Allowability Notice
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 .
Claims 1-14 are 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.
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.
Claims 1-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Thomas Fehrenbach et al, application no. 2020/0092685, hereinafter known as Thomas in view of Zhang et al, application no. 2021/0021496, hereinafter known as Zhang.
As to claim 1, Thomas discloses a method for transmitting a data unit by a user equipment (UE) belonging to a UE group in a wireless communication system (Thomas, Figure 2, [0108]-[0110], UE part of group of UE’s with a manager UE), transmitting a request message for transmitting the data unit (Thomas, [0016], [0424], sending uplink scheduling request); receiving an uplink grant with second time information related to the UE group in response to the request message (Thomas, figure 2, sending scheduling request and receiving a grant; [0167]-[0170], assigning plural resources after scheduling request for sidelink or uplink communications; [0715], uplink resource assignment). Thomas does not disclose however Zhang discloses the method comprising: receiving the data unit from an upper layers; associating first time information with the data unit (Zhang, [0038]-[0040], sequence number assigned to PDU, sequence number inferring time information) transmitting the data unit with the first time information on the uplink grant based on the first time information not being matched with the second time information, wherein the data unit is discarded based on the first time information being matched with the second time information (Zhang, [0045], determining at a receiving unit if sequence number matches for packets and if matches to discard them and if they do not match to process the packets).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Thomas to include the limitations of transmitting the data unit with the first time information on the uplink grant based on the first time information not being matched with the second time information, wherein the data unit is discarded based on the first time information being matched with the second time information as taught by Zhang. Discarding previously processed or sent messages or packets is known in the art to lessen amount of traffic in network by removing redundant communications.
As to claim 2, Thomas and Zhang disclose the method of claim 1. Thomas does not disclose however Zhang discloses wherein the second time information is received from a network or another UE belonging to the UE group (Zhang, [0038]-[0040], sequence number assigned to PDU, sequence number inferring time information, figure 7, sending of duplication detection information between devices).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Thomas to include the limitations of wherein the second time information is received from a network or another UE belonging to the UE group as taught by Zhang. Control information is shared between devices in a network that enable proper processing of data among the devices.
As to claim 3, Thomas and Zhang disclose the method of claim 1. Thomas does not disclose however Zhang discloses based on the uplink grant being received without the second time information, transmitting the data unit with the first time information on the uplink grant to a network (Thomas, figure 2, sending scheduling request and receiving a grant; [0167]-[0170], assigning plural resources after scheduling request for sidelink or uplink communications; [0715], uplink resource assignment).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Thomas to include the limitations of based on the uplink grant being received without the second time information, transmitting the data unit with the first time information on the uplink grant to a network as taught by Zhang. Control information is shared between devices in a network that enable proper processing of data among the devices.
As to claim 4, Zhang discloses wherein the network provides the first time information to the UE group (Zhang, figure 2, [0715], Downlink control information sent by network to UE device (UE manager which includes timing information).
As to claim 5, Thomas and Zhang disclose the method of claim 1. Thomas does not disclose however Zhang discloses wherein the second time information is provided to a network from another UE belonging to the UE group (Zhang, [0045], determining at a receiving unit if sequence number matches for packets and if matches to discard them and if they do not match to process the packets).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Thomas to include the limitations of wherein the second time information is provided to a network from another UE belonging to the UE group as taught by Zhang. Discarding previously processed or sent messages or packets is known in the art to lessen amount of traffic in network by removing redundant communications.
As to claim 6, Thomas and Zhang disclose the method of claim 1. Thomas does not disclose however Zhang discloses wherein the second time information is associated with a logical channel related to the data unit or a logical channel group (LCG) related to the data unit or a radio bearer (RB) related to the data unit (Zhang, [0003], [0172]-[0175], duplication parameter associated with plural logical channels).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Thomas to include the limitations of wherein the second time information is associated with a logical channel related to the data unit or a logical channel group (LCG) related to the data unit or a radio bearer (RB) related to the data unit as taught by Zhang. Logic channels are known in the art, use to create multiple communications links between devices in a network.
As to claims 7-12, the claims are rejected as applied to claims 1-6 respectively above by Thomas in view of Zhang.
As to claims 13 and 14, the claims are each rejected as applied to claim 1 above by Thomas in view of Zhang.
Conclusion
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/GAUTAM SHARMA/ Examiner, Art Unit 2467
/HASSAN A PHILLIPS/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2467