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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 05/20/2026 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Response to Amendment
The following is a final office action in response to applicant’s amendment filed on 05/20/2026 for response of the office action mailed on 03/06/2026. Independent Claims 1, 14, 27, 40 and 53 and dependent Claims 12-13, 21, 25-26 are amended. Claims 6 and 19 are canceled.
Claims 1-3, 7-16, 20- 27, 40, and 53 are pending in the application.
Applicant’s amendments to the Specification and Claims have overcome each and every objection set forth in the office action mailed 03/06/2026.
Response to Arguments.
Applicant’s arguments filed 05/20/2026 with respect to independent claims 1, 14, 27, 40 and 53 have been fully considered 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.
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.
The factual inquiries 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 non- obviousness.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 1-3, 7-8, 10, 13-16, 20-21, 23, 26-27, 40, and 53 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over HWANG et al. (US 20220394722 A1), hereinafter HWANG, in view of Yoshioka et al. (US 20220286248 A1), hereinafter Yoshioka and further in view of RYU et al (US 20220407634 A1), hereinafter RYU.
Regarding Claim 1, HWANG teaches a method for wireless communication at a user equipment (UE) (HWANG, Abstract, operating method of UE in a wireless communication system; see also ¶0128), comprising:
establishing a sidelink communication channel (HWANG, FIG. 12A, ¶0128-0130, the transmitting UE 1201 establishes a PSSCH, a “sidelink communication channel”);
receiving time-division multiplexed (TDM) channel state information-reference signals (CSI-RS) (HWANG, FIG. 12A, ¶0130, the transmitting UE 1201 transmits N SL CSI-RSs to the receiving UE 1202.; see also ¶0126, a SL CSI-RS may be mapped to be confined in a time-frequency resource to which a PSSCH is allocated or scheduled) mapped over a plurality of interlaced physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH) resource blocks (HWANG, FIG. 12A, ¶0130 TX UE may include the CSI-RS on the PSSCH; transmit SL CSI-RS 1 1212 related to PSSCH 1 to SL CSI-RS N 1214 related to PSSCH N to the receiving UE 1202 through a plurality of transmission antenna ports; see also ¶0122, CSI-RS may be confined within PSSCH transmission);
wherein the mapped TDM CSI-RS are interlaced with resource elements in at least a portion of the plurality of interlaced PSSCH resource blocks (HWANG, FIG. 6, ¶0083, each element may be referred to as a Resource Element (RE) within a resource grid and one complex symbol may be mapped to each element); see also ¶0141, the multiplexing for the PSSCH and the SL CSI-RS may be that the transmitting UE maps the PSSCH and the SL CSI-RS to the same time-frequency resource and transmits them; ¶0132, the transmitting UE 1201 of FIG. 12A may transmit some of SL CSI-RS 1 1212 related to PSSCH 1 to SL CSI-RS N 1214 related to PSSCH N to the receiving UE 1202 in the same time resource domain and frequency resource domains that partially overlap; the overlapping of CSI-RSs is interpreted as “interlaced blocks”), . . .
processing the TDM CSI-RS received over the plurality of interlaced PSSCH resource blocks (HWANG, ¶0021 a second device may comprise at least one processor and at least one transceiver, […]executes the instructions to: control the at least one transceiver to receive, from the first device, a first SL CSI-RS related to a first PSSCH in a first resource domain, wherein the first resource domain is based on a slot format or a time domain allocated for transmission of the first PSSCH; see also ¶0177-0178; ¶0196); and
determining from the processing a channel quality of the sidelink communication channel from the portion of the plurality of interlaced PSSCH resource blocks comprising the mapped TDM CSI-RS (HWANG, ¶0121, QoS prediction, initial transmission parameter setting, link adaptation, link management, admission control, or the like, SL measurement and reporting (e.g., RSRP, RSRQ) between UEs may be considered in SL; channel status information (CSI) for V2X may include a channel quality indicator (CQI); see also ¶0122 the receiving UE may measure CQI or RI based on the CSI-RS).
As cited herein, HWANG teaches the CSI-RS may be confined within PSSCH transmission, e.g. the transmitting UE may perform transmission to the receiving UE by including the CSI-RS on the PSSCH (HWANG, ¶0122) and the CSI-RS is mapped to a last symbol position of the PSSCH (HWANG, ¶0148).
Yet, HWANG does not explicitly teach . . . one or more of the plurality of interlaced PSSCH resource blocks are separated from one or more physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH) blocks by a gap, wherein the TDM CSI-RS is mapped to a symbol immediately preceding the gap before the one or more PSFCH blocks;
However, in the analogous art, RYU explicitly discloses . . . one or more of the plurality of interlaced PSSCH resource blocks are separated from one or more physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH) blocks by a gap . . . immediately preceding the gap before the one or more PSFCH blocks (RYU, FIG. 7, ¶0167-0171, M RBs/”plurality of resource blocks” where PSSCH is separated from PSFCH blocks by a GAP K3; see also FIG.6, ¶0166 , a resource pool for SL transmission/reception; illustrates the PSSCH RB block immediately precedes the gap before the one or more PSFCH blocks), and Yoshioka explicitly discloses the TDM CSI-RS is mapped to a symbol immediately preceding the gap before the one or more PSFCH blocks; (Yoshioka, FIG. 6, ¶0049[0049] (1) Time-domain resources for SL-CSI-RS (“TDM CSI-RS”) may be fixed to the last symbol of a PSSCH. For example, it is possible to set the parameter firstOFDMsymbolInTimeDomain, l.sub.0=13, and it may be fixed to the last symbol available as a PSSCH).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skills in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to combine HWANG’s method for transmitting a sidelink CSI-RS in a wireless communication system and RYU’s apparatus and physical mapping/resource allocation method with Yoshioka’s apparatus and method of mapping a sequence of CSI-RSs in the sidelink of NR (NR-SL). The motivation would be to provide a resource allocation method technology that clearly specifies reference signals in the sidelink of NR (NR-SL). [RYU, ¶0006; Yoshioka, ¶0007-¶0008].
Regarding Claim 2, HWANG, RYU and Yoshioka teach Claim 1.
HWANG further teaches the TDM CSI-RS occupies one resource element in each of the plurality of interlaced PSSCH resource blocks (HWANG, ¶0137, the transmitting UE may transmit the SL CSI-RS for different transmit antenna ports by mapping it to different time-frequency resources (e.g., resource element (RE))).
Regarding Claim 3, HWANG, RYU and Yoshioka teach Claim 1.
HWANG further teaches the TDM CSI-RS occupies two contiguous resource elements in each of the plurality of interlaced PSSCH resource blocks (HWANG, FIG. 6, ¶0082, ¶0148, “SL [sidelink] CSI-RSs corresponding to two different antenna ports may be CDMed in two adjacent REs in a frequency domain within one symbol.”; two adjacent RE’s interpreted as contiguous resource elements).
Regarding Claim 7, HWANG, RYU and Yoshioka teach Claim 1.
HWANG further teaches a CSI-RS request is configured as sidelink control information (SCI) (HWANG, ¶0151, pattern information for the SL CSI-RS (or SL CSI-RS related resource mapping information) may be indicated by SCI).
Regarding Claim 8, HWANG, RYU and Yoshioka teach Claim 7.
HWANG further teaches the CSI-RS request is configured in a second stage of SCI (HWANG, FIG. 10A, ¶0109, the UE 1 may transmit a sidelink control information (SCI) to the UE 2 through a physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH); examiner interprets as “a first stage of SCI”, and thereafter transmit data based on the SCI to the UE 2 through a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH), examiner interprets as “a second stage of SCI”).
Regarding Claim 10, HWANG, RYU and Yoshioka teach Claim 7.
HWANG further teaches the CSI-RS request is configured in a first stage of SCI (HWANG, FIG. 10A, ¶0109, the UE 1 may transmit a sidelink control information (SCI) to the UE 2 through a physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH), interpreted as “a first stage of SCI”).
Regarding Claim 13, HWANG, RYU and Yoshioka teach Claim 1.
HWANG further teaches decoding CSI-RS in all interlaces before decoding data in the PSSCH (HWANG, ¶0124 the receiving UE may be a UE which transmits SL HARQ feedback information (to the transmitting UE) based on whether…. the detection/decoding of a PSCCH (related to the scheduling of a PSSCH) transmitted by the transmitting UE succeeds)).
Regarding Claims 14-16, 20-21, 23 and 26, the claims disclose similar features of Claims 1-3, 7-8, 10 and 13 respectively, and are rejected based on the same rationales of Claims 1-3, 7-8, 10 and 13, discussed above, in apparatus form (a user equipment (UE) for wireless communication (HWANG, FIG. 16; FIG. 18, UE/First Device 100/Second Device 200; disclosed throughout), comprising: at least one processor (HWANG, ¶0205, processor 102/202); and a memory coupled to the at least one processor (HWANG, FIG. 16, ¶0205 memory 104).
Regarding Claim 27, the claim discloses similar features of Claim 1 and is rejected based on the same rationales of Claim 1, in apparatus form (HWANG, a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable code at a user equipment (UE), comprising code (HWANG, ¶0019, ¶0180).
Regarding Claim 40, the claim discloses similar features of Claim 1 and is rejected based on the same rationale of Claim 1, in apparatus form (HWANG, a user equipment (UE) for wireless communication (FIG. 16; FIG. 18, UE/First Device 100/Second Device 200; disclosed throughout).
Regarding Claim 53, the claim discloses similar features of Claim 1, and is rejected based on the same rationales of Claim 1, in apparatus form (a user equipment (UE) for wireless communication ((HWANG, FIG. 16, UE/First Device 100/Second Device 200), comprising: a transceiver (HWANG, FIG. 16, transceiver, 106/206); a memory (HWANG, FIG. 16, memory 104/204; FIG. 18, 112/130); and a processor coupled to the transceiver and the memory (HWANG, FIG. 16, processor 102/202).
Claims 9, 11, 22 and 24 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over HWANG in view of RYU and Yoshioka and further in view of in view of SHIN et al. (US 20210022139 A1), hereinafter SHIN.
Regarding Claim 9, HWANG, RYU and Yoshioka teach Claim 8.
HWANG, RYU and Yoshioka do not explicitly teach the CSI-RS is configured to indicate whether or not a last PSSCH symbol is to be dropped.
However, in the analogous art, SHIN explicitly discloses the CSI-RS request is configured to indicate whether or not a last PSSCH symbol is to be dropped (Yoshioka, FIG. 10, ¶0196, the terminal [UE] should drop the transmission of the PSSCH in slot n or satisfy the CR limit of Equation 2 via the terminal implementation; PSSCH in slot n interpreted as “a last PSSCH symbol”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skills in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to combine HWANG’s method for transmitting a sidelink CSI-RS in a wireless communication system, RYU’s apparatus and physical mapping/resource allocation method and Yoshioka’s apparatus and method of mapping a sequence of CSI-RSs in the sidelink of NR (NR-SL) with SHIN’s method and apparatus for controlling congestion in a wireless communication system. The motivation would be to improve probability of successful transmission [SHIN, ¶0117].
Regarding Claim 11, HWANG, RYU and Yoshioka teach Claim 10.
HWANG, RYU and Yoshioka do not explicitly teach the CSI-RS request is configured to indicate whether or not a last PSSCH symbol is to be dropped.
However, in the analogous art, SHIN explicitly discloses the CSI-RS request is configured to indicate whether or not a last PSSCH symbol is to be dropped (SHIN, FIG. 10, ¶0196, the terminal [UE] should drop the transmission of the PSSCH in slot n or satisfy the CR limit of Equation 2 via the terminal implementation; PSSCH in slot n interpreted as “a last PSSCH symbol”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skills in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to combine HWANG’s method for transmitting a sidelink CSI-RS in a wireless communication system, RYU’s apparatus and physical mapping/resource allocation method and Yoshioka’s apparatus and method of mapping a sequence of CSI-RSs in the sidelink of NR (NR-SL) with SHIN’s method and apparatus for controlling congestion in a wireless communication system. The motivation would be to improve probability of successful transmission [SHIN, ¶0117].
Regarding Claims 22 and 24, the claims disclose similar features of Claims 9 and 11 respectively, and are rejected based on the same rationales as Claims 9 and 11.
Claims 12 and 25 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over HWANG in view of RYU and Yoshioka and further in view of PENG et al. (US 20220271892 A1), PENG hereinafter.
Regarding Claim 12, HWANG, RYU and Yoshioka teach Claim 1.
HWANG, RYU and Yoshioka do not explicitly teach if CSI-RS is not triggered, process resource elements associated with a potential pool of CSI-RS resources as being punctured.
However, in the analogous art, PENG explicitly discloses if CSI-RS is not triggered, process resource elements associated with a potential pool of CSI-RS resources as being punctured (PENG FIG.6, ¶0122, a case of single-port transmission as shown in FIG. 6, the PSSCH DMRS is mapped in a comb 2 fashion. . . [t]ransmission of the PSSCH starts from a symbol next to the symbol at which a first DMRS of the PSSCH is located, and is rate-matched or punctured according to the second SCI).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skills in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to combine HWANG’s method for transmitting a sidelink CSI-RS in a wireless communication system, RYU’s apparatus and physical mapping/resource allocation method and Yoshioka’s apparatus and method of mapping a sequence of CSI-RSs in the sidelink of NR (NR-SL) with PENG’s sidelink control information transmission method. The motivation would be to improve PSSCH demodulation performance and system capacity [PENG, ¶0145].
Regarding Claim 25, the claim discloses similar features of Claim 12 and is rejected based on the same rationale as Claim 12.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
RYU et al. (US 20200351033 A1): Abstract; FIG. 6; FIG. 7; FIG. 20, See RYU cited herein.
KIM et al. (US 20190053267 A1): Abstract; FIG. 2C, ¶0035 the UE may additionally transmit sounding reference signals (SRS) in the last symbol of a subframe . . [and] [t]he SRS may have a comb (“interlace”) structure, and a UE may transmit SRS on one of the combs; see also ¶0049
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to TRACY L WILLIAMS whose telephone number is 571-270-7694. The examiner can normally be reached Mon - Fri 8:30-5:30.
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, Ayman Abaza can be reached at 571-270-0422. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/TRACY L WILLIAMS/Examiner, Art Unit 2465 /CHRISTOPHER T WYLLIE/Examiner, Art Unit 2465
Prosecution Insights