DETAILED ACTION
1. Claims 1-20 have been examined and are pending.
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
2. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Priority
3. Applicant’s claim for the benefit of a prior-filed application under 35 U.S.C. 119(e) or under 35 U.S.C. 120, 121, or 365(c) is acknowledged.
Information Disclosure Statement
4. The information disclosure statement filed September 19, 2024 fails to comply with 37 CFR 1.98(a)(2), which requires a legible copy of each cited foreign patent document; each non-patent literature publication or that portion which caused it to be listed; and all other information or that portion which caused it to be listed. It has been placed in the application file, but the information referred to therein has not been considered. Examiner notes non-patent literature (NPL) documents listed as items 2, 3, and 4 have not been received in the Office.
Drawings
5. The drawings were received on February 5, 2024. These drawings are accepted.
Specification
6. The lengthy specification has not been checked to the extent necessary to determine the presence of all possible minor errors. Applicant’s cooperation is requested in correcting any errors of which applicant may become aware in the specification.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
7. 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.
8. 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)(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.
9. Claims 1 and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by United States Patent Application Publication 2024/0039655 A1 to Rudolf et al. (hereinafter “Rudolf”), fully supported by provisionally-filed applications 63/393,495 filed on July 29, 2022, and 63/393,652, filed July 29, 2022.
Regarding Claim 1, Rudolf discloses a method, comprising:
establishing, via at least a user equipment (UE), full-duplex communication between the UE and a network node (Rudolf: [0005], Figure 1 with at least [0041] – corresponds to full-duplex communication (including subband full-duplex, SBFD, between a user equipment (UE) and a network node (gNB/BS/base station) in a wireless communication network.) [[such that the UE is able to transmit data to the network node and receive data from the network node simultaneously in time]] (Examiner respectfully notes the bracketed portion of the limitation is interpreted as an intended result. The broadest reasonable interpretation of a method (or process) claim having contingent limitations requires only those steps that must be performed and does not include steps that are not required to be performed, because the condition(s) precedent is/are not met (MPEP 2111.04). Examiner respectfully suggests amending the bracketed limitation to positively recite features in order for said limitation to be given patentable distinction. It is further noted that any two devices that communicate in full-duplex mode are, in fact, communicating to transmit data (to a network node) and receive data (from the network node) simultaneously in time, since this is the definition of “full-duplex communication”. Further, Rudolf discloses the feature in at least Figure 7 with [0107-0108].); and
reporting by the UE to the network node, information that includes one or more signal-to-Interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) loss values (Rudolf: [0073-0076], [0124], [0143] – interpreted to correspond to a determination of a level of interference reported by the UE to the gNB, including SINR, such as CSI reports from the UE and management reporting by the gNB.) and one or more soft constraints on a full-duplex scheduling of communication resources that is performed by the network node for the UE during the full-duplex communication (Rudolf: interpreted to correspond to a constraint on gNB scheduling on the network side based on one or more parameters intrinsically linked to modulation and coding schemes (MCS) and associated MCS tables determined to be either lower in MCS setting (per bandwidth part) or higher in MCS setting (per bandwidth part), as described by Rudolf in at least [0118-0130].).
Claim 17, directed to a device embodiment of claim 1, recites similar features as claim 1 and is therefore rejected upon the same grounds as claim 1. Please see above rejection of claim 1. Rudolf discloses the apparatus in at least Figure 3 with [0014], [0052-0061], wherein the apparatus is directed to a user equipment comprising at least a processor (element 340) and a transceiver (element 310).
Allowable Subject Matter
10. Claims 2-16 and 18-20 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.
Conclusion
11. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to BENJAMIN H ELLIOTT IV whose telephone number is (571)270-7163. The examiner can normally be reached M, T, R, F 5:00 AM-5:00 PM, W 5:00 AM-3:00 PM (EDT).
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Michael Thier can be reached at (571) 272-2832. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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BENJAMIN H. ELLIOTT IV
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2474
/BENJAMIN H ELLIOTT IV/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2474 January 24, 2026