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 .
Claims 1-20 are pending.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC §101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 1, 6, 11 and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to a judicial exception (i.e., a law of nature, a natural phenomenon, or an abstract idea) without significantly more. Claim(s) is/are directed to abstract idea. The claims do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception because the claims determining a capability and priority information of communication and multiplexing them are an abstract idea similar to the concepts that have been identified as abstract by the courts, such as Concepts Relating To Organizing Or Analyzing information In A Way That Can Be Performed Mentally Or Is Analogous To Human Mental Work where the method is Collecting information, analyzing it and displaying certain Results of the collection and analysis discussed (Electric Power Group).
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)(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, 4-6, 9-11, 14-16, 19 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Park et al, application no. 2023/0105294, hereinafter known as Park.
As to claim 1, Park discloses a method for reporting a capability, wherein the method comprising: determining target capability information, wherein the target capability information comprises third capability information, and the third capability information indicates that a terminal device can perform multiplexing between overlapping uplink channels with different priorities (Park, figure 8, [0178]-[0184], determining by the terminal capability indication that includes ability to send overlapping uplink PUCCH and PUSCH messages of various priority); and reporting the target capability information (Park, [0179], reporting the UE capabilities to the network).
As to claim 4, Park discloses the multiplexing between overlapping uplink channels with different priorities comprises one or more of the following: a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) with a lower priority and a PUCCH with a higher priority; a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) with a lower priority and the PUCCH with the higher priority; or the PUCCH with the lower priority and a PUSCH with a higher priority (Park, [0179], overlapping uplink PUCCH and PUSCH of various priority where PUCCH and PUSCH can each have higher or lower priority).
As to claim 5, Park discloses the multiplexing between overlapping uplink channels meets a condition of a multiplexing timeline (Park, figure 8, timeline of sending plural uplink signals including the ones that overlap such as PUCCH and PUSCH).
As to claims 6, 9 and 10, the claims are rejected as applied to claims 1, 4 and 5 respectively by Park.
As to claims 11, 14 and 15, the claims are rejected as applied to claims 1, 4 and 5 respectively by Park.
As to claims 16, 19 and 20, the claims are rejected as applied to claims 1, 4 and 5 respectively by Park.
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, 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.
Claims 2, 3, 7, 8, 12, 13, 17 and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Park in view of ETSI TS 138 306 V17.0.0 (2022-05), 5G; NR; User Equipment (UE) radio access capabilities (3GPP TS 38.306 version 17.0.0 Release 17, hereinafter known as 3GPP
As to claim 2, Park discloses the method according to claim 1. Park discloses the capability of canceling sending a lower priority message when messages overlap and sending message with higher priority (Park, Figure 9,[0185]-[0186]). Park does not expressly disclose sending of target capability that includes capability of ability to cancel a lower priority communication however 3GPP dicloses wherein the target capability information further comprises second capability information, the second capability information indicates that for the overlapping uplink channels with different priorities, the terminal device can cancel sending of one of the overlapping uplink channels with a lower priority and retain sending of another of the overlapping uplink channels with a higher priority (3GPP, page 32-35, plural message types by UE to indicate to network capability including on page 35 message to indicate it can cancel lower priority communication when communications overlap).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Park to include the limitations of wherein the target capability information further comprises second capability information, the second capability information indicates that for the overlapping uplink channels with different priorities, the terminal device can cancel sending of one of the overlapping uplink channels with a lower priority and retain sending of another of the overlapping uplink channels with a higher priority as taught by 3GPP. Cancelling lower priority data is routine in the art to process data with higher priority with my urgency and expeditiously when there are time and/or resource constraints.
As to claim 3, Park discloses wherein the target capability information further comprises first capability information, the method further comprises: receiving a first indication information, wherein the first indication information indicates the first capability information or the second capability information in the target capability information (Park, figure 9, [0185]-[0186], receiving indication for handling overlapping communications based on capability and priorities including where communications with lower priority may be cancelled).
As to claims 7 and 8, the claims are rejected as applied to claims 2 and 3 respectively by Park in view of 3GPP.
As to claims 12 and 13, the claims are rejected as applied to claims 2 and 3 respectively by Park in view of 3GPP.
As to claims 17 and 18, the claims are rejected as applied to claims 2 and 3 respectively by Park in view of 3GPP.
Conclusion
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/GAUTAM SHARMA/ Examiner, Art Unit 2467
/HASSAN A PHILLIPS/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2467