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 .
Specification
The lengthy specification has not been checked to the extent necessary to determine the presence of all possible minor errors. Applicant’s cooperation is requested in correcting any errors of which applicant may become aware in the specification.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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.
Claim(s) 1, 2, 9-11, 13, 14, and 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Lou et al. (US 2021/0400656 A1). Regarding claims 1, 13, 20, Lou et al. discloses a method for wireless communication, comprising: determining, by a terminal device, K available transmission resources (Para 102 teaches of set of resources); and for an i-th available transmission resource in the K available transmission resources, determining, by the terminal device, whether to use the i-th available transmission resource for sidelink transmission according to a result of a channel access procedure; wherein i and K are positive integers, and 1 ≤ i ≤ K (Para 104-105 teaches of channel access procedure to determine if the channel in idle). Regarding claims 2, 14, Lou et al. discloses a method, wherein determining, by the terminal device, whether to use the i-th available transmission resource for sidelink transmission according to the result of the channel access procedure comprises: determining, by the terminal device, to use the i-th available transmission resource for sidelink transmission in a case that the result of the channel access procedure indicates a channel being idle; or in a case that the result of the channel access procedure indicates a channel being busy, determining, by the terminal device, not to use the i-th available transmission resource for sidelink transmission, or dropping, by the terminal device, a sidelink transmission corresponding to the i-th available transmission resource. (Para 104 teaches, “ In some aspects, the UE 115-a and/or the base station 105-a may determine the channel is free to access if, through the channel access procedure, the UE 115-a and/or base station 105-a determines that the channel is idle for a preconfigured duration of time (e.g., a preconfigured quantity of sensing slots).“) Regarding claim 9, Lou et al. discloses a method, wherein the channel access procedure comprises one of the following: a first type of channel access procedure, a second type of channel access procedure, or a third type of channel access procedure; wherein the first type of channel access procedure comprises Type1 channel access, the second type of channel access procedure comprises at least one of Type 2A channel access or Type 2B channel access, and the third type channel access procedure comprises Type 2C channel access (Para 105 teaches “In some aspects, a channel may be determined to be free to access according to additional types of channel access procedures if the channel is idle for a certain fixed period of time, (e.g., 25 μs for a Type 2A channel access procedure, 16 μs for a Type 2B channel access procedure). In this example, the UE 115-a and/or the base station 105-a may transmit and acquire the channel after successfully completing the Type 2A or 2B channel access procedures with the predefined quantities of sensing slots. Additionally or alternatively, the UE 115-a and/or the base station 105-a may not be required to perform a channel access procedure (e.g., perform channel access sensing) before transmission if a gap between two transmissions is less than a certain fixed period of time, (e.g., 16 μs) within a COT (e.g., Type 2C channel access procedure).“ Regarding claim 10, Lou et al. discloses a method, wherein the channel access procedure is the second type of channel access procedure or the third type of channel access procedure in a case that the i-th available transmission resource is located within a shared channel occupancy time (COT); and/or the channel access procedure is the first type of channel access procedure in a case that the i-th available transmission resource is not located within a shared COT. (Para 105 teaches ”Additionally or alternatively, the UE 115-a and/or the base station 105-a may not be required to perform a channel access procedure (e.g., perform channel access sensing) before transmission if a gap between two transmissions is less than a certain fixed period of time, (e.g., 16 μs) within a COT (e.g., Type 2C channel access procedure).”) Regarding claim 11, Lou et al. discloses a method, further comprising: receiving, by the terminal device, first indication information from another terminal, the first indication information being used for indicating information of the shared COT (Para 105 teaches ”Additionally or alternatively, the UE 115-a and/or the base station 105-a may not be required to perform a channel access procedure (e.g., perform channel access sensing) before transmission if a gap between two transmissions is less than a certain fixed period of time, (e.g., 16 μs) within a COT (e.g., Type 2C channel access procedure).”)
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
Claim(s) 8 and 19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lou et al. (US 2021/0400656 A1) in view of UM et al. (US 2018/0317256 A1). Regarding claims 8, 19, Lou et al. discloses the claimed invention as set forth in claim 1 above. Lou et al. does not explicitly disclose a method, further comprising: performing, by the terminal device, the channel access procedure within a guard period (GP) of a time unit preceding a time unit where the i-th available transmission resource is located. However UM et al. disclose a method, further comprising: performing, by the terminal device, the channel access procedure within a guard period (GP) of a time unit preceding a time unit where the i-th available transmission resource is located (Para 219 teaches “if a result of the channel access procedure performed in the guard period is determined to be an idle state”). It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use the method of using channel access procedure in a guard period before the available transmission resource of UM et al. with the system of Lou et al. in order to provide a system that provides instant transmission reediness and improved spectral efficiency.
Claim(s) 12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lou et al. (US 2021/0400656 A1) in view of Zhang et al. (US 2022/0046467 A1). Regarding claim 12, Lou et al. discloses the claimed invention as set forth in claim 11 above. Lou et al. does not discloses a method, wherein the first indication information is transmitted via sidelink control information (SCI) or a PC5 radio resource control (PC5-RRC) signaling. However Zhang et al. discloses a method, wherein the first indication information is transmitted via sidelink control information (SCI) or a PC5 radio resource control (PC5-RRC) signaling (Para 67 and Para 74 teaches of transmitting configuration information in sidelink control information). It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use the method of using SCI for transmitting configuration information of Zhang et al. with the method of Lou et al. in order to provide a system that enables direct low latency high reliability data exchange without relying on network infrastructure.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-7 and 15-18 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to AJAY P CATTUNGAL whose telephone number is (571)270-7525. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:00-5:00 PM.
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/AJAY CATTUNGAL/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2467