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 .
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 (a)-(d). The certified copy has been filed in parent Application No. CHINA 202310149700.6 filed on 2/10/2023.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) were submitted on 8/13/2024 and 7/23/2026. The submissions are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements have been considered by the examiner.
Election/Restriction
Applicant’s election without traverse of Group I, claims 1-6 and 20 in the reply filed on 7/7/2026 is acknowledged.
Claims 7-19 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected invention, there being no allowable generic or linking claim.
Claims 1-6 and 20 are examined on the merits.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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.
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied 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 1, 2, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kittichokechai et al. (US 2021/0175999, hereinafter Kittichokechai) in view of Choi et al. (KR 2003-0077733 A, hereinafter Choi).
Regarding claim 1:
Kittichokechai teaches a method performed by a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system (see, Kittichokechai: Fig. 13b), the method comprising:
receiving first indication information (see, Kittichokechai: Fig. 13b, Step 12 and para. [0140], “At step 12, the method receives an indication corresponding to a communication service. As an example, the indication may be received from a network node, e.g., via RRC or DCI signalling, and may enable the wireless device to identify an MCS and/or CQI table from a plurality of defined MCS and/or CQI tables.”);
identifying the CQI table based on the first indication information and the first mapping relationship (see, Kittichokechai: Fig. 13b, Step 14 and para. [0143], “At step 14, the method identifies an MCS and/or CQI table from a plurality of defined MCS and/or CQI tables based on the indication received at step 12.”); and
identifying the CQI according to the identified CQI table (see, Kittichokechai: Fig. 13b, Step 16b and para. [0143], “the method selects a channel quality indication from the identified CQI table at step 16b”).
Kittichokechai does not explicitly teach wherein receiving information regarding a first mapping relationship, wherein the first mapping relationship includes a mapping relationship between first information and a channel quality indicator (CQI) table for identifying a CQI, and the first information is information related to a power control offset.
In the same field of endeavor, Choi teaches wherein receiving information regarding a first mapping relationship, wherein the first mapping relationship includes a mapping relationship between first information and a channel quality indicator (CQI) table for identifying a CQI, and the first information is information related to a power control offset (see, Choi: Page 16 of English translation, “Referring to FIG. 15, as described above, the UE that has received the CQI reporting pattern and activation time determined by the base station, synchronizes the CQI reporting pattern, that is, the CQI reporting period and the CQI transmission time, in synchronization with the activation time. Apply an offset. That is, the UE transmitter receives CQI report pattern and activation time 933 information received from the base station, and the received CQI report pattern and activation time 933 information is input to the controller 932. The controller 932 controls the CQI generator 931 to generate a CQI to correspond to the CQI report pattern and activation time 933 information. The information included in the CQI includes transport block size information, coding rate information, the number of HS-PDSCH codes information, modulation and coding Control information such as scheme (MCS) information, BLER threshold value information, power offset information, and the like are included. In addition, the CQI generator 931 stores a mapping relationship between the CQI and the control information in a form of a table, and selects an appropriate CQI from the table based on the received signal-to-interference ratio of the channel. will be.”).
Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to apply the teachings of Kittichokechai in combination of the teachings of Choi in order for the UE to generate a mapping relationship between the CQI and the control information in a form of a table based on the received CQI report pattern from the base station including power offset information and select an appropriate CQI from the table based on the received signal-to-interference ratio of the channel (see, Choi: page 16 of English translation).
Regarding claim 2:
As discussed above, Kittichokechai in view of Choi teaches all limitations in claim 1.
Kittichokechai further teaches wherein the first indication information is received through physical-layer signaling or medium-access-control-layer signaling (see, Kittichokechai: para. [0140], “At step 12, the method receives an indication corresponding to a communication service. As an example, the indication may be received from a network node, e.g., via RRC or DCI signalling, and may enable the wireless device to identify an MCS and/or CQI table from a plurality of defined MCS and/or CQI tables.”).
Regarding claim 20:
Claim 20 is directed towards a user equipment (see, Kittichokechai: Fig. 2, UE 200) comprising: a transceiver (see, Kittichokechai: Fig. 2, UE 200 and para. [0096], “transceivers”); and a processor (see, Kittichokechai: Fig. 2, Processor 201) coupled with the transceiver and configured to: to perform the method of claim 1. Therefore, claim 20 is rejected by applying the similar rationale used to reject claim 1 above.
Claim 6 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kittichokechai in view of Choi further in view of Kim et al. (US 2018/0091280 A1, hereinafter Kim).
Regarding claim 6:
As discussed above, Kittichokechai in view of Choi teaches all limitations in claim 1.
Kittichokechai in view of Choi does not explicitly teach wherein the first mapping relationship further includes a mapping relationship among indication information, the power control offset and the CQI table, and wherein the identifying of the CQI table comprises: identifying a power control offset and a CQI table corresponding to the first indication information based on the first indication information and the first mapping relationship.
In the same field of endeavor, Kim teaches wherein the first mapping relationship further includes a mapping relationship among indication information, the power control offset and the CQI table (see, Kim: para. [0318], “[Table 21] is an exemplary CQI table that maps a power offset for CSR or CSI-RS power to a CQI index.”), and wherein the identifying of the CQI table comprises: identifying a power control offset and a CQI table corresponding to the first indication information based on the first indication information and the first mapping relationship (see, Kim: para. [0319], “Upon receipt of a CQI index listed in [table 21], the UE may determine a modulation scheme, a coding rate, a coding efficiency, and a power offset of a PDSCH signal to be transmitted.”; para. [0320], “[Table 19], [Table 20], and [Table 21] are CQI tables made on the assumption of 4 bits. Obviously, a CQI table having fewer bits may be configured for an MTC UE according to a communication environment and a network setting.”; par. [0321], “Also, information about PDSCH repetition numbers or transmission offset information for an RS, which is mapped to CQI indexes in [Table 20] and [Table 21] may be transmitted separately to the UE by System Information (SI), RRC signaling, or MAC signaling.”).
Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to apply the teachings of Kittichokechai in view of Choi in combination of the teachings of Kim in order for the UE to determine a modulation scheme, a coding rate, a coding efficiency, and a power offset of a PDSCH signal to be transmitted upon receipt of a CQI index listed in [table 21] (see, Kim: para. [0319-0321]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-5 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
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JI-HAE YEA whose telephone number is (571) 270-3310. The examiner can normally be reached on MON-FRI, 7am-3pm, ET.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, SUJOY K KUNDU can be reached on (571) 272-8586. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JI-HAE YEA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2471
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