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 in response to remarks filed on 03/25/2026.
Claims 1-10 are pending and presented for examination. No claims are amended.
Claim Objections
Claim 1 is objected to as failing to provide proper antecedent basis for the claimed subject matter. Claim 1 recites the limitation "the relay terminal device." There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
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.
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, 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.
The factual inquiries 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 non-obviousness.
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 1-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xu et al (US20210051758A1) (hereinafter "Xu") in view of Freda et al (WO2021207505A1) (hereinafter "Freda").
Regarding claim 1, Xu discloses a data processing method, comprising:
communicating, by a remote terminal device, with a network device by a relay device, wherein the communicating comprises ([0007] Accordingly, the techniques described herein include techniques for a remote wireless device to provide RRC messages to a relay wireless device to be relayed to a cellular base station, for a cellular base station to provide RRC messages to a relay wireless device to be relayed to a remote wireless device, and for a relay wireless device to relay such messages between a cellular base station and a remote wireless device, among other techniques.):
starting a timer in response to a radio resource control (RRC) connection establishment procedure of the remote terminal device being initialized; and ([0120] In 2010, the relay UE 2004 may be connected, while in 2012, the remote UE 2002 may be inactive. In 2014, the remote UE 2002 may provide a RRC resume request to the relay UE 2004, and in 2016, may initiate a response guard timer, which may be stopped after the remote UE 2002 receives a response from the relay UE 2004.).
Xu fails to disclose a data processing method, comprising: sending indication information to the relay terminal device in response to the timer expiring, wherein the indication information is useable to indicate the relay terminal device not to forward data corresponding to the remote terminal device, the indication information is useable to release a unicast link between the remote terminal device and the relay terminal device, or the indication information is useable to indicate to clear a buffer corresponding to the remote terminal device.
However, Freda discloses a data processing method, comprising:
sending indication information to the relay terminal device in response to the timer expiring ([0173] During the configuration procedure with each WTRU, the first remote WTRU may wait for confirmation of successful completion of configuration of a given WTRU before configuring the next WTRU in the relay path. Specifically, the first remote WTRU may set a configuration timer and wait for a response message, such as a configuration complete message or an error message. The first remote WTRU may, if a specific configuration with a peer WTRU fails, send a link release message or similar failure indication message to other peer WTRUs that may have been configured prior to the peer WTRU which provided the failure message. [0069] Further, a peer WTRU may signify another WTRU than the one being discussed (e.g., a first remote WTRU may send a signal to a peer WTRU, which may by a relay WTRU, a second remote WTRU, etc.).), wherein the indication information is useable to indicate the relay terminal device not to forward data corresponding to the remote terminal device (The examiner does not select this because of the "or" statement.), the indication information is useable to release a unicast link between the remote terminal device and the relay terminal device ([0225] For the factor related to QoS of the Uu flows/bearers configured at the remote WTRU (e.g., along with an estimated number of available QoS), in one example a remote WTRU may release a link, or indicate release of the link to the relay WTRU and/or NW (e.g., via the relayed link) if the remote WTRU determines that the end-to-end QoS cannot be met based on some preconfigured conditions associated with the SL quality.), or the indication information is useable to indicate to clear a buffer corresponding to the remote terminal device (The examiner does not select this because of the "or" statement.).
Xu and Freda are considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because both are in the same endeavor of techniques for device to device relay connection establishment and configuration.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have a motivation to combine the teachings of Xu with Freda to create a data processing method, comprising: sending indication information to the relay terminal device in response to the timer expiring, wherein the indication information is useable to indicate the relay terminal device not to forward data corresponding to the remote terminal device, the indication information is useable to release a unicast link between the remote terminal device and the relay terminal device, or the indication information is useable to indicate to clear a buffer corresponding to the remote terminal device.
The motivation to combine both references would come from the need to ensure resources are not wasted on an unresponsive or inaccessible endpoint.
Regarding claim 2, Xu discloses the method, wherein the timer is stopped in response to at least one of:
an RRC setup message from the network device is received; or ([0120] In 2010, the relay UE 2004 may be connected, while in 2012, the remote UE 2002 may be inactive. In 2014, the remote UE 2002 may provide a RRC resume request to the relay UE 2004, and in 2016, may initiate a response guard timer, which may be stopped after the remote UE 2002 receives a response from the relay UE 2004.)
an RRC reject message from the network device is received (The examiner does not select this because of the "or" statement.).
Regarding claim 3, Xu discloses the method, wherein before the sending the indication information to the relay terminal device, the method further comprises:
sending, by the remote terminal device, an RRC setup request message to the network device via the relay terminal device ([0120] In 2022, the remote UE 2002 may perform link selection, and in 2024, may transmit a RRC resume request to again attempt to resume a RRC connection with the gNB 2006, possibly to the relay UE 2004 or possibly to another wireless device, e.g., depending on the result of the link selection.).
Regarding claim 4, Xu discloses the method, wherein the data corresponding to the remote terminal device is data included on a signaling radio bearer (SRB) between the remote terminal device and the network device ([0100] According to some embodiments, a remote UE's RRC message delivery via a Uu link may be performed via relay signaling radio bearers (SRBs) that are established between the network and the relay UE. The network may be able to establish one or multiple relay SRBs.).
Regarding claim 5, Xu discloses a data processing method, comprising:
communicating, by a relay terminal device, with a remote terminal device and a network device, wherein the communicating comprises ([0007] Accordingly, the techniques described herein include techniques for a remote wireless device to provide RRC messages to a relay wireless device to be relayed to a cellular base station, for a cellular base station to provide RRC messages to a relay wireless device to be relayed to a remote wireless device, and for a relay wireless device to relay such messages between a cellular base station and a remote wireless device, among other techniques.).
processing the indication information ([0102] For each possible RRC procedure, if the relay UE can detect that RRC message transmission failure has occurred (e.g., either in the relay link or the Uu link), the relay UE may take action in response to the RRC message transmission failure. … As another possibility, the relay UE may send an indication to suspend the relay link to all remote UEs that have a relay link established with the relay UE. As a still further possibility, the relay UE may close the relay link with the remote UE directly (e.g., possibly without explicitly indicating that the Uu link failure has occurred.).
Xu fails to disclose a data processing method, comprising: receiving, by the relay terminal device, indication information from the remote terminal device, wherein the indication information is useable to indicate the relay terminal device not to forward data corresponding to the remote terminal device, the indication information is useable to release a unicast link between the remote terminal device and the relay terminal device, or the indication information is useable to indicate to clear a buffer corresponding to the remote terminal device.
However, Freda discloses a data processing method, comprising:
receiving, by the relay terminal device, indication information from the remote terminal device ([0173] During the configuration procedure with each WTRU, the first remote WTRU may wait for confirmation of successful completion of configuration of a given WTRU before configuring the next WTRU in the relay path. Specifically, the first remote WTRU may set a configuration timer and wait for a response message, such as a configuration complete message or an error message. The first remote WTRU may, if a specific configuration with a peer WTRU fails, send a link release message or similar failure indication message to other peer WTRUs that may have been configured prior to the peer WTRU which provided the failure message. [0069] Further, a peer WTRU may signify another WTRU than the one being discussed (e.g., a first remote WTRU may send a signal to a peer WTRU, which may by a relay WTRU, a second remote WTRU, etc.).), wherein the indication information is useable to indicate the relay terminal device not to forward data corresponding to the remote terminal device (The examiner does not select this because of the "or" statement.), the indication information is useable to release a unicast link between the remote terminal device and the relay terminal device ([0225] For the factor related to QoS of the Uu flows/bearers configured at the remote WTRU (e.g., along with an estimated number of available QoS), in one example a remote WTRU may release a link, or indicate release of the link to the relay WTRU and/or NW (e.g., via the relayed link) if the remote WTRU determines that the end-to-end QoS cannot be met based on some preconfigured conditions associated with the SL quality.), or the indication information is useable to indicate to clear a buffer corresponding to the remote terminal device (The examiner does not select this because of the "or" statement.).
Xu and Freda are considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because both are in the same endeavor of techniques for device to device relay connection establishment and configuration.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have a motivation to combine the teachings of Xu with Freda to create a data processing method, comprising: receiving, by the relay terminal device, indication information from the remote terminal device, wherein the indication information is useable to indicate the relay terminal device not to forward data corresponding to the remote terminal device, the indication information is useable to release a unicast link between the remote terminal device and the relay terminal device, or the indication information is useable to indicate to clear a buffer corresponding to the remote terminal device.
The motivation to combine both references would come from the need to ensure resources are not wasted on an unresponsive or inaccessible endpoint.
Regarding claim 6, Xu discloses the method, wherein the processing the indication information comprises at least one of:
determining not to forward the data corresponding to the remote terminal device (The examiner does not select this because of the "at least one of" statement.);
releasing the unicast link between the remote terminal device and the relay terminal device; or ([0115] In 1526, the relay UE 1504 may stop providing discovery broadcasts, and in 1528, may provide an indication to the remote UE 1502 to suspend the relay link between the remote UE 1502 and the relay UE 1504.)
clearing the buffer corresponding to the remote terminal device (The examiner does not select this because of the "any one of following" statement.).
Regarding claim 7, Xu discloses the method, before the receiving the indication information from the remote terminal device, the method further comprises:
receiving, by the relay terminal device, data included on a signaling radio bearer (SRB) from the remote terminal device ([0106] In 928, the first remote UE 902 may provide a RRC setup complete message to the relay UE 906. In 930, the relay UE 906 may provide a RRC setup complete message to the gNB 908 on behalf of the first remote UE 902, e.g., including identification information for the first remote UE 902. The RRC setup complete message may be provided using the relay SRB2, e.g., since it may be relaying a SRB1 transmission from the first remote UE 902.).
Regarding claim 8, Xu discloses the method, wherein the data corresponding to the remote terminal device is the data included on the SRB between the remote terminal device and the network device ([0100] According to some embodiments, a remote UE's RRC message delivery via a Uu link may be performed via relay signaling radio bearers (SRBs) that are established between the network and the relay UE. The network may be able to establish one or multiple relay SRBs.).
Regarding claim 9, Xu discloses a data processing method, comprising:
communicating, by a relay terminal device, with a remote terminal device and a network device, wherein the communicating comprises ([0007] Accordingly, the techniques described herein include techniques for a remote wireless device to provide RRC messages to a relay wireless device to be relayed to a cellular base station, for a cellular base station to provide RRC messages to a relay wireless device to be relayed to a remote wireless device, and for a relay wireless device to relay such messages between a cellular base station and a remote wireless device, among other techniques.):
receiving, by the relay terminal device, data included on a signaling radio bearer (SRB) of the remote terminal device ([0106] In 928, the first remote UE 902 may provide a RRC setup complete message to the relay UE 906. In 930, the relay UE 906 may provide a RRC setup complete message to the gNB 908 on behalf of the first remote UE 902, e.g., including identification information for the first remote UE 902. The RRC setup complete message may be provided using the relay SRB2, e.g., since it may be relaying a SRB1 transmission from the first remote UE 902.);
starting a timer; and ([0120] In 2010, the relay UE 2004 may be connected, while in 2012, the remote UE 2002 may be inactive. In 2014, the remote UE 2002 may provide a RRC resume request to the relay UE 2004, and in 2016, may initiate a response guard timer, which may be stopped after the remote UE 2002 receives a response from the relay UE 2004.).
Xu fails to disclose a data processing method, comprising: in response to the timer expiring, performing at least one of: determining not to forward data corresponding to the remote terminal device; releasing a unicast link between the remote terminal device and the relay terminal device; or clearing a buffer corresponding to the remote terminal device.
However, Freda discloses a data processing method, comprising:
in response to the timer expiring, performing at least one of:
determining not to forward data corresponding to the remote terminal device (The examiner does not select this because of the "at least one of" statement.);
releasing a unicast link between the remote terminal device and the relay terminal device; or ([0225] For the factor related to QoS of the Uu flows/bearers configured at the remote WTRU (e.g., along with an estimated number of available QoS), in one example a remote WTRU may release a link, or indicate release of the link to the relay WTRU and/or NW (e.g., via the relayed link) if the remote WTRU determines that the end-to-end QoS cannot be met based on some preconfigured conditions associated with the SL quality.)
clearing a buffer corresponding to the remote terminal device (The examiner does not select this because of the "at least one of" statement.).
Xu and Freda are considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because both are in the same endeavor of techniques for device to device relay connection establishment and configuration.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have a motivation to combine the teachings of Xu with Freda to create a data processing method, comprising: in response to the timer expiring, performing at least one of: determining not to forward data corresponding to the remote terminal device; releasing a unicast link between the remote terminal device and the relay terminal device; or clearing a buffer corresponding to the remote terminal device.
The motivation to combine both references would come from the need to ensure resources are not wasted on an unresponsive or inaccessible endpoint.
Regarding claim 10, Xu discloses the method, wherein the timer is stopped in response to at least one of:
the data that is included on the SRB of the remote terminal device is from the network device and is received; or ([0106] In 928, the first remote UE 902 may provide a RRC setup complete message to the relay UE 906. In 930, the relay UE 906 may provide a RRC setup complete message to the gNB 908 on behalf of the first remote UE 902, e.g., including identification information for the first remote UE 902. The RRC setup complete message may be provided using the relay SRB2, e.g., since it may be relaying a SRB1 transmission from the first remote UE 902.)
the data that is included on the SRB of the remote terminal device is from the network device, and is forwarded to the remote terminal device (The examiner does not select this because of the "at least one of" statement.).
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1, 5, and 9, and associated dependent claims 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
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Xu et al (US20240260125A1) discloses techniques for performing radio resource control procedures for remote wireless devices in a wireless communication system.
Kuo et al (US12294484B2) discloses a method that includes a UE-to-UE Relay establishing a first PC5 unicast link with a first UE and establishing a second PC5 unicast link with a second UE. The method further includes the UE-to-UE Relay initiating a Layer-2 link release procedure to release the second PC5 unicast link if a sidelink radio link failure is detected on the first PC5 unicast link.
Aramoto et al (WO2015068731A1) discloses a method for controlling communication in relay terminal device, involves broadcasting reporting information with respect to neighboring terminal including service identification information matched with packet data network connection.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to D LITTLE whose telephone number is (571)272-5748. The examiner can normally be reached M-Th 8-6 EST.
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, Nishant Divecha can be reached on 571-270-3125. 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.
/D LITTLE/Examiner, Art Unit 2419
/Nishant Divecha/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2419
Prosecution Insights