DETAILED ACTION
Status of Case
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
This Office Action is in response to the amendment filed on 12/9/2025.
Claims 1-30 are pending.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed on 12/9/2025 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicant states that Shen does not disclose the claim limitations pertaining to the “decoding of wireless communications that are encoded in accordance with a network-encoding protocol.”
In response, Examiner respectfully disagrees.
Examiner notes that the claims were rejected via 35 U.S.C. 103 and, as such, the references must be viewed in combination with, and in light of, each other. However, in this case, Applicant’s remarks about Shen are based on limitations that Babich was relied upon to teach. As such, this amount to individually analyzing the reference of Shen without viewing it in combination with, and in light of, the reference of Babich, was relied upon to disclose the noted decoding of communications that were encoded in accordance with a network-encoding protocol.
Applicant states that that secondary reference of Babich does not disclose “the indication of the processing capability is indication of one or more minimum time thresholds…”
In response, Examiner respectfully disagrees.
In this case, Applicant’s remarks about Babich are based on limitations that Shen was relied upon to teach and thus, the reverse of the situation noted above in sub-section (a). Examiner again notes that individually analyzing the reference of Babich without viewing them in combination with, and in light of, the teachings of Shen is improper due to the fact that the claims were rejected via 35 U.S.C. 103.
Examiner further notes that neither of the limitations in question noted above is a distinct capability and, thus, Examiner maintains that the manner in which Shen is modified with Babich is proper.
For the reasons noted above, and absent any claim amendments that clearly overcome the prior art of record, Examiner maintains the rejection.
Upon receiving this Final Action and reviewing the above remarks, Examiner invites Applicant to a telephonic interview in order to discuss possible claim amendments that would clearly overcome the prior art of Shen in view of Babich.
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.
Claims 1, 26, 28, 30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Shen (USPAN 2022/0015124) in view of Babich (USPAN 2020/0328844).
Consider claims 1 and 28, Shen discloses an apparatus for wireless communications at a first wireless device, comprising: a processor; memory coupled with the processor; and instructions stored in the memory and executable by the processor to cause the apparatus (see figure 7, wherein disclose dis a processor 710, memory 709, and instructions stored in said memory), and a corresponding method for wireless communications at a first wireless device (see figures 4-5, reproduced below for convenience) to:
participate in a communication, with a second wireless device, of an indication of a processing capability of either the first wireless device or the second wireless device, the processing capability relating to support, by either the first wireless device or the second wireless device, of decoding of wireless communications that are encoded, wherein the indication of the processing capability is indicative of one or more minimum time thresholds to decode and respond to corresponding network-encoded communications, and wherein the communication is a transmission by the first wireless device or a reception at the first wireless device; transmit data; and receive a feedback message associated with transmission of the data in accordance with the processing capability (see paragraph 102: “In this embodiment of the present disclosure, a HARQ-ACK process fed back by a transport block-level (TB-level) may be supported. In this process, each TB corresponds to feedback of one HARQ-ACK bit, supports multiple DL HARQ processes of each terminal, and also supports a single DL HARQ process of each terminal. The terminal may indicate minimum HARQ processing time capability of the terminal, where the minimum HARQ processing time means minimum time required from receiving of downlink data to corresponding HARQ-ACK transmission timing. The eMBB and the URLLC can support asynchronous and adaptive Downlink HARQ. For a terminal. HARQ-ACK feedbacks of multiple PDSCHs may be transmitted in one UL data/control area in terms of time, thereby forming a HARQ-ACK codebook in UL. In addition, timing between receiving of a PDSCH and a corresponding ACK/NACK may be specified in the DCI. For the timing, refer to PDCSCH-to-HARQ timing indicators in DCI 1_0 and DCI 1_1.”).
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Shen does not specifically disclose communications that are encoded in accordance with a network-encoding protocol, and transmitting data as part of a network-encoding procedure, where the data is network-encoded or is to be network-encoded, and decoding the message.
Babich discloses communications that are encoded in accordance with a network-encoding protocol, and transmitting data as part of a network-encoding procedure, where the data is network-encoded or is to be network-encoded, and decoding the message (see figure 5, reproduced below for convenience, wherein disclosed is step 405, wherein data is encoded and modulated, step 410 where the data is transmitted, step 430, where the data is received, and step 425, where the data is decoded and demodulated; also, see paragraph 104: the time to receive the encoded user message is less than a maximum acceptable decoder processing time).
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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 invention of Shen and combine it with the noted teachings of Babich. The motivation to combine these references is to provide an improved method for data to be corrected decoded with reduced overhead and reduced delay and jitter (see paragraphs 1-4 of Babich).
Consider claims 26 and 30, Shen discloses an apparatus for wireless communications at a user equipment (UE), comprising: a processor; memory coupled with the processor; and instructions stored in the memory and executable by the processor to cause the apparatus (see figure 7, wherein disclose dis a processor 710, memory 709, and instructions stored in said memory), and a corresponding method for wireless communications at a user equipment (UE) (see figures 4-5, reproduced below for convenience) to:
transmit an indication of a processing capability of the UE to support decoding of wireless communications that are encoded, wherein the indication of the processing capability is indicative of one or more minimum time thresholds for the UE to decode and respond to corresponding network-encoded communications; receive one or more messages; and transmit a response message responsive to the one or more messages in accordance with the processing capability of the UE (see paragraph 102: “In this embodiment of the present disclosure, a HARQ-ACK process fed back by a transport block-level (TB-level) may be supported. In this process, each TB corresponds to feedback of one HARQ-ACK bit, supports multiple DL HARQ processes of each terminal, and also supports a single DL HARQ process of each terminal. The terminal may indicate minimum HARQ processing time capability of the terminal, where the minimum HARQ processing time means minimum time required from receiving of downlink data to corresponding HARQ-ACK transmission timing. The eMBB and the URLLC can support asynchronous and adaptive Downlink HARQ. For a terminal. HARQ-ACK feedbacks of multiple PDSCHs may be transmitted in one UL data/control area in terms of time, thereby forming a HARQ-ACK codebook in UL. In addition, timing between receiving of a PDSCH and a corresponding ACK/NACK may be specified in the DCI. For the timing, refer to PDCSCH-to-HARQ timing indicators in DCI 1_0 and DCI 1_1.”).
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Shen does not specifically disclose communications that are encoded in accordance with a network-encoding protocol, and transmitting data as part of a network-encoding procedure, where the data is network-encoded or is to be network-encoded, and decoding the message.
Babich discloses communications that are encoded in accordance with a network-encoding protocol, and transmitting data as part of a network-encoding procedure, where the data is network-encoded or is to be network-encoded, and decoding the message (see figure 5, reproduced below for convenience, wherein disclosed is step 405, wherein data is encoded and modulated, step 410 where the data is transmitted, step 430, where the data is received, and step 425, where the data is decoded and demodulated; also, see paragraph 104: the time to receive the encoded user message is less than a maximum acceptable decoder processing time).
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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 invention of Shen and combine it with the noted teachings of Babich. The motivation to combine these references is to provide an improved method for data to be corrected decoded with reduced overhead and reduced delay and jitter (see paragraphs 1-4 of Babich).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-25, 27, and 29 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. 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 extension fee 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 date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Jamal Javaid whose telephone number is 571-270-5137 and email address is Jamal.Javaid@uspto.gov.
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, Charles Jiang, can be reached on 571-270-7191. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JAMAL JAVAID/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2412