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 .
DETAILED ACTION
This office action is a response amendment filed on 12/09/2025. The amendment is in response to restriction requirement filed on 10/28/2025.
Claims 1 – 8 and 27 – 30 are elected with traverse.
Claims 1 – 8 and 27 – 30 are pending and ready for examination.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 11/17/2025 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed on 12/09/2025 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicant commented on pg.2 last paragraph of the remark that applicant respectfully disagrees the restriction requirement.
Examiner disagrees with applicant’s comment and conclusion. As mentioned in the restriction requirement submitted on 10/28/2025 that there are three distinct species and therefore, each requires different search criteria. Even though they are in the same technical field and the beginning step of each specie is the same, the end steps are different and requires different search options. Therefore, it is definitely a serios burden for examiner to search for the three different groups of claims with three different search fields.
Accordingly, examiner states that the requirement for restriction is proper. Therefore, non-elected claims need to be cancelled.
Double Patenting
The nonstatutory double patenting rejection is based on a judicially created doctrine grounded in public policy (a policy reflected in the statute) so as to prevent the unjustified or improper timewise extension of the “right to exclude” granted by a patent and to prevent possible harassment by multiple assignees. A nonstatutory double patenting rejection is appropriate where the conflicting claims are not identical, but at least one examined application claim is not patentably distinct from the reference claim(s) because the examined application claim is either anticipated by, or would have been obvious over, the reference claim(s). See, e.g., In re Berg, 140 F.3d 1428, 46 USPQ2d 1226 (Fed. Cir. 1998); In re Goodman, 11 F.3d 1046, 29 USPQ2d 2010 (Fed. Cir. 1993); In re Longi, 759 F.2d 887, 225 USPQ 645 (Fed. Cir. 1985); In re Van Ornum, 686 F.2d 937, 214 USPQ 761 (CCPA 1982); In re Vogel, 422 F.2d 438, 164 USPQ 619 (CCPA 1970); In re Thorington, 418 F.2d 528, 163 USPQ 644 (CCPA 1969).
A timely filed terminal disclaimer in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(c) or 1.321(d) may be used to overcome an actual or provisional rejection based on nonstatutory double patenting provided the reference application or patent either is shown to be commonly owned with the examined application, or claims an invention made as a result of activities undertaken within the scope of a joint research agreement. See MPEP § 717.02 for applications subject to examination under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA as explained in MPEP § 2159. See MPEP §§ 706.02(l)(1) - 706.02(l)(3) for applications not subject to examination under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA . A terminal disclaimer must be signed in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(b).
The USPTO Internet website contains terminal disclaimer forms which may be used. Please visit www.uspto.gov/patent/patents-forms. The filing date of the application in which the form is filed determines what form (e.g., PTO/SB/25, PTO/SB/26, PTO/AIA /25, or PTO/AIA /26) should be used. A web-based eTerminal Disclaimer may be filled out completely online using web-screens. An eTerminal Disclaimer that meets all requirements is auto-processed and approved immediately upon submission. For more information about eTerminal Disclaimers, refer to www.uspto.gov/patents/process/file/efs/guidance/eTD-info-I.jsp.
Claims 1 – 8 and 27 – 30 are provisionally rejected on the ground of non-statutory obviousness-type double patenting (ODP) as being unpatentable over claims 1+3 and 9+11 of application no. 18/528,329 in view of Papasakellariou (US 2022/0217651 A1) and other secondary references. Although the claims at issue are not identical, they are not patentably distinct from each other because both inventions are directed towards apparatus and method regarding hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) communications. With respect to the independent claims of the instant application and the co-pending application, please see the direct claim comparison in the Table 1 below. This is a provisional double patenting rejection, since the claims directed to the same invention have not in fact been patented.
Table 1: Claim comparison between the instant and the Co-pending applications.
Instant application no. 18/471,229
Co-pending application No. 18/528,329
1. A method for wireless communication at a user equipment (UE), comprising:
receiving, from a network node, a group of downlink transmissions;
forming a first hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) part and a second HARQ-ACK part associated with a HARQ-ACK payload in accordance with a transformation scheme, the HARQ-ACK payload including HARQ feedback for each one of the group of downlink transmissions, a size of the second HARQ-ACK part being a function of the first HARQ-ACK part;
separately encoding the first HARQ-ACK part and the second HARQ-ACK part;
multiplexing the encoded first HARQ-ACK part and the encoded second HARQ-ACK part on a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH); and
transmitting, to the network node via the PUSCH, the multiplexed first HARQ-ACK part and second HARQ-ACK part.
1. A method for wireless communication at a user equipment (UE), comprising:
receiving, from a network node, a group of downlink transmissions;
forming a first hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) part and a second HARQ-ACK part associated with a HARQ-ACK payload, the HARQ-ACK payload including HARQ feedback for each one of the group of downlink transmissions, a size of the second HARQ-ACK part being a function of the first HARQ-ACK part;
separately encoding the first HARQ-ACK part and the second HARQ-ACK part;
multiplexing the encoded first HARQ-ACK part in accordance with a first beta offset value and the encoded second HARQ-ACK part in accordance with a second beta offset value; and
transmitting, to the network node, the multiplexed first HARQ-ACK part and second HARQ-ACK part.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein the encoded first HARQ-ACK part and the encoded second HARQ-ACK part are multiplexed on a single PUSCH or different PUSCHs.
As can be seen from the direct claim comparison of Table 1, claim 1 of instant application is very similar to claims 1+3 of the co-pending application except some limitations. Dissimilar parts of the claims are underlined. Similar claim comparison can be shown for instant claim 27 vs. co-pending claims 9+11.
The co-pending claims 1 and 9 do not recite
forming a first hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) part and a second HARQ-ACK part in accordance with a transformation scheme;
transmitting, to the network node via the PUSCH, the multiplexed first HARQ-ACK part and second HARQ-ACK part.
However, Papasakellariou teaches (Title, INFORMATION TYPE MULTIPLEXING AND POWER CONTROL)
forming a first hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) part and a second HARQ-ACK part ([0189], UE determines first HARQ-ACK information and second HARQ-ACK information) in accordance with a transformation scheme ([0189], A HARQ-ACK information corresponds to correct or incorrect detection of TBs, CBs, or group of CBs and a granularity for the HARQ-ACK information is separately configured for each data information type. Here, the first HARQ-ACK and the second HARQ-ACK are determined/ formed by the UE in accordance with a transformation scheme);
transmitting, to the network node via the PUSCH, the multiplexed first HARQ-ACK part and second HARQ-ACK part (Claim 1, multiplexing the encoded HARQ-ACK information of the first type and the encoded HARQ-ACK information of the second type in a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH); and transmitting the PUSCH. Therefore, the multiplexed first HARQ-ACK part and second HARQ-ACK part is transmitted via the PUSCH).
The motivation for adding Papasakellariou to the co-pending claim would have been to provide a method of information type multiplexing and power control (Papasakellariou, Title and [0191]).
The claims of the instant application that are rejected under ODP are listed in table 2.
Table 2: instant claims vs. Co-pending claims.
Instant application no. 18/471,229
Co-pending application No. 18/528,329
1
1 +3
27
9+11
Accordingly, instant claims 1 and 27 are provisionally rejected on the ground of ODP as being unpatentable over claims 1+3 and 9+11 of co-pending application no. 18/528,329 in view of Papasakellariou.
Dependent claims 2 – 8 and 28 – 30 have different limitations than that of the co-pending claim limitations. Claims 2 – 3, 5 and 28 – 29 are provisionally rejected on the ground of ODP as being unpatentable over claims 1+3 and 9+11 of the co-pending application in view of Papasakellariou and KHOSHNEVISAN et al. (US 2020/0266937 A1).
Claim 4 is provisionally rejected on the ground of ODP as being unpatentable over claims 1+3 and 9+11 of the co-pending application in view of Papasakellariou, KHOSHNEVISAN and TAKEDA et al. (EP-3664540-B1).
Claims 6 – 7 and 30 are provisionally rejected on the ground of ODP as being unpatentable over claims 1+3 and 9+11 of the co-pending application in view of Papasakellariou, KHOSHNEVISAN and LI et al. (US 2025/0330976 A1).
Similarly, claim 8 is provisionally rejected on the ground of ODP as being unpatentable over claims 1+3 and 9+11 of the co-pending application in view of Papasakellariou, KHOSHNEVISAN and KIM et al. (US 2021/0297135 A1).
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 of this title, 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.
Claims 1 – 3, 5 and 27 – 29 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Papasakellariou (US 2022/0217651 A1) in view of KHOSHNEVISAN et al. (KHOSHNEVISAN hereinafter referred to KHOSHNEVISAN) (US 2020/0266937 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Papasakellariou teaches a method (Title, INFORMATION TYPE MULTIPLEXING AND POWER CONTROL) for wireless communication at a user equipment (UE) (Fig.14 and [0188], method 1400 for a transmission by a UE of HARQ-ACK information), comprising:
receiving, from a network node, a group of downlink transmissions ([0078], a downlink (DL) refers to transmissions from a base station or one or more transmission points to UEs. Fig.14, step 1410. [0189], UE receives data information of a first type and data information of a second type. Here, the data information of the first type and the second type is a group of downlink transmissions);
forming a first hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) part and a second HARQ-ACK part ([0189], UE determines first HARQ-ACK information and second HARQ-ACK information) associated with a HARQ-ACK payload ([0199], UE determines HARQ-ACK payload for each HARQ-ACK information type. Here, the first HARQ-ACK and the second HARQ-ACK are associated with a HARQ-ACK payload) in accordance with a transformation scheme ([0189], A HARQ-ACK information corresponds to correct or incorrect detection of TBs, CBs, or group of CBs and a granularity for the HARQ-ACK information is separately configured for each data information type. Here, the first HARQ-ACK and the second HARQ-ACK are determined/ formed by the UE in accordance with a transformation scheme), a size of the second HARQ-ACK part being a function of the first HARQ-ACK part (Fig.27 and [0354], UE determines whether the second HARQ-ACK codebook size is equal to the first HARQ-ACK codebook size in step 2730; [0355], the second HARQ-ACK codebook size is equal to or larger than the first HARQ-ACK codebook size. Here, the size of the second HARQ-ACK codebook is equal to or larger than the first HARQ-ACK codebook; therefore, it is obvious that a size of the second HARQ-ACK part being a function of the first HARQ-ACK part);
separately encoding the first HARQ-ACK part and the second HARQ-ACK part (Fig.14, step 1420. [0190], The UE separately encodes the first HARQ-ACK information and the second HARQ-ACK information; claim 1, the HARQ-ACK information of the first type is separately encoded from the HARQ-ACK information of the second type);
multiplexing the encoded first HARQ-ACK part and the encoded second HARQ-ACK part on a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) ([0194], multiplexing first and second HARQ-ACK information types in a same PUSCH transmission; Claim 1, multiplexing the encoded HARQ-ACK information of the first type and the encoded HARQ-ACK information of the second type in a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH); and
transmitting, to the network node via the PUSCH, the multiplexed first HARQ-ACK part and second HARQ-ACK part (Claim 1, multiplexing the encoded HARQ-ACK information of the first type and the encoded HARQ-ACK information of the second type in a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH); and transmitting the PUSCH. Therefore, the multiplexed first HARQ-ACK part and second HARQ-ACK part is transmitted via the PUSCH).
Papasakellariou does not specifically teach
the HARQ-ACK payload including HARQ feedback for each one of the group of downlink transmissions.
However, KHOSHNEVISAN teaches a method (Title, DYNAMIC HYBRID AUTOMATIC REPEAT REQUEST (HARQ) CODEBOOK FOR MULTI-TRANSMIT RECEIVE POINT (TRP) COMMUNICATION) for wireless communication at a user equipment (UE) (Fig.5 and [0073], process 500 performed by a UE), comprising:
receiving, from a network node, a group of downlink transmissions (Fig.5, step 510. [0074], receiving at least one of: one or more first downlink control information (DCI) transmissions, or one or more second DCI transmissions. Here, more than one first DCI transmissions are considered; therefore, a group of downlink transmissions is received);
forming a HARQ-ACK payload in accordance with a transformation scheme (Fig.5, step 520. [0075], determining one or more hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledge (HARQ-ACK) payloads based at least in part on counter downlink assignment indicator (DAI) values and total DAI values of the one or more first DCI transmissions and the one or more second DCI transmissions), the HARQ-ACK payload including HARQ feedback for each one of the group of downlink transmissions (Fig.5, step 530. [0076], transmitting HARQ-ACK feedback based at least in part on the one or more HARQ-ACK payloads. Here, the HARQ-ACK feedback is in response to the HARQ-ACK payload and the received group of downlink transmissions; therefore, the HARQ-ACK payload includes HARQ feedback for each one of the group of downlink transmissions).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Papasakellariou as mentioned above and further incorporate the teaching of KHOSHNEVISAN. The motivation for doing so would have been to provide a multi-transmit-receive point (TRP) approach for hybrid automatic repeat request (HARD) acknowledgment (ACK) feedback, that improves reliability of HARQ-ACK feedback and reduce inefficiency of multi-TRP downlink communications (KHOSHNEVISAN, Abstract and [0035]).
Regarding claim 27, Papasakellariou teaches (Title, INFORMATION TYPE MULTIPLEXING AND POWER CONTROL) a user equipment (UE) (Fig.3 and [0068], UE 116), comprising:
one or more processors (Fig.3 and [0069], processor 340); and
one or more memories (Fig.3 and [0069], memory 360) coupled with the one or more processors ([0075], The memory 360 is coupled to the processor 340) and storing processor-executable code that ([0069], memory 360 includes an operating system (OS) 361 and one or more applications 362), when executed by the one or more processors, is configured to cause the UE ([0072], processor 340 executes the OS 361 stored in the memory 360 in order to control the overall operation of the UE) to:
receive, from a network node, a group of downlink transmissions ([0078], a downlink (DL) refers to transmissions from a base station or one or more transmission points to UEs. Fig.14, step 1410. [0189], UE receives data information of a first type and data information of a second type. Here, the data information of the first type and the second type is a group of downlink transmissions);
form a first hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) part and a second HARQ-ACK part ([0189], UE determines first HARQ-ACK information and second HARQ-ACK information) associated with a HARQ-ACK payload ([0199], UE determines HARQ-ACK payload for each HARQ-ACK information type. Here, the first HARQ-ACK and the second HARQ-ACK are associated with a HARQ-ACK payload) in accordance with a transformation scheme ([0189], A HARQ-ACK information corresponds to correct or incorrect detection of TBs, CBs, or group of CBs and a granularity for the HARQ-ACK information is separately configured for each data information type. Here, the first HARQ-ACK and the second HARQ-ACK are determined/ formed by the UE in accordance with a transformation scheme), a size of the second HARQ-ACK part being a function of the first HARQ-ACK part (Fig.27 and [0354], UE determines whether the second HARQ-ACK codebook size is equal to the first HARQ-ACK codebook size in step 2730; [0355], the second HARQ-ACK codebook size is equal to or larger than the first HARQ-ACK codebook size. Here, the size of the second HARQ-ACK codebook is equal to or larger than the first HARQ-ACK codebook; therefore, it is obvious that a size of the second HARQ-ACK part being a function of the first HARQ-ACK part);
separately encode the first HARQ-ACK part and the second HARQ-ACK part (Fig.14, step 1420. [0190], The UE separately encodes the first HARQ-ACK information and the second HARQ-ACK information; claim 1, the HARQ-ACK information of the first type is separately encoded from the HARQ-ACK information of the second type);
multiplex the encoded first HARQ-ACK part and the encoded second HARQ-ACK part on a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) ([0194], multiplexing first and second HARQ-ACK information types in a same PUSCH transmission; Claim 1, multiplexing the encoded HARQ-ACK information of the first type and the encoded HARQ-ACK information of the second type in a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH); and
transmit, to the network node via the PUSCH, the multiplexed first HARQ-ACK part and second HARQ-ACK part (Claim 1, multiplexing the encoded HARQ-ACK information of the first type and the encoded HARQ-ACK information of the second type in a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH); and transmitting the PUSCH. Therefore, the multiplexed first HARQ-ACK part and second HARQ-ACK part is transmitted via the PUSCH).
Papasakellariou does not specifically teach
the HARQ-ACK payload including HARQ feedback for each one of the group of downlink transmissions.
However, KHOSHNEVISAN teaches (Title, DYNAMIC HYBRID AUTOMATIC REPEAT REQUEST (HARQ) CODEBOOK FOR MULTI-TRANSMIT RECEIVE POINT (TRP) COMMUNICATION) a user equipment (UE) (Fig.2 and [0050], UE 120):
receive, from a network node, a group of downlink transmissions (Fig.5, step 510. [0074], receiving at least one of: one or more first downlink control information (DCI) transmissions, or one or more second DCI transmissions. Here, more than one first DCI transmissions are considered; therefore, a group of downlink transmissions is received);
form a HARQ-ACK payload in accordance with a transformation scheme (Fig.5, step 520. [0075], determining one or more hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledge (HARQ-ACK) payloads based at least in part on counter downlink assignment indicator (DAI) values and total DAI values of the one or more first DCI transmissions and the one or more second DCI transmissions), the HARQ-ACK payload including HARQ feedback for each one of the group of downlink transmissions (Fig.5, step 530. [0076], transmitting HARQ-ACK feedback based at least in part on the one or more HARQ-ACK payloads. Here, the HARQ-ACK feedback is in response to the HARQ-ACK payload and the received group of downlink transmissions; therefore, the HARQ-ACK payload includes HARQ feedback for each one of the group of downlink transmissions).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Papasakellariou as mentioned above and further incorporate the teaching of KHOSHNEVISAN. The motivation for doing so would have been to provide a multi-transmit-receive point (TRP) approach for hybrid automatic repeat request (HARD) acknowledgment (ACK) feedback, that improves reliability of HARQ-ACK feedback and reduce inefficiency of multi-TRP downlink communications (KHOSHNEVISAN, Abstract and [0035]).
Regarding claims 2 and 28, combination of Papasakellariou and KHOSHNEVISAN teaches all the features with respect to claims 1 and 27, respectively as outlined above.
Papasakellariou further teaches
receiving, from the network node, downlink control information scheduling the PUSCH (Fig.12 and [0166], The UE receives an UL DCI format scheduling a PUSCH transmission. Here, receiving the UL DCI format means receiving a downlink control information), wherein the DCI indicates whether to multiplex: the encoded first HARQ-ACK part and the encoded second HARQ-ACK part on the PUSCH ([0336], Based on the information in the UL DCI format, the UE determines a number of PUSCH sub-carriers where the UE is expected to multiplex coded modulated HARQ-ACK symbols; [0340], UE detects an UL DCI format scheduling the PUSCH transmission where the UE multiplexes the corresponding HARQ-ACK information. Here, the UL DCI format indicates multiplexing the encoded HARQ-ACK on the PUSCH. As mentioned in claims 1 and 27, the encoded first HARQ-ACK part and the encoded second HARQ-ACK part are multiplexed on the PUSCH; therefore, the DCI indicates to multiplex the encoded first HARQ-ACK part and the encoded second HARQ-ACK part on the PUSCH), or the HARQ-ACK payload on the PUSCH (Due to alternative language “or” in the claims, examiner addresses one limitation only).
Regarding claims 3 and 29, combination of Papasakellariou and KHOSHNEVISAN teaches all the features with respect to claims 1 and 27, respectively as outlined above.
Papasakellariou further teaches
wherein the encoded first HARQ-ACK part and the encoded second HARQ-ACK part are multiplexed in accordance with a puncturing scheme or a rate matching scheme (Fig.25 and [0334], a UE applies rate matching or puncturing when the UE multiplexes HARQ-ACK information and data information in a PUSCH transmission. As mentioned in claims 1 and 27, the encoded first HARQ-ACK part and the encoded second HARQ-ACK part are multiplexed on the PUSCH; therefore, the encoded first HARQ-ACK part and the encoded second HARQ-ACK part are multiplexed in accordance with a puncturing scheme or a rate matching scheme).
Regarding claim 5, combination of Papasakellariou and KHOSHNEVISAN teaches all the features with respect to claim 1 as outlined above.
Papasakellariou further teaches
multiplexing uplink control information (UCI) on the PUSCH ([0298], UE multiplexed only UCI (without data) in a PUSCH transmission).
Claim 4 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Papasakellariou in view of KHOSHNEVISAN and further in view of TAKEDA et al. (TAKEDA hereinafter referred to TAKEDA) (EP-3664540-B1)(attached as foreign ref.).
Regarding claim 4, combination of Papasakellariou and KHOSHNEVISAN teaches all the features with respect to claim 3 as outlined above.
Papasakellariou further teaches wherein:
wherein the encoded second HARQ-ACK part is rate matched ([0332], UE performs the encoding and rate matching of the HARQ-ACK information bits).
Papasakellariou does not specifically teach
rate matched in accordance with the size of the second HARQ-ACK part satisfying a rate matching condition.
However TAKEDA teaches (Title, TERMINAL, RADIO COMMUNICATIONS METHOD AND SYSTEM)
wherein the encoded second HARQ-ACK part is rate matched in accordance with the size of the second HARQ-ACK part satisfying a rate matching condition (Pg.9: 5th Para. and claim 20, when the uplink control information is HARQ-ACK, the UE select one of the rate matching processing and the puncturing processing, based on a payload size of the HARQ-ACK. Here, the encoded second HARQ-ACK part is rate matched based on the size of the second HARQ-ACK part, i.e. the size of the second HARQ-ACK part satisfying a rate matching condition).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified combination of Papasakellariou and KHOSHNEVISAN as mentioned in claim 3 and further incorporate the teaching of TAKEDA. The motivation for doing so would have been to provide radio communication system, where a size of the payload of UCI is large, by applying the rate matching processing as a substitute for the puncturing processing, it is possible to improve the communication quality (TAKEDA, Pg.3: last para. And Pg.7: 2nd para.).
Claims 6 – 7 and 30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Papasakellariou in view of KHOSHNEVISAN and further in view of LI et al. (LI hereinafter referred to LI) (US 2025/0330976 A1).
Regarding claims 6 and 30, combination of Papasakellariou and KHOSHNEVISAN teaches all the features with respect to claims 1 and 27, respectively as outlined above.
Papasakellariou does not specifically teach
wherein the PUSCH overlaps a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), associated with the HARQ-ACK payload, in a time domain.
However LI teaches (Title, UCI TRANSMISSION METHOD AND APPARATUS, COMMUNICATION DEVICE, AND STORAGE MEDIUM)
wherein the PUSCH overlaps a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), associated with the HARQ-ACK payload, in a time domain ([0129], The second PUSCH is a PUSCH that has a time-domain resource overlapping with that of the PUCCH that carries the HARQ-ACK).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified combination of Papasakellariou and KHOSHNEVISAN as mentioned in claims 1 and 27 and further incorporate the teaching of LI. The motivation for doing so would have been to provide a UCI transmission method and apparatus, in which a terminal transmits a UCI by using a PUCCH or a CG PUSCH, to support transmission of the UCI, so that the network-side device receives corresponding indication information, thereby helping improve effectiveness of a communication system (LI, Abstract and [0042]).
Regarding claim 7, combination of Papasakellariou and KHOSHNEVISAN teaches all the features with respect to claim 5 as outlined above.
Papasakellariou does not specifically teach wherein:
the UCI is a configured grant (CG)-UCI (CG-UCI); and
the CG-UCI is jointly encoded with one of the first HARQ-ACK part or the second HARQ-ACK part.
However LI teaches (Title, UCI TRANSMISSION METHOD AND APPARATUS, COMMUNICATION DEVICE, AND STORAGE MEDIUM)
wherein:
the UCI is a configured grant (CG)-UCI (CG-UCI) ([0075], first UCI is a part of the CG-UCI); and
the CG-UCI is jointly encoded with one of the first HARQ-ACK part or the second HARQ-ACK part ([0054], Join encoding: The first UCI is jointly encoded with the HARQ-ACK. As mentioned above the first UCI is a CG-UCI; therefore, the CG-UCI is jointly encoded with one of the first HARQ-ACK or the second HARQ-ACK).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified combination of Papasakellariou and KHOSHNEVISAN as mentioned in claim 5 and further incorporate the teaching of LI. The motivation for doing so would have been to provide a UCI transmission method and apparatus, in which a terminal transmits a UCI by using a PUCCH or a CG PUSCH, to support transmission of the UCI, so that the network-side device receives corresponding indication information, thereby helping improve effectiveness of a communication system (LI, Abstract and [0042]).
Claim 8 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Papasakellariou in view of KHOSHNEVISAN and further in view of KIM et al. (KIM hereinafter referred to KIM) (US 2021/0297135 A1).
Regarding claim 8, combination of Papasakellariou and KHOSHNEVISAN teaches all the features with respect to claim 5 as outlined above.
Papasakellariou further teaches wherein:
the UCI is channel state information (CSI) ([0231], other UCI types such as HARQ-ACK or CSI. Here, UCI is CSI).
Papasakellariou does not specifically teach
the CSI is separately encoded in accordance with the CSI having one-part.
However KIM teaches (Title, METHOD FOR TRANSMITTING OR RECEIVING CHANNEL STATE INFORMATION FOR PLURALITY OF BASE STATIONS IN WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM, AND DEVICE THEREFOR)
the CSI is separately encoded in accordance with the CSI having one-part ([0404], the CSI is separately encoded divided into each of Part 1 CSI and Part 2 CSI (wideband (WB) CSI is constituted by a single part and all CSI contents are encoded at once); [0465], all wideband CSI reportings are encoded into Part 1).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified combination of Papasakellariou and KHOSHNEVISAN as mentioned in claim 5 and further incorporate the teaching of KIM. The motivation for doing so would have been to provide a CSI report-related configuration (e.g., report setting) performed commonly or separately for a plurality of base stations performing Coordinated Multi-Point (CoMP) joint transmission (KIM, [0024]).
Conclusion
The prior arts made of record and not relied upon are considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
YIN et al. (Pub. No. US 2023/0284225 A1) – “PUCCH RESOURCE SELECTION AND MULTIPLEXING OF HARQ-ACK WITH DIFFERENT PRIORITIES ON PUCCH” discloses a user equipment (UE) that includes a processor configured to determine a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) resource for multiplexing hybrid automatic repeat request-acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) with different priorities on PUCCH. The processor is also configured to multiplex the HARQ-ACK with different priorities based on the determined PUCCH resource. The UE also includes transmitting circuitry configured to transmit the multiplexed HARQ-ACK on the PUCCH.
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/ROWNAK ISLAM/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2474