DETAILED ACTION
This communication is in response to Application No. 18/559,384 filed on 11/7/2023. The preliminary amendment presented on 11/7/2023, which cancels claim 12, amends claims 1-11, and adds new claims 13-21, is hereby acknowledged. Claims 1-11 and 13-21 have been examined.
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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 12/19/2023 is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claim 11 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter.
Claim 11 does not fall within at least one of the four categories of patent eligible subject matter because it recites a "computer storage medium storing a computer program." During patent Examination, pending claim must be interpreted as broadly as their terms reasonably allow. The broadest reasonable interpretation of a claim drawn to a computer storage medium typically covers forms of non-transitory tangible media and transitory propagating signals per se in view of the ordinary and customary meaning of computer readable media. When the broadest reasonable interpretation of a claim covers a signal per se, the claim must be rejected under 35 US.C. § 101 as covering non-statutory subject matter. See In re Nuijten, 500 F.3d 1346, 1356-57 (Fed. Cir. 2007) (transitory embodiments are not directed to statutory subject matter) and Interim Examination Instructions for Evaluating Subject Matter Eligibility under35 U.S.C. § 101, Aug. 24, 2009; p. 2.
Examiner suggests amending the claim to cover only statutory embodiments to avoid a rejection under 35 U.S.C. § 101 by adding the limitation "non-transitory" to the claims.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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, 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 1-11 and 13-21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lee et al. (hereinafter Lee)(US 2022/0132341) in view of Yan et al. (hereinafter Yan)(US 2022/0046721).
Regarding claims 1, 2, and 11, Lee teaches as follows:
A method of operating a feedback radio node (interpreted as the wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) 102 in figure 1A) in a wireless communication network (the communications system 100 may include wireless transmit/receive units (WTRUs) 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d, a radio access network (RAN) 104, a core network (CN) 106, a public switched telephone network (PSTN) 108, the Internet 110, and other networks 112, see, ¶ [0021] and figure 1A), the method comprising:
monitoring a first search space based on a first periodicity until reception of a first control information message in the first search space (in a case of a first uplink grant after a scheduling request, a first monitoring periodicity for a search space may be used for monitoring for an uplink grant after a scheduling request is transmitted and before a reception of the first uplink grant (equivalent to applicant’s control information message), see, ¶ [0128])(A search space or set of search spaces may be configured by a set of monitoring occasions. The monitoring occasions may include a monitoring periodicity (e.g., in terms of slots), see, ¶ [0089]. Therefore, the monitoring periodicity is inherently configured in the search space), and
switching to monitoring the first search space based on a second periodicity in response to receiving a first control information message associated to the first search space (a second monitoring periodicity for the search space may be used if a WTRU received a HARQ-ACK for the uplink transmission scheduled by the first uplink grant… If the WTRU received the HARQ-ACK for the uplink transmission in a slot #n−x, the second monitoring periodicity for the search space may be used from a slot #n. A second monitoring periodicity for the search space may be used if a first uplink grant includes an indication of a monitoring periodicity change or update, see, ¶ [0128]).
Lee further teaches a plurality control information message type as follows:
A periodicity of a search space may be determined or updated based on information such as a specific HARQ-process number, a number of negative HARQ-ACK transmitted, a slot configuration indicated from a slot format indicator, or a first uplink grant after a scheduling request (see, ¶ [0125]).
Lee does not teach the control information message included in the first search space.
Yan teaches as follows:
The apparatus may comprise a receiver 214 that receives a resource configuration; and a transmitter 212 that transmits a data based on the resource configuration; the receiver 214 further receives a feedback control signal (equivalent to applicant’s control information message) of the data in a first search space (see, ¶ [0106]); and
the search space may also be further defined by the UE-specific RNTI and narrowband index. For example, UE monitor the search space 4 ms after uplink transmission with UE-specific RNTI in configured narrowband and starting subframe k0 satisfies the condition (see, ¶ [0124]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Lee with Yan to include transmitting a feedback control signal in the search space as taught by Yan in order to efficiently monitor the response in the search space.
Regarding claims 3 and 4, Lee in view of Yan teaches similar limitations as presented above in the rejection for claims 1 and 2.
Lee further teaches as follows:
Configuring a feedback radio node with a search space configuration (a WTRU may receive configuration information of one or more search spaces. The configuration information may include a monitoring periodicity of a search space, see, ¶ [0100] and 610 in figure 6).
Therefore, they are rejected for similar reason as presented above.
Regarding claims 5 and 14, Lee teaches as follows:
Wherein the first periodicity is shorter than the second periodicity (a periodicity of the P-SS and/or SP-SS may be dynamically changed… The search space monitoring periodicity may be increased, for example, when the data buffer is empty, see, ¶ [0120]).
Regarding claims 6, 9, 15-16, 19, and 21, Lee teaches as follows:
A periodicity of the P-SS and/or SP-SS may be dynamically changed. A search space periodicity may be changed with a dynamic indication. A search space monitoring periodicity may be shortened, for example, when burst traffic arrives. The search space monitoring periodicity may be increased, for example, when the data buffer is empty (see, ¶ [0120]); and
a periodicity of a search space may be determined or updated based on information such as a specific HARQ-process number, a number of negative HARQ-ACK transmitted, a slot configuration indicated from a slot format indicator, or a first uplink grant after a scheduling request (see, ¶ [0125]).
Lee in view of Yan teaches all limitations as presented above except for a functional relation between the first and second periodicity.
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Lee in view of Yan to include a functional relation between current periodicity and next periodicity in order to consistently adjust the periodicity with predefined formula.
Regarding claims 7 and 17, Lee teaches as follows:
A periodicity of a search space may be determined or updated based on information such as a specific HARQ-process number, a number of negative HARQ-ACK transmitted, a slot configuration indicated from a slot format indicator, or a first uplink grant after a scheduling request. (see, ¶ [0125]).
Yan teaches the feedback control signal such as ACK, NACK, or uplink retransmission grant (see, ¶ [0109]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Lee in view of Yan to include adjusting search space monitoring periodicity based on the feedback control signal in order to efficiently adjust the periodicity in response to current communication condition.
Regarding claims 8 and 18, Yan teaches as follows:
The UE expects to receive a feedback control signal, such as ACK, NACK, or uplink retransmission grant (see, ¶ [0109]).
The feedback control signal of ACK or NACK has a payload of less than 100 bits. Therefore, they are rejected for similar reason as presented above.
Regarding claims 10 and 20, Yan teaches as follows:
The UE expects to receive a feedback control signal, such as ACK, NACK, or uplink retransmission grant (see, ¶ [0109]).
ACK or NACK are well-known simple binary signals which is equivalent to applicant’s predefined format.
Therefore, they are rejected for similar reason as presented above.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Jeong S Park whose telephone number is (571)270-1597. The examiner can normally be reached Monday through Friday 8:00-4:30 ET.
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/JEONG S PARK/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2454
January 18, 2026