DETAILED ACTION
This Office action is in response to Amendment filed on 8/14/2025. Claims 6-8 and 14-16 have been
canceled. Claims 1 and 9 have been amended. Claims 1-5 and 9-13 remain pending in the application.
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 8/14/2025 has been entered.
Response to Amendment
The Amendment filed on 8/14/2025 has been entered.
Response to Remarks/Arguments
Applicant’s remarks/arguments (page 8-10), filed on 8/14/2025, with respect to the 103 rejections of
claim 1 have been fully considered but are moot because new ground of rejections using a newly introduced reference (SHIN et al.) are applied in the current rejection.
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 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.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that
are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 1-4 and 9-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over SHIN et al. (US
2020/0314804 Al, hereinafter “Shin”) in view of Chae et al. (US 2021/0144570 Al, hereinafter “Chae”) and in further view of SHIN et al. (US 2022/0295552 Al, hereinafter “Shin_2022”).
Regarding claim 1, Shin discloses:
A method of a first terminal, comprising (a method performed by a transmitting terminal, Shin: [0010]):
receiving, from a base station, resource pool configuration information including information on a resource sensing type, the information on the resource sensing type explicitly indicating at least one of a sensing operation or a random resource selection, and the sensing operation including periodic-based partial sensing or contiguous partial sensing (UE receives a sidelink system information block (SL SIB) from the base station. SL SIB may include resource pool information for V2X transmission and reception, configuration information for a sensing operation, information for configuring synchronization, information for inter-frequency transmission and reception. resource selection method may include, for example, zone mapping, sensing based resource selection, random selection, and the like. a method for performing sensing in a situation where periodic and aperiodic traffic coexist, and selecting a transmission resource, Shin: [0076]-[0078], [0082], [0086]);
in response to that the information on the resource sensing type indicates the sensing operation, measuring a received power of a physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH) (sidelink reference signal received power (SL RSRP) for a PSSCH DMRS is measured from the received SCI. sidelink reference signal received power (SL RSRP) may be measured from SCI received within the sensing window A. sidelink received signal strength indicator (SL RSSI) may be measured within the sensing window A, Shin: [0099]-[0100], [0183]-[0185]);
selecting a first resource based on a result of the sensing on the transmission resource(s) (transmission resource selection is performed according to a sidelink measurement for the identified resource, Shin: [0010]-[0013]); and
Shin does not explicitly disclose:
in response to that the received power of the PSCCH is equal to or greater than a threshold value, receiving, from a second terminal, sidelink control information (SCI) including scheduling information;
sensing transmission resource(s) within a sensing period according to the resource sensing type based on the scheduling information and a measurement result of the received power;
performing sidelink communication using the selected first resource.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Chae teaches:
in response to that the received power of the PSCCH is equal to or greater than a threshold value, receiving, from a second terminal, sidelink control information (SCI) including scheduling information link (UE may measure the PSSCH-RSRP for each candidate resource and compares the measured value with a threshold value. first wireless device may receive from a second wireless device, a physical layer sidelink control channel (PSCCH), wherein the PSCCH indicates a rank indicator and scheduling information of a physical layer shared channel (PSSCH) transmitted in one or more resources, and the first wireless device may measure a first reference signal received power (RSRP) of the PSSCH transmitted in the one or more resources by the second wireless device, Chae: [0239], [0263]-[0266]);
sensing transmission resource(s) within a sensing period according to the resource sensing type based on the scheduling information and a measurement result of the received power (If multiple S-RSSI measurement periodicities are configured, a UE measures multiple S-RSSI measurements on a candidate resource based on the configured periodicities and then the UE selects transmission resource based on a maximum or an (weighted) average of the multiple S-RSSI measurements on the candidate resource, Chae: [0260]-[0262]);
performing sidelink communication using the selected first resource (sidelink UE may perform a resource selection and exclusion operation of the candidate resource based on the aggregated PSSCH-RSRP measurement, Chae: [0242]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Shin in view of Chae in order to further modify receiving sidelink control information (SCI) including scheduling information and sensing transmission resource and performing sidelink communication from the teachings of Chae.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated because modified mechanism may be performed when certain criteria are met in a wireless device, a base station, a radio environment, a network, a combination of the above. Example criteria may be based on wireless device or network node configurations, traffic load, initial system set up, packet sizes, traffic characteristics (Chae: [0038]).
Yet, Shin in view of Chae does not explicitly disclose:
after the selecting of the first resource based on the result of the sensing on the transmission resource(s), performing a re-evaluation operation on the first resource, wherein the re-evaluation operation is a contiguous partial sensing operation on the first resource; and
However, in the same field of endeavor, Shin_2022 teaches:
after the selecting of the first resource based on the result of the sensing on the transmission resource(s), performing a re-evaluation operation on the first resource, wherein the re-evaluation operation is a contiguous partial sensing operation on the first resource (FIG. 7 illustrates an example in which triggering for resource (re )selection is made at time point n, and triggering for re-evaluation and pre-emption is made at time point n' (n'>n) by continuously performing sensing, FIG. 10 illustrates a method in which re-evaluation or pre-emption is additionally performed when partial sensing or random selection is performed in a sidelink, Shin_2022: Fig.7,Fig. 10, [0126], [0154]-[0158]), and
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Shin and Chae in view of Shin_2022 in order to further modify performing a re-evaluation operation on the first resource wherein the re-evaluation operation is a contiguous partial sensing operation on the first resource from the teachings of Shin_2022.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated because a method of performing sensing is based on continuous sensing windows and may be referred to as contiguous partial sensing (Shin_2022: [0154]).
Regarding claim 2, Shin-Chae-Shin_2022 teach all the claimed limitations as set forth in the rejection of claim 1 above.
Shin further discloses:
The method according to claim 1, wherein the resource pool configuration information further includes information on at least one period value associated with the sensing period, and the sensing of the transmission resource(s) within the sensing period according to the resource sensing type based on the scheduling information and the measurement result of the received power comprises (UE receives a sidelink system information block from the base station. sidelink system information block may include resource pool information transmission and reception, configuration information for a sensing operation, information for configuring synchronization. sensing window may be mainly used for determining a resource for UE autonomous resource allocation through sensing for periodic traffic, Shin: [0076]-[0078], [0101]):
in response to that the information on the resource sensing type indicates the periodic-based partial sensing, performing resource sensing partially within the sensing period based on the at least one period value (sensing window may be mainly used for determining a resource for UE autonomous resource allocation through sensing for periodic traffic, Shin: [0172]-[0180]).
Regarding claim 3, Shin-Chae-Shin_2022 teach all the claimed limitations as set forth in the rejection of claim 1 above.
Shin further discloses:
The method according to claim 1, wherein the resource pool configuration information further includes information on at least one period value associated with the sensing period and information on a number of sensing slots associated with each of the at least one period value, and the sensing of the transmission resource(s) within the sensing period according to the resource sensing type based on the scheduling information and the measurement result of the received power comprises (UE receives a sidelink system information block from the base station. sidelink system information block may include resource pool information transmission and reception, configuration information for a sensing operation, information for configuring synchronization. sensing window may be mainly used for determining a resource for UE autonomous resource allocation through sensing for periodic traffic. when triggering for transmission resource selection occurs in slot n, the resource selection window may be defined as a slot interval, Shin: 0076]-[0078], [0101]-[0104]):
in response to that the information on the resource sensing type indicates the periodic-based partial sensing, performing resource sensing partially within the sensing period based on the at least one period value and the number of sensing slots associated with each of the at least one period value (when triggering for transmission resource selection occurs in slot n, the resource selection window may be defined as a slot interval, Shin: [0101]-[0104]).
Regarding claim 4, Shin-Chae-Shin_2022 teach all the claimed limitations as set forth in the rejection of claim 3 above.
Shin does not explicitly disclose:
The method according to claim 3, further comprising, after the selecting of the first resource based on the result of the sensing on the transmission resource(s), performing a reevaluation operation on the first resource, wherein the re-evaluation operation is performed in a time period associated with a minimum value of the at least one period value and a slot of the first resource.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Chae teaches:
after the selecting of the first resource based on the result of the sensing on the transmission resource(s), performing a reevaluation operation on the first resource, wherein the re-evaluation operation is performed in a time period associated with a minimum value of the at least one period value and a slot of the first resource (UE may trigger a resource (re)selection or resource (re)evaluation in slot n. sensing window is located before slot n and selection window is located after slot n. there may be a time gap between slot n and the starting slot of the selection window, Chae: [0243]);
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Shin in view of Chae in order to further modify selecting of the first resource based on the result of the sensing on the transmission resource and performing a reevaluation operation from the teachings of Chae.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated because modified mechanism may be performed when certain criteria are met in a wireless device, a base station, a radio environment, a network, a combination of the above. Example criteria may be based on wireless device or network node configurations, traffic load, initial system set up, packet sizes, traffic characteristics (Chae: [0038]).
Regarding claim 9, Shin discloses:
A first terminal comprising (a transmitting terminal is provided, Shin: [0012]):
a processor (a terminal processor, Shin: [0304]); and
a memory storing one or more instructions executable by the processor (instructions stored computer readable memory, Shin: [0032]),
wherein the one or more instructions are executed to (one or more executable instructions, Shin: [0033]-[0034]):
receive, from a base station, resource pool configuration information including information on a resource sensing type, the information on the resource sensing type explicitly indicating at least one of a sensing operation or a random resource selection, and the sensing operation including periodic-based partial sensing or contiguous partial sensing (UE receives a sidelink system information block (SL SIB) from the base station. SL SIB may include resource pool information for V2X transmission and reception, configuration information for a sensing operation, information for configuring synchronization, information for inter-frequency transmission and reception. resource selection method may include, for example, zone mapping, sensing based resource selection, random selection, and the like. a method for performing sensing in a situation where periodic and aperiodic traffic coexist, and selecting a transmission resource, Shin: [0076]-[0078], [0082], [0086]);
in response to that the information on the resource sensing type indicates the sensing operation, measure a received power of a physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH) (sidelink reference signal received power (SL RSRP) for a PSSCH DMRS is measured from the received SCI. sidelink reference signal received power (SL RSRP) may be measured from SCI received within the sensing window A. sidelink received signal strength indicator (SL RSSI) may be measured within the sensing window A, Shin: [0099]-[0100], [0183]-[0185]).
perform monitoring on the PSCCH based on the resource pool configuration information (UE can autonomously select an available resource pool after sensing resources, Shin: [0082]);
select a first resource based on a result of the sensing on the transmission resource(s) (transmission resource selection is performed according to a sidelink measurement for the identified resource, Shin: [0010]-[0013]);
Shin does not explicitly disclose:
in response to that the received power of the PSCCH is equal to or greater than a threshold value, receive, from a second terminal, sidelink control information (SCI) including scheduling information;
sense transmission resource(s) within a sensing period according to the resource sensing type based on the scheduling information and a measurement result of the received power;
perform sidelink communication using the selected first resource.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Chae teaches:
in response to that the received power of the PSCCH is equal to or greater than a threshold value, receive, from a second terminal, sidelink control information (SCI) including scheduling information (UE may measure the PSSCH-RSRP for each candidate resource and compares the measured value with a threshold value. first wireless device may receive from a second wireless device, a physical layer sidelink control channel (PSCCH), wherein the PSCCH indicates a rank indicator and scheduling information of a physical layer shared channel (PSSCH) transmitted in one or more resources, and the first wireless device may measure a first reference signal received power (RSRP) of the PSSCH transmitted in the one or more resources by the second wireless device, Chae: [0239], [0263]-[0266]);
sense transmission resource(s) within a sensing period according to the resource sensing type based on the scheduling information and a measurement result of the received power (If multiple S-RSSI measurement periodicities are configured, a UE measures multiple S-RSSI measurements on a candidate resource based on the configured periodicities and then the UE selects transmission resource based on a maximum or an (weighted) average of the multiple S-RSSI measurements on the candidate resource, Chae: [0260]-[0262]);
perform sidelink communication using the selected first resource (sidelink UE may perform a resource selection and exclusion operation of the candidate resource based on the aggregated PSSCH-RSRP measurement, Chae: [0242]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Shin in view of Chae in order to further modify receiving sidelink control information (SCI) including scheduling information and sensing transmission resource and performing sidelink communication from the teachings of Chae.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated because modified mechanism may be performed when certain criteria are met in a wireless device, a base station, a radio environment, a network, a combination of the above. Example criteria may be based on wireless device or network node configurations, traffic load, initial system set up, packet sizes, traffic characteristics (Chae: [0038]).
Yet, Shin in view of Chae does not explicitly disclose:
after the selecting of the first resource based on the result of the sensing on the transmission resource(s), performing a re-evaluation operation on the first resource, wherein the re-evaluation operation is a contiguous partial sensing operation on the first resource: and
However, in the same field of endeavor, Shin_2022 teaches:
after the selecting of the first resource based on the result of the sensing on the transmission resource(s), performing a re-evaluation operation on the first resource, wherein the re-evaluation operation is a contiguous partial sensing operation on the first resource (FIG. 7 illustrates an example in which triggering for resource (re )selection is made at time point n, and triggering for re-evaluation and pre-emption is made at time point n' (n'>n) by continuously performing sensing, FIG. 10 illustrates a method in which re-evaluation or pre-emption is additionally performed when partial sensing or random selection is performed in a sidelink, Shin_2022: Fig.7,Fig. 10, [0126], [0154]-[0158]), and
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Shin and Chae in view of Shin_2022 in order to further modify performing a re-evaluation operation on the first resource wherein the re-evaluation operation is a contiguous partial sensing operation on the first resource from the teachings of Shin_2022.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated because a method of performing sensing is based on continuous sensing windows and may be referred to as contiguous partial sensing (Shin_2022: [0154]).
Regarding claim 10, Shin-Chae-Shin_2022 teach all the claimed limitations as set forth in the rejection of claim 9 above.
Shin further discloses:
The first terminal according to claim 9, wherein the resource pool configuration information further includes information on at least one period value associated with the sensing period, and when the information on the resource sensing type indicates the periodic based partial sensing and the transmission resource(s) is sensed within the sensing period based on the scheduling information and the measurement result of the received power, the periodic based partial sensing is performed within the sensing period based on the at least one period value (UE receives a sidelink system information block (SL SIB) from the base station. SL SIB may include resource pool information transmission and reception, configuration information for a sensing operation, information for configuring synchronization. sensing window may be mainly used for determining a resource for UE autonomous resource allocation through sensing for periodic traffic, Shin: [0076]-[0078], [0172]-[0180]).
Regarding claim 11, Shin-Chae-Shin_2022 teach all the claimed limitations as set forth in the rejection of claim 9 above.
Shin further discloses:
The first terminal according to claim 9, wherein the resource pool configuration information further includes information on at least one period value associated with the sensing period and information on a number of sensing slots associated with each of the at least one period value, and when the information on the resource sensing type indicates the periodic-based partial sensing and the transmission resource(s) is sensed within the sensing period based on the scheduling information and the measurement result of the received power, the periodic-based partial sensing is performed within the sensing period based on the at least one period value and the number of sensing slots associated with each of the at least one period value (UE receives a sidelink system information block from the base station. sidelink system information block may include resource pool information transmission and reception, configuration information for a sensing operation, information for configuring synchronization. sensing window may be mainly used for determining a resource for UE autonomous resource allocation through sensing for periodic traffic. when triggering for transmission resource selection occurs in slot n, the resource selection window may be defined as a slot interval, Shin: [0076]-[0078], [0101]-[0104]).
Regarding claim 12, Shin-Chae-Shin_2022 teach all the claimed limitations as set forth in the rejection of claim 11 above.
Shin does not explicitly disclose:
The first terminal according to claim 11, wherein the one or more instructions are further executed to, after the selecting of the first resource based on the result of the sensing on the transmission resource(s), perform a re-evaluation operation on the first resource, wherein the re-evaluation operation is performed in a time period associated with a minimum value of the at least one period value and a slot of the first resource.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Chae teaches:
after the selecting of the first resource based on the result of the sensing on the transmission resource(s), perform a re-evaluation operation on the first resource, wherein the re-evaluation operation is performed in a time period associated with a minimum value of the at least one period value and a slot of the first resource (UE may trigger a resource (re)selection or resource (re)evaluation in slot n. sensing window is located before slot n and selection window is located after slot n. there may be a time gap between slot n and the starting slot of the selection window, Chae: [0243]);
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Shin in view of Chae in order to further modify selecting of the first resource based on the result of the sensing on the transmission resource and performing a reevaluation operation from the teachings of Chae.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated because modified mechanism may be performed when certain criteria are met in a wireless device, a base station, a radio environment, a network, a combination of the above. Example criteria may be based on wireless device or network node configurations, traffic load, initial system set up, packet sizes, traffic characteristics (Chae: [0038]).
Claims 5 and 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Shin-Chae-Shin_2022 in view of Farag (US 2022/0312479 Al, hereinafter “Farag”).
Regarding claim 5, Shin-Chae-Shin_2022 teach all the claimed limitations as set forth in the rejection of claim 1 above.
Shin further discloses:
The method according to claim 1, wherein the resource pool configuration information further includes information on a first value and a second value indicating a sensing period, and the sensing of the transmission resource(s) within the sensing period according to the resource sensing type based on the scheduling information and the measurement result of the received power comprises (UE receives a sidelink system information block from the base station. sidelink system information block may include resource pool information transmission and reception, configuration information for a sensing operation, information for configuring synchronization, Shin: [0076]-[0078]):
Shin-Chae-Shin_2022 do not explicitly disclose:
in response to that the information on the resource sensing type indicates the contiguous partial sensing, performing resource sensing continuously within a first slot associated with the first value to a second slot associated with the second value.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Farag teaches:
in response to that the information on the resource sensing type indicates the contiguous partial sensing, performing resource sensing continuously within a first slot associated with the first value to a second slot associated with the second value (UE performs periodic-based partial sensing and contiguous partial sensing. When the UE performs only contiguous partial sensing, UE can select a set of candidate slots within the resource selection window, Farag: [0128]-[0132]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Shin-Chae-Shin_2022 in view of Farag in order to further modify performing resource sensing continuously from the teachings of Farag.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated because solution for enhanced reliability and reduced latency are required in order to keep providing the use cases requiring low latency and high reliability under such communication conditions (Farag: [0097]).
Regarding claim 13, Shin-Chae-Shin_2022 teach all the claimed limitations as set forth in the rejection of claim 9 above.
Shin-Chae do not explicitly disclose:
The first terminal according to claim 9, wherein the resource pool configuration information further includes information on a first value and a second value indicating a sensing period, and when the information on the resource sensing type indicates the contiguous based partial sensing and the transmission resource(s) is sensed within the sensing period based on the scheduling information and the measurement result of the received power, the contiguous partial sensing is performed within a first slot associated with the first value to a second slot associated with the second value.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Farag teaches:
wherein the resource pool configuration information further includes information on a first value and a second value indicating a sensing period, and when the information on the resource sensing type indicates the contiguous based partial sensing and the transmission resource(s) is sensed within the sensing period based on the scheduling information and the measurement result of the received power, the contiguous partial sensing is performed within a first slot associated with the first value to a second slot associated with the second value (UE performs periodic-based partial sensing and contiguous partial sensing. When the UE performs only contiguous partial sensing, UE can select a set of candidate slots within the resource selection window, Farag: [0128]-[0132]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Shin-Chae-Shin_2022 in view of Farag in order to further modify performing resource sensing continuously from the teachings of Farag.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated because solution for enhanced reliability and reduced latency are required in order to keep providing the use cases requiring low latency and high reliability under such communication conditions (Farag: [0097]).
Conclusion
In the case of amendments, applicant is respectfully requested to indicate the portion(s) of the
specification which dictate(s) the structure relied on for proper interpretation and support, for ascertaining the metes and bounds of the claimed invention.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SANG C LEE whose telephone number is (703)756-1461. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 9:00AM-5:00PM EST.
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/S.C.L./Examiner, Art Unit 2467
/MICHAEL J MOORE JR/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2467