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 .
DETAILED ACTION
Response to Amendment
Applicant’s amendment, filed 01/16/2026, has been entered and carefully considered. Claims 1-15 are pending. Claims 1 and 12 are amended.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments filed on 01/16/2026 with regards to rejection of claims 1-15 have been fully 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.
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 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.
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 and 12-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over He et al. (US 2020/0037343 A1) in view of Cheng et al. (US 2023/0053351 A1).
Regarding claim 1, He discloses a method for providing assistance information on the quality of at least one communication channel between a first device and a target group of second devices in a device-to-device communication system, the method comprising (Fig. 27, 28 discloses the grouping of UEs and the determination of the scheduling/assisting UE may be determined by higher layers. The group forming can be similar to the group forming in groupcast. After the grouping and determination of the scheduling/assisting UE, the scheduling/assisting UE performs autonomous resource selection and selects a resource set for the group from the (pre)configured resource pool): selecting among the second devices of the target group, at least one candidate based on at least one criterion related to a communication condition related to at least one device among the second devices of the target group (Paragraph 0391 discloses the scheduling UE may be selected with best receiving signal quality from other member UEs. The resource set needs to be signaled by the scheduling UE to all member UEs. Therefore, the receiving signal quality from other member UEs is an important metric for the selection of the scheduling UE, while the scheduling UE may perform autonomous resource selection when the scheduling UE is out of coverage of the base station).
HE does not disclose the mechanism of transmitting, by at least one selected candidate, assistance information to the first device, said assistance information being representative at least of the quality of the communication channel between the first device and said at least one candidate, wherein each device of the first device and second devices is a user equipment.
In an analogous art, Cheng discloses transmitting, by at least one selected candidate, assistance information to the first device, said assistance information being representative at least of the quality of the communication channel between the first device and said at least one candidate, wherein each device of the first device and second devices is a user equipment (Paragraphs 0072, 0073, 0116 disclose the remote UE may select the relay UE. For example, the remote UE may identify the presence of at least one candidate relay UE in proximity of the remote UE. In some cases, the relay UE may announce its presence by transmitting discovery messages. In some examples, the remote UE may transmit a relay request message. Nearby candidate relay UEs may receive the relay request message and transmit relay discovery messages. The remote UE may detect the candidate relay UEs based on the relay discovery messages. A remote UE 115 may identify the presence of at least one relay UE 115 in proximity of the remote UE 115 to request a relay service. In some cases, the relay UE 115 may announce its presence by transmitting discovery messages. Paragraphs 0133-0134 disclose a remote UE 215 may detect suitable relay UE candidates based on a set of criteria. For example, a suitable relay UE may be configured with a resource pool by the network or be preconfigured with a resource pool. In some cases, suitable relay UE may provide a sidelink with good radio quality. For example, an RSRP measurement of the relay sidelink may be greater than a configured RSRP threshold. In some cases, a suitable relay UE may provide a QoS level for the relay sidelink 220 that can satisfy the QoS requirements of traffic of the remote UE 215. In some cases, a suitable relay UE may have a load below a load threshold. In some cases, a suitable relay UE may have a battery (e.g., and power) above a battery threshold. In some cases, the base station 205 may broadcast load and battery thresholds in a system information block, or the remote UEs 215 may be preconfigured with the load and battery thresholds)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide the technique of Cheng to the system of He to provide the mechanism where a remote UE may select the relay UE based on a set of criteria for selecting a candidate relay UE. The remote UE and the relay UE may establish the relay communications based on the relay discovery announcement transmitted on the communications channel of the relay sidelink (Cheng, abstract).
Regarding claim 12, claim 12 comprises substantially similar limitations as claimed above in claim 1.
Regarding claim 13, claim 13 comprises substantially similar limitations as claimed above in claim 1, a second device (can be another UE from grouped UE, Fig. 28)
Regarding claim 14, claim 14 comprises substantially similar limitations as claimed above in claim 1 claimed as a computer program product (Paragraph 0020, He) comprising one or more stored sequence/s of instructions that is accessible to a processor to perform the steps as described above in claim 1.
Regarding claim 15, claim 15 comprises substantially similar limitations as claimed above in claim 1, claimed as a processing circuitry (Paragraph 0020, He) to perform the steps as described above in claim 1.
Regarding claim 2, He discloses wherein the quality relates at least to a network resource of said communication channel, said network resource having not been used for sending data from the first device to the target group of second devices (Paragraph 0200, 0419 discloses when the resources reserved by another UE are not used for transmission by the UE, the channel occupancy time in the SCI of the UE may include the slots that are reserved by another UE so that other UEs performing sensing may know the time duration the UE needs to use the channel. The channel occupancy time in the SCI may exclude slots that are used for other purposes (e.g., slots/mini-slots determined by TDD UL/DL configuration).
Regarding claim 3, He discloses wherein the assistance information is composed of more than one bit (Paragraphs 0283-0284, 0521 discloses bits are needed to indicate the information).
Claims 4-5, 8-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over He et al. in view of Cheng et al. and further in view of Li et al. (US 2021/0219268).
Regarding claim 4, He and Cheng do not disclose the mechanism of claim 4.
In an analogous art, Li discloses wherein the communication condition comprises a packet priority level, respectively associated to each second device of the target group by a multiple access edge computing device (Paragraph 0032, 0104 discloses edge computing device), and at least one criterion related to the communication condition related to said at least one device further based on the respective packet priority levels (paragraph 0231 discloses At step 2, the vehicle UE may request to associate to RSU2. The request may be sent on the default or selected Sidelink resource pools of RSU2 indicated by its NR-PSBCH or NR- PSDCH or NR-PSSCH. The vehicle UE may include UE assistant information, such as priority, latency, reliability, speed, location, traffic type, etc. in the request for resource allocation)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide the technique of Li to the modified system of He and Cheng to provide resource management on sidelink for vehicle to everything (V2X) to enhance the communication between the devices (Abstract, Li).
Regarding claim 5, He and Cheng does not disclose the mechanism of claim 5.
In an analogous art, Li discloses comprising, for at least one second device of the target group, obtaining, based on an information having been received by said second device, the communication condition related to said at least one second (paragraph 0249 discloses at step 2B, the vehicle UE may select a resource pool. One or more of the following steps may occur: The vehicle UE may select the resource pool or resource candidates based on the broadcast resource pool or resource status and optionally further conduct a quick sensing of the available resources, for example collecting the resource reservation within the sensing window which is defined by the time line and latency requirement for the data (e.g. one or multiple transport blocks) to be transmitted, the vehicle UE may pass resource pool or resource candidates as well as the sidelink channel condition (e.g., congestion), radio quality and interference measurements if available, to the higher layer or application, and/or the higher layer or application decides the resource pool to use)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide the technique of Li to the modified system of He and Cheng to provide resource management on sidelink for vehicle to everything (V2X) to enhance the communication between the devices (Abstract, Li).
Regarding claim 8, He and Cheng does not disclose the mechanism of claim 8.
In an analogous art, Li discloses wherein: - the communication condition comprises a user identifier, respectively associated to each second device of the target group, and - at least one criterion related to the communication condition related to said at least one device is further based on the respective user identifiers (Paragraph 0244 The sensing assistant may collect information associated with one or more of the following: traffic patterns (e.g., resource scheduled or reserved), information on periodicity, time offset, message size, QoS information, and a source or destination identifier).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide the technique of Li to the modified system of He and Cheng to provide resource management on sidelink for vehicle to everything (V2X) to enhance the communication between the devices (Abstract, Li).
Regarding claim 9, He and Cheng does not disclose the mechanism of claim 9.
In an analogous art, Li discloses wherein at least one criterion related to the communication condition related to said at least one device is determined by the first device, and the information emitted by the first device and received by said second device comprises metadata indicating said at least one determined criterion. (Paragraphs 0286-0292, At step 1, collect scheduler candidates: update the scheduler candidate list with the UE who is willing to be a Scheduler during the procedure of registration, attachment, etc.; update the scheduler candidates' capability list based on the UE's capability indication; update the scheduler candidates' location or location zone; collect the sidelink channel occupancy ratio, radio link quality, interference, etc. measured and reported by the scheduler candidates, select a scheduler: select a scheduler from the candidate list based on UE's capability, location, resource pool requirement, QoS requirements, sidelink measurements, etc.; send a request to the selected scheduler, and wait for the response).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide the technique of Li to the modified system of He and Cheng to provide resource management on sidelink for vehicle to everything (V2X) to enhance the communication between the devices (Abstract, Li).
Regarding claim 10, He and Cheng does not disclose the mechanism of claim 10.
In an analogous art, Li discloses wherein at least one criterion related to the communication condition related to said at least one device is determined locally by each second device of the target group (Paragraphs 0124, 0184, 0242).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide the technique of Li to the modified system of He and Cheng to provide resource management on sidelink for vehicle to everything (V2X) to enhance the communication between the devices (Abstract, Li).
Regarding claim 11, He and Cheng does not disclose the mechanism of claim 11.
In an analogous art, Li discloses wherein selecting, among the second devices of the target group, at least one candidate based on at least one criterion related to the or each determined communication condition comprises during a first selection stage, selecting a sub-group of second devices (Paragraphs 0198, 0202), and during a subsequent selection stage, selecting at least one candidate among the sub- group of second devices based on at least one criterion, related to the communication condition related to said at least one device (Paragraph 0253 discloses At step 2C, the vehicle UE may select a resource pool or resource. One or more of the following steps may occur: the vehicle UE may select the resource pool or resource candidates using resource pool or resource status and the group ID if group based or location zone ID if proximity or range based and optionally further conduct a quick sensing of the available resources, for example collecting the resource reservation statistics within the sensing window which is defined by the time line and latency requirement for the data (e.g. one or multiple transport blocks) to be transmitted, the vehicle UE may pass the resource pool or resource candidates as well as the sidelink channel conditions, radio quality and interference measurements if available to the higher layer or application, and/or the higher layer or application may decide the resource pool or resource configurations to use).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide the technique of Li to the modified system of He and Cheng to provide resource management on sidelink for vehicle to everything (V2X) to enhance the communication between the devices (Abstract, Li).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 6-7 are 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
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
Hu et al. (US Pub. 2019/0380132) discloses mechanism of a network entity for flexibly managing radio resources for user equipment in a D2D communication network.
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.
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/ROMANI OHRI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2413
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