1DETAILED 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 Status
This office action is in response to the communication(s) filed on 08/13/2026.
Claim(s) 7-13 is/are currently presenting for examination.
Claim(s) 7 and 13 is/are independent claim(s).
Claim(s) 7-13 is/are rejected.
This action has been made NON-FINAL.
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 08/13/2026 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed on 08/13/2026 have been considered but are moot in view of the new ground(s) of rejection.
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 set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied 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.
Claim(s) 7-13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US_20230337187_A1_Ye in view of US_20230199722_A1_Hwang.
Regarding claim 7, Ye discloses a terminal comprising: a processor configured to, in a case where slots that are periodic-based partial sensing targets are included in DRX inactive time, determine that some of the slots that are targets of periodic-based partial sensing are to be monitored (Ye figure 11, the periodic based partial sensing window is within the sidelink DRX off duration, and paragraph 118, “…a resource pool and resource selection/reselection is triggered at slot n, it may be up to UE implementation to determine a set of Y candidate slots within a resource selection window…”); and a transmitter configured to transmit a signal for device-to-device communications (Ye paragraph 43, “Two or more of the UEs 102/104/106 may also communicate directly with one another over a sidelink interface. The sidelink interface may alternatively be referred to as a ProSe interface, device-to-device (D2D) interface, or a PC5 interface or reference point…”) by using a resource that is selected from a candidate resource set that is determined based on a result of the periodic-based partial sensing of the slots (Ye paragraph 158, “…transmitting on the selected resources…”, paragraph 57, “In NR V2X, if a resource pool is configured (or preconfigured) with at least partial sensing, a UE performs contiguous partial sensing, and resource selection (or reselection) is triggered in slot n, the UE may select (or reselect) resources by monitoring slots between [n+T_A, n+T_B] and identifying candidate resources in or after slot n+T_B based on all available sensing results, including periodic-based partial sensing results if applicable”), but does not explicitly disclose the slots that are targets of periodic-based partial sensing are to be monitored are within a non-empty subset, and determine that the slots other than the non-empty subset of the slots that are the targets of the periodic-based partial sensing are not to be monitored, and wherein the non-empty subset corresponds to slots monitored in a most recent periodic-based partial sensing occasion.
Hwang from the same or similar fields of endeavor teaches: the slots that are targets of periodic-based partial sensing are to be monitored are within a non-empty subset (Hwang figures 12-13, and paragraphs 184-191, the number of sensing slots may be determined based on at least one of the size of a window for selecting resource(s), resource reservation period value(s), the time at which resource selection is triggered, and/or an interval between the time at which the resource selection is triggered and the end time of the window), and determine that the slots other than the non-empty subset of the slots that are the targets of the periodic-based partial sensing are not to be monitored (Hwang figures 12-13, and paragraphs 184-191, some of the slots will not be selected), and wherein the non-empty subset corresponds to slots monitored in a most recent periodic-based partial sensing occasion (Hwang paragraph 170, “For example, for the k value in periodic-based partial sensing for resource (re )selection, by default, the UE may monitor the most recent sensing occasion for a given reservation periodicity before the resource (re )selection trigger slot n or the first slot of the set of Y candidate slots subject to processing time restriction”).
Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to implement the teachings of Hwang into Ye, since Ye suggests a technique for periodic based partial sensing, and Hwang suggests the beneficial way of the UE may monitor the most recent sensing occasion for a given reservation periodicity before the resource (re )selection trigger slot n or the first slot of the set of Y candidate slots subject to processing time restriction so that/thus Maximizing Interference Freshness & Preventing Collisions in the analogous art of communication.
Regarding claim 8, Ye and Hwang disclose the terminal according to claim 7, and Ye further discloses wherein the processor determines that slots that are targets of contiguous partial sensing are to be monitored in a case of performing reevaluation or preemption checking for the selected resource (Ye paragraph 49, “Mode 2 resource allocation may include a plurality of operations including, for example: resource pool configuration; sensing; resource reevaluation; resource selection; preemption; and sidelink transmission”, paragraph 177, “Embodiments also provide partial sensing for resource reevaluation and preemption.” Paragraphs 178-179, 187, 274, 285), and the transmitter transmits the signal for the device-to-device communications by using a resource that is selected from a candidate resource set that is determined based on a result of the contiguous partial sensing (Ye figure 11, contiguous partial sensing, paragraph 158, “…transmitting on the selected resources.…”).
Regarding claim 9, Ye and Hwang disclose the terminal according to claim 8, and Ye further discloses wherein the processor stops execution of the periodic-based partial sensing in a case of performing reevaluation or preemption checking for the selected resource (Ye paragraph 206, “Five sensing schemes may also be used for resource reevaluation…and no additional sensing for resource reevaluation (which may be referred to as scheme 5)”).
Regarding claim 10, Ye and Hwang disclose the terminal according to claim 7, and Ye further discloses wherein the processor determines that all of the slots that targets of the periodic-based partial sensing are to be monitored in a case where that the slots that are targets of the periodic-based partial sensing are not included in the DRX inactive time (Ye figures 6-7, the updated contiguous partial sensing window is within the sidelink DRX ON duration, and paragraph 118, “…a resource pool and resource selection/reselection is triggered at slot n, it may be up to UE implementation to determine a set of Y candidate slots within a resource selection window…”), and the transmitter transmits the signal for the device-to-device communications by using a resource selected from a candidate resource set that is determined based on a result of the periodic-based partial sensing in all of the slots (Ye paragraph 158, “…transmitting on the selected resources…”, paragraph 57, “In NR V2X, if a resource pool is configured (or preconfigured) with at least partial sensing, a UE performs contiguous partial sensing, and resource selection (or reselection) is triggered in slot n, the UE may select (or reselect) resources by monitoring slots between [n+T_A, n+T_B] and identifying candidate resources in or after slot n+T_B based on all available sensing results, including periodic-based partial sensing results if applicable”).
Regarding claim 11, Ye and Hwang disclose the terminal according to claim 8, and Ye further discloses wherein the processor determines that all of the slots that targets of the periodic-based partial sensing are to be monitored in a case where that the slots that are targets of the periodic-based partial sensing are not included in the DRX inactive time (Ye figures 6-7, the updated contiguous partial sensing window is within the sidelink DRX ON duration, and paragraph 118, “…a resource pool and resource selection/reselection is triggered at slot n, it may be up to UE implementation to determine a set of Y candidate slots within a resource selection window…”), and the transmitter transmits the signal for the device-to-device communications by using a resource selected from a candidate resource set that is determined based on a result of the periodic-based partial sensing in all of the slots (Ye paragraph 158, “…transmitting on the selected resources…”, paragraph 57, “In NR V2X, if a resource pool is configured (or preconfigured) with at least partial sensing, a UE performs contiguous partial sensing, and resource selection (or reselection) is triggered in slot n, the UE may select (or reselect) resources by monitoring slots between [n+T_A, n+T_B] and identifying candidate resources in or after slot n+T_B based on all available sensing results, including periodic-based partial sensing results if applicable”).
Regarding claim 12, Ye and Hwang disclose the terminal according to claim 9, and Ye further discloses wherein the processor determines that all of the slots that targets of the periodic-based partial sensing are to be monitored in a case where that the slots that are targets of the periodic-based partial sensing are not included in the DRX inactive time (Ye figures 6-7, the updated contiguous partial sensing window is within the sidelink DRX ON duration, and paragraph 118, “…a resource pool and resource selection/reselection is triggered at slot n, it may be up to UE implementation to determine a set of Y candidate slots within a resource selection window…”), and the transmitter transmits the signal for the device-to-device communications by using a resource selected from a candidate resource set that is determined based on a result of the periodic-based partial sensing in all of the slots (Ye paragraph 158, “…transmitting on the selected resources…”, paragraph 57, “In NR V2X, if a resource pool is configured (or preconfigured) with at least partial sensing, a UE performs contiguous partial sensing, and resource selection (or reselection) is triggered in slot n, the UE may select (or reselect) resources by monitoring slots between [n+T_A, n+T_B] and identifying candidate resources in or after slot n+T_B based on all available sensing results, including periodic-based partial sensing results if applicable”).
Regarding claim 13, Ye and Hwang disclose the limitations as set forth in claim 7.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to WEIBIN HUANG whose telephone number is (571)270-3695. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 9:30AM - 6:00PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Sujoy Kundu can be reached at (571)272-8586. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/W.H/Examiner, Art Unit 2471
/SUJOY K KUNDU/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2471
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