DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA . The instant Office Action is in response to Applicant’s arguments filed on 9/18/2025.
Claims 17, 19, 21-22, 45, 47 and 49-50 are pending. Claims 17 and 45 are the base independent claims.
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 9/18/2025 has been entered.
Response to Arguments/Amendments
Regarding claim 17, Applicant files arguments with respect to the amendment.
--In response, new grounds of rejection are made based on the combination of PARK, YE and YUM for the amended claim limitations. Upon further consideration, PARK or YE still applies to a portion of the independent claims because the amendment does not change the scope of this portion. The rest of the arguments have been fully considered but are moot because the arguments do not apply to the new reference being used in the current rejection.
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 17, 19, 21-22, 45, 47 and 49-50 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Park et al (US 2023/0319822) in view of Ye et al (US 2022/0052779, at least supported by provisional application 63/073115), further in view of YUM et al (US 2016/0218788).
Regarding claim 17, Park discloses a base station, comprising memory coupled to a processor (fig. 5; e.g. BS; par 371), the processor configured to:
transmit control information (par 15, par 130; e.g. downlink control information) that indicates HARQ information associated with communication of a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) transmission or a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmission that includes at least one PDSCH/PUSCH retransmission (par 130-131; A slot timing between A and B is indicated by a field in DCI from a set of values. In addition, NR supports different minimum HARQ processing times between UEs. The HARQ processing time includes a delay between a DL data reception timing and a corresponding HARQ-ACK transmission timing and a delay between a UL grant reception timing and a corresponding UL data transmission timing; also par 247; A DCI format may be configured according to whether the UE has a soft buffer combining capability. For example, a field constituting DCI may be determined (e.g., which field is to be omitted may be determined) based on whether HARQ feedback is disabled/enabled and whether data retransmission is supported),
wherein the control information further indicates HARQ feedback is disabled (par 200; feedback is disabled; also par 217), the control information including a redundancy version sequency field orpar 238-240; e.g. redundancy version (RV) or new data indicator (NDI))
The reference does not disclose:
when HARQ feedback is disabled, encoding a repetition index in the redundancy versions sequence field or the new data indictor field, wherein the repetition index is mapped to a particular number of retransmission for the PDSCH/PUSCH.
However, Ye discloses:
when HARQ feedback is disabled, encode a repetition number defining a number of retransmissions for the PDSCH/PUSCH based on information in the redundancy version sequence field par 91, 95; In certain embodiments, the HARQ disabling is configured… one or more bits in redundancy version field are reused for the indication of the number of repetitions, when the repetition is configured and applied to PDSCH; also par 102); and transmit the PDSCH transmission or receive the PUSCH transmission based on the HARQ information and the particular number of retransmissions (par 92, 96; e.g. the UE 116 receives the PDSCH. The UE 116 receives the PDSCH based on both the configuration and the DCI indication including HARQ feedback timing and a supported number of repetition).
In view of the above, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of communication protocol configured for the electronic system of Ye with the electronic system of Park. One is motivated as such to support more flexible time domain resource allocation (Ye, par 42).
The combination does not disclose:
encode a repetition index in the new data indictor field (emphasis added).
However, it is obvious in view of YUM, because YUM discloses:
In par 129, transmit an index corresponding to a repetition number; also par 139, e.g. since an MCS/NDI/RV container for a second codeword is not used, the container may be used to transmit the repetition number; hence a repetition index in the new data indicator field.
In view of the above, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of communication protocol configured for the electronic system of YUM with the electronic system of Park and Ye. One is motivated as such to reuse an existing container instead of defining a new container (YUM, par 139).
Regarding claim 19, Park discloses:
wherein the repetition index mapped to the particular number of retransmissions by prior signaling (par 91, par 270; e.g. the UE may recognize the resource as HARQ-disabled. In this case, PDSCH retransmission (or multi-TT! PDSCH) information is indicated by K1).
Regarding claim 21, Park discloses:
encode a redundancy version sequence index in a control information field that carries information relating to HARQ feedback when HARQ feedback is enabled (par 239-240; e.g. redundancy version (RV)).
Regarding claim 22, Park discloses:
the redundancy version sequence index indicates, based on a separate configuration, a particular redundancy version sequence (par 247-248, par 320; HARQ feedback-related information (e.g., an NDI, an RV, HARQ process number…)).
Regarding claims 45, 47 and 49-50, Park in view of Ye and YUM also discloses a method related to the base station of claims 17, 19 and 21-22, thus similar rejection mappings are applicable as above.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to YAOTANG WANG whose telephone number is (571)272-4023. The examiner can normally be reached 10:00-18:00 ET (M, W, TH & alternate F).
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/YAOTANG WANG/SCE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2409