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 .
This is in response to the Applicant’s arguments, and amendments filed on April 29, 2026, in which claims 1, 3, 4, 6-7, 9, 14, and 16-19 have been amended, claims 2, 5, 10-13, and 15 have been canceled. Claims 1, 3-4, 6-9, 14, and 16-20 are currently pending.
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.
Claims 1, 3, 6-9, 14, 16, and 18-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kim et al. (US 2022/0272532) in view of Murray et al. (US 2021/0129793).
Regarding claim 1, Kim teaches a method of operation of a first user equipment (UE), comprising: receiving, from a network entity or base station, information (i.e., A relay station is an entity that can receive a transmission of data from an upstream station (e.g., a BS or a UE) [0018], [0034], [0037], UE 120 antennas 252a through 252r may receive the downlink signals from base station 110 and/or other base stations [0045]); transmitting sidelink control information (SCI) including information on the security and scheduling information of data to a second UE (i.e., In some aspects, one or more sidelink channels 310 may use resource pools. For example, a scheduling assignment (e.g., included in SCI 330) may be transmitted in sub-channels using specific resource blocks (RBs) across time. In some aspects, data transmissions (e.g., on PSSCH 320) associated with a scheduling assignment may occupy adjacent RBs in the same subframe as the scheduling assignment (e.g., using frequency division multiplexing). In some aspects, a scheduling assignment and associated data transmissions are not transmitted on adjacent RBs [0059]-[0060]); generating the data based on a security function according to the security (i.e., UE 305 may generate sidelink grants, and may transmit the grants in SCI 330 [0062]); and transmitting the data to the second UE in a resource indicated by the scheduling information (i.e., Remote UE 502 may determine that a relay UE is necessary. As shown by reference number 524, remote UE 502 may perform a discovery procedure to find relay UE 504. As shown by reference number 526, remote UE 502 may transmit a direct communication request. The request may include an identity of remote UE 502, indicated by a 5G global unique temporary identifier (5G-GUTI), and a next generation key set indicator (ngKSI) that is associated with keys that may be used for message protection. The request may also include NAS security capabilities, and the request may be protected with a NAS key Key.sub.NASint ([0071]-[0074]).
Kim does not specifically teach receiving information indicating activation of use of security-related information.
However, the preceding limitation is known in the art of communications. Murray teaches the method comprises, at block 202, determining whether a security system of a first vehicle is activated and, if it is activated, then the method comprises, at block 204, transmitting a V2V signal to a second vehicle, the signal being as described above with reference to FIG. 1. In other words, the signal comprising instructions that, when executed by a controller of the second vehicle, cause the controller of the second vehicle to activate a security system of the second vehicle. The first vehicle may be the vehicle 110 as shown in FIG. 1, the second vehicle may be the vehicle 160 shown in FIG. 1 etc ([abstr.], [0005]-[0007], [0036]). Therefore, It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to combine Murray's technique with Kim's system in order to provide vehicle-to-vehicle security system that extends surveillance by allowing a triggered vehicle to alert nearby cars to activate their cameras, microphones, or alarms.
Regarding claim 3, Kim in view of Murray teaches all the limitations above. Kim further teaches wherein the information indicating activation of use of the security-related information is received from the network entity in a network access procedure or a network authentication procedure (i.e., the authentication information may be used by a network node to authenticate the UE with security context information of the UE that was established during registration of the UE with the network node [0018]).
Regarding claim 4, Kim in view of Murray teaches all the limitations above. Kim further teaches transmitting information indicating initiation of a sidelink service to the base station; and receiving, from the base station, a radio resource control (RRC) message including the information indicating activation of use of the security-related information ([0065]-[0067]).
Regarding claim 6, Kim in view of Murray teaches all the limitations above. Murray further teaches identifying a communication environment (i.e., vehicles may activate their security system upon hearing the alarm system of another vehicle to record images, or audio, of the environment surrounding the other vehicle [0043]).
Regarding claim 7, Kim in view of Murray teaches all the limitations above. Murray further teaches wherein the communication environment includes at least one of a speed of the first UE, a degree of traffic congestion around the first UE, available resources for application of the security function according to the security level, a security level of the first UE, a security level of a service, a security level of a message, or importance of a message (i.e., Activating the security system of the first vehicle may comprise automatically turning on the audio and/or video capturing device of the first vehicle. In this example, if a person (for example an unauthorized user of the first vehicle) is within a certain proximity (e.g. comes within a predetermined radius of the first vehicle) this may trigger the image capturing device to capture audio and/or video images of the first vehicle's surroundings. In this example the controller may be further configured to attach metadata to any audio and/or video captured by the capturing device of the first vehicle [0007]).
Regarding claim 8, Kim in view of Murray teaches all the limitations above. Kim further teaches the security function includes at least one of an encryption function, an integrity function, or an electronic signature function (i.e., second message (set of keys parameters) is encrypted, integrity protected, or both [0101], [0142]).
Regarding claim 9, Kim in view of Murray teaches all the limitations above. Kim further teaches wherein the SCI is classified into first-stage SCI and second-stage SCI, the scheduling information is included in the first-stage SCI (i.e., UE 305 may perform resource selection and/or scheduling using SCI 330 received in PSCCH 315, which may indicate occupied resources, and/or channel parameters … n the transmission mode where resource selection and/or scheduling is performed by a UE 305, UE 305 may generate sidelink grants, and may transmit the grants in SCI 330 [0058]-[0062]).
Regarding claim 14, Kim teaches a method of operation of a second user equipment (UE), comprising: information (i.e., A relay station is an entity that can receive a transmission of data from an upstream station (e.g., a BS or a UE) [0018], [0034], [0037], UE 120 antennas 252a through 252r may receive the downlink signals from base station 110 and/or other base stations [0045]); receiving sidelink control information (SCI) including scheduling information of data from the first UE (i.e., In some aspects, one or more sidelink channels 310 may use resource pools. For example, a scheduling assignment (e.g., included in SCI 330) may be transmitted in sub-channels using specific resource blocks (RBs) across time. In some aspects, data transmissions (e.g., on PSSCH 320) associated with a scheduling assignment may occupy adjacent RBs in the same subframe as the scheduling assignment (e.g., using frequency division multiplexing). In some aspects, a scheduling assignment and associated data transmissions are not transmitted on adjacent RBs [0059]-[0060]); generating the data based on a security function according to the security (i.e., UE 305 may generate sidelink grants, and may transmit the grants in SCI 330 [0062]); receiving the data from the first UE in a resource indicated by the scheduling information (i.e., a receive processor 258 may process (e.g., demodulate and decode) the detected symbols, provide decoded data for UE 120 to a data sink 260, and provide decoded control information and system information to a controller/processor 280 ([0045]), UE 305 may perform resource selection and/or scheduling using SCI 330 received in PSCCH 315, which may indicate occupied resources, and/or channel parameters [0060]-[0061]); and performing a processing operation on the data based on a security function according to the security (i.e., remote UE 502 may perform a discovery procedure to find relay UE 504. As shown by reference number 526, remote UE 502 may transmit a direct communication request. The request may include an identity of remote UE 502, indicated by a 5G global unique temporary identifier (5G-GUTI), and a next generation key set indicator (ngKSI) that is associated with keys that may be used for message protection. The request may also include NAS security capabilities, and the request may be protected with a NAS key Key.sub.NASint ([0071]-[0074]).
Kim does not specifically teach receiving information indicating activation of use of security-related information.
However, the preceding limitation is known in the art of communications. Murray teaches the method comprises, at block 202, determining whether a security system of a first vehicle is activated and, if it is activated, then the method comprises, at block 204, transmitting a V2V signal to a second vehicle, the signal being as described above with reference to FIG. 1. In other words, the signal comprising instructions that, when executed by a controller of the second vehicle, cause the controller of the second vehicle to activate a security system of the second vehicle. The first vehicle may be the vehicle 110 as shown in FIG. 1, the second vehicle may be the vehicle 160 shown in FIG. 1 etc ([abstr.], [0005]-[0007], [0036]). Therefore, It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to combine Murray's technique with Kim's system in order to provide vehicle-to-vehicle security system that extends surveillance by allowing a triggered vehicle to alert nearby cars to activate their cameras, microphones, or alarms.
Regarding claim 16, Kim in view of Murray teaches all the limitations above. Kim further teaches wherein the information indicating activation of use of the security-related information is received from the network entity in a network access procedure or a network authentication procedure (i.e., the authentication information may be used by a network node to authenticate the UE with security context information of the UE that was established during registration of the UE with the network node [0018]).
Regarding claim 17, Kim in view of Murray teaches all the limitations above. Kim further teaches transmitting information indicating initiation of a sidelink service to the base station; and receiving, from the base station, a radio resource control (RRC) message including the information indicating activation of use of the security-related information ([0065]-[0067]).
Regarding claim 18, Kim in view of Murray teaches all the limitations above. Murray further teaches identifying a communication environment (i.e., vehicles may activate their security system upon hearing the alarm system of another vehicle to record images, or audio, of the environment surrounding the other vehicle [0043]).
Regarding claim 19, Kim in view of Murray teaches all the limitations above. Murray further teaches wherein the communication environment includes at least one of a speed of the first UE, a degree of traffic congestion around the first UE, available resources for application of the security function according to the security level, a security level of the first UE, a security level of a service, a security level of a message, or importance of a message (i.e., Activating the security system of the first vehicle may comprise automatically turning on the audio and/or video capturing device of the first vehicle. In this example, if a person (for example an unauthorized user of the first vehicle) is within a certain proximity (e.g. comes within a predetermined radius of the first vehicle) this may trigger the image capturing device to capture audio and/or video images of the first vehicle's surroundings. In this example the controller may be further configured to attach metadata to any audio and/or video captured by the capturing device of the first vehicle [0007]).
Regarding claim 20, Kim in view of Murray teaches all the limitations above. Kim further teaches the security function includes at least one of a decryption function, an integrity function, or an electronic signature function (i.e., second message (set of keys parameters) is encrypted, integrity protected, or both [0101], [0142]).
Claims 4, 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kim et al. (US 2022/0272532) in view of Murray et al. (US 2021/0129793) further in view Pan et al. (US 2021/0160939).
Regarding claim 4, Kim in view of Murray teaches all the limitations above. Kim further teaches transmitting information indicating initiation of a sidelink service to the base station(i.e., fig. 4 As shown in fig. , in some sidelink modes, a base station 110 may communicate with UE 405 via a first access link. Additionally, or alternatively, in some sidelink modes, base station 110 may communicate with UE 410 via a second access link [0065]-[0066]).
Kim in view of Murray does specifically teach receiving, from the base station, a radio resource control (RRC) message including the information indicating activation of use of the security-related information.
However, the preceding limitation is known in the art of communications. Pan teaches It is also possible one sidelink SRB is used for PC5-S message transmission with security protection and the other sidelink SRB is used for security activation. If this is the case, the UE may establish a fourth sidelink SRB associated with the Layer-2 ID of the peer UE for transmitting PC5-S messages that are protected when (or if) the PC5 unicast link or the PC5-RRC connection has been successfully established. Alternatively, the fourth sidelink SRB may be established when (or if) the security related PC5-S message (e.g. the Direct Security Mode Command message) is received from the peer UE ([0260]). Therefore, it would have obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, at the time of the invention, to distinguish the state of connection and ensure that data is only sent once the security context is fully active.
Regarding claim 17, Kim in view of Murray teaches all the limitations above. Kim further teaches transmitting information indicating initiation of a sidelink service to the base station(i.e., fig. 4 As shown in fig. , in some sidelink modes, a base station 110 may communicate with UE 405 via a first access link. Additionally, or alternatively, in some sidelink modes, base station 110 may communicate with UE 410 via a second access link [0065]-[0066]).
Kim in view of Murray does specifically teach receiving, from the base station, a radio resource control (RRC) message including the information indicating activation of use of the security-related information.
However, the preceding limitation is known in the art of communications. Pan teaches It is also possible one sidelink SRB is used for PC5-S message transmission with security protection and the other sidelink SRB is used for security activation. If this is the case, the UE may establish a fourth sidelink SRB associated with the Layer-2 ID of the peer UE for transmitting PC5-S messages that are protected when (or if) the PC5 unicast link or the PC5-RRC connection has been successfully established. Alternatively, the fourth sidelink SRB may be established when (or if) the security related PC5-S message (e.g. the Direct Security Mode Command message) is received from the peer UE ([0260]). Therefore, it would have obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, at the time of the invention, to distinguish the state of connection and ensure that data is only sent once the security context is fully active.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1, 3-4, 6-9, 14, and 16-20 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
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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JEAN ALLAND GELIN whose telephone number is (571)272-7842. The examiner can normally be reached MON-FR 9-6 PM.
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/JEAN A GELIN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2643
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