DETAILED ACTION
Applicant's response filed on 04/29/2026 has been entered and made of record.
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 .
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 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.
Claim Status
Claims 18 and 30 have been cancelled.
Claims 16, 17, 19, 21-23, and 25-29 have been amended.
New claim 31 has been added.
Claims 16, 17, 19-29, and 31 are currently pending for examination.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's Remarks (on page 6), filed 04/29/2026, with respect to Claim Rejections – 35 U.S.C. § 112 have been fully considered and claim 30 has been canceled. Therefore, the rejection is moot.
Applicant's arguments, filed 04/29/2026, with respect to claims 16 and 28 have been fully considered but are moot in view of the new ground(s) of rejection. The amendments to the claims necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection discussed below.
Regarding claims 16 and 28, the Applicant has argued that, “Cheng does not teach or suggest the specific feature of selecting and reporting SL-RSRP over SD-RSRP based on the condition that a link with the serving relay UE is already established. In general, Cheng simply fails to provide any guidance or motivation to differentiate between SD-RSRP and SL-RSRP, nor to selectively report SL-RSRP based on the existence of the link, much less the specific technique described in claims 16 and 28” (see Remarks on page 7).
In response to applicant's argument that the references fail to show certain features of applicant’s invention, it is noted that the features upon which applicant relies (i.e., the specific feature of selecting…, and differentiate between SD-RSRP and SL-RSRP, nor to selectively report SL-RSRP based on the existence of the link) are not recited in the rejected claim(s). Although the claims are interpreted in light of the specification, limitations from the specification are not read into the claims. See In re Van Geuns, 988 F.2d 1181, 26 USPQ2d 1057 (Fed. Cir. 1993).
This Office action is made Final.
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 16, 17, 19-29, and 31 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.
Claims 16 and 28 recites “wherein, based on the link with the serving relay UE, the measurement report includes sidelink reference signal received power (SL-RSRP) of the serving relay UE among the SL-RSRP and sidelink discovery RSRP (SD-RSRP) of the serving relay UE” in line 13-16 and line 18-22 respectively, however, the previous step recite “releasing a link with a serving relay UE” in line 12 and in line 16-17 respectively. Thus, one of ordinary skill in the art would reasonably interpreted or concluded that there is no more link established with a serving relay UE (i.e., releasing) so it is unclear whether or how the step of the measurement report includes SL-RSRP on the basis that there is a link with the serving relay UE can be performed? For the purpose of examination, Examiner will interpret as best understood.
Claims 17, 19-27, 29 and 31 are also rejected for the same reasoning as being indefinite since they are dependent upon the rejected claims 16 and 28 respectively.
Claim 28 recites “receiving information related to measurement and reporting from a base station by a remote user equipment (UE)” in line 6-7. It is unclear whether information is received by a remote UE or a device since the preamble is directed to a device, not a remote UE. The same analysis is applied to the rest of the claimed limitations. Moreover, the limitation(s) directed to another device (i.e., a remote UE) have no patentable weight as they are not clearly directed towards a device. It is suggested to amend the limitation(s) not to further limiting to another device. For the purpose of examination, Examiner will interpret as best understood.
Appropriate corrections are required.
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)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 16, 28, 29, and 31 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Teyeb et al. (US 2024/0080722 A1, along with Provisional application No. 63/136,510, filed on Jan. 12, 2021) hereinafter “Teyeb”.
Regarding claims 16 and 28, Cheng discloses Claim 16 of an operation method of a sidelink remote user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system (see FIG. 1B and 8; see ¶ [0039]), Claim 28 of a device (see FIG. 1B and 8; see ¶ [0039], a WTRU) comprising: at least one processor; and at least one computer memory operatively connected to the at least one processor and configured to store instructions that when executed causes the at least one processor to perform operations (see FIG. 1B; see ¶ [0039], the WTRU may include a processor and a memory), the method comprising:
receiving information related to measurement and reporting from a base station (BS) (see FIG. 8 and 17; see ¶ [0112] [0194], receiving measurement configuration and reporting);
transmitting a measurement report to the BS based on the information (see FIG. 8 and 17; see ¶ [0112] [0194], the WTRU may report on one or more of the configured measurements based on the assessments of the thresholds, such as reporting sidelink RSRP/RSNI/RSRQ measurements);
receiving, from the BS, a radio resource control (RRC) reconfiguration message related to switching from indirect to direct path based on the measurement report (see FIG. 8 and 17; see ¶ [0112] [0194], the network/base station may decide to switch to a direct cell (e.g., based on the measurements) and the base station may send an RRC reconfiguration message to the remote WTRU);
performing random access with the BS and transmitting a RRC reconfiguration complete message to the BS based on the RRC reconfiguration message (see FIG. 8 and 17; see ¶ [0112] [0194], the remote WTRU may perform random access with the base station and may send feedback, including the RRCRecofigurationComplete to the base station via a target path, using the target configuration provided in the RRC reconfiguration message); and
releasing a link with a serving relay UE after receiving the RRC reconfiguration message (see FIG. 8 and 17; see ¶ [0112] [0194], the PC5 link may be released between the remote WTRU and the relay WTRU),
wherein, based on the link with the serving relay UE, the measurement report includes sidelink reference signal received power (SL-RSRP) of the serving relay UE among the SL-RSRP and sidelink discovery RSRP (SD-RSRP) of the serving relay UE (see FIG. 8 and 17; see ¶ [0208] [0212-13], WTRU may be configured with rules/conditions on when it performs measurements on discovery signals (i.e., sidelink discovery) and/or measurements on data. Sidelink measurements on data defined herein may refer to generating a measurement report (e.g., to send to the base station) either from measurements of SL RSs sent with data (by the peer WTRU) or generating such measurement from the measurement of SL-RSRP sent by the peer WTRU. Specifically, measurement reports of sidelink sent to the base station may be any or a combination of measurements on discovery, measurements on RSs from peer WTRU transmissions, or measurements based on SL-RSRP reports received from the peer WTRU and the WTRU may include RSRP or/and RSRQ results in the measurement report).
Regarding claim 29, Teyeb discloses wherein the device communicates with at least one of a base station (BS) (see FIG. 8; see ¶ [0112], there is some connection between a remote WTRU 810 with a relay WTRU 811 and a base station (e.g., gNB) 812).
Regarding claim 31, Teyeb discloses further comprising: at least one transceiver operatively connected to the at least one processor (see FIG. 1B; see ¶ [0040], the processor 118 may be coupled to the transceiver 120).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 17 and 19-27 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 (see attached PTO-892) and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
BAEK et al. (US 2021/0315057 A1) teaches an operation method performed by a remote terminal in a communication system includes: receiving a discovery signal from each of one or more neighboring terminals; performing a measurement operation on the discovery signal; determining at least one candidate terminal from among the one or more neighboring terminals based on a result of the measurement operation; selecting a relay terminal within the at least one candidate terminal; and performing a sidelink setup procedure with the relay terminal (see Abstract).
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 PETER CHEN whose telephone number is (571)270-7241. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 8:00am to 5:00pm.
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, Yemane Mesfin can be reached at (571) 272-3927. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/PETER CHEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2462
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