DETAILED ACTION
This office action is a response to 2/22/2024.
Claims 1-10 are pending.
Claims 1-10 are rejected.
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 .
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 (a)-(d). The certified copy has been filed in the instant application.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted 2/22/2024 and 9/18/2025 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Specification
The title of the invention is not descriptive. A new title is required that is clearly indicative of the invention to which the claims are directed.
Claim Objections
Claims 1-8 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 1 line 2 “to recivea” should be corrected to “to receive a”.
Claim 6 line 4 recites “block. The”. Claims must be in one sentence form.
Claim 7 line 2 “HARQ-ACK” should be written as Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request Acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) as it is the first instance of the acronym
Claim 8 line 2 “configuredto” should be corrected to “configured to” and “to receiv” should be corrected to “to receive”
Claim(s) 2 – 5 are object to because they depend on an objected claim.
Appropriate correction is required.
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.
Claim 6 is 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 applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 6 recites the limitation "the first weight value". There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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 –
(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.
Claims 1-5 and 7-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Zhang et al. US 20220039088 A1 (application filed 8/3/2021 and claiming foreign application priority), hereinafter Zhang.
Regarding Claim 1, Zhang discloses a first node device in wireless communication (Zhang Fig. 1 and 3A: UE), comprising:
a first receiver, configured to recivea first signal (Zhang [0011-0014, 0291] DCI or a higher layer signaling);
a first transmitter, configured to send a first bit block and a second bit block in a first Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH), wherein the first bit block comprises at least one bit, and the second bit block comprises at least one bit (Zhang [0011, 0014]; [0311] discloses that UCI with different priorities may be multiplexed in a PUCCH);
wherein resources occupied by the first PUCCH belong to a first resource set, the first resource set belongs to a first resource pool, the first resource pool includes multiple resource sets, and the first signal is used to determine the first resource set from the first resource pool (Zhang [0291] discloses that a set of PUCCHs may be determined according to a size of a UCI, and then a PUCCH resources in the determined set of PUCCHs may be selected according to a PUCCH resource indication in DCI);
a first value is equal to a sum of a number of bits included in the first bit block and a number of bits included in the second bit block, a second value is linearly related to the number of bits included in the first bit block, the second value is linearly related to the number of bits included in the second bit block, and the second value is not equal to the first value; and the first and second values are both used to determine the first resource pool (Zhang [0312-0316] discloses PUCCH resource set may be determined based on: the sum of the numbers of HARQ-ACK bits with different priorities; or the sum of number of HARQ-ACK bits with the higher priority and a value obtained by multiplying the number of HARQ-ACK bits with the lower priority by a predefined parameter).
Regarding Claim 2, Zhang discloses the first node of claim 1 and further discloses wherein
the first resource pool is one of N resource pools (Zhang see at least [0312-0316] the 3GPP parameter pucch-ResourceSetId);
a third value is used to determine the first resource pool from the N resource pools (Zhang see at least [0312-0316]; the “third value” merely may be an intermediary value used in the determination of PUCCH resource set);
when the first value is not greater than a first reference value, the third value is equal to the first value (Zhang [0313] if the number of the HARQ-ACK bits with different priorities is equal to a predetermined value (e.g., 2), the determined PUCCH resource set is a first PUCCH resource set);
when the first value is greater than the first reference value, the third value is equal to the maximum value of the fourth value and the second value, and the fourth value is constant or configurable (Zhang [0313-0314] if the numbers of the HARQ-ACK bits with different priorities is larger than the predetermined value (e.g., 2), then the PUCCH resource set if determined according to the number of the HARQ-ACK bits with the higher priority and the number of the HARQ-ACK bits with the lower priority and the predefined parameter (i.e., the second value). The second value is further compared with parameters (N2 and N3) configured by higher layer signaling to determine the PUCCH resource set);
N is a positive integer greater than 1, and the first reference value is not less than 2 (Zhang [0312-0316] pucch-ResourceSetId; the predetermined value is, in a possible example, 2).
Regarding Claim 3, Zhang discloses the first node of claim 1 and further discloses wherein
the first resource pool is one of N resource pools (Zhang see at least [0312-0316] the 3GPP parameter pucch-ResourceSetId);
when the first value is not greater than the first reference value, the first resource pool is the default resource pool among the N resource pools (Zhang [0313] if the number of the HARQ-ACK bits with different priorities is equal to a predetermined value (e.g., 2), the determined PUCCH resource set is a first PUCCH resource set);
when the first value is greater than the first reference value, the second value is used to determine the first resource pool from the N resource pools (Zhang [0313-0314] if the numbers of the HARQ-ACK bits with different priorities is larger than the predetermined value (e.g., 2), then the PUCCH resource set if determined according to the number of the HARQ-ACK bits with the higher priority and the number of the HARQ-ACK bits with the lower priority and the predefined parameter (i.e., the second value). The second value is further compared with parameters (N2 and N3) configured by higher layer signaling to determine the PUCCH resource set);
N is a positive integer greater than 1, and the first reference value is not less than 2 (Zhang [0312-0316] pucch-ResourceSetId; the predetermined value is, in a possible example, 2).
Regarding Claim 4, Zhang discloses the first node of claim 2 and further discloses wherein
when the first value is greater than the first reference value, the size relationship between the second value and M1 reference values is used to determine the first resource pool from the N resource pools; the M1 reference values are different from each other, the minimum value among the M1 reference values is greater than the first reference value, and M1 is a positive integer (Zhang [0313-0314] if the numbers of the HARQ-ACK bits with different priorities is larger than the predetermined value (e.g., 2), then the PUCCH resource set if determined according to the number of the HARQ-ACK bits with the higher priority and the number of the HARQ-ACK bits with the lower priority and the predefined parameter (i.e., the second value). The second value is further compared with parameters (N2 and N3) configured by higher layer signaling to determine the PUCCH resource set).
Regarding Claim 5, Zhang discloses the first node of claim 3 and further discloses wherein
when the first value is greater than the first reference value, regardless of whether the second value is greater than the first reference value, and the first resource pool is a resource pool other than the default resource pool among the N resource pools (Zhang [0314]).
Regarding Claim 7, Zhang discloses the first node of claim 1 and further discloses wherein
the second bit block is generated from a first HARQ-ACK codebook, and the number of bits included in the second bit block is not equal to the number of HARQ-ACK bits included in the first HARQ-ACK codebook (Zhang at least [0174-0175] discloses if it is determined that the UCIs with different priorities are not separately encoded, the UCI with the lower priority (e.g., HARQ-ACK(s) with the lower priority) may be compressed/bundled and the compressed/bundled UCI may be jointly encoded with UCI with the higher priority).
Claim 8 is rejected on the same grounds set forth in the rejection of claim 1. Claim 8 recites similar features as in claim 1 from the perspective of an apparatus.
Claim 9 is rejected on the same grounds set forth in the rejection of claim 1. Claim 9 recites similar features as in claim 1 for a method.
Claim 10 is rejected on the same grounds set forth in the rejection of claim 1. Claim 10 recites similar features as in claim 1 for a method.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 6 would be allowable if rewritten to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action and to include all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
LU et al. US 20220132496 A1
Marinier et al. US 20240322979 A1
Zhang US 20230299904 A1
Jung et al. US 20200145167 A1
Yoshimura et al. US 20210368528 A1
MU US 20220303063 A1
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/Y.K./ Examiner, Art Unit 2465
/GARY MUI/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2465