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
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 10/22/2025 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicant essentially argues that the Takahashi does not disclose that a base station occupies the channel with a transmission. Applicant states that “the Office Action also describes that, in Takahashi, the UE (terminal) will perform the transmission of all transmission types (i.e., Type 1, 2A, and 3C)”.
The Examiner respectfully disagrees. Takahashi discloses that DCI provides PUSCH information along with cyclic prefix extension information. Takahashi clearly discloses that transmission from a gNB can occur based on the CP-Ext field and Channel access type (0050-0055, Type 1 channel access type allows for transmission by the gNB).
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)(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) 5-7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by WO 2022009315 A1 herein Takahashi as witnessed by the translation in EP 4181593 A1.
Claim 5, Takahashi discloses a terminal device (Abstract; 0011, Fig. 9) comprising:
reception circuitry configured to and/or programmed to receive a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) including a downlink control information (DCI) format (0009, receiving different types of DCI (Conventionally DCI is transmitted from base station) thus format; 0103, UE receives PDCCH with a DCI format); and
transmission circuitry configured to transmit a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) scheduled by the DCI format (0009, transmitting on a PUSCH; 0071),
wherein the DCI format includes a ChannelAccess-CPext field, the ChannelAccess-CPext field corresponding to an index value of 0, 1, or 2 indicates that a channel occupancy associated with the PUSCH is a base station device, such as a gNB, channel occupancy (Fig. 1: first column labeled index showing indices of 0, 1 and 2 corresponding to transmission types; 0050-0055, Type 1 channel access type allows for transmission by the gNB), and
the ChannelAccess-CPext field corresponding to an index value of 3 indicates that the channel occupancy associated with the PUSCH is a user equipment (UE) channel occupancy (Fig. 1: first column labeled index showing an index of 3 corresponding to channel access of Type 1; 0055, the terminal is configured to transmit after the counter terminates).
Claim 6, as analyzed with respect to the limitations as discussed in claim 1.
Takahashi discloses a base station (Fig. 3: gNB)
Claim 7, as analyzed with respect to the limitations as discussed in claim 1.
Takahashi discloses a method by a terminal (Title).
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. US 20230262700 A1 – The present disclosure relates to an electronic device, a wireless communication method, and a computer-readable storage medium. The electronic device according to the present disclosure comprises a processing circuit that is configured to: generate downlink control information (DCI), which comprises scheduling information of a first channel used by the electronic device to transmit data to a relay user equipment (UE) and scheduling information of a second channel used by the relay UE to forward the data to a remote UE, the size of the DCI being the same as that of a DCI format for downlink scheduling or a DCI format for direct link scheduling; and transmit the generated DCI to the relay UE.
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 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 Mehmood B. Khan whose telephone number is (571)272-9277. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:30 am-6:30 pm. 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, Nishant Divecha can be reached at (571) 270-3125. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/Mehmood B. Khan/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2419
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