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 Amendment
Receipt is acknowledged of the amendment filed 6/25/2026. Claims 1-2, 4-21 and 23-30 have been amended. Claims 3 and 22 have been canceled. No claims have been added. Claims 1-2, 4-21 and 23-30 are pending and an action is as follows.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(d):
(d) REFERENCE IN DEPENDENT FORMS.—Subject to subsection (e), a claim in dependent form shall contain a reference to a claim previously set forth and then specify a further limitation of the subject matter claimed. A claim in dependent form shall be construed to incorporate by reference all the limitations of the claim to which it refers.
The following is a quotation of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, fourth paragraph:
Subject to the following paragraph [i.e., the fifth paragraph of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112], a claim in dependent form shall contain a reference to a claim previously set forth and then specify a further limitation of the subject matter claimed. A claim in dependent form shall be construed to incorporate by reference all the limitations of the claim to which it refers.
Claims 2, 4-12, 14-19, 21, 23-26 and 28-30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(d) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, 4th paragraph, as being of improper dependent form for failing to further limit the subject matter of the claim upon which it depends, or for failing to include all the limitations of the claim upon which it depends. Each of these claims in dependent form fail to contain a reference to a claim previously set forth and also specify a further limitation of the subject matter claimed. This is because “claim 0” is not a proper claim that has been previously set forth. Applicant may cancel the claim(s), amend the claim(s) to place the claim(s) in proper dependent form, rewrite the claim(s) in independent form, or present a sufficient showing that the dependent claim(s) complies with the statutory requirements.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1, 13, 20 and 27 are allowed.
Examiner Note: Regarding the indication above, claims 1, 13, 20 and 27 are allowable over the prior art. There is still the issue of the rejection of claims 2, 4-12, 14-19, 21, 23-26 and 28-30 with respect to 35 U.S.C. 112(d) as indicated above which must be overcome. There appears to have been an issue with software the Applicant used to draft the claims which resulted in a typographical error indicated as the improper dependency of the dependent claims. The Examiner attempted to contact the Attorney Yanling Yang on 7/15/2026 and left a voicemail to determine if a timely solution could be determined to resolve this issue. As of the close of business on 8/3/2026 the Examiner and Attorney have been unable to reach a timely solution to resolve this outstanding issue. Thus, this Office Action will be mailed to give the Applicant more time to correct this issue.
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance:
The Examiner has conducted an updated search of the available Prior Art and was unable to find any prior art which teaches either solely or in combination with another reference the claim limitations of “transmit unused transmission occasion (UTO) uplink control information (UTO-UCI) indicating that the UE is to skip an uplink transmission occasion within the SBFD resource and assign a priority to a downlink communication within the SBFD resource that is a higher than a priority of an uplink transmission associated with the uplink transmission occasion based at least in part on the UTO-UCI" and "transmit a downlink communication within the SBFD resource based at least in part on the UTO-UCI" in combination with all the other claim limitations of claim 13 and claim 27 respectively; and also the claim limitation of “ wherein the PDCCH skipping indication indicates for the UE to disable one or more collision handling rules associated with collisions between PDCCH monitoring occasions and uplink transmissions based at least in part on an overlap between the PDCCH monitoring occasion and the uplink transmission” in combination with all the other claim limitations of claims 1 and 20 respectively.
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.”
Conclusion
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 LONNIE V SWEET whose telephone number is (571)270-3622. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Hassan Phillips can be reached at 571-272-3940. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/LONNIE V SWEET/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2467
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