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 .
This Office Action is a response to communications dated02/15/2024. Claims 1-20 are pending in the application.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement filed 02/16/2024 complies with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97, 1.98 and MPEP § 609. It has been considered and placed in the application file.
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 and 11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Tsai et al. (US 11,582,790) (hereinafter “Tsai”).
Regarding claim 1, in accordance with Tsai reference entirety, Tsai teaches a data transmission method for small data transmission (SDT) (Abstract and thereinafter: “A user equipment (UE) and a method for small data transmission (SDT) are provided … .”), wherein the method comprises:
obtaining (receiving/configured), by a terminal (UE), first configuration information (small data transmission configuration(s)/CG configuration) (FIG. 1 and col. 13, lines 30-33: “UE 102 may be configured with a CG configuration for SDT (e.g., configured by the small data transmission configuration) from the NW 101”), wherein the first configuration information (small data transmission configuration(s)) comprises at least one of a transmission resource or a transmission configuration parameter that are for SDT (CG resource #1 121, CG resource #2 122, CG resource #3 123, and CG resource #4 124) (col. 13, lines 33-36: “The CG configuration may indicate UL resources with periodicity 108, including CG resource #1 121, CG resource #2 122, CG resource #3 123, and CG resource #4 124.”);
determining, by the terminal (UE 102) after an SDT procedure is triggered (small data transmission), a target quantity of times (response/feedback) of retransmission (col. 13, lines 47-55: "To increase the reliability of small data transmission in RRC_INACTIVE, the mechanism for retransmission may be supported. For retransmission, the UE 102 may receive the response/feedback (e.g., ACK/NACK) from the NW 101 to check whether the previous UL transmission is successful or not.” Moreover, col. 14, lines 44-45: “Based on the feedback from the NW 101, the UE 102 may perform the retransmission when the UE 102 receives the feedback with “NACK” information and/or when the UE 102 does not receive feedback with “ACK” information from the NW 101 … within the time duration)”. Tsai’s “response/feedback” is equated to correspond to “target quantity of times of retransmission” because the “target quantity of times of retransmission” appears to encompass “a single retransmission” or “one retransmission”); and
performing, by the terminal (UE 102), retransmission (retransmission) based on the first configuration information (small data transmission configuration(s)/CG configuration) and the target quantity of times (Downlink Feedback Information or feedback or response timer 110 running or feedback or check whether the previous UL transmission is successful or not) of retransmission (col. 14, lines 44-61: "Based on the feedback from the NW 101, the UE 102 may perform the retransmission when the UE 102 receives the feedback with "NACK" information and/or when the UE 102 does not receive feedback with "ACK" information from the NW 101 (e.g., the UE 102 does not receive the "ACK" information from the NW 101 within the time duration). Retransmissions may be performed on the resource and, if provided, with the MCS indicated on PDCCH, or on the same resource and with the same MCS as was used for the last transmission attempt within a bundle, or on stored configured uplink grant resources and stored MCS when cg-Retransmission Timer is configured. In one implementation, the UE 102 may perform the retransmission via configured grant 106, which may also be referred to as a UL resource configured by the CG configuration. In one implementation, the UE 102 may perform the retransmission via dynamic grant 107, which may also be referred to as a UL grant scheduled by the NW 101.").
As per claim 11, the claim appears to call for a terminal having limitations variously and essentially mirrored functional limitations of method claim 1. Therefore, it is anticipated by Tsai for the same rationales applied to method claim 1 as above discussed.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-20 and 12-20 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: The prior art of record, considered individually or in combination, appears to fail to fairly show or suggest a claim invention of base claims 1 and 11 and further limits with novel and unobvious limitations of “wherein the determining, by the terminal, a target quantity of times of retransmission comprises: determining, by the terminal, target information, wherein the target information is used to instruct the terminal to perform retransmission the target quantity of times of retransmission in the SDT procedure; and
determining, by the terminal based on the target information, the target quantity of times of retransmission,” as recited in group claims 2-9 and 12-19; and “wherein the first configuration information comprises second configuration information in a configured grant (CG) corresponding to the terminal; and the performing, by the terminal, retransmission based on the first configuration information and the target quantity of times of retransmission comprises: determining, after the terminal triggers a second SDT procedure, that the target quantity of times of retransmission is a quantity of times of retransmission indicated by the second configuration information,” as recited in claims 10 and 20, structurally and functionally interconnected in a manner as claimed.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Kim et al. (US 11,627,632).
Kim et al. (US 2023/0422149).
Xiong et al. (US 2023/0224953).
Alfarhan et al. (US 2023/0189245).
Tsai et al. (US 2023/0040421).
Tsai et al. (US 2022/0417983).
Kim et al. (US 2022/0232659).
Agiwal et al. (US 2022/0022247).
Tsai et al. (US 2021/0410180).
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/FRANK DUONG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2474 January 16, 2026