DETAILED ACTION
Claim(s) 1-20 are presented for examination.
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 .
Priority
As required by M.P.E.P.201.14(c), acknowledgement is made to applicant’s claim for priority based on application(s) PCT/CN2022/075230 submitted on January 30th, 2022.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement(s) (IDS) submitted on July 12th, 2024 follow the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Specification
The title of the invention is not descriptive. A new title is required that is clearly indicative of the invention to which the claims are directed (i.e., “RESOURCE TRANSMISSION USING PHYSICAL UPLINK SHARED CHANNELS”).
The abstract of the disclosure is objected to because it contains a legal phraseology “comprises …” in lines 2 and 4. The form and legal phraseology often used in patent claims, such as "means" and "said," should be avoided. Correction is required. See MPEP § 608.01(b).
Claim Rejections - 35 U.S.C. § 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 set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied 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.
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.
Claim(s) 1-3, 6, 11-13 and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over CHOI et al. (US 2022/0150928 A1) hereinafter “Choi” in view of MOON et al. (US 2020/0162208 A1) hereinafter “Moon”.
Regarding Claims 1 and 11,
Choi discloses a terminal device [see fig. 11, pg. 10, ¶108 lines 1-4, a UE], comprising:
a processor and a memory configured to store at least one computer program [see fig. 11, pg. 10, ¶108 lines 1-4, a processor and a memory storing instructions or programs], wherein the at least one computer program [see fig. 11, pg. 10, ¶108 lines 1-4, the instructions or programs], when executed by the processor [see fig. 11, pg. 10, ¶108 lines 1-4, during an implementation by the processor], causes the terminal device to [see fig. 11, pg. 10, ¶108 lines 1-4, initiates the UE to]:
transmit at least one uplink information on at least one resource [see pg. 16, ¶168 lines 1-13, the user equipment transmits a PUSCH through an uplink on the basis of the received scheduling information];
wherein the at least one resource [see pg. 16, ¶168 lines 1-13, the scheduling information about a PUSCH received from a base station] comprises of:
a time domain resource [see pg. 16, ¶168 lines 1-13, a time-frequency resource on which the PUSCH is to be transmitted is recognized using time domain resource assignment (TDRA) information]; or
a frequency domain resource [see pg. 16, ¶168 lines 1-13, frequency domain resource assignment (FDRA) information for PUSCH transmission included in DCI].
Although Choi discloses transmitting at least one uplink information on at least one resource, Choi does not explicitly teach “the at least one uplink information comprises at least one of: one or more physical uplink control channels (PUCCHs), one or more physical uplink shared channels (PUSCHs), one or more transmission layers, one or more transmission layers corresponding to the PUSCHs, one or more redundancy versions (RVs) corresponding to the PUSCHs, one or more transport blocks, one or more RVs corresponding to the transport blocks, or one or more reference signals”.
However Moon discloses transmit at least one uplink information on at least one resource [see pg. 8, ¶94 lines 1-14, two consecutive slots are aggregated, and the terminal transmits a PUSCH in each slot];
wherein the at least one resource [see pg. 8, ¶94 lines 1-14, the terminal transmits the first PUSCH instance to the base station through a slot n, and transmits the second PUSCH instance to the base station through a slot n+1] comprises of:
a time domain resource [see pg. 8, ¶94 lines 1-14, the time resources (e.g., eleventh to fourteenth symbols) allocated for the first PUSCH instance in the slot n are the same as the time resources (e.g., eleventh to fourteenth symbols) allocated for the second PUSCH instance in the slot n+1]; or
a frequency domain resource [see pg. 8, ¶94 lines 1-14, the frequency resources allocated for the first PUSCH instance in the slot n (e.g., frequency region A) are the same as the frequency resources allocated for the second PUSCH instance in the slot n+1 (e.g., frequency region A)]; and
wherein the at least one uplink information [see pg. 8, ¶94 lines 1-14; ¶96 lines 1-10, when PUSCH repetitive transmission is applied, the number of transmission layers are limited to one] comprises of:
one or more redundancy versions (RVs) corresponding to the PUSCHs [see pg. 8, ¶94 lines 1-14; ¶96 lines 1-10, the redundancy version (RV) applied to each of the PUSCH instances is identical or different].
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide “the at least one uplink information comprises at least one of: one or more physical uplink control channels (PUCCHs), one or more physical uplink shared channels (PUSCHs), one or more transmission layers, one or more transmission layers corresponding to the PUSCHs, one or more redundancy versions (RVs) corresponding to the PUSCHs, one or more transport blocks, one or more RVs corresponding to the transport blocks, or one or more reference signals” as taught by Moon in the system of Choi for improving error correction capability by channel coding when a different RV is applied to each of the PUSCH instances [see Moon, pg. 8, ¶96 lines 1-10].
Regarding Claim 2,
The combined system of Choi and Moon discloses the method according to claim 1.
Choi further discloses the following:
the at least one resource is scheduled by one or more downlink control information (DCI) [see pg. 16, ¶168 lines 1-13, frequency domain resource assignment (FDRA) information for PUSCH transmission is included in downlink control information (DCI)].
Regarding Claim 3,
The combined system of Choi and Moon discloses the method according to claim 1.
Choi further discloses the at least one resource comprises a non-frequency hopping resource [see pg. 16, ¶169 lines 1-13, a PUSCH is transmitted on the same symbol and the same PRB in a slot. In order to a diversity gain in the frequency domain, frequency hopping is configured for the user equipment].
Regarding Claim 6,
The combined system of Choi and Moon discloses the method according to claim 1.
Choi further discloses the at least one resource comprises a frequency hopping resource [see pg. 16, ¶169 lines 1-13, a PUSCH is transmitted on the same symbol and the same PRB in a slot. In order to a diversity gain in the frequency domain, frequency hopping is configured for the user equipment].
Regarding Claim 12,
Choi discloses a network device [see fig. 11, pg. 10, ¶108 lines 1-4, a base station (BS)], comprising:
a processor and a memory configured to store at least one computer program [see fig. 11, pg. 10, ¶108 lines 1-4, a processor and a memory storing instructions or programs], wherein the at least one computer program [see fig. 11, pg. 10, ¶108 lines 1-4, the instructions or programs], when executed by the processor [see fig. 11, pg. 10, ¶108 lines 1-4, during an implementation by the processor], causes the network device to [see fig. 11, pg. 10, ¶108 lines 1-4, initiates the BS to]:
receive at least one uplink information on at least one resource [see pg. 16, ¶168 lines 1-13, the user equipment transmits a PUSCH through an uplink on the basis of the received scheduling information];
wherein the at least one resource [see pg. 16, ¶168 lines 1-13, the scheduling information about a PUSCH received from a base station] comprises of:
a time domain resource [see pg. 16, ¶168 lines 1-13, a time-frequency resource on which the PUSCH is to be transmitted is recognized using time domain resource assignment (TDRA) information]; or
a frequency domain resource [see pg. 16, ¶168 lines 1-13, frequency domain resource assignment (FDRA) information for PUSCH transmission included in DCI].
Although Choi discloses transmitting at least one uplink information on at least one resource, Choi does not explicitly teach “the at least one uplink information comprises at least one of: one or more physical uplink control channels (PUCCHs), one or more physical uplink shared channels (PUSCHs), one or more transmission layers corresponding to the PUCCHs, one or more transmission layers corresponding to the PUSCHs, one or more redundancy versions (RVs) corresponding to the PUSCHs, one or more transport blocks, one or more RVs corresponding to the transport blocks, or one or more reference signals”.
However Moon discloses receive at least one uplink information on at least one resource [see pg. 8, ¶94 lines 1-14, two consecutive slots are aggregated, and the terminal transmits a PUSCH in each slot];
wherein the at least one resource [see pg. 8, ¶94 lines 1-14, the terminal transmits the first PUSCH instance to the base station through a slot n, and transmits the second PUSCH instance to the base station through a slot n+1] comprises of:
a time domain resource [see pg. 8, ¶94 lines 1-14, the time resources (e.g., eleventh to fourteenth symbols) allocated for the first PUSCH instance in the slot n are the same as the time resources (e.g., eleventh to fourteenth symbols) allocated for the second PUSCH instance in the slot n+1]; or
a frequency domain resource [see pg. 8, ¶94 lines 1-14, the frequency resources allocated for the first PUSCH instance in the slot n (e.g., frequency region A) are the same as the frequency resources allocated for the second PUSCH instance in the slot n+1 (e.g., frequency region A)]; and
wherein the at least one uplink information [see pg. 8, ¶94 lines 1-14; ¶96 lines 1-10, when PUSCH repetitive transmission is applied, the number of transmission layers are limited to one] comprises of:
one or more redundancy versions (RVs) corresponding to the PUSCHs [see pg. 8, ¶94 lines 1-14; ¶96 lines 1-10, the redundancy version (RV) applied to each of the PUSCH instances is identical or different].
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide “the at least one uplink information comprises at least one of: one or more physical uplink control channels (PUCCHs), one or more physical uplink shared channels (PUSCHs), one or more transmission layers, one or more transmission layers corresponding to the PUSCHs, one or more redundancy versions (RVs) corresponding to the PUSCHs, one or more transport blocks, one or more RVs corresponding to the transport blocks, or one or more reference signals” as taught by Moon in the system of Choi for improving error correction capability by channel coding when a different RV is applied to each of the PUSCH instances [see Moon, pg. 8, ¶96 lines 1-10].
Regarding Claim 13,
The combined system of Choi and Moon discloses the network device according to claim 12.
Choi further discloses wherein the at least one resource comprises a non-frequency hopping resource [see pg. 16, ¶169 lines 1-13, a PUSCH is transmitted on the same symbol and the same PRB in a slot. In order to a diversity gain in the frequency domain, frequency hopping is configured for the user equipment].
Regarding Claim 16,
The combined system of Choi and Moon discloses the network device according to claim 12.
Choi further discloses the at least one resource comprises a frequency hopping resource [see pg. 16, ¶169 lines 1-13, a PUSCH is transmitted on the same symbol and the same PRB in a slot. In order to a diversity gain in the frequency domain, frequency hopping is configured for the user equipment].
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim(s) 4, 5, 7-10, 14, 15 and 17-20 is/are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
United States Patent Application Publication: Kundu et al. (US 2021/0029731 A1);
see fig. 11, pg. 21, ¶256 lines 1-10.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to RUSHIL P SAMPAT whose telephone number is (469) 295-9141. The examiner can normally be reached on Mon-Fri (8 AM - 5 PM).
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/RUSHIL P. SAMPAT/Primary Examiner- TC 2400, Art Unit 2469
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