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 .
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.
Claims 8-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as failing to set forth 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. Evidence that claim 8-14 fail(s) to correspond in scope with that which the inventor or a joint inventor, or for pre-AIA applications the applicant regards as the invention can be found in the reply filed 19 March 2024. In that paper, the inventor or a joint inventor, or for pre-AIA applications the applicant has stated in independent claim as an apparatus, and this statement indicates that the invention is different from what is defined in the claim(s) because the body of the claim are ONLY method steps without supporting hardware structures to execute such method (since Applicant removed hardware structure recitation of “at least one processor coupled to one or more memories..)
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 1-2 and 6-7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Oh (US 2023/0247648).
Regarding claim 1, Oh describes an apparatus, comprising: a processor, and a memory having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by the processor (fig. 3 & para. 68, UE (apparatus) with controller 330 (processor) & storage unit 320 (memory) for executing its method), cause the apparatus to:
receive first downlink control information (DCI) from a network device, wherein the first DCI is usable for scheduling M data channels in M cells, each of the M data channels corresponds to one of the M cells, and M is an integer greater than 1 (para. 62 & 64, UE receives the DCI from base station (network device) for allocating/scheduling data channels (PDSCH) to cells, see also abstract. The first data channel is for first cell; the second data is for second cell (M data channels in M cells), claim 5 or 10); and receive the M data channels (para. 64, UE receiving the data channels based on the configuration transmitted on the DCI).
Regarding claim 2, Oh describes:
wherein the first DCI comprises at least one common field and at least one independent field, information carried in each of the at least one common field is common information of the M data channels, each of the at least one independent field comprises M sub-fields, and the M sub-fields are in a one-to-one correspondence with the M data channels (para. 141 in view of 403-404, DCI scheduling a UE-specific (with independent fields) PDSCH is scrambled with cell RNTI (C-RNTI) (common field). When DCI schedules 2 PDSCHs (M data channels), its first & second PSDCHs each comprise their corresponding MCS (one-to-one correspondence)).
Regarding claim 6, Oh describes:
wherein the apparatus is further caused to: monitor a second DCI from the network device, wherein the second DCI is usable for scheduling one data channel in one cell (para. 62 & 64, UE receives the DCI from base station (network device) for allocating/scheduling data channels (PDSCH) to cells, see also abstract. The first data channel is for first cell; the second data is for second cell (M data channels in M cells), claim 5 or 10).
Regarding claim 7, Oh describes:
wherein a format of the second DCI is DCI format 0_0, DCI format 0_1, DCI format 0_2, DCI format 1_0, DCI format 1_1, or DCI format 1_2 (para. 142, DCI formats may be 0_0, 0_1, or 1_0).
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 4 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Oh as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of He (US 2019/0223160).
Regarding claim 4, Oh already describes: first DCI is usable for scheduling a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), but fails to further explicitly describe:
wherein a format of the first DCI is DCI format 1_3; or the format of the first DCI is DCI format 0_3.
He also describing transmission of DCI between network RAN node to UE (title), further describing:
wherein a format of the first DCI is DCI format 1_3 (para. 78 & 99, use of DCI format 1_3 for PDSCH scheduling).
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective date of the claimed invention to specify that the DCI format used in Oh to have format 1_3 as in He.
The motivation for combining the teachings is that this enables direct indication without resulting in a large overhead for scheduling with the PDSCH transmission (para. 99).
Claim 8 is an apparatus claims comprising sending steps that mirrored limitations of apparatus claim 1’s receiving steps. Hence, it is rejected under the same rationale.
Claims 9, 11 and 13-14 recite same limitations as that of claims 2, 4 and 6-7 respectively. Hence, it is rejected under the same rationale.
Claims 10 and 12 recite mirrored limitations of that in claims 3 and 5 respectively. Hence it is objected under the same rationale.
Claims 15-20 are method claims reciting same limitations as that of claims 8-12 and 13+14 respectively. Hence, they are rejected/objected to under the same rationale.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3, 5, 10, 12, 17 and 19 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.
Regarding claim 3, 10 and 17, the prior art fails to further explicitly describe:
wherein the apparatus is further caused to: receive, from the network device, signaling indicating whether a first field in the first DCI is a common filed or an independent field.
The closest prior art, Liu (US 2024/0031103) also describes signaling between access node & UEs (fig. 6) wherein 1 signal is DCI comprising [first] identifier fields and latter UE-specific fields with subfields (fig. 7-9), and Zhu (US 2023/0389041) describing joint scheduling method comprising 2+ member DCIs (abstract), in combination with Oh, fail to render the above additional features as a whole obvious.
Regarding claim 5, 12 and 19, the prior art fails to further explicitly describe:
wherein the first DCI comprises a 1-bit indication field, the format of the first DCI is DCI format 1_3 in response to a value of the 1-bit indication field being 1, and the format of the first DCI is DCI format 0_3 in response to the value of the 1-bit indication field being 0.
The closest prior art Ying (US 2023/0300827) describing new DCI format 0_3 & 1_3 each having an identifier for UE to receive and detect, each format has bit fields for indications, but does NOT have 1-bit indication field of 1 or 0 to indicate format 1_3 and format 0_3 respectively, in combination with Oh describing DCI formats 0_0, 0_1 and 1_0 (para. 142), fail to render the above additional features as a whole obvious.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure: Kim (US 2022/0287054) describing method of transmitting an uplink channel by a UE includes receiving first DCI based on a first control resource set group; wherein a first uplink channel is scheduled based on the first DCI; receiving second DCI based on a second control resource set group; wherein a second uplink channel is scheduled based on the second DCI, Bagheri (US 20200053757) describing first & second data channel allocation with PDCCH scheduling a PDSCH is schedule by a DCI format 1_0 or 1_1 (abstract & para. 6), and Takeda (US 2022/0124687) describing UE receiving from a base station first DCI indicating whether resources are allocated for at least one data channel on multiple carriers (abstract).
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WARNER WONG
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2469
/WARNER WONG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2469