DETAILED ACTION
RCE
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 03/11/2026 has been entered.
Response to Remark
This communication is considered fully responsive to the amendment filed on 03/11/26.
Independent claims have been amended.
Claims 3 and 17 have been canceled.
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 6-7 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.
In claim 6, line 2, what is mean by “TPMI?”
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)(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 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 13-16, 18, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being unpatentable by Gao et al. (US 2023/0171763, “Gao”, Provisional’707 discloses Fig.1-18 and the related paragraphs of Gao, except Fig.9A-B).
Regarding claim 1, Gao discloses a method for processing configured grant configuration, comprising:
- receiving, by a terminal, at least one configured grant (CG) configuration from a network node (See Fig.4, UE receives ‘PDCCH, DCI (SRI1, SRI2)’ from a network; See ¶.9, UL data transmission can be dynamically scheduled by an UL grant contained in DCI carried by a PDCCH; See ¶.24, configure semi-persistent transmission of PUSCH using configured grants (CGs)), wherein the CG configuration comprises two sounding reference signal resource indicators (SRIs) (See Fig.4, UE receives SRI1 and SRI2 from a network as shown below:
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See ¶.80, the DCI comprises one or more SRIs that indicate the two or more SRS resources) and two sets of power control parameters corresponding to the two SRIs respectively (See ¶.61, for each SRI, a pathloss RS and a set of power control parameters (e.g., fractional power control coefficient, P0, closed-loop index) are preconfigured and signaled to a UE. PUSCH open loop transmit power is then derived based the SRI indicated in the DCI and the associated pre-configured pathloss RS and the set of power control parameters; See ¶.178, the wireless communication device receives information that defines, for each SRI of a set of SRIs, an association between the SRI and one or more pathloss reference signals and one or more sets of power control parameters), and one of the two SRIs is used for indicating one or more sounding reference signal (SRS) resources (See Fig.4, SRI1 & SRS#1, SRI2 & SRS#2; See ¶.156, each SRI field may also include a codepoint to indicate the corresponding SRS resource is not selected; See ¶.178, the wireless communication device may receive a configuration of a pathloss reference signal and a set of power control related parameters for each SRS resource (e.g., in the case of a single SRS resource set) or for each SRS resource set (e.g., in the case of two (or more) SRS resource sets); See ¶.64, the first and second SRS resources are indicated in a first and a second SRI fields in the DCI, respectively);
- determining, based on the two sets of power control parameters comprised in the CG configuration, a power control parameter corresponding to a PUSCH retransmission of CG scheduled by DCI (See ¶.65, the first and second parts of the physical uplink channel transmission are transmitted with a first and second transmit powers, respectively, wherein the first and second transmit powers are calculated based on the first and second sets of power control parameters, respectively; See ¶.67, the DCI further indicates a first and second Transmit Power Control (TPC) commands for the first and second parts of the physical uplink channel transmission, respectively; See ¶.83, transmitting the first part of the one or more PUSCHs comprises transmitting the first part of the one or more PUSCHs in accordance the set of power control parameters associated to the first TCI state, and transmitting the second part of the one or more PUSCHs comprises transmitting the second part of the one or more PUSCHs in accordance the set of power control parameters associated to the second TCI state; See ¶.144, separate PUSCHs can be transmitted to each TRP. An example is shown in FIG.5, where a UE transmits two PUSCHs (PUSCH1 and PUSCH2) for a same TB to two TRPs (TRP1 and TRP2). In this case, PUSCH2 can be considered as a retransmission of the TB with a same or different redundancy version); and
- transmitting uplink data to the network node based on the power control parameter, wherein the power control parameter of the PUSCH retransmission of CG scheduled by DCI is associated with one of the two sets of power control parameters of one SRS resource set (See ¶.72, DCI that schedules a physical uplink channel transmission comprising a first part associated to a first SRS resource in the first SRS resource set and a second part associated to a second SRS resource in the second SRS resource set, wherein the first and second SRS resources are indicated in the DCI. The wireless communication device is further configured to transmit the physical uplink channel transmission in accordance with the DCI; See further ¶.152-155 for each of the SRS resource sets is associated with a set of power control parameters in PUSCH transmission; See ¶.65, receiving a configuration of first and second sets of power control parameters associated with the first and second SRS resources, respectively), and the one SRS resource set is configured by one of the two SRI (See ¶.64, the first and second SRI fields are associated with the first and second SRS resource sets, respectively. In one embodiment, a set of possible codepoints for each of the first and second SRI fields in the DCI comprises a codepoint to indicate that a corresponding SRS resource is not selected); or,
- the power control parameter of the PUSCH retransmission of CG scheduled by DCI is associated with the two sets of power control parameters of two SRS resource sets (See ¶.144, alternatively, for a same TB or different TBs, separate PUSCHs can be transmitted to each TRP. An example is shown in FIG. 5, where a UE transmits two PUSCHs (PUSCH1 and PUSCH2) for a same TB to two TRPs (TRP1 and TRP2). In this case, PUSCH2 can be considered as a retransmission of the TB with a same or different redundancy version; See ¶.61, for each SRI, a pathloss RS and a set of power control parameters (e.g., fractional power control coefficient, P0, closed-loop index) are preconfigured and signaled to a UE. PUSCH open loop transmit power is then derived based the SRI indicated in the DCI and the associated pre-configured pathloss RS and the set of power control parameters; See ¶.62, Closed-loop power control is done by sending a transmit power control command (TPC) in a 2-bit “TPC command for scheduled PUSCH” field in a DCI scheduling the PUSCH; See ¶.63, multi-Transmission/Reception Point (TRP) uplink transmission in a cellular communications system. In one embodiment, a method performed by a wireless communication device comprises receiving, from a network node, a configuration of two Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) resource sets, a first and second SRS resource sets, each comprising one or more SRS resources. The method further comprises receiving, from the network node, downlink control information (DCI) that schedules a physical uplink channel transmission comprising a first part associated to a first SRS resource in the first SRS resource set and a second part associated to a second SRS resource in the second SRS resource set, wherein the first and second SRS resources are indicated in the DCI. The method further comprises transmitting the physical uplink channel transmission in accordance with the DCI. In this manner, robust uplink transmission over multiple TRPs can be provided) and the two SRS resource set are configured by the two SRI (See ¶.64, the first and second SRI fields are associated with the first and second SRS resource sets, respectively. In one embodiment, a set of possible codepoints for each of the first and second SRI fields in the DCI comprises a codepoint to indicate that a corresponding SRS resource is not selected), wherein the SRS resource set associated with the PUSCH retransmission is same as an SRS resource set to which an SRS resource indicated by a SRI field in the DCI for scheduling the PUSCH retransmission belongs (See ¶.36, the gNB indicates the selected SRS resource via a 1-bit ‘SRS resource indicator’ (SRI) field in a DCI scheduling the PUSCH if two SRS resources are configured in the SRS resource set. The ‘SRS resource indicator’ field is not indicated in DCI if only one SRS resource is configured in the SRS resource set; See ¶.144, separate PUSCHs can be transmitted to each TRP. An example is shown in FIG. 5, where a UE transmits two PUSCHs (PUSCH1 and PUSCH2) for a same TB to two TRPs (TRP1 and TRP2). In this case, PUSCH2 can be considered as a retransmission of the TB with a same or different redundancy version; See Fig.7 and ¶.146, PUSCH2 is considered as a retransmission).
Regarding claim 2, Gao discloses “one set of the power control parameters comprises at least one of: P0/α, path loss reference signal index, or closed-loop power control state index (See ¶.61, for each SRI, a pathloss RS and a set of power control parameters (e.g., fractional power control coefficient, P0, closed-loop index) are preconfigured; See ¶.65, each of the first and second sets of power control parameters comprise a pathloss reference signal, a fractional power control factor, a target receive power, a closed-loop power control index).”
Regarding claim 4, Gao discloses “the CG configuration is a type-1 CG configuration, and the type-1 CG configuration comprises (See ¶.24, CG type 1): at least one transmitted precoding matrix indicator (TPMI), at least one modulation and coding scheme (MCS), at least one P0/α, at least one powerControlLoopToUse, or at least one pathlossReferenceIndex (See ¶.37, TPMI; See ¶.61, closed-loop power control; See ¶.71, a pathloss reference signal index).”
Regarding claim 6, Gao discloses “the CG configuration further comprises multiple TPMIs, and the multiple TPMIs are indicated by one or more TPMI fields (See ¶.35-36, the NR base station (gNB) determines a preferred precoder (i.e., Transmit Precoding Matrix Indicator (TPMI)) from a codebook and the associated number of layers corresponding to SRS received from one of the one or two SRS resources; See ¶.138, TPMI is indicated for each SRS resource).”
Regarding claim 7, Gao discloses “the multiple TPMIs are in one-to-one correspondence to the multiple SRIs; and the multiple SRIs correspond to a same TPMI (See ¶.35-36, the NR base station (gNB) determines a preferred precoder (i.e., Transmit Precoding Matrix Indicator (TPMI)) from a codebook and the associated number of layers corresponding to SRS received from one of the one or two SRS resources. [0036] The gNB indicates the selected SRS resource via a 1-bit ‘SRS resource indicator’ (SRI) field in a DCI scheduling the PUSCH if two SRS resources are configured in the SRS resource set. The ‘SRS resource indicator’ field is not indicated in DCI if only one SRS resource is configured in the SRS resource set).”
Regarding claim 13, Gao discloses “the CG configuration comprises a type-2 CG configuration, and the type-2 CG configuration comprises the following parameters: at least one P0/α; at least one powerControlLoopToUse; at least one SRI; at least one TPMI; or at least one PL-RS (See ¶.24, CG type 2; See ¶.33-35, for dynamically scheduled PUSCH and configured grant PUSCH type 2, the codebook based PUSCH transmission scheme can be summarized as follows: [0034] The UE transmits SRS in one or two configured SRS resources. The one or two SRS resources are configured in an SRS resource set with a higher layer parameter usage set to ‘CodeBook’. Note that only a single SRS resource set can be configured with usage set to “Codebook”. [0035] The NR base station (gNB) determines a preferred precoder (i.e., Transmit Precoding Matrix Indicator (TPMI)) from a codebook and the associated number of layers corresponding to SRS received from one of the one or two SRS resources).”
Regarding claim 14, Gao discloses “in a case that SRS resources indicated by an SRI field in the DCI belong to different SRS resource sets and that the parameters in the CG configuration comprise only one set of power control parameters, one of the multiple sets of power control parameters of the PUSCH retransmission comes from the CG configuration, and the remaining sets of power control parameters are other power control parameters indicated by the SRI field in the DCI (See ¶.61, For each SRI, a pathloss RS and a set of power control parameters (e.g., fractional power control coefficient, P0, closed-loop index) are preconfigured and signaled to a UE. PUSCH open loop transmit power is then derived based the SRI indicated in the DCI and the associated pre-configured pathloss RS and the set of power control parameters; See further ¶.83, ¶.125, ¶.152, ¶.154, ¶.178, and ¶.228 for set of power control parameters related with PUSCH).”
Regarding claim 15, it is a terminal claim corresponding to the method claim 1, except the limitation “a process and a memory (See Fig.10)” and is therefore rejected for the similar reasons set forth in the rejection of the claim.
Regarding claims 16 and 18, they are claims corresponding to claims 2 & 4, respectively and are therefore rejected for the similar reasons set forth in the rejection of the claims.
Regarding claim 20, it is a non-transitory readable storage medium claim corresponding to the method claim 1 and is therefore rejected for the similar reasons set forth in the rejection of the claim.
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.
Claims 5 and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Gao in view of Matsumura et al. (US 2023/0254776, “Matsumura”).
Regarding claim 5, Gao discloses “the CG configuration is associated with an SRS resource set index, and the SRI in the CG configuration indicates an SRS resource in an SRS resource set identified by the corresponding associated SRS resource set index (See ¶.63, a first and second SRS resource sets; See ¶.64, SRS resource set indicator),”
but does not explicitly disclose what Matsumura discloses, “or, the CG configuration is associated with a control resource set pool index (CORESETPoolIndex); an SRS resource set is associated with a CORESETPoolIndex; and the SRI in the CG configuration indicates an SRS resource in a corresponding SRS resource set associated with the same CORESETPoolIndex (Matsumura, See ¶.191, CORESET pool index).”
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to apply “the CG configuration is associated with a control resource set pool index (CORESETPoolIndex); an SRS resource set is associated with a CORESETPoolIndex; and the SRI in the CG configuration indicates an SRS resource in a corresponding SRS resource set associated with the same CORESETPoolIndex” as taught by Matsumura into the system of Gao, so that it provides a way of indicating a COREST pool of the PDCCH from the TRP or the panel (Matsumura, See ¶.191).
Regarding claim 19, it is a claim corresponding to the claim 5 and is therefore rejected for the similar reasons set forth in the rejection of the claim.
Claims 8-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Gao in view of Cirik et al. (US 2022/0346028, “Cirik”).
Regarding claim 8, Gao does not explicitly disclose what Cirik discloses “updating the parameter comprised in the CG configuration by using at least one of the following: DCI, wherein parameters corresponding to one or more CG configurations are simultaneously updated using one DCI, the DCI comprises multiple SRI fields for indicating spatial relations and/or multiple TPMIs; or media access control control element (MAC CE), wherein a format of the MAC CE comprises one or more of the following parameters: at least one CG index, at least one SRI, at least one TPMI, at least one PL-RS, at least one MCS, at least one set of open-loop and closed-loop power control parameters (Cirik, See ¶.221, a number of the one or more path loss reference RSs may be greater than the maximum number (e.g., in the UE capability information). The one or more configuration parameters may comprise a pathloss reference signal update parameter. The pathloss reference signal update parameter may enable an activation command (e.g., MAC-CE, DCI) to update the one or more pathloss reference RSs of the uplink channel (e.g., PUSCH, PUCCH). The base station may update a subset of path loss reference RSs among the one or more path loss reference RSs dynamically via the activation command, for example, based on the one or more configuration parameters comprising the pathloss reference signal update parameter).”
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to apply “updating the parameter comprised in the CG configuration by using at least one of the following: DCI, wherein parameters corresponding to one or more CG configurations are simultaneously updated using one DCI, the DCI comprises multiple SRIs for indicating spatial relations and/or multiple TPMIs; or MAC CE, wherein a format of the MAC CE comprises one or more of the following parameters: at least one CG index, at least one SRI, at least one TPMI, at least one PL-RS, at least one MCS, at least one set of open-loop and closed-loop power control parameters” as taught by Cirik into the system of Gao, so that it provides a way of updating the one or more pathloss reference RSs of the uplink channel (Cirik, See ¶.221).
Regarding claim 9, Gao does not explicitly disclose what Cirik discloses “the DCI satisfies at least one of the following conditions: cyclic redundancy check CRC of a DCI format is scrambled by a channel state radio network temporary identity CS-RNTI; a new data indicator NDI in the DCI is equal to 0; a frequency domain resource allocation FDRA field in the DCI is all 0s or all 1s; a redundancy version RV field in the DCI is all 0s; a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process number field in the DCI corresponds to a CG index; a HARQ process number field in the DCI corresponds to one or more CG indexes; or a code point of a HARQ process number field in the DCI is associated with at least one CG index, wherein a correspondence between information of the CG index associated with the code point and the code point of the HARQ process number field is pre-configured or configured by a network (Cirik, See ¶.191, [0191] A base station may attach one or more cyclic redundancy check (CRC) parity bits to a DCI in order to facilitate detection of transmission errors. When the DCI is intended for a UE (or a group of the UEs), the base station may scramble the CRC parity bits with an identifier of the UE (or an identifier of the group of the UEs). Scrambling the CRC parity bits with the identifier may comprise Modulo-2 addition (or an exclusive OR operation) of the identifier value and the CRC parity bits. The identifier may comprise a 16-bit value of a radio network temporary identifier (RNTI)).”
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to apply “cyclic redundancy check CRC of a DCI format is scrambled by a channel state radio network temporary identity CS-RNTI” as taught by Cirik into the system of Gao, so that it provides a way of facilitating detection of transmission errors (Cirik, See ¶.191).
Regarding claim 10, Gao does not explicitly disclose what Cirik discloses “the updated parameter comprises at least one of the following: SRI for indicating spatial relation; TPMI for indicating precoding matrix and the number of transport layers; MCS for indicating modulation scheme and code rate; target receive power P0 and path loss compensation factor α; or path loss reference signal (PL-RS) for calculating path loss (Cirik, See ¶.221, the pathloss reference signal update parameter may enable an activation command (e.g., MAC-CE, DCI) to update the one or more pathloss reference RSs of the uplink channel (e.g., PUSCH, PUCCH)).” Therefore, this claim is rejected with the similar reasons and motivation set forth in the rejection of claim 8.
Regarding claim 11, Gao and Cirik discloses “multiple SRS resources indicated by the SRI field in the DCI are comprised in different SRS resource sets, and the SRS resources in each SRS resource set (Gao, See ¶.63, the first and second SRS resources are indicated in a first and a second SRS Resource Indicator (SRI) fields in the DCI, respectively. In one embodiment, the first and second SRI fields are associated with the first and second SRS resource sets, respectively) are used for updating SRIs in one CG configuration (Cirik, See ¶.221 and Abstract, configuration parameters may comprise (i) a sounding reference signal (SRS) resource indicator (SRI), for a configured uplink grant, indicating an SRI-physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) power control parameter set and (ii) a pathloss reference signal update parameter enabling an activation command to update pathloss reference signals of an uplink channel); wherein an SRS resource in a first SRS resource set is used for correspondingly updating an SRS resource indicated by a first SRI in a first CG configuration, and an SRS resource in a second SRS resource set is used for correspondingly updating an SRS resource indicated by a second SRI in a second CG configuration (Gao, See ¶.64, the first and second SRS resources are indicated in a first and a second SRS Resource Indicator (SRI) fields in the DCI, respectively; Cirik, See ¶.221, updating), or in a case that the SRS resources indicated by the SRI field in the DCI belong to one SRS resource set (Gao, See ¶.36, the gNB indicates the selected SRS resource via a 1-bit ‘SRS resource indicator’ (SRI) field in a DCI scheduling the PUSCH if two SRS resources are configured in the SRS resource set. The ‘SRS resource indicator’ field is not indicated in DCI if only one SRS resource is configured in the SRS resource set), multiple CG configurations indicated by a HARQ process number field is correspondingly updated using the SRI field in the DCI (Gao, See ¶.14, HARQ process number; Cirik, See ¶.201, when configured with a plurality of PUCCH resource sets, the UE may select one of the plurality of PUCCH resource sets based on a total bit length of the UCI information bits (e.g., HARQ-ACK, SR, and/or CSI); See ¶.202, the UE may determine the PUCCH resource based on a PUCCH resource indicator in a DCI (e.g., with a DCI format 1_0 or DCI for 1_1) received on a PDCCH. A three-bit PUCCH resource indicator in the DCI may indicate one of eight PUCCH resources in the PUCCH resource set. Based on the PUCCH resource indicator, the UE may transmit the UCI (HARQ-ACK, CSI and/or SR) using a PUCCH resource indicated by the PUCCH resource indicator in the DCI). Therefore, this claim is rejected with the similar reasons and motivation set forth in the rejection of claim 8.
Regarding claim 12, Gao does not explicitly disclose what Cirik discloses “a CG index corresponds to parameters comprised in the format of the MAC CE (Cirik, See Fig.19 and ¶.257, in MAC CE format); one CG index is correspondingly associated with one set of parameters (Cirik, Fig.18 and ¶.258-262, the configured uplink grant may be a Type 1 configured uplink grant (or configured grant Type 1). In the Type 1 configured uplink grant, the one or more configuration parameters (e.g., RRC) may activate an uplink grant. The wireless device may store the uplink grant as the configured uplink grant); multiple CG indexes are correspondingly associated with a same set of parameters (Cirik, See Fig.18, configured grant (PL-RS 12) and (Selected PL-RS) related with parameters sets); and one set of parameters comprises one or more of the following parameters: at least one SRI; at least one TPMI; at least one PL-RS; at least one MCS; and at least one set of open-loop and closed-loop power control parameters (Cirik, See Fig.18, pathloss references RSs, PL-RS; See ¶.164, PMI; See ¶.152, MCS; See Fig.19, SRI ID).” Therefore, this claim is rejected with the similar reasons and motivation set forth in the rejection of claim 8.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed have been considered. But, in view of the applicant’s amendment significantly amended in independent claims, examiner has clarified and totally remapped the rejection to the argued claim limitations, using the prior art of record in the current prosecution of the claims. The previously objected claims 11 and 12 have been rejected over Gao in view of Cirik.
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Jung H Park whose telephone number is 571-272-8565. The examiner can normally be reached M-F: 7:00 AM-3:00 PM.
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/JUNG H PARK/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2411
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