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 .
This action is response to the application filed on 11/09/2023. Claims 21-45 are cancelled. Claims 1-20 are pending and herein considered.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of papers submitted under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d), which papers have been placed of record in the file.
Oath/Declaration
The receipt of oath/declaration is acknowledged.
Drawings
The drawings were received on 11/09/2023. These drawings are reviewed and accepted by the Examiner.
Specification
The lengthy specification has not been checked to the extent necessary to determine the presence of all possible minor errors. Applicant’s cooperation is requested in correcting any errors of which applicant may become aware in the specification.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS), submitted on 11/09/2023, is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CRR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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 19 and 20 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 pre-AIA the applicant regards as the invention.
For claim 19, the claim recites the limitation "configured to perform any of the steps of claim 1" in lines 3-4. It is vague and unclear since it refers to “any of the steps”. It is suggested that the term “any of the steps” be replaced by terms/phrases such as “the steps of claim 1”. (See MPEP 2173. 02 and 2173.05(b)).
For claim 20, the claim recites the limitation "configured to perform any of the steps of claim 10" in lines 3-4. It is vague and unclear since it refers to “any of the steps”. It is suggested that the term “any of the steps” be replaced by terms/phrases such as “the steps of claim 10” (See MPEP 2173. 02 and 2173.05(b)).
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 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.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 1-3, 6-12, 15-19 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Dinan (U.S 2016/0270110) in view of NPL- 3GPP TSG RAN WG1 #104b, e-Meeting, April 12th-20th, 2021; Agenda Item: 8.3.1.1; Source: China Telecom; Title: Discussion on UE feedback enhancements for HARQ-ACK (R1-2102867); hereinafter “China Telecom - R1-2102867”.
For claim 1:
Dinan discloses a method performed by a user equipment for transmitting a physical uplink control channel, PUCCH (see Dinnan, at least figure 14; performance transmission of PUCCH), the method comprising:
receiving configuration information from a network node (see Dinan, at least Figure 4; a configuration information between base station and wireless device), the configuration information indicating:
a plurality of cells available for transmitting or for receiving the PUCCH, the plurality of cells including a reference cell (see Dinan, at least paragraph [0120]; a UE may transmit PUCCH information on one cell (PCell or PSCell) to a given eNB; [0124]; first group of cells may employ a PUCCH on the PCell and may be called PUCCH group 1 or a primary PUCCH group. A second group of cells may employ a PUCCH on an SCell and may be called PUCCH group 2 or a secondary PUCCH group. One, two or more PUCCH groups may be configured); and
receiving a timing indicator indicating a reference slot from among the plurality of slots of the reference cell (see Dinan, at least paragraph [0134]; the timing reference may be a PCell. For an SCell in an sTAG, the timing reference may be any activated SCell in the sTAG); and
transmitting the PUCCH using the respective designated cell indicated by the cell index value associated with the reference slot (see Dinan, at least paragraph [0151]; either on the PCell or on a given PUCCH SCell, [0175]; UE may alternate between PCell and PUCCH SCell for transmission of subsequent SR transmission ( e.g. PCell, SCell, PCell, SCell, etc) when resources on both PCell and PUCCH SCell are available in multiple TTIs scheduled for SR transmission)
China Telecom - R1-2102867, from the same or similar fields of endeavor, discloses Dinan fails: a plurality of cell index values respectively associated with a plurality of slots of the reference cell, each cell index value indicating a respective designated cell from among the plurality of cells (see China Telecom -R1-2102867; at least page 7, section 2, 2.5 and figure 3, option 1 and proposal 9-10; PUCCH group have different SCS and the SCS of indicated carrier is different from the SCS of default Pcell/PScell/PUCCH-SCell and The reference SCS of PDSCH to HARQ-ACK offset Kl is the SCS of the default Pcell/PScell/PUCCH SCell and he cell with PUCCH resource consisted of only semi-static UL symbols).
Therefore, it would have been obvious statement before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have a system comprises a method as taught by China Telecom - R1-2102867. The motivation for doing this is to provide a system networks where may allowing PUCCH carrier switching can then be useful to avoid a delay bottleneck for the overall DL transmission.
For claims 2 and 11:
In addition to rejection in claims 2 and 11, Dinan-China Telecom -R1-2102867 further discloses the timing indicator indicates the reference slot by indicating that the reference slot is a slot occurring a given number of slots from reception of a physical downlink shared channel (see China Telecom -R1-2102867; at least page 9, proposal 8; the Type-1 HARQ-ACK codebook for sub-slot PUCCH at least includes that a PDSCH TDRA is associated with a UL /PUCCH sub-slot if the end of the PDSCH overlaps with the associated sub-slot determined by a kl in the set of sub-slot timing values K1). The motivation for doing this is to provide a system networks where may allowing PUCCH carrier switching can then be useful to avoid a delay bottleneck for the overall DL transmission.
For claims 3 and 12:
In addition to rejection in claims 3 and 12, Dinan-China Telecom -R1-2102867 further discloses wherein a cell index value indicates the reference cell as the respective designated cell (see China Telecom -R1-2102867; at least page 7, section 2, 2.5 and figure 3, option 1 and proposal 9-10; PUCCH group have different SCS and the SCS of indicated carrier is different from the SCS of default Pcell/PScell/PUCCH-SCell and The reference SCS of PDSCH to HARQ-ACK offset Kl is the SCS of the default Pcell/PScell/PUCCH SCell and he cell with PUCCH resource consisted of only semi-static UL symbols). The motivation for doing this is to provide a system networks where may allowing PUCCH carrier switching can then be useful to avoid a delay bottleneck for the overall DL transmission.
For claims 6 and 15:
In addition to rejection in claims 6 and 15, Dinan-China Telecom -R1-2102867 further discloses wherein the timing indicator is received over a physical downlink control channel, PDCCH (see China Telecom -R1-2102867; at least page 6, section 2, 2.3; PUCCH HARQ-ACK codebook contains HARQ-ACK for SPS PDSCH and dynamically scheduled PDSCH. Since the NACK feedback for dynamically scheduled PDSCH is helpful for gNB to get the information about whether PDCCH is correctly received or not, and then adjust the PDCCH scheduling). The motivation for doing this is to provide a system networks where may allowing PUCCH carrier switching can then be useful to avoid a delay bottleneck for the overall DL transmission.
For claim 7:
For claim 7, claim 7 is directed to a method which has similar scope as claim 1. Therefore, claim 7 remains un-patentable for the same reasons.
For claims 8 and 17:
In addition to rejection in claims 8 and 17, Dinan-China Telecom -R1-2102867 further discloses wherein the slot offset value indicates that the reference cell is a designated cell (see China Telecom -R1-2102867; at least page 7, section 2, 2.5 and figure 3, option 1 and proposal 9-10; The reference SCS of PDSCH to HARQ-ACK offset K1 is the SCS of the default Pcell/PScell/PUCCH SCell). The motivation for doing this is to provide a system networks where may allowing PUCCH carrier switching can then be useful to avoid a delay bottleneck for the overall DL transmission.
For claims 9 and 18:
In addition to rejection in claims 9 and 18, Dinan-China Telecom -R1-2102867 further discloses providing user data; and forwarding the user data to a host via transmission to the network node (see Dinan, at least Figure 9 and paragraph [0103]; communication between UE and eNB).
For claim 10:
For claim 10, claim 10 is directed to a method which has similar scope as claim 1. Therefore, claim 10 remains un-patentable for the same reasons.
For claim 16:
For claim 16, claim 16 is directed to a method which has similar scope as claim 1. Therefore, claim 16 remains un-patentable for the same reasons.
For claim 19:
For claim 19, claim 19 is directed to a user equipment which has similar scope as claim 1. Therefore, claim 19 remains un-patentable for the same reasons.
For claim 20:
For claim 20, claim 20 is directed to a network node for receiving a physical uplink control channel, PUCCH which has similar scope as claim 1. Therefore, claim 20 remains un-patentable for the same reasons.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4, 5, 13 and 14 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, set forth in this Office action.
Conclusion
The prior arts made or record and not relied upon are considered pertinent to applicant's disclosures. Park et al. (U.S 2022/0304020), discloses the PUCCH information with respect to the control and data information transmitted and received in cell A may be designated as cell B via at least one of the signals.
Kuchibhotla et al. (U.S 2014/0185530), discloses a network entity can configure a PUCCH to carry data from UE to UE in D2D communication. The portion of the PUCCH used for D2D will be referred to as PUCCH-D2D.
Xiao et al. (U.S 2024/0137873), discloses a user equipment (UE) may receive an indication of a constellation distribution parameter and a modulation scheme to be used by the UE for an uplink message on an uplink channel.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to LAN HUONG TRUONG whose telephone number is (571)270-5829. The examiner can normally be reached on Mon-Fri (7:30AM-5:00PM).
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, RICKY NGO can be reached on 571-272-3139. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/Lan-Huong Truong/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit: 2464
12/13/2025