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 .
Response to Amendment
Applicant’s amendment filed on July 2, 2026 has been entered. Claims 1-2, 6-7, 11-12 and 16-17 have been amended. Claims 3, 8, 13 and 18 are canceled. No claims have been added. Claims 1-2, 4-7, 9-12, 14-17 and 19-20 are still pending in this application, with claims 1, 6, 11 and 16 being independent.
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, 6, 11 and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Rastegardoost et al. (U.S. PGPub 2023/0023656), hereinafter referred to as Rastegardoost in view of Huawei et al.’s “Rel-18 TEI proposal on HARQ multiplexing on PUSCH”, hereinafter referred to as ‘385.
Regarding claim 1, Rastegardoost teaches a method performed by a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system, the method comprising:
receiving, from a base station, a high layer signaling including information enabling a multiplexing of first hybrid automatic repeat request-acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) information (The one or more RRC messages may further comprise a parameter indicating that transmitting a HARQ-ACK based on an UL DCI is allowed/enabled; See [0317]);
receiving, from the base station, first downlink control information (DCI) scheduling the PUSCH repetitions (UE transmits a PUSCH over multiple slots, wherein the slots are interpreted as the repetitions. The UL DCI indicating a PUSCH resource and slot offset K2 is received earlier than the next DL DCI indicating a PUCCH resource and slot offset K1; See Fig. 20 and [0329]);
receiving, from the base station after the first DCI, second DCI indicating a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) resource (the UL DCI indicating a PUSCH resource and slot offset K2 is received earlier than the next DL DCI indicating a PUCCH resource and slot offset K1; See Fig. 20 and [0329]); and
transmitting, to the base station, the first HARQ-ACK information associated with a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) scheduled by the second DCI (The DL DCI is associated with the PDSCH and the HARQ-ACK is sent in response to the successful receiving of the PDSCH; See [0277] and [0329]), wherein the first HARQ-ACK information is multiplexed on the PUSCH repetition other than the first PUSCH repetition among the PUSCH repetitions (The wireless device determines slot n for the pending HARQ-ACK transmission based on the UL DCI. The wireless device determines slot n based on the slot offset, K2, in the UL DCI, and transmits a UCI comprising the pending HARQ-ACK via the PUSCH scheduled by the UL DCI in slot n; See [0329]).
Rastegardoost fails to explicitly teach the RRC message enabling multiplexing on a PUSCH repetition other than a first PUSCH repetition among PUSCH repetitions and transmitting the first HARQ-ACK information based on the information enabling the multiplexing of the first HARQ-ACK information.
‘385 teaches the RRC message enabling multiplexing on a PUSCH repetition other than a first PUSCH repetition among PUSCH repetitions (From UE Side, to support the function of scheduling PDSCH after a UL DCI format and multiplexing associated HARQ on the PUSCH scheduled by the DCI format, a new UE capability can be introduced in Rel-18. An RRC parameter should be introduced as well to configure the function. When UE reports a capability to support the function, gNB can configure it and schedule HARQ-ACK information multiplexed on the PUSCH scheduled previously. Otherwise, the scheduling restriction is maintained and there is no change to current specifications; See pages 2-3) and transmitting the first HARQ-ACK information based on the information enabling the multiplexing of the first HARQ-ACK information (multiplexing PUCCH with PUSCH Rep2; See Fig. 3).
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify the method of Rastegardoost to include the RRC message enabling multiplexing on a PUSCH repetition other than a first PUSCH repetition among PUSCH repetitions and transmitting the first HARQ-ACK information based on the information enabling the multiplexing of the first HARQ-ACK information taught by ‘385 in order to align the understanding between gNB and UE and avoid unnecessary ambiguity due to false alarm.
Regarding claim 6, Rastegardoost teaches a method performed by a base station in a wireless communication system, the method comprising:
transmitting, to a user equipment (UE), a high layer signaling including information enabling a multiplexing of first hybrid automatic repeat request-acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) information (The one or more RRC messages may further comprise a parameter indicating that transmitting a HARQ-ACK based on an UL DCI is allowed/enabled; See [0317]);
transmitting, to the UE, first downlink control information (DCI) scheduling the PUSCH repetitions (UE transmits a PUSCH over multiple slots, wherein the slots are interpreted as the repetitions. The UL DCI indicating a PUSCH resource and slot offset K2 is received earlier than the next DL DCI indicating a PUCCH resource and slot offset K1; See Fig. 20 and [0329]);
transmitting, to the UE after the first DCI, second DCI indicating a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) resource (the UL DCI indicating a PUSCH resource and slot offset K2 is received earlier than the next DL DCI indicating a PUCCH resource and slot offset K1; See Fig. 20 and [0329]); and
receiving, from the UE, the first HARQ-ACK information associated with a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) scheduled by the second DCI (The DL DCI is associated with the PDSCH and the HARQ-ACK is sent in response to the successful receiving of the PDSCH; See [0277] and [0329]), wherein the first HARQ-ACK information is multiplexed on the PUSCH repetition other than the first PUSCH repetition among the PUSCH repetitions (The wireless device determines slot n for the pending HARQ-ACK transmission based on the UL DCI. The wireless device determines slot n based on the slot offset, K2, in the UL DCI, and transmits a UCI comprising the pending HARQ-ACK via the PUSCH scheduled by the UL DCI in slot n; See [0329]).
Rastegardoost fails to explicitly teach the RRC message enabling multiplexing on a PUSCH repetition other than a first PUSCH repetition among PUSCH repetitions and transmitting the first HARQ-ACK information based on the information enabling the multiplexing of the first HARQ-ACK information.
‘385 teaches the RRC message enabling multiplexing on a PUSCH repetition other than a first PUSCH repetition among PUSCH repetitions (From UE Side, to support the function of scheduling PDSCH after a UL DCI format and multiplexing associated HARQ on the PUSCH scheduled by the DCI format, a new UE capability can be introduced in Rel-18. An RRC parameter should be introduced as well to configure the function. When UE reports a capability to support the function, gNB can configure it and schedule HARQ-ACK information multiplexed on the PUSCH scheduled previously. Otherwise, the scheduling restriction is maintained and there is no change to current specifications; See pages 2-3) and receiving the first HARQ-ACK information based on the information enabling the multiplexing of the first HARQ-ACK information (multiplexing PUCCH with PUSCH Rep2; See Fig. 3).
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify the method of Rastegardoost to include the RRC message enabling multiplexing on a PUSCH repetition other than a first PUSCH repetition among PUSCH repetitions and receiving the first HARQ-ACK information based on the information enabling the multiplexing of the first HARQ-ACK information taught by ‘385 in order to align the understanding between gNB and UE and avoid unnecessary ambiguity due to false alarm.
Regarding claim 11, Rastegardoost teaches a user equipment (UE) (See Fig. 15, #1502) comprising:
at least one transceiver (TX and RX processing systems; See Fig. 15, #1520 and #1522); and
at least one processor (processing system; See Fig. 15, #1518) communicatively coupled to the at least one transceiver; and
at least one memory (memory; See Fig. 15, #1524), communicatively coupled to the at least one processor, storing instructions executable by the at least one processor individually or in any combination to cause the UE to:
receive, from a base station, a high layer signaling including information enabling a multiplexing of first hybrid automatic repeat request-acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) information (The one or more RRC messages may further comprise a parameter indicating that transmitting a HARQ-ACK based on an UL DCI is allowed/enabled; See [0317]);
receive, from the base station, first downlink control information (DCI) scheduling the PUSCH repetitions (UE transmits a PUSCH over multiple slots, wherein the slots are interpreted as the repetitions. The UL DCI indicating a PUSCH resource and slot offset K2 is received earlier than the next DL DCI indicating a PUCCH resource and slot offset K1; See Fig. 20 and [0329]),
receive, from the base station after the first DCI, second DCI indicating a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) resource (the UL DCI indicating a PUSCH resource and slot offset K2 is received earlier than the next DL DCI indicating a PUCCH resource and slot offset K1; See Fig. 20 and [0329]), and
transmit, to the base station, the first HARQ-ACK information associated with a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) scheduled by the second DCI (The DL DCI is associated with the PDSCH and the HARQ-ACK is sent in response to the successful receiving of the PDSCH; See [0277] and [0329]), wherein the first HARQ-ACK information is multiplexed on the PUSCH repetition other than the first PUSCH repetition among the PUSCH repetitions (The wireless device determines slot n for the pending HARQ-ACK transmission based on the UL DCI. The wireless device determines slot n based on the slot offset, K2, in the UL DCI, and transmits a UCI comprising the pending HARQ-ACK via the PUSCH scheduled by the UL DCI in slot n; See [0329]).
Rastegardoost fails to explicitly teach the RRC message enabling multiplexing on a PUSCH repetition other than a first PUSCH repetition among PUSCH repetitions and transmitting the first HARQ-ACK information based on the information enabling the multiplexing of the first HARQ-ACK information.
‘385 teaches the RRC message enabling multiplexing on a PUSCH repetition other than a first PUSCH repetition among PUSCH repetitions (From UE Side, to support the function of scheduling PDSCH after a UL DCI format and multiplexing associated HARQ on the PUSCH scheduled by the DCI format, a new UE capability can be introduced in Rel-18. An RRC parameter should be introduced as well to configure the function. When UE reports a capability to support the function, gNB can configure it and schedule HARQ-ACK information multiplexed on the PUSCH scheduled previously. Otherwise, the scheduling restriction is maintained and there is no change to current specifications; See pages 2-3) and transmitting the first HARQ-ACK information based on the information enabling the multiplexing of the first HARQ-ACK information (multiplexing PUCCH with PUSCH Rep2; See Fig. 3).
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify the apparatus of Rastegardoost to include the RRC message enabling multiplexing on a PUSCH repetition other than a first PUSCH repetition among PUSCH repetitions and transmitting the first HARQ-ACK information based on the information enabling the multiplexing of the first HARQ-ACK information taught by ‘385 in order to align the understanding between gNB and UE and avoid unnecessary ambiguity due to false alarm.
Regarding claim 16, Rastegardoost teaches a base station comprising:
at least one transceiver (TX processing system and RX processing system; See Fig. 15, #1510 and #1512); and
at least one processor (processing system; See Fig. 15, #1508) communicatively coupled with the at least one transceiver; and
at least one memory (memory; See Fig. 15, #1514), communicatively coupled to the at least one processor, storing instructions executable by the at least one processor individually or in any combination to cause the base station to:
transmit, to a user equipment (UE), a high layer signaling including information enabling a multiplexing of first hybrid automatic repeat request-acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) information (The one or more RRC messages may further comprise a parameter indicating that transmitting a HARQ-ACK based on an UL DCI is allowed/enabled; See [0317]);
transmit, to the UE, first downlink control information (DCI) scheduling the PUSCH repetitions (UE transmits a PUSCH over multiple slots, wherein the slots are interpreted as the repetitions. The UL DCI indicating a PUSCH resource and slot offset K2 is received earlier than the next DL DCI indicating a PUCCH resource and slot offset K1; See Fig. 20 and [0329]),
transmit, to the UE after the first DCI, second DCI indicating a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) resource (the UL DCI indicating a PUSCH resource and slot offset K2 is received earlier than the next DL DCI indicating a PUCCH resource and slot offset K1; See Fig. 20 and [0329]), and
receive, from the UE, the first HARQ-ACK information associated with a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) scheduled by the second DCI (The DL DCI is associated with the PDSCH and the HARQ-ACK is sent in response to the successful receiving of the PDSCH; See [0277] and [0329]), wherein the first HARQ-ACK information is multiplexed on the PUSCH repetition other than the first PUSCH repetition among the PUSCH repetitions (The wireless device determines slot n for the pending HARQ-ACK transmission based on the UL DCI. The wireless device determines slot n based on the slot offset, K2, in the UL DCI, and transmits a UCI comprising the pending HARQ-ACK via the PUSCH scheduled by the UL DCI in slot n; See [0329]).
Rastegardoost fails to explicitly teach the RRC message enabling multiplexing on a PUSCH repetition other than a first PUSCH repetition among PUSCH repetitions and receiving the first HARQ-ACK information based on the information enabling the multiplexing of the first HARQ-ACK information.
‘385 teaches the RRC message enabling multiplexing on a PUSCH repetition other than a first PUSCH repetition among PUSCH repetitions (From UE Side, to support the function of scheduling PDSCH after a UL DCI format and multiplexing associated HARQ on the PUSCH scheduled by the DCI format, a new UE capability can be introduced in Rel-18. An RRC parameter should be introduced as well to configure the function. When UE reports a capability to support the function, gNB can configure it and schedule HARQ-ACK information multiplexed on the PUSCH scheduled previously. Otherwise, the scheduling restriction is maintained and there is no change to current specifications; See pages 2-3) and transmitting the first HARQ-ACK information based on the information enabling the multiplexing of the first HARQ-ACK information (multiplexing PUCCH with PUSCH Rep2; See Fig. 3).
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify the apparatus of Rastegardoost to include the RRC message enabling multiplexing on a PUSCH repetition other than a first PUSCH repetition among PUSCH repetitions and receiving the first HARQ-ACK information based on the information enabling the multiplexing of the first HARQ-ACK information taught by ‘385 in order to align the understanding between gNB and UE and avoid unnecessary ambiguity due to false alarm.
Claims 2, 7, 12, and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Rastegardoost in view of ‘385 as applied to claims 1, 6, 11 and 16 above, and further in view of Park et al. (U.S. PGPub 2022/0312427), hereinafter referred to as Park.
Regarding claim 2, Rastegardoost in view of ‘385 fails to teach the method of claim 1, further comprising: transmitting, to the base station, UE capability information including information indicating whether the UE supports multiplexing the first HARQ-ACK information for the PDSCH scheduled after the first DCI on the PUSCH repetition.
Park teaches transmitting, to the base station, UE capability information including information indicating whether the UE supports multiplexing the first HARQ-ACK information for the PDSCH scheduled after the first DCI on the PUSCH repetition (reporting UE capability for simultaneous transmission of one or more uplink (UL) signals scheduled to overlap in time domain to a base station (BS); See [0009], [0197]).
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify the method of Rastegardoost in view of ‘385 to include transmitting, to the base station, UE capability information including information indicating whether the UE supports multiplexing the first HARQ-ACK information for the PDSCH scheduled after the first DCI on the PUSCH repetition taught by Park in order to enable simultaneous transmission of uplink signals by taking into consideration priorities of control channel and data channels in a wireless communication system.
Regarding claim 7, Rastegardoost in view of ‘385 fails to teach the method of claim 6, further comprising: receiving, from the UE, UE capability information including information indicating whether the UE supports multiplexing the first HARQ-ACK information for the PDSCH scheduled after the first DCI on the PUSCH repetition.
Park teaches receiving, from the UE, UE capability information including information indicating whether the UE supports multiplexing the first HARQ-ACK information for the PDSCH scheduled after the first DCI on the PUSCH repetition (reporting UE capability for simultaneous transmission of one or more uplink (UL) signals scheduled to overlap in time domain to a base station (BS); See [0009], [0197]).
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify the method of Rastegardoost in view of ‘385 to include receiving, from the UE, UE capability information including information indicating whether the UE supports the multiplexing the first HARQ-ACK information for the PDSCH scheduled after the first DCI on the PUSCH repetition taught by Park in order to enable simultaneous transmission of uplink signals by taking into consideration priorities of control channel and data channels in a wireless communication system.
Regarding claim 12, Rastegardoost in view of ‘385 fails to teach the UE of claim 11, wherein the instructions further cause the UE to: transmit, to the base station, UE capability information including information indicating whether the UE supports multiplexing the first HARQ-ACK information for the PDSCH scheduled after the first DCI on the PUSCH repetition.
Park teaches wherein the instructions further cause the UE to: transmit, to the base station, UE capability information including information indicating whether the UE supports multiplexing the first HARQ-ACK information for the PDSCH scheduled after the first DCI on the PUSCH repetition (reporting UE capability for simultaneous transmission of one or more uplink (UL) signals scheduled to overlap in time domain to a base station (BS); See [0009], [0197]).
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify the apparatus of Rastegardoost in view of ‘385 to include wherein the instructions further cause the UE to: transmit, to the base station, UE capability information including information indicating whether the UE supports multiplexing the first HARQ-ACK information for the PDSCH scheduled after the first DCI on the PUSCH repetition taught by Park in order to enable simultaneous transmission of uplink signals by taking into consideration priorities of control channel and data channels in a wireless communication system.
Regarding claim 17, Rastegardoost in view of ‘385 fails to teach the base station of claim 16, wherein the instructions further cause the base station to: receive, from the UE, UE capability information including information indicating whether the UE supports multiplexing the first HARQ-ACK information for the PDSCH scheduled after the first DCI on the PUSCH repetition.
Park teaches wherein the instructions further cause the base station to: receive, from the UE, UE capability information including information indicating whether the UE supports multiplexing the first HARQ-ACK information for the PDSCH scheduled after the first DCI on the PUSCH repetition (reporting UE capability for simultaneous transmission of one or more uplink (UL) signals scheduled to overlap in time domain to a base station (BS); See [0009], [0197]).
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify the apparatus of Rastegardoost in view of ‘385 to include wherein the instructions further cause the base station to: receive, from the UE, UE capability information including information indicating whether the UE supports multiplexing the first HARQ-ACK information for the PDSCH scheduled after the first DCI on the PUSCH repetition taught by Park in order to enable simultaneous transmission of uplink signals by taking into consideration priorities of control channel and data channels in a wireless communication system.
Claims 4-5, 9-10, 14-15 and 19-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Rastegardoost in view of ‘385 as applied to claims 1, 6, 11 and 16 above, and further in view of Choi et al. (U.S. PGPub 2021/0092762), hereinafter referred to as Choi.
Regarding claim 4, Rastegardoost in view of ‘385 fails to teach the method of claim 1, further comprising: transmitting, to the base station, a second HARQ-ACK information including a negative acknowledgment (NACK) value.
Choi teaches transmitting, to the base station, a second HARQ-ACK information including a negative acknowledgment (NACK) value (the processor may set a bit of the HARQ-ACK information corresponding to a PDSCH that does not satisfy a processing timing condition to NACK when the specific slot, which is one of the plurality of slots, does not satisfy the processing timing condition for a PDSCH of which the successful or unsuccessful reception is indicated by the HARQ-ACK information and a PDCCH for scheduling the PUCCH transmission including the HARQ-ACK information; See [0020]).
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify the method of Rastegardoost in view of ‘385 to include transmitting, to the base station, a second HARQ-ACK information including a negative acknowledgment (NACK) value taught by Choi in order to efficiently transmit signals while multiplexing uplink control information.
Regarding claim 5, Rastegardoost in view of ‘385 still fails to teach the method of claim 4, wherein the second HARQ-ACK information includes the NACK value, in case that a condition associated with a processing time for the multiplexing is not satisfied.
Choi teaches wherein the second HARQ-ACK information includes the NACK value, in case that a condition associated with a processing time for the multiplexing is not satisfied (the processor may set a bit of the HARQ-ACK information corresponding to a PDSCH that does not satisfy a processing timing condition to NACK when the specific slot, which is one of the plurality of slots, does not satisfy the processing timing condition for a PDSCH of which the successful or unsuccessful reception is indicated by the HARQ-ACK information and a PDCCH for scheduling the PUCCH transmission including the HARQ-ACK information; See [0020]).
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify the method of Rastegardoost in view of ‘385 to include wherein the second HARQ-ACK information includes the NACK value, in case that a condition associated with a processing time for the multiplexing is not satisfied taught by Choi in order to efficiently transmit signals while multiplexing uplink control information.
Regarding claim 9, Rastegardoost in view of ‘385 fails to teach the method of claim 6, further comprising: receiving, from the UE, a second HARQ-ACK information including a negative acknowledgment (NACK) value.
Choi teaches receiving, from the UE, a second HARQ-ACK information including a negative acknowledgment (NACK) value (the processor may set a bit of the HARQ-ACK information corresponding to a PDSCH that does not satisfy a processing timing condition to NACK when the specific slot, which is one of the plurality of slots, does not satisfy the processing timing condition for a PDSCH of which the successful or unsuccessful reception is indicated by the HARQ-ACK information and a PDCCH for scheduling the PUCCH transmission including the HARQ-ACK information; See [0020]).
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify the method of Rastegardoost in view of ‘385 to include receiving, from the UE, a second HARQ-ACK information including a negative acknowledgment (NACK) value taught by Choi in order to efficiently transmit signals while multiplexing uplink control information.
Regarding claim 10, Rastegardoost in view of ‘385 still fails to teach the method of claim 9, wherein the second HARQ-ACK information includes the NACK value, in case that a condition associated with a processing time for the multiplexing is not satisfied.
Choi teaches wherein the second HARQ-ACK information includes the NACK value, in case that a condition associated with a processing time for the multiplexing is not satisfied (the processor may set a bit of the HARQ-ACK information corresponding to a PDSCH that does not satisfy a processing timing condition to NACK when the specific slot, which is one of the plurality of slots, does not satisfy the processing timing condition for a PDSCH of which the successful or unsuccessful reception is indicated by the HARQ-ACK information and a PDCCH for scheduling the PUCCH transmission including the HARQ-ACK information; See [0020]).
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify the method of Rastegardoost in view of ‘385 to include wherein the second HARQ-ACK information includes the NACK value, in case that a condition associated with a processing time for the multiplexing is not satisfied taught by Choi in order to efficiently transmit signals while multiplexing uplink control information.
Regarding claim 14, Rastegardoost in view of ‘385 fails to teach the UE of claim 11, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: transmit, to the base station, a second HARQ-ACK information including a negative acknowledgment (NACK) value.
Choi teaches wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: transmit, to the base station, a second HARQ-ACK information including a negative acknowledgment (NACK) value (the processor may set a bit of the HARQ-ACK information corresponding to a PDSCH that does not satisfy a processing timing condition to NACK when the specific slot, which is one of the plurality of slots, does not satisfy the processing timing condition for a PDSCH of which the successful or unsuccessful reception is indicated by the HARQ-ACK information and a PDCCH for scheduling the PUCCH transmission including the HARQ-ACK information; See [0020]).
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify the apparatus of Rastegardoost in view of ‘385 to include wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: transmit, to the base station, a second HARQ-ACK information including a negative acknowledgment (NACK) value taught by Choi in order to efficiently transmit signals while multiplexing uplink control information.
Regarding claim 15, Rastegardoost in view of ‘385 still fails to teach the UE of claim 14, wherein the second HARQ-ACK information includes the NACK value, in case that a condition associated with a processing time for the multiplexing is not satisfied.
Choi teaches wherein the second HARQ-ACK information includes the NACK value, in case that a condition associated with a processing time for the multiplexing is not satisfied (the processor may set a bit of the HARQ-ACK information corresponding to a PDSCH that does not satisfy a processing timing condition to NACK when the specific slot, which is one of the plurality of slots, does not satisfy the processing timing condition for a PDSCH of which the successful or unsuccessful reception is indicated by the HARQ-ACK information and a PDCCH for scheduling the PUCCH transmission including the HARQ-ACK information; See [0020]).
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify the apparatus of Rastegardoost in view of ‘385 to include wherein the second HARQ-ACK information includes the NACK value, in case that a condition associated with a processing time for the multiplexing is not satisfied taught by Choi in order to efficiently transmit signals while multiplexing uplink control information.
Regarding claim 19, Rastegardoost in view of ‘385 fails to teach the base station of claim 16, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: receive, from the UE, a second HARQ-ACK information including a negative acknowledgment (NACK) value.
Choi teaches wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: receive, from the UE, a second HARQ-ACK information including a negative acknowledgment (NACK) value (the processor may set a bit of the HARQ-ACK information corresponding to a PDSCH that does not satisfy a processing timing condition to NACK when the specific slot, which is one of the plurality of slots, does not satisfy the processing timing condition for a PDSCH of which the successful or unsuccessful reception is indicated by the HARQ-ACK information and a PDCCH for scheduling the PUCCH transmission including the HARQ-ACK information; See [0020]).
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify the apparatus of Rastegardoost in view of ‘385 to include wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: receive, from the UE, a second HARQ-ACK information including a negative acknowledgment (NACK) value taught by Choi in order to efficiently transmit signals while multiplexing uplink control information.
Regarding claim 20, Rastegardoost in view of ‘385 still fails to teach the base station of claim 19, wherein the second HARQ-ACK information includes the NACK value, in case that a condition associated with a processing time for the multiplexing is not satisfied.
Choi teaches wherein the second HARQ-ACK information includes the NACK value, in case that a condition associated with a processing time for the multiplexing is not satisfied (the processor may set a bit of the HARQ-ACK information corresponding to a PDSCH that does not satisfy a processing timing condition to NACK when the specific slot, which is one of the plurality of slots, does not satisfy the processing timing condition for a PDSCH of which the successful or unsuccessful reception is indicated by the HARQ-ACK information and a PDCCH for scheduling the PUCCH transmission including the HARQ-ACK information; See [0020]).
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify the apparatus of Rastegardoost in view of ‘385 to include wherein the second HARQ-ACK information includes the NACK value, in case that a condition associated with a processing time for the multiplexing is not satisfied taught by Choi in order to efficiently transmit signals while multiplexing uplink control information.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1, 6, 11 and 16 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
On pages 7-11 of the Applicants’ Response, Rastegardoost et al. (U.S. PGPub 2023/0023656) fails to teach receiving, from a base station, a high layer signaling including information enabling a multiplexing of first hybrid automatic repeat request-acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) information on a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) repetition other than a first PUSCH repetition among PUSCH repetitions; receiving, from the base station, first downlink control information (DCI) scheduling the PUSCH repetitions; receiving, from the base station after the first DCI, second DCI indicating a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) resource; and transmitting, to the base station, the first HARQ-ACK information associated with a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) scheduled by the second DCI, wherein the first HARQ-ACK information is multiplexed on the PUSCH repetition other than the first PUSCH repetition among the PUSCH repetitions, based on the information enabling the multiplexing of the first HARQ-ACK information.
Examiner agrees and has thus introduced Huawei et al.’s “Rel-18 TEI proposal on HARQ multiplexing on PUSCH”, hereinafter referred to as ‘385. ‘385 teaches the RRC message enabling multiplexing on a PUSCH repetition other than a first PUSCH repetition among PUSCH repetitions (From UE Side, to support the function of scheduling PDSCH after a UL DCI format and multiplexing associated HARQ on the PUSCH scheduled by the DCI format, a new UE capability can be introduced in Rel-18. An RRC parameter should be introduced as well to configure the function. When UE reports a capability to support the function, gNB can configure it and schedule HARQ-ACK information multiplexed on the PUSCH scheduled previously. Otherwise, the scheduling restriction is maintained and there is no change to current specifications; See pages 2-3) and transmitting the first HARQ-ACK information based on the information enabling the multiplexing of the first HARQ-ACK information (multiplexing PUCCH with PUSCH Rep2; See Fig. 3).
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Conclusion
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/ASHLEY SHIVERS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2477 9/3/2026
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