DETAILED ACTION
This is in response to the Applicant's arguments and amendments filed on 15 May 2024 in which claims 1-20 are currently pending.
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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The references listed in the Information Disclosure Statement, filed on 29 January 2025, 18 June 2025, 20 August 2025, have been considered by the examiner (see attached PTO-1449 form or PTO/SB/08A and 08B forms).
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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.
Claims 1-2, 8-9, 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Papasakellariou (PG Pub US 2020/0259625 A1) in view of Dai et al. (PG Pub US 2023/0379915 A1).
Regarding claims 1, 8, 15, Papasakellariou discloses a communication method, a communication method, and a communication apparatus.
determining a quantity of coded modulation symbols of first uplink control information (UCI) (“a number of coded modulation symbols per layer for HARQ-ACK multiplexing, denoted as Q′.sub.ACK, can be determined” [0119], [0133], “Q′.sub.ACK is the number of coded modulation symbols per layer for HARQ-ACK transmitted on the PUSCH if number of HARQ-ACK information bits is more than 2” [0134]); and
receiving/sending the first UCI (“For a HARQ-ACK multiplexing in PUSCH transmission” [0119], “the UE 116 can transmit the UCI” [0143]),
the first UCI is carried on a first channel (“A UE can transmit data information or UCI through a respective physical UL shared channel (PUSCH) or a physical UL control channel (PUCCH)” [0078]), a quantity of time units occupied by the first channel is N, at least one of N and K is used to determine the quantity of coded modulation symbols of the first UCI, N is an integer greater than 1, and K is an integer greater than 1 (“the UE 116 transmits a PUSCH that includes a total of N.sub.PUSCH.sup.repeat repetitions that would multiplex UCI in N.sup.UCI.sub.PUSCH repetitions. Then, in operation 1620, the UE 116 determines a number of REs (or a number of coded modulation symbols) for multiplexing the UCI in each N.sup.UCI.sub.PUSCH repetition of the PUSCH transmission as a product of ┌N.sup.repeat.sub.PUSCH/N.sup.UCI.sub.PUSCH┐ and a number of UCI REs in the case of no PUSCH repetitions. More particularly, the UE 116 determines a number of REs for multiplexing the UCI in each N.sup.UCI.sub.PUSCH repetition by scaling by ┌N.sup.repeat.sub.PUSCH/N.sup.UCI.sub.PUSCH┐ a number of REs (or a number of coded modulation symbols) corresponding to N.sup.repeat.sub.PUSCH=1 repetitions (i.e. no repetitions) of the PUSCH transmission. For example, for N.sup.UCI.sub.PUSCH=1, the UE 116 can scale a number of REs for UCI multiplexing, or equivalently a number of UCI coded modulation symbols, by N.sup.repeat.sub.PUSCH. In operation 1630, the UE 116 multiplexes the UCI over the determined number of REs in each of the N.sup.UCI.sub.PUSCH repetitions and transmits the N.sup.UCI.sub.PUSCH repetitions. For example, using Equation 2, a number of coded modulation symbols per layer for HARQ-ACK transmission” [0202]).
However, Papasakellariou does not explicitly disclose a scaling factor of a transport block carried on the first channel is K.
Nevertheless, Dai discloses “TBS or MCS scaling may be implemented for multi-slot PUSCH. In an example, a code rate or TBS may be scaled up for a four-slot PUSCH (e.g., scaled by a factor of 2 or 4)” [0024].
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have a scaling factor of a transport block carried on the first channel because it will allow “for system capacity improvement” [0024].
Regarding claims 2, 9, Papasakellariou, Dai discloses everything claimed as applied above. In addition, K is equal to N, and wherein the determining a quantity of coded modulation symbols of first UCI comprises: determining the quantity of coded modulation symbols of the first UCI based on a quantity of first symbols in one transmission occasion, wherein the quantity of first symbols in one transmission occasion is determined based on L or based on L and N, the first symbol is a symbol occupied by the first channel in a time unit, L is a length of the first symbols, and L is a positive integer (“Q′.sub.ACK is the number of coded modulation symbols per layer for HARQ-ACK transmitted on the PUSCH if number of HARQ-ACK information bits is more than 2” [0138], “C.sub.UL-SCH is the number of code blocks for the transport block of the PUSCH transmission; [0125] K.sub.r is the r-th code block size for transport of the PUSCH transmission; [0126] M.sup.PUSCH.sub.sc is the scheduled bandwidth of the PUSCH transmission, expressed as a number of subcarriers; [0127] M.sup.PT-RS.sub.sc (l) is the number of subcarriers in OFDM symbol l that carries phase-tracking RS (PTRS), in the PUSCH transmission” [0120]). Further, Dai discloses “a code rate or TBS may be scaled up for a four-slot PUSCH (e.g., scaled by a factor of 2 or 4)” [0024].
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-7, 10-14, 16-20 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.
Conclusion
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CHRISTINE DUONG FUQUA
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2462
/CHRISTINE T DUONG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2462 03/04/2026