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 .
Claims 1 to 17 are presented for examination.
Response to Amendment
The rejection of claims 1 to 17 under non-statutory double patenting is maintained.
Information Disclosure Statement
The references listed in the information disclosure statement submitted on 8-24-2026 have been considered by the examiner (see attached PTO-1449).
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).
The filing of a terminal disclaimer by itself is not a complete reply to a nonstatutory double patenting (NSDP) rejection. A complete reply requires that the terminal disclaimer be accompanied by a reply requesting reconsideration of the prior Office action. Even where the NSDP rejection is provisional the reply must be complete. See MPEP § 804, subsection I.B.1. For a reply to a non-final Office action, see 37 CFR 1.111(a). For a reply to final Office action, see 37 CFR 1.113(c). A request for reconsideration while not provided for in 37 CFR 1.113(c) may be filed after final for consideration. See MPEP §§ 706.07(e) and 714.13.
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Claims 1 to 17 are rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claims 1 to 17 of U.S. Patent No. 12,267,162. Although the claims at issue are not identical, they are not patentably distinct from each other because the claims of the instant application are an obvious variation of the patent claims. Claim 1 of the patent falls within the scope of claim 1 of the instant application, and as such claim 1 of the instant application is not patentably distinct from claim 1 of the U.S. Patent No. 12,267,162. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify claim 1 of the patent to include the limitation of “The PBCH comprises 32 PBCH payload bits and 24 CRC bits, and the PBCH payload bits in the PBCH comprise a half radio frame indicator, HFI because these limitations only further limit the PBCH and do not change the scope of the claims. This modification would have been obvious because a person of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to employ a method for applying limitations to further limit the PBCH by adding them to the patent claim to achieve the stated objectives.
The patent claims 1 to 17 contain the limitations of claims 1 to 17 respectively of the instant application thus, claims 1 to 17 of the instant application are rejected for obvious type non-statutory double patenting. The table below shows the differences and similarities of claim 1 of the patent and claim 1 of the instant application.
US 12,267,162
Instant Application 18/988,086
1. A method comprising:
1. A method comprising:
receiving, by a wireless communications receiving apparatus, polar encoded data;
receiving, by a wireless communications receiving apparatus, polar encoded data;
decoding, by the wireless communications receiving apparatus, the polar encoded data to obtain a physical broadcast channel,
decoding, by the wireless communications receiving apparatus, the polar encoded data to obtain a physical broadcast channel,
PBCH, payload based on a distributed cyclic redundancy check, D-CRC, pattern;
PBCH, based on a distributed cyclic redundancy check, D- CRC, pattern;
wherein the PBCH payload comprises a synchronization signal block index, SSBI,
a size of the PBCH payload is 32, a number of CRC bits are 24,
the D-CRC pattern is (0, 2, 3, 5, 7, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 18, 19, 21, 24, 26, 30, 31, 32, 1, 4, 6, 8, 13, 16, 20, 22, 25, 27, 33, 9, 17, 23, 28, 34, 29, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55),
wherein the D-CRC pattern is (0,2,3,5, 7, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 18, 19, 21, 24, 26, 30, 31, 32, 1,4,6,8, 13, 16, 20, 22, 25, 27, 33, 9, 17, 23, 28, 34, 29, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55),
the bits in the PBCH payload corresponding to the set {2, 3, 5} in the D-CRC pattern are the SSBI.
the PBCH comprises 32 PBCH payload bits and 24 CRC bits,
the PBCH payload bits in the PBCH comprise a half radio frame indicator, HFI.
Response to Arguments
Applicants’ arguments, see page 2, line 1, filed 07-08-2026, with respect to claims 1 to 2, 6 to 8, and 12 to 14 have been fully considered and are persuasive. The 103 rejections of claims 1, 2, 6 to 8, and 12 to 14 have been withdrawn.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1 to 17 would be allowable once the double patenting rejection is overcome.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: the primary reason for the allowance of the claims is the inclusion of the novel limitation not found in the prior art made of record. The prior art made of record, Blankenship et al. (WO 2018/142374 A1) teaches a method, system and apparatus for implementing concatenated Polar code with adoptive error detection. Blankenship teaches that the maid idea of Polar coding is to transform a pair of identical binary-input channels into two distinct channels of different qualities, one better and one worse than the original binary-input channel. Blankenship teaches that when designing concatenated Polar codes for error correction control of downlink control information (DCI) and uplink control information (UCI) of NR, one type is (Cyclic redundancy check) CRC-assisted Polar coding (CA-Polar), where the CRC bits are attached as a precoder of Polar codes for error detection and error correction. Blankenship teaches a method for adaptively selecting a total number of CRC or PC (parity checksum) bits and/or allocating a different amount of the available CRC bits between error detection and error correction for Polar codes.
Blankenship teaches an encoder structure using interleaved CRC bits wherein a sequence of Ltotal CRC bits may be interleaved with information bits before Polar encoding. Blankenship teaches that an interleaver may be added between the CRC outer code and the Polar inner code. Blankenship teaches that the interleaver is built to facilitate list decoding of the inner Polar code, where the Polar SCL decoder can take into account the dependency structure of the parity bits and the data bits from the outer code.
Jayasinghe (WO 2018/165894 A1) discloses a method and an apparatus for early termination with distributed CRC Polar codes. Jayasinghe discloses the method includes encoding a sequence of control information bits, wherein a sequence of error corrections bits is generated based on the sequence of control information bits. Jayasinghe teaches that an error detector and an error corrector perform CRC distribution by obtaining a generator matrix of the CRC polynomial. Jayasinghe teaches that a specific CRC bit is related only to a subset of the information bits.
Jayasinghe teaches that in successive decoding of the Polar code in the decoder, if all the related information bits are decoded at some decoding state, the error check of the CRC bits is possible. Jayasinghe teaches that for successive cancelation list (SLC) based decoding, at each decoding state, there are at most L branches kept. Jayasinghe teaches that if all these L branches fail for the CRC check of the available CRC bits, there must be some errors in the codeword, either in the information bits or in the CRC bits. Jayasinghe teaches that the error detector may identify a distribution pattern to map B and J to an output. Jayasinghe teaches that a decoder comprises a CRC bit checker which is configured to apply the CRC check to determine errors in the decoded data and control the successive cancellation decoder based on the checks.
However, the prior art made of record, taken alone or in combination fails to teach or fairly suggest or render obvious the combination of elements with the novel element of the instant invention. Specifically, the prior art made of record, fails to teach or fairly suggest or render obvious the combination of elements with the novel element of: “decoding, by the wireless communications receiving apparatus, the polar encoded data to obtain a physical broadcast channel, (PBCH), based on a distributed cyclic redundancy check, D-CRC, pattern:” and “the PBCH comprises 32 PBCH payload bits and 24 CRC bits, the PBCH payload bits in the PBCH comprises a half radio frame indicator; HFI.”
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. 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 nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) 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 mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SHELLY A CHASE whose telephone number is (571)272-3816. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Thu 8:00-5:30, 2nd Friday 8:00-4:30.
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/Shelly A Chase/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2112
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