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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of Claims 1-14 and 16-20 in the reply filed on 24 August 2026 is acknowledged. Claim 15 is withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected species, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 24 August 2026.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on 28 June 2024 and 5 June 2025 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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 unless –
(a)(2) 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.
Claims 1, 2, 4-6, 9, 10, 11, 14, 16, 17, 19 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Zhang et al (United States Pre-Grant Publication 2025/0141603), hereinafter Zhang.
Regarding Claim 1, Zhang discloses a user equipment (UE) (Figure 3A – UE 116), comprising:
at least one memory (Figure 3A - storage 360); and
at least one processor coupled with the at least one memory and configured to cause the UE (Figure 3A – processor/controller 340 coupled to storage 360; paragraphs 0057-0058 regarding operation of the processor/controller) to:
receive, from a base station (BS), a downlink control information (DCI) format scheduling a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), wherein the DCI format comprises an indicator associated with hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) feedback to be multiplexed on the PUSCH (paragraphs 0204-0205 - if the PUSCH is scheduled by a DCI format, the DCI format may contain a UL DAI field to indicate a Total-DAI for a HARQ-ACK codebook/sub-codebooks);
generate, based on the indicator, a plurality of multicast HARQ-ACK sub-codebooks for a plurality of multicast services (paragraphs 0204-0205 – the UE generates HARQ-ACK sub-codebooks for multicast PDSCH(s)); and
transmit, to the BS, the plurality of multicast HARQ-ACK sub-codebooks on the PUSCH (paragraph 0205 – the HARQ-ACK information (i.e., the sub-codebooks) are multiplexed in the PUSCH for transmission).
Claim 16 is directed to a processor for wireless communication, comprising: at least one controller coupled with at least one memory and configured to cause the processor (Figure 3A – processor/controller 340 coupled to storage 360; paragraphs 0057-0058 – the processor/controller can include one or more processors or other processing devices for executing an operating system stored in the memory) to perform the same steps as the UE of Claim 1. The remaining limitations are rejected for the same reasons as presented above for Claim 1.
Regarding Claims 2 and 17, Zhang discloses wherein the at least one processor is configured to cause the UE to determine a multicast HARQ-ACK sub-codebook size based on the indicator, and the plurality of multicast HARQ-ACK sub-codebooks have the same size as the determined multicast HARQ-ACK sub-codebook size (paragraph 0130 - the dynamic HARQ-ACK codebook (e.g., a Type-2 HARQ-ACK codebook in 3GPP) and/or the enhanced dynamic HARQ-ACK codebook (e.g., Type-2 HARQ-ACK based on grouping and HARQ-ACK retransmission in 3GPP) may determine a size and an order of the HARQ-ACK codebook according to an assignment indicator).
Regarding Claims 4 and 19, Zhang discloses wherein the indicator indicates the multicast HARQ-ACK sub-codebook size from a set of possible multicast HARQ-ACK sub-codebook sizes; and wherein the set of possible multicast HARQ-ACK sub-codebook sizes is configured by the BS or predefined (paragraph 0130 - the dynamic HARQ-ACK codebook (e.g., a Type-2 HARQ-ACK codebook in 3GPP) and/or the enhanced dynamic HARQ-ACK codebook (e.g., Type-2 HARQ-ACK based on grouping and HARQ-ACK retransmission in 3GPP) may determine a size and an order of the HARQ-ACK codebook according to an assignment indicator. For example, the assignment indicator may be a DAI (Downlink Assignment Indicator; paragraphs 0132-0133 for details regarding the first and second DAI respectively representing counter DAI and total DAI).
Regarding Claims 5 and 20, Zhang discloses wherein generating the plurality of multicast HARQ-ACK sub-codebooks comprises generating a multicast HARQ-ACK sub-codebook of a first multicast service of the plurality of multicast services based on the indicator, and wherein the first multicast service is associated with a lowest radio network temporary identifier (RNTI) among RNTIs of the plurality of multicast services (paragraph 0204 - If the UE is configured to monitor PDCCH(s) for multicast DCI format(s) with CRC scrambled by one or more G-RNTIs and/or one or more G-CS-RNTIs (a PDCCH scrambled by the G-CS-RNTI may be used to activate/release a multicast SPS PDSCH or schedule retransmission of the SPS PDSCH), the UE separately generates HARQ-ACK sub-codebooks for unicast PDSCH(s) and multicast PDSCH(s), and a DAI counts for unicast and multicast separately, where the DAI may be a C-DAI and/or a T-DAI).
Regarding Claim 6, Zhang discloses wherein the indicator indicates a total number of multicast physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) monitoring occasions in which a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) transmission associated with a PDCCH or a PDCCH indicating a semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) PDSCH release for the plurality of multicast services is present on a serving cell of the UE (paragraph 0204 - If the UE is configured to monitor PDCCH(s) for multicast DCI format(s) with CRC scrambled by one or more G-RNTIs and/or one or more G-CS-RNTIs (a PDCCH scrambled by the G-CS-RNTI may be used to activate/release a multicast SPS PDSCH or schedule retransmission of the SPS PDSCH), the UE separately generates HARQ-ACK sub-codebooks for unicast PDSCH(s) and multicast PDSCH(s), and a DAI counts for unicast and multicast separately, where the DAI may be a C-DAI and/or a T-DAI).
Regarding Claim 9, Zhang discloses wherein the indicator indicates whether to multiplex the latest received downlink (DL) downlink assignment indexes (DAIs) for the plurality of multicast services on the PUSCH (paragraphs 0132-0133 – a second DAI may indicate a total number of PDSCH receptions up to a current time unit (i.e., up to a latest receive DAI); paragraph 0204 - If the UE is configured to monitor PDCCH(s) for multicast DCI format(s) with CRC scrambled by one or more G-RNTIs and/or one or more G-CS-RNTIs (a PDCCH scrambled by the G-CS-RNTI may be used to activate/release a multicast SPS PDSCH or schedule retransmission of the SPS PDSCH), the UE separately generates HARQ-ACK sub-codebooks for unicast PDSCH(s) and multicast PDSCH(s), and a DAI counts for unicast and multicast separately, where the DAI may be a C-DAI and/or a T-DAI).
Regarding Claim 10, Zhang discloses wherein in the case that the indicator indicates to multiplex the latest received DL DAIs for the plurality of multicast services on the PUSCH, the at least one processor is configured to cause the UE to generate a first HARQ-ACK sub-codebook indicating the latest received DL DAIs for the plurality of multicast services (paragraphs 0132-0133 – a second DAI may indicate a total number of PDSCH receptions up to a current time unit (i.e., up to a latest receive DAI); paragraph 0204 - If the UE is configured to monitor PDCCH(s) for multicast DCI format(s) with CRC scrambled by one or more G-RNTIs and/or one or more G-CS-RNTIs (a PDCCH scrambled by the G-CS-RNTI may be used to activate/release a multicast SPS PDSCH or schedule retransmission of the SPS PDSCH), the UE separately generates HARQ-ACK sub-codebooks for unicast PDSCH(s) and multicast PDSCH(s), and a DAI counts for unicast and multicast separately, where the DAI may be a C-DAI and/or a T-DAI).
Regarding Claim 11, Zhang discloses wherein the indicator indicates the number of multicast HARQ-ACK sub-codebooks to be multiplexed on the PUSCH (paragraph 0204 - the UE separately generates HARQ-ACK sub-codebooks for unicast PDSCH(s) and multicast PDSCH(s), and a DAI counts for unicast and multicast separately, where the DAI may be a C-DAI and/or a T-DAI).
Regarding Claim 14, Zhang discloses a base station (BS) (Figure 3B – gNB 102), comprising:
at least one memory (Figure 3B – memory 380); and
at least one processor coupled with the at least one memory (Figure 3B – controller/processor 378 coupled to memory 380) and configured to cause the base station to:
transmit, to a user equipment (UE), a downlink control information (DCI) format scheduling a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), wherein the DCI format comprises an indicator associated with hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) feedback to be multiplexed on the PUSCH (paragraphs 0204-0205 - if the PUSCH is scheduled by a DCI format, the DCI format may contain a UL DAI field to indicate a Total-DAI for a HARQ-ACK codebook/sub-codebooks); and
receive, from the UE based on the indicator, a plurality of multicast HARQ-ACK sub-codebooks for a plurality of multicast services on the PUSCH (paragraph 0205 – the HARQ-ACK information (i.e., the sub-codebooks) are multiplexed in the PUSCH for transmission).
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 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.
Claims 7 and 8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang in view of Zhang et al (United States Pre-Grant Publication 20220322313), hereinafter Zhang313.
Regarding Claim 7, Zhang discloses the limitations of Claim 6, as described above. However, Zhang does not disclose wherein the at least one processor is configured to cause the UE to determine whether a last multicast DCI format for one of the plurality of multicast services is missed by the UE based on the indicator; and wherein generating the plurality of multicast HARQ-ACK sub-codebooks comprises in response to determining that a last multicast DCI format for one of the plurality of multicast services is missed, generating each of the plurality of multicast HARQ-ACK sub-codebooks according to a multicast HARQ-ACK sub-codebook size. In an analogous art, Zhang313 discloses this. Specifically, Zhang313 discloses, at paragraph 0324, it may be firstly determined whether there is missing detection according to the C-DAI and T-DAI in the last downlink DCI format; for example, if the T-DAI in the last downlink DCI format/the last downlink DCI format received in the last PDCCH monitoring occasion is smaller than the C-DAI in the last downlink DCI format/the last downlink DCI format received in the last PDCCH monitoring occasion, it may be determined that there is missing detection, and for example, the parameter j for generating 3GPP Type-2 HARQ-ACK codebook in TS38.213 may increment by 1. Then, the T-DAI is compared with the UL DAI, and if the UL DAI is less than the T-DAI, it may be determined that there is missing detection, and the parameter j increments by 1, and the UL DAI is assigned to the parameter Vtemp2. The UE may determine the size of the HARQ-ACK codebook according to the parameter j and parameter Vtemp2, for example, OACK=4j+Vtemp2, where OACK is a parameter indicating the number of bits of the HARQ-ACK codebook. Thus, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Zhang and Zhang313. One would have been motivated to do so in order to reduce overhead traffic by concatenating feedback-related sub-codebooks (refer to paragraphs 0025-0026 of Zhang313).
Regarding Claim 8, the combination of Zhang and Zhang313 further discloses wherein generating the plurality of multicast HARQ-ACK sub-codebooks comprises in response to determining that a last multicast DCI format for one of the plurality of multicast services is missed, generating the plurality of multicast HARQ-ACK sub-codebooks according to the indicated total number; and wherein the at least one processor is configured to cause the UE to: generate a first HARQ-ACK sub-codebook indicating the latest received downlink (DL) downlink assignment index (DAI) for each of the plurality of multicast services; and transmit, to the BS, the first HARQ-ACK sub-codebook (Zhang313 discloses, at paragraph 0324, it may be firstly determined whether there is missing detection according to the C-DAI and T-DAI in the last downlink DCI format; for example, if the T-DAI in the last downlink DCI format/the last downlink DCI format received in the last PDCCH monitoring occasion is smaller than the C-DAI in the last downlink DCI format/the last downlink DCI format received in the last PDCCH monitoring occasion, it may be determined that there is missing detection, and for example, the parameter j for generating 3GPP Type-2 HARQ-ACK codebook in TS38.213 may increment by 1. Then, the T-DAI is compared with the UL DAI, and if the UL DAI is less than the T-DAI, it may be determined that there is missing detection, and the parameter j increments by 1, and the UL DAI is assigned to the parameter Vtemp2. The UE may determine the size of the HARQ-ACK codebook according to the parameter j and parameter Vtemp2, for example, OACK=4j+Vtemp2, where OACK is a parameter indicating the number of bits of the HARQ-ACK codebook. Thus, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to further combine Zhang and Zhang313. One would have been motivated to do so in order to reduce overhead traffic by concatenating feedback-related sub-codebooks (refer to paragraphs 0025-0026 of Zhang313).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3, 12, 13 and 18 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Regarding Claims 3 and 18, the prior art of record does not disclose in response to the size of the first multicast HARQ-ACK sub-codebook being smaller than the determined multicast HARQ-ACK sub-codebook size, adding a padding bit(s) to the first multicast HARQ-ACK sub-codebook to align the size of the first multicast HARQ-ACK sub-codebook with the determined multicast HARQ-ACK sub-codebook size.
Regarding Claim 12, Zhang discloses, at paragraphs 0220-0222, if the UL DAI is equal to a predefined value (e.g., 4), the UE may not generate a HARQ-ACK sub-codebook when at least one of the following conditions is satisfied for the HARQ-ACK sub-codebook…Condition 1: the UE has not received a PDCCH (e.g., a PDCCH with a DCI format), scrambled by a RNTI associated with the HARQ-ACK sub-codebook, scheduling a PDSCH reception, or a PDCCH (e.g., a PDCCH with a DCI format) having associated HARQ-ACK information without scheduling PDSCH receptions in a set of PDCCH monitoring occasions on any serving cell c. Condition 2: the UE has not received a SPS PDSCH that is scrambled by a RNTI associated with the HARQ-ACK sub-codebook on any serving cell c. However, the prior art of record does not disclose wherein in response to the indicated number of multicast HARQ-ACK sub-codebooks being equal to a number of multicast radio network temporary identifiers (RNTIs) configured for the UE, generating the plurality of multicast HARQ-ACK sub-codebooks comprises: generating a first multicast HARQ-ACK sub-codebook for a multicast service associated with a first multicast RNTI of the configured multicast RNTIs, in the case that the UE has not received any multicast DCI format with a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) scrambled by the first multicast RNTI for scheduling a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) or indicating a semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) PDSCH release with HARQ-ACK feedback enabled and has not received any SPS PDSCH scrambled by the first multicast RNTI with HARQ-ACK feedback enabled, wherein the first multicast HARQ-ACK sub-codebook includes a single negative ACK bit.
Regarding Claim 13, the prior art of record does not disclose wherein in response to the indicated number of multicast HARQ-ACK sub-codebooks being smaller than a number of multicast radio network temporary identifiers (RNTIs) configured for the UE, the plurality of multicast HARQ-ACK sub-codebooks does not comprise: a multicast HARQ-ACK sub-codebook for a multicast service associated with a first multicast RNTI of the configured multicast RNTIs, in the case that the UE has not received any multicast DCI format with a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) scrambled by the first multicast RNTI for scheduling a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) or indicating a semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) PDSCH release with HARQ-ACK feedback enabled and has not received any SPS PDSCH scrambled by the first multicast RNTI with HARQ-ACK feedback enabled.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
Lee et al (United States Pre-Grant Publication 20250125910) is directed to transmitting HARQ-ACK sub-codebooks for multicast services.
Wang et al (United States Pre-Grant Publication 20240291621) discloses a T-DAI value of a last scheduled DCI in order to calculate the length of a codebook (paragraph 0226).
Guo et al (United States Pre-Grant Publication 20240097833) is directed to sub-codebook generation.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ANDREW W. CHRISS whose telephone number is (571)272-1774. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday, 8am-4pm ET.
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/ANDREW W CHRISS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2472
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