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 § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claim 5 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 5 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being incomplete for omitting essential elements, such omission amounting to a gap between the elements. See MPEP § 2172.01. The omitted elements are: The applicant has disclosed in paragraph 70 that the claimed determination in the “wherein” clause is performed by the user terminal, which is not claimed in claim 5. It is therefore unclear how the determination is to limit the subject matter of claim 5, which is the base station.
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.
Claim(s) 4-6 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by U.S. Patent Application Publication Number 2023/0254829 by Xiong et al.
As to claim 6, Xiong teaches a method of operating a wireless terminal of a cellular telecommunication system, the method comprising: determining a frequency offset value for frequency hopping of a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) based on a size of an uplink (UL) subband, and transmitting the PUSCH (paragraph 148 and Table 8.3-1 which find support on page 16 of provisional application 63/331,536).
As to claims 4 and 5, Xiong shows the claimed hardware in Figure 11 and Figure YY on page 27 of provisional application 63/331,536.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DOUGLAS B BLAIR whose telephone number is (571)272-3893. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 9am-5pm.
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/DOUGLAS B BLAIR/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2454