordance with the second mapping (see at least [0044-0049, 0068, 0073-0086] disclosing correspondence between an index and a channel access type) . Regarding Claim 16, Zhao discloses the node of claim 1 and further discloses wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: receive, from the second network node, a second downlink control information message that indicates a slot format, wherein the slot format indicates a starting time and a duration of the channel occupancy time of the second network node, and wherein the uplink message is transmitted in accordance with the second channel access type based on the slot format (see [0178-0182] disclosing DCI format 2_0 where the terminal device may determine a target access type for a uplink channel based on a resource position of resources shared by the network device in the COT in the time domain) . Regarding Claim 18, Zhao discloses the node of claim 1 and further discloses wherein a presence of the second channel access type in the set of two or more channel access types is based on a geographic location of the first network node (see Fig. 1 and [0032] disclosing the network device 110 providing coverage for a particular geographic area; implicitly disclosed by the cellular communication system) . Claims 29 and 31-37 are rejected on the same grounds set forth in the rejection of claims 1-8, respectively. Claims 29 and 31-37 recite similar features as in claims 1-8, respectively, for a method. Claims 38-39 are rejected on the same grounds set forth in the rejection of claims 1 and 16, respectively. Claims 38-39 recite similar features as in claims 1 and 16, respectively, for an apparatus for a network node. Claim 40 is rejected on the same grounds set forth in the rejection of claims 1. Claim 40 recites similar features as in claim 1 for an apparatus for a network node . Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103 07-20-aia AIA 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. 07-23-aia AIA The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows: 1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art. 2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue. 3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art. 4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness. 07-22-aia AIA Claim s 17 and 41 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhao as applied to claim s above, and further in view of Zhao et al. US 20240349289 A1, hereinafter Zhao ‘289 . Regarding Claim 17, Zhao discloses the node of claim 1 and further discloses wherein the control message that indicates the set of two or more channel access types enables or disables an upgrade, for the uplink message, from the first channel access type to the second channel access type during the channel occupancy time of the second network node based on the second channel access type being present in the set of two or more channel access types … (see at least [0044-0049, 0068, 0073-0086] disclosing correspondence between an index and a channel access type) . Zhao fails to explicitly disclose wherein the control message is a radio resource control message . However, in the same field of endeavor, Zhao ‘289 more specifically discloses wherein the control message is a radio resource control message (Zhao ‘289 at least Fig. 2-4, [0074] discloses the first transmission is scheduled by the DCI 1, transmitted by the network device. Based on the DCI 1, the terminal device is instructed to perform the Type-1 LBT; and [0103, 0119] discloses that the terminal device determines the target channel access type as the Type 2 LBT or the Type 3 LBT based on whether the terminal device is configured with the first indication information; in the case that the first indication information is configured at the higher layer, the higher layer may be the RRC layer) . It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Zhao with the teachings of Zhao ‘289 for an efficient control mechanism for such channel access type switching. Claim 41 is rejected on the same grounds set forth in the rejection of claims 17. Claim 41 recites similar features as in claim 17 for an apparatus for a network node. Conclusion 07-40 AIA 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. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to YEWON KIM whose telephone number is (571)272-6524. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 8:00 AM - 4:00 PM. 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, GARY MUI can be reached at (571)270-1420. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000. /Y.K./ Examiner, Art Unit 2465 /GARY MUI/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2465 Application/Control Number: 18/166,395 Page 2 Art Unit: 2465 Application/Control Number: 18/166,395 Page 3 Art Unit: 2465 Application/Control Number: 18/166,395 Page 4 Art Unit: 2465 Application/Control Number: 18/166,395 Page 5 Art Unit: 2465 Application/Control Number: 18/166,395 Page 6 Art Unit: 2465 Application/Control Number: 18/166,395 Page 7 Art Unit: 2465 Application/Control Number: 18/166,395 Page 8 Art Unit: 2465 Application/Control Number: 18/166,395 Page 9 Art Unit: 2465 Application/Control Number: 18/166,395 Page 10 Art Unit: 2465 Application/Control Number: 18/166,395 Page 11 Art Unit: 2465 Application/Control Number: 18/166,395 Page 12 Art Unit: 2465 Application/Control Number: 18/166,395 Page 13 Art Unit: 2465 Application/Control Number: 18/166,395 Page 14 Art Unit: 2465
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