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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1-12, 14-20 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Applicant's arguments filed 06/24/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
In response to applicant’s argument in pages 10-13, the applicant asserts that “For reasons similar to those stated above concerning amended independent claim 1, the other amended independent claims are also not disclosed or otherwise suggested by prior art. Thus, independent claims 1, 18 and 20 are allowable.” Examiner respectively disagrees.
The applicant further asserts in page 13 that “Chai merely teaches how to determine whether a PO is a valid PO, rather than whether a slot is an available or valid slot.” Examiner respectively disagrees.
“During examination, the claims must be interpreted as broadly as their terms reasonably allow." MPEP § 2111.01 (I) (citing to In re American Academy of Science Tech Center, 367 F.3d 1359, 1369, 70 USPQ2d 1827, 1834 (Fed. Cir. 2004)).
"Though understanding the claim language may be aided by explanations contained in the written description, it is important not to import into a claim limitations that are not part of the claim. For example, a particular embodiment appearing in the written description may not be read into a claim when the claim language is broader than the embodiment." MPEP 2111.01 (11) citing to Superguide Corp. v. DirecTV Enterprises, Inc., 358 F.3d 870, 875, 69 USPQ2d 1865, 1868 (Fed. Cir. 2004).
As indicated by the fig. 20A, 20B, par. 272, 273, 274 of CHAI, “…The PUSCH occasion #1 and the PUSCH occasion #2 partially overlap the unavailable symbols…as the PUSCH occasion #1 shown in FIG. 20B, first one (Z-N.sub.GP) available time domain symbol in two (Z=2) consecutive available time domain symbols of the PUSCH occasion #1 shown in FIG. 20A. Because a time domain resource length of the PUSCH occasion #1 shown in FIG. 20B is less than the first time domain length threshold (X=2), the PUSCH occasion #1 shown in FIG. 20B is a time domain resource of an invalid first PUSCH occasion… the PUSCH occasion #2 shown in FIG. 20B, two (Z=2) consecutive available time domain symbols of the PUSCH occasion #2 shown in FIG. 20A. A time domain resource length of the PUSCH occasion #2 shown in FIG. 20B is equal to the first time domain length threshold (X=2). In this case, the PUSCH occasion #2 is determined as a time domain resource of a valid first PUSCH occasion…”, the resource symbols in the PO are available or unavailable or the condition of the symbols and depended on the amount of the available symbols (Z=2) is equal to length threshold (X=2) then the PO is valid or invalid. And given the broadest reasonable interpretation of Slot, the PO would consider as a slot as indicated by fig. 20A, 20B, par. 272, 273, 274 of CHAI since the PO is a sub slot of a slot and sub slot would consider as a slot.
Therefore, CHAI teaches the claims with the exception of “the symbols that meet the first condition are invalid symbol resources for the uplink transmission” but would have been obvious in view of KIM. Therefore, the combination of CHAI and KIM would teach the claims.
The rejection is maintained.
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.
Claim(s) 1, 3-6, 9, 10, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over CHAI et al. (US 20220167350 continuation of app. PCT/CN2020/109578 filed on 08/17/2020) in view of KIM et al. (US 20220095360 as supported by provisional app. 63080407 filed on 09/18/2020).
Regarding claims 1, 18, 20, CHAI et al. (US 20220167350) teaches an uplink transmission method executed by a terminal (fig. 22, par. 289, terminal device), comprising:
determining a first slot as an available or valid slot for an uplink transmission before sending the uplink transmission (par. 87, 88, 271, 273, 274, 275, 276, A PUSCH occasion (PUSCH occasion, PO for short) in this application refers to a time-frequency resource that can be used by a terminal device to send uplink data…if Z consecutive available time domain symbols exist in the first PUSCH occasion that includes the unavailable time domain symbol, the Z consecutive available time domain symbols are determined as a time domain resource of a valid first PUSCH occasion, where Z is greater than or equal to the first time domain length threshold; or first Z-N.sub.GP consecutive available time domain symbols in the Z consecutive available time domain symbols are determined as a time domain resource of a valid first PUSCH occasion, where Z-N.sub.GP is greater than or equal to the first time domain length threshold); and
determining an actual transmission behavior in the first slot (par. 87, 88, 177, 271, 273, 274, 275, 276, if Z consecutive available time domain symbols exist in the first PUSCH occasion that includes the unavailable time domain symbol, the Z consecutive available time domain symbols are determined as a time domain resource of a valid first PUSCH occasion, where Z is greater than or equal to the first time domain length threshold; or first Z-N.sub.GP consecutive available time domain symbols in the Z consecutive available time domain symbols are determined as a time domain resource of a valid first PUSCH occasion, where Z-N.sub.GP is greater than or equal to the first time domain length threshold);
wherein the actual transmission behavior comprises performing the uplink transmission in the first slot (par. 87, 88, 177, 271, 273, 274, 275, 276, if Z consecutive available time domain symbols exist in the first PUSCH occasion that includes the unavailable time domain symbol, the Z consecutive available time domain symbols are determined as a time domain resource of a valid first PUSCH occasion, where Z is greater than or equal to the first time domain length threshold; or first Z-N.sub.GP consecutive available time domain symbols in the Z consecutive available time domain symbols are determined as a time domain resource of a valid first PUSCH occasion, where Z-N.sub.GP is greater than or equal to the first time domain length threshold);
wherein the determining the first slot as the available or valid slot (par. 87, 88, 177, 271, 273, 274, 275, 276) comprises:
obtaining a first quantity of symbols that meet a first condition among all first symbols used for the uplink transmission in the first slot (par. 87, 88, 177, 271, 273, 274, 275, 276, if Z consecutive available time domain symbols exist in the first PUSCH occasion that includes the unavailable time domain symbol, the Z consecutive available time domain symbols are determined as a time domain resource of a valid first PUSCH occasion, where Z is greater than or equal to the first time domain length threshold; or first Z-N.sub.GP consecutive available time domain symbols in the Z consecutive available time domain symbols are determined as a time domain resource of a valid first PUSCH occasion, where Z-N.sub.GP is greater than or equal to the first time domain length threshold);
wherein the symbols that meet the first condition are valid symbol resources for the uplink transmission (par. 87, 88, 271, 273, 274, 275, 276, if Z consecutive available time domain symbols exist in the first PUSCH occasion that includes the unavailable time domain symbol, the Z consecutive available time domain symbols are determined as a time domain resource of a valid first PUSCH occasion, where Z is greater than or equal to the first time domain length threshold; or first Z-N.sub.GP consecutive available time domain symbols in the Z consecutive available time domain symbols are determined as a time domain resource of a valid first PUSCH occasion, where Z-N.sub.GP is greater than or equal to the first time domain length threshold); and
determining the first slot as the available or valid slot in a case that the first quantity is less than a first threshold (par. 87, 88, 271, 273, 274, 275, 276-282; par. 187, 220, 247, if the time domain length of the time domain resource of the last fourth PUSCH occasion in each of the P slots is less than the first time domain length threshold, the time domain resource of the last fourth PUSCH occasion is not used as a time domain resource of a first PUSCH occasion…A time domain resource length of the PUSCH occasion #2 shown in FIG. 20B is equal to the first time domain length threshold (X=2). In this case, the PUSCH occasion #2 is determined as a time domain resource of a valid first PUSCH occasion…a valid first PUSCH occasion is determined based on positions of a time domain resource of a first PUSCH occasion and an unavailable symbol, so that the terminal device can be prevented from sending uplink data on the unavailable symbol).
However, CHAI does not explicitly teach wherein the symbols that meet the first condition are invalid symbol resources for the uplink transmission;
But, KIM et al. (US 20220095360) in a similar or same field of endeavor teaches wherein the symbols that meet the first condition are invalid symbol resources for the uplink transmission (par. 188, identify uplink symbols (e.g., uplink symbols defining uplink transmission occasions) which are outside of the uplink transmission durations as invalid (e.g., unusable, unavailable) uplink transmission occasions);
Thus, it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art before the effectively filing date of the claimed invention to implement the system or method as taught by KIM in the system of CHAI to determine invalid symbol.
The motivation would have been to significantly reduce a power consumption and improve battery performance at the communication devices.
Regarding claim 3, CHAI et al. (US 20220167350) teaches the method according to claim 1, wherein the first symbol comprises at least one of the following:
symbol for physical uplink shared channel transmission as indicated by time domain resource allocation (par. 6, 87, 88, 271, 273, 274, 275, 276; par. 187, 220, 247, PUSCH occasion);
symbol for uplink transmission as indicated by higher-layer configuration (par. 87, 88, 271, 273, 274, 275, 276; par. 187, 220, 247, 257, RRC IE of the PUSCH configuration or higher-layer configuration); or
symbol for physical uplink control channel transmission as indicated by a physical uplink control channel resource indicator information (optional, par. 87, 88, 271, 273, 274, 275, 276; par. 187, 220, 247, 257; par. 6, 114, 268, the time domain resource configuration information of the PUSCH occasion…The configuration information of the time domain resource start position may include start slot configuration information and/or start symbol configuration information).
Regarding claim 4, CHAI et al. (US 20220167350) teaches the method according to claim 1, wherein the first threshold is determined based on at least one of the following:
higher-layer configuration (par. 87, 88, 271, 273, 274, 275, 276; par. 187, 220, 247, 257, 268, RRC IE of the PUSCH configuration or higher-layer configuration);
dynamic indication (optional, par. 87, 88, 271, 273, 274, 275, 276; par. 187, 220, 247, 257, 268);
transmission length in time domain resource allocation table (optional, par. 87, 88, 271, 273, 274, 275, 276; par. 187, 220, 247, 257, 268);
transmission length of physical uplink control channel (optional, par. 87, 88, 271, 273, 274, 275, 276; par. 187, 220, 247, 257, 268);
transmission length of uplink transmission (par. 87, 88, 271, 273, 274, 275, 276; par. 187, 220, 247, 257; par. 6, 114, 268; par. 14, 111, a quantity of the first part of time domain symbols of the second PUSCH occasion is greater than or equal to a sum of the first time domain length threshold and the guard period,);
configuration by time domain resource allocation (par. 87, 88, 271, 273, 274, 275, 276; par. 187, 220, 247, 257; par. 6, 114, 268);
configuration by radio resource control information (par. 87, 88, 271, 273, 274, 275, 276; par. 187, 220, 247, 257, RRC IE of the PUSCH configuration or higher-layer configuration);
the first slot being a slot without uplink/downlink switching (optional, par. 87, 88, 271, 273, 274, 275, 276; par. 187, 220, 247, 257, 268);
the first slot being a slot with uplink/downlink switching (optional, par. 87, 88, 271, 273, 274, 275, 276; par. 187, 220, 247, 257, 268); or
a coding rate specified by higher-layer configuration and/or protocol (optional, par. 87, 88, 271, 273, 274, 275, 276; par. 187, 220, 247, 257, 268).
Regarding claim 5, CHAI et al. (US 20220167350) teaches the method according to claim 1, wherein the first threshold is greater than or equal to 0 and less than or equal to 13 (par. 87, 88, 271, 273, 274, 275, 276; par. 187, 220, 247, if the time domain length of the time domain resource of the last fourth PUSCH occasion in each of the P slots is less than the first time domain length threshold, the time domain resource of the last fourth PUSCH occasion is not used as a time domain resource of a first PUSCH occasion…A time domain resource length of the PUSCH occasion #2 shown in FIG. 20B is equal to the first time domain length threshold (X=2). In this case, the PUSCH occasion #2 is determined as a time domain resource of a valid first PUSCH occasion…a valid first PUSCH occasion is determined based on positions of a time domain resource of a first PUSCH occasion and an unavailable symbol, so that the terminal device can be prevented from sending uplink data on the unavailable symbol).
Regarding claim 6, CHAI et al. (US 20220167350) teaches the method according to claim 2, wherein the first condition further comprises at least one of the following:
used for a control resource set for type 0 physical downlink control channel common search space (optional, par. 194, 266, 267, 268, 270);
configured as a semi-static flexible symbol (optional, par. 194, 266, 267, 268, 270);
being a symbol that is unavailable or invalid for the uplink transmission according to higher-layer configuration (par. 267, 268, 270, A type of a symbol of a time domain resource is determined by using broadcast information, and/or an RRC message, and/or slot format indication information in dynamic message control information (DCI)…a valid first PUSCH occasion is determined based on positions of a time domain resource of a first PUSCH occasion and an unavailable symbol, so that the terminal device can be prevented from sending uplink data on the unavailable symbol); or
being a symbol unusable for the uplink transmission as indicated by dynamic signaling or higher-layer configuration (par. 267, 268, 270, A type of a symbol of a time domain resource is determined by using broadcast information, and/or an RRC message, and/or slot format indication information in dynamic message control information (DCI)…a valid first PUSCH occasion is determined based on positions of a time domain resource of a first PUSCH occasion and an unavailable symbol, so that the terminal device can be prevented from sending uplink data on the unavailable symbol);
Regarding claim 9, CHAI et al. (US 20220167350) teaches the method according to claim 6, wherein the symbols unusable for the uplink transmission comprises at least one of the following:
used for scheduling downlink symbol(s) (par. 267, 268, 270, downlink symbol);
used for scheduling dynamic flexible symbol (par. 267, 268, 270, flexible symbol);
used for scheduling downlink transmission (par. 267, 268, 270, downlink symbol);
used for scheduling repetition of other uplink transmission (par. 238, the repetition indication information is used to indicate whether there are a plurality of consecutive fifth PUSCH occasions in a PUSCH occasion group);
used for scheduling multi-slot transmission of other uplink transmission (par. 237, a PUSCH occasion #0, a PUSCH occasion #1, and a PUSCH occasion #2,); or
being an unavailable or invalid symbol (par. 267, 268, 270, unavailable symbols).
Regarding claim 10, CHAI does not teach the method according to claim 2, wherein the first factor comprises at least one of the following:
a time resource with a scheduling restriction caused by a first measurement;
radio frequency retuning time between a same or different uplink transmissions;
bandwidth part switching in a current or other cell, activation of a secondary cell, deactivation of a secondary cell, addition of a secondary cell, or release of a secondary cell;
transition between non-discontinuous reception and discontinuous reception in another serving cell; or
measurement gap.
But, KIM et al. (US 20220095360) in a similar or same field of endeavor teaches
wherein the first factor comprises at least one of the following:
a time resource with a scheduling restriction caused by a first measurement (optional, par. 66, 117);
radio frequency retuning time between a same or different uplink transmissions (optional, par. 66, 117);
bandwidth part switching in a current or other cell, activation of a secondary cell, deactivation of a secondary cell, addition of a secondary cell, or release of a secondary cell (optional, par. 66, 117);
transition between non-discontinuous reception and discontinuous reception in another serving cell (par. 66, 117, each active duration and/or inactive duration may include one or more symbols in the time domain, and may be used to differentiate uplink transmission occasions of the uplink configuration which are valid from uplink transmission occasions which are invalid); or
measurement gap (optional, par. 66, 117).
Thus, it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art before the effectively filing date of the claimed invention to implement the system or method as taught by KIM in the system of CHAI to determine invalid symbol.
The motivation would have been to significantly reduce a power consumption and improve battery performance at the communication devices.
Regarding claim 14, CHAI et al. (US 20220167350) teaches the method according to claim 1, wherein the determining the actual transmission behavior in the first slot comprises:
determining a second quantity of symbols that meet a second condition among all the first symbols (par. 198, 274, 276-280, if a time-frequency resource of a PUSCH occasion on time domain resources of any one or more first PUSCH occasions in the time domain resources of the plurality of first PUSCH occasions satisfies at least one of the following conditions, the time-frequency resource of the PUSCH occasion is invalid); and
determining the actual transmission behavior in the first slot based on the second quantity (par. 154, 177, 198, 273, 274, 276-280, Time domain resources of a plurality of third PUSCH occasions satisfying the preset condition in one PUSCH occasion group in this embodiment may be used to transmit a same transport block, to improve uplink data transmission quality).
Regarding claim 15, CHAI teaches the method according to claim 14, wherein the second condition is the first condition excluding configured as a semi-static downlink symbol (par. 198, 274, 276-282, The conditions excluding semi-static).
Regarding claim 16, CHAI et al. (US 20220167350) teaches the method according to claim 15, wherein the determining the actual transmission behavior in the first slot based on the second quantity comprises:
determining the actual transmission behavior in the first slot in a case that the second quantity is less than the first quantity (par. 154, 177, 198, 273, 274, 276-280, Time domain resources of a plurality of third PUSCH occasions satisfying the preset condition in one PUSCH occasion group in this embodiment may be used to transmit a same transport block, to improve uplink data transmission quality).
Regarding claim 17, CHAI et al. (US 20220167350) teaches the method according to claim 16, wherein the determining the actual transmission behavior in the first slot in a case that the second quantity is less than the first quantity comprises at least one of the following:
performing a target actual transmission behavior in the first slot (par. 154, 177, 198, 273, 274, 276-280, Time domain resources of a plurality of third PUSCH occasions satisfying the preset condition in one PUSCH occasion group in this embodiment may be used to transmit a same transport block, to improve uplink data transmission quality);
performing the target actual transmission behavior based on the second quantity (par. 154, 177, 198, 273, 274, 276-280, Time domain resources of a plurality of third PUSCH occasions satisfying the preset condition in one PUSCH occasion group in this embodiment may be used to transmit a same transport block, to improve uplink data transmission quality);
determining based on high-layer configuration that the target actual transmission behavior is to be performed in the first slot (optional, par. 154, 177, 198, 273, 274, 276-280); or
determining an actual transmission behavior on each symbol in the first slot based on processing time (optional, par. 154, 177, 198, 273, 274, 276-280);
wherein the target actual transmission behavior comprises at least one of the following:
the uplink transmission is performed with rate-matching around invalid symbol resources (optional, par. 198, 271, 265, 266, 267, 273, 274,);
the uplink transmission is performed by removing or puncturing invalid symbol resources (optional, par. 198, 271, 265, 266, 267, 273, 274,);
the uplink transmission is performed by segmenting around invalid symbol resources (par. 122, 135, 136, a second PUSCH occasion that does not satisfy the preset condition is adjusted, in another manner such as a shortening manner or a splitting manner, to a PUSCH occasion satisfying the preset condition).
Claim(s) 2, 11, 19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over CHAI et al. (US 20220167350 continuation of app. PCT/CN2020/109578 filed on 08/17/2020) and KIM et al. (US 20220095360 as supported by provisional app. 63080407 filed on 09/18/2020) as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of FAKOORIAN et al. (US 20200267756).
Regarding claims 2, 19, CHAI et al. (US 20220167350) teaches the method according to claim 1, wherein the first condition comprises at least one of the following:
configured as a semi-static downlink symbol (optional, par. 194, 266, 267, 268, 270);
configured as a synchronization signal block (par. 266, a symbol on which a synchronization signal block is located; and/or a symbol in a time period T2 after the last symbol of the synchronization signal block); or
current physical uplink shared transmission being interrupted due to a first factor (optional, par. 194, 266, 267, 268, 270); the first factor comprising: a switching or transition period between the uplink transmission and a downlink transmission (optional, par. 194, 266, 267, 268, 270);
the uplink transmission being canceled (par. 198, 271, 265, 266, 267, 273, 274, 275, a time domain resource length of the shortened PUSCH occasion #1 in the PUSCH occasion group #1 in this embodiment is less than the first time domain length threshold (X=2), the shortened PUSCH occasion #1 in the PUSCH occasion group #1 is used as an invalid first PUSCH occasion, and is not used to send uplink data).
However, CHAI does not teach canceled according to a half-duplex rule.
But, FAKOORIAN et al. (US 20200267756) in a similar or same field of endeavor teaches the uplink transmission being canceled according to a half-duplex rule (par. 79, such as half-duplex communications (for example, a mode that supports one-way communication via transmission or reception, but not transmission and reception simultaneously)).
Thus, it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art before the effectively filing date of the claimed invention to implement the system or method as taught by FAKOORIAN in the system of CHAI and KIM to determine invalid symbol.
The motivation would have been to optimize the resource selection for transmission by prevent invalid resource being selected.
Regarding claim 11, CHAI does not teach the method according to claim 2, wherein the half-duplex rule comprises at least one of the following:
terminal behavior under time division duplex half-duplex carrier aggregation; or
terminal behavior under half-duplex frequency division duplex for reduced capability devices.
But, FAKOORIAN et al. (US 20200267756) in a similar or same field of endeavor teaches terminal behavior under time division duplex half-duplex carrier aggregation (par. 79, 87, half-duplex… a carrier aggregation… time division duplexing (TDD)); or
terminal behavior under half-duplex frequency division duplex for reduced capability devices (par. 79, 87, half-duplex…frequency division duplexing (FDD)).
Thus, it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art before the effectively filing date of the claimed invention to implement the system or method as taught by FAKOORIAN in the system of CHAI and KIM to determine invalid symbol.
The motivation would have been to optimize the resource selection for transmission by prevent invalid resource being selected.
Claim(s) 7, 8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over CHAI et al. (US 20220167350 continuation of app. PCT/CN2020/109578 filed on 08/17/2020), KIM et al. (US 20220095360 as supported by provisional app. 63080407 filed on 09/18/2020), and FAKOORIAN et al. (US 20200267756) as applied to claim 2 above, and further in view of YANG et al. (US 20230276440 with foreign app. GR 20200100567 filed on 09/18/2020).
Regarding claim 7, CHAI does not teach the method according to claim 2, wherein the semi-static downlink symbols are configured by tdd-UL-DL-ConfigurationCommon information and/or tdd-UL-DL- ConfigurationDedicated information.
But, YANG et al. (US 20230276440) in a similar or same field of endeavor teaches wherein the semi-static downlink symbols are configured by tdd-UL-DL-ConfigurationCommon information and/or tdd-UL-DL- ConfigurationDedicated information (par. 125, 126, Semi-static DL symbols as determined from at least one of the following: 1) symbols indicated as downlink by TDD-ConfigurationCommon or TDD-UL-DL-ConfigDedicated;).
Thus, it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art before the effectively filing date of the claimed invention to implement the system or method as taught by YANG in the system of CHAI, KIM, and FAKOORIAN to determine invalid symbol.
The motivation would have been to optimize the resource selection for transmission by prevent invalid resource being selected.
Regarding claim 8, CHAI does not teach the method according to claim 2, wherein the synchronization signal block is indicated and configured based on ssb-PositionsInBurst in a system information block or ssb- PositionsInBurst in ServingCellConfigCommon.
But, YANG et al. (US 20230276440) in a similar or same field of endeavor teaches wherein the synchronization signal block is indicated and configured based on ssb-PositionsInBurst in a system information block or ssb- PositionsInBurst in ServingCellConfigCommon (par. 125, 126, symbols that are indicated to the UE by ssb-PositionInBurst in SIB1 or ssb-PositionInBurst in ServingCellConfigCommon for reception of SSB/PBCH blocks).
Thus, it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art before the effectively filing date of the claimed invention to implement the system or method as taught by YANG in the system of CHAI, KIM, and FAKOORIAN to determine invalid symbol.
The motivation would have been to optimize the resource selection for transmission by prevent invalid resource being selected.
Claim(s) 12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over CHAI et al. (US 20220167350 continuation of app. PCT/CN2020/109578 filed on 08/17/2020) and KIM et al. (US 20220095360 as supported by provisional app. 63080407 filed on 09/18/2020) as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of LY et al. (US 20230421327 supported by provisional app. 63137668 filed on 01/14/2021).
Regarding claim 12, CHAI does not teach the method according to claim 1, wherein the first condition is determined based on at least one of the following:
classification of physical uplink shared channel;
format of physical uplink control channel; or
uplink control information carried by physical uplink control channel.
But, LY et al. (US 20230421327) in a similar or same field of endeavor teaches classification of physical uplink shared channel (par. 65, 67, 73, 77, PUSCH repetition Type A… PUSCH repetition Type B);
format of physical uplink control channel (par. 53, whether short or long PUCCHs are transmitted and depending on the particular PUCCH format used); or
uplink control information carried by physical uplink control channel (par. 54, The PUCCH carries uplink control information (UCI)).
Thus, it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art before the effectively filing date of the claimed invention to implement the system or method as taught by LY in the system of CHAI and KIM to determine invalid symbol.
The motivation would have been to optimize the resource selection for transmission by prevent invalid resource being selected.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
KUMAGAI et al. (US 20240023081) teaches wherein the semi-static downlink symbols are configured by tdd-UL-DL-ConfigurationCommon information and/or tdd-UL-DL- ConfigurationDedicated information (par. 50, The slot format configuration information is, for example, tdd-UL-DL-ConfigurationCommon or tdd-UL-DL-ConfigurationDedicated…the above configuration information is referred to as semi-static TDD configuration information).
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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to THINH D TRAN whose telephone number is (571)270-3934. The examiner can normally be reached mon-fri 9-6.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, FARUK HAMZA can be reached at 5712727969. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/THINH D TRAN/for /Thinh Tran/, Patent Examiner of Art Unit 2466 09/03/2026
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