DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
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 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.
This action is in response to communications filed on 9/14/2026.
Claims 2, 11, 13, & 20 are cancelled. Claims 1, 3-10, 12, & 14-19 remain pending. Claims 21-24 are added. Claims 1, 3-10, 12, 14-19, & 21-24 have been examined and are rejected.
Priority
This application is a continuation of PCT/CN2022/071437 filed 1/11/2022.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments filed in the communications above have been fully considered but are not persuasive. In the communications filed, applicant argues in substance that:
Argument (a) Amended claim 1, however, is not directed merely to whether two PUSCH repetitions happen to use the same waveform. Rather, amended claim 1 requires that a particular transform-precoder enabling state remain unchanged during PUSCH repetitions. The claimed limitation concerns the continued maintenance of the determined transform-precoder enabling state throughout the PUSCH repetition period. Yuan's disclosure that two repetitions may use the same waveform does not, without more, disclose that a previously determined transform-precoder enabling state is maintained and prevented from changing during that period.
In response to argument (a), examiner respectfully disagrees.
The claim requires the precoder enabling state to remain unchanged during PUSCH repetitions. The claim does not put a limit on the number of repetitions or otherwise define the period in which the waveform must be maintained. Typical values for repK (i.e. the number of PUSCH repetitions) are 1, 2, 4, & 8. Thus when a repetition value repK is set to 2, a teaching of performing 2 repetitions with the same waveform is a teaching that the transform-precoder enabling state remains unchanged during PUSCH repetitions.
For at least these reasons, applicant’s arguments are considered not persuasive.
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 of this title, 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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 1, 3-5, 8-9, 12, 14-15, 19, & 21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Matsumura et al. (US 2025/0089065 A1) in view of Yuan et al. (US 2023/0344555 A1).
With regard to Claim 1, Matsumura teaches:
A method for information processing, comprising:
receiving, by a terminal device, first information from a network device, wherein the first information is used for determining a transform-precoder enabling state of a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH); (a UE may receive, by using the DCI/MAC CE, an indication indicating enabling or disabling of the transform precoder for the PUSCH [Matsumura: 0061-62; 0065-66]);
wherein the first information comprises indication information of the transform-precoder enabling state; (the indication may be a DCI that includes a 1-bit field indicating a CP-OFDM or DFT-s-OFDM waveform used for the PUSCH [Matsumura: 0062]).
However, Matsumura does not teach:
wherein the transform-precoder enabling state remains unchanged during PUSCH repetitions.
In a similar field of endeavor involving enabling/disabling transform precoding to utilize DFT-s-OFDM or CP-OFDM waveforms [Yuan: 0049], Yuan discloses:
wherein the transform-precoder enabling state remains unchanged during PUSCH repetitions; (the UE 120 may transmit, and the base station 110 may receive, a plurality of PUSCH repetitions, wherein PUSCH repetitions may be transmitted using the same waveform [Yuan: 0064]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Matsumura in view of Yuan in order to allow the transform-precoder enabling state to remain unchanged during PUSCH repetitions in the system of Matsumura.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Matsumura with Yuan as doing so would avoid the need to signal waveform changes thereby reducing control signaling while increasing PUSCH transport block decoding probability.
With regard to Claim 3, Matsumura-Yuan teaches:
The method of claim 2, wherein the indication information is carried in first downlink control information (DCI); (a UE may receive, by using the DCI/MAC CE, an indication indicating enabling or disabling of the transform precoder for the PUSCH [Matsumura: 0061-62; 0065-66]).
With regard to Claim 4, Matsumura-Yuan teaches:
The method of claim 3, wherein the first DCI comprises at least one of: DCI for scheduling PUSCH transmission; first common DCI; or first group common DCI; (a UE may receive, by using the DCI/MAC CE, an indication indicating enabling or disabling of the transform precoder for the PUSCH [Matsumura: 0061-62; 0065-66], wherein the DCI format may be 0_0/DCI format 0_1/DCI format 0_2/DCI format 0_3 (i.e. scheduling DCIs) or a group-common DCI format may be used [Matsumura: 0064]).
With regard to Claim 5, Matsumura-Yuan teaches:
The method of claim 3, further comprising: determining, by the terminal device, a transform-precoder enabling state of the PUSCH that is after a first time interval based on a transform-precoder enabling state indicated by the first DCI, in response to determining that the transform-precoder enabling state changes; (when group-common DCI is used, waveform switching may be applied after a certain time period from ACK transmission by the UE in response to reception of DCI format 2_x [Matsumura: 0064]).
With regard to Claim 8, Matsumura-Yuan teaches:
The method of claim 2, wherein the indication information is carried in a medium access control (MAC) control element (CE); (a UE may receive, by using the DCI/MAC CE, an indication indicating enabling or disabling of the transform precoder for the PUSCH, wherein the MAC CE may include a 1-bit field indicating a CP-OFDM or DFT-s-OFDM waveform used for the PUSCH [Matsumura: 0061; 0063]).
With regard to Claim 9, Matsumura-Yuan teaches:
The method of claim 8, further comprising: determining, by the terminal device, a transform-precoder enabling state of the PUSCH that is after a second time interval based on the transform-precoder enabling state indicated by the MAC CE; (when dynamic waveform switching for a PUSCH is performed by using MAC CE signaling, the UE may, after receiving an indication by a MAC CE, switch a waveform after certain time from ACK transmission for a PDSCH including the MAC CE [Matsumura: 0141]).
With regard to Claims 12, 14-15, 19, & 21, they appear substantially similar to the limitations recited by claims 1 & 3-4 and consequently do not appear to teach or further define over the citations provided for said claims. Accordingly, claims 12, 14-15, 19, & 21 are rejected for the same reasons as set forth in claims 1 & 3-4.
Claims 6-7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Matsumura et al. (US 2025/0089065 A1) in view of Yuan et al. (US 2023/0344555 A1) as applied to Claim 3 above, and further in view of Ganesan et al. (US 2023/0269664 A1).
With regard to Claim 6, Matsumura-Yuan teaches:
The method of claim 3, wherein the indication information indicates a transform-precoder enabling state of the PUSCH; (a UE may receive, by using the DCI/MAC CE, an indication indicating enabling or disabling of the transform precoder for the PUSCH [Matsumura: 0061-62; 0065-66]).
However, Matsumura-Yuan does not teach (where underlining indicates the portion of each limitation not taught):
wherein the indication information indicates a transform-precoder enabling state of the PUSCH that is within a first time range.
In a similar field of endeavor involving enabling/disabling transform pre-coder for PUSCH [Ganesan: 0065], Ganesan discloses:
wherein the indication information indicates a transform-precoder enabling state of the PUSCH that is within a first time range; (the waveform indicated by DCI-WUS for the DL physical channels is applicable to the UE 205 during its DRX Active Time 415 (i.e., when the DRX On Timer is running), wherein both DL and UL waveform types may be configured in a same/similar manner [Ganesan: 0097; 0127-28]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Matsumura-Yuan in view of Ganesan in order to utilize a transform-precoder enabling state of the PUSCH that is within a first time range in the system of Matsumura-Yuan.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Matsumura-Yuan with Ganesan as doing so would allow the waveform indicated by the DCI to be maintained during the active period unless otherwise indicated, thereby reducing control signaling.
With regard to Claim 7, Matsumura-Yuan-Ganesan teaches:
The method of claim 6, further comprising: determining, by the terminal device, a transform-precoder enabling state of the PUSCH that is after the first time range based on a semi-statically configured transform-precoder enabling state, in response to the transform-precoder enabling state indicated by the first DCI being different from the semi-statically configured transform-precoder enabling state; (in the absence of information about DL waveform to be used for PDCCH in the next occurrence of the DRX Active Time 415, the UE 205 may use the same waveform that it used to receive the PDCCH_WUS, may use a default waveform configured as part of RRC PDCCH configuration, or may continue to use the waveform type used in the previous onDuration when the DRX onDuration timer was running, wherein both DL and UL waveform types may be configured in a same/similar manner [Ganesan: 0101; 0127-28]).
Claim 10 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Matsumura et al. (US 2025/0089065 A1) in view of Yuan et al. (US 2023/0344555 A1) as applied to Claim 2 above, and further in view of Gu et al. (US 2024/0349278 A1).
With regard to Claim 10, Matsumura-Yuan teaches the method of claim 2, but does not teach:
wherein the indication information is carried in configuration information of a configured grant (CG) resource; and wherein the configuration information of the CG resource comprises at least one of: activation DCI of the CG resource; second common DCI; or second group common DCI.
In a similar field of endeavor involving dynamically switching between CP-OFDM waveform and a DFT-S-OFDM waveform [Gu: 0003], Gu discloses:
wherein the indication information is carried in configuration information of a configured grant (CG) resource; and wherein the configuration information of the CG resource comprises at least one of: activation DCI of the CG resource; second common DCI; or second group common DCI; (the terminal determines dynamic waveform switch or the switched waveform of the CG-scheduled uplink transmission based on the dynamic waveform switch or the switched waveform indicated by the first signaling, wherein indication information of waveform switch is configured in activation DCI which may be CS-RNTI scrambled DCI or retransmission DCI [Gu: 0140-42]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Matsumura-Yuan in view of Gu in order to carried indication information in configuration information of a configured grant (CG) resource in the system of Matsumura-Yuan.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Matsumura-Yuan with Gu as doing so would reduce control signaling by allowing the indication information associated with the CG activation to apply to subsequent transmissions.
Claims 16-18 & 22-23 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Matsumura et al. (US 2025/0089065 A1) in view of Yuan et al. (US 2023/0344555 A1) as applied to Claims 1 & 12 above, and further in view of Qian et al. (US 11,452,140 B2).
With regard to Claim 16, Matsumura-Yuan teaches the method of claim 12, but does not teach:
wherein the first information comprises a first downlink (DL) signal, and the first DL signal is used for obtaining measurement information.
In a similar field of endeavor involving enabling transform precoding, Qian discloses:
wherein the first information comprises a first downlink (DL) signal, and the first DL signal is used for obtaining measurement information; (determining the waveform configuration or whether the transform precoding is enabled or not according to measurement results of the channel by comparing a reference signal received power RSRP obtained by measuring a synchronization signal block [Qian: 3:65-4:11; 18:47-61]. Examiner notes that the UE determines the RSRP by measuring a SSB (i.e. DL reference signal) transmitted from the base station).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Matsumura-Yuan in view of Qian in order to utilize a first DL signal for obtaining measurement information in the system of Matsumura-Yuan.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Matsumura-Yuan with Qian as doing so allows the waveform to be selected according to current radio channel conditions.
With regard to Claim 17, Matsumura-Yuan-Qian teaches:
The method of claim 16, further comprising: receiving, by the network device, second information from the terminal device, wherein the second information indicates the transform-precoder enabling state of the PUSCH; (the transform precoding (i.e. DFT-s-OFDM) will be applied by the uplink shared channel carrying the data payload in the message A that is transmitted from the UE to the network device [Qian: 15:47-58; 16:46-60; 17:3-15]).
With regard to Claim 18, Matsumura-Yuan-Qian teaches:
The method of claim 17, wherein the second information comprises a physical random access channel (PRACH), and the PRACH indicates a transform-precoder enabling state of a PUSCH for MsgA or Msg3 in a random access procedure; and wherein a resource of the PRACH corresponds to the transform-precoder enabling state of the PUSCH; (receiving, from a base station, system information including a configuration for a message A (MsgA) of a two-step random access procedure, the MsgA including physical random access channel (PRACH) and a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) in the two-step random access procedure, wherein the UE transmits to the base station the PRACH and the PUSCH based on the configuration [Qian: Claim 1]).
With regard to Claim 22, it appears substantially similar to the limitations recited by claim 16 and consequently does not appear to teach or further define over the citations provided for said claim. Accordingly, claim 22 is rejected for the same reasons as set forth in claim 16.
With regard to Claim 23, Matsumura-Yuan-Qian teaches:
The method of claim 22, further comprising: obtaining, by the terminal device, the measurement information based on the first DL signal; (determining the waveform configuration or whether the transform precoding is enabled or not according to measurement results of the channel by comparing a reference signal received power RSRP obtained by measuring a synchronization signal block [Qian: 3:65-4:11; 18:47-61]. Examiner notes that the UE determines the RSRP by measuring a SSB (i.e. DL reference signal) transmitted from the base station);
and determining, by the terminal device, the transform-precoder enabling state of the PUSCH based on the measurement information and a first threshold; (comparing a reference signal received power RSRP obtained by measuring a synchronization signal block with a first threshold, and if the RSRP is greater than the first threshold, the second waveform is employed or the transform precoding is not enabled, and if not, the first waveform is employed or the transform precoding is enabled [Qian: 3:65-4:11]).
Claim 24 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Matsumura et al. (US 2025/0089065 A1) in view of Yuan et al. (US 2023/0344555 A1) in view of Qian et al. (US 11,452,140 B2) as applied to Claim 22 above, and further in view of Ying et al. (US 2022/0386363 A1).
With regard to Claim 24, Matsumura-Yuan-Qian teaches the method of claim 22, but does not teach:
determining, by the terminal device, a CG resource configuration of the PUSCH in at least one CG resource configuration based on the transform-precoder enabling state of the PUSCH, wherein the transform-precoder enabling state of the PUSCH corresponds to the CG resource configuration.
In a similar field of endeavor involving transform precoding, Ying discloses:
determining, by the terminal device, a CG resource configuration of the PUSCH in at least one CG resource configuration based on the transform-precoder enabling state of the PUSCH, wherein the transform-precoder enabling state of the PUSCH corresponds to the CG resource configuration; (Configured Grant configuration parameters may include an indication of MCS table to use for the PUSCH transmission based on whether transform precoding is enabled or disabled [Ying: 0119-28]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Matsumura-Yuan-Qian in view of Ying in order to determine a CG resource configuration of the PUSCH based on the transform-precoder enabling state in the system of Matsumura-Yuan-Qian.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Matsumura-Yuan-Qian with Ying as doing so would allow the UE to use an appropriate modulation and coding scheme for the particular PUSCH waveform that is utilized based on whether transform precoding is enabled.
Conclusion
Applicant’s amendment necessitated any new grounds of rejection presented in this office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). 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.
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
Levitsky et al. (US 2022/0123983 A1) which teaches a base station may transmit a dynamic indication (e.g., via a medium access control control element (MAC-CE)) to a UE to switch from an initial MCS table (e.g., that is indicated by an RRC configuration) to a new MCS table, and enables the UE to determine a transform precoder activation state (e.g., enabled or disabled) and/or a transmit waveform type (e.g., DFT-s-OFDM or CP-OFDM) based at least in part on the new MCS table that is indicated [Levitsky: 0065].
In the case of amendments, Applicant is respectfully requested to indicate the portion(s) of the specification which dictate(s) the structure relied on for proper interpretation and support, for ascertaining the metes and bounds of the claimed invention.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to AUSTIN J MOREAU whose telephone number is (571) 272-5179. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 9:00 - 6:00 ET.
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, Rebecca Song can be reached on 571-270-3667. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/AUSTIN J MOREAU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2417
