DETAILED ACTION
Claims 1-20, where independent claim 1 is broader than independent claim 13.
Notice of 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 .
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.
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 3 Mar 2026 has been entered.
Priority
Applicant’s claim for the benefit of a prior-filed application under 35 U.S.C. 119(e) or under 35 U.S.C. 120, 121, 365(c), or 386(c) is acknowledged. In particular, this Application claims a domestic benefit to three US provisional applications filed on 11 Mar 2022.
Information Disclosure Statements
The information disclosure statements, submitted on 10 Mar 2023, 31 Jul 2025 and 21 Aug 2025, are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner.
Response to Arguments
The Reply asserts “Hu does not appear to provide for a window that impacts whether retransmission of HARQ information is performed depending on whether [a] feedback resource falls within the window or outside the window.” Reply, 16 (emphasis omitted). The Examiner contends this is not a requirement of the claimed invention. The amendments place this subject matter as an option within the claimed invention by using an “or.” Specifically in the claimed invention, sidelink feedback transmission is not performed when either “the first parameter indicates a second value or the second feedback resource is not within the window.” Hu explicitly teaches a parameter (sl-PSFCH-Period-r16), which when it has a value of zero, indicates that PSFCH resources are disabled. Hu, ¶56. As a result, Hu explicitly teaches not performing sidelink feedback transmission when “the first parameter indicates a second value.” While not required by the claimed invention, in the interest of compact prosecution, the Examiner notes that Selvanesan teaches transmitting feedback only in active time slots within a duration of time. Selvanesan, ¶¶191-192.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102/103
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.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 1-3, 5, 9, 12-17, 20, and 21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) and 103 as being anticipated by Hu (US 20230148141), and in the alternative, unpatentable by Hu (US 20230148141) in view of Liu (US 2022/0353945).
Regarding claims 1, 13, and 21, Hu teaches method of a first User Equipment (UE) performing sidelink communication in a sidelink resource pool and a non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising processor-executable instructions that when executed cause performance of the method, the method comprising:
receiving a sidelink transmission from a second UE in a first timing, wherein the sidelink transmission is associated with enabled sidelink Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) feedback (Hu, ¶88 and figure 4, step 402 – Rx UE receives packet from Tx UE, where the packet requires HARQ feedback);
attempting to access a channel for transmission of a sidelink HARQ feedback in a first feedback resource (Hu, ¶89 and figure 4, step 403 – Rx UE performs Cat 4 LBT in the gap symbol before the first PSFCH resources),
wherein: the sidelink HARQ feedback is in response to the sidelink transmission (Hu, ¶89 – Rx UE determines which PSFCH resource to used based on the packet assignment);
attempting to access the channel for the transmission of the sidelink HARQ feedback in the first feedback resource fails (Hu, ¶¶90-91 and figure 4, steps 404, 406 - Rx UE’s LBT does not succeed);
the first feedback resource is in a second timing (Hu, ¶¶91 –PSFCH [feedback] resource is time resource [e.g. symbol based on last sentence in ¶73]);
determining whether to perform retransmission of the sidelink HARQ feedback in response to the sidelink transmission based on:
(i) a first parameter configured in the sidelink resource pool (Hu, ¶56 – UE is provided with sl-PSFCH-Period-r16, which is the number of slots in the resource pool for PSFCH transmission resources); and
(ii) whether a second feedback resource is [before or] within a window [or specific timing] which starts from the first feedback resource and has a configured window length in a number of slots [“the second timing and a quantity of timings” in claim 13] (Hu, ¶¶54, 59 – a corresponding PSFCH resource is a predefined “a” slots from the packet transmission using PSSCH; Hu, ¶¶95, 115 - configuration information maps the PSSCH to a plurality of PSFCH resources [e.g. see figure 6 for mapping PSSCH 7 to PSFCH resources 7 in two different time periods, where “PSFCH occasion periodicity” is N [i.e. the timing or window in which the second LBT attempt will occur]);
if the first parameter indicates a first value and the second feedback resource is [before or] within the window [or specific timing]:
performing channel access for a second feedback resource (Hu, ¶91 and figure 4, step 406 – Rx UE performs LBT to access an additional PSFCH resource), and
the channel access for the second feedback resource is performed successfully (Hu, figure 4, steps 407); and
in response to successfully performing the channel access for the second feedback resource, performing, in the second feedback resource, a sidelink feedback transmission of the sidelink HARQ feedback to the second UE (Hu, figure 4, step 409 - when the Rx UE performs LBT successfully, it transmits HARQ feedback on the second PSFCH resource); and
if the first parameter indicates a second value or the second feedback resource is not within the window, not performing the sidelink feedback transmission of the sidelink HARQ feedback. Hu, ¶56 (if sl-PFSFCH-Period-r16 has a value of 0, PSFCH transmissions are disabled).
In the alternative, Hu does not explicitly teach determining to perform retransmission of HARQ feedback based on ii) “whether a second feedback resource is [before or] within a window [or specific timing] which starts from the first feedback resource [second timing] and has a configured window length in a number of slots [a quantity of timings].” However, Liu teaches transmitting on a second PSFCH resource within a specific timing window that begins at the first PSFCH resource and continues for several time slots. Liu, figure 5 (during the time from T4 to T8, PSFCH resource 556 transmits an ACK, when a NACK is sent in PSFCH resource 546); Hu, ¶¶95-96 (at least N slots in between the first and second PSFCH resources 546 and 556). At the time of the effective filing date of the invention, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to extend a time period from T4 to T8, as taught by Liu, when retransmitting the HARQ feedback, taught by Hu, in order to ensure the transmitting UE does not switch to an inactive state before the second HARQ feedback information is set. Liu, ¶94 (last sentence – after T8, UE 402c enters an inactive state).
Regarding claims 2 and 14, Hu also teaches wherein at least one of: the first UE performs the sidelink feedback transmission of the sidelink HARQ feedback in a third timing; the first timing is before the second timing; or the second timing is before the third timing. Hu, figure 4 (Rx UE receives a packet [at a first timing], then attempts to access a first PSFCH resource [at a second timing], and then if unsuccessful at accessing the first PSFCH, attempts to access a second PSFCH resource [at a third timing]).
Regarding claim 3, Hu also teaches wherein at least one of: the method comprises; a duration of the window corresponds to a predefined value (Hu, ¶¶54, 59 – a corresponding PSFCH resource is predefined “a” slots from the packet transmission using PSSCH [i.e. the window duration is “a” slots); the window is associated with retransmission, of the sidelink HARQ feedback, without reception of a signal from the second UE; the window is associated with retransmission, of the sidelink HARQ feedback, without triggering resource selection; the window is different than channel occupancy time; or the first UE performs the sidelink feedback transmission of the sidelink HARQ feedback during the window.
Regarding claim 5 and 16, Hu also teaches wherein at least one of: the sidelink feedback transmission of the sidelink HARQ feedback is performed using a Physical Sidelink Feedback Channel (PSFCH) format associated with delivery of multiple sidelink HARQ feedbacks; or the sidelink feedback transmission of the sidelink HARQ feedback is a PSFCH transmission. Hu, ¶91 and figure 6 (PSFCH physical resource blocks are to transmit sidelink HARQ feedback after a successful LBT).
Regarding claim 7, Hu also teaches wherein at least one of: a second parameter associated with PC5 Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling between the first UE and the second UE indicates whether or not retransmission of the sidelink HARQ feedback is supported; or the method comprises determining, based upon at least one of the first parameter or the second parameter, whether or not to at least one of: retransmit the sidelink HARQ feedback; or perform the sidelink feedback transmission of the sidelink HARQ feedback in the second feedback resource. Hu, ¶59 (SCI includes an HARQ feedback enable/disable indicator field); Hu, ¶87 (configuration information includes PSFCH configurations for each of the PSFCHs that may be used to convey feedback – see figure 4 for first and second PSFCH resources for sidelink HARQ feedback); in the alternative, Liu, ¶97 (RRC configuration defines timer values, where another sidelink UE 115, 302, or 402 provides the configuration).
Regarding claim 9, Hu also teaches the sidelink feedback transmission of the sidelink HARQ feedback in the second feedback resource corresponds to a retransmission of the sidelink HARQ feedback. Hu, figure 4, step 409 (HARQ feedback that was unable to be sent on the first PSFCH resource in step 405, is sent on the second PSFCH resource after an LBT success).
Regarding claim 10, Hu also teaches wherein at least one of: a second parameter in the sidelink resource pool indicates whether or not the sidelink feedback transmission of the sidelink HARQ feedback in the second feedback resource is supported; or a third parameter associated with PC5 Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling between the first UE and the second UE indicates whether or not the sidelink feedback transmission of the sidelink HARQ feedback in the second feedback resource is supported. Hu, ¶59 (SCI includes an HARQ feedback enable/disable indicator field); Hu, ¶¶59-60 and figure 6 (PSFCH resource pools contain PRBs for HARQ feedback [see far right column of figure 6 for second PSRCH resource]); in the alternative, Liu, ¶97 (RRC configuration defines timer values, where another sidelink UE 115, 302, or 402 provides the configuration).
Regarding claims 12 and 20, Hu also teaches wherein at least one of: the first UE performs the sidelink feedback transmission of the sidelink HARQ feedback in the second feedback resource in response to failing to access the channel for the transmission of the sidelink HARQ feedback in the first feedback resource; or the first UE performs the channel access for the second feedback resource in response to failing to access the channel for the transmission of the sidelink HARQ feedback in the first feedback resource. Hu, figure 4, steps 404-406 (if LBT is unsuccessful when accessing the first PSFCH resource, then LBT is attempted for the accessing the second PSFCH resource).
Regarding claim 15, Hu also teaches wherein at least one of: the second feedback resource is within a predefined duration from the second timing to the specific timing; the predefined duration is associated with retransmission, of the sidelink HARQ feedback, without triggering resource selection; or the method comprises determining whether or not to trigger resource selection for the sidelink feedback transmission of the sidelink HARQ feedback based upon whether or not the sidelink feedback transmission is within the predefined duration of the first timing or the second timing, wherein the first UE performs the sidelink feedback transmission of the sidelink HARQ feedback without triggering resource selection based upon a determination that the sidelink feedback transmission is within the predefined duration of the first timing or the second timing. Hu, ¶¶54, 59 (a corresponding PSFCH resource is predefined “a” slots from PSSCH); Hu, ¶¶10, 115 (configuration information maps the PSSCH to a plurality of PSFCH resources [e.g. see figure 6 for mapping PSSCH 7 to PSFCH resources 7 in two different time periods], which prevents the need to select additional PSFCH resources after the initial LBT failure).
Regarding claim 17, Hu also teaches wherein at least one of: a second parameter associated with PC5 Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling between the first UE and the second UE indicates whether or not retransmission of the sidelink HARQ feedback is supported; a third parameter in the sidelink resource pool indicates whether or not the sidelink feedback transmission of the sidelink HARQ feedback in the second feedback resource is supported; a fourth parameter associated with the PC5 RRC signaling between the first UE and the second UE indicates whether or not the sidelink feedback transmission of the sidelink HARQ feedback in the second feedback resource is supported; or the method comprises determining, based upon at least one of the first parameter, the second parameter, the third parameter or the fourth parameter, whether or not to at least one of: retransmit the sidelink HARQ feedback; or perform the sidelink feedback transmission of the sidelink HARQ feedback in the second feedback resource. Hu, ¶59 (SCI includes an HARQ feedback enable/disable indicator field); Hu, ¶87 (configuration information includes PSFCH configurations for each of the PSFCHs that may be used to convey feedback).
Claims 4 and 6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hu or Hu in view of Liu (both of record), and further in view of Lee ‘575 (US 20220232575).
Regarding claim 4, Hu or the combination of Hu and Liu teaches the method of claim 3 and a receiving UE transmitting HARQ feedback information on a second PFSCH resource at a third timing (Hu, figure 4 – step 409), but does not explicitly teach “determining whether or not to trigger resource selection for the sidelink feedback transmission of the sidelink HARQ feedback based upon whether or not the third timing is during the window, wherein the first UE performs the sidelink feedback transmission of the sidelink HARQ feedback without triggering resource selection based upon a determination that the third timing is during the window.” However, Lee ‘575 teaches a transmitting UE that selects retransmission resources that are within a selection window. Lee ‘575, ¶¶122-123, 149. In one example, all three retransmission resources are within 32 slots of the original transmission. Id. at ¶193. After the time window, the transmitting UE flushes its buffer related to the sidelink HARQ process. Id. at ¶150 (i.e. transmitting UE does not trigger a resource selection for the HARQ process outside of the window). At the time of the invention (pre-AIA ) or at the effective filing date of the invention (AIA ), it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to limit the number of LBT attempts for retransmission of HARQ information, as taught by Hu or the combination of Hu and Liu, to a time window based on the original transmission, as taught by Lee ‘575, in order to prevent the transmitting UE from needing massive storage requirements for each HARQ process.
Regarding claim 6, Hu or the combination of Hu and Liu teaches the method of claim 1 and an SCI (Hu, ¶112 – SCI is used when UE A [the Tx UE] sends data to UE B), but does not explicitly teach “the sidelink transmission is scheduled by a Sidelink Control Information (SCI); and the SCI provides a HARQ process number, of the second UE, for the sidelink transmission.” However, Lee ‘575 teaches a transmitting UE selecting (i.e. scheduling) a transmission resource using an SCI. Lee ‘575, ¶153. Lee ‘575 also teaches the SCI including a HARQ process number. Lee ‘575, ¶¶100, 107. At the time of the invention (pre-AIA ) or at the effective filing date of the invention (AIA ), it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to include a HARQ process ID, as taught by Lee ‘575, within the SCI, taught by Hu or the combination of Hu and Liu, in order to enable the receiving UE to distinguish between new and retransmitted transport blocks. Lee ‘575, ¶181.
Claims 8, 11, and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hu or Hu in view of Liu (both of record) and further in view of Lee ‘349 (US 20220337349).
Regarding claims 8, 11, and 18, Hu or the combination of Hu and Liu teaches the method of claims 7, 10, and 13, as well as a field in a PSSCH that indicates whether HARQ feedback is enabled or disabled (Hu, ¶59), but does not explicitly teach “determining a Channel Busy Ratio (CBR), wherein at least one of: the CBR is used to at least one of disable or enable the sidelink feedback transmission of the sidelink HARQ feedback in the second feedback resource; the method comprises determining, based upon a comparison of the CBR is with a threshold, whether or not to perform the sidelink feedback transmission of the sidelink HARQ feedback in the second feedback resource; or the first UE performs the sidelink feedback transmission of the sidelink HARQ feedback in the second feedback resource based upon a determination that the CBR is not larger than the threshold.” However, Lee ‘349 teaches a UE measuring CBR. Lee ‘349, ¶157 and table 8. If the CBR is excessively high (i.e. above a threshold), the UE may disable HARQ. Id. at ¶163. At the time of the invention (pre-AIA ) or at the effective filing date of the invention (AIA ), it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to consider CBR, as taught by Lee ‘349, when deciding whether to enable or disable HARQ, as taught by Hu or the combination of Hu and Liu, in order to prevent the receiving UE from wasting resources by transmitting HARQ feedback when the UE’s channel conditions are not good. Id. at ¶157.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to BENJAMIN S LAMONT whose telephone number is (571)270-7514 and email address is benjamin.lamont@uspto.gov (see MPEP 502.03 for authorizing unsecure communication). The examiner can normally be reached M-F 7am to 3pm EST.
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/Benjamin Lamont/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2461
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