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 Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see page 5, filed 08/05/2026, with respect to new matter rejection have been fully considered and are persuasive. The 35 USC 112 rejection of the claims has been withdrawn. Examiner agrees that side link retransmission timer is equivalent to DRX-Retransmission timerSL. (See Remarks, page 6, first to third full paragraphs).
Applicant’s arguments, see pages 8 and 9, filed 08/05/2026, with respect to He reference have been fully considered and are persuasive. The 35 USC 103 rejection of the claims has been withdrawn. Claim as amended draws a closer connection between DRX-Retransmission timerSL and the first terminal enter into an active state at a first slot after the first time expires, based on sidelink control information indicating HARQ is disabled (or HARQ is enabled and the first terminal sends a NACK ). And the first timer is a sidelink HARQ RTT timer, that has a separate set of conditions.
However, upon further consideration, a new ground of rejection is made in view of Park, US 2023/0164768.
Response to Amendment
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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.
Claim 1, 8-9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Park, US 2023/0164768, claim priority to PCT/KR2021/006057, which claims priority to Korean Application 10-2020-0057975 filed on May 14, 2020.
Park teaches A sidelink discontinuous reception (DRX) apparatus, configured in a first terminal equipment (Park, Fig. 10, First Device), the apparatus comprising:
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a receiver configured to receive first sidelink control information transmitted by a second terminal equipment (Park, Fig. 10, S1010 Receive SCI),
the first sidelink control information indicating a reserved resource used for retransmission after a slot where the first sidelink control information is located (park Table 5, pp106); and
processor circuitry configured to: at a slot where the reserved resource is located, enable the first terminal equipment to be in an active state or an on state in a sidelink;
for a sidelink process, start a first timer from a first slot after a slot where the first terminal equipment receives the first sidelink control information (Park, Fig. 10, S1040, PP110), wherein the first timer is a sidelink HARQ RTT timer (Park, Fig. 10, S1040, PP103 describes various timers); and
for the sidelink process, start a second timer when the first sidelink control information indicates that a HARQ is disabled (Park, Fig. 10, S1050, PP116), or the first sidelink control information indicates that a HARQ is enabled and the first terminal equipment feeds back non-acknowledgement (Park, Fig. 10, S1050, PP112, UE fails to decode PSSCH and transmits HARQ NACK, which implies HARQ is enabled),
wherein the second timer is a sidelink retransmission timer (Park, Fig. 10, S1050, PP116), and make the first terminal equipment enter into the active state or the on state at a first slot after the first timer expires (Park, Fig. 10, S1060, performed after S1050 second timer started, where first terminal receives on the sidelink means it is in the active state to receive).
For claim 8, Park teaches all the limitations of parent claim 1. Park further teaches the first terminal equipment, for the sidelink process, does not start a second timer at a first symbol of a first slot after the first timer expires, in a case where the first sidelink control information indicates that a hybrid automatic retransmissionr equest is enabled, and the first terminal equipment feeds back acknowledgement (Park, Table 7 teaches “23: If the RX UE does not transmit PSFCH for a HARQ enabled transmission (e.g. due to UL/SL prioritization) the RX UE still starts the HARQ RTT timer in the symbol/slot following the end of PSFCH resource.” since RX UE starts a HART RTT timer instead, it does not start a second timer, e.g. drx-restransmission-timerSL).
For claim 9, Park teaches all the features of parent claim 1. Park further teaches a slot where a resource, used for initial transmission, selected by the second terminal equipment is located is in an operational period of a third timer, and the third timer operates periodically and is used by the first terminal equipment for discontinuous reception (the claimed 3rd timer is taught in Park, Table 5, SL drx-harq-rtt-timer-rx).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claims 2 and 5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Park, US 2023/0164768 in view of Zhao WO 2021/115603.
For claim 2, Park teaches all the limitations of parent claim 1. Park does not teach wherein the first terminal equipment is activated or started in the sidelink starting from a first symbol of the slot where the reserved resource is located, and the active state or the on-state lasts for a slot or a plurality of continuous slots in a sidelink resource pool.
Zhao in the analogous art further teaches wherein the first terminal equipment is activated or started in the sidelink starting from a first symbol of the slot where the reserved resource is located, and the active state or the on-state lasts for a slot or a plurality of continuous slots in a sidelink resource pool (examiner interprets this limitation to mean a terminal wakes up for at least 1 time slot and potentially more than one timeslot; See Fig. 1H, 2B to 2F and corresponding written description).
It would have obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the effective filing of the current invention, to incorporate the teaches of Zhao into that of Park for an improved DRX HARQ process on the sidelink.
For claim 5, Park teaches all the limitations of parent claim 4. Zhao further teaches a value of the first timer is the number of slots, the number of slots being a total number of slots in a resource pool contained in a period from the first slot in sidelink resource pool after the slot where the first terminal equipment receives the first sidelink control information to a slot in sidelink resource pool prior to a slot where a reserved resource, used for next time of transmission, indicated in the first sidelink control information is located (Zhao, page 6, lines 23-28; e.g., 31 slots and 32 slots, this is identical to the disclosure in the current application, see claim 12).
Claim 3 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Park, US 2023/0164768 in view of Yang XD, CN 111800894, Published 10/20/2020.
For claim 3, Park teaches all the limitations of parent claim 1. Park further teaches wherein the first terminal equipment is an intended receiving terminal of the first sidelink control information and/or a corresponding physical sidelink shared channel (Park, Fig. 10, Step 1010, PP100).
Park does not teach a destination identification indicated in the first sidelink control information is identical to an identification of the first terminal equipment, or a destination identification indicated in the first sidelink control information comprises an identification of the first terminal equipment, or the first sidelink control information indicates traffics interested by the first terminal equipment.
However, having a destination ID is well known in the art. In the analogous art of sidelink DRX communication, Yang XD teaches a destination identification indicated in the first sidelink control information is identical to an identification of the first terminal equipment, or a destination identification indicated in the first sidelink control information comprises an identification of the first terminal equipment, or the first sidelink control information indicates traffics interested by the first terminal equipment (page 5/11, Paragraph 75).
It would have obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the effective filing of the current invention, to incorporate the teaching of Yang XD into Park to achieve the intended result of DRX communication between two terminals.
Claim 10 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Park, US 2023/0164768 in view of Yang, CN 111567070, published on 08/21/2020.
For claim 10, Park teaches all the features of parent claim 1. Yang further teaches a reselected resource obtained by the second terminal equipment reselecting for a first reserved resource is located after the first reserved resource (Yang, Fig. 5, Step 503 to 506, page 9/14 and on page 10/14, paragraph 148 disclose a time offset, which is the reselection), when the first reserved resource is pre-empted (this limitation is interpreted as resources are not available. Yang, Fig. 5, Step 503 to 505, page 9/14, paragraph 139).
It would have obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the effective filing of the current invention, to incorporate the teaching of Yang XD into Park to improve DRX communication between two terminals.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 7 is 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
For claim 7, Park teaches all the limitations of parent claim 6. Park further teaches wherein the receiver further receives second sidelink control information in the active state or the on state (Park, Table 9, SCI (SCI1+SCI2) reception implies receiving a second SCI); Park does not teach and the processor stops the second timer , in a case where the second sidelink control information is received and a destination identification and a source identification and a hybrid automatic retransmission request process identification indicated by the second sidelink control information are respectively identical to a destination identification and a source identification and a hybrid automatic retransmission request process identification indicated by the first sidelink control information.
Zhao, Fig. 2C shows stopping a timer, Zhao does not teach , in a case where the second sidelink control information is received and a destination identification and a source identification and a hybrid automatic retransmission request process identification indicated by the second sidelink control information are respectively identical to a destination identification and a source identification and a hybrid automatic retransmission request process identification indicated by the first sidelink control information.
Prior art references, Park, Zhao, Yang or combination thereof do not teach wherein the receiver further receives second sidelink control information in the active state or the on state and the processor stops the second timer , in a case where the second sidelink control information is received and a destination identification and a source identification and a hybrid automatic retransmission request process identification indicated by the second sidelink control information are respectively identical to a destination identification and a source identification and a hybrid automatic retransmission request process identification indicated by the first sidelink control information.
Conclusion
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 Charles C Jiang whose telephone number is (571)270-7191. The examiner can normally be reached Monday to Thursday 7 am to 5 pm Eastern Time.
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/CHARLES C JIANG/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2412
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