CTNF 18/716,055 CTNF 97059 DETAILED ACTION This communication is responsive to Application #18716044 filed 06/03/2024. Claim(s) 12 amended; No Claim(s) canceled. Claim(s) 1-12 is/are subject to examination. Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status 07-03-aia AIA 15-10-aia 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 07-20-aia AIA 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. 07-21-aia AIA Claim (s) 1-12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over MA et al. (US 20240237016 A1), hereby referred to as MA, in view of WU (US 20240187824 A1) . Claim 1: MA teaches a method for receiving data units by a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system, the method comprising: receiving a first Protocol Data Unit (PDU) for a Hybrid Automatic Repeat and request (HARQ) process based on a first Group-Radio Network Temporary Identity (G-RNTI) and a first New Data Indicator (NDI) (MA: FIG. 3 item TB1 wherein PTM1 is a group transmission with NDI=1 and UE can be UE3 in the group transmission and para 29 (“….UE-specific PDCCH is scrambled with a UE-specific cell RNTI (i.e., C-RNTI), and the group-common PDSCH is scrambled with a group-common RNTI.”) wherein PTM is a group-common transmission using group RNTI/G-RNTI ) ; receiving a second PDU for the HARQ process based on a Cell-RNTI (C- RNTI) and a second NDI, wherein the first NDI is identical with the second NDI (MA: FIG. 3 item TB1 wherein UE3 receives a retransmission of TB1 which has an identical NDI and para 29 (“….UE-specific PDCCH is scrambled with a UE-specific cell RNTI (i.e., C-RNTI), and the group-common PDSCH is scrambled with a group-common RNTI.”) wherein PTP is a UE-specific transmission using cell RNTI/C-RNTI ) ; and receiving a third PDU for the HARQ process based on a second G-RNTI and a third NDI, wherein based on the first G-RNTI being identical with the second G-RNTI and the second NDI being identical with the third NDI (MA: FIG. 6 item TB3 wherein a following PTM can schedule a third PDU for the HARQ processing with a third NDI that equals to 1 (identical to the second NDI ) and para 29 (“….UE-specific PDCCH is scrambled with a UE-specific cell RNTI (i.e., C-RNTI), and the group-common PDSCH is scrambled with a group-common RNTI.”) wherein PTM is a group-common transmission using group RNTI/G-RNTI ) , the third PDU is decoded with at least one of the first and the second PDUs (MA: FIG. 3 and FIG. 6 wherein first, second, and third PDU are all decoded ) . However, MA does not explicitly disclose Medium Access Control (MAC) Protocol Data Unit (PDU). WU, in the same field of endeavor, teaches Medium Access Control (MAC) Protocol Data Unit (PDU) (WU: para 83 (“…fails to obtain a transport block (i.e., a MAC PDU)…retransmission from the MAC PDU…”) wherein MAC PDU is transmitted and re-transmitted ) . It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to have modified MA with WU, the combination hereby referred to as MA-WU, for the benefit of handling transmission failures in the MAC Layer (WU: FIG. 2 and para 6) Claim 2: MA-WU teaches the method of claim 1, based on the first G-RNTI not being identical with the second G-RNTI and the second NDI being identical with the third NDI , the third MAC PDU is decoded with discarding the first and second MAC PDUs (MA: FIG. 6 item TB3 wherein the TB3 has identical NDI to TB1 and its retransmission (NDI=1) and para 110 (“…the NDI remains unchanged…and data stored in the cache corresponding to the HPID#1 is cleared…”) wherein even though NDI is identical, first and second MAC PDUs are discarded due to TB3 being a new transmission ) (WU: para 90 (“…after transmitting…the MBS data 1…generates a HARQ new transmission n from a MAC PDU including the MBS data n…uses a second group-common....RNTI different from the first group-common…RNTI…used for the retransmission of the data m…”) wherein different G-RNTI is for different transmissions ) . It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to have modified MA with WU for the benefit of handling transmission failures in the MAC Layer (WU: FIG. 2 and para 6) . Claim 3: MA-WU teaches The method of claim 1, wherein, based on the second NDI not being identical with the third NDI, the third MAC PDU is decoded with discarding the first and second MAC PDUs (MA: para 97 (“That is, the UE2 can toggle the NDI of the UE2, that is, NDI=1, and clear data stored in the cache corresponding to the HPID#1…”) wherein if the third PDU has a toggled NDI, then the old PDUs are cleared/discarded when decoding the third PDU ) (WU: para 83 (“…fails to obtain a transport block (i.e., a MAC PDU)…retransmission from the MAC PDU…”) wherein MAC PDU is transmitted and re-transmitted ) .. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to have modified MA with WU for the benefit of handling transmission failures in the MAC Layer (WU: FIG. 2 and para 6) Claim 4: MA-WU teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the second MAC PDU is a retransmission of the first MAC PDU (MA: FIG. 3 item TB1 wherein UE3 receives a retransmission of TB1 which has an identical NDI and para 29 (“….UE-specific PDCCH is scrambled with a UE-specific cell RNTI (i.e., C-RNTI), and the group-common PDSCH is scrambled with a group-common RNTI.”) wherein PTP is a UE-specific transmission using cell RNTI/C-RNTI ) (WU: para 83 (“…fails to obtain a transport block (i.e., a MAC PDU)…retransmission from the MAC PDU…”) wherein MAC PDU is transmitted and re-transmitted ) .. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to have modified MA with WU for the benefit of handling transmission failures in the MAC Layer (WU: FIG. 2 and para 6) Claim 5: MA-WU teaches the method of claim 1, wherein based on the first G-RNTI being identical with the second G-RNTI and the second NDI being identical with the third NDI, the third MAC PDU is a retransmission of the first MAC PDU (MA: para 33 (“Initial transmission…is PTM, and retransmission is PTM.”) wherein a re-transmission can be PTM which has the same G-RNTI being a retransmission to the same group, and NDI would equal to what the second NDI is since it is a re-transmission ) (WU: para 83 (“…fails to obtain a transport block (i.e., a MAC PDU)…retransmission from the MAC PDU…”) wherein MAC PDU is transmitted and re-transmitted ) .. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to have modified MA with WU for the benefit of handling transmission failures in the MAC Layer (WU: FIG. 2 and para 6) Claim 6: MA teaches a user equipment (US) in a wireless communication system, the UE comprising: at least one transceiver; at least one processor; and at least one computer memory operably connectable to the at least one processor and storing instructions (MA: FIG. 8 UE with processor, memory, transceiver ) . For further limitations, see rejection for claim 1 above. Claim 7: MA-WU teaches the UE of claim 6. For further limitations, see rejection for claim 2 above. Claim 8: MA-WU teaches the UE of claim 6. For further limitations, see rejection for claim 3 above. Claim 9: MA-WU teaches the UE of claim 6. For further limitations, see rejection for claim 4 above. Claim 10: MA-WU teaches the UE of claim 6. For further limitations, see rejection for claim 5 above. Claim 11: MA teaches an apparatus for a user equipment (UE) (MA: FIG. 8) . For further limitations, see rejection for claim 6 above. Claim 12: MA teaches a non-transitory computer readable storage medium, storing at least one computer program (MA: FIG. 8). For further limitations, see rejection for claim 11 above. Examiner’s Note: The examiner recommends further amending the claims to clarify how or why a third MAC PDU is “decoded with at least one of the first and second MAC PDUs”; simply “decoded” could mean that the first, second, and third MAC PDUs are all received and read. The examiner recommends including language in the independent claims regarding the order of the receiving as the current state of the claims amount to three separate messages that can be received in any order and happen to have similar characteristics . Conclusion 07-96 AIA The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. YOSHIOKA et al. (US 20240187272 A1) para 156 (“…will be retransmitted to both multiple UEs 200 and a specific UE200.”). YANG et al. (US 12628181 B2) col 16 line 3-33 (“…when the terminal device supports simultaneous receiving a plurality of multicast data services, PDSCH data of different multicast data service is scrambled by using different G-RNTIs…”) Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ANGELIE T NGO whose telephone number is (571)272-0180. The examiner can normally be reached Mon - Thur: 8am - 5pm; 2nd Fri: 8am - 3pm. 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, Noel Beharry can be reached at (571) 270-5630. 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. /A.T.N./Examiner, Art Unit 2416 /NOEL R BEHARRY/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2416 Application/Control Number: 18/716,055 Page 2 Art Unit: 2416 Application/Control Number: 18/716,055 Page 3 Art Unit: 2416 Application/Control Number: 18/716,055 Page 4 Art Unit: 2416 Application/Control Number: 18/716,055 Page 5 Art Unit: 2416 Application/Control Number: 18/716,055 Page 6 Art Unit: 2416 Application/Control Number: 18/716,055 Page 7 Art Unit: 2416
Prosecution Insights