DETAILED ACTION
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 09/29/2025 has been entered.
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 .
Claims 1-4, 6-11, 13-17, 19 and 20 are pending in this office action
Claims 1, 2, 4, 6-9 11, 13-17, 19 and 20 have been amended
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed in the amendment filed 9/29/2025 have been fully considered but they are moot in view of new grounds of rejection.
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 1-3, 6-10,13-16 and 19-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Salem (US 2020/0275430 A1) in view of Kang et al (US 2020/0177266 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Salem teaches a method for transmitting a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), the method comprising:
receiving multiple downlink control information (DCI) formats, wherein at least a first DCI format from the multiple DCI formats includes a cell indicator field (Salem: Fig. 9 and 16; [0059], [0106], [0140] UE receiving DCI format comprising 3 bits CIF, there are multiple DCI formats);
determining a cell based on a value of the cell indicator field, wherein the cell is either a first cell or a second cell (Salem: Fig. 9; [0106]-[0107], UE determines the cell based on the CIF); and
transmitting the PUCCH on the cell (Salem: Fig. 9; [0097], [0103], [0106]-[0107], UE transmits PUCCH on a selected cell); and
wherein: the PUCCH transmission is in a slot (Salem: Fig. 16; [0103], [039], PUCCH received in a slot), the multiple DCI formats indicate the slot for the PUCCH transmission (Salem: Fig. 16; DCI received in subband 3 is the last DCI).
Salem does not explicitly disclose the multiple DCI formats indicate the slot for the PUCCH transmission, and the DCI format is a DCI format from the multiple DCI formats that is received last the DCI format is a DCI format from the multiple DCI formats that is received last.
Kang teaches the multiple DCI formats indicate the slot for the PUCCH transmission, and the DCI format is a DCI format from the multiple DCI formats that is received last the DCI format is a DCI format from the multiple DCI formats that is received last (Kang: [0355]).
It would have been obvious to a person having an ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Salem wherein the multiple DCI formats indicate the slot for the PUCCH transmission, and the DCI format is a DCI format from the multiple DCI formats that is received last the DCI format is a DCI format from the multiple DCI formats that is received last as disclosed by Kang to provide a system for PRACH for a beam failure recovery (Kang: Abstract)
Regarding claim 8, Salem teaches a user equipment (UE) (Salem: Fig. 5, UE) comprising:
a transceiver configured to receive multiple downlink control information (DCI) formats, wherein at least a first DCI format from the multiple DCI formats includes a cell indicator field (Salem: Fig. 9 and 16; [0059], [0106], [0140] UE receiving DCI format comprising 3 bits CIF, there are multiple DCI formats);
the processor configured to determine a cell based on a value of the cell indicator field, wherein the cell is either a first cell or a second cell (Salem: Fig. 9; [0106]-[0107], UE determines the cell based on the CIF);
wherein the transceiver is further configured to transmit a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) on the cell in a slot (Salem: Fig. 9; [0097], [0103], [0106]-[0107], UE transmits PUCCH on a selected cell).
Salem does not explicitly disclose the multiple DCI formats indicate the slot for the PUCCH transmission, and the DCI format is a DCI format from the multiple DCI formats that is received last the DCI format is a DCI format from the multiple DCI formats that is received last.
Kang teaches the multiple DCI formats indicate the slot for the PUCCH transmission, and the DCI format is a DCI format from the multiple DCI formats that is received last the DCI format is a DCI format from the multiple DCI formats that is received last (Kang: [0355]).
It would have been obvious to a person having an ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Salem wherein the multiple DCI formats indicate the slot for the PUCCH transmission, and the DCI format is a DCI format from the multiple DCI formats that is received last the DCI format is a DCI format from the multiple DCI formats that is received last as disclosed by Kang to provide a system for PRACH for a beam failure recovery (Kang: Abstract)
Regarding claim 15, Salem teaches a base station (Salem: Fig. 5, Base station) comprising:
a transceiver configured to transmit multiple downlink control information (DCI) formats, wherein at least a first DCI format from the multiple DCI formats includes a cell indicator field (Salem: Fig. 9 and 16; [0059], [0106], [0140] UE receiving DCI format comprising 3 bits CIF, there are multiple DCI formats); and
a processor operably coupled to the transceiver, the processor configured to determine a cell based on a value of the cell indicator field, wherein the cell is either a first cell or a second cell, wherein the transceiver is further configured to receive a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) on the cell in a slot (Salem: Fig. 9; [0097], [0103], [0106]-[0107], Base station receives PUCCH on a selected cell based on the CIF).
Salem does not explicitly disclose the multiple DCI formats indicate the slot for the PUCCH transmission, and the DCI format is a DCI format from the multiple DCI formats that is received last the DCI format is a DCI format from the multiple DCI formats that is received last.
Kang teaches the multiple DCI formats indicate the slot for the PUCCH transmission, and the DCI format is a DCI format from the multiple DCI formats that is received last the DCI format is a DCI format from the multiple DCI formats that is received last (Kang: [0355]).
It would have been obvious to a person having an ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Salem wherein the multiple DCI formats indicate the slot for the PUCCH transmission, and the DCI format is a DCI format from the multiple DCI formats that is received last the DCI format is a DCI format from the multiple DCI formats that is received last as disclosed by Kang to provide a system for PRACH for a beam failure recovery (Kang: Abstract).
Regarding claims 2, 9 and 16, Salem teaches receiving: first information for first resources on the first cell, and second information for second resources on the second cell (Salem: Fig. 9; PUCCH1 on cell 0, PUCCH 2 on cell 2); determining a resource based on a value of a PUCCH resource indicator field, wherein: the DCI format includes the PUCCH resource indicator field (Salem: Fig. 9; [0106]-[0107], DCI includes CIF), the resource is from the first resources when the cell is the first cell, and the resource is from the second resources when the cell is the second cell; and transmitting the PUCCH in the resource (Salem: Fig. 9).
Regarding claims 3 and 10, Salem teaches wherein: the first resources include third resources in a first uplink (UL) bandwidth part (BWP) of the first cell and fourth resources in a second UL BWP of the first cell, and the second resources include fifth resources in a first UL BWP of the second cell and sixth resources in a second UL BWP of the second cell (Salem: Figs. 6 and 9; [0056], [0094], [0106]-[0107], multiple UL-BWP per cell/CC).
Regarding claims 6, 16 and 20, Salem teaches wherein: the PUCCH provides hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) information, and the HARQ-ACK information is associated with the DCI format (Salem: [0083-[0085], [0096]).
Regarding claims 7, 14 and 19, Salem teaches wherein: the DCI format includes a bandwidth part (BWP) indicator field that indicates a BWP, and the PUCCH transmission is in the BWP (Salem: Figs. 6 and 16; [0127] DCI indicates the subband/UL BWP).
Claims 4, 11 and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Salem (US 2020/0275430 A1) in view of Kang et al (US 2020/0177266 A1) in further view of Chung et al (US 2012/0208583 A1).
Regarding claims 4 and 11, Salem does not explicitly disclose but Ching teaches determining a power based on a value of accumulated transmit power control (TPC) command values, wherein: the DCI format includes a TPC command field providing a TPC command value, the TPC command value is added to a first value of accumulated TPC command values when the cell indicator field indicates the first cell, the TPC command value is added to a second value of accumulated TPC command values when the cell indicator field indicates the second cell, the value of accumulated TPC command values is the first value when the cell indicator field indicates the first cell, and the value of accumulated TPC command values is the second value when the cell indicator field indicates the second cell; and transmitting the PUCCH using the power (Chung: Fig. 8; [0081]-[0082]; [0117]-[0121], accumulated TPC disclosed in Fig. 8).
It would have been obvious to a person having an ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Salem determining a power based on a value of accumulated transmit power control (TPC) command values, wherein: the DCI format includes a TPC command field providing a TPC command value, the TPC command value is added to a first value of accumulated TPC command values when the cell indicator field indicates the first cell, the TPC command value is added to a second value of accumulated TPC command values when the cell indicator field indicates the second cell, the value of accumulated TPC command values is the first value when the cell indicator field indicates the first cell, and the value of accumulated TPC command values is the second value when the cell indicator field indicates the second cell; and transmitting the PUCCH using the power as disclosed by Chung to provide a system for controlling uplink transmission power in multi-carrier system (Chung: Abstract).
Regarding claim 17, Salem in view of Chung teaches wherein: the DCI format includes a TPC command field providing a TPC command value, the TPC command value is applicable for determining a power, and the power is applicable only for the PUCCH reception on the cell (Chung: Fig. 10; [0081]-[0082]).
Conclusion
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/KODZOVI ACOLATSE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2478