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 .
DETAILED ACTION
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
1. 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.
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.
2a. Claims 1-2 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Park (US 20240389113 A1) in view of Hwang (US 20230199804 A1).
2b. Summary of the Cited Prior Art
Park discloses a method for receiving sidelink data.
Hwang discloses a method for sidelink feedback operations.
2c. Claim Analysis
Regarding Claim 1, Park discloses:
A method (Fig 6(a)) performed by a user equipment (UE) (Fig 6(a), Second UE), the method comprising:
determining a resource conflict among resources reserved by respective Sidelink Control Information (SCI) formats 1-A (see: [0128] … the second UE may decode two consecutive SCIs (e.g., 2-stage SCI) to receive the PSSCH from the first UE…. the 1st-stage SCI format may include a SCI format 1-A);
and transmitting a physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH) (Fig 6(a), PSFCH S630; see: [0130] … the second UE may transmit HARQ feedback to the first UE using the PSFCH resource.) for an indication of the resource conflict,
wherein a priority value of the PSFCH defined as a priority value for transmitting the PSFCH (Fig 6(a), PSFCH S630; see: Page 12, in the middle of Table 9:
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) is equal to the smallest value among priority values (see: [0131], Page 13, the last second Paragraph of Table 9; Examiner’s Note: the HARQ-ACK smallest priority value is also applicable to PSFCH HARQ-ACK:
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) indicated by the respective SCI formats 1-A (see: [0128] … the second UE may decode two consecutive SCIs (e.g., 2-stage SCI) to receive the PSSCH from the first UE…. the 1st-stage SCI format may include a SCI format 1-A).
Park does not disclose about determining resource conflict.
However, Hwang discloses determining resource conflict
determining a resource conflict among resources (Fig 13, conflict factor (①); see: [0045] … the UE transmits the PSFCH after determining whether or not there is a resource conflict; and see: [0264] … For example, the resource reselection indicator or the resource conflict indicator may be transmitted from UE-A to UE-B through a PSFCH resource) reserved by respective Sidelink Control Information (SCI) formats 1-A (see: [0045] …. conflict-related information representing a conflict of a reserved resource based on SCI is transmitted through a Physical Sidelink Feedback Channel (PSFCH)).
and transmitting a physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH) for an indication of the resource conflict (Fig 13, conflict factor (①); see: [0045] … the UE transmits the PSFCH after determining whether or not there is a resource conflict; and see: [0264] … For example, the resource reselection indicator or the resource conflict indicator may be transmitted from UE-A to UE-B through a PSFCH resource).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to integrate Park’s method for receiving sidelink data with Hwang’s method for sidelink feedback operations with the motivation being to improve performance (Hwang, [0188]).
Regarding Claim 2, the UE claim discloses similar features as of Claim 1, and is rejected accordingly. Further, Park discloses UE apparatus in Fig 27.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Jung-Jen Liu whose telephone number is 571-270-7643. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday to Friday, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Kwang B. Yao can be reached on 571-272-3182. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JUNG LIU/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2473
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