Prosecution Insights
Last updated: April 19, 2026
Application No. 18/684,077

ADVANCED COOPERATIVE USER EQUIPMENT UPDATE

Non-Final OA §102§103
Filed
Feb 15, 2024
Examiner
SAIFUDDIN, AHMED
Art Unit
2475
Tech Center
2400 — Computer Networks
Assignee
Qualcomm Incorporated
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
83%
Grant Probability
Favorable
1-2
OA Rounds
3y 0m
To Grant
98%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 83% — above average
83%
Career Allow Rate
24 granted / 29 resolved
+24.8% vs TC avg
Strong +16% interview lift
Without
With
+15.5%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
3y 0m
Avg Prosecution
56 currently pending
Career history
85
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
2.3%
-37.7% vs TC avg
§103
65.6%
+25.6% vs TC avg
§102
29.7%
-10.3% vs TC avg
§112
2.3%
-37.7% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 29 resolved cases

Office Action

§102 §103
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 § 102 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 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)(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 1, 13-14, 25-26, and 29-30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Kurita et al. (Patent No: US 2024/0223243 A1), hereinafter, Kurita. Regarding Claim 1, Kurita teaches, A user equipment (UE) comprising: a transceiver configured to: -Fig. 13; Paragraph [0223] ([0223] recites, “FIG. 13 is a diagram to show an example of a structure of the user terminal according to one embodiment. The user terminal 20 includes a control section 210, a transmitting/receiving section 220, and transmitting/receiving antennas 230..” transmit, to a base station (BS), a cooperative UE update request comprising a plurality of candidate cooperative UE sets and a UE capability set associated with the plurality of candidate cooperative UE sets; -Fig. 4A, 4B; Paragraph [0072, 0128, 0171] ([0072] recites, “a UE group, a terminal group, a transmission UE and a cooperative UE, a plurality of UEs sharing data, a plurality of UEs that transmit the same data, a group, a sharing group, and a zone may be interchangeably interpreted.” [0128] recites, “The transmission UE may transmit a channel/signal including an SR and a request for cooperative transmission, to the base station. The base station may explicitly or implicitly judge whether cooperative transmission is possible, based on UE capability from the transmission UE.” [0171] recites,”..The UE capability may indicate whether to support grouping/destination configuration by the base station…” and receive, from the BS, an indication of a cooperative UE set comprising at least one of the plurality of candidate cooperative UE sets; -Paragraph [0099, 0122] ([0099] recites, “The base station may notify/indicate the transmission UE and a UE having possibility of being a cooperative UE of resource allocation for grouping. The UE having a possibility of being a cooperative UE may be a UE corresponding to the same value as the value (range) of a cell/TRP/beam/received power corresponding to the transmission UE. The base station may notify/indicate resource allocation by using the SL-RNTI and may notify information for grouping by using an allocated resource. The information for grouping may include an ID/destination. The base station may notify/indicate resource allocation according to an SR from a UE.”) and a processor configured to connect, via a sidelink channel, to at least one cooperative UE associated with the cooperative UE set, wherein the transceiver is further configured to communicate, with the BS, using the cooperative UE set. -Fig. 4B; Paragraph [0252, 0079, 0099-0103] ([0252] recites, “…user terminal 20 may each be formed as a computer apparatus that includes a processor 1001, a memory 1002, a storage 1003, a communication apparatus 1004, an input apparatus 1005, an output apparatus 1006, a bus 1007, and so on.” [0099] recites, “[0099] recites, “When the transmission UE transmits the target data to the cooperative UE, the transmission UE may use sidelink mode 1/2. In sidelink mode 1, a transmission resource of the target data may be configured/indicated by the gNB by using an SL-RNTI. In sidelink mode 2, a transmission resource of the target data may be investigated/determined by the transmission UE. When sidelink mode 1 is used, the transmission UE may request the base station to perform resource allocation for grouping (may transmit an SR). The base station may notify/indicate the transmission UE and a UE having possibility of being a cooperative UE of resource allocation for grouping. The UE having a possibility of being a cooperative UE may be a UE corresponding to the same value as the value (range) of a cell/TRP/beam/received power corresponding to the transmission UE. The base station may notify/indicate resource allocation by using the SL-RNTI and may notify information for grouping by using an allocated resource. The information for grouping may include an ID/destination. The base station may notify/indicate resource allocation according to an SR from a UE…. The transmission UE may receive at least one of information indicating whether reception of the target data has been successful in the cooperative UE (HARQ-ACK information) and the ID of the cooperative UE (for example, L2 transmission source (source) ID), for transmission of the target data to the cooperative UE. The transmission UE may report the ID of the cooperative UE that has been successful in the reception of the target data, to the base station.” [0079] recites, “When a terminal UE and a cooperative UE transmit target data to a base station, each of the terminal UE and the cooperative UE may transmit part of or the entire target data, and the terminal UE and the cooperative UE as a whole may transmit the entire target data.”) Regarding Claim 13, Kurita teaches the limitations of claim 1. Kurita further teaches, The UE of claim 1, wherein the transceiver is configured to receive the indication by a radio resource control (RRC) configuration message. -Paragraph [0289-0290] ([0289-0290] recites, “…For example, reporting of information in the present disclosure may be implemented by using physical layer signaling (for example, downlink control information (DCI), uplink control information (UCI), higher layer signaling (for example, Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling, broadcast information (master information block (MIB), system information blocks (SIBs), and so on), Medium Access Control (MAC) signaling and so on), and other signals or combinations of these….. Also, RRC signaling may be referred to as an “RRC message,” and can be, for example, an RRC connection setup message, an RRC connection reconfiguration message”) Claim 14 is essentially same as Claim 1 except Claim 14 is viewed from base station side while claim 1 is viewed from UE side. The Applicant’s attention is drawn towards claim 1 above which is rejected. Claim 14 is rejected under the same rational as Claim 1. Claim 25 is essentially the same as Claim 13. The Applicant’s attention is drawn towards claim 13 above which is rejected. Claim 25 is rejected under the same rational as Claim 13. Claim 26 is the method claim corresponding to the apparatus claim 1. The Applicant’s attention is drawn towards claim 1 above that is rejected. Claim 26 is rejected under the same rational as claim 1. Claim 29 is the method claim corresponding to the apparatus claim 14. The Applicant’s attention is drawn towards claim 14 above that is rejected. Claim 29 is rejected under the same rational as claim 14. Regarding Claim 30, Kurita teaches the limitations of Claim 29. Kurita further teaches, The method of claim 29, further comprising: transmitting, by the BS to the first UE, a request for UE capability information; and receiving, based on the request for UE capability information, UE capability information. -Paragraph [0128, 0169, 0171] ([0128] recites, “The base station may explicitly or implicitly judge whether cooperative transmission is possible, based on UE capability from the transmission UE.”[0169] recites, “When the UE reports the UE capability indicating support of the function and a higher layer parameter corresponding to the function is configured, the UE may perform the function…”[0171] recites, “The function may be a function related to cooperative transmission in data transmission. The UE capability may indicate whether to support cooperative transmission in data transmission. The UE capability may indicate whether to support grouping/destination configuration by the base station. The UE capability may indicate whether to support grouping/destination configuration by the base station.” From the above description, it is easily understandable to an ordinary person with the skill in the art that in response to the request from the base station for UE capability, the UE sends the UE capability information including information whether it supports grouping etc.) 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. Claims 2-3, 5, 7-12, 15-16, 18-19, and 21-24 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kurita in view of MAAREF et al. (Patent No: US 2018/0145805 A1), hereinafter, MAAREF. Regarding Claim 2, Kurita teaches the limitations of claim 1. Although implicit, Kurita does not explicitly mention, The UE of claim 1, wherein the cooperative UE update request further comprises an information set associated with a plurality of candidate cooperative UEs in the plurality of candidate cooperative UE sets. However, in an analogous invention MAAREF teaches, The UE of claim 1, wherein the cooperative UE update request further comprises an information set associated with a plurality of candidate cooperative UEs in the plurality of candidate cooperative UE sets. -Fig. 2; Paragraph [0045-0051] ([0047] recites, “In step 176, the D2D module 128 in TUE 104e compiles a list of potential cooperating UEs and generates a cooperation candidate set. The potential cooperating UEs may be selected, for example, based on relatively simple selection criteria, such as the content and/or strength of received replies to the CSR message, physical proximity to the TUE 104e, network associations (e.g., being connected to a same network or a different network), or the like. The cooperation candidate set includes UEs 104a-d. In step 178, the TUE 104e informs the network 106 about the selected cooperation candidate set by transmitting a message to base station 108a and/or 108b. Cooperation candidate sets may be TUE-specific. Therefore, different TUEs accessing the network 106 may select different cooperation candidate sets.”) It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the “TERMINAL, RADIO COMMUNICATION METHOD, AND BASE STATION” proposed by Kurita to include the concept of “the cooperative UE update request further comprises an information set associated with a plurality of candidate cooperative UEs in the plurality of candidate cooperative UE sets.” of MAAREF. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to advantageously assist the target UE with the downlink transmission [0007]. Regarding Claim 3, Kurita and MAAREF combination teach the limitations of Claim 2. Although implicit, Kurita does not explicitly mention, The UE of claim 2, wherein the information set comprises at least one of: a sidelink channel information of the plurality of candidate cooperative UEs, a UE location information of the plurality of candidate cooperative UEs, or a channel measurement information of the plurality of candidate cooperative UEs. However, in an analogous invention, MAAREF teaches, The UE of claim 2, wherein the information set comprises at least one of: a sidelink channel information of the plurality of candidate cooperative UEs, a UE location information of the plurality of candidate cooperative UEs, or a channel measurement information of the plurality of candidate cooperative UEs. -Paragraph [0079, 0102] ([0079] recites, “…each of the UEs in the cooperation candidate set may send to the network a measurement of the quality of their D2D channel to the TUE. The D2D communication module 116 may factor this in when determining the transmission format parameters..”) It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the “TERMINAL, RADIO COMMUNICATION METHOD, AND BASE STATION” proposed by Kurita to include the concept of “channel measurement information of the plurality of candidate cooperative UEs.” of MAAREF. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to advantageously assist the target UE with the downlink transmission [0007]. Regarding Claim 5, Kurita and MAAREF combination teach the limitations of Claim 2. Although implicit, Kurita does not explicitly mention, The UE of claim 3, wherein the channel measurement information comprises at least one of:a downlink (DL) measurement of a broadcast channel, or a downlink (DL) measurement of a unicast UE channel. However, MAAREF teaches, The UE of claim 3, wherein the channel measurement information comprises at least one of:a downlink (DL) measurement of a broadcast channel, or a downlink (DL) measurement of a unicast UE channel. -Paragraph [0062, 0093] ([0093] recites, “the UE transmitting a measurement of wireless channel quality to at least one base station of the network. The measurement of wireless channel quality may be a CQI.…The network then selects a transmission format of the downlink data based on the measurement.” [0062] recites, “…The transmission of the information on the D2D link may be a unicast transmission if the CUE knows the ID of the TUE 104e. Alternatively, the CUE may instead multicast or broadcast the information using the group ID within the D2D group 140 using short-range communication, e.g. via a sidelink channel, if the CUE does not know the ID of the TUE 104e.”) It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the “TERMINAL, RADIO COMMUNICATION METHOD, AND BASE STATION” proposed by Kurita to include the concept of “channel measurement information comprises at least one of:a downlink (DL) measurement of a broadcast channel, or a downlink (DL) measurement of a unicast UE channel.” of MAAREF. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to advantageously assist the target UE with the downlink transmission [0007]. Regarding Claim 7, Kurita and MAAREF combination teach the limitations of Claim 3. Kurita further teaches, The UE of claim 3, wherein the information set further comprises at least one of: a preferred synchronization signal block (SSB) index of the plurality of candidate cooperative UEs, a physical cell ID (PCI) of the plurality of candidate cooperative UEs, a layer 1 (L1) reference signal received power (RSRP) of the plurality of candidate cooperative UEs, or a layer 3 (L3) RSRP of the plurality of candidate cooperative UEs. -Paragraph [0139-0140] ( [0139-0140] recites, “ According to this embodiment, since the base station schedules transmission of the transmission UE and transmission and reception of the cooperative UE (s), load of the transmission UE can be suppressed. When measurement of a DL signal is performed, the base station may explicitly configure/indicate, according to information of a specific beam configured for a UE, report of an adjacent beam(s) for the specific beam. The DL signal may be a DL reference signal or an SSB/CSI-RS.”) Regarding Claim 8, Kurita and MAAREF combination teach the limitations of Claim 2. Kurita further teaches, The UE of claim 2, wherein the UE capability set is transmitted jointly with the information set or transmitted separately from the information set. -Paragraph [0170-0174] (UE capability set is transmitted by the UE to the base station and includes many information like whether it supports cooperative transmission, frequency range, duplex scheme, support for MU-MIMO etc. [0171] recites, “The function may be a function related to cooperative transmission in data transmission. The UE capability may indicate whether to support cooperative transmission in data transmission. The UE capability may indicate whether to support grouping/destination configuration by the base station. The UE capability may indicate whether to support grouping/destination configuration by the base station.”) Regarding Claim 9, Kurita and MAAREF combination teach the limitations of Claim 2. Kurita further teaches, The UE of claim 2, wherein the receiving the indication is based on the UE capability set, the information set, and a BS-side information set. -Paragraph [0099, 0128, 0171] ([0128] recites, “The transmission UE may transmit a channel/signal including an SR and a request for cooperative transmission, to the base station. The base station may explicitly or implicitly judge whether cooperative transmission is possible, based on UE capability from the transmission UE.” [0099] recites, “The base station may notify/indicate resource allocation by using the SL-RNTI and may notify information for grouping by using an allocated resource. The information for grouping may include an ID/destination. The base station may notify/indicate resource allocation according to an SR from a UE.”) Regarding Claim 10, Kurita and MAAREF combination teach the limitations of Claim 9. Kurita further teaches, The UE of claim 9, wherein the BS-side information set comprises at least one of: an availability for cooperation of the plurality of candidate cooperative UE sets, a discontinuous reception (DRX) configuration of the plurality of candidate cooperative UE sets, a transmit (TX) beam information of the plurality of candidate cooperative UE sets, a TX beam separation of the plurality of candidate cooperative UE sets, a transmission/reception point (TRP) information, or a BS sensing result of the plurality of candidate cooperative UE sets. -Paragraph [0096, 0084-0086] ([0096] recites, “The base station configures/indicates an ID corresponding to a cell/TRP/beam to each UE. The ID may be a value common to a plurality of UEs or may be a value specific (dedicated) to each UE. For example, the ID may be the ID of the UE group or may be the ID of a specific UE. The ID may be configured/indicated based on a specific occasion or may be configured/indicated periodically by configuration information (system information). The specific occasion may be a scheduling request (SR) from a transmission UE.”) Claim 11 is not a new feature, rather just a configuration. It is easily understandable to an ordinary person with the skill in the art that the on/off status or the inter-TRP link quality can be sent to the UE as a part of BS information in configuration message, and therefore Claim 11 is rejected. Regarding Claim 12, Kurita and MAAREF combination teach the limitations of Claim 2. Although implicit, Kurita does not explicitly mention, The UE of claim 2, wherein the processor is further configured to: gather information in the information set before UE cooperation is enabled. However, MAAREF teaches, The UE of claim 2, wherein the processor is further configured to: gather information in the information set before UE cooperation is enabled. -Fig. 2; Paragraph [0045-0051] (Fig. 2 shows the flowchart and steps leading to UE cooperation which includes receiving replies from neighboring UEs (174), compiling potential cooperating UEs (176), transmitting candidate cooperating set (178) before establishing the UE cooperation.) It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the “TERMINAL, RADIO COMMUNICATION METHOD, AND BASE STATION” proposed by Kurita to include the concept of “gather information in the information set before UE cooperation is enabled.” of MAAREF. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to advantageously assist the target UE with the downlink transmission [0007]. Claim 15 is essentially same as Claim 2 except Claim 15 is dependent claim of claim 14 while claim 2 is dependent claim of claim 1. The Applicant’s attention is drawn towards claim 2 above which is rejected. Claim 15 is rejected under the same rational as Claim 2. Claim 16 is essentially same as Claim 3 except Claim 16 is dependent claim of claim 15 while claim 3 is dependent claim of claim 2. The Applicant’s attention is drawn towards claim 3 above which is rejected. Claim 16 is rejected under the same rational as Claim 3. Claim 18 is essentially same as Claim 5, except Claim 18 is dependent claim of claim 16 while claim 5 is dependent claim of claim 3. The Applicant’s attention is drawn towards claim 5 above which is rejected. Claim 17 is rejected under the same rational as Claim 5. Regarding Claim 19, Kurita and MAAREF combination teach the limitations of Claim 16. Although implicit, Kurita does not explicitly mention, The BS of claim 16, wherein the channel measurement information comprises a downlink (DL) measurement of a unicast UE channel. However, MAAREF teaches, The BS of claim 16, wherein the channel measurement information comprises a downlink (DL) measurement of a unicast UE channel. -Paragraph [0062, 0093] ([0093] recites, “the UE transmitting a measurement of wireless channel quality to at least one base station of the network. The measurement of wireless channel quality may be a CQI.…The network then selects a transmission format of the downlink data based on the measurement.” [0062] recites, “…The transmission of the information on the D2D link may be a unicast transmission if the CUE knows the ID of the TUE 104e.”) It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the “TERMINAL, RADIO COMMUNICATION METHOD, AND BASE STATION” proposed by Kurita to include the concept of “the channel measurement information comprises a downlink (DL) measurement of a unicast UE channel” of MAAREF. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to advantageously assist the target UE with the downlink transmission [0007]. Claim 21 is essentially same as Claim 7, except Claim 21 is dependent claim of claim 16 while claim 7 is dependent claim of claim 3. The Applicant’s attention is drawn towards claim 7 above which is rejected. Claim 21 is rejected under the same rational as Claim 7. Claim 22 is essentially same as Claim 8, except Claim 22 is dependent claim of claim 15 while claim 8 is dependent claim of claim 2. The Applicant’s attention is drawn towards claim 8 above which is rejected. Claim 22 is rejected under the same rational as Claim 8. Claim 23 is essentially same as Claim 10, except Claim 23 is dependent claim of claim 14 while claim 10 is dependent claim of claim 9. The Applicant’s attention is drawn towards claim 10 above which is rejected. Claim 23 is rejected under the same rational as Claim 10. Claim 24 is essentially same as Claim 11, except Claim 24 is dependent claim of claim 23 while claim 11 is dependent claim of claim 10. The Applicant’s attention is drawn towards claim 11 above which is rejected. Claim 24 is rejected under the same rational as Claim 11. Claims 4, 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kurita in view of XU et al. (Patent No: US 2022/0394433 A1), hereinafter, XU. Regarding Claim 4, Kurita teaches the limitations of Claim 1. Although, implicit Kurita does not explicitly teach, The UE of claim 1, wherein the UE capability set comprises at least one of: a multiple transmission/reception point (multi-TRP) capability, or a multiple downlink control information (multi-DCI) capability. However, in an analogous invention XU teaches, The UE of claim 1, wherein the UE capability set comprises at least one of: a multiple transmission/reception point (multi-TRP) capability, or a multiple downlink control information (multi-DCI) capability. -Paragraph [0015] ([0015] recites, “..each individual UE reports its capability (referred to a UE capability), including whether it supports UE aggregation to either a network device (e.g. a gNB) or another individual UE of the multiple UEs...”) It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the “TERMINAL, RADIO COMMUNICATION METHOD, AND BASE STATION” proposed by Kurita to include the concept of “UE capability set comprises at least one of: a multiple transmission/reception point (multi-TRP) capability” of XU. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to advantageously assist the target UE with the downlink transmission [0007]. Claim 17 is essentially same as Claim 4, except Claim 17 is dependent claim of claim 16 while claim 4 is dependent claim of claim 1. The Applicant’s attention is drawn towards claim 4 above which is rejected. Claim 17 is rejected under the same rational as Claim 4. Claims 6, 20, and 27-28 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kurita, in view of MAAREF and further in view of XU. Regarding Claim 6, Kurita and MAAREF combination teach the limitations of Claim 3. Although implicit, Kurita does not explicitly mention. The UE of claim 3, wherein the sidelink channel information comprises a link latency. However, XU teaches, The UE of claim 3, wherein the sidelink channel information comprises a link latency. -Paragraph [0154] ([0154] recites, “…Capability for UE aggregation may include, for example, any one or more of: information on a cross-link between UEs such as protocol used (WiFi, Bluetooth, sidelink), frequency and bandwidth, latency, etc.;”) It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the “TERMINAL, RADIO COMMUNICATION METHOD, AND BASE STATION” proposed by Kurita to include the concept of “sidelink channel information comprises a link latency” of XU. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to advantageously assist the target UE with the downlink transmission [0007]. Claim 20 is essentially same as Claim 6, except Claim 20 is dependent claim of claim 16 while claim 6 is dependent claim of claim 3. The Applicant’s attention is drawn towards claim 6 above which is rejected. Claim 20 is rejected under the same rational as Claim 6. Regarding Claim 27, Kurita teaches the limitations of claim 26. Although implicit, Kurita does not explicitly teach, The method of claim 26, wherein the cooperative UE update request further comprises an information set associated with a plurality of candidate cooperative UEs in the plurality of candidate cooperative UE sets; wherein the information set comprises at least one of: a sidelink channel information of the plurality of candidate cooperative UEs, a UE location information of the plurality of candidate cooperative UEs, or a channel measurement information of the plurality of candidate cooperative UEs; and wherein the UE capability set comprises at least one of: a multiple transmission/reception point (multi-TRP) capability, or a multiple downlink control information (multi-DCI) capability. However, in an analogous invention MAAREF teaches, The method of claim 26, wherein the cooperative UE update request further comprises an information set associated with a plurality of candidate cooperative UEs in the plurality of candidate cooperative UE sets; wherein the information set comprises at least one of: a sidelink channel information of the plurality of candidate cooperative UEs, a UE location information of the plurality of candidate cooperative UEs, -Paragraph [0079, 0102] ([0079] recites, “…each of the UEs in the cooperation candidate set may send to the network a measurement of the quality of their D2D channel to the TUE. The D2D communication module 116 may factor this in when determining the transmission format parameters..”) It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the “TERMINAL, RADIO COMMUNICATION METHOD, AND BASE STATION” proposed by Kurita to include the concept of “information set associated with a plurality of candidate cooperative UEs in the plurality of candidate cooperative UE sets; wherein the information set comprises at least one of: a sidelink channel information of the plurality of candidate cooperative UEs, a UE location information of the plurality of candidate cooperative UEs” of MAAREF. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to advantageously assist the target UE with the downlink transmission [0007]. Kurita and MAAREF combination do not explicitly mention, or a channel measurement information of the plurality of candidate cooperative UEs; and wherein the UE capability set comprises at least one of: a multiple transmission/reception point (multi-TRP) capability, or a multiple downlink control information (multi-DCI) capability. However, XU teaches, or a channel measurement information of the plurality of candidate cooperative UEs; and wherein the UE capability set comprises at least one of: a multiple transmission/reception point (multi-TRP) capability, or a multiple downlink control information (multi-DCI) capability. -Paragraph [0015] ([0015] recites, “..each individual UE reports its capability (referred to a UE capability), including whether it supports UE aggregation to either a network device (e.g. a gNB) or another individual UE of the multiple UEs...”) It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the “TERMINAL, RADIO COMMUNICATION METHOD, AND BASE STATION” proposed by Kurita to include the concept of “UE capability set comprises at least one of: a multiple transmission/reception point (multi-TRP) capability” of XU. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to advantageously assist the target UE with the downlink transmission [0007]. Regarding Claim 28, Kurita, MAAREF and XU teach the limitations of claim 27. Kurita does not explicitly mention, The method of claim 27, further comprising: gathering, by the UE, information in the information set before UE cooperation is enabled. However, MAAREF teaches, The method of claim 27, further comprising: gathering, by the UE, information in the information set before UE cooperation is enabled. -Fig. 2; Paragraph [0045-0051] (Fig. 2 shows the flowchart and steps leading to UE cooperation which includes receiving replies from neighboring UEs (174), compiling potential cooperating UEs (176), transmitting candidate cooperating set (178) before establishing the UE cooperation.) It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the “TERMINAL, RADIO COMMUNICATION METHOD, AND BASE STATION” proposed by Kurita to include the concept of “gather information in the information set before UE cooperation is enabled.” of MAAREF. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to advantageously assist the target UE with the downlink transmission [0007]. Conclusion Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to AHMED SAIFUDDIN whose telephone number is (703)756-4581. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8:30am-6:00pm. 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, KHALED M KASSIM can be reached on 571-270-3770. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000. /AHMED SAIFUDDIN/Examiner, Art Unit 2475 /KHALED M KASSIM/supervisory patent examiner, Art Unit 2475
Read full office action

Prosecution Timeline

Feb 15, 2024
Application Filed
Feb 10, 2026
Non-Final Rejection — §102, §103 (current)

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Prosecution Projections

1-2
Expected OA Rounds
83%
Grant Probability
98%
With Interview (+15.5%)
3y 0m
Median Time to Grant
Low
PTA Risk
Based on 29 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allow rate.

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