DETAILED ACTION
This office action is a response to 10/1/2024.
Claims 1-20 are pending.
Claims 1-2, 4-5, 7-11, 13-14, and 16-20 are rejected.
Claims 3, 6, 12, and 15 are objected to.
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 .
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 (a)-(d). The certified copy has been filed in the instant application.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 12/19/2025 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Specification
The title of the invention is not descriptive. A new title is required that is clearly indicative of the invention to which the claims are directed.
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 1-2, 4-5, 10-11, 13-14, and 19-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Mei et al. US 20240106604 A1, hereinafter Mei.
Regarding Claim 1, Mei discloses an information transmission method, comprising:
determining, by a terminal, a first phase tracking reference signal (PTRS) port and a transmission layer or demodulation reference signal (DMRS) port corresponding to the first PTRS port according to a first precoding information and number of layers field, wherein the first precoding information and number of layers field is a precoding information and number of layers field associated with a target object associated with uplink transmission of the terminal, the first PTRS port is a PTRS port actually used by the terminal, and the target object comprises: sounding reference signal (SRS) resource set (Mei [0034] In the uplink transmission, one SRS resource set may be configured for one group of PUSCH transmission (and/or one TRP) … For a PUSCH transmission, the association of PTRS port and the DMRS port may be indicated by a DCI signaling. For example, the TPMI in DCIs may include or indicate the rank (number of layers) and the SRS resource for each layer; [0035] In the single DCI based MTRP PUSCH transmission, two SRI fields and TPMI fields may be included or indicated in the DCI field, so that the association between PTRS and DMRS may be different for different PUSCH transmission groups (transmitted to different TRPs). As such, the association between PTRS and DMRS port should be indicated/specified for different PUSCH transmission groups associated with different SRS resource set respectively); and
performing, by the terminal, uplink transmission by using the first PTRS port and the transmission layer or DMRS port corresponding to the first PTRS port (Mei [0034-0035] implicit: As such, the association between PTRS and DMRS port should be indicated/specified for different PUSCH transmission groups associated with different SRS resource set respectively. Without correct or proper PTRS-DMRS port associations, UE may not successfully perform, complete, and/or execute PUSCH transmission(s) to MTRP).
Regarding Claim 2, Mei discloses the method of claim 1 and further discloses wherein in a case that the uplink transmission of the terminal is associated with a plurality of target objects, the determining a first PTRS port and a transmission layer or DMRS port corresponding to the first PTRS port according to a first precoding information and number of layers field comprises at least one of the following:
for each target object, determining, by the terminal, the first PTRS port and the transmission layer corresponding to the first PTRS port according to the first precoding information and number of layers field associated with the target object respectively (Mei [0059] In some embodiments, which of the DMRS ports is associated with the sharing PTRS port may be indicated according to one SRS resource set, SRI field, TPMI field by default, or any combination of them. The default rule may be to operate according to or as indicated by the first TPMI field. In one example, the default SRI is associated with the SRS resource set of lower ID. The default SRI may be the first SRI field. For example, the default SRS resource set may be indicated in the first SRI field. The default SRS resource set may be the SRS resource set with a lower ID. The default SRS resource set may be associated with the TRP having a higher priority) …
Regarding Claim 4, Mei discloses the method of claim 1 and further discloses wherein in a case that the uplink transmission of the terminal is associated with one target object of a plurality of target objects, the determining a first PTRS port and a transmission layer or DMRS port corresponding to the first PTRS port according to a first precoding information and number of layers field comprises:
determining, by the terminal, the first PTRS port and the transmission layer or DMRS port corresponding to the first PTRS port according to the first precoding information and number of layers field associated with the one target object (Mei [0058] If two PTRS ports are indicated for SRS resource set #0 and one PTRS port is indicated for SRS resource set #1, considering that the two PTRS ports are associated with the two DMRS ports according to the codebook, so there is no need to indicate the association of PTRS and DMRS ports for the SRS resource set 0, since there is a one-to-one correspondence/mapping between DRMS ports and PTRS ports).
Regarding Claim 5, Mei discloses the method of claim 1 and further discloses wherein the performing uplink transmission by using the first PTRS port and the transmission layer or DMRS port corresponding to the first PTRS comprises:
selecting, by the terminal, a transmission layer or DMRS port associated with the first PTRS port from transmission layers or DMRS ports corresponding to the first PTRS port according to a received PTRS-DMRS association indicator field, and performing uplink transmission by using the first PTRS port and the transmission layer or DMRS port associated with the first PTRS port (Mei at least [0057-0058] PTRS-DMRS port association field).
Claims 10-11 and 13-14 are rejected on the same grounds set forth in the rejection of claims 1-2 and 4-5, respectively. Claims 10-11 and 13-14 recite similar features as in claims 1-2 and 4-5, respectively, for an apparatus of a terminal (Mei Fig. 2; [0022-0023] UE 024).
Claim 19 is rejected on the same grounds set forth in the rejection of claim 1. Claim 19 recites similar features as in claim 1 for a non-transitory readable storage medium.
Regarding Claim 20, Mei discloses the method of claim 1 and further discloses a chip, comprising a processor and a communication interface, wherein the communication interface is coupled with the processor, and the processor is configured to run programs or instructions to implement the steps of the information transmission method according to claim 1 (Mei Fig. 2; [0022-0023] UE 024).
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 7-9 and 16-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Mei as applied to claims above, in view of Xiao et al. US 20250286669 A1, hereinafter Xiao.
Regarding Claim 7, Mei discloses the method of claim 1, but fails to explicitly disclose wherein in a case that the uplink transmission of the terminal is associated with a plurality of target objects, the method further comprises:
determining, by the terminal, a power scaling factor of the first PTRS port according to first information,
wherein the first information comprises at least one of the following:
coherent characteristic information of a plurality of precoding matrices adopted for the uplink transmission; the number of PTRS ports for the uplink transmission; or the number of transmission layers for the uplink transmission.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Xiao more specifically discloses wherein in a case that the uplink transmission of the terminal is associated with a plurality of target objects (Xiao [0109] When the numbers of PT-RS ports for PUSCH repetitions associated with different SRS resource sets are different, in order to achieve the power boosting for PT-RS transmission with a lower number of PT-RS port, the UE may determine a PT-RS power ratio (e.g., PUSCH to PT-RS power ratio per layer per RE.sup.α.sup.PTRS.sup.PUSCH in table 3) of each PUSCH repetition based on a maximum number of PT-RS ports among all the PUSCH repetitions), the method further comprises:
determining, by the terminal, a power scaling factor of the first PTRS port according to first information (Xiao [0109] the UE may determine a PT-RS power ratio),
wherein the first information comprises at least one of the following:
coherent characteristic information of a plurality of precoding matrices adopted for the uplink transmission; the number of PTRS ports for the uplink transmission; or the number of transmission layers for the uplink transmission (Xiao [0106] Referring to table 3, the factors may include the coherent type, the number of the PUSCH layer, and Q.sub.p, wherein Qp is the number of PT-RS ports used for the corresponding PUSCH repetition; see TABLE 3).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Mei with the teachings of Xiao in order to resolve the issues caused by the imbalance numbers of PTRS ports and to achieve a better PTRS transmission performance in a multi-TRP transmission.
Regarding Claim 8, Mei in view of Xiao discloses the method of claim 7. In the obvious combination, Xiao more specifically discloses wherein the number of PTRS ports comprises: the total number of PTRS ports scheduled for the uplink transmission; and/or, the number of transmission layers comprises: the number of transmission layers corresponding to each of the target objects (Xiao [0106] Referring to table 3, the factors may include the coherent type, the number of the PUSCH layer, and Q.sub.p, wherein Qp is the number of PT-RS ports used for the corresponding PUSCH repetition; see TABLE 3).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Mei with the teachings of Xiao in order to resolve the issues caused by the imbalance numbers of PTRS ports and to achieve a better PTRS transmission performance in a multi-TRP transmission.
Regarding Claim 9, Mei in view of Xiao discloses the method of claim 8. In the obvious combination, Xiao more specifically discloses wherein the coherent characteristic information is determined by a plurality of precoding information and number of layers fields and/or SRI fields received by the terminal (Xiao [0067] For the codebook based PUSCH repetition, the number the PT-RS ports for a PUSCH repetition may be determined based on the TPMI field and a UE's capability of supporting of full-coherent or partial-coherent or a non-coherent PUSCH transmission).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Mei with the teachings of Xiao in order to resolve the issues caused by the imbalance numbers of PTRS ports and to achieve a better PTRS transmission performance in a multi-TRP transmission.
Claims 16-18 are rejected on the same grounds set forth in the rejection of claim 7-9, respectively. Claims 16-18 recite similar features as in claims 7-9, respectively, for an apparatus of a terminal.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3, 6, 12, and 15 are 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.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Yi et al. US 20210360616 A1
Lim et al. US 20220239410 A1
Chen et al. US 20240275556 A1
Zhang et al. US 20220303097 A1
Liu et al. US 20210036746 A1
Jiang et al. US 20210044400 A1
Gao et al. US 20240080156 A1
KHOSHNEVISAN et al. US 20230085874 A1
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/Y.K./ Examiner, Art Unit 2465
/GARY MUI/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2465
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