DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claims 1-19 are pending.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor, or for pre-AIA the applicant regards as the invention.
As per claims 1, 10, and 16, it is not clear if “first information” and “second information” in the limitation “transmitting, to the wireless network node, at least one of first information on the first resource or second information on the second resource” is the same or different from the “first information” and “second information” in the limitation “determining at least one of a first resource of first information or a second resource of second information”.
For the purpose of this office action the Examiner is interpreting the claim to read:
“…transmitting, to the wireless network node, at least one of the first information on the first resource or the second information on the second resource”.
Claims not specifically addressed are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) based on their dependency to claims 1, 10, or 16.
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.
(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, 5-8, 10-11 and 14-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Guo et al. (US 2023/0422242)(“Guo”).
As per claim 1, Guo teaches a wireless communication method for use in a wireless terminal, the wireless communication method comprising:
receiving, from a wireless network node (i.e. BS), a control signaling (see ¶0074, i.e., “the BS 105 may provide the UE 115 with an RRC configuration indicating whether the UE 115 may multiplex CG-UCI and HARQ-ACK”),
determining at least one of a first resource of first information (i.e., CGI-UCI/HARQ-ACK) or a second resource of second information (i.e., CGI-UCI/HARQ-ACK)(see ¶0074), and
transmitting, to the wireless network node, at least one of first information on the first resource or second information on the second resource based on the control signaling if a condition is met, wherein the control signaling is a radio resource control (RRC) signaling (see abstract, i.e., “transmits the multiplexed uplink transmission in the PUCCH resource or the CG-PUSCH resource”, also see ¶0074, i.e., “When the UE 115 is configured for such multiplexing and a PUCCH (e.g., for carrying HARQ-ACK) overlaps with a CG-PUSCH(s) within a PCCH group (e.g., for CSI part 1, CSI part 2), the UE may jointly encode the HARQ-ACK and CGI-UCI”, read as condition(s) being met).
As per claim 2, Guo further teaches wherein the first information is associated with configured grant (CG) resources (see abstract).
As per claim 5, Guo further teaches wherein the second information comprises at least one of hybrid automatic re-transmission request acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) information (i.e., HARQ-ACK, see ¶0074).
As per claim 6, Guo further teaches wherein the second information is transmitted through at least one of a medium access control control element (MAC CE) signaling, an uplink control information (UCI) signaling or a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) (see ¶0036).
As per claim 7, Guo further teaches, wherein transmitting at least one of the first information or the second information based on the control signaling if the condition is met comprises: combining the first information with the second information if the condition is met (i.e., “jointly encode the HARQ-ACK and CGI-UCI”, see ¶0074).
As per claim 8, Guo further teaches wherein combining the first information with the second information comprises: concatenating the first information and the second information, wherein the concatenation is the first information plus the second information, or multiplexing the first information into the second information (see ¶0077, i.e., “multiplexing UCI and CG-UCI of different priorities in a CG-PUSCH transmission”).
Claims 10-11 and 14-19 are rejected under the same rationale as claims 1, 2, 5-8 since they recite substantially identical subject matter. Any differences between the claims do not result in patentably distinct claims and all of the limitations are taught by the above cited art.
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 of this title, 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.
Claims 3 and 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Guo in view of Olsson, et al. (WO 2020/141996)(“Olsson”).
As per claims 3 and 12, Guo does not expressly teach wherein the first information comprises at least one of resource release information, resource reuse information, resource recycling information, scheduling free information, scheduling release information, resource request information, scheduling request information or buffer size reporting information.
Nevertheless, in the same art of multiplexed PUSCH transmissions, Olsson teaches the use and benefit of multiplexing SR information onto a PUSCH of a UL CG (see pp. 12, “Multiplexing SR on PUSCH (both dynamic and CG based)”).
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art, prior to the earliest effective filing date of the claimed invention, to include SR information as first information in Guo. The obvious motivation for doing so would have been to meet a desired need in the art (see for example Olsson, pp. 12, “it is useful to multiplex SR to PUSCH, where the SR indicates the scheduling request of dynamically scheduled UL data”).
Claims 4 and 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Guo in view of Babaei (US 2024/0147478)(“Babaei”).
As per claims 4 and 13, Guo does not expressly teach wherein the first information comprises a bitmap indicating the states of corresponding transmission occasions in a period and the first information is determined by a higher layer parameter related to the number of transmission occasions in a period, and wherein each bit in the bitmap indicates the states of corresponding transmission occasions in the period, where the state of the transmission occasion includes the transmission occasions with data transmission, or the transmission occasions without data transmission.
Nevertheless, in the same art of multiplexed uplink communication, Babaei teaches first information comprises a bitmap indicating the states of corresponding transmission occasions in a period (see ¶0174, i.e., “UTO-UCI (e.g., the plurality of bits of/representing the UCI-UTO) in a CG PUSCH transmission for/associated with the CG configuration”, and/or ¶0169, i.e., “as shown in FIG. 22, the indication (e.g., the UCI or the MAC CE or the UE assistance information) may comprise a first field comprising a plurality of bits (e.g., N bits)”, read as a bitmap) and the first information is determined by a higher layer parameter related to the number of transmission occasions in a period (see ¶0174, i.e., “…based on the first configuration parameters of the CG configuration, a plurality of CG PUSCH transmission occasion”, also see ¶0174, i.e., “a wireless device may receive one or more messages comprising configuration parameters. The one or more messages may comprise one or more RRC messages”, i.e., read as a higher layer parameter, and also ¶0169, “using a configuration parameter”, which also anticipates a higher layer parameter), and wherein each bit in the bitmap indicates the states of corresponding transmission occasions in the period (see ¶0174, i.e., “The first number bits of the UTO-UCI may have a one-to-one mapping/association to the first number subsequent CG PUSCH transmission occasions in ascending order of start times” and/or “A value of each bit, in the plurality of bits, may indicate whether the corresponding PUSCH transmission occasion in the CG period is used/required/occupied”, see ¶0169), where the state of the transmission occasion includes the transmission occasions with data transmission, or the transmission occasions without data transmission (see ¶0174, i.e., “The first value of the first bit (e.g., a value of one) may indicate that the wireless device will not transmit CG PUSCH in the corresponding first CG PUSCH transmission occasion (e.g., the first CG PUSCH transmission occasion corresponding to the first bit). A second bit in the plurality of bits of the UTO-UCI may be associated with/correspond to a second CG PUSCH transmission occasion, in the plurality of CG PUSCH transmission occasions, and may have a second value. The second value (e.g., a value of zero) of the second bit may indicate that the wireless device may transmit CG PUSCH in the corresponding second CG PUSCH transmission occasion (e.g., the second CG PUSCH transmission occasion corresponding to the second bit” and/or see ¶0169, i.e., “A value of each bit, in the plurality of bits, may indicate whether the corresponding PUSCH transmission occasion in the CG period is used/required/occupied”)(also see ¶0177-0181, of provisional application 63/421964 with a filing date of Nov. 02, 2022, which supports the disclosure of ¶0169-¶0174).
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art, prior to the earliest effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify or supplement the UCI/first information of Guo with the plurality of bits and/or UTO-UCI information (i.e., bitmap) for indicating used/occupied states of CG PUSCH transmission occasions. The obvious motivation for doing so would have been to enhance processes and signaling for indication of unused configured grant transmission occasions (see Babaei, ¶0032).
Claim 9 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Guo in view of Chen et al. (US 2023/0035886)(“Chen”).
As per claim 9, Guo further teaches wherein multiplexing the first information into the second information comprises: multiplexing the first information into the second information via rate matching (see ¶0111). However, Guo fails to teach wherein power offset information for the rate matching is determined based on an RRC signaling.
Nevertheless, receiving power/beta offset information (see ¶0161 of Applicant’s specification “the power offset information is beta offset”) for rate matching based on RRC signaling was well known in the art, prior to the earliest effective filing date of the claimed invention (see for example Chen ¶0096).
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art, prior to the earliest effective filing date of the claimed invention, to utilize beta/power offset information for multiplexing the first information into the second information via rate matching in Guo. The obvious motivation for doing so would have been to determine how to multiplex UCI/first information with PUSCH messages (see Chen ¶0096).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure (see PTO 892).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Brendan Higa whose telephone number is (571)272-5823. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 8:30 AM - 5:00 PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, James Hwang can be reached at (571) 272-4036. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/BRENDAN Y HIGA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2447
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