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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on February 12, 2026 was filed after the mailing date of the Non-Final Office Action on December 16, 2025. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1-2, 5-11, 13-16, and 19-20 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.
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) 1-2, 7-11, 13, 15-16, and 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Li et al. (hereinafter “Li”, CN 108924957 as cited in IDS dated December 12, 2023) in view of Kuo (US 11,490,448).
Regarding claims 1, 15, and 20, Li discloses a method for wireless communication, a terminal, and a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium configured to store a computer program, comprising:
after receiving a first message (i.e., a RRC connection establishment request message) sent by a second terminal device (i.e., a remote UE as shown in Fig. 8), sending, by a first terminal (i.e., a relay UE as shown in Fig. 8), a first report to a network device (i.e., after the relay UE receives the RRC connection establishment request message from the remote UE, and the relay UE forwards the received message to the base station in step 801 as described in paragraph 0250), wherein the first terminal is a first relay terminal (i.e., the relay UE as shown in Fig. 8) and the second terminal device is a remote terminal (i.e., the remote UE as shown in Fig. 8);
receiving, by the first terminal, first indication information sent by the network device, wherein the first indication information is used for indicating a first identity (ID) (i.e., receiving by the relay UE a dedicated signaling indicating the adaptation layer ID from the base station in step 803 as described in paragraph 0254), and the first ID is an adaptation layer ID of the remote terminal (i.e., the base station determines and allocates an adaptation layer ID to the remote UE as described in paragraph 0252-0254); and
determining, by the first terminal, that an adaptation layer ID of the second terminal is the first ID based on the first indication information (i.e., the adaptation layer ID allocated or reallocated to a certain remote UE as described in paragraphs 0254-0255); and
Li, however, does not expressly disclose:
the first message comprises at least one of: Radio Resource Control (RRC) Setup Request, RRC Resume Request, or RRC Reconfiguration Complete, and the first report comprises second indication information used for indicating a second user equipment identity (UE ID) of the second terminal device; and
sending, by the first terminal, the first message to the network device, wherein the first message carries the first ID.
In a similar endeavor, Kuo discloses method and apparatus for radio bearer configuration to support UE-to-Network relaying in a wireless communication system. Kuo also discloses:
the first message comprises at least one of: Radio Resource Control (RRC) Setup Request, RRC Resume Request, or RRC Reconfiguration Complete (i.e., a RRC Reconfiguration Complete message sent by the remote UE as described in col. 25, lines 59-65), and the first report comprises second indication information used for indicating a second user equipment identity (UE ID) of the second terminal device (i.e., the relay UE sends a message including a local ID of the remote UE as described in col. 25, lines 59-63); and
sending, by the first terminal, the first message to the network device, wherein the first message carries the first ID (i.e., transmitting by the relay UE the RRC Reconfiguration Complete message to the gNB including the adaptation layer header to identify the remote UE as described in col. 25, line 59 – col. 26, line 39).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art to modify the teachings of the cited references, and arrive at the present invention.
The motivation/suggestion for doing so would have been to confirm the setup or modification of radio parameters.
With further regard to claim 15, Li discloses a terminal device (i.e., as shown in Fig. 22) comprising:
a processor (i.e., processor 3000 as shown in Fig. 30) and a memory (i.e., memory 3020) configured to store a computer program (i.e., processor 3000 executes and reading the program from memory 3020), wherein the processor is configured to invoke and run the computer program stored in the memory to perform the method of claim 1.
Regarding claims 2, and 16, Li and Kuo disclose all limitations recited within claims as described above. Li also discloses wherein before sending the first report to the network device, the method further comprises: setting up, by the first terminal, a connection with the network device (i.e., forwarding the message to the base station as described in paragraph 0250. Also, establishing a Layer 2 UE-to-Network Relay connection with the relay UE as described in paragraphs 0057-0060).
Regarding claim 7, Li and Kuo disclose all limitations recited within claims as described above. Li also discloses wherein the first indication information is used for indicating a first ID corresponding to a first UE ID of the first terminal (i.e., information used to indicate the pass-through technology used by the remote UE to communicate with the relay UE, UE ID, and adaptation layer ID as described in paragraphs 0254-0255).
Regarding claim 8, Li and Kuo disclose all limitations recited within claims as described above. Li also discloses wherein determining, by the first terminal, that the adaptation layer ID of the second terminal is the first ID based on the first indication information comprises:
determining, by the first terminal, that the adaptation layer ID of the second terminal is the first ID based on the first ID corresponding to the first UE ID indicated by the first indication information (i.e., receiving by the relay UE a dedicated signaling indicating the adaptation layer ID from the base station in step 803 as described in paragraph 0254).
Regarding claim 9, Li and Kuo disclose all limitations recited within claims as described above. Li also discloses wherein the first indication information indicates a first ID for a Layer-2 address of the second terminal (i.e., layer 2 UE-to-Network relay architecture, adaptation layer ID as described in paragraph 0004).
Regarding claim 10, Li and Kuo disclose all limitations recited within claims as described above. Kuo also discloses wherein the first report further comprises:
third indication information used for indicating that the second UE ID is required to set up a relay connection (i.e., the remote UE sends a RRC Setup Request message including the remote UE identity to the gNB as described in col. 26, lines 4-28).
Regarding claim 11, Li and Kuo disclose all limitations recited within claims as described above. Li also discloses receiving, by the first terminal, a second ID sent by the network device, wherein the second ID is an adaptation layer ID of the first terminal, and carried in first adaptation layer configuration information, second adaptation layer configuration information or dedicated configuration information (i.e., the base station sends dedicated signaling indicating the adaptation ID to the relay UE. The information contained information used to indicate the pass-through technology used by the remote UE to communicate with the relay UE, UE ID, adaptation layer ID as described in paragraphs 0254-0255).
Regarding claim 13, Li and Kuo disclose all limitations recited within claims as described above. Li also discloses receiving, by the first terminal, a second message sent by the network device, wherein the second message carries the first ID (i.e., the relay UE can distinguish different remote UEs through the pass-through technology and the pass-through UE ID, the relay UE can learn which remote UE the adaptation layer ID carried therein is allocated to based on the base station’s signaling as described in paragraphs 0254-0255; and
forwarding, by the first terminal, the second message to the second terminal based on the first ID (i.e., the relay UE can distinguish different remote UEs through the pass-through technology and the pass-through UE ID, the relay UE can learn which remote UE the adaptation layer ID carried therein is allocated to based on the base station’s signaling as described in paragraphs 0254-0255).
Claim(s) 5-6, and 19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Li in view of Kuo, and further in view of Wang (US 2023/0319682).
Regarding claims 5, and 19, Li and Kuo disclose all limitations recited within claims as described above, but do not expressly disclose features of these claims.
In a similar endeavor, Wang discloses routing method, apparatus, and system. Wang also discloses wherein at least a second relay terminal is presented between the first relay terminal and the network device (i.e., UE 2 is between UE 3 and network device as shown in Fig. 2),
communication between the first relay terminal and the network device is forwarded at least through the second relay terminal (i.e., the communication between U3 and network device is forwarded through U2 as shown in Fig. 2).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art to modify the teachings of the cited references, and arrive at the present invention.
The motivation/suggestion for doing so would have been to enable the network to reach to many other UEs within range.
Regarding claim 6, Li, Kuo and Wang disclose all limitations recited within claims as described above. Wang also discloses wherein receiving, by the first terminal, the first indication information sent by the network device comprises:
receiving, by the first relay terminal, the first indication information sent by the network device to the first relay terminal through forwarding by the second relay terminal; or
receiving, by the first relay terminal, the first indication information sent by the second relay terminal, wherein the first indication information is sent by the network device to the second relay terminal (i.e., the communication from network device to UE 1 is forwarded by UE 2as shown in Fig. 10).
Claim(s) 14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Li in view of Kuo, and further in view of Pan et al. (hereinafter “Pan”, US 2022/0124854).
Regarding claim 14, Li and Kuo disclose all limitations recited within claims as described above, but do not expressly disclose features of these claims.
In a similar endeavor, Pan discloses method and apparatus for adaptation layer configuration for user equipment-to-network relaying in a wireless communication system. Pan also discloses wherein the first relay terminal uses different logical channels to carry a message for which an adaptation layer is used and a message for which the adaptation layer is not used (i.e., the adaptation layer configuration is used for the relay UE to establish an adaptation for the first Uu logical channel, and no adaptation layer configuration for a second Uu logical channel to the relay UE as described in paragraph 0287, 0290).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art to modify the teachings of the cited references, and arrive at the present invention.
The motivation/suggestion for doing so would have been to transmit and route the message to the relay UE depend on whether the adaptation layer is present.
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 WAYNE CAI whose telephone number is (571)272-7798. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Thursday, 7:00 AM-5:00 PM.
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/Wayne H Cai/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2644
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