DETAILED ACTION
Notice of 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 .
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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.
Priority
Applicant’s claim for the benefit of a prior-filed application under 35 U.S.C. 119(e) or under 35 U.S.C. 120, 121, 365(c), or 386(c) is acknowledged. In particular, this Application is the national stage application of an international application filed on 22 Apr 2022.
Information Disclosure Statements
The information disclosure statements, submitted on 22 Aug 2024 and 30 Mar 2026, are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner.
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)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-6, 8-14, and 16-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Ding (WO 2022083327) (citations based on attached English translation).
Regarding claims 1, 9, and 17, Ding teaches a method of wireless communication performed by a user equipment (UE), a user equipment (UE) comprising at least one processor and a memory coupled with the at least one processor and storing processor-readable code, and a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform the method comprising:
operating, by the UE, in a concurrent communication mode (Ding, ¶¶368, 382 – UE supports DSDA; Ding, ¶595, 608 – UE is in concurrent state during DSDA scenario),
wherein the UE is configured for multi-subscriber identity module (SIM) communications including a first subscription and a second subscription (Ding, ¶383-384 – UE includes two SIM cards, one for each network),
wherein the UE is configured with a plurality of resource-sharing configurations for sharing a set of resources available to the UE between the first subscription and the second subscription during the concurrent communication mode (Ding, ¶¶266, 290-291, 382 – when UE includes two SIM cards that jointly use the radio frequency resources of the UE [i.e. a preset condition 6], the UE may adjust the number of layers [i.e. rank or number of antennas] used by each SIM card; Ding, ¶167 – rank of channel matrix is defined by the number of supported antennas);
determining, by the UE, whether one or more switching conditions are present with respect to the concurrent communication mode (Ding, ¶¶291, 387 – UE reduces the number of layers used by one of the SIM cards, so that some of its resources are switched to the other SIM to execute its service);
selecting a resource-sharing configuration of the plurality of resource-sharing configurations based on a determination that the one or more switching conditions are present (Ding, ¶¶299, 311 – maximum number of layers for each SIM card is defined when preset condition 6 occurs); and
transmitting data over at least one of the first subscription or the second subscription based on the selected resource-sharing configuration. Ding, ¶293 (UE performs data transmission using the second quantity of layers); Ding, ¶380, 389 (rank fallback reduces the layers for a particular SIM card).
Regarding claims 2, 10, and 18, Ding also teaches wherein the UE is currently operating, prior to the transmitting, in a first resource-sharing configuration (Ding, ¶310 – prior to the first action [e.g. fallback], the first SIM car uses all uplink radio frequency resources), and further comprising: triggering a switch from the first resource-sharing configuration to the selected resource-sharing configuration. Ding, ¶¶291, 358 (when a SIM card executes rank fallback, the other SIM card may transmit using a higher number of transmission layers).
Regarding claims 3 and 11, Ding also teaches wherein triggering the switch includes: transmitting, to one or more network entities a signal including an indication of a preferred configuration for a connection for one or more of the first subscription or second subscription (Ding, ¶¶188, 190 – UE transmits capability information to base station, which indicates the maximum number of uplink layers),
wherein the indication causes the one or more network entities to update capabilities of a current connection with the one or more of the first subscription or second subscription. Ding, ¶¶195-196 (the DCI from the base station indicates the quantity of uplink layers, a precoding matrix, and the like for the UE to use).
Regarding claims 4 and 12, Ding also teaches wherein triggering the switch includes: performing an autonomous downgrade of capabilities by one or more of the first subscription or second subscription to trigger a scheduling change with respect to the one or more of the first subscription or second subscription by one or more network entities. Ding, ¶291 (UE reduces the quantity of transmission layer of one of the SIM cards).
Regarding claims 5, 13, and 19, Ding also teaches wherein performing the autonomous downgrade includes one or more of: lowering a transmission power of one or more reference signals transmitted over the one or more of the first subscription or the second subscription in one or more transmission port available to the UE to trigger the scheduling change by the one or more network entities; or transmitting a non-zero buffer status report (BSR) to request additional grants for uplink transmissions. Ding, ¶¶211, 268, 273 (reduce transmit power of SRS).
Regarding claims 6, 14, and 20, Ding also teaches wherein the one or more switching conditions include one or more of: a grant type of an uplink transmission granted to one or more of the first subscription or the second subscription; a priority of traffic associated with a service being performed by the one or more of the first subscription or the second subscription; a type of procedure being performed by the one or more of the first subscription or the second subscription; or a change in the set of resources available to the UE. Ding, ¶382 (radio resources are channels, antennas, and the like [i.e. a set of resources]); Ding, ¶¶291, 310 (as a result of rank fallback, the number of layers available to each SIM card changes).
Regarding claims 8 and 16, Ding also teaches wherein the priority of the traffic associated with the service being performed is based on the priority of the service being provided. Ding, ¶560 (voice service prioritized over a game service).
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.
Claims 7 and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ding (of record) in view of Lin (US 20240365312).
Regarding claims 7 and 15, Ding teaches the method of claim 6 and the UE of claim 14, but does not explicitly teach “wherein the grant type of the uplink transmission is based on the number of layers of the granted uplink transmission, wherein a higher number of layers indicates a higher priority.” However, Lin teaches uplink transmission based on a configured grant type. Lin, figure 1 (transport block or codeword of a PUSCH is transmitted via type 1 or type 2 CG-based procedures). Lin also teaches up to 4 layers being used for the uplink transmission. Lin, ¶186. When multiple codewords are transmitted in a PUSCH, the priority of each transport block (TB) is determined, such that a TB with “a smaller number or MIMO layers may be considered to have a lower codeword priority.” Lin, ¶¶288, 294. At the time of the effective filing date of the invention, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to consider the number of MIMO layers, as taught by Lin, when prioritizing uplink transmissions, taught by Ding, in order to resolve conflicts between the uplink transmissions scheduled by different grants. Lin, ¶149.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to BENJAMIN S LAMONT whose telephone number is (571)270-7514 and email address is benjamin.lamont@uspto.gov (see MPEP 502.03 for using EFS or mail, but not email to authorize electronic communications). The examiner can normally be reached M-F 7am to 3pm EST.
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, Huy Vu can be reached at 571-272-3155. 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.
/Benjamin Lamont/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2461
Prosecution Insights