Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
1. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Priority
2. Acknowledgment is made of applicant's claim for foreign priority based on parent Application No. PCT/CN2023/115611, filed on August 29, 2023. It is noted, however, that applicant has not filed a certified copy of the PCT/CN2023/115611 application as required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
3. The information disclosure statements (IDSs) submitted on August 8, 2024, and July 8, 2026, were filed before the mailing of a first Office action on the merits. The submissions are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner.
Claim Objections
4. Claims 3-6 and 17-20 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 3 (line 9), claim 4 (line 8), claim 5 (line 8), claim 6 (line 8), claim 17 (line 8), claim 18 (line 8), claim 19 (line 8), and claim 20 (line 8) recite “the number of search space sets” and it should be - - a number of search space sets - -, as “the number of search space sets” lacks antecedent basis.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
5. 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.
6. Claims 1 and 14-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Niu ‘004 (US 2023/0146004, “Niu ‘004”), in view of Nam ‘969 (US 2025/0310969, “Nam ‘969”).
Regarding claim 1, Niu ‘004 discloses a first apparatus comprising: at least one processor; and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the first apparatus (FIG. 15, para 23 and 99-102; user equipment (UE) includes a processor that executes instructions stored in a memory, causing the UE to perform operations) at least to:
determine, within a frame in which a synchronization signal physical broadcast channel block, SS/PBCH block, is transmitted, a resource for a physical downlink control channel, PDCCH (FIGS. 4 and 11, para 1, 39, 44-45, and 70-77; control resource set (CORESET) transmission slots are determined, where the slots are contained in a frame, and are used to transmit PDCCH; in multiplexing pattern 3, the CORESET transmission and SS/PBCH – also referred to as SSB – overlap in time domain; thus, slot resources are determined, where the slot resources are used for PDCCH transmission within a frame in which SS/PBCH block is also transmitted),
transmission based on a multiplexing pattern associated with the SS/PBCH block and the PDCCH transmission (FIGS. 4 and 11, para 44-45 and 70-77; transmission of SS/PBCH and CORESET slots carrying PDCCH is based on multiplexing pattern 3); and
monitor, on the resource, the PDCCH transmission (para 39; PDCCH resources are monitored in PDCCH monitoring occasion).
Although Niu ‘004 discloses a resource for a physical downlink control channel, PDCCH, Niu ‘004 does not specifically disclose a resource for at least one repetition of a physical downlink control channel, PDCCH. Further, although Niu ‘004 discloses transmission based on a multiplexing pattern associated with the SS/PBCH block and the PDCCH transmission, Niu ‘004 does not specifically disclose transmission based on a repetition factor configured for the PDCCH transmission.
Nam ‘969 teaches a resource for at least one repetition of a physical downlink control channel, PDCCH (FIG. 7C, para 106-112; UE monitors PDCCH in slots of monitoring occasion groups, where the slots include PDCCH repetitions),
transmission based on a repetition factor configured for the PDCCH transmission (FIG. 7C, para 107 and 110; PDCCH is transmitted repeatedly over Nrep consecutive slots, where Nrep is a repetition factor for indicating a number of slots in each monitoring occasion group) and
monitor, on the resource, the at least one repetition of the PDCCH transmission for obtaining control information from a second apparatus (FIG. 7C, para 54 and 106-112; UE monitors and receives PDCCH repetitions in slots, where the PDCCH is transmitted from the base station; thus, UE monitors and receives the PDCCH repetitions to obtain control information from the base station).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Niu ‘004’s apparatus that determines a resource for PDCCH repetition within a frame with a SS/PBCH block, to include Nam ‘969’s UE that monitors and receives the PDCCH repetitions to obtain control information from the base station. The motivation for doing so would have been to improve communication reliability and reduce UE’s power consumption (Nam ‘969, para 39).
Regarding claim 14, Niu ‘004 in combination with Nam ‘969 discloses all the limitations with respect to claims 1, as outlined above.
Further, Niu ‘004 teaches wherein
the first apparatus comprises a terminal device (FIG. 15, para 23 and 99-102; user equipment (UE)), and
the second apparatus comprises a network device (FIG. 15, para 118-119 and 125; gNB node).
Regarding claim 15, Niu ‘004 discloses a second apparatus comprising: at least one processor; and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the second apparatus (FIG. 15, para 118-119 and 125; gNB node includes a processor that executes instructions stored in a memory, causing the gNB to perform operations) at least to:
determine, within a frame in which a synchronization signal physical broadcast channel block, SS/PBCH block, is transmitted, a resource for a physical downlink control channel, PDCCH (FIGS. 4 and 11, para 1, 39, 44-45, and 70-77; control resource set (CORESET) transmission slots are determined, where the slots are contained in a frame, and are used to transmit PDCCH; in multiplexing pattern 3, the CORESET transmission and SS/PBCH – also referred to as SSB – overlap in time domain; thus, slot resources are determined, where the slot resources are used for PDCCH transmission within a frame in which SS/PBCH block is also transmitted),
transmission based on a multiplexing pattern associated with the SS/PBCH block and the PDCCH transmission (FIGS. 4 and 11, para 44-45 and 70-77; transmission of SS/PBCH and CORESET slots carrying PDCCH is based on multiplexing pattern 3); and
transmit, to a first apparatus, the PDCCH transmission on the resource (FIG. 11, para 70-77; gNB transmits PDCCH in slots).
Although Niu ‘004 discloses a resource for a physical downlink control channel, PDCCH, Niu ‘004 does not specifically disclose a resource for at least one repetition of a physical downlink control channel, PDCCH. Further, although Niu ‘004 discloses transmission based on a multiplexing pattern associated with the SS/PBCH block and the PDCCH transmission, Niu ‘004 does not specifically disclose transmission based on a repetition factor configured for the PDCCH transmission.
Nam ‘969 teaches a resource for at least one repetition of a physical downlink control channel, PDCCH (FIG. 7C, para 106-112; UE monitors PDCCH in slots of monitoring occasion groups, where the slots include PDCCH repetitions),
transmission based on a repetition factor configured for the PDCCH transmission (FIG. 7C, para 107 and 110; PDCCH is transmitted repeatedly over Nrep consecutive slots, where Nrep is a repetition factor for indicating a number of slots in each monitoring occasion group) and
transmit, to a first apparatus, the at least one repetition of the PDCCH transmission on the resource (FIG. 7C, para 106-112; UE monitors and receives PDCCH repetitions in slots, where the PDCCH is transmitted from the base station; thus, base station transmits to the UE PDCCH repetitions).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Niu ‘004’s apparatus that determines a resource for PDCCH repetition within a frame with a SS/PBCH block, to include Nam ‘969’s base station that transmits to the UE PDCCH repetitions. The motivation for doing so would have been to improve communication reliability and reduce UE’s power consumption (Nam ‘969, para 39).
7. Claims 2, 10, and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Niu ‘004, in view of Nam ‘969, and further in view of Park ‘487 (US 2021/0337487, “Park ‘487”).
Regarding claims 2 and 16, Niu ‘004 in combination with Nam ‘969 discloses all the limitations with respect to claims 1 and 15, respectively, as outlined above.
Further, Niu ‘004 teaches wherein the first apparatus is caused to:
determine the resource for the at least one repetition based on one or more available slots in a first half of the frame (FIGS. 4 and 11, para 1, 39, 44-45, and 70-77; control resource set (CORESET) transmission slots are determined, where the slots are contained in a frame, and are used to transmit PDCCH; as the slots are contained in a frame, the slots are in at least one half of the frame).
However, Niu ‘004 in combination with Nam ‘969 does not specifically disclose wherein the SS/PBCH block is contained in the first half of the frame.
Park ‘487 teaches wherein the SS/PBCH block is contained in the first half of the frame (FIG. 4, para 5 and 83; type 1 synchronization signal block (SSB) is transmitted within the first subframe of the frame, where the frame consists of four subframes).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add features to the combined apparatus of Niu ‘004 and Nam ‘969, to include Park ‘487’s type 1 synchronization signal block (SSB) that is transmitted within the first subframe of the frame. The motivation for doing so would have been to achieve faster beam sweeping and lower search complexity in the frequency domain in a UE (Park ‘487, para 33).
Regarding claim 10, Niu ‘004 in combination with Nam ‘969 discloses all the limitations with respect to claims 1, as outlined above.
Further, Niu ‘004 teaches wherein the multiplexing pattern is a second scheme for multiplexing the SS/PBCH block and a control resource set (FIGS. 3 and 11, para 1, 39, 42-43, and 70-77; control resource set (CORESET) transmission slots are determined, where the slots are contained in a frame, and are used to transmit PDCCH; in multiplexing pattern 2, the CORESET transmission and SS/PBCH – also referred to as SSB – overlap in time domain, and are multiplexed), and
the first apparatus is caused to:
determine the resource for the at least one repetition based on one or more available slots in a first half of the frame (FIGS. 4 and 11, para 1, 39, 44-45, and 70-77; control resource set (CORESET) transmission slots are determined, where the slots are contained in a frame, and are used to transmit PDCCH; as the slots are contained in a frame, the slots are in at least one half of the frame; examiner notes the use of alternative language; for rejection purposes, only one of the alternative limitations must be disclosed by prior art) and/or in a second half of the frame.
However, Niu ‘004 in combination with Nam ‘969 does not specifically disclose wherein the SS/PBCH block is contained in the first half of the frame and/or in the second half of the frame.
Park ‘487 teaches wherein the SS/PBCH block is contained in the first half of the frame and/or in the second half of the frame (FIG. 4, para 5 and 83; type 1 synchronization signal block (SSB) is transmitted within the first subframe of the frame, where the frame consists of four subframes, thus, the SS/PBCH block is within the first half of the frame; examiner notes the use of alternative language; for rejection purposes, only one of the alternative limitations must be disclosed by prior art).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add features to the combined apparatus of Niu ‘004 and Nam ‘969, to include Park ‘487’s type 1 synchronization signal block (SSB) that is transmitted within the first subframe of the frame. The motivation for doing so would have been to achieve faster beam sweeping and lower search complexity in the frequency domain in a UE (Park ‘487, para 33).
8. Claims 3, 5, 17, and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Niu ‘004, in view of Nam ‘969, further in view of Park ‘487, and further in view of Dashtaki ‘128 (US 2024/0260128, “Dashtaki ‘128”; Dashtaki ‘128 was filed on January 9, 2024, claiming priority to US provisional application 63/440277 filed on January 20, 2023, and thus Dashtaki ‘128 was effectively filed before the claimed invention; further, the US provisional application 63/440277 fully supports all citations made in the rejection from the Dashtaki ‘128 reference).
Regarding claims 3 and 17, Niu ‘004 in combination with Nam ‘969 and Park ‘487 discloses all the limitations with respect to claims 2 and 16, respectively, as outlined above.
Further, Niu ‘004 teaches wherein the multiplexing pattern is a first scheme for multiplexing the SS/PBCH block and a control resource set for the PDCCH transmission (FIGS. 4 and 11, para 1, 39, 44-45, and 70-77; control resource set (CORESET) transmission slots are determined, where the slots are contained in a frame, and are used to transmit PDCCH; in multiplexing pattern 3, the CORESET transmission and SS/PBCH – also referred to as SSB – overlap in time domain), and
the first apparatus is caused to: determine the resource for the at least one repetition of the PDCCH transmission in the one or more available slots based on
a first parameter associated with subcarrier spacing of the control resource set (para 72-77 and 86; CORESET transmission slots are determined based on subcarrier spacing (SCS) for physical downlink reception in a CORESET),
a total number of slots in the frame (para 72-77 and 86; CORESET transmission slots are determined based on the number of slots per frame), and
a multiplexing factor indicating the number of search space sets corresponding to SS/PBCH block indices in a slot (FIG. 5, para 50-51; parameters for PDCCH monitoring occasions for Type0-PDCCH common search space (CSS) - SSB and CORESET multiplexing pattern include the number of search space sets per slot),
wherein the total number of slots in the frame is determined based on the first parameter associated with subcarrier spacing of the control resource set (para 72-77; the number of slots per frame is for parameter µ).
However, Niu ‘004 in combination with Nam ‘969 and Park ‘487 does not specifically disclose determine the resource based on a maximum number of SS/PBCH blocks indices in a cell, an offset from the first slot in the frame.
Dashtaki ‘128 teaches determine the resource based on
a maximum number of SS/PBCH blocks indices in a cell (para 487-491; reference signal (RS) resources are determined based on a maximum number of SS/PBCH block indexes in a cell),
an offset from the first slot in the frame (para 237-239; parameters of CORESETs which can be used to include a slot offset relative to the start of the frame).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add features to the combined apparatus of Niu ‘004, Nam ‘969, and Park ‘487, to include Dashtaki ‘128’s reference signal (RS) resources that are determined based on a maximum number of SS/PBCH block indexes in a cell. The motivation for doing so would have been to reduce consumed power of the wireless device and/or reduce UL/DL delay (Dashtaki ‘128, para 338).
Regarding claims 5 and 19, Niu ‘004 in combination with Nam ‘969 and Park ‘487 discloses all the limitations with respect to claims 2 and 16, respectively, as outlined above.
Further, Niu ‘004 teaches wherein the multiplexing pattern is a first scheme for multiplexing the SS/PBCH block and a control resource set for the PDCCH transmission (FIGS. 4 and 11, para 1, 39, 44-45, and 70-77; control resource set (CORESET) transmission slots are determined, where the slots are contained in a frame, and are used to transmit PDCCH; in multiplexing pattern 3, the CORESET transmission and SS/PBCH – also referred to as SSB – overlap in time domain), and
the first apparatus is caused to: determine the resource for the at least one repetition of the PDCCH transmission in the one or more available slots based on
a first parameter associated with subcarrier spacing of the control resource set (para 72-77 and 86; CORESET transmission slots are determined based on subcarrier spacing (SCS) for physical downlink reception in a CORESET),
a total number of slots in the frame (para 72-77 and 86; CORESET transmission slots are determined based on the number of slots per frame), and
a multiplexing factor indicating the number of search space sets corresponding to SS/PBCH block indices in a slot (FIG. 5, para 50-51; parameters for PDCCH monitoring occasions for Type0-PDCCH common search space (CSS) - SSB and CORESET multiplexing pattern include the number of search space sets per slot),
wherein the total number of slots in the frame is determined based on the first parameter associated with subcarrier spacing of the control resource set (para 72-77; the number of slots per frame is for parameter µ),
wherein the original transmission is associated with an SS/PBCH block index of the SS/PBCH block (para 72-77; the transmission is associated with a candidate SSB index).
Furthermore, Nam ‘969 teaches wherein one of the one or more available slots that overlaps with a slot for an original transmission of the PDCCH transmission is discarded from slots to be used for the at least one repetition of the PDCCH transmission (para 107, 110, and 133; the PDCCH transmission is repeated in each slot of Nrep consecutive slots, where Nrep is a repetition factor for indicating a number of slots in each monitoring occasion group; thus, the first slot in the Nrep consecutive slots is used only for the first PDCCH transmission, and not used for any of the PDCCH repetitions).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add features to the combined apparatus of Niu ‘004 and Nam ‘969, to further include Nam ‘969’s PDCCH transmission that is repeated in each slot of Nrep consecutive slots. The motivation for doing so would have been to improve communication reliability and reduce UE’s power consumption (Nam ‘969, para 39).
However, Niu ‘004 in combination with Nam ‘969 and Park ‘487 does not specifically disclose determine the resource based on a maximum number of SS/PBCH blocks indices in a cell, an offset from the first slot in the frame.
Dashtaki ‘128 teaches determine the resource based on
a maximum number of SS/PBCH blocks indices in a cell (para 487-491; reference signal (RS) resources are determined based on a maximum number of SS/PBCH block indexes in a cell),
an offset from the first slot in the frame (para 237-239; parameters of CORESETs which can be used include a slot offset relative to the start of the frame).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add features to the combined apparatus of Niu ‘004, Nam ‘969, and Park ‘487, to include Dashtaki ‘128’s reference signal (RS) resources that are determined based on a maximum number of SS/PBCH block indexes in a cell. The motivation for doing so would have been to reduce consumed power of the wireless device and/or reduce UL/DL delay (Dashtaki ‘128, para 338).
9. Claims 11 and 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Niu ‘004, in view of Nam ‘969, and further in view of Peng ‘479 (US 2025/0024479, “Peng ‘479”).
Regarding claim 11, Niu ‘004 in combination with Nam ‘969 discloses all the limitations with respect to claim 1, as outlined above.
However, Niu ‘004 in combination with Nam ‘969 does not specifically disclose wherein the repetition factor is associated with at least one of the following: a first factor used for intra-slot repetition, a second factor used for inter-slot repetition within the frame, or a third factor used for inter-slot repetition across frames.
Peng ‘479 teaches wherein the repetition factor is associated with at least one of the following:
a first factor used for intra-slot repetition (para 14; intra-slot repetition factor; examiner notes the use of alternative language; for rejection purposes, only one of the alternative limitations must be disclosed by prior art),
a second factor used for inter-slot repetition within the frame, or
a third factor used for inter-slot repetition across frames.
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add features to the combined apparatus of Niu ‘004 and Nam ‘969, to include Peng ‘479’s intra-slot repetition factor. The motivation for doing so would have been to improve positioning accuracy for 5G-NR based positioning (Peng ‘479, para 39).
Regarding claim 12, Niu ‘004 in combination with Nam ‘969 and Peng ‘479 discloses all the limitations with respect to claim 11, as outlined above.
Further, Nam ‘969 teaches wherein the first apparatus is caused to:
determine the second factor based on the repetition factor and the first factor (para 107 and 112; value of the offset Noff parameter is determined based on the repetition factor Nrep and values {0, 1, …, Nrep -1}; examiner notes the use of alternative language; for rejection purposes, only one of the alternative limitations must be disclosed by prior art); or
determine the third factor based on the repetition factor, the first factor and the second factor.
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add features to the combined apparatus of Niu ‘004, Nam ‘969, and Peng ‘479, to further include Nam ‘969’s value of the offset Noff parameter that is determined based on the repetition factor Nrep. The motivation for doing so would have been to improve communication reliability and reduce UE’s power consumption (Nam ‘969, para 39).
10. Claim 13 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Niu ‘004, in view of Nam ‘969, further in view of Peng ‘479, and further in view of Matsumura ‘677 (US 2026/0163677, “Matsumura ‘677”).
Regarding claim 13, Niu ‘004 in combination with Nam ‘969 and Peng ‘479 discloses all the limitations with respect to claim 11, as outlined above.
However, Niu ‘004 in combination with Nam ‘969 and Peng ‘479 does not specifically disclose wherein a priority of the first factor is higher than a priority of the second factor, and the priority of the second factor is higher than a priority of the third factor.
Matsumura ‘677 teaches wherein a priority of the first factor is higher than a priority of the second factor, and the priority of the second factor is higher than a priority of the third factor (para 166-172; three parameters are placed in order of priority).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add features to the combined apparatus of Niu ‘004, Nam ‘969, and Peng ‘479, to include Matsumura ‘677’s three parameters placed in order of priority. The motivation for doing so would have been to provide a terminal, radio communication method, and a base station that appropriately determine a TCI state (Matsumura ‘677, para 5-7).
Allowable Subject Matter
11. Claims 4, 6-9, 18, and 20 are objected to as being dependent upon rejected base claims, but would be allowable if amended to overcome the above claim objections related to informalities, and rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claims and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
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/NEVENA ZECEVIC SANDHU/Examiner, Art Unit 2474
/Michael Thier/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2474
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