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
This communication is considered fully responsive to the amendment filed on 06/22/2026.
Claims 1, 7 and 9 have been amended.
Claim 3 has been canceled.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 06/22/2026 regarding “puncturing PDCCH” have been fully considered but they are deemed unpersuasive.
The applicant’s arguments assert that Park “is silent on puncturing the PDCCH of the NR network when the frequency resource allocated to the PDCCH overlaps with the frequency resource allocated to the CRS of the LTE network,” and that Park teaches only “puncturing the reference signal DMRS,” which the applicant contends is distinct from “puncturing the NR PDCCH”.
This arguments are unpersuasive because it is premised on treating the DMRS as a resource independent of, or separate from, the PDCCH, which is contrary to Park’s own disclosure. Park expressly states that the DMRS “may be transmitted inside a resource block assigned for the PDSCH and the PDCCH” (See [0045].), and Park’s Fig. 6B depicts the DMRS 505 as occupying resource elements within the same REG 503/CCE504 structure that defines the NR PDCCH’s basic allocation unit. Because the punctured resource (the DMRS transmission location) is, by Park’s own description, physically and structurally part of the PDCCH’s allocated resource block, Park’s disclosed operation of ‘puncturing the DMRS when performing resource allocation block on the PDCCH’ (See [0044] “to puncture allocation of a first reference signal (e.g., a DMRS) when performing resource allocation on a first control channel (e.g., a PDCCH)”) discloses puncturing a resource of a transmission location of the specific RS within the PDCCH, exactly as recited in amended claim 1. Applicant’s proposed distinction between “puncturing the DMRS” and “puncturing the PDCCH” does not find support once it is recognized that the DMRS is one of the two constituent resource types making up the PDCCH’s own REG.
Therefore, the Applicant’s arguments overall are deemed unpersuasive, and the previous rejections are hereby maintained.
Claim 1 recites two alternatives joined by “or” – the coexistence / puncturing embodiment and the cross-band offloading embodiment. Under the broadest reasonable interpretation, a claim written with alternative limitations joined by “or” is anticipated (or rendered obvious) if the prior art discloses either alternative; there is no requirement to show both. See MPEP 2111.04 (claim language stating alternatives is given its broadest reasonable interpretation, satisfied by disclosure of any one alternative). Since Park’s Fig. 7A/6B/5 and disclosures fully disclose the first alternative (symbol coexistence with PDCCH-level puncturing, per the analysis), claim 1 is anticipated in full regardless of whether Park also teaches the second alternative. The prior Office Action’s notation “(This alternative is not examined.)” is therefore correct and requires no revision.
Claims 4 and 5 do not preserve claim 1’s “or” structure – they affirmatively recite the second alternative’s substance as a mandatory added limitation. Claim 4 requires “the resource control unit is configured to, in relation to the simultaneous access service, cause a part of functions of the control channel defined in the operating frequency of the DSS to be performed on the control channel defined within the other frequency band”, which is no longer optional. That’s exactly why the prior office action correctly did not rely on Park alone for claims 4-6, 8 and 10, and instead added MolavianJazi under 103.
Claim 10 requires a terminal apparatus with (a) a service use unit configured to use a simultaneous access service where the DSS operating frequency is a PCell and another frequency band is an SCell, and (b) a control unit configured to identify resource allocation information of the PCell through a control channel of the SCell. The critical inventive concept is cross-cell scheduling; a control channel physically located on one cell (SCell) carries scheduling/resource-allocation information for a different cell (PCell).
Park establishes the DSS operating frequency baseline: a base station / UE pair communicating via a first network (NR) whose frequency band dynamically shares spectrum with a second network (LTE). Park’s UE 25 operates on the shared DSS frequency and receives NR PDCCH there. This supplies the “DSS operating frequency” side of the claim (which claim 10 designates as the PCell), but Park does not describe any second cell (SCell) or any cross-cell control-channel relationship – Park’s PDCCH and its UE always relate to the same single operating frequency. That gap is exactly why the previous Office Action turned to MolavianJazi that describes multi-cell scheduling in which “the UE maintains a similar allocation of PDCCH candidates and non-overlapping CCEs across the first and second scheduling cells as when there is a single scheduling cell for the set of co-schedules cells. The first scheduling cell can be the PCell and the second scheduling cell can be a special scheduling secondary cell (SCell)”.
Claim Objections
Claims 1, 7 and 9 objected to because of the following informalities: said claims recite “wherein the specific symbols is allocated …”. It is unclear the limitation should be a plural form or a singular form to refer “cause a specific symbol within a subframe …” Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unlesss the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-3, 7 and 9 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a) (2) as being anticipated by Park et al. (US 2024/0373244, “Park”).
Examiner’s note: in what follows, references are drawn to Park unless otherwise mentioned.
Park comprises the following features:
With respect to independent claims:
Regarding claim 1, a resource control apparatus comprising a resource control unit ([0053] “Referring to FIG. 2, the base station 100 may include a controller 110, a memory 120, a processing circuit 130”) configured to, during a dynamic spectrum sharing (DSS) operation in which a frequency band of a first communication network is shared with a second communication network ([0018] “FIGS. 7A through 7C are diagrams illustrating an overlapping time-frequency domain in dynamic spectrum sharing (DSS) between an NR network and an LTE network”, and [0033] “embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a base station and wireless communication systems that allow an overlap between a NR physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) and an LTE CRS when supporting DSS.” See below for reproduced figures, 7A, 6B and 5 of Park.):
cause a specific symbol (Fig. 7A, for instance, depicts one symbol overlapped for LTE and NR in the 12 subcarriers.) within a subframe (See Fig. 5 depicting two slots in a subframe and Fig. 6A depicting a slot. Fig. 7A shows one symbol in a subframe.) used as a control channel of the first communication network in an operating frequency of the DSS (See Fig. 5 for CRS 304 in PDCCH 301 of LTE.) to be used as a symbol in which a specific reference signal (RS) of the first communication network ([0016] “FIG. 5 is a diagram for describing a cell reference signal (CRS) in a wireless communication system supporting long-term evolution (LTE);”) coexists with a control channel of the second communication network ([0017] “FIGS. 6A and 6B are diagrams illustrating a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) in a wireless communication system supporting new radio (NR)” plus Fig. 5. That is, a CRS symbol of Fig. 5 (LTE) and a DMRS symbol of Fig. 6B (NR) are overlapped in Fig. 7A as described [0018] “overlapping”.),
wherein the resource control unit is configured to allocate the specific symbol as a PDCCH of the second communication network ([0096] “Referring to FIG. 8, the base station may control the CORESET allocated to an NR PDCCH to overlap with the second time-frequency domain LTE_RG2.”), and
wherein the PDCCH is punctured for a resource of a transmission location of the specific RS within the specific symbol (See Fig. 7A for the “Punctured DMRS” at subcarrier #9 in where a CRS of LTE is located, and [0045] “A downlink reference signal (e.g., a reference signal for demodulating a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH)) may include a DMRS and may be transmitted inside a resource block assigned for the PDSCH and the PDCCH transmitted to the UE.”); or
cause a part of functions of the control channel defined in the operating frequency of the DSS to be performed on a control channel defined within other frequency band (This alternative is not examined.).
PNG
media_image1.png
718
458
media_image1.png
Greyscale
Note that Fig. 7A, Fig. 6B and Fig. 5 of Park are reproduced here. Fig. 7A shows a symbol overlapped in time-domain from Fig. 6B showing a NR symbol with DRMS and Fig. 5 showing a LTE symbol with CRS.
PNG
media_image2.png
746
570
media_image2.png
Greyscale
PNG
media_image3.png
710
474
media_image3.png
Greyscale
Regarding claim 7, it is a method claim corresponding to the method claim 1, and is therefore rejected for the similar reasons set forth in the rejection of claim 1.
Regarding claim 9, a terminal apparatus comprising a control unit configured to,
during a dynamic spectrum sharing (DSS) operation in which a frequency band of a first communication network is shared with a second communication network ([0018] “FIGS. 7A through 7C are diagrams illustrating an overlapping time-frequency domain in dynamic spectrum sharing (DSS) between an NR network and an LTE network”, and [0033] “embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a base station and wireless communication systems that allow an overlap between a NR physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) and an LTE CRS when supporting DSS.” See above for reproduced Fig. 7A, Fig. 6B and Fig. 5.):
receive a specific symbol ([0129] “the BS may allocate resources to an NR PDCCH such that a CRS does not overlap with a DMRS in operation S310b. The BS may transmit the NR PDCCH, on which resource allocation is completed, to a UE in operation S320b.”) in which a specific reference signal (RS) of the first communication network coexists with a control channel of the second communication network ([0016] “FIG. 5 is a diagram for describing a cell reference signal (CRS) in a wireless communication system supporting long-term evolution (LTE)”, and [0017] “FIGS. 6A and 6B are diagrams illustrating a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) in a wireless communication system supporting new radio (NR)” plus Fig. 5. That is, a CRS symbol of Fig. 5 (LTE) and a DMRS symbol of Fig. 6B (NR) are overlapped in Fig. 7A as described [0018] “overlapping”), the specific symbol being one of symbols within a subframe used as control channels of the first communication network in an operating frequency of the DSS (See Fig. 5 and Fig. 7A.); and
identify the specific RS of the first communication network and the control channel of the second communication network from the specific symbol ([0129] “If a CRS does not overlap with a DMRS, the UE may estimate a downlink channel between the BS and the UE using DMRSs of the NR PDCCH in operation S330b.”, and [0130] “the UE may be provided with information about the communication settings from the BS and may identify whether a DMRS overlaps with a CRS in advance.”).
With respect to dependent claims:
Regarding claim 2, the resource control apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first and second communication networks are communication networks of LTE and NR (See aforesaid [0018] and [0033].), respectively, and wherein the specific symbol is one of symbols defined as an LTE physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) within the subframe (See Fig. 5.), and is used only by a resource for transmitting the specific RS (See aforesaid [0033-0035] CRS.).
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.
Claim(s) 4-6, 8 and 10 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Park et al. (US 2024/0373244, “Park”) in view of MolavianJazi et al. (US 2023/0057605, “MolaviaJazi”).
Examiner’s note: in what follows, references are drawn to Park unless otherwise mentioned.
Regarding claims 4 and 8, it is noted that while disclosing DSS, Park does not specifically teach about a PCell and a SCell. It, however, had been known in the art before the effective date of the instant application as shown by MolavianJazi as follows;
the resource control apparatus of claim 1 and the method of claim 7, respectively, further comprising an identification unit configured to identify a simultaneous access service in which the operating frequency of the DSS ([0018] “FIGS. 7A through 7C are diagrams illustrating an overlapping time-frequency domain in dynamic spectrum sharing (DSS) between an NR network and an LTE network”, and [0033] “embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a base station and wireless communication systems that allow an overlap between a NR physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) and an LTE CRS when supporting DSS.” See above for reproduced Fig. 7A, Fig. 6B and Fig. 5.) is a primary cell (PCell) and other frequency band is a secondary cell (SCell) ([MolavianJazi, 0099] “describes DSS operation for multi-cell scheduling … the UE maintains a similar allocation of PDCCH candidates and non-overlapping CCEs across the first and second scheduling cells as when there is a single scheduling cell for the set of co-scheduled cells. The first scheduling cell can be the PCell and the second scheduling cell can be a special scheduling secondary cell (SCell)”),
wherein the resource control unit is configured to, in relation to the simultaneous access service, cause a part of functions of the control channel defined in the operating frequency of the DSS to be performed on the control channel defined within the other frequency band (See Fig. 10A for DMRS of NR in different resource groups.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of instant application to modify Park by using the features of MolavianJazi in order to flexibly accommodate various services/applications with different requirements such that “first information indicating a set of cells that includes more than one cell, second information indicating a first search space set that is associated with a DCI format for scheduling on multiple cells” [MolavianJazi, 0005].
Regarding claim 5, the resource control apparatus of claim 4, wherein the first and second communication networks are communication networks of LTE and NR (See aforesaid [0018] and [0033].), respectively, and wherein the SCell is a cell which uses all of the other frequency band for the NR only (See Fig. 10A or Fig. 10B for usages of NR_RG in all bands.).
Regarding claim 6, the resource control apparatus of claim 5, wherein the part of functions are NR uplink/downlink scheduling function for the operating frequency of the DSS, which has been performed through an NR physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) defined in the operating frequency of the DSS ([0073] “An NR PDCCH may be transmitted from a base station to a wireless communication device in a wireless communication system through resources in the time-frequency domain shown in FIG. 4, and downlink control information (DCI) may be transmitted through the NR PDCCH. DCI may include downlink scheduling assignment-related information including physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) resource designation”).
Examiner’s Note: this rejection for claim 10 is maintained and the mapping is revised in response to the applicant’s arguments that the previously cited passages of Park do not teach identifying resource allocation information of the PCell through a control channel of the SCell. The corrected mapping below relies on MolavianJazi for this limitation as set forth.
Regarding claim 10, a terminal apparatus comprising:
a service use unit configured to use a simultaneous access service in which an operating frequency of dynamic spectrum sharing (DSS) corresponding to sharing of a frequency band of a first communication network with a second communication network ([0018] “FIGS. 7A through 7C are diagrams illustrating an overlapping time-frequency domain in dynamic spectrum sharing (DSS) between an NR network and an LTE network”, and [0033] “embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a base station and wireless communication systems that allow an overlap between a NR physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) and an LTE CRS when supporting DSS.” See above for reproduced Fig. 7A, Fig. 6B and Fig. 5.).
It is noted that while disclosing DSS, Park does not specifically teach about a PCell and a SCell. It, however, had been known in the art before the effective date of the instant application as shown by MolavianJazi as follows;
a primary cell (PCell) and other frequency band is secondary cell (SCell) ([MolavianJazi, 0099] “describes DSS operation for multi-cell scheduling … the UE maintains a similar allocation of PDCCH candidates and non-overlapping CCEs across the first and second scheduling cells as when there is a single scheduling cell for the set of co-scheduled cells. The first scheduling cell can be the PCell and the second scheduling cell can be a special scheduling secondary cell (SCell)”); and
a control unit configured to identify, in relation to the simultaneous access service, resource allocation information of the PCell through a control channel of the SCell ([MolavianJazi, 0099] “the UE maintains a similar allocation of PDCCH candidates and non-overlapping CCEs across the first and second scheduling cells as when there is a single scheduling cell for the set of co-scheduled cells. The first scheduling cell can be the PCell and the second scheduling cell can be a special scheduling secondary cell (SCell)” That is, MolavianJazi discloses that PDCCH candidates and CCEs relevant to a set of co-scheduled cells – a set which includes the PCell – are allocated across both the first scheduling cell (PCell) and the secondary scheduling cell (SCell), such that the UE identifies, via the control channel (PDCCH) of the SCell, resource allocation information (i.e., PDCCH candidates/CCE allocation and associated scheduling information) that pertains to the PCell as a co-scheduled cell. See also [MolavianJazi, 0005] “first information indicating a set of cells that includes more than one cell, second information indicating a first search space set that is associated with a DCI format for scheduling on multiple cells,” further confirming that a single DCI format / search space – located on a control channel of one scheduling cell – schedules resource for multiple cells, including the PCell, within the co-scheduled set.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of instant application to modify Park by using the features of MolavianJazi in order to flexibly accommodate various services/applications with different requirements such that “first information indicating a set of cells that includes more than one cell, second information indicating a first search space set that is associated with a DCI format for scheduling on multiple cells” [MolavianJazi, 0005].
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 extension fee 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 Harry H. Kim whose telephone number and email address are as follows; 571-272-5009, harry.kim2@uspto.gov.
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, Derrick Ferris can be reached at 571-272-3123.
Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from www.uspto.gov. For questions or assistance, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (in USA or Canada) or 571-272-1000.
/HARRY H KIM/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2411
Prosecution Insights