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 .
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 12/29/2025 has been entered.
Response to Remarks
This communication is considered fully responsive to the amendment filed on 12/29/2025.
Claims 19-20, 23, 30, 41, 47, 49--52 are pending and are examined in this office action.
Claims 19, 41, 51 has been amended.
No claim has been added and previously claims 1-18, 21-22, 24-29, 31-40, 42-46, 48 had been canceled.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, filed on 12/29/2025, with respect to claims have been considered but are moot because the arguments do not apply to any of the references being used in the current rejection. The Examiner found features modified to claims, ie. claim 19 as “19. (Currently Amended) A sidelink communication method, comprising:
receiving, by a first user equipment (UE), sidelink communication configuration information from a second UE; and
sending, by the first UE, sidelink communication configuration response information to the second UE; wherein after receiving the sidelink communication configuration information from the second UE, the method further comprises: in response to the sidelink communication configuration information received from a second UE indicating that a bi-directional sidelink radio bearer (SLRB) is to be established between the first UE and the second UE, sending, by the first UE, sidelink communication assistance information to a first base station corresponding to the first UE; and receiving, by the first UE, sidelink communication configuration information from the first base station;
wherein the sidelink communication assistance information is determined based on the sidelink communication configuration information sent by the second UE and comprises a quality of service flow identifier (QFI), and either an RLC acknowledged mode (AM), or an RLC unacknowledged mode (UM);
wherein the first UE is in coverage of the first base station corresponding to the first UE and the second UE is in coverage of a second base station corresponding to the second UE.
that have changed the scope of the invention as a whole, Therefore, Applicant’s remarks regarding rejection under 35 U.S.C 103 for the claims are moot. Applicant's remarks are considered as forward looking statement for the newly reconstructed claims.
In view of the applicant’s amendment to the claims, the examiner has clarified and remapped the rejection to the argued claim limitations in details, using the prior art of record in the current prosecution of the claims as well a new prior art. See of XU et al. (US 20220015160 A1).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
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 19-20, 23, 30, 41, 47, 49-52 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over PAN et al. (US 20200205209 A1; hereinafter as “PAN”, which has us-provisional-application US 62784631 filed on December 24, 2018) in view of XU et al. (US 20220015160 , A1; hereinafter as “XU”, which has foreign priority date March 28, 2019).
Examiner’s note: in what follows, references are drawn to PAN unless otherwise mentioned.
Regarding claim 19, PAN teaches, a sidelink communication method (fig. 14: Fig. 15B: Method ; where UE1 is in sidelink communication with UE2: “One-to-One Sidelink Communication Link Establishment (Illustrated in FIG. 14) ”: [0216]; UE2 ) comprising:
comprising:
PNG
media_image1.png
449
557
media_image1.png
Greyscale
receiving, by a first user equipment (UE) (==UE2 in Fig. 14 ) , sidelink communication configuration information from a second UE (==UE1 in Fig. 14) (see fig. 14 aforesaid UE2 receives PC5 Signaling ie. DIRECT COMMUNICATION REQUEST from UE1;: [0223]-[0225]; also see fig. 17 element 1705 , “FIG. 17 is a flow chart 1700 according to one embodiment from the perspective of a second UE performing a one-to-one sidelink communication with a first UE, wherein the first UE is served by a first network node. In step 1705, the second UE receives a second sidelink configuration from the first UE, wherein the second sidelink configuration is used to configure the one-to-one sidelink communication., ”: [0251] ) and
sending, by the first UE (==UE1 ), sidelink communication configuration response information to the second UE (==UE2 ) (see fig. 17: element 1710, Fig. UE1 sends sidelink transmission /reception from UE1 to UE2 using sidelink configuration, “In step 1710, the second UE performs a sidelink transmission and/or a sidelink reception on the one-to-one sidelink communication based on the second sidelink configuration.”: [0251]; also see UE1 is in sidelink communication configuration to UE2: “ After exchanging the Direct Communication Request message and the Direct Communication Accept message, UE-1 and the UE-2 could perform an IP address configuration procedure for determining 5-tuple (e.g. source IP addresses, destination IP addresses, source port number, destination port number and protocol ID) for the one-to-one sidelink communication. It may also be possible that IP address configuration procedure is done with the Direct Communication Request message and the Direct Communication Accept message (i.e. both procedures are combined into one).”: [0226]);
PAN does not expressively disclose:
wherein after receiving the sidelink communication configuration information from the second UE, the method further comprises: in response to the sidelink communication configuration information received from a second UE indicating that a bi-directional sidelink radio bearer (SLRB) is to be established between the first UE and the second UE,
sending, by the first UE, sidelink communication assistance information to a first base station corresponding to the first UE; and receiving, by the first UE, sidelink communication configuration information from the first base station;
wherein the sidelink communication assistance information is determined based on the sidelink communication configuration information sent by the second UE and comprises a quality of service flow identifier (QFI), and either an RLC acknowledged mode (AM), or an RLC unacknowledged mode (UM);
wherein the first UE is in coverage of the first base station corresponding to the first UE and the second UE is in coverage of a second base station corresponding to the second UE.
XU, in the same field of endeavor, discloses:
PNG
media_image2.png
247
511
media_image2.png
Greyscale
PNG
media_image3.png
248
533
media_image3.png
Greyscale
wherein after receiving the sidelink communication configuration information from the second UE (==Second terminal 20), the method further comprises: in response to the sidelink communication configuration information received from a second UE (==Second terminal 20) indicating that a bi-directional sidelink radio bearer (SLRB) is to be established between the first UE (==first terminal 10), and the second UE (==Second terminal 20) (see fig. 1 where First terminal 10 in in communication with Base Station 30/First Base station and second terminal 20/second UE is in communication with second BS 40/Second Base Station: see fig. 3 where first terminal 10 and second terminal 20 are in bi-directional sidelink communication using Sidelink radio bearer 1 and sidelink radio bearer 2:: [0219]-[0223]; “ bidirectional bearer.. is a sidelink radio bearer that may be used by a sender to send sidelink service data over the sidelink radio bearer, and may further be used by the sender to receive an RLC status report for the sidelink service data over the sidelink radio bearer. It should be understood that if the sender sends the sidelink service data over the sidelink radio bearer, a receiver may receive the sidelink service data over the sidelink radio bearer. If the sender receives the RLC status report for the sidelink service data over the sidelink radio bearer, the receiver may send the RLC status report for the sidelink service data over the sidelink radio bearer.”[0229]; “ For example, if a sidelink radio bearer A is a bidirectional bearer, the sidelink radio bearer A may be used by the first terminal 10 to send sidelink service data A to the second terminal 20, and may further be used by the first terminal 10 to receive an RLC status report that is for the sidelink service data A and that is sent by the second terminal 20 over the sidelink radio bearer A. Alternatively, the sidelink radio bearer A is used by the second terminal 20 to send sidelink service data B to the first terminal 10, and may further be used by the second terminal 20 to receive an RLC status report that is for the sidelink service data B and that is sent by the first terminal 10 over the sidelink radio bearer A.”[0231]),
sending, by the first UE (==first terminal 10), sidelink communication assistance information to a first base station corresponding to the first UE (==first terminal 10); and receiving, by the first UE (==first terminal 10), sidelink communication configuration information from the first base station ( “The first terminal 10 may transmit (==sending ) an uplink (UL) Uu service (==sidelink communication assistance information in claim ) to the network device 30 (==first base station in claim ) on the Uu link, or may receive (==receiving in claim ), on the Uu link, a downlink (DL) Uu service (==sidelink communication configuration information in claim ) sent by the network device 30.”: [0239]) ;
wherein the sidelink communication assistance information (==Uu service ) is determined based on the sidelink communication configuration information sent by the second UE and comprises a quality of service flow identifier (QFI), and either an RLC acknowledged mode (AM), or an RLC unacknowledged mode (UM) ( “the QoS information mapped to the first sidelink radio bearer includes at least a QFI 1, a QFI 2, and a QFI 3. When sending, to the second terminal, the QoS information mapped to the first sidelink radio bearer, the first terminal needs to indicate that the QFI 1, the QFI 2, and the QFI 3 belong to a same group, or that the three QFIs need to be mapped to a same first sidelink radio bearer. In addition, when subsequently requesting a network device to establish the second sidelink radio bearer, the second terminal also needs to indicate, to the network device, that the QFI 1, the QFI 2, and the QFI 3 belong to a same group, or that the three QFIs need to be mapped to a same first sidelink radio bearer.
It should be understood that the QFI 1, the QFI 2, and the QFI 3 may alternatively be a QoS parameter set 1, a QoS parameter set 2, and a QoS parameter set 3. ”: [0278]-[0279]; “ the sidelink radio bearer includes at least one RLC entity or at least two RLC entities. When the RLC layer working mode is an acknowledged mode AM, the at least one RLC entity is associated with one logical channel. When the RLC layer working mode is an unacknowledged mode UM, the at least two RLC entities are associated with one logical channel. It should be understood that when the RLC layer working mode is the acknowledged mode AM, the sidelink radio bearer includes at least one RLC entity, and the at least one RLC entity is associated with one logical channel. When the RLC layer working mode is the UM, the sidelink radio bearer includes at least two RLC entities, and the at least two RLC entities are associated with one logical channel.”: [0043]);
wherein the first UE is in coverage of the first base station corresponding to the first UE and the second UE is in coverage of a second base station corresponding to the second UE (“ In an optional implementation, the communications system shown in FIG. 1 further includes a network device 30 providing a service for the first terminal 10 and a network device 40 providing a service for the second terminal 20.”: [0224]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teaching of PAN to include the above recited limitations as taught by XU . The suggestion/motivation would be to improve high-reliability communication of the V2X service (XU: [0005]).
Regarding claim 20, PAN in view of XU teaches claim 19 as shown above. Furthermore, PAN teaches, wherein the sidelink communication configuration information comprises sidelink radio bearer( SLRB), configuration information; wherein the SLRB configuration information comprises at least one of: signalling bearer configuration information or data bearer configuration information (See fig. Fig 15a and 15C (LCH, RB ID in STCH configuration) RRC response message from gNB included STCH configuration (Channel == Bearer, Traffic Channel === User/V2X application Data Bearer: [0242-0243])).
Regarding claim 23, PAN in view of XU teaches claim 20 as shown above. Furthermore, XU teaches, wherein the data bearer configuration information comprises at least one of: a uni-directional SLRB indication or a bi-directional SLRB indication; a radio link control (RLC) mode indication; a uni-directional unacknowledged mode (uni-UM); a bi-directional UM (bi-UM); a uni-directional AM (uni-AM); or a bi-directional AM (bi-AM) ( “a radio bearer configuration method, including: A first terminal determines to establish or configure a sidelink radio bearer. The first terminal sends a first message to a second terminal. The first message includes at least one of the following information: quality of service QoS information mapped to the sidelink radio bearer between the second terminal and the first terminal, and first configuration information of the sidelink radio bearer. The first configuration information includes at least one of the following information: first indication information and a bearer type indication. The first indication information is used to indicate a radio link control RLC layer working mode of the sidelink radio bearer, and the bearer type indication is used to indicate that the sidelink radio bearer is a bidirectional bearer.”: [0065] ; “ The bidirectional bearer, as the name implies, is a sidelink radio bearer that may be used by a sender to send sidelink service data over the sidelink radio bearer, and may further be used by the sender to receive an RLC status report for the sidelink service data over the sidelink radio bearer. It should be understood that if the sender sends the sidelink service data over the sidelink radio bearer, a receiver may receive the sidelink service data over the sidelink radio bearer. If the sender receives the RLC status report for the sidelink service data over the sidelink radio bearer, the receiver may send the RLC status report for the sidelink service data over the sidelink radio bearer.”[0229]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teaching of PAN to include the above recited limitations as taught by XU . The suggestion/motivation would be to improve high-reliability communication of the V2X service (XU: [0005]).
Regarding claim 30, PAN in view of XU teaches claim 19 as shown above. Furthermore, XU teaches, wherein the sidelink communication assistance information further comprises at least one of:
a list of an idle logic channel identifier, SLRB configuration information received from the second UE, a uni-directional SLRB indication or a bi-directional SLRB indication, a signalling bearer indication, a data bearer indication, or a signalling transmission indication ( “ In an example, an embodiment of this application provides a radio bearer configuration apparatus, including a communications unit and a processing unit. The communications unit is configured to receive a first message from a first terminal. The first message includes any one or more of the following information: quality of service QoS information mapped to a sidelink radio bearer between a second terminal and the first terminal, and first configuration information of the sidelink radio bearer. The first configuration information includes at least one of the following information: first indication information and a bearer type indication. The first indication information is used to indicate a radio link control RLC layer working mode of the sidelink radio bearer, and the bearer type indication is used to indicate that the sidelink radio bearer is a bidirectional bearer. The processing unit is configured to: establish or configure the sidelink radio bearer based on the first”:[0113]; “The radio bearer configuration apparatus includes: a processing unit, configured to determine to establish or configure a sidelink radio bearer; and a communications unit, configured to send a first message to a second terminal. The first message includes at least one of the following information: quality of service QoS information mapped to the sidelink radio bearer between the second terminal and a first terminal, and first configuration information of the sidelink radio bearer. The first configuration information includes at least one of the following information: first indication information and a bearer type indication. The first indication information is used to indicate a radio link control RLC layer working mode of the sidelink radio bearer, and the bearer type indication is used to indicate that the sidelink radio bearer is a bidirectional bearer.”: [0138]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teaching of PAN to include the above recited limitations as taught by XU . The suggestion/motivation would be to improve high-reliability communication of the V2X service (XU: [0005]).
Regarding claim 41, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as set forth in claim 19.
Regarding claim 47, PAN in view of XU teaches claim 19 as shown above. Furthermore, PAN teaches, the method of claim 19, further comprising:
Receiving, by the first UE a signalling message from the second UE by using a protocol default PC5 signalling radio bearer (SRB) (see fig. 15B: PC5-RRC signaling on SCCH to UE2:: [0242]-[0248] ; “In the second RRC message, the content could include at least one of the following: Identity of a sidelink logical channel used for PC5 control signalling, e.g. SCCH (Sidelink Control Channel); Priority of the sidelink logical channel; and/or Identity of a logical channel group (LCG) for the sidelink logical channel. ”: [0211])-[0214];
wherein the protocol default PC5 SRB comprises at least one of: a logic channel identifier, a logic channel priority, a type of signaling associated with a bearer, a packet data converge protocol (PDCP) sequence number size, a radio link control (RLC) sequence number size, an RLC reassembly timer, or a logic channel group identifier ; wherein the signaling associated with the bearer is PC5-S signalling or PC5-RRC signaling (see fig. 15B: PC5-RRC signaling on SCCH to UE2:: [0242]-[0248] ; “In the second RRC message, the content could include at least one of the following: Identity of a sidelink logical channel used for PC5 control signalling, e.g. SCCH (Sidelink Control Channel); Priority of the sidelink logical channel; and/or Identity of a logical channel group (LCG) for the sidelink logical channel. ”: [0211])-[0214]; “UE-1 could transmit a PC5-RRC message on a sidelink logical channel used for control signalling (e.g. SCCH) to UE-2. The content of the PC5-RRC message could be created based on the content of the reconfiguration message. The content of the PC5-RRC message could be applied by UE-2 for transmitting user traffic of the V2X application over the one-to-one sidelink communication between UE-1 and UE-2. ”: [0242]; “In step 1605, the first UE receives a dedicated signalling from a first network node, wherein the dedicated signalling includes a first sidelink configuration for the one-to-one sidelink communication. In step 1610, the first UE transmits a second sidelink configuration to the second UE, wherein the second sidelink configuration is generated based on the first sidelink configuration and used for the second UE to configure the one-to-one sidelink communication. ”: [0249]-[0250]; “In one embodiment, the initiating UE could receive a second PC5 signalling from the target UE, wherein the second PC5 signalling is used to complete establishment of the one-to-one sidelink communication. The second PC5 signalling could include accepted PC5 5QI, QoS parameter(s) or QoS profile(s) of a PC5 QoS flow for the V2X application or the V2X service. The second PC5 signalling could be a Direct Communication Accept message. ”: [0320]-[0321]).
Regarding claim 49, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as set forth in claim 20.
Regarding claim 50, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as set forth in claim 23.
Regarding claim 51, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as set forth in claim 30.
Regarding claim 52, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as set forth in claim 47.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to M MOSTAZIR RAHMAN whose telephone number is (571)272-4785. The examiner can normally be reached 8:30am-5:00pm PST.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Derrick Ferris can be reached at 571-272-3123. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/M Mostazir Rahman/Examiner, Art Unit 2411
/DERRICK W FERRIS/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2411