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 .
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, 3, 4, 10, 12, 13, 15, 16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over SELVANESAN US 20230081131 in view of Ko US 20230389121.
Regarding claims 1, 12, 13, SELVANESAN teaches determining, by user equipment (UE), a characteristic of a sensing service (UE-B may use the information included in the AIM together with its own sensing results, [0464], AIMs, [0048], distance related assistance information [0051], geographical area related assistance information, [0052]);
determining, by the UE based on the characteristic of the sensing service, an unoccupied first sensing resource in sensing resources to be allocated (the UE-B may prioritize resources which, by its own sensing and by the AIM received from the UE-A, are expected to be free, [0464]); and
sending the sensing signal based on the first sensing resource (the UE-B may prioritize resources which, by its own sensing and by the AIM received from the UE-A, are expected to be free, [0464]). Note, the UE-B may use its own sensing results to transmit another sensing signal.
SELVANESAN is silent on the sensing resources with respect to time cycles and time periods. Specifically, Ko is silent on wherein the sensing resources to be allocated comprise multiple time cycles in a time domain, and each time cycle comprises multiple time periods.
Ko makes obvious the limitation wherein the sensing resources to be allocated comprise multiple time cycles in a time domain, and each time cycle comprises multiple time periods (fig. 11, transmission resource based on the channel sensing , the sensing window may consist of active timer periods within a plurality of DRX cycles, and the selection window may consist of active timer periods within a plurality of DRX cycles, [0201]).
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify the system of SELVANESAN by wherein the sensing resources to be allocated comprise multiple time cycles in a time domain, and each time cycle comprises multiple time periods, as suggested by Ko. This modification would benefit the system by providing a proven, reliable method for allocating sensing resources.
Regarding claims 3, 15, obtaining, by the UE, during the sending of the sensing signal, an occupancy state of the first
sensing resource; and
in response to the occupancy state of the first sensing resource being occupied,
determining, by the UE based on the characteristic of the sensing service, an unoccupied second sensing resource in the sensing resources to be allocated; and
sending by the UE, the sensing signal based on the second sensing resource. (the UE-B may prioritize resources which, by its own sensing and by the AIM received from the UE-A, are expected to be free, [0464]).
Regarding claims 4, 16, determining, by the UE based on the characteristic of the sensing service, the unoccupied first sensing resource in the sensing resources to be allocated comprises:
determining, based on the characteristic of the sensing service, a candidate sensing resource, and
obtaining an occupancy state of the candidate sensing resource; and
determining, in response to the occupancy state of-the candidate sensing resource being unoccupied, the candidate sensing resource as the first sensing resource (the UE-B may prioritize resources which, by its own sensing and by the AIM received from the UE-A, are expected to be free, [0464]).
Regarding claim 10, the characteristic of the sensing
service comprises at least one of following:
sensing distance ([0051], distance related assistance information), sensing range, size of a sensed object, shape of the sensed object, motion state of the sensed object.
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) 2, 14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over SELVANESAN.
The limitation the sensing resources to be allocated
are resources on an unlicensed frequency band is obvious given the one or more base stations may serve users in licensed and / or unlicensed bands ([0003]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5, 7-9 and 17, 19-21 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to the independent claim(s) 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to RONALD B ABELSON whose telephone number is (571)272-3165. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:00-4:30.
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/RONALD B ABELSON/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2476