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 .
DETAILED ACTION
Claims 1-20 received on 5/24/2024 have been examined, of which claims 1, 9 and 13 are independent.
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.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor, or for pre-AIA the applicant regards as the invention.
Claim 1-3, 9-10, 13-15 recites “the time-domain resource pool(s)”, which is preceded by “at least one time-domain resource pool”. The limitation in the bracket is not given patentable weight. Thus, it is unclear, which one of the at least one time-domain resource pool is further limited. Dependent claims are rejected for same reason.
Further, claim 2, 10, 14 recites “the reference value”, which is preceded by two recitations of “a reference value”. It is unclear, which recitation is further limited. Dependent claims are rejected for same reason.
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.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims, the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 1, 9, 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Papasakellariou (US 20210014026) in view of Fu et al. (US 20210152292)
Regarding claim 1, Papasakellariou teaches a first node for wireless communications (UE 116, fig 1, 3A), comprising:
a first receiver (receive (RX) processing circuitry 325, fig 3A), receiving first information, second information and a first signaling (para 116: in operation 810, a UE, such as the UE 116, is configured to transmit a first PUCCH with a first spatial setting, such as a TCI state, in a first PUCCH resource to a first TRP and a second PUCCH with a second spatial setting in a second PUCCH resource to a second TRP, the UE 116 can be configured by a DCI in a PDCCH reception or received by higher layer signaling, such as from a gNB 102), the first signaling indicating a first time-domain resource pool set, the first time-domain resource pool set comprising multiple time-domain resource pools (para 120: a UE, such as the UE 116 can be configured with first search space sets for PDCCH receptions in a first group of CORESETs that provide DCI formats scheduling PDSCH receptions from a first TRP and second search space sets for PDCCH receptions in a second group of CORESETs that provide DCI formats scheduling PDSCH receptions from a second TRP);
the first receiver (325, fig 3A), receiving a first PDSCH group, the first PDSCH group comprising at least one PDSCH (para 120: PDSCH receptions from the first and second TRPs, that is PDSCH receptions scheduled by DCI formats in PDCCH receptions in the first and second groups of CORESETs); and
a first transmitter (TX processing circuitry 315, fig 3a), transmitting a first PUCCH with a first transmission power, the first PUCCH carrying at least one HARQ-ACK bit (para 120: a power for a PUCCH transmission depending on an associated TRP (CORESET group), in response to PDSCH receptions from the first and second TRPs, that is PDSCH receptions scheduled by DCI formats in PDCCH receptions in the first and second groups of CORESETs, the UE 116 can be configured to transmit corresponding HARQ-ACK information in a PUCCH);
wherein a characteristic time-domain resource pool subset consists of at least one time-domain resource pool in the first time-domain resource pool set (para 120: first search space sets for PDCCH receptions in a first group of CORESETs that provide DCI formats scheduling PDSCH receptions from a first TRP and second search space sets for PDCCH receptions in a second group of CORESETs that provide DCI formats scheduling PDSCH receptions from a second TRP), the first information being used to determine the characteristic time-domain resource pool subset from the first time-domain resource pool set (para 116: the UE 116 can be configured by a DCI in a PDCCH reception or received by higher layer signaling, such as from a gNB 102); each of the time-domain resource pool(s) in the characteristic time-domain resource pool subset comprises time-domain resources occupied by a PDSCH in the first PDSCH group (para 120: PDSCH receptions scheduled by DCI formats in PDCCH receptions in the first and second groups of CORESETs); the first signaling comprises a first DAI field (para 147: for HARQ-ACK information multiplexing in a PUSCH transmission by the UE 116, an UL DAI field value in a corresponding DCI format can correspond to a number of TBs (including a SPS PDSCH release) that the UE 116 provides HARQ-ACK information for), and a first value are used to determine the first transmission power, the first value being a positive integer (para 121: when the UE 116 transmits the PUCCH only to the first TRP, the UE 116 determines a power for the PUCCH transmission based on corresponding parameter settings associated with the first TRP (first group of CORESETs), when the UE 116 transmits the PUCCH only to the second TRP, the UE 116 determines a power for the PUCCH transmission based on corresponding parameter settings associated with the second TRP (CORESET group 1)); the second information is used to determine whether the first value is related to distribution of the time-domain resource pool(s) in the characteristic time-domain resource pool subset among the first time-domain resource pool set (para 105: the UE 116 can be provided with a mapping between a set of TCI states/spatial settings for a PUCCH transmission and a group of CORESETs. The mapping can be stored in the memory 360 or received from a gNB, such as the gNB 102).
Papasakellariou teaches the UE transmitting HARQ feedback with resources and transmission power determined based on configuration received from gNB. The reference teaches the DCI comprising first DAI filed and parameter value to determine transmission power of HARQ, but does not teach the power determined from parameter value and DAI value together. Fu is directed to a method, a user equipment and a base station for transmitting HARQ-ACK information (abstract, fig 3).
Fu further teaches a value of the first DAI field in the first signaling and a first value are used together to determine the first transmission power (para 30: determining, by the UE, a PUCCH power adjustment value transmitting the HARQ-ACK information according to a shared field of Transmission Power Control (TPC) and a total Downlink (DL) Downlink Assignment Index (DAI) in DL Downlink Control Information (DCI) of a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) scheduling a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH)). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine HARQ transmission power determination as taught by Papasakellariou with HARQ transmission power determination based on values of TPC and DAI fields together as taught by Fu for the benefit of effectively transmitting a TPC command as taught by Fu in para 6.
Regarding claim 9, Papasakellariou teaches a second node for wireless communications (gNB 102, fig 1, 3B), comprising:
a second transmitter (374, fig 3b; para 58: the gNB 102 includes multiple antennas 370a-370n, multiple RF transceivers 372a-372n, transmit (TX) processing circuitry 374, and receive (RX) processing circuitry 376), transmitting first information, second information and a first signaling (para 116: in operation 810, a UE, such as the UE 116, is configured to transmit a first PUCCH with a first spatial setting, such as a TCI state, in a first PUCCH resource to a first TRP and a second PUCCH with a second spatial setting in a second PUCCH resource to a second TRP, the UE 116 can be configured by a DCI in a PDCCH reception or received by higher layer signaling, such as from a gNB 102), the first signaling indicating a first time-domain resource pool set, the first time-domain resource pool set comprising multiple time-domain resource pools (para 120: a UE, such as the UE 116 can be configured with first search space sets for PDCCH receptions in a first group of CORESETs that provide DCI formats scheduling PDSCH receptions from a first TRP and second search space sets for PDCCH receptions in a second group of CORESETs that provide DCI formats scheduling PDSCH receptions from a second TRP);
the second transmitter (374, fig 3b), transmitting a first PDSCH group, the first PDSCH group comprising at least one PDSCH (para 120: PDSCH receptions from the first and second TRPs, that is PDSCH receptions scheduled by DCI formats in PDCCH receptions in the first and second groups of CORESETs);
a second receiver (receive (RX) processing circuitry 376, fig 3b), receiving a first PUCCH transmitted with a first transmission power, the first PUCCH carrying at least one HARQ-ACK bit (para 120: a power for a PUCCH transmission depending on an associated TRP (CORESET group), in response to PDSCH receptions from the first and second TRPs, that is PDSCH receptions scheduled by DCI formats in PDCCH receptions in the first and second groups of CORESETs, the UE 116 can be configured to transmit corresponding HARQ-ACK information in a PUCCH);
wherein a characteristic time-domain resource pool subset consists of at least one time-domain resource pool in the first time-domain resource pool set (para 120: first search space sets for PDCCH receptions in a first group of CORESETs that provide DCI formats scheduling PDSCH receptions from a first TRP and second search space sets for PDCCH receptions in a second group of CORESETs that provide DCI formats scheduling PDSCH receptions from a second TRP), the first information being used to determine the characteristic time-domain resource pool subset from the first time-domain resource pool set (para 116: the UE 116 can be configured by a DCI in a PDCCH reception or received by higher layer signaling, such as from a gNB 102); each of the time-domain resource pool(s) in the characteristic time-domain resource pool subset comprises time-domain resources occupied by a PDSCH in the first PDSCH group (para 120: PDSCH receptions scheduled by DCI formats in PDCCH receptions in the first and second groups of CORESETs); the first signaling comprises a first DAI field (para 147: for HARQ-ACK information multiplexing in a PUSCH transmission by the UE 116, an UL DAI field value in a corresponding DCI format can correspond to a number of TBs (including a SPS PDSCH release) that the UE 116 provides HARQ-ACK information for), and a first value are used to determine the first transmission power, the first value being a positive integer (para 121: when the UE 116 transmits the PUCCH only to the first TRP, the UE 116 determines a power for the PUCCH transmission based on corresponding parameter settings associated with the first TRP (first group of CORESETs), when the UE 116 transmits the PUCCH only to the second TRP, the UE 116 determines a power for the PUCCH transmission based on corresponding parameter settings associated with the second TRP (CORESET group 1)); the second information is used to determine whether the first value is related to distribution of the time-domain resource pool(s) in the characteristic time-domain resource pool subset among the first time-domain resource pool set (para 105: the UE 116 can be provided with a mapping between a set of TCI states/spatial settings for a PUCCH transmission and a group of CORESETs. The mapping can be stored in the memory 360 or received from a gNB, such as the gNB 102).
Papasakellariou teaches the UE transmitting HARQ feedback with resources and transmission power determined based on configuration received from gNB. The reference teaches the DCI comprising first DAI filed and parameter value to determine transmission power of HARQ, but does not teach the power determined from parameter value and DAI value together. Fu is directed to a method, a user equipment and a base station for transmitting HARQ-ACK information (abstract, fig 3).
Fu further teaches a value of the first DAI field in the first signaling and a first value are used together to determine the first transmission power (para 30: determining, by the UE, a PUCCH power adjustment value transmitting the HARQ-ACK information according to a shared field of Transmission Power Control (TPC) and a total Downlink (DL) Downlink Assignment Index (DAI) in DL Downlink Control Information (DCI) of a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) scheduling a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH)). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine HARQ transmission power determination as taught by Papasakellariou with HARQ transmission power determination based on values of TPC and DAI fields together as taught by Fu for the benefit of effectively transmitting a TPC command as taught by Fu in para 6.
Regarding claim 13, Papasakellariou teaches a method in a first node for wireless communications (abstract: methods and apparatuses for transmitting and receiving HARQ-ACK information; fig 6-14), comprising:
receiving first information, second information and a first signaling (para 116: in operation 810, a UE, such as the UE 116, is configured to transmit a first PUCCH with a first spatial setting, such as a TCI state, in a first PUCCH resource to a first TRP and a second PUCCH with a second spatial setting in a second PUCCH resource to a second TRP, the UE 116 can be configured by a DCI in a PDCCH reception or received by higher layer signaling, such as from a gNB 102), the first signaling indicating a first time-domain resource pool set, the first time-domain resource pool set comprising multiple time-domain resource pools (para 120: a UE, such as the UE 116 can be configured with first search space sets for PDCCH receptions in a first group of CORESETs that provide DCI formats scheduling PDSCH receptions from a first TRP and second search space sets for PDCCH receptions in a second group of CORESETs that provide DCI formats scheduling PDSCH receptions from a second TRP);
receiving a first PDSCH group, the first PDSCH group comprising at least one PDSCH (para 120: PDSCH receptions from the first and second TRPs, that is PDSCH receptions scheduled by DCI formats in PDCCH receptions in the first and second groups of CORESETs); and
transmitting a first PUCCH with a first transmission power, the first PUCCH carrying at least one HARQ-ACK bit (para 120: a power for a PUCCH transmission depending on an associated TRP (CORESET group), in response to PDSCH receptions from the first and second TRPs, that is PDSCH receptions scheduled by DCI formats in PDCCH receptions in the first and second groups of CORESETs, the UE 116 can be configured to transmit corresponding HARQ-ACK information in a PUCCH);
wherein a characteristic time-domain resource pool subset consists of at least one time-domain resource pool in the first time-domain resource pool set (para 120: first search space sets for PDCCH receptions in a first group of CORESETs that provide DCI formats scheduling PDSCH receptions from a first TRP and second search space sets for PDCCH receptions in a second group of CORESETs that provide DCI formats scheduling PDSCH receptions from a second TRP), the first information being used to determine the characteristic time-domain resource pool subset from the first time-domain resource pool set (para 116: the UE 116 can be configured by a DCI in a PDCCH reception or received by higher layer signaling, such as from a gNB 102); each of the time-domain resource pool(s) in the characteristic time-domain resource pool subset comprises time-domain resources occupied by a PDSCH in the first PDSCH group (para 120: PDSCH receptions scheduled by DCI formats in PDCCH receptions in the first and second groups of CORESETs); the first signaling comprises a first DAI field (para 147: for HARQ-ACK information multiplexing in a PUSCH transmission by the UE 116, an UL DAI field value in a corresponding DCI format can correspond to a number of TBs (including a SPS PDSCH release) that the UE 116 provides HARQ-ACK information for), and a first value are used to determine the first transmission power, the first value being a positive integer (para 121: when the UE 116 transmits the PUCCH only to the first TRP, the UE 116 determines a power for the PUCCH transmission based on corresponding parameter settings associated with the first TRP (first group of CORESETs), when the UE 116 transmits the PUCCH only to the second TRP, the UE 116 determines a power for the PUCCH transmission based on corresponding parameter settings associated with the second TRP (CORESET group 1)); the second information is used to determine whether the first value is related to distribution of the time-domain resource pool(s) in the characteristic time-domain resource pool subset among the first time-domain resource pool set (para 105: the UE 116 can be provided with a mapping between a set of TCI states/spatial settings for a PUCCH transmission and a group of CORESETs. The mapping can be stored in the memory 360 or received from a gNB, such as the gNB 102).
Papasakellariou teaches the UE transmitting HARQ feedback with resources and transmission power determined based on configuration received from gNB. The reference teaches the DCI comprising first DAI filed and parameter value to determine transmission power of HARQ, but does not teach the power determined from parameter value and DAI value together. Fu is directed to a method, a user equipment and a base station for transmitting HARQ-ACK information (abstract, fig 3).
Fu further teaches a value of the first DAI field in the first signaling and a first value are used together to determine the first transmission power (para 30: determining, by the UE, a PUCCH power adjustment value transmitting the HARQ-ACK information according to a shared field of Transmission Power Control (TPC) and a total Downlink (DL) Downlink Assignment Index (DAI) in DL Downlink Control Information (DCI) of a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) scheduling a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH)). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine HARQ transmission power determination as taught by Papasakellariou with HARQ transmission power determination based on values of TPC and DAI fields together as taught by Fu for the benefit of effectively transmitting a TPC command as taught by Fu in para 6.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-8, 10-12, 14-20 would be allowable if rewritten to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action and to include all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
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/RINA C PANCHOLI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2477 6/6/2026
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