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 .
This office action is responsive to the amendment filed 2/9/26.
Claims 1-3, 10, and 15-18, and 20-31 are pending.
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim(s) 1, 15, 29, and 30 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ye et al., US 2022/0322360, (“Ye”) in view of Mohammad Soleymani et al., US 2023/0309119, (“Mohammad”), newly cited.
Independent Claims
Regarding claim 1, Ye teaches “A method performed by a first user equipment (UE) (see, e.g., Fig. 9 and the UE 106 shown in, e.g., Figs. 2-3), comprising:
receiving, from a second UE, information associated with a pre-emption check procedure on a second reserved resource of the second UE (Fig. 9, step 902; paragraph no. 0132, “At 902, a UE, such as UE 106, may receive, from a coordinating UE, a set of non-preferred resources via an inter-UE coordination message”; the coordinating UE reads on the “a second UE”; see also, paragraph no. 0133, “wherein the set of non-preferred resources may be treated as reserved resources by other UEs, with RSRP level and data priority in an associated SCI being provided via the inter-UE coordination message”; see also, paragraph nos. 0123, 0124 and in particular, paragraph no. 0124 which describes in detail a pre-emption check procedure performed by the coordinating UE (“second UE”) prior to sending the inter-UE coordination message; the pre-emption check procedure disclosed in paragraph no. 0124 is consistent with the pre-emption check procedure described in applicant’s specification, see paragraph no. 0027 of applicant’s specification); and
making an adjustment relating to a first transmission on a first reserved resource of the first UE according to the information” (Fig. 9, step 904; paragraph no. 0133, “At 904, the UE may update a set of selected resources based on the inter-UE coordination message and whether the UE has already reserved the selected resources … As another example, if the UE has reserved the selected resources (e.g., via SCI signaling), the UE may pass the selected and reserved resources to the physical layer as well as the set of non-preferred resources. Then, the physical layer may perform a pre-emption check on the selected resources at 906”; see also, paragraph no. 0134 which discloses additional details of the resource adjustment process as part of selecting the resources for sidelink communications).
Ye does not teach but Mohammad teaches “wherein the information includes an indication that the second UE will perform the pre-emption check procedure on the second reserved resource or that the second UE will not perform the pre-emption check procedure on the second reserved resource” (see paragraph no. 0124, “According to a third option, resources reserved by UE performing random selection without re-evaluation/pre-emption checking can be excluded, regardless of their priorities. E.g. a 1-bit field in the SCI may indicate that the UE is performing random resource selection and not performing re-evaluation and pre-emption checking”) as recited in claim 1.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of this claimed invention to modify Ye by incorporating the teachings of Mohammad to enable improved coordination of resource selection between the two UEs engaged in SL communications, e.g., to exclude such resources regardless of their priorities, as suggested by Mohammed in paragraph no. 0124.
Regarding independent claim 15, this independent claim is a corresponding apparatus (i.e. UE) claim of the method claim 1 and recites similar subject matter. As such, the rationale behind the above rejection of claim 1 applies with equal force to this independent claim and as further amplified below to highlight the minor differences between the claims.
Regarding further independent claim 15, see Fig. 3 for the claimed structural elements of this claim.
Regarding independent claim 30, Ye teaches “A first user equipment (UE) for wireless communication (see, e.g., Figs. 2-3: the “first UE” reads on the coordinating UE, infra), comprising:
at least one memory (Fig. 3, memory 306); and
at least one processor (Fig. 3, processor 302) coupled with the at least one memory and configured to cause the UE to:
transmit, to a second UE, information associated with a pre-emption check procedure on a reserved resource of the first UE” (Fig. 9, step 902, the coordinating UE (“first UE”) transmits a set of non-preferred resources via an inter-UE coordination message and the inter-UE coordination message is received at step 902 by a coordinated UE (“second UE”); paragraph no. 0132, “At 902, a UE, such as UE 106, may receive, from a coordinating UE, a set of non-preferred resources via an inter-UE coordination message”; see also, paragraph no. 0133, “wherein the set of non-preferred resources may be treated as reserved resources by other UEs, with RSRP level and data priority in an associated SCI being provided via the inter-UE coordination message”; see also, paragraph nos. 0123, 0124 and in particular, paragraph no. 0124 which describes in detail a pre-emption check procedure performed by the coordinating UE (“first UE”) prior to sending the inter-UE coordination message; the pre-emption check procedure disclosed in paragraph no. 0124 is consistent with the pre-emption check procedure described in applicant’s specification, see paragraph no. 0027 of applicant’s specification).
Ye does not teach but Mohammad teaches “wherein the information includes an indication that the first UE will perform the pre-emption check procedure on the reserved resource or that the first UE will not perform the pre-emption check procedure on the reserved resource” (see paragraph no. 0124, “According to a third option, resources reserved by UE performing random selection without re-evaluation/pre-emption checking can be excluded, regardless of their priorities. E.g. a 1-bit field in the SCI may indicate that the UE is performing random resource selection and not performing re-evaluation and pre-emption checking”) as recited in claim 30.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of this claimed invention to modify Ye by incorporating the teachings of Mohammad to enable improved coordination of resource selection between the two UEs engaged in SL communications.
Regarding independent claim 29, this independent claim is a corresponding method claim of the apparatus claim 30 and recites similar subject matter. As such, the rationale behind the above rejection of claim 30 applies with equal force to this independent claim.
Claim(s) 2, 16, and 31 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ye and Mohammad as applied to claims 1 and 15 above and further in view of Li et al., US 2023/0309125, (“Li”).
Regarding claims 2, 16 and 31, Ye does not teach but Li teaches “wherein the information is received via at least one of: a first stage sidelink control information (SCI); and a second stage SCI” (see paragraph no. 0236 which discloses that a first terminal may transmit assistance information to a second terminal via a two-stage SCI and the assistance information is carried in the second stage SCI).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of this claimed invention to modify Ye and Mohammad by incorporating the teachings of Li to enable the UE to take advantage of the known benefits of two stage SCI such as increased flexibility in the amount and type of control information that the two stage SCI can carry.
Claim(s) 3, 17-18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ye and Mohammad as applied to claims 1, 15 above and further in view of the 3GPP document entitled “Discussion on resource allocation for power saving” by LG Electronics, R1-2100517, (“LG Electronics”).
Regarding claims 3 and 17, Ye does not teach but LG Electronics teaches “wherein the information includes at least one of:
a UE type of the second UE” (see page 4, Proposal 6 which discloses that the SCI indicates the type of UE: power-saving UE or vehicle UE).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of this claimed invention to modify Ye and Mohammad by incorporating the teachings of LG Electronics to enable the transmitting UE to select its resources for SL communications based on the type of UE that transmitted the inter-UE coordination message.
Regarding claim 18, Ye does not teach but LG Electronics teaches “wherein the UE type of the second UE is one of: a power sensitive UE type; and a non-power sensitive UE type” (see page 4, Proposal 6, supra).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of this claimed invention to further modify Ye and Mohammad and LG Electronics by incorporating the additional teachings of LG Electronics to enable the transmitting UE to select its resources for SL communications based on the specific type of UE that transmitted the inter-UE coordination message.
Claim(s) 23 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ye, Mohammad, and LG Electronics as applied to claim 17 above and further in view of Li.
Regarding claim 23, Ye does not teach “wherein at least one of the indication, the second indication, the third indication, and the fourth indication is implicitly carried by at least one of: a format of a second stage SCI; a radio network temporary identifier (RNTI) of at least one of a first stage SCI and the second stage SCI; and a destination identifier (ID) of a traffic of the second UE.”
Li teaches that assistance information can be carried in the second stage SCI, see paragraph no. 0236. Hence, Li teaches or at least suggests the first alternative limitation “a format of a second stage SCI.”
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of this claimed invention to modify Ye, Mohammad and LG Electronics by incorporating the teachings of Li to convey, e.g., the UE type of the second UE, via a second stage SCI since the UE type is merely an another example of UE assistance information that can be included in the second stage SCI. Such a modification would allow the UE to use the known two stage SCI format to transmit more control information to the receiving UE.
Claim(s) 10, 24-28 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ye and Mohammad as applied to claims 1 and 15 above and further in view of Zhao, US 2023/0254817, (“Zhao”).
Regarding claims 10 and 24, Ye teaches “wherein in response to the second UE being a power sensitive UE, making the adjustment relating to the first transmission further comprises at least one of:
triggering a resource re-selection scheme for the first transmission (Fig. 9, step 904; note that the coordinating UE (see paragraph no. 0132) is a “power sensitive UE” as the term “power sensitive” is broadly construed in view of BRI); and
increasing a power of the first transmission; and
in response to the second UE being a non-power sensitive UE:
in response to a priority threshold being configured to the first UE and the second UE and in response to a traffic priority associated with a second transmission on the second reserved resource being higher than both the priority threshold and a traffic priority associated with the first transmission, making the adjustment relating to the first transmission further comprises triggering the resource re-selection scheme for the first transmission; or
in response to the priority threshold not being configured to the first UE and the second UE and in response to the traffic priority associated with the second transmission being higher than the traffic priority associated with the first transmission, making the adjustment relating to the first transmission further comprises triggering the resource re-selection scheme for the first transmission.”
Ye does not teach but Zhao teaches “in response to detecting that the second reserved resource is fully or partially overlapped with the first reserved resource and in response to a sidelink reference signal received power (SL-RSRP) measurement result associated with the second reserved resource being higher than an associated SL-RSRP threshold” (see paragraph no. 0123, “In response to the user equipment A finds that the resource reserved by the user equipment B overlaps with own previous reserved resource in time frequency resources through monitoring … and the RSRP measurement value corresponding to the resource reserved by the user equipment B exceeds a measurement threshold, the user equipment A reselects a resource, and no longer uses a previously reserved resource for transmission”) as recited in claims 10 and 24.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of this claimed invention to modify Ye and Mohammad by incorporating the teachings of Zhao to improve the resource reselection of the coordinated UE (i.e., first UE) by taking into account the resource collisions and the RSRP measurement value of the reserved resource of the coordinating UE (i.e., second UE), as suggested by Zhao in paragraph no. 0123.
Regarding claim 25, Ye teaches “ wherein in response to that the second UE will perform the pre-emption check procedure on the second reserved resource, to make the adjustment relating to the first transmission is to at least one of:
trigger a resource re-selection scheme for the first transmission (Fig. 9, step 904; note that the coordinating UE (i.e., second UE - see paragraph no. 0132) performs a pre-emption check procedure on the second reserved resource (see paragraph no. 0124); and
increase a power of the first transmission; and
in response to that the second UE will not perform the pre-emption check procedure on the second reserved resource:
in response to a priority threshold being configured to the first UE and the second UE and in response to a traffic priority associated with a second transmission on the second reserved resource being higher than both the priority threshold and a traffic priority associated with the first transmission, to make the adjustment relating to the first transmission is to trigger the resource re-selection scheme for the first transmission; or
in response to the priority threshold not being configured to the first UE and the second UE and in response to the traffic priority associated with the second transmission being higher than the traffic priority associated with the first transmission, to make the adjustment relating to the first transmission is to trigger the resource re-selection scheme for the first transmission.”
Ye does not teach but Zhao teaches “in response to detecting that the second reserved resource is fully or partially overlapped with the first reserved resource and in response to a sidelink reference signal received power (SL-RSRP) measurement result associated with the second reserved resource being higher than an associated SL-RSRP threshold” (see paragraph no. 0123, “In response to the user equipment A finds that the resource reserved by the user equipment B overlaps with own previous reserved resource in time frequency resources through monitoring … and the RSRP measurement value corresponding to the resource reserved by the user equipment B exceeds a measurement threshold, the user equipment A reselects a resource, and no longer uses a previously reserved resource for transmission”) as recited in claim 25.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of this claimed invention to modify Ye and Mohammad by incorporating the teachings of Zhao to improve the resource reselection of the coordinated UE (i.e., first UE) by taking into account the resource collisions and the RSRP measurement value of the reserved resource of the coordinating UE (i.e., second UE), as suggested by Zhao in paragraph no. 0123.
Regarding claim 26, Ye does not teach but Zhao teaches “wherein in response to detecting that the second reserved resource is fully or partially overlapped with the first reserved resource and in response to a sidelink reference signal received power (SL-RSRP) measurement result associated with the second reserved resource being higher than an associated SL-RSRP threshold (see paragraph no. 0123, “In response to the user equipment A finds that the resource reserved by the user equipment B overlaps with own previous reserved resource in time frequency resources through monitoring … and the RSRP measurement value corresponding to the resource reserved by the user equipment B exceeds a measurement threshold, the user equipment A reselects a resource, and no longer uses a previously reserved resource for transmission):
in response to the second UE not having a sidelink reception capability, to make the adjustment relating to the first transmission is to at least one of:
trigger a resource re-selection scheme for the first transmission; and
increase a power of the first transmission; and
in response to the second UE having the sidelink reception capability:
in response to a priority threshold being configured to the first UE and the second UE and in response to a traffic priority associated with a second transmission on the second reserved resource being higher than both the priority threshold and a traffic priority associated with the first transmission, to make the adjustment relating to the first transmission is to trigger the resource re-selection scheme for the first transmission; or
in response to the priority threshold not being configured to the first UE and the second UE and in response to the traffic priority associated with the second transmission being higher than the traffic priority associated with the first transmission, to make the adjustment relating to the first transmission is to trigger the resource re-selection scheme for the first transmission” (see paragraph no. 0123, “sidelink transmission priority corresponding to the resource reserved by the user equipment B is higher than own sidelink transmission priority, and the RSRP measurement value corresponding to the resource reserved by the user equipment B exceeds a measurement threshold, the user equipment A reselects a resource, and no longer uses a previously reserved resource for transmission”; the negative limitation “in response to the priority threshold not being configured to the first UE and the second UE” is taught by Zhao since Zhao does not teach configuring priority thresholds at both of the UEs; note that the user equipment B has sidelink reception capability).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of this claimed invention to modify Ye and Mohammad by incorporating the teachings of Zhao to improve the resource reselection of the coordinated UE (i.e., first UE) by taking into account the resource collisions, the RSRP measurement value of the reserved resource of the coordinating UE (i.e., second UE) and the data priorities of the two UEs, as suggested by Zhao in paragraph no. 0123.
Regarding claim 27, Ye does not teach but Zhao teaches “wherein in response to detecting that the second reserved resource is fully or partially overlapped with the first reserved resource and in response to a sidelink reference signal received power (SL-RSRP) measurement result associated with the second reserved resource being higher than an associated SL-RSRP threshold (see paragraph no. 0123, “In response to the user equipment A finds that the resource reserved by the user equipment B overlaps with own previous reserved resource in time frequency resources through monitoring … and the RSRP measurement value corresponding to the resource reserved by the user equipment B exceeds a measurement threshold, the user equipment A reselects a resource, and no longer uses a previously reserved resource for transmission):
in response to the second UE not having a SCI reception capability, to make the adjustment relating to the first transmission is to at least one of:trigger a resource re-selection scheme for the first transmission; and increase a power of the first transmission; and
in response to the second UE having the SCI reception capability:
in response to a priority threshold being configured to the first UE and the second UE and in response to a traffic priority associated with a second transmission on the second reserved resource being higher than both the priority threshold and a traffic priority associated with the first transmission, to make the adjustment relating to the first transmission is to trigger the resource re-selection scheme for the first transmission; or
in response to the priority threshold not being configured to the first UE and the second UE and in response to the traffic priority associated with the second transmission being higher than the traffic priority associated with the first transmission, to make the adjustment relating to the first transmission is to trigger the resource re-selection scheme for the first transmission” (see paragraph no. 0123, “sidelink transmission priority corresponding to the resource reserved by the user equipment B is higher than own sidelink transmission priority, and the RSRP measurement value corresponding to the resource reserved by the user equipment B exceeds a measurement threshold, the user equipment A reselects a resource, and no longer uses a previously reserved resource for transmission”; the negative limitation “in response to the priority threshold not being configured to the first UE and the second UE” is taught by Zhao since Zhao does not teach configuring priority thresholds at both of the UEs; note that the user equipment B has SCI reception capability).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of this claimed invention to modify Ye and Mohammad by incorporating the teachings of Zhao to improve the resource reselection of the coordinated UE (i.e., first UE) by taking into account the resource collisions, the RSRP measurement value of the reserved resource of the coordinating UE (i.e., second UE) and the data priorities of the two UEs, as suggested by Zhao in paragraph no. 0123.
Regarding claim 28, Ye does not teach but Zhao teaches “wherein in response to detecting that the second reserved resource is fully or partially overlapped with the first reserved resource and in response to a sidelink reference signal received power (SL-RSRP) measurement result associated with the second reserved resource being higher than an associated SL-RSRP threshold (see paragraph no. 0123, “In response to the user equipment A finds that the resource reserved by the user equipment B overlaps with own previous reserved resource in time frequency resources through monitoring … and the RSRP measurement value corresponding to the resource reserved by the user equipment B exceeds a measurement threshold, the user equipment A reselects a resource, and no longer uses a previously reserved resource for transmission) :
in response to the second UE not having a sensing capability, to make the adjustment relating to the first transmission is to at least one of:
trigger a resource re-selection scheme for the first transmission; and increase a power of the first transmission; and
in response to the second UE having the sensing capability:
in response to a priority threshold being configured to the first UE and the second UE and in response to a traffic priority associated with a second transmission on the second reserved resource being higher than both the priority threshold and a traffic priority associated with the first transmission, to make the adjustment relating to the first transmission is to trigger the resource re-selection scheme for the first transmission; or
in response to the priority threshold not being configured to the first UE and the second UE and in response to the traffic priority associated with the second transmission being higher than the traffic priority associated with the first transmission, to make the adjustment relating to the first transmission is to trigger the resource re-selection scheme for the first transmission” (see paragraph no. 0123, “sidelink transmission priority corresponding to the resource reserved by the user equipment B is higher than own sidelink transmission priority, and the RSRP measurement value corresponding to the resource reserved by the user equipment B exceeds a measurement threshold, the user equipment A reselects a resource, and no longer uses a previously reserved resource for transmission”; the negative limitation “in response to the priority threshold not being configured to the first UE and the second UE” is taught by Zhao since Zhao does not teach configuring priority thresholds at both of the UEs; note that the user equipment B has sensing capability; note also that Ye teaches that the second UE has sensing capability.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of this claimed invention to modify Ye and Mohammad by incorporating the teachings of Zhao to improve the resource reselection of the coordinated UE (i.e., first UE) by taking into account the resource collisions, the RSRP measurement value of the reserved resource of the coordinating UE (i.e., second UE) and the data priorities of the two UEs, as suggested by Zhao in paragraph no. 0123.
Claim(s) 20-21 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ye, Mohammed, and LG Electronics as applied to claim 17 above, and further in view of Uchiyama et al., US 2021/0105066, (“Uchiyama”).
Regarding claim 20, Ye does not teach but Uchiyama teaches “wherein the second indication indicates one of: the second UE has the sidelink reception capability; and the second UE does not have the sidelink reception capability” (see paragraph nos. 0209-0210, 0212 which disclose that a remote UE may notify another UE of the sidelink reception capability information through SCI upon connection to the another UE).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of this claimed invention to modify Ye, Mohammad, and LG Electronics by incorporating the teachings of Uchiyama to enable the second UE to identify its capabilities to the first UE, thereby improving the SL communications between the two UEs.
Regarding claim 21, Ye does not teach but Uchiyama teaches or at least suggests “wherein the third indication indicates one of: the second UE has the SCI reception capability; and the second UE does not have the SCI reception capability” (see in particular, paragraph no. 0210 which discloses that the SL RX capability may be SL Dedicated capability which implicitly includes the capability to receive SCI since SCI must necessarily be received to receive the subsequent SL data transmitted in a PSSCH).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of this claimed invention to modify Ye, Mohammad, and LG Electronics by incorporating the teachings of Uchiyama to enable the second UE to identify its SL reception capabilities to the first UE, thereby improving the SL communications between the two UEs.
Claim(s) 22 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ye, Mohammad, and LG Electronics as applied to claim 17 above, and further in view of Hoang et al., US 2023/0300713, (“Hoang”).
Ye does not teach but Hoang teaches “wherein the fourth indication indicates one of: the second UE has the sensing capability; and the second UE does not have the sensing capability” (see paragraph nos. 0289, 0304, 0307 which disclose that a UE transmits its sensing capability to another UE).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of this claimed invention to modify Ye, Mohammad, and LG Electronics by incorporating the teachings of Hoang to enable the second UE to identify its sensing capabilities to the first UE, thereby improving the SL communications between the two UEs.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1, 15, 29, and 30 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.
Conclusion
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/WON TAE C KIM/Examiner, Art Unit 2414