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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1-16 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.
With regard to claims 2 and 9, the Applicant argues that paragraph 0037 of Wu discloses that while the UE 102 is in RRC_Connected, the UE can send a SidelinkUEInformation message to the RAN 105 in order to request or release sidelink resources for the sidelink communication, which is not the idle or inactive state as claimed.
The Examiner respectfully notes that claim partially recites “requesting the gNB to transmit the sidelink resource directly based on the RRC state of the UE being a connected state.” Since Wu discloses that the UE requests the RAN to transmit resources for the sidelink communication while the UE is in the connected state, this teaching of Wu reads on the argued features.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on June 12, 2026 was filed after the mailing date of the Non-Final Office Action on March 11, 2026. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1, 6, 8, 13, and 15-16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Selvanesan et al. (hereinafter “Selvanesan”, US 2021/0212030) as cited in IDS dated June 12, 2026.
Regarding claims 1, 8, and 16, Selvanesan discloses a method performed by a user equipment (UE) (i.e., UE as shown in Fig. 1(b)), a user equipment, and a computer-readable medium, comprising:
sending a request a base station (gNB) to transmit a sidelink resource for a sidelink communication (i.e., requesting a base station for sidelink transmission resources as described in paragraphs 0045, and 0049);
determining whether an available sidelink resource is received from the gNB (i.e., when the base station stops providing SL resource allocation configuration or assistance as described in paragraphs 0050-0051);
performing the sidelink communication using a pre-configured sidelink resource for the sidelink communication based on a determination that the available sidelink resource is not received from the gNB in response to the request to the gNB and based on a determination that the pre-configured sidelink resource is available (i.e., selecting new resource when the base station no longer provide SL resource as described in paragraphs 0051-0053. Also, see Fig. 6, and its descriptions, and when the pre-configuration resource is available as described in paragraph 0119).
Regarding claims 6 and 13, Selvanesan discloses all limitations recited within claims as described above. Selvanesan also discloses wherein the available sidelink resource comprises TxPoolSelectedNormal information corresponding to the sidelink communication or the available sidelink resource matches a requirement of quality of service (QOS) stream (i.e., configuring the SL based on the QoS as described in paragraphs 0141).
Regarding claim 15, Selvanesan discloses a system comprising:
a user equipment (UE) (i.e., UE as shown in Fig. 1(b));
a base station (gNB) (i.e., gNB as shown in Fig. 1(b)), wherein the UE is configured to:
send a request to the gNB to transmit a sidelink resource for a sidelink communication; determine whether an available sidelink resource is received from the gNB (i.e., requesting a base station for sidelink transmission resources as described in paragraphs 0045, and 0049);
determine whether an available sidelink resource is received from the gNB (i.e., when the base station stops providing SL resource allocation configuration or assistance as described in paragraphs 0050-0051);
perform the sidelink communication using a pre-configured sidelink resource for the sidelink communication based on a determination that the available side link resource is not received from the gNB in response to the request to the gNB and based on a determination that the pre-configured sidelink resource is available (i.e., selecting new resource when the base station no longer provide SL resource as described in paragraphs 0051-0053. Also, see Fig. 6, and its descriptions, and when the pre-configuration resource is available as described in paragraph 0119).
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) 2 and 9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Selvanesan in view of Wu (US 2022/0361273).
Regarding claims 2 and 9, Selvanesan discloses all limitations recited within claims as described above, but does not expressly disclose features of these claims.
In a similar endeavor, Wu discloses managing sidelink and non-sidelink information. Wu also discloses wherein the requesting the gNB to transmit the sidelink resource for the sidelink communication comprises:
requesting the gNB for RRC connection, and requesting the gNB to transmit the sidelink resource based on a radio resource control (RRC) state of the UE being an idle state or an inactive state and based on system information not including an available sidelink resource (i.e., when the UE is in RRC_Idle or RRC_Inactive, the UE requests via dedicated signaling or system information block as described in paragraph 0037); and
requesting the gNB to transmit the sidelink resource directly based on the RRC state of the UE being a connected state (i.e., when the UE is in RRC_Connected state, the UE sends the request to RAN 105 as described in paragraph 0037).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art to modify the teachings of the cited references, and arrive at the present invention.
The motivation/suggestion for doing so would have been to provide configured grant assistance information for the sidelink communication.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-5, 7, 10-12, and 14 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Abdoli et al. (US 2020/0146010) discloses methods and apparatus for sidelink communications configuration. Abdoli et al. also discloses selecting an SL pre-configurations as the SL configuration in paragraphs 0186, and 0195.
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to WAYNE CAI whose telephone number is (571)272-7798. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Thursday, 7:00 AM-5:00 PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, KATHY WANG-HURST can be reached on (571)270-5371. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/Wayne H Cai/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2644
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