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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 05/19/2026 has been entered.
Response to Amendment
The Amendment filed 05/19/2026 has been entered. Claims 1, 13-14 and 16 have been amended. Claims 8 and 11-12 are canceled. Claims 1-7, 9-10 and 13-20 are pending in this application.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 05/19/2026, have been fully considered and entered but they are not persuasive.
Before replying to the arguments, please note that the broadest reasonable interpretation of “wherein the first rate matching output sequence is transmitted no later than the second rate matching output sequence." does not necessitate that first rate matching output sequence be transmitted before, or at least not after, the second rate matching output sequence, and even the paragraphs [0140]-[0141] shows that the HP UCI and LP UCI can be interleaved, and this can still be interpreted as “no later”.
Main Argument
…. Fakoorian describes that coded and rate-matched codewords corresponding to different UCI components are mapped to resources in a PUCCH. See Fakoorian, [0051]. While Fakoorian describes that multiple coded sequences may be mapped onto PUCCH resources, Fakoorian merely describes general resource mapping and does not teach or suggest any defined ordering between such sequences. In particular, Fakoorian is silent as to whether one sequence is transmitted before another or any requirement that one sequence be concatenated after another in a specific order. Therefore, Fakoorian fails to teach or suggest "perform rate matching of the second coded bits to generate a second rate matching output sequence, wherein the PUCCH transmission comprises the first rate matching output sequence and the second rate matching output sequence, wherein the PUCCH transmission comprises the second rate matching output sequence concatenated to the first rate matching output sequence, wherein the first rate matching output sequence is mapped to first resources of the PUCCH and the second rate matching output sequence is mapped to remaining resources of the PUCCH, and wherein the first rate matching output sequence is transmitted no later than the second rate matching output sequence", as recited in amended claim 1. The Applicant asserts that Li and Wang do not make up deficiencies of Fakoorian.
Reply
Examiner respectfully disagrees.
In response to applicant's arguments against the references individually, one cannot show non-obviousness by attacking references individually where the rejections are based on combinations of references. See In re Keller, 642 F.2d 413, 208 USPQ 871 (CCPA 1981); In re Merck & Co., 800 F.2d 1091, 231 USPQ 375 (Fed. Cir. 1986).
In the cited prior-art teaches that afterwards, coded and rate-matched code words 236 and 238 are mapped to resources for respective UCI components in PUCCH (refer to Clause 6.3.1.6 of TS 38.212) (FAKOORIAN [0051]).
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One with ordinary skills in the art can define this process as appending/concatenating/adding G(2) to G(1).
Li further teaches using different code rates for different-priority UCI, allocating resources first to the higher-priority UCI, and using remaining resources for lower-priority UCI (Li [0059]–[0067]). Li therefore teaches the very concept of placing one coded UCI portion ahead of another in the channel resource allocation process, with the higher-priority portion occupying the first-allocated resources and the lower-priority portion occupying the remaining resources.
Applicant is reminded that obviousness may be established by combining or modifying the teachings of the prior art to produce the claimed invention where there is some teaching, suggestion, or motivation to do so found either in the references themselves or in the knowledge generally available to one of ordinary skill in the art. See in re Fine, 837 F.2d 1071, 5 USPQ2d 1596 (Fed. Cir. 1988), In re Jones, F.2d 347, 21 USPQ2d 1941 (Fed. Cir. 1992), and KSR international Co. v. Teleflex, Inc., 550 U.S. 398, 82 USPQ2d 1385 (2007).
Second Argument
… the Applicant respectfully submits that the amended limitation is fully supported by the present specification. In particular, [ 0140]-[0141] of the specification explains that "HP UCI channel bits are mapped to available REs of PUCCH, starting from the earliest PUCCH symbol," while "LP UCI channel bits are mapped to the remaining REs," thereby reflecting prioritized transmission ordering for HP UCI relative to LP UCI. Accordingly, the amended limitation is not merely equivalent to "concatenated." Rather, the amendment requires that the first rate matching output sequence be transmitted before, or at least not after, the second rate matching output sequence.
[0013] The Applicant further submits that such ordering provides a technical benefit because time-sensitive HP UCI channel bits are delivered earlier than LP UCI channel bits, consistent with the specification's priority-based handling of HP UCI. Further, unlike FAKOORIAN [0051], which merely describes concatenation of sequences, the amended limitation specifically requires a transmission order relationship between the first and second rate matching output sequences.
Reply
Examiner respectfully disagrees.
Please note that Li teaches the concept of placing one coded UCI portion ahead of another in the channel resource allocation process, with the higher-priority portion occupying the first-allocated resources and the lower-priority portion occupying the remaining resources (Li [0060]-[0070]).
When the applicant presents an advantage for ordering “provides a technical benefit because time-sensitive HP UCI channel bits are delivered earlier than LP UCI channel bits...”, did not provide citation from the specification, which means that this is well-known to one with ordinary skills in the art.
Applicant is reminded that obviousness may be established by combining or modifying the teachings of the prior art to produce the claimed invention where there is some teaching, suggestion, or motivation to do so found either in the references themselves or in the knowledge generally available to one of ordinary skill in the art. See in re Fine, 837 F.2d 1071, 5 USPQ2d 1596 (Fed. Cir. 1988), In re Jones, F.2d 347, 21 USPQ2d 1941 (Fed. Cir. 1992), and KSR international Co. v. Teleflex, Inc., 550 U.S. 398, 82 USPQ2d 1385 (2007).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
5. 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 of this title, 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 1-6, 9-10 and 13-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over LI et al. (US 20210321394 A1) hereinafter LI, in view of FAKOORIAN et al. (US 20240048288 A1) hereinafter FAKOORIAN.
• Regarding claim 1,
- LI teaches a user equipment (UE), comprising at least one memory; and at least one processor coupled with the at least one memory and configured to cause the UE to (a terminal, including a processor, a memory, and a computer program stored on the memory and executable on the processor, [0010], Fig. 6):
receive information indicating a first code rate and a second code rate, wherein the first code rate is associated with multiplexed high priority (HP) uplink control information (UCI) bits and the second code rate is associated with multiplexed low priority (LP) UCI bits (In the case that UCIs with different priorities are transmitted on the same target channel, UCIs with different priorities are separately encoded and then transmitted on the target channel, [0025]; DCI corresponding to the UCI transmission indicating high priority and DCI corresponding to the UCI transmission indicating low priority, [0037][0041]; The terminal determines the number of PRBs used by the URLCC HARQ-ACK bit number and its bit rate and the low priority HARQ-ACK bit number and its bit rate (the determined PRB number is less than or equal to the maximum PRB number of the PUCCH resource configured by RRC [0069]);
determine a number of physical resource blocks (PRBs) for a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) transmission based at least on the first code rate, a number of multiplexed HP UCI bits, the second code rate, a number of multiplexed LP UCI bits, and a maximum number of PRBs for the PUCCH transmission (The terminal determines the number of PRBs used by the URLCC HARQ-ACK bit number and its bit rate and the low priority HARQ-ACK bit number and its bit rate (the determined PRB number is less than or equal to the maximum PRB number of the PUCCH resource configured by RRC [0069]); and
transmit the PUCCH transmission in the number of PRBs (the determined PRB number is less than or equal to the maximum PRB number of the PUCCH resource [0069]; a terminal transmits UCI on the PUCCH [0021]).
- LI further teaches encoding and rate matching [0022], and wherein the first output sequence is transmitted no later than the second output sequence ([0060]-[0067]).
- LI did not explicitly teach performing encoding of the multiplexed HP UCI bits to generate first coded bits; performing encoding of the multiplexed LP UCI bits to generate second coded bits; performing rate matching of the first coded bits to generate a first rate matching output sequence; and performing rate matching of the second coded bits to generate a second rate matching output sequence, wherein the PUCCH transmission comprises the first rate matching output sequence and the second rate matching output sequence and wherein the PUCCH transmission comprises the second rate matching output sequence concatenated to the first rate matching output sequence.
- FAKOORIAN teaches performing encoding of the multiplexed HP UCI bits to generate first coded bits; performing encoding of the multiplexed LP UCI bits to generate second coded bits (the first HARQ 113, the second HARQ 115 are encoded separately from each other [0051]; Fig. 2D);
performing rate matching of the first coded bits to generate a first rate matching output sequence; and performing rate matching of the second coded bits to generate a second rate matching output sequence (Rate matching is also applied to code words 236 and 238 respectively [0051]; Fig. 2D), wherein the PUCCH transmission comprises the first rate matching output sequence and the second rate matching output sequence (Afterwards, coded and rate-matched code words 236 and 238 are mapped to resources for respective UCI components in PUCCH (refer to Clause 6.3.1.6 of TS 38.212) [0050][0051], Fig. 2D).
- FAKOORIAN further teaches the second rate matching output sequence concatenated to the first rate matching output sequence “112” (coded and rate-matched code words 236 and 238 are mapped to resources for respective UCI components in PUCCH (refer to Clause 6.3.1.6 of TS 38.212 [0051], Fig. 2D).
- It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to add the teachings of FAKOORIAN to the teachings of LI. The motivation for such an addition would be for efficient and reliable transmission of UCI for various applications (FAKOORIAN [0002]).
• Regarding claim 2,
- LI and FAKOORIAN teach all the features of claim 1, as outlined above.
- LI further teaches receiving information indicating the maximum number of PRBs for the PUCCH transmission (the determined PRB number is less than or equal to the maximum PRB number of the PUCCH resource [0069]).
• Regarding claim 3,
- LI and FAKOORIAN teach all the features with respect to claim 1, as outlined above.
- LI further teaches wherein the number of PRBs for the PUCCH transmission is determined as a minimum number of PRBs that provides a total number of resource elements (REs) required for multiplexing the HP UCI bits and the LP UCI bits in response to the total number of REs required for multiplexing the HP UCI bits and the LP UCI bits not being greater than a number of REs provided by the maximum number of PRBs for the PUCCH transmission (the determined PRB number is less than or equal to the maximum PRB number of the PUCCH resource configured by RRC, [0069]);
the number of PRBs for the PUCCH transmission is the same as the maximum number of PRBs for the PUCCH transmission in response to the total number of REs required for multiplexing the HP UCI bits and the LP UCI bits being greater than a number of REs provided by the maximum number of PRBs for the PUCCH transmission (If the terminal uses the maximum number of PRBs for PRB transmission and still exceeds the above respective code rate (in this case, the terminal needs more PRBs), the terminal uses the maximum code rate to transmit high-priority HARQ-ACK and discards some low-priority -Level HARQ-ACK bits or compressed HARQ-ACK bits of low priority HARQ-ACK bits (e.g., code block group (CBG) granularity HARQ-ACK back to transmission block (TB) granularity HARQ-ACK (Determine the number of feedbackHARQ-ACK bits according to the number of TB); or, bind HARQ-ACK to meet the HARQ-ACK bit rate requirement of eMBB, [0070]. LI handles the case of the determined PRB being above the maximum PRB number of the PUCCH resource, by discarding or compressing some low-priority -Level HARQ-ACK bits, which will obviously reduce the required PRB to be than or equal to the maximum PRB number of the PUCCH resource.
• Regarding claim 4,
- LI and FAKOORIAN teach all the features with respect to claim 3, as outlined above.
- LI further teaches wherein the total number of resource elements REs} required for multiplexing the HP UCI bits and the LP UCI bits is determined based on the first code rate, the number of multiplexed HP UCI bits, the second code rate, the number of multiplexed LP UCI bits, and a modulation scheme for the PUCCH transmission (When low-priority HARQ-ACK and high-priority HARQ-ACK 2 are multiplexed and transmitted on one PUCCH, low-priority HARQ-ACK and high-priority HARQ-ACK 2 are coded separately, and the two use different code rates to determine their Number of REs used. When the low-priority HARQ-ACK is multiplexed and transmitted on the URLLC PUCCH, the high-priority HARQ-ACK2 uses the maxcoderate (maximum code rate) corresponding to the PUCCH resource configured by RRC to determine the RE it occupies. eMBB HARQ adopts the protocol or RRC The configured scaling factor (first scaling factor) determines that its code rate is maxcoderate*scaling factor, for example, scaling factor=0.1. The terminal determines the number of PRBs used by the URLCC HARQ-ACK bit number and its bit rate and the low priority HARQ-ACK bit number and its bit rate [0069]).
• Regarding claim 5,
- LI and FAKOORIAN teach all the features of claim 1, as outlined above.
- LI further teaches determine the number of the multiplexed HP UCI bits, wherein the multiplexed HP UCI bits comprise at least HP hybrid automatic repeat request- acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) information bits; and determine the number of the multiplexed LP UCI bits, wherein the multiplexed LP UCI bits comprise LP HARQ-ACK information bits (When low-priority HARQ-ACK and high-priority HARQ-ACK 2 are multiplexed and transmitted on one PUCCH, low-priority HARQ-ACK and high-priority HARQ-ACK 2 are coded separately, and the two use different code rates to determine their Number of REs used. When the low-priority HARQ-ACK is multiplexed and transmitted on the URLLC PUCCH, the high-priority HARQ-ACK2 uses the maxcoderate (maximum code rate) corresponding to the PUCCH resource configured by RRC to determine the RE it occupies. eMBB HARQ adopts the protocol or RRC The configured scaling factor (first scaling factor) determines that its code rate is maxcoderate*scaling factor, for example, scaling factor=0.1. The terminal determines the number of PRBs used by the URLCC HARQ-ACK bit number and its bit rate and the low priority HARQ-ACK bit number and its bit rate [0069]).
• Regarding claim 6,
- LI and FAKOORIAN teaches all the features with respect to claim 5, as outlined above.
- LI does not explicitly teach wherein the HP UCI bits further comprise HP UCI cyclic redundancy check (CRC) bits, HP scheduling request (SR) bits, or a combination thereof.
- FAKOORIAN teaches wherein the HP UCI bits further comprise HP UCI cyclic redundancy check (CRC) bits, HP scheduling request (SR) bits, or a combination thereof (the UCI component can include a channel state information (CSI), a scheduling request (SR), a high priority (HP) CSI, a HP persistent or semi-persistent (P/SP) CSI, a HP SR, … [0006][0050]).
- It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to add the teachings of FAKOORIAN to the teachings of LI. The motivation for such an addition would be for efficient and reliable transmission of UCI for various applications (FAKOORIAN [0002]).
• Regarding claim 9,
- LI and FAKOORIAN teach all the features with respect to claim 1, as outlined above.
- LI further teaches determining a total output sequence length at least based on the number of PRBs for the PUCCH transmission; and determining a first length of the first output sequence based on the total output sequence length, the number of the multiplexed HP UCI bits, the first code rate ([0069]), and a modulation scheme for the PUCCH transmission “achieve reliability of high-priority UCI and improve resource utilization by defining or configuring coding schemes and code rates for the pieces of UCI of different priorities to be transmitted on the same target channel” [0085], wherein the first output sequence is generated based on the first length ([0069]).
- LI did not explicitly teach performing rate matching of the first coded bits to generate a first rate matching output sequence.
- FAKOORIAN teaches performing rate matching of the first coded bits to generate a first rate matching output sequence (Rate matching is also applied to code words 236 and 238 respectively… Afterwards, coded and rate-matched code words 236 and 238 are mapped to resources for respective UCI components in PUCCH (refer to Clause 6.3.1.6 of TS 38.212) [0050][0051], Fig. 2D).
- It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to add the teachings of FAKOORIAN to the teachings of LI. The motivation for such an addition would be for efficient and reliable transmission of UCI for various applications (FAKOORIAN [0002]).
• Regarding claim 10,
- LI and FAKOORIAN teach all the features with respect to claim 9, as outlined above.
- LI further teaches determining a second length of the second output sequence based on the total rate matching output sequence length and the first length ([0069]).
- LI did not explicitly teach performing rate matching of the first coded bits to generate a first rate matching output sequence.
- FAKOORIAN teaches performing rate matching of the second coded bits to generate a second rate matching output sequence (Rate matching is also applied to code words 236 and 238 respectively… Afterwards, coded and rate-matched code words 236 and 238 are mapped to resources for respective UCI components in PUCCH (refer to Clause 6.3.1.6 of TS 38.212) [0050][0051], Fig. 2D).
- It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to add the teachings of FAKOORIAN to the teachings of LI. The motivation for such an addition would be for efficient and reliable transmission of UCI for various applications (FAKOORIAN [0002]).
• Regarding claim [13] “method at UE”, claims [14-15] “base station”, and claims [16-20] “processor”, are rejected under the same reason as claims [1-5] “UE”, where LI teaches a base station [0023][0066][0071], a method performed at the UE and a processor “in UE”, Fig 1 and 6.
Claim 7 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over LI and FAKOORIAN in view of WANG et al. (CN 114501642 A) hereinafter WANG.
• Regarding claim 7,
- LI and FAKOORIAN teach all the features with respect to claim 5, as outlined above.
- LI and FAKOORIAN do not explicitly teach wherein the LP UCI bits further comprise LP UCI cyclic redundancy check (CRC) bits.
- WANG teaches wherein the LP UCI bits further comprise LP UCI cyclic redundancy check (CRC) bits (Method 3:… The OLP ACK is the payload size of the low priority level HARQ-ACK codebook, LLP UCI is the size of the CRC of the low priority, ..., P. 5, paragraphs 3-4).
- It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to add the teachings of WANG to the teachings of LI and FAKOORIAN. The motivation for such an addition would be to accurately determine a threshold for multiplexing the number of available resource elements of the low priority UCI and the number of available resource elements in the high priority PUCCH (WANG, P. 5, Paragraph 2).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to AYMAN A ABAZA whose telephone number is (571)270-0422. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 8-5. 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, Deborah Reynolds, can be reached at 571-272-0734. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/AYMAN A ABAZA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2465
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