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 .
The Examiner thanks the Applicant for the well-prepared amendment. The Examiner appreciates the Applicant’s effort to carefully analyze the Office action and make appropriate arguments and amendments.
Status of Claims
Claims 21-40 responded on June 24, 2026 are pending, claims 21, 26, 31 and 36 are amended.
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on June 24, 2026 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 21 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.
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.
Claim 21-22, 26-27, 31-32 and 36-37 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Khoshnevisan et al. (US 2023/0354322 A1, Provisional application No. 63/336,138, filed on Apr.28, 2022, hereinafter "Khosh1") in view of Li et al. (US 2023/0292310 A1, hereinafter "Li").
Regarding claim 21, Khosh1 discloses a method performed by a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system, the method comprising:
receiving first configuration information [enabling] multi downlink control information (DCI) based simultaneous uplink transmissions of physical uplink shared channels (PUSCHs) and second configuration information on a first resource for transmitting a first PUSCH based on a configured grant, wherein the first PUSCH is associated with a first control resource set (CORESET) pool index (Khosh1, [0104-0105] may be configured to support simultaneous uplink transmissions occurring within the same CC or cell; In a CG-PUSCH example, the CORESETPoolIndex value of the CG-PUSCH (i.e. first PUSCH) may be configured in RRC signaling as part of the CG configuration (i.e. configured grant); the CORESETPoolIndex value may be used for multi-DCI based multi-TRP uplink transmissions);
receiving DCI including information on a second resource for transmitting a second PUSCH based on a dynamic grant (DG), wherein the second PUSCH is associated with a second CORESET pool index (Khosh1, [0105] In a DG-PUSCH (i.e. dynamic grant, second PUSCH) example, the CORESETPoolIndex of the CORESET in which the scheduling DCI is transmitted may be used… where each transmission group is associated with a different CORESETPoolIndex value), and wherein the first resource overlaps with at least a part of the second resource in a time domain (Khosh1, [0095] A UE 115 may receive signaling that schedules a set of uplink transmissions that at least partially overlap in a time domain, the set of uplink transmissions including at least one DG based uplink transmission and at least one CG based uplink transmission);
identifying whether the first CORESET pool index is different from the second CORESET pool index (Khosh1, [0107] the CG PUSCH or DG PUSCH may be associated with different transmission groups, where a transmission group may be defined based on the CORESETPoolIndex… determined based on a UE panel ID defining the uplink beam group); and
based on the first CORESET pool index being different from the second CORESET pool index, transmitting the first PUSCH associated with the first CORESET pool index and the second PUSCH associated with the second CORESET pool index, according to the first configuration information and the second configuration information (Khosh1, [0107-0108] the CG PUSCH or DG PUSCH may be associated with different transmission groups… This may include at least one DG based uplink transmission and at least one CG based uplink transmission being scheduled. Each (e.g., some or all) of the uplink transmissions may be associated with a corresponding transmission group of the available transmission groups used).
Khosh1 does not explicitly disclose receiving first configuration information enabling multi downlink control information (DCI) based multi-panel simultaneous uplink transmissions and the second configuration information includes radio resource control (RRC) configured uplink grant information.
Li from the same field of endeavor discloses receiving first configuration information enabling multi downlink control information (DCI) based multi-panel simultaneous uplink transmissions of physical uplink shared channels (PUSCHs) (Li, [0020, 0103-0104] In multi-DCI based multi-TRP scenario, UE is expected to transmit multiple PUSCHs. With the introduction of CG PUSCH transmission; the CG type 1 PUSCH is activated) and the second configuration information includes radio resource control (RRC) configured uplink grant information (Li, [0017, 74] For the activation of CG, CG type 1 is configured via RRC; the reception of higher layer parameter of configuredGrantConfig including rrc-ConfiguredUplinkGrant without the detection of an UL grant in a DCI).
It would have been obvious for one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified simultaneous uplink transmissions disclosed by Khosh1 and multi panels activation disclosed by Li with a motivation to make this modification in order to improve the performance of spectral efficiency greatly (Li, [0006]).
Regarding claim 22, Khosh1 discloses based on the first CORESET pool index being identical to the second CORESET pool index, transmitting the second PUSCH based on the DG, wherein the first PUSCH based on the CG is cancelled (Khosh1, [0117-0118] CG PUSCH 240 may be considered a LP-CG-PUSCH,UE 205 may cancel the overlapping portion of the uplink transmission (or drop completely in some examples) having the lowest priority level within the same transmission group when the overlapping uplink transmissions are scheduled within the same transmission group; UE 205 may cancel the overlapping portion of the uplink transmission (or drop completely in some examples) having the lowest priority level within the same transmission group (i.e. first PUSCH with CG) when the overlapping uplink transmissions are scheduled within the same transmission group).
Regarding claim 26, Khosh1 discloses a method performed by a base station in a wireless communication system, the method comprising:
transmitting, to a user equipment, first configuration information [enabling] multi downlink control information (DCI) based simultaneous uplink transmissions of physical uplink shared channels (PUSCHs) and second configuration information on a first resource for receiving a first PUSCH based on a configured grant, wherein the first PUSCH is associated with a first control resource set (CORESET) pool index (Khosh1, [0105] In a CG-PUSCH example, the CORESETPoolIndex value of the CG-PUSCH (i.e. first PUSCH) may be configured in RRC signaling as part of the CG configuration (i.e. configured grant));
transmitting, to the UE, DCI including information on a second resource for receiving a second PUSCH based on a dynamic grant (DG), wherein the second PUSCH is associated with a second CORESET pool index (Khosh1, [0105] In a DG-PUSCH (i.e. second PUSCH, dynamic grant) example, the CORESETPoolIndex of the CORESET in which the scheduling DCI is transmitted may be used… where each transmission group is associated with a different CORESETPoolIndex value) , and wherein the first resource overlaps with at least a part of the second resource in a time domain (Khosh1, [0095] A UE 115 may receive signaling that schedules a set of uplink transmissions that at least partially overlap in a time domain, the set of uplink transmissions including at least one DG based uplink transmission and at least one CG based uplink transmission); and
based on the first CORESET pool index being different from the second CORESET pool index, receiving the first PUSCH associated with the first CORESET pool index and the second PUSCH associated with the second CORESET pool index, according to the first configuration information and the second configuration information (Khosh1, [0107-0108] the CG PUSCH or DG PUSCH may be associated with different transmission groups… Each (e.g., some or all) of the uplink transmissions may be associated with a corresponding transmission group of the available transmission groups used), receiving the first PUSCH associated with the first CORESET pool index and the second PUSCH associated with the second CORESET pool index, according to the first configuration information and the second configuration information (Khosh1, [0108] This may include at least one DG based uplink transmission and at least one CG based uplink transmission being scheduled).
Khosh1 does not explicitly disclose transmitting, to a user equipment, first configuration information enabling multi downlink control information (DCI) based multi-panel simultaneous uplink transmissions and the second configuration information includes radio resource control (RRC) configured uplink grant information.
Li from the same field of endeavor discloses transmitting, to a user equipment, first configuration information enabling multi downlink control information (DCI) based multi-panel simultaneous uplink transmissions of physical uplink shared channels (PUSCHs) (Li, [0020, 0103-0104] In multi-DCI based multi-TRP scenario, UE is expected to transmit multiple PUSCHs. With the introduction of CG PUSCH transmission; the CG type 1 PUSCH is activated) and the second configuration information includes radio resource control (RRC) configured uplink grant information (Li, [0017, 74] For the activation of CG, CG type 1 is configured via RRC; the reception of higher layer parameter of configuredGrantConfig including rrc-ConfiguredUplinkGrant without the detection of an UL grant in a DCI).
It would have been obvious for one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified simultaneous uplink transmissions disclosed by Khosh1 and multi panels activation disclosed by Li with a motivation to make this modification in order to improve the performance of spectral efficiency greatly (Li, [0006]).
Regarding claim 27, Khosh1 discloses based on the first CORESET pool index being identical to the second CORESET pool index, receiving the second PUSCH based on the DG, wherein the first PUSCH based on the CG is cancelled (Khosh1, [0117-0118] CG PUSCH 240 may be considered a LP-CG-PUSCH,UE 205 may cancel the overlapping portion of the uplink transmission (or drop completely in some examples) having the lowest priority level within the same transmission group when the overlapping uplink transmissions are scheduled within the same transmission group; UE 205 may cancel the overlapping portion of the uplink transmission (or drop completely in some examples) having the lowest priority level within the same transmission group (i.e. first PUSCH with CG) when the overlapping uplink transmissions are scheduled within the same transmission group).
Regarding claims 31-32 and 36-37, these claims recite "a user equipment (UE)" and "a base station" that disclose similar steps as recited by the method of claims 21-22 and 26-27, thus are rejected with the same rationale applied against claims 21-22 and 26-27 as presented above.
Claim(s) 25, 30, 35 and 40 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Khoshnevisan et al. (US 2023/0354322 A1, Provisional application No. 63/336,138, filed on Apr.28, 2022, hereinafter "Khosh1") in view of Li et al. (US 2023/0292310 A1, hereinafter "Li").further in view of Ouchi et al. (US 2024/0365330 A1, hereinafter "Ouchi").
Regarding claim 25, Khosh1 does not explicitly disclose wherein the second configuration information on the first resource for transmitting the first PUSCH includes a number of repetitions for the first PUSCH, and information on a redundancy version (RV) sequence including four RVs having one value among 0 to 3 for each of the repetitions for the first PUSCH,
wherein the first PUSCH among the repetitions is transmitted, if the first PUSCH overlaps with the second PUSCH on a resource corresponding to the RV having a specific value, and
wherein the first PUSCH among the repetitions is not transmitted, if the first PUSCH overlaps with the second PUSCH on a resource corresponding to the RV having a value other than the specific value.
Ouchi from the same field of endeavor discloses wherein the second configuration information on the first resource for transmitting the first PUSCH includes a number of repetitions for the first PUSCH, and information on a redundancy version (RV) sequence including four RVs having one value among 0 to 3 for each of the repetitions for the first PUSCH (Ouchi, [0244] apply to PUSCH transmissions of PUSCH repetition Type A with a Type 1 or Type 2 configured grant. The RRC parameter repK-RV defines the redundancy version pattern to be applied to the repetitions… , the initial transmission of a transport block may start the first transmission occasion of the K repetitions if the configured RV sequence is {0,2,3,1}),
wherein the first PUSCH among the repetitions is transmitted, if the first PUSCH overlaps with the second PUSCH on a resource corresponding to the RV having a specific value (Ouchi, [0287] When a UE determines overlapping for PUCCH and/or PUSCH transmissions of different priority indexes, including repetitions if any, the UE may first resolve the overlapping for PUCCH and/or PUSCH transmissions of smaller priority index), and
wherein the first PUSCH among the repetitions is not transmitted, if the first PUSCH overlaps with the second PUSCH on a resource corresponding to the RV having a value other than the specific value (Ouchi, [0287] if a transmission of a first PUCCH of larger priority index scheduled by a DCI format in a PDCCH reception would overlap in time with a repetition of a transmission of a second PUSCH or a second PUCCH of smaller priority index, the UE may cancel the repetition of a transmission of the second PUSCH or the second PUCCH before the first symbol that would overlap with the first PUCCH transmission).
It would have been obvious for one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified simultaneous uplink transmissions disclosed by Khosh1 and information on a redundancy version (RV) sequence disclosed by Ouchi with a motivation to make this modification in order to improve communication flexibility and/or efficiency may be beneficial (Ouchi, [0004]).
Regarding claim 30, Khosh1 does not explicitly disclose wherein the second configuration information on the first resource for receiving the first PUSCH includes a number of repetitions for the first PUSCH, and information on a redundancy version (RV) sequence including four of RVs having one value among 0 to 3 for each of the repetitions for the first PUSCH,
wherein the first PUSCH among the repetitions is received, if the first PUSCH overlaps with the second PUSCH on a resource corresponding to the RV having a specific value, and
wherein the first PUSCH among the repetitions is not received, if the first PUSCH overlaps with the second PUSCH on a resource corresponding to the RV having a value other than the specific value.
Ouchi from the same field of endeavor discloses wherein the second configuration information on the first resource for receiving the first PUSCH includes a number of repetitions for the first PUSCH, and information on a redundancy version (RV) sequence including four RVs having one value among 0 to 3 for each of the repetitions for the first PUSCH (Ouchi, [0244] apply to PUSCH transmissions of PUSCH repetition Type A with a Type 1 or Type 2 configured grant. The RRC parameter repK-RV defines the redundancy version pattern to be applied to the repetitions… , the initial transmission of a transport block may start the first transmission occasion of the K repetitions if the configured RV sequence is {0,2,3,1}),
wherein the first PUSCH among the repetitions is received, if the first PUSCH overlaps with the second PUSCH on a resource corresponding to the RV having a specific value (Ouchi, [0287] When a UE determines overlapping for PUCCH and/or PUSCH transmissions of different priority indexes, including repetitions if any, the UE may first resolve the overlapping for PUCCH and/or PUSCH transmissions of smaller priority index), and
wherein the first PUSCH among the repetitions is not receivted, if the first PUSCH overlaps with the second PUSCH on a resource corresponding to the RV having a value other than the specific value (Ouchi, [0287] if a transmission of a first PUCCH of larger priority index scheduled by a DCI format in a PDCCH reception would overlap in time with a repetition of a transmission of a second PUSCH or a second PUCCH of smaller priority index, the UE may cancel the repetition of a transmission of the second PUSCH or the second PUCCH before the first symbol that would overlap with the first PUCCH transmission).
It would have been obvious for one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified simultaneous uplink transmissions disclosed by Khosh1 and information on a redundancy version (RV) sequence disclosed by Ouchi with a motivation to make this modification in order to improve communication flexibility and/or efficiency may be beneficial (Ouchi, [0004]).
Regarding claims 35 and 40, these claims recite "a user equipment (UE)" and "a base station" that disclose similar steps as recited by the method of claims 25 and 30, thus are rejected with the same rationale applied against claims 25 and 30 as presented above.
Claim(s) 23-24, 28-29, 33-34 and 38-39 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Khoshnevisan et al. (US 2023/0354322 A1, Provisional application No. 63/336,138, filed on Apr.28, 2022, hereinafter "Khosh1") in view of Li et al. (US 2023/0292310 A1, hereinafter "Li").further in view of Khoshnevisan et al. (US 2024/0098735 A1, hereinafter "Khosh2").
Regarding claim 23, Khosh1 does not explicitly disclose identifying whether a sum of a number of first layers allocated to the first PUSCH and a number of second layers allocated to the second PUSCH is less than or equal to a number of maximum uplink transmission layers,
wherein, if the sum of the number of first layers and the number of second layers is less than or equal to the number of maximum uplink transmission layers, the first PUSCH and the second PUSCH are transmitted, and
wherein, if the sum of the number of first layers and the number of second layers is greater than the number of maximum uplink transmission layers, a transmission of at least part of the first layer and the second layer is cancelled.
Khosh2 from the same field of endeavor discloses identifying whether a sum of a number of first layers allocated to the first PUSCH and a number of second layers allocated to the second PUSCH is less than or equal to a number of maximum uplink transmission layers (Khosh2, [0047] the UE may not expect the network entity to schedule an overlapping PUSCH transmission and PUCCH transmission where the scheduled quantity of layers (and/or antenna ports for codebook based
PUSCH) exceed the maximum quantity of layers (and/or the maximum quantity of antenna ports for codebook based PUSCH)),
wherein, if the sum of the number of first layers and the number of second layers is less than or equal to the number of maximum uplink transmission layers, the first PUSCH and the second PUSCH are transmitted (Khosh2, [0047] if the quantity of PUSCH layers (e.g., or antenna ports for codebook based PUSCH) exceeds the configured maximum, the UE may multiplex the PUCCH content onto the PUSCH transmission and transmit the PUSCH transmission (and not the PUCCH transmission)), and
wherein, if the sum of the number of first layers and the number of second layers is greater than the number of maximum uplink transmission layers, a transmission of at least part of the first layer and the second layer is cancelled (Khosh2, [0047] if the quantity of scheduled PUSCH layers (e.g., or antenna ports for code book based PUSCH) exceeds the configured maximum, the UE may drop either the scheduled PUSCH transmission or the scheduled PUCCH transmission).
It would have been obvious for one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified simultaneous uplink transmissions disclosed by Khosh1 and overlap PUSCH disclosed by Khosh2 with a motivation to make this modification in order to support overlapping physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) and physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmissions (Khosh2, [0003]).
Regarding claim 24, Khosh1 does not explicitly disclose wherein the transmission of the at least part of the first layer and the second layer is cancelled for a resource region in which the first resource overlaps with the second resource.
Khosh2 from the same field of endeavor discloses wherein the transmission of the at least part of the first layer and the second layer is cancelled for a resource region in which the first resource overlaps with the second resource (Khosh2, [0106, 0115] the maximum quantity of antenna ports may be configured as P'=min(P-1,Q) where P is a sum quantity of ports restriction (quantity of PUSCH ports of the PUSCH+1<=P (because the PUCCH is configured to use a single antenna port)) and Q is a restriction of a quantity of PUSCH ports (quantity of PUSCH ports of the PUSCH<=Q). Q corresponds to the maximum quantity of antenna ports of the PUSCH per CORESET pool index value in the presence of simultaneous transmission with PUCCH. P'; the control message 220-a indicates a quantity of antenna ports for the PUSCH transmission 250 that exceed the configured maximum quantity of antenna ports) the UE 115-a may drop
either the PUSCH transmission 250 or the PUCCH transmission 260).
It would have been obvious for one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified simultaneous uplink transmissions disclosed by Khosh1 and overlap PUSCH disclosed by Khosh2 with a motivation to make this modification in order to support overlapping physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) and physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmissions (Khosh2, [0003]).
Regarding claims 28-29, 33-34 and 38-39, these claims recite "a method performed by a base station in a wireless communication system", "a base station " and "a user equipment (UE)" that disclose similar steps as recited by the method of claims 23-24, thus are rejected with the same rationale applied against claim 23-24 as presented above.
Conclusion
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/LUNA WEISSBERGER/ Examiner, Art Unit 2415
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