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 6/10/2026have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Regarding rejection of claims 1, 5, 6, 12, 16, 17, Applicant argues in substance that ZTE does not disclose transmit UCI via first beam/second beam in respective first and ZTE shows candidate PUCCH resources overlapping in time domain of one OFDM symbol
In response to argument, Examiner respectfully disagree. John Wilson discloses transmitting over multiple beams simultaneously in same TTI [0071, 0072, 0065], FIG. 8 #832, 834. ZTE is only cited as teaching PUCCH resource comprising a PRB
In response to Applicant’s remarks of ZTE disclosing overlapping of PUCCH resources in time domain, John Wilson teaches PUCCH resources, FIG. 8 #832, 834 being overlapping in time domain/TTI but different in frequencies
Regarding rejection of claim 23, Applicant argues in substance that combined system of Zhou and He discloses transmit UCI via multiple beams simultaneously in the single set of PRBs of the PUCCH resource
In response to argument, Examiner respectfully disagree. Zhou discloses transmit uplink control information (UCI) via the multiple beams simultaneously in the single set of PRBs of the PUCCH resource (transmit UCI via multiple beams simultaneously [0070, 0087, 0093], with PUCCH occupying a number of PRBs/building blocks in 5G
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.
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 1, 5, 6, 12, 16, 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over John Wilson (USPN 20180103464) in view of 3GPP TSG RAN WG1 Meeting #90, R1-1712454, provided by Applicant’s IDS, hereafter ZTE.
Regarding claim 1, John Wilson discloses
an apparatus for wireless communication at a user equipment (UE), comprising: (UE, FIG. 4 #400, comprising [0045-0047]
on or more memories (memory, FIG. 4 #404 [0045-0047]
one or more processors, coupled to the one or more memories, the one or more processors configured to cause the UE to: (processor, FIG. 4 #402, coupled to memory and operable to cause UE to perform [0045-0047]
receive a configuration for a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) resource for a transmission via multiple beams in a same time domain resource (UE receives PUCCH resource configuration for transmission over multiple beams simultaneously in same TTI [0071, 0072, 0065], FIG. 8 #832, 834
the PUCCH resource (PUCCH resources span different durations and/or different frequencies/different PRB sets [0067, 0067], FIG. 8 #822, 824
transmit uplink control information (UCI) via a first beam of the multiple beams (UE transmits PUCCH via first beam direction/frequency, FIG. 8 #832 [0065, 0067, 0073]
and via a second beam of the multiple beams (UE transmits PUCCH via second beam direction/frequency, FIG. 8 #834 [0065, 0067, 0068, 0073]
John Wilson does not expressly disclose the PUCCH resource including multiple sets of physical resource blocks (PRBs); transmit uplink control information (UCI) in a respective set of PRBs of the multiple sets of PRBs of the PUCCH resource
ZTE discloses the PUCCH resource including multiple sets of physical resource blocks (PRBs); (slot for transmitting PUCCH contains multiple sets of PRBs (Sections 2.2.1-2.4)
transmit uplink control information (UCI) in a respective set of PRBs of the multiple sets of PRBs of the PUCCH resource (UE transmits PUCCH in an indicated set of PRBs (Sections 2.2.1-2.4)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to implement “the PUCCH resource including multiple sets of physical resource blocks (PRBs); transmit uplink control information (UCI) in a respective set of PRBs of the multiple sets of PRBs of the PUCCH resource” as taught by ZTE into John Wilson’s system with the motivation to perform uplink transmission using a PUCCH resource allocated for simultaneous transmission (ZTE, sections 2.2.1-2.4).
Regarding claim 12, John Wilson discloses
an apparatus for wireless communication at a base station, comprising (base station, FIG. 5 #500, comprising [0051-0053]
one or more memories (memory, FIG. 5 #504, [0053]
one or more processors, coupled to the one or more memories, the one or more processors configured to cause the base station to: (processor, FIG. 5 #502, coupled to memory and operable to perform [0052]
transmit a configuration for a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) resource for a transmission via multiple beams in a same time domain resource (transmit PUCCH resource configuration for transmission over multiple beams simultaneously in same TTI [0071, 0072, 0065], FIG. 8 #832, 834
the PUCCH resource including multiple sets of physical resource blocks (PRBs) (PUCCH resources span different durations and/or different frequencies/different PRB sets [0067, 0067], FIG. 8 #822, 824
receive uplink control information (UCI) via a first beam of the multiple beams in a first set of PRBs of the multiple sets of PRBs, (PUCCH via first beam direction/frequency, FIG. 8 #832 [0065, 0067, 0073]
and via a second beam of the multiple beams in a second set of PRBs of the multiple sets of PRBs (PUCCH via second beam direction/frequency, FIG. 8 #834 [0065, 0067, 0068, 0073]
John Wilson does not expressly disclose the PUCCH resource including multiple sets of physical resource blocks (PRBs); transmit uplink control information (UCI) in a respective set of PRBs of the multiple sets of PRBs of the PUCCH resource
ZTE discloses the PUCCH resource including multiple sets of physical resource blocks (PRBs); (slot for transmitting PUCCH contains multiple sets of PRBs (Sections 2.2.1-2.4)
transmit uplink control information (UCI) in a respective set of PRBs of the multiple sets of PRBs of the PUCCH resource (UE transmits PUCCH in an indicated set of PRBs (Sections 2.2.1-2.4)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to implement “the PUCCH resource including multiple sets of physical resource blocks (PRBs); transmit uplink control information (UCI) in a respective set of PRBs of the multiple sets of PRBs of the PUCCH resource” as taught by ZTE into John Wilson’s system with the motivation to perform uplink transmission using a PUCCH resource allocated for simultaneous transmission (ZTE, sections 2.2.1-2.4).
Regarding claims 5, 16, combined system of John Wilson and ZTE does not expressly disclose “wherein a quantity of PRBs for the PUCCH resource is split between a first set of PRBs of the multiple sets of PRBs and a second set of PRBs of the multiple sets of PRBs”
ZTE discloses 2 groups of 2 PRBs in each group of resources (Section 2.3), FIG. 3TC
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to implement “wherein a quantity of PRBs for the PUCCH resource is split between a first set of PRBs of the multiple sets of PRBs and a second set of PRBs of the multiple sets of PRBs” as taught by ZTE into John Wilson’s system with the motivation to perform uplink transmission using a PUCCH resource allocated for simultaneous transmission (ZTE, sections 2.2.1-2.4).
Regarding claims 6, 17, combined system of John Wilson and ZTE does not expressly disclose “wherein a quantity of PRBs for the PUCCH resource is used for a first set of PRBs of the multiple sets of PRBs and the quantity of PRBs for the PUCCH resource is used for a second set of PRBs of the multiple sets of PRBs”
ZTE discloses first set of PRBs comprise 2 PRBs, the second set of PRBs also comprise 2 PRBs
(Section 2.3), FIG. 3
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to implement “wherein a quantity of PRBs for the PUCCH resource is used for a first set of PRBs of the multiple sets of PRBs and the quantity of PRBs for the PUCCH resource is used for a second set of PRBs of the multiple sets of PRBs” as taught by ZTE into John Wilson’s system with the motivation to perform uplink transmission using a PUCCH resource allocated for simultaneous transmission (ZTE, sections 2.2.1-2.4).
Claims 2, 3, 13, 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over John Wilson in view of ZTE as applied to claims 1, 12, and in further view of Yin et al (USPN 20190150143).
Regarding claims 2, 13, combined system of John Wilson and ZTE does not expressly disclose “wherein the UCI is rate matched across the multiple sets of PRBs”
Yin discloses multi-slot long PUCCH encoding and rate matching [0090-0093], FIG. 8
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to implement “wherein the UCI is rate matched across the multiple sets of PRBs” as taught by Yin into combined system of John Wilson and ZTE with the motivation to provide better error correction compared to independent per-beam rate matching.
Regarding claims 3, 14, combined system of John Wilson and ZTE does not expressly disclose “wherein a first repetition of the UCI is transmitted in a first set of PRBs of the multiple sets of PRBs and a second repetition of the UCI is transmitted in a second set of PRBs of the multiple sets of PRB”
Yin discloses multi slot PUCCH and occupies adjacent slots where each slot may be viewed as a long PUCCH and the same UCI may be encoded and repeated in consecutive long PUCCHs in different slots [0092, 0093]
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to implement “wherein a first repetition of the UCI is transmitted in a first set of PRBs of the multiple sets of PRBs and a second repetition of the UCI is transmitted in a second set of PRBs of the multiple sets of PRB” as taught by Yin into combined system of John Wilson and ZTE with the motivation to provide better error correction compared to independent per-beam rate matching.
Claims 7, 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over John Wilson in view of ZTE as applied to claims 1, 12, and in further view of Nory et al (USPN 20200288404).
Regarding claims 7, 18, combined system of John Wilson and ZTE does not expressly disclose “receive another configuration that indicates usage of a first transmit power control (TPC) field and a second TPC field in downlink control information”
Nory discloses fields in DCI used for power control information provided to UE [0010-0014], Table 5.1.1.1-2 to Table 5.1.2.1-2
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to implement “receive another configuration that indicates usage of a first transmit power control (TPC) field and a second TPC field in downlink control information” as taught by Nory into combined system of John Wilson and ZTE with the motivation to control transmit power of each beam independently to reduce interference.
Claims 10, 11, 21, 22 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over John Wilson in view of ZTE as applied to claims 1, 12, and in further view of Yin et al (USPN 20190052421), hereafter Yin’421.
Regarding claims 10, 21, combined system of John Wilson and ZTE expressly disclose “wherein a first transform precoding is used for a first set of PRBs of the multiple sets of PRBs and a second transform precoding is used for a second set of PRBs of the multiple sets of PRBs”
Yin’421 discloses per-format DFT-S OFDM and CP-OFDM for PUCCH transmissions using sets of PRBs [0146, 0147, 0155, 0156]
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to implement “wherein a first transform precoding is used for a first set of PRBs of the multiple sets of PRBs and a second transform precoding is used for a second set of PRBs of the multiple sets of PRBs” as taught by Yin’421 into combined system of John Wilson and ZTE with the motivation to perform precoding per PRB set to allow optimization of PAPR.
Regarding claims 11, 22, combined system of John Wilson and ZTE does not expressly disclose “wherein a single transform precoding is used for a first set of PRBs of the multiple sets of PRBs and a second set of PRBs of the multiple sets
of PRBs”
Yin’421 discloses DFT-S-OFDM applied uniformly to multi-PRB PUCCH format transmissions using sets of PRBs [0062, 0063, 0110]
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to implement “wherein a first transform precoding is used for a first set of PRBs of the multiple sets of PRBs and a second transform precoding is used for a second set of PRBs of the multiple sets of PRBs” as taught by Yin’421 into combined system of John Wilson and ZTE with the motivation to ensure low complexity implementation precoding across both PRB sets.
Claims 4, 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over John Wilson in view of ZTE as applied to claims 1, 12, and in further view of Matsumura et al (USPN 20210368495)
Regarding claims 4, 15, combined system of John Wilson and ZTE does not expressly disclose “wherein the configuration indicates a first starting PRB for a first set of PRBs of the multiple sets of PRBs and a second starting PRB for a second set of PRBs of the multiple sets of PRBs”
Matsumura discloses PUCCH configuration contains a starting PRB and second hop/second starting PRB of 2 sets of PRBs [0038], Abstract
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to implement “wherein the configuration indicates a first starting PRB for a first set of PRBs of the multiple sets of PRBs and a second starting PRB for a second set of PRBs of the multiple sets of PRBs” as taught by Matsumura into combined system of John Wilson and ZTE with the motivation to provide explicit starting of PRBs to reduce processing at UE.
Claims 23, 27 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a) as being anticipated by Zhou et al (USPN 20200007208).
Regarding claim 23, Zhou discloses
an apparatus for wireless communication at a user equipment (UE), comprising: (UE, FIG. 12 #1200, comprising [0097-0099]
one or more memories (memory, FIG. 12 #1212, [0098]
one or more processors, coupled to the one or more memories, the one or more processors configured to cause the UE to: (processor, FIG. 12 #1204, coupled to the memory and operable to perform [0098]
receive a configuration for a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) resource for a transmission via multiple beams in a same time domain resource (receive configuration/multi-beam TCI state for PUCCH resource for transmission via multiple beams simultaneously on same resource [0076, 0077, 0087]
the PUCCH resource including a single set of physical resource blocks (PRBs) (UL resource/PUCCH occupying a number of PRBs/building blocks in 5G [0087, 0070, 0093]
transmit uplink control information (UCI) via the multiple beams simultaneously in the single set of PRBs of the PUCCH resource (transmit UCI via multiple beams simultaneously [0070, 0087, 0093]
Regarding claim 27, Zhou discloses
an apparatus for wireless communication at a user equipment (UE), comprising: (base station, FIG. 12 #1200, comprising [0097-0099]
one or more memories (memory, FIG. 12 #1212, [0098]
one or more processors, coupled to the one or more memories, the one or more processors configured to cause the UE to: (processor, FIG. 12 #1204, coupled to the memory and operable to perform [0098]
transmit a configuration of a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) resource for a transmission via multiple beams in a same time domain (configuration/multi-beam TCI state for PUCCH resource for transmission via multiple beams simultaneously on same resource [0076, 0077, 0087]
the PUCCH resource including a single set of physical resource blocks (PRBs) (UL resource/PUCCH occupying a number of PRBs/building blocks in 5G [0087, 0070, 0093]
receive uplink control information (UCI) via the multiple beams simultaneously in the single set of PRBs of the PUCCH resource (receive UCI via multiple beams simultaneously [0070, 0087, 0093]
Claims 24, 25, 28, 29 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhou in view of John Wilson.
Regarding claims 24, 28, Zhou discloses simultaneous multi-beam transmission of UCI in same wireless resource [0070, 0087, 0093. Zhou does not expressly disclose “in a single frequency network manner”
John Wilson discloses PUCCH signals FIG. 8 #822 824, spanning same duration and same frequency [0067]
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to implement “in a single frequency network manner” as taught by John Wilson into Zhou’s system with the motivation to achieve SFN coherent diversity combining at receiver.
Regarding claims 25, 29, Zhou does not expressly disclose “wherein the UCI is rate matched to the single set of PRBs in connection with a first beam of the multiple beams and a second beam of the multiple beams”
John Wilson discloses UE simultaneously transmits a PUCCH signal, FIG. 8 #822, in a first beam direction, FIG. 8 #832, and a PUCCH signal, FIG. 8 #824, in a second direction, FIG. 8 #834, carrying UCI in same TTI
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to implement “wherein the UCI is rate matched to the single set of PRBs in connection with a first beam of the multiple beams and a second beam of the multiple beams” as taught by John Wilson into Zhou’s system with the motivation to achieve two-beam simultaneous transmission.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 8, 9, 19, 20, 26, 30 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Tsai et al (USPN 20230189362) FIG. 5
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 THAI NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)270-7632. The examiner can normally be reached M-F campus 10:30-5pm, telework 6pm-8pm| Telework count days.
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 N 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.
/THAI NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2469
Prosecution Insights