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 12/02/25 has been entered.
Claims 1-20 are pending.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Objections/Rejections Withdrawn
Drawing objection to Figures 1a-1b and 2-9.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 12/02/25 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Regarding the independent claims, Applicant argues the references do not disclose “used by the at least one other transceiver” [Remarks pg. 11-13]. Examiner respectively disagrees. In response to applicant's arguments against the references individually, one cannot show nonobviousness by attacking references individually where the rejections are based on combinations of references. See In re Keller, 642 F.2d 413, 208 USPQ 871 (CCPA 1981); In re Merck & Co., 800 F.2d 1091, 231 USPQ 375 (Fed. Cir. 1986). Specifically, Siomina discloses most of the details regarding SL and DRX modes and Huizhou discloses SL maintenance used by the other transceiver. Consequently, since the references disclose the limitations as claimed, the claims remain rejected.
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.
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 1-18, 19, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Siomina (US 20170188411 A1) in view of Huizhou (WO 2018082541 A1, cited by Applicant of Record).
Regarding claims 1, 19, and 20, Siomina discloses a transceiver [fig. 10 no. 12-x] of a wireless communication system [fig. 10, par. 0001],
wherein the transceiver is configured to operate in a sidelink in-coverage, out of coverage or partial coverage scenario (D2D [fig. 10 no. 52-1]), in which resources for a sidelink communication over a sidelink are pre-configured by the wireless communication system or allocated or scheduled autonomously by the transceiver (Coordinating node (i.e., wireless comm system) selects resources for D2D transmissions (i.e., pre-configured) [par. 0081-82, 86, 110, 200-201, 204]),
wherein the transceiver is configured to receive, in the sidelink in-coverage, out of coverage or partial coverage scenario, sidelink signals from at least one other transceiver of the wireless communication system using a discontinuous reception, DRX, mode of operation [par. 0086],
wherein the transceiver is configured to adjust at least one parameter of a sidelink discontinuous reception, DRX, cycle describing periods during which sidelink signals are received in the discontinuous reception, DRX, mode of operation in dependence on at least one other discontinuous reception, DRX, cycle [fig. 7 no. 720, par. 0088, 169, 195-196, 230, where Examiner notes the adapting is performed by the UE as fig. 7 is implemented in the UE (as opposed to fig. 6 being implemented in a network node)],
wherein the transceiver is configured to transmit a sidelink control signal to the at least one other transceiver, the sidelink control signal comprising an information describing the discontinuous reception, DRX, cycle used by the transceiver (To another D2D UE [fig. 7 no. 730, par. 0230]),
wherein the transceiver is a user equipment [fig. 10 no. 12-x, par. 0002, 04].
Although Siomina discloses the UE adapting DRX, as discussed above, Siomina does not explicitly disclose used by the at least one other transceiver. However, these concepts are well known as disclosed by Huizhou.
In the same field of endeavor, Huizhou discloses:
used by the at least one other transceiver (Sidelink maintenance [fig. 8, pg. 17 ln. 6-34]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Siomina with Huizhou. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to perform such a modification given the benefit of aligning the monitoring and paging opportunities [Huizhou fig. 8, pg. 17 ln. 6-34].
Regarding claim 19, Siomina discloses a method [fig. 7] for operating a transceiver [fig. 10 no. 12-x] of a wireless communication system [fig. 10].
Regarding claim 20, Siomina discloses a non-transitory digital storage medium [fig. 8 no. 34] having a computer program stored thereon [fig. 8 no. 36].
Regarding claim 2, Siomina and Huizhou disclose everything claimed, as applied above.
Siomina further discloses wherein the at least one parameter of the sidelink discontinuous reception, DRX, cycle is at least one out of:
- a period of on-periods of the discontinuous reception, DRX, mode of operation [par. 0169],
- a period of off-periods of the discontinuous reception, DRX, mode of operation,
- a timing of on-periods of the discontinuous reception, DRX, mode of operation [par. 0169],
- a timing of off-periods of the discontinuous reception, DRX, mode of operation [par. 0169],
- an active-time of the discontinuous reception, DRX, mode of operation [par. 0169].
Regarding claim 3, Siomina and Huizhou disclose everything claimed, as applied above.
Siomina and Huizhou further disclose:
wherein the transceiver is configured to align the discontinuous reception, DRX, cycle to the at least one other discontinuous reception, DRX, cycle [Siomina fig. 7 no. 720, par. 0088, 169, 195-196, 230] used by the at least one other transceiver [Huizhou, as discussed above].
Regarding claim 4, Siomina and Huizhou disclose everything claimed, as applied above.
Siomina further discloses:
wherein the transceiver is configured to transmit the sidelink control signal in response to a reception of a link establishment request received from the at least one other transceiver [par. 0088].
Regarding claim 5, Siomina and Huizhou disclose everything claimed, as applied above.
Siomina further discloses:
wherein the transceiver is configured to receive an assistance information from the at least one other transceiver during the link establishment procedure, wherein the assistance information describes a preferred discontinuous reception, DRX, cycle of the at least one other transceiver [par. 0077-78].
Regarding claim 9, Siomina and Huizhou disclose everything claimed, as applied above.
Siomina and Huizhou further disclose:
wherein the transceiver is configured to receive a control signal from at least one other transceiver [Huizhou, as discussed above] of the wireless communication system [Siomina fig. 7 no. 720, par. 0088, 169, 195-196, 230],
wherein the control signal comprises a further information describing an operating condition [Siomina par. 0078, 87-88, 169] of the other transceiver [Huizhou, as discussed above], or
wherein the transceiver is configured to receive a further control signal from the other transceiver, the further control signal comprising a further information describing an operating condition of the transceiver,
wherein the operating condition of the other transceiver is one out of
- a battery level of the other transceiver,
- a location of the other transceiver,
- a channel busy ratio, CBR, information,
- a channel state information, CSI.
Regarding claim 6, Siomina and Huizhou disclose everything claimed, as applied above.
Siomina further discloses:
wherein the sidelink control signal comprises a further information describing an operating condition of the transceiver [par. 0078, 87-88, 169], or
wherein the transceiver is configured to transmit a further sidelink control signal comprising a further information describing an operating condition of the transceiver, wherein the operating condition of the transceiver is one out of
- a battery level of the transceiver,
- a location of the transceiver,
- a channel busy ratio, CBR, information,
- a channel state information, CSI.
Regarding claim 7, Siomina and Huizhou disclose everything claimed, as applied above.
Siomina and Huizhou further disclose:
wherein the transceiver is configured to transmit a control signal to the at least one other transceiver [Huizhou, as discussed above], the sidelink control signal comprising an information describing the discontinuous reception, DRX, cycle used by the transceiver and the sidelink control signal configured to control the at least one other transceiver [Huizhou, as discussed above] to align the at least one other discontinuous reception, DRX, cycle to the discontinuous reception, DRX, used by the transceiver [Siomina fig. 7 no. 720, par. 0088, 169, 195-196, 230].
Regarding claim 8, Siomina and Huizhou disclose everything claimed, as applied above.
Siomina and Huizhou further disclose:
wherein the transceiver is configured to receive a control signal from the at least one other transceiver or from a base station of the wireless communication system, the control signal comprising an information describing the at least one other discontinuous reception, DRX, cycle (BS [Siomina fig. 7 no. 720, par. 0081-82, 86, 88, 110, 169, 195-196, 230]) used by the at least one other transceiver [Huizhou, as discussed above],
wherein the transceiver is configured to adjust at least one parameter of its discontinuous reception, DRX, cycle in dependence on the information comprised in the control signal [Siomina fig. 7 no. 720, par. 0169].
Regarding claim 10, Siomina and Huizhou disclose everything claimed, as applied above.
Siomina and Huizhou further disclose:
wherein the transceiver is configured to receive sidelink control signals from at least two other transceivers of the wireless communication system (BS from Siomina and UE from Huizhou, as discussed above), each sidelink control signal comprising an information describing a respective discontinuous reception, DRX, cycle [Siomina fig. 7 no. 720, par. 0081-82, 86, 88, 110, 169, 195-196, 230] used by a respective transceiver of the at least two other transceivers (BS from Siomina and UE from Huizhou, as discussed above),
wherein the transceiver is configured to adjust at least one parameter of its discontinuous reception, DRX, cycle in dependence on the respective information comprised in the respective sidelink control signal [Siomina fig. 7 no. 720, par. 0088, 169, 195-196, 230].
Regarding claim 11, Siomina and Huizhou disclose everything claimed, as applied above.
Siomina and Huizhou further disclose:
wherein the transceiver is configured to receive a sidelink control signal from exactly one other transceiver [Huizhou, as discussed above] of the wireless communication system, the sidelink control signal comprising an information describing a discontinuous reception, DRX, cycle used by the other transceiver [Siomina fig. 7 no. 720, par. 0088, 169, 195-196, 230],
wherein the transceiver is configured to adjust at least one parameter of its discontinuous reception, DRX, cycle in dependence on the information comprised in the sidelink control signal [Siomina fig. 7 no. 720, par. 0088, 169, 195-196, 230].
Regarding claim 12, Siomina and Huizhou disclose everything claimed, as applied above.
Siomina further discloses:
wherein the transceiver is configured to align the discontinuous reception, DRX, cycle in dependence on a received control signal [fig. 7 no. 720, par. 0088, 169, 195-196, 230].
Regarding claim 13, Siomina and Huizhou disclose everything claimed, as applied above.
Siomina further discloses:
wherein the transceiver is configured to align a wake-up time of the discontinuous reception, DRX, cycle with the received control signal [fig. 7 no. 720, par. 0088, 169, 195-196, 230].
Regarding claim 14, Siomina and Huizhou disclose everything claimed, as applied above.
Siomina further discloses:
wherein the transceiver is configured to receive a control signal from the at least one other transceiver or a base station of the wireless communication system, the control signal comprising a control information describing a discontinuous reception, DRX, cycle to be used by the transceiver (BS [fig. 7 no. 720, par. 0081-82, 86, 88, 110, 169, 195-196, 230]),
wherein the transceiver is configured to set at least one parameter of its discontinuous reception, DRX, cycle in dependence on the control information [fig. 7 no. 720, par. 0169].
Regarding claim 15, Siomina and Huizhou disclose everything claimed, as applied above.
Siomina further discloses:
wherein the transceiver is configured to adjust at least one parameter of its discontinuous reception, DRX, cycle in dependence on a received synchronization signal (Adapt activity/inactivity (i.e., at least one parameter) based on lost sync as per signals transmitted by network nodes or other D2D UEs (i.e., “sync signals”) [par. 0195, 172-193]).
Regarding claim 16, Siomina and Huizhou disclose everything claimed, as applied above.
Siomina further discloses:
wherein the transceiver is configured to configure at least one parameter of the discontinuous reception, DRX, cycle in dependence on a control information received from a base station of the wireless communication system [fig. 7 no. 720, par. 0081-82, 86, 88, 110, 169, 195-196, 230].
Regarding claim 17, Siomina and Huizhou disclose everything claimed, as applied above.
Siomina and Huizhou further disclose:
wherein the transceiver is configured to configure at least one parameter of the discontinuous reception, DRX, cycle in dependence on a sidelink control information received from another transceiver [Huizhou, as discussed above] of the wireless communication system [Siomina fig. 7 no. 720, par. 0088, 169, 195-196, 230].
Regarding claim 18, Siomina and Huizhou disclose everything claimed, as applied above.
Siomina further discloses:
wherein the transceiver is configured to transmit a reporting signal, the reporting signal comprising an information describing a preferred discontinuous reception, DRX, cycle of the transceiver [fig. 7 no. 730].
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. 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 Walter J DiVito whose telephone number is (571)272-2556. The examiner can normally be reached M-R: 8 am - 6 pm (PST).
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Gary Mui can be reached at 571-270-1420. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/WALTER J DIVITO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2465