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 .
1. Claims 1-14 are pending. Claims 15-28 are withdrawn from consideration.
Election/Restrictions
2. Claims 15-28 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected Invention II, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 12/23/2025.
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 nonobviousness.
3. Claim(s) 1, 3, 6, 8, 10 and 13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lee et al, US 2022/210747 (as cited in the IDS 04/14/2025) hereafter Lee in view of Fakoorian et al, US 2023/0124916 (as cited in the IDS 04/14/2025) hereafter Fakoorian.
As for claim 1, Lee discloses:
A method for wireless communication at a relay user equipment (UE), comprising:
receiving, from a network node, a first message indicating one or more parameters associated with a relay synchronization signal block (SSB) (Lee, Fig. 14, S1410, [0150]-[0152], Receiving/obtain, form the base station, power control parameter(s) related to the S-SSB);
transmit the relay SSB in accordance with the one or more parameters Lee, Fig. 9, Fig. 14, S1420, S1430, [0152]-[0154], Transmitting to the RS UE via a sidelink channel, a S-SSB message based on the transmit power value for the S-SSB determined by the power control parameter(s) received at S1410);
transmitting, to one or more out-of-coverage (OOC) sidelink (SL) UEs via an SL channel (Lee, Fig. 9, [0002], [0103], [0104], Extend coverage by a UE providing messaging to another UE that is out of the connectivity range of the BS. The communication between the UEs uses the sidelink), a third message including the relay SSB (Lee, Fig. 9, Fig. 14, S1420, S1430, [0152]-[0154], Transmitting to the RS UE via a sidelink channel, a S-SSB message based on the transmit power value for the S-SSB determined by the power control parameter(s) received at S1410).
Lee does not explicitly disclose receiving, from the network node, a second message instructing the relay UE to transmit the relay SSB in accordance with the one or more parameters; and transmitting, to one or more out-of-coverage (OOC) sidelink (SL) UEs via an SL channel, a third message including the relay SSB in accordance with receiving the second message.
However, Fakoorian discloses receiving, from the network node, a second message instructing the relay UE to transmit the relay SSB in accordance with the one or more parameters (Fakoorian, [0029], [0079], [0085], [0090]-[0091], Receiving instruction, from the network node, to transmit a sidelink synchronization signal (SL-SS) to the other UE in accordance with the instructions/configuration/parameters received from the gNB. The SL-SS is within the SSB); and transmitting, to one or more out-of-coverage (OOC) sidelink (SL) UEs via an SL channel, a third message including the relay SSB in accordance with receiving the second message (Fakoorian, [0085], Transmitting to the other UE with the SL, the SL-SS within the SSB in accordance with (triggered by) receiving the second message (instruction from the base station)).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Lee with receiving, from the network node, a second message instructing the relay UE to transmit the relay SSB in accordance with the one or more parameters; and transmitting, to one or more out-of-coverage (OOC) sidelink (SL) UEs via an SL channel, a third message including the relay SSB in accordance with receiving the second message as taught by Fakoorian to improve the efficiency of sidelink wireless communications (Fakoorian, [0006]).
As for claim 3, Lee discloses the one or more parameters are SSB parameters (Lee. Fig. 14, S1410, [0150]-[0151], the network may transmit to the TX UE information on power control parameter(s) related to the S-SSB.); and the UE transmits the relay SSB (Lee, Fig. 9, Fig. 14, S1420, S1430, [0152]-[0154], the TX UE may obtain or determine a transmit power value for the S-SSB to the RX UE to extend coverage of the network to the RX UE) to extend a coverage area associated with the network node (Lee, [0104], Extend coverage by a UE providing messaging to another UE that is out of the connectivity range of the BS).
As for claim 6, Lee discloses receiving, from the network node, a fourth message configuring an initial SL bandwidth part (BWP) (Lee, [0089-[0090], BS/network informs the UE of the BWP. The BWP may be at least any one of an active BWP, an initial BWP, and/or a default BWP) and an SL resource pool for establishing the SL channel with the one or more OOC SL UEs (Lee, [0103]-[0104], the BS may inform the UE 1 of the resource pool).
As for claim 8, Lee discloses:
A relay user equipment (UE), comprising: one or more processors; and one or more memories (Lee, [0016] In one embodiment, a first device configured to perform wireless communication is provided. The first device may comprise: one or more memories storing instructions; one or more transceivers; and one or more processors connected to the one or more memories and the one or more transceivers) coupled with the one or more processors and storing processor-executable code that, when executed by the one or more processors, is configured to cause the relay UE to:
receiving, from a network node, a first message indicating one or more parameters associated with a relay synchronization signal block (SSB) (Lee, Fig. 14, S1410, [0150]-[0152], Receiving/obtain, form the base station, power control parameter(s) related to the S-SSB);
transmitting, to one or more out-of-coverage (OOC) sidelink (SL) UEs via an SL channel (Lee, Fig. 9, [0002], [0103], [0104], Extend coverage by a UE providing messaging to another UE that is out of the connectivity range of the BS. The communication between the UEs uses the sidelink), a third message including the relay SSB (Lee, Fig. 9, Fig. 14, S1420, S1430, [0152]-[0154], Transmitting to the RS UE via a sidelink channel, a S-SSB message based on the transmit power value for the S-SSB determined by the power control parameter(s) received at S1410).
Lee does not explicitly disclose receiving, from the network node, a second message instructing the relay UE to transmit the relay SSB in accordance with the one or more parameters; and transmitting, to one or more out-of-coverage (OOC) sidelink (SL) UEs via an SL channel, a third message including the relay SSB in accordance with receiving the second message.
However, Fakoorian discloses receiving, from the network node, a second message instructing the relay UE to transmit the relay SSB in accordance with the one or more parameters (Fakoorian, [0029], [0079], [0085], [0090]-[0091], Receiving instruction, from the network node, to transmit a sidelink synchronization signal (SL-SS) to the other UE in accordance with the instructions/configuration/parameters received from the gNB. The SL-SS is within the SSB); and transmitting, to one or more out-of-coverage (OOC) sidelink (SL) UEs via an SL channel, a third message including the relay SSB in accordance with receiving the second message (Fakoorian, [0085], Transmitting to the other UE with the SL, the SL-SS within the SSB in accordance with (triggered by) receiving the second message (instruction from the base station)).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Lee with receiving, from the network node, a second message instructing the relay UE to transmit the relay SSB in accordance with the one or more parameters; and transmitting, to one or more out-of-coverage (OOC) sidelink (SL) UEs via an SL channel, a third message including the relay SSB in accordance with receiving the second message as taught by Fakoorian to improve the efficiency of sidelink wireless communications (Fakoorian, [0006]).
As for claim 10, Lee discloses the one or more parameters are SSB parameters (Lee. Fig. 14, S1410, [0150]-[0151], the network may transmit to the TX UE information on power control parameter(s) related to the S-SSB.); and the UE transmits the relay SSB (Lee, Fig. 9, Fig. 14, S1420, S1430, [0152]-[0154], the TX UE may obtain or determine a transmit power value for the S-SSB to the RX UE to extend coverage of the network to the RX UE) to extend a coverage area associated with the network node (Lee, [0104], Extend coverage by a UE providing messaging to another UE that is out of the connectivity range of the BS).
As for claim 13, Lee discloses receiving, from the network node, a fourth message configuring an initial SL bandwidth part (BWP) (Lee, [0089-[0090], BS/network informs the UE of the BWP. The BWP may be at least any one of an active BWP, an initial BWP, and/or a default BWP) and an SL resource pool for establishing the SL channel with the one or more OOC SL UEs (Lee, [0103]-[0104], the BS may inform the UE 1 of the resource pool).
4. Claim(s) 4 and 11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lee et al, US 2022/210747 (as cited in the IDS 04/14/2025) in view of Fakoorian et al, US 2023/0124916 (as cited in the IDS 04/14/2025) as applied to claims 1 and 8 above, and further in view of Ko et al, US 2022/0232497 hereafter ‘2497.
As for claims 4 and 11, the combination of Lee and Fakoorian does not explicitly disclose transmitting, to the one or more OOC sidelink UEs, a fourth message indicating a synchronization priority via at least one of: a primary synchronization signal (PSS), a secondary synchronization signal (SSS), or a physical sidelink broadcast channel (PSBCH).
However, ‘2497 discloses transmitting, to the one or more OOC sidelink UEs, a fourth message indicating a synchronization priority via at least one of: a primary synchronization signal (PSS) (‘2497, [0152]-[0153], The transmitting UE transmits, to the receiving UE, an S-PSS including S-PSS ID information configuring an SL-SSID and information on synchronization priority of the transmitting UE).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the combination of the teachings of Lee and Fakoorian with transmitting, to the one or more OOC sidelink UEs, a fourth message indicating a synchronization priority via at least one of: a primary synchronization signal (PSS), a secondary synchronization signal (SSS), or a physical sidelink broadcast channel (PSBCH) as taught ‘2497 to perform PSBCH decoding that is optimized by reducing power consumption that is needed for PSBCH decoding based on information transmitted by an S-PSS, information transmitted by an S-SSS, a PSBCH DM-RS RSRP measurement value, and synchronization priority information indicated by an SL-SSID (‘2497, [0158]).
5. Claim(s) 7 and 14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lee et al, US 2022/210747 (as cited in the IDS 04/14/2025) in view of Fakoorian et al, US 2023/0124916 (as cited in the IDS 04/14/2025) as applied to claims 1 and 8 above, and further in view of Ko et al, US 2023/0042690 hereafter ‘2690 (as cited in the IDS 04/14/2025).
As for claims 7 and 14, the combination of Lee and Fakoorian does not explicitly disclose transmitting, to the one or more OOC SL UEs, a fifth message indicating the initial SL BWP and the SL resource pool for establishing the SL channel with the relay UE, wherein the fifth message is included in a relay master information block (MIB) or relay MIB system information (RMSI).
‘2690 discloses transmitting, to the one or more OOC SL UEs, a fifth message (‘2690, [0132]-[0135], A plurality of configuration information can be combined in a configuration message) indicating the initial SL BWP (Ko, [0086], The SL BWP is configured in a carrier with respect to an out-of-coverage NR V2X UE and an RRC_IDLE UE) and the SL resource pool for establishing the SL channel with the relay UE (‘2690, [0134]-[0135], [0156]-[0157], the transmitting UE may transmit information related to a sidelink resource pool pre-configured by a higher layer to the receiving UE through the PSBCH), wherein the fifth message is included in a relay master information block (MIB) (‘2690, [0115] The PSBCH payload may be configured with an MIB configured by a higher layer and a part configured by a physical layer.)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the combination of the teachings of Lee and Fakoorian with transmitting, to the one or more OOC SL UEs, a fifth message indicating the initial SL BWP and the SL resource pool for establishing the SL channel with the relay UE, wherein the fifth message is included in a relay master information block (MIB) or relay MIB system information (RMSI) as taught by ‘2690 to provide more efficient sidelink communications (‘2690, [0005]).
Allowable Subject Matter
6. Claims 2, 5, 9 and 12 is 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
7. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure: Lindholm et al, US 2023/0124916, [0045], UE 214 may transmit a S-SSB block via line 217 to UE 218, where such S-SSB would include a gNB/network signaled PSBCH, and have a SL synchronization priority level of P0 and use resource R1.
8. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JENEE HOLLAND whose telephone number is (571)270-7196. The examiner can normally be reached 8:30 AM - 5:00 PM.
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JENEE HOLLAND
Examiner
Art Unit 2469
/JENEE HOLLAND/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2469