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
Applicant’s response, filed 20 November 2025, has been entered and carefully considered.
Claims 1-3 and 5-12 are amended.
Claims 1-12 are currently pending.
The outstanding rejections of Claims 1-5, 7 and 10-12 under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) and Claims 6 and 9 under 35 U.S.C. 103 are withdrawn in light of Applicant’s amendment to Claims 1, 10 and 12.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1 and 10-12 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.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 20 November 2025 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Objections
Claims 3, 10 and 12 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Regarding Claim 3, claim language “synch” should be revised to “sync” to be consistent with Claim 1.
Regarding Claims 10 and 12, claim language “with the base station” in line 3 of both claims should be revised to “with the base station device” to be consistent with phrasing earlier recited in the preamble.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claims 1, 2, 4, 8, and 10-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Luo et al (United States Pre-Grant Publication 20210352688), hereinafter Luo688.
Regarding Claim 1, Luo688 discloses a terminal device (Figure 1, UE 106) that performs synchronous communications with a base station, the terminal device comprising:
a wireless transceiver (Figure 16 – transceiver 1610); and
control circuitry (Figure 16 – processor 1604), wherein the control circuitry:
transmits, to the base station via the wireless transceiver, determination information for determining whether or not to extend a channel occupancy time (COT) that has been previously assigned to the terminal device by the base station (paragraph 0040 – a presently used (i.e., previously assigned) COT can be extended; paragraph 0144 - the UE generates a control indication to request that the COT be extended);
receives information regarding the previously assigned COT from the base station, the information regarding the previously assigned COT being based on the determination information (paragraph 0151 – the UE may receive a first DL transmission burst from the scheduling entity (i.e., base station) during the first COT); and
performs an uplink transmission to the base station based on the information regarding the previously assigned COT (paragraphs 0141-0142 and 0152-0154 – the UE may determine a type of channel access procedure for transmitting a UL transmission burst based on the first COT),
wherein, in a case where the information regarding the previously assigned COT does not indicate that the previously assigned COT may be extended, the previously assigned COT is not extended so that the uplink transmission ends at least by a first sync boundary corresponding to the previously assigned COT (paragraph 0141 – when the UE requests that the base station utilize the same type of access procedure in the second DL burst as the first DL burst, the COT is not extended), and
in a case where the information regarding the previously assigned COT indicates that the previously assigned COT may be extended, the previously assigned COT is extended so that the uplink transmission ends by a second sync boundary that occurs after the first sync boundary (paragraphs 0141 and 0144 – the UE generates a control indication to request that the second DL transmission burst be configured to extend the first (i.e., previously assigned) COT; where the channel type may be synchronization signal blocks (SSB); therefore the extended COT would extend beyond a first SSB; paragraph 0147 – the control indication (which can be used to request the extended COT) can be an indication that is valid until updated or for a specified amount of time).
Claim 11 is a method claim comprising the same steps as performed by the terminal device in Claim 1. Claim 11 is therefore rejected for the same reasons as presented above for Claim 1.
Regarding Claim 10, Luo688 discloses a base station device (Figure 1, base station 108) that communicates with a terminal device that performs synchronous communications with the base station, the base station device comprising:
a wireless transceiver (Figure 13 – transceiver 1310); and
control circuitry (Figure 13 – processor 1304), wherein the control circuitry:
receives, from the terminal device via the transceiver, determination information for determining whether or not to extend a channel occupancy time (COT) that has been previously assigned to the terminal device by the base station (paragraph 0040 – a presently used (i.e., previously assigned) COT can be extended; paragraph 0144 - the UE generates a control indication to request that the COT be extended for transmission to the base station);
transmits information regarding the previously assigned COT to the terminal device, the information regarding the previously assigned COT being based on the determination information (paragraph 0151 – the UE may receive a first DL transmission burst from the scheduling entity (i.e., base station) during the first COT); and
receives an uplink transmission from the terminal device based on the information regarding the previously assigned COT (paragraphs 0141-0142 and 0152-0154 – the UE may determine a type of channel access procedure for transmitting a UL transmission burst based on the first COT),
wherein, in a case where the information regarding the previously assigned COT does not indicate that the previously assigned COT may be extended, the previously assigned COT is not extended so that the uplink transmission ends at least by a first sync boundary corresponding to the previously assigned COT (paragraph 0141 – when the UE requests that the base station utilize the same type of access procedure in the second DL burst as the first DL burst, the COT is not extended), and
in a case where the information regarding the previously assigned COT indicates that the previously assigned COT may be extended, the previously assigned COT is extended SO that the uplink transmission ends by a second sync boundary that occurs after the first sync boundary (paragraphs 0141 and 0144 – the UE generates a control indication to request that the second DL transmission burst be configured to extend the first (i.e., previously assigned) COT; where the channel type may be synchronization signal blocks (SSB); therefore the extended COT would extend beyond a first SSB; paragraph 0147 – the control indication (which can be used to request the extended COT) can be an indication that is valid until updated or for a specified amount of time).
Claim 12 is a method claim comprising the same steps as performed by the terminal device in Claim 10. Claim 12 is therefore rejected for the same reasons as presented above for Claim 10.
Regarding Claim 2, Luo688 discloses the determination information includes information regarding the previously assigned COT acquired by the terminal device and information regarding a condition under which the previously COT can be extended (paragraphs 0143-0145 – the request for extending the first COT can be part of UCI and may further request the second type of channel access (i.e., extension to the first COT) as part of a channel access priority class or QoS of the next DL transmission burst).
Regarding Claim 4, Luo688 discloses the determination information includes information regarding a surrounding environment of the terminal device (paragraphs 0143-0145 – the request for extending the first COT can be part of UCI and may further request the second type of channel access (i.e., extension to the first COT) as part of a channel access priority class or QoS of the next DL transmission burst).
Regarding Claim 8, Luo688 discloses the information regarding the previously assigned COT is information indicating whether or not to extend the COT (paragraph 0040 – a presently used (i.e., previously assigned) COT can be extended; paragraph 0144 - the UE generates a control indication to request that the COT be extended).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claims 5 and 7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Luo688 in view of Sun et al (United States Pre-Grant Publication 2020/0314899), hereinafter Sun.
Regarding Claim 5, Luo688 discloses the limitations of Claim 1, as described above. However, Luo688 does not disclose the control circuitry transmits COT sharing information by including the determination information in the COT sharing information. In an analogous art, Sun discloses this. Specifically, Sun discloses (at paragraphs 0091-0093) that the UE includes COT sharing information in the UL communication signal. Thus, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Luo688 and Sun. One would have been motivated to do so in order to avoid collisions in shared or unlicensed spectrum (refer to paragraph 0004 of Sun).
Regarding Claim 7, Luo688 discloses the limitations of Claim 1, as described above. Luo688 further discloses lengthening a previously assigned COT (paragraph 0040 – a presently used (i.e., previously assigned) COT can be extended; paragraph 0144 - the UE generates a control indication to request that the COT be extended). However, Luo688 does not disclose the information regarding the COT is information indicating a length of the COT (paragraph 0055 – the granted COT lengths may be dependent on the contention window length (e.g., a time duration) used for a listen-before-talk procedure; paragraphs 0091-0093 – a COT can be configured to start at time T0 and lasting until a time boundary (shown as 804a in Figure 8), dependent on traffic priority and contention window length). Thus, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Luo688 and Sun. One would have been motivated to do so in order to avoid collisions in shared or unlicensed spectrum (refer to paragraph 0004 of Sun).
Claims 6 and 9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Luo688 in view of Luo et al (United States Pre-Grant Publication 2021/0378010), hereinafter Luo010.
Regarding Claim 6, Luo688 discloses the limitations of Claim 1, as described above. However, Luo688 does not disclose the control unit transmits configured grant (CG)-uplink control information (UCI) by including the determination information in the CG-UCI. In an analogous art, Luo010 discloses this. Specifically, Luo010 discloses a UE transmitting a CG-UCI to the base station with information about the COT (paragraphs 0082-0083). Thus, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Luo688 and Luo010. One would have been motivated to do so in order to improve efficiency and latency in an integrated access backhaul network (paragraph 0044 of Luo010).
Regarding Claim 9, Luo688 discloses the limitations of Claim 1, as described above. However, Luo688 does not disclose the control unit receives information regarding the COT included in group-common downlink control information (DCI). In an analogous art, Luo010 discloses this. Specifically, Luo010 discloses downlink DCI transmission including COT information to the UE (paragraphs 0079, 0114). Thus, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Luo688 and Luo010. One would have been motivated to do so in order to improve efficiency and latency in an integrated access backhaul network (paragraph 0044 of Luo010).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 3 is 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, as well as revisions necessary to address the outstanding objection for minor informalities.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure: Damnjanovic et al (United States Pre-Grant Publication 2022/0167286) discloses extending a COT duration based on a synchronization interval (Figure 4 and paragraph 0065).
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 ANDREW W. CHRISS whose telephone number is (571)272-1774. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday, 8am-4pm ET.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Kevin Bates can be reached at (571) 272-3980. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/ANDREW W CHRISS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2472