CTNF 18/583,004 CTNF 85727 DETAILED ACTION The instant application having Application No. 18/583004 filed on 02/21/2024 is presented for examination by the examiner. In response to the Restriction Requirement, Applicant elects, without traverse, Group I (claims 1-4 and 14-17) , and Group II: Claims 5-13, 18-26 are cancelled by the Applicant. 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. 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. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112 07-30-02 AIA 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. 07-34-01 AIA Claim s 14-17 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. With respect to claim 14 , no transitional phrases, such as, “ comprising ” are found in the claims. Thus, it is unclear about the scope of the claims with respect to what unrecited additional components or steps, if any, are excluded from the scope of the claims, or what limitations should be considered as the body/preamble of the claims. In addition, according to MPEP 2106.03 (I), a machine is defined as "...a concrete thing, consisting of parts, or of certain devices and combination of devices..." The statutory definition of a machine is something that has plural parts. Claim 14 recites an IEEE 802.11 transmitter apparatus without any component. As such, claim 14 does not recite either a plurality of parts, devices or a combination of devices; thus, the claim appear to be indefinite for lacking adequate structure. Claims 15-17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA), second paragraph for at least the reason stated above. Claims 15-17 depend on claim 14; however, they do not add any feature or subject matter that would solve any of the deficiencies of claim 14. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102 07-07-aia AIA 07-07 The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action: A person shall be entitled to a patent unless – 07-12-aia AIA (a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention. 07-15-03-aia AIA Claim s 1, 2, 4, 14, 15, 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by HUANG et al. (US 2023/0413367 A1) . As per claim 1 , HUANG discloses “ A method comprising, by a device of an IEEE 802.11 transmitter: causing transmission of an IEEE 802.11 frame using spatial modulation ,” [(par. 0033), As the methods and devices proposed in various embodiments of the invention may be used in IEEE 802.11be WLAN, possible formats of an EHT PPDU in IEEE 802.11be WLAN (par. 0110), a transmission unit configured to transmit the EHT TB PPDU corresponding to the adapted child RU or MRU to the AP. In some embodiments, the data unit preparation unit may be further configured to set an adapted modulation and coding scheme (MCS) and a count number of spatial streams (Nss) in a U-SIG field of the EHT TB PPDU corresponding to the adapted child RU or MRU.] “ wherein the IEEE 802.11 frame includes an indication that the IEEE 802.11 frame is transmitted using the spatial modulation, the indication being a subfield within a SIG field of a PHY header of the IEEE 802.11 frame .” [(par. 0033), As the methods and devices proposed in various embodiments of the invention may be used in IEEE 802.11be WLAN, possible formats of an EHT PPDU in IEEE 802.11be WLAN. (par. 0110), a transmission unit configured to transmit the EHT TB PPDU corresponding to the adapted child RU or MRU to the AP. In some embodiments, the data unit preparation unit may be further configured to set an adapted modulation and coding scheme (MCS) and a count number of spatial streams (Nss) in a U-SIG field of the EHT TB PPDU corresponding to the adapted child RU or MRU.] As per claim 2 , Huang discloses “ The method of claim 1 ,” as [see rejection of claim 1.] “ wherein the SIG field is a U-SIG field or a UHR-SIG field .” [(par. 0033), As the methods and devices proposed in various embodiments of the invention may be used in IEEE 802.11be WLAN, possible formats of an EHT PPDU in IEEE 802.11be WLAN. (par. 0110), a transmission unit configured to transmit the EHT TB PPDU corresponding to the adapted child RU or MRU to the AP. In some embodiments, the data unit preparation unit may be further configured to set an adapted MCS and a count number of spatial streams (Nss) in a U-SIG field of the EHT TB PPDU corresponding to the adapted child RU or MRU.] As per claim 4 , Huang discloses “ The method of claim 1 ,” as [see rejection of claim 1.] “ wherein transmitting the IEEE 802.11 frame using spatial modulation comprises generating a number of spatial antenna streams, of the spatial modulation, which are used to drive a plurality of antennas greater in number or equal in number to the number of spatial antenna streams, the number of spatial antenna streams being indicated in a U-SIG field or a UHR-SIG field of the IEEE 802.11 frame .” [(par. 0033), As the methods and devices proposed in various embodiments of the invention may be used in IEEE 802.11be WLAN, possible formats of an EHT PPDU in IEEE 802.11be WLAN. (par. 0110), a transmission unit configured to transmit the EHT TB PPDU corresponding to the adapted child RU or MRU to the AP. In some embodiments, the data unit preparation unit may be further configured to set an adapted MCS and a count number of spatial streams (Nss) in a U-SIG field of the EHT TB PPDU corresponding to the adapted child RU or MRU.] As per claims 14, 15, 17 , as [see rejection of claims 1, 2, 4.] Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103 07-20-aia AIA 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. 07-21-aia AIA Claim s 3 , 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over HUANG et al. (US 2023/0413367 A1) in view of Chen et al. (US 2025/0055641 A1) . As per claim 3 , Huang discloses “ The method of claim 1 ,” as [see rejection of claim 1.] Huang does not explicitly disclose “wherein the subfield has a length of one bit.” However, Chen discloses “ wherein the subfield has a length of one bit ” as [(Abstract), The processing circuitry encodes a Universal Signal (U-SIG) field with subfields including a version identifier field with a length of three bits, an uplink or downlink indicator with a length of one bit.] HUANG et al. (US 2023/0413367 A1) and Chen et al. (US 2025/0055641 A1) are analogous art because they are the same field of endeavor of network communication. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Chen’s teaching into HUANG’s teaching. The motivation for making the above modification would be to allow using U-SIG field to indicate variety of information. As per claims 16 , as [see rejection of claim 3.] Conclusion Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MANG HANG YEUNG whose telephone number is (571)270-7319. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F 8:00 am to 5:00 pm. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Rebecca Song can be reached on (571) 270-3667. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000. /MANG HANG YEUNG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2417 Application/Control Number: 18/583,004 Page 2 Art Unit: 2417 Application/Control Number: 18/583,004 Page 3 Art Unit: 2417 Application/Control Number: 18/583,004 Page 4 Art Unit: 2417 Application/Control Number: 18/583,004 Page 5 Art Unit: 2417
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