DETAILED ACTION
This is in response to the Applicant's arguments and amendments filed on 29 January 2024 in which claims 1-22 are currently pending.
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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The references listed in the Information Disclosure Statement, filed on 19 December 2024, 16 January 2025, 12 March 2025, have been considered by the examiner (see attached PTO-1449 form or PTO/SB/08A and 08B forms).
Specification
The title of the invention is not descriptive. A new title is required that is clearly indicative of the invention to which the claims are directed.
Claim Objections
Claim 22 is objected to because of the following informalities:
Regarding claim 22, the claim language is awkward. The claim is directed to a “computer program product”, which could be considered as software. To overcome this rejection, it is suggested to replace the claimed limitation “A computer program product comprising instructions stored on a non-transitory computer readable medium” with --A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a computer program product comprising instructions--.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 1-14, 21-22 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to an abstract idea without significantly more. Claims 1, 21, 22 recite “obtain a first total data length of a first information bit” and “obtain, based on the first total data length and a preset first code rate, C code blocks”, which could be steps done as a mental process or with a pencil and paper. This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application because the generically recited computer elements do not add a meaningful limitation to the abstract idea. They amount to simply implementing the abstract idea on a computer. The claims do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception because the claimed “processor” is used to look up the code block, which are well-understood and routine conventional computer functions.
Dependent claims 2-14 recite additional mathematical concepts which describe the relationship between the code blocks and code lengths. These dependent claims are also not integrated into a practical application and do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception.
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.
Claims 1, 21, 22 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zheng et al. (PG Pub US 2020/0021310 A1) in view of Xu et al. (PG Pub US 2020/0021392 A1).
Regarding claims 1, 21, 22, Zheng discloses an apparatus, a method, and a computer program product.
at least one processor; and one or more memories (figs. 8-9);
obtain a first total data length of a first information bit (“When the defined maximum code block length of the LDPC code is K.sub.CB,max=4915 bits … TBS+L.sub.TB,CRC>K.sub.CB,max may be obtained” [0117]); and
obtain, based on the first total data length and a preset first code rate, C code blocks (“each value for measuring a code block length corresponds to one code rate range. If a length of a code block is exactly equal to the value for measuring a code block length, the code block may be encoded based on a code rate in the code rate range corresponding to the value for measuring a code block length .. the largest value may be referred to as a maximum code block length of the LDPC” [0123]),
the C code blocks correspond to one or more first code lengths (“a length of each code block is equal to (19600+24)/4=4906 bits” [0117]),
the one or more first code lengths belong to S predefined or preconfigured code lengths (“a code block length may be predefined in an LDPC code” [0123]),
C is a third positive integer (“four code blocks” [0117]).
However, Zheng does not explicitly disclose a preset first code rate, first data lengths of the C code blocks correspond to the preset first code rate, and each of the S predefined or preconfigured code lengths meets a first positive integer power of 2, S is a second positive integer greater than or equal to 2.
Nevertheless, Xu discloses “Determine a target code length M by using an allocated physical resource or a quantity K of information bits and a code rate R” [0210], “a mother code length is an integer power of 2 and is greater than or equal to a target code length” [0230], “p is an integer greater than or equal to 2” [0130].
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have a preset first code rate, first data lengths of the C code blocks correspond to the preset first code rate, and each of the S predefined or preconfigured code lengths meets a first positive integer power of 2, S is a second positive integer greater than or equal to 2 because “when an encoding parameter meets a preset condition, segmentation encoding is performed on to-be-encoded information bits, to reduce a polar code performance loss caused by an existing rate matching scheme” [0126].
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-20 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims, if the corresponding objection as stated above is overcome, and if the corresponding 101 rejection as stated above is overcome.
Conclusion
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CHRISTINE DUONG FUQUA
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2462
/CHRISTINE T DUONG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2462 04/09/2026
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