DETAILED ACTION
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 .
Continued Examination
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on March 11, 2026 has been entered.
This Office Action is in response to claim amendment filed on March 11, 2026 and wherein claims 1 - 15 being currently amended.
In virtue of this communication, claims 1-15 are currently pending in this Office Action.
The Office appreciates the explanation of the amendment and analyses of the prior arts, and however, although the claims are interpreted in light of the specification, limitations from the specification are not read into the claims. See In re Van Geuns, 988 F.2d 1181, 26 USPQ2d 1057 (Fed. Cir. 1993) and MPEP 2145.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see Remarks, Pages 7-9, filed on March 11, 2026 , with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 1, 14, 15 under 35 USC §103 have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of DI.
Claim Objections
Claims 1, 14 and 15 is objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 1 recited “… scheduling information for a inter-UE physical shared channel … through a inter-UE physical control channel …”. It is suggested that applicant replace “a” with “an“.
Claims 14 and 15 have similar issues with” a” as notified in claim 1.
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.
Claims 1-5, 7-9, 11, 13-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cai et al. (US 20230371005 A1, hereinafter Cai) in view of DI et al. (US 20230014303 A1, hereinafter DI), and further in view of Hosseini et al. (US 20220110058 A1, hereinafter Hosseini).
Claim 1: Cai teaches A method comprising ([0111], “the terminal A may sense sidelink resources, and then select a sidelink resource from sensed sidelink resources. Then, the terminal A sends the data to the terminal B on the selected sidelink resource through the sidelink. Currently, to reduce power consumption of the terminal B, a DRX mechanism may be configured for the terminal B”):
transmitting, by a first user equipment (UE), to a second UE ([0139], “The terminal 100 may directly communicate with the terminal 200 through the PC5 interface … The terminal 100 may further perform SL communication with another terminal other than the terminal 200. A scenario in which the another terminal is Rx UE and the terminal 100 is Tx UE is considered”), first inter-UE control information including scheduling information for an inter-UE ([0142], “The PC5-RRC connection and the PC5 unicast link are in a one-to-one correspondence. The PC5-RRC connection may be used by a sender terminal to transmit a capability and/or a sidelink configuration of the sender terminal … to a receiver terminal in a PC5-RRC process”, [0232], “ when the second terminal performs sidelink communication on a PC5 interface, a discontinuous reception mechanism used may be referred to as a sidelink connectionless reception mechanism (SL DRX)”, [0186], “A DRX inactivity timer (drx-InactivityTimer) indicates a time length in which the terminal remains in the activated state … for scheduling initial transmission of new data, on a Uu interface … the terminal is very likely to continue to be scheduled in a next time period when currently scheduled. Therefore, the terminal needs to remain in the activated state to wait to receive data”) physical shared channel and second inter-UE control information, through an inter-UE physical control channel ([0231], “the data sent by the first terminal to the second terminal may be one or more of a PSCCH, a PSSCH, SCI, or a MAC PDU that is sent by the first terminal to the second terminal on the sidelink …The PSCCH is used to indicate a time-frequency domain resource location for PSSCH transmission, a modulation and coding scheme, a priority of data carried on a sidelink data channel (PhysicalSidelinkSharedCHannel,PSSCH)”, wherein PSCCH, PSSCH, SCI are serving the similar as inter-UE physical control channel. Fig. 5, element 502, [0211], “The SCI includes first-level SCI, second-level SCI, or first-level SCI and second-level SCI. The first-level SCI may be carried on the PSCCH, and the second-level SCI may be carried on the PSSCH. Transmission of the PSSCH may be a new transmission”, [0212], “if the terminal device receives the PSCCH or the SCI at the sidelink DRX active time to indicate new sidelink data transmission, the terminal device starts or restarts the drx-InactivityTimerPC5, so that the terminal is always in the sidelink DRX active time … sidelink DRX activated state is a time length of the “on duration”, and running the drx-InactivityTimerPC5 may prolong time in which the terminal device is in the sidelink DRX activated state. When the drx-Inactivity TimerPC5 expires … the terminal ends the sidelink DRX active time and enters sidelink DRX non-active time”);
However, Cai does not explicitly teach transmitting, by the first UE, to the second UE, the second inter-UE control information including a request of a first inter-UE channel state information (CSI) report through the inter-UE physical shared channel, based on the scheduling information;
starting, by the first UE, a first inter-UE discontinuous reception (DRX) active time by starting a first timer related to an inter-UE DRX active time, based on transmitting the request of the first inter-UE CSI report;
receiving, by the first UE, from the second UE, inter-UE data and a priority value related to the inter-UE data, based on the first timer running;
and extending, by the first UE, the first inter-UE DRX active time by starting a second timer, based on the priority value being smaller than a pre-configured first threshold.
DI, from the same or similar field of endeavor, teaches transmitting, by the first UE, to the second UE, the second inter-UE control information including a request of a first inter-UE channel state information (CSI) report through the inter-UE physical shared channel, based on the scheduling information ([0336], “UE issues a CSI request to a peer UE (for example via an indication through an SCI to the peer UE), and the MAC entity is waiting for the SL-CSI report (for example through a SL CSI MAC CE) from this peer UE. The CSI is pending until the UE receives a SL-CSI report from the peer UE, or a CSI request timer expires”, [0333- 0336], disclose when a SL DRX cycle is configured, the Active Time for SL Communications in a SL DRX group includes the time while UE issuing a CSI request to a peer UE);
starting, by the first UE, a first inter-UE discontinuous reception (DRX) active time by starting a first timer related to an inter-UE DRX active time, based on transmitting the request of the first inter-UE CSI report ([0336], “The UE may start a timer (set to sl-LatencyBound-CSI-Report) when the CSI request is sent, and cancel the SL-CSI request if the timer expires”. Fig. 22B, [0291], “UE 201 may send a message to UEs to request to enable SL DRX”, [0296], “ if UE 201 knows that the service or service type may dynamically enable/disable SL DRX”, [0305], “Each of the SL DRX configurations for the UE may be configured with parameters, such as drx-onDurationTimerSL, drx-InactivityTimerSL, drx-RetransmissionTimerTXSL, drx-RetransmissionTimerRXSL, drx-LongCycleStartOffsetSL
, drx-ShortCycleSL, drx-SlotOffsetSL, drx-HARQ-RTT-TimerRXSL, drx-HARQ-RTT-TimerTXSL or drx-ShortCycleTimerSL”, [0151], “the SL DRX operation for each of the SL DRX model is based on ON (or Active) and OFF times”);
receiving, by the first UE, from the second UE, inter-UE data ([0336], “the MAC entity is waiting for the SL-CSI report (for example through a SL CSI MAC CE) from this peer UE. The CSI is pending until the UE receives a SL-CSI report from the peer UE, or a CSI request timer expires”) based on the first timer running ([0324], “the SL DRX
configuration timers may be scaled. For example, the drx-RetransmissionTimerRXSL and the drx-HARQ-RTT-TimerRXSL may be scaled depending on whether SL feedback is associated with the HARQ process and on the priority of the SL data carried for the HARQ process (the priority may correspond to the highest priority SL traffic carried in the transport block)”);
Cai and DI are both considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of wireless communication. Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the system of Cai and the features of the features of using CSI request as a triggering condition for starting active time as taught by DI, for the benefit of providing dynamically enable/disable SL DRX based on services (paragraph [0281]), thereby achieving an improved power saving ([0147-0148]).
Hosseini, from the same or similar field of endeavor, teaches receiving, by a first device, from the second device, a priority value related to the inter-UE data ((Fig. 9, element 902, [0084], “Whether the DRX ON duration may be extended by a UE may be a function of packet attributes to be transmitted between two UEs during the DRX ON duration. Packet attributes may include packet priority, remaining packet delay budget (PDB)”, [0079], “the one or more conditions may include at least one condition based on an attribute of a resource pool assigned for sidelink communications between the first UE and a second UE. In some other examples, the one or more conditions may include at least one condition based on an attribute of a packet to be transmitted between the first UE and a second UE during the DRX ON duration”), and extending, by the first device, the first SL DRX active time by starting a second timer, based on the priority value being smaller than a pre- configured first threshold (Fig. 9, element 904, [0085], “the UE may decide to extend the DRX ON duration only for packet priorities below a certain threshold”).
Cai and Hosseini are both considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of wireless communication. Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the system of Cai and the features of extending the first SL DRX active time based on the priority value being smaller than a pre- configured first threshold as taught by Hosseini, for the benefit for ensuring that higher priority packets are prioritized for transmission, given the lower priority packets have a priority lower than a threshold (paragraph [0085]).
Claim 2: The combinate of Cai, DI and Hosseini teaches the method of claim 1, Hosseini additionally teaches wherein the first inter-UE DRX active time is not extended by starting the second timer, based on the priority value related to the inter-UE data being greater than or equal to the first threshold (Fig. 9, element 904, [0085], “the UE may decide to extend the DRX ON duration only for packet priorities below a certain threshold”).
The motivation for combining Cai and Hosseini regarding to the claim 1 is also applied to claim 2.
Claim 3: Cai teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the inter-UE data is not the first CSI report ([0244], “The first request message is used to request the sidelink discontinuous reception-active time of the second terminal. Then, the second terminal sends DRX configuration information of the second terminal to the first terminal. The DRX configuration information includes information used to determine the sidelink discontinuous reception-active time of the second terminal. For example, the information used to determine the discontinuous reception-active time of the sidelink of the second terminal is a discontinuous reception related parameter of the second terminal, for example, a DRX cycle, duration of the drx-onDurationTimer-SL, duration of the drx-InactivityTimer-SL, duration of the drx-RetransmissionTimer-SL, and a DRX start offset”).
Claim 4: Cai teaches the method of claim 1, further comprising: transmitting, to the second UE, a first inter-UE coordination message including information related to a first resource region on which an inter-UE transmission of the second UE is based ([0231], “data sent by the first terminal to the second terminal may be one or more of a PSCCH, a PSSCH, SCI, or a MAC PDU that is sent by the first terminal to the second terminal on the sidelink. The SCI includes first-level SCI, or the SCI includes first-level SCI and second-level SCI. The PSCCH is used to indicate a time-frequency domain resource location for PSSCH transmission, a modulation and coding scheme, a priority of data carried on a sidelink data channel (PhysicalSidelinkSharedCHannel, PSSCH)”).
Claim 5: The combination of Cai and DI and Hosseini teaches the method of claim 4, further comprising: receiving, from the second UE, the inter-UE transmission, based on the first timer running (Cai, [0209], “SL DRX-active time includes running time of the drx-onDurationTimer-SL (DRX on duration timer-SL), the drx-InactivityTimer-SL (DRX inactivity timer-SL), or a drx-RetransmissionTimer-SL (DRX retransmission timer-SL). The receiver terminal (Rx UE) monitors/receives a PSCCH, a PSSCH, SCI, or a MAC PDU in the SL DRX-active time. In a possible manner, each source and destination pair correspond to a piece of SL DRX-active time. Each source and destination pair corresponds to a set of SL DRX timers” ), wherein the inter-UE transmission is a transmission of the first CSI report (DI, [0336], “UE issues a CSI request to a peer UE (for example via an indication through an SCI to the peer UE), and the MAC entity is waiting for the SL-CSI report (for example through a SL CSI MAC CE) from this peer UE. The CSI is pending until the UE receives a SL-CSI report from the peer UE, or a CSI request timer expires”, [0333- 0336], disclose when a SL DRX cycle is configured, the Active Time for SL Communications in a SL DRX group includes the time while UE issuing a CSI request to a peer UE).
The motivation for combining Cai and DI regarding to the claim 1 is also applied to claim 5.
Claim 7: The combinate of Cai, DI and Hosseini teaches The method of claim 4, wherein the SL transmission is a transmission of the inter-UE data, and wherein the inter-UE data is transmitted based on the first resource region, based on the priority value related to the inter-UE data being smaller than a pre-configed second threshold (DI, [0304], “ the UE may only enable the SL DRX configurations with a priority higher than a threshold. In a second priority alternative, the UE may disable the SL DRX configurations with a priority lower than a threshold. In a third priority alternative, the UE may disable SL DRX
configurations if the value of the difference in priority between this SL DRX configuration and the SL DRX configuration with the highest priority exceeds a threshold”. Cai, [0231], “The PSCCH is used to indicate a time-frequency domain resource location for PSSCH
transmission, a modulation and coding scheme, a priority of data carried on a sidelink data channel … The PSSCH is used to carry the data”, [0360], “If a plurality of destinations include the time range of the first sidelink resource, the first terminal may determine the first destination from the plurality of destinations based on priorities of the plurality of destinations. It should be noted that the priority of the destination may also be considered as a priority of data transmitted on the destination”. Hosseini, Fig. 9, element 904, [0085], “the UE may decide to extend the DRX ON duration only for packet priorities below a certain threshold”).
The motivation for combining Cai, DI and Hosseini regarding to the claim 1 is also applied to claim 7.
Claim 8: The combinate of Cai, DI and Hosseini teaches the method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving, from the second UE, the first inter-UE CSI report, based on the first timer running (DI, [0336], “UE issues a CSI request to a peer UE (for example via an indication through an SCI to the peer UE), and the MAC entity is waiting for the SL-CSI report (for example through a SL CSI MAC CE) from this peer UE. The CSI is pending until the UE receives a SL-CSI report from the peer UE, or a CSI request timer expires. The UE may start a timer … when the CSI request is sent, and cancel the SL-CSI request if the timer expires”); and expiring the first timer based on the reception of the first CSI report (Cai, [0212], “this may be understood as that a time length in which the terminal device is originally in a sidelink DRX activated state is a time length of the “on duration”, and running the drx-InactivityTimerPC5 may prolong time in which the terminal device is in the sidelink DRX activated state. When the drx-InactivityTimerPC5 expires, or the terminal device receives related MAC CE signaling to stop the drx-onDurationTimerPC5 and the drx-InactivityTimerPC5”).
The motivation for combining Cai, DI and Hosseini regarding to the claim 1 is also applied to claim 8.
Claim 9: The combination of Cai and DI and Hosseini teaches The method of claim 1, further comprising: setting a time from a time point at which the request of the first inter-UE CSI report is transmitted, to an expiration time of a second inter-UE DRX active time remaining for the first device at a time point at which the request of the first inter-UE CSI report is transmitted, as packet delay budget (PDB) related to the first CSI report (DI, [0336], “UE issues a CSI request to a peer UE (for example via an indication through an SCI to the peer UE), and the MAC entity is waiting for the SL-CSI report … from this peer UE. The CSI is pending until the UE receives a SL-CSI report from the peer UE, or a CSI request timer expires. The UE may start a timer … when the CSI request is sent, and cancel the SL-CSI request if the timer expires”. Cai, [0093], “ a first UE performing SL DRX operation may configure the length of time from the time point of requesting the CSI report to a valid SL DRX active time interval remaining in the first UE as PDB and transmit it to the second UE”, [0212], “this may be understood as that a time length in which the terminal device is originally in a sidelink DRX activated state is a time length of the “on duration”, and running the drx-InactivityTimerPC5 may prolong time in which the terminal device is in the sidelink DRX activated state. When the drx-InactivityTimerPC5 expires, or the terminal device receives related MAC CE signaling to stop the drx-onDurationTimerPC5 and the drx-InactivityTimerPC5”); and transmitting, to the second UE, the PDB (Cai, [0093], “a first UE performing SL DRX operation may configure the length of time from the time point of requesting the CSI report to a valid SL DRX active time interval remaining in the first UE as PDB and transmit it to the second UE”, [0290], “, based on a relationship between the remaining time of the sidelink discontinuous reception-active time and a remaining PDB, whether to provide, for the physical layer, one or more of the information used to indicate the end time of the sidelink discontinuous reception-active time or the information used to indicate the remaining time of the sidelink discontinuous reception-active time”).
The motivation for combining Cai and DI regarding to the claim 1 is also applied to claim 9.
Claim 11: Cai teaches the method of claim 9, wherein the PDB is set such that the first inter-UE DRX active time and a second inter-UE DRX active time related to a second inter-UE DRX configuration of the second UE overlap (Fig. 10, Fig. 11, DRX on duration, timer-SL for the first time, and DRX inactivity timer-SL or DRX retransmission timer-SL for the second timer, [0094], “when setting a PDB related to receiving a CSI report from the time point of requesting a CSI report to a second UE performing an SL DRX operation through PC5-RRC, a first UE performing an SL DRX operation may set a PDB such that an overlapping time interval exists between the SL DRX active time period of the second UE and the PDB time interval, and transmit it to the second UE”, [0290-0292], disclose how the MAC entity may determine, based on a relationship between the remaining time of the sidelink discontinuous reception-active time and a remaining PDB, whether to provide, for the physical layer, one or more of the information used to indicate the end time of the sidelink discontinuous reception-active time or the information used to indicate the remaining time of the sidelink discontinuous reception-active time).
Claim 13: The combination of Cai and DI and Hosseini teaches the method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving, from the second UE, the first inter-UE CSI report, based on the first timer running (DI, [0336], “UE issues a CSI request to a peer UE (for example via an indication through an SCI to the peer UE), and the MAC entity is waiting for the SL-CSI report … from this peer UE. The CSI is pending until the UE receives a SL-CSI report from the peer UE, or a CSI request timer expires. The UE may start a timer … when the CSI request is sent, and cancel the SL-CSI request if the timer expires”.
Cai, [0209], “SL DRX-active time includes running time of the drx-onDurationTimer-SL (DRX on duration timer-SL), the drx-InactivityTimer-SL (DRX inactivity timer-SL), or a drx-RetransmissionTimer-SL (DRX retransmission timer-SL). The receiver terminal (Rx UE) monitors/receives a PSCCH, a PSSCH, SCI, or a MAC PDU in the SL DRX-active time. In a possible manner, each source and destination pair correspond to a piece of SL DRX-active time. Each source and destination pair corresponds to a set of SL DRX timers”), wherein the inter-UE data is transmitted prior to the first inter-UE CSI report by the second UE (Cai, [0245], “before determining that the second terminal needs to receive the data of the first terminal, the second terminal may first send the DRX configuration information of the second terminal to the first terminal”).
Claim 14 is analyzed and rejected according to claim 1 and Cai further teaches one or more memories storing instructions (Fig. 2, element 22, [0170], “The memory 22 is configured to store computer executable instructions for performing the solutions of this application, and the processor 21 controls the execution”); one or more transceivers (Fig. 2, element 23); and one or more processors (Fig. 2, elements 21,25) connected to the one or more memories and the one or more transceivers ([0170], “The processor 21 is configured to execute the computer executable instructions stored in the memory 22”, [0167], “The transceiver 23 is configured to communicate, by using any apparatus like a transceiver, with another device or a communication network”).
Claim 15: is analyzed and rejected according to claim 1 and Cai further teaches one or more processors (Fig. 2, elements 21,25); and one or more memories operably connectable to the one or more processors and storing instructions (Fig. 2, element 22, [0170], “The memory 22 is configured to store computer executable instructions for performing the solutions of this application, and the processor 21 controls the execution”), wherein the one or more processors execute the instructions ([0170], “The processor 21 is configured to execute the computer executable instructions stored in the memory 22”).
Claim 10 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cai et al. (US 20230371005 A1, hereinafter Cai) in view of DI et al. (US 20230014303 A1, hereinafter DI), and further in view of Hosseini et al. (US 20220110058 A1, hereinafter Hosseini), and further in view of Li et al. (US 20220095326 A1, hereinafter Li).
Claim 10: Cai does not explicitly teach the method of claim 9, further comprising: receiving, from the second UE, a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) negative acknowledges (NACK), wherein the HARQ NACK is transmitted based on the second UE being not able to transmit the first inter-UE CSI report to the first UE within the PDB.
Li, from the same or similar field of endeavor, teaches receiving, from the second UE, a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) negative acknowledges (NACK), wherein the HARQ NACK is transmitted based on the second UE being not able to transmit the first inter-UE CSI report to the first UE within the PDB (Fig. 8C, [0070], “the SL Inactivity Timer or SL Retransmission Timer is set at the first slot (e.g., slot N) after the slot receiving the first SCI (e.g., slot N−1) per the resource(s) reserved for the retransmission(s) by the first SCI to extend the active state to at least the end of the first HARQ retransmission or per the PDB or remaining PDB of the data, the Rx UE may switch to sending a negative acknowledgement (NACK) after failed decoding either within the SL DRX on phase or within the extension based on the NACK resource allocation, (e.g., to send a NACK in slot N within the extension) … the Rx UE may transmit NACK indicating to the Tx UE that the initial transmission (e.g., in PSSCH 1) was not successfully received”, [0045], “ The PSFCH may carry feedback such as acknowledgement (ACK) or negative acknowledgement (NACK) for hybrid automatic repeat request HARQ feedback. PSSCH may be used to carry channel state information (CSI) related to a sidelink channel quality”).
Cai and Li are both considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of wireless communication. Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the system of Cai and the features of transmitting HARQ NACK based on the second device being not able to transmit the first CSI report to the first device within the PDB as taught by Li, for the benefit of more efficient coordination between TX UE and RX UE, for example, TX UE may determine to retransmit when receiving NACK, and RX may get into power saving mode and notify TX with ACK (paragraph [0070]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 6, 12 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 YONGHONG ZHAO whose telephone number is (571)272-4089. The examiner can normally be reached Monday -Friday 9:00 am - 5:00pm.
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/Y.Z./Examiner, Art Unit 2472
/NICHOLAS A JENSEN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2472
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