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 Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed May 11, 2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Regarding Applicants’ assertion on Page 8 of Applicants’ remarks-A person of Ordinary Skill in the Art (POSITA) would not be motivated to combine Zhang's unavailability triggered procedure with Xu's path-switching procedure, which requires an active, functional connection to the BS for reporting. The two references operate under contradictory network states.- Examiner respectfully disagrees, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the system of Xu with the features of Zhang. While it may or may not be true that Zhang teaches an “unavailability triggered procedure”, Zhang still enables mobile devices to connect to multiple types of networks (See Section 0005 of Zhang), which is the motivation to combine Zhang with Xu.
Freda teaches wherein the remote UE reports, to the BS, a source Layer 2 (L2) identifier (ID) of the remote UE (Section 0253, source IDs, which are L2 IDs of the WTRUs, are reported to the network). Rao teaches wherein the L2 ID is used by the remote UE to establish the PC5 link with the target relay UE (Section 0192). Zhang teaches wherein the L2 ID is related to path switching from the BS to the target relay UE (Section 0140, L2 ID included in the acknowledgement, which is related to the path switching, path switching enables the UEs to communicate as opposed to communicating through the BS). The combination of Freda, Rao, and Zhang teaches wherein the remote UE reports, to the BS, a source Layer 2 (L2) identifier (ID) of the remote UE to be used to establish the PC5 link with the target relay UE for path switching.
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.
Claim(s) 1, 6, 8 – 13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xu et al. (US 2019/0313315) in view of Freda et al. (US 2023/0063472) in view of Rao et al. (US 2023/0189050) and in further view of Zhang et al. (US 2022/0095186)
Regarding Claim 1, Xu teaches a method comprising: performing, by a remote user equipment (UE), measurements for one or more candidate relay UEs (sideline discovery reference signal received power (SD-RSRP) (Section 0074) would need to be measured in order to determine satisfaction of SD-RSRP threshold conditions, discovery messages from candidate relay UEs (Sections 0050, 0054)); reporting, by the remote UE, the measurements to a base station (BS) (reporting the SD-RSRP (Sections 0062, 0072, 0074); receiving, by the remote UE, a radio resource control (RRC) Reconfiguration message from the BS (Section 0145); and establishing, by the remote UE, a PC5 link with a target relay UE (Section 0038).
Xu does not teach wherein the remote UE reports, to the BS, a source Layer 2 (L2) identifier (ID) of the remote UE to be used to establish the PC5 link with the target relay UE for path switching.
Freda, which also teaches use of sidelinks, teaches wherein the remote UE reports, to the BS, a source Layer 2 (L2) identifier (ID) of the remote UE (Section 0253, source IDs, which are L2 IDs of the WTRUs, are reported to the network)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Xu with the above features of Freda for the purpose of saving energy in UEs as taught by Freda.
Xu in view of Freda does not teach to be used to establish the PC5 link with the target relay UE for path switching.
Rao, which also teaches use of relay UEs, teaches wherein the L2 ID is used by the remote UE to establish the PC5 link with the target relay UE (Section 0192).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Xu in view of Freda with the above features of Rao for purpose of providing end-to-end quality of service as taught by Rao.
Xu in view of Freda and in further view of Rao does not teach PC5 link with the target relay UE for path switching.
Zhang, which also teaches use of wireless communications, teaches wherein the L2 ID is related to path switching (Section 0140, L2 ID included in the acknowledgement, which is related to the path switching, path switching enables the UEs to communicate as opposed to communicating through the BS).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Xu in view of Freda in view of Rao with the above features of Zhang for the purpose of enabling mobile devices to connect to multiple types of networks as taught by Zhang. The combination of Freda, Rao, and Zhang teaches wherein the remote UE reports, to the BS, a source Layer 2 (L2) identifier (ID) of the remote UE to be used to establish the PC5 link with the target relay UE for path switching.
Regarding Claim 10, Xu teaches a remote user equipment (UE) comprising: at least one processor; and at least one computer memory operably connected to the at least one processor and configured to store instructions that, when executed, cause the at least one processor to perform operations comprising: performing, by the remote UE, measurements for one or more candidate relay UEs (sideline discovery reference signal received power (SD-RSRP) (Section 0074) would need to be measured in order to determine satisfaction of SD-RSRP threshold conditions, discovery messages from candidate relay UEs (Sections 0050, 0054), typical UEs comprise processors and memory that stores code executed by said processors); reporting, by the remote UE, the measurements to a base station (BS) (reporting the SD-RSRP (Sections 0062, 0072, 0074); receiving, by the remote UE, a radio resource control (RRC) Reconfiguration message from the BS (Section 0145); and establishing, by the remote UE, a PC5 link with a target relay UE (Section 0038).
Xu does not teach wherein the remote UE reports, to the BS, a source Layer 2 (L2) identifier (ID) of the remote UE to be used to establish the PC5 link with the target relay UE for path switching.
Freda, which also teaches use of sidelinks, teaches wherein the remote UE reports, to the BS, a source Layer 2 (L2) identifier (ID) of the remote UE (Section 0253, source IDs, which are L2 IDs of the WTRUs, are reported to the network)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Xu with the above features of Freda for the purpose of saving energy in UEs as taught by Freda.
Xu in view of Freda does not teach to be used to establish the PC5 link with the target relay UE for path switching.
Rao, which also teaches use of relay UEs, teaches wherein the L2 ID is used by the remote UE to establish the PC5 link with the target relay UE (Section 0192).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Xu in view of Freda with the above features of Rao for purpose of providing end-to-end quality of service as taught by Rao.
Xu in view of Freda and in further view of Rao does not teach PC5 link with the target relay UE for path switching.
Zhang, which also teaches use of wireless communications, teaches wherein the L2 ID is related to path switching (Section 0140, L2 ID included in the acknowledgement, which is related to the path switching, path switching enables the UEs to communicate as opposed to communicating through the BS).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Xu in view of Freda in view of Rao with the above features of Zhang for the purpose of enabling mobile devices to connect to multiple types of networks as taught by Zhang. The combination of Freda, Rao, and Zhang teaches wherein the remote UE reports, to the BS, a source Layer 2 (L2) identifier (ID) of the remote UE to be used to establish the PC5 link with the target relay UE for path switching.
Regarding Claim 12, Xu teaches a processor configured to perform operations for a remote user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system, the operations comprising: performing, by the remote UE, measurements for one or more candidate relay UEs (sideline discovery reference signal received power (SD-RSRP) (Section 0074) would need to be measured in order to determine satisfaction of SD-RSRP threshold conditions, discovery messages from candidate relay UEs (Sections 0050, 0054), typical UEs comprise processors and memory that stores code executed by said processors); reporting, by the remote UE, the measurements to a base station (BS) (reporting the SD-RSRP (Sections 0062, 0072, 0074); receiving, by the remote UE, a radio resource control (RRC) Reconfiguration message from the BS (Section 0145); and establishing, by the remote UE, a PC5 link with a target relay UE (Section 0038).
Xu does not teach wherein the remote UE reports, to the BS, a source Layer 2 (L2) identifier (ID) of the remote UE to be used to establish the PC5 link with the target relay UE for path switching.
Freda, which also teaches use of sidelinks, teaches wherein the remote UE reports, to the BS, a source Layer 2 (L2) identifier (ID) of the remote UE (Section 0253, source IDs, which are L2 IDs of the WTRUs, are reported to the network)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Xu with the above features of Freda for the purpose of saving energy in UEs as taught by Freda.
Xu in view of Freda does not teach to be used to establish the PC5 link with the target relay UE for path switching.
Rao, which also teaches use of relay UEs, teaches wherein the L2 ID is used by the remote UE to establish the PC5 link with the target relay UE (Section 0192).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Xu in view of Freda with the above features of Rao for purpose of providing end-to-end quality of service as taught by Rao.
Xu in view of Freda and in further view of Rao does not teach PC5 link with the target relay UE for path switching.
Zhang, which also teaches use of wireless communications, teaches wherein the L2 ID is related to path switching (Section 0140, L2 ID included in the acknowledgement, which is related to the path switching, path switching enables the UEs to communicate as opposed to communicating through the BS).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Xu in view of Freda in view of Rao with the above features of Zhang for the purpose of enabling mobile devices to connect to multiple types of networks as taught by Zhang. The combination of Freda, Rao, and Zhang teaches wherein the remote UE reports, to the BS, a source Layer 2 (L2) identifier (ID) of the remote UE to be used to establish the PC5 link with the target relay UE for path switching.
Regarding Claim 13, Xu teaches a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium configured to store at least one computer program comprising instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform operations for a remote user equipment (UE), the operations comprising: performing, by the remote UE, measurements for one or more candidate relay UEs (sideline discovery reference signal received power (SD-RSRP) (Section 0074) would need to be measured in order to determine satisfaction of SD-RSRP threshold conditions, discovery messages from candidate relay UEs (Sections 0050, 0054), typical UEs comprise processors and memory that stores code executed by said processors); reporting, by the remote UE, the measurements to a base station (BS) (reporting the SD-RSRP (Sections 0062, 0072, 0074); receiving, by the remote UE, a radio resource control (RRC) Reconfiguration message from the BS (Section 0145); and establishing, by the remote UE, a PC5 link with a target relay UE (Section 0038).
Xu does not teach wherein the remote UE reports, to the BS, a source Layer 2 (L2) identifier (ID) of the remote UE to be used to establish the PC5 link with the target relay UE for path switching.
Freda, which also teaches use of sidelinks, teaches wherein the remote UE reports, to the BS, a source Layer 2 (L2) identifier (ID) of the remote UE (Section 0253, source IDs, which are L2 IDs of the WTRUs, are reported to the network)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Xu with the above features of Freda for the purpose of saving energy in UEs as taught by Freda.
Xu in view of Freda does not teach to be used to establish the PC5 link with the target relay UE for path switching.
Rao, which also teaches use of relay UEs, teaches wherein the L2 ID is used by the remote UE to establish the PC5 link with the target relay UE (Section 0192).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Xu in view of Freda with the above features of Rao for purpose of providing end-to-end quality of service as taught by Rao.
Xu in view of Freda and in further view of Rao does not teach PC5 link with the target relay UE for path switching.
Zhang, which also teaches use of wireless communications, teaches wherein the L2 ID is related to path switching (Section 0140, L2 ID included in the acknowledgement, which is related to the path switching, path switching enables the UEs to communicate as opposed to communicating through the BS).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Xu in view of Freda in view of Rao with the above features of Zhang for the purpose of enabling mobile devices to connect to multiple types of networks as taught by Zhang. The combination of Freda, Rao, and Zhang teaches wherein the remote UE reports, to the BS, a source Layer 2 (L2) identifier (ID) of the remote UE to be used to establish the PC5 link with the target relay UE for path switching.
Regarding Claim 6, Xu in view of Freda in view of Rao and in further view of Zhang teaches all of the claimed limitations recited in Claim 1. Xu further handover from the BS to another BS through the target relay UE (Section 0046).
Xu does not teach wherein the L2 ID is used for handover from the BS to another BS through the target relay UE.
Freda, which also teaches use of sidelinks, teaches the L2 ID (Section 0253).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Xu with the above features of Freda for the purpose of saving energy in UEs as taught by Freda. The combination of Xu and Freda teaches wherein the L2 ID is used for handover from the BS to another BS through the target relay UE.
Regarding Claim 8, Xu in view of Freda in view of Rao and in further view of Zhang teaches all of the claimed limitations recited in Claim 1. Xu further teaches wherein the target relay UE is selected by the BS (Section 0101, decision by eNB is relay selection).
Regarding Claim 9, Xu in view of Freda in view of Rao and in further view of Zhang teaches all of the claimed limitations recited in Claim 1. Xu further teaches wherein the measurements are sidelink discovery reference signal received power (SD-RSRP) based on discovery signals of the candidate relay UEs (Section 0074).
Regarding Claim 11, Xu in view of Freda in view of Rao and in further view of Zhang teaches all of the claimed limitations recited in Claim 10. Xu further teaches wherein the remote UE communicates with at least one of another UE, a UE related to an autonomous vehicle, the BS, or a network (Section 0043, PC% link with a relay UE).
Claim(s) 4 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xu et al. (US 2019/0313315) in view of Freda et al. (US 2023/0063472) in view of Rao et al. (US 2023/0189050) and in further view of Zhang et al. (US 2022/0095186), as applied to Claim 1 set forth above, and further in view of Baghel et al. (US 2017/0111754)
Regarding Claim 4, Xu in view of Freda in view of Rao and in further view of Zhang teaches all of the claimed limitations recited in Claim 1. Xu in view of Freda in view of Rao and in further view of Zhang does not teach wherein the L2 ID is used by the BS to identify a UE which the relay UE needs to perform an RRC reconfiguration for.
Baghel, which also teaches wireless communications, teaches wherein the L2 ID is used by the BS to identify a UE which the relay UE needs to perform an RRC reconfiguration for (Section 0120).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Xu in view of Freda in view of Rao and in further view of Zhang with the above features of Baghel for the purpose of providing signaling optimization via S-TMSI (Section 0010) as taught by Baghel.
Claim(s) 5 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xu et al. (US 2019/0313315) in view of Freda et al. (US 2023/0063472) in view of Rao et al. (US 2023/0189050) and in further view of Zhang et al. (US 2022/0095186), as applied to Claim 1 set forth above, and further in view of Freda et al. (US 2021/0410129), hereafter Freda129
Regarding Claim 5, Xu in view of Freda in view of Rao and in further view of Zhang teaches all of the claimed limitations recited in Claim 1. Xu in view of Freda in view of Rao and in further view of Zhang does not teach wherein the L2 ID is used by the BS for a bearer configuration for the remote UE.
Freda129, which also teaches wireless communications, teaches wherein the L2 ID is used by the BS for a bearer configuration for the remote UE (Section 0176).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Xu in view of Freda in view of Rao and in further view of Zhang with the above features of Freda129 for the purpose of providing support for out of coverage operations, which is a benefit of SLRBs, as taught by Freda129.
Claim(s) 7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xu et al. (US 2019/0313315) in view of Freda et al. (US 2023/0063472) in view of Rao et al. (US 2023/0189050) and in further view of Zhang et al. (US 2022/0095186), as applied to Claim 1 set forth above, and further in view of Pan et al. (US 2020/0205209)
Regarding Claim 7, Xu in view of Freda in view of Rao and in further view of Zhang teaches all of the claimed limitations recited in Claim 1. Xu in view of Freda in view of Rao and in further view of Zhang does not teach wherein the L2 ID is used by the remote UE to transmit a direct communication request (DCR) message.
Pan, which also teaches the use of sidelinks, teaches wherein the L2 ID is used by the remote UE to transmit a direct communication request (DCR) message (Section 0109).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Xu in view of Freda in view of Rao and in further view of Zhang with the above features of Pan for the purpose of effectively handling the mobility of a UE with one-to-one sidelink communication as taught by Pan.
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.
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/RAYMOND S DEAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2645 Raymond S. Dean
July 8, 2026
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