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 .
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 16, 2026 has been entered.
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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, 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(s) 6, 8, 11, 13, 21 and 23 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yuan et al. (US 2023/0299906) in view of Baldemair (US 2023/0370130) in further view of Wang (US 2025/0202648).
Regarding claim 6, Yuan teaches an information transmission method, comprising: receiving, by a terminal device, first downlink control information from a network device (Paragraphs [0043]; [0092] describes receiving control information from a network device that provides instructions for PUCCH transmission),
Yuan doesn’t teach wherein the first downlink control information is downlink control information scrambled by a radio network temporary identifier (RNTI),
However, in analogous art Baldemair teaches wherein the first downlink control information is downlink control information scrambled by a radio network temporary identifier (RNTI) (Paragraph [0089] describes how DCI is scrambled with RNTI for device identification),
Yuan teaches the first downlink control information comprises first information which comprises repetition indication information (Paragraphs [0088]; [0091]-[0092] describes how repetition indication information is provided in DCI messages),
Yuan and Baldemair don’t teach the repetition indication information is repetition indication information of a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), and the repetition indication information comprises repetition quantity information and occupied slot length;
However, in analogous art Wang teaches the repetition indication information is repetition indication information of a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) (Paragraphs [0061]; [0165] describes DCI format and its added indication field to PUCCH transmission and repetition),
Wang teaches and the repetition indication information comprises repetition quantity information and occupied slot length (Paragraphs [0060]-[0061]; [0139]-[0140] describes a number of slots occupied in the time domain (4 slots is occupied in the time domain) the DCI is “added N bits DMRS bunding window size indication field the slot-length information is carried in the DCI);
Yuan teaches and performing data transmission based on the first downlink control information (Paragraphs [0094]-[0096]; [0100] describes how the UE performs the actual data transmission (transmitting PUCCH) based on the received DCI information, including the repetition parameters).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filling date of the claimed invention, to modify Yuan in view of Baldemair to incorporate the teachings of Wang repetition indication information of a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) to improve uplink performance and coverage.
Regarding claim 8, Yuan in view of Baldemair and Wang, Yuan teaches wherein 2 bits of the first downlink control information are used to indicate the repetition indication information (Table 1, Paragraph [0092] describes UE receives DCI with codepoint. UE decodes 2-bit codepoint (per table 1-3) to determine PUCCH repetition count).
Claims 11 and 21 are rejected for the same reason as set forth in claim 6 respectively.
Claims 13 and 23 are rejected for the same reason as set forth in claim 8 respectively.
Claim(s) 28 and 29 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yuan in view of Baldemair in further view of Wang and Rastegardoost et al. (US 2024/0031056).
Regarding claim 28, Yuan in view of Baldemair and Rastegardoost, Rastegardoost teaches wherein the type of the terminal device comprises a reduced capability terminal device (RedCap) or a non-RedCap terminal device (Paragraphs [0251]; [0304] describes distinguishes RedCap UEs from legacy UEs, these are distinct device types with different hardware capabilities).
Claim 29 is rejected for the same reason as set forth in claim 28 respectively.
Claim(s) 9-10, 14-16 and 24-26 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yuan in view of Baldemair in further view of Wang and Fakoorian et al. (US 2022/0322447).
Regarding claim 9, Yuan in view of Baldemair and Wang, Yuan teaches wherein the first downlink control information is used to schedule the PUCCH (Paragraphs [0073]; [0091]-[0093] describes PUCCH scheduling, DCI assigns specific PUCCH resource for transmission),
the first downlink control information does not comprise second information (Table 1, 2 and 3, Paragraph [0075] describes four repetition values n2, n4, n8 and n16 all four values are active or not reserved. DCI 2-bit field selects among these four (not reserved state)),
Yuan, Wang and Baldemair don’t teach and the second information comprises a first reserved bit
However, in analogous art Fakoorian teaches and the second information comprises a first reserved bit (Paragraphs [0025]-[0030] describes the second information that uses reserved bits to indicate repetitions but this for PDSCH/Msg2, not for PUCCH scheduling).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Yuan in view of Baldemair in further view of Wang and Fakoorian’s method of RNTI scrambling and DCI-based repetition indication to improve coverage enhancement and random access procedure efficiency (Fakoorian, Paragraph [0019]).
Regarding claim 10, Yuan in view of Baldemair, Wang and Fakoorian, Fakoorian teaches wherein the first reserved bit is a bit occupied by a downlink assignment index (DAI) (Paragraphs [0027]-[0028] describes DCI 1_0 has reserved bits, these reserved bits are “in the form of the downlink assignment index (DAI)”)
Regarding claim 27, Yuan in view of Baldemair, Wang and Fakoorian, Fakoorian teaches wherein the first downlink control information is used to schedule an acknowledgment feedback message of a contention resolution message of the terminal device (Paragraphs [0022]; [0027] describes DCI 1_0 is used to schedule Msg4 (the contention resolution message), after receiving Msg4, the UE would send an ACK/NACK feedback. The DCI schedules the PDSCH carrying Msg4).
Claims 14 and 24 are rejected for the same reason as set forth in claim 9 respectively.
Claims 15 and 25 are rejected for the same reason as set forth in claim 10 respectively.
Claims 16 and 26 are rejected for the same reason as set forth in claim 27 respectively.
Claim(s) 30-32 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yuan in view of Baldemair in further view of Wang and Cozzo et al. (US 2022/0006575).
Regarding claim 30, Yuan in view of Baldemair in further view of Wang don’t teach wherein a correspondence between the repetition quantity information and the repetition quantity comprises: a bit state of the repetition quantity information is 00, and the repetition quantity is 1; a bit state of the repetition quantity information is 01, and the repetition quantity is 2; a bit state of the repetition quantity information is 10, and the repetition quantity is 4; or a bit state of the repetition quantity information is 11, and the repetition quantity is 8.
However, in analogous art Cozzo teaches wherein a correspondence between the repetition quantity information and the repetition quantity comprises: a bit state of the repetition quantity information is 00, and the repetition quantity is 1; a bit state of the repetition quantity information is 01, and the repetition quantity is 2; a bit state of the repetition quantity information is 10, and the repetition quantity is 4; or a bit state of the repetition quantity information is 11, and the repetition quantity is 8 (Paragraphs [0252]-[0253] a bit state of the repetition quantity information).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filling date of the claimed invention, to modify Yuan in view of Baldemair and Wang to incorporate the teachings of Cozzo a bit state of the repetition quantity information to improve reliability, reduce latency, and use uplink resources more efficiently.
Claims 31 and 32 are rejected for the same reason as set forth in claim 30 respectively.
Conclusion
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/Chandrahas B Patel/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2464
/M.W.K./Examiner, Art Unit 2464
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