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 § 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)(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 1-4, 6-8, 10-13, 15-17 and 22-25 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Huang, Yi et al. (US 20210314131 A1, hereinafter referred to as Huang).
Regarding claim 1, Huang teaches a method for resource configuration, comprising:
receiving, by a terminal, at least one first configuration applied to a first sub-band resource sent by a base station (Huang discloses a base station that transmits a sub-band configuration to a terminal UE 306. See Figure 3D)
wherein the first configuration comprises one or more of: a period, a reference subcarrier interval, and a transmission configuration (This limitation appears to recite alternative limitations. Accordingly, only one of the recited alternatives needs be taught or suggested by the prior art. Huang discloses the configuration includes a transmission direction configuration. See paragraph [0047]).
the transmission configuration comprises a transmission configuration applied to the first sub-band resource for all downlink (DL) transmission, a transmission configuration applied to the first sub-band resource for all uplink (UL) transmission, or a transmission configuration applied to the first sub- band resource for both UL and DL transmission (Huang discloses a transmission configuration for both uplink and downlink transmissions. See paragraph [0047]).
and receiving, by the terminal, a second configuration sent by the base station, wherein the second configuration represents a cell specific time division duplex (TDD)-UL-DL configuration (Huang discloses a UE receiving a plurality of sub-band configurations transmitted by the base station. The configurations are for uplink and downlink sub-bands in a TDD component carrier. See paragraph [0046]).
Regarding claim 2, Huang teaches wherein the terminal applies the second configuration to a second sub-band resource, and the second sub-band resource represents a sub-band resource in a cell other than the first sub-band resource (Huang discloses multiple sub-bands that have their respective configurations. This indicates that there would be a second configuration for a second resource that is unique from the first resource. See paragraph [0064]).
Regarding claim 3, it appears to recite alternative limitations. Accordingly, only one of the recited alternatives needs be taught or suggested by the prior art.
Huang teaches wherein the first sub-band resource comprises a cell specific sub-band resource or a user equipment (UE) specific sub-band resource (Huang discloses that the configuration is for a specific TDD component carrier. See paragraph [0064]).
Regarding claim 4, it appears to recite alternative limitations. Accordingly, only one of the recited alternatives needs be taught or suggested by the prior art. Huang teaches wherein the first sub-band resource is located inside a bandwidth part (BWP) (Huang discloses that a sub-band resource is within the bandwidth of the carrier. See paragraph [0064]).
Regarding claim 6, it appears to recite alternative limitations. Accordingly, only one of the recited alternatives needs be taught or suggested by the prior art. Huang teaches wherein receiving the at least one first configuration applied to the first sub-band resource sent by the base station comprises: receiving the at least one first configuration applied to the first sub-band resource sent by the base station via a system message or a radio resource control (RRC) signaling (Huang discloses that the configuration is transmitted via SIB. A person of ordinary skill in the art can infer that the SIB is a system message. See paragraph [0064]).
Regarding claim 7, Huang teaches:
wherein the first configuration further comprises at least one first bandwidth part (BWP) associated with the first sub-band resource; (Huang discloses that the configuration includes multiple sub-band bandwidths for respective sub-band resources. See paragraph [0064]).
and when an active BWP of the terminal is the first BWP, the terminal applies the first configuration to the first sub-band resource and applies the second configuration to the first BWP (Huang discloses a UE that can apply a configuration to a sub-band resource and apply another configuration to a sub-field within that bandwidth. See paragraph [0058]).
Regarding claim 8, Huang teaches wherein the first sub-band resource is overlapped with a frequency domain resource of the first BWP (Huang discloses that the sub-band resource can overlap with a resource block of the sub-band in a resource domain. See paragraph [0056]).
Regarding claim 10, it is rejected for the same reasons outlined in claim 1.
Regarding claim 11, it is rejected for the same reasons outlined in claim 2.
Regarding claim 12, it is rejected for the same reasons outlined in claim 3.
Regarding claim 13, it is rejected for the same reasons outlined in claim 4.
Regarding claim 15, it is rejected for the same reasons outlined in claim 6.
Regarding claim 16, it is rejected for the same reasons outlined in claim 7.
Regarding claim 17, it is rejected for the same reasons outlined in claim 8.
Regarding claim 22, Huang teaches a terminal, comprising: a first processor and a first memory for storing a computer program executed by the processor (Huang discloses UE, also known as a terminal to a person of ordinary skill in the art, that has a processor coupled to memory that executes the method. See paragraph [0009]). The remaining limitations are rejected for the same reasons outlined in claim 1.
Regarding claim 23, Huang teaches a base station, comprising: a second processor and a second memory for storing a computer program wherein when the computer program is executed by the second processor (Huang discloses a base station that has a processor coupled to a memory that executes the method. See paragraph [0010]). The remaining limitations are rejected for the same reasons outlined in claim 1.
Regarding claim 24, Huang teaches a non-transitory storage medium on which a computer program is stored, wherein when the computer program is executed by a processor (Huang discloses a non-transitory with a computer program that executes the method of the UE. See paragraph [0011]). The remaining limitations are rejected for the same reasons outlined in claim 1.
Regarding claim 25, Huang teaches a non-transitory storage medium on which a computer program is stored, when the computer program is executed by a processor (Huang discloses a non-transitory with a computer program that executes the method of the base station. See paragraph [0012]). The remaining limitations are rejected for the same reasons outlined in claim 1.
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 5 and 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Huang in view of Choi, Seunghoon et al. (US 11121786 B2, hereinafter referred to as Choi).
Regarding claim 5, Huang teaches all aspects of the claimed invention except wherein the first configuration further comprises a slot offset value, wherein the slot offset value represents a slot offset of a period starting position of the first configuration with respect to a period starting position of the second configuration.
In the same field of endeavor Choi discloses the concept of receiving a configuration from the base station that includes a slot offset. The configuration is based on each slot which leads the examiner to infer that the slot offset values would be in respect to information in each configuration. See paragraphs [0122] and [0125-0126].
Therefore, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to modify Huang to incorporate providing a slot offset to the configuration that is transmitted to the UE. The motivation to combine is to align reference signal transmissions with the base station's scheduling, measurement and beam management needs.
Regarding claim 14, it is rejected for the same reasons outlined in claim 5.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Chung, Jaehoon et al. (US 11265060 B2, Method For Transmitting And Receiving Channel State Information In Wireless Communication System And Device Therefor)
Kim, Cheul Soon et al. (US 11139937 B2, Uplink Control Information Transmission Method And Device)
Shin, Seokmin et al. (US 10455530 B2, Method For Transmitting And Receiving Synchronization Signal In Wireless Communication System And Apparatus Therefor)
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CAMILLE J ETIENNE whose telephone number is (571)721-1789. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Thurs 9:00- 7:00 EST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Ricky Ngo can be reached at (571) 272-3139. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/C.J.E./Examiner, Art Unit 2464
/RICKY Q NGO/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2464
