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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1-8, 10-12, 14-18, and 22-25, 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.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-4, 8, 10-12, 14, 15, 18, and 22-25, is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Yu et al. (US Publication No. 20220337347).
As to claims 1, 22, 23, 24, and 25, Yu teaches an information sending method, a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, and a terminal, comprising: a processor; and a memory for storing executable instructions (fig. 1 and fig. 4), wherein the processor, when executing the instructions, is configured to execute the following method: sending a quality of service information for determining a relative spatial relationship to a second terminal (fig. 1, fig. 2, #202, pp0047, pp0048, receiving control information from second UE i.e. location information of second UE and communication range required, and pp0067, communication range may indicate that the minimum distance that the QoS parameters need to be fulfilled), wherein the quality of service information is configured to determine the relative spatial relationship to the second terminal (fig. 1, fig. 2, #204, pp0047, pp0048, determine relative location information based on the received control information from second UE i.e. location information of second UE and communication range required, and pp0067, communication range may indicate that the minimum distance that the QoS parameters need to be fulfilled, and pp0069).
As to claims 2 and 11, Yu teaches wherein the relative spatial relationship comprises at least one of the following: a relative location, a relative distance or a relative angle (fig. 1, fig. 2, #204, pp0047, pp0048, determine relative location information).
As to claim 3, Yu teaches wherein the quality of service information comprises at least one of the following: precision information of the relative spatial relationship (fig. 1, fig. 2, pp0067, communication range may indicate that the minimum distance that the QoS parameters need to be fulfilled, and pp0069); first response time for sending a reference signal for determining the relative spatial relationship to the first terminal; second response time for sending a result information of the relative spatial relationship to the first terminal; or a distance upper limit for determining the relative spatial relationship.
As to claim 4, Yu teaches further comprising: determining a service applied for determining the relative spatial relationship with the second terminal; and determining the quality of service information according to the service (fig. 1, fig. 2, pp0016, the relative location information may indicate that the first UE is within the communication range or the first UE is out of the communication range, and pp0067, communication range may indicate that the minimum distance that the QoS parameters need to be fulfilled, and pp0069).
As to claims 8 and 18, Yu teaches wherein sending the quality of service information for determining the relative spatial relationship to the second terminal comprises at least one of the following: sending the quality of service information to the second terminal during establishing a sidelink with the second terminal; or sending the quality of service information to the second terminal through a sidelink after establishing the sidelink with the second terminal (fig. 1, sidelink communication, fig. 2, #204, pp0047, pp0048, determine relative location information based on the received control information from second UE i.e. location information of second UE and communication range required, and pp0067, communication range may indicate that the minimum distance that the QoS parameters need to be fulfilled, and pp0069).
As to claim 10, Yu teaches a relationship determination method, performed by a second terminal (fig. 1 and fig. 2), and comprising: receiving quality of service information, sent by a first terminal, for determining a relative spatial relationship (fig. 1, fig. 2, #202, pp0047, pp0048, receiving control information from second UE i.e. location information of second UE and communication range required, and pp0067, communication range may indicate that the minimum distance that the QoS parameters need to be fulfilled); and determining the relative spatial relationship according to the quality of service information (fig. 1, fig. 2, #204, pp0047, pp0048, determine relative location information based on the received control information from second UE i.e. location information of second UE and communication range required, and pp0067, communication range may indicate that the minimum distance that the QoS parameters need to be fulfilled, and pp0069).
As to claim 12, Yu teaches wherein the quality of service information comprises at least one of the following: precision information of the relative spatial relationship (fig. 1, fig. 2, pp0067, communication range may indicate that the minimum distance that the QoS parameters need to be fulfilled, and pp0069); first response time for sending a reference signal for determining the relative spatial relationship to the first terminal; second response time for sending a result information of the relative spatial relationship to the first terminal; or a distance upper limit for determining the relative spatial relationship; the relationship determination method further comprising: determining, in response to the quality of service information comprising the first response time, a priority of sending the reference signal and other information to the first terminal according to the first response time (No patentable weight has been given to limitations directed to optional limitation which are not selected and/or rejected as highlighted above).
As to claim 14, Yu teaches the limitations of the independent claims as discussed above. Claim 14 is further directed to optional limitations of independent claim 12, thus, no patentable weight has been given to limitations directed to optional limitation which are not selected and/or rejected i.e. further comprising: determining, in response to the quality of service information comprising the second response time, a priority of sending the result information and other information to the first terminal according to the second response time (No patentable weight has been given to limitations directed to optional limitation which are not selected and/or rejected as highlighted above).
As to claim 15, Yu teaches the limitations of the independent claims as discussed above. Claim 15 is further directed to optional limitations of independent claim 12, thus, no patentable weight has been given to limitations directed to optional limitation which are not selected and/or rejected i.e. further comprising: determining, in response to the quality of service information comprising the distance upper limit, transmission power for sending the signal to the first terminal during determining the relative spatial relationship with the first terminal according to the distance upper limit; and sending at least one of the reference signal and the result information to the first terminal according to the transmission power (No patentable weight has been given to limitations directed to optional limitation which are not selected and/or rejected as highlighted above).
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) 5-7, 16, and 17, is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yu et al. (US Publication No. 20220337347) in view of Ren et al. (US Patent No. 12184573).
As to claims 5 and 16, Yu teaches the limitations of the independent claim as discussed above. However, fails to explicitly teach further comprising: sending configuration information to the second terminal, wherein the configuration information is configured to allow the second terminal to determine a configuration for sending a reference signal for determining the relative spatial relationship to the first terminal.
In an analogous field of endeavor, Ren teaches sending configuration information to the second terminal (fig. 7, col. 10, line 66 – col. 11, line19, transmitting and/or receiving configuration information, SPRS to determine relative location from the second terminal to the first terminal), wherein the configuration information is configured to allow the second terminal to determine a configuration for sending a reference signal for determining the relative spatial relationship to the first terminal (fig. 7, col. 10, line 66 – col. 11, line19, transmitting and/or receiving configuration information SPRS to determine relative location from the second terminal to the first terminal). Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Yu with the teachings of Ren to achieve the goal of efficiently and reliably improving accuracy in sidelink communication in a communication system (Ren, col. 2, lines 21-23).
As to claims 6 and 17, Yu in view of Ren teaches the limitations of the claim 5 as discussed above. However, fails to teach wherein the configuration information comprises at least one of the following: bandwidth information, period information, time-domain density information, or frequency-domain density information.
In an analogous field of endeavor, Ren teaches wherein the configuration information comprises at least one of the following: bandwidth information, period information, time-domain density information, or frequency-domain density information (fig. 7, col. 11, lines 1-5, the configuration information includes one or a combination of: an SPRS1 resource set, SPRS1 resources, an SPRS1 time domain structure, an SPRS1 frequency domain structure, an SPRS frequency domain bandwidth in the SPRS frequency domain structure is pre-defined by protocol). Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Yu with the teachings of Ren to achieve the goal of efficiently and reliably improving accuracy in sidelink communication in a communication system (Ren, col. 2, lines 21-23).
As to claim 7, Yu in view of Ren teaches the limitations of the claim 5 as discussed above. Yu further teaches further comprising: determining a service applied for determining the relative spatial relationship with the second terminal (fig. 1, fig. 2, pp0016, the relative location information may indicate that the first UE is within the communication range or the first UE is out of the communication range, and pp0067, communication range may indicate that the minimum distance that the QoS parameters need to be fulfilled, and pp0069); and determining a configuration information according to the service (fig. 1, fig. 2, pp0016, the relative location information may indicate that the first UE is within the communication range or the first UE is out of the communication range, and pp0067, communication range may indicate that the minimum distance that the QoS parameters need to be fulfilled, and pp0069).
Conclusion
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/OMONIYI OBAYANJU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2645
