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 .
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 7/6/26 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1-30 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) 1-4, 6-19 and 21-30 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yeo et al. (Yeo), U.S. Patent No. 11,652,581 in view of Martin et al. (Martin), U.S. Publication No. 2017/0013655.
Regarding Claims 1 and 15, Yeo discloses an apparatus for wireless
communication at a first user equipment (UE) (i.e., terminal 120; see figure 3), comprising:
memory (i.e., storage unit 320; see figure 3); and
at least one processor (i.e., controller 330; see figure 3) coupled to the memory (shown in figure 3) and configured to:
identify one or more resources (i.e., resources listed in Table 21) that are suitable for a subsequent transmission from at least one second UE (i.e., determination by the terminal 1420a of sidelink scheduling information for reception terminal 1420b shown in figure 14B); and
transmit, to the at least one second UE, an inter-UE coordination message (i.e., scheduling information; see figure 14B) and at least one data transmission (i.e., data; see figure 14B), the inter-UE coordination message being transmitted at a same time as the at least one data transmission (shown in figure 14B), the inter-UE coordination message including an indication of the one or more resources that are suitable for the subsequent transmission from the at least one second UE (i.e., terminal 1420a transmits sidelink scheduling information to reception terminal 1420b. The scheduling information for the sidelink communication is included in DCI shown in Table 21).
Yeo fails to disclose wherein the inter-UE coordination message includes an indication of a collision.
Martin discloses wherein the inter-UE coordination message includes an indication of a collision (in other words, transmitting UEs to reserve traffic resources and provide indications of conflicting resource request messages; see paragraph [0064]. Also, paragraphs [0061], [0063] and [0066]).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to consider Martin’s invention with Yeo’s invention to reliably detect and estimate interference allowing UEs to make more informed decisions with regards to resource allocation (see paragraph [0066] of Martin).
Regarding Claims 16 and 29, Yeo discloses an apparatus for wireless
communication at a second user equipment (UE) (i.e., terminal 120; see figure 3), comprising:
memory (i.e., storage unit 320; see figure 3); and
at least one processor (i.e., controller 330; see figure 3) coupled to the memory (shown in figure 3) and configured to:
receive, from a first UE, an inter-UE coordination message (i.e., scheduling information; see figure 14B) and at least one data transmission (i.e., data; see figure 14B), the inter-UE coordination message being received at a same time as the at least one data transmission (shown in figure 14B), the inter-UE coordination message including an indication of one or more resources that are suitable for a subsequent transmission from the second UE (i.e., terminal 1420a transmits sidelink scheduling information to reception terminal 1420b. The scheduling information for the sidelink communication is included in DCI shown in Table 21); and
transmit the subsequent transmission via the one or more resources (i.e., HARQ feedback transmission according to groupcasting; see col. 26, lines 44-58 and figure 12B), or reselect the one or more resources based on the inter-UE coordination message.
Yeo fails to disclose wherein the inter-UE coordination message includes an indication of a collision.
Martin discloses wherein the inter-UE coordination message includes an indication of a collision (in other words, transmitting UEs to reserve traffic resources and provide indications of conflicting resource request messages; see paragraph [0064]. Also, paragraphs [0061], [0063] and [0066]).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to consider Martin’s invention with Yeo’s invention to reliably detect and estimate interference allowing UEs to make more informed decisions with regards to resource allocation (see paragraph [0066] of Martin).
Regarding Claims 2, 17 and 30, Yeo and Martin disclose the apparatus and
method as described above. Yeo further discloses wherein the one or more resources correspond to at least one of one or more sub-channels or one or more slots (see Table 21).
Regarding Claims 3 and 18, Yeo and Martin disclose the apparatus as
described above. Yeo further discloses wherein the inter-UE coordination message is piggybacked with the at least one data transmission (see figure 14B).
Regarding Claims 4 and 19, Yeo and Martin disclose the apparatus as
described above. Yeo further discloses wherein the inter-UE coordination message is associated with at least one of a first stage sidelink control information (SCI) (SCI-1) message or a second stage SCI (SCI-2) message (see col. 29, lines 17-22).
Regarding Claims 6 and 21, Yeo and Martin disclose the apparatus as
described above. Yeo further discloses wherein the at least one data transmission corresponds to at least one of application data or transport block (TB) data (see col. 32, lines 45-50).
Regarding Claims 7 and 22, Yeo and Martin disclose the apparatus as
described above. Yeo further discloses wherein the inter-UE coordination message is a broadcast message (see col. 34, lines 39-45).
Regarding Claims 8 and 23, Yeo and Martin disclose the apparatus as
described above. Yeo further discloses the at least one processor being further configured to: reserve n+1 consecutive sub-channels in a single slot for the transmission of the inter-UE coordination message and the at least one data transmission, a data amount of the at least one data transmission corresponding to n sub-channels in the single slot (see figures 15, 16A & 16B), wherein one of the n+1 consecutive sub-channels is dedicated to the inter-UE coordination message, and n of the n+1 consecutive sub-channels are dedicated to the at least one data transmission (see figures 15, 16A & 16B).
Regarding Claims 9 and 24, Yeo and Martin disclose the apparatus as
described above. Yeo further discloses wherein at least one of a first stage sidelink control information (SCI) (SCI-1) message or a second stage SCI (SCI-2) message associated with the n sub-channels dedicated to the at least one data transmission includes information for decoding the sub-channel dedicated to the inter-UE coordination message (see col. 32, lines 45-56).
Regarding Claims 10 and 25, Yeo and Martin disclose the apparatus as
described above. Yeo further discloses wherein at least one of an inter-UE coordination-specific first stage sidelink control information (SCI) (SCI-1) message or an inter-UE coordination-specific second stage SCI (SCI-2) message includes control information associated with the sub-channel dedicated to the inter-UE coordination message (see Table 22).
Regarding Claims 11 and 26, Yeo and Martin disclose the apparatus as
described above. Yeo further discloses the at least one processor being further configured to: reserve n consecutive sub-channels in a single slot for the transmission of the at least one data transmission, a data amount of the at least one data transmission corresponding to the n consecutive sub-channels in the single slot, wherein the inter-UE coordination message is transmitted via a single unreserved sub-channel adjacent to the n consecutive sub-channels, the single unreserved sub-channel being in the single slot (see figure 15).
Regarding Claim 12, Yeo and Martin disclose the apparatus as described
above. Yeo further discloses the at least one processor being further configured to: receive, from the at least one second UE, the subsequent transmission via the one or more resources (see figure 1).
Regarding Claim 13, Yeo and Martin disclose the apparatus as described
above. Yeo further discloses wherein in response to identify the one or more resources that are suitable for the subsequent transmission from the at least one second UE, the at least one processor is further configured to: reserve the one or more resources that are suitable for the subsequent transmission from the at least one second UE (see col. 28, lines 10-28).
Regarding Claim 14, Yeo and Martin disclose the apparatus as described
above. Yeo further discloses further comprising a transceiver (i.e., communication unit 310) coupled to the at least one processor (shown in figure 3).
Regarding Claim 27, Yeo and Martin disclose the apparatus as described
above. Yeo further discloses wherein the subsequent transmission is transmitted to the first UE or at least one other UE (i.e., HARQ feedback transmission according to groupcasting; see col. 26, lines 44-58 and figure 12B).
Regarding Claim 28, Yeo and Martin disclose the apparatus as described
above. Yeo further discloses further comprising a transceiver (i.e., communication unit 310) coupled to the at least one processor (shown in figure 3).
Claim(s) 5 and 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yeo and Martin in view of Freda et al. (Freda), U.S. Publication No. 2023/0063472.
Regarding Claims 5 and 20, Yeo and Martin disclose the apparatus as described above. Yeo and Martin fail to disclose wherein the inter-UE coordination message further includes at least one of an indication of one or more resources that are not suitable for the subsequent transmission from the at least one second UE. Freda discloses wherein the inter-UE coordination message further includes at least one of an indication of one or more resources that are not suitable for the subsequent transmission from the at least one second UE (i.e., a slot not within the active time; see paragraph [0350]).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to consider Freda’s invention with Yeo’s and Martin’s invention to lower battery consumption see paragraph [0002] of Freda.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SHANTELL LAKETA HEIBER whose telephone number is (571)272-0886. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F from 9am to 5pm.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Anthony Addy, can be reached at telephone number (571)272-0886. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/SHANTELL L HEIBER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2645
September 29, 2026
