DETAILED ACTION
This is in response to the Applicant's arguments and amendments filed on 10 September 2026 in which claims 61-64 are currently pending and claims 1-60 have been cancelled.
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 10 September 2026 has been entered.
Claim Objections
Claim 63 is objected to because of the following informalities:
Regarding claim 63, there is insufficient antecedent basis for the claimed limitation “the occupancies” in line 3.
Regarding claim 63, there is insufficient antecedent basis for the claimed limitation “the resource pool” in line 3.
Appropriate correction is required.
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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 61-64 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Deng et al. (PG Pub US 2023/0164825 A1) in view of Luo et al. (PG Pub US 2022/0408514 A1).
Regarding claims 61, 62, Deng discloses a first terminal and a method.
a receiver (transceiver 120, fig. 1B) configured to receive, from a second terminal, a request (“an assisted WTRU may transmit an assistance transmission request” [0080]) for inter-user equipment coordination (“inter-WTRU coordination” [0068]) with parameters comprising L1 priority (“a L1 priority of a TB” [0075]), the number of subchannels to be used for a sidelink transmission in a slot (“a number of sub-channels, for example, to be used for a PSSCH transmission of a TB” [0075]);
a processor (processor 118, fig. 1B) coupled to the receiver and configured to determine, with the parameters, resources for the sidelink transmission of the second terminal (“a WTRU may determine resources for an assistance request transmission” [0085], “a first WTRU determining a set of resources” [0068]);
provide, to the second terminal, information about the determined resources (“a first WTRU determining a set of resources and sending them to a second WTRU” [0068]),
the information about time resources in the determined resources comprises a first slot location, the first slot location is indicated by an offset with respect to a reference time (“any of T1_TB and T2_TB may be an absolute frame, sub-frame, or slot number. According to embodiments, an indication value may be an offset (e.g., in slots) relative to the timing of the assistance transmission request .. the window start, the window end, and the resource indexing” [0152], “an assisting WTRU may perform an assistance transmission according to an offset, for example, such as an offset (e.g., of slots, windows, frames, time, etc.) from the beginning of an assistance transmission period and/or window” [0111]).
However, Deng does not explicitly disclose a resource reservation interval.
Nevertheless, Luo discloses “The DRX configuration assistant information may include .. a sidelink control information indicating a retransmission interval or a resource reservation period” [0028].
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have a resource reservation interval because it will “reduce the power consumption of the sidelink communication while meeting the time delay requirements” [0016].
Regarding claim 63, Deng, Luo discloses everything claimed as applied above. In addition, Deng discloses transmitting a bitmap indicative of the occupancies of resources in the resource pool with a predetermined frequency granularity and a predetermined time granularity (“a UL transmission indication may include a bit field, for example, to indicate a slot in which an UL transmission is scheduled” [0132], “a set of time and frequency resources allocated within a resource pool .. such time and/or frequency resources may be (e.g., consist of, comprise, include, have, etc.) any of a set of SL slots, a set of SL symbols, a set of sub-channels, a set of PRBs, and a set of sub-carriers” [0133]). Further, Luo discloses “there are ten slots within a cycle of the sidelink resource pool, and the slots 1, 2, 6, 7, 9 serve as the sidelink reception resource pool. On the basis of the five slots, a sidelink DRX bitmap may be used to indicate which of them are reception on duration slots” [0048].
Regarding claim 64, Deng, Luo discloses everything claimed as applied above. In addition, Deng discloses the predetermined frequency granularity is a number of sub-channels to be used for a transmission on at least one of a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH) and a physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH), and the predetermined time granularity is a slot or a symbol (“the total number of sub-channels and/or PRBs used in the PSSCH transmission .. a WTRU may determine a set of a sub-channels and/or PRBs according to an index of the slot and any of the starting sub-channel and the PRB index of the PSSCH transmission” [0135], “such time and/or frequency resources may be (e.g., consist of, comprise, include, have, etc.) any of a set of SL slots, a set of SL symbols, a set of sub-channels, a set of PRBs, and a set of sub-carriers” [0133]).
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CHRISTINE D FUQUA whose telephone number is (571)270-1664. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 8 AM - 6 PM EST with every other Friday off.
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CHRISTINE DUONG FUQUA
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2462
/CHRISTINE T DUONG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2462 10/06/2026
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