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 .
This is a Non-final action for application number 18/727,897 in response to an original application filed on 07/10/2024.
Claims 1-9 and 11 are currently pending and have been considered below.
Claims 1, 9 and 11 are independent claims.
Claims 10, 12 and 13 have been cancelled.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS), submitted on 07/10/2024, 02/19/2026 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 (a)-(d). The certified copy has been filed on 07/10/2024.
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.
Claims 1-7, 9 and 11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cozzo et al. (US 2023/0131305 A1) in view of Ly et al. (US 2023/0421327 A1).
Regarding claims 1, 9 and 11, a method performed by a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system, the method comprising:
receiving information on that demodulation reference signal (DMRS) bundling for a physical uplink shared channel is enabled, [As illustrated in FIG. 13, in step 1310, a UE is configured for operation with DM-RS bundling and is configured/indicated to transmit a PUSCH with repetitions, (Cozzo et al., Paragraph 118)],
performing transmission timing adjustment for uplink transmission in a specific slot, [In step 1320, the UE is configured to accumulate TA adjustments during a time domain window of DM-RS bundling. In step 1330, the UE receives one or more TA commands indicating TA adjustments within a first time domain window and accumulates TA commands within the first time domain window, (Cozzo et al., Paragraph 118)],
transmitting at least one PUSCH in a time domain window related to the DMRS bundling, [In step 1350, the UE transmits PUSCH repetitions in a second time domain window, (Cozzo et al., Paragraph 118)],
Cozzo et al. fails to explicitly teach based on at least one symbol being excluded in a subsequent slot adjacent to the specific slot,
Ly et al. teaches the configuration may define the size or duration of the DMRS bundling window as a number of available symbols for PUSCH repetitions/transmissions (e.g., symbols excluding downlink symbols), or as a number of available slots for PUSCH repetitions/transmissions (e.g., slots excluding downlink slots, (Ly et al., Paragraph 85),
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention was made to modify Cozzo et al. by including that based on at least one symbol being excluded in a subsequent slot adjacent to the specific slot, (Ly et al., Paragraph 85), in order to improve link quality between a UE and a base station, (Ly et al., Abstract).
Regarding claim 2, the method of claim 1, wherein the at least one symbol comprises a first symbol of the subsequent slot, [Ly et al., Figures 6 and 7].
Regarding claim 3, the method of claim 1, wherein the subsequent slot corresponds to a slot in which the at least one symbol is reduced due to the transmission timing adjustment in the time domain, [Cozzo et al., Figure 6, 7 and 8].
Regarding claim 4, the method of claim 1, wherein the subsequent slot is related to a starting point of the time domain window, [the UE may determine a DMRS bundling window, including a start time corresponding to one of the repetitions (e.g. a first physical or available slot or symbol for an initial PUSCH repetition/transmission) and an end time corresponding to another one of the repetitions, (Ly et al., Paragraph 74)].
Regarding claim 5, the method of claim 1, wherein the transmission timing adjustment is at least one of timing advance (TA) adjustment performed autonomously by the UE or TA adjustment performed by indication of a base station, [In step 1330, the UE receives one or more TA commands indicating TA adjustments within a first time domain window and accumulates TA commands within the first time domain window, (Cozzo et al., Paragraph 118)].
Regarding claim 6, the method of claim 1, wherein, based on the at least one PUSCH being transmitted according to PUSCH repetition type B, the at least one symbol is determined to be an invalid symbol, [the UE may refrain from transmitting repetitions in invalid (e.g., downlink) symbols and slots, (Ly et al., Paragraph 67)].
Regarding claim 7, the method of claim 1, wherein, based on the at least one symbol being excluded in a subsequent slot adjacent to the specific slot, a PUSCH that does not satisfy a pre-defined time domain resource allocation (TDRA) is not transmitted by the UE, [the base station may transmit a DCI to the UE including a time domain resource assignment that indicates parameters associated with the PUSCH transmission, such as a slot offset, a start and length indicator value (SLIV), and a PUSCH mapping type (e.g., PUSCH mapping type A or B), (Ly et al., Paragraph 65)].
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 8 is 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Shukri Taha whose telephone number is 571-270-1921. The examiner can normally be reached on 8:30am-5pm Mon-Fri.
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/SHUKRI TAHA/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2478
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