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 § 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)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-2, 5-9, 12-16 and 19-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Chatterjee et al. (US 20190097756 A1, hereafter referred to as Chatterjee).
Rejection of claim (s) 1-2, 5, 8-9, 12, 15-16 and 19:
Chatterjee teaches A method, comprising: receiving, by a device, a downlink signal, from a ba0se station, that includes an uncoded downlink control information (DCI) or carries DCI (paragraph [0005] and Figure 7 in Chatterjee teach a downlink signal comprising comprising a DCI payload, and a mask ed CRC); determining, by the device, an input-output relation of polar encoding based on the downlink signal (Figure 7 in Chatterjee teaches an encoding section comprising an interleaver and polar encoder for encoding the downlink signal to produce a polar encoded downlink signal); determining, by the device and based on the input-output relation, a scrambling sequence initialization vector for a scrambling sequence (the rate matching device in Figure 7 of Chatterjee generates from the polar encoded downlink signal a great matched polar encoded downlink signal that can be used as a scrambling sequence initialization vector for scrambling); and performing, by the device, one or more actions based on the scrambling sequence initialization vector (Figure 7 of Chatterjee teaches one or more actions based on the that can be used as a scrambling sequence including scrambling and modulation).
Rejection of claims 6, 13 and 20:
Polar codes inherently are generated based on frozen bits.
Rejection of claims 7 and 14:
Figure 18a in Chatterjee.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-4, 10-11 and 17-18 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.
Since dependent claims 3-4, 10-11 and 17-18 inherit all the limitations of the independent claims and intervening claims from which they depend, the rejections, above, identify the differences between the prior art of record and that which is found novel and/or nonobvious in claims 1-2, 8-9 and 15-16.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
US 2019/0150125 & US 2019/0097756 (Samsung/Huawei): These are foundational 5G NR patents. They focus on the **Polar code construction** for the Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH). They specifically address how the "frozen bit" positions (part of the I/O relationship) are determined and how the resulting encoded bits are scrambled using the UE's specific RNTI to ensure only the intended device can decode the DCI.US 2022/0286964 (Qualcomm): discusses the "Relationship between Polar Coding and Scrambling." It details how the initialization of the scrambling sequence can be made dependent on the **interleaving pattern** or the specific DCI format size, which is exactly the "input/output relationship".* **US 2023/0336979 (Apple/Intel):** This focuses on "Enhancements to DCI Reception." It covers scenarios where the UE must determine the scrambling sequence initialization based on dynamic parameters received in a previous DCI or via higher-layer signaling, which then affects how the current polar-encoded signal is descrambled.
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/JOSEPH D TORRES/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2112
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