Detail Action
This office action is a response to an amendment submitted on 05/11/2026.
Claims 1, 5-15, 18 and 20- 26 are pending for examination.
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 Amendment
Claims 1, 10, 14, 18 and 20 have been amended.
Claims 2-4, 16-17 and 19 have been canceled.
Claims 21- 26 have been newly added.
Claims 1, 5-15, 18 and 20- 26 are pending for examination.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed on 05/11/2026 with respect to claim(s) have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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(a) 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, 5-13, and 20, 24- 26 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Li et al. (US 20240098703 A1), hereinafter “Li”; and in further view of Kim (US 20230276487 A1), hereinafter Kim, and in further view of Hwang et al. (US 20230308245 A1), hereinafter “Hwang”.
Regarding claim 1, Li teaches A baseband processor configured to, when executing instructions stored in a memory, perform operations comprising [Li: Par. 6; Fig. 2 illustrates device with processor, memory]: receiving resource pool information indicating a sidelink (SL) beam management resource pool [Li: Fig. 4; 7; 14A; Par. 112 teaches of receiving and selecting sidelink resources including resources pool information];
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However, Li does not teach synchronization signal block (S-SSB) resource pool, wherein the resource pool information indicates the S-SSB resource pool using an offset, an interval, and a periodicity, and wherein the resource pool information indicates the SL beam management resource pool using a time offset relative to the S-SSB resource pool; receiving an S-SSB using a resource in the S-SSB resource pool; and using a resource[[s]] in the SL beam management resource pool based on the resource in the S-SSB resource pool on which the S-SSB was received and the time offset relative to the S-SSB resource pool.
Nevertheless, Kim, in the similar field of endeavor, teaches synchronization signal block (S-SSB) resource pool , wherein the resource pool information indicates the S-SSB resource pool using an offset, an interval, and a periodicity, and wherein the resource pool information indicates the SL beam management resource pool using a time offset relative to the S-SSB resource pool Kim: Par. 102 teaches include timeOffsetSSB-SL and timeIntervalSSB-SL. SSB/PBCH transmission slots may vary according to the terminal. For example, each terminal may configure an SS/PBCH transmission slot based on a RRC parameter including timeOffsetSSB-SL and timeIntervalSSB-SL]; receiving an S-SSB using a resource in the S-SSB resource pool; and using a resources in the SL beam management resource pool based on the resource in the S-SSB resource pool on which the S-SSB was received and the time offset relative to the S-SSB resource pool [Kim: Par. 10 teaches processor may perform control to select a resource pool based on the one or more SSBs. The resource pool may be allocated based on priority of a content type of a PBCH included in SSBs in the SSB group. The indication message may comprise reserve symbol and reserve subchannel information based on the allocated resource pool information. The resource pool may be allocated based on resources of a beam different from a beam to which the received SSBs belong].
Thus It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill at the time the invention was made to utilize the teachings of Kim for having SSB resource pool based on SSBs. One of ordinary skill in the art would be motivated to utilize the teachings of Kim in the Li system in order to provide resources of a beam different from a beam to which the received SSB belong [Kim: Par. 10].
However, the combined Li/Kim does not teach encoding a beam management message for transmission to a user equipment (UE) using resources in the SL beam management resource pool.
Nevertheless, Hwang, in the similar filed of endeavor, teaches and encoding a beam management message for transmission to a user equipment (UE) using resources in the SL beam management resource pool [Hwang: Fig. 12. 14; Par. 140- 164 teaches managing method for determining and receiving of resource pools with sidelink reference signal wherein sidelink signal are transmitted to device based on the sidelink resource].
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Thus It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill at the time the invention was made to utilize the teachings of Hwang for sidelink communication for resource management. One of ordinary skill in the art would be motivated to utilize the teachings of Hwang in the Li/ Kim system in order to provide wider range of communication capacities [Hwang: Par. 3].
Regarding claim 5, the combined Li/ Kim in view of Hwang teaches all the limitations in the parent claim 1. Li/ Kim in view of Hwang further teaches wherein resources in the SL beam management resource pool are multiplexed in a time division multiplexing (TDM) manner with resources in an S-SSB resource pool and resources in a SL data transmission resource pool [Li: Par. 114].
Regarding claim 6, the combined Li/ Kim in view of Hwang teaches all the limitations in the parent claim 1. Li/ Kim in view of Hwang further teaches wherein the resource pool information configures the SL beam management resource pool on a per slot basis
Regarding claim 7, the combined Li/ Kim in view of Hwang teaches all the limitations in the parent claim 1. Li/ Kim in view of Hwang further teaches wherein the resource pool information configures the SL beam management resource pool on a per sub-slot basis [Hwang: Par. 59- 60 teaches of per slot bases transmission].
Regarding claim 8, the combined Li/ Kim in view of Hwang teaches all the limitations in the parent claim 1. Li/ Kim in view of Hwang further teaches wherein the operations further comprise encoding the beam management message for transmission in a medium access control (MAC) control element (CE) on a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH) [Li: Par. 83; Par. 94 teaches of information for decoding sidelink communication on the PSSCH which is configured using MAC-CE].
Regarding claim 9, the combined Li/ Kim in view of Hwang teaches all the limitations in the parent claim 1. Li/ Kim in view of Hwang further teaches measuring a plurality of SL synchronization signal blocks (S-SSBs) received from the UE, wherein the plurality of S-SSBs are associated with a respective plurality of beams; wherein the beam management message indicates an optimal beam of the plurality of beams [Li: Par. 101 teaches of sweep SSBs with different transmitting beams].
Regarding claim 10, the combined Li/ Kim in view of Hwang teaches all the limitations in the parent claim 1. Li/ Kim in view of Hwang further teaches detecting a beam failure; wherein the beam management message is encoded in response to detecting the beam failure [Li: Par. 142 teaches UE detect beam failure];
wherein the beam management message comprises a beam failure recovery message including a candidate S-SSB index or a candidate channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) index, and a reference signal received power (RSRP) measurement associated with the candidate S-SSB index or the candidate CSI-RS index [Hwang: Par. 132].
Regarding claim 11, the combined Li/ Kim in view of Hwang teaches all the limitations in the parent claim 1. Li/ Kim in view of Hwang further teaches measuring a plurality of channel state information reference signals (CSI-RSs) received from the UE, wherein the plurality of CSI-RSs are associated with a respective plurality of beams; and wherein the beam management message indicates an optimal beam of the plurality of beams [Li: Fig. 5; Par. 97 teaches of measure CSI-RS information based in part on measurements reported by UE].
Regarding claim 12, the combined Li/ Kim in view of Hwang teaches all the limitations in the parent claim 1. Li/ Kim in view of Hwang further teaches randomly selecting a sub-channel from the SL beam management resource pool for transmitting the beam management message on a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH) or a physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH) [Li: Par. 82- 83].
Regarding claim 13, the combined Li/ Kim in view of Hwang teaches all the limitations in the parent claim 1. Li/ Kim in view of Hwang further teaches based on a UE identifier for the UE, selecting a sub-channel from the SL beam management resource pool for transmitting the beam management message on a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH) or a physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH) [Li: Par. 82- 83].
Regarding claim 20, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as set forth for claim 1.
Regarding claim 24, the combined Li/ Kim in view of Hwang teaches all the limitations in the parent claim 20. Li/ Kim in view of Hwang further teaches wherein the beam management includes at least one S-SSB index and at least one corresponding reference signal received power (RSRP) measurement [Li: Par. 85; Kim: Par. 102]
Regarding claim 25, the combined Li/ Kim in view of Hwang teaches all the limitations in the parent claim 20. Li/ Kim in view of Hwang further teaches based on a UE identifier for the UE, selecting a sub-channel from the SL beam management resource pool for transmitting the beam management message on a physical sidelink-shared channel (PSSCH) or a physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH) [Li: Par. 82- 83].
Regarding claim 26, the combined Li/ Kim in view of Hwang teaches all the limitations in the parent claim 20. Li/ Kim in view of Hwang further teaches wherein the beam management message comprises a medium access control (MAC) control element (CE) on a physical sidelink share channel (PSSCH) [Li: Par.94].
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 14, 15, 18 and 21-23 are allowed.
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowable subject matter:
A full search was conducted and the features of the instant claims 14, 15, 18 and 21-23 were not found to be in any reasonable combination of the closest prior art in combination of Lee/ Kim in view of Hwang.
With respect to exemplary, the prior arts in above teach of method and devices for receiving both S-SSB resource pool and SL beam management resource pool [Li: Par. 83, Fig. 7], and containing number of resources and receiving beam management [Hwang: Figs. 12, 14; Par. 120] to receives and transmit S-SSB resource pool with offset [Kim: Par. 102].
However, the combined Li/ Kim in view of Hwang does not disclose, suggest or render obvious the limitations of the instant claims 14, 15, 18 and 21-23 reciting;
“receive resource pool information indicating a sidelink (SL) synchronization signal block (S-SSB) resource pool and a SL beam management resource pool, wherein the S-SSB resource pool comprises a greater number of resources than the SL beam management resource pool; and transmit, via the RF circuitry, an S-SSB to a second UE using a resource in the S-SSB resource pool; and receive a beam management message from the second UE using a resource in the SL beam management resource pool using a quasi-omni receive (Rx) beam”
Therefore, Claims 14, 15, 18 and 21-23 are indicated as containing allowable subject matter and allowed over the closest Prior Art references of Li/ Kim in view of Hwang.
Any comments considered necessary by applicant must be submitted no later than the payment of the issue fee and, to avoid processing delays, should preferably accompany the issue fee. Such submissions should be clearly labeled “Comments on Statement of Reasons for Allowance.”
Conclusion
The prior art made of record (see attached PTO-892) and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). 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 KYAW Z SOE whose telephone number is (571)270-0304. The examiner can normally be reached 9am-5pm.
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/KYAW Z SOE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2412
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