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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 10/22/2025 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
On page 7 of the Applicant’s Response, Applicant: “Zhou et al. (US 2023/0062724, hereinafter "Zhou") discloses that a base station may perform HARQ retransmission for MBS services based on received feedback (ACK/NACK/NACK-only), where the MBS transport block (MBS TB) is transmitted and retransmitted to UEs. Zhou focuses on the base station's retransmission behavior and feedback types, but does not disclose or suggest some key aspects recited in the present claims: 1. HARQ enablement control-whether the base station enables the UE to send feedback 2. Specific signaling methods (RRC IE / MAC CE / DCI) for configuring HARQ enablement. “.
Examiner respectfully disagrees with Applicant’s argument. Zhou discloses configuring a HARQ ACK/NACK mode, including no HARQ ACKs or NACKs, via RRC signaling (p306). Then the UE’s HARQ-ACK mode may be dynamically changed via DCI signaling (p325-326). The DCI uses a field to flexibly enable and disable the HARQ-ACK mode, e.g. one or more DCI fields, used for the HARQ feedback type indication, may comprise a PDSCH-to-HARQ feedback timing field, a TPC command for scheduled PUCCH, a PUCCH resource indicator, a priority indicator, or a combination thereof (p312). Thus Zhou expressly teaches the limitation “decoding the transport blocks, and according to a decoding state and a configured feedback mode, sending a feedback to a base station, wherein the configured feedback mode is an ACK/NACK mode or a NACK mode; wherein the ACK/NACK mode is that if it is decoded correctly, ACK is fed back, or otherwise NACK is fed back, the NACK mode is that if it is determined that the feedback is all the ACK, the UE does not send ACK/NACK information; wherein if the feedback sent to the base station is NACK, receiving a retransmission of all or a part of the transport block, the retransmission is performed according to a HARQ configuration and a HARQ enablement; wherein the HARQ enablement is configured by adding an information element through a radio resource control, configured by adding a logical channel identifier through a control element of a media access control, or configured through an indication field in a downlink control information” as explained above.
On page 9 of the Applicant’s Response, Applicant: “Therefore, Zhou's "feedback type" configuration is a different logical operation from the "enablement" configuration of the present invention. This distinction provides further novelty and inventive step. “.
Examiner respectfully disagrees with Applicant’s argument. Zhou expressly discloses a DCI field implemented to dynamically change the HARQ-ACK mode to enabled or disabled, where enabled may be one of ACK/NACK or NACK only and where disabled is no HARQ-ACK (p303-305, p324-325).
On page 9 of the Applicant’s Response, Applicant: “Zhou's objective is to simplify the MBS HARQ mechanism and reduce signaling overhead, even to the point of disabling HARQ feedback (no-feedback mode). In contrast, the present invention introduces dynamic HARQ enablement control to enhance reliability and QoS-the opposite design philosophy. Teaching Away: Zhou teaches away from the claimed invention because it discourages enabling additional signaling or HARQ control complexity. A skilled artisan following Zhou's guidance to simplify the system would not be motivated to add the dynamic enablement control proposed by the present application.“.
Examiner respectfully disagrees with Applicant’s argument. Zhou expressly discloses a DCI field implemented to dynamically change the HARQ-ACK mode to enabled or disabled, where enabled may be one of ACK/NACK or NACK only and where disabled is no HARQ-ACK (p303-305, p324-325).
On page 9-12 of the Applicant’s Response, Applicant: “In contrast, the present invention introduces dynamic HARQ enablement control to enhance reliability and QoS-the opposite design philosophy… Hence, the invention introduces an additional enablement control layer, distinct from both configuration and feedback structures, to improve reliability and flexibility of MBS transmission… Accordingly, while Zhou operates within the feedback layer of an already- enabled HARQ mechanism, the present application introduces a control-layer function that governs HARQ activation itself“.
Examiner respectfully disagrees with Applicant’s argument. Although the claims are interpreted in light of the specification, limitations from the specification are not read into the claims. In re Van Geuns, 988 F.2d 1181, 26 USPQ2d 1057 (Fed. Cir. 1993).
In view of the above discussions the rejection of claims 1-9,11-19, and 21 still stands.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
(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.
Claim(s) 1, 2, 9, 11, 12, 18, 19, and 21 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Zhou et al. (US 2023/0062724) (“Zhou”).
For claims 1, 11, and 21; Zhou discloses: receiving, on a physical downlink shared channel, transport blocks of an MBS service (paragraph 319: The DCI may indicate downlink assignment of MBS PDSCH resources for a transmission of the MBS TB. The MBS TB, being scrambled by the MBS-RNTI, is transmitted to a group of wireless devices configured with the MBS-RNTI); decoding the transport blocks, and according to a decoding state and a configured feedback mode (paragraph 301: The wireless device may attempt to decode the first MBS TB based on the MBS-RNTI), sending a feedback to a base station, wherein the configured feedback mode is an ACK/NACK mode or a NACK mode; wherein the ACK/NACK mode is that if it is decoded correctly, ACK is fed back, or otherwise NACK is fed back, the NACK mode is that if it is determined that the feedback is all the ACK, the UE does not send ACK/NACK information (paragraph 298: a base station and/or a wireless device may perform a HARQ retransmission based on variety of HARQ feedback types. The variety of HARQ feedback types may comprise a transmission of a ACK in case of decoding successful and a NACK in case of decoding unsuccessful (referred to as ACK/NACK feedback in this specification). The variety of HARQ feedback types may comprise a transmission of a NACK in case of decoding unsuccessful or no transmission of a ACK in case of decoding successful (referred to as NACK-only feedback in this specification). The variety of HARQ feedback types may comprise no feedback regardless of whether the wireless device successfully decodes the MBS TB (referred to as no ACK/NACK feedback in this specification)); wherein if the feedback sent to the base station is NACK, receiving a retransmission of all or a part of the transport block (paragraph 299: The base station, based on the received HARQ NACK, may retransmit the first MBS TB to the wireless device), the retransmission is performed according to a HARQ configuration and a HARQ enablement (paragraph 336: To meet the QoS requirement of transmission of an MBS TB, a base station may apply a HARQ mechanism for retransmission of the MBS TB when a wireless device subscribed to the MBS session does not receive the MBS TB successfully. The base station may retransmit the MBS TB in a unicast transmission or in a multicast transmission); wherein the HARQ enablement is configured by adding an information element through a radio resource control, configured by adding a logical channel identifier through a control element of a media access control, or configured through an indication field in a downlink control information (paragraph 311: a DCI may indicate one of the one or more HARQ feedback types (e.g., configured above in the RRC messages). Example embodiments may flexibly enable different HARQ feedback types for an MBS TB by indicating the HARQ feedback type in the DCI (e.g., the DCI scheduling the MBS TB, or a second DCI different from the DCI scheduling the MBS TB)).
For claims 2 and 12; Zhou discloses: wherein sending the feedback to the base station further comprises: sending the feedback to the base station through a feedback resource of a physical uplink control channel (paragraph 312: The one or more DCI fields, used for the HARQ feedback type indication, may comprise a PDSCH-to-HARQ feedback timing field, a TPC command for scheduled PUCCH, a PUCCH resource indicator, a priority indicator, or a combination thereof. Using existing DCI fields of a DCI may reduce signaling overhead for dynamic HARQ feedback type indication).
For claim 9 and 19; Zhou discloses: wherein the HARQ configuration is configured by adding an information element through a radio resource control, configured by adding a logical channel identifier through a control element of a media access control, or configured through an indication field in a downlink control information (paragraph 311: a DCI may indicate one of the one or more HARQ feedback types (e.g., configured above in the RRC messages). Example embodiments may flexibly enable different HARQ feedback types for an MBS TB by indicating the HARQ feedback type in the DCI (e.g., the DCI scheduling the MBS TB, or a second DCI different from the DCI scheduling the MBS TB)) (paragraph 312: The one or more DCI fields, used for the HARQ feedback type indication, may comprise a PDSCH-to-HARQ feedback timing field, a TPC command for scheduled PUCCH, a PUCCH resource indicator, a priority indicator, or a combination thereof. Using existing DCI fields of a DCI may reduce signaling overhead for dynamic HARQ feedback type indication).
For claim 18; Zhou discloses: wherein the configuration of the feedback mode is configured by adding an information element through a radio resource control, configured by adding a logical channel identifier through a control element of a media access control, or configured through an indication field in a downlink control information (paragraph 311: a DCI may indicate one of the one or more HARQ feedback types (e.g., configured above in the RRC messages). Example embodiments may flexibly enable different HARQ feedback types for an MBS TB by indicating the HARQ feedback type in the DCI (e.g., the DCI scheduling the MBS TB, or a second DCI different from the DCI scheduling the MBS TB)) (paragraph 312: The one or more DCI fields, used for the HARQ feedback type indication, may comprise a PDSCH-to-HARQ feedback timing field, a TPC command for scheduled PUCCH, a PUCCH resource indicator, a priority indicator, or a combination thereof. Using existing DCI fields of a DCI may reduce signaling overhead for dynamic HARQ feedback type indication).
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.
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.
Claim(s) 3 and 13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhou in view of Fan et al. (US 2023/0246761) (“Fan”).
For claim 3 and 13; Zhou discloses the subject matter in claim 2 as described above in the office action.
Zhou does not expressly disclose, but Fan from similar fields of endeavor teaches: wherein the feedback resource of the physical uplink control channel shares the same feedback resource of the physical uplink control channel as a unicast service (paragraph 63: these PUCCH resources may be shared between HARQ feedback for unicast and multicast traffics). Thus it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to implement the signaling as described by Fan in the multicast system as described by Zhou. The motivation is to improve resource space.
Claim(s) 4 and 14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhou in view of Fan et al. (US 2023/0239170) (“Fan2”).
For claim 4 and 14; Zhou discloses the subject matter in claim 2 as described above in the office action.
Zhou does not expressly disclose, but Fan2 from similar fields of endeavor teaches: wherein the feedback resource of the physical uplink control channel is configured separately, and the feedback resource of the physical uplink control channel is not shared with a unicast service (paragraph 68: a multicast UE may be configured with a dedicated PUCCH resource for HARQ feedback of a multicast traffic, in addition or alternative to the normal PUCCH resources that may be shared by a number of UEs for their respective unicast traffics). Thus it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to implement the signaling as described by Fan2 in the multicast system as described by Zhou. The motivation is to improve resource space.
Claim(s) 5, 6, 15, and 16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhou in view of Hwang et al. (US 2022/0210802) (“Hwang”).
For claim 5 and 15; Zhou discloses the subject matter in claim 2 as described above in the office action.
Zhou does not expressly disclose, but Hwang from similar fields of endeavor teaches: wherein the UE uses feedback resources of independent physical uplink control channels to send the ACK or the NACK to the base station (paragraph 211: in the case of HARQ-ACK feedback transmission/reception, both an individual HARQ-ACK method in which HARQ-ACKs for a plurality of TBs are transmitted on independent channels and a HARQ-ACK bundling/multiplexing method in which HARQ-ACK information for a plurality of TBs is transmitted together over one channel may be considered). Thus it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to implement the signaling as described by Hwang in the multicast system as described by Zhou. The motivation is to improve resource space.
For claim 6 and 16; Zhou discloses the subject matter in claim 2 as described above in the office action.
Zhou does not expressly disclose, but Hwang from similar fields of endeavor teaches: wherein the UE uses feedback resources of independent physical uplink control channels to send the NACK to the base station, or the UE shares the same feedback resource of the physical uplink control channel to send the NACK to the base station (paragraph 211: in the case of HARQ-ACK feedback transmission/reception, both an individual HARQ-ACK method in which HARQ-ACKs for a plurality of TBs are transmitted on independent channels and a HARQ-ACK bundling/multiplexing method in which HARQ-ACK information for a plurality of TBs is transmitted together over one channel may be considered). Thus it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to implement the signaling as described by Hwang in the multicast system as described by Zhou. The motivation is to improve resource space.
Claim(s) 7, 8, and 17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhou in view of Wu et al. (US 2020/0351032) (“Wu”).
For claim 7 and 17; Zhou discloses the subject matter in claim 1 as described above in the office action.
Zhou does not expressly disclose, but Wu from similar fields of endeavor teaches: wherein according to the configured feedback mode, sending the feedback to the base station further comprises: a configuration of the feedback mode is determined by a number of UEs in a group, when the number of UEs in the group is less than a preset threshold value, the configuration of the feedback mode is the ACK/NACK mode; when the number of UEs in the group is greater than or equal to the preset threshold value, the configuration of the feedback mode is the NACK mode (paragraph 128: The system may specify that if the number of RX UEs of the group is not fixed, or the number of RX UEs in the group is greater than a threshold value, the corresponding groupcast transmission should use the first HARQ feedback (NACK-only feedback) mode described above, and if the number of the RX UEs in the group is less than one threshold, then the corresponding groupcast transmission should use the second HARQ feedback mode described above, or use any one of the above two HARQ feedback modes). Thus it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to implement the signaling as described by Wu in the multicast system as described by Zhou. The motivation is to improve resource space.
For claim 8; Zhou discloses: wherein the configuration of the feedback mode is configured by adding an information element through a radio resource control, configured by adding a logical channel identifier through a control element of a media access control, or configured through an indication field in a downlink control information (paragraph 311: a DCI may indicate one of the one or more HARQ feedback types (e.g., configured above in the RRC messages). Example embodiments may flexibly enable different HARQ feedback types for an MBS TB by indicating the HARQ feedback type in the DCI (e.g., the DCI scheduling the MBS TB, or a second DCI different from the DCI scheduling the MBS TB)) (paragraph 312: The one or more DCI fields, used for the HARQ feedback type indication, may comprise a PDSCH-to-HARQ feedback timing field, a TPC command for scheduled PUCCH, a PUCCH resource indicator, a priority indicator, or a combination thereof. Using existing DCI fields of a DCI may reduce signaling overhead for dynamic HARQ feedback type indication).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Lin et al. (US 2023/0163896); Lin discloses feedback transmission for a multicast or broadcast service (MBS) for a user equipment (UE) is provided. The method includes receiving, from a base station (BS), a RRC message enabling the UE to provide HARQ ACK information for a PDSCH reception corresponding to the MBS.
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 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 JOHN D BLANTON whose telephone number is (571)270-3933. The examiner can normally be reached 7am-6pm EST, Mon-Thu.
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/JOHN D BLANTON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2466