DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
1. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claims 13-17 have been cancelled.
Claims 24-28 have been added.
Status of Claims
2. This Office Action is in response to the application filed on 05/26/2026. Claims 1-12 and 18 through 23 are presently pending and are presented for examination.
3. 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.
Response to Arguments
4. Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1-12 and 18-28 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
5. 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 1-12, 18-19, and 24 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xiao et al. (WO 2020/197610 A1) in view of Wei et al. (US 2020/0036556 A1) further in view of Ren (US 2024/0080865 A1).
For claim 1 Xiao teaches a first user equipment (UE) (see Fig. 12A “UE 1210”) comprising:
a transceiver (see Fig. 12A “transceiver 1202”);
a memory (see Fig. 12A “memory 1208”); and
a processor, communicatively coupled to the memory and the transceiver (see Fig. 12A “processor 1200”), configured to:
obtain a first configuration of a first resource pool that comprising a plurality of first orthogonal frequency division multiplexing resources for sidelink signal transfer (see page 2 lines 9-“obtaining, by the first SL UE, a configuration of a resource pool configured for SL communications, the configuration of the resource pool comprising one or more SL demodulation reference signals (SL-DMRS) configurations” and page 36 lines 17-19 “a UE obtains a SL-DMRS configuration that allows it to transmit a SL-DMRS on a set of OFDM symbols (a pool of OFDM symbols (resources)). Each SL-DMRS symbol may be associated, through design or by the configuration”);
obtain a second configuration of a second resource pool that comprises a plurality of second orthogonal frequency division multiplexing resources for sidelink signal transfer, the second configuration of the second resource pool being different from the first configuration of the first resource pool (see page 2 lines 9-17 “obtaining, by the first SL UE, a configuration of a resource pool configured for SL communications, the configuration of the resource pool comprising one or more SL demodulation reference signals (SL-DMRS) configurations…transmitting, by the first SL UE, a first SL
control information (SCI) indicating the selected SL resource” and page 36 lines 17-19 “a UE obtains a SL-DMRS configuration that allows it to transmit a SL-DMRS on a set of OFDM symbols (a pool of OFDM symbols (resources)). Each SL-DMRS symbol may be associated, through design or by the configuration”);
transmit, via the transceiver, via one or more of the plurality of first orthogonal frequency division multiplexing resources of the first resource pool, control information indicating one or more of the plurality of second orthogonal frequency division multiplexing resources of the second resource pool (see page 2 lines 9-17 and claim 1 “transmitting, by the first SL UE, a first SL control information (SCI) indicating the selected SL resource; and transmitting, by the first SL UE, to a second SL UE, a SL transmission in accordance with the selected SL resource and the selected SL-DMRS parameter”); and
transmit, based on the indicated one or more of the plurality of second orthogonal frequency division multiplexing resources of the second resource pool, via one or more third orthogonal frequency division multiplexing resources of the second resource pool, a reference signal (see page 2 line 16-17 “transmitting, by the first SL UE, to a second SL UE, a SL transmission in accordance with the selected SL resource and the selected SL-DMRS parameter”-the one or more third orthogonal frequency division multiplexing resources of the second resource pool is a design option and it is not clear how the third OFDM resource are selected. In addition, it is not clear to which destination entity the RS is transmitted).
Xiao does not explicitly teach transmit a reference signal (RS) in one or more third orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) resources of the second resource pool design option.
However, Wei teaches optionally, the second OFDM symbol set (pool) includes
a third OFDM symbol subset and a fourth OFDM symbol subset. All or some OFDM symbols in the third OFDM symbol subset are used by the terminal device to send a
periodic SRS or a semi-persistent SRS on the second transmission resource (see Wei: paragraphs 19-20).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of claimed invention to use the teachings of Wei in the resource allocation of Xiao to configure the third OFDM symbol subset to be used for reference signal transmission (see Wei: paragraphs 19-20).
Xiao in view Wei of does not explicitly teach control information indicating one or more of the plurality of second orthogonal frequency division multiplexing resources of the second resource pool.
However, Ren teaches the first coordination information (control information) is used by the second terminal to perform resource selection in accordance with the first coordination information, the first coordination information includes time-frequency resource indication information of at least one of a first resource set (pool), a second resource set (pool) or a third resource set, wherein the first and second resource sets are used for sidelink communication (Ren: paragraph 7). In addition, Ren teaches in a possible embodiment of the present disclosure, the first coordination information is carried through Sidelink Control Information (SCI), Downlink Control Information (DCI), or Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling (Ren: paragraph 16). In addition, Ren teaches a one bit, or two bits, or three bit in the first coordination information in the first resources set are used to point or indicate to resources in the first, second, and third resource sets and the fist coordination information further includes at least one at least
one of Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) information, RSRP threshold information, priority information, or zone identity information of at least one resource in at least one of the first resource set, the second resource set or the third resource set (Ren: paragraphs 10-11).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of claimed invention to use the teachings of Ren in the combined resource allocation of Wei and Xiao to configure to use the coordination information (control information) to direct communication of reference signals within time-frequency resources in first, second, or third resources sets for optimal resource utilization (see Ren: paragraphs 10-11).
For claim 2 Xiao in view of Wei further in view of Ren teaches the first user equipment, wherein the one or more third orthogonal frequency division multiplexing resources of the second resource pool comprises the indicated one or more of the plurality of second orthogonal frequency division multiplexing resources of the second resource pool (as discussed in claim 1 discussed in claim 1).
For claim 3 Xiao in view of Wei further in view of Ren teaches the first user equipment, wherein the control information comprises first control information indicating one or more of the plurality of second orthogonal frequency division multiplexing resources of the second resource pool (as discussed in claim 1 and design or configuration options), wherein the processor is further configured to:
transmit, via the indicated one or more of the plurality of second orthogonal frequency division multiplexing resources of the second resource pool, second control information indicating the one or more third orthogonal frequency division multiplexing resources of the second resource pool, wherein, to transmit the reference signal (see Xiao: claims 1 and 7 “first and second SCI” and as discussed in claim 1), the processor is configured to:
transmit, via the indicated one or more third orthogonal frequency division multiplexing resources of the second resource pool, the reference signal (see Xiao: page 2 lines 9-7 “SL-DMRS resource selection and transmission”, claims 1 and 7 “first and second SCI” and as discussed in claim 1).
For claim 4 Xiao in view of Wei further in view of Ren teaches the first user equipment of claim 3, wherein, to transmit the reference signal, the processor is configured transmit the reference signal a plurality of times, wherein the plurality of times comprises a first transmission of the second control information in conjunction with the reference signal and the plurality of times comprises a second transmission of the reference signal without transmitting the second control information in conjunction with the reference signal (see Xiao: page 22 lines 30-31 “The control information includes an indication of the SL-DMRS port used to convey the SL-DMRS of the SL transmission PI,J” and page 26 lines 25-26 “exemplary (optional design) the transmitting UE may select a different subset of SL-DMRS ports and re-transmit over the different subset of SL-DMRS ports”).
For claim 5 Xiao in view of Wei further in view of Ren teaches the first user equipment, wherein the second resource pool has a greater bandwidth than the first resource pool (the additional features represent a normal design option (see Wei: paragraph 8 “first and second BWP”-design options (i.e. obtaining a further RP configuration, optionally in a different bandwidth) and would be obvious to the skilled person)).
For claim 6 Xiao in view of Wei further in view of Ren teaches the first user equipment, wherein, to transmit the reference signal, the processor is configured to:
at least one of time division multiplex or frequency division multiplex the one or more of the plurality of first orthogonal frequency division multiplexing resources of the first resource pool at least one of time division multiplexed or frequency division multiplexed with the one or more third orthogonal frequency division multiplexing resources (see Xiao: page 37 lines 30-33 “TDMA” and design options (i.e. obtaining a further RP configuration)).
For claim 7 Xiao in view of Wei further in view of Ren teaches the first user equipment, wherein the control information comprises an indication of priority between the first resource pool and the second resource pool (The additional features represent a normal design option (see Ren: “priority information for the one of the first, the second or the third resource set” and design options (i.e. obtaining a further RP configuration)).
For claim 8 Xiao in view of Wei further in view of Ren teaches the first user equipment, wherein the reference signal comprises a first reference signal, and wherein the processor is configured to:
obtain a third configuration of a third resource pool comprising a plurality of fourth orthogonal frequency division multiplexing resources for sidelink signal transfer, the third resource pool being different from the first resource pool and from the second resource pool (as discussed in claim 1 and design options (i.e. obtaining a further RP configuration)); and
transmit, based on the control information indicating one or more of the plurality of fourth orthogonal frequency division multiplexing resources of the third resource pool, via the indicated one or more of the plurality of fourth orthogonal frequency division multiplexing resources of the third resource pool, a second reference signal (as discussed in claim 1 and design options (i.e. obtaining a further RP configuration)).
For claim 9 Xiao in view of Wei further in view of Ren teaches the first user equipment, wherein the control information comprises first control information indicating one or more of the plurality of second orthogonal frequency division multiplexing resources of the second resource pool, wherein the reference signal comprises a first reference signal transmitted based on the indicated one or more of the plurality of second orthogonal frequency division multiplexing resources of the second resource pool, (see Xiao: page 32 lines 1-6 “single or multiple SCIs..”), and wherein the processor is configured to:
obtain a third configuration of a third resource pool comprising a plurality of fourth orthogonal frequency division multiplexing resources for sidelink signal transfer, the third resource pool being different from the first resource pool and from the second resource pool (see Xiao: page 32 lines 1-6 “single or multiple SCIs..” and as discussed in claim 1 with obvious design configuration options);
transmit, via the transceiver, via one or more of the plurality of fourth orthogonal frequency division multiplexing resources of the third resource pool, second control information indicating a different one or more of the plurality of second orthogonal frequency division multiplexing resources of the second resource pool other than the one or more of the plurality of second orthogonal frequency division multiplexing resources indicated by the first control information (as discussed claim 1- an additional design option); and
transmit, via the transceiver, via the indicated different one or more of the plurality of second orthogonal frequency division multiplexing resources of the second resource pool, a second reference signal (see Xiao: page 32 lines 1-6 “single or multiple SCIs..” and as discussed in claim 1 with obvious design configuration options).
For claim 10 Xiao in view of Wei further in view of Ren teaches a reference signal transmission method comprising:
obtaining, at a first user equipment, a first configuration of a first resource pool that comprising a plurality of first orthogonal frequency division multiplexing resources for sidelink signal transfer (as discussed in claim 1);
obtaining, at the first user equipment, a second configuration of a second resource pool comprising a plurality of second orthogonal frequency division multiplexing resources for sidelink signal transfer, the second resource pool being different from the first resource pool (as discussed in claim 1);
transmitting, from the first user equipment to a second user equipment, via one or more of the plurality of first orthogonal frequency division multiplexing resources of the first resource pool, control indicating one or more of the plurality of second orthogonal frequency division multiplexing resources of the second resource pool (as discussed in claim 1); and
transmitting, from the first user equipment to the second user equipment, based on the indicated one or more of the plurality of second orthogonal frequency division multiplexing resources of the second resource pool, via one or more third orthogonal frequency division multiplexing resources of the second resource pool, a reference signal (as discussed in claim 1).
For claim 11 Xiao in view of Wei further in view of Ren teaches the reference signal transmission method, wherein the one or more third orthogonal frequency division multiplexing resources of the second resource pool are the one or more of the plurality of second orthogonal frequency division multiplexing resources of the second resource pool (as discussed in claim 2).
For claim 12 Xiao in view of Wei further in view of Ren teaches the reference signal transmission method, wherein the control information comprises first control information indicating one or more of the plurality of second orthogonal frequency division multiplexing resources of the second resource pool, wherein the reference signal transmission (as discussed in claims 1 and 3) method further comprises:
transmitting, via the indicated one or more of the plurality of second orthogonal frequency division multiplexing resources of the second resource pool, comprise second control information indicating the one or more third orthogonal frequency division multiplexing resources of the second resource pool (as discussed in claim 3)., wherein transmitting the reference signal comprises:
transmitting, via the indicated one or more third orthogonal frequency division multiplexing resources of the second resource pool, the reference signal (as discussed in claim 3).
For claim 18 Xiao in view of Wei further in view of Ren teaches the reference signal transmission method, wherein the control information comprises first control information indicating one or more of the plurality of second orthogonal frequency division multiplexing resources of the second resource pool, wherein the reference signal comprises a first reference signal transmitted based on the indicated one or more of the plurality of second orthogonal frequency division multiplexing resources of the second resource pool (as discussed in claim 9), and wherein the reference signal transmission method further comprises:
obtaining, at the first user equipment, a third configuration of a third resource pool that comprising a plurality of fourth orthogonal frequency division multiplexing resources for sidelink signal transfer, the third configuration of the third resource pool being different from the first configuration of the first resource pool and from the second configuration of the second resource pool (as discussed in claim 9);
transmitting, from the first user equipment, via one or more of the plurality of fourth orthogonal frequency division multiplexing resources of the third resource pool, second control information indicating a different one or more of the plurality of second orthogonal frequency division multiplexing resources of the second resource pool other than the one or more of the plurality of second orthogonal frequency division multiplexing resources indicated by the first control information (as discussed in claim 9); and
transmitting, from the first user equipment, via the indicated different one or more of the plurality of second orthogonal frequency division multiplexing resources of the second resource pool, a second reference signal (as discussed in claim 9).
For claim 19 Xiao in view of Wei further in view of Ren teaches a user equipment comprising:
a transceiver (as discussed in claim 1);
a memory (as discussed in claim 1); and
a processor, communicatively coupled to the memory and the transceiver (as discussed in claim 1), configured to:
obtain a first configuration of a first resource pool that comprising a plurality of first orthogonal frequency division multiplexing resources for sidelink signal transfer(as discussed in claim 1);
obtain a second configuration of a second resource pool that comprising a plurality of second orthogonal frequency division multiplexing resources for sidelink signal transfer, the second configuration of the second resource pool being different from the first configuration of the first resource pool (as discussed in claim 1);
receive, via the transceiver, via one or more of the plurality of first orthogonal frequency division multiplexing resources of the first resource pool, control information indicating one or more of the plurality of second orthogonal frequency division multiplexing resources of the second resource pool (as discussed in claim 1); and
process, based on the indicated one or more of the plurality of second orthogonal frequency division multiplexing resources of the second resource pool, received via the transceiver in the indicated one or more of the plurality of second orthogonal frequency division multiplexing resources of the second resource pool, a signal (as discussed in claim 1).
For claim 24 Xiao in view of Wei further in view of Ren teaches the first user equipment of claim 7, wherein, to transmit, via the one or more third orthogonal frequency division multiplexing resources of the second resource pool, the reference signal (as discussed in claim 7), the processor is configured to:
transmit the reference signal based on the priority between the first resource pool and the second resource pool (as discussed in claim 7 and a design option).
6. Claims 20-23, and 25-28 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xiao et al. (WO 2020/197610 A1) in view of Wei et al. (US 2020/0036556 A1) further in view of Ren (US 2024/0080865 A1) and further in view of Guo et al. (US 2024/0306164 A1).
For claim 20 Xiao in view of Wei further in view of Ren does not explicitly teach the user equipment, wherein the signal comprises a sidelink positioning reference signal (SL-PRS), wherein, to process the signal, the processor is configured to: measure the SL-PRS.
However, Guo teaches performing a measurement on the received SL-PRS to determine a measurement result of the SL-PRS; and estimating location estimation and orientation information of a second UE transmitting the SL-PRS based on the measurement result of the SL-PRS and a panel pattern used for transmitting the SL-PRS (see Guo: paragraph 39). In addition, Guo teaches that SL-PRS being transmitted in SCI or PSSCH (see Guo: paragraph 37). In addition, Guo teaches the configuration information for SL positioning is transmitted in a resource pool configuration of a resource pool (see Guo: paragraph 42).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of claimed invention to use the teachings of Guo in the combined resource allocation of Ren, Wei, and Xiao to estimate location and orientation information of a second UE transmitting the SL-PRS based on the measurement result of the SL-PRS (see Guo: paragraph 39).
For claim 21 Xiao in view of Wei further in view of Ren further in view of Guo teaches the user equipment, wherein the control information comprises first sidelink control information(SCI), wherein the signal comprises second SCI indicating one or more third orthogonal frequency division multiplexing resources of the second resource pool for a sidelink positioning reference signal (SL-PRS) (as discussed in claim 20), wherein, to process the signal the processor is configured to:
decode the signal to determine the second SCI (as discussed in claim 20), wherein the processor is further configured to:
measure, via the indicated one or more third orthogonal frequency division multiplexing resources of the second resource pool, the SL-PRS (as discussed in claim 20).
For claim 22 Xiao in view of Wei further in view of Ren further in view of Guo teaches a network entity comprising:
a transceiver (see Xiao: Fig. 12B “transceiver 1252”);
a memory (see Xiao: Fig. 12B “memory 1258”); and
a processor, communicatively coupled to the memory and the transceiver (see Xiao: Fig. 12B “processor 1250”), configured to:
transmit, via the transceiver to a user equipment, a first configuration of a first resource pool that comprising a plurality of first orthogonal frequency division multiplexing resources for sidelink signal transfer (as discussed in claim 1); and
transmit, via the transceiver to the user equipment, a second configuration of a second resource pool that comprising a plurality of second orthogonal frequency division multiplexing resources for sidelink signal transfer, the second configuration of the second resource pool being different from the first configuration of the first resource pool (as discussed in claim 1);
wherein:
the first configuration of the first resource pool includes a first indication of at least one of the plurality of first orthogonal frequency division multiplexing resources for the user equipment to use for a first transmission of sidelink control information (SCI) indicating one or more of the plurality of second orthogonal frequency division multiplexing resources of the second resource pool (as discussed in claims 1, 20 and 21); and
the second configuration of the second resource pool includes a second indication of at least one of the plurality of second orthogonal frequency division multiplexing resources for the user equipment to use for a second transmission of sidelink positioning reference signal (SL-PRS), indicated by the SCI (as discussed in claims 1, 20 and 21).
For claim 23 Xiao in view of Wei further in view of Ren further in view of Guo teaches the network entity, wherein the second configuration of the second resource pool includes a third indication of at least a second one of the plurality of second orthogonal frequency division multiplexing resources for the user equipment to use for a third transmission of a second SCI indicating the at least one of the plurality of second orthogonal frequency division multiplexing resources for the second transmission of the SL-PRS (as discussed in claims 1, 20-22 and an optional design feature).
For claim 25 Xiao in view of Wei further in view of Ren further in view of Guo teaches the first user equipment of claim 1, wherein the control information comprises a first sidelink control information (SCI), wherein the reference signal comprises a sidelink positioning reference signal (SL-PRS) (as discussed in claim 20).
For claim 26 Xiao in view of Wei further in view of Ren further in view of Guo teaches the first user equipment of claim 25, wherein the one or more third orthogonal frequency division multiplexing resources of the second resource pool comprises the indicated one or more of the plurality of second orthogonal frequency division multiplexing resources of the second resource pool, wherein the first SCI indicates a resource location of the one or more third orthogonal frequency division multiplexing resources of the second resource pool (as discussed in claims 1 and 20-22 and design option).
For claim 27 Xiao in view of Wei further in view of Ren further in view of Guo teaches the first user equipment of claim 25, wherein the processor is further configured to:
transmit, via the indicated one or more of the plurality of second orthogonal frequency division multiplexing resources of the second resource pool, a second SCI (see Xiao: page 34 line 23 “one or more indications received in multiple SCIs”) indicating a resource location of the one or more third orthogonal frequency division multiplexing resources of the second resource pool, wherein, to transmit the reference signal (as discussed in claim 1), the processor is configured to:
transmit, via the indicated one or more third orthogonal frequency division multiplexing resources of the second resource pool, the reference signal (as discussed in claim 1).
For claim 28 Xiao in view of Wei further in view of Ren further in view of Guo teaches the first user equipment of claim 25, wherein the processor is further configured to:
transmit, via a second one or more of the plurality of first orthogonal frequency division multiplexing resources of the first resource pool, a second SCI (see Xiao: page 34 line 23 “one or more indications received in multiple SCIs”) indicating a resource location of a third one or more of the plurality of first orthogonal frequency division multiplexing resources of the first resource pool (as discussed in claim1); and
transmit, based on the second SCI, via the indicated third one or more of the plurality of first orthogonal frequency division multiplexing resources of the first resource pool, a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH) transmission or (see Xiao: page 31 lines 15-16 “one or more indications received in multiple SCIs and the transmitting UE transmits the PSSCH on the selected RP resources”).
Conclusion
7. 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.
8. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to David M OVEISSI whose telephone number is (571)270-3127. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8Am-5PM.
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/MANSOUR OVEISSI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2415
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