DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA . This action is in response to the communication filed on 10/3/2024. Claims 33-52 are pending.
Examiner Note
The examiner is here to serve, to assist, and to help applicant to the very best of his ability. The Primary Patent Examiner position is a position of serving and it is an honor to externally serve the applicant and attorney and to internally serve junior examiners and supervisors. The goal of the examiner is to work with and assist applicant to move cases along as efficiently as possible.
Applicant is encouraged to call examiner to schedule an interview if applicant has any questions about this action, wants to discuss any possible paths forward, has proposed amendments to the claims to run by the examiner, or for any other issues that applicant would like to discuss.
Examiner can normally be reached at (571) 270-3863 or michael.keller@uspto.gov, Monday-Friday, from about 6 AM - 10 PM EST and if your call is missed examiner will try to return call quickly, thank you.
Priority
This application claims priority of 63/328,224, filed 4/6/2022. The assignee of record is Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (publ). The listed inventor(s) is/are: Muruganathan, Siva; Ernström, Per; Nilsson, Andreas; Frenne, Mattias; Zhang, Jianwei.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement(s) (IDS) submitted on 10/3/2024 is/are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the IDS(s) is/are being considered by the examiner.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 34-40, 42-48 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 provided that all other rejections under 35 USC 101/112 (if any) are obviated upon upcoming amendments/arguments without raising new issues that necessitate further consideration/search.
Claim Objections
Claims 34 & 42, objected to because of the following informalities: The claim recites the term “a certain length”, said term is vague and unclear and leaves doubt as to the meaning of the technical feature to which it refers, thereby rendering the definition of the subject matter of said claims unclear.
The meaning of every term used in a claim should be apparent from the prior art or from the specification and drawings at the time the application is filed. Applicants need not confine themselves to the terminology used in the prior art, but are required to make clear and precise the terms that are used to define the invention whereby the metes and bounds of the claimed invention can be ascertained. Please see MPEP 2173.05 section I. The Meaning Of Every Term Should Be Apparent. Please also see 37 CFR 1.75 which requires “a claim particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.”
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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.
(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.
Claim(s) 33, 41, 49-50 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Shin et al. (US 20210045101 A1, published 2/11/2021; hereinafter Shi).
For Claim 33, Shi teaches a method performed by a communication device configured for use in a communication network, the method comprising:
transmitting signaling indicating that the communication device is capable of demodulating a data channel (Shi ¶ 0293) using a demodulation reference signal scheduled without restricting a number of resource elements, resource blocks, or resource block groups to which the demodulation reference signal is mapped to being a multiple of a length of a frequency-domain orthogonal cover code applied to the demodulation reference signal (Shi ¶ 0150).
For Claim(s) 41, 49 & 50, the claim(s) is/are substantially similar to claim 33 and therefore is/are rejected for the same reasoning set forth above.
Citation of Pertinent Prior Art
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure is listed below, thank you:
i. US 11917561 B2, Method And Apparatus For Performing Data Transmission Based On Multiple Transmission Time Intervals, For Transmitting Control Information, And For Transmitting Data By Employing Multiple Ports
Please see PTO-892 for additional listing of relevant prior art made of record but not relied upon, thank you.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning communications from the examiner should be directed to Michael Keller at (571)270-3863 or michael.keller@uspto.gov. If attempts to reach the examiner are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Moo Jeong can be reached on 571-272-9617.
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/MICHAEL A KELLER/
Primary Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2418
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