DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA . In virtue of the Application filed on 01/30/2024 and the preliminary amendment filed on 01/30/2024, in which claims 3-5 are amended, claims 7-12 are added, wherein claims 1-12 are pending wherein claims 1, 6 are recited in independent form. The present Application is a 371 of PCT/JP2021/028841 with a filing date of 08/3/2021.
Claim Interpretation
The claims in this application are given their broadest reasonable interpretation using the plain meaning of the claim language in light of the specification as it would be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art, without importing limitations from the specification. The broadest reasonable interpretation of a claim element (also commonly referred to as a claim limitation) is only limited by the description in the specification when 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, is invoked and is otherwise given the broadest reasonable interpretation. The Examiner has not identified any language which invokes 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, therefore the limitations will be given the broadest reasonable interpretation, without importing limitations for the specification.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 5, 10, 11 and 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claims 5, 10, 11, 12, recite the limitation "wherein a frequency resource of the second uplink control channel used by the terminal is used as a frequency resource of the second uplink control channel by equal to or more than two other terminals by time-division multiplexing". The claims fail to particularly point out an distinctly claim that which the Applicant regards as the invention. The Examiner, as well as one of ordinary skill in the art, is unable to determine from the claim language the requirements of the claim. The Examiner is unable to make clear sense of the requirements imposed by the language. The claims fail to particularly point out and distinctly claim that which the Applicant regards as the invention. Therefore, claims 5, 10, 11, 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
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 of this title, 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 set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied 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.
Claims 1-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US-20220272690 to Tian et al (hereinafter d1) in view of US-20190141742 to Zhou et al (hereinafter d2).
Regarding claim 1, as to the limitations “A terminal comprising: a control unit configured to determine a number of resource blocks to be used in a second uplink control channel that is used before a terminal-dedicated resource for a first uplink control channel is configured as a value greater than one; and a transmission unit configured to perform transmission by the second uplink control channel using the number of resource blocks” d1 discloses a system comprising at least a terminal and base station (see d1 Fig. 1) wherein the terminal comprises at least a processor (i.e. control unit) and transmitter (i.e. transmission unit) (see d1 para. 0006) as well as a base station which comprises at least a transmitter (i.e. transmission unit) (i.e. reception unit) (see d1 para. 0011); wherein it is suggested that a processor and memory are configured to identify (i.e. determine) a plurality of resource block (RB) sets (i.e. a value greater that one) allocated for transmission of uplink control information (i.e. uplink control channel); wherein each RB set of the plurality of RB sets may include a plurality of contiguous resource blocks (RBs) and the processor and the memory are configured to determine cyclic shift ramping to be applied to successive RB sets of the plurality of RB sets, and to transmit via the transceiver the uplink control information via the plurality of RB sets according to the cyclic shift ramping (see d1 para. 0006);
As to the limitation “terminal-dedicated resource”d1 discloses dedicated resource that may be construed as terminal-dedicated (see d1 para. 0058), which may not directly align with the terminal-dedicated resource required by the claims, but may be considered equivalent under a broadest reasonable interpretation. However, in order to provide the most complete and effective examination, attention is directed to d2 which together with the disclosure of d1 addresses all the limitations noted above which are met by d1 and further discloses teachings relative to the limitation “terminal-dedicated resource”, wherein d1 and d2 considered together meet all the limitations in question, possibly alone, but certainly in combination. Wherein d2, in a similar field of endeavor of wireless communication (see d2, Abstract), further suggests embodiments including determine a number of resource blocks to be used in a second uplink control channel that is used before a terminal-dedicated resource for a first uplink control channel is configured as a value greater than one (see d2 para. 0521, 0531, 0535, 0549, 0538, 0553) as it relates to uplink control channel (see d2 para. 0511, 0516, 0526) and allocation of resource blocks (see d2 para. 0156, 0233, 0234, 0279, 0449); and a transmission unit configured to perform transmission by the second uplink control channel using the number of resource blocks. D2 also specifically discloses a number of resource blocks to be used in a second uplink control channel that is used before a terminal-dedicated resource for a first uplink control channel is configured as a value greater than one (see d2 para. 0231; see also para. 0173, 0192, 0282, 0393, 0439).
Regarding a motivation to combine d1 and d2, it is noted that d1 and d2 are executed in similar field of endeavor (wireless communication), involving similar procedure (NR involving resource blocks) wherein the disclosure of d1 and/or d2 also contains ample teaching, suggestion, or motivation in the prior art that would have led one of ordinary skill to modify the prior art reference or to combine prior art reference teachings to arrive at the claimed invention including to improve performance (see d2 para. 0301). Such teaching, suggestion, and/or motivation, is found in references d1 and/or d2, as well as being found squarely within the knowledge generally available to one of ordinary skill in the art. One of ordinary skill in the art would look to modify d1 with the teaching of d2 in order to achieve the stated advantages of improved performance, among many other reasons obvious in the disclosure of d1 and/or d2. Furthermore, the techniques are employed in the same field of endeavor (wireless communication) in a similar manner (NR) for similar purposes (enhanced performance) which would yield a reasonable expectation of success.
Regarding claim 2, as to the limitation “The terminal as claimed in claim 1, the terminal further comprising: a reception unit configured to receive information indicating the number of the resource blocks as cell-specific information from a base station, or to receive the information indicating the number of the resource blocks as terminal-specific information from the base station” d1 in view of d2 suggests cell-specific information or terminal-specific information (see d1 para. 0415 as well as paras. 0061, 0120, 0158; d2 para. 0231, 0234-0235, 0244, 0269-0271, 0286, 0375, 0389, 0391-0393, 0401, 0418-0419).
Regarding a motivation to combine d1 and d2, it is noted that d1 and d2 are executed in similar field of endeavor (wireless communication), involving similar procedure (NR involving resource blocks) wherein the disclosure of d1 and/or d2 also contains ample teaching, suggestion, or motivation in the prior art that would have led one of ordinary skill to modify the prior art reference or to combine prior art reference teachings to arrive at the claimed invention including to improve performance (see d2 para. 0301). Such teaching, suggestion, and/or motivation, is found in references d1 and/or d2, as well as being found squarely within the knowledge generally available to one of ordinary skill in the art. One of ordinary skill in the art would look to modify d1 with the teaching of d2 in order to achieve the stated advantages of improved performance, among many other reasons obvious in the disclosure of d1 and/or d2. Furthermore, the techniques are employed in the same field of endeavor (wireless communication) in a similar manner (NR) for similar purposes (enhanced performance) which would yield a reasonable expectation of success.
Regarding claim 3, as to the limitation “The terminal as claimed in claim 1, wherein the control unit uses an offset according to a size of a frequency resource in the second uplink control channel to determine a frequency position of the frequency resource” d1 in view of d2 suggests using offset (see d1 para. 0006) in connection with to a size of a frequency resource in the second uplink control channel to determine a frequency position of the frequency resource (see d2 para. 0303, 0310-0314; see also para. 0319, 0322-0323, 0173, 0192, 0233, 0276, 0282, 0284).
Regarding a motivation to combine d1 and d2, it is noted that d1 and d2 are executed in similar field of endeavor (wireless communication), involving similar procedure (NR involving resource blocks) wherein the disclosure of d1 and/or d2 also contains ample teaching, suggestion, or motivation in the prior art that would have led one of ordinary skill to modify the prior art reference or to combine prior art reference teachings to arrive at the claimed invention including to improve performance (see d2 para. 0301). Such teaching, suggestion, and/or motivation, is found in references d1 and/or d2, as well as being found squarely within the knowledge generally available to one of ordinary skill in the art. One of ordinary skill in the art would look to modify d1 with the teaching of d2 in order to achieve the stated advantages of improved performance, among many other reasons obvious in the disclosure of d1 and/or d2. Furthermore, the techniques are employed in the same field of endeavor (wireless communication) in a similar manner (NR) for similar purposes (enhanced performance) which would yield a reasonable expectation of success.
Regarding claim 4, as to the limitation “The terminal as claimed in claim 1, wherein a resource in the second uplink control channel in a cell is a resource for which overlapping with a resource of the second uplink control channel in another cell is allowed” d1 in view of d2 suggests allowed overlapping (see d1 para. 0048; d2 para. 0280, 0360, 0420, 0448).
Regarding a motivation to combine d1 and d2, it is noted that d1 and d2 are executed in similar field of endeavor (wireless communication), involving similar procedure (NR involving resource blocks) wherein the disclosure of d1 and/or d2 also contains ample teaching, suggestion, or motivation in the prior art that would have led one of ordinary skill to modify the prior art reference or to combine prior art reference teachings to arrive at the claimed invention including to improve performance (see d2 para. 0301). Such teaching, suggestion, and/or motivation, is found in references d1 and/or d2, as well as being found squarely within the knowledge generally available to one of ordinary skill in the art. One of ordinary skill in the art would look to modify d1 with the teaching of d2 in order to achieve the stated advantages of improved performance, among many other reasons obvious in the disclosure of d1 and/or d2. Furthermore, the techniques are employed in the same field of endeavor (wireless communication) in a similar manner (NR) for similar purposes (enhanced performance) which would yield a reasonable expectation of success.
Regarding claim 5, as to the limitation “The terminal as claimed in claim 1, wherein a frequency resource of the second uplink control channel used by the terminal is used as a frequency resource of the second uplink control channel by equal to or more than two other terminals by time-division multiplexing” d1 in view of d2 suggests a frequency resource of the second uplink control channel used by the terminal is used as a frequency resource of the second uplink control channel by equal to or more than two other terminals by time-division multiplexing (see d2 para. 0142, 0156, 0231-0232, 0234).
Regarding a motivation to combine d1 and d2, it is noted that d1 and d2 are executed in similar field of endeavor (wireless communication), involving similar procedure (NR involving resource blocks) wherein the disclosure of d1 and/or d2 also contains ample teaching, suggestion, or motivation in the prior art that would have led one of ordinary skill to modify the prior art reference or to combine prior art reference teachings to arrive at the claimed invention including to improve performance (see d2 para. 0301). Such teaching, suggestion, and/or motivation, is found in references d1 and/or d2, as well as being found squarely within the knowledge generally available to one of ordinary skill in the art. One of ordinary skill in the art would look to modify d1 with the teaching of d2 in order to achieve the stated advantages of improved performance, among many other reasons obvious in the disclosure of d1 and/or d2. Furthermore, the techniques are employed in the same field of endeavor (wireless communication) in a similar manner (NR) for similar purposes (enhanced performance) which would yield a reasonable expectation of success.
Regarding claim 7, as to the limitation “The terminal as claimed in claim 2, wherein the control unit uses an offset according to a size of a frequency resource in the second uplink control channel to determine a frequency position of the frequency resource” d1 in view of d2 suggests using offset (see d1 para. 0006) in connection with to a size of a frequency resource in the second uplink control channel to determine a frequency position of the frequency resource (see d2 para. 0303, 0310-0314; see also para. 0319, 0322-0323, 0173, 0192, 0233, 0276, 0282, 0284).
Regarding a motivation to combine d1 and d2, it is noted that d1 and d2 are executed in similar field of endeavor (wireless communication), involving similar procedure (NR involving resource blocks) wherein the disclosure of d1 and/or d2 also contains ample teaching, suggestion, or motivation in the prior art that would have led one of ordinary skill to modify the prior art reference or to combine prior art reference teachings to arrive at the claimed invention including to improve performance (see d2 para. 0301). Such teaching, suggestion, and/or motivation, is found in references d1 and/or d2, as well as being found squarely within the knowledge generally available to one of ordinary skill in the art. One of ordinary skill in the art would look to modify d1 with the teaching of d2 in order to achieve the stated advantages of improved performance, among many other reasons obvious in the disclosure of d1 and/or d2. Furthermore, the techniques are employed in the same field of endeavor (wireless communication) in a similar manner (NR) for similar purposes (enhanced performance) which would yield a reasonable expectation of success.
Regarding claim 8, as to the limitation “The terminal as claimed in claim 2, wherein a resource in the second uplink control channel in a cell is a resource for which overlapping with a resource of the second uplink control channel in another cell is allowed” d1 in view of d2 suggests allowed overlapping (see d1 para. 0048; d2 para. 0280, 0360, 0420, 0448).
Regarding a motivation to combine d1 and d2, it is noted that d1 and d2 are executed in similar field of endeavor (wireless communication), involving similar procedure (NR involving resource blocks) wherein the disclosure of d1 and/or d2 also contains ample teaching, suggestion, or motivation in the prior art that would have led one of ordinary skill to modify the prior art reference or to combine prior art reference teachings to arrive at the claimed invention including to improve performance (see d2 para. 0301). Such teaching, suggestion, and/or motivation, is found in references d1 and/or d2, as well as being found squarely within the knowledge generally available to one of ordinary skill in the art. One of ordinary skill in the art would look to modify d1 with the teaching of d2 in order to achieve the stated advantages of improved performance, among many other reasons obvious in the disclosure of d1 and/or d2. Furthermore, the techniques are employed in the same field of endeavor (wireless communication) in a similar manner (NR) for similar purposes (enhanced performance) which would yield a reasonable expectation of success.
Regarding claim 9, as to the limitation “The terminal as claimed in claim 3, wherein a resource in the second uplink control channel in a cell is a resource for which overlapping with a resource of the second uplink control channel in another cell is allowed” d1 in view of d2 suggests allowed overlapping (see d1 para. 0048; d2 para. 0280, 0360, 0420, 0448).
Regarding a motivation to combine d1 and d2, it is noted that d1 and d2 are executed in similar field of endeavor (wireless communication), involving similar procedure (NR involving resource blocks) wherein the disclosure of d1 and/or d2 also contains ample teaching, suggestion, or motivation in the prior art that would have led one of ordinary skill to modify the prior art reference or to combine prior art reference teachings to arrive at the claimed invention including to improve performance (see d2 para. 0301). Such teaching, suggestion, and/or motivation, is found in references d1 and/or d2, as well as being found squarely within the knowledge generally available to one of ordinary skill in the art. One of ordinary skill in the art would look to modify d1 with the teaching of d2 in order to achieve the stated advantages of improved performance, among many other reasons obvious in the disclosure of d1 and/or d2. Furthermore, the techniques are employed in the same field of endeavor (wireless communication) in a similar manner (NR) for similar purposes (enhanced performance) which would yield a reasonable expectation of success.
Regarding claim 10, as to the limitation “The terminal as claimed in claim 2, wherein a frequency resource of the second uplink control channel used by the terminal is used as a frequency resource of the second uplink control channel by equal to or more than two other terminals by time-division multiplexing” d1 in view of d2 suggests a frequency resource of the second uplink control channel used by the terminal is used as a frequency resource of the second uplink control channel by equal to or more than two other terminals by time-division multiplexing (see d2 para. 0142, 0156, 0231-0232, 0234).
Regarding a motivation to combine d1 and d2, it is noted that d1 and d2 are executed in similar field of endeavor (wireless communication), involving similar procedure (NR involving resource blocks) wherein the disclosure of d1 and/or d2 also contains ample teaching, suggestion, or motivation in the prior art that would have led one of ordinary skill to modify the prior art reference or to combine prior art reference teachings to arrive at the claimed invention including to improve performance (see d2 para. 0301). Such teaching, suggestion, and/or motivation, is found in references d1 and/or d2, as well as being found squarely within the knowledge generally available to one of ordinary skill in the art. One of ordinary skill in the art would look to modify d1 with the teaching of d2 in order to achieve the stated advantages of improved performance, among many other reasons obvious in the disclosure of d1 and/or d2. Furthermore, the techniques are employed in the same field of endeavor (wireless communication) in a similar manner (NR) for similar purposes (enhanced performance) which would yield a reasonable expectation of success.
Regarding claim 11, as to the limitation “The terminal as claimed in claim 3, wherein a frequency resource of the second uplink control channel used by the terminal is used as a frequency resource of the second uplink control channel by equal to or more than two other terminals by time-division multiplexing” d1 in view of d2 suggests a frequency resource of the second uplink control channel used by the terminal is used as a frequency resource of the second uplink control channel by equal to or more than two other terminals by time-division multiplexing (see d2 para. 0142, 0156, 0231-0232, 0234).
Regarding a motivation to combine d1 and d2, it is noted that d1 and d2 are executed in similar field of endeavor (wireless communication), involving similar procedure (NR involving resource blocks) wherein the disclosure of d1 and/or d2 also contains ample teaching, suggestion, or motivation in the prior art that would have led one of ordinary skill to modify the prior art reference or to combine prior art reference teachings to arrive at the claimed invention including to improve performance (see d2 para. 0301). Such teaching, suggestion, and/or motivation, is found in references d1 and/or d2, as well as being found squarely within the knowledge generally available to one of ordinary skill in the art. One of ordinary skill in the art would look to modify d1 with the teaching of d2 in order to achieve the stated advantages of improved performance, among many other reasons obvious in the disclosure of d1 and/or d2. Furthermore, the techniques are employed in the same field of endeavor (wireless communication) in a similar manner (NR) for similar purposes (enhanced performance) which would yield a reasonable expectation of success.
Regarding claim 12, as to the limitation “The terminal as claimed in claim 4, wherein a frequency resource of the second uplink control channel used by the terminal is used as a frequency resource of the second uplink control channel by equal to or more than two other terminals by time-division multiplexing” d1 in view of d2 suggests a frequency resource of the second uplink control channel used by the terminal is used as a frequency resource of the second uplink control channel by equal to or more than two other terminals by time-division multiplexing (see d2 para. 0142, 0156, 0231-0232, 0234).
Regarding a motivation to combine d1 and d2, it is noted that d1 and d2 are executed in similar field of endeavor (wireless communication), involving similar procedure (NR involving resource blocks) wherein the disclosure of d1 and/or d2 also contains ample teaching, suggestion, or motivation in the prior art that would have led one of ordinary skill to modify the prior art reference or to combine prior art reference teachings to arrive at the claimed invention including to improve performance (see d2 para. 0301). Such teaching, suggestion, and/or motivation, is found in references d1 and/or d2, as well as being found squarely within the knowledge generally available to one of ordinary skill in the art. One of ordinary skill in the art would look to modify d1 with the teaching of d2 in order to achieve the stated advantages of improved performance, among many other reasons obvious in the disclosure of d1 and/or d2. Furthermore, the techniques are employed in the same field of endeavor (wireless communication) in a similar manner (NR) for similar purposes (enhanced performance) which would yield a reasonable expectation of success.
*** DO CLAIM 6****
Regarding claim 6, as to the limitations “A base station comprising: a transmission unit configured to transmit, to a terminal, information indicating a number of resource blocks to be used in a second uplink control channel that is used before a terminal-dedicated resource for a first uplink control channel is configured as cell-specific information, or to transmit, to the terminal, the information indicating the number of the resource blocks as terminal-specific information; and a reception unit configured to receive a signal transmitted by the second uplink control channel using the number of resource blocks” d1 discloses a system comprising at least a terminal and base station (see d1 Fig. 1) wherein the terminal comprises at least a processor (i.e. control unit) and transmitter (i.e. transmission unit) (see d1 para. 0006) as well as a base station which comprises at least a transmitter (i.e. transmission unit) (i.e. reception unit) (see d1 para. 0011); wherein it is suggested that a processor and memory are configured to identify (i.e. determine) a plurality of resource block (RB) sets (i.e. a value greater that one) allocated for transmission of uplink control information (i.e. uplink control channel); wherein each RB set of the plurality of RB sets may include a plurality of contiguous resource blocks (RBs) and the processor and the memory are configured to determine cyclic shift ramping to be applied to successive RB sets of the plurality of RB sets, and to transmit via the transceiver the uplink control information via the plurality of RB sets according to the cyclic shift ramping (see d1 para. 0006);
As to the limitation “terminal-dedicated resource” “cell-specific information” “terminal-specific information” d1 discloses dedicated resource that may be construed as terminal-dedicated (see d1 para. 0058), which may not directly align with the terminal-dedicated resource required by the claims, but may be considered equivalent under a broadest reasonable interpretation. However, in order to provide the most complete and effective examination, attention is directed to d2 which together with the disclosure of d1 addresses all the limitations noted above which are met by d1 and further discloses teachings relative to the limitation “terminal-dedicated resource”, wherein d1 and d2 considered together meet all the limitations in question, possibly alone, but certainly in combination. Wherein d2, in a similar field of endeavor of wireless communication (see d2, Abstract), further suggests embodiments including determine a number of resource blocks to be used in a second uplink control channel that is used before a terminal-dedicated resource for a first uplink control channel is configured as a value greater than one (see d2 para. 0521, 0531, 0535, 0549, 0538, 0553) as it relates to uplink control channel (see d2 para. 0511, 0516, 0526) and allocation of resource blocks (see d2 para. 0156, 0233, 0234, 0279, 0449); and a transmission unit configured to perform transmission by the second uplink control channel using the number of resource blocks. D2 also specifically discloses a terminal-dedicated resource (see d2 para. 0231; see also para. 0173, 0192, 0282, 0393, 0439), as well as UE-specific information and cell-specific information (see d2 para. 0415, see also para. 0231, 0234-0235, 0244, 0269-0271, 0274, 0286, 0375, 0389, 0391-0393, 0401, 0418-0419).
Regarding a motivation to combine d1 and d2, it is noted that d1 and d2 are executed in similar field of endeavor (wireless communication), involving similar procedure (NR involving resource blocks) wherein the disclosure of d1 and/or d2 also contains ample teaching, suggestion, or motivation in the prior art that would have led one of ordinary skill to modify the prior art reference or to combine prior art reference teachings to arrive at the claimed invention including to improve performance (see d2 para. 0301). Such teaching, suggestion, and/or motivation, is found in references d1 and/or d2, as well as being found squarely within the knowledge generally available to one of ordinary skill in the art. One of ordinary skill in the art would look to modify d1 with the teaching of d2 in order to achieve the stated advantages of improved performance, among many other reasons obvious in the disclosure of d1 and/or d2. Furthermore, the techniques are employed in the same field of endeavor (wireless communication) in a similar manner (NR) for similar purposes (enhanced performance) which would yield a reasonable expectation of success..
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/NATHAN S TAYLOR/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2643