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 .
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant's claim for foreign priority. It is noted, however, that applicant has not filed a certified copy of the Korean application as required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement submitted on 11/10/2025 has been considered and made of record by the examiner.
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)(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 1-3, 10, 11-13, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Chen et al. (hereinafter, referred to as Chen) (WO 2024205827).
As to claims 1 and 11, Chen discloses a method performed by a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system (see Figs. 5 and 7), the method comprising: receiving, from a base station (see Fig. 7, block 110 and paragraph 0037), via a radio resource control (RRC) signaling (see Fig. 7, signal 710 and paragraph 0115), information related to sounding reference signal (SRS) resource set (see paragraphs 0083-0084 and 0115) and phase tracking reference signal (PTRS) uplink configuration information including a parameter indicating a maximum number of uplink (UL) PTRS ports (see paragraphs 0084, 0087-0089, and 0115); receiving a downlink control information (DCI) format 0_1 including a SRS resource set indicator (SRSI) field (see Fig. 5, paragraphs 0094, 0100, 0104, and 0155) and a first PTRS-demodulation reference signal (DMRS) association field (see paragraph 0105); when two SRS resource sets associated with a usage of value 'nonCodeBook' or 'CodeBook' are configured based on the information related to SRS resource set (see paragraphs 0084 and 0108-0109, and 0115), determining a number of bits of the SRSI field as 2bits (see paragraph 0101); and based on the 2bits SRSI field (see paragraph 0101) and the parameter indicating the maximum number of ports (see the abstract and paragraph 0224), determining a number of bits of the first PTRS- DMRS association field as 1 bit or 2 bits (see paragraphs 0116-0117, 0122, and 0130). As to claim 11, Chen further discloses that the UE comprising: memory storing a program or one or more instructions; and at least one processor configured to execute the program or the one or more instructions to cause the UE to perform the method steps of the invention (see paragraphs 0009 and 0058-0060).
As to claims 2 and 12, Chen further disclose that the number of bits of the first PTRS- DMRS association field is determined as 2 bits (see paragraphs 0116-0117, 0122, and 0130), when: one PTRS port is configured based on the parameter indicating the maximum number of ports included in the PTRS uplink configuration information (see paragraphs 0087-0088); the SRSI field is present and equals "00" or "01" (see paragraph 0101); a maximum rank or a maximum number of multiple input multiple output (MIMO) layers configured for the UE is 2 or 3 (see paragraphs 0118 and 0121-0123); and a parameter related to multi panel scheme is not configured for the UE (in reference Chen many parameters are not configured (such as the total number of panels and so on)).
As to claims 3 and 13, Chen further disclose that the number of bits of the first PTRS- DMRS association field is determined as 2 bits (see paragraphs 0116-0117, 0122, and 0130), when: one PTRS port is configured based on the parameter indicating the maximum number of ports included in the PTRS uplink configuration information (see paragraphs 0087-0088); the SRSI field is present and equals "10" or "11" (see paragraph 0101); a maximum rank or a maximum number of MIMO layers configured for the UE is 2 (see paragraphs 0118 and 0121-0123); and a parameter related to multi panel scheme is not configured for the UE (in reference Chen many parameters are not configured (such as the total number of panels and so on)).
As to claims 10 and 20, Chen discloses a method performed by a base station in a wireless communication system (see Figs. 5 and 7), the method comprising: transmitting, to a user equipment (UE) (see Fig. 7, block 120 and paragraph 0036), via a radio resource control (RRC) signaling (see Fig. 7, signal 710 and paragraph 0115), information related to sounding reference signal (SRS) resource set (see paragraphs 0083-0084 and 0115) and phase tracking reference signal (PTRS) uplink configuration information including a parameter indicating a maximum number of uplink (UL) PTRS ports (see paragraphs 0084, 0087-0089, and 0115); transmitting, to the UE, a downlink control information (DCI) format 0_1 including a SRS resource set indicator (SRSI) field (see Fig. 5, paragraphs 0094, 0100, 0104, and 0155) and a first PTRS-demodulation reference signal (DMRS) association field (see paragraph 0105); when two SRS resource sets associated with a usage of value 'nonCodeBook' or 'CodeBook' are configured based on the information related to SRS resource set (see paragraphs 0084 and 0108-0109, and 0115), determining a number of bits of the SRSI field as 2bits (see paragraph 0101); and based on the 2bits SRSI field (see paragraph 0101) and the parameter indicating the maximum number of ports (see the abstract and paragraph 0224), determining a number of bits of the first PTRS- DMRS association field as 1 bit or 2 bits (see paragraphs 0116-0117, 0122, and 0130). As to claim 20, Chen further discloses that the base station comprising: memory storing a program or one or more instructions; and at least one processor configured to execute the program or the one or more instructions to cause the base station to perform the method steps of the invention (see paragraphs 0008, 0037, and 0060).
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, 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 4 and 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chen, in view of Gao et al. (hereinafter, referred to as Gao) (WO 2022208484).
As to claims 4 and 14, Chen discloses all the subject matters claimed in claims 4 and 14, except that a most significant bit (MSB) of the first PTRS-DMRS association field indicates an association between PTRS port and DMRS port corresponding to a first SRS resource indicator (SRI) and/or a first precoding information, and wherein a least significant Bit (LSB) of the first PTRS-DMRS association field indicates an association between PTRS port and DMRS port corresponding to a second SRI and/or a second precoding information. Gao, in the same field of endeavor, discloses a system comprising multiple ports for DMRS (see paragraph 0020). Gao further discloses that a most significant bit (MSB) of the first PTRS-DMRS association field indicates an association between PTRS port and DMRS port corresponding to a first SRS resource indicator (SRI) and/or a first precoding information, and a least significant Bit (LSB) of the first PTRS-DMRS association field indicates an association between PTRS port and DMRS port corresponding to a second SRI and/or a second precoding information (see paragraphs 0034 and 0055). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention was made to modify the teachings of Chen, as suggested by Gao, to avoid using separate signaling to communicate the PTRS-DMRS association and reduce signaling overhead.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5-9 and 15-19 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to LEILA MALEK whose telephone number is (571)272-8731. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8:30am-4:30pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Chieh Fan can be reached at 571-272-3042. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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LEILA . MALEK
Examiner
Art Unit 2632
/LEILA MALEK/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2632
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