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 . This Action is in response to Applicant’s remarks and amended claims filed on December 11, 2025. Claims 11-12 are now pending in the present application. This Action is made FINAL.
Response to Amendment
2. The outstanding rejections of Claims 11 and 12 under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) are withdrawn in light of Applicant's amendment to Claims 11 and 12 filed on December 11, 2025.
Specification
3. The amendments to the specification regarding the title received on December 11, 2025. These amendments to the title are NOT accepted.
The title of the invention is not descriptive. A new title is required that is clearly indicative of the invention to which the claims are directed.
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 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.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
4. 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 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 of this title, 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.
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.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied 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 11 and 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Li et al. (U.S. Patent Application Publication # 2023/0262835 A1) in view of R2-2100514 (“Definition of the Active Time in SL DRX”, January 2021).
Regarding claim 11, Li et al. teach a user equipment (Fig(s).1 @ 12-13 and 17 @ 600), comprising:
at least one processor (Fig(s).17 @ 61); and
at least one non-transitory machine-readable medium (Fig(s).17 @ 62) coupled to the at least one processor (Fig(s).17 @ 61) and storing one or more computer-executable instructions (read as computer instructions (Paragraph [0271])) that, when executed by the at least one processor (Fig(s).17 @ 61), cause the user equipment (Fig(s).1 @ 12-13 and 17 @ 600) to:
receive a sidelink control information (SCI) (Fig.12 @ S701); and
However, Li et al. fail to explicitly teach the step to determine a value of a sidelink (SL) discontinuous reception (SL DRX) round trip time (RTT) timer based on at least a time interval indicated in the received SCI.
The R2-2100514 document teaches a method to determine a value of a sidelink (SL) discontinuous reception (SL DRX) round trip time (RTT) timer (read as a value of the SL inactivity timer) based on at least a time interval (a transmission schedule/priority) indicated in the received SCI. (read as “reset the SL inactivity timer for a unicast link/L2 destination ID when it receives an SCI scheduling a transmission.”(Section 2.2, page 3) For example, “RX UE determines the value of the inactivity timer based on the priority of the transmission which restarted the timer”(Section 2.2, page 2))
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to employ the function for generating and transmitting a SCI configured with a scheduling transmission to reset an inactive timer as taught by the R2-2100514 document with the terminal device(s) as taught by Li et al. for the purpose of enhancing sidelink control information by devices in an NR network.
Regarding claim 12, Li et al. teach a method performed by user equipment (UE) (Fig,12), comprising:
receiving a sidelink control information (SCI) (Fig.12 @ S701); and
However, Li et al. fail to explicitly teach determining a value of a sidelink (SL) discontinuous reception (SL DRX) round trip time (RTT) timer based on at least a time interval indicated in the received SCI.
The R2-2100514 document teaches a method for determining a value of a sidelink (SL) discontinuous reception (SL DRX) round trip time (RTT) timer (read as a value of the SL inactivity timer) based on at least a time interval (a transmission schedule/priority) indicated in the received SCI. (read as “reset the SL inactivity timer for a unicast link/L2 destination ID when it receives an SCI scheduling a transmission.”(Section 2.2, page 3) For example, “RX UE determines the value of the inactivity timer based on the priority of the transmission which restarted the timer”(Section 2.2, page 2))
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to employ the function for generating and transmitting a SCI configured with a scheduling transmission to reset an inactive timer as taught by the R2-2100514 document with the terminal device(s) as taught by Li et al. for the purpose of enhancing sidelink control information by devices in an NR network.
Response to Arguments
5. Applicant's arguments with respect to claim(s) 11 and 12 have been considered but are moot in view of the new ground(s) of rejection.
Conclusion
6. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to Applicant’s disclosure:
R2-2101207 (“SL DRX with pre-indicated resources”, 25 January – 05 February, 2021) teaches “After the targeted SL RX UE receives the SCI indicating future resources, the targeted SL RX UE needs to ensure that it is awake to monitor the indicated resources, no matter whether the indicated resources are inside or outside the SL DRX On-duration.”(Section 2, page 1)
R2-2100638 (“Discussion on Sidelink DRX Timer”, January 25 –February 05, 2021) document teaches “if TX UE indicates the HARQ Feedback mode as “disabled” to RX UE through SCI, the RX UE does not transmit HARQ feedback regardless of a success/failure of PSCCH/PSSCH reception from the TX UE. Since the HARQ RTT timer and retransmission timer operate based on PSFCH transmission, it may be not necessary to operate the HARQ RTT timer/Retransmission timer in case of HARQ feedback “disabled”.”(Section 2.1.2, page 2)
R2-2100536 (“General aspects for SL DRX”, January 25th-February 5th, 2021) document teaches SL DRX parameters (Section 2.2, page 2-4)
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 response to this Office Action should be faxed to (571) 273-8300 or mailed to:
Commissioner for Patents
P.O. Box 1450
Alexandria, VA 22313-1450
Any inquiry concerning this communication or early communications from the Examiner should be directed to Salvador E. Rivas whose telephone number is (571) 270-1784. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday from 7:30AM to 5:00PM.
If attempts to reach the Examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the Examiner’s supervisor, Un C. Cho can be reached on (571) 272- 7919. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is (571) 273-8300.
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/SALVADOR E RIVAS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2413
December 30, 2025