DETAILED ACTION
This office action is a response to 11/8/2023.
Claims 1-20 are pending.
Claims 1-3, 9-15, and 20 are rejected.
Claims 4-8 and 16-19 are objected to.
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 .
Claim Objections
Claims 5-12 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 5 line 2 “CNSC” should be corrected to “CNSCC”
Claims 6-12 are objected to based on its dependency on claim 5
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 9-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
The terms “cleaner” and “cleanest” in claims 9-11 are relative term which renders the claim indefinite. The terms “cleaner” and “cleanest” are not defined by the claim, the specification does not provide a standard for ascertaining the requisite degree, and one of ordinary skill in the art would not be reasonably apprised of the scope of the invention. Claim 12 is also rejected by the virtue of its dependency on claim 9.
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 1-3, 13-15, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Wirth et al. US 20250234361 A1 (claiming priority from European Application No. 22187438.1, filed Jul. 28, 2022), hereinafter Wirth.
Regarding Claim 1, Wirth discloses a communications method (Wirth [0190-0194] methods), the method comprising:
receiving, at a base station, a sidelink request from a first UE for device to device communication between the first UE and a second UE (Wirth see at least [0171-0173] disclosing a user device, wherein the UE is served by a network entity and is to communicate with other UEs over a sidelink using resources … the UE is to receive from the network entity a grant indicating the resources; [0178] the UE is to request from network entity to provide the grant, dependent on a resource request);
sending, from the base station, a sidelink possibility inquiry message including information identifying the first and second UEs to a core network sidelink control component (CNSCC); receiving, at the base station, a sidelink possibility response message from the CNSCC (Wirth see at least [0065] a high-level resource coordination by a base station: when it comes to a request for a grant from the UE for sidelink resources, the network entity, like the gNB obtains knowledge about certain properties of the UE and/or the sidelink to be performed by the UE; [0067] the gNB may also query 5G core network functions);
generating a sidelink request response message based on information included in said sidelink possibility response message (Wirth [0065-0067, 0171-0173]); and
sending, from the base station, the sidelink request response message to the first UE (Wirth [0065-0067, 0171-0173]).
Regarding Claim 2, Wirth discloses the method of claim 1 and further discloses wherein the sidelink request response message grants the first UE a channel to use for device to device communications between the first UE and the second UE without requiring a listen before talk (LBT) operation before a UE transmission on the sidelink communications channel (Wirth see [0059 and 0062] Action 1: The gNB may carry out sensing and channel access procedures, like LBT procedures … that the UE may use the resources without carrying out any further channel access procedure, like a further LBT; Action 3: The gNB does not carry out any sensing or channel access procedures but receives reports from one or more other UEs that have carried out such procedures … a UE may skip carrying out a CAP, like an LBT).
Regarding Claim 3, Wirth discloses the method of claim 1 and further discloses wherein the sidelink possibility response message indicates sidelink communications is allowed and identifies spectrum to be used (Wirth see [0173, 0193] disclosing for performing a SL transmission on the resources in the unlicensed spectrum, the UE is to receive from the network entity a grant, the grant indicating the resources from the SL-U RP to be used by the UE for performing the SL transmission in the unlicensed spectrum).
Claims 13-15 are rejected on the same grounds set forth in the rejection of claims 1-3, respectively. Claims 13-15 recite similar features as in claims 1-3, respectively, for a system comprising a base station (Wirth Figs. 1A-1B; 12).
Claim 20 is rejected on the same grounds set forth in the rejection of claim 1. Claim 20 recites similar features as in claim 1 for a non-transitory computer readable medium (Wirth Fig. 12).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4-8 and 16-19 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.
Claims 9-12 would be allowable if rewritten to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action and to include all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Farag US 20230309123 A1
Hoang et al. US 20240188153 A1
Zhang et al. US 20250227470 A1
Xue et al. US 20210400704 A1
Vassilovski et al. US 20220394659 A1
Haustein et al. US 20260012967 A1
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/Y.K./Examiner, Art Unit 2465
/GARY MUI/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2465