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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDSs) submitted on 01/10/2025. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Response to Amendment
The Amendment filed 12/09/2025has been entered. Claims 1, 3-7, 9, 11-12, 14, 22-24 and 26 have been amended. Claims 2, 15-20,21, and 25 are canceled. Claims 27 are adding in this application.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments/amendments with respect to the rejection to 35 U.S.C. § 112 have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection to claims has been withdrawn.
Applicant's argument(s) filed on 12/09/2025 with respect to the rejection of claims under rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 have been considered but are moot in view of the new ground rejection.
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 (a)-(d). The certified copy has been filed in parent Application No. KR10-2020-0178767 filed on 12/18/2020.
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 text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claim(s) 1, 3-6, 13-14, 22-24, and 26-27 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Jeong (US 20220030661 A1), hereinafter Jeong further in view of Kung (US 20210227465 A1) hereinafter Kung.
Regarding claim 1,
Jeong teaches A method comprising: obtaining, by a first device, a first sidelink (SL) discontinuous reception (DRX) configuration including information related to a timer for a first active time; (fig. 9 ) and ([0106] gNB informs all UEs of SL DRX related configurations including default SL DRX cycle length/SL DRX on-duration timer length/SL DRX inactivity timer length, N, M, scaling factor #1 (SF #1) for an SL DRX on-duration timer and/or an SF #2 for SL DRX inactivity timer via system information) obtaining, by the first device, a second SL DRX configuration including information related to a timer for a second active time; (fig. 9 ) and ([0106] gNB informs all UEs of SL DRX related configurations including default SL DRX cycle length/SL DRX on-duration timer length/SL DRX inactivity timer length, N, M, scaling factor #1 (SF #1) for an SL DRX on-duration timer and/or an SF #2 for SL DRX inactivity timer via system information...[0162] first UE determines whether a default value is applied for the at least one of the SL DRX cycle length, the SL DRX start offset, and the SL DRX timers, respectively, based on characteristics of data transmissions, applies the default value for the at least one of the SL DRX cycle length, the SL DRX start offset, and the SL DRX timers, respectively, based on a determination that the default value is applied; and applies a first value for the at least one of the SL DRX cycle length, the SL DRX start offset, and the SL DRX timers) receiving, by the first device from a second device through a physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH), first sidelink control information (SCI) for scheduling of (i)_a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH) and (ii) second SCI; and ([0093] SCI on PSCCH and/or PSSCH comprises two SCI formats. 1st stage SCI format is SCI format 1-A in PSCCH and 2nd stage SCI format is SCI format 2-A and/or SCI format 2-B in PSSCH. Each SCI format has the following information. ... [0094] A SCI format 1-A is used for the scheduling of PSSCH and 2.sup.nd-stage-SCI on PSSCH.) receiving, by the first device from the second device through the PSSCH, the second SCI and a medium access control (MAC) protocol data unit (PDU) related to the first SL DRX configuration, (([0090] A MAC protocol layer performs packet filtering (e.g., determine whether the received packet is actually destined to the UE (based on the L2 source and destination ids in the MAC header), SL carrier/resource pool/resource within the resource pool (re)selection, priority handling between SL and UL for a given UE, SL logical channel prioritization, the corresponding packet multiplexing (e.g., multiplexing multiple MAC service data units (SDUs) into a given MAC protocol data unit (PDU)) and SL HARQ retransmissions/receptions.....[0093] SCI on PSCCH and/or PSSCH comprises two SCI formats. 1st stage SCI format is SCI format 1-A in PSCCH and 2nd stage SCI format is SCI format 2-A and/or SCI format 2-B in PSSCH. Each SCI format has the following information)) wherein the first SCI, the second SCI, and the MAC PDU related to the first SL DRX configuration are received by the first device on an SL resource that is (fig.9) and [0090-0093] (([0090] A MAC protocol layer performs packet filtering (e.g., determine whether the received packet is actually destined to the UE (based on the L2 source and destination ids in the MAC header), SL carrier/resource pool/resource within the resource pool (re)selection, priority handling between SL and UL for a given UE, SL logical channel prioritization, the corresponding packet multiplexing (e.g., multiplexing multiple MAC service data units (SDUs) into a given MAC protocol data unit (PDU)) and SL HARQ retransmissions/receptions.....[0093] SCI on PSCCH and/or PSSCH comprises two SCI formats. 1st stage SCI format is SCI format 1-A in PSCCH and 2nd stage SCI format is SCI format 2-A and/or SCI format 2-B in PSSCH. Each SCI format has the following information))
Jeong does not explicitly teaches within the second active time related to the second SL DRX configuration and outside the first active time.
Kung teaches within the second active time related to the second SL DRX configuration and outside the first active time ((fig. 7 and [0407] The Rx UE 1 is not in active time at timing t2 (e.g., the timing t2 is outside of active time of the Rx UE 1). … The Tx UE selects, from among the set of destination identities. the destination identity 2 for performing the sidelink transmission 704 … based on the second data associated with the destination identity 2 having a highest priority among data associated with the set of destination identities … ).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to add the teaching of Kung to the teaching of Jeong. The motivation for such an addition would be to handling logical channel prioritization regarding sidelink discontinuous reception in a wireless communication system ([0002] Kung).
Claim 14 and 24 apparatus is/are rejected under the same reasoning as claim 1 method, where Jung teaches both device and method (abstract and ([0009-0012])).
Regarding to claim 3,
Jeong and Kung teaches the method of claim 1,
Jeong further teaches comprising: determining that the MAC PDU is related to the first SL DRX configuration, based on that a destination ID related to the first SL DRX configuration is included in the second SCI. (fig.9) and [0090-0093] and [0090] A MAC protocol layer performs packet filtering (e.g., determine whether the received packet is actually destined to the UE (based on the L2 source and destination ids in the MAC header), SL carrier/resource pool/resource within the resource pool (re)selection, priority handling between SL and UL for a given UE, SL logical channel prioritization, the corresponding packet multiplexing (e.g., multiplexing multiple MAC service data units (SDUs) into a given MAC protocol data unit (PDU)) and SL HARQ retransmissions/receptions.) And ([0097] Following information is transmitted by means of the SCI format 2-A ... (5) a destination ID)
Claim 22 and 26 apparatus is/are rejected under the same reasoning as claim 3 method, where Jung teaches both device and method (abstract and ([0009-0012])).
Regarding to claim 4,
Jeong and Kung teaches the method of claim 1,
Jeong further teaches further comprising: determining that the MAC PDU is related to the first SL DRX configuration, based on that a source ID and a destination ID related to the first SL DRX configuration are included in the second SCI. (fig.9) and [0090-0093] and [0090] A MAC protocol layer performs packet filtering (e.g., determine whether the received packet is actually destined to the UE (based on the L2 source and destination ids in the MAC header), SL carrier/resource pool/resource within the resource pool (re)selection, priority handling between SL and UL for a given UE, SL logical channel prioritization, the corresponding packet multiplexing (e.g., multiplexing multiple MAC service data units (SDUs) into a given MAC protocol data unit (PDU)) and SL HARQ retransmissions/receptions.) And ([0097] Following information is transmitted by means of the SCI format 2-A ... (4) a source ID ... (5) a destination ID)
Claims 23 and 27 “apparatus” is/are rejected under the same reasoning as claim 4 “method”, where Jung teaches both device and method (abstract and ([0009-0012])).
Regarding to claim 5,
Jeong and Kung teaches the method of claim 1,
Jeong further teaches comprising: starting the timer for the first active, based on receiving the second SCI and the MAC PDU related to the first SL DRX (fig.9) and [0090-0093] and [0090] A MAC protocol layer performs packet filtering (e.g., determine whether the received packet is actually destined to the UE (based on the L2 source and destination ids in the MAC header), SL carrier/resource pool/resource within the resource pool (re)selection, priority handling between SL and UL for a given UE, SL logical channel prioritization, the corresponding packet multiplexing (e.g., multiplexing multiple MAC service data units (SDUs) into a given MAC protocol data unit (PDU)) and SL HARQ retransmissions/receptions.) And ([0097] Following information is transmitted by means of the SCI format 2-A ... (4) a source ID ... (5) a destination ID)
Jeong does not explicitly teaches configuration within the second active time related to the second SL DRX configuration.
Kung teaches configuration within the second active time related to the second SL DRX configuration. (fig. 7 and [0407] The Rx UE 1 is not in active time at timing t2 (e.g., the timing t2 is outside of active time of the Rx UE 1). … The Tx UE selects, from among the set of destination identities. the destination identity 2 for performing the sidelink transmission 704 … based on the second data associated with the destination identity 2 having a highest priority among data associated with the set of destination identities … ).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to add the teaching of Kung to the teaching of Jeong. The motivation for such an addition would be to handling logical channel prioritization regarding sidelink discontinuous reception in a wireless communication system ([0002] Kung).
Regarding to claim 6,
Jeong and Kung teaches the method of claim 1,
Jeong does not explicitly teaches wherein the MAC PDU not related to the second SL DRX configuration is received by the first device on the SL resource that is within the second active time related to the second SL DRX configuration, and wherein the second SCI includes a destination ID or a source ID not related to the second SL DRX configuration.
Kung teaches wherein the MAC PDU not related to the second SL DRX configuration is received by the first device on the SL resource that is within the second active time related to the second SL DRX configuration, and wherein the second SCI includes a destination ID or a source ID not related to the second SL DRX configuration. ([0129-0156] The MAC entity shall have a sidelink grant on an active SL BWP to determine a set of PSSCH duration(s) in which transmission of SCI occurs and a set of PSSCH duration(s) .... PSCCH and PSSCH corresponding to the number of transmission opportunities of MAC PDUs ) ( fig. 7 and [0407]The sidelink grant 702 is indicative of a first sidelink transmission opportunity at a timing t2 .... based on DRX configurations (e.g., DRX patterns))
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to add the teaching of Kung to the teaching of Jeong. The motivation for such an addition would be to handling logical channel prioritization regarding sidelink discontinuous reception in a wireless communication system ([0002] Kung).
Regarding to claim 13,
Jeong and Kung teaches the method of claim 1,
Jeong further teaches wherein the second device is allowed to transmit the MAC PDU and the second SCI including a destination ID related to the first SL DRX configuration, (fig.9) and [0090-0093] and [0090] A MAC protocol layer performs packet filtering (e.g., determine whether the received packet is actually destined to the UE (based on the L2 source and destination ids in the MAC header), SL carrier/resource pool/resource within the resource pool (re)selection, priority handling between SL and UL for a given UE, SL logical channel prioritization, the corresponding packet multiplexing (e.g., multiplexing multiple MAC service data units (SDUs) into a given MAC protocol data unit (PDU)) and SL HARQ retransmissions/receptions.) And ([0097] Following information is transmitted by means of the SCI format 2-A ... (4) a source ID ... (5) a destination ID).
Jeong does not explicitly teaches outside the first active time related to the first SL DRX configuration and within the second active time related to the second SL DRX configuration.
Kung further teaches outside the first active time related to the first SL DRX configuration and within the second active time related to the second SL DRX configuration. (fig. 7 and [0407] The Rx UE 1 is not in active time at timing t2 (e.g., the timing t2 is outside of active time of the Rx UE 1). … The Tx UE selects, from among the set of destination identities. the destination identity 2 for performing the sidelink transmission 704 … based on the second data associated with the destination identity 2 having a highest priority among data associated with the set of destination identities … ).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to add the teaching of Kung to the teaching of Jeong. The motivation for such an addition would be to handling logical channel prioritization regarding sidelink discontinuous reception in a wireless communication system ([0002] Kung).
Claim(s) 7, and 11-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Jeong and Kung and further in view of Hoang (US 20210243749 A1), hereinafter Hoang.
Regarding to claim 7,
Jeong and Kung teaches the method of claim 1,
Jeong does not explicitly teaches wherein, based on that a priority related to the MAC PDU is higher than a priority threshold, the MAC PDU related to the first SL DRX configuration is received by the first device on the SL resource that is outside the first active time related to the first SL DRX configuration and within the second active time related to the second SL DRX configuration.
Kung teaches wherein ([0129-0156] The MAC entity shall have a sidelink grant on an active SL BWP to determine a set of PSSCH duration(s) in which transmission of SCI occurs and a set of PSSCH duration(s) .... PSCCH and PSSCH corresponding to the number of transmission opportunities of MAC PDUs ) and ( fig. 7 and [0407]The sidelink grant 702 is indicative of a first sidelink transmission opportunity at a timing t2 .... based on DRX configurations (e.g., DRX patterns))
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to add the teaching of Kung to the teaching of Jeong. The motivation for such an addition would be to handling logical channel prioritization regarding sidelink discontinuous reception in a wireless communication system ([0002] Kung).
Jeong and Kung does not teaches based on that a priority related to the MAC PDU is higher than a priority threshold
Hoang teaches based on that a priority related to the MAC PDU is higher than a priority threshold ([0160]the WTRU may determine to transmit SCI_Notification message(s) if a priority... of the MAC PDU is greater than a threshold).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to add the teaching of Hoang to the teaching of Jeong and Kung. The motivation for such an addition would be to reduce the probability of collision for high priority, high reliability or high latency data by providing notice in advanced of these transmissions. (Hoang [0160] )
Regarding to claim 11,
Jeong and Kung teaches the method of claim 1,
Jeong does not explicitly teaches wherein, based on that a latency requirement related to the MAC PDU is lower than a threshold, the MAC PDU related to the first SL DRX configuration is received by the first device on the SL resource that is outside the first active time related to the first SL DRX configuration and within the second active time related to the second SL DRX configuration.
Kung teaches wherein, the SL resource that is outside the first active time related to the first SL DRX configuration and within the second active time related to the second SL DRX configuration. ([0129-0156] The MAC entity shall have a sidelink grant on an active SL BWP to determine a set of PSSCH duration(s) in which transmission of SCI occurs and a set of PSSCH duration(s) .... PSCCH and PSSCH corresponding to the number of transmission opportunities of MAC PDUs ) and ( fig. 7 and [0407]The sidelink grant 702 is indicative of a first sidelink transmission opportunity at a timing t2 .... based on DRX configurations (e.g., DRX patterns))
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to add the teaching of Kung to the teaching of Jeong. The motivation for such an addition would be to handling logical channel prioritization regarding sidelink discontinuous reception in a wireless communication system ([0002] Kung).
Jeong and Kung does not teaches based on that a latency requirement related to the MAC PDU is lower than a threshold
Hoang teaches based on that a latency requirement related to the MAC PDU is lower than a threshold ([0189] when the remaining latency requirement(s) of certain TBs is or are below a threshold.).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to add the teaching of Hoang to the teaching of Jeong and Kung. The motivation for such an addition would be to reduce the probability of collision for high priority, high reliability or high latency data by providing notice in advanced of these transmissions. (Hoang [0160] )
Regarding to claim 12,
Jeong and Kung teaches the method of claim 1,
Jeong does not explicitly teaches wherein based on that a reliability requirement related to the MAC PDU is higher than a threshold, the MAC PDU related to the first SL DRX configuration is received by the first device on the SL resource that is outside the first active time related to the first SL DRX configuration and within the second active time related to the second SL DRX configuration.
Kung teaches wherein, ([0129-0156] The MAC entity shall have a sidelink grant on an active SL BWP to determine a set of PSSCH duration(s) in which transmission of SCI occurs and a set of PSSCH duration(s) .... PSCCH and PSSCH corresponding to the number of transmission opportunities of MAC PDUs ) and ( fig. 7 and [0407]The sidelink grant 702 is indicative of a first sidelink transmission opportunity at a timing t2 .... based on DRX configurations (e.g., DRX patterns))
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to add the teaching of Kung to the teaching of Jeong. The motivation for such an addition would be to handling logical channel prioritization regarding sidelink discontinuous reception in a wireless communication system ([0002] Kung).
Jeong and Kung does not teaches based on that a reliability requirement related to the MAC PDU is higher than a threshold
Hoang teaches based on that a latency requirement related to the MAC PDU is lower than a threshold ([0160]the WTRU may determine to transmit SCI_Notification message(s) if a ... reliability ...of the MAC PDU is greater than a threshold).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to add the teaching of Hoang to the teaching of Jeong and Kung. The motivation for such an addition would be to reduce the probability of collision for high priority, high reliability or high latency data by providing notice in advanced of these transmissions. (Hoang [0160] )
Claim(s) 8 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable Jeong and Kung and Hoang and further in view of Hahn (US12294998B2) hereinafter Hahn.
Regarding to claim 8,
Jeong and Kung and Hoang teaches the method of claim 7,
Jeong and Kung and Hoang does not explicitly teach wherein a priority related to the MAC PDU is included in the first SCI.
Hahn further teaches wherein a priority related to the MAC PDU is included in the first SCI (col 13 row 44 to column 14 row 5, The 1st-stage SCI may include or more information elements among priority information… ).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to add the teaching of Hahn to the teaching of Jeong and Kung and Hoang. The motivation for such an addition would be to perform receiving data scheduled by the SCIs efficiently (column 4 row 1-5, Hahn).
Claim(s) 9 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Jeong and Kung and further in view of Jung (US 11469861 B2),hereinafter Jung.
Regarding to claim 9
Jeong and Kung teaches the method of claim 1,
Jeong does not explicitly teaches wherein, based on that a remaining packet delay budget (PDB) related to the MAC PDU is less than a threshold, the MAC PDU related to the first SL DRX configuration is received by the first device on the SL resource that is outside the first active time related to the first SL DRX configuration and within the second active time related to the second SL DRX configuration.
Kung teaches wherein, ([0129-0156] The MAC entity shall have a sidelink grant on an active SL BWP to determine a set of PSSCH duration(s) in which transmission of SCI occurs and a set of PSSCH duration(s) .... PSCCH and PSSCH corresponding to the number of transmission opportunities of MAC PDUs ) and ( fig. 7 and [0407]The sidelink grant 702 is indicative of a first sidelink transmission opportunity at a timing t2 .... based on DRX configurations (e.g., DRX patterns))
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to add the teaching of Kung to the teaching of Jeong. The motivation for such an addition would be to handling logical channel prioritization regarding sidelink discontinuous reception in a wireless communication system ([0002] Kung).
Jeong and Kung does not teaches based on that a remaining packet delay budget (PDB) related to the MAC PDU is less than a threshold.
Jung teaches based on that a remaining packet delay budget (PDB) related to the MAC PDU is less than a threshold, (claim 1) performing retransmission of the MAC PDU based on the remaining PDB of the MAC PDU being less than or equal to the threshold).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to add the teaching of Jung to the teaching of Jeong and Kung. The motivation for such an addition would be to perform retransmission efficiently (Jung (column 2 , row 40-45 )
Claim(s) 10 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Jeong and Kung and Jung and further in view of Li(US 12336041 B2),hereinafter Li .
Regarding Claim 10,
Jeong and Kung and Jung teaches the method of claim 9,
Jeong and Kung and Jung does not explicitly teaches wherein the threshold is configured for each priority related to the MAC PDU.
Li further teaches wherein the threshold is configured for each priority related to the MAC PDU. (fig. 12, column 16 row 10 – 48, scalable sidelink SL DRX (sSL-DRX) with different starting points and active lengths within an SL DRX On duration for different QoS requirements (e.g., QoS flows with different requirements for priority, latency, reliability or error rate, data rate or data volume, etc.) ... UE pair with different SL DRX on offsets (e.g., sl-drx-OnOffset) and different SL DRX active length (e.g., sl-drx-ActiveLength) within an SL DRX On duration to form different finer SL DRX active phases for different packet delay budget).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to add the teaching of Li to the teaching of Jeong and Kung and Jung. The motivation for such an addition would be to improved feedback signaling (Li (column2 , row 1-5 ))
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). 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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to VAN T NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)272-6178. The examiner can normally be reached 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM (EST). 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, Ayman A Abaza can be reached at (571) 270-0422. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/VAN TA NGUYEN/Examiner, Art Unit 2465
/YEE F LAM/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2465
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