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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of claims 1-14 in the reply filed on 3/10/2026 is acknowledged.
Claims 15-19 and 22-28 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected invention, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 3/10/2026.
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.
Claims 2-7 and 9-14 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.
Claims 2, 3, 9, and 10 present paradoxical language, as the applicant is attempting to define “transmitting SRS” as “not transmitting SRS”. The claim cannot be transmitting SRS in claims 1 and 8 if it is “not transmitting SRS”.
Claims 3-7 and 10-14 recite the limitation "the factional frequency hop". There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim. The second limitation of claims determines whether N divided by R results in a fractional number of frequency hops but it does not define a specific “fractional frequency hop”.
Claims 4, 6, 11, and 13 recite the limitation "the SRS resource". There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim. Claims 1 and 8 recite “a repetition factor of a SRS resource” but they do not actually define that an SRS resource that has any context with respect to the claims.
Claims 4 and 11 recite the limitation "the frequency hop that was dropped". Claims 6 and 13 recite the limitation “remaining repetitions in the frequency hop that were dropped”. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim. The claims do not specify dropping a frequency hop or remaining repetitions in such a frequency hop.
Claims 4, 6, 11, and 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being incomplete for omitting essential steps, such omission amounting to a gap between the steps. See MPEP § 2172.01. The omitted steps are: the applicant does not define any SRS transmission “occasions” so it is not clear what a “next” and “previous” transmission occasion refer to.
Claims 5 and 12 recite the limitation "a reduced number of repetitions". There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim. The applicant would have to define a number of repetitions in order to provide context for “a reduced number of repetitions”.
Claims 7 and 14 recite the limitation "an additional number of repetitions". There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim. The applicant would have to define a number of repetitions in order to provide context for “an additional number of repetitions”.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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.
Claim(s) 1-14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by WO 2020197335 by Go, part of IDS filed on 10/3/2023. The Examiner is using U.S. Patent Application Publication Number 2022/0173858 by Go as a translation according to the guidance give in section 901.05(II) of the MPEP. The rejection is using paragraphs from the U.S. published application.
As to claim 1, Go teaches a method performed by a wireless device for transmitting a SRS (paragraph 19), the method comprising: receiving a SRS configuration comprising a number of symbols and a repetition factor of an SRS resource (paragraphs 20 and 21); determining that N divided by R results in a fractional number of frequency hops (paragraph 22); and transmitting SRS according to a modified SRS configuration (paragraph 22).
As to claim 8, it is rejected for the same reasoning as claim 1.
The Examiner notes that the scope of claims 2-7 and 9-14 is not clear for the reasons explained in the rejections based on 35 USC sections 112(b). The Examiner has tried as best as possible to interpret what the applicant meant to claim in order achieve compact prosecution. The claims will need to be reevaluated when the applicant coherently claims the invention.
As to claims 2 and 3, see paragraph 272. An additional SRS is used and thus not transmitting the SRS for the factional frequency hop.
As to claim 4, see paragraph 272.
As to claims 5-7, see paragraph 239.
As to claims 9-14, they rejected for the same reasoning as claims 2-7.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DOUGLAS B BLAIR whose telephone number is (571)272-3893. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 9am-5pm.
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, Glenton Burgess can be reached at 571-272-3949. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/DOUGLAS B BLAIR/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2454
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