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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
Rejections previously presented under this section have been withdrawn in view of the amendments filed on 8/24/2026.
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 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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim(s) 1, 11-12, 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over PENG (US 2024/0205967) in view of LIU et al (US 2023/0015997)
Regarding claim 1, 12, 20, PENG (US 2024/0205967) discloses a system with first terminal device, a second terminal device and a network device, comprising:
processor circuitry configured to perform an LBT (PENG: ¶199 the UE performs LBT procedure); and
a transmitter configured to transmit NACK to a network device when, due to a failure of the LBT (PENG: ¶199, an LBT failed status is sent when an LBT is failed/not passed; when it fails, a NACK is sent to the base station), the first terminal device does not transmit a PSSCH to a second terminal device on a resource scheduled by a DCI or a resource of a configured grant (PENG: ¶203-205, ¶199, ¶93, when a sidelink channel on which LBT is performed is scheduled by a DCI which is received by the first terminal; the LBT is failed and no PSSCH transmission is performed);
wherein the processor circuitry perfroms the LBT for transmitting the PSSCH to the second terminal (PENG: ¶89, ¶93, ¶106, ¶120, the first terminal performs the LBT and transmits)
PENG remains silent regarding NACK transmitted by using PUCCH.
However, LIU et al (US 2023/0015997) discloses NACK transmitted by using PUCCH. (LIU: ¶80, the NACK is transmitted by using PUCCH for the sidelink PSSCH when the LBT fails)
A person of ordinary skill in the art working with the invention of PENG would have been motivated to use the teachings of LIU as it provides improved techniques for reporting results of an LBT performed on a shared radio frequency spectrum may be desirable (LIU:¶3). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify invention of PENG with teachings of LIU to improve reporting techniques (LIU: ¶3).
Regarding claim 11, PENG modified by LIU discloses first terminal device according to claim 1, wherein the transmitter is further configured to transmit the PSCCH and/or PSSCH to the second terminal device (PENG: ¶93, ¶186, first terminal e.g. UE 2 transmits a sidelink transmission on PSSCH to another UE).
Claim(s) 3, 5, 13, 15, is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over PENG modified by LIU, as applied to claim 1/12, further in view of LIU2 (LIU et al (US 2022/0338175))
Regarding claim 3, 13, PENG modified by LIU discloses first terminal device according to claim 1/12. PENG modified by LIU remains silent regarding, however, LIU2 the device further comprises:
a receiver configured to receive a plurality of sidelink feedback information transmitted by the second terminal device, wherein one or more PSFCH resources carrying the plurality of sidelink feedback information are determined by the second terminal at least according to the number of the plurality of sidelink feedback information (LIU2: ¶86-89, Fig. 10, ¶73, the receiver of the transmitting UE receives a plurality of PSFCH carrying the plurality of sidelink feedbacks transmitted by a receiving UE; these PSFCHs bits are determined based on the number of PSFCHs required for, for example, the transmitted PSSCHs).
A person of ordinary skill in the art working with the invention of PENG modified by LIU would have been motivated to use the teachings of LIU2 as it provides advantages that include improved acknowledgment feedback transmission for sidelink communications (¶5). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify invention of PENG modified by LIU with teachings of LIU2 in order to improve feedback transmission which essential for accurate QoS/throughput measurement.
Regarding claim 5, 15, PENG modified by LIU modified by LIU2 discloses a first terminal device according to claim 3/13, wherein the plurality of sidelink feedback information comprise: feedback information for a currently-scheduled PSCCH and/or PSSCH, and/or, feedback information for a previously-scheduled PSCCH and/or PSSCH (LIU2: ¶86, the plurality of feedbacks comprise feedback of currently scheduled PSSCHs in a current multi-TTI grant).
Claim(s) 6, 8, 16, 18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over PENG modified by LIU modified by LIU2, as applied to claim 5 above, further in view of WU et al (US 2023/0231660)
Regarding claim 6, 16 PENG modified by LIU modified by LIU2 discloses first terminal device according to claim 5/15, wherein transport blocks (TB) carried by the currently-scheduled PSCCH and/or PSSCH (PENG: ¶93, transport blocks are used to carrier PSSCH data/traffic).
PENG modified by LIU modified by LIU2 remains silent regarding, however WU et al (US 2023/0231660) discloses that transport blocks (TB) carried by the current scheduled PSCCH and/or PSSCH are different from transport blocks (TB) carried by the previously-scheduled PSCCH and/or PSSCH (WU: ¶113, previously received TB and the currently received TB are different)
A person of ordinary skill in the art working with the invention of PENG modified by LIU modified by LIU2 would have been motivated to use the teachings of WU as it provides a feedback technique with reduced overhead and better allocation flexibility of the PSSCHs on different TBs for a higher rate data. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify invention of PENG modified by LIU modified by LIU2 with teachings of WU in order to improve sidelink channel efficiency.
Regarding claim 8, 18, PENG modified by LIU modified by LIU2 discloses first terminal device according to claim 3/13, using sidelink control information (SCI) (PENG: ¶92, SCI is used as sidelink control signal)
PENG modified by LIU modified by LIU2 remains silent regarding, however, WU et al (US 2023/0231660) wherein information indicating grouping and/or retransmission of the sidelink feedback information in sidelink control information (SCI) transmitted by the first terminal device to the second terminal device is independent of information indicating grouping and/or retransmission of the sidelink feedback information in downlink control information (DCI) transmitted by the network device to the first terminal device (WU: ¶90, ¶86-87 SCI is transmitted by the transmitter which schedules feedback processes and is independent of the DCI, as it is separate and generated by the transmitting UE instead of the base station; also sent over a different channel).
A person of ordinary skill in the art working with the invention of PENG modified by LIU modified by LIU2 would have been motivated to use the teachings of WU as it provides a feedback technique with reduced overhead and better allocation flexibility of the PSSCHs on different TBs for a higher rate data. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify invention of PENG modified by LIU modified by LIU2 with teachings of WU in order to improve sidelink channel efficiency.
Claim(s) 4, 14, is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over PENG modified by LIU modified by LIU2, as applied to claim 3 above, further in view of WU (2023/0113672).
Regarding claim 4, 14, PENG modified by LIU modified by LIU2 discloses a first terminal device according to claim 3/13, PENG modified by LIU modified by LIU2 remains silent regarding, however, WU (2023/0113672) discloses wherein the number of the plurality of sidelink feedback information is determined based on an Assignment Index field in sidelink control information transmitted by the first terminal device to the second terminal device (WU: ¶67, ¶81, ¶127, ¶122, SAI (sidelink assignment index) indicates positions of multiple feedbacks).
A person of ordinary skill in the art working with the invention of PENG modified by LIU modified by LIU2 would have been motivated to use the teachings of WU as it provides flexibility of single or multiple bit positions’ indication, improving flexibility of resource allocation. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify invention of PENG modified by LIU modified by LIU2 with teachings of WU in order to improve sidelink resource allocation flexibility.
Claim(s) 9-10, 19, is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over PENG modified by LIU modified by LIU2, as applied to claim 3 above, further in view of RYU et al (US 2021/0185685).
Regarding claim 9, PENG modified by LIU modified by LIU2 discloses first terminal device according to claim 3. PENG modified by LIU remains silent, however, RYU et al (US 2021/0185685) discloses wherein the receiver further configured to receive information transmitted by the second terminal device, the information indicating the number of PSFCHs that the second terminal device is able to transmit simultaneously (RYU: ¶78, ¶201-202, maximum number of simultaneous PSFCHs that can be transmitted by an SL terminal; this capability information is sent over PC5 connection to the first terminal from a second terminal).
A person of ordinary skill in the art working with the invention of PENG modified by LIU modified by LIU2 would have been motivated to use the teachings of RYU as it provides a capability information that enables better management of the communication resources on the sidelink channel preventing exceeding of device capabilities and a consequential data loss. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify invention of PENG modified by LIU modified by LIU2 with teachings of RYU in order to improve sidelink channel resource management.
Regarding claim 10, PENG modified by LIU modified by LIU2 discloses first terminal device according to claim 3, PENG modified by LIU modified by LIU2 remains silent, however, RYU et al (US 2021/0185685) discloses wherein the second terminal device determines whether to discard the plurality of sidelink feedback information as a whole, and wherein a highest priority in the plurality of sidelink feedback information is used for priority comparison (RYU: ¶205, ¶217, the higher priority feedback information is used for comparing priority of the remaining feedback information and the top maximum number feedbacks are transmitted; the lower priority remaining feedbacks are discarded).
A person of ordinary skill in the art working with the invention of PENG modified by LIU modified by LIU2 would have been motivated to use the teachings of RYU as it provides a capability information that enables better management of the communication resources on the sidelink channel preventing exceeding of device capabilities and a consequential data loss. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify invention of PENG modified by LIU modified by LIU2 with teachings of RYU in order to improve sidelink channel resource management.
Regarding claim 19, PENG modified by LIU modified by LIU2 discloses first terminal device according to claim 13.
PENG modified by LIU modified by LIU2 remains silent, however, RYU et al (US 2021/0185685) discloses wherein the receiver further configured to receive information transmitted by the second terminal device, the information indicating the number of PSFCHs that the second terminal device is able to transmit simultaneously (RYU: ¶78, ¶201-202, maximum number of simultaneous PSFCHs that can be transmitted by an SL terminal; this capability information is sent over PC5 connection to the first terminal from a second terminal).
wherein the second terminal device determines whether to discard the plurality of sidelink feedback information as a whole, and wherein a highest priority in the plurality of sidelink feedback information is used for priority comparison (RYU: ¶205, ¶217, the higher priority feedback information is used for comparing priority of the remaining feedback information and the top maximum number feedbacks are transmitted; the lower priority remaining feedbacks are discarded).
A person of ordinary skill in the art working with the invention of PENG modified by LIU modified by LIU2 would have been motivated to use the teachings of RYU as it provides a capability information that enables better management of the communication resources on the sidelink channel preventing exceeding of device capabilities and a consequential data loss. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify invention of PENG modified by LIU modified by LIU2 with teachings of RYU in order to improve sidelink channel resource management.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 8/24/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicants argue,
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Examiner respectfully disagrees with the above arguments. Applicants take a position that PENG does not discose that performing the LBT detection is for transmitting a PSSCH.
Examiner respectfully submits that PENG, in at least ¶93 discloses that PSSCH is used for transmission of data from one of the UE to another UE on a sidelink.
[0090] From the perspective of a transmission type, the sidelink resource may include a sidelink sending resource and a sidelink receiving resource. The sidelink sending resource is used to send information, for example, send control information and/or data. The sidelink receiving resource is used to receive information, for example, receive control information and/or data. A person skilled in the art may understand that the sending resource and the receiving resource may be located in a same time domain and/or frequency domain range. For example, based on a time division system, sending and receiving may share a same frequency domain resource. Based on a frequency division system, sending and receiving may share a same time domain resource.
[0093] Optionally, the data may be a signal in a broad sense, may be a data packet, or may be a transport block or a codeword. The data may be carried on a data channel, for example, a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH).
This sidelink, according to PENG is performed using LBT and when LBT results in successful transmission, the sidelink transmission on the PSSCH is performed.
[0106] In embodiments of this application, a V2X system is used as an example. Regardless of broadcast, unicast, or multicast, if terminals in a coverage area of a sidelink need to normally communicate with each other, an LBT process generally needs to be first performed, to find an available or idle sidelink resource in an available or idle unlicensed spectrum, to perform information transmission.
A person of ordinary skill in the art would reasonably interpret the above as “performing the LBT detection is for transmitting a PSSCH.”
PENG remains silent regarding NACK transmitted by using PUCCH.
However, newly cited reference, LIU et al (US 2023/0015997), discloses NACK transmitted by using PUCCH. (LIU: ¶80, the NACK is transmitted by using PUCCH for the sidelink PSSCH when the LBT fails)
A person of ordinary skill in the art working with the invention of PENG would have been motivated to use the teachings of LIU as it provides improved techniques for reporting results of an LBT performed on a shared radio frequency spectrum may be desirable (LIU:¶3). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify invention of PENG with teachings of LIU to improve reporting techniques (LIU: ¶3).
All remaining arguments are based on the arguments addressed above.
Conclusion
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 OMER S MIAN whose telephone number is (571)270-7524. The examiner can normally be reached M,T,W,Th: 10a-7p, Fri, 9a-12p.
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OMER S. MIAN
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2461
/OMER S MIAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2461
