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 .
Response to Amendment/Remarks
This communication is considered fully responsive to the amendment filed on 11/25/2025.
Claims 1-6 are pending and are examined in this office action.
Claims 1, 3, 4-6 have been amended.
No new claim has been added and no claim has been canceled.
In view of the applicant’s amendment, claim Interpretation to the has been withdrawn.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, filed on 11/25/2025, with respect to claims have been considered but are moot because the arguments do not apply to any of the references being used in the current rejection. The Examiner found features modified to claims, i.e claim 1 as “1. (Currently Amended) A communication device comprising: a processor configured to determine an antenna port to apply to a data signal; and a transmitter configured to transmit, to another communication device, information that indicates the determined antenna port, and the data signal that is transmitted, in autonomously selected resources, by using the determined antenna port, wherein the transmitter transmits the information that indicates the antenna port, in a preamble, to the another communication device.”
that have changed the scope of the invention, Therefore, Applicant’s remarks regarding rejection under 35 U.S.C 103 for the claims are moot. Applicant's remarks are considered as forward looking statement for the newly reconstructed claims.
In view of the applicant’s amendment to the claims, the examiner has clarified and remapped the rejection to the argued claim limitations in details, using the prior art of record in the current prosecution of the claims as well a new prior art. See WANG et al. (US 20210273763 A1; hereinafter as “WANG”).
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, 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, 4-6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over HWANG et al. (US 20200351136 A1; hereinafter as “HWANG”) in view of WANG et al. (US 20210273763 A1; hereinafter as “WANG”).
Examiner’s note: in what follows, references are drawn to HWANG unless otherwise mentioned.
Regarding claim 1, HWANG teaches, A communication device (see fig. 19: Transmitting UE; also see fig. 10B: UE1 Transmitting UE : UE1 where Transmitting UE1 is in wireless communication with Receiving UE2 ; also see Fig. 19: Transmitting UE and Receiving UE are in wireless communication) comprising:
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Processor (see fig. 29: First Device/Transmitter UE with Processor)
configured to determine an antenna port to apply to a data signal (aforesaid transmitting UE determines antenna port number to apply to transmit data signal / PT-RS or PSSCH to receiving UE 2: “UE (==UE1) may transmit antenna port number information for the PT-RS via SCI. As another example, although the number of PT-RS antenna ports is (pre-)configured to be equal to 2 for the UE, in case the corresponding number of antenna ports or layers for PSSCH is equal to 1, the UE may change the number of antenna ports for PT-RS to 1”: “a PSSCH DMRS antenna port having a low or high index may always be selected. Alternatively, for example, in case the number of antenna ports for PT-RS is equal to 1, and in case the number of layers or number of antenna ports for PDSSCH is equal 2, an association between PT-RS antenna port and PSSCH DMRS antenna port may be (pre-)configured for the UE per resource pool. ”: [0187]-[0188]; NOTE: transmitting UE selects an antenna port ie. low-index or high -index antenna port); and
transmitter (see transceiver 106 in fig. 29) configured to transmit, to another communication device (==Receiving UE in Fig. 19) , information that indicates the determined antenna port, and the data signal that is transmitted, in autonomously selected resources, by using the determined antenna port (transmitting UE (==UE1) transmits information on an association between PT-RS antenna port and PSSCH DMRS antenna port via sidelink control information (SCI). UE 1 (==transmitting UE1) may transmit a sidelink control information (SCI) to the UE 2 through a physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH) (==data signal), and thereafter transmit data based on the sidelink control information (SCI). to the UE 2 through a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH) (==data signal): [0117]-[0118], [0188]; “transmitting UE may transmit the entirety or part of information described below to the receiving UE through the SCI ” which include, inter alia: antenna port Index Information mapping resources :[0139]-[0152]; NOTE: transmitting UE transmits PSSCH /data signal in an autonomously selected resource. Aforesaid transmitting UE would clearly transmit PSSCH by using the antenna port Index of PSSCH as shown in Fig. 19. “UE may determine an SL transmission resource within an SL resource configured by a BS/network or a pre-configured SL resource. For example, the configured SL resource or the pre-configured SL resource may be a resource pool. For example, the UE may autonomously select or schedule a resource for SL transmission.”: [0118]).
While HWANG teaches, “transmitter configured to transmit, to another communication device, information that indicates the determined antenna port, and the data signal that is transmitted, in autonomously selected resources, by using the determined antenna port”;
HWANG does not expressively disclose:
“wherein the transmitter transmits the information that indicates the antenna port, in a preamble, to the another communication device.”
WANG, in the same field of endeavor, discloses:
“wherein the transmitter transmits the information that indicates the antenna port, in a preamble, to the another communication device ( “transmitting apparatus includes: circuitry, which, in operation, generates a signal including a first type of reference signal used for demodulation and a second type of reference signal used for demodulation; and a transmitter, which, in operation, transmits the signal, wherein the first type of reference signal used for demodulation is mapped to a first resource,.. the first type of reference signal used for demodulation is used for PSCCH and the second type of reference signal used for demodulation is used for PSSCH.”: [abstract]; “preamble is symbol aligned with the duration of one OFDM symbol for PSCCH/PSSCH”: [0065]; “preamble together with the first type of DMRS is jointed used to demodulate the PSSCH if antenna port or numerology of the preamble is the same as that of the first type of DMRS . In another example, the preamble together with the second type of DMRS is jointly used to demodulate the PSCCH if antenna port or numerology of the preamble is the same as that of the second type of DMRS. In another example, the preamble is used not only to demodulate the PSCCH together with the first type of DMRS, but also to demodulate the PSSCH together with the second type of DMRS, if antenna port or numerology of the preamble is the same as that of both the first type of DMRS and the second type of DMRS.”: [0066]; NOTE: transmitter sends PSCCH to receiver which includes antenna port within preamble)
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 the teaching of HWANG to include the above recited limitations as taught by WANG. The suggestion/motivation would be to improve V2X sidelink communication : (WANG; [0020],[0075]).
Regarding claim 4, HWANG in view of WANG teaches the invention of claim 1 as set forth above. Further, HWANG teaches, The communication device according to claim 1, wherein the transmitter (==transceiver in fig. 29 ) transmits the information that indicates the antenna port, in a dedicated signal, to the another communication device (==receiving UE) (see transmitting UE transmits antenna port number/index to receiving UE using PSSCH: “ the transmitting UE may transmit the entirety or part of information described below to the receiving UE through the SCI ”: “ Location information of a transmitting UE or location (or distance region) information of a target receiving UE (for which SL HARQ feedback is requested), and/or [0152] Reference signal (e.g., Demodulation Reference Signal (DMRS), and so on) related to channel estimation and/or decoding of data to be transmitted through a PSSCH, e.g., information related to a pattern of a (time-frequency) mapping resource of DMRS, rank information, antenna port index information ”: [0139]-[0152]).
Regarding claim 5, HWANG in view of WANG teaches the invention of claim 4 as set forth above. Further, HWANG teaches, The communication device according to claim 4, wherein the transmitter (==transceiver in fig 29) transmits a location of a resource, in which the dedicated signal is transmitted, to the another communication device (==receiving UE ) (see transmitting UE transmits antenna port number/index to receiving UE using PSSCH: “ the transmitting UE may transmit the entirety or part of information described below to the receiving UE through the SCI ”: “ Location information of a transmitting UE or location (or distance region) information of a target receiving UE (for which SL HARQ feedback is requested), and/or [0152] Reference signal (e.g., Demodulation Reference Signal (DMRS), and so on) related to channel estimation and/or decoding of data to be transmitted through a PSSCH, e.g., information related to a pattern of a (time-frequency) mapping resource of DMRS, rank information, antenna port index information ”: [0139]-[0152]; see fig. 13: resource location for data channel and control channel, : [0331], “ UE may determine an SL transmission resource within an SL resource configured by a BS/network or a pre-configured SL resource. For example, the configured SL resource or the pre-configured SL resource may be a resource pool. For example, the UE may autonomously select or schedule a resource for SL transmission.”: [0118]).
Regarding claim 6, HWANG teaches, a communication method to be performed by a communication device, the method comprising: determining an antenna port to apply to a data signal; transmitting, to another communication device, information that indicates the determined antenna port, and the data signal that is transmitted, in autonomously selected resources, by using the determined antenna port; and transmitting the information that indicates the antenna port, in a preamble, to the another communication device (Regarding claim 6, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as set forth in claim 1).
Claims 2-3 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over HWANG in view of WANG and further in view of FRENNE et al. (US S 20220158805 A1; hereinafter as “FRENNE”).
Examiner’s note: in what follows, references are drawn to HWANG unless otherwise mentioned.
Regarding claim 2, HWANG in view of WANG teaches claim 1 as shown above. Furthermore, HWANG in view of WANG does not expressively disclose, The communication device according to claim 1, wherein the information that indicates the antenna port is an index that indicates the antenna port and a number of groups multiplexed by CDM (Code Division Multiplexing) in a reference signal associated with the antenna port.
FRENNE, in the same field of endeavor, discloses:
The communication device according to claim 1, wherein the information that indicates the antenna port is an index that indicates the antenna port and a number of groups multiplexed by CDM (Code Division Multiplexing) in a reference signal associated with the antenna port ( “UE can determine that the PDSCH DMRS antenna port(s) belonging to CDM group are QCL with the source RSs defined in the associated pair {qcl-Type1, qcl-Type2}. ”: [0159]; “ A DM-RS antenna port is mapped to the REs within one CDM group only. For single-symbol DM-RS, two antenna ports can be mapped to each CDM group, while for double-symbol DM-RS, four antenna ports can be mapped to each CDM group.”: [0126]; “ The DCI can also indicate a particular entry in the antenna port table that indicates a set of DMRS antenna ports that can be distributed across one, two or three CDM groups (also known as “DMRS port groups”). In one particular embodiment, if DCI indicates the same number of QCL source RS pairs and antenna port CDM groups, then the UE can apply one-to one mapping between QCL source RS pair and CDM group.”: [0142]).
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 the teaching of HWANG in view of WANG to include the above recited limitations as taught by FRENNE. The suggestion/motivation would be to improvements to multi-source transmission in wireless communication networks. (FRENNE; [0001]).
Regarding claim 3, HWANG in view of WANG and FRENNE teaches claim 2 as shown above. Furthermore , FRENNE discloses, The communication device according to claim 2, wherein the index corresponds to a table that is selected, from among a plurality of tables, based on a higher layer parameter ( “ Exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure can address these and other issues, problems, and/or difficulties by further associating each source RS pair (e.g., {qcl-Type1, qcl-Type2}) of a TCI state (or an extended TCI state) with a DM-RS CDM group. Furthermore, a TCI state can be individually configured (e.g., by RRC and/or MAC CE) to contain one, two, or three pairs of source RS QCL relations. In addition, conventional antenna port tables can be expanded to include new entries that facilitate simultaneous scheduling of transmissions from up to three TRPs (e.g., ports 1000, 1002, and 1004, together with indicating an extended TCI state with three pairs of source RS QCL relations, each pair associated with a port). Moreover, for scheduling an odd number of ports (e.g., layers), the expanded antenna port tables can also include multiple options for mapping these ports to particular TRPs (e.g., two ports to TRP1 and one to TRP2; one port to TRP1 and two to TRP2). Also, when a TCI state with fewer source RS pairs compared to the number of CDM groups is indicated in the scheduling DCI message, exemplary embodiments may provide techniques to determine which QCL source is applicable for each antenna port.”: [0137]; “DCI also includes a bit field that indicates which antenna ports (i.e., the number of data layers) are scheduled”: [0128]).
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 the teaching of HWANG in view of WANG to include the above recited limitations as taught by FRENNE. The suggestion/motivation would be to improvements to multi-source transmission in wireless communication networks. (FRENNE; [0001]).
Conclusion
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 M MOSTAZIR RAHMAN whose telephone number is (571)272-4785. The examiner can normally be reached 8:30am-5:00pm PST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Derrick Ferris can be reached at 571-272-3123. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/M Mostazir Rahman/Examiner, Art Unit 2411
/DERRICK W FERRIS/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2411