DETAILED ACTION
In response to communication filed on 4/20/2026.
Claims 1-20 are pending.
Claims 1-20 are rejected.
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 .
Response to Amendments
This communication is in response to Applicant’s reply filed under 3 CFR 1.111 on 4/20/2026. Claims 1,4,7,8,11,14,17 and 18 were amended and claims 1-20 remain pending.
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 4 and 14 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 pre-AIA the applicant regards as the invention.
Regarding claims 4 and 14, the limitation “when the first device performs the triggered first sidelink reference signal transmission, the first device cancels the first sidelink reference signal resource request” is indefinite because it is unclear to what is occurring with regards to cancelling a request that has already been sent in the process. Furthermore, the claim language is unclear because it appears to contradict the process of claims 3 and 13 from which claims 4 and 14 depend upon. Namely, the claim language of claims 3 and 13 require that in response to a first device being triggered to perform a first sidelink reference signal transmission, the first device then triggers a first sidelink reference signal resource request for performing the first sidelink reference signal transmission. For the purposes of examination, the claim will be interpreted that because a first sidelink reference signal transmission has occurred, there is no sending of the first sidelink reference signal resource request since it has already occurred in the process for needed for transmission.
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.
Claims 1-3,5,8-13,15, and 18-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Peng et al. (US Pub. 2024/0155655)(P1 hereafter) in view of Yue et al. (US Pub. 2024/0422721)(Y1 hereafter) in view of Wang et al. (US Pub. 2024/0394228)(W1 hereafter).
Regarding claims 1 and 11, P1 teaches a first device [refer Fig. 3; First Device], comprising:
a memory [paragraph 0048][refer Fig. 4; 403]; and a processor operatively connected to the memory [paragraph 0048][refer Fig. 4; 408], the processor is configured to execute program code [paragraph 0050] to:
receive configuration [refer Fig. 3; 301] of one or more sidelink resource pools enabled or supported for sidelink reference signal transmission [paragraph 0116];
trigger one or more sidelink reference signal resource requests (i.e. discovery) for performing one or more sidelink reference signal transmissions (reference signals are sent along with discovery messages)[paragraph 0187];
transmit the first message for sidelink reference signal to a network node [paragraph 0190].
However, P1 fails to disclose generate a first message for sidelink reference signal, the first message for sidelink reference signal comprises information of the one or more sidelink reference signal resource requests, and information of a sidelink reference signal resource request comprises a priority of sidelink reference signal and a destination index or Identity (ID) of sidelink reference signal.
Y1 discloses requesting or initiating sidelink ranging in which a UE sends a request to a UE for estimating distances, the request being for transmission of position reference signals (i.e. PoS-RS)[paragraph 0239], the request for positioning RS can be sent via sidelink control information (SCI)[paragraph 0241], the SCI can have a priority [paragraph 0099] and an identifier of the destination UE [paragraph 0095].
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 P1 to incorporate the requesting of positioning reference signaling for estimating distances to other devices as taught by Y1. One would be motivated to do to so to provide improved communications between UEs [refer Y1; paragraph 0085].
However, P1 in view of Y1 fails to disclose that the first message is a MAC-CE for sidelink reference signal.
W1 discloses that sidelink positioning reference signal configuration information is carried by particular information [paragraph 0309], one information being a MAC CE [paragraph 0311].
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 P1 in view of Y1 to incorporate the use of a MAC CE to transport sidelink reference signal configuration information as taught by W1. One would be motivated to do to so to provide the use of a known technique in the field of endeavor to yield predictable results with regards to sidelink reference signal configuration.
Regarding claims 2 and 12, P1 fails to disclose the information of the sidelink reference signal resource request comprises the priority of sidelink reference signal, the destination index or Identity (ID) of sidelink reference signal, and a bandwidth or bandwidth requirement of sidelink reference signal; and/or the bandwidth or the bandwidth requirement of sidelink reference signal is in a unit of resource block, sub-channel, or Hertz.
Y1 discloses a request for positioning RS (PRS) can be sent via sidelink control information (SCI)[paragraph 0241], the SCI can have a priority [paragraph 0099] and an identifier of the destination UE [paragraph 0095], the PRS can be configured with a bandwidth configured in a range from 24-275 physical resource blocks [paragraph 0193].
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 P1 to incorporate the requesting of positioning reference signaling for estimating distances to other devices as taught by Y1. One would be motivated to do to so to provide improved communications between UEs [refer Y1; paragraph 0085].
Regarding claims 3 and 13, P1 fails to explicitly disclose that in response to the first device being triggered to perform a first sidelink reference signal transmission, the first device triggers (i.e. sends) a first sidelink reference signal resource request for performing the first sidelink reference signal transmission.
Y1 discloses requesting or initiating sidelink ranging in which a UE sends a request to a UE for estimating distances, the request being for transmission of position reference signals (i.e. PoS-RS)[paragraph 0239], the request for positioning RS can be sent via sidelink control information (SCI)[paragraph 0241].
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 P1 to incorporate the requesting of positioning reference signaling for estimating distances to other devices as taught by Y1. One would be motivated to do to so to provide improved communications between UEs [refer Y1; paragraph 0085].
Regarding claims 5 and 15, P1 teaches the first message for sidelink reference signal to the network node is utilized for acquiring or requesting resources for performing the one or more sidelink reference signal transmissions [paragraph 0134][refer Fig. 3; 302].
Regarding claims 8 and 18, P1 fails to disclose that the sidelink reference signal means sidelink positioning reference signal.
Y1 discloses requesting or initiating sidelink ranging in which a UE sends a request to a UE for estimating distances, the request being for transmission of position reference signals (i.e. PoS-RS)[paragraph 0239].
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 P1 to incorporate the requesting of positioning reference signaling for estimating distances to other devices as taught by Y1. One would be motivated to do to so to provide improved communications between UEs [refer Y1; paragraph 0085].
Regarding claims 9 and 19, P1 teaches a second message for sidelink data are transmitted to the network node [paragraph 0135], the second message for sidelink data means a Sidelink Buffer Status Reporting (SL-BSR) (i.e. BSR is included in discovery information sent to a base station or network device)[paragraph 0135] MAC CE (i.e. MAC PDU are used to send discover information)[paragraph 0180].
Regarding claims 10 and 20, P1 teaches a sidelink grant is received for scheduling one or multiple sidelink resources in a sidelink resource pool enabled or supported for sidelink reference signal transmission [paragraph 0136].
Claims 4,6,7,14,16 and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over P1 in view of Y1 in further view of W1, as applied to claims 1 and 11, in further view of Li et al. (US Pub. 2024/0015840)(L1 hereafter).
Regarding claims 4 and 14, P1, in view of Y1 as applied to claims 1 and 11, fails to disclose when the first device performs the triggered first sidelink reference signal transmission, the first device cancels the first sidelink reference signal resource request.
L1 discloses that after a device sends a sidelink DRX reception command CE, the scheduling request (SR) to which the sidelink DRX reception command corresponds to is cancelled [paragraph 0127].
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 P1 to incorporate after a sidelink DRX command is transmitted to cancel a scheduling request to which the sent the reception command corresponds to as taught by L1. One would be motivated to do to so to provide a means of avoiding waste of sidelink resources [refer L1; paragraph 0031].
Regarding claims 6 and 16, P1 fails to disclose that when or if the first device has no available uplink resource for transmitting or accommodating the first message for sidelink reference signal, the first device triggers a Scheduling Request (SR) for the first message for sidelink reference signal.
L1 discloses that when a sidelink DRX reception command (i.e. transmitting or accommodating first message for sidelink reference signal) is triggered, a corresponding scheduling request (SR) is triggered to request a network device to allocate resources for it [paragraph 0105], the sending of the SR can be done when there exists no sidelink resources, such as an SL grant for new transmission [paragraphs 0106-0107].
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 P1 to incorporate the sending of a scheduling request when no resources currently exist for a sidelink transmission as taught by L1. One would be motivated to do to so to provide a use of a known technique in the field of endeavor that would yield predictable results with regards to resource allocation for sidelink transmission.
Regarding claims 7 and 17, P1 fails to disclose canceling the SR for the first message for sidelink reference signal when or if the first message for sidelink reference signal is included in a MAC Packet Data Unit (PDU) and the first device transmits the MAC PDU to the network node.
L1 discloses that after a device sends a sidelink DRX reception command CE, the scheduling request (SR) to which the sidelink DRX reception command corresponds to is cancelled [paragraph 0127].
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 P1 to incorporate after a sidelink DRX command is transmitted to cancel a scheduling request to which the sent the reception command corresponds to as taught by L1. One would be motivated to do to so to provide a means of avoiding waste of sidelink resources [refer L1; paragraph 0031].
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 4/20/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Regarding the rejection of claim 4 and 14 under 35 U.S.C. 112(b), applicant argues that the limitations are definite. Refer page 8 of the applicant’s arguments.
In response to the applicants arguments, examiner respectively disagrees. In response to applicant's argument that the references fail to show certain features of the invention, it is noted that the features upon which applicant relies (i.e., triggering of the sidelink reference signal resource request may not be cancelled, unless the first device successfully acquires sidelink resources for performing the sidelink reference signal transmission) are not recited in the rejected claim(s). Although the claims are interpreted in light of the specification, limitations from the specification are not read into the claims. See In re Van Geuns, 988 F.2d 1181, 26 USPQ2d 1057 (Fed. Cir. 1993). As was noted in the prior rejection, claims 3 and 13 explicitly require that in response to the first device being triggered to perform a first sidelink reference signal transmission, the first device triggers a first sidelink reference signal resource request for performing the first sidelink reference signal transmission, which as interpreted requires that the request be sent in order to perform the sidelink reference signal transmission. However, claims 4 and 14 require that when the first device performs the triggered first sidelink reference signal transmission (i.e. the process in claims 3 and 13 that require a request to be sent in order to trigger the transmission), the first device cancels the first sidelink reference signal resource request, which creates a paradox to how a triggered transmission can occur without the prerequisite request.
Applicant’s arguments, see pages 9-10, filed 4/20/026, with respect to the rejection(s) of claims 1-3,5,8-13,15, and 18-20 under 35 U.S.C. 103 have been fully considered and are persuasive in light of the amendments. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of Wang et al. (US Pub. 2024/0394228)(W1 hereafter) as noted in the above rejection.
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 extension fee 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 date of this final action.
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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