DETAILED ACTION
This action is a response to an amendment filed on 5/18/26 in which claims 1, 5-8, 10-15, 19 and 20 are pending.
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 .
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, 5-8, 10-12, 14, 15, 19 and 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Non-Patent Literature: CATT, Sidelink DRX Timer Maintenance and Active Time Definition, herein CATT and Ji et al. (WO 2020/061926 A1), herein Ji
As to claim 1, CATT teaches a method for controlling a timer, comprising:
starting or restarting, by a first terminal device, a first timer after transmitting a first physical transmission to a plurality of second terminal devices within a common active time of the plurality of second terminal devices, the first terminal device being in an active state during running of the first timer, wherein the first terminal device is capable of performing transmission and reception during the running of the first timer (CATT section 2.1 drx-onduration timer and once SCI is transmitted (physical transmission) the drx-inactivityTimer in TX UE side should be started and section 2.3 active time in a DRX group (common active time) and sidelink groupcast when the drx onduration timer is running)
CATT does not teach
In a multicast transmission mode
However Ji does teach
In a multicast transmission mode (Ji page 21 lines 26-28 starts a timer after the multicast transmission)
It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of CATT with Ji, because Ji teaches us and if no feedback is received from the receiving terminal within the timeout period of the timer, the sending device considers the receiving terminal The feedback is all NACK, thereby enhancing the reliability (Ji page 21 lines 26-28).
As to claim 8, CATT teaches a method for controlling a timer, comprising: starting or restarting, by each of a plurality of second terminal devices, a second timer after receiving a first physical transmission transmitted by a first terminal device within a common active time of the plurality of second terminal devices, the each second terminal device being in an active state during running of the second timer, wherein the each second terminal device is capable of performing transmission and reception during the running of the second timer (CATT section 2.1 drx-onduration timer and once SCI is transmitted (physical transmission) the drx-inactivityTimer in TX UE side should be started and section 2.3 active time in a DRX group (common active time) and sidelink groupcast when the drx onduration timer is running)
CATT does not teach
In a multicast transmission mode
However Ji does teach
In a multicast transmission mode (Ji page 21 lines 26-28 starts a timer after the multicast transmission)
It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of CATT with Ji for the same reasons stated in claim 1.
As to claim 15, CATT teaches a first terminal device, comprising:
a transceiver (Section 2.1 a TX/RX UE);
a processor (Section 2.1 a TX/RX UE); and
a memory storing a computer program executable by the processor, wherein the transceiver is configured to transmit a first physical transmission to one or more a plurality of second terminal devices within a common active time of the plurality of second terminal devices CATT section 2.1 drx-onduration timer and once SCI is transmitted (physical transmission) the drx-inactivityTimer in TX UE side should be started and section 2.3 active time in a DRX group (common active time) and sidelink groupcast when the drx onduration timer is running)
the processor is configured to start or restart a first timer after the transceiver transmits the first physical transmission to the plurality of second terminal devices within the common active time of the plurality of second terminal devices, the first terminal device being in an active state during running of the first timer, wherein the first terminal device is capable of performing transmission and reception during the running of the first timer (CATT section 2.1 drx-onduration timer and once SCI is transmitted (physical transmission) the drx-inactivityTimer in TX UE side should be started and section 2.3 active time in a DRX group (common active time) and sidelink groupcast when the drx onduration timer is running)
CATT does not teach
In a multicast transmission mode
However Ji does teach
In a multicast transmission mode (Ji page 21 lines 26-28 starts a timer after the multicast transmission)
It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of CATT with Ji for the same reasons stated in claim 1.
As to claim 5, the combination of CATT and Ji teach the method of claim 1, wherein the first timer comprises at least one of a first transmitting side timer or a first receiving side timer, the first terminal device is capable of transmitting during running of the first transmitting side timer (CATT section 2.1 drx-onduration timer and once SCI is transmitted (physical transmission) the drx-inactivityTimer in TX UE side should be started and once SCI is received the drx-inactivity timer in RX UE side should be started)
; and the first terminal device is capable of receiving during running of the first receiving side timer (CATT proposal 1 one set of sidelink DRX timers should be maintained for each direction of the sidelink unicast connection and section 2.1 once SCI is received drx-inactivityttimer in RX is started)
Claim 19 is rejected for the same reasons stated in claim 5.
As to claim 6, the combination of CATT and Ji teach the method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving, by the first terminal device, a second physical transmission transmitted by each of at least some of the one or more second terminal devices in a case that the first terminal device is capable of receiving (CATT proposal 1 one set of sidelink DRX timers should be maintained for each direction (second physical transmission) (TX -> RX and RX <- TX) of the sidelink unicast connection and section 2.1 once SCI is received drx-inactivityttimer in RX is started)
Claim 20 is rejected for the same reasons stated in claim 5.
As to claim 7, the combination of CATT and Ji teach the method of claim 1, further comprising: transmitting, by the first terminal device, a third physical transmission to at least some of the one or more second terminal devices in a case that the first terminal device is capable of transmitting. (CATT page 3 drx-Retransmission timer the sidelink drx-retransmission timer in Rx/Tx UE can be started after SCI is received/transmitted)
As to claim 10, the combination of CATT and Ji teach the method of claim 8, wherein the second timer comprises at least one of a second transmitting side timer or a second receiving side timer, the second terminal device is capable of transmitting during running of the second transmitting side timer (CATT proposal 1 one set of sidelink DRX timers should be maintained for each direction of the sidelink unicast connection and section 2.1 the drx-inactivityTimer in TX UE side should be started and once SCI is received the drx-inactivity timer in RX UE side should be started); and the second terminal device is capable of receiving during running of the second receiving side timer (CATT section 2.1 drx-onduration timer and once SCI is transmitted (physical transmission) the drx-inactivityTimer in TX UE side should be started and once SCI is received the drx-inactivity timer in RX UE side should be started)
As to claim 11, the combination of CATT and Ji teach the method of claim 8, further comprising: in a case that the second terminal device is capable of transmitting, determining, by the second terminal device, a sidelink resource, and transmitting a second physical transmission to a third terminal device on the sidelink resource, the third terminal device being same as or different from the first terminal device (CATT section 2 SCI can indicate a resource for transmission section 2.2 group and UEs (third terminal) and section 2.1 drx-onduration timer and once SCI is transmitted (physical transmission) the drx-inactivityTimer in TX UE side should be started)
As to claim 12, the combination of CATT and Ji teach the method of claim 8, further comprising: in a case that the second terminal device is capable of transmitting, acquiring, by the second terminal device, a sidelink resource allocated by a network device, and transmitting a second physical transmission to a third terminal device on the sidelink resource, the third terminal device being same as or different from the first terminal device (CATT section 2 SCI can indicate a resource for transmission section 2.2 group and UEs (third terminal) and section 2.1 drx-onduration timer and once SCI is transmitted (physical transmission) the drx-inactivityTimer in TX UE side should be started)
As to claim 14, the combination of CATT and Ji teach the method of claim 8, further comprising: in a case that the second terminal device is capable of receiving, receiving, by the second terminal device, a third physical transmission transmitted by a third terminal device, the third terminal device being same as or different from the first terminal device (CATT section 2 SCI can indicate a resource for transmission section 2.2 group and UEs (third terminal) and section 2.1 drx-onduration timer and once SCI is transmitted (physical transmission) the drx-inactivityTimer in TX UE side should be started)
Claim(s) 13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over CATT, Ji and Park et al. (Pub. No.: 2010/0265896 A1), herein Park.
As to claim 13, the combination of CATT and Ji teach the method of claim 12,
determine the sidelink resource (CATT section 2 SCI can indicate a resource for transmission)
CATT nor Ji teach
wherein acquiring, by the second terminal device, the sidelink resource allocated by the network device comprises:
transmitting, by the second terminal device, at least one of a Scheduling Request (SR) or a Buffer Status Report (BSR) to the network device, transmission resources of at least one of the SR or the BSR indicating at least one of:
a starting time of the second timer;
a duration of the second timer;
an ending time of the second timer; or
a duration of which a sidelink resource scheduled by the network device expected by the second terminal device; and
receiving, by the second terminal device, resource allocation information transmitted by the network device, the resource allocation information being used to determine the sidelink resource.
However Park doe teach
wherein acquiring, by the second terminal device, the sidelink resource allocated by the network device comprises:
transmitting, by the second terminal device, at least one of a Scheduling Request (SR) or a Buffer Status Report (BSR) to the network device, transmission resources of at least one of the SR or the BSR indicating at least one of:
a starting time of the second timer (Park [0048] After transmitting the 1 bit information through the SR channel, the UE makes a timer T1 operate. The driving time of the timer could be either the transmission time of the 1 bit information or the time when ACK for the 1 bit information is received. If the UE is not allocated with radio resources from the eNB until the timer ends, the UE transmits the 1 bit information to the eNB through the SR channel to request radio resource allocation [S62], and makes the timer operate again);
a duration of the second timer;
an ending time of the second timer; or
a duration of which a sidelink resource scheduled by the network device expected by the second terminal device; and
receiving, by the second terminal device, resource allocation information transmitted by the network device, the resource allocation information being used to determine the resource (Park [0049] If the UE is allocated with radio resources from the eNB as above, the UE terminates transmission of the 1 bit information and transmits data through the allocated radio resources)
It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of CATT and Ji with Park, because Park teaches us [0010] For scheduling, the user equipment can perform a buffer status report (BSR) and a channel resource request. The user equipment can allow a network to efficiently perform scheduling by notifying the network of data stored in its buffer, through the buffer status report. The network can perform proper scheduling by identifying what user equipment needs how many radio resources, using the buffer status report. Meanwhile, the user equipment can actively request the network to allocate radio resources.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1, 5-8, 10-15, 19 and 20 have been considered but 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 specifically challenged in the argument.
Conclusion
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.
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AYANAH S. GEORGE
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2467
/AYANAH S GEORGE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2467
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