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 § 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.
Claim(s) 1-3, 8-11, 14-15 and 18-19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Guo (US 20260052495).
With respect to independent claims:
Regarding claim(s) 1/9/14/18, Guo teaches A method of wireless communication ([Fig.4A]), comprising:
receiving ([Fig.4A and 0040], “the system provides the terminal device with the configuration of a first serving cell ... the terminal device can be provided with two TAG-IDs: a first TAG-ID and a second TAG-ID,” wherein the TAG stands for Timing Advance Group.), by a user device ([Fig.2], UE 120) from a base station ([Fig.2], TRP 202), timing advance information ([0063], “the terminal device is indicated with a first TAG and a second TAG for uplink transmission in one serving cell.”) including a first timing advance information ([0063], first TAG) and a second timing advance information ([0063], second TAG);
receiving, transmission resource information associated with transmission information ([0053], “the TRP indicates to the terminal device to transmit a PUSCH, PUCCH, or SRS.” And [0063], “Each PUSCH/PUCCH/SRS transmission can be associated with one of these two TAGs.”);
determining a first transmission timing for a first transmission associated with a first transmission resource information based on the first timing advance information ([0063], “The terminal device is scheduled to transmit a first uplink transmission that is associated with the first TAG.”) and a second transmission timing for a second transmission associated with a second transmission resource information based on the second timing advance information ([0063], “The terminal device is scheduled to transmit a second uplink transmission that is associated with the second TAG.”); and
transmitting, based on the determining, the first transmission in a first time period using a first transmission timing ([Fig.4B], PUSCH#1 is transmitted with TAG1.) and a second transmission in a second time period using a second transmission timing ([Fig.4B], PUSCH#2 is transmitted with TAG2.), and
wherein the first time period and the second time period are adjacent in time domain ([0063], “The first uplink transmission and the second uplink transmission are adjacent in time domain.”), or wherein the first time period starts earlier than the second time period.
With respect to dependent claims:
Regarding claim(s) 2/10/15/19, Guo teaches prior to the transmitting, determining, based on a message or a predefined rule, to reduce a duration of the first time period or a duration of the second time period ([0063 and Fig.4B], “If the first uplink transmission and the second uplink transmission overlap in time domain due to timing advance command in the first TAG and the second TAG, the terminal device can reduce one of these two uplink transmission in duration relative to the other uplink transmission.”).
Regarding claim(s) 3/11, Guo teaches wherein the message comprises at least one of the transmission information, a type of the first transmission or the second transmission, a type of a uplink control information (UCI), a priority indication in a downlink control information format or a flag of whether carrying a specific uplink control information (UCI), or
wherein the predefined rule comprises at least one of a priority of UCI types, a priority of types of the first transmission or the second transmission, or a priority of the first transmission or the second transmission ([0064], “the terminal device reduces the transmission that has lower priority in duration relative to the transmission that has higher priority. The terminal device can determine the priority of the transmission according one or more of the following rules: a PUCCH with HARQ-ACK information can have high priority.”).
Regarding claim(s) 8, Guo teaches wherein the timing advance information comprises at least one of comprises at least one of a TAG index, a timing advance command of a TAG ([0043], “provide a timing advance command for a TAG.”), a reference timing advance command of a TAG, a timing advance offset of a TAG or a timing advance offset of a transmission information, and
wherein a transmission resource information comprises at least one of a resource set, a group of resources, a resource index, time and/or frequency domain position, a type of resource, a type of signal format, information of frequency hopping, a control resource set (CORESET), a CORESET pool, or a configuration of a transmission or a TCI state ([0055], “the TAG is associated with a transmission configuration indication (TCI) state used for the uplink transmission.”).
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) 4, 12, 16 and 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Guo in view of Zhang (US 20220304036).
Regarding claim(s) 4/12/16/20, Zhang teaches determining a time gap ([0107], “To avoid potential overlap of signals towards different TRPs with different TAGS ... a gap may be introduced to avoid potential overlap of signals towards different cells with different TAGs.”) based on at least one of a predetermined value set ([0107], “the value of the gap may be predefined, which may be defined per subcarrier spacing common for all subcarrier spacing, e.g. 1 symbol.”), a predetermined table, a predetermined default rule, or a message including at least one of a number of symbols, an index of the predetermined value set or an index of an entry in the predetermined table; and
determining not to transmit the second transmission associated with the second timing advance information in the time gap ([0107], “To avoid potential overlap of signals towards different TRPs with different TAGS, a gap may be introduced.” So, so uplink transmission occurs during the timing gap).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filing date of the claim invention to have modified the method of Guo to specify timing gap as taught by Zhang. The motivation/suggestion would have been because there is a need to avoid potential overlap. ([0107])
Claim(s) 5 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Guo in view of Zhang, and further in view of Sen (US 20230254832).
Regarding claim(s) 5, Sen teaches wherein the predetermined value set or the predetermined table is determined based on candidate timing advance information differences associated with the first transmission and the second transmission ([0170], “the SRS manager circuitry 1746 may be configured to determine the gap length to be applied between a first set of SRS resources associated with a first TRP and a second set of SRS resources associated with a second TRP.”), and wherein a timing advance information difference is determined based on timing advance information associated with the first time period and the second time period or the first and second transmissions in the first time period and the second time period ([0171], “the SRS manager circuitry 1746 may set the gap length to accommodate a maximum timing advance difference that may occur between the TAGs.”), or wherein a timing advance information difference is a candidate timing advance information difference if the first time period and the second time period are overlapped.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filing date of the claim invention to have modified the method of Guo to specify timing gap as taught by Sen. The motivation/suggestion would have been because there is a need to avoid potential overlap.
Claim(s) 6, 13 and 17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Guo in view of Shin (US 20250048291), and further in view of Zhang (US 20250274240).
Regarding claim(s) 6/13/17, Shin teaches receiving, from the base station, a message including at least one of a reporting period ([0222], “one period reporting a TA parameter (i.e., a period during which a TA absolute value and a TA difference value are not distinguished) may be configured from a base station to a terminal.”) or a reporting scheme, the reporting scheme comprising reporting at least one of a maximum value, a minimum value, an average value, or a value range of candidate timing advance information differences in a reporting period, and
transmitting, by the user device, a reporting information determined based on the message, the reporting information including a value ... timing advance information differences ([0223], “a terminal may be configured to report a TA absolute value only when a terminal is indicated by a base station to report a TA absolute value and report a difference value in other cases.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filing date of the claim invention to have modified the method of Guo to specify a reporting period as taught by Shin. The motivation/suggestion would have been because there is a need to report TA difference.
However, Shin does not teach the maximum value, minimum value, an average value, or a value range of candidate timing advance information differences.
In an analogous art, Zhang teaches the maximum value ([0058], “maximum value of timing advance (TA) difference.”), minimum value, an average value, or a value range of candidate timing advance information differences.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filing date of the claim invention to have modified the method of Guo to specify a maximum value as taught by Zhang. The motivation/suggestion would have been because there is a need to perform UL resource mapping for multiple TRP operation.
Claim(s) 7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Guo in view of Wu (US 20240031964).
Regarding claim(s) 7, Guo teaches wherein each of the first transmission and the second transmission comprises at least one of a transmission occasion of an uplink signal comprising PUCCH ([0063], “Each PUSCH/PUCCH/SRS transmission can be associated with one of these two TAGs.”), PUSCH, SRS or PRACH, or a repetition of the uplink signal and wherein the transmission information comprises at least one of information grouping one or more reference signals, a reference signal resource set, a PUCCH resource set, panel related information, a sub-array, an antenna group, an antenna port group, a group of antenna ports, a beam group, a beam state, a candidate cell, a candidate cell group, a physical cell index (PCI), a time alignment group (TAG) ([0043], “provide a timing advance command for a TAG.”), TRP related information, a CORESET pool index, a set of power control parameters, an index of TCI state in a TCI state codepoint, a UE capability value, or a UE capability set.
However, Guo does not teach wherein at least one of the first transmission or the second transmission is transmitted or received in at least one of a slot, a sub-slot, a frame or a sub-frame.
In an analogous art, Wu teaches wherein at least one of the first transmission or the second transmission is transmitted or received in at least one of a slot ([0071], “the UE is scheduled to perform uplink transmission in time slot n.”), a sub-slot, a frame or a sub-frame.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filing date of the claim invention to have modified the method of Guo to specify a transmission slot as taught by Wu. The motivation/suggestion would have been because there is a need to transmit uplink transmission.
Conclusion
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/ZHIREN QIN/Examiner, Art Unit 2411