Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
1. 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
2. This Office Action is in response to application filed on 06/21/2024. Claims 60-85 were previously pending. Claims 60-85 are rejected.
Information Disclosure Statement
3. The information disclosure statement(s) (IDS) submitted on 06/21/2024, 07/17/2025 is/are is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the IDS(s) is/are being considered by the examiner.
Drawings
4. New corrected drawings in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in this application because the text of the FIGs. 4-5, 7-8, 10-11, 15, 19, 21-22 are missing the “first letter of the label”. Applicant is advised to employ the services of a competent patent draftsperson outside the Office, as the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office no longer prepares new drawings. The corrected drawings are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. The requirement for corrected drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Examiner Note
5. The applicant has claimed “and/or” several times throughout the claims.
The examiner is taking the position that in the case of “element A and/or element B” that the “and/or” covers embodiments having “element A” alone, or “element B” alone, or “at least one of elements A and B“ taken together. The phrase “and/or” is not inherently indefinite and therefore is not objected to or rejected as indefinite.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
6. 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.
6.1. 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 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.
6.2. 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.
6.3. Claim(s) 60, 62, 64-74, 76-85 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over by Kuo, (US 2021/0400759 A1) in view of Li, (US 2023/0261826 A1).
Regarding Claim 60, Kuo teaches, A method performed by a third terminal device acting as a relay between a first terminal device and a second terminal device, the method comprising (Kuo, FIG.11, UE-to-UE Relay, UE1, UE3, [0180-181]: UE-to-UE Relay means a relay (“3rd terminal”) may be used to support data communication between two UEs in case these two UEs cannot communicate with each other directly):
determining identification information for identifying the first terminal device and the second terminal device on a link between the first terminal device and the second terminal device (Kuo, [0178]: The UE-to-UE Relay listens for ProSe applications advertisements (e.g. Direct Discovery or Direct Communication Request messages) from surrounding UEs and if a broadcasted application matches one of the applications from its provisioned relay policy/parameters, the UE-to-UE Relay advertises it as a relayed application by adding a relay indication to the message).
Kuo does not expressly teach
assigning the determined identification information to at least one corresponding hop on the link between the first terminal device and the second terminal device.
Li teaches (Li, [0147]: The relay terminal device allocates, to a communication link between the source terminal device and the relay terminal device, a second identifier of the relay terminal device, for example, an identifier B2. FIG.3, [0148]: A transmission data packet whose source address is the identifier A and whose destination address is the identifier B2 is sent between the source terminal device and the relay terminal device).
Prior to the effective filing date of invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to implement the “link identifier” of Li into the invention of Kuo. The suggestion/motivation with “link identifier” as second identifier of the relay terminal facilitates the relay process of user plane data through a sidelink between the second terminal and the first terminal. Including “link identifier” of Li into the invention of Kuo was within the ordinary ability of one of ordinary skill in the art based on the teachings of Li.
Regarding Claim 62, Kuo-Li teaches, The method of claim 60, further comprising:
determining whether the identification information needs to be updated; wherein when determining that the identification information needs to be updated, the determining and assigning of the identification information are performed again (Kuo, [0056]: A privacy timer value indicating the duration after which the UE shall change each source Layer-2 ID self-assigned by the UE when privacy is required).
Regarding Claim 64, Kuo-Li teaches, The method of claim 60, further comprising:
maintaining a mapping between the identification information of the first terminal device and/or the second terminal device applied on an ingress hop of the third terminal device and the identification information of the first terminal device and/or the second terminal device applied on an egress hop of the third terminal device (Kuo, [0186]: UE-to-UE Relay (“3rd terminal”) saves these 2 IDs (UE1's Layer-2 ID and Relay-Layer-2 ID-a) in a local mapping table. The UE-to-UE Relay overrides the source field of the message with its R-L2 ID-a and adds its unique relay identifier (RID) as a relay indication. [0187]: UE-to-UE Relay receives the message from UE3 (“2nd terminal”) and uses the R-L2 ID-a specified in the destination field to find the related UE (i.e. UE1 in this case) in its mapping table. UE-to-UE Relay assigns itself a new Layer-2 ID (e.g. R-L2 ID-b) for UE3 and stores the mapping between UE3's L2 ID and R-L2 ID-b).
Regarding Claim 65, Kuo-Li teaches, The method of claim 60, wherein the identification information of the first terminal device and/or the second terminal device is determined in one or more following manners:
based on a layer 2 (L2) identifier (ID) of the third terminal device (Kuo, [0186]: The UE-to-UE Relay (“3rd terminal”) receives the broadcast Direct Communication Request message and verifies if it's configured to relay this application, if it matches, the UE-to-UE Relay assigns itself a Relay-Layer-2 ID (e.g. R-L2 ID-a) for UE1 (i.e. related to UE1's L2 ID). [0187]: UE-to-UE Relay receives the message from UE3 (“destination terminal”) and uses the R-L2 ID-a specified in the destination field to find the related UE (i.e. UE1 in this case) in its mapping table. UE-to-UE Relay assigns itself a new Layer-2 ID (e.g. R-L2 ID-b) for UE3 and stores the mapping between UE3's L2 ID and R-L2 ID-b);
in a random manner; and
based on a predetermined mathematical function.
Regarding Claim 66, Kuo-Li teaches, The method of claim 60, wherein the identification information of the first terminal device and/or the second terminal device is determined to be in one-to-one mapping to an L2 ID of the first/second terminal device (Kuo, FIG.11, UE-to-UE Relay, UE1, UE3, [0186]: The UE-to-UE Relay (“3rd terminal”) receives the broadcast Direct Communication Request message and verifies if it's configured to relay this application, if it matches, the UE-to-UE Relay assigns itself a Relay-Layer-2 ID (e.g. R-L2 ID-a) for UE1 (i.e. related to UE1's L2 ID). [0187]: UE-to-UE Relay receives the message from UE3 (“destination terminal”) and uses the R-L2 ID-a specified in the destination field to find the related UE (i.e. UE1 in this case) in its mapping table. UE-to-UE Relay assigns itself a new Layer-2 ID (e.g. R-L2 ID-b) for UE3 and stores the mapping between UE3's L2 ID and R-L2 ID-b).
Regarding Claim 67, Kuo-Li teaches, The method of claim 60,
wherein the first terminal device is a source terminal device (Li, FIG.5, S501b, [0197-198]: The first relay device sends the first message to the second terminal device at S501b. The first message includes the identifier of the first terminal device (“source”)); and
wherein determining the identification information comprises determining a first temporary ID of the first terminal device, wherein the first temporary ID of the first terminal device is to be used during a link between the first terminal device and the third terminal device is established (Li, FIG.5, S502b, [0202-203]: The second terminal device communicates with the first terminal device based on the identifier of the first terminal device at S502b).
Regarding Claim 68, Kuo-Li teaches, The method of claim 60,
wherein the second terminal device is a source terminal device (Li, FIG.5, S501a: [0187-188]: A first relay device sends a second message to a first terminal device. The second message includes an identifier of a second terminal device); and
wherein determining the identification information comprises determining a first temporary ID of the second terminal device, wherein the first temporary ID of the second terminal device is to be used during a link between the second terminal device and the third terminal device is established (Li, FIG.5, S502a, [0191]: The first terminal device communicates with the second terminal device based on the identifier of the second terminal device).
Regarding Claim 69, Kuo-Li teaches, The method of claim 67, further comprising:
in response to a reception of a direct communication request (DCR) message from the source terminal device, transmitting another DCR message containing the first temporary ID of the source terminal device on behalf of the source terminal device (Kuo, FIG.11, S3, [0185]: ProSe layer triggers the peer UE discovery mechanism by sending a broadcast Direct Communication Request message. The message is sent using the source Layer-2 ID and broadcast Layer-2 ID as destination, and includes other parameters related to the application offered, as specified in TS 23.287 [5] clause 6.3.3.1).
Regarding Claim 70, Kuo-Li teaches, The method of claim 60,
wherein the first terminal device is a source terminal device or a destination terminal device (Kuo, FIG.11, S2, [0184]: On the source UE (i.e. UE1), the application layer provides information to the ProSe layer for PC5 unicast communication (e.g. broadcast Layer-2 ID, ProSe Application ID, UE's Application Layer ID, target UE's Application Layer ID, relay applicable indication), as specified in TS 23.287 [5] clause 6.3.3.1); and
wherein determining the identification information comprises determining second temporary IDs of the first terminal device and the second terminal device, wherein the second temporary IDs of the first terminal device and the second terminal device are to be used after a link between the first/second terminal device and the third terminal device is established (Kuo, FIG.11, S7-S8, [0190-191]: UE-to-UE Relay receives the message and sets the source field of the message to the R-L2 ID-b as found in the mapping entry and sets the destination field to the UE1's L2 ID also from the mapping entry. UE-to-UE Relay sends the modified message to UE1).
Regarding Claim 71, Kuo-Li teaches, The method of claim 70,
wherein the second temporary IDs of the first terminal device and the second terminal device are valid for the whole link between the first terminal device and the second terminal device (Kuo, FIG.11, S7, [0190-1911]: UE-to-UE Relay receives the message and sets the source field of the message to the R-L2 ID-b as found in the mapping entry and sets the destination field to the UE1's L2 ID also from the mapping entry. UE-to-UE Relay sends the modified message to UE1).
Regarding Claim 72, Kuo-Li teaches, The method of claim 70,
wherein assigning the determined identification information comprises:
transmitting, to the other terminal devices on the link between the first terminal device and the second terminal devices, the determined identification information and an ID identifying the link between the first terminal device and the second terminal device (Kuo, FIG.11, S3, [0185]: ProSe layer triggers the peer UE discovery mechanism by sending a broadcast Direct Communication Request (DCR) message. The message is sent using the source Layer-2 ID and broadcast Layer-2 ID as destination).
Regarding Claim 73, Kuo-Li teaches, The method of claim 70,
wherein different second temporary ID of the first terminal device is determined for each hop on the link between the first terminal device and the second terminal device (Kuo, [0090]: A UE may establish multiple PC5 unicast links with a peer UE and use the same or different source Layer-2 IDs for these PC5 unicast links); and
wherein different second temporary ID of the second terminal device is determined for each hop on the link between the first terminal device and the second terminal device (Kuo, [0080]: A source UE is not required to know whether different target Application Layer IDs over different PC5 unicast links belong to the same target UE).
Regarding Claim 74, Kuo-Li teaches, The method of claim 73, wherein assigning the determined identification information comprises:
transmitting, to the terminal device on each hop, the identification information of the first terminal device and the second terminal device determined for the hop, and an ID identifying the hop (Li, [0164]: the relay device may allocate, to the first communication link between the relay device and the destination device, a first identifier of the relay device, for example, R1-L2-ID-a or an identifier B1. The first identifier is associated with a layer 2 identifier of the source terminal device and is used for forwarding of the unicast connection establishment request message and subsequent communication between the relay device and the first terminal device (UE1). Li, [0168]: the relay device allocates, to the relay device, a second identifier of the relay device, for example, R1-L2-ID-b or an identifier B2. The second identifier of the relay device is associated with the layer 2 identifier of the destination terminal device and is used for communication between the relay device and the second terminal device).
Regarding Claim 76, Kuo-Li teaches, The method of claim 60, wherein the determined identification information is assigned by one or more of:
radio resource control (RRC) signaling;
PC5 signaling (PC5-S) signaling;
Discovery signaling;
medium access control (MAC) control element (CE);
control protocol data unit (PDU) of service data adaptation protocol (SDAP) or packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) or radio link control (RLC) or an adaptation layer (Li, FIG.3, [0144]: In the L2 relay-based manner, user plane data is relayed below a PDCP layer. The protocol stack of the source terminal and the protocol stack of the destination terminal each include at least: a SDAP layer); and
layer 1 (L1) signaling.
Regarding Claim 77, Kuo teaches, A third terminal device comprising at least one processor and at least one memory containing instructions executable by the at least one processor, whereby the third terminal device is configured to (Kuo, FIG.2, access network 210, processor 230, memory 232, [0028]: memory 232 includes instructions executable by the processor 230 to perform the functions):
act as a relay between a first terminal device and a second terminal device (Kuo,FIG.11, UE-to-UE Relay, UE1, UE3, [0180-181]: UE-to-UE Relay means a relay (“3rd terminal”) may be used to support data communication between two UEs in case these two UEs cannot communicate with each other directly);
determine identification information for identifying the first terminal device and the second terminal device on a link between the first terminal device and the second terminal device (Kuo, [0178]: The UE-to-UE Relay listens for ProSe applications advertisements (e.g. Direct Discovery or Direct Communication Request messages) from surrounding UEs and if a broadcasted application matches one of the applications from its provisioned relay policy/parameters, the UE-to-UE Relay advertises it as a relayed application by adding a relay indication to the message).
Kuo does not expressly teach
assign the determined identification information to at least one corresponding hop on the link between the first terminal device and the second terminal device.
Li teaches (Li, FIG.3, [0147-148]: The relay terminal device allocates, to a communication link between the source terminal device and the relay terminal device, a second identifier of the relay terminal device, for example, an identifier B2, dedicated to transmission of a data packet sent and received between the source terminal device and the relay terminal device in the U2U relay).
Prior to the effective filing date of invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to implement the “link identifier” of Li into the invention of Kuo. The suggestion/motivation with “link identifier” as second identifier of the relay terminal facilitates the relay process of user plane data through a sidelink between the second terminal and the first terminal. Including “link identifier” of Li into the invention of Kuo was within the ordinary ability of one of ordinary skill in the art based on the teachings of Li.
Regarding Claim 78, Kuo-Li teaches, The third terminal device of claim 77, wherein the third terminal device is further configured to determine whether the identification information needs to be updated, such that when determining that the identification information needs to be updated, the determining and assigning of the identification information are performed again (Kuo, [0056]: A privacy timer value indicating the duration after which the UE shall change each source Layer-2 ID self-assigned by the UE when privacy is required).
Regarding Claim 79, Kuo-Li teaches, The third terminal device of claim 77, wherein the third terminal device is further configured to:
maintain a mapping between the identification information of the first terminal device and/or the second terminal device applied on an ingress hop of the third terminal device and the identification information of the first terminal device and/or the second terminal device applied (Kuo, [0186]: UE-to-UE Relay (“3rd terminal”) saves these 2 IDs (UE1's Layer-2 ID and Relay-Layer-2 ID-a) in a local mapping table. The UE-to-UE Relay overrides the source field of the message with its R-L2 ID-a and adds its unique relay identifier (RID) as a relay indication. [0187]: UE-to-UE Relay receives the message from UE3 (“2nd terminal”) and uses the R-L2 ID-a specified in the destination field to find the related UE (i.e. UE1 in this case) in its mapping table. UE-to-UE Relay assigns itself a new Layer-2 ID (e.g. R-L2 ID-b) for UE3 and stores the mapping between UE3's L2 ID and R-L2 ID-b).
Regarding Claim 80, Kuo-Li teaches, The third terminal device of claim 77, wherein the third terminal device is configured such that the identification information of the first terminal device and/or the second terminal device is determined to be in one-to-one mapping to an L2 ID of the first/second terminal device (Kuo, FIG.11, UE-to-UE Relay, UE1, UE3, [0186]: The UE-to-UE Relay (“3rd terminal”) receives the broadcast Direct Communication Request message and verifies if it's configured to relay this application, if it matches, the UE-to-UE Relay assigns itself a Relay-Layer-2 ID (e.g. R-L2 ID-a) for UE1 (i.e. related to UE1's L2 ID). [0187]: UE-to-UE Relay receives the message from UE3 (“destination terminal”) and uses the R-L2 ID-a specified in the destination field to find the related UE (i.e. UE1 in this case) in its mapping table. UE-to-UE Relay assigns itself a new Layer-2 ID (e.g. R-L2 ID-b) for UE3 and stores the mapping between UE3's L2 ID and R-L2 ID-b).
Regarding Claim 81, Kuo-Li teaches, The third terminal device of claim 77,
wherein the first terminal device is a source terminal device (Li, FIG.5, S501b, [0197-198]: The first relay device sends the first message to the second terminal device at S501b. The first message includes the identifier of the first terminal device (“source”)); and
wherein the third terminal device is configured such that determining the identification information comprises determining a first temporary ID of the first terminal device, wherein the first temporary ID of the first terminal device is to be used during a link between the first terminal device and the third terminal device is established (Li, FIG.5, S502b, [0202-203]: The second terminal device communicates with the first terminal device based on the identifier of the first terminal device at S502b).
Regarding Claim 82, Kuo-Li teaches, The third terminal device of claim 77,
wherein the first terminal device is a source terminal device or a destination terminal device (Li, FIG.5, S501a: [0187-188]: A first relay device sends a second message to a first terminal device. The second message includes an identifier of a second terminal device); and
wherein the third terminal device is configured such that determining the identification information comprises determining second temporary IDs of the first terminal device and the second terminal device, wherein the second temporary IDs of the first terminal device and the second terminal device are to be used after a link between the first/second terminal device and the third terminal device is established (Li, FIG.5, S502a, [0191]: The first terminal device communicates with the second terminal device based on the identifier of the second terminal device).
Regarding Claim 83, Kuo-Li teaches, The third terminal device of claim 82,
wherein the second temporary IDs of the first terminal device and the second terminal device are valid for the whole link between the first terminal device and the second terminal device (Kuo, FIG.11, S7, [0190-1911]: UE-to-UE Relay receives the message and sets the source field of the message to the R-L2 ID-b as found in the mapping entry and sets the destination field to the UE1's L2 ID also from the mapping entry. UE-to-UE Relay sends the modified message to UE1).
Regarding Claim 84, Kuo-Li teaches, The third terminal device of claim 77, wherein the determined identification information is assigned by one or more of:
radio resource control (RRC) signaling;
PC5 signaling (PC5-S) signaling;
Discovery signaling;
medium access control (MAC) control element (CE);
control protocol data unit (PDU) of service data adaptation protocol (SDAP) or packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) or radio link control (RLC) or an adaptation layer (Li, FIG.3, [0144]: In the L2 relay-based manner, user plane data is relayed below a PDCP layer. The protocol stack of the source terminal and the protocol stack of the destination terminal each include at least: a SDAP layer); and
layer 1 (L1) signaling.
Regarding Claim 85, Kuo teaches, A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising, stored thereon, instructions configured so as to, when executed by at least one processor, of a third terminal device acting as a relay between a first terminal device and a second terminal device, cause the at least one processor to (Kuo, Li, FIG.2, access network 210, processor 230, memory 232, [0028, 212]: access network 210 (“relay”) computer-readable storage medium 232 includes instructions executable by the processor 230 to perform the functions.,FIG.11, UE-to-UE Relay, UE1, UE3, [0180-181]: UE-to-UE Relay means a relay (“3rd terminal”) may be used to support data communication between two UEs in case these two UEs cannot communicate with each other directly):
determine identification information for identifying the first terminal device and the second terminal device on a link between the first terminal device and the second terminal device (Kuo, [0178]: The UE-to-UE Relay listens for ProSe applications advertisements (e.g. Direct Discovery or Direct Communication Request messages) from surrounding UEs and if a broadcasted application matches one of the applications from its provisioned relay policy/parameters, the UE-to-UE Relay advertises it as a relayed application by adding a relay indication to the message).
Kuo does not expressly teach
assign the determined identification information to at least one corresponding hop on the link between the first terminal device and the second terminal device.
Li teaches (Li, FIG.3, [0147-148]: The relay terminal device allocates, to a communication link between the source terminal device and the relay terminal device, a second identifier of the relay terminal device, for example, an identifier B2, dedicated to transmission of a data packet sent and received between the source terminal device and the relay terminal device in the U2U relay).
Prior to the effective filing date of invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to implement the “link identifier” of Li into the invention of Kuo. The suggestion/motivation with “link identifier” as second identifier of the relay terminal facilitates the relay process of user plane data through a sidelink between the second terminal and the first terminal. Including “link identifier” of Li into the invention of Kuo was within the ordinary ability of one of ordinary skill in the art based on the teachings of Li.
6.4. Claim(s) 61, 63, 75 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over by Kuo et al. in view of Tang, (US 2021/0006967 A1), and further in view of Stojanovski et al., (“Stoj”, US 2020/0014672 A1).
Regarding Claim 61, Kuo-Li teaches, The method of claim 60, wherein assigning the determined identification information comprises:
transmitting, to a terminal device on the at least one corresponding hop, (Kuo, [0056]: A privacy timer value indicating the duration after which the UE shall change each source Layer-2 ID self-assigned by the UE when privacy is required).
Kuo-Li does not expressly teaches
Stoj teaches (Stoj, [0045]: the identity is appended timestamp).
Prior to the effective filing date of invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to implement the “security negotiation consistent” of Stoj into the invention of Kuo-Li. The suggestion/motivation with “security negotiation consistent” enables facilitating receive circuitry to be able to receive a data packet inside a Signaling Protocol message in the secure link. Including “security negotiation consistent” of Stoj into the invention of Kuo-Li was within the ordinary ability of one of ordinary skill in the art based on the teachings of Stoj.
Regarding Claim 63, Kuo-Li teaches, The method of claim 60, but not expressly teaches further comprising:
detecting a conflict between the identification information of at least two different terminal devices, based on transmissions initiated by one or more neighbor terminal devices of the third terminal device; and informing the one or more neighbor terminal devices or a base station of the detected conflict.
Stoj teaches (Stoj, [0039]: A layer-2 ID for unicast communication can be globally unique or the UE can ensure that the layer-2 ID is at least locally unique. If a conflict exits, the UE can detect whether layer-2 ID conflicts with adjacent UEs and self-assign a new ProSe UE ID when a conflict is detected).
Prior to the effective filing date of invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to implement the “security negotiation consistent” of Stoj into the invention of Kuo-Li. The suggestion/motivation with “security negotiation consistent” enables facilitating receive circuitry to be able to receive a data packet inside a Signaling Protocol message in the secure link. Including “security negotiation consistent” of Stoj into the invention of Kuo-Li was within the ordinary ability of one of ordinary skill in the art based on the teachings of Stoj.
Regarding Claim 75, Kuo-Li teaches, The method of claim 60, but not expressly teaches further comprising:
receiving, from the first/second terminal device, a response message in response to the assigning of the identification information; and wherein when the response message indicates a rejection against the identification information of the first/second terminal device, the determining and assigning of the identification information are performed again for the first/second terminal device.
Stoj teaches (Stoj, [0039]: A layer-2 ID for unicast communication can be globally unique or the UE can ensure that the layer-2 ID is at least locally unique. If a conflict exits, the UE can detect whether layer-2 ID conflicts with adjacent UEs and self-assign a new ProSe UE ID when a conflict is detected).
Prior to the effective filing date of invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to implement the “security negotiation consistent” of Stoj into the invention of Kuo-Li. The suggestion/motivation with “security negotiation consistent” enables facilitating receive circuitry to be able to receive a data packet inside a Signaling Protocol message in the secure link. Including “security negotiation consistent” of Stoj into the invention of Kuo-Li was within the ordinary ability of one of ordinary skill in the art based on the teachings of Stoj.
Conclusion
7. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant’s disclosure.
Tang, US 2021/0006967 A1, Method for facilitating relay transmission on wireless device in device-to-device communication system, involves forwarding data carried in protocol data unit to network device based on acquired information of remote terminal device.
Pan et al., US 2022/0007445 A1, Method For establishing sidelink radio bearer for UE-to-UE relay communication in wireless communication system, involves ciphering sidelink packet to be sent to remote UE through relay user equipment
8. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should
be directed to CHHIAN (AMY) LING whose telephone number is (571)270-1074. The examiner can
normally be reached M-F 9-6 ET.
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,
BRIAN J GILLIS can be reached on (571) 272-7952. 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.
/C.L/Examiner, Art Unit 2446
/BRIAN J. GILLIS/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2446
Prosecution Insights