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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
1. 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.
2. 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 of this title, 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.
3. Claims 1-5, 7-13 and 15-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Publication No. US 2022/0338283 to Wang et al. (hereinafter Wang) in view of U.S. Publication No US 2018/0324679 to Basu et al. (hereinafter Basu) in view of U.S. Publication No US 2023/0180097 to Zhang et al. (hereinafter Zhang)
As to claims 1, 9 and 17, Wang discloses a method for sidelink (SL) communication, comprising:
receiving, by a first terminal device, first information from a second terminal device, wherein the first information is used to request N system information blocks (SIBs) (Wang; Fig.5:511; Fig.6:612; [0029]; [0031] shows and discloses a relay path is configured for remote UE 501 and a gNB 502 through a relay UE 503. Relay UE 503 is in RRC-CONNECTED state and is connected with gNB 502. When the remote UE 501 needs to request one or more on-demand SIBs (for example, SIBx), at step 511, remote UE 501 (=a second terminal device) sends the SI Request to the relay UE 503 (=a first terminal device) in a PC5-RRC message); and
transmitting, by the first terminal device, second information to the second terminal device, wherein the second information indicates at least one of the N SIBs (Wang; Fig.5:513; Fig.6:612; [0030]; [0035] shows and discloses relay UE 603 delivers the SIBs to remote UE 601 through PC5-RRC message).
Wang discloses a UE request for the plurality of SIBs, but fails to disclose of requesting N system information blocks (SIBs), and N is a positive integer. However, Basu discloses
requesting N system information blocks (SIBs), and N is a positive integer (Basu; [0028] discloses wherein a UE is requesting for 10 SIBs. Here 10 is positive integer)
It is obvious for a person of ordinary skilled in the art to combine the teachings before the effective filing date of the invention. One would be motivated to combine the teachings in order to use the limited resources in an effective way by requesting a particular number of SIBs.
Wang-Basu discloses a UE request for the plurality of SIBs, but fails to disclose of determining valid SIBs. However, Zhang discloses
wherein the method further comprises:
determining, by the first terminal device according to the first information, whether the first terminal device has one or more valid local SIBs, wherein the one or more valid local SIBs are one or more SIBs in the N SIBs (Zhang; [0146]-[0147] discloses of determining the valid SIBs list by the first terminal device and also discloses of receiving request from the second UE that includes SIB list); and
wherein transmitting, by the first terminal device, the second information to the second terminal device comprises:
transmitting, by the first terminal device, the second information to the second terminal device when the first terminal device has R SIBs valid, wherein the N SIBs comprise the R SIBs, and R is a positive integer and is less than or equal to N (Zhang; [0146]-[0147] discloses a first UE receives request from a second UE that includes list of the SIBs and also discloses the first UE transmitting valid SIBs to the second UE terminal).
It is obvious for a person of ordinary skilled in the art to combine the teachings before the effective filing date of the invention. One would be motivated to combine the teachings so that the first UE can transmit valid SIBs to the second UE based on the request.
As to claims 2, 10 and 18, the rejection of claim 1 as listed above is incorporated herein. In addition, Wang-Basu-Zhang discloses wherein prior to release of a relay connection between the first terminal device and the second terminal device, the method further comprises:
transmitting, by the first terminal device, third information to the second terminal device when a first SIB in the N SIBs is updated, wherein the third information indicates the first SIB updated (Wang; Fig.6:632; [0034] discloses relay UE 603 receives Uu-RRC SI update with a subset of SIBs, such as in step 631. Relay UE 603 relays the SI Update to remote UE 601. In one embodiment, relay UE 603 relays SI Update to remote UE 601 in unicast manner and sends SIB1 to remote UE through PC5-RRC message as in step 632)
As to claims 3, 11 and 19, the rejection of claim 2 as listed above is incorporated herein. In addition, Wang-Basu-Zhang discloses wherein the third information contains the first SIB updated or a first list (Wang; Fig.6:632; [0034] discloses relay UE 603 receives Uu-RRC SI update with a subset of SIBs, such as in step 631. Relay UE 603 relays the SI Update to remote UE 601. In one embodiment, relay UE 603 relays SI Update to remote UE 601 in unicast manner and sends SIB1 to remote UE through PC5-RRC message as in step 632);
wherein the first list contains the first SIB updated (Wang; Fig.6:632; [0034] discloses relay UE 603 receives Uu-RRC SI update with a subset of SIBs, such as in step 631. Relay UE 603 relays the SI Update to remote UE 601. In one embodiment, relay UE 603 relays SI Update to remote UE 601 in unicast manner and sends SIB1 to remote UE through PC5-RRC message as in step 632).
As to claims 4, 12 and 20, the rejection of claim 1 as listed above is incorporated herein. In addition, Wang-Basu-Zhang discloses wherein the first information contains a first system information (SI) request list (Wang; Fig.5:511 shows and discloses the remote UE 501 sends SI (=system information) request to the relay UE and [0005] discloses SI request destined to the gNB to request a set of SIBs for the remote UE).
As to claims 5 and 13, the rejection of claim 4 as listed above is incorporated herein. In addition, Wang-Basu-Zhang discloses wherein the first SI request list contains an identifier (ID) of each of the N SIBs (Basu; Fig.4; [0028])
As to claims 7 and 15, the rejection of claim 6 as listed above is incorporated herein. In addition, Wang-Basu-Zhang discloses further comprising:
acquiring, by the first terminal device, one or more of M SIBs from a network device when the first terminal device does not have the M SIBs valid, wherein the N SIBs comprise the M SIBs, and M is a positive integer and is less than or equal to N (Wang; Fig.5; Fig.6; [0028]-[0035]).
As to claims 8 and 16, the rejection of claim 7 as listed above is incorporated herein. In addition, Wang-Basu-Zhang discloses wherein acquiring, by the first terminal device, the one or more of the M SIBs from the network device comprises:
transmitting, by the first terminal device, ninth information to the network device, wherein the ninth information is used to request the one or more of the M SIBs (Wang; Fig.5; Fig.6:613; [0028]-[0035] discloses Relay UE 603, at step 613, reads the PC5 RRC message and sends a Uu-RRC message, SI request to gNB 602. Here Wang is applied for the 1st alternative); and/or
receiving, by the first terminal device, the one or more of the M SIBs from the network device.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. 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 nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) 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 mailing date of this final action.
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/FAISAL CHOUDHURY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2478
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