DETAILED ACTION
In response to communication filed on 12/29/2023.
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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 12/29/2023 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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 or if 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 (i.e. sends) 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
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 may not be obtained though the invention is not identically disclosed or described as set forth in section 102 of this title, if the differences between the subject matter sought to be patented and the prior art are such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains. Patentability shall not be negatived by the manner in which the invention was made.
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.
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.
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).
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].
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, 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 or if 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 Medium Access Control (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].
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Shin et al. (US Pub. 2024/0373442) discloses that a UE may request transmission resources for communication to another UE from a base station and can request through a scheduling request sidelink resources [paragraph 0076], further disclosing that a positioning reference signal transmission is done to support positioning in sidelink [paragraph 0354].
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.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
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.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
Ryan Kavleski
/R. K./
Examiner, Art Unit 2412
/CHARLES C JIANG/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2412