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 .
Priorities and Examiner Remarks
This application is a National Stage entry of PCT/US2022/037068 (International Filing Date: 07/14/2022) that claims priority from provisional application 63222303
(filed 07/15/2021).
Objections
Claim 5 and 12 are objected to because of the following informalities, and appropriate correction is required.
Claim 5 line 3, the term “V2X” needs to be defined as to what it stands for. NOTE: the specification on record does not appear to have supporting definition, hence, the specification may need to be amended. Please review. Similar problem appears in claim 12.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(B) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 2-3, and 7-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor, or for pre-AIA the applicant regards as the invention.
Claim 2 line 4, the phrase “a Uu direct communication link” is unclear and ambiguous as to whether it is referred to the “Uu direct communication link” in claim 1 line 5. Clarification or correction is requested. Similar problem appears in claim 9.
Claim 2 line 5-6, the phrase “a direct communication link” is unclear and ambiguous as to whether it is referred to the “Uu direct communication link” in claim 1 line 5 (or claim 2 line 4 above). Clarification or correction is requested. Similar problem appears in claims 3, 9, and 10.
Claim 7 line 4, "the signal" has no antecedent basis.
Claims 8-12, these claims are rejected based on their dependency from the rejected base claim 7.
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 non-obviousness.
Claims 1, 3-8, and 10-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over SHARMA et al. (US 20230086337 A1, hereinafter SHARMA), in view of Freda et al. (US 20230180313 A1, hereinafter Freda).
Regarding claim 1,
SHARMA teaches a relay user equipment (UE) device comprising (in general, see fig. 7 and/or fig. 14 along with their respective paragraphs, note that one or more steps of the two embodiments are corresponding to each other):
a transmitter configured to transmit a signal to a remote UE device (SHARMA, see at least para. 91, e.g. step 702, “... relay UE 82 broadcasting a sidelink discovery signal 702 to the remote UE 93 over a PC-5 interface...”);
...a base station that has received a measurement report from the remote UE device over a Uu direct communication link, the measurement report comprising a measurement of the signal (SHARMA, see at least para. 93, e.g. step 710, “... The remote UE 93 sends 710 a measurement report of the relay UE 82. The measurement report may include, but is not limited to, an identity of the relay UE, a quality of a physical channel between the remote UE and the relay UE and/or cell measurements based on reference signals such as a synchronisation signal block (SSB) or a Channel State Information Reference Signal (CSI-RS) of a cell...”);
and the receiver configured to receive an RRC Reconfiguration Complete message directed to the base station from the remote UE device over a PC5 communication link (SHARMA, see at least para. 97 in view of fig. 6, e.g. step 718, “...After the remote UE 93 has completed the RRC reconfiguration 716, the remote UE 93 may send an indication 718 to the relay UE 82 that the RRC configuration has been completed...”, note that fig. 6 shows PC-5 502 between UEs),
the transmitter configured to transmit the RRC Reconfiguration Complete message to the base station over a Uu communication link (SHARMA, see at least para. 97 in view of fig. 6, e.g. step 720, “...The relay UE 82 will transmit 720 the indication that the remote UE 93 has completed the RRC reconfiguration to the gNB 81...”, note that fig. 6 shows Uu 504 between relay UE and gNB).
SHARMA does not specifically teach (a) a controller configured to maintain the relay UE device in a Radio Resource control (RRC) INACTIVE connection state with a base station, (b) a receiver configured to receive a Radio Access Network (RAN)-based page from the base station, the controller configured to perform an RRC Resume procedure with the base station to transition the relay UE device to an RRC Connected (CONN) state, and (c) Uu communication link established in response to the RRC Resume procedure.
Freda teaches (a) a controller configured to maintain the relay UE device in a Radio Resource control (RRC) INACTIVE connection state with a base station, (b) a receiver configured to receive a Radio Access Network (RAN)-based page from the base station, the controller configured to perform an RRC Resume procedure with the base station to transition the relay UE device to an RRC Connected (CONN) state, and (c) Uu communication link established in response to the RRC Resume procedure. (Freda, for (a), (b), and (c), see at least para. 288, for one non-limiting example, “...relay connection establishment/resume triggered by the relay itself, where the relay WTRU in RRC_IDLE/RRC_INACTIVE triggers connection establishment as a result of reception of paging for itself, or arrival of uplink data for itself; and/or, relay WTRU triggers (re)establishment as a result of Uu RLF,...”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to a person having ordinary skill in the art to incorporate Freda into SHARMA to address SL/network coverage extension and power efficiency improvements in order to handle a wide range of applications and services (Freda, see para. 73).
Regarding claim 3, SHARMA in view of Freda teaches claim 1.
SHARMA further teaches a path switch from a direct communication link between the remote UE device and the base station to an indirect communication link between the remote UE device and the base station through the relay UE device. (SHARMA, see at least para. 94, “...The gNB 81 receives 710 the measurement report from the remote UE 93 and, on the basis of the measurement report, determines whether or not to perform to handover the remote UE 93 to the relay UE 82. If the gNB 81 determines that the hand over should occur, then the gNB 81 transmits 712, to the relay UE, an RRC reconfiguration in order to prepare resources for the remote UE 93...”)
SHARMA does not teach wherein the RAN-based page is transmitted by the base station to initiate a path switch.
Freda teaches wherein the RAN-based page is transmitted by the base station to initiate a path switch. (Freda, see at least para. 288 along with para. 273, note that “...For the factor related to the trigger for initiating the PC5-RRC connection with the relay WTRU, or the Uu procedure which may have triggered the initiation of the PC5-RRC connection with the relay and/or transmission of the message to the relay WTRU, the condition may depend on the procedure which triggered initiating the PC5-RRC connection with the relay WTRU. Such triggers may be a gNB initiated PC5-RRC connection (e.g., in the case of a Hand Over/Off (HO) from direct to indirect,...”)
Therefore, it would have been obvious, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to a person having ordinary skill in the art to incorporate Freda into SHARMA to address SL/network coverage extension and power efficiency improvements in order to handle a wide range of applications and services (Freda, see para. 73).
Regarding claim 4, SHARMA in view of Freda teaches claim 1.
SHARMA does not teach the receiver is further configured to receive an RRC Resume message after transmitting an RRC Resume Request message, and the transmitter is further configured to transmit an RRC Resume Complete message after receiving the RRC Resume message.
Freda teaches the receiver is further configured to receive an RRC Resume message after transmitting an RRC Resume Request message, and the transmitter is further configured to transmit an RRC Resume Complete message after receiving the RRC Resume message. (Freda, see at least para. 277 and fig. 9 in view of para. 288, e.g. steps 918-920 for RRC Resume procedure)
Therefore, it would have been obvious, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to a person having ordinary skill in the art to incorporate Freda into SHARMA to address SL/network coverage extension and power efficiency improvements in order to handle a wide range of applications and services (Freda, see para. 73).
Regarding claim 5, SHARMA in view of Freda teaches claim 1.
SHARMA further teaches the transmitter and receiver are configured to operate in accordance with at least one revision of the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) New Radio (NR) V2X communication specification. (SHARMA, see at least para. 50-52, e.g. D2D for V2X)
Regarding claim 6, SHARMA in view of Freda teaches claim 1.
SHARMA further teaches wherein the signal is a discovery message. (SHARMA, see at least para. 91, e.g. step 702, “... relay UE 82 broadcasting a sidelink discovery signal 702 to the remote UE 93 over a PC-5 interface...”)
Regarding claim 7, this claim is rejected for the same reasoning as claim 1. To be more specific, although reciting subject matters slightly different, one skilled in the art would have known claim 7 performs reverse (or corresponding) procedures of claim 1. For example, it would be a base station of claim 7 that performs the reverse (or corresponding) receiving from and transmitting to the relay UE of claim 1. Hence, the examiner applies the same rejection reasoning as set forth in claim 1.
Regarding claim 8, SHARMA in view of Freda teaches claim 7.
SHARMA further teaches the receiver is further configured to receive the RRC Reconfiguration Complete message that is transmitted from the remote UE device and relayed by the relay UE device. (SHARMA, see at least para. 97, e.g. step 718-720, “...After the remote UE 93 has completed the RRC reconfiguration 716, the remote UE 93 may send an indication 718 to the relay UE 82 that the RRC configuration has been completed. The relay UE 82 will transmit 720 the indication that the remote UE 93 has completed the RRC reconfiguration to the gNB 81...”)
Regarding claims 10, 11, and 12, in view of claim 7 above, these claims are rejected for the same reasoning as claims 3, 4, and 5, respectively.
Claims 2 and 9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over SHARMA in view of Freda, further in view of Richard Lee-Chee Kuo (US 11490448 B1, hereinafter Kuo).
Regarding claim 2, SHARMA in view of Freda teaches claim 1.
SHARMA in view of Freda further teaches wherein the RRC Reconfiguration Complete message is transmitted by the remote UE device in response to receipt of an RRC Reconfiguration message at the remote UE device transmitted from the base station, the RRC Reconfiguration message initiating a path switch from a direct communication link between the remote UE device and the base station to an indirect communication link between the remote UE device and the base station through the relay UE device. (SHARMA, see at least para. 94, e.g. step 714-715, “...gNB 81 also transmits 714 an RRC reconfiguration to the relay UE 82 to be forwarded 715 onto the remote UE 93...”)
SHARMA in view of Freda does not teach over a Uu direct communication link between the base station and the remote UE device.
Kuo teaches over a Uu direct communication link between the base station and the remote UE device. (Kuo, see at least fig. 17, e.g. step 3, “...Step 3: RRC Reconfiguration message to Remote UE...”)
Therefore, it would have been obvious, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to a person having ordinary skill in the art to incorporate Kuo into SHARMA in view of Freda for effectively supporting connectivity to the network for the Remote UE (Kuo, see column 9 lines10-23)
Regarding claim 9, in view of claim 7 above, this claim is rejected for the same reasoning as claim 2.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to YEE F LAM whose telephone number is (571)270-7577. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8am-5pm. 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, Ayman A. Abaza can be reached on (571) 270-0422. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/YEE F LAM/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2465
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