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
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 01/09/2026 has been entered.
Claim Objections
Claim 1 and Claim 74 is/are objected to because of the following informalities: line 7 states “from a second UE, wherein the assistance resource selection information comprises a set of candidate resources”, the antecedent basis for the second UE has already been declared, so the word “the” is more appropriate. Claim 74 is objected to for similar reasons. Appropriate correction is required.
Response to Amendment
Applicant’s amendment filed on 01/09/2026 has been entered. Independent claims 1, 67, and 74 have been amended. No dependent claims have been amended. No claims have been cancelled. No claims are new and have been entered. Claims 1, 4, 5, 10-12, 44, 45, and 67-78 are still pending in this application.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1, 64, and 67, under 35 USC § 103, 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 specified 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, 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.
Claim(s) 1, 4, 10-14, 44, 45, 67, 68, 70-75, 77, 78 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xue (Pub. No.: US 20230131862 A1, hereafter “Xue”) in view of Sun (Pub. No.: US 20230171792 A1, hereafter “Sun”).
Regarding Claim 1, Claim 67, and Claim 74
Xue teaches a method, device, and UE comprising
receiving (Xue Fig. 5: 520), at the first UE (Xue Fig. 5: 206, S/A UE), assistance resource selection information (Xue Fig 5: 528, Exceptional-transmit resource pool configuration, see ¶0107-¶0108; Xue Fig. 5: 520-528, Sidelink RMSI contains RRM configuration which contains the Exceptional-transmit resource pool configuration) from a second UE (Xue Fig. 5: 204, PLC UE), wherein the assistance resource selection information comprises a set of candidate resources (Xue ¶0108: resource pool is based on a carrier sensing medium access/collision avoidance, e.g. CSMA/CA) that can be used by the first UE (Xue ¶0108: random selection rule may specify that an S/A UE 206 may randomly select within the transmit resource pool; Xue teaches a UE receiving a transmission for a resource pool configuration from another UE to be used for CSMA for the UE to use); and selecting (Xue ¶0108: random selection), at the first UE, intersection transmission resources (Xue Fig 5: 528 , see ¶0107-¶0108) from transmission resources provided by the assistance resource selection information (Xue Fig 5: 528, Exceptional-transmit resource pool configuration) and transmission resources provided by the first UE’s own sensing results (Xue ¶0108: the S/A UE 206 may transmit using the resource, examiner’s note the UE is selecting a resource from a resource pool, based on all potential resources including exceptional resource pool; Xue teaches the UE selecting at least one element of the resource pool to be used for transmitting).
Lim does not explicitly teach
An information transmission method comprising: transmitting, from a first user equipment (UE), information relating to an assistance resource selection configuration to a second UE;
However, Sun teaches
An information transmission method (Sun ¶0094: communication) comprising: transmitting (Sun ¶0094: transmitting), from a first user equipment (UE) (Sun ¶0094: UE 201-A), information relating to an assistance resource selection configuration (Sun Fig. 6: 602) to a second UE (Sun ¶0094: UE 201-B; Sun teaches a sidelink communication system where one UE transmits resources from one UE to another showing sidelink resources);
It would have been obvious for one skilled in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Xue by way of Sun, to include an element that teaches a sidelink communication system where one UE transmits resources from one UE to another showing sidelink resources, as taught by Sun in Fig. 6 and ¶0094, to further improve the CSMA carrier collision avoidance in half-duplex D2D communication systems.
Claim 67 differs by the following limitation, which is also taught by the prior art,
A user equipment for information transmission, comprising: a memory operable to store computer-readable instructions (Xue Fig. 8: 804); and a processor circuitry operable to read the computer-readable instructions, the processor circuitry when executing the computer-readable instructions is configured to (Xue Fig. 8: 802; Xue teaches a processor and memory coupled together):
Claim 74 differs by the following limitation, which is also taught by the prior art,
A non-transitory machine-readable media, having instructions (Xu Fig. 8: 806) stored on the machine-readable media, the instructions configured to, when executed, cause a machine to (Xue Fig. 8: 804; Xu teaches memory with instructions that can cause the coupled machine to process instructions):
Regarding Claim 4, Claim 68, and Claim 75
Xue in view of Sun teach a method, device, and UE as explained above in Claim 1. Sun further shows
wherein the assistance resource selection configuration (Sun ¶0073: sidelink resources) comprises a number of sub-channels (Sun ¶0073: sub-channels) or a resource reservation interval (Not given patentable weight due to non-selective option in the claim) or a Service Priority (Not given patentable weight due to non-selective option in the claim; Sun shows that sidelink resources can contain sub-channels).
It would have been obvious for one skilled in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Xue by way of Sun, to include an element that teaches that sidelink resources can contain sub-channels, as taught by Sun in ¶0073, to further improve the CSMA carrier collision avoidance in half-duplex D2D communication systems.
Regarding Claim 10
Xue in view of Sun teach a method, device, and UE as explained above in Claim 1. Sun further shows
wherein the assistance resource selection configuration (Sun ¶0062: sidelink resources) comprises one of: (a) whether the assistance resource selection information can be directly used by the first UE (Not given patentable weight due to non-selective option in the claim) or whether the candidate resource needs to be further selected by the first UE (Not given patentable weight due to non-selective option in the claim), or (b) whether the assistance resource selection information can be used by the first UE via one of random selection or sensing or partial sensing (Not given patentable weight due to non-selective option in the claim), or (c) whether the assistance resource selection information can be used for a specific priority (Sun ¶0062: priority level), or logical channel (Not given patentable weight due to non-selective option in the claim), or Data Radio Bearer (DRB) (Not given patentable weight due to non-selective option in the claim), or destination (Not given patentable weight due to non-selective option in the claim), or resource pool (Not given patentable weight due to non-selective option in the claim), or Channel Busy Ratio (CBR) (Not given patentable weight due to non-selective option in the claim; Sun teaches the sidelink resources containing a certain priority level).
It would have been obvious for one skilled in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Xue by way of Sun, to include an element that teaches the sidelink resources containing a certain priority level, as taught by Sun in ¶0062, to further improve the CSMA carrier collision avoidance in half-duplex D2D communication systems.
Regarding Claim 11 and Claim 70
Xue in view of Sun teach a method, device, and UE as explained above in Claim 1. Sun further shows
where the assistance resource selection information (Sun ¶0059: sidelink resources) is measurement results (Sun ¶0059: SL-RSRP; Sun teaches sidelink resources can contain RSRP).
It would have been obvious for one skilled in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Xue by way of Sun, to include an element that teaches sidelink resources can contain RSRP, as taught by Sun in ¶0059, to further improve the CSMA carrier collision avoidance in half-duplex D2D communication systems.
Regarding Claim 12 and Claim 71
Xue in view of Sun teach a method, device, and UE as explained above in Claim 1. Sun further shows
wherein the assistance resource selection configuration (Sun ¶0065: sidelink resources) includes an event trigger (Sun ¶0065: when PSCCH is used; Sun teaches the sidelink resources being related to a PSCCH transmission triggering).
It would have been obvious for one skilled in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Xue by way of Sun, to include an element that teaches the sidelink resources being related to a PSCCH transmission triggering, as taught by Sun in ¶0065, to further improve the CSMA carrier collision avoidance in half-duplex D2D communication systems.
Regarding Claim 13
Xue in view of Sun teach a method, device, and UE as explained above in Claim 12.
wherein the event trigger comprises at least one: (1) a resource reservation period received in a SCI changed in a single slot occupied by another resource reservation period that was previously received, or (2) a priority received in the SCI changed in a single slot occupied by another resource reservation period that was previously received, or (3) the number of single-slot resources in a set of candidate resources changed, or (4) the slot number of single-slot resources in a set of candidate resources changed, or (5) a RSRP measurement result of one single-slot resource in a resource selection window changed, (6) the RSRP measurement result of one single-slot resource in the resource selection window is higher than configured threshold, or (7) a resource reservation period received in the SCI of a single-slot is higher than a configured threshold, or (8) a priority received in the SCI of a single-slot is higher than a configured threshold, or (9) the number of single-slot resources in a set of candidate resources is higher than a configured threshold, or (10) the number of new available single- slot resources in a set of candidate resources is higher than a configured threshold, or (11) the number of available single-slot resource that becomes unavailable in a set of candidate resources is higher than a configured threshold, or (12) the RSRP measurement result of one single-slot resource in the resource selection window is lower than configured threshold, or (13) the resource reservation period received in the SCI of same single-slot is lower than a configured threshold, or (14) a priority received in SCI of same single-slot is lower than a configured threshold, or (15) the number of single-slot resource in a set of candidate resources is higher than a configured threshold, or (16) the number of new available single- slot resource in a set of candidate resources is lower than a configured threshold, or (17) the number of available single-slot resource that becomes unavailable in a set of candidate resources is lower than a configured threshold (As per 04/20/2023 set of claims, Claim 13 has been canceled).
Regarding Claim 14
Xue in view of Sun teach a method, device, and UE as explained above in Claim 12.
wherein the event trigger further comprises at least one of: (a) a threshold, or (b) an indication regarding whether or not the UE shall initiate the measurement reporting procedure when a leaving condition is met, or (c) a hysteresis value, or (d) a timeToTrigger, wherein the timeToTrigger indicates the time during which specific criteria for the event needs to be met in order to trigger a measurement report, or (e) a reportInterval, wherein the reportInterval indicates the interval between periodical reports, or (f) a reportAmount, wherein the reportAmount indicates the number of measurement reports, or (g) a reportQuantity, wherein the reportQuantity indicates which factors in measurement results should be reported (As per 04/20/2023 set of claims, Claim 14 has been canceled).
Regarding Claim 45, Claim 73, and Claim 78
Xue in view of Sun teach a method, device, and UE as explained above in Claim 1. Sun further shows
performing, at the first UE, prioritization on a logical channel (Sun ¶0062: priority level; Sun teaches the sidelink resources containing a certain priority level).
It would have been obvious for one skilled in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Xue by way of Sun, to include an element that teaches the sidelink resources containing a certain priority level, as taught by Sun in ¶0062, to further improve the CSMA carrier collision avoidance in half-duplex D2D communication systems.
Claim(s) 5, 69, 76 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xue (Pub. No.: US 20230131862 A1, hereafter “Xue”) in view of Sun (Pub. No.: US 20230171792 A1, hereafter “Sun”), and further in view of Khoryaev (Pub. No.: US 20200275458 A1, hereafter “Khoryaev”).
Regarding Claim 5, Claim 69, and Claim 76
Xue in view of Sun teach a method, device, and UE as explained above in Claim 1. Xue in view of Sun does not explicitly teach
wherein the assistance resource selection configuration comprises a candidate resource selection window defined by a timer interval, the timer interval is determined based on a value T1 and a value T2, wherein T1 and T2 are selected from a range of [minT1, maxT1] and [minT2, maxT2].
However, Khoryaev teaches
wherein the assistance resource selection configuration (Khoryaev ¶0204: values configured by higher layers) comprises a candidate resource selection window (Khoryaev ¶0201: resource selection) defined by a timer interval (Khoryaev ¶0201: time interval), the timer interval is determined based on a value T1 (Khoryaev ¶0201: T1) and a value T2 (Khoryaev ¶0201: T2), wherein T1 and T2 are selected from a range of [minT1, maxT1] (Khoryaev ¶0201: T1 values under T1≤4, e.g. [0, 4] ms) and [minT2, maxT2] (Khoryaev ¶0203: values selected for transmission, with Min and Max values of T2; Khoryaev teaches a resource selection for two different time ranges for different values).
It would have been obvious for one skilled in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Xue by way of Sun, and further in view of Khoryaev to include an element that teaches a resource selection for two different time ranges for different values, as taught by Khoryaev in ¶0201-¶0204, to better enable sidelink communication autonomously with limited or no assistance from a base station, to enable low latency and other scenarios.
Claim(s) 44, 72, and 77 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xue (Pub. No.: US 20230131862 A1, hereafter “Xue”) in view of Sun (Pub. No.: US 20230171792 A1, hereafter “Sun”), further in view of Lim (Pub. No.: US 20150215842 A1, hereafter “Lim”).
Regarding Claim 44, Claim 72, and Claim 77
Xue in view of Sun teach a method, device, and UE as explained above in Claim 1. Xue in view of Sun does not explicitly teach
further comprising creating, at the first UE, a grant of resources based at least in part on the assistance resource selection information.
However, Lim teaches
further comprising creating, at the first UE, a grant of resources (Lim Fig. 9: 920) based at least in part on the assistance resource selection information (Lim Fig. 9: 910; Lim teaches a resource grant based off of the preamble resources).
It would have been obvious for one skilled in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Xue in view of Sun by way of Lim, to include an element that teaches a resource grant based off of the preamble resources, as taught by Lim in Fig. 9, to improve the communication system by allowing the receiving UE to generate the grant of resources of the possible resource grant based off of the given information, to improve timing and reduce the associated downtime with the UE requiring more information and burden placed on another UE that’s within D2D communication.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JUSTIN MICHAEL WHITAKER whose telephone number is (703)756-4763. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Thursday 7:30am - 4:00pm.
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/JUSTIN MICHAEL WHITAKER/Examiner, Art Unit 2415
/Sudesh M. Patidar/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2415
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