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 .
DETAILED OFFICE ACTION
This action is responsive to the communication received April 13th, 2026. Claims 1-20 have been entered and are presented for examination.
Application 18/391,347 is a CON of PCT/CN2022/100205 06/21/2022 and claims benefit of Chinese Application 202110698499.8 06/23/2021.
Response to Arguments
Applicant argues, “Min is silent regarding a PRU.”
The Examiner respectfully disagrees.
Min et al. discloses transmitter 118 may be configured to transmit the PPDU over the wide channel BW according to a tone plan including a wide resource unit (RU) including at least 1992 tones (paragraph 0188) and since the PPDU is sent over the wide resource unit, the WRU is a physical resource unit.
Applicant further argues, “Min is silent regarding a PRU comprising discrete subcarrier.”
The Examiner respectfully disagrees.
Min discloses discrete subcarriers within the continuous 160MHz channel (see Figure 6 and paragraphs 0329, 0331, 0515).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1, 12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Min et al. (US 2020/0007265).
Regarding claims 1, 12, Min et al. discloses a communication method (paragraph 0188 [transmitter transmits PPDU over wide channel BW]), comprising: sending or receiving a physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU) based on a tone plan corresponding to a first bandwidth (paragraph 0188 [transmitter 118 may be configured to transmit the PPDU over the wide channel BW according to a tone plan including a wide resource unit (RU) including at least 1992 tones]), wherein the tone plan comprises a physical resource unit (PRU) (paragraph 0188 [a tone plan including a wide resource unit (RU)]) comprising discrete subcarriers (see Figure 6 and paragraph 0131 [a first multi-band architecture may utilize a contiguous 160 MHz definition, e.g., for a contiguous 160 MHz channel to be used on each band]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-11, 13-20 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.
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance: the prior art of record does not disclose or make obvious the features in claims 2-11, 13-20.
Any comments considered necessary by applicant must be submitted no later than the payment of the issue fee and, to avoid processing delays, should preferably accompany the issue fee. Such submissions should be clearly labeled “Comments on Statement of Reasons for Allowance.”
Closest Prior Art
Wang et al. US 2020/0244420 discloses direct and indirect mapping of VRU and PRU (paragraphs 0003-0006) wherein the VRUs are used from data transmission (paragraph 0009).
Claims 2-3 and 13-14 require the PPDU comprise indication information, and the indication information indicates indicating that the PPDU is transmitted or received by using a virtual resource unit (VRU) that comprises consecutive subcarriers, or the PPDU is transmitted or received by using the PRU.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. 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 CHRISTOPHER T WYLLIE whose telephone number is (571)270-3937. The examiner can normally be reached 4pm-11:30pm. Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Ayman Abaza can be reached at (571)270-0422. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/CHRISTOPHER T WYLLIE/Examiner, Art Unit 2465
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