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 .
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim(s) 2-4 and 6-8 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.
Priority
Should applicant desire to obtain the benefit of foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119(a) -(d) prior to declaration of an interference, a certified English translation of the foreign application must be submitted in reply to this action, 37 CFR 41.154(b) and 41.202(e).
Failure to provide a certified translation may result in no benefit being accorded for the non-English application. See MPEP 2304.01(c).
In particular, the Examiner is unable to find subject matter support in the following foreign application(s): JP2021-064486. With regard to foreign application, JP2021-064486, the Examiner is unable to locate a suitable English translation of the document. An English translation of JP2021-064486 is required to obtain the priority date associated with said application number.
Thus, the current benefit accords to the PCT application with filing date 02/15/2022 because the PCT application, PCT/JP2022/005836, provides adequate support or enablement for the subject matter of the claims.
Claim Objections
Claim(s) 2-4 and 6-8 is/are objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim(s) 2 and 6 recite CORESET and Type0-PDCCH CSS set. Acronyms must be specified. Claim(s) 3 and 7 recite PDCCH, Type0-PDCCH CSS set, SS/PBCH block, and CORESET. Acronyms must be specified. Claim(s) 4 and 8 recite QCLs and SS/PBCH block. Acronyms must be specified.
Appropriate correction is required.
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 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)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
(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 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Wei et al. (US 2022/0116821 A1).
Regarding claims 1 and 9, Wei discloses A communication device (claim 1) and A method for a communication device (claim 9), comprising (Fig. 5: device 500 may be any other device discussed herein)
a transceiver and a processor (Fig. 5: device 500),
the processor
being configured to transmit a master information block (MIB) including first information via the transceiver, in a second frequency range different from a first frequency range ([0218]: a gNB-CU of the gNB 111 may host the RRC 755. [0216]: The main services and functions of the RRC 755 may include broadcast of system information (e.g., included in MIBs…). [0046]: the UE determines a number of consecutive RBs and a number of consecutive symbols for the control resource set of the Type0-PDCCH common search space from the four most significant bits of pdcch-ConfigSIB1 as described in Tables 5-1 through 5-10 and determines PDCCH monitoring occasions from the four least significant bits of pdcch-ConfigSIB1, included in MasterInformationBlock, as described in Tables 5-11 through 5-15. [0047] The offset in Tables 5-1 through 5-10 is defined with respect to the subcarrier spacing of the control resource set for Type0-PDCCH common search space, provided by higher layer parameter subCarrierSpacingCommon. For example, see Table 1: MIB includes subCarrierSpacingCommon and pdcch-ConfigSib1. Table 2: If the UE acquires this MIB on a carrier frequency <6 GHz, the value scs15or60 corresponds to 15 Khz and the value scs30or120 corresponds to 30 kHz. If the UE acquires this MIB on a carrier frequency >6 GHz, the value scs15or60 corresponds to 60 Khz and the value scs30or120 corresponds to 120 kHz. Tables 5-1 through 5-15: Index is equated to “first information”),
the first information corresponding to an index specifying a combination of second information and third information explicitly included in MIB to be transmitted in the first frequency range (See Tables 5-1 through 5-15: Index is equated to “first information,” and number of symbols N.sub.symb.sup.CORESET is equated to “second information,” and offset (RBs) is equated to “third information). Table 5-1 has subcarrier spacing {15, 15}f or frequency bands with minimum channel bandwidth 5 MHz or 10 Mhz),
the number of bits of the first information being smaller than a total number of bits of the second information and the third information (See table 5-1: Index includes 16 options and therefore has 4 bits, and number of symbols N.sub.symb.sup.CORESET includes 3 options and therefore has 2 bits, and offset (RBs) has 6 options and therefore has 3 bits. Thus, the number of bits for the index is smaller than the total bits of number of symbols N.sub.symb.sup.CORESET and offset (RBs)).
Regarding claims 5 and 10, Wei discloses A communication device (claim 5) and A method for a communication device (claim 10) comprising (Fig. 5: device 500 may be a UE):
a transceiver and a processor (Fig. 5: device 500),
the processor
being configured to receive a master information block (MIB) including first information via the transceiver, in a second frequency range different from a first frequency range ([0046]: the UE determines a number of consecutive RBs and a number of consecutive symbols for the control resource set of the Type0-PDCCH common search space from the four most significant bits of pdcch-ConfigSIB1 as described in Tables 5-1 through 5-10 and determines PDCCH monitoring occasions from the four least significant bits of pdcch-ConfigSIB1, included in MasterInformationBlock, as described in Tables 5-11 through 5-15. [0047] The offset in Tables 5-1 through 5-10 is defined with respect to the subcarrier spacing of the control resource set for Type0-PDCCH common search space, provided by higher layer parameter subCarrierSpacingCommon. For example, see Table 1: MIB includes subCarrierSpacingCommon and pdcch-ConfigSib1. Table 2: If the UE acquires this MIB on a carrier frequency <6 GHz, the value scs15or60 corresponds to 15 Khz and the value scs30or120 corresponds to 30 kHz. If the UE acquires this MIB on a carrier frequency >6 GHz, the value scs15or60 corresponds to 60 Khz and the value scs30or120 corresponds to 120 kHz. Tables 5-1 through 5-15: Index is equated to “first information”),
the first information corresponding to an index specifying a combination of second information and third information explicitly included in MIB to be received in the first frequency range (See Tables 5-1 through 5-15: Index is equated to “first information,” and number of symbols N.sub.symb.sup.CORESET is equated to “second information,” and offset (RBs) is equated to “third information). Table 5-1 has subcarrier spacing {15, 15}f or frequency bands with minimum channel bandwidth 5 MHz or 10 Mhz),
the number of bits of the first information being smaller than a total number of bits of the second information and the third information (See table 5-1: Index includes 16 options and therefore has 4 bits, and number of symbols N.sub.symb.sup.CORESET includes 3 options and therefore has 2 bits, and offset (RBs) has 6 options and therefore has 3 bits. Thus, the number of bits for the index is smaller than the total bits of number of symbols N.sub.symb.sup.CORESET and offset (RBs)).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. ETSI TS 138 213 V15.4.0 (2019-04) (cited in IDS 10/22/2024) teaches in section 13 on pgs. 94-102 different tables related to MIB including index, number of symbols N.sub.symb.sup.CORESET, and offset (RBs).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to THE HY NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)270-3813. The examiner can normally be reached on Mo-Fr: 8am-4pm.
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/THE HY NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2478
TheHy.Nguyen@USPTO.gov
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