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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 16, 17, 21, 22, 23, 28, 29 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by WANG et al. (US 20220174690).
The applied reference has a common assignee, QUALCOMM Incorporated, with the instant application. Based upon the earlier effectively filed date of the reference, it constitutes prior art under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2). This rejection under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) might be overcome by: (1) a showing under 37 CFR 1.130(a) that the subject matter disclosed in the reference was obtained directly or indirectly from the inventor or a joint inventor of this application and is thus not prior art in accordance with 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(A); (2) a showing under 37 CFR 1.130(b) of a prior public disclosure under 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(B) if the same invention is not being claimed; or (3) a statement pursuant to 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) establishing that, not later than the effective filing date of the claimed invention, the subject matter disclosed in the reference and the claimed invention were either owned by the same person or subject to an obligation of assignment to the same person or subject to a joint research agreement.
Regarding claims 16, 28, WANG et al. (US 20220174690) teaches a method for wireless communication at a second user equipment (UE) (fig. 2, par. 70, UE), comprising:
establishing a first sidelink connection with a first UE using a first transmission reception point of the second UE (fig. 2, par. 70, The multiple UEs 115 may include UEs 115-a, 115-b, and 115-c, which may communicate with each other or with other UEs 115 using sidelink communications);
transmitting, to the first UE using the first sidelink connection, an indication of a first set of transmission resources for the second UE to use to transmit to the first UE (par. 90, monitor for SCI transmitted by other UEs 115… SCI that indicates reserved sidelink resources for the one or more other UEs 115);
receiving, from the first UE at least in part in response to the first set of transmission resources, an indication of a second set of transmission resources for the second UE to use to transmit to the first UE (par. 95, 99, identify a second subset of the set of resources available for the sidelink transmission based on SCI, a set of parameters (e.g., for selecting resources), and the first subset of resources, and, at 340, the PHY layer 305 may report, and the MAC layer 310 may receive, the second subset of resources); and
transmitting, at least in part in response to receiving the indication of the second set of transmission resources, a data message to the first UE using the second set of transmission resources (par. 81, transmitting the sidelink transmission on resources reserved by at least the threshold quantity of UEs 115 may be meaningless since these UEs 115 may not be able to listen on these resources).
Regarding claims 17, 29, WANG et al. (US 20220174690) teaches the method of claim 16, further comprising:
transmitting, to the first UE using the first sidelink connection and at least in part in response to receiving the indication of the second set of transmission resources, an indication of the second set of transmission resources (par. 90, 95, 99, monitor for SCI transmitted by other UEs 115… SCI that indicates reserved sidelink resources for the one or more other UEs 115), wherein transmitting the data message is based at least in part on the transmitted indication of the second set of transmission resources (par. 81, transmitting the sidelink transmission on resources reserved by at least the threshold quantity of UEs 115 may be meaningless since these UEs 115 may not be able to listen on these resources).
Regarding claim 21, WANG et al. (US 20220174690) teaches the method of claim 16, wherein receiving the indication of the second set of transmission resources comprises:
receiving sidelink control information from the first UE using the first sidelink connection (par. 70, 95, 99, identify a second subset of the set of resources available for the sidelink transmission based on SCI, a set of parameters (e.g., for selecting resources), and the first subset of resources, and, at 340, the PHY layer 305 may report, and the MAC layer 310 may receive, the second subset of resources).
Regarding claim 22, WANG et al. (US 20220174690) teaches the method of claim 16, wherein receiving the indication of the second set of transmission resources comprises:
receiving a broadcast signal from the first UE comprising the indication of the second set of transmission resources (par. 54, 81, groups of the UEs 115 communicating via D2D communications may utilize a one-to-many (1:M) system in which each UE 115 transmits to every other UE 115 in the group… groupcast or broadcast traffic).
Regarding claim 23, WANG et al. (US 20220174690) teaches the method of claim 16, wherein a first group of UEs comprises the second UE and a second group of UEs comprises the third UE (par. 54, One or more UEs 115 utilizing D2D communications may be within the geographic coverage area 110 of a base station 105. Other UEs 115 in such a group may be outside the geographic coverage area 110 of a base station 105 or be otherwise unable to receive transmissions from a base station 105).
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.
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.
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.
Claims 18, 30 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being obvious over WANG et al. (US 20220174690) in view of LEE et al. (US 20220394699).
The applied reference has a common assignee, QUALCOMM Incorporated, with the instant application. Based upon the earlier effectively filed date of the reference, it constitutes prior art under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2).
This rejection under 35 U.S.C. 103 might be overcome by: (1) a showing under 37 CFR 1.130(a) that the subject matter disclosed in the reference was obtained directly or indirectly from the inventor or a joint inventor of this application and is thus not prior art in accordance with 35 U.S.C.102(b)(2)(A); (2) a showing under 37 CFR 1.130(b) of a prior public disclosure under 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(B); or (3) a statement pursuant to 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) establishing that, not later than the effective filing date of the claimed invention, the subject matter disclosed and the claimed invention were either owned by the same person or subject to an obligation of assignment to the same person or subject to a joint research agreement. See generally MPEP § 717.02.
Regarding claims 18, 30, WANG does not teach the method of claim 16, wherein the received indication of the second set of transmission resources comprises an indication of a subchannel index, a transmission time, a demodulation reference signal port index, or any combination thereof.
But, LEE et al. (US 20220394699) in a similar or same field of endeavor teaches wherein the received indication of the second set of transmission resources comprises an indication of a subchannel index, a transmission time, a demodulation reference signal port index, or any combination thereof (par. 219, a TX UE may transmit a PSCCH DMRS sequence index and/or a PSSCH DMRS sequence index to an RX UE; par. 184, the number of RBs constituting (one) subchannel and/or the number of subchannels (and/or RBs) constituting a resource pool, QoS parameter (e.g., reliability, latency…)).
Thus, it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art before the effectively filing date of the claimed invention to implement the system or method as taught by LEE in the system of WANG to provide indication to the resource.
The motivation would have been to provide quality resource or adjust to meet the number of resources that meet a certain quality.
Claims 19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being obvious over WANG et al. (US 20220174690) in view of GUO et al. (US 20240030992).
The applied reference has a common assignee, QUALCOMM Incorporated, with the instant application. Based upon the earlier effectively filed date of the reference, it constitutes prior art under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2).
This rejection under 35 U.S.C. 103 might be overcome by: (1) a showing under 37 CFR 1.130(a) that the subject matter disclosed in the reference was obtained directly or indirectly from the inventor or a joint inventor of this application and is thus not prior art in accordance with 35 U.S.C.102(b)(2)(A); (2) a showing under 37 CFR 1.130(b) of a prior public disclosure under 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(B); or (3) a statement pursuant to 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) establishing that, not later than the effective filing date of the claimed invention, the subject matter disclosed and the claimed invention were either owned by the same person or subject to an obligation of assignment to the same person or subject to a joint research agreement. See generally MPEP § 717.02.
Regarding claim 19, WANG does not teach the method of claim 16, wherein the received indication of the second set of transmission resources allocates a first demodulation reference signal cyclic shift to the second UE and a second demodulation reference signal cyclic shift to a third UE based at least in part on the second UE and the third UE communicating via the second set of transmission resources.
But, GUO et al. (US 20240030992) in a similar or same field of endeavor teaches wherein the received indication of the second set of transmission resources allocates a first demodulation reference signal cyclic shift to the second UE and a second demodulation reference signal cyclic shift to a third UE based at least in part on the second UE and the third UE communicating via the second set of transmission resources (par. 147, an indication for a control DMRS cyclic shift for each transmitting UE 115 to use when transmitting communications to the receiving UE 115-f, where the control DMRS cyclic shift further enables the receiving UE 115-f to receive the transmissions from the multiple transmitting UEs 115 on the same set of time and frequency resources via the SDM scheme).
Thus, it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art before the effectively filing date of the claimed invention to implement the system or method as taught by GUO in the system of WANG to provide indication DMRS cyclic shift.
The motivation would have been to diversify the signal and reduce interference.
Claim 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being obvious over WANG et al. (US 20220174690) in view of WU et al. (US 20230422274).
The applied reference has a common assignee, QUALCOMM Incorporated, with the instant application. Based upon the earlier effectively filed date of the reference, it constitutes prior art under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2).
This rejection under 35 U.S.C. 103 might be overcome by: (1) a showing under 37 CFR 1.130(a) that the subject matter disclosed in the reference was obtained directly or indirectly from the inventor or a joint inventor of this application and is thus not prior art in accordance with 35 U.S.C.102(b)(2)(A); (2) a showing under 37 CFR 1.130(b) of a prior public disclosure under 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(B); or (3) a statement pursuant to 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) establishing that, not later than the effective filing date of the claimed invention, the subject matter disclosed and the claimed invention were either owned by the same person or subject to an obligation of assignment to the same person or subject to a joint research agreement. See generally MPEP § 717.02.
Regarding claim 20, WANG does not teach the method of claim 16, wherein the received indication of the second set of transmission resources allocates first interference management resources to the second UE and second interference management resources to a third UE.
But, WU et al. (US 20230422274) in a similar or same field of endeavor teaches wherein the received indication of the second set of transmission resources allocates first interference management resources to the second UE and second interference management resources to a third UE (par. 63, 66, 67, The scheduling flexibility enabled by a per TRP resource determination/resource exclusion may increase system capacity or reduce interference in multi-TRP sidelink communication… if a UE has M TRPs, M being an integer number, the UE may determine different candidate resources for each of the M TRPs).
Thus, it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art before the effectively filing date of the claimed invention to implement the system or method as taught by WU in the system of WANG to allocate interference management resources.
The motivation would have been to diversify the signal and reduce interference.
Claims 24 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being obvious over WANG et al. (US 20220174690) in view of HAHN et al. (US 20220294570).
The applied reference has a common assignee, QUALCOMM Incorporated, with the instant application. Based upon the earlier effectively filed date of the reference, it constitutes prior art under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2).
This rejection under 35 U.S.C. 103 might be overcome by: (1) a showing under 37 CFR 1.130(a) that the subject matter disclosed in the reference was obtained directly or indirectly from the inventor or a joint inventor of this application and is thus not prior art in accordance with 35 U.S.C.102(b)(2)(A); (2) a showing under 37 CFR 1.130(b) of a prior public disclosure under 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(B); or (3) a statement pursuant to 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) establishing that, not later than the effective filing date of the claimed invention, the subject matter disclosed and the claimed invention were either owned by the same person or subject to an obligation of assignment to the same person or subject to a joint research agreement. See generally MPEP § 717.02.
Regarding claim 24, WANG does not teach the method of claim 23, wherein the indication of the second set of transmission resources is associated with the first group of UEs, the indication comprising a group index.
But, HAHN et al. (US 20220294570) in a similar or same field of endeavor teaches wherein the indication of the second set of transmission resources is associated with the first group of UEs, the indication comprising a group index (par. 25, the SCI may further include a terminal group identifier indicating the plurality of receiving terminals participating in the sidelink communication).
Thus, it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art before the effectively filing date of the claimed invention to implement the system or method as taught by HAHN in the system of WANG to identify group of UEs.
The motivation would have been to guarantee signal quality withing reset range of a group.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-15, 25-27 allowed.
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance:
Regarding claims 1, 25, WANG et al. (US 20220174690) teaches a method for wireless communications at a first user equipment (UE), comprising:
establishing a first sidelink connection with a second UE and a second sidelink connection with a third UE (fig. 2, par. 70, The multiple UEs 115 may include UEs 115-a, 115-b, and 115-c, which may communicate with each other or with other UEs 115 using sidelink communications);
receiving, from the second UE using the first sidelink connection, an indication of a first set of transmission resources for the second UE to use to transmit to the first UE (par. 90, monitor for SCI transmitted by other UEs 115… SCI that indicates reserved sidelink resources for the one or more other UEs 115);
transmitting, to the second UE at least in part in response to the first set of transmission resources (par. 95, identify a second subset of the set of resources available for the sidelink transmission based on SCI, a set of parameters (e.g., for selecting resources), and the first subset of resources, and, at 340, the PHY layer 305 may report, and the MAC layer 310 may receive, the second subset of resources), an indication of a second set of transmission resources for the second UE to use to transmit to the first UE (par. 99, transmit an SCI based on the resource indicated by the MAC layer 310. For example, the SCI may include a grant or other indication reserving the resource for the sidelink transmission), the second set of transmission resources identified by the first UE based at least in part on comparing signals received with threshold (par. 30, If the measured RSRP satisfies or exceeds the RSRP threshold, the resources reserved by the SCI may be considered unavailable resources (e.g., unavailable for a sidelink transmission from a UE). If the measured RSRP fails to meet the RSRP threshold, the resources reserved by the SCI may be considered available resources); and
receiving, using the second set of transmission resources, a data message from the second UE via the first sidelink connection (par. 81, transmitting the sidelink transmission on resources reserved by at least the threshold quantity of UEs 115 may be meaningless since these UEs 115 may not be able to listen on these resources).
WU et al. (US 20230422274) teaches a method for wireless communications at a first user equipment (UE), comprising:
establishing a first sidelink connection with a second UE and a second sidelink connection with a third UE (fig. 4A, par. 52, 53, 54, connection between 402 UE and 404, 406, 408 UEs), the first sidelink connection using a first transmission reception point of the first UE (fig. 4A, par. 52, 53, 54, TRP for connection), and the second sidelink connection using a second transmission reception point of the first UE (fig. 4A, par. 52, 53, 54, TRP for connection);
receiving, from the second UE using the first sidelink connection, an indication of a first set of transmission resources for the second UE to use to transmit to the first UE (fig. 10 block 1004, par. 56, 80, the sidelink device may receive SCI from other UEs including reservation information in a resource reservation field. The number of resources (e.g., sub-channels per subframe) reserved by a UE may depend on the size of data to be transmitted by the UE… the sidelink device may receive one or more signals comprising SCI at multiple TRPs of the sidelink device, the SCI indicating a resource reservation);
the second set of transmission resources identified by the first UE based at least in part on comparing signals received using the first transmission reception point and signals received using the second transmission reception point with threshold (par. 83, 84, the sidelink device may compare the RSRP measurement at each of the one or more TRPs indicated by the higher layer to an RSRP threshold to determine the available resources for a corresponding TRP…the indication indicates a subset of two or more TRPs and the available resources that are commonly available for the subset of two or more TRPs are reported to the higher layer); and
receiving, using the second set of transmission resources, a data message from the second UE via the first sidelink connection (par. 89, the sidelink device may transmit the sidelink transmission from the one or more TRPs using the selected one or more resources).
DUTTA et al. (US 20230353325) teaches comparing signals received using the first transmission reception point with signals received using the second transmission reception point (par. 108, due to the differences in propagation distances, the signals received at TRP 210-a-1 may exhibit a lower signal quality (e.g., lower reference signal received power, lower reference signal received quality, higher signal to noise ratio, higher signal to interference plus noise ratio) as compared to the signals received at TRP 210-a-2. Moreover, the signals received at TRP 210-a-1 may be received later in time than the signals received at TRP 210-a-2. These differences in signal parameters (e.g., reference signal received power, reference signal received quality, signal to noise ratio, signal to interference plus noise ratio, time of receipt) may result despite the fact that the respective signals were transmitted UE 205-b and UE 205-d at the same time and with the same transmit power).
However, it would have not been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to combine the references to teach the claims. Therefore, the claims are allowed.
Claims 2-15, 26, 27 are allowed because of the dependency on the allowed claims.
Any comments considered necessary by applicant must be submitted no later than the payment of the issue fee and, to avoid processing delays, should preferably accompany the issue fee. Such submissions should be clearly labeled “Comments on Statement of Reasons for Allowance.”
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Dutta et al. (US 12543049) teaches signals which are received at the second TRP 205-b may suffer from low signal quality as compared to the signals received by the first TRP 205-a (46).
BALASUBRAMANIAN et al. (US 20220240207) teaches due to the differences in propagation distances, the signals received at TRP 205-a-1 from UE 115-b may exhibit a lower signal quality (e.g., lower RSRP, lower reference signal received quality (RSRQ), higher SNR, higher signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR), or the like) as compared to the signals received at TRP 205-a-2 from UE 115-b (par. 88).
ALAWIEH et al. (US 20230247446) teaches resources of a resource set that points towards TRP 26.sub.3 may comprise a different pathloss (PL), a different value α and/or a different distance d2 when compared to a coarse path between UE 20 and TRP 26.sub.2 having a distance d3, such that PLαd2 is different when compared to PLαd3 (par. 157).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to THINH D TRAN whose telephone number is (571)270-3934. The examiner can normally be reached mon-fri 9-6.
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, FARUK HAMZA can be reached at 5712727969. 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. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/THINH D TRAN/for /Thinh Tran/, Patent Examiner of Art Unit 2466 03/06/2026