Prosecution Insights
Last updated: October 02, 2026
Application No. 18/549,037

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR TRANSMITTING OR RECEIVING UPLINK DEMODULATION REFERENCE SIGNAL IN WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM

Non-Final OA §102§112
Filed
Nov 01, 2024
Priority
Apr 28, 2022 — provisional 63/336,296 +1 more
Examiner
HUA, QUAN M
Art Unit
Tech Center
Assignee
LG Electronics Inc.
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
72%
Grant Probability
Favorable
1-2
OA Rounds
12m
Est. Remaining
94%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 72% — above average
72%
Career Allowance Rate
466 granted / 643 resolved
+12.5% vs TC avg
Strong +21% interview lift
Without
With
+21.0%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
2y 11m
Avg Prosecution
37 currently pending
Career history
677
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
6.0%
-34.0% vs TC avg
§103
52.1%
+12.1% vs TC avg
§102
18.1%
-21.9% vs TC avg
§112
18.1%
-21.9% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 643 resolved cases

Office Action

§102 §112
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 . Claims 1-12, and 14 are pending. Drawings are accepted. IDS is considered. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112 The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b): (b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention. The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph: The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention. Claim(s) 11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention. Claim 11 recites “the value of the rank for the PUSCH is determined based on at least one of the field indicating a sounding reference signal (SRS) resource in the DCI or the field indicating precoding information in the DCI”. (Emphasis added) Both the recited SRS field and the precoding field did not have any established antecedent basis in the claims. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102 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 the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action: A person shall be entitled to a patent unless – (a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention. Claim(s) 1-7, 11-12, and 14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being unpatentable over Matsumura et al. (US 2025/0202652). As to claims 1 and 12: Matsumara discloses: A method performed by a terminal in a wireless communication system, said terminal in a wireless communication system, the terminal comprising: at least one transceiver; and at least one processor connected to the at least one transceiver, (See at least, Abstract, ¶ 0008, 0172, 0356, UE/terminal having processor/memory and transceiver/antennas receives an antenna-port indication and controls UL transmission) wherein the at least one processor is configured to perform the method comprising: receiving from a network downlink control information (DCI) related to scheduling of a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH); (¶0038-0039, 0124, receiving DCI from network, field(s) of DCI for PUSCH scheduled by that DCI, SRS resource scheduling, rank indicator) and transmitting to the network the PUSCH based on the DCI, (¶0038, 0124, 0172, PUSCH transmission based on parameters received from DCI) wherein the DCI includes a field indicating an antenna port, (¶0126, 0120-0122, 0130, 0132, 0145, antenna port field) wherein based on a value of a rank for the PUSCH exceeding 4, (See at least ¶0123, 0128, 0132, 0145, Fig. 6B-8B, “DMRS port indication with the number of layers greater than 4, see also discussion for rank 6, 8. See also ¶0130, 0134, 0136) the field indicating the antenna port indicates information other than the antenna port for a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) associated with the PUSCH. (See at least ¶0130-0132, 0136, 0140, 0145, 0148, Fig. 8B-D the field carries indices indicative of a DMRS row on the table, for example at a rank 6, which satisfy the condition of greater 4), in case of indices values of 3 or 4 in the antenna field depends on the embodiment, it indicates reserved status instead of a specific port number/port group) As to claim 14: Matsumara discloses: A base station in a wireless communication system, the base station comprising: at least one transceiver; and at least one processor connected to the at least one transceiver, (See at least, Abstract, Fig. 13, ¶ 0008, 0172, 0356, base station having processor/memory and transceiver/antennas receives an antenna-port indication and controls UL transmission) wherein the at least one processor is configured to: transmit through the at least one transceiver to a terminal downlink control information (DCI) related to scheduling of a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) (¶0038-0039, 0124, receiving DCI from network base station, field(s) of DCI for PUSCH scheduled by that DCI, SRS resource scheduling, rank indicator) ; and receive through the at least one transceiver from the terminal the PUSCH based on the DCI (¶0038, 0124, 0172, PUSCH transmission from UE received at base station based on parameters received from DCI), wherein the DCI includes a field indicating an antenna port, (¶0126, 0120-0122, 0130, 0132, 0145, antenna port field)wherein based on a value of a rank for the PUSCH exceeding 4, , (See at least ¶0123, 0128, 0132, 0145, Fig. 6B-8B, “DMRS port indication with the number of layers greater than 4, see also discussion for rank 6, 8. See also ¶0130, 0134, 0136) the field indicating the antenna port indicates information other than the antenna port for a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) associated with the PUSCH. (See at least ¶0130-0132, 0136, 0140, 0145, 0148, Fig. 8B-D the field carries indices indicative of a DMRS row on the table, for example at a rank 6, which satisfy the condition of greater 4), in case of indices values of 3 or 4 in the antenna field depends on the embodiment, it indicates reserved status instead of a specific port number/port group) As to claim 2: Matsumara discloses all limitations of claim 1, wherein: based on the value of the rank for the PUSCH being equal to or less than 4, the field indicating the antenna port indicates a port of the DMRS associated with the PUSCH. (See cases for rank less than 4 in ¶169-0171, a same indices value of 3 or 4 is referring to antenna port rather than reserved) As to claim 3: Matsumara discloses all limitations of claim 1, wherein: based on the value of the rank for the PUSCH exceeding 4, for the value of each rank, one set of antenna ports for the DMRS associated with the PUSCH is defined. (see section discussing Fig. 6A-8D starting in ¶0130, in Fig. 8D associated with a rank greater than 4, for field value of zero, a set antenna port is associated for rank 0, namely 0-5, 8, 9, and similarly for field of value of 1 and 2). As to claim 4: Matsumara discloses all limitations of claim 3, wherein: the set of DMRS port 0 to 4 is defined for 5, the value of the rank, (¶0130-0136, Fig. 6A, 8A associated with rank 5, the pool (set) of ports for rank 5 includes various subsets having ports from 0-5) the set of DMRS port 0 to 5 is defined for 6, (Fig. 6B, 8B associated with rank 6, the pool (set) of ports for rank 6 includes various subsets having ports from 0-5) the value of the rank, the set of DMRS port 0, 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, and 8 is defined for 7, the value of the rank, (See Fig. 8C associated with rank 7, the pool (set) of ports for rank 7 includes various subsets having at least ports 0, 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, and 8) and the set of DMRS port 0, 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, and 9 is defined for 8, the value of the rank (See Fig. 8D associated with rank 8, the pool (set) of ports for rank 8 includes various subsets having at least ports 0, 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, and 9) As to claim 5: Matsumara discloses all limitations of claim 3, wherein: the set of DMRS port 0, 1, 2, 3, and 6 is defined for 5, the value of the rank, (Fig. 8A associated with rank 5, the pool (set) of ports for rank 5 includes various subsets having ports from 0-3, 6) the set of DMRS port 0 to 5 is defined for 6, the value of the rank (Fig. 8B associated with rank 6, the pool (set) of ports for rank 6 includes various subsets having ports from 0-5) ,the set of DMRS port 0, 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, and 8 is defined for 7, the value of the rank, and (See Fig. 8C associated with rank 7, the pool (set) of ports for rank 7 includes various subsets having at least ports 0, 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, and 8) the set of DMRS port 0, 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, and 9 is defined for 8, the value of the rank. rank (See Fig. 8D associated with rank 8, the pool (set) of ports for rank 8 includes various subsets having at least ports 0, 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, and 9) As to claim 6: Matsumara discloses all limitations of claim 3, wherein: the set of DMRS port 0 to 4 is defined for 5, the value of the rank, (Fig. 8A associated with rank 5, the pool (set) of ports for rank 5 includes various subsets having ports from 0-4) the set of DMRS port 0, 1, 2, 3, 6 and 8 is defined for 6, the value of the rank, (Fig. 8B associated with rank 6, the pool (set) of ports for rank 6 includes various subsets having ports from 0, 1, 2, 3, 6 and 8) the set of DMRS port 0, 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, and 8 is defined for 7, the value of the rank, (See Fig. 8C associated with rank 7, the pool (set) of ports for rank 7 includes various subsets having at least ports 0, 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, and 8) the set of DMRS port 0, 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, and 9 is defined for 8, the value of the rank. (See Fig. 8D associated with rank 8, the pool (set) of ports for rank 8 includes various subsets having at least ports 0, 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, and 9) As to claim 7: Matsumara discloses all limitations of claim 3, wherein: the set of DMRS port 0, 1, 2, 3, and 6 is defined for 5, the value of the rank, (Fig. 8A associated with rank 5, the pool (set) of ports for rank 5 includes various subsets having ports from 0-3, 6) the set of DMRS port 0, 1, 2, 3, 6 and 8 is defined for 6, the value of the rank, (Fig. 8B associated with rank 6, the pool (set) of ports for rank 6 includes various subsets having ports from 0, 1, 2, 3, 6 and 8) the set of DMRS port 0, 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, and 8 is defined for 7, the value of the rank, (See Fig. 8C associated with rank 7, the pool (set) of ports for rank 7 includes various subsets having at least ports 0, 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, and 8) and the set of DMRS port 0, 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, and 9 is defined for 8, the value of the rank. (See Fig. 8D associated with rank 8, the pool (set) of ports for rank 8 includes various subsets having at least ports 0, 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, and 9) As to claim 11: Matsumara discloses all limitations of claim 1, wherein: the value of the rank for the PUSCH is determined based on at least one of the field indicating a sounding reference signal (SRS) resource in the DCI or the field indicating precoding information in the DCI. (See ¶0124, “the UE determines a rank (number of layers) for PUSCH transmission, based on the SRS resource indicator field in the DCI”) Allowable Subject Matter Claim 8-10 is/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. While the references of record indicate antenna field of DCI indicating “reserved” status in case of ranks above 4, however they do not indicate conditional specific type of information depends on said ranks, specifically: “the DCI includes information on a first new data indicator (NDI), a first redundancy version (RV) and a first modulation and coding scheme (MCS) for a first codeword, based on the value of the rank for the PUSCH exceeding 4, the field indicating the antenna port indicates information on at least one of a second NDI, a second RV or a second MCS for a second codeword”, per claim 8, and “based on the value of the rank for the PUSCH exceeding 4, the field indicating the antenna port indicates information on PTRS(phase tracking reference signal)-DMRS association.” Per claim 9, and “the DCI includes information on first PTRS-DMRS association for a first codeword, based on the value of the rank for the PUSCH exceeding 4, the field indicating the antenna port indicates information on second PTRS-DMRS association for a second codeword.” Per claim 10. References considered pertinent to the invention include: US 2025/0280411 - An apparatus of a user equipment (UE), the apparatus comprising a processor, and a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, configure the apparatus to: receive, from a base station, scheduling information for scheduling a first physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmission and a second PUSCH transmission which are at least partially overlapped in time domain; and in response to the scheduling information, perform the first PUSCH transmission through a first antenna panel and the second PUSCH transmission through a second antenna panel by using mutually different frequency-domain resources. US 11,265,050 - method for transmitting a codebook-based Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) performed by a User Equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system may include receive downlink control information (DCI) for uplink (UL) transmission scheduling; and performing codebook based PUSCH transmission based on precoding information included in the DCI, when the PUSCH is transmitted using four antenna ports, the codebook includes: a first group including non-coherent precoding matrixes for selecting only one port for each layer, a second group including partial-coherent precoding matrixes for selection two ports in at least one layer, and a third group including full-coherence precoding matrixes for selection all ports for each of the layers. Conclusion Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to QUAN M HUA whose telephone number is (571)270-7232. The examiner can normally be reached 10:30-6:30. 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, Anthony Addy can be reached at 571-272-7795. 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. /QUAN M HUA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2645
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Prosecution Timeline

Nov 01, 2024
Application Filed
Sep 02, 2026
Non-Final Rejection mailed — §102, §112 (current)

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Prosecution Projections

1-2
Expected OA Rounds
72%
Grant Probability
94%
With Interview (+21.0%)
2y 11m (~12m remaining)
Median Time to Grant
Low
PTA Risk
Based on 643 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allowance rate.

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