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 .
The applicant amended claims 1-5 in the amendment filed on 03/04/2026.
Claims 1-5 are pending.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1-5 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
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.
Claim(s) 1-5 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Li (US 2023/0199761) in view of Xiaomi (3GPP TSG RAN WG1#105-e, R1-2105558 ,5/10/2021), and further in view of Park et al. (US 2020/0146037).
With respect to claim 1, Li teaches transmitting circuitry configured to: in a case that: at least one physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) for a high priority (HP) scheduling request (SR) (HP SR PUCCH, sections [0097] and [0111] and figs. 3-4) overlaps with a low priority (LP) physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) (LP PUSCH, sections [0097] and [0111] and figs. 3-4), and the HR SR multiplexing on the LP PUSCH is enabled, and a positive HP SR is triggered (i.e., handling uplink channel overlapping according to a preset rule, abstract and sections [0046]-[0054]. [0068]-[0069], [0105], and [0108]), report the HP SR in a resource for the HP SR (e.g., multiplexing HP SR onto LP PUSCH, sections [0046]-[0054]. [0068]-[0069], [0105], and [0108]). Li does not explicitly disclose the HP SR in a dedicated reserved resource for the HP SR with a separate coding chain. Xiaomi, in analogous art, is introduced to show more in detail regarding HP SR on LP PUSCH that treating HP SR as HARQ-ACK bit or CSI and multiplexing it to LP PUSCH using the R15 method can be done (section 4 on page 3 and proposal 10 on page 6) in order to send HP SR. Xiaomi also discloses the SR positive or negative and the SR positive being transmitted on the SR resource (proposal 8 on page 3). Therefore, based on Li in view of Xiaomi, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to utilize the teaching of Xiaomi to the system of Li in order to send HP SR by utilizing PUSCH. Li and Xiaomi do not explicitly disclose the HP SR with a separate coding chain. However, Park teaches the HP SR with a separate coding chain (i.e., positive SR reported by higher-layer signaling (e.g., RRC signaling), sections [0729], [0730], [0854], [0866], [0013], [0023], [0071], [0131], and [0139]) in order to transmit the plurality of pieces of SR information adaptively. Therefore, based on Li in view of Xiaomi, and further in view of Park, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to utilize the teaching of Park to the system of Li in view of Xiaomi in order to transmit the plurality of pieces of SR information adaptively.
With respect to claim 2, Li teaches report HP SR on the dedicated reserved resource for the HP SR on the LP PUSCH ([0046]-[0054]. [0068]-[0069], [0090], [0105], and [0108]). Xiaomi also further teaches in a case that the positive HP SR is not triggered, report a negative SR on the dedicated reserved resource for the HP SR on the LP PUSCH (section 4 on page 3, proposal 10 on page 6, and proposal 8 on page 3). Therefore, the limitations of claim 2 are rejected in the analysis of claim 1 above, and the claim is rejected on that basis.
The limitations of claim 3 are rejected in the analysis of claim 1 above, and the claim is rejected on that basis.
The limitations of claim 4 are rejected in the analysis of claim 2 above, and the claim is rejected on that basis.
The limitations of claim 5 are rejected in the analysis of claim 1 above, and the claim is rejected on that basis.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JOON H HWANG whose telephone number is (571)272-4036. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday, 9:00 am - 5:00 pm.
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/JOON H HWANG/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2447
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