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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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, 6, 8, 10, 15 and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Apple Inc. (R1-2008767, “Clarification on the PUSCH scheduling constraint in Rel-15”, as submitted by the applicant with IDS received on 07/13/2023) in view of Gao et al. (US Pub. 2024/0032025).
Regarding claim 1, Apple Inc. teaches a method, comprising: performing, by a processor of an apparatus, a last physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmission of one or more PUSCH transmissions associated with a first hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process (“the last PUSCH for that HARQ process” in section 1), wherein the last PUSCH is scheduled by a downlink control information (DCI) signal scrambled by a specific radio network temporary identifier (RNTI) (“If the UE receives a DCI format 0_0 or 0_1 scrambled by C-RNTI or MCS-C-RNTI that schedules a PUSCH for a given HARQ process” in TP for TS 38.214 Clause 6.1 in last page); and receiving, by the processor after and not before the last PUSCH transmission, another DCI signal scrambled by the specific RNTI (see “C-RNTI or MCS-C-RNTI” in section 2.2) and scheduling a subsequent PUSCH transmission for the first HARQ process (“not expected to receive a scheduling DCI for a unicast PUSCH transmission with the same HARQ process ID until the time after the end of the expected transmission of the PUSCH” in section 2.2). Apple Inc., however, does not teach the DCI signal comprise a DCI format 0_2. Gao teaches the DCI signal comprise a DCI format 0_2 (“not expected to be scheduled to transmit another PUSCH by DCI format 0_0, 0_1 or 0_2 scrambled by C-RNTI or MCS-C-RNTI for a given HARQ process until after the end of the expected transmission of the last PUSCH for that HARQ process.” This means that the reception of PDCCH for next PUSCH cannot occur until the previous PUSCH corresponding to the same HARQ process has been transmitted” in [0025], see also Figure 3). It would have been obvious to one skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Apple Inc. to have the DCI signal comprise a DCI format 0_2 as taught by Gao in order to comply with 3GPP standard [0025].
Regarding claims 6 and 15, Apple Inc. teaches the specific RNTI comprises a cell radio network temporary identifier (C-RNTI) (“DCI format 0_0 or 0_1 scrambled by C-RNTI or MCS-C_RNTI for given HARQ process” in section 2).
Regarding claims 8 and 17, Apple Inc. teaches the specific RNTI comprises a modulation coding scheme (MCS) cell radio network temporary identifier (MCS-C-RNTI) (“DCI format 0_0 or 0_1 scrambled by C-RNTI or MCS-C_RNTI for given HARQ process” in section 2).
Regarding claim 10, Apple Inc. teaches a method, comprising: performing, by a processor of an apparatus, a last physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmission of one or more PUSCH transmissions associated with a first hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process (“the last PUSCH for that HARQ process” in section 1), wherein the last PUSCH is scheduled by a downlink control information (DCI) signal scrambled by a specific radio network temporary identifier (RNTI) (“If the UE receives a DCI format 0_0 or 0_1 scrambled by C-RNTI or MCS-C-RNTI that schedules a PUSCH for a given HARQ process” in TP for TS 38.214 Clause 6.1 in last page); receiving, by the processor, another DCI signal scrambled by the specific RNTI and scheduling a subsequent PUSCH transmission for the first HARQ process (“DCI format 0_0 or 0_1 scrambled by C-RNTI or MCS-C_RNTI for given HARQ process” in section 2); and skipping, by the processor, the subsequent PUSCH transmission in an event that the another DCI signal is received before the last PUSCH transmission (For any HARQ process ID(s) in a given scheduled cell, the UE is not expected to transmit a PUSCH that overlaps in time with another PUSCH” in TP for TS 38.214 Clause 6.1 in last page). Apple Inc., however, does not teach the DCI signal comprise a DCI format 0_2. Gao teaches the DCI signal comprise a DCI format 0_2 (“not expected to be scheduled to transmit another PUSCH by DCI format 0_0, 0_1 or 0_2 scrambled by C-RNTI or MCS-C-RNTI for a given HARQ process until after the end of the expected transmission of the last PUSCH for that HARQ process.” This means that the reception of PDCCH for next PUSCH cannot occur until the previous PUSCH corresponding to the same HARQ process has been transmitted” in [0025], see also Figure 3). It would have been obvious to one skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Apple Inc. to have the DCI signal comprise a DCI format 0_2 as taught by Gao in order to comply with 3GPP standard [0025].
Claims 4 and 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Apple Inc. in view of Gao et al. and further in view of Hurd et al. (US Pub. 2023/0125953).
Regarding claims 4 and 13, Apple Inc. in view of Gao teaches the limitations in claims 1 and 10 as shown above. Apple Inc., however, does not teach the specific RNTI comprises a configured scheduling radio network temporary identifier (CS-RNTI). Hurd teaches the specific RNTI comprises a configured scheduling radio network temporary identifier (CS-RNTI) (“the first and the second PUSCH are scheduled by one of DCI formats 0_0, 0_1, and 0_2 scrambled by certain radio network temporary identifiers (RNTIs), such as C-RNTI, MCS-C-RNTI, CS-RNTI, or SP-C-RNTI” in [0147]). It would have been obvious to one skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Apple Inc. in view of Gao to have the specific RNTI comprises a configured scheduling radio network temporary identifier (CS-RNTI) as taught by Hurd in order to schedule PUSCHs by one of DCI formats 0_0, 0_1, and 0_2 scrambled by certain radio network temporary identifiers (RNTIs) [0147].
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1, 4, 6, 8, 10, 13, 15 and 17 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CLEMENCE S HAN whose telephone number is (571)272-3158. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8AM-5PM EST.
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/CLEMENCE S HAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2414
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