Prosecution Insights
Last updated: October 02, 2026
Application No. 18/698,289

MANAGEMENT OF SL DRX

Non-Final OA §103
Filed
Nov 01, 2024
Priority
Oct 13, 2021 — RE 10-2021-0136119 +1 more
Examiner
PARK, JUNG H
Art Unit
Tech Center
Assignee
LG Electronics Inc.
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
88%
Grant Probability
Favorable
1-2
OA Rounds
10m
Est. Remaining
93%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 88% — above average
88%
Career Allowance Rate
873 granted / 992 resolved
+28.0% vs TC avg
Moderate +5% lift
Without
With
+5.2%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
2y 9m
Avg Prosecution
42 currently pending
Career history
1031
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
6.9%
-33.1% vs TC avg
§103
60.0%
+20.0% vs TC avg
§102
20.8%
-19.2% vs TC avg
§112
7.5%
-32.5% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 992 resolved cases

Office Action

§103
DETAILED ACTION Claim Objections Claims, 1, 3, 7, 9, and 13 are objected to because of the following informalities: Claim 1, for example, lacks the conjunction ‘and’ before the final step (e.g., the step of “performing transition …”). Proper punctuation and conjunction are required in the claims. Claim 3, for example, lacks the conjunction ‘and’ before the final ‘wherein’ clause because it is not clear if the wherein limitations are conjunctive or optional. 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 of this title, 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, 2, 7, 8, and 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tseng et al. (US 2023/0066448, “Tseng”) in view of Tseng et al. (US 2022/0346180, hereinafter “Tseng’180” and Provisional application No. 63/178,458, “Prov’458”). Regarding claim 1, Tseng discloses a method for performing SL-DRX, performed by a UE, comprising: - performing resource sensing for transmitting sidelink (SL) signal during SL-DRX off duration (See Fig.5(a), sidelink sensing window during SL-DRX off duration as shown Fig.5(a) below: PNG media_image1.png 170 572 media_image1.png Greyscale ); - selecting SL transmission resource, based on a result of the resource sensing (See ¶.85, the UE may perform sensing for selection of SL resources before SL packet delivery. Based on the sensing results, the UE selects some specific SL resources and reserves multiple SL resources. Up to 2 parallel resource reservation processes may be allowed to be performed by the UE. The UE may be also allowed to perform a single resource selection for its V2X SL transmission; See ¶.149, an SL-Tx UE may implement SL sensing or a partial sensing mechanism to select target SL resource blocks for SL packet delivery in LTE V2X SL communication and NR SL operation; See ¶.157, the SL-Tx UE may implement a partial sensing mechanism while the SL-Tx UE is staying in SL-DRX off-periods); and - performing transition between SL-DRX off state and SL-DRX on state (See Fig.5(a)-(c) and ¶.157, the sensing mechanism may not be interrupted during the transitions between the SL-DRX On-Durations & SL-DRX off-periods). Tseng does not explicitly disclose what Tseng’180 discloses, - wherein interruption due to the resource sensing and interruption due to the transition are allowed in a serving cell for the UE (Tseng’180, See Fig.2B, PNG media_image2.png 230 701 media_image2.png Greyscale See ¶.166, in some implementations, while the suggested failure event happens on the Uu interface with the serving cell, the UE may continue/stay in SL-DRX off-period, and the transition between the SL-DRX On/Off-period) the SL-DRX operation based on the stored SL-DRX configuration until the UE re-obtains a valid SL-SIB (or a dedicated sidelink configuration, e.g., NR dedicated sidelink configuration via the cell (re)selection procedure/RRC re-establishment procedure after the radio link failure event; See Prov’458, See pg.4, PNG media_image3.png 224 605 media_image3.png Greyscale See pg.15, PNG media_image4.png 190 564 media_image4.png Greyscale PNG media_image5.png 177 569 media_image5.png Greyscale ). Regarding claim 2, Tseng discloses “wherein the number of slots for the interruption due to the resource sensing and the interruption due to the transition are two (See ¶.7, one SL resource pool in the one or more time slots where the partial sensing is performed; See ¶.81, the UE may perform sensing for (re)selection of SL resources before SL packet delivery. Based on the sensing results, the UE (re)selects some specific SL resources and reserves multiple SL resources. Up to 2 parallel (independent) resource reservation processes may be allowed to be performed by the UE).” Regarding claim 7, it is a user equipment claim corresponding to the method claim 1, except the limitation “a transceiver and a processor (See Fig.7)” and is therefore rejected for the similar reasons set forth in the rejection of the claim. Regarding claim 8, it is a claim corresponding to the claim 2 and is therefore rejected for the similar reasons set forth in the rejection of the claim. Regarding claim 13, it is an apparatus claim corresponding to the claim 7 and is therefore rejected for the similar reasons set forth in the rejection of the claim. Claims 3 and 9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tseng et al. (US 2023/0066448, “Tseng”) in view of Tseng’180 and further in view of 3GPP (ETSI TS 138.133 v15.8.0 (2020-02), hereinafter “3gppTS’133”). Regarding claim 3, Tseng and Tseng’180 do not explicitly disclose what 3gppTS’133 discloses “wherein cycle of the SL-DRX is more than 640 ms, wherein a possibility of missed ACK/NACK for the interruption due to the resource sensing is 0.625 %, wherein a possibility of missed ACK/NACK for the interruption due to the transition is 0.625 %” (3gppTS’133, See pg.71 and pg.78, PNG media_image6.png 160 658 media_image6.png Greyscale PNG media_image7.png 206 649 media_image7.png Greyscale ). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to apply the method of “wherein cycle of the SL-DRX is more than 640 ms, wherein a possibility of missed ACK/NACK for the interruption due to the resource sensing is 0.625 %, wherein a possibility of missed ACK/NACK for the interruption due to the transition is 0.625 %” as taught by 3gppTS’133 into the system of Tseng and Tseng’180, so that it provides a way of allowing the missed percentage when configuring PCell DRX cycle is 640 ms or longer (3gppTS’133, See pg.71). Regarding claim 9, it is a claim corresponding to the claim 3 and is therefore rejected for the similar reasons set forth in the rejection of the claim. Claims 5 and 11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tseng in view of Tseng’180 and further in view of Liu (US 2023/0082194, “Liu”). Regarding claim 5, Tseng and Tseng’180 do not explicitly disclose what Liu discloses “transmitting, to a network, information on the interruption due to the resource sensing (Liu, See ¶.83, the first resource configuration information includes resource configuration information indicating the receive terminal device to perform sensing; See ¶.372, When the base station to which the RX UE belongs configures the first DRX configuration information for the TX UE, the TX UE sends DRX configuration failure information (for example, the first information) to the RX UE, and then the RX UE sends fourth information to the base station to which the RX UE belongs, to indicate, to the base station to which the RX UE belongs, that a DRX configuration corresponding to the first sidelink fails, so that after receiving the DRX configuration failure information, the base station may configure or reconfigure DRX configuration information for the first sidelink based on identification information corresponding to the first DRX configuration information carried in the fourth information).” Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to apply the method of “transmitting, to a network, information on the interruption due to the resource sensing” as taught by Liu into the system of Tseng and Tseng’180, so that it provides a way for the base station to reconfigure DRX configuration information for the first sidelink (Liu, See ¶.272). Regarding claim 11, it is a claim corresponding to the claim 5 and is therefore rejected for the similar reasons set forth in the rejection of the claim. Contact Information Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Jung H Park whose telephone number is 571-272-8565. The examiner can normally be reached M-F: 7:00 AM-3:00 PM. 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, Derrick Ferris can be reached on 571-272-3123. 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. /JUNG H PARK/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2411
Read full office action

Prosecution Timeline

Nov 01, 2024
Application Filed
Jan 29, 2025
Response after Non-Final Action
Sep 24, 2026
Non-Final Rejection mailed — §103 (current)

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Study what changed to get past this examiner. Based on 5 most recent grants.

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Prosecution Projections

1-2
Expected OA Rounds
88%
Grant Probability
93%
With Interview (+5.2%)
2y 9m (~10m remaining)
Median Time to Grant
Low
PTA Risk
Based on 992 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allowance rate.

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