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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 03/06/2026 has been entered.
Response to Remarks
This Office action is considered fully responsive to the amendments filed 03/06/2026.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see Remarks, filed 03/06/2026, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 1-2, 12, 25-30 under U.S.C. 103 have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of US 20240195545 A1 and US 20180092084 A1.
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.
Claim(s) 1, 25, 27, 29 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Publication No. 2018/0332620 A1 to Malladi et al. (“Malladi”) view of U.S. Publication No. 2024/0195545 A1 to SHIM et al. (“Shim”) and in further view of U.S. Publication No. 2018/0092084 A1 to Yun et al. (“Yun”).
As to claim 1, see similar rejection to claim 27. The apparatus teaches the method.
As to claim 25, see similar rejection to claim 29. The apparatus teaches the method.
As to claim 27, Malladi discloses a user equipment (UE) for wireless communication (fig. 9, para. 0134, UE 905), comprising: a memory (fig. 9, para. 0134, memory 925); and one or more processors coupled to the memory and configured to cause the UE to (fig. 9, para. 0134, processor 920): receive a frequency division multiplexing (FDM) uplink shared channel configuration (para. 0052, Control information and data may be multiplexed on a downlink channel, for example, using time division multiplexing (TDM) techniques, frequency division multiplexing (FDM) techniques, or hybrid TDM-FDM techniques; fig. 2, UE in communication with base station, decodes control channel transmission (i.e. over FDM), para. 0085, for uplink transmission, para. 0045, shared radio frequency spectrum band, i.e. for an uplink shared channel ) associated with a resource block (RB) partitioning scheme for partitioning a set of allocated RBs into a first subset of RBs and a second subset of RBs (para. 0080, UE 205 may select of subset of resource blocks (i.e. a second subset) from the pool of available resource blocks (i.e. remainder being a first subset) for a transmission during a second portion of the time period (and subsequent time period(s), in some examples), wherein the second subset of RBs is associated with an RB offset corresponding to a first starting RB (para. 0081, UE 205 may select the resource blocks for the subset of resource blocks based on an ordered list (i.e. first on list is first starting RB) of the resource blocks in the pool of available resource blocks. For example, UE 205 may associate an identifier (i.e. RB offset) associated with each available resource block that is based on the detected energy levels for the corresponding channel, based on the amount of neighboring resource blocks that are allocated by the legacy devices, based on the order in which the resource block is determined available, and the like. UE 205 may select from the pool of available resource blocks based on the ordered list (e.g., based on the order of the identifier) of resource blocks); and transmit an uplink shared channel signal based at least in part on the FDM uplink shared channel configuration (para. 0052, Control information and data may be multiplexed on a downlink channel, for example, using time division multiplexing (TDM) techniques, frequency division multiplexing (FDM) techniques, or hybrid TDM-FDM techniques; fig. 2, UE in communication with base station, decodes control channel transmission, para. 0085, for uplink transmission, para. 0045, shared radio frequency spectrum band).
Malladi does not expressly disclose and a second starting RB is determined based at least in part on a modulo function of a sum of the first starting RB and the RB offset, the first starting RB comprising an RB of the first subset of RBs having a lowest frequency value of a plurality of frequency values corresponding to the first subset of RBs, and the second starting RB comprises an RB of the second subset of RBs having a lowest frequency value of frequency values corresponding to the second set of RBs.
Shim discloses at para. 0014: a start resource block (RB) during slot n.sub.s.sup.μ for the PUSCH may be determined based on the following equation.
[00001][Equation]RBstart(?)={RBstart.Math.nsμ/W.Math.mod2=0(RBstart+RBoffset)modNBWPsize.Math.nsμ/W.Math.mod2=1, and at para. 0015: RB.sub.start may represent a start RB of the first frequency hop, RB.sub.offset may represent a frequency offset between the first frequency hop and the second frequency hop. N.sub.BWP.sup.SCB may represent a size of an uplink bandwidth part (BWP), and W may represent a length of the time domain window (i.e. a second starting RB is determined based at least in part on a modulo function of a sum of the first starting RB and the RB offset).
Prior to the effective filing date of invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to incorporate the starting RB as taught by Shim into the invention of Malladi. The suggestion/motivation would have been for transmitting a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) in a wireless communication system (Shim, para. 0009). Including the starting RB as taught by Shim into the invention of Malladi was within the ordinary ability of one of ordinary skill in the art based on the teachings of Shim.
Yun discloses at fig. 12B and para. 0183: the resource block size of the first group corresponds to one frequency unit, and the resource block size of the second group corresponds to two frequency units. That is, the resource block size of the second group is two times the resource block size of the first group. At this time, based on an indexing rule 1202 of the first group, 25 resource blocks are indexed from 0 to 24. The second group follows two indexing rules 1206-0 and 1206-1 according to a shift value. In the indexing rule 1206-0, 12 resource blocks are indexed from 0 to 11 such that resource block 0 of the second group starts at the same location as resource block 0 of the first group. In the indexing rule 1206-1, 12 resource blocks are indexed from 0 to 11 such that resource block 0 of the second group starts at the same location as resource block 1 of the first group. That is, the resource blocks indicated by the indexing rule 1206-1 are defined on frequency resource shifted by one frequency unit compared to the resource blocks indicated by the indexing rule 1206-0. As described above, by using the two indexing rules 1206-0 and 1206-1, the resource blocks of the second group defined on the same frequency resources as combinations of all the successive two resource blocks among the 25 resource blocks of the first group may be indicated. That is, by expressing resource allocation information as information (for example, a bitmap) indicating indexes of resource blocks and information (for example, a shift index) indicating a start point of the resource block, the resource blocks of the second group corresponding to all combinations of the successive two frequency units may be indicated (i.e. the first starting RB comprising an RB of the first subset of RBs having a lowest frequency value of a plurality of frequency values corresponding to the first subset of RBs, and the second starting RB comprises an RB of the second subset of RBs having a lowest frequency value of frequency values corresponding to the second set of RBs).
Prior to the effective filing date of invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to incorporate the starting RBs as taught by Yun into the invention of Malladi and Shim. The suggestion/motivation would have been to support mixed numerology in a wireless communication system. Including t the starting RBs as taught by Yun into the invention of Malladi and Shim was within the ordinary ability of one of ordinary skill in the art based on the teachings of Yun.
As to claim 29, Malladi discloses a network node for wireless communication (fig. 2, base station), comprising: one or more memories (para. 0165, The functions described herein may be implemented in hardware, software executed by a processor, firmware, or any combination thereof. If implemented in software executed by a processor, the functions may be stored on or transmitted over as one or more instructions or code on a computer-readable medium. Other examples and implementations are within the scope of the disclosure and appended claims. For example, due to the nature of software, functions described above can be implemented using software executed by a processor, hardware, firmware, hardwiring, or combinations of any of these); and one or more processors coupled to the one or more memories and configured to cause the network node to (para. 0165, The functions described herein may be implemented in hardware, software executed by a processor, firmware, or any combination thereof. If implemented in software executed by a processor, the functions may be stored on or transmitted over as one or more instructions or code on a computer-readable medium. Other examples and implementations are within the scope of the disclosure and appended claims. For example, due to the nature of software, functions described above can be implemented using software executed by a processor, hardware, firmware, hardwiring, or combinations of any of these): transmit a frequency division multiplexing (FDM) uplink shared channel configuration (para. 0052, Control information and data may be multiplexed on a downlink channel, for example, using time division multiplexing (TDM) techniques, frequency division multiplexing (FDM) techniques, or hybrid TDM-FDM techniques; fig. 2, UE in communication with base station, decodes control channel transmission (i.e. over FDM), para. 0085, for uplink transmission, para. 0045, shared radio frequency spectrum band, i.e. for an uplink shared channel ) associated with a resource block (RB) partitioning scheme for partitioning a set of allocated RBs into a first subset of RBs and a second subset of RBs (para. 0080, UE 205 may select of subset of resource blocks (i.e. a second subset) from the pool of available resource blocks (i.e. remainder being a first subset) for a transmission during a second portion of the time period (and subsequent time period(s), in some examples), wherein the second subset of RBs is associated with an RB offset corresponding to a first starting RB (para. 0081, UE 205 may select the resource blocks for the subset of resource blocks based on an ordered list (i.e. first on list is first starting RB) of the resource blocks in the pool of available resource blocks. For example, UE 205 may associate an identifier (i.e. RB offset) associated with each available resource block that is based on the detected energy levels for the corresponding channel, based on the amount of neighboring resource blocks that are allocated by the legacy devices, based on the order in which the resource block is determined available, and the like. UE 205 may select from the pool of available resource blocks based on the ordered list (e.g., based on the order of the identifier) of resource blocks); and receive an uplink shared channel signal based at least in part on the FDM uplink shared channel configuration (para. 0052, Control information and data may be multiplexed on a downlink channel, for example, using time division multiplexing (TDM) techniques, frequency division multiplexing (FDM) techniques, or hybrid TDM-FDM techniques; fig. 2, UE in communication with base station, decodes control channel transmission, para. 0085, for uplink transmission, para. 0045, shared radio frequency spectrum band).
Malladi does not expressly disclose and a second starting RB is determined based at least in part on a modulo function of a sum of the first starting RB and the RB offset, the first starting RB comprising an RB of the first subset of RBs having a lowest frequency value of a plurality of frequency values corresponding to the first subset of RBs, and the second starting RB comprises an RB of the second subset of RBs having a lowest frequency value of frequency values corresponding to the second set of RBs.
Shim discloses at para. 0014: a start resource block (RB) during slot n.sub.s.sup.μ for the PUSCH may be determined based on the following equation.
[00001][Equation]RBstart(?)={RBstart.Math.nsμ/W.Math.mod2=0(RBstart+RBoffset)modNBWPsize.Math.nsμ/W.Math.mod2=1, and at para. 0015: RB.sub.start may represent a start RB of the first frequency hop, RB.sub.offset may represent a frequency offset between the first frequency hop and the second frequency hop. N.sub.BWP.sup.SCB may represent a size of an uplink bandwidth part (BWP), and W may represent a length of the time domain window (i.e. a second starting RB is determined based at least in part on a modulo function of a sum of the first starting RB and the RB offset).
Prior to the effective filing date of invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to incorporate the starting RB as taught by Shim into the invention of Malladi. The suggestion/motivation would have been for transmitting a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) in a wireless communication system (Shim, para. 0009). Including the starting RB as taught by Shim into the invention of Malladi was within the ordinary ability of one of ordinary skill in the art based on the teachings of Shim.
Yun discloses at fig. 12B and para. 0183: the resource block size of the first group corresponds to one frequency unit, and the resource block size of the second group corresponds to two frequency units. That is, the resource block size of the second group is two times the resource block size of the first group. At this time, based on an indexing rule 1202 of the first group, 25 resource blocks are indexed from 0 to 24. The second group follows two indexing rules 1206-0 and 1206-1 according to a shift value. In the indexing rule 1206-0, 12 resource blocks are indexed from 0 to 11 such that resource block 0 of the second group starts at the same location as resource block 0 of the first group. In the indexing rule 1206-1, 12 resource blocks are indexed from 0 to 11 such that resource block 0 of the second group starts at the same location as resource block 1 of the first group. That is, the resource blocks indicated by the indexing rule 1206-1 are defined on frequency resource shifted by one frequency unit compared to the resource blocks indicated by the indexing rule 1206-0. As described above, by using the two indexing rules 1206-0 and 1206-1, the resource blocks of the second group defined on the same frequency resources as combinations of all the successive two resource blocks among the 25 resource blocks of the first group may be indicated. That is, by expressing resource allocation information as information (for example, a bitmap) indicating indexes of resource blocks and information (for example, a shift index) indicating a start point of the resource block, the resource blocks of the second group corresponding to all combinations of the successive two frequency units may be indicated (i.e. the first starting RB comprising an RB of the first subset of RBs having a lowest frequency value of a plurality of frequency values corresponding to the first subset of RBs, and the second starting RB comprises an RB of the second subset of RBs having a lowest frequency value of frequency values corresponding to the second set of RBs).
Prior to the effective filing date of invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to incorporate the starting RBs as taught by Yun into the invention of Malladi and Shim. The suggestion/motivation would have been to support mixed numerology in a wireless communication system. Including t the starting RBs as taught by Yun into the invention of Malladi and Shim was within the ordinary ability of one of ordinary skill in the art based on the teachings of Yun.
Claim(s) 2 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Publication No. 2018/0332620 A1 to Malladi et al. (“Malladi”) view of U.S. Publication No. 2024/0195545 A1 to SHIM et al. (“Shim”) and U.S. Publication No. 2018/0092084 A1 to Yun et al. (“Yun”) and in further view of U.S. Publication No. 2023/0139455 A1 to Chatterjee et al. (“Chatterjee”).
As to claim 2, Malladi, Shim, and Yun does not expressly disclose the method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a downlink control information (DCI) transmission comprising a frequency domain resource allocation (FDRA) field that indicates the set of RBs.
Chatterjee discloses at para. 0093, scheduling DCI from the frequency-domain RA field, the RBG sizes for carrier bandwidth (BW) or bandwidth part (BWP) with a large number of PRBs can be quite large, especially if 550 PRBs are supported (e.g., in NR Rel-15 or in a future NR Release). Further, at para. 0184, the RA field indicates a resource indication value (RIV) indicating a starting PRB and a length indicating a number of contiguous PRBs with the starting PRB that comprise the allocated PRBs. The DCI may include a header bit in the RA field indicating a frequency-domain RA type and a BWP indicator field indicating the allocated BWP for the PDSCH or PUSCH transmissions.
Prior to the effective filing date of invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to incorporate the PRBs as taught by Chatterjee into the invention of Malladi, Shim, and Yun. The suggestion/motivation would have been to have NR frequency-domain resource allocation techniques (Chatterjee, para. 0002). Including the PRBs as taught by Chatterjee into the invention of Malladi, Shim, and Yun was within the ordinary ability of one of ordinary skill in the art based on the teachings of Chatterjee.
Claim(s) 12, 26, 28, 30 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Publication No. 2018/0332620 A1 to Malladi et al. (“Malladi”) view of U.S. Publication No. 2024/0195545 A1 to SHIM et al. (“Shim”) and in further view of U.S. Publication No. 2018/0092084 A1 to Yun et al. (“Yun”) and in further view of WO 2023209874 A1 to HARADA et al. (“Harada”) [see attached English translation for citations].
As to claim 12, see similar rejection to claim 28. The apparatus teaches the method.
As to claim 26, see similar rejection to claim 30. The apparatus teaches the method.
As to claim 28, Malladi, Shim, and Yun do not expressly disclose the UE of claim 27, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to cause the UE to receive a frequency hopping indication having a specified value, wherein the one or more processors, to cause the UE to transmit the uplink shared channel signal based at least in part on the FDM uplink shared channel configuration, are configured to cause the UE to apply the FDM uplink configuration based at least in part on the frequency hopping indication having the specified value.
Harada discloses at page 6 for a MSGA-PUSCH-Resource, A parameter indicating the number of message A PUSCH opportunities to be FDMed in one time
instance (e.g. nrofMsgA-PO-FDM). A parameter indicating intra-slot frequency hopping for each PUSCH occasion (eg, msgAIntraSlotFrequencyHopping).
Prior to the effective filing date of invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to incorporate parameters as taught by Harada into the invention of Malladi, Shim, and Yun. The suggestion/motivation would have been to improve usage efficiency (Harada, page 2). Including the parameters as taught by Harada into the invention of Malladi, Shim, and Yun was within the ordinary ability of one of ordinary skill in the art based on the teachings of Harada.
As to claim 30, Malladi, Shim, and Yun does not expressly disclose the network node of claim 29, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to cause the network node to transmit a frequency hopping indication having a specified value, and wherein the one or more processors, to cause the network node to receive the uplink shared channel signal based at least in part on the FDM uplink shared channel configuration, are configured to cause the network node to receive the uplink shared channel signal in accordance with the FDM uplink configuration based at least in part on the frequency hopping indication having the specified value.
Harada discloses at page 6 for a MSGA-PUSCH-Resource, A parameter indicating the number of message A PUSCH opportunities to be FDMed in one time
instance (e.g. nrofMsgA-PO-FDM). A parameter indicating intra-slot frequency hopping for each PUSCH occasion (eg, msgAIntraSlotFrequencyHopping).
Prior to the effective filing date of invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to incorporate parameters as taught by Harada into the invention of Malladi, Shim, and Yun. The suggestion/motivation would have been to improve usage efficiency (Harada, page 2). Including the parameters as taught by Harada into the invention of Malladi, Shim, and Yun was within the ordinary ability of one of ordinary skill in the art based on the teachings of Harada.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-11, 13-24 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
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to OMAR J GHOWRWAL whose telephone number is (571)270-5691. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:00am-6:00pm.
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/OMAR J GHOWRWAL/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2463
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