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 § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claim 20 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter. The claim(s) does/do not fall within at least one of the four categories of patent eligible subject matter because claim 20 recites “A computer-readable medium” which is non-statutory.
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) 1-8, 12 & 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xue et al. US 2022/0369358 A1.
Claims 1, 17 and 20:
Xue discloses an apparatus for wireless communication at a user equipment (UE), comprising:
at least one memory; and at least one processor coupled to the at least one memory and, based at least in part on information stored in the at least one memory, the at least one processor, individually or in any combination (See fig. 2, processor and memory), is configured to: identify a number of transport blocks (TBs) to be transmitted, to a sidelink (SL) UE, during a period of a grant associated with a set of transmission occasions (See para 90 and 93, UE determines/interprets number of transport blocks based on number of resources); receive, from a network node, a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH) configuration indicative of the grant associated with the set of transmission occasions for one or more TBs over a set of resources of the PSSCH during the period of the grant (See para 93, “UE 115a can be configured to interpret the sidelink transmission grant of DCI message 602 for transmission of a number of transport blocks up to the predetermined maximum number of grantable resources”); and
transmit, via the PSSCH for the SL UE, the one or more TBs during the period of the grant in accordance with the PSSCH configuration (See fig. 4 step 403, transmits using sidelink resources indicated in the grant. Also see para 63, “a DCI message may include a dynamic grant of a maximum of three sidelink transmission resources (e.g., physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH) resources)”).
With regards to claim 20, a computer-readable medium storing computer executable code at a user equipment (UE) (See para 10, non-transitory computer-readable medium).
Claims 2 and 18:
Xue discloses that the PSSCH configuration is indicative of the set of resources in the period of the grant (See fig. 4 step 403, transmits using sidelink resources indicated in the grant. Also see para 63, “a DCI message may include a dynamic grant of a maximum of three sidelink transmission resources (e.g., physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH) resources)”).;
wherein to transmit the one or more TBs during the period of the grant in accordance with the PSSCH configuration (See para 93, “UE 115a can be configured to interpret the sidelink transmission grant of DCI message 602 for transmission of a number of transport blocks up to the predetermined maximum number of grantable resources”), the at least one processor, individually or in any combination, is configured to: select at least one resource of the set of resources for the transmission of the one or more TBs in accordance with the indicated set of resources (See para 93, “UE 115a can be configured to interpret the sidelink transmission grant of DCI message 602 for transmission of a number of transport blocks up to the predetermined maximum number of grantable resources”).
Claim 3:
Xue discloses that the PSSCH configuration is indicative of at least one of the number of TBs or a maximum number of TBs for the period of the grant (See para 93, “UE 115a can be configured to interpret the sidelink transmission grant of DCI message 602 for transmission of a number of transport blocks up to the predetermined maximum number of grantable resources”); wherein to select the at least one resource of the set of resources for the transmission of the one or more TBs, the at least one processor, individually or in any combination, is configured to select the at least one resource of the set of resources further in accordance with at least one of the number of TBs or the maximum number of TBs (See para 93, “UE 115a can be configured to interpret the sidelink transmission grant of DCI message 602 for transmission of a number of transport blocks up to the predetermined maximum number of grantable resources”).
Claim 4:
Xue discloses to select the at least one resource of the set of resources for the transmission of the one or more TBs in accordance with the indicated set of resources, the at least one processor, individually or in any combination, is configured to select a number of resources of the set of resources for a transmission of each TB of the one or more TBs (See para 93, “UE 115a can be configured to interpret the sidelink transmission grant of DCI message 602 for transmission of a number of transport blocks up to the predetermined maximum number of grantable resources”).
Claim 5:
Xue discloses that the PSSCH configuration is indicative of at least one respective resource of the set of resources in the period of the grant for each TB of the one or more TBs (See para 93, “UE 115a can be configured to interpret the sidelink transmission grant of DCI message 602 for transmission of a number of transport blocks up to the predetermined maximum number of grantable resources”. Also see para 63, “a DCI message may include a dynamic grant of a maximum of three sidelink transmission resources (e.g., physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH) resources)”); wherein to transmit the one or more TBs during the period of the grant in accordance with the PSSCH configuration, the at least one processor, individually or in any combination, is configured to at least one of: select at least one resource of the set of resources for the transmission of the one or more TBs; or transmit the one or more TBs during the period of the grant in accordance with the at least one respective resource of the set of resources in the period of the grant for each TB of the one or more TBs (See para 93, “UE 115a can be configured to interpret the sidelink transmission grant of DCI message 602 for transmission of a number of transport blocks up to the predetermined maximum number of grantable resources”. Also see para 63, “a DCI message may include a dynamic grant of a maximum of three sidelink transmission resources (e.g., physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH) resources)”).
Claim 6:
Xue discloses to transmit the one or more TBs during the period of the grant, the at least one processor, individually or in any combination, is configured to: transmit, via SL control information (SCI) for the SL UE and in a current resource of the at least one respective resource of the set of resources, a resource indication of a subsequent one of the at least one respective resource for a TB of the one or more TBs associated with the current resource (See para 111, “SCI can be related to the transmission and retransmission of the multiple transport blocks”).
Claim 7:
Xue discloses a first set of respective resources of the set of resources for a first TB of the one or more TBs is before a second set of respective resources of the set of resources for a second TB of the one or more TBs during the period of the grant See para 111, “the SCI in the first granted sidelink slot, as granted by DCI 1204 (FIG. 12B) relates to the transmission of the first transport block (TB1), and the SCI in the first aggregated sidelink resource slot relates to the transmission of the second transport block (TB2)”).
Claim 8:
Xue discloses to transmit, via the SCI for the SL UE and in the current resource of the at least one respective resource of the set of resources, the resource indication, the at least one processor, individually or in any combination, is configured to transmit, via the SCI, a set of unique hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process identifiers respectively associated with each of the one or more TBs (See para 96, “up to R transport blocks may be carried by up to R HARQ processes with incremental IDs, where indication of HARQ process ID included in DCI message 602 (e.g., current DCI format 3_0) may identify the leading granted sidelink resource block”. Also see para 63, “Such a DCI may include a hybrid automatic receipt request (HARM) process identifier (ID) as a reference index to the granted sidelink resources”. Also see para 111, resources are configured by SCI).
Claim 12:
Xue discloses that the apparatus further comprises at least one transceiver coupled to the at least one processor, wherein the PSSCH configuration is further indicative of a set of physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) resources associated with the period of the grant;
wherein the at least one processor, individually or in any combination, is further configured to:
receive, from the SL UE via a physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH), hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback associated with the one or more TBs; and
transmit, to the network node via the set of PUCCH resources and the at least one transceiver, an indication of the HARQ feedback associated with the one or more TBs (See paras 96-97, UE receives HARQ from sidelink UE and also uses PUCCH resources to send ACK for the transport block).
Claim 13:
Xue discloses that the set of PUCCH resources includes a single PUCCH resource, wherein the indication of the HARQ feedback associated with the one or more TBs includes one bit that indicates a successful transmission of the one or more TBs or an unsuccessful transmission of at least one of the one or more TBs, wherein to transmit the indication of the HARQ feedback, the at least one processor, individually or in any combination, is further configured to transmit the indication of the HARQ feedback subsequent to a last resource of the set of resources of the PSSCH during the period of the grant (See paras 96-97, UE receives HARQ from sidelink UE and also uses PUCCH resources to send ACK for the transport block).
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) 9, 10 & 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xue et al. in view of Wang et al. US 2023/0422258 A1
Claims 9 and 19:
Xue doesn’t disclose transmit, for the network node and prior to the reception of the PSSCH configuration, at least one of a capability of the UE or a configuration indication associated with transmissions of TBs, wherein the PSSCH configuration is associated with at least one of the capability of the UE or the configuration indication associated with the transmissions of TBs.
Wang discloses transmit, for the network node and prior to the reception of the PSSCH configuration, at least one of a capability of the UE or a configuration indication associated with transmissions of TBs, wherein the PSSCH configuration is associated with at least one of the capability of the UE or the configuration indication associated with the transmissions of TBs (See para 124 and fig. 6 step 605, requesting SL resources for multiple TBs via a BSR).
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 Xue with the teachings of Wang to improve the method disclosed by Xue by including the feature of sending configuration indication associated with TBs. The motivation to combine would have been to use resources to complete the transmission of multiple TBs.
Claim 10:
Xue doesn’t disclose to transmit the configuration indication, the at least one processor, individually or in any combination, is configured to transmit the configuration indication via at least one of a medium access control (MAC) control element (MAC-CE), a SL buffer status report (BSR), or UE assistance information (UAI); wherein the configuration indication includes at least one of a traffic type or a traffic characteristic associated with SL communications, wherein at least one of the traffic type or the traffic characteristic is indicative of transmissions for multiple transmission occasions for the one or more TBs, or wherein the configuration indication includes a request for the PSSCH configuration.
Wang discloses to transmit the configuration indication, the at least one processor, individually or in any combination, is configured to transmit the configuration indication via at least one of a medium access control (MAC) control element (MAC-CE), a SL buffer status report (BSR), or UE assistance information (UAI) (See para 124 and fig. 6 step 605, requesting SL resources for multiple TBs via a BSR);
wherein the configuration indication includes at least one of a traffic type or a traffic characteristic associated with SL communications, wherein at least one of the traffic type or the traffic characteristic is indicative of transmissions for multiple transmission occasions for the one or more TBs, or wherein the configuration indication includes a request for the PSSCH configuration (See para 124 and fig. 6 step 605, requesting SL resources for multiple TBs via a BSR. See para 93, PSSCH for SL resources).
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 Xue with the teachings of Wang to improve the method disclosed by Xue by including the feature of sending configuration indication associated with TBs. The motivation to combine would have been to use resources to complete the transmission of multiple TBs.
Claim 11:
The claim is reliant on an alternate limitation that the Examiner did not elect and therefore, is not rejected by the Examiner.
Claim(s) 16 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xue et al. in view of Lee et al. US 2023/0171039 A1.
Claim 16:
Xue discloses that the one or more TBs are associated with extended reality (XR) video communications for an XR application.
Lee discloses that the one or more TBs are associated with extended reality (XR) video communications for an XR application (See para 42, The wireless device may be XR device).
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 Xue with the teachings of Wang to improve the method disclosed by Xue by including the feature of XR devices. The motivation for doing so would have been to remote collaboration, interactive education or virtual healthcare.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 14 & 15 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 filed 07/29/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
With regards to claim 1, on page 3 of the applicant’s remarks, the applicant argues “the rejection has not shown, based on Xue, that a UE identifies a number of TBs for transmission during grant, and then receives a PSSCH configuration indicative of the grant…”.
The examiner respectfully disagrees. It appears that Applicant’s interpretation of the claims is narrower than the actual breadth of the claims. During examination, the claims are given its broadest reasonable interpretation consistent with the specification as it would be interpreted by one of ordinary skill in the art. The limitation recites identifying TBs from a grant and then transmit accordingly. If grant has not been indicated to the UE how would the UE know what resources to use let alone these resources being “TBs to be transmitted…during a period of a grant…”. Moreover, the claim language doesn’t restrict the “identifying” based on the timeline.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. 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 nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) 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 mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to HASHIM S BHATTI whose telephone number is (571)270-7748. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 9:00am-5:30pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Khaled Kassim can be reached at 571-270-3770. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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HASHIM S. BHATTI
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2472
/HASHIM S BHATTI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2475
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