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 on pp. 9-11 filed 20 March 2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. Applicant’s argument focuses on sole para. 118 and covering transmission occasions associated with first UL beam and with second UL beam. Firstly, ‘beam’ is not described in the claimed language. Secondly, Examiner like to point out that “associated with” is a very loose term broadly interpreted as “anything related to/associated with”. If transmission occasion 1 is mentioned within a prior art, and a first/second UL beam is mentioned elsewhere within the same prior art, these limitations are already [remotely] associated/related with each other (i.e. in the same relevant prior art).
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 23-40 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.
In light of claim amendments (e.g. deletion of “corresponding to the first SRS resource set”), Examiner partially remapped the claim limitations (new grounds of invention), as follows:
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.
Claims 23-34, 36, 38 and 40 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Li (US 2024/0235737).
Regarding claims 23 and 31, Li describes a terminal device/a communication method performed by a terminal device (fig. 1, UE), comprising:
[a receiver] receiving from a network device, in a radio resource control (RRC) message, configuration information (para. 67-69, RRC configuration which indicates PUSCH repetition, is transmitted by base station/TRP to UE, fig. 1 & para. 22), comprising:
a number of repetitions K for Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) repetition corresponding to transmission occasions associated with a first sounding reference signal (SRS) resource set and a second SRS resource set (para. 6, the PUSCH repetitions that are scheduled in different transmission occasions are defined in Rel-15/16 standard (para. 9), with the supporting SRS resource sets defined in the RAN #104e standard meeting);
an indication being set to either ‘on’ or ‘off’, wherein,
the indication being set to ‘off’ indicates that a first initial transmission of a transport block may only start at a first transmission occasion, corresponding to the first SRS resource set, of the K repetitions (para. 29, responsive to on RV0 switch parameter in configured grant configuration set to off, initial transmission of transport block only starts at the first transmission occasion of all (K) repetitions associated with the first UL beam (first resource set)); and
the indication being set to ‘on’ indicates that a second initial transmission of a transport block may start at a first transmission occasion associated with RV=0 corresponding to the first SRS resource set (para. 31, responsive to RV0 switch parameter in configured grant configuration set to on, initial transmission of transport block starts at any (first) transmission occasion of the repetitions that are associated with RV=0 & are associated with the first UL beam (first resource set); and
transmitting, to the network device, either the first initial transmission or the second initial transmission based on the indication (para. 29-20, uplink transmission to TRP1 or TRP2 (network device) is based on RV0 switch parameter configured in the configured grant configuration set to on or off).
Regarding claim 27, Li describes a communication method performed by a network device, the method comprising:
transmitting to a terminal device, in a radio resource control (RRC) message (para. 67-69, RRC configuration which indicates PUSCH repetition, is transmitted by base station/TRP to UE, fig. 1 & para. 22), configuration information comprising:
a number of repetitions K for Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) repetition corresponding to transmission occasions associated with a first sounding reference signal (SRS) resource set and a second SRS resource set (para. 28-31 or 98, for CG PSUCH with (K) repetition, indication of transmission occasions associated with first UL beam & second UL beam by respective SRS resource indicators, para. 76-77, as SRI fields corresponding to two SRS resource sets, para. 10-11); and
an indication being set to either ‘on’ or ‘off’, wherein,
the indication being set to ‘off’ indicates that a first initial transmission of a transport block may only start at a first transmission occasion, corresponding to the first SRS resource set, of the K repetitions (para. 118, if ConfiguredGrantConfig) is set to ‘off’, the initial transmission of a transport block may only start at the first transmission occasion of all the repetitions associated with the first UL beam (first SRS resource set)), and
the indication being set to ‘on’ indicates that a second initial transmission of a transport block may start at a first transmission occasion associated with RV=0 corresponding to the first SRS resource set or the second SRS resource set of the K repetitions if an RV sequence configured for the terminal device is {0,2,3,1} (para. 132, as the second RV sequence comprises {0,2,3,1}, the configured grant configuration & the first stating from RV0 switch is set to ‘on’ & transport block to start at transmission occaions of the repetitions associated with RV=0 & are associated with the second UL beam (second SRS resource set)); and
receiving, from the terminal device, either the first initial transmission or the second initial transmission based on the indication (para. 35, single/multi-TRP CG PUSCH (transmission from UE to network device) are based on the indicated initial transmission occasions).
Regarding claims 24, 28 and 32, Li describes:
wherein the RV sequence configured for the terminal device is {0,2,3,1}, and the first transmission occasion associated with RV=0 corresponds to the second SRS resource set } (para. 132, as the second RV sequence comprises {0,2,3,1}, the configured grant configuration & the first stating from RV0 switch is set to ‘on’ & transport block to start at transmission occasions of the repetitions associated with RV=0 & are associated with the second UL beam (second SRS resource set)).
Regarding claims 25, 29 and 33, Li describes:
being configured with a parameter indicating an RV sequence (para. 97, RV sequence configured by a higher layer parameter).
Regarding claims 26, 30 and 34, Li describes:
26. The method of claim 23, wherein an RV sequence configured to the terminal device corresponds to an nth actual repetition, for repetition type B (para. 100, configured CG PUSCH for the nth transmission occasion among all the actual repetitions).
Regarding claim 36, 38 and 40, Li describes:
the first transmission occasion is corresponding to the first SRS resource set (para. 29, initial transmission of transport block only starts at the first transmission occasion of all (K) repetitions associated with (corresponds to) the first UL beam (first resource set)).
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.
Claim 35, 37,and 39 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Li as applied to claims 23, 27 and 31 above respectively, and further in view of Gao (US 2023/0396373).
Regarding claim 35, 37 and 39, Li describes configuration information comprises repetition type A or B, and that repetitions are in different slots (para. 9), but fails to further explicitly describe:
the configuration information comprises parameters determining which slots are granted; and
the terminal device repeats the transport block in the transmission occasions in the slots granted by the parameters.
Gao also describes configured grant based PUSCH (abstract & para. 29), further describing:
the configuration information comprises parameters determining which slots are granted; and the terminal device repeats the transport block in the transmission occasions in the slots granted by the parameters (para. 29, PUSCH transmissions with a configured grant, when K>1, the UE shall repeat the Transport Block (TB) across the K consecutive slots applying the same symbol allocation in each slot).
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective date of the claimed invention to specify that the configuration information of Li to determine slots for repeating transport blocks as in Gao.
The motivation for combining the teachings is that this resolves problem of how to transmit PUSCH associated with a CG towards multiple TRPs (Gao, para. 144).
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). 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 WARNER WONG whose telephone number is (571)272-8197. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 7am - 3:30pm.
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, Ian Moore can be reached at 571-272-3085. 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.
WARNER WONG
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2469
/WARNER WONG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2469
Prosecution Insights