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 .
Double Patenting
The nonstatutory double patenting rejection is based on a judicially created doctrine grounded in public policy (a policy reflected in the statute) so as to prevent the unjustified or improper timewise extension of the “right to exclude” granted by a patent and to prevent possible harassment by multiple assignees. A nonstatutory double patenting rejection is appropriate where the conflicting claims are not identical, but at least one examined application claim is not patentably distinct from the reference claim(s) because the examined application claim is either anticipated by, or would have been obvious over, the reference claim(s). See, e.g., In re Berg, 140 F.3d 1428, 46 USPQ2d 1226 (Fed. Cir. 1998); In re Goodman, 11 F.3d 1046, 29 USPQ2d 2010 (Fed. Cir. 1993); In re Longi, 759 F.2d 887, 225 USPQ 645 (Fed. Cir. 1985); In re Van Ornum, 686 F.2d 937, 214 USPQ 761 (CCPA 1982); In re Vogel, 422 F.2d 438, 164 USPQ 619 (CCPA 1970); In re Thorington, 418 F.2d 528, 163 USPQ 644 (CCPA 1969).
A timely filed terminal disclaimer in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(c) or 1.321(d) may be used to overcome an actual or provisional rejection based on nonstatutory double patenting provided the reference application or patent either is shown to be commonly owned with the examined application, or claims an invention made as a result of activities undertaken within the scope of a joint research agreement. See MPEP § 717.02 for applications subject to examination under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA as explained in MPEP § 2159. See MPEP § 2146 et seq. for applications not subject to examination under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA . A terminal disclaimer must be signed in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(b).
The filing of a terminal disclaimer by itself is not a complete reply to a nonstatutory double patenting (NSDP) rejection. A complete reply requires that the terminal disclaimer be accompanied by a reply requesting reconsideration of the prior Office action. Even where the NSDP rejection is provisional the reply must be complete. See MPEP § 804, subsection I.B.1. For a reply to a non-final Office action, see 37 CFR 1.111(a). For a reply to final Office action, see 37 CFR 1.113(c). A request for reconsideration while not provided for in 37 CFR 1.113(c) may be filed after final for consideration. See MPEP §§ 706.07(e) and 714.13.
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Claims 1-20 are rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claims 1-15 of U.S. Patent No. 12114373. Although the claims at issue are not identical, they are not patentably distinct from each other because the claims of the instant application are anticipated by patent 12114373 as shown in the table below.
Claim 1 of instant application
Claim 1 of patent 12114373
A method performed by a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system, the method comprising: receiving, from a base station, configuration information on a configured grant (CG) including first information on a CG small data transmission (SDT); in case that the first information includes second information on a subset of synchronization signal/physical broadcast channel (SS/PBCH) blocks, determining one or more SS/PBCH block indexes based on the second information; in case that the first information does not include the second information, determining the one or more SS/PBCH block indexes based on information on SS/PBCH block position comprised in system information block 1 (SIB1); and transmitting, to the base station, a CG physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) among CG PUSCHs within an association period for mapping the one or more SS/PBCH block indexes to valid occasions for the CG PUSCHs.
A method performed by a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system, the method comprising: receiving, from a base station, a radio resource control (RRC) release message including information on one or more configured grant (CG) configurations, wherein the information includes first information on a periodicity for one or more CG physical uplink shared channels (PUSCHs) and second information on a CG small data transmission (SDT), and wherein the second information includes information on at least one synchronization signal/physical broadcast channel (SS/PBCH) block; identifying an association period for mapping at least one SS/PBCH block index of the at least one SS/PBCH block to at least one valid occasion for the one or more CG PUSCHs, wherein the association period is a smallest value in a set of association periods corresponding to the periodicity such that the at least one SS/PBCH block index is mapped at least once to the at least one valid occasion within the association period; and transmitting, to the base station, data associated with the CG SDT on a CG PUSCH among the one or more CG PUSCHs within the association period.
Appropriate correction 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)(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) 1-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Tsai et al. “Tsai” US 2022/0210798.
Regarding claims 1 and 11, Tsai teaches a method and a UE comprising a transceiver and controller (Figure 13) configured to:
receive, from a base station, configuration information on a configured grant (CG) including first information on a CG small data transmission (SDT) (the UE receives CG configuration from a base station for SDT; Step 410 of Figure 4, see paragraph 108);
in case that the first information includes second information on a subset of synchronization signal/physical broadcast channel (SS/PBCH) blocks, determining one or more SS/PBCH block indexes based on the second information (the UE receives/determines a SSB set and mapping information which is used to determine a mapping between the SSB and CG; Paragraph 108. This information can be included in the CG configuration for SDT; Paragraphs 109-111);
in case that the first information does not include the second information, determining the one or more SS/PBCH block indexes based on information on SS/PBCH block position comprised in system information block 1 (SIB1) (A UE may be provided with a SSB set with a number of SS/PBCH block index to map to valid CG/PUSCH occasions, or else the UE can determine the mapping from the SSB-positionInBurst in SIB1; Paragraph 139); and
transmitting, to the base station, a CG physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) among CG PUSCHs within an association period for mapping the one or more SS/PBCH block indexes to valid occasions for the CG PUSCHs (The UE transmits the CG PUSCH within the association period with respect to the mapping; Paragraph 139).
Regarding claims 2 and 12, Tsai teaches wherein the configuration information further includes information on a periodicity for the CG PUSCHs (the occasions may repeat every X msec (i.e. periodicity); Paragraph 147),
wherein the association period for mapping the one or more SS/PBCH block indexes to the valid occasions is a smallest value in a set of association periods corresponding to the periodicity such that the one or more SS/PBCH block indexes are mapped at least once to the valid occasions within the association period (the PUSCH occasion and SS/PBCH are mapped according to the smallest value in the set of association periods. Further there are one or more association periods (i.e. set of association periods); Paragraph 147), and
wherein the association period is an integer multiple of the periodicity for the CG PUSCHs (the CG occasions are associated with an integer number of association periods; Paragraph 147).
Regarding claims 3 and 13, Tsai teaches the association period includes the association period for mapping the one or more SS/PBCH block indexes to the valid occasion wherein a pattern between a valid occasion with the one or more SS/PBCH indexes repeats at most 640 milliseconds (the association period is mapped to the SS/PBCH for valid PUSCH occasion (paragraph 148. Further, the pattern between the PUSCH occasions and S/PBCH repeats every 640ms; Paragraph 149).
Regarding claim 4 and 14, Tsai teaches the configuration information includes a start symbol and length of the CG PUSCH and information on resource allocations of the CG PUSCHs (the configuration information include start symbol and length information; Paragraph 78); and
The first information includes a sequence of a DMRS and a port of the DMRS and information on SS/PBCH blocks per a CG PUSCH (within the PUSCH occasion there is a DMRS resource index associated with the DMRS port and a DMRS sequence index which is tied to the CG/POUSCH and SS/PBCH; Paragraphs 126 and 139).
Regarding claims 5 and 15, Tsai teaches receiving, from the base station, the subset of SS/PBCH blocks and identifying a first SS/PBCH block with a first RSRP above a threshold among a subset of SS/PBCH blocks for initial transmission of the CG PUSCH (based on received data, the UE selects the SSB that has a RSRP above a threshold from the set of SSBs; Paragraph 136 (see also 820 Figure 8 and paragraph 210). The Examiner notes that the first RSRP has been identified as being above a threshold, thus the wherein case is not used/possible).
Regarding claims 6 and 16, Tsai teaches a method and a base station in a wireless communication system, the base station comprising:
a transceiver; and a controller coupled with the transceiver (Figure 13) and configured to:
transmit, to a user equipment (UE), configuration information on a configured grant (CG) including first information on a CG small data transmission (SDT) (the base station transmits CG configuration for SDT to the UE; Step 410 of Figure 4, see paragraph 108), and
receive, from the UE, a CG physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) among CG PUSCHs within an association period for mapping one or more synchronization signal/physical broadcast channel (SS/PBCH) block indexes to valid occasions for the CG PUSCHs (A UE may be provided with a SSB set with a number of SS/PBCH block index to map to valid CG/PUSCH occasions, or else the UE can determine the mapping from the SSB-positionInBurst in SIB1; Paragraph 139),
wherein, in case that the first information includes second information on a subset of SS/PBCH blocks, the one or more SS/PBCH block indexes are based on the second information (a SSB set and mapping information which is used to determine a mapping between the SSB and CG; Paragraph 108. This information can be included in the CG configuration for SDT; Paragraphs 109-111), and
wherein, in case that the first information does not include the second information, the one or more SS/PBCH block indexes are based on information on SS/PBCH block position comprised in system information block 1 (SIB1) (A UE may be provided with a SSB set with a number of SS/PBCH block index to map to valid CG/PUSCH occasions, or else the UE can determine the mapping from the SSB-positionInBurst in SIB1; Paragraph 139).
Regarding claims 7 and 17, Tsai teaches wherein the configuration information further includes information on a periodicity for the CG PUSCHs (the occasions may repeat every X msec (i.e. periodicity); Paragraph 147),
wherein the association period for mapping the one or more SS/PBCH block indexes to the valid occasions is a smallest value in a set of association periods corresponding to the periodicity such that the one or more SS/PBCH block indexes are mapped at least once to the valid occasions within the association period (the PUSCH occasion and SS/PBCH are mapped according to the smallest value in the set of association periods. Further there are one or more association periods (i.e. set of association periods); Paragraph 147), and
wherein the association period is an integer multiple of the periodicity for the CG PUSCHs (the CG occasions are associated with an integer number of association periods; Paragraph 147).
Regarding claims 8 and 18, Tsai teaches the association period includes the association period for mapping the one or more SS/PBCH block indexes to the valid occasion wherein a pattern between a valid occasion with the one or more SS/PBCH indexes repeats at most 640 milliseconds (the association period is mapped to the SS/PBCH for valid PUSCH occasion (paragraph 148. Further, the pattern between the PUSCH occasions and S/PBCH repeats every 640ms; Paragraph 149).
Regarding claim 9 and 19, Tsai teaches the configuration information includes a start symbol and length of the CG PUSCH and information on resource allocations of the CG PUSCHs (the configuration information include start symbol and length information; Paragraph 78); and
The first information includes a sequence of a DMRS and a port of the DMRS and information on SS/PBCH blocks per a CG PUSCH (within the PUSCH occasion there is a DMRS resource index associated with the DMRS port and a DMRS sequence index which is tied to the CG/POUSCH and SS/PBCH; Paragraphs 126 and 139).
Regarding claims 10 and 20, Tsai teaches transmit, to the UE, the subset of SS/PBCH blocks and identifying a first SS/PBCH block with a first RSRP above a threshold among a subset of SS/PBCH blocks for initial transmission of the CG PUSCH (based on received data, the UE selects the SSB that has a RSRP above a threshold from the set of SSBs; Paragraph 136 (see also 820 Figure 8 and paragraph 210). The Examiner notes that the first RSRP has been identified as being above a threshold, thus the wherein case is not used/possible).
Conclusion
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/BRANDON M RENNER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2411
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