DETAILED ACTION
Response to Amendment
This action is in reply to the Applicant’s amendments filed 20 April 2026.
Claims 1, 2, 8, 11, 12, and 14 have been amended.
Claims 21 and 22 have been added.
Claims 1-22 are currently pending and have been examined.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of pre-AIA 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 –
(b) the invention was patented or described in a printed publication in this or a foreign country or in public use or on sale in this country, more than one year prior to the date of application for patent in the United States.
Claims 1, 4, 6-11, 14, and 16-22 are rejected under 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by U.S. PGPub. No. 20100080312 to Moffatt et al.
As to Claims 1 and 11, Moffatt discloses a system and method, comprising:
at least one communication circuit to handle transmission of signals to a second electronic device (Fig. 1A, Fig 1B, Fig. 6, Fig. 7, Fig. 20, paragraph [0011] – communication device/circuit for transmitter and receiver); and
at least one processing circuit operatable to (Fig. 6, Fig. 7, paragraph [0091, 0147]):
receive a plurality of modulation symbols, wherein each modulation symbol of the plurality of modulation symbols is mapped to a respective encoded bit of a plurality of encoded bits (Fig. 1A, Fig. 6 (124, 132), Fig. 7, Fig. 20, paragraph [0046, 0056, 0151, 0153, 0158, 0161], where the modulator and the mapping circuit mapping modulated symbols encoded data bits by the encoder used for transmission and reception of the OFDM communication system including the transmitter (Fig. 6 - first electronic device) and the receiver (Fig. 7 - second electronic device));
apply a mapping of the plurality of modulation symbols to a plurality of subcarriers for a data transmission in an orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) based communication (Fig. 1A, Fig. 6 (138, 112), Fig. 7, Fig. 20, paragraph [0046, 0056, 0059, 0070, 0074, 0079, 0153, 0161], where the modulated symbols are mapped to OFDM subcarrier for transmission and reception of the OFDM communication system).
As to Claims 4 and 14, Moffatt further discloses the system and method wherein the plurality of modulation symbols has been modulated according to the quadrature amplitude modulation scheme (Fig. 6 (132), Fig. 7, Fig. 20, paragraph [0003, 0041, 0056, 0066, 0067, 0070, 0074, 0076, 0085, 0153, 0161], where the modulation scheme supports plurality of types including the QAM).
As to Claims 6 and 16, Moffatt further discloses the system and method wherein at least on processing circuit further operable to apply interleaving to the plurality of subcarriers to generate a plurality of interleaved subcarriers (Fig. 6 (130), Fig. 7, Fig. 20, paragraph [0003, 0041, 0051, 0056, 0066, 0067, 0070, 0074, 0076, 0081, 0085, 0153, 0161], where the interleaver interleaves the plurality of data symbols to the subcarriers).
As to Claims 7 and 17, Moffatt further discloses the system and method wherein at least on processing circuit further operable to transmit the plurality of interleaved symbols (Fig. 6 (130), Fig. 7, Fig. 20, paragraph [0003, 0041, 0051, 0056, 0066, 0067, 0070, 0074, 0076, 0081, 0085, 0153, 0161], where the transmitter transmits the plurality of interleved data symbols).
As to Claims 8 and 18, Moffatt further discloses the system and method wherein when applying the frequency spreading to the plurality of modulation symbols, the at least on processing circuit operable to apply a spreading matrix to the plurality of modulation symbols (Fig. 6 (112), Fig. 7, Fig. 20, paragraph [0003, 0041, 0051, 0056, 0066, 0067, 0070, 0074, 0076, 0081, 0085, 0153, 0161], where the frequency domain spreader spread the subcarriers of input data vectors with the matrix with different size to match (based on) with number of subcarriers used input data vector to generate spreaded input data vectors).
As to Claims 9 and 19, Moffatt further discloses the system and method wherein the spreading matrix is selected based on a matrix selection criteria (Fig. 6 (112), Fig. 7, Fig. 20, paragraph [0003, 0041, 0051, 0056, 0066, 0067, 0070, 0074, 0076, 0081, 0085, 0153, 0161], where the frequency domain spreader spread the subcarriers of input data vectors with the matrix with different size to match (based on) with number of subcarriers used input data vector to generate spreaded input data vectors).
As to Claims 10 and 20, Moffatt further discloses the system and method wherein the matrix selection criteria includes at least one of: a number of subcarriers, a power, a channel noise, or a performance level (Fig. 6 (112), Fig. 7, Fig. 20, paragraph [0003, 0041, 0051, 0056, 0066, 0067, 0070, 0074, 0076, 0081, 0085, 0153, 0161], where the frequency domain spreader spread the subcarriers of input data vectors with the matrix with different size to match (based on) with number of subcarriers used input data vector to generate spreaded input data vectors).
As to Claims 21 and 22, Moffatt further discloses the system and method wherein applying the mapping comprises applying frequency spreading to the plurality of modulation symbols such that resulting spreading symbols are assigned to the plurality to subcarriers (Fig. 1A, Fig. 6 (138, 112), Fig. 7, Fig. 20, paragraph [0072, 0073], where the modulated symbols are mapped to OFDM subcarrier and frequency domain spreading for transmission and reception of the OFDM communication system).
Claims 2, 3, 5, 12, 13, and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being unpatentable over U.S. PGPub. No. 20100080312 to Moffatt et al. in further view of U.S. PGPub. No. 20070202816 to Zheng.
As to Claims 2 and 12, Moffatt discloses the applying the frequency spreading to the plurality of modulation symbols to the subcarriers with the matrix (Fig. 6, Fig. 9, paragraph [0070, 0074, 0079, 0081, 0085, 0113) but does not explicitly disclose creating group of modulation symbols.
Meanwhile Zheng discloses the frequency interleaving of the subcarriers for M groups of data symbols for multiple users (Fig. 9, paragraph [0130, 0037]).
Therefore, one of ordinarily skilled in the art would have found obvious from the combined teachings of Moffatt and Zheng as a whole to produce the invention as claimed with a reasonable expectation of improving the communication system by efficiently allocating the spectral availability of subcarriers (Zheng – paragraph [0065, 0074]).
As to Claims 3 and 13, Moffatt in view of Zheng further discloses the system and method wherein a size of the first group of modulation symbols is determined based on a particular group selection criteria (Moffatt - Fig. 6, Fig. 9, paragraph [0070, 0074, 0079, 0081, 0085, 0113)(Zheng - Fig. 9, paragraph [0130, 0037], where grouping is based on the number of users).
The suggestion/motivation is the same as that used in the rejection for claims 2 and 12.
As to Claims 5 and 15, Moffatt in view of Zheng further discloses the system and method wherein applying the frequency spreading to the plurality of modulation symbols, the least one processing circuit operable to assign the first group of plurality symbols to a particular subcarrier of the plurality of subcarriers (Moffatt - Fig. 6, Fig. 9, paragraph [0070, 0074, 0079, 0081, 0085, 0113, where disclose the frequency spreading the plurality of modulated symbols)(Zheng - Fig. 9, paragraph [0130, 0025, 0037], where the M data symbols of each group is interleaved to N subcarriers).
The suggestion/motivation is the same as that used in the rejection for claims 2 and 12.
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.
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SUNG S AHN whose telephone number is (571)270-3706. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F: 9-6.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Hannah Wang can be reached on 571-272-9018. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/SUNG S AHN/Examiner, Art Unit 2631 (571)-270-3706
sung.ahn@uspto.gov
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