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 .
The Examiner thanks the Applicant for the well-prepared amendment. The Examiner appreciates the Applicant’s effort to carefully analyze the Office action, and make appropriate arguments and amendments.
Status of Claims
Claims 1-30 responded on August 07, 2026 are pending, claims 9 and 16 are amended.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see pg. 8, filed August 07, 2026, with respect to claim 16 have been fully considered and are persuasive. The objection of claim 16 has been withdrawn.
Applicant’s arguments, see pg. 8, filed August 07, 2026, with respect to claim 9 have been fully considered and are persuasive. The 35 U.S.C. § 112(b) of claim 9 has been withdrawn.
Applicant's arguments, see pg. 9-10, filed August 07, 2026, with respect to claim 1 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. Applicant argued that. However, independent claims do not positively recite what supplementary PUCCH refers to and a structure of a first PUCCH resource and a second PUCCH resource. It is not clear whether an apparatus already reserves a supplementary PUCCH on the second PUCCH resource or claim 2 has to be established prior transmit at least on supplementary PUCCH on the second PUCCH resources.
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.
Claims 1-4, 6-7, 10, 12-18, 20, 23-27 and 29-30 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang et al. (US 12,224,861 B2, hereinafter "Zhang") in view of Huang et al. (US 2022/0110111 A1, hereinafter "Huang").
Regarding claim 1, Zhang discloses an apparatus for wireless communication at a user equipment (UE) (Zhang, Fig. 3 106), comprising:
at least one memory comprising computer-executable instructions; and
one or more processors configured to execute the computer-executable instructions and cause the apparatus to:
receive configuration information indicating first physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) resources for primary PUCCH transmissions and second PUCCH resources for supplementary PUCCH transmissions associated with the primary PUCCH transmissions (Zhang, Col. 18 line 37-39 receiving at least one message from the at least one base station configuring physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) transmission, wherein the at least one message indicates a plurality of PUCCH resources…wherein the second PUCCH transmission is a repetition of the first PUCCH transmission (i.e. associated with primary PUCCH));
transmit at least one primary PUCCH on the first PUCCH resources (Zhang, Col. 18 line 43-45 transmitting a first PUCCH transmission using a first PUCCH resource and a first beam); and
transmit at least one [supplementary] PUCCH on the second PUCCH resources (Zhang, Col. 18 line 46-48 transmitting a second PUCCH transmission using a second PUCCH resource and a second beam, wherein the second PUCCH transmission is a repetition of the first PUCCH transmission).
Zhang does not explicitly discloses transmit at least one supplementary PUCCH.
Huang from the same field of endeavor discloses transmit at least one supplementary PUCCH on the second PUCCH resources (Huang, [0005] PUCCH transmissions on the SCell may be optional/supplementary to PUCCH transmissions on the PCell).
It would have been obvious for one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified signaling for PUCCH disclosed by Zhang and supplementary PUCCH disclosed by Huang with a motivation to make this modification in order to improve link efficiency (Huang, [0141]).
Regarding claim 2, Zhang discloses wherein the UE decides to transmit the at least one supplementary PUCCH on the second PUCCH resources, when at least one condition is met that indicates the at least one primary PUCCH was not successfully received (Zhang, Col. 18 line 46-48 and drop at least the first PUCCH repetition based on the conflict; transmitting a second PUCCH transmission using a second PUCCH resource and a second beam, wherein the second PUCCH transmission is a repetition of the first PUCCH transmission).
Regarding claim 3, Zhang discloses activate additional PUCCH is transmitted after receiving the signaling (Zhang, Col.12 line 60-65) but does not explicitly disclose receive signaling activating supplementary PUCCH transmission in the second PUCCH resources.
Huang from the same field of endeavor discloses receive signaling activating supplementary PUCCH transmission in the second PUCCH resources, wherein the at least one supplementary PUCCH is transmitted after receiving the signaling (Huang, [0005] PUCCH transmissions on the SCell may be optional/supplementary to PUCCH transmissions on the PCell. In some implementations, PUCCH transmission on the SCell may be turned on and off (e.g., activated, deactivated) by the network based on one or more parameters or characteristics, including traffic (e.g., uplink traffic) on the SCell, power headroom (PHR) at the UE).
It would have been obvious for one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified signaling for PUCCH disclosed by Zhang and resource activation and deactivation disclosed by Huang with a motivation to make this modification in order to improve link efficiency (Huang, [0141]).
Regarding claim 4, Zhang discloses activate additional PUCCH is transmitted after receiving the signaling (Zhang, Col.12 line 60-65) but does not explicitly disclose receive signaling deactivating supplementary PUCCH transmission in the second PUCCH resources.
Huang from the same field of endeavor discloses receive signaling deactivating supplementary PUCCH transmission in the second PUCCH resources, wherein the at least one supplementary PUCCH is transmitted before receiving the signaling (Huang, [0005] PUCCH transmissions on the SCell may be optional/supplementary to PUCCH transmissions on the PCell. In some implementations, PUCCH transmission on the SCell may be turned on and off (e.g., activated, deactivated) by the network based on one or more parameters or characteristics, including traffic (e.g., uplink traffic) on the SCell, power headroom (PHR) at the UE).
It would have been obvious for one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified signaling for PUCCH disclosed by Zhang and resource activation and deactivation disclosed by Huang with a motivation to make this modification in order to improve link efficiency (Huang, [0141]).
Regarding claim 6, Zhang does not explicitly disclose the primary PUCCH transmission is of a first PUCCH format; and the supplementary PUCCH transmission is of a second PUCCH format different than the first PUCCH format.
Huang from the same field of endeavor discloses the primary PUCCH transmission is of a first PUCCH format; and the supplementary PUCCH transmission is of a second PUCCH format different than the first PUCCH format (Huang, [0100] where the simultaneously-transmitted PUCCH messages include different payloads, different PUCCH formats, or both…PUCCH transmissions on the SCell may be optional/supplementary to PUCCH transmissions on the PCell).
It would have been obvious for one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified signaling for PUCCH disclosed by Zhang and resource activation and deactivation disclosed by Huang with a motivation to make this modification in order to improve link efficiency (Huang, [0141]).
Regarding claim 7, Zhang discloses the primary PUCCH is transmitted using a first PUCCH transmission scheme (Zhang, Col. 13 line 4-7 the PUCCH repetitions may be multiplexed according to a variety of schemes. For example, the PUCCH repetitions may be multiplexed using time division multiplexing (TDM)); and the supplementary PUCCH is transmitted using a second PUCCH transmission scheme different than the first PUCCH transmission scheme (Zhang, Col. 13 line 13-15 the PUCCH repetitions may be multiplexed according to frequency division multiplexing (FDM)).
Regarding claim 10, Zhang discloses configuration information configures a first plurality of first PUCCH resources and a second plurality of second PUCCH resources but does not explicitly disclose the one or more processors are further configured to cause the apparatus to: receive signaling dynamically selecting:
the first resource from the first plurality of first PUCCH resources, and the second resource from the second plurality of second PUCCH resources (Zhang, Col. 18 line 37-39 receiving at least one message from the at least one base station configuring physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) transmission, wherein the at least one message indicates a plurality of PUCCH resources…wherein the second PUCCH transmission is a repetition of the first PUCCH transmission (i.e. associated with primary PUCCH)).
Regarding claim 12, Zhang discloses wherein a same uplink control information (UCI) payload is transmitted in the primary PUCCH and in the supplementary PUCCH (Zhang, Col. 13 line 27-28 a UCI report can be carried by multiple PUCCH resources).
Regarding claim 13, Zhang discloses a first portion of an uplink control information (UCI) payload is transmitted in the primary PUCCH; and a second portion of the UCI payload is transmitted in the supplementary PUCCH (Zhang, Col. 16 line 48-52 the information that was to be transmitted in the PUCCH, e.g., the UCI information, although it may be delayed to a later PUCCH transmission, if desired (e.g., based on the urgency of the information to be transmitted)).
Regarding claim 14, Zhang discloses wherein the primary PUCCH includes an indication that the supplementary PUCCH is transmitted or is to be transmitted in the second PUCCH resources (Zhang, Col. 16 line 47-50 the PUSCH may be modified to include at least some of the information that was to be transmitted in the PUCCH, e.g., the UCI information, although it may be delayed to a later PUCCH transmission).
Regarding claims 15, 17-18, 20, 24-27 and 29-30, these claims recite "an apparatus for wireless communication at a network entity", "a method for wireless communication at a user equipment (UE)" and "a method for wireless communication at a network entity" that disclose similar steps as recited by claims 1-4, 6, 10 and 12-14, thus are rejected with the same rationale applied against claims 1-4, 6, 10 and 12-14 as presented above.
Regarding claim 16, discloses wherein configuration information configures the UE to transmit the at least one supplementary PUCCH on the second PUCCH resources, when at least one condition is met that indicates a primary PUCCH on the first PUCCH resources was not successfully received (Zhang, Col. 18 line 46-48 and drop at least the first PUCCH repetition based on the conflict; transmitting a second PUCCH transmission using a second PUCCH resource and a second beam, wherein the second PUCCH transmission is a repetition of the first PUCCH transmission).
Regarding claim 23, Zhang discloses the primary PUCCH is received in the selected first resource (Zhang, Col. 18 line 43-45 transmitting a first PUCCH transmission using a first PUCCH resource and a first beam), and
the [supplementary] PUCCH is received in the selected second resource (Zhang, Col. 18 line 46-48 transmitting a second PUCCH transmission using a second PUCCH resource and a second beam, wherein the second PUCCH transmission is a repetition of the first PUCCH transmission).
Zhang does not explicitly disclose supplementary PUCCH.
Huang from the same field of endeavor discloses transmit at least one supplementary PUCCH on the second PUCCH resources (Huang, [0151] the grant may provide separate PUCCH resource indications for the PCell and supplemental PUCCH cell (e.g., the SCell)).
It would have been obvious for one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified signaling for PUCCH disclosed by Zhang and supplementary PUCCH disclosed by Huang with a motivation to make this modification in order to improve link efficiency (Huang, [0141]).
Claims 5 and 19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang et al. (US 12,224,861 B2, hereinafter "Zhang") in view of Huang et al. (US 2022/0110111 A1, hereinafter "Huang") as applied to claim above, and further in view of Wang et al.(WO 2021/232863 A1, hereinafter "Wang").
Regarding claims 5 and 19, Zhang does not explicitly disclose wherein the second PUCCH resources comprise group-common resources allocated for one or more UEs including the UE.
Wang from the same field of endeavor discloses wherein the second PUCCH resources comprise group-common resources allocated for one or more UEs including the UE (Wang, abstract one PUCCH resource unit group comprises at least one PUCCH resource, for UE feedback information in a broadcast multicast service group; receiving the broadcast multicast configuration information sent by the network side and the group number of the UE in the resource unit group corresponding to the PUCCH).
It would have been obvious for one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified signaling for PUCCH disclosed by Zhang and resource common resource disclosed by Wang with a motivation to make this modification in order to improve the reliability of the data transmission and satisfy the requirement of different transmission quality of different services (Wang, pg. 16).
Claims 8 and 21 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang et al. (US 12,224,861 B2, hereinafter "Zhang") in view of Huang et al. (US 2022/0110111 A1, hereinafter "Huang") as applied to claim above, and further in view of Cui et al.(US 2024/0251412 A1, hereinafter "Cui").
Regarding claims 8 and 21, Zhang discloses IE but does not explicitly disclose wherein the configuration information comprises an information element (IE) that semi-persistently configures the first PUCCH resources and the second PUCCH resources.
Cui from the same field of endeavor discloses wherein the configuration information comprises an information element (IE) that semi-persistently configures the first PUCCH resources and the second PUCCH resources (Cui, [0049] The IE indicates whether the UE supports different numerologies across the first and secondary PUCCH groups for data channel, control channel and RACH at a given time in NR CA and (NG)EN-DC/NE-DC).
It would have been obvious for one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified signaling for PUCCH disclosed by Zhang and configuration by IE disclosed by Cui with a motivation to make this modification in order to improve flexibility of configurations and the behavior of the UE (Cui, [0074]).
Claims 9, 11 and 22 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang et al. (US 12,224,861 B2, hereinafter "Zhang") in view of Huang et al. (US 2022/0110111 A1, hereinafter "Huang") as applied to claim above, and further in view of Yin et al.(US 10,841,904 B2, hereinafter "Yin").
Regarding claim 9, Zhang discloses configuration information configures a first plurality of first PUCCH resources and a second plurality of second PUCCH resources but does not explicitly disclose the one or more processors are further configured to cause the apparatus to: receive signaling dynamically selecting:
the first resource from the first plurality of first PUCCH resources, and
the second resource from the second plurality of second PUCCH resources.
Yin from the same field of endeavor discloses receive signaling dynamically selecting:
the first resource from the first plurality of first PUCCH resources, and
the second resource from the second plurality of second PUCCH resources (Yin, Col. 9 line 11-15 PUCCH format configuration, a combination of semi-static configuration and (at least for some types of UCI information) dynamic signaling is used to determine the PUCCH formats and resources both for the long and short PUCCH formats).
It would have been obvious for one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified signaling for PUCCH disclosed by Zhang and dynamic configuration disclosed by Yin with a motivation to make this modification in order to improve communication capacity, speed, flexibility and/or efficiency (Yin, Col. 1).
Regarding claim 11, Zhang does not explicitly disclose wherein the at least one condition involves at least one of: a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) discard rate (not given patentable weight due to not selected option),
a radio link control (RLC) acknowledge mode (AM) automatic repeat request (ARQ) rate (not given patentable weight due to not selected option),
whether the supplementary PUCCH transmission includes a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) (not given patentable weight due to not selected option),
an uplink control information (UCI) type associated with the supplementary PUCCH transmission, or
a payload size of the supplementary PUCCH transmission (not given patentable weight due to not selected option).
Yin from the same field of endeavor discloses wherein the at least one condition involves at least one of: an uplink control information (UCI) type associated with the supplementary PUCCH transmission (Yin, Col. 20 line 62-65 a short PUCCH format and/or resource for a UE 102 can be adaptively determined based on the UCI types and/or the number of UCI bits. If UCI types are HARQ-ACK or SR only, a short PUCCH format may be used. A short PUCCH format may be used if the UCI payload is smaller or equal to a threshold (e.g., 4 bits or 8 bits)).
It would have been obvious for one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified signaling for PUCCH disclosed by Zhang and dynamic configuration disclosed by Yin with a motivation to make this modification in order to improve communication capacity, speed, flexibility and/or efficiency (Yin, Col. 1).
Regarding claim 22, Zhang discloses configuration information configures a first plurality of first PUCCH resources and a second plurality of second PUCCH resources but does not explicitly disclose the one or more processors are further configured to cause the apparatus to: transmit signaling dynamically selecting:
a first resource from the first plurality of first PUCCH resources, and
a second resource from the second plurality of second PUCCH resources.
Yin from the same field of endeavor discloses transmit signaling dynamically selecting:
a first resource from the first plurality of first PUCCH resources, and
a second resource from the second plurality of second PUCCH resources (Yin, Col. 9 line 11-15 PUCCH format configuration, a combination of semi-static configuration and (at least for some types of UCI information) dynamic signaling is used to determine the PUCCH formats and resources both for the long and short PUCCH formats).
It would have been obvious for one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified signaling for PUCCH disclosed by Zhang and dynamic configuration disclosed by Yin with a motivation to make this modification in order to improve communication capacity, speed, flexibility and/or efficiency (Yin, Col. 1).
Claim 28 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang et al. (US 12,224,861 B2, hereinafter "Zhang") in view of Huang et al. (US 2022/0110111 A1, hereinafter "Huang") as applied to claim above, and further in view of Deghel et al.(US 2022/0322357 A1, hereinafter "Deghel").
Regarding claim 28, Zhang discloses receive, from a UE, a quantity of consecutive supplementary PUCCH transmissions in the second PUCCH resources (Zhang, Col. 18 line 46-49 based on the at least one message, transmitting a second PUCCH transmission using a second PUCCH resource and a second beam, wherein the second PUCCH transmission is a repetition of the first PUCCH transmission) but does not explicitly disclose transmit, based on the quantity being greater than a threshold, signaling indicating a PUCCH format to be used by the UE for subsequent supplementary PUCCH transmissions.
Deghel from the same field of endeavor discloses transmit, based on the quantity being greater than a threshold, signaling indicating a PUCCH format to be used by the UE for subsequent supplementary PUCCH transmissions (Deghel, [0060] if the number of symbols left to transmit for a resource repetition 228 is only one or less than a configured number (which may be dependent on the PUCCH format or the type of PUCCH resource), the user device 204 not transmit the resource repetition 228 (e.g., for a resource repetition 228 with a long format (e.g., format 1, 3 or 4)), the user device 204 may drop the resource repetition 228 if the number of symbols left after omitting is less than a threshold number (e.g., 4)).
It would have been obvious for one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified signaling for PUCCH disclosed by Zhang and dynamic configuration disclosed by Deghel with a motivation to make this modification in order to provide significant improvement in wireless performance (Deghel, [0004]).
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. 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. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to LUNA WEISSBERGER whose telephone number is (571)272-3315. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8:00am-5:30pm.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Jeffrey Rutkowski can be reached at (571)270-1215. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/LUNA WEISSBERGER/Examiner, Art Unit 2415
Prosecution Insights