DETAILED ACTION
In response to communication filed on 5/18/2026.
Claims 21,26-34,38, and 41-49 are pending.
Claims 21,32-34,38 and 41-49 are rejected.
Claims 26-30 are objected to for having allowable subject matter.
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 Under 37 CFR 1.114
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 5/18/2026 has been entered.
Response to Amendments
This communication is in response to Applicant’s reply filed under 3 CFR 1.111 on 5/18/2026. Claims 21,34, and 38 were amended and claims 21,26-34,38, and 41-49 remain pending.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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.
Claims 21,32-34,38,41,44, and 47 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Huang et al. (WO 2022/077523)(H1 hereafter).
Regarding claims 21,34 and 38, H1 teaches a first device (i.e. terminal)[refer Fig. 12][paragraph 0320 of English Translation] comprising:
at least one transceiver (i.e. antenna)[paragraph 0320 of English Translation]; at least one processor [refer Fig. 12; 1210][paragraph 0322 of English Translation]; and
at least one memory connected to the at least one processor and storing instructions [paragraph 0320 of English Translation] that, based on being executed, cause the first device to perform operations comprising:
performing partial sensing on at least one first slot [paragraph 0111 of English Translation]; and
performing physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH) and physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH) reception on at least one second slot [paragraph 0188 of English Translation],
based on the first device being configured to perform the partial sensing (a terminal can be in a partial sensing resource selection mode [paragraph 0155 of English Translation] and a time unit to be monitored in partial sensing resource selection in a measurement window [paragraph 0268 of English Translation]), sidelink (SL) received signal strength indicator (RSSI) is measured in the at least one first slot where the first device performs the partial sensing [paragraph 0304 of English Translation] and the at least one second slot where the first device performs the PSCCH and PSSCH reception (SL-RSSI is defined as a linear average of a total received power of an OFDM symbol configured as a PSCCH and a PSSCH starting from a second orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol in a slot)[paragraph 0081 of English Translation] within a channel busy ratio (CBR) measurement window (i.e. sidelink RSSI or RSRP measurements are within a CBR measurement window (n-a, n-1))[paragraph 0077 of English Translation].
Regarding claim 32, H1 teaches a length of the CBR measurement window is determined in units of logical slots (i.e. equal to 100 slots or 100ms)[paragraph 0077 of English Translation].
Regarding claim 33, H1 teaches the at least one second slot is a slot included in an active time duration (i.e. active time period) related to SL discontinuous reception (DRX)(a time period may be a DRX active time unit in the first measurement window)[paragraph 0255 of English Translation].
Regarding claims 41,44, and 47, H1 teaches a CBR value is obtained based on a portion of sub-channels in a resource pool (i.e. resources) whose SL RSSI measured by the first device exceed a threshold sensed over the CBR measurement window [paragraph 0078 of English Translation].
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 31 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Huang et al. (WO 2022/077523)(H1 hereafter) in view of Mok et al. (US Pub. 2018/0124771)(M2 hereafter).
Regarding claim 31, H1 fails to disclose a length of the CBR measurement window is determined based on a type of the first device, and the type of the first device includes either of a vehicle UE or a roadside unit (RSU).
M2 discloses that a UE can be mounted on a vehicle or on a fixed RSU, in which a base station can configure a UE with period information to report resources of a zone used by the terminal and a CBR based on the period information (i.e. window determined based on a type of device)[paragraph 0263].
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of H1 to incorporate the configuration of a zone and period for measuring CBR for a vehicle as taught by M2. One would be motivated to do so to provide better reliability for vehicle communications [refer M2 paragraph 0011].
Claims 42,43,45,46,48 and 49 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over H1 in view of Zhao et al. (US Pub. 2023/0345550)(Z1 hereafter).
Regarding claims 42,45, and 48, H1 fails to disclose a calculation of a CBR value is limited within the at least one first slot and the at least one second slot (i.e. interval) for which the SL RSSI is measured.
Z1 discloses that in a measurement window from slot n-a to slot n-1, a channel busy ratio (CBR) measurement value measured in slot n is defined as a proportion of sub channels having a received signal strength indication (RSSI) measurement value greater than a configured threshold in a sidelink resource pool [paragraph 0030], a measurement time unit may have limitations set, such as time units in a measurement unit set no later than first time unit [paragraph 0041].
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of H1 for measured CBR values [refer H1; paragraph 0170 of English Translation] to incorporate the use of a particular CBR value as taught by Z1. One would be motivated to do so to provide the use of a known procedure within the field of endeavor to yield predictable results with regards to CBR measurements [refer Z1; paragraph 0030].
Regarding claims 43,46, and 49, H1 fails to disclose a default CBR value is used based on that a number of the at least one first slot and the at least one second slot for which the SL RSSI is measured within the CBR measurement window is less than a threshold.
Z1 discloses, in the field of CBR measurements measured in a slot n defined for RSSI measurement in a sidelink resource pool [paragraph 0030], that if a UE cannot obtain a sidelink channel busy measurement value corresponding to a first time unit, the user equipment uses a default measurement value as the channel busy measurement value [paragraph 0085], it can be understood that a plurality of time units whose time interval with a second time unit is not greater than the first time length threshold form a time range, and the first time unit is one of the time units within the time range (i.e. less than a threshold) [paragraph 0079].
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of H1 to incorporate the use of a default CBR measurement value for RSSI measurement as taught by Z1. One would be motivated to do so to ensure that a busy measurement value of the sidelink channel can be obtained in a time when transmission is required [refer Z1; paragraph 0003].
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 26-30 are 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.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see pages 6-9 of the applicants arguments, filed 5/18/2026, with respect to the rejection of claims 21,34 and 38 under 35 U.S.C. 103 have been fully considered and are persuasive in view of the amendments. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration in view of the interpretations of the claim language as now required by the amendments, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of Huang et al. (WO 2022/077523)(H1 hereafter) as noted in the above rejection.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to RYAN C KAVLESKI whose telephone number is (571)270-3619. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 6:30am-3pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Charles C Jiang can be reached on 571-270-7191. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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Ryan Kavleski
/R.C.K/Examiner, Art Unit 2412
/CHARLES C JIANG/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2412
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