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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
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 1-4 and 6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bhattad et al. (US Pat Pub# 2019/0280836) in view of Hosseini et al. (US Pat Pub# 2023/0084636).
Regarding claims 1 and 6, Bhattad teaches a terminal comprising a transmission unit 520 (Fig. 5) configured to perform transmissions to a first terminal by applying different beams to a plurality of first signals including a synchronization signal and a broadcast channel (Section 0059, multiple beams including a synchronization signal (SSS) and a broadcast channel (PBCH)); a reception unit 510 (Fig. 5) configured to receive a second signal corresponding to at least one of the plurality of first signals from the first terminal by using information related to a beam that is applied to the at least one of the first beams (Section 0059, receiving RRC configuration information based on the signals to set up communication etc.); and a control unit configured to establish an RRC connection with the first terminal by using the second signal (Section 0059, receiving RRC configuration information based on the signals to set up communication etc.). Bhattad fails to teach prioritizing a signal.
Hosseini teaches wherein in a case where there is an overlap between the second signal and a third signal at least in a time domain, the control unit determines which of the second signal or the third signal is to be prioritized to be received or transmitted (Section 0086, overlapping of different transmission signals in a time domain and then prioritizing the transmission signals etc.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious at the time of the invention to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate prioritizing a signal as taught by Hosseini into Bhattad in order to improve communication performance.
Regarding claim 2, the combination including Bhattad teaches wherein the information related to a beam is one of a beam, an antenna port, a codebook, a TCI state (Transmission configuration indicator - State), a QCL assumption (Quasi Co Location assumption), a reference signal, an antenna panel, a spatial domain transmission filter, or a spatial domain reception filter (Sections 0088-0090, QCL).
Regarding claim 3, the combination including Hossein teaches wherein in a case where there is an overlap between the second signal and a third signal at least in a time domain, the control unit determines which of the second signal or the third signal is to be prioritized to be received or transmitted, based on a priority that is applied to the second signal (Section 0086, overlapping of different transmission signals in a time domain and then prioritizing the transmission signals etc.).
Regarding claim 4, the combination including Hossein teaches wherein in a case where there is an overlap between the second signal and a third signal at least in a time domain, the control unit determines which of the second signal or the third signal is to be prioritized to be received or transmitted, based on a priority that is applied to the third signal (Section 0086, overlapping of different transmission signals in a time domain and then prioritizing the transmission signals etc.).
Claim 5 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bhattad et al. (US Pat Pub# 2019/0280836) in view of Hosseini et al. (US Pat Pub# 2023/0084636) and further in view of Gou et al. (US Pat Pub# 2024/0107513).
Regarding claim 5, Bhattad in view of Hosseini teaches the limitations in claims 1-2. Bhattad and Hosseini fail to teach an Hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement.
Gou teaches wherein in a case where there is an overlap between reception of the second signal and transmission or reception of the third signal indicating HARQ-ACK (Hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement) at least in a time domain, the control unit determines which of the second signal or the third signal is to be prioritized to be received or transmitted, based on at least one of a priority that is applied to the second signal or a priority that is applied to the third signal (Section 0019 and Claims 25 and 30, HARQ-ACK with overlap signals in the time domain with priorities etc.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious at the time of the invention to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate an Hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement as taught by Gou into prioritizing a signal as taught by Hosseini into Bhattad in order to improve communication efficiency.
Conclusion
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/ANDREW WENDELL/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2648 7/15/2026
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