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 .
Response to Amendment
This Office Action is responsive to applicant’s remarks and amendments filed on July 02, 2026, after the non-final rejection of the application.
The Amendment filed 7/2/26 has been entered. Claims 2, 12, 19-24, and 26-45 were canceled. Claims 1, 3-11, 13-18 and 25 are pending for examination, of which claims 1, 4, 8, 10-11, 14, 18 and 25 have been amended.
In light of amendments, the objection and the rejection under 35 U.S.C. § 112(b) to claims were withdrawn.
The drawings filed on 6/21/24 are accepted.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, with respect to the rejection(s) of amended claims 1, 4, 8, 10-11, 14, 18 and 25 have been considered but are moot in view of the new ground of rejection necessitated by the addition of limitations.
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 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.
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.
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 set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied 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 claim at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or non-obviousness.
Claims 1, 3-5, 7-8, 11, 13-15, 17-18, and 25 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being unpatentable over Wang et al. (US 20180343556 A1), hereinafter Wang, in view of Jung et al. (US 20180249516 A1), hereinafter Jung.
Regarding claim 1:
Wang discloses an information transmission method, performed by a terminal device (method of establishing a data transmission channel to a base station by using a second terminal device [0004]), comprising:
sending assistance information to a network device (sending a resource request message to a base station [0140]);
wherein the assistance information comprises a correspondence between a terminal ID of a sidelink interface and a message type of a sidelink interface message (wherein resource request messages includes unicast communication address – which has device identifier of the remote terminal [0030] and is associated with discovery message [0008, lines 1-12]).
Wang does not further specify the address can be is a L2 destination ID corresponding to a message type of sidelink interface a message, and receiving a first configuration sent by the network device, the first configuration comprising: indicating, based on a first parameter of the terminal device, configuration information corresponding to the first parameter; wherein the first parameter comprises a message type of a sidelink interface message, and the configuration information comprises at least one of the following: a resource allocation mode, and a time-frequency resource configuration.
Jung, from the same field of endeavor, teaches specifyng the address can be a L2 destination ID corresponding to a message type of sidelink interface message (information message includes L2 destination ID {UE1/UE2} [0317 and 0289]); and receiving a first configuration sent by the network device (receiving D2D configuration from network [0296], the first configuration comprising: indicating, based on a first parameter of the terminal device, configuration information corresponding to the first parameter (configuration is based on UE1 ID, e.g., first parameter [0293-0296]); wherein the first parameter comprises a message type of a sidelink interface message (wherein UE1 ID is in sidelink discovery message [0285]), and the configuration information comprises at least one of the following: a resource allocation mode (RRC connection reconfiguration message has D2D configuration 0314] including mode of resource assignment [0203]), and a time-frequency resource configuration (and time and frequencies radio resources [0048]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the claimed invention was filed to receive the configuration of resources derived from assistance information comprising a correspondence between a L2 destination ID and a message type of sidelink interface; thus efficiently controlling the sidelink usage by scheduling UEs with respect to the use of sidelink– Jung [0280].
Regarding claim 3:
Wang in view of Jung discloses all limitations of claim 1.
Wang further discloses the identification information of the terminal device comprises one of the following: remote terminal (remote terminal device identifier [0030]), relay terminal (relay terminal device identifier [0030]); or sidelink terminal (remote terminal device identifier [0030]).
Regarding claim 4:
Wang in view of Jung discloses all limitations of claim 1.
Wang further discloses the message type comprises first information and/or the identification information of the terminal device comprises the first information (comprising direct discovery message/direct communication message [0235])
the first information comprises at least one of the following:
a sidelink transmission (relay connection establishment [0235])
a first relay (relay terminal device identifier [0030]);
wherein the first relay comprises at least one of the following:
a relay from terminal device to network device (relay from base station to base station, Fig. 6); a relay from terminal device to terminal device.
Regarding claim 5:
Wang in view of Jung discloses all limitations of claim 4.
Wang further states that supporting multicast relay [0017].
It is well known in the art that a multicast relay processing is conducted by layer 3 relay processing unit. Therefore, Wang does disclose the first relay further comprises at least one of the following: a Layer 2 first relay, a Layer 3 first relay.
Regarding claim 7:
Wang in view of Jung discloses all limitations of claim 1.
Wang further teaches a transmission mode of the assistance information comprises any one of the following:
sidelink terminal information (remote terminal device sends resource request to base station [0140]) ;
terminal sidelink interface assistance information;
sidelink interface radio resource control (RRC) signaling.
Regarding claim 8:
Wang in view of Jung discloses a resource configuration method, performed by a network device (allocating resources by base station [0006], comprising:
receiving assistance information sent by a terminal device (receiving resource request messages, e.g., equivalent to remote terminal sending [0140]);
allocating resources of a sidelink interface for the terminal device according to the assistance information (allocating a resource to {sidelink} terminal device
according to a resource request message [0006]);
wherein the assistance information comprises at least one of the following:
a correspondence between Layer 2 {L2} destination ID of a sidelink interface and a message type of a sidelink interface message; or
identification information of the terminal device (device identifier of remote terminal including in resource request messages [0030]).
Regarding claim 11:
Wang in view of Jung discloses all limitations of claim 10.
Wang further discloses the transmission mode of the first configuration comprises one of the following: radio resource control (RRC) reconfiguration message (resource configuration message via RRC [step 602 in Fig.6 and [0147]); terminal-to-network interface downlink RRC message.
Regarding claims 13-15 and 17:
Claims 13-15 and 17 are rejected for substantially same reason as applied to claims 3-5 above, respectively, except that claims 13-15 and 17 are recited from the base station perspective.
Regarding claim 18:
Claim 18 is rejected for substantially same reason as applied to claim 1 above, except that claim 18 is in a device format.
Regarding claim 25:
Wang in view of Jung discloses all limitations of claim 8.
Wang further discloses a network device (base station, element 300 in Fig.3), comprising a memory (base station, element 300 in Fig.3), a transceiver (communications interface, element 330 in Fig.3), and a processor (processor, element 320 in Fig.3), the memory is configured to store a computer program; a transceiver is configured to send and receive data under a control of the processor; and the processor is configured to read the computer program in the memory to perform the resource configuration method as recited in claim 1.
Claims 6 and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being unpatentable over Wang in view of Jung, as applied to claims 3 and 13 above, and further in view of Ryu et al. (US 20210321250 A1), hereinafter Ryu.
Regarding claim 6:
Wang in view of Jung discloses all limitations of claim 3.
Wang further discloses when the assistance information carries the identification information of the terminal device and the identification information of the terminal device indicates that the terminal is a relay terminal (resource request message includes relay terminal device identifier [0030]).
Wang in view of Jung does not disclose the assistance information further carries duplex capability indication information supported by the relay terminal at the sidelink interface; the duplex capability indication information is configured to indicate that the relay terminal supports full-duplex or half-duplex at the sidelink interface.
Ryu, from the same field of endeavor, teaches the assistance information further carries duplex capability indication information supported by the relay terminal at the sidelink interface (reporting UE capability information whether the UE can operate as a relay, and whether the UE supports full-duplex (FD) communications [0064]);
the duplex capability indication information is configured to indicate that the relay terminal supports full-duplex or half-duplex at the sidelink interface (capability information may include, but is not limited to, whether the UE can operate as a relay and whether the UE supports full-duplex (FD) or half-duplex (HD) in sidelink communications [0064]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the claimed invention was filed to add the teaching of Ryu to the teaching of Wang and Jung; thus efficiently and flexibly controlling the sidelink.
Regarding claim 16:
Claim 16 is rejected for substantially same reason as applied to claim 6 above, except that claim 16 is recited from the base station perspective.
Claims 9 and 10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being unpatentable over Wang in view of Jung, as applied to claim 8 above, and further in view of Di Girolamo et al. (WO 2021207459 A1), hereinafter Di.
Regarding claim 9:
Wang in view of Jung discloses all limitations of claim 8.
Wang further discloses allocating resources of the sidelink interface for the terminal device according to the assistance information c(allocating a resource to {sidelink} terminal device according to a resource request message [0006]).
Wang in view of Jung does not further disclose in a case that the sidelink interface messages corresponding to different L2 destination IDs of the sidelink interface of the terminal device have different message types, and different message types correspond to different resource pools, allocating resources in different L2 destination IDs; configuring different resource allocation modes for the terminal devices having different identification information; using different resource allocation strategies for terminals having different identification information.
Di, from the same field of endeavor, teaches in a case that the sidelink interface messages corresponding to different L2 destination IDs of the sidelink interface of the terminal device have different message types (assistance information that is destination specific in determining the sidelink grant [0234] wherein destinations can be a plurality of Layer 2 IDs [0098] and wherein assistance information have different types: whitelist, backlist, candidate resource set, resource allocation, measurement results [0108]), and different message types correspond to different resource pools, (blacklist and whitelist information determine slots and subchannels in configured resource pool [0154-0155]]; allocating resources in different L2 destination IDs (scheduling sidelink resources to be used by UE or by different destinations {identified by a Layer 2 ID} for sidelink transmission(s) [0037 and 0025]] ;
configuring different resource allocation modes for the terminal devices having different identification information (configuring Mode 1 or Mode 2 resource allocation modes to be used by UEs for sidelink transmissions [0045 and 0037]);
using different resource allocation strategies for terminals having different identification information (using Mode 1 or Mode 2 resource allocation mode and dynamically and semi-statically changing from one resource allocation mode to another – with respect to assistant UEs and requester UEs [0045]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the claimed invention was filed to use different resource allocation strategies for terminals having different identification information; thus making sidelink communication from more reliable and accommodating short latency for sidelink communication - Di [0043].
Regarding claim 10:
Wang in view of Jung discloses all limitations of claim 8.
Wang further discloses subsequent to the allocating resources of a sidelink interface for the terminal device according to the assistance information (after allocating discovery resource, step 602 in Fig.7]), the method further comprises:
sending a first configuration to the terminal device (sending Resource configuration message to remote terminal device, step 603 in Fig. 6);
the first configuration comprises at least one of the following:
indicating configuration information corresponding to the terminal device by the terminal device (including communication resource allocated by second network device to first network device [0009]) ;
determining the configuration information comprises at least one of the following: a resource allocation mode and a time-frequency resource configuration (allocation comprises different time-frequency resources [0107]).
Wang in view of Jung does not disclose indicating configuration information corresponding to the destination ID of each sidelink interface of the terminal device based on L2 destination ID of each sidelink interface of the terminal device; indicating, based on a first parameter of the terminal device, configuration information corresponding to the first parameter; indicating, based on a first parameter in each L2 destination ID of the sidelink interface of the terminal device, configuration information corresponding to the first parameter; wherein the first parameter comprises: the message type and/or identification information of the sidelink interface message.
Di, from the same field of endeavor, teaches indicating configuration information corresponding to the destination ID of each sidelink interface of the terminal device based on L2 destination ID of each sidelink interface of the terminal device (indicating assistance information for for a specific Layer 2 Destination ID [0065]);
indicating, based on a first parameter of the terminal device, configuration information corresponding to the first parameter (indicating, based on type of assistance information, e.g., first parameter, supported by assistant UE, determining assistance information [0086-0087]);
indicating, based on a first parameter in each L2 destination ID of the sidelink interface of the terminal device, configuration information corresponding to the first parameter (indicating, based on preference of or recommendation of slots/subchannels/beams in white list that the requester UE should favor, assistance information [0087]);
wherein the first parameter comprises: the message type and/or identification information of the sidelink interface message (comprising black list, white list as assistance information [0009]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the claimed invention was filed to send the configuration information based on a parameter of the terminal device and L2 destination IDs; thus satisfying transmissions between two devices -- Di [0057].
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 this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CAMQUYEN THAI whose telephone number is (571)270-7245. The examiner can normally be reached on 9:00am-5:00pm. Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and videoconferencing 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, Ayman A. Abaza can be reached on 571-270-0422. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/C.Q.T./
/AYMAN A ABAZA/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2465
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