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 .
Drawings
The drawings are objected to under 37 CFR 1.83(a). The drawings must show every feature of the invention specified in the claims. Therefore, the “spreading code sequence comprises a plurality of spreading code groups, each spreading code group comprises a plurality of same spreading codes and at least one guard symbol” must be shown or the feature(s) canceled from the claim(s). No new matter should be entered.
Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim(s) 1, 3 and 5 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lakkis ‘2010 (US 2010/0309959) in view of Lakkis ‘2009 (US 2009/0279590).
Lakkis’ 2010 discloses the following features.
Regarding claim 1, a signal transmission method (see transmitter 302 in Fig. 3 for transmitting a signal), wherein the method comprises:
spreading a preamble symbol based on a first spreading code sequence to generate a first signal (see “spreading a preamble sequence with a Golay code” recited in paragraph [0020]), and wherein the first signal is used to determine a channel response (see “the remainder of the preamble to estimate the CIR (channel impulse response) and end of preamble” recited in paragraph [0021], wherein the preamble is spread with a Golay code as shown in paragraph [0020]); and sending the first signal to a receiver (see “receiving a data stream comprising a preamble based on Golay or generalized-Golay spreading code” recited in paragraph [0021] and see Fig. 3, wherein the preamble is spread at block 312 and sent using antenna 330 to the receiving antenna 330’).
Regarding claim 3, a signal transmission method (see transmitter 302 in Fig. 3 for transmitting a signal), wherein the method comprises:
receiving a first signal sent by a transmitter (see “receiving a data stream comprising a preamble based on Golay or generalized-Golay spreading code” recited in paragraph [0021] and see Fig. 3, wherein the preamble is spread at block 312 and sent using antenna 330 to the receiving antenna 330’), wherein the first signal is a signal generated by spreading a first spreading code sequence (see “spreading a preamble sequence with a Golay code” recited in paragraph [0020]); and determining a channel impulse response based on the first spreading code sequence and the first signal (see “the remainder of the preamble to estimate the CIR (channel impulse response) and end of preamble” recited in paragraph [0021], wherein the preamble is spread with a Golay code as shown in paragraph [0020]).
Regarding claim 5, a signal transmission apparatus (see wireless device 208 in Fig. 2 including transmitter 210, which may include the structure of transmitter 302 in Fig. 3), wherein the apparatus comprises:
at least one processor (see processor 204 in Fig. 2);
at least one memory (see memory 26 in Fig. 2) coupled to the at least one processor and storing programming instructions for execution by the at least one processor to spread a preamble symbol based on a first spreading code sequence to generate a first signal (see “spreading a preamble sequence with a Golay code” recited in paragraph [0020]), and wherein the first signal is used to determine a channel response (see “the remainder of the preamble to estimate the CIR (channel impulse response) and end of preamble” recited in paragraph [0021], wherein the preamble is spread with a Golay code as shown in paragraph [0020]); and a transmitter configured to send the first signal to a receiver (see “receiving a data stream comprising a preamble based on Golay or generalized-Golay spreading code” recited in paragraph [0021] and see Fig. 3, wherein the preamble is spread at block 312 and sent using antenna 330 to the receiving antenna 330’).
Lakkis ‘2010 does not disclose the following features: regarding claims 1, 3 and 5, wherein the first spreading code sequence comprises a plurality of spreading code groups, each spreading code group comprises a plurality of same spreading codes and at least one guard symbol, at least one of a first bit or a last bit of each spreading code group is a guard symbol and the plurality of spreading code groups comprises at least two spreading code groups with different spreading codes.
Lakkis ‘2009 discloses the following features.
Regarding claims 1, 3 and 5, wherein the first spreading code sequence comprises a plurality of spreading code groups, each spreading code group comprises a plurality of same spreading codes (see “Spreading, at 430, may be implemented for certain aspects by performing an element-by-element multiplication (or, alternatively, an element-by-element XOR operation) of the same data burst (i.e., the same data sub-block) of size N repeated M times with each of the M spreading codes, wherein each spreading code of the original size M is repeated N/M times” recited in paragraph [0051]) and at least one guard symbol (see “At 440, spreading may be followed by appending a cyclic prefix (e.g., a copy of the last L chips of the spread sub-block, a known Golay sequence, or a guard interval) to each spread sub-block” recited in paragraph [0051]), at least one of a first bit or a last bit of each spreading code group is a guard symbol (see “At 440, spreading may be followed by appending a cyclic prefix (e.g., a copy of the last L chips of the spread sub-block, a known Golay sequence, or a guard interval) to each spread sub-block” recited in paragraph [0051], wherein the appended prefix/guard interval must be bits added to the beginning or end of the spread sub-block and thereby represents a first bit or a last bit of each spread sub-block), and the plurality of spreading code groups comprises at least two spreading code groups with different spreading codes (see “M spreading codes” recited in paragraphs [0050]-[0051]; that is, M different spreading codes are used in the spreading and each spreading code repeats N/M times).
It would have been obvious to modify the system of Lakkis ‘2010 using features, as taught by Lakkis ’2009, in order to minimize interference to other transmissions (see paragraph [0005] of Lakkis ’2009).
Claim(s) 2, 4 and 6 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lakkis ‘2010 and Lakkis ‘2009 as applied to claims 1, 3 and 5 above, and further in view of Coon (US 2007/0140105).
Lakkis ’2010 and Lakkis ‘2009 disclose the features as shown above.
Lakkis ‘2010 does not disclose the following features: regarding claims 2, 4 and 6, wherein the guard symbol comprises a zero code.
Coon discloses the following features.
Regarding claims 2, 4 and 6, wherein the guard symbol comprises a zero code (see “a method of generating a signal for multiple access transmission comprises spreading blocks of symbols in time or frequency by applying a user-specific spreading code; and applying a guard interval in the form of a cyclic prefix (CP) or zero padding (ZP) to separate different spread blocks” recited in paragraph [0016]).
It would have been obvious to modify the system of Lakkis ‘2010 and Lakkis ‘2009 using features, as taught by Coon, in order to separate different spread blocks (see paragraph [0016] of Coon).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JUTAI KAO whose telephone number is (571)272-9719. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8:00-17:00 EST.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Kwang Yao can be reached at (571)272-3182. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/JUTAI KAO/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2473
Prosecution Insights