DETAILED ACTION
This Office Action is in response to the Request for Continued Examination filed 10/16/2025. Claims 2, 5, and 14 have been previously canceled. Claims 1, 3-4, 6-13, and 15-20 are currently 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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments have been considered but are moot because they do not apply the new grounds of rejection made in view of newly cited Jung et al. (U.S. Publication US 2022/0061094 A1).
As shown in the previous rejections, R1-1913237 by LG teaches using a bitmap to indicate sidelink HARQ-ACK feedback resources from among RBs in a resource pool (See section 2.2.1 on pages 4-5 of LG). LG does not specifically disclose “the leftmost bit of a bitmap of the PSFCH resource configuration information refers to the resource block (RB) with the lowest index in the resource pool”, as now required by the amended independent claims.
However, newly cited Jung et al., in the field of communications, discloses using a bitmap to indicate resources wherein the most significant bit (MSB) of the bitmap may be used to indicate a subband with the lowest RB index and the remaining bits of the bitmap may indicate subbands in ascending order of RB indexes (See paragraphs 117-118 of Jung et al.). It is known in the art of communications that the most significant bit of a bitmap is the leftmost bit of the bitmap. Jung et al. further discloses that a bit set to ‘0’ within the bitmap may indicate that communication is not performed in the corresponding subband and a bit set to ‘1’ may indicate that communication is performed in the corresponding subband (See paragraph 119 of Jung et al.). This bitmap formatting provides a specific manner in which each bit of the bitmap may be used to determine whether or not to perform communications on each corresponding resource. Thus, based on these teaching of Jung et al. regarding the formatting of a bitmap used to indicate resources in combination with the teachings of LG regarding a bitmap used to indicate PSFCH resources, it would have been obvious that the bitmap of LG may be formatted in a similar manner to that of the bitmap taught by Jung et al. such that the leftmost bit of a bitmap of the PSFCH resource configuration information refers to the resource block (RB) with the lowest index in the resource pool, as claimed. Therefore, new grounds of rejection are made in view of newly cited Jung et al. Please see the rejections below for further detail.
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, 3-4, 8-13 and 15-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over R1-1913237 by LG Electronics titled “Discussion on physical layer procedures for NR sidelink” (as cited by the Applicant’s IDS filed 10/23/2023; hereafter referred to as LG) in view of Jung et al. (U.S. Publication US 2022/0061094 A1).
With respect to claim 1, LG discloses a method for determining physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH) resources, applied to a first communications device (See section 2.2.1 pages 4-5 of LG for reference to a method of identifying PSFCH resources to be used by a NR sidelink communications device, which is a first communications device). LG also discloses determining PSFCH resources in a target object based on obtained PSFCH resource configuration information, wherein the target object comprises at least one of the following: a carrier, a bandwidth part (BWP), and a resource pool, and the PSFCH resources comprise PSFCH transmission resources, or PSFCH reception resources, or both PSFCH transmission resources and PSFCH reception resources (See section 2.2.1 pages 4-5 of LG for reference to determining RBs, which are PSFCH resources, in a resource pool, which is a target object, wherein the PSFCH resource is used to transmit/receive feedback in NR sidelink communications). LG further discloses performing a target operation on feedback information on the PSFCH resources, wherein the target operation comprises at least one of a reception operation and a transmission operation (See section 2.2.1 pages 4-5 of LG for reference to performing HARQ-ACK feedback using the identified PSFCH RBs). LG also discloses wherein in a case that the PSFCH resources are configured through bits of the PSFCH resource configuration information, there is a first correspondence between the bits of the PSFCH resource configuration information and frequency domain resources in a target resource, and the target resource is any one of the following: a carrier, a BWP, or a resource pool (See section 2.2.1 pages 4-5 of LG for reference to the PSFCH RBs being configured though a bitmap that indicates RBs in a resource pool, wherein such a bitmap provides a correspondence between bits of the bitmap and RBs in the resource pool). LG further discloses wherein the first correspondence satisfies the following the bits of a bitmap of the PSFCH resource configuration information refers to the resource blocks (RB) in the resource pool (See section 2.2.1 pages 4-5 of LG for reference using a bitmap to indicate sidelink HARQ-ACK feedback resources from among RBs in a resource pool). LG also discloses wherein the determining PSFCH resources in a target object based on obtained PSFCH resource configuration information comprises: determining bits of the PSFCH resource configuration information that correspond to frequency domain resources in the target object as first target bits; and determining PSFCH resources in the target object based on each value of the first target bits; (See section 2.2.1 pages 4-5 of LG for reference to using a bitmap to indicate the RB set used for actual PSFCH transmission, wherein the bitmap is information that corresponds to RBs, which are frequency domain resources, in the resource pool, and wherein a bitmap is known in the art to use a first value of ‘1’ or ‘0’ to indicate a corresponding RB is to be actually used for PSFCH transmission and a different value of ‘1’ or ‘0’ to indicate a corresponding RB is not to be used). Although LG does disclose the use of a bitmap to indicate resources in a resource pool (See section 2.2.1 pages 4-5 of LG), LG does not disclose the specifically claimed manner in which the bits of the bitmap are used to indicate the claimed resources. Specifically, LG does not disclose the leftmost bit of a bitmap of the PSFCH resource configuration information refers to the resource block (RB) with the lowest index in the resource pool, wherein in a case that a first bit in the first target bit takes a first value, determining that a second frequency domain resource corresponding to the first bit in the target object is a PSFCH resource; and in a case that the first bit takes a second value, determining that the second frequency domain resource is not a PSFCH resource. However, Jung et al., in the field of communications, discloses using a bitmap to indicate resources wherein the most significant bit (MSB) of the bitmap may be used to indicate a subband with the lowest RB index and the remaining bits of the bitmap may indicate subbands in ascending order of RB indexes (See paragraphs 117-118 of Jung et al.). It is known in the art of communications that the most significant bit of a bitmap is the leftmost bit of the bitmap. Jung et al. further discloses that a bit set to ‘0’ within the bitmap may indicate that communication is not performed in the corresponding subband and a bit set to ‘1’ may indicate that communication is performed in the corresponding subband (See paragraph 119 of Jung et al.). This bitmap formatting provides the advantage of indicating a specific manner in which each bit of the bitmap may be used to determine whether or not to perform communications on each corresponding resource. Thus, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of effective filing, when presented with the work of Jung et al., to combine using the bitmap formatting and resource block index correspondence taught by Jung et al. within the system and method of LG, with the motivation being to indicate indicating a specific manner in which each bit of the bitmap taught by LG may be used to determine whether or not to perform communications on each corresponding resource.
With respect to claim 13, LG discloses a method for configuring PSFCH resources, applied to a second communications device (See section 2.2.1 pages 4-5 of LG for reference to a method of identifying PSFCH resources to be used by a NR sidelink communications device, which is a second communications device). LG also discloses transmitting PSFCH resource configuration information to a first communications device, wherein the PSFCH resource configuration information is used for determining and configuring PSFCH resources in a target object; the target object comprises at least one of the following: a carrier, a bandwidth part BWP, and a resource pool; and the PSFCH resources comprise PSFCH transmission resources, or PSFCH reception resources, or both PSFCH transmission resources and PSFCH reception resources (See section 2.2.1 pages 4-5 of LG for reference to transmitting signaling used to determine a RB set used for actual PSFCH transmission including identifying RBs, which are PSFCH resources, in a resource pool, which is a target object, wherein the PSFCH resource is used to transmit/receive feedback in NR sidelink communications). LG also discloses wherein in a case that the PSFCH resources are configured through bits of the PSFCH resource configuration information, there is a first correspondence between the bits of the PSFCH resource configuration information and frequency domain resources in a target resource, and the target resource is any one of the following: a carrier, a BWP, or a resource pool (See section 2.2.1 pages 4-5 of LG for reference to the PSFCH RBs being configured though a bitmap that indicates RBs in a resource pool, wherein such a bitmap provides a correspondence between bits of the bitmap and RBs in the resource pool). wherein the first correspondence satisfies the following the bits of a bitmap of the PSFCH resource configuration information refers to the resource blocks (RB) in the resource pool (See section 2.2.1 pages 4-5 of LG for reference using a bitmap to indicate sidelink HARQ-ACK feedback resources from among RBs in a resource pool). Although LG does disclose the use of a bitmap to indicate resources in a resource pool (See section 2.2.1 pages 4-5 of LG), LG does not disclose the specifically claimed manner in which the bits of the bitmap are used to indicate the claimed resources. Specifically, LG does not disclose the leftmost bit of a bitmap of the PSFCH resource configuration information refers to the resource block (RB) with the lowest index in the resource pool. However, Jung et al., in the field of communications, discloses using a bitmap to indicate resources wherein the most significant bit (MSB) of the bitmap may be used to indicate a subband with the lowest RB index and the remaining bits of the bitmap may indicate subbands in ascending order of RB indexes (See paragraphs 117-118 of Jung et al.). It is known in the art of communications that the most significant bit of a bitmap is the leftmost bit of the bitmap. Jung et al. further discloses that a bit set to ‘0’ within the bitmap may indicate that communication is not performed in the corresponding subband and a bit set to ‘1’ may indicate that communication is performed in the corresponding subband (See paragraph 119 of Jung et al.). This bitmap formatting provides the advantage of indicating a specific manner in which each bit of the bitmap may be used to determine whether or not to perform communications on each corresponding resource. Thus, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of effective filing, when presented with the work of Jung et al., to combine using the bitmap formatting and resource block index correspondence taught by Jung et al. within the system and method of LG, with the motivation being to indicate indicating a specific manner in which each bit of the bitmap taught by LG may be used to determine whether or not to perform communications on each corresponding resource.
With respect to claims 3 and 15, LG discloses wherein the PSFCH resource configuration information comprises L bits, and L satisfies any one of the following: a value of L is equal to a first number, wherein the first number is the number of actual frequency domain resources in the target resource or the maximum possible number of frequency domain resources in the target resource; or L is a positive integer (See section 2.2.1 pages 4-5 of LG for reference to a number of bits used to signal the RB set used for actual PSFCH transmission being based on the number of RB group the PSFCH resource set M, wherein the number of bits is a positive integer).
With respect to claims 4 and 16, LG also discloses wherein the first frequency domain resource satisfies at least one of the following: in a case that the target resource is a carrier or a BWP, the first frequency domain resource is: a reference resource of the target resource, or a specified frequency domain location in at least one frequency domain location of the target resource for synchronization signal block SSB transmission; and the first frequency domain resource is a central frequency domain resource in the target resource (See section 2.2.1 pages 4-5 of LG for reference to the resource being RBs wherein each RB index is known in the art to reference a central frequency of the RB in the frequency domain).
With respect to claims 8 and 17, LG discloses wherein in a case that a value of L is equal to a first number and the first number is the number of actual frequency domain resources in the target resource, before the determining PSFCH resources in a target object based on obtained PSFCH resource configuration information, the method further comprises: receiving first information, wherein the first information is used to indicate the number of actual frequency domain resources in the target resource; or the first information is used to indicate a first parameter which is used for calculating the number of actual frequency domain resources in the target resource; and the determining PSFCH resources in a target object based on obtained PSFCH resource configuration information comprises: determining the PSFCH resources in the target object based on the obtained PSFCH resource configuration information and the first information (See section 2.2.1 pages 4-5 of LG for reference to using a bitmap to indicate the RB set used for actual PSFCH transmission, wherein such a bitmap includes a number of bits, i.e. L bits, indicating whether each RB is to be used or not, and for reference to the frequency resources indicated by the bitmap being (pre-)configured such that the information regarding the number of actual frequency domain resources in the resource pool for PSFCH transmission is signaled before the bitmap is signaled).
With respect to claims 9 and 18, LG discloses wherein in a case that a value of L is equal to a first number and the first number is the number of actual frequency domain resources in the target resource, the PSFCH resource configuration information comprises any one of the following: a first bitmap or first bit string with L bits; or N1 second bitmaps or second bit strings, wherein each of the second bitmaps or each of the second bit strings comprises N2 bits, and L=N1 xN2, wherein the target resource comprises N1 first resources, and the number of actual frequency domain resources in each of the first resources is equal to N2 (See section 2.2.1 pages 4-5 of LG for reference to using a bitmap to indicate the RB set used for actual PSFCH transmission, wherein such a bitmap includes a number of bits, i.e. L bits, indicating whether each RB is to be used or not).
With respect to claims 10 and 19, LG discloses wherein the target resource satisfies at least one of the following: in a case that the target object is a resource pool, the target resource is any one of the following: a carrier in which the target object is located, a BWP in which the target object is located, and a resource pool; in a case that the target object is a BWP, the target resource is a BWP or a carrier in which the target object is located; and in a case that the target object is a carrier, the target resource is a carrier (See section 2.2.1 pages 4-5 of LG for reference to the target object being a resource pool with the resources being RBs, which are frequency domain resource, in the resource pool).
With respect to claims 11 and 20, LG discloses wherein the PSFCH resource configuration information is used to indicate at least one of the following: a start resource of PSFCH resources in the target object; a resource number K of PSFCH resources in the target object; a reference resource of PSFCH resources in the target object; the target object; a start subchannel of PSFCH resources in the target object; and the number of subchannels comprised in PSFCH resources in the target object (See section 2.2.1 pages 4-5 of LG for reference to indicating a starting RB index for the PSFCH resource).
With respect to claim 12, LG discloses wherein the determining PSFCH resources in a target object based on obtained PSFCH resource configuration information comprises: determining K contiguous frequency domain resources starting from a fifth frequency domain resource of the frequency domain resources in the target object as PSFCH resources, wherein the fifth frequency domain resource is any one of the following: the 1-st frequency domain resource or the last frequency domain resource of the frequency domain resources in the target object that are arranged in descending order of numbers; the reference resource indicated in the PSFCH resource configuration information; or the start resource indicated in the PSFCH resource configuration information (See section 2.2.1 pages 4-5 of LG for reference to indicating a set of consecutive sub-channels, which are frequency domain resources, wherein a starting resource is indicated in the configuration).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 6 and 7 objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
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/JASON E MATTIS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2461