DETAILED ACTION
Notice of 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 .
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 7 Jan 2026 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
The Reply appears to incorporate the subject matter of cancelled claims 2 and 21 into their respective independent claims. The Reply also cites paragraph 84 and 117 of the Specification for support for this amendment. Reply, 11. Paragraph 84 recites, in part, “if the first SL BWP is associated with a first service for peer-to-peer communication service using unicast and the second SL BWP is associated with a second service for public safety service using broadcast which is different than the first service.” Spec., ¶84 (emphasis added). Paragraph 85 discusses the inverse situation where the first and second SL BWPs “are associated with a same service, such as for unicast, groupcast/multicast, or broadcast communication.” Id. at ¶85 (emphasis added). Based on paragraphs 84-85 of the Specification, the claimed “first service” and “second service” appear to be two of unicast, groupcast/multicast, or broadcast. Li ‘917 teaches each SCI that schedules an SL BWP including two bits to indicate the “cast type” of the sidelink transmission. Li, ‘917, ¶118. Because the SCIs used to schedule the conflicting sidelink transmission in Li ‘917 are contemplated to have any of the cast types provided in table 8.4.1.1-1, Li ’917 teaches each conflicting SL-BWP having a different “service” or “cast type.”
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112(d)
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(d):
(d) REFERENCE IN DEPENDENT FORMS.—Subject to subsection (e), a claim in dependent form shall contain a reference to a claim previously set forth and then specify a further limitation of the subject matter claimed. A claim in dependent form shall be construed to incorporate by reference all the limitations of the claim to which it refers.
Claim 39 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(d) or as being of improper dependent form for failing to further limit the subject matter of the claim upon which it depends, or for failing to include all the limitations of the claim upon which it depends. Claim 33, from which claim 39 depends, requires the first and second SL BWPs to be use “different” services. Claim 39 requires the first and second SL BWPs to be “associated with a same service.” Emphasis added. By requiring the same service for both BWPs, claim 39 no longer includes all the limitations of claim 33, which requires the BWPs to use different services.
Applicant may cancel the claim, amend the claim to place the claim in proper dependent form, rewrite the claim in independent form, or present a sufficient showing that the dependent claim complies with the statutory requirements.
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 1, 4, 8, 10, 11, 20, 23, 27, 31-33, 35, 39, 41, and 42 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable by Li (US 20230084917) in view of Choi (US 20220377764) and Sun (US 20240089803).
Regarding claims 1, 20 and 33, Li ‘917 teaches an apparatus, a method, and a non-transitory computer readable medium for wireless communication at a first user equipment (UE), comprising: one or more memories; and one or more processors, coupled to the one or more memories, the one or more processors individually or collectively configured to cause the apparatus to:
identify a first sidelink (SL) bandwidth part (BWP), comprising a first frequency range corresponding to a first service for operation of the first UE in accordance with the first service (para. 68 of Li ‘917 – SL BWP subchannels are a contiguous number of RBs; para. 42 and 45 of Li ‘917 – UEs are configured with one or more sidelink resource pools via higher layers, where the sidelink pools consist of continuous PRBs [i.e. BWP]; figures 5-7 of Li ‘917 – UE B and UE C use resources blocks or BWPs are inherently frequency ranges as evidenced previously by pgs. 191-192 of Launay [see 102 rejection in Non-final Rejection dated 2 Feb 2024]; para. 171 of Li ‘917 – UE A receives the SCIs of both UE B and UE C to “identify” and “detect” their reserved resources; Li ‘917, ¶¶ 110, 118 and table 8.4.1.1-1 – SCI carries sidelink scheduling information, which includes a cast type [i.e. service type] indicator, which is 2 bits that identify the sidelink data as broadcast, groupcast, or unicast; Li, ¶¶147-148, 171 – SCI indicates reserved resources for each UE, which allows the SL BWPs of each UE to indicate a differing service [i.e. cast types]);
detect a second SL BWP . . . comprising a second frequency range for operation of a second UE (para. 68 of Li ‘917 – SL BWP subchannels are a contiguous number of RBs; para. 42 and 45 of Li ‘917 – UEs are configured with one or more sidelink resource pools via higher layers, where the sidelink pools consist of continuous PRBs [i.e. BWP]; figures 5-7 of Li ‘917 – UE B and UE C use resources blocks or BWPs are inherently frequency ranges as evidenced previously by pgs. 191-192 of Launay [see 102 rejection in Non-final Rejection dated 2 Feb 2024]; para. 171 of Li ‘917 – UE A receives the SCIs of both UE B and UE C to “identify” and “detect” their reserved resources); and
one of: make an adjustment to . . . the first SL BWP based at least in part on a partial overlap between the first SL BWP and second SL BWP (para. 161 of Li ‘917 – UE A can re-select resources to resolve a conflict; para. 157, 162-164, and figure 5 of Li ‘917 – overlap of resources results in a collision); or transmit, to the second UE based at least in part on the partial overlap between the first SL BWP and the second SL BWP, an indication to adjust . . . the second SL BWP (para. 146-148 and 217 of Li ‘917 – receiver UE A detects a future resource conflict with transmitter UE B and sends “inter-UE coordination information” to UE B for UE B to “use[] it”; para. 218 and 220 of Li ‘917 – UE A provides an indication of the resource conflict and UE B re-selects one or more sidelink resources for transmission); and
receive or transmit sidelink control information (SCI) in the first SL BWP based at least in part on the adjustment or the indication. Li ‘917, ¶¶46, 96, and 110 (PSSCHs include 2nd stage SCIs) ¶¶161-162, 220 (when the PSSCHs of UE A and UE B conflict, either UE A re-selects resources or it informs UE B of the conflict and UE B re-selects).
Li ‘917 fails to explicitly teach three elements of the claimed invention. First, while Li ‘917 teaches overlapping SL resources in the frequency domain,1 Li ‘917 does not explicitly teach (i) making an adjustment to either the “first frequency range” of a first BWP or the “second frequency range” of a second BWP to accommodate the collision. Second, while Li ‘917 teaches SL BWPs (id. at ¶68), where an SL BWP may be “active” (id. at ¶70), it does not explicitly teach (ii) the overlapping sidelink pools comprising “active” SL BWPs. And third, Li ‘917 does not explicitly teach (iii) detecting the sidelink transmission of another UE “based at least in part on one or more measurements.”
However, Choi teaches (i) BWPs that may overlap. Choi, ¶62. When the frequency resources of sidelink BWPs overlap between multiple UEs, Choi adjusts the frequency hopping range for one or more UEs. Id. at ¶109. Choi also teaches (ii) BWPs that may be “activated” or “active.” Choi, ¶63. At the time of the invention (pre-AIA ) or at the effective filing date of the invention (AIA ), it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to adjust the frequency allocated to a UE, as taught by Choi, when adjusting either of the colliding sidelink allocations, as taught by Li ‘917, in order to prevent a frequency resource collision, especially for URLLC traffic, which is sensitive to delay caused by needing to be retransmitted. Id. at ¶108; see also id. at ¶3 (latency caused by retransmission). At the time of the invention (pre-AIA ) or at the effective filing date of the invention (AIA ), it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to use active or activated, as taught by Choi, SL BWPs, taught by Li ‘917, in order to customize the configured sidelink resources that are allocated for communication at a given time. Choi, ¶63 (ability to specify a number of configured BWPs for communication [i.e. activation] at a given time [e.g. 1 of 4 BWPs]). This minimized the over-allocation of BWPs for a given communication.
The combination of Li ‘917 and Choi does not explicitly teach (iii) detecting the sidelink transmission of another UE “based at least in part on one or more measurements.” However, Sun teaches UE 101 detecting the resources reserved by UE 102 based on an SL-RSRP measurement being greater than a threshold. Sun, ¶110. At the time of the invention (pre-AIA ) or at the effective filing date of the invention (AIA ), it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to execute the RSRP measurement of the pre-emption check procedure (Sun, ¶¶28-31), taught by Sun, when detecting overlapping sidelink bandwidth parts, as taught by the combination of Li ‘917 and Choi, in order to assist the UE in determining when a resource re-selection should be triggered (i.e. when its transmission should be pre-empted). Sun, ¶27.
Regarding claims 4, 23, and 35, the combination of Li ‘917, Choi, and Sun also teaches the apparatus of claim 1, the method of claim 20 and . . . a UE assistance information message, a radio resource control message, or medium access control signaling via a PC5 interface (para. 313 of Li ‘917 – PC5-RRC signaling between two UEs – UE A and UE B). The combination of Li ‘917, Choi, and Sun does not explicitly teach its “indication” being provided via PC5-RRC signaling (para. 220 of Li ‘917 – UE A provides an indication of the resource conflict and UE B re-selects one or more sidelink resources for transmission). However, one skilled in the art would send the indication, taught by Li ’917, via the PC5-RRC signaling, taught by Li ‘917, in order to use a known interface for convey UE-to-UE information, thus increasing its compatibility with other standardized wireless systems. Li ‘917, ¶¶ 205, 335.
Regarding claims 8 and 27, the combination of Li ‘917, Choi, and Sun also teaches wherein the first active SL BWP and the second active SL BWP are associated with a same service (para. 110 of Li ‘917 – SCI carries sidelink scheduling information; para. 118 and table 8.4.1.1-1 of Li ‘917 – SCI includes cast type indicator, which is 2 bits that identify the sidelink data as broadcast, groupcast, unicast; para. 147-148 and 171 of Li ‘917 – SCI indicates reserved resources for each UE, which allows the SL BWPs of each UE to indicate the same or a differing service [i.e. cast types]).
Regarding claims 10, 31, and 41, the combination of Li ‘917, Choi, and Sun also teaches wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: establish a unicast session with the second UE after adjusting the first active SL BWP (para. 110 of Li ‘917 – SCI carries sidelink scheduling information; para. 118 and table 8.4.1.1-1 of Li ‘917 – SCI includes cast type indicator, which is 2 bits that identify the sidelink data as broadcast, groupcast, unicast; para. 227 and 250 of Li ‘917 – first SCI is transmitted by UE B to UE A and indicates unicast; para. 220 of Li ‘917 – UE A provides an indication of the resource conflict and UE B re-selects one or more sidelink resources for transmission).
Regarding claims 11, 32, and 42, the combination of Li ‘917, Choi, and Sun also teaches wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: join a broadcast or a groupcast session associated with one or more UEs including the second UE (para. 110 of Li ‘917 – SCI carries sidelink scheduling information; para. 118 and table 8.4.1.1-1 of Li ‘917 – SCI includes cast type indicator, which is 2 bits that identify the sidelink data as broadcast, groupcast, unicast; para. 227 and 253 of Li ‘917 – first SCI is transmitted by UE B to UE A and indicates groupcast).
Regarding claim 39, the combination of Li ‘917, Choi, and Sun also teaches wherein the first active SL BWP and the second SL BWP are associated with a same service. Li ‘917, ¶¶118 and table 8.4.1.1-1 (sidelink transmissions scheduled by SCIs having the same two bits for “cast type” indicator).
Claims 3, 22, and 34 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Li ‘917 in view of Choi and Sun (all of record), and further in view of Li ‘736 (US 2021/0144736).
Regarding claims 3, 22, and 34, the combination of Li ‘917, Choi, and Sun teaches the apparatus of claim 1, the method of claim 20, the medium of claim 33, and wherein the one or more processors, to make the adjustment associated with the first active SL BWP based at least in part on the partial overlap between the first active SL BWP and the second SL BWP para. 161 of Li ‘917 – UE A can re-select resources to resolve a conflict; para. 162-164 – overlap of resources results in a collision), but does not explicitly teach “switching to a resource pool that is not associated with the partial overlap in frequency.” However, Li ‘736 teaches a first and second sidelink resources overlapping (para. 337-338 of Li ‘736) and re-selecting a new sidelink resource from a different pool (para. 341-342 of Li ‘736). At the time of the invention (pre-AIA ) or at the effective filing date of the invention (AIA ), it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to selecting a new sidelink resource from a different pool, as taught by Li ‘736, when performing the re-selection, taught by the combination of Li ‘917, Choi, and Sun, in order to exclude potentially overlapping resources from becoming the new sidelink resource, thus reducing the likelihood of another collision. Id. at ¶ 342.
Claims 5, 24, and 36 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Li ‘917 in view of Choi and Sun (all of record), and further in view of Choi ‘434 (US 2020/0288434).
Regarding claims 5, 24, and 36, the combination of Li ‘917, Choi, and Sun teaches the apparatus of claim 1, the method of claim 20, the medium of claim 33, and an indication for a UE to re-select resources (para. 146-148 and 217 of Li ‘917 – receiver UE A detects a future resource conflict with transmitter UE B; para. 220 of Li ‘917 – UE A provides an indication of the resource conflict and UE B re-selects one or more sidelink resources for transmission), but does not explicitly teach “receive a response associated with the indication, wherein the response indicates that the second active SL BWP was adjusted.” However, Choi ‘434 teaches a second UE sending a BWP switching response message to a first UE to indicate that configuration of the new SL BWP is complete. Choi ‘434, ¶¶ 109, 111. At the time of the invention (pre-AIA ) or at the effective filing date of the invention (AIA ), it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to provide the response message, taught by Choi ‘434, when re-selecting resources, as taught by the combination of Li ‘917, Choi, and Sun, in order to efficiently use sidelink resources based on amount of traffic by switching BWPs based on multiple sidelink communication characteristics. Id. at ¶ 20, 106.
Claims 6, 25, and 37 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Li ‘917 in view of Choi and Sun (all of record), and further in view of Yu (US 2020/0252909).
Regarding claims 6, 25, and 37, the combination of Li ‘917, Choi, and Sun teaches the apparatus of claim 1, the method of claim 20, the medium of claim 33, and UE autonomous resource reselection, which does not involve the base station (para. 146-148 and 217 of Li ‘917 – receiver UE A detects a future resource conflict with transmitter UE B; para. 220 of Li ‘917 – UE A provides an indication of the resource conflict and UE B re-selects one or more sidelink resources for transmission), but does not explicitly teach “receiving a response associated with the indication, wherein the response indicates that the second UE switched to a resource pool that is not associated with the partial overlap.” However, Yu teaches an eNB confirm the selection of resources in a new sidelink subframes pool (para. 63-64 of Yu – eNB confirms relay UE’s selection), where the resources from the new pool prevent a collision (para. 65 of Yu). At the time of the invention (pre-AIA ) or at the effective filing date of the invention (AIA ), it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to have UE B, as taught by the combination of Li ‘917, Choi, and Sun, teach a confirmation of selected resources from a new resource pool, as taught by Yu, in order to avoid collisions between sidelink transmissions. Id. at ¶ 8-9.
Claims 7, 26, and 38 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Li ‘917 in view of Choi and Sun (all of record), and further in view of Han (US 20140357287).
Regarding claims 7, 26, and 38, the combination of Li ‘917, Choi, and Sun teaches the apparatus of claim 1, the method of claim 1, the medium of claim 33, and a second UE adjusting the location of SCI that was partially overlapped by resource of first UE. Li ‘917, figure 13 (UE B’s PSSCH 2,1 overlaps with UE A’s allocation 1306); Li, ‘917, ¶220 (UE B selects a new SL resource, different than PSSCH 2,1 to transmit TB2 after receiving an indication of the overlap from UE A); see also id. at. ¶46 for PSSCH carrying sidelink control information, SCI). The combination of Li ‘917 and Choi does not explicitly teach “receiving a response” to UE A’s indication, where the response “indicates . . . a location” of the rescheduled PSSCH. Han teaches a device sending a response to a “collision message” where the response includes the “changed resource allocation information.” Han, figure 7 (eNB that transmits the collision message receives the changed allocation information in response). At the time of the invention (pre-AIA ) or at the effective filing date of the invention (AIA ), it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to enable the UEs, taught by the combination of Li ‘917, Choi, and Sun, to provide a response to a message indicating a collision, as taught by Han, in order to minimize interference. Han, ¶7 (substitution of one known element for another (i.e. UE acquire the functionality described for eNBs in Han) to achieve the same result [i.e. reduced overlap in assigned resources lowers interference]).
Claims 9, 28, and 40 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Li ‘917 in view of Choi and Sun (all of record), and further in view of Yao (US 20230097512).
Regarding claims 9, 28, and 40, the combination of Li ‘917, Choi, and Sun also teaches the apparatus of claim 1, the method of claim 20, the medium of claim 33, and adjusting the first active SL BWP or a resource pool associated with the first active SL BWP . . . (para. 161 of Li ‘917 – UE A can re-select resources by itself to resolve a conflict; para. 162-164 – overlap of resources results in a collision and the re-selection avoids the collision). The combination of Li ‘917, Choi, and Sun does not explicitly teach adjusting resources “to fully overlap with the second active SL BWP.” However, Yao teaches UE-dedicated BWPs. Yao, figure 2 (elements 204 and 208). The resource allocation is configured to ensure the BWPs overlap. Yao, ¶¶48-49 (e.g. in figure 2, the MBS initial BWP 216 and MBS initial BWP 224 fully overlap). At the time of the invention (pre-AIA ) or at the effective filing date of the invention (AIA ), it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to ensure overlap between BWPs, as taught by Yao, when executing the BWP frequency adjustment, taught by the combination of Li ‘917, Choi, and Sun, in order to use common frequency resources for broadcast system information, which prevents each receiving UE from having to switch to a RRC connected mode to receive system information. Yao, ¶¶50, 52.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure, including R1-2103185, which teaches inter-UE coordination to prevent a reservation collision, paragraph 208 of Baek, which teaches overlapping sidelink transmission of different services, paragraphs 102-106 of Kazmi, which teaches a UE adjusting its resources around a collision, and figure 4 of Nguyen.
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/Benjamin Lamont/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2461
1 In paragraph 219 and figure 13 of Li ‘917, UE B’s PSSCH1,3 overlaps in the frequency domain with PSSCH reserved by UE C (see para. 214 for “frequency resources” of PSSCH1,3, which are the vertical axis in figure 13). Also figure 5 shows a frequency overlap between UE A’s and UE B’s allocations.
Prosecution Insights