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 .
DETAILED ACTION
Claims 2-21 are currently pending.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 11/19/2024 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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).
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Claims 2-21 are rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claims 1-26, U.S. Patent No. 11,743,864 B2. Although the claims at issue are not identical, they are not patentably distinct from each other because:
Instant Application 18/952,055
Patent No. 11,743,864 B2.
An apparatus for wireless communications at a user equipment (UE), comprising: a first interface configured to:obtain an indication of a set of linked physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) candidates, the set of linked PDCCH candidates comprising a first PDCCH candidate associated with a first search space (SS) set and a second PDCCH candidate associated with a second SS set, the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate indicated in a same PDCCH information; and one or more processing systems configured to:select one of the first PDCCH candidate or the second PDCCH candidate as a reference for the set of linked PDCCH candidates, wherein selection of one of the first PDCCH candidate or the second PDCCH candidate as the reference for the set of linked PDCCH candidates comprises selection, from a set of PDCCH candidates that includes monitored PDCCH candidates and unmonitored PDCCH candidates of the set of linked PDCCH candidates, of the reference for the set of linked PDCCH candidates in accordance with a reference selection rule that indicates that a later-starting PDCCH candidate is to be selected as the reference for the set of linked PDCCH candidates.
1. An apparatus for wireless communication at a user equipment (UE), comprising: a first interface configured to: obtain an indication of a set of linked physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) candidates, the set of linked PDCCH candidates comprising a first PDCCH candidate and a second PDCCH candidate that are associated with a same PDCCH information; and a processing system configured to: select the second PDCCH candidate for monitoring according to a resource conflict associated with the first PDCCH candidate; update, in accordance with selecting the second PDCCH candidate for monitoring according to the resource conflict associated with the first PDCCH candidate, the set of linked PDCCH candidates to obtain an updated set of linked PDCCH candidates; select one of the first PDCCH candidate or the second PDCCH candidate as a reference for the set of linked PDCCH candidates in connection with selecting the second PDCCH candidate for monitoring, wherein selecting one of the first PDCCH candidate or the second PDCCH candidate as the reference for the set of linked PDCCH candidates comprises selecting the reference for the updated set of linked PDCCH candidates; and monitor the second PDCCH candidate in accordance with the selected reference.
Regarding claim 2, although the patent applicant’s claimed features have minor variations compared to the present disclosed invention, however the patent application is an obvious variant to the disclosed invention. Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to perform the apparatus steps as disclosed in claim 1 of the disclosed invention.
Similarly claims 10-17 (network entity) and 18-21 (UE entity) of instant application claimed the similar features as disclosed in claims 1, 7-8, 12-15, 17-18 and 21.
3. (New) The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the one or more processing systems are further configured to exclude the first PDCCH candidate from monitoring based on a resource overlap associated with the first PDCCH candidate.
Claim 1
4. (New) The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the one or more processing systems are further configured to select one of the first PDCCH candidate or the second PDCCH candidate as a reference for the set of linked PDCCH candidates in connection with excluding the first PDCCH candidate for from monitoring.
Claim 1
5 (New) The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the unmonitored PDCCH candidates include the excluded first PDCCH candidate
2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein updating the set of linked PDCCH candidates further comprises: unlinking, from the set of linked PDCCH candidates, the first PDCCH candidate in accordance with the resource conflict associated with the first PDCCH candidate, wherein the updated set of linked PDCCH candidates excludes the first PDCCH candidate
6. (New) The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the one or more processing systems are further configured to update, in accordance with excluding the first PDCCH candidate from monitoring based on the resource overlap associated with the first PDCCH candidate, the set of linked PDCCH candidates to obtain an updated set of linked PDCCH candidates.
3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein updating the set of linked PDCCH candidates further comprises: unlinking a first monitoring occasion associated with the first PDCCH candidate from a second monitoring occasion associated with the second PDCCH candidate in accordance with the resource conflict associated with the first PDCCH candidate, wherein the updated set of linked PDCCH candidates excludes the first PDCCH candidate.
7. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the reference selection rule indicates that a first starting symbol of the later-starting PDCCH candidate is to be a reference symbol for the set of linked PDCCH candidates.
4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein updating the set of linked PDCCH candidates further comprises: unlinking a first number of PDCCH candidates associated with the first monitoring occasion and from a second number of PDCCH candidates associated with the second monitoring occasion.
.
8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the reference symbol is a reference for a second starting symbol of a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) transmissions
5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein updating the set of linked PDCCH candidates further comprises: unlinking a first search space (SS) set associated with the first PDCCH candidate from a second SS set associated with the second PDCCH candidate in accordance with the resource conflict associated with the first PDCCH candidate, wherein the updated set of linked PDCCH candidates excludes the first PDCCH candidate.
9. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the first interface is further configured to monitor the second PDCCH candidate in accordance with the selected reference
6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein updating the set of linked PDCCH candidates further comprises: unlinking a first number of monitoring occasions associated with the first SS set from a second number of monitoring occasions associated with the second SS set.
Claim 1
7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein selecting one of the first PDCCH candidate or the second PDCCH candidate as the reference for the set of linked PDCCH candidates further comprises: selecting the first PDCCH candidate or the second PDCCH candidate as the reference for the set of linked PDCCH candidates in accordance with a reference selection rule.
Claim 1
8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the reference selection rule defines a procedure for selecting the reference from a set of PDCCH candidates including monitored PDCCH candidates and unmonitored PDCCH candidates of the set of linked PDCCH candidates.
Claim 10
9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first interface or a second interface is configured to: communicate with a component of a base station (BS) in accordance with the selected reference, wherein scheduling information associated with the communicating with the component of the BS is a function of a time domain property or a frequency domain property of the selected reference.
Claim 1
10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the resource conflict associated with the first PDCCH candidate is a result of a PDCCH candidate overbooking, a scheduling conflict, or a priority rule for PDCCH monitoring, or any combination thereof.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
Wong et al. (US 2021/0282123 A1), Paragraphs 0056, 0059-0063 discloses the control channel search space, such as a PDCCH search space, is or includes a collection of different control channel (e.g. PDCCH) candidates, a control channel may be associated with a control channel candidate, wherein the control channel candidates may be part of a control channel search space. The network (base station) provides the control channel candidates to the user equipment, e.g. it configures the user equipment with a control channel search space including the control channel candidates and the user equipment blind decodes the different control channel candidates. Paragraphs 0070-0074 discloses first control channel and a second control channel).
Reial et al. (US 2022/0232522 A1), Paragraphs 0080, 0091-0098 discloses monitoring the plurality of PDCCH occasions using the candidate subset of resources (sub-block 811) can include receiving first PDCCH transmissions directed to the UE, and determining the PDCCH reception quality metric for the first PDCCH transmissions. monitoring the plurality of PDCCH occasions using the candidate subset of resources (sub-block 811) can include receiving second PDCCH transmissions directed to other UEs, and determining the PDCCH reception quality metric for the second PDCCH transmissions (sub-block 812) can include computing a decoding metric without verification a CRC field associated with each received second PDCCH transmission. Paragraph 0098 discloses the UE can select a particular candidate subset based on the determined PDCCH reception quality metrics (selecting either candidate based on the determined PDCCH reception quality metric or other measurements). In some embodiments, selecting the particular candidate subset can also be based on a duration between PDCCH reception and subsequent reception of a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) associated with the PDCCH).
Zhang et al. (US 20210314955-A1) discloses wherein a conflict exists among the spatial receive filter parameters of the plurality of PDCCH candidates in the one time unit in one of the following cases where: in the one time unit, demodulation reference signals of a plurality of PDCCH candidates overlapping with each other in time domain do not satisfy a QCL relationship with respect to spatial receive parameters; or in the one time unit, a plurality of PDCCH candidates overlapping with each other in time domain are unable to be received by the first communication node simultaneously (Figs. 1-2).
Lin et al. (US-20210007050-A1) discloses a UE may solve a conflict (such as a conflict described in the foregoing description) by using a priority to select a PDCCH, one or more PDCCH candidates and/or a DCI format to be monitored if one or more monitoring occasions for a power saving signal overlaps with Active Time. The selection may be performed and/or used when required (and/or configured) PDCCH monitoring of the UE exceeds a UE capability of the UE (Paragraphs 0297, 0301).
Yasukawa et al. (US-20170055249-A1) discloses the downlink control resource determination unit 1035 determines whether the PUCCH conflict involved in assigning the PDCCH to the MTC terminal can arise with reference to the obtained resource assignment information. The downlink control resource determination unit 1035 determines the PUCCH resource for the MTC terminal such that the PUCCH conflict cannot arise (step S307) (Paragraph 0142).
SUDA et al. (US-20140185508-A1) discloses the probability of conflict between mobile stations due to PDCCH allocation increases. Consequently, there may be a case in which a mobile station to which a PDCCH is not allocated by the base station 10 is present (Paragraph 0055).
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/ROMANI OHRI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2413
