DETAILED ACTION
Specification
The abstract of the disclosure is objected to because the second half of the abstract reads like a claim. It is very similar to the original claims in the parent case. Further, the original claims are different from the claims in this case, so the content of the abstract is outdated. A corrected abstract of the disclosure is required and must be presented on a separate sheet, apart from any other text. See MPEP § 608.01(b).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112(b)
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1-16 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Regarding claims 1-16: claims 1, 5, 9, and 13 include the limitations receiving/transmitting “configuration of search space with index zero” and claims 2-4, 6-8, 10-12, and 14-16 disclose the limitations receiving/transmitting “time resource information for a search space”. It is unclear if these search spaces (and the associated configuration and/or time resource information) are the same or different search spaces.
Regarding claims 2, 6, 10, and 14: the scope of the limitation “where X and Y are number of consecutive slots” is unclear. Are X and Y each separate numbers of consecutive slots? Do the values of X and Y somehow indicate a single number of consecutive slots?
Further complicating the intended scope is the following: the specification includes an explanation of “(X, Y)” in [0106] of “The span is related to the parameter (X, Y), where X is the time distance between the first symbols of two consecutive spans. Y is the time length of one span (that is, the length of a span is at most Y)”. However, this description does not mention X and Y being “number of consecutive slots”.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by 3GPP TS 38.213 V17.0.0 (2021-12).
Applicant cannot rely upon the certified copy of the foreign priority application to overcome this rejection because a translation of said application has not been made of record in accordance with 37 CFR 1.55. When an English language translation of a non-English language foreign application is required, the translation must be that of the certified copy (of the foreign application as filed) submitted together with a statement that the translation of the certified copy is accurate. See MPEP §§ 215 and 216.
Regarding claim 1: 3GPP TS 38.213 discloses a method performed by a user equipment (UE) in a communication system, the method comprising:
receiving, from a base station, configuration of search space with index zero associated with Type0-physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) common search space (CSS) set (see the first paragraph of section 13 on p. 172, for example, which indicates “If during cell search a UE determines from MIB that a CORESET for Type0-PDCCH CSS set is present, as described in clause 4.1, the UE determines a number of consecutive resource blocks and a number of consecutive symbols for the CORESET of the Type0-PDCCH CSS set from controlResourceSetZero in pdcch-ConfigSIB1, as described in Tables 13-1 through 13-10, for operation without shared spectrum channel access in FR1 and FR2-1, or as described in Tables 13-1A and 13-4A for operation with shared spectrum channel access in FR1, or as described in Tables 13-10A, 13-10B and 13-10C for FR2-2, and determines PDCCH monitoring occasions from searchSpaceZero in pdcch-ConfigSIB1”); and
identifying PDCCH monitoring occasions for the Type0-PDCCH CSS set based on information, wherein the PDCCH monitoring occasions are in slot n0 and slot n0+k (see section 13 on p. 173 for example, which disclose that “For operation without shared spectrum channel access and for the SS/PBCH block and CORESET multiplexing pattern 1, a UE monitors PDCCH in the Type0-PDCCH CSS set over two slots… For SS/PBCH block with index
i
, the UE determines an index of slot
n
0
”; further, as indicated in the 3 hyphenated paragraphs following the above statements, depending on the value of the SCS parameter µ, the second slot is n0+k, where k is either 1 (for µ=0, 1, 2, or 3), 4 (for µ=5), or 8 (for µ=6)),
wherein the slot n0 depends on a synchronization signal and physical broadcast channel (SS/PBCH) block index associated with the information (as indicated above, n0 corresponds to a “SS/PBCH block with index i”)), and
wherein a value of k is related to a subcarrier spacing (as indicated above, the value of k varies based on the value of the subcarrier spacing (SCS) parameter µ).
Regarding claim 5: 3GPP TS 38.213 discloses a method performed by a base station in a communication system, the base station comprising:
transmitting, to a user equipment (UE), configuration of search space with index zero associated with Type0-physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) common search space (CSS) set (see the first paragraph of section 13 on p. 172, for example, which indicates “If during cell search a UE determines from MIB that a CORESET for Type0-PDCCH CSS set is present, as described in clause 4.1, the UE determines a number of consecutive resource blocks and a number of consecutive symbols for the CORESET of the Type0-PDCCH CSS set from controlResourceSetZero in pdcch-ConfigSIB1, as described in Tables 13-1 through 13-10, for operation without shared spectrum channel access in FR1 and FR2-1, or as described in Tables 13-1A and 13-4A for operation with shared spectrum channel access in FR1, or as described in Tables 13-10A, 13-10B and 13-10C for FR2-2, and determines PDCCH monitoring occasions from searchSpaceZero in pdcch-ConfigSIB1”),
wherein PDCCH monitoring occasions for the Type0-PDCCH CSS set is based on information, wherein the PDCCH monitoring occasions are in slot n0 and slot n0+k (see section 13 on p. 173 for example, which disclose that “For operation without shared spectrum channel access and for the SS/PBCH block and CORESET multiplexing pattern 1, a UE monitors PDCCH in the Type0-PDCCH CSS set over two slots… For SS/PBCH block with index
i
, the UE determines an index of slot
n
0
”; further, as indicated in the 3 hyphenated paragraphs following the above statements, depending on the value of the SCS parameter µ, the second slot is n0+k, where k is either 1 (for µ=0, 1, 2, or 3), 4 (for µ=5), or 8 (for µ=6)),
wherein the slot n0 depends on a synchronization signal and physical broadcast channel (SS/PBCH) block index associated with the information (as indicated above, n0 corresponds to a “SS/PBCH block with index i”)), and
wherein a value of k is related to a subcarrier spacing (as indicated above, the value of k varies based on the value of the subcarrier spacing (SCS) parameter µ).
Regarding claims 2 and 6: 3GPP TS 38.213 discloses the limitations of receiving, from the base station, time resource information for a search space (see section 10 starting on p. 123, for example; see the fourth paragraph on p. 124, for example, which indicates “The UE determines the number of monitored PDCCH candidates and the number of non-overlapped CCEs for combination
X
s
,
Y
s
based on all search space sets within the
X
s
slots, as applicable according to the search space set configurations”); and identifying time resources for a first search space set based on the time resource information, wherein the time resources for the first search space set satisfies a constraint associated with a combination (X, Y) indicated by the UE as a capability where X and Y are number of consecutive slots (see section 10 starting on p. 123, for example; see the third and fourth paragraphs on p. 124, for example, which indicate “…where
X
s
and
Y
s
are numbers of consecutive slots, groups of
X
s
slots are consecutive and non-overlapping, and the
Y
s
slots are within the
X
s
slots…” and “If a UE monitors PDCCH on a cell according to combination
X
s
,
Y
s
, the UE can monitor PDCCH for Type1-PDCCH CSS set provided by dedicated higher layer signalling, Type3-PDCCH CSS sets, and USS sets in any slot of the
Y
s
slots, and the UE can monitor PDCCH for Type0/0A/2-PDCCH CSS set and Type1-PDCCH CSS set provided in SIB1 in any slot of the
X
s
slots”), wherein the first search space set corresponds to at least one of: a Type1-PDCCH CSS set configured by dedicated radio resource control (RRC) signaling; a Type3-PDCCH CSS set; or a USS set (see section 10 starting on p. 123, for example; see the fourth paragraphs on p. 124, for example, which indicates “If a UE monitors PDCCH on a cell according to combination
X
s
,
Y
s
, the UE can monitor PDCCH for Type1-PDCCH CSS set provided by dedicated higher layer signalling, Type3-PDCCH CSS sets, and USS sets in any slot of the
Y
s
slots, and the UE can monitor PDCCH for Type0/0A/2-PDCCH CSS set and Type1-PDCCH CSS set provided in SIB1 in any slot of the
X
s
slots”).
Regarding claims 3 and 7: 3GPP TS 38.213 discloses the limitations of receiving, from the base station, time resource information for a search space (see section 10 starting on p. 123, for example; see the fourth paragraph on p. 124, for example, which indicates “The UE determines the number of monitored PDCCH candidates and the number of non-overlapped CCEs for combination
X
s
,
Y
s
based on all search space sets within the
X
s
slots, as applicable according to the search space set configurations”); and identifying time resources within a time window for a second search space set based on the time resource information, wherein the time window comprises a group of slots and the time resources for the second search space set satisfies a constraint associated with the time window (see section 10 starting on p. 123, for example; see the third and fourth paragraphs on p. 124, for example, which indicate “…where
X
s
and
Y
s
are numbers of consecutive slots, groups of
X
s
slots are consecutive and non-overlapping, and the
Y
s
slots are within the
X
s
slots…” and “If a UE monitors PDCCH on a cell according to combination
X
s
,
Y
s
, the UE can monitor PDCCH for Type1-PDCCH CSS set provided by dedicated higher layer signalling, Type3-PDCCH CSS sets, and USS sets in any slot of the
Y
s
slots, and the UE can monitor PDCCH for Type0/0A/2-PDCCH CSS set and Type1-PDCCH CSS set provided in SIB1 in any slot of the
X
s
slots”), wherein the second search space set corresponds to at least one of: the Type0-PDCCH CSS set; a Type0A-PDCCH CSS set; or a Type2-PDCCH CSS set (see section 10 starting on p. 123, for example; see the fourth paragraphs on p. 124, for example, which indicates “If a UE monitors PDCCH on a cell according to combination
X
s
,
Y
s
, the UE can monitor PDCCH for Type1-PDCCH CSS set provided by dedicated higher layer signalling, Type3-PDCCH CSS sets, and USS sets in any slot of the
Y
s
slots, and the UE can monitor PDCCH for Type0/0A/2-PDCCH CSS set and Type1-PDCCH CSS set provided in SIB1 in any slot of the
X
s
slots”).
Regarding claims 4 and 8: 3GPP TS 38.213 discloses the limitations of receiving, from the base station, time resource information for a search space (see section 10 starting on p. 123, for example; see the fourth paragraph on p. 124, for example, which indicates “The UE determines the number of monitored PDCCH candidates and the number of non-overlapped CCEs for combination
X
s
,
Y
s
based on all search space sets within the
X
s
slots, as applicable according to the search space set configurations”); and identifying time resources within a time window for a third search space set based on the time resource information, wherein the time window comprises a group of slots and the time resources for the third search space set is in one sub-time window within the time window (see section 10 starting on p. 123, for example; see the third and fourth paragraphs on p. 124, for example, which indicate “…where
X
s
and
Y
s
are numbers of consecutive slots, groups of
X
s
slots are consecutive and non-overlapping, and the
Y
s
slots are within the
X
s
slots…” and “If a UE monitors PDCCH on a cell according to combination
X
s
,
Y
s
, the UE can monitor PDCCH for Type1-PDCCH CSS set provided by dedicated higher layer signalling, Type3-PDCCH CSS sets, and USS sets in any slot of the
Y
s
slots, and the UE can monitor PDCCH for Type0/0A/2-PDCCH CSS set and Type1-PDCCH CSS set provided in SIB1 in any slot of the
X
s
slots”), the third search space set corresponds to Type-1 PDCCH CSS set configured by PDCCH-Configcommon (see section 10 starting on p. 123, for example; see the fourth paragraphs on p. 124, for example, which indicates “If a UE monitors PDCCH on a cell according to combination
X
s
,
Y
s
, the UE can monitor PDCCH for Type1-PDCCH CSS set provided by dedicated higher layer signalling, Type3-PDCCH CSS sets, and USS sets in any slot of the
Y
s
slots, and the UE can monitor PDCCH for Type0/0A/2-PDCCH CSS set and Type1-PDCCH CSS set provided in SIB1 in any slot of the
X
s
slots”).
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.
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 9-16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over 3GPP TS 38.213 V17.0.0 (2021-12) in view of Liu et al (US 12,389,375).
Regarding claim 9: 3GPP TS 38.213 discloses a method performed by a user equipment (UE) in a communication system, the method comprising:
receive, from a base station, configuration of search space with index zero associated with Type0-physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) common search space (CSS) set (see the first paragraph of section 13 on p. 172, for example, which indicates “If during cell search a UE determines from MIB that a CORESET for Type0-PDCCH CSS set is present, as described in clause 4.1, the UE determines a number of consecutive resource blocks and a number of consecutive symbols for the CORESET of the Type0-PDCCH CSS set from controlResourceSetZero in pdcch-ConfigSIB1, as described in Tables 13-1 through 13-10, for operation without shared spectrum channel access in FR1 and FR2-1, or as described in Tables 13-1A and 13-4A for operation with shared spectrum channel access in FR1, or as described in Tables 13-10A, 13-10B and 13-10C for FR2-2, and determines PDCCH monitoring occasions from searchSpaceZero in pdcch-ConfigSIB1”); and
identify PDCCH monitoring occasions for the Type0-PDCCH CSS set based on information, wherein the PDCCH monitoring occasions are in slot n0 and slot n0+k (see section 13 on p. 173 for example, which disclose that “For operation without shared spectrum channel access and for the SS/PBCH block and CORESET multiplexing pattern 1, a UE monitors PDCCH in the Type0-PDCCH CSS set over two slots… For SS/PBCH block with index
i
, the UE determines an index of slot
n
0
”; further, as indicated in the 3 hyphenated paragraphs following the above statements, depending on the value of the SCS parameter µ, the second slot is n0+k, where k is either 1 (for µ=0, 1, 2, or 3), 4 (for µ=5), or 8 (for µ=6)),
wherein the slot n0 depends on a synchronization signal and physical broadcast channel (SS/PBCH) block index associated with the information (as indicated above, n0 corresponds to a “SS/PBCH block with index i”)), and
wherein a value of k is related to a subcarrier spacing (as indicated above, the value of k varies based on the value of the subcarrier spacing (SCS) parameter µ).
3GPP TS 38.213 does not explicitly disclose the limitations that the method is performed by a user equipment (UE) in a communication system, the UE comprising: a transceiver; and at least one processor configured to. However, Liu discloses a similar system for communications between a network and a terminal. Further, Liu discloses that the communications are performed by a UE comprising a transceiver (see 1218 of Figure 12) and a processor (see 1279 of Figure 12). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify 3GPP TS 38.213 to explicitly disclose that a UE includes a transceiver and at least one processor as disclosed by Liu. The rationale for doing so would have been to enable the UE to be flexibly and inexpensively updated via software to support changes in the communications protocols in the future.
Regarding claim 13: 3GPP TS 38.213 discloses a method performed by a base station in a communication system, the base station comprising:
transmit, to a user equipment (UE), configuration of search space with index zero associated with Type0-physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) common search space (CSS) set (see the first paragraph of section 13 on p. 172, for example, which indicates “If during cell search a UE determines from MIB that a CORESET for Type0-PDCCH CSS set is present, as described in clause 4.1, the UE determines a number of consecutive resource blocks and a number of consecutive symbols for the CORESET of the Type0-PDCCH CSS set from controlResourceSetZero in pdcch-ConfigSIB1, as described in Tables 13-1 through 13-10, for operation without shared spectrum channel access in FR1 and FR2-1, or as described in Tables 13-1A and 13-4A for operation with shared spectrum channel access in FR1, or as described in Tables 13-10A, 13-10B and 13-10C for FR2-2, and determines PDCCH monitoring occasions from searchSpaceZero in pdcch-ConfigSIB1”),
wherein PDCCH monitoring occasions for the Type0-PDCCH CSS set is based on information, wherein the PDCCH monitoring occasions are in slot n0 and slot n0+k (see section 13 on p. 173 for example, which disclose that “For operation without shared spectrum channel access and for the SS/PBCH block and CORESET multiplexing pattern 1, a UE monitors PDCCH in the Type0-PDCCH CSS set over two slots… For SS/PBCH block with index
i
, the UE determines an index of slot
n
0
”; further, as indicated in the 3 hyphenated paragraphs following the above statements, depending on the value of the SCS parameter µ, the second slot is n0+k, where k is either 1 (for µ=0, 1, 2, or 3), 4 (for µ=5), or 8 (for µ=6)),
wherein the slot n0 depends on a synchronization signal and physical broadcast channel (SS/PBCH) block index associated with the information (as indicated above, n0 corresponds to a “SS/PBCH block with index i”)), and
wherein a value of k is related to a subcarrier spacing (as indicated above, the value of k varies based on the value of the subcarrier spacing (SCS) parameter µ).
3GPP TS 38.213 does not explicitly disclose the limitations that the method is performed by a base station in a communication system, the base station comprising: a transceiver; and at least one processor configured to. However, Liu discloses a similar system for communications between a network and a terminal. Further, Liu discloses that the communications are performed by a UE comprising a transceiver (see 1218 of Figure 12) and a processor (see 1279 of Figure 12). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify 3GPP TS 38.213 to explicitly disclose that a UE includes a transceiver and at least one processor as disclosed by Liu. The rationale for doing so would have been to enable the UE to be flexibly and inexpensively updated via software to support changes in the communications protocols in the future.
Regarding claims 10 and 14: 3GPP TS 38.213 discloses the limitations of receiving, from the base station, time resource information for a search space (see section 10 starting on p. 123, for example; see the fourth paragraph on p. 124, for example, which indicates “The UE determines the number of monitored PDCCH candidates and the number of non-overlapped CCEs for combination
X
s
,
Y
s
based on all search space sets within the
X
s
slots, as applicable according to the search space set configurations”); and identifying time resources for a first search space set based on the time resource information, wherein the time resources for the first search space set satisfies a constraint associated with a combination (X, Y) indicated by the UE as a capability where X and Y are number of consecutive slots (see section 10 starting on p. 123, for example; see the third and fourth paragraphs on p. 124, for example, which indicate “…where
X
s
and
Y
s
are numbers of consecutive slots, groups of
X
s
slots are consecutive and non-overlapping, and the
Y
s
slots are within the
X
s
slots…” and “If a UE monitors PDCCH on a cell according to combination
X
s
,
Y
s
, the UE can monitor PDCCH for Type1-PDCCH CSS set provided by dedicated higher layer signalling, Type3-PDCCH CSS sets, and USS sets in any slot of the
Y
s
slots, and the UE can monitor PDCCH for Type0/0A/2-PDCCH CSS set and Type1-PDCCH CSS set provided in SIB1 in any slot of the
X
s
slots”), wherein the first search space set corresponds to at least one of: a Type1-PDCCH CSS set configured by dedicated radio resource control (RRC) signaling; a Type3-PDCCH CSS set; or a USS set (see section 10 starting on p. 123, for example; see the fourth paragraphs on p. 124, for example, which indicates “If a UE monitors PDCCH on a cell according to combination
X
s
,
Y
s
, the UE can monitor PDCCH for Type1-PDCCH CSS set provided by dedicated higher layer signalling, Type3-PDCCH CSS sets, and USS sets in any slot of the
Y
s
slots, and the UE can monitor PDCCH for Type0/0A/2-PDCCH CSS set and Type1-PDCCH CSS set provided in SIB1 in any slot of the
X
s
slots”).
Regarding claims 11 and 15: 3GPP TS 38.213 discloses the limitations of receiving, from the base station, time resource information for a search space (see section 10 starting on p. 123, for example; see the fourth paragraph on p. 124, for example, which indicates “The UE determines the number of monitored PDCCH candidates and the number of non-overlapped CCEs for combination
X
s
,
Y
s
based on all search space sets within the
X
s
slots, as applicable according to the search space set configurations”); and identifying time resources within a time window for a second search space set based on the time resource information, wherein the time window comprises a group of slots and the time resources for the second search space set satisfies a constraint associated with the time window (see section 10 starting on p. 123, for example; see the third and fourth paragraphs on p. 124, for example, which indicate “…where
X
s
and
Y
s
are numbers of consecutive slots, groups of
X
s
slots are consecutive and non-overlapping, and the
Y
s
slots are within the
X
s
slots…” and “If a UE monitors PDCCH on a cell according to combination
X
s
,
Y
s
, the UE can monitor PDCCH for Type1-PDCCH CSS set provided by dedicated higher layer signalling, Type3-PDCCH CSS sets, and USS sets in any slot of the
Y
s
slots, and the UE can monitor PDCCH for Type0/0A/2-PDCCH CSS set and Type1-PDCCH CSS set provided in SIB1 in any slot of the
X
s
slots”), wherein the second search space set corresponds to at least one of: the Type0-PDCCH CSS set; a Type0A-PDCCH CSS set; or a Type2-PDCCH CSS set (see section 10 starting on p. 123, for example; see the fourth paragraphs on p. 124, for example, which indicates “If a UE monitors PDCCH on a cell according to combination
X
s
,
Y
s
, the UE can monitor PDCCH for Type1-PDCCH CSS set provided by dedicated higher layer signalling, Type3-PDCCH CSS sets, and USS sets in any slot of the
Y
s
slots, and the UE can monitor PDCCH for Type0/0A/2-PDCCH CSS set and Type1-PDCCH CSS set provided in SIB1 in any slot of the
X
s
slots”).
Regarding claims 12 and 16: 3GPP TS 38.213 discloses the limitations of receiving, from the base station, time resource information for a search space (see section 10 starting on p. 123, for example; see the fourth paragraph on p. 124, for example, which indicates “The UE determines the number of monitored PDCCH candidates and the number of non-overlapped CCEs for combination
X
s
,
Y
s
based on all search space sets within the
X
s
slots, as applicable according to the search space set configurations”); and identifying time resources within a time window for a third search space set based on the time resource information, wherein the time window comprises a group of slots and the time resources for the third search space set is in one sub-time window within the time window (see section 10 starting on p. 123, for example; see the third and fourth paragraphs on p. 124, for example, which indicate “…where
X
s
and
Y
s
are numbers of consecutive slots, groups of
X
s
slots are consecutive and non-overlapping, and the
Y
s
slots are within the
X
s
slots…” and “If a UE monitors PDCCH on a cell according to combination
X
s
,
Y
s
, the UE can monitor PDCCH for Type1-PDCCH CSS set provided by dedicated higher layer signalling, Type3-PDCCH CSS sets, and USS sets in any slot of the
Y
s
slots, and the UE can monitor PDCCH for Type0/0A/2-PDCCH CSS set and Type1-PDCCH CSS set provided in SIB1 in any slot of the
X
s
slots”), the third search space set corresponds to Type-1 PDCCH CSS set configured by PDCCH-Configcommon (see section 10 starting on p. 123, for example; see the fourth paragraphs on p. 124, for example, which indicates “If a UE monitors PDCCH on a cell according to combination
X
s
,
Y
s
, the UE can monitor PDCCH for Type1-PDCCH CSS set provided by dedicated higher layer signalling, Type3-PDCCH CSS sets, and USS sets in any slot of the
Y
s
slots, and the UE can monitor PDCCH for Type0/0A/2-PDCCH CSS set and Type1-PDCCH CSS set provided in SIB1 in any slot of the
X
s
slots”).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Wu et al (US 2024/0373327) discloses a method for monitoring a control channel that also discloses the limitations of the independent claims in at last [0039]-[0042].
Kim et al (US 2023/0345486) disclose a method for transmitting/receiving signals in a wireless system.
Li et al (US 2023/0246786) discloses a method for monitoring a PDCCH.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Robert C Scheibel whose telephone number is (571)272-3169. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM.
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, Hassan A Phillips can be reached at 571-272-3940. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
Robert C. Scheibel
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2467
/Robert C Scheibel/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2467 September 8, 2026
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