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 .
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.
The factual inquiries 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 16-35 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Pocovi et al. (US 2023/0014238 A1), hereinafter “Pocovi”.
Claims 16, 25, and 34:
Regarding claim 16, Pocovi teaches, a method implemented in a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) ([Abstract]; [0005]; Fig.8), the method comprising:
receiving an indication that each of one or more symbols include both a first subset of resource blocks associated with downlink (DL) reception and a second subset of resource blocks associated with uplink (UL) transmission (Pocovi: [0133] “A gNB may also configure the sequence of occurrence of the different symbol/slot formats in time domain. Each individual OFDM symbol may be configured by a gNB as either: DL-only (i.e. as in traditional TDD operation); UL-only (i.e. as in traditional TDD operation); sidelink (in one or both directions); or mixed DL-UL, including the ratio and/or specific position of DL and UL PRBs”; [0109] “a time/frequency component 310 of the component carrier may be configured for DL communication, while another time/frequency component 320 of the component carrier may be configured for UL communication. In other words, in a configuration of the component carrier, subsequent PRBs may be configured for different transmission directions ( e.g. uplink, downlink, one or both communication directions between two devices in sidelink communication, etc.), i.e. may be used for different XDD formats. In the first example of FIG. 3, TDD operation (i.e. TDD UL) may occur using UL time/frequency component 320”).
Regarding claim, receiving a DL transmission associated with one or more periodic DL resources in the one or more symbols on a condition that the one or more periodic DL resources are comprised in the first subset of resource blocks associated with DL reception for the one or more symbols, Pocovi in Fig.12, step 1210 teaches, “perform communication with the user equipment on the at least one resource”); and
Regarding claim, transmitting a first UL transmission associated with one or more periodic UL resources in the one or more symbols on a condition that the one or more periodic UL resources are comprised in the second subset of resource blocks associated with UL transmission for the one or more symbols, Pocovi in Fig.14, step 1430 teaches, “perform the communication with the network device on the at least one determined resource”).
Though Pocovi does not teach the claims in a single embodiment describing every element, It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to come up with the claimed invention based on disclosures by Pocovi regarding resource configuration by the network and actual transmission by the base station and user equipment and use of the resource based on determination of whether the resource to be used by the user equipment, as disclosed by Pocovi in Fig.14, step 1420, “determine whether the at least one resource is to be used for communication with the network device, based on a result of comparing a corresponding cross-division duplexing slot format of the at least one resource to the cross-division duplexing slot format associated with the at least one of the configured grant configuration or the semi-persistent scheduling configuration in the configuration message”, or similar determination in case of downlink transmission as described in Fig. 12, step 1210.
A person of ordinary skill in the art would be motivated to combine disclosures by Pocovi to come up with the claimed invention based on disclosures by Pocovi and determination to transmit after verifying the validity of the resource for transmission, as described in e.g., in [0117], to avoid overlap of resources for transmissions in different directions.
Claim 25 is for an apparatus performing method of claim 1. This is a change in category with respect to claim 16. Existence of a processor is implied. Claim is rejected based on rejection of claim 16.
Claim 34 is for a base station implementing method complimentary to method of claim 16. Existence of communication circuitry and processor is implied. Claim is rejected based on rejection of claim 16 and 25.
Claims 17 and 26:
Regarding claim 17, Pocovi teaches, the method of claim 16 (discussed above), further comprising receiving configuration information, the configuration information indicating a plurality of UL/DL resource block patterns for the one or more symbols ([0133] “A gNB may also configure the sequence of occurrence of the different symbol/slot formats in time domain. Each individual OFDM symbol may be configured by a gNB as either: DL-only (i.e. as in traditional TDD operation); UL-only (i.e. as in traditional TDD operation); sidelink (in one or both directions); or mixed DL-UL, including the ratio and/or specific position of DL and UL PRBs”; formats define the patterns).
Claim 26 is for an apparatus performing method of claim 17. This is a change in category with respect to claim 16. Claim is rejected based on rejection of claim 17.
Claims 18 and 27:
Regarding claim 18, Pocovi teaches, the method of claim 16 (discussed above), wherein the plurality of UL/DL resource block patterns are indicated in the RRC message using a bitmap (implied by the disclosure in [0141], “1 bit flag per configured grant configuration (i.e. in ConfiguredGrantConfig) may be used to enable an example embodiment in which one CG/SPS configuration may be associated/configured with two or more sets of radio parameters ( e.g. FIGS. 5b and 7).”).
Claim 27 is for an apparatus performing method of claim 18. This is a change in category with respect to claim 18. Claim is rejected based on rejection of claim 18.
Claims 19, 28, and 35:
Regarding claim 19, Pocovi teaches, the method of claim 16 (discussed above), wherein the indication is received via downlink control information (DCI) or a medium access control (MAC) control element (CE), and the indication indicates which of the plurality of UL/DL resource block patterns indicated in the configuration information is to be applied for the one or more symbols (implied by disclosure in [0141] “ For Type-2 CGs or for DL SPS, the radio parameters may be provided in the activation DCI.”; and discussion above in claim 16).
Claim 28 is for an apparatus performing method of claim 19. This is a change in category with respect to claim 19. Claim is rejected based on rejection of claim 19.
Claim 35 is for a base station implementing method complimentary to method of claim 19. Existence of communication circuitry and processor is implied. Claim is rejected based on rejection of claim 19 and 28.
Claims 20 and 29:
Regarding claim 20, Pocovi teaches, the method of claim 19 (discussed above), wherein the indication indicates a first UL/DL resource block pattern of the plurality of UL/DL resource block patterns is to be applied for a first symbol of the one or more symbols, and
the indication indicates a second UL/DL resource block pattern of the plurality of UL/DL resource block patterns is to be applied for a second symbol of the one or more symbols (implied by discussion in claim 16 in addition to discussion in claim 19, and the configuration bit of claim 18 ).
Claim 29 is for an apparatus performing method of claim 20. This is a change in category with respect to claim 20. Claim is rejected based on rejection of claim 20.
Claims 21 and 30:
Regarding claim 21, Pocovi teaches, the method of claim 17 (discussed above), wherein an RRC message comprises the configuration information (implied by disclosures in [0140] For Type-I CGs, the existing ConfiguredGrantConfig information element in RRC signaling may be extended to include two or more sets of rrc-ConfiguredUplinkGrant (each associated to a slot format) indicating the radio parameters to use for each slot format.”; and disclosure in [0141], “a mix of RRC and physical layer signaling may be used to indicate the radio parameters” ).
Claim 30 is for an apparatus performing method of claim 21. This is a change in category with respect to claim 21. Claim is rejected based on rejection of claim 21.
Claims 22 and 31:
Regarding claim 22, Pocovi teaches, the method of claim 16 (discussed above).
The claim, receiving an uplink grant for one or more second periodic UL resources in the one or more symbols; determining that a second UL transmission associated with the one or more second periodic UL resources is to be transmitted in one or more of the first subset of resource blocks associated with DL reception;
determining that the one or more of the first subset of resource blocks associated with DL reception are not available for UL transmissions based on the indication; and
dropping the second UL transmission based on the determination that the second UL transmission associated with the one or more second periodic UL resources is to be transmitted in the one or more of the first subset of resource blocks associated with DL reception and the determination that the one or more of the first subset of resource blocks associated with DL reception are not available for UL transmissions, defines the configuration of uplink grant, determination of availability of resource and dropping the UL transmission in case of unavailability of resource is implied by discussions above in claim 16 and disclosure in [0116], “In current specifications, SPS PDSCH allocations may be dropped if at least one symbol of the pre-configured PDSCH allocation overlaps with UL TDD symbol(s).”.
Claim 31 is for an apparatus performing method of claim 22. This is a change in category with respect to claim 22. Claim is rejected based on rejection of claim 22.
Claims 23 and 32:
Regarding claim 23, Pocovi teaches, the method of claim 16 (discussed above), wherein the periodic UL resources are for one or more of a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) or a configured grant-physical uplink shared channel (CG-PUSCH) (implied by disclosure in Fig.15, step 1530, “perform the communication with the network device on at least one resource of the at least one of the configured grant configuration or the semi-persistent scheduling configuration using the at least one determined set of the at least two sets of transmission parameters”; and common communication procedures between user equipment and network. Configured grants are for uplink transmission which may be for PUSCH or for PUCCH).
Claim 32 is for an apparatus performing method of claim 23. This is a change in category with respect to claim 23. Claim is rejected based on rejection of claim 23.
Claims 24 and 33:
Regarding claim 24, Pocovi teaches, the method of claim 16 (discussed above).
The claim, determining that a second DL transmission associated with one or more second periodic DL resources is to be received in one or more of the second subset of resource blocks associated with UL transmission;
determining that the one or more of the second subset of resource blocks associated with UL transmission are not available for DL receptions based on the indication; and
failing to monitor a control channel based on the determination that the second DL transmission associated with the one or more second periodic DL resources is to be received in the one or more of the second subset of resource blocks associated with UL transmission and the determination that the one or more of the second subset of resource blocks associated with UL transmission are not available for DL reception, defines determination of configured resource, unavailability of resource and failing to monitor control channel, is implied by discussions above in claim 16 and disclosure in [0116], “The same principle may apply for CG, i.e. the CG PUSCH allocation may be dropped if it overlaps, at least partially, with DL TDD symbol(s).”.
Claim 33 is for an apparatus performing method of claim 24. This is a change in category with respect to claim 24. Claim is rejected based on rejection of claim 24.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
a) US 2023/0163939 A1 teaches cross division duplex signaling; and
b) US 2020/0382267 A1 teaches frequency division duplexing in unpaired spectrum;
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/INTEKHAAB A SIDDIQUEE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2462