DETAILED ACTION
Status of Case
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
This Office Action is in response to the RCE filed on 3/12/2026.
Claims 1-16 are pending.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) filed on 3/12/2026 has been considered by Examiner.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments filed on 3/12/2026 with respect to the pending claims have been considered but are moot because the arguments do not apply to any of the references being used in the current rejection.
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.
Claims 1, 7, and 13-16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sampath (USPAN 2009/0279563) in view of Lee (USPAN 2019/0357280) and Patil (USPAN 2016/0174225).
Consider claims 1, 13, 15, and 16, Sampath discloses data communication apparatus (see figure 2, reproduced below for convenience), and a corresponding method (see figure 6, wherein disclosed is said method), and a non-transitory digital storage medium comprising, recorded thereon, a computer program for performing a method, when the computer program runs on a computer (see paragraphs 101 and 106: computer program product) for transmitting unicast data to one or more other data communication apparatuses (see element 208 in figure 2 and step 602 in figure 6: encode unicast information for transmission) and for transmitting shared data to a plurality of other data communication apparatuses (see element 210 in figure 2 and step 604 in figure 6: encode broadcast data [shared data] for transmission), wherein the data communication apparatus is configured to transmit unicast data and shared data using a common transmission resource element time-frequency grid (see figure 3, wherein disclosed is said transmission resource element time-frequency grid; see paragraph 75: “the one or more resources are… selected from a resource set of a -shared time-frequency grid”),
wherein the data communication apparatus is implemented using a hardware apparatus, or using a computer or using a combination of a hardware apparatus and a computer (see figure 2, wherein disclosed is a hardware apparatus).
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Sampath does not specifically disclose to inform one or more other data communication apparatuses about an assignment of one or more dedicated identifiers associated with shared data during a connection establishment.
Lee discloses to inform one or more other data communication apparatuses about an assignment of one or more dedicated identifiers associated with data during a connection establishment (see paragraph 105: the remote UE triggers informing its network allocated remote UE identifiers to the connected relay UE when a remote UE establishes connection with a new relay UE).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Sampath and combine it with the noted teachings of Lee. The motivation to combine these references is to provide a method for performing management of different IDs in a relay UE in wireless communication (see paragraph 2 of Lee).
Sampath does not specifically disclose that the data communication apparatus is configured to dynamically signal whether transmission resources of a slot are associated with a transmission of shared data or with a transmission of unicast data or both a transmission of shared data and a transmission of unicast data in parallel.
Patil discloses that the data communication apparatus is configured to dynamically signal whether transmission resources of a slot are associated with a transmission of shared data or with a transmission of unicast data or both a transmission of shared data and a transmission of unicast data in parallel (see paragraph 519: the page control field may indicate whether data to be sent is multicast [shared] data, unicast data, or both)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Sampath and combine it with the noted teachings of Patil. The motivation to combine these references is to provide a method for indicating what type of data is being sent, as well as providing traffic advertisements in a neighbor aware network (see paragraph 2 of Patil).
Consider claims 7 and 14, Sampath discloses data communication apparatus (see figure 2, reproduced below for convenience), and a corresponding method (see figure 6, wherein disclosed is said method), for receiving unicast data to one or more other data communication apparatuses (see element 208 in figure 2 and step 602 in figure 6: encode unicast information for transmission) and for receiving shared data to a plurality of other data communication apparatuses (see element 210 in figure 2 and step 604 in figure 6: encode broadcast data [shared data] for transmission), wherein the data communication apparatus is configured to receive unicast data and shared data using a common transmission resource element time-frequency grid (see figure 3, wherein disclosed is said transmission resource element time-frequency grid; see paragraph 75: “the one or more resources are… selected from a resource set of a -shared time-frequency grid”).
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Sampath does not specifically disclose to receive and/or evaluate an information about an assignment of one or more dedicated identifiers associated with shared data during a connection establishment.
Lee discloses to receive and/or evaluate an information about an assignment of one or more dedicated identifiers associated with data during a connection establishment (see paragraph 105: the remote UE triggers informing its network allocated remote UE identifiers to the connected relay UE when a remote UE establishes connection with a new relay UE).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Sampath and combine it with the noted teachings of Lee. The motivation to combine these references is to provide a method for performing management of different IDs in a relay UE in wireless communication (see paragraph 2 of Lee).
Sampath does not specifically disclose that the data communication apparatus is configured to dynamically signal whether transmission resources of a slot are associated with a transmission of shared data or with a transmission of unicast data or both a transmission of shared data and a transmission of unicast data in parallel.
Patil discloses that the data communication apparatus is configured to dynamically signal whether transmission resources of a slot are associated with a transmission of shared data or with a transmission of unicast data or both a transmission of shared data and a transmission of unicast data in parallel (see paragraph 519: the page control field may indicate whether data to be sent is multicast [shared] data, unicast data, or both)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Sampath and combine it with the noted teachings of Patil. The motivation to combine these references is to provide a method for indicating what type of data is being sent, as well as providing traffic advertisements in a neighbor aware network (see paragraph 2 of Patil).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-6 and 8-12 are 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Jamal Javaid whose telephone number is 571-270-5137 and email address is Jamal.Javaid@uspto.gov.
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, Charles Jiang, can be reached on 571-270-7191. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JAMAL JAVAID/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2412
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