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 .
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 02/09/2026 has been entered.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112(a):
(a) IN GENERAL.—The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor or joint inventor of carrying out the invention.
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112:
The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor of carrying out his invention.
Claims 1-6, 11-16, 27-38 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the written description requirement. The claim(s) contains subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to reasonably convey to one skilled in the relevant art that the inventor or a joint inventor, or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the inventor(s), at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention.
The independent claims have been amended with the following subject matter: distributed resource units (RUs) available to be multiplexed for a coordinated combined uplink transmission. Further, claims 1 and 27 as amended recite: one or more first uplink transmissions that are part of the coordinated combined uplink transmission, and claims 11 and 33 as amended recite: a first uplink transmission that is part of the coordinated combined uplink transmission. Dependent claims 2, 12, 28 and 34 as amended recite: the coordinated combined uplink transmission from the one or more first wireless stations on the one or more first distributed RUs and from the one or more second wireless stations on the one or more second distributed RUs. These amendments do not have support in the instant specification. Para. 0030 of the instant specification discloses: “For a distributed tone plan, multiple STAs from the multiple BSS network topology may collectively transmit a multiplexed transmission by transmitting their respective data on respective tones that are distributed (interspersed) across a channel bandwidth, referred to as a “spreading” bandwidth, such that tones associated with a given STA are separated by tones carrying data for other STAs.” However, it is not disclosed explicitly, implicitly, or inherently that this multiplexed transmission is an uplink transmission. Figure 1 and Figure 4 of the instant specification illustrate that a sidelink transmission from STA to STA is possible, and there is no figure illustrating a combined uplink transmission. Therefore, there does not appear to be any support in the instant specification for a coordinated multiplexed uplink transmission. Dependent claims are rejected by virtue of their dependencies.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
US 20190045366 A1 discloses at para. 0116: Each AP serving a group of STAs in a BSS may allocate each STA a portion of spectrum to use for distributed communications. In some cases, a STA may be allocated one or more resource units (e.g., different portions of spectrum and/or spatial streams) within the same BSS. As a reference example, FIG. 12 shows STA 1 being allocated a 10 MHz portion 1210 of 40 MHz spectrum in BSS1 and being multiplexed with STA 4 in a 20 MHz portion 1214 of 40 MHz spectrum in BSS1. In some cases, a given user may be able to participate in a distributed MU-MIMO transmission with a set of OBSS users in one part of the spectrum and the same given user may be able to participate in a distributed MU-MIMO transmission with a different set of OBSS users in another part of the spectrum. As a reference example, FIG. 12 shows STAs 5 and 6 in BSS2 being paired with STA 1 (from BSS1) in one 10 MHz portion 1210 of 40 MHz spectrum and being paired with STAs 2 and 3 (from BSS1) in another 10 MHz portion 1212 of 40 MHz spectrum.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to OMAR J GHOWRWAL whose telephone number is (571)270-5691. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:00am-6:00pm.
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/OMAR J GHOWRWAL/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2463