CTNF 18/458,980 CTNF 69149 Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status 07-03-aia AIA 15-10-aia 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 responsive to the RCE filed 5/12/26. Claims 1-38 are pending. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112 07-30-02 AIA 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. 07-34-01 Claim 36 is 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. In claim 36, it is not clear which claim, claim 36 depends from. For purposes of applying prior art, claim 36 is interpreted to depend from claim 20. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103 07-06 AIA 15-10-15 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. 07-20-aia AIA 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. 07-20-02-aia AIA 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. 07-21-aia AIA Claim (s) 1-3, 5, 6, 8, 12-14, 17-19, and 37 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xiang et al., US 2020/0322032, (“Xiang”), in view of Yoshioka et al., US 2023/0371051, (“Yoshioka”) and Zhang et al., US 2022/0312401, (“Zhang”), newly cited . Independent Claims Regarding claim 1, Xiang teaches “ An apparatus of a user equipment (UE) for wireless communication (Fig. 4, first communications device) , comprising: a memory (Fig. 10) ; and one or more processors (Fig. 10) , coupled to the memory, configured to cause the UE to: perform sensing in a sidelink resource pool; select, based at least in part on the sensing, one or more sidelink resources for one or more sidelink beam management blocks, wherein each sidelink beam management block includes at least one beam management signal and sidelink control information (SCI) (Fig. 4, steps S401, S402; Fig. 5 shows at least one “ sidelink beam management block ” including “ at least one beam management signal ” (CSI-RS1, CSI-RS2, CSI-RS3) and “ SCI ” (SCI); note that the SCI and CSI-RS(s) are transmitted via a sidelink resource such as an implicit PSCCH used to carry the SCI; the term “ sidelink beam management block ” reads on the block of SL beam management signals shown in Fig. 5 in accordance with BRI, especially since the term is not a term of art) ; and transmit the one or more sidelink beam management blocks in a sidelink beam management block burst using the one or more sidelink resources” (Fig. 4, steps S401, S402; see paragraph nos. 0048, 0054, 0055; note that the term “ sidelink beam management block burst ” reads on the at least one block of SL beam management signals shown in Fig. 5, supra, because the term “ burst ” may include a single block in accordance with BRI). Xiang does not teach “ perform sensing in a sidelink resource pool” nor the related limitation “ based at least in part on the sensing” of claim 1. However, these features are well known, infra. Yoshioka teaches that a UE performs sensing in a sidelink resource pool and selects a resource during a resource selection window based on the sensing results. The resource is used for a SL transmission, see Fig. 14 and paragraph no. 0109. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of this claimed invention to modify Xiang by incorporating the teachings of Yoshioka to enable the UE to selects its own SL resources for SL transmissions in accordance with the mode 2 autonomous resource selection in LTE. Such a modification would enable the UE to engage in SL transmissions when the UE is outside of the cell coverage of a base station, as is well known in the art. Regarding claim 1, Xiang does not teach but Zhang teaches “ wherein each sidelink beam management block includes four or fewer symbols ” and “ wherein the SCI is included in an SCI symbol that is located after a first sidelink reference signal symbol and before a second sidelink reference signal symbol ” (see Fig. 2 and paragraph nos. 0040-0046 which disclose that a sidelink beam management block includes 4 symbols defined by a first DMRS symbol, a first second stage SCI symbol, a second second stage SCI symbol, and a second DMRS symbol, all located in the “middle” of Fig. 2; the first and second DMRS symbols teach the claimed “first sidelink reference signal symbol” and a “second sidelink reference signal symbol”, respectively). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of this claimed invention to modify Xiang and Yoshioka by incorporating the teachings of Zhang to enable the UE to minimize the overhead in the transmission of SL control information by limiting the size of the SL control information to e.g., four symbols. In addition, the particular choice of the number of symbols for the SL control information (i.e., block) appears to be nothing more than the selection of an optimum design parameter to facilitate SL communications between two UEs and as such is well within the skill of one of ordinary skill in the art. In addition, the modification would have been further obvious to improve the channel estimation accuracy of the second stage SCI which is conducive to improving the decoding accuracy and reducing the bit error rate, as suggested by Zhang in paragraph no. 0033. Regarding independent claim 37 , this independent claim is a corresponding method claim of the apparatus claim 1 and recites similar subject matter. As such, the rationale behind the above rejection of claim 1 applies with equal force to this independent claim. Dependent Claims Regarding claim 2, the limitation “wherein the sidelink resource pool is a resource pool for sidelink beam management” would logically follow from the above rejection of claim 1 since the CSI-RS(s) of Xiang would logically use the resources sensed in the sidelink resource pool of Yoshioka. Regarding claim 3, Xiang teaches “wherein the sidelink beam management block burst one or more of: includes a quantity of sidelink beam management blocks within the sidelink beam management block burst, has a specified duration (the block shown in Fig. 5 has a specified time duration, see also, Fig. 6), uses a time period for transmission of the sidelink beam management block burst, or uses an offset for starting the sidelink beam management block burst.” Regarding claim 5, Xiang teaches “wherein the SCI indicates one or more time and frequency resources reserved for one or more sidelink beam management block transmissions respectively in one or more sidelink beam management block bursts” (paragraph no. 0018). Regarding claim 6, Xiang teaches “wherein the SCI indicates a sidelink beam management block index of a sidelink beam management block within the sidelink beam management block burst” (paragraph no. 0049, the “sidelink beam management block index” reads on either the resource identifier of the CSI-RS or the scrambling identity of the CSI-RS). Regarding claim 8, Xiang teaches “wherein the SCI indicates an identifier or an index of a beam used to transmit a sidelink beam management block” (paragraph no. 0059). Regarding claim 12, Xiang teaches “wherein the at least one beam management signal includes a reference signal, a synchronization signal, a sequence for the synchronization signal, or a sequence for the reference signal” (Fig. 5 shows a CSI-RS). Regarding claim 13, Xiang teaches “wherein the at least one beam management signal includes a second beam management signal for beamforming, beam fine tuning, or beam measurements” (Fig. 5). Regarding claim 14, Xiang teaches “wherein the one or more processors are configured to: monitor for a sidelink communication based at least in part on each sidelink beam management block of the one or more sidelink beam management blocks in the sidelink beam management block burst; and receive the sidelink communication” (Fig. 4, step S403 and paragraph no. 0050). Regarding claim 17, Xiang teaches “wherein the sidelink communication includes a discovery message, a direct communication request (DCR), or a beam report” (Fig. 4, step S403 and paragraph no. 0059, 0052). Regarding claim 18, Xiang teaches “wherein the one or more processors, to transmit the one or more sidelink beam management blocks in the sidelink beam management block burst, are configured to transmit repetitions of a sidelink beam management block” (Fig. 6 includes repetitions of the block shown in Fig. 6). However, assuming arguendo that Fig. 6 does not show at least two blocks of sidelink management signals shown in Fig. 5, then this would be an obvious modification. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of this claimed invention to modify Xiang, Yoshioka, and Zhang by transmitting multiple blocks of SCI and CSI-RS(s) in multiple subframes to further improve the beam training between the two UEs over time. Regarding claim 19, Xiang teaches “wherein one or more of the first sidelink reference signal symbol or the second sidelink reference signal symbol includes the at least one beam management signal” (see Fig. 5 which shows that CSI-RS 1 is a “second sidelink reference signal symbol” and also a “beam management signal”). Xiang, Yoshioka, and Zhand do not teach “wherein the one or more processors, to select the one or more sidelink resources for the one or more sidelink beam management blocks, are configured to select sidelink resources to avoid collisions with other sidelink beam management blocks.” However, this is an obvious modification. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of this claimed invention to modify Xiang, Yoshioka, and Zhang by transmitting a block of SCI and CSI-RS(s) over a resource to avoid collisions with other transmitted blocks of SCI and CSI-RS(s) from other surrounding UEs, to improve the reliability of transmission and reception of these blocks from one UE to another . 07-22-aia AIA Claim (s) 7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xiang, Yoshioka and Zhang as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Yoon et al., US 2023/0117782, (“Yoon”) . Xiang does not teach but Yoon teaches “wherein the SCI indicates a transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state or a spatial filter of a beam used to transmit the sidelink beam management block” (paragraph no. 0070 discloses that a SCI includes a TCI state associated with a first beam used to transmit the respective SL transmission, e.g., PSCCH). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of this claimed invention to modify Xiang, Yoshioka and Zhang by incorporating the teachings of Yoon to improve the beam training between the two UEs . 07-22-aia AIA Claim (s) 9-10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xiang, Yoshioka and Zhang as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Ding et al., US 2024/0276521, (“Ding”) . Regarding claim 9, Xiang does not teach but Ding teaches “wherein the SCI includes a source identifier” (paragraph no. 0084). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of this claimed invention to modify Xiang, Yoshioka and Zhang by incorporating the teachings of Ding to identify the ID of the terminal sending the SCI and CSI-RS(s). Regarding claim 10, Xiang does not teach but Ding teaches “wherein the SCI is an SCI part 1, and wherein the sidelink beam management block includes SCI part 2 that indicates one or more of a source identifier (ID) or a destination ID” (paragraph no. 0084). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of this claimed invention to modify Xiang, Yoshioka, and Zhang by incorporating the teachings of Ding to identify the ID of the terminal sending the SCI and CSI-RS(s) and/or to use the 2-part SCI format, thereby increasing the amount of control information transmitted in the SCI . 07-22-aia AIA Claim (s) 11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xiang, Yoshioka, and Zhang as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Yoon . Xiang does not teach but Yoon teaches “wherein the at least one beam management signal includes a first beam management signal used for automatic gain control” (see, e.g., Fig. 2B and its respective written description). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of this claimed invention to modify Xiang, Yoshioka , and Zhang by incorporating the teachings of Yoon to improve the reception of the CSI-RS(s) received by the receiving UE, via the means of a AGC field included in the beam training signals . 07-21-aia AIA Claim (s) 20, 25, 26, 28, 32-34, 36, and 38 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xiang et al., US 2020/0322032, (“Xiang”), in view of Nam et al, US 2023/0086126, (“Nam”), or alternatively, Tseng et al., US 2022/0174774, (“Tseng”), and in view of Zhang et al., US 2022/0312401, (“Zhang”), newly cited . Independent Claims Regarding independent claim 20, Xiang teaches “ An apparatus of a user equipment (UE) for wireless communication (Fig. 4, second communications device) , comprising: a memory (Fig. 11) ; and one or more processors (Fig. 11) , coupled to the memory, configured to cause the UE to: receive the one or more sidelink beam management blocks in the sidelink beam management block burst, wherein each sidelink beam management block in the sidelink beam management block burst includes at least one beam management signal and sidelink control information (SCI) (Fig. 4, steps S401, S402; Fig. 5 shows at least one “ sidelink beam management block ” including “ at least one beam management signal ” (CSI-RS1, CSI-RS2, CSI-RS3) and “ SCI ” (SCI); note that the SCI and CSI-RS(s) are transmitted via a sidelink resource such as an implicit PSCCH used to carry the SCI; the term “ sidelink beam management block ” reads on the block of SL beam management signals shown in Fig. 5 in accordance with BRI, especially since the term is not a term of art) ; and select a beam based at least in part on the one or more sidelink beam management blocks in the sidelink beam management block burst” (Fig. 4, step S403; paragraph no. 0059, “Operation S 403 : The second communications device sends feedback information to the first communications device, where the feedback information includes at least one of an identifier of the beam corresponding to the CSI-RS with the highest signal strength ”). Xiang does not teach but Nam or alternatively, Tseng teaches “ monitor for one or more sidelink beam management blocks in a sidelink beam management block burst in a sidelink resource pool” ( Nam : see paragraph no. 0083, “The UE receiving the SL-PRS 220 may monitor for the sidelink control block 225 following legacy procedures”; or Tseng : see paragraph no. 0087, “Therefore, the receiver UE may monitor the channel quality of each corresponding by monitoring and estimating the associated SL reference signal … the transmitter UE may configure the monitoring SL-SSB(s) to the receiver UE for the beam failure detection and recovery procedure. For example, if the configured monitoring quality(ies) of SL-SSB(s) for the beam failure detection and recovery procedure does not satisfy a pre-configured threshold, the Physical (PHY) layer of a (receiver) UE may indicate an SL-beam failure instant indicator to the upper layer of the UE (e.g., the MAC layer)”) as recited in claim 20. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of this claimed invention to modify Xiang by incorporating the teachings of either Nam or Tseng to enable the receiving UE to improve its SL beamforming operation as suggested by Tseng in paragraph no. 0087. In addition, such a modification would have been further obvious since the receiving of a SL block by a UE would necessarily entail the monitoring of the SL block for improved reception. Regarding the newly amended claim limitations of claim 20, Xiang does not teach but Zhang teaches “ wherein the SCI is included in an SCI symbol that is located after a first sidelink reference signal symbol and before a second sidelink reference signal symbol ” (see Fig. 2 and paragraph nos. 0040-0046 which disclose that a sidelink beam management block includes 4 symbols defined by a first DMRS symbol, a first second stage SCI symbol, a second second stage SCI symbol, and a second DMRS symbol, all located in the “middle” of Fig. 2; the first and second DMRS symbols teach the claimed “first sidelink reference signal symbol” and a “second sidelink reference signal symbol”, respectively). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of this claimed invention to modify Xiang and either Nam or Tseng by incorporating the teachings of Zhang to enable the UE to improve the channel estimation accuracy of the second stage SCI which is conducive to improving the decoding accuracy and reducing the bit error rate, as suggested by Zhang in paragraph no. 0033. Regarding independent claim 38 , this independent claim is a corresponding method claim of the apparatus claim 20 and recites similar subject matter. As such, the rationale behind the above rejection of claim 20 applies with equal force to this independent claim. Dependent Claims Regarding claim 25, see paragraph no. 0018 of Xiang. Regarding claim 26, Xiang teaches “wherein the SCI indicates a sidelink beam management block index of a sidelink beam management block within the sidelink beam management block burst” (paragraph no. 0049, the “sidelink beam management block index” reads on either the resource identifier of the CSI-RS or the scrambling identity of the CSI-RS). Regarding claim 28, see paragraph no. 0059 of Xiang. Regarding claim 32, Xiang teaches “wherein the at least one beam management signal includes a second beam management signal for beam forming, fine tuning, or beam measurements” (see Fig. 5). Regarding claim 33, Xiang teaches “wherein the one or more processors, to select the beam, are configured to select the beam based at least in part on measurements of the one or more sidelink beam management blocks in the sidelink beam management block burst” (see paragraph no. 0055). Regarding claim 34, Xiang teaches “wherein the one or more processors are configured to map a resource set to a sidelink beam management block of the one or more sidelink beam management blocks of the sidelink beam management block burst based at least in part on a received beam identifier, a beam index, or a sidelink beam management block index indicated by SCI in a sidelink beam management block associated with the selected beam” (paragraph no. 0059). Regarding claim 36, Xiang does not teach but Zhang teaches “wherein the SCI symbol is located after and adjacent to the first sidelink reference signal symbol” (Fig. 2, second stage SCI symbol is located after and adjacent to the first DMRS symbol). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of this claimed invention to modify Xiang and either Nam or Tseng and Zhang by incorporating the additional teachings of Zhang to enable the UE to improve the channel estimation accuracy of the second stage SCI which is conducive to improving the decoding accuracy and reducing the bit error rate, as suggested by Zhang in paragraph no. 0033 . 07-22-aia AIA Claim (s) 31 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xiang and either Nam or Tseng and Zhang as applied to claim 20 above, and further in view of Yoon . Xiang does not teach but Yoon teaches “wherein the at least one beam management signal includes a first beam management signal used for automatic gain control” (see, e.g., Fig. 2B and its respective written description). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of this claimed invention to modify Xiang and either Nam or Tseng and Zhang by incorporating the teachings of Yoon to improve the reception of the CSI-RS(s) received by the receiving UE, via the means of a AGC field included in the beam training signals . 07-22-aia AIA Claim (s) 21, 24 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xiang and either Nam or Tseng and Zhang as applied to claim 20 above, and further in view of Yoshioka . Regarding claim 21, Xiang teaches “wherein the one or more processors are configured to: select a resource for the sidelink communication based at least in part on the selected beam; and transmit the sidelink communication” (Fig. 4, step S403; note that a SL resource is used to transmit the feedback information). Xiang does not teach but Yoshioka teaches “perform sensing for a sidelink communication” (Yoshioka teaches that a UE performs sensing in a sidelink resource pool and selects a resource during a resource selection window based on the sensing results. The resource is used for a SL transmission, see Fig. 14 and paragraph no. 0109). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of this claimed invention to modify Xiang and either Nam or Tseng and Zhang by incorporating the teachings of Yoshioka to enable the UE to selects its own SL resources for SL transmissions in accordance with the mode 2 autonomous resource selection in LTE. Such a modification would enable the UE to engage in SL transmissions when the UE is outside of the cell coverage of a base station, as is well known in the art. Regarding claim 24, see Xiang, paragraph no. 0059 . 07-22-aia AIA Claim (s) 22 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xiang and either Nam or Tseng, Zhang, and Yoshioka as applied to claim 21 above, and further in view of Ding . Xiang does not teach but Ding teaches “wherein the one or more processors, to select the resource, are configured to select the resource from a resource set based at least in part one or more of: a configured time duration after each sidelink beam management block of the one or more sidelink beam management blocks in the sidelink beam management block burst, a mapping of the resource set with a sidelink beam management block of the one or more sidelink beam management blocks in the sidelink beam management block burst, or SCI part 2 included in each sidelink beam management block of the one or more sidelink beam management blocks in the sidelink beam management block burst” (paragraph no. 0084 teaches this last alternative limitation). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of this claimed invention to modify Xiang and either Nam or Tseng, Zhang, and Yoshioka by incorporating the teachings of Ding to enable the UE to use the 2-part SCI format, thereby increasing the amount of control information sent by the UE . 07-22-aia AIA Claim (s) 29-30 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xiang and either Nam or Tseng and Zhang as applied to claim 20 above, and further in view of Ding . Regarding claim 29, Xiang does not teach but Ding teaches “wherein the SCI includes a source identifier” (paragraph no. 0084). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of this claimed invention to modify Xiang and either Nam or Tseng and Zhang by incorporating the teachings of Ding to identify the ID of the terminal sending the SCI and CSI-RS(s). Regarding claim 30, Xiang does not teach but Ding teaches “wherein the SCI is an SCI part 1, and wherein the sidelink beam management block includes SCI part 2 that indicates one or more of a source identifier (ID) or a destination ID” (paragraph no. 0084). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of this claimed invention to modify Xiang and either Nam or Tseng and Zhang by incorporating the teachings of Ding to identify the ID of the terminal sending the SCI and CSI-RS(s) and/or to use the 2-part SCI format, thereby increasing the amount of control information transmitted in the SCI . 07-22-aia AIA Claim (s) 23 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xiang and either Nam or Tseng, Zhang, and Yoshioka as applied to claim 21 above, and further in view of Liu et al., US 2022/0046430, (“Liu”) . Xiang does not teach but Liu teaches “wherein the one or more processors, to transmit the sidelink communication, are configured to transmit the sidelink communication using a transmitting beam that is associated with the selected beam” (paragraph nos. 0103, 0104). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of this claimed invention to modify Xiang and either Nam or Tseng, Zhang, and Yoshioka by incorporating the teachings of Liu to establish an improved transmit- receive beam pair link, thereby increasing the reliability of data transmission and reception to and from the other UE . 07-22-aia AIA Claim (s) 27 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xiang and either Nam or Tseng and Zhang as applied to claim 20 above, and further in view of Yoon . Xiang does not teach but Yoon teaches “wherein the SCI indicates a transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state or a spatial filter of a beam used to transmit the sidelink beam management block” (paragraph no. 0070 discloses that a SCI includes a TCI state associated with a first beam used to transmit the respective SL transmission, e.g., PSCCH). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of this claimed invention to modify Xiang and either Nam or Tseng and Zhang by incorporating the teachings of Yoon to improve the beam training between the two UEs . 07-22-aia AIA Claim (s) 35 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xiang and either Nam or Tseng and Zhang as applied to claim 20 above, and further in view of Uchiyama et al., US 2021/0099847, (“Uchiyama”) . Xiang does not teach but Uchiyama teaches “wherein the one or more processors are configured to determine a transmitting beam based at least in part on a beam identifier, a beam index, a sidelink beam management block index, a transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state indicated by SCI in a sidelink beam management block associated with the selected beam, or a spatial filter indicated by the SCI” (paragraph no. 0263 discloses that a terminal determines the beam ID of the transmit beam to be used for SL transmission to a reception terminal). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of this claimed invention to modify Xiang and either Nam or Tseng and Zhang by incorporating the teachings of Uchiyama to improve the reliability of the SL data transmissions between the two UEs . Allowable Subject Matter 12-151-08 AIA 07-43 12-51-08 Claim s 4, 15-16 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. Regarding claim 4, the prior art of record does not teach or fairly suggest “wherein the SCI indicates a time interval for resource reservation based at least in part on the time period for the transmission of the sidelink beam management block burst.” Regarding claim 15, the prior art of record does not teach or fairly suggest the claim limitations “wherein the one or more processors, to monitor for the sidelink communication, are configured to monitor for the sidelink communication in one or more resource sets based at least in part on one or more of: a configured time duration after each sidelink beam management block of the one or more sidelink beam management blocks in the sidelink beam management block burst, a mapping of each resource set of the one or more resource sets with a respective sidelink beam management block of the one or more sidelink beam management blocks in the sidelink beam management block burst, or SCI part 2 included in each sidelink beam management block of the one or more sidelink beam management blocks in the sidelink beam management block burst.” Regarding claim 16, the prior art of record does not teach or fairly suggest the claim limitations “wherein the one or more processors, to monitor for the sidelink communication, are configured to monitor for the sidelink communication using one or more receiving beams that are based at least in part on one or more respective transmitting beams that are associated with each sidelink beam management block of the one or more sidelink beam management blocks in the sidelink beam management block burst.” Regarding claim 16, Xiang teaches using transmit beams to transmit the SCI and CSI-RS(s), see Fig. 5. Xiang also implicitly teaches using a receive beam to receive the feedback information of step S403 shown in Fig. 4. However, Xiang is silent regarding the relationship between the receive beam used to receive the feedback information and the transmit beams used to transmit the SCI and CSI-RS(s). Hence, Xiang does not teach or fairly suggest the limitations of claim 16. Response to Arguments Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1, 20, 37, and 38 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 07-96 AIA The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. See Fig. 6 of Dutta et al., US 2022/0210778. Fig. 6 discloses that an SCI symbol is located between two SCI reference signal symbols (i.e., AGC symbols 612). This disclosure is pertinent to the newly amended claim limitations of each independent claim . Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to WON TAE C. KIM whose telephone number is (571)270-1812. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8:00 am - 5:00 pm. 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, Edan Orgad can be reached at (571)272-7884. 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. 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If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000. /WON TAE C KIM/Examiner, Art Unit 2414 Application/Control Number: 18/458,980 Page 2 Art Unit: 2414 Application/Control Number: 18/458,980 Page 3 Art Unit: 2414 Application/Control Number: 18/458,980 Page 4 Art Unit: 2414 Application/Control Number: 18/458,980 Page 5 Art Unit: 2414 Application/Control Number: 18/458,980 Page 6 Art Unit: 2414 Application/Control Number: 18/458,980 Page 7 Art Unit: 2414 Application/Control Number: 18/458,980 Page 8 Art Unit: 2414 Application/Control Number: 18/458,980 Page 9 Art Unit: 2414 Application/Control Number: 18/458,980 Page 10 Art Unit: 2414 Application/Control Number: 18/458,980 Page 11 Art Unit: 2414 Application/Control Number: 18/458,980 Page 12 Art Unit: 2414 Application/Control Number: 18/458,980 Page 13 Art Unit: 2414 Application/Control Number: 18/458,980 Page 14 Art Unit: 2414 Application/Control Number: 18/458,980 Page 15 Art Unit: 2414 Application/Control Number: 18/458,980 Page 16 Art Unit: 2414 Application/Control Number: 18/458,980 Page 17 Art Unit: 2414 Application/Control Number: 18/458,980 Page 18 Art Unit: 2414 Application/Control Number: 18/458,980 Page 19 Art Unit: 2414 Application/Control Number: 18/458,980 Page 20 Art Unit: 2414 Application/Control Number: 18/458,980 Page 21 Art Unit: 2414 Application/Control Number: 18/458,980 Page 22 Art Unit: 2414 Application/Control Number: 18/458,980 Page 23 Art Unit: 2414 Application/Control Number: 18/458,980 Page 24 Art Unit: 2414 Application/Control Number: 18/458,980 Page 25 Art Unit: 2414
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