DETAILED ACTION
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 .
Specification
The lengthy specification has not been checked to the extent necessary to determine the presence of all possible minor errors. Applicant’s cooperation is requested in correcting any errors of which applicant may become aware in the specification.
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.
Claim(s) 1-4, 8-13, 15-17, and 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Haghighat et al. (US 2024/0413868 A1) in view of Li et al. (WO 2022/000321 A1 (As provided in the IDS). Regarding claim 1, Haghighat et al. discloses a UCI reporting method, wherein the method is applied to a terminal device, and the method comprises: determining a first backscattering resource for reporting first uplink control information (UCI) (Para 143 teaches of using relative reflection parameters to use RIS as a resource set) . Haghighat et al. does not disclose a method wherein reporting the first UCI to a network device based on the first backscattering resource. However Li et al. discloses a method, wherein reporting the first UCI to a network device based on the first backscattering resource ( Para 80-81 teaches of transmitting UCI regarding data delivery). It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use the method of transmitting UCI of Li et al. with the system of Haghighat et al. in order to provide a system that optimizes over network performance with enhanced resource utilization. Regarding claims 2, 12, 16, Haghighat et al. discloses a method, wherein the method further comprises: receiving first indication information sent from the network device, wherein the first indication information is used to indicate the first backscattering resource; wherein the first indication information is used to indicate at least one of: a starting time of the first backscattering resource, a duration of the first backscattering resource, or a frequency domain position of the first backscattering resource; and wherein the first indication information is carried in at least one of: downlink control information (DCI), a higher-layer signaling, or dedicated control information for backscattering communication (Para 99 teaches “In certain representative embodiments, a RIS 204 may be configured with at least one set of reflection parameters (e.g., a reflection parameter set), where each set may contain (e.g., all) information related to the reflection characteristics, such as phase and reflection coefficients, of the RIS 204. A (e.g., each) reflection parameter set may be associated with an index and/or identifier (ID) that may be communicated between the RIS 204, base station and/or WTRU.” ). Regarding claim 3, Haghighat et al. discloses a method, wherein the first indication information indicates, through a first resource configuration index, at least one of: a starting time of the first backscattering resource, a duration of the first backscattering resource, and a frequency domain position of the first backscattering resource. (Para 99 teaches “In certain representative embodiments, a RIS 204 may be configured with at least one set of reflection parameters (e.g., a reflection parameter set), where each set may contain (e.g., all) information related to the reflection characteristics, such as phase and reflection coefficients, of the RIS 204. A (e.g., each) reflection parameter set may be associated with an index and/or identifier (ID) that may be communicated between the RIS 204, base station and/or WTRU.” ). Regarding claims 4, 13, 17, Haghighat et al. discloses a method, wherein the method further comprises: receiving first resource configuration information sent from the network device; wherein the first resource configuration information comprises at least one of: a correspondence between at least one resource configuration index and at least one starting time, a correspondence between the at least one resource configuration index and at least one duration, or a correspondence between the at least one resource configuration index and a frequency domain position of at least one backscattering resource; wherein the at least one resource configuration index comprises the first resource configuration index. (Para 99 teaches “In certain representative embodiments, a RIS 204 may be configured with at least one set of reflection parameters (e.g., a reflection parameter set), where each set may contain (e.g., all) information related to the reflection characteristics, such as phase and reflection coefficients, of the RIS 204. A (e.g., each) reflection parameter set may be associated with an index and/or identifier (ID) that may be communicated between the RIS 204, base station and/or WTRU.” ). Regarding claim 8, Li et al. discloses a method, wherein the reporting the first UCI to the network device based on the first backscattering resource comprises: reporting, on the first backscattering resource, the first UCI to the network device by a manner of backscattering a first signal or a first carrier (Para 164 and Para 170-175 teaches of using backscattering resource.). Motivation to combine is the same as claim 1 above. Regarding claims 9, 20, Haghighat et al. discloses a method, wherein the first backscattering resource is a downlink resource, and the first signal comprises at least one of: a downlink signal sent from the network device to the terminal device; a downlink signal sent from the network device to other terminal devices; a sidelink signal sent from other terminal devices; a signal sent from the terminal device or a third-party device on a generated dedicated carrier; or an uplink signal, a downlink signal or a sidelink signal sent from other terminal devices on a flexible resource in a case where the downlink resource is the flexible resource; or the first backscattering resource is an uplink resource, and the first signal comprises at least one of: an uplink signal sent from the terminal device to the network device; an uplink signal sent from other terminal devices to the network device; a sidelink signal sent from other terminal devices; a signal sent from the terminal device or a third-party device on a generated dedicated carrier; or an uplink signal, a downlink signal or a sidelink signal sent from other terminal devices on a flexible resource in a case where the uplink resource is the flexible resource (Para 143 teaches “ The WTRU 102 may subsequently receive information for (e.g., indicating) one of the set of resources by a field of DCI, such as a DCI triggering aperiodic CSI reporting. The WTRU 102 may then provide the recommended relative reflection parameters applicable to the indicated set in a CSI report along with other CSI parameters.”). Regarding claim 10, Li et al. discloses a method, wherein the first UCI comprises at least one of: hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) information, HARQ non-acknowledgement (NACK) information, a scheduling request (SR), a link recovery request (LRR), channel state information (CSI), or a radio resource control (RRC) reconfiguration signaling (Para 81 teaches of UCI can include HARQ ACK message). Regarding claims 11, 15, Haghighat et al. discloses a terminal device, comprising: a processor and a memory (See Fig 1.B items 118 and 130), wherein the memory is configured to store a computer program, and the processor is configured to call the computer program stored in the memory and run the computer program to causes the terminal device to perform: determining a first backscattering resource for reporting first uplink control information (UCI) (Para 143 teaches of using relative reflection parameters to use RIS as a resource set) . Haghighat et al. does not disclose a terminal device, reporting the first UCI to a network device based on the first backscattering resource. However Li et al. disclose a terminal device, reporting the first UCI to a network device based on the first backscattering resource ( Para 80-81 teaches of transmitting UCI regarding data delivery). It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use the method of transmitting UCI of Li et al. with the system of Haghighat et al. in order to provide a system that optimizes over network performance with enhanced resource utilization.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5-7, 14, 18, and 19 objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to AJAY P CATTUNGAL whose telephone number is (571)270-7525. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:00-5:00 PM.
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/AJAY CATTUNGAL/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2467
