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
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claim(s) 7-12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yi et al. (US 2022/0225360) in view of Yuan et al. (US 2023/0362922).
Regarding claims 7 and 10, Yi et al. disclose a terminal (Figure 15, wireless device 1502) and a radio communication method therefore, comprising:
a receiver (Figure 15, RX Processing System 1522) that receives higher layer signaling for activating transmission using multiple panels for multiple physical uplink shared channels (PUSCHs) (Paragraph 442, a wireless device may be scheduled with [higher layer signaling for activating] a plurality of PUSCHs…via a plurality of TRPs/panels/coreset pools); and
a processor (Figure 15, Processing System 1518) that, when the multiple PUSCHs are associated with different control resource sets (CORESETs) (Paragraph 443, The first PUSCH is scheduled via a first TRP or a first coreset pool or a first panel or a first group. The second PUSCH is scheduled via a second TRP or a second coreset pool or a second panel or a second group), multiplexes uplink control information (UCI) on a PUSCH that is associated with a same CORESET as a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) (Paragraph 442, the wireless device may determine to piggyback the UCI of the PUCCH in response to a first spatial domain filter parameter or a first TCI state of the one or more PUSCHs belonging to a same coreset pool/a same TRP/a same panel to a second spatial domain filter parameter or a second TCI state of the PUCCH) corresponding to a specific priority (Paragraph 103, a base station may schedule a PUSCH with a first priority that may be used to piggyback/carry HARQ feedback bits with a second priority. The first priority and the second priority may be different or same. The wireless device may determine a prioritization of an overlapping PUSCH with a first priority and a PUCCH with a second priority based on a rule. For example, the rule is that the wireless device may determine or resolve conflict/overlapping between one or more PUCCHs and one or more PUSCHs with a same priority; Paragraph 306, A base station may schedule to multiplex the UCI(s) with the first priority to the PUCCH or the PUSCH with the same priority (e.g., the first priority). In an example, when a wireless device may be scheduled with a PUSCH without UL-SCH (e.g., data) and the PUSCH may overlap with a PUCCH comprising a positive SR, the wireless device may drop/cancel a transmission of the PUSCH. In an example, a wireless device may multiplex HARQ feedback bits in a PUSCH transmission).
Yi et al. do not disclose the following limitations that are disclosed by Yuan et al.: simultaneous transmission using multiple panels for multiple PUSCHs (Yuan et al., Paragraph 95, based on inserting the UCI of PUCCH 310-a within the PUSCH 305-a, the UE 115 may refrain from transmitting an uplink control channel… having dropped PUCCH 310-a, the UE 115 may transmit an uplink shared channel (e.g., a PUSCH, not shown) via the second antenna panel (e.g., Panel 1) at least partially concurrently with transmitting the uplink channel via the first antenna panel (e.g., Panel 0). For example, the UE 115 may transmit a PUSCH transmission via the Panel 1 at least partially concurrently with transmitting the PUSCH 305-b (which may include the UCI of the PUCCH 310-a) via the Panel 0).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Yi et al. with the cited disclosure from Yuan et al. in order to further resolve overlapping uplink communications from a UE (Yuan et al., Abstract).
Regarding claim 8, Yi et al. disclose wherein the PUCCH corresponds to a higher priority (Paragraph 302, based on the determining the conflict/overlapping, the wireless device may have a first PUCCH with a high priority (e.g., larger priority index) and either a PUSCH or a second PUCCH with a low priority (e.g., lower priority index) where the first PUCCH overlaps with either the PUSCH or the second PUCCH).
Regarding claim 9, Yi et al. disclose wherein the PUCCH corresponds to a lower priority (Paragraph 302, based on the determining the conflict/overlapping, the wireless device may have a first PUCCH with a high priority (e.g., larger priority index) and either a PUSCH or a second PUCCH with a low priority (e.g., lower priority index) where the first PUCCH overlaps with either the PUSCH or the second PUCCH).
Regarding claim 11, Yi et al. disclose a base station (Figure 15, base station 1504), comprising:
a transmitter (Figure 15, TX Processing system 1510) that transmits higher layer signaling for activating transmission using multiple panels for multiple physical uplink shared channels (PUSCHs) (Paragraph 442, a wireless device may be scheduled with [higher layer signaling for activating] a plurality of PUSCHs…via a plurality of TRPs/panels/coreset pools); and
a processor (Figure 15, Processing System 1508) that, when the multiple PUSCHs are associated with different control resource sets (CORESETs) (Paragraph 443, The first PUSCH is scheduled via a first TRP or a first coreset pool or a first panel or a first group. The second PUSCH is scheduled via a second TRP or a second coreset pool or a second panel or a second group), indicates to multiplex uplink control information (UCI) on a PUSCH that is associated with a same CORESET as a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) (Paragraph 442, the wireless device may determine to piggyback the UCI of the PUCCH in response to a first spatial domain filter parameter or a first TCI state of the one or more PUSCHs belonging to a same coreset pool/a same TRP/a same panel to a second spatial domain filter parameter or a second TCI state of the PUCCH; Paragraph 475, A base station may transmit one or more RRC messages indicating/comprising configuration parameters. The configuration parameters may indicate/comprise the one or more piggyback conditions and/or the first condition and/or the second condition. For example, the one or more piggyback conditions may be determined based on a parameter of the configuration parameters. For example, when the configuration parameters indicates ‘multiplex PUCCH repetition’ (e.g., multiplexing of UCI of a PUCCH repetition to a PUSCH is enabled), the wireless device may determine a PUSCH, regardless a repetition or regardless of the one or more parameters of the PUCCH repetition, for multiplexing/piggybacking the UCI) corresponding to a specific priority (Paragraph 103, a base station may schedule a PUSCH with a first priority that may be used to piggyback/carry HARQ feedback bits with a second priority. The first priority and the second priority may be different or same. The wireless device may determine a prioritization of an overlapping PUSCH with a first priority and a PUCCH with a second priority based on a rule. For example, the rule is that the wireless device may determine or resolve conflict/overlapping between one or more PUCCHs and one or more PUSCHs with a same priority; Paragraph 306, A base station may schedule to multiplex the UCI(s) with the first priority to the PUCCH or the PUSCH with the same priority (e.g., the first priority). In an example, when a wireless device may be scheduled with a PUSCH without UL-SCH (e.g., data) and the PUSCH may overlap with a PUCCH comprising a positive SR, the wireless device may drop/cancel a transmission of the PUSCH. In an example, a wireless device may multiplex HARQ feedback bits in a PUSCH transmission).
Yi et al. do not disclose the following limitations that are disclosed by Yuan et al.: simultaneous transmission using multiple panels for multiple PUSCHs (Yuan et al., Paragraph 95, based on inserting the UCI of PUCCH 310-a within the PUSCH 305-a, the UE 115 may refrain from transmitting an uplink control channel… having dropped PUCCH 310-a, the UE 115 may transmit an uplink shared channel (e.g., a PUSCH, not shown) via the second antenna panel (e.g., Panel 1) at least partially concurrently with transmitting the uplink channel via the first antenna panel (e.g., Panel 0). For example, the UE 115 may transmit a PUSCH transmission via the Panel 1 at least partially concurrently with transmitting the PUSCH 305-b (which may include the UCI of the PUCCH 310-a) via the Panel 0).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Yi et al. with the cited disclosure from Yuan et al. in order to further resolve overlapping uplink communications from a UE (Yuan et al., Abstract).
Regarding claim 12, Yi et al. disclose a system (Figure 15) comprising a terminal (Figure 15, wireless device 1502) and a base station (Figure 15, base station 1504), wherein
the terminal comprises:
a receiver (Figure 15, RX Processing System 1522) that receives higher layer signaling for activating transmission using multiple panels for multiple physical uplink shared channels (PUSCHs) (Paragraph 442, a wireless device may be scheduled with [higher layer signaling for activating] a plurality of PUSCHs…via a plurality of TRPs/panels/coreset pools); and
a processor (Figure 15, Processing System 1518) that, when the multiple PUSCHs are associated with different control resource sets (CORESETs) (Paragraph 443, The first PUSCH is scheduled via a first TRP or a first coreset pool or a first panel or a first group. The second PUSCH is scheduled via a second TRP or a second coreset pool or a second panel or a second group), multiplexes uplink control information (UCI) on a PUSCH that is associated with a same CORESET as a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) (Paragraph 442, the wireless device may determine to piggyback the UCI of the PUCCH in response to a first spatial domain filter parameter or a first TCI state of the one or more PUSCHs belonging to a same coreset pool/a same TRP/a same panel to a second spatial domain filter parameter or a second TCI state of the PUCCH) corresponding to a specific priority (Paragraph 103, a base station may schedule a PUSCH with a first priority that may be used to piggyback/carry HARQ feedback bits with a second priority. The first priority and the second priority may be different or same. The wireless device may determine a prioritization of an overlapping PUSCH with a first priority and a PUCCH with a second priority based on a rule. For example, the rule is that the wireless device may determine or resolve conflict/overlapping between one or more PUCCHs and one or more PUSCHs with a same priority; Paragraph 306, A base station may schedule to multiplex the UCI(s) with the first priority to the PUCCH or the PUSCH with the same priority (e.g., the first priority). In an example, when a wireless device may be scheduled with a PUSCH without UL-SCH (e.g., data) and the PUSCH may overlap with a PUCCH comprising a positive SR, the wireless device may drop/cancel a transmission of the PUSCH. In an example, a wireless device may multiplex HARQ feedback bits in a PUSCH transmission); and
the base station comprises:
a transmitter (Figure 15, TX Processing system 1510) that transmits the higher layer signaling (Paragraph 442, wireless device is scheduled); and
a processor (Figure 15, Processing System 1508) that indicates to multiplex the UCI on the PUSCH (Paragraph 475, A base station may transmit one or more RRC messages indicating/comprising configuration parameters. The configuration parameters may indicate/comprise the one or more piggyback conditions and/or the first condition and/or the second condition. For example, the one or more piggyback conditions may be determined based on a parameter of the configuration parameters. For example, when the configuration parameters indicates ‘multiplex PUCCH repetition’ (e.g., multiplexing of UCI of a PUCCH repetition to a PUSCH is enabled), the wireless device may determine a PUSCH, regardless a repetition or regardless of the one or more parameters of the PUCCH repetition, for multiplexing/piggybacking the UCI).
Yi et al. do not disclose the following limitations that are disclosed by Yuan et al.: simultaneous transmission using multiple panels for multiple PUSCHs (Yuan et al., Paragraph 95, based on inserting the UCI of PUCCH 310-a within the PUSCH 305-a, the UE 115 may refrain from transmitting an uplink control channel… having dropped PUCCH 310-a, the UE 115 may transmit an uplink shared channel (e.g., a PUSCH, not shown) via the second antenna panel (e.g., Panel 1) at least partially concurrently with transmitting the uplink channel via the first antenna panel (e.g., Panel 0). For example, the UE 115 may transmit a PUSCH transmission via the Panel 1 at least partially concurrently with transmitting the PUSCH 305-b (which may include the UCI of the PUCCH 310-a) via the Panel 0).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Yi et al. with the cited disclosure from Yuan et al. in order to further resolve overlapping uplink communications from a UE (Yuan et al., Abstract).
Conclusion
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/OTIS L THOMPSON, JR/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2477
June 24, 2026
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