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 Amendment
This is in response to an amendment/response/communication filed 5/30/2026.
No claims have been added.
Claim(s) 7-9, 14-18 and 20-24 has/have been cancelled.
Claims(s) 1-6 and 10-13 and 19 is/are currently pending.
Drawings
The drawings were received on 2/5/2024. These drawings are objected.
The drawings are objected to because the unlabeled rectangular boxes illustrated in FIGs. 1A, 1B, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11, and the unlabeled lines associated with messaging between the unlabeled rectangular boxes illustrated in FIGs. 6, 7 and 8, should be provided with descriptive text labels. Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see page 7, filed 5/20/2026, with respect to objection of the drawings have been fully considered and are NOT persuasive. The objection is maintained. The Examiner directs the Applicant to MPEP 608.02 paragraph 6.22 which notes, “the unlabeled rectangular box(es) shown in the drawings should be provided with descriptive text labels.” The Examiner notes the drawings include reference designators, however, the drawings do not provide “descriptive text labels.”
Applicant’s arguments, see page 7, filed 5/20/2026, with respect to objection of claims 1, 5, 7, 11, 13 and 19 have been fully considered and are persuasive. The objection has been withdrawn.
Applicant’s arguments, see page 7, filed 5/20/2026, with respect to rejection of claims 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12, 13, 14 and 19 under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) and claims 2, 9, 11 and 15 under 35 U.S.C. 103 have been fully considered and are persuasive. The rejection has been withdrawn.
Claim Objections
Claim 10 is objected to because of the following informalities: claim 10, line 10, notes, “the5G” which is considered as improper grammar. The Examiner suggests changing to “the 5G”, or something similar. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim 19 is objected to because of the following informalities: claim 19, 4 lines from the bottom, notes, “servic. Appropriate correction is required.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim(s) 1-6 is/are allowed.
Claim(s) 10-13 and 19 is/are objected and are allowable subject to traversing the objections.
The following is a Statement of Reasons for the Indication of Allowable Subject Matter:
A close reference, Ahmad et al. US 20230189059 (cited in the Non-Final Rejection dated 2/20/2026), teaches a relay WTRU receiving a NAS Reject message from a relay-WTRU AMF indicating back off timer for relay WTRU accesses, where the NAS reject messages indicates the message rejection is due to congestion in the relay-WTRU AMF and where the NAS rejection message includes a value for performing back off and teaches and teaches the relay WTRU sending reject messages to a remote WTRU during the back off time, where the rejection message send to the remote WTRU includes a specific cause code and a value for a back off timer.
A close reference, Interdigital Patent Holdings WO 2016073984 (Foreign Patent Documents citation #2, listed on IDS dated 2024-10-30), teaches a relay WTRU providing a BO timer that is at least the same length as received from the network (see para. 0211), however, the reference does not teach “5G” as claimed.
A close reference, Kim US 20190394816 (U.S. Patent Application Publications citation #1, listed on IDS dated 2024-10-30), teaches providing a back-off timer to a remote UE (see para. 0547), however, the reference does not each “5G” as claimed.
A close reference, IDAC Holdings WO 2020168065 (Foreign Patent Documents citation #1, listed on IDS dated 2024-10-30), teaches a rejection message including a back-off timer, however, the reference does not teach “Layer-3” as claimed.
A close reference, 3GPP TR 23.752 V2.0.0 (Non-Patent Literature Documents citation #9, listed on IDS dated 2024-10-30), teaches providing a back-off timer for performing “(re)select to another UE-to-Network Relay” but does not teach “a second time when the first user equipment will be available to provide…”, as claimed.
A close reference, Kuo US 20210409263, teaches a lack of resources rejection with a timer, however, the reference does not teach “second time…will be available…”, as claimed.
Examiner notes that the cited limitations are novel over the prior art in view of the entirety of the claim, not just the limitations presented alone.
As per claim(s) 1-6, the cited prior art either alone or in combination fails to teach the combined features of:
receiving, from a second user equipment, a first direct link establishment request to establish a direct link between the first user equipment and the second user equipment, the direct link for providing, to the second user equipment, 5th generation (5G) proximity services, ProSe, Layer-3 User Equipment-to-Network relaying service of the first user equipment; and
signaling, to the second user equipment, a first direct link establishment reject message comprising an indication that the first user equipment is temporarily unable to provide the 5G ProSe, Layer-3 User Equipment-to-Network relaying service, and an indication of a second time when the first user equipment will be available to provide the 50 ProSe, Layer-3 User Equipment-to-Network relaying service.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of objection 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 MICHAEL K PHILLIPS whose telephone number is (571)272-1037. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8am-10am, 1pm-5pm.
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If attempts to reach the Examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Ricky Ngo can be reached on 571-272-3139. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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MICHAEL K. PHILLIPS
Examiner
Art Unit 2464
/MICHAEL K PHILLIPS/Examiner, Art Unit 2464
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