DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
1. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Status of Claims
2. Claims 1-30 are presented for examination.
Specification
3. The objection of the specification is withdrawn in view of applicant's amendments/remarks.
Claim Interpretation
4. Examiner acknowledged the applicants’ arguments on pages 11-12 of the applicants’ remark regarding to 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, 6th paragraph of claims 27-29. The Examiner will proceed with this examination as if the claims 27-29 do not invoke 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, 6th paragraph.
Double Patenting
5. The nonstatutory double patenting rejection of claims 1-9, 11-22, and 24-30 with respect to prior U.S patent No. 12,149,482 B2, claims 1-11, 14-24, 27, 28, and 30 with respect to prior U.S patent No. 11,799,611 B2, claims 1-4, 7, 14-20, 27, and 28 with respect to prior U.S patent No. 11,171,578 B2 is withdrawn since the terminal disclaimer has been filed has been approved.
Response to Arguments
6. Applicant’s argument filed on 03/26/2026 with respect claims 1, 14, 29, and 30 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
The applicant contends that the office action fails to teach or suggest the limitation of "a first set of code blocks of the plurality of code blocks are grouped into one or more code block groups comprising a first quantity of code blocks, a second set of code blocks of the plurality of code blocks are grouped into one or more code block groups comprising a second quantity of code blocks, each code block group comprises a distinct subset of code blocks of the plurality of code blocks."
Examiner respectfully disagrees and asserts that Chen et al. (US 2014/0053049 A1) in paragraphs [0034]-[0035], and Fig. 2 teaches the such limitation. For example, in a further aspect, user equipment 102 and/or network entity may be configured to encode transport blocks for transmission to a receiving device. FIG. 2 illustrates a non-limiting example structure of a transport block and its encoding. For example, at stage 206, the transport block may be a unitary block of bits carrying information to be transmitted by a transmitting device. In an aspect, the transport block 202 may undergo cyclic redundancy check (CRC) encoding, wherein an encoding component of the transmitting device may append one or more CRC bits 204 to transport block 202 at stage 208. These CRC bits may serve as an error detection mechanism at the receiving device. For example, the CRC bits (or any other type of error-detection information) may be received and decoded at the receiving device and can help the receiving device to determine whether the data in the transport block 202 has been correctly received. See paragraph [0034].
Next, the transmitting device may break the transport block-CRC of stage 208 into code blocks at stage 210. In an aspect, these code blocks may comprise M code blocks and may therefore include code block 1 to code block M. Furthermore, each code block may undergo turbo encoding, for example, by a turbo encoder to form separate turbo codewords at stage 212. Thereafter, in an aspect, each of these turbo codewords of stage 212 may be transmitted, for example, in a single subframe, to the receiving device. See paragraph [0035]. Also see Fig. 2 printed below for your convenience.
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As been described above, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art that Chen teach or suggest a first set of code blocks of the plurality of code blocks are grouped into one or more code block groups comprising a first quantity of code blocks, a second set of code blocks of the plurality of code blocks are grouped into one or more code block groups comprising a second quantity of code blocks, each code block group comprises a distinct subset of code blocks of the plurality of code blocks. Also, as shown above in Fig. 2 it’s clear that the transport block-CRC 208 is grouped into code blocks 210, and the code blocks 210 are grouped into a distinct or separate subset of code blocks [separate turbo codewords 212]. “Emphasis added.”
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103(a) which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
(a) A patent may not be obtained through the invention is not identically disclosed or described as set forth in section 102 of this title, if the differences between the subject matter sought to be patented and the prior art are such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains. Patentability shall not be negatived by the manner in which the invention was made.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere CO., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C.
103(a) 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.
7. Claims 1-9, 11-22, and 24-30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 (a) as being unpatentable over Chen et al. (US 2014/0053049 A1) "herein after as Chen" in view of Lin (US 2019/0386781).
As per claims 1, 14, 29, and 30:
Chen substantially teaches or discloses an apparatus for wireless communication, comprising: at least one processor; and at least one memory coupled with the at least one processor, with instructions stored in the at least one memory, the instructions being executable by the at least one processor, individually or in any combination, to cause the apparatus to (see paragraph [0013], herein the present disclosure describes an apparatus for wireless communication, which includes at least one processor and a memory coupled to the at least one processor. In addition, the at least one processor is configured to decode a code block from a plurality of code blocks corresponding to a transport block): transmit a transport block that comprises a plurality of code blocks (see paragraph [0034], herein user equipment 102 and/or network entity may be configured to encode transport blocks for transmission to a receiving device. FIG. 2 illustrates a non-limiting example structure of a transport block and its encoding. For example, at stage 206, the transport block may be a unitary block of bits carrying information to be transmitted by a transmitting device; paragraph [0035], herein the transmitting device may break the transport block-CRC of stage 208 into code blocks at stage 210; and Fig. 2); transmit an indication to group code blocks of the plurality of code blocks of the transport block for feedback reporting (see paragraph [0081], herein Among these physical channels, the HS-DPCCH carries the HARQ ACK/NACK signaling on the uplink to indicate whether a corresponding packet transmission was decoded successfully), wherein: a first set of code blocks of the plurality of code blocks are grouped into one or more code block groups comprising a first quantity of code blocks, a second set of code blocks of the plurality of code blocks are grouped into one or more code block groups comprising a second quantity of code blocks, each code block group comprises a distinct subset of code blocks of the plurality of code blocks,(see paragraph [0035], herein these code blocks may comprise M code blocks and may therefore include code block 1 to code block M. Furthermore, each code block may undergo turbo encoding, for example, by a turbo encoder to form separate turbo codewords at stage 212, and Fig. 2 separate turbo codeword 1 & 2 turbo codeword 2); and receive an acknowledgement or negative-acknowledgement for each code block group based at least in part on the indication (see paragraph [0097], herein Control signals carried by successfully decoded frames will be provided to a controller/processor 1190. When frames are unsuccessfully decoded by the receiver processor 1170, the controller/processor 1190 may also use an acknowledgement (ACK) and/or negative acknowledgement (NACK) protocol to support retransmission requests for those frames).
Chen does not explicitly teach each code block group of the one or more code block groups comprising the first quantity of code blocks comprises a same number of code blocks.
However, Lin in same field of endeavor teaches each code block group of the one or more code block groups comprising the first quantity of code blocks comprises a same number of code blocks (see paragraph [0005], herein determining, by a terminal device, first quantity information, wherein the first quantity information is information about a number of code block groups included in a transport block, and each code block group includes at least one code block, paragraph [0061], S110, the first quantity information is used to indicate the number of the code block groups included in the scheduled transport block. Or it can be understood that the first quantity information is used to indicate the number of code block groups that the scheduled transport block is divided into, and Figs.1-4).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify the communication system of Chen with the teachings of Lin by including the first quantity of code blocks comprises a same number of code blocks.
This modification would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the invention, because one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized the first quantity of code blocks comprises a same number of code blocks would have improved control signaling demodulation performance, and improve system efficiency (see paragraph [0004] of Lin).
As per claims 2 and 15:
Chen teaches that wherein: the acknowledgement indicates that code blocks within a code block group were successfully decoded; and the negative-acknowledgement indicates that at least one code block in a code block group was not successfully decoded (see paragraph [0097], herein The CRC codes are then checked to determine whether the frames were successfully decoded. The data carried by the successfully decoded frames will then be provided to a data sink 1172, which represents applications running in the UE 1150 and/or various user interfaces (e.g., display). Control signals carried by successfully decoded frames will be provided to a controller/processor 1190. When frames are unsuccessfully decoded by the receiver processor 1170, the controller/processor 1190 may also use an acknowledgement (ACK) and/or negative acknowledgement (NACK) protocol to support retransmission requests for those frames).
As per claims 3, 16, and 28:
Chen teaches that the instructions being executable by the at least one processor, individually or in any combination, to further cause the apparatus to: transmit an indication of a number of code block groups to be formed, wherein code blocks of the plurality of code blocks are grouped based at least in part on the indication of the number of code block groups to be formed (see paragraph [0099], herein If some of the frames were unsuccessfully decoded by the receive processor, the controller/processor 1140 may also use an acknowledgement (ACK) and/or negative acknowledgement (NACK) protocol to support retransmission requests for those frames).
As per claims 4 and 17:
Chen teaches that wherein adjacent sets of two or more code blocks of the plurality of code blocks are within a same code block group (see paragraph [0035], herein transmitting device may break the transport block-CRC of stage 208 into code blocks at stage 210. In an aspect, these code blocks may comprise M code blocks and may therefore include code block 1 to code block M, and Fig. 2).
As per claims 5 and 18:
Chen teaches that wherein the adjacent sets of two or more code blocks of the plurality of code blocks are adjacent in a time domain or a frequency domain (see paragraph [0056], herein the receiving device (e.g., utilizing decoder 304) may decode or attempt to decode a code block a plurality of times; and paragraph [0078]).
As per claims 6 and 19:
Chen teaches that wherein a code block group comprises multiple code block groups (see paragraph [0035], herein each code block may undergo turbo encoding, for example, by a turbo encoder to form separate turbo codewords at stage 212, and Fig. 2).
As per claims 7, 20, and 29:
Chen teaches that the instructions being executable by the at least one processor, individually or in any combination, to further cause the apparatus to: identify a grouping of the code blocks of the plurality of code blocks based at least in part on a type of service associated with the transport block, or a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) used to transmit the transport block, or any combination thereof (see paragraph [0087], herein for MIMO systems utilizing n transmit antennas, n transport blocks may be transmitted simultaneously over the same carrier utilizing the same channelization code. Note that the different transport blocks sent over the n transmit antennas may have the same or different modulation and coding schemes from one another).
As per claims 8 and 21:
Chen teaches that wherein the second set of code blocks comprises a remaining set of code blocks that are distributed to one code block group comprising the second quantity of code blocks (see paragraph [0028], herein the receiving device may skip the decoding of the remaining code blocks of the same transport block and/or decode subsequent code blocks of the transport block at a reduced number of iterations).
As per claims 9 and 22:
Chen teaches that wherein at least one of the code blocks of the plurality of code blocks is included in two or more code block groups of a first plurality of code block groups, wherein the one or more code block groups of the first quantity of code blocks comprises the first plurality of code block groups (see paragraph [0035], herein the transmitting device may break the transport block-CRC of stage 208 into code blocks at stage 210. In an aspect, these code blocks may comprise M code blocks and may therefore include code block 1 to code block M. Furthermore, each code block may undergo turbo encoding, for example, by a turbo encoder to form separate turbo codewords at stage 212, and Fig. 2).
As per claims 11 and 24:
Chen teaches that wherein each code block of the plurality of code blocks is distributed to a different combination of code block groups (see paragraph [0087], herein Note that the different transport blocks sent over the n transmit antennas may have the same or different modulation and coding schemes from one another).
As per claims 12 and 25:
Chen teaches that wherein the indication assigns at least one code block of the plurality of code blocks to a first plurality of code block groups, wherein the one or more code block groups of the first quantity of code blocks comprises the first plurality of code block groups (see paragraph [0081], herein the HS-DPCCH carries the HARQ ACK/NACK signaling on the uplink to indicate whether a corresponding packet transmission was decoded successfully).
As per claims 13 and 26:
Chen teaches that the instructions being executable by the at least one processor, individually or in any combination, to further cause the apparatus to: determine one or more code blocks for retransmission based at least in part on the indication and the received acknowledgement or negative-acknowledgement for each code block group (see paragraph [0097], herein Control signals carried by successfully decoded frames will be provided to a controller/processor 1190. When frames are unsuccessfully decoded by the receiver processor 1170, the controller/processor 1190 may also use an acknowledgement (ACK) and/or negative acknowledgement (NACK) protocol to support retransmission requests for those frames); and retransmit the one or more code blocks based at least in part on the determination (see paragraph [0099], herein the data and control signals carried by the successfully decoded frames may then be provided to a data sink 1139 and the controller/processor, respectively. If some of the frames were unsuccessfully decoded by the receive processor, the controller/processor 1140 may also use an acknowledgement (ACK) and/or negative acknowledgement (NACK) protocol to support retransmission requests for those frames).
Allowable Subject Matter
8. Claims 10 and 23 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if the applicant overcomes the double patenting rejections of independent claims, set forth in this Office action.
Prior Art
9. The prior art of record, considered pertinent to the applicant’s disclosure, is listed in the attached PTO-892 form.
Conclusion
10. THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a). A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any extension fee pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the date of this final action. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to OSMAN ALSHACK whose telephone number is (571)272-2069.
The examiner can normally be reached on MON-FRI 8:30 AM-5:00 PM EST, also please fax interview request to (571) 273- 2069. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, ALBERT DECADY can be reached on 5712723819. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/OSMAN ALSHACK/
Examiner, Art Unit 2112
/ESAW T ABRAHAM/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2112
Prosecution Insights