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 .
Response to Amendment
Applicant’s submission filed on 02/24/2026 has been entered. Claims 1-4, 7-12, 15-19, and 21-22 are pending.
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 nonobviousness.
Claims 1-4, 9-12, and 17-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Perras et al. (US 2024/0129968), hereinafter "Perras ‘968", in view of Shi et al. (US 2023/0164619), hereinafter "Shi", and further in view of Perras et al. (US 2023/0224778), hereinafter "Perras '778".
Regarding claims 1, 9, 17, Perras ‘968 teaches:
A method for connecting with another User Equipment (UE) (see Perras ‘968, Fig. 2, par. [0071], lines 1-3: In 3GPP, Technical Report TR 23.752 v1.0.0, section 6.10 details a WTRU-to-WTRU relay solution based on IP routing as illustrated in FIG. 2, and see Perras ‘968, par. [0018], lines 27-28: Any of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c and 102d may be interchangeably referred to as a UE) or a first User Equipment (UE) (see Perras, Fig. 1B, par. [0031], lines 1-2: FIG. 1B is a system diagram illustrating an example WTRU 102, and see Perras, par. [0018], lines 27-28: Any of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c and 102d may be interchangeably referred to as a UE) or a non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising processor- executable instructions that when executed cause performance of operations (see Perras ‘968, par. [0178]: the methods provided herein may be implemented in a computer program, software, or firmware incorporated in a computer-readable medium for execution by a computer or processor, and see Perras, par. [0183]: any of the operations, processes, etc. described herein may be implemented as computer-readable instructions stored on a computer-readable medium), comprising:
a control circuit (see Perras ‘968, Fig. 1B, par. [0031], lines 2-8: in FIG. 1B, the WTRU 102 may include a processor 118, a transceiver 120, a transmit/receive element 122, a speaker/microphone 124, a keypad 126, a display/touchpad 128, non-removable memory 130, removable memory 132, a power source 134, a global positioning system (GPS) chipset 136, and/or other elements/peripherals 138, among others; in this case, the WTRU (i.e. UE) comprises a system of many electronic components connected to each other (corresponding to a control circuit));
a processor installed in the control circuit (see Perras ‘968, Fig. 1B, item 118, par. [0031], lines 203: the WTRU 102 may include a processor 118); and
a memory installed in the control circuit and operatively coupled to the processor (see Perras ‘968, Fig. 1B, item 130, par. [0036], lines 8-11: the processor 118 may access information from, and store data in, any type of suitable memory, such as the non-removable memory 130 and/or the removable memory 132);
wherein the processor is configured to execute a program code stored in the memory (see Perras ‘968, par. [0183], lines 1-6: any of the operations, processes, etc. described herein may be implemented as computer-readable instructions stored on a computer-readable medium. The computer-readable instructions may be executed by a processor of a mobile unit, a network element, and/or any other computing device, and see Perras, Fig. 1B, item 130, par. [0036], lines 8-11: the processor 118 may access information from, and store data in, any type of suitable memory, such as the non-removable memory 130 and/or the removable memory 132) to:
connecting, by a first UE, with a second UE via a relay UE (see Perras ‘968, Fig. 3, items 310 and 312, par. [0105], lines 1-4: WTRU1 301 (e.g., WTRU 102b) and WTRU2 305 (e.g., WTRU 102c) have established a direct communication (e.g., PC5 unicast link) with the relay R-WTRU 303 (e.g., WTRU 102a) (at 310, 312, respectively)), wherein a first PC5 unicast link is established between the first UE and the relay UE as part of a connection between the first UE and the second UE via the relay UE (see Perras ‘968, Fig. 2, par. [0072], lines 1-4: Any WTRU that wants to make use of the Proximity Services (ProSe) 5G WTRU-to-WTRU relay may (e.g., needs to) establish a unicast L2 link (e.g., PC5 unicast link) with the WTRU-to-WTRU relay; in this case, PC5 links are established between WTRUs and relay devices for communication, corresponding to a connection between UEs via a relay UE);
transmitting, by the first UE, a Link Modification Request message to the relay UE via the first PC5 unicast link, wherein the Link Modification Request message transmitted via the first PC5 unicast link that is part of the connection between the first UE and the second UE via the relay UE (see Perras ‘968, Fig. 3, par. [0087], lines 1-4: The S-WTRU may send a request message (e.g., Link Modification Request message) to any (e.g., every) relay with which a (e.g., PC5) unicast link/direct communication is established; in this case, a link may be established between a source WTRU (corresponding to the first UE) and a relay WTRU (corresponding to the relay UE), and a link modification request message may be sent on the established link), and
receiving, by the first UE, a Link Modification Accept message from the relay UE (see Perras ‘968, Fig. 2, par. [0090], lines 1-2: The relay may send back to the S-WTRU a response message (e.g., Link Modification Accept message); in this case, the relay sends an accept message back to the source WTRU (corresponding to the first UE), which inherently receives the message),
However, Perras ‘968 does not teach:
transmitting a Link Modification Request message to the relay UE via the first PC5 unicast link for triggering the relay UE to initiate a PC5 unicast link establishment procedure toward a third UE, wherein the Link Modification Request message includes a third User Info of the third UE which is different than the first UE and different than the second UE;
wherein the Link Modification Accept message includes the third User Info of the third UE; and
responsive to reception by the first UE of the Link Modification Accept message including the third User Info of the third UE from the relay UE after the connection between the first UE and the second UE via the relay UE has been established, initiating, by the first UE, an end-to-end unicast link establishment procedure toward the third UE via the relay UE.
Shi, in the same field of endeavor, teaches:
wherein the Link Modification Request message includes a third User Info of a third UE which is different than the first UE and different than the second UE (see Shi, Fig. 7, par. [0124]: (703) The source WTRU 750 sends a Link modification request to establish a PC5 QoS flow, in which request the source WTRU 750 indicates the QoS flow parameters and target WTRU 752 ID (e.g. ProSe WTRU ID, user info, application layer ID or IP address) of this PC5 QoS flow, and see Fig. 6, par. [0103]: when a PC5 QoS Flow (#Sx) (e.g., one of 641, 642, 643) with a source WTRU (e.g., 600) is established, the ProSe WTRU-to-WTRU Relay 610 may establish a new PC5 QoS flow (e.g., one of 651, 661, 662) with the target WTRU (e.g., 620 or 630) or modify an existing PC5 QoS flow (e.g., one of 651, 661, 662) with a target WTRU (e.g., one of 620 or 630), and see Fig. 4, par. [0092]: Service Utilizing WTRU (WTRU-2 (SU-WTRU), 402): this type of WTRU may look for the services offered by the Service Provider WTRU (401). There may be more than one Service Utilizing WTRUs which may try to discover services provided by a particular Service Provider WTRU; in this case, Shi supports there being multiple target WTRUs which have PC5 links established. The link modification request includes the target WTRU ID (i.e. user info) which may be for target WTRU-C (i.e. a third UE), for example, which is different from source WTRU-A and target WTRU-B);
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the method or first UE or non-transitory computer-readable medium of Perras ‘968 with the third User Info and initiating an end-to-end unicast link establishment procedure of Shi with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of addressing issues of maintaining quality of service (see Shi, pars. [0097-0099]).
However, the Combination of Perras ‘968 in view of Shi, does not teach:
transmitting a Link Modification Request message to the relay UE via the first PC5 unicast link for triggering the relay UE to initiate a PC5 unicast link establishment procedure toward a third UE,
wherein the Link Modification Accept message includes the third User Info of the third UE;
responsive to reception by the first UE of the Link Modification Accept message including the third User Info of the third UE from the relay UE after the connection between the first UE and the second UE via the relay UE has been established, initiating, by the first UE, an end-to-end unicast link establishment procedure toward the third UE via the relay UE.
Perras ‘778, in the same field of endeavor, teaches:
transmitting a Link Modification Request message to the relay UE via the first PC5 unicast link for triggering the relay UE to initiate a PC5 unicast link establishment procedure toward a third UE (see Perras ‘778, Fig. 8, pars. [0190-0191]: IP addresses/prefixes of any number of target WTRUs may be included in the link modification request message 810, for example, in a case where the source WTRU 81 is communicating with any number of target WTRUs via the first relay WTRU 801. According to embodiments, in step 820, the first relay WTRU 801 may determine (e.g., detect) whether the link modification request message 810 may be destined to the target WTRU 82 based on the relay reselection indication and on the IP address/prefix of the target WTRU 82 (e.g., that may be included in the link modification request message 810); in this case, the link modification request message starts a link establishment procedure via the first relay WTRU (i.e. relay UE) performing steps for a modification of a T-WTRU (i.e. third UE) to modify its link),
wherein the Link Modification Accept message includes the third User Info of the third UE (see Perras ‘778, Fig. 5, par. [0146]: the link modification accept message 540 may include an identifier of the target WTRU (T-WTRU-ID). For example, the T-WTRU-ID may be a new layer-2 ID, e.g., generated in advance by the target WTRU 52; in this case, the T-WTRU-ID of the target WTRU corresponds to third User Info of the third UE);
responsive to reception by the first UE of the Link Modification Accept message including the third User Info of the third UE from the relay UE after the connection between the first UE and the second UE via the relay UE has been established, initiating, by the first UE, an end-to-end unicast link establishment procedure toward the third UE via the relay UE (see Perras ‘778, Fig. 8, pars. [0196-0199]: the first relay WTRU 801 may send a link modification accept message 850 to the source WTRU 81 (e.g., based on the relay reselection indication). For example, the link modification accept message 850 may be sent to the source WTRU 81, using the IP address/prefix of the source WTRU 81 (e.g., included in the message 840), e.g. on the first link 803. According to embodiments, the source WTRU 81 may extract (e.g., retrieve) the selected RID (e.g., RID2) from the received link modification accept message 850. The source WTRU 81 may send, e.g., on the first link 803 to the first relay WTRU 801, a link modification acknowledge (ack) message 860, for example, including the source WTRU’s IP address/prefix associated with RID2 (e.g., for communication between the source WTRU 81 and the target WTRU 82 via the selected relay WTRU 802). The link modification ack message 860 may be sent by the source WTRU 81 for acknowledging the change of relay towards the target WTRU 82. According to embodiments, the first relay WTRU 801 may send a link modification ack message 870 to the target WTRU 82. According to embodiments, any of the source and the target WTRUs may switch the IP traffic (e.g., from respectively the first link 803 and the second link 804) to respectively the third link 805 and the fourth link 831 via the second relay WTRU 802, and see Fig. 5, par. [0146]: the link modification accept message 540 may include an identifier of the target WTRU (T-WTRU-ID). For example, the T-WTRU-ID may be a new layer-2 ID, e.g., generated in advance by the target WTRU 52, and see par. [0160]: in step 5120, any of the source 51 and target 52 WTRUs may switch the data traffic to the (e.g., new PC5 unicast) link via the second relay WTRU 502. In other words, any of the source 51 and target 52 WTRUs may stop transmitting packets (respectively directed to the target 52 and the source 51 WTRUs) to the first relay WTRU 501 and may transmit them to the second relay WTRU 502; in this case, using information such as an identifier of a target WTRU (i.e. third User Info) from the link modification accept message (i.e. in response to receiving the link modification accept message), the source WTRU (i.e. first UE) sends an acknowledge message for establishing a new link (corresponding to initiating an end-to-end link establishment procedure) with the target WTRU (i.e. third UE). There may be multiple WTRUs in communication (i.e. connection between the first UE and second UE has been established), and the link modification may be with a different target WTRU (i.e. third UE)).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the link modification accept message of Perras ‘968 in view of Shi with the link modification accept message including third User Info and initiating link establishment of Perras ‘778 with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of minimizing signaling (see Perras ‘778, par. [0102]).
Regarding claims 2, 10, the combination of Perras ‘968 in view of Shi, and further in view of Perras ‘778, teaches the method or first UE. Perras ‘968 further teaches:
wherein a second PC5 unicast link is established between the relay UE and the second UE (see Perras ‘968, Fig. 3, items 310 and 312, par. [0105], lines 1-4: WTRU1 301 (e.g., WTRU 102b) and WTRU2 305 (e.g., WTRU 102c) have established a direct communication (e.g., PC5 unicast link) with the relay R-WTRU 303 (e.g., WTRU 102a) (at 310, 312, respectively); in this case, as part of the connection between the source and target WRTUs, a PC5 unicast link is established between the relay and target (i.e. second) WRTUs (i.e. UEs)).
Regarding claims 3, 11, 18, the combination of Perras ‘968 in view of Shi, and further in view of Perras ‘778, teaches the method or first UE or non-transitory computer-readable medium. Perras ‘968 further teaches:
wherein the Link Modification Request message includes at least one of a current User Info of the first UE or a Relay Service Code (RSC) (see Perras ‘968, par. [0086], lines 6-11: The request message (e.g., Link Modification Request) may specify the WTRU's user information associated with the new application and/or the new application ID and a “new IP address needed” indication. The S-WTRU also may indicate specific policies (e.g., security, privacy, QoS) applicable to the added application).
Regarding claims 4, 12, 19, the combination of Perras ‘968 in view of Shi, and further in view of Perras ‘778, teaches the method or first UE or non-transitory computer-readable medium. Perras ‘968 further teaches:
wherein the Link Modification Accept message includes at least one of the current User Info of the first UE or the RSC (see Perras ‘968, par. [0117], lines 2-10: the relay R-WTRU 303 (e.g., WTRU 102a) may send back a response message (e.g., Link Modification Accept message) 326 to WTRU1 301 (e.g., WTRU 102b), for example, including/containing the IP address associated with the newly registered WTRU1's user information and/or application ID. The user information and/or application ID may be included with the agreed QoS parameters for the modified (e.g., PC5) unicast link/direct communication).
Claims 7-8, 15-16, and 21-22 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Perras ‘968 in view of Shi, and further in view of Perras ‘778, as applied to claims 1-4, 9-12, and 17-19 above, and further in view of Karampatsis et al. (WO 2023/072417), hereinafter "Karampatsis".
Regarding claims 7, 15, 21, the combination of Perras ‘968 in view of Shi, and further in view of Perras ‘778, teaches the method or first UE or non-transitory computer-readable medium. Perras ‘968 further teaches:
wherein the Link Modification Request message is transmitted using a Layer-2 (see Perras ‘968, Fig. 3, par. [0087], lines 1-4: The S-WTRU may send a request message (e.g., Link Modification Request message) to any (e.g., every) relay with which a (e.g., PC5) unicast link/direct communication is established, and see Perras ‘968, par. [0072], lines 1-4: Any WTRU that wants to make use of the Proximity Services (ProSe) 5G WTRU-to-WTRU relay may (e.g., needs to) establish a unicast L2 link (e.g., PC5 unicast link) with the WTRU-to-WTRU relay)
However, the combination of Perras ‘968 in view of Shi, and further in view of Perras ‘778, does not teach:
transmitted using a Layer-2 Identity/Identifier (ID) of the first UE and a Layer-2 ID of the relay UE.
Karampatsis, in the same field of endeavor, teaches:
transmitted using a Layer-2 Identity/Identifier (ID) of the first UE and a Layer-2 ID of the relay UE (see Karampatsis, Fig. 4, par. [0091], lines 10-12: During unicast link establishment procedure, the UE-1 205 sends its source L2 ID for the PC5 unicast link to the peer UE(s), i.e., the UE(s) for which a destination ID has been received from the upper layers, and see Karampatsis, par. [0090], lines 3-5: At Step 1, each of the UE-2 210, the UE-3 305 and the UE-4 310 determines (i.e., self-assigns) its destination L2 ID for PC5 signaling reception (see block 415). While not depicted in Figure 4, the UE-1 205 may also self-assign its source L2 ID for the PC5 unicast link; in this case, transmission includes source and destination Layer-2 IDs).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have transmission of the link modification request message of the combination of Perras ‘968 in view of Shi, and further in view of Perras ‘778, with the transmission using Layer-2 IDs of Karampatsis with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of supporting service continuity (see Karampatsis, par. [0107], lines 8-13).
Regarding claims 8, 16, 22, the combination of Perras ‘968 in view of Shi, and further in view of Perras ‘778, teaches the method or first UE or non-transitory computer-readable medium. Perras ‘968 further teaches:
wherein the Link Modification Accept message is received using the Layer-2 (see Perras ‘968, Fig. 2, par. [0090], lines 1-2: The relay may send back to the S-WTRU a response message (e.g., Link Modification Accept message)3, and see Perras ‘968, par. [0072], lines 1-4: Any WTRU that wants to make use of the Proximity Services (ProSe) 5G WTRU-to-WTRU relay may (e.g., needs to) establish a unicast L2 link (e.g., PC5 unicast link) with the WTRU-to-WTRU relay; in this case, the relay sends an accept message back to the source WTRU (corresponding to the first UE), which inherently receives the message)
However, the combination of Perras ‘968 in view of Shi, and further in view of Perras ‘778, does not teach:
received using the Layer-2 ID of the first UE and the Layer-2 ID of the relay UE.
Karampatsis, in the same field of endeavor, teaches:
received using the Layer-2 ID of the first UE and the Layer-2 ID of the relay UE (see Karampatsis, par. [0096], page 17, line 34-page 18, line 2: the Accept message includes as the Source ID the L2 ID of UE-3 305 and includes the L2 ID of the UE-1 205 as the Target L2 ID. A pair of source L2 ID and destination L2 ID therefore uniquely identifies the unicast link, and see Karampatsis, Fig. 4, par. [0091], lines 10-12: During unicast link establishment procedure, the UE-1 205 sends its source L2 ID for the PC5 unicast link to the peer UE(s), i.e., the UE(s) for which a destination ID has been received from the upper layers, and see Karampatsis, par. [0090], lines 3-5: At Step 1, each of the UE-2 210, the UE-3 305 and the UE-4 310 determines (i.e., self-assigns) its destination L2 ID for PC5 signaling reception (see block 415). While not depicted in Figure 4, the UE-1 205 may also self-assign its source L2 ID for the PC5 unicast link; in this case, reception of the accept message includes source and destination Layer-2 IDs).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have reception of the link modification accept message of the combination of Perras ‘968 in view of Shi, and further in view of Perras ‘778, with the reception using Layer-2 IDs of Karampatsis with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of supporting service continuity (see Karampatsis, par. [0107], lines 8-13).
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 02/24/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicant argues that the combination of references does not teach “transmitting, by the first UE, a Link Modification Request message to the relay UE via the first PC5 unicast link for triggering the relay UE to initiate a PC5 unicast link establishment procedure toward a third UE, wherein the Link Modification Request message transmitted via the first PC5 unicast link that is part of the connection between the first UE and the second UE via the relay UE includes a third User Info of the third UE; and responsive to reception by the first UE of the Link Modification Accept message including the third User Info of the third UE from the relay UE after connection between the first UE and the second UE via the relay UE has been established, initiating, by the first UE, an end-to-end unicast link establishment procedure toward the third UE via the relay UE as provided for by independent claim 1”.
Examiner respectfully disagrees and points to Perras ‘968 in Fig. 3 and par. [0087] which teaches “The S-WTRU may send a request message (e.g., Link Modification Request message) to any (e.g., every) relay with which a (e.g., PC5) unicast link/direct communication is established”.
Examiner also points to Perras ‘778 in Figs. 5 and 8, par. [0146] which teaches “the link modification accept message 540 may include an identifier of the target WTRU (T-WTRU-ID). For example, the T-WTRU-ID may be a new layer-2 ID, e.g., generated in advance by the target WTRU 52”, par. [0160] which teaches “in step 5120, any of the source 51 and target 52 WTRUs may switch the data traffic to the (e.g., new PC5 unicast) link via the second relay WTRU 502. In other words, any of the source 51 and target 52 WTRUs may stop transmitting packets (respectively directed to the target 52 and the source 51 WTRUs) to the first relay WTRU 501 and may transmit them to the second relay WTRU 502”, pars. [0190-0191] which teach “IP addresses/prefixes of any number of target WTRUs may be included in the link modification request message 810, for example, in a case where the source WTRU 81 is communicating with any number of target WTRUs via the first relay WTRU 801. According to embodiments, in step 820, the first relay WTRU 801 may determine (e.g., detect) whether the link modification request message 810 may be destined to the target WTRU 82 based on the relay reselection indication and on the IP address/prefix of the target WTRU 82 (e.g., that may be included in the link modification request message 810)”, and pars. [0196-0199] which teach “the first relay WTRU 801 may send a link modification accept message 850 to the source WTRU 81 (e.g., based on the relay reselection indication). For example, the link modification accept message 850 may be sent to the source WTRU 81, using the IP address/prefix of the source WTRU 81 (e.g., included in the message 840), e.g. on the first link 803. According to embodiments, the source WTRU 81 may extract (e.g., retrieve) the selected RID (e.g., RID2) from the received link modification accept message 850. The source WTRU 81 may send, e.g., on the first link 803 to the first relay WTRU 801, a link modification acknowledge (ack) message 860, for example, including the source WTRU’s IP address/prefix associated with RID2 (e.g., for communication between the source WTRU 81 and the target WTRU 82 via the selected relay WTRU 802). The link modification ack message 860 may be sent by the source WTRU 81 for acknowledging the change of relay towards the target WTRU 82. According to embodiments, the first relay WTRU 801 may send a link modification ack message 870 to the target WTRU 82. According to embodiments, any of the source and the target WTRUs may switch the IP traffic (e.g., from respectively the first link 803 and the second link 804) to respectively the third link 805 and the fourth link 831 via the second relay WTRU 802”.
The sections of Perras ‘968 teach a link may be established between a source WTRU (corresponding to the first UE) and a relay WTRU (corresponding to the relay UE), and a link modification request message may be sent on the established link, corresponding to the Link Modification Request message being transmitted via the first PC5 unicast link that is part of the connection between the first UE and the second UE via the relay UE.
The sections of Perras ‘978 teach a source WRTU being in connection with a plurality of target WTRUs. The link modification request message starts a link establishment procedure via the first relay WTRU (i.e. relay UE) performing steps for a modification of a T-WTRU (i.e. third UE) to modify its link. Further, using information such as an identifier of a target WTRU (i.e. third User Info) from the link modification accept message (i.e. in response to receiving the link modification accept message), the source WTRU (i.e. first UE) sends an acknowledge message for establishing a new link (corresponding to initiating an end-to-end link establishment procedure) with the target WTRU (i.e. third UE). There may be multiple WTRUs in communication (i.e. connection between the first UE and second UE has been established), and the link modification may be with a different target WTRU (i.e. third UE). In other words, the sections of Perras ‘978 teach the link modification messaging over PC5 links established between the source WTRU and the target WTRUs to then initiate a new PC5 unicast link establishment procedure with at least one target WTRU (i.e. a third UE), teaching the claim limitations under their broadest reasonable interpretation.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
Back et al. (US 2024/0340731) teaches a handover-related operation method of a remote UE in a wireless communication system.
Cheng et al. (US 2024/0205768) teaches a network entity can trigger a remote user equipment (UE) to switch between an indirect communication link with a network to another indirect communication link or direct communication link with the 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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CALEB J BALLOWE whose telephone number is (571)270-0410. The examiner can normally be reached MON-FRI 7:30-5.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Nishant B. Divecha can be reached at (571) 270-3125. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/C.J.B./Examiner, Art Unit 2419
/Nishant Divecha/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2419