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
1. 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 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.
2. 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 of this title, 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.
3. Claims 1, 3-6, 8-10, 12-15 and 17-18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Publication No, US 2023/0262660 to Park et al. (hereinafter Park) in view of U.S. Publication No, US 2024/0276521 to Ding et al. (hereinafter Ding)
As to claims 1 and 10, Park discloses a method for sidelink communication, wherein the method is applied to a peer-receiving UE (peer-Rx UE) in a sidelink communication, comprising:
decoding a first sidelink control information (SCI) in a first time slot from a peer-transmitting UE (peer-Tx UE) successfully, wherein the first SCI provides a resource allocation information that indicates one or more time slots allocated for one or more second SCIs to be transmitted by the peer-Tx UE (Park; [0139]; [0146]; [0304] discloses of decoding SCI [0304]; [0308] discloses first SCI includes resource allocation (i.e time/frequency/code resources) for the second SCI that is used to transmit second SCI) ;
transmitting assistance information when a trigger condition is met, wherein the trigger condition is based on the performing SCI decoding in the one or more time slots allocated for the one or more second SCIs (Park; [0072]; [0121]-[0122]; [0139] discloses the receiving UE sends ACK/NACK to the transmitting UE based on the whether the decoding of the SCI is successful or fails corresponding to transmitting assistance information when a trigger condition is met, wherein the trigger condition is based on the performing SCI decoding in the one or more time slots allocated for the one or more second SCIs. [0072] discloses ACK/NACK information may be referred to as sidelink feedback control information (SFCI). The SFCI may be transmitted through the physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH). Here SFCI corresponding to assistance information and decoding fails corresponding to trigger condition)
Park discloses second SCI, but fails to explicitly disclose performing SCI decoding in the one or more time slots allocated for the one or more second SCIs. However, Ding discloses
performing SCI decoding in the one or more time slots allocated for the one or more second SCIs (Ding; [0217]-[0218] discloses the third terminal may determine time-frequency resources for the first terminal to send data by decoding first SCI and second SCI sent by the first terminal. For example, in a certain slot, the third terminal may decode the first SCI sent by a UE, and decode corresponding second SCI sent by the UE according to an indication of the first SCI. If a “Source ID” in the second SCI indicates that the UE is the first terminal, the UE is the first terminal. The third terminal may determine time-frequency resources for the first terminal to send data based on the resources indicated in the first SCI. Similarly, the third terminal may determine the time-frequency resources for the second terminal to send data, marked as second resource set θ. The second resource set θ may include: one or more time-frequency resources for the second terminal to send data)
wherein the trigger condition comprises:
in the one or more time slots allocated for the one or more second SCIs, at least one SCI is successfully decoded and the successfully decoded SCI belongs to the another peer-Tx UE (Ding; [0217]-[0218] discloses the third terminal may determine time-frequency resources for the first terminal to send data by decoding first SCI and second SCI sent by the first terminal. For example, in a certain slot, the third terminal may decode the first SCI sent by a UE, and decode corresponding second SCI sent by the UE according to an indication of the first SCI. If a “Source ID” in the second SCI indicates that the UE is the first terminal, the UE is the first terminal. The third terminal may determine time-frequency resources for the first terminal to send data based on the resources indicated in the first SCI. Similarly, the third terminal may determine the time-frequency resources for the second terminal to send data, marked as second resource set θ. The second resource set θ may include: one or more time-frequency resources for the second terminal to send data).
It is obvious for a person of ordinary skilled in the art to combine the teachings before the effective filing date of the invention. One would be motivated to combine the teachings in order to use the limited resources in an effective way by allocating resource for the second SCI in the first SCI.
As to claims 3 and 12, the rejection of claim 2 as listed above is incorporated herein. In addition, Park-Ding discloses wherein the trigger condition further comprises:
a first priority associated with the first SCI is not higher than a second priority associated with the successfully decoded SCI (Park; [0406]; [0438] discloses the UE may select some PSFCH signals that may be transmitted using a method, such as ascending order of carrier index or priority information for PSFCH signals means the first SCI that includes the resource for ACK/NACK in the first PSFCH could be lower priority than the second SCI that includes the resource for ACK/NACK transmitted in the second PSFCH).
As to claims 4 and 13, the rejection of claim 2 as listed above is incorporated herein. In addition, Park-Ding discloses wherein the trigger condition further comprises:
a first priority associated with the first SCI is higher than a second priority associated with the successfully decoded SCI (Park; [0406]; [0438] discloses the UE may select some PSFCH signals that may be transmitted using a method, such as ascending order of carrier index or priority information for PSFCH signals means the first SCI that includes the resource for ACK/NACK in the first PSFCH could be higher priority than the second SCI that includes the resource for ACK/NACK transmitted in the second PSFCH).
As to claims 5 and 14, the rejection of claim 1 as listed above is incorporated herein. In addition, Park-Ding discloses wherein the trigger condition comprises:
in the one or more time slots allocated for the one or more second SCIs, the peer-Rx UE cannot successfully decode the one or more second SCIs (Park; [0122] discloses If decoding fails, NACK may be transmitted through PSFCH)
As to claims 6 and 15, the rejection of claim 1 as listed above is incorporated herein. In addition, Park-Ding discloses wherein the resource allocation information comprises a periodic reservation interval for periodic reservations of the one or more second SCIs in multiple periodic slots, and the periodic reservation interval is a time gap between the first SCI and the second SCI or a time gap between two successive second SCIs (Park; [0116]; [0224])
As to claims 8 and 17, the rejection of claim 1 as listed above is incorporated herein. In addition, Park-Ding discloses wherein the peer-Rx UE transmits the assistance information to the peer-Tx UE through a broadcast, unicast or groupcast channel (Park; [0094])
As to claims 9 and 18, the rejection of claim 1 as listed above is incorporated herein. In addition, Park-Ding discloses wherein the assistance information is transmitted to the peer-Tx UE through a first part of a SCI transmitted to the peer-Tx UE, a second part of the SCI transmitted to the peer-Tx UE, a physical sidelink feedback shared channel (PSFCH), or a data channel (Park; [0072] discloses The NR V2X reception UE receiving the information may transmit an acknowledgement (ACK) or negative acknowledgement (NACK) for the received sidelink data information to the NR V2X transmission UE. The ACK/NACK information may be referred to as sidelink feedback control information (SFCI). The SFCI may be transmitted through the physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH). Here Park is applied for the 3rd alternative)
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 7 and 16 are objected, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims
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.
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/FAISAL CHOUDHURY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2478
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