DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA . This action is in response to the communication filed on 7/20/2026. Claims 1-20 are pending.
Examiner Note
The examiner is here to serve, to assist, and to help applicant to the very best of his ability. The Primary Patent Examiner position is a position of serving and it is an honor to externally serve the applicant and attorney and to internally serve junior examiners and supervisors. The goal of the examiner is to work with and assist applicant to move cases along as efficiently as possible.
Applicant is encouraged to call examiner to schedule an interview if applicant has any questions about this action, wants to discuss any possible paths forward, has proposed amendments to the claims to run by the examiner, or for any other issues that applicant would like to discuss.
Examiner can normally be reached at (571) 270-3863 or michael.keller@uspto.gov, Monday-Friday, from about 6 AM - 10 PM EST and if your call is missed examiner will try to return call quickly, thank you.
Priority
This application claims priority of 63/257,002, filed 10/18/2021. The assignee of record is Lenovo (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. The listed inventor(s) is/are: Ganesan, Karthikeyan; Basu Mallick, Prateek.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments filed 7/20/2026 have been considered but are moot because the arguments do not apply to any of the references being used in the current rejection.
Response to Amendment
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim(s) 1-2, 4-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over 3GPP (3GPP TSG-RAN WG2 Meeting #114-e, R2-2105083, 5/21/2019, document provided with file thank you; hereinafter 3GPP083) in view of Li et al. (US 20210227602 A1, published 7/22/2021; hereinafter Li), and further in view of Park et al. (US 20250008433 A1, Provisional 63/241,092 filed 9/6/2021; hereinafter Par).
For Claim 1, 3GPP083 teaches a user equipment (UE), comprising: a memory; and a processor coupled to the memory, the processor configured to cause the UE to (Please see screenshot of 3GPP083 Fig. 5 and related description, thank you:
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determine an event triggering a resource reselection to perform candidate resource selection from a resource pool according to a discontinuous reception (DRX) timer (3GPP083 Section 2.3 If the current reserved resources do not fall into the SL DRX active time of any destination, i.e., the current reserved resources do not match the SL DRX of any destination, resource reselection should be triggered.
Proposal 10: For mode 2, the following options should to be studied to handle the case when the SL grant is out of the active time of the selected destination:
Enhance current LCP procedure when selecting a destination to guarantee that the SL grant is within the SL active time of the selected destination.
TX UE selects a SL grant that falls into the SL DRX onduration/active time of at least one of the candidate destinations in resource selection procedure. If the current reserved resources do not fall into the SL DRX active time of any destination, resource reselection is triggered.);
select, in response to the event triggering the resource reselection:
a first candidate resource from the resource pool during an active duration of the UE associated with the DRX timer, the active duration corresponding to a DRX on-duration timer of the UE (3GPP083 Section 2.3 Specifically, when the MAC layer in TX UE receives the candidate resources indicated by the physical layer, it can select among the resources that fall into the SL DRX on-duration/active time of at least one of the candidate destinations.); and
a second candidate resource from the resource pool during an inactive duration of the UE associated with the DRX timer (3GPP083 Section 2.3 If the current reserved resources do not fall into the SL DRX active time of any destination, i.e., the current reserved resources do not match the SL DRX of any destination, resource reselection should be triggered.); and
3GPP083 does not explicitly teach transmit a report indicating the first candidate resource and the second candidate resource; the inactive duration being outside the DRX on-duration timer and overlapping at least partially with a DRX inactivity timer of the UE.
However, Li teaches transmit a report indicating the first candidate resource and the second candidate resource (Li ¶ 0040, 0057. Please see screenshot of 8.1.4 below, thank you:
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Please also see screenshot of Li Fig. 14, thank you:
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3GPP083 and Li are analogous art because they are both related to radio technology.
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to use the report techniques of Li with the system of 3GPP083 for the UE to determine a subset of resources from which the higher layer will select resources for PSSCH/PSCCH transmission (Li ¶ 0156).
3GPP083-Li does not explicitly teach the inactive duration being outside the DRX on-duration timer and overlapping at least partially with a DRX inactivity timer of the UE.
Par the inactive duration being outside the DRX on-duration timer and overlapping at least partially with a DRX inactivity timer of the UE (Par ¶ 0156-0157).
Par and 3GPP083-Li are analogous art because they are both related to radio technology.
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to use the inactivity times techniques of Par with the system of 3GPP083-Li because the SL DRX inactivity timer is filled with only the sidelink slots of the resource pool “A” as much as a length of the SL DRX inactivity timer (Par ¶ 0156).
For Claim 2, 3GPP083-Li-Par teaches the UE of claim 1, wherein the DRX timer comprises a DRX on-duration timer or a DRX inactivity timer (3GPP083 Section 2.3).
For Claim 4, 3GPP083-Li-Par teaches the UE of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to determine, prior to the determined resource reselection trigger event, a duration associated with the DRX timer (3GPP083 Section 2.3).
For Claim 5, 3GPP083-Li-Par teaches the UE of claim 4, wherein, in response to the duration associated with the DRX timer being less than a threshold, the processor is configured to ignore the resource reselection trigger (Li ¶ 0387-0389).
For Claim 6, 3GPP083-Li-Par teaches the UE of claim 4, wherein, in response to the duration associated with the DRX timer being less than a threshold, the processor is configured to cause the UE to adjust a candidate resource selection time window for a subsequent occasion of the DRX timer (Li ¶ 0387-0389).
For Claim 7, 3GPP083-Li-Par teaches the UE of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to cause the UE to select the second candidate resource outside the active duration of the UE in response to a packet delay budget being outside the active duration of the UE and an original active duration of the UE indicated within the DRX timer for candidate resource selection (Li ¶ 0173 If T.sub.2min is shorter than the remaining packet delay budget (in slots) then T.sub.2 is up to UE implementation subject to T.sub.2mln≤T.sub.2≤remaining packet budget (in slots); otherwise T.sub.2 is set to the remaining packet delay budget (in slots). Please also see Li ¶ 0328 and other relevant areas of Li).
For Claim 8, 3GPP083-Li-Par teaches the UE of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to cause the UE to transmit the report outside the active duration of the UE in response to a quantity of candidate resources in the resource pool being below a threshold (Li ¶ 0163, 0173-0184).
For Claim 9, 3GPP083-Li teaches the UE of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to cause the UE to transmit the report in a next occurrence of the DRX timer in response to a quantity of candidate resources in the resource pool being below a threshold (Li ¶ 0059).
For Claim 10, 3GPP083-Li teaches the UE of claim 1, wherein resource reselection is triggered for receiving data at the UE in response to a receiving a medium access control ("MAC") entity at a MAC layer, the MAC entity comprising a DRX configuration for the DRX timer (Li ¶ 0213).
For Claim 11, 3GPP083-Li teaches the UE of claim 10, wherein the DRX configuration is received at the PHY layer, the DRX configuration comprising DRX on-duration timer periods and slot offset values (Li ¶ 0334-0336).
For Claim 12, 3GPP083-Li teaches the UE of claim 10, wherein the processor is configured to select, by the MAC layer, the first or second candidate resources for transmission of physical shared control channel ("PSCCH"), physical shared sidelink channel ("PSSCH"), or a combination of both and inform PHY of the selected resources for resource reevaluation and preemption checking (3GPP083 Sections 2.2.1 & 2.3).
For Claim 13, 3GPP083-Li teaches the UE of claim 12, wherein, in response to the selected resources falling outside the active duration of the UE, the processor is configured to cause the UE to perform resource reevaluation and preemption checking for the selected resources until a time window where the selected resources can be reselected prior to transmission on the selected resources (Li Fig 9, ¶ 0387-0389).
For Claim(s) 14, the claim(s) is/are substantially similar to claim 1 and therefore is/are rejected for the same reasoning set forth above.
For Claim 15, 3GPP083 teaches a network equipment (NE), comprising: a memory; and a processor coupled to the memory, the processor configured to cause the apparatus to: transmit, to a user equipment ("UE"), a resource reselection trigger to perform candidate resource selection from a resource pool according to a discontinuous reception ("DRX") timer (3GPP083 Section 2.3); and receive … a selection of a first and second selected candidate resources selected from the resource pool, the first candidate resource selected during an active duration of the UE associated with the DRX timer (3GPP083 Section 2.3), and the second candidate resource selected pool during an inactive duration of the UE associated with the DRX timer (3GPP083 Section 2.3).
3GPP083 does not explicitly teach receive a report.
However, Li teaches receive a report (Li ¶ 0043, 0057)
3GPP083 and Li are analogous art because they are both related to radio technology.
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to use the report techniques of Li with the system of 3GPP083 for the UE to determine a subset of resources from which the higher layer will select resources for PSSCH/PSCCH transmission (Li ¶ 0156).
3GPP083-Li does not explicitly teach the inactive duration being outside the DRX on-duration timer and overlapping at least partially with a DRX inactivity timer of the UE.
Par the inactive duration being outside the DRX on-duration timer and overlapping at least partially with a DRX inactivity timer of the UE (Par ¶ 0156-0157).
Par and 3GPP083-Li are analogous art because they are both related to radio technology.
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to use the inactivity times techniques of Par with the system of 3GPP083-Li because the SL DRX inactivity timer is filled with only the sidelink slots of the resource pool “A” as much as a length of the SL DRX inactivity timer (Par ¶ 0156).
For Claim(s) 16, the claim(s) is/are substantially similar to claim 2 and therefore is/are rejected for the same reasoning set forth above.
For Claim(s) 17, the claim(s) is/are substantially similar to claim 11 and therefore is/are rejected for the same reasoning set forth above.
For Claim(s) 18, the claim(s) is/are substantially similar to claim 9 and therefore is/are rejected for the same reasoning set forth above.
For Claim(s) 19, the claim(s) is/are substantially similar to claim 12 and therefore is/are rejected for the same reasoning set forth above.
For Claim(s) 20, the claim(s) is/are substantially similar to claim 15 and therefore is/are rejected for the same reasoning set forth above.
Claim(s) 3 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over 3GPP083-Li-Par as applied to claim 2 above, and further in view of Hsu et al. (US 20150009815 A1, published 1/8/2015; hereinafter Hsu).
For Claim 3, 3GPP083-Li teaches the UE of claim 2, 3GPP083-Li does not explicitly teach wherein the processor is configured to cause the UE to receive data at a layer 2 ("L2") buffer, in response to the active duration of the UE being equivalent to a period of the DRX on-duration timer, and wherein to select the first candidate resource is triggered in response to the received data at the L2 buffer.
However, Hsu teaches wherein the processor is configured to cause the UE to receive data at a layer 2 ("L2") buffer, in response to the active duration of the UE being equivalent to a period of the DRX on-duration timer, and wherein to select the first candidate resource is triggered in response to the received data at the L2 buffer (Hsu Fig. 2 ¶ 0034).
Hsu and 3GPP083-Li are analogous art because they are both related to radio technology.
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to use the buffer techniques of Hsu with the system of 3GPP083-Li for the UE to determine a subset of resources from which the higher layer will select resources for power saving (Hsu ¶ 0002).
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 extension fee 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 date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning communications from the examiner should be directed to Michael Keller at (571)270-3863 or michael.keller@uspto.gov. If attempts to reach the examiner are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Moo Jeong can be reached at 571-272-9617.
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/MICHAEL A KELLER/
Primary Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2418
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