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 .
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 1/22/2026 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments regarding the 103 rejections have been considered and they are moot because they do not apply to the new references used in the current office action.
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 1-2, 10, 15-17, 25, 30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhu (US 20220239423) in view of Gyu (KR20080079630, English translation version) further in view of Park (US 8723642).
Regarding claim 1, Zhu discloses an apparatus for wireless communication at a user equipment (UE), comprising:
a memory; and at least one processor coupled to the memory and, based at least in part on information stored in the memory (figs. 2-3), the at least one processor is configured to:
generate an energy information or energy request message, the energy information or energy request message being associated with the UE (fig. 8, step 803, [0360], reports RSRP, the RSRP must be first generated before reporting. The RSRP or energy information is related to the UE); and
transmit, for a first node, the energy information or energy request message multiplexed with a scheduling request (SR) via a communication channel ((fig. 8, step 803, [0360], reports RSRP; UE could indicate to the network information related to the largest measured L1-RSRP/L1-SINR value in part of the beam/CSI report multiplexed with scheduling request (SR)).
Zhu does not explicitly disclose wherein the SR and at least one of the energy information or the energy request message are encoded.
Gyu discloses wherein the SR and at least one of the energy information or the energy request message are encoded (Gyu, page 4, the present invention simultaneously encodes different types of control channel information such as ACK / NACK bits, power control bits, scheduling request bits, grant bits for scheduling permission, etc. Here, the power control bits is related to energy information).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the time of effective filing to combine the teachings exchanging energy information as given by Zhu with the teachings of simultaneously encoding different type of information given by Gyu. The motivation for doing so would have been to efficiently transmit two or more control channel bits by simultaneously encoding them (Gyu, page 2).
In certain cases, the power control bits or energy control bits could be related to the energy state of the UE as the energy control may be based on the energy state of the UE, Gyu does not explicitly disclose wherein the energy information is associated with an energy state of the UE.
Park discloses wherein the energy information is associated with an energy state of the UE (Park, claim 1, col. 2, in one embodiment, the power information can include at least one of power state information and power control information related to an associated electronic device).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the time of effective filing to combine the teachings exchanging energy information as given by Zhu and Gyu with the teachings of efficient power control given by Park. The motivation for doing so would have been to efficiently control energy of the devices. It is noted that the applicant uses selective language in this claim and the examiner is only showing one of the claimed options.
Claims 15, 16, 30 are rejected similarly with claim 1 noting that Zhu discloses perform a communication operation or an energy operation associated with the UE based on at least one of the energy information or energy request message or the SR (Zhu, [0113], the NW/gNB can use the beam report to select a DL TX beam for the UE and indicate the DL TX beam selection; Park, col. 2, claim 1).
Regarding claim 2, Zhu discloses the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first node is a network entity, and the communication channel is a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) (fig. 8, [0114], reporting (for DL beam management, reporting via UL control channel(s)) .
Claim 17 is rejected similarly to claim 2.
Regarding claim 10, Zhu discloses the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the communication channel includes a first portion corresponding to a first set of symbols and a second portion corresponding to a second set of symbols (In general, a packet or communication channel has several portions, each portion has its own set of symbols. For example, see fig. 16; A PDSCH or a PDCCH can be transmitted over a variable number of slot symbols including one slot symbol. For brevity, a DCI format scheduling a PDSCH reception by a UE is referred to as a DL DCI format and a DCI format scheduling a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmission from a UE is referred to as an UL DCI format. UL DCI format has many portions).
Claim 25 is rejected similarly to claim 10.
Claims 3-4, 18-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhu, Gyu and Park further in view of Huang (US 20210075552).
Regarding claim 3, Zhu, Park and Gyu disclose the apparatus of claim 1,
Zhu and Gyu do not explicitly disclose wherein the first node is a second UE, and the communication channel is a physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH).
Huang discloses wherein the first node is a second UE, and the communication channel is a physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH) (Huang ([0243], to reduce specification effort and/or complexity, sequence-based PSFCH format (such as NR Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) format 0/1) may be used (e.g., reused) as PSFCH format structure).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the time of effective filing to combine the teachings exchanging energy information as given by Zhu with the teachings of using PSFCH given by Huang. The motivation for doing so would have been to reduce specification effort and/or complexity.
Claim 18 is rejected similarly to claim 3.
Regarding claim 4, Zhu, Park and Gyu disclose the apparatus of claim 1,
Zhu and Gyu do not explicitly disclose wherein the communication channel is a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) or a physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH), the PUCCH is associated with a Format 0 or a Format 2, or the PSFCH is associated with the Format 0 or the Format 2.
Huang discloses wherein the communication channel is a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) or a physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH), the PUCCH is associated with a Format 0 or a Format 2, or the PSFCH is associated with the Format 0 or the Format 2 (Huang ([0243], to reduce specification effort and/or complexity, sequence-based PSFCH format (such as NR Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) format 0/1) may be used (e.g., reused) as PSFCH format structure).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the time of effective filing to combine the teachings exchanging energy information as given by Zhu with the teachings of using PSFCH given by Huang. The motivation for doing so would have been to reduce specification effort and/or complexity.
Claim 19 is rejected similarly to claim 4.
Claims 5-7, 20-22 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhu, Gyu and Park further in view of Xue (US 20240080813).
Regarding claim 5, Zhu, Park and Gyu disclose the apparatus of claim 1,
Zhu, Park and Gyu do not explicitly disclose wherein the energy information or energy request message and the SR are encoded jointly based on a joint cyclic shift (CS).
Xue discloses wherein the energy information or energy request message and the SR are encoded jointly based on a joint cyclic shift (CS) (Xue, [0083], table 1, an SR indication of log(K + 1) bits is added to a bit of the HARQ feedback; all the information bits are jointly encoded, where K represents that PUCCH resources of K SRs exist in a current slot; where the SR is carried by using an additional cyclic shift (cyclic shift, CS)).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the time of effective filing to combine the teachings exchanging energy information as given by Zhu with the teachings of using joint encoding given by Xue. The motivation for doing so would have been to optimize transmission of a scheduling request, so as to reduce power consumption of a terminal device (Xue, [0004]).
Claim 20 is rejected similarly to claim 5.
Regarding claim 6, Zhu, Park and Gyu disclose the apparatus of claim 1,
Zhu, Park and Gyu do not explicitly disclose wherein the energy information or energy request message and the SR are encoded separately based on respective cyclic shifts (CSs).
Xue discloses wherein the energy information or energy request message and the SR are encoded separately based on respective cyclic shifts (CSs) (Xue, [0083] [0216], the SR may puncture (puncture) the PUSCH, that is, the UE separately modulates the SR; where the SR is carried by using an additional cyclic shift (cyclic shift, CS).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the time of effective filing to combine the teachings exchanging energy information as given by Zhu with the teachings of using separate encoding given by Xue. The motivation for doing so would have been to optimize transmission of a scheduling request, so as to reduce power consumption of a terminal device (Xue, [0004]).
Claim 21 is rejected similarly to claim 6.
Regarding claim 7, Zhu, Gyu, Park and Xue disclose the apparatus of claim 6, wherein the transmission of the energy information or energy request message and the SR that are separately encoded is associated with a same power level or different power levels (Xue, [0083] [0216], the SR may puncture (puncture) the PUSCH, that is, the UE separately modulates/encodes the SR with some power level (which can obviously be the same or different)).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the time of effective filing to combine the teachings exchanging energy information as given by Zhu with the teachings of using separate encoding given by Xue. The motivation for doing so would have been to optimize transmission of a scheduling request, so as to reduce power consumption of a terminal device (Xue, [0004]).
Claim 22 is rejected similarly to claim 7.
Claims 8-9, 23-24 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhu, Gyu and Park further in view of Ryu (US 20210185685) further in view of Davydov (US 20220321304).
Regarding claim 8, Zhu and Gyu disclose the apparatus of claim 1,
Zhu and Gyu do not explicitly disclose wherein the communication channel is a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) or a physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH), the PUCCH or the PSFCH includes one resource block (RB).
Ryu discloses wherein the communication channel is a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) or a physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH), the PUCCH or the PSFCH includes one resource block (RB) (Ryu, [0137], a structure of one PSFCH including one RB (i.e., twelve REs) is illustrated in FIG. 8).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the time of effective filing to combine the teachings exchanging energy information as given by Zhu with the teachings of allocating RBs to the PSFCH given by Ryu. The motivation for doing so would have been to efficiently allocation resources.
Zhu and Ryu do not explicitly disclose the energy information or energy request message and the SR are encoded separately on a per-resource element (RE) basis.
Davydov discloses the energy information or energy request message and the SR are encoded separately on a per-resource element (RE) basis or a per-RB basis (Davydov, [0064], separate coding and resource mapping schemes may be applied for: 1) HARQ-ACK feedback and/or SR, 2) the first CSI part, and/or 3) the second CSI part. The resource mapping schemes as mentioned above for short and long PUCCH may be extended for this option).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the time of effective filing to combine the teachings exchanging energy information as given by Zhu with the teachings of separate encoding given by Davydov. The motivation for doing so would have been to address receiver efficiency in the context of channel state reporting.
Claim 23 is rejected similarly to claim 8.
Regarding claim 9, Zhu, Park and Gyu disclose the apparatus of claim 1,
Zhu and Gyu do not explicitly disclose wherein the communication channel is a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) or a physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH), the PUCCH or the PSFCH includes more than one resource block (RB).
Ryu disclose wherein the communication channel is a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) or a physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH), the PUCCH or the PSFCH includes more than one resource block (RB) ) (Ryu, [0137], the structure may also be equally applied to one PSFCH including two or more RBs).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the time of effective filing to combine the teachings exchanging energy information as given by Zhu with the teachings of allocating RBs to the PSFCH given by Ryu. The motivation for doing so would have been to efficiently allocation resources.
Zhu and Ryu do not explicitly disclose the energy information or energy request message and the SR are encoded separately on a per-resource element (RE) basis or a per-RB basis.
Davydov discloses the energy information or energy request message and the SR are encoded separately on a per-resource element (RE) basis or a per-RB basis (Davydov, [0064], separate coding and resource mapping schemes may be applied for: 1) HARQ-ACK feedback and/or SR, 2) the first CSI part, and/or 3) the second CSI part. The resource mapping schemes as mentioned above for short and long PUCCH may be extended for this option).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the time of effective filing to combine the teachings exchanging energy information as given by Zhu with the teachings of separate encoding given by Davydov. The motivation for doing so would have been to address receiver efficiency in the context of channel state reporting.
Claim 24 is rejected similarly to claim 9.
Claims 13-14, 28-29 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhu, Gyu and Park further in view of Li (CN 110022269).
Regarding claim 13, Zhu, Park and Gyu disclose the apparatus of claim 1,
Zhu and Gyu do not explicitly disclose wherein one of the energy information or energy request message or the SR associated with a higher priority is associated with more resource elements (REs) or resource blocks (RBs) of the communication channel than another of the energy information or energy request message or the SR.
Li discloses wherein one of the energy information or energy request message or the SR associated with a higher priority is associated with more resource elements (REs) or resource blocks (RBs) of the communication channel than another of the energy information or energy request message or the SR (Li, [0127], the more bandwidth or resource blocks required, the higher the priority of the data packets/service).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the time of effective filing to combine the teachings exchanging energy information as given by Zhu with the teachings of allocating resources based on priority given by Li. The motivation for doing so would have been to satisfy different service requirements for different traffic.
Claim 28 is rejected similarly to claim 13.
Regarding claim 14, Zhu, Gyu, Park and Li disclose the apparatus of claim 13, further comprising a transceiver coupled to the at least one processor, wherein a number of the REs or the RBs associated with each of the energy information or energy request message or the SR is preconfigured or based on a preconfigured coding rate (Li, [0127], the priority of the service or data is predefined or preconfigured, and hence the number of resource blocks or bandwidth is also predefined).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the time of effective filing to combine the teachings exchanging energy information as given by Zhu with the teachings of allocating resources based on priority given by Li. The motivation for doing so would have been to satisfy different service requirements for different traffic.
Claim 29 is rejected similarly to claim 14.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 11-12, 26-27 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
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ZHENSHENG ZHANG whose telephone number is (571)270-1985. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Thursday 8:00am-6:00pm.
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/ZHENSHENG ZHANG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2474