DETAILED ACTION
Status of Case
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
This Office Action is in response to the claims filed on 11/16/2023.
Claims 1-18 are pending.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) filed on 11/16/2023 and 11/20/2023 have been considered by Examiner.
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 1-2, 5, 10-11, and 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Khoshnevisan (USPAN 2021/0091915) in view of Babaei (USPAN 2022/0279456).
Consider claims 1 and 10, Khoshnevisan discloses a method (see paragraph 164, wherein disclosed is said method), and a corresponding apparatus, comprising: a transceiver which, during operation, wirelessly communicates with a network node of a wireless network; and a processor communicatively coupled to the transceiver such that, during operation, the processor performs operations (see apparatus 115 in figure 6 (reproduced below for convenience), wherein disclosed is said transceiver 610/612 and said processor 602) comprising:
receiving, via the transceiver, a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) on a first component carrier (CC) (see paragraph 164: one or more CCs may be used to communicate a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH));
receiving, via the transceiver, downlink data on a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) on the first CC scheduled by the PDCCH (see paragraph 164: CCs used to communicate a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH));
transmitting, via the transceiver, uplink information corresponding to the downlink data on a PUCCH on a second CC (see paragraph 164: one or more CC’s, such as first CC 681, second CC 682, third CC 683, and fourth CC 684, may be used, and a CC is used for a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH, which is used to transmit uplink data on one of the CCs).
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Khoshnevisan does not specifically disclose receiving, via the transceiver, a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) carrier pattern on the first CC, wherein the PUCCH carrier pattern is configured per PUCCH cell group, and that the uplink information that is transmitted is uplink control information (UCI) and it is transmitted according to the PUCCH carrier pattern.
Babaei discloses receiving, via the transceiver, a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) carrier pattern on the first CC, wherein the PUCCH carrier pattern is configured per PUCCH cell group (see paragraph 175: an indication for a PUCCH cell/carrier timing pattern for determining a PUCCH carrier/cell per PUCCH group), and that the uplink information that is transmitted is uplink control information (UCI) and it is transmitted according to the PUCCH carrier pattern (see paragraph 87: generating uplink control information (UCI) that may be carrier by the physical channels, and from paragraph 175, the UCI is transmitted via the PUCCH carrier pattern).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Khoshnevisan and combine it with the noted teachings of Babaei. The motivation to combine these references is to provide a method to enhance uplink control channel cell switching in an uplink control channel group (see paragraph 54 of Babaei).
Consider claims 2 and 11, Khoshnevisan does not specifically disclose that the PUCCH carrier pattern configures the first CC and the second CC within a PUCCH cell group that can be used to transmit the UCI.
Babaei discloses that the PUCCH carrier pattern configures the first CC and the second CC within a PUCCH cell group that can be used to transmit the UCI (see paragraph 175: an indication for a PUCCH cell/carrier timing pattern for determining a PUCCH carrier/cell per PUCCH group, and from paragraph 175, the PUCCH group comprises at least a first cell/carrier and a second cell/carrier, i.e. a first CC and second CC).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Khoshnevisan and combine it with the noted teachings of Babaei. The motivation to combine these references is to provide a method to enhance uplink control channel cell switching in an uplink control channel group (see paragraph 54 of Babaei).
Consider claims 5 and 14, Khoshnevisan does not specifically disclose that the PUCCH carrier pattern is configured in a time domain.
Babaei discloses that the PUCCH carrier pattern is configured in a time domain (see paragraph 175: an indication for a PUCCH cell/carrier timing pattern for determining a PUCCH carrier/cell per PUCCH group).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Khoshnevisan and combine it with the noted teachings of Babaei. The motivation to combine these references is to provide a method to enhance uplink control channel cell switching in an uplink control channel group (see paragraph 54 of Babaei).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-4, 6-9, 12-13, and 15-18 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Jamal Javaid whose telephone number is 571-270-5137 and email address is Jamal.Javaid@uspto.gov.
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/JAMAL JAVAID/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2412