DETAILED ACTION
This communication is in response to the Amendment and Response to Non-Final Office Action filed on December 2, 2025.
Claims 16-18 remain pending in the application.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 16-18 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.
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.
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.
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 16-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US Pub. No. 2023/0422242 (hereinafter “Guo”) in view of US Pub. No. 2024/0107574 (hereinafter “Yamamoto”).
Regarding claims 16 and 17, Guo discloses or suggests a method performed by a user equipment (UE) (see at least Fig. 9, user equipment), the method and the UE comprising:
receiving circuitry (see at least Fig. 9 and paragraphs 126-129, transceiver 910 configured to receive) configured to receive a higher layer signaling for configuring multiplexing of hybrid automatic repeat request-acknowledgements (HARQ-ACKs) with different priorities which are transmitted on a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) (see at least paragraphs 38, 82, 93, 105, and 106, the UE determines a number of low-priority UCI bits for appending to the high-priority HARQ-ACK based on a configured number of bits, which is configured by RRC signaling, for multiplexing a low-priority UCI message with a high-priority UCI message, where a UCI message includes HARQ-ACK information);
a processor (see at least Fig. 9 and paragraph 119, processor 902) configured to multiplex the HARQ-ACKs with different priorities which are transmitted on a high priority PUCCH (see at least Fig. 4B and 6, and paragraphs 105-108, the UE multiplexes and transmits the high-priority HARQ-ACK, the low-priority HARQACK bits, and the low-priority CSI bits in a high-priority PUCCH resource, where multiplexing the high- priority HARQ-ACK, the low-priority HARQACK bits, and the low-priority CSI bits includes mapping modulation symbols for the encoded first block to subcarriers of the high-priority PUCCH resource and, when scheduled communications of different priorities overlap in a time period, the UE multiplexes high-priority HARQ-ACK with low-priority UCI by selecting a number of bits according to a low-priority UCI bit selection or determination configuration); and
transmitting circuitry (see at least Fig. 9 and paragraphs 126-129, transceiver 910 configured to transmit) configured to transmit the multiplexed HARQ-ACKs on the high priority PUCCH (see at least Fig. 4B and 6, and paragraph 108, the UE multiplexes and transmits the high-priority HARQ-ACK, the low-priority HARQACK bits, and the low-priority CSI bits in a high-priority PUCCH resource).
Guo does not explicitly disclose that a number of physical resource blocks (PRBs) required on a resource of the high priority PUCCH is reduced for separate coding used for the HARQ ACKs with different priorities.
However, in an analogous art, Yamamoto discloses or suggests that, in separate coding, UCIs with different priorities are individually encoded, which makes it possible to suppress a decrease in the resource utilization efficiency, where a high-priority HARQ-ACK may be mapped to the PUCCH resource by puncturing into a portion of the resource to which the low-priority HARQ-ACK has been mapped, where the resource amount to be allocated to the one or two-bit high-priority HARQ-ACK in PUCCH may be determined based on a number of high-priority HARQ-ACK bits, a coding rate, and a modulation order of PUCCH format 2, 3, or 4, and the number of bits for each of the high-priority HARQ-ACK and the low-priority HARQ- ACK is relatively small, even when the separate coding is applied (see at least paragraphs 42-44 and 125-132).
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to implement the teaching of Yamamoto in to the invention of Guo in order to reduce the number of PRBs required on a resource of the high priority PUCCH for separate coding used for the HARQ-ACK with different priorities. The motivation for doing so would have been to improve the resource utilization efficiency (see at least paragraph 44 of Yamamoto).
Regarding claim 18, Guo discloses or suggests a base station comprising:
transmitting circuitry (see at least Fig. 10 and paragraphs 133-135, UCI multiplexing module, which is integrated within a modem subsystem of a transceiver, configured to transmit) configured to transmit a higher layer signaling for configuring multiplexing of hybrid automatic repeat request-acknowledgements (HARQ-ACKs) with different priorities which are received on a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) (see at least paragraphs 38, 82, 105, 106, and 134, the UCI multiplexing module configured to transmit a multiplexing configuration to the UE, where the UE determines a number of low-priority UCI bits for appending to the high-priority HARQ-ACK based on a configured number of bits, which is configured by RRC signaling, for multiplexing a low-priority UCI message with a high-priority UCI message, where a UCI message includes HARQ-ACK information); and
receiving circuitry (see at least Fig. 10 and paragraphs 133-135, UCI multiplexing module, which is integrated within a modem subsystem of a transceiver, configured to receive) configured to receive the HARQ-ACKs on a high priority PUCCH (see at least paragraphs 105-108 and 134, UCI multiplexing module configured to receive a multiplexed transmission from the UE including low-priority UCI and at least one of high-priority UCI, high-priority CG-UCI, and low-priority CG-UCI, where the UE multiplexes and transmits the high-priority HARQ-ACK, the low-priority HARQACK bits, and the low-priority CSI bits in a high-priority PUCCH resource, where multiplexing the high- priority HARQ-ACK, the low-priority HARQACK bits, and the low-priority CSI bits includes mapping modulation symbols for the encoded first block to subcarriers of the high-priority PUCCH resource and, when scheduled communications of different priorities overlap in a time period, the UE multiplexes high-priority HARQ-ACK with low-priority UCI by selecting a number of bits according to a low-priority UCI bit selection or determination configuration) and the HARQ-ACKs with different priorities are multiplexed on the high priority PUCCH (see at least Fig. 4B and 6, and paragraph 108, the UE multiplexes and transmits the high-priority HARQ-ACK, the low-priority HARQACK bits, and the low-priority CSI bits in a high-priority PUCCH resource).
Guo does not explicitly disclose that a number of physical resource blocks (PRBs) required on a resource of the high priority PUCCH is reduced for separate coding used for the HARQ ACKs with different priorities.
However, in an analogous art, Yamamoto discloses or suggests that, in separate coding, UCIs with different priorities are individually encoded, which makes it possible to suppress a decrease in the resource utilization efficiency, where a high-priority HARQ-ACK may be mapped to the PUCCH resource by puncturing into a portion of the resource to which the low-priority HARQ-ACK has been mapped, where the resource amount to be allocated to the one or two-bit high-priority HARQ-ACK in PUCCH may be determined based on a number of high-priority HARQ-ACK bits, a coding rate, and a modulation order of PUCCH format 2, 3, or 4, and the number of bits for each of the high-priority HARQ-ACK and the low-priority HARQ- ACK is relatively small, even when the separate coding is applied (see at least paragraphs 42-44 and 125-132).
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to implement the teaching of Yamamoto in to the invention of Guo in order to reduce the number of PRBs required on a resource of the high priority PUCCH for separate coding used for the HARQ-ACK with different priorities. The motivation for doing so would have been to improve the resource utilization efficiency (see at least paragraph 44 of Yamamoto).
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 Pawaris Sinkantarakorn whose telephone number is (571)270-1424. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8:00am-4:00pm.
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/PAO SINKANTARAKORN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2409 02/20/2026