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
1. 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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 11/14/2025 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
2. Applicant’s arguments filed on 10/27/2025 regarding claims 1, 3-19 and 21 in the remarks are fully considered but moot in view of new ground(s) of rejection.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
3. The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
4. Claim(s) 1, 16 and 21 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Xue (US PG Pub. No. 2021/0227527).
As per claim 1:
Xue teaches a method performed by a second user equipment (UE) (see paragraph [0006], teaches a method of wireless communication, performed by a user equipment (UE). Note: Examiner is reading “Helper UE 1015” as said second UE, please see Figure 10), the method comprising:
receiving, from a first UE, trigger information (see Figure 10, Helper UE 1015 receiving request for recommended instance(s) 1020 from requestor UE 1005) using sidelink control information (SCI), wherein the trigger information comprises a single bit (see paragraph [0100], the requestor UE 1005 may transmit the request via SCI and/or a MAC-CE. For example, the request UE 1005 may be configured to use one or more bits in SCI to transmit the request) that indicates a request for a set of resources from the second UE (see paragraph [0099], the requestor 1005 may transmit the request for one or more recommended instances based at least in part on a determination that information identifying one or more recommended instances has not been received for a threshold amount of time. The request for one or more recommended instances includes, one or more recommended time periods for sidelink communication and/or one or more recommended sub-carriers for sidelink communication, please see paragraph [0092]), and wherein the set of resources comprises preferred resources (as explained earlier in paragraph [0092], the request for one or more recommended instances includes, one or more recommended time periods for sidelink communication and/or one or more recommended sub-carriers for sidelink communication and thus preferred resources), non-preferred resources (Note: Limitation(s) is/are recited in alternate form and thus not addressed by the prior art), expected resources (Note: Limitation(s) is/are recited in alternate form and thus not addressed by the prior art), potential resources (Note: Limitation(s) is/are recited in alternate form and thus not addressed by the prior art), or detected resources (Note: Limitation(s) is/are recited in alternate form and thus not addressed by the prior art), or a combination thereof (Note: Limitation(s) is/are recited in alternate form and thus not addressed by the prior art);
and transmitting a first medium access control (MAC) control element (CE) (paragraph [0094], discloses the indication of the set of recommended instances may be transmitted in a MAC-CE) that indicates information associated with the set of resources (see paragraph [0101], the helper UE 1005 may transmit the indication of the set of recommended instances based at least in part on receiving the request. The helper UE 1015 may transmit the indication of the set of recommended instances via a sidelink communication according to a recommended instance of the set of recommended instances in a recommended time period and/or on a recommended set of frequency resources).
As per claim 16:
Xue teaches a second user equipment (UE) (see Figure 10, Helper UE 1015), comprising:
at least one memory (see Figure 2, memory 282);
and at least one processor coupled with the at least one memory (see Figure 2, controller/processor 280 coupled to memory 282) and configured to cause the second UE to:
receive, from a first UE, trigger information (see Figure 10, Helper UE 1015 receiving request for recommended instance(s) 1020 from requestor UE 1005) using sidelink control information (SCI), wherein the trigger information comprises a single bit (see paragraph [0100], the requestor UE 1005 may transmit the request via SCI and/or a MAC-CE. For example, the request UE 1005 may be configured to use one or more bits in SCI to transmit the request) that indicates a request for a set of resources from the second UE (see paragraph [0099], the requestor 1005 may transmit the request for one or more recommended instances based at least in part on a determination that information identifying one or more recommended instances has not been received for a threshold amount of time. The request for one or more recommended instances includes, one or more recommended time periods for sidelink communication and/or one or more recommended sub-carriers for sidelink communication, please see paragraph [0092]), and wherein the set of resources comprises preferred resources (as explained earlier in paragraph [0092], the request for one or more recommended instances includes, one or more recommended time periods for sidelink communication and/or one or more recommended sub-carriers for sidelink communication and thus preferred resources), non-preferred resources (Note: Limitation(s) is/are recited in alternate form and thus not addressed by the prior art), expected resources (Note: Limitation(s) is/are recited in alternate form and thus not addressed by the prior art), potential resources (Note: Limitation(s) is/are recited in alternate form and thus not addressed by the prior art), or detected resources (Note: Limitation(s) is/are recited in alternate form and thus not addressed by the prior art), or a combination thereof (Note: Limitation(s) is/are recited in alternate form and thus not addressed by the prior art);
and transmit a first medium access control (MAC) control element (CE) (paragraph [0094], discloses the indication of the set of recommended instances may be transmitted in a MAC-CE) that indicates information associated with the set of resources (see paragraph [0101], the helper UE 1005 may transmit the indication of the set of recommended instances based at least in part on receiving the request. The helper UE 1015 may transmit the indication of the set of recommended instances via a sidelink communication according to a recommended instance of the set of recommended instances in a recommended time period and/or on a recommended set of frequency resources).
As per claim 21:
Xue teaches a processor for wireless communication (see Figure 2, controller/processor 280), comprising:
at least one controller coupled with at least one memory (see Figure 2, controller/processor 280 coupled to memory 282) and configured to cause the processor to:
receive, from a first UE, trigger information (see Figure 10, Helper UE 1015 receiving request for recommended instance(s) 1020 from requestor UE 1005) using sidelink control information (SCI), wherein the trigger information comprises a single bit (see paragraph [0100], the requestor UE 1005 may transmit the request via SCI and/or a MAC-CE. For example, the request UE 1005 may be configured to use one or more bits in SCI to transmit the request) that indicates a request for a set of resources from a second UE (see paragraph [0099], the requestor 1005 may transmit the request for one or more recommended instances based at least in part on a determination that information identifying one or more recommended instances has not been received for a threshold amount of time. The request for one or more recommended instances includes, one or more recommended time periods for sidelink communication and/or one or more recommended sub-carriers for sidelink communication, please see paragraph [0092]), and wherein the set of resources comprises preferred resources (as explained earlier in paragraph [0092], the request for one or more recommended instances includes, one or more recommended time periods for sidelink communication and/or one or more recommended sub-carriers for sidelink communication and thus preferred resources), non-preferred resources (Note: Limitation(s) is/are recited in alternate form and thus not addressed by the prior art), expected resources (Note: Limitation(s) is/are recited in alternate form and thus not addressed by the prior art), potential resources (Note: Limitation(s) is/are recited in alternate form and thus not addressed by the prior art), or detected resources (Note: Limitation(s) is/are recited in alternate form and thus not addressed by the prior art), or a combination thereof (Note: Limitation(s) is/are recited in alternate form and thus not addressed by the prior art);
and transmit a first medium access control (MAC) control element (CE) (paragraph [0094], discloses the indication of the set of recommended instances may be transmitted in a MAC-CE) that indicates information associated with the set of resources (see paragraph [0101], the helper UE 1005 may transmit the indication of the set of recommended instances based at least in part on receiving the request. The helper UE 1015 may transmit the indication of the set of recommended instances via a sidelink communication according to a recommended instance of the set of recommended instances in a recommended time period and/or on a recommended set of frequency resources).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
5. 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.
6. Claim(s) 3 and 17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xue in view of Li (US PG Pub. No. 2021/0227602).
As per claim 3:
Xue teaches the method of claim 1 with the exception of:
wherein the trigger information comprises a priority, a resource pool index, a subchannel size, a number of resources, a percentage of resources, a packet delay budget, or a combination thereof, and the trigger information facilitates the second UE performing sensing and candidate resource selection.
Li teaches wherein the trigger information comprises a priority (Note: Limitation(s) is/are recited in alternate form and thus not addressed by the prior art), a resource pool index (Note: Limitation(s) is/are recited in alternate form and thus not addressed by the prior art), a subchannel size (see paragraph [0128], “subchannel size”), a number of resources (see paragraph [0128], “number of contiguous RBs provided by subchannel size”), a percentage of resources (Note: Limitation(s) is/are recited in alternate form and thus not addressed by the prior art), a packet delay budget (Note: Limitation(s) is/are recited in alternate form and thus not addressed by the prior art), or a combination thereof (Note: Limitation(s) is/are recited in alternate form and thus not addressed by the prior art), and the trigger information facilitates the second UE performing sensing and candidate resource selection (see paragraph [0370], TX UE may perform full sensing for sidelink resource reselection. When the TX UE is triggered or requested in slot n to select sidelink resources to perform sidelink transmission to a RX UE, the TX UE may derive or determine candidate slots based on (sidelink) active time of the RX UE).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the teachings of Li into Xue. The motivation for doing so would be to save battery power as a result of performing partial sensing instead of full sensing (please see paragraph [0314] of Li).
Claim 17 is rejected in the same scope as claim 3.
7. Claims 4 and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xue in view of Di Girolamo (US PG Pub. No. 2023/0171738).
As per claim 4:
Xue teaches the method of claim 1 with the exception of:
wherein the request for the set of resources comprises a requested scheme for determining the set of resources, and the requested scheme for determining the set of resources indicates a preferred resource set, a non-preferred resource set, an expected resource conflict, a potential resource conflict, or a detected resource conflict, or a combination thereof.
Di Girolamo teaches wherein the request for the set of resources comprises a requested scheme for determining the set of resources (see paragraphs [0178]-[0179], a whitelist may include a set of slots for which an assistant UE tells the requester UE that the sidelink transmission over these slots is allowed or preferred), and the requested scheme for determining the set of resources indicates a preferred resource set (see paragraphs [0178]-[0179], the whitelist indicates the set of slots preferred or allowed), a non-preferred resource set (see paragraphs [0189]-[0190], the blacklist assistance information may indicate to the requester UE that the sidelink transmission over these slots should not be allowed), an expected resource conflict (Note: Limitation(s) is/are recited in alternate form and thus not addressed by the prior art), a potential resource conflict (Note: Limitation(s) is/are recited in alternate form and thus not addressed by the prior art), or a detected resource conflict (Note: Limitation(s) is/are recited in alternate form and thus not addressed by the prior art), or a combination thereof (Note: Limitation(s) is/are recited in alternate form and thus not addressed by the prior art).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the use of the assistance information (as disclosed in Di Girolamo) into Xue. The motivation for doing so would be to help in down-selecting from the list of resources (please see paragraph [0067] of Di Girolamo).
Claim 18 is rejected in the same scope as claim 4.
8. Claims 5, 6 and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xue in view of Di Girolamo and further in view of Sarkis (US PG Pub. No. 2021/0153102), hereinafter referred to as Sarkis’102.
As per claim 5:
Xue in view of Di Girolamo teaches the method of claim 4 with the exception of:
wherein the preferred resource set comprises resources on which a measured physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH) reference signal received power (RSRP) or physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH) over demodulation reference signal (DMRS) resource elements during sensing and candidate resource selection is below a configured threshold.
Sarkis’102 teaches wherein the preferred resource set comprises resources on which a measured physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH) reference signal received power (RSRP) or physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH) over demodulation reference signal (DMRS) resource elements during sensing and candidate resource selection is below a configured threshold (see paragraph [0081], the UE 704 may decode the initial SCI from the initial sidelink communication and determine the resources reserved for the subsequent sidelink communication based on the initial SCI. The receiving UE 704 may measure the power (e.g., RSRP) on a DMRS associated with the initial SCI received via the initial sidelink communication and may sense whether the resources reserved by the initial SCI are available by sensing whether a power value according to the power measurement (e.g., RSRP measurement) exceeds a power threshold. If the power value according to the power measurement does not exceed the power threshold, the receiving UE 704 may utilize the resources reserved by the initial SCI for a subsequent sidelink communication).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the power measurement of the received DMRS (as disclosed in Sarkis’102) into Xue and Di Girolamo as a way of enabling the receiving UE to determine whether or not the resources are available for sidelink communication (please see paragraphs [0081]-[0082] of Sarkis’102).
As per claim 6:
Xue in view of Di Girolamo teaches the method of claim 4 with the exception of:
wherein the non-preferred resource set comprises resources on which measured physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH) reference signal received power (RSRP) or physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH) over demodulation reference signal (DMRS) resource elements during sensing and candidate resource selection is above a configured threshold.
Sarkis’102 teaches wherein the non-preferred resource set comprises resources on which measured physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH) reference signal received power (RSRP) or physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH) over demodulation reference signal (DMRS) resource elements during sensing and candidate resource selection is above a configured threshold (see paragraph [0082], if the power value according to the measurement exceeds the power threshold, the receiving UE 704 may reserve different resources for the subsequent sidelink communication. In this case, the receiving UE 704 may perform a subsequent sidelink communication using different resources reserved and may avoid utilizing the resources reserved by the initial SCI. Paragraph [0081] discloses said power measurement involves measuring the RSRP on a DMRS associated with the initial SCI received via the initial sidelink communication).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the power measurement of the received DMRS (as disclosed in Sarkis’102) into Xue and Di Girolamo as a way of enabling the receiving UE to determine whether or not the resources are available for sidelink communication (please see paragraphs [0081]-[0082] of Sarkis’102).
Claim 19 is rejected in the same scope as claim 5.
9. Claim 7 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xue in view of Di Girolamo and further in view of Gao (US PG Pub. No. 2019/0223158).
As per claim 7:
Xue view of Di Girolamo teaches the method of claim 4 with the exception of:
wherein the set of resources determined based on an expected resource conflict, a potential resource conflict, or a detected resource conflict, or a combination thereof comprises resources reserved or transmitted by potential transmitters.
Gao teaches wherein the set of resources determined based on an expected resource conflict, a potential resource conflict, or a detected resource conflict, or a combination thereof comprises resources reserved or transmitted by potential transmitters (see paragraph [0067], the terminal may obtain a resource occupation and a reservation status of another terminal before the higher layer request arrives, to exclude a resource that causes the first terminal to conflict with the other terminal device).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the method of selecting resources for sidelink communication (as disclosed in Gao) into Xue and Di Girolamo. The motivation for doing so would be to reduce collision probability and also improve the sending performance of the terminal device (please see paragraph [0080] of Gao).
10. Claim 8 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xue in view of Balasubramanian (US PG Pub. No. 2021/0204217).
As per claim 8:
Xue teaches the method of claim 1 with the exception of:
wherein a report is transmitted using a bitmap comprising a subchannel index in a resource pool.
Balasubramanian teaches wherein a report is transmitted using a bitmap comprising a subchannel index in a resource pool (see paragraph [0082], the assisting UE may obtain a bit map indicating the availability of resources that the assisted UE can use to transmit. For example, if there are N subchannels that the assisted UE is allowed to use for transmission, the assisting UE can provide a bitmap of length N to indicate whether each individual subchannel is available for transmission or unavailable).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the transmission of bitmap of length N (as disclosed in Balasubramanian) into Xue as a way of indicating which subchannels are available and which subchannels are not (please see paragraph [0082] of Balasubramanian).
11. Claims 10 and 11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xue in view of Sarkis (US PG Pub. No. 2021/0266919), hereinafter referred to as Sarkis’919.
As per claim 10:
Luo in view of Liu teaches the method of claim 1 with the exception of:
further comprising receiving signaling in a second MAC-CE, wherein the signaling indicates a scheme for determining the set of resource set.
Sarkis’919 teaches further comprising receiving signaling in a second MAC-CE, wherein the signaling indicates a scheme for determining the set of resource set (see paragraph [0103], the second wireless device may transmit the priority information in message included in an SCI message, a MAC-CE message. Note: Examiner is reading said priority information as said scheme).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the transmission of priority information in a message such as SCI or MAC-CE (as disclosed in Sarkis’919) into Xue as a way of enabling the receiving wireless device to determine whether or not the indicated resource is available or not (please see paragraph [0103] of Sarkis).
As per claim 11:
Xue teaches the method of claim 1 with the exception of:
wherein the first MAC CE comprises a predetermined priority, a predetermined latency, or a predetermined scheduling, or a combination thereof.
Sarkis’919 teaches wherein the first MAC CE comprises a predetermined priority (see paragraph [0103], the second wireless device may transmit the priority information in message included in an SCI message, a MAC-CE message), a predetermined latency (Note: Limitation(s) is/are recited in alternate form and thus not addressed by the prior art), or a predetermined scheduling (Note: Limitation(s) is/are recited in alternate form and thus not addressed by the prior art), or a combination thereof (Note: Limitation(s) is/are recited in alternate form and thus not addressed by the prior art).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the transmission of priority information in a message such as SCI or MAC-CE (as disclosed in Sarkis’919) into Xue as a way of enabling the receiving wireless device to determine whether or not the indicated resource is available or not (please see paragraph [0103] of Sarkis’919).
12. Claims 9 and 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xue in view of Sarkis (US PG Pub. No. 2021/0352626), hereinafter referred to as Sarkis’626.
As per claim 9:
Xue teaches the method of claim 1 with the exception of:
further comprising transmitting signaling comprising a preferred resource set, a non-preferred resource set, or a conflict resource set using a second MAC CE.
Sarkis’626 teaches further comprising transmitting signaling comprising a preferred resource set, a non-preferred resource set, or a conflict resource set using a second MAC CE (see paragraph [0074], coordination information including preferred resources may be transmitted in a MAC-CE).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the multiplexing of MAC-CE TB and the SL-SCH data TB (as disclosed in Sarkis’626) into Xue as a way of enabling the receiver to recover communication(s) on one or more layers (please see paragraph [0070] of Sarkis’626).
As per claim 12:
Xue teaches the method of claim 1 with the exception of:
wherein the first medium access control control element is transmitted using a transport block multiplexed with user data.
Sarkis’626 teaches wherein the first medium access control control element is transmitted using a transport block multiplexed with user data (see paragraph [0069], the MAC-CE TB carrying coordination information may be transmitted with the SL-SCH data TB based on non-orthogonal multiplexing schemes).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the multiplexing of MAC-CE TB and the SL-SCH data TB (as disclosed in Sarkis’626) into Xue as a way of enabling the receiver to recover communication(s) on one or more layers (please see paragraph [0070] of Sarkis’626).
13. Claim 13 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xue in view of Sun (US PG Pub. No. 2024/0357641).
As per claim 13:
Xue teaches the method of claim 1 with the exception of:
wherein a report is transmitted using a physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH), a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH), or sidelink control information (SCI).
Sun teaches wherein a report is transmitted using a physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH) (Note: Limitation(s) is/are recited in alternate form and thus not addressed by the prior art), a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH) (Note: Limitation(s) is/are recited in alternate form and thus not addressed by the prior art), or sidelink control information (SCI) (see Figure 7, step 304, paragraph [0168], UE2 receiving SCI indicating resources reserved by the UE 100 for its own future transmissions).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the transmission of the sidelink control information (as disclosed in Sun) into Xue as a way of indicating to the receiving UE reserved resources for future transmission(s) (please see paragraph [0168] of Sun).
14. Claim 14 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xue in view of Sarkis (US PG Pub. No. 2021/0315024), hereinafter referred to as Sarkis’024.
As per claim 14:
Xue teaches the method of claim 1 with the exception of:
wherein the first UE determining resource reselection comprises determining resources to be used for a transmission resource based on:
sensing result and coordination information;
only on the coordination information; or partially on the coordination information.
Sarkis’024 teaches wherein the first UE determining resource reselection comprises determining resources to be used for a transmission resource based on:
sensing result and coordination information (Note: limitation(s) is/are recited in alternate form and thus not addressed by the prior art);
only on the coordination information (see paragraph [0062], in attempt to reduce resource collisions, sidelink UEs may send (or exchange) coordination information and may use the coordination information to make or reselect resource reservations); or partially on the coordination information (Note: limitation(s) is/are recited in alternate form and thus not addressed by the prior art).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the exchange of information with sidelink UEs when reselecting resource reservations (as disclosed in Sarkis’024) into Xue as a way of enabling the sidelink UEs to better select resources for transmissions to avoid resource collisions (please see paragraph [0062] of Sarkis’024).
15. Claim 15 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xue in view of Cheng (US PG Pub. No. 2020/0351707).
As per claim 15:
Xue teaches the method of claim 1 with the exception of:
further comprising receiving an inter-UE coordination message based on the first UE receiving a predetermined number of consecutive negative acknowledgements.
Cheng teaches further comprising receiving an inter-UE coordination message based on the first UE receiving a predetermined number of consecutive negative acknowledgements (sees paragraph [0035], [0039], when the number of NACKS received is greater than a threshold, a RLF can be triggered by the TX UE 402).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the monitoring of the number of received HARQ feedbacks (as disclosed in Cheng) into Xue. The motivation for doing so would be to help perform radio link recovery process to reestablish a radio link between UEs (please see paragraph [0021] of Cheng).
Conclusion
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PRINCE AKWASI. MENSAH
Examiner
Art Unit 2474
/PRINCE A MENSAH/Examiner, Art Unit 2474
/Michael Thier/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2474