DETAILED ACTION
This is in response to the Applicant's arguments and amendments filed on 22 July 2026 in which claims 1-11, 13-18, 20-22 are currently pending and claims 12, 19 have been cancelled.
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
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.
Claims 1-5, 7-11, 14-18, 21-22 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wu et al. (PG Pub US 2019/0274121 A1) in view of Mallick et al. (PG Pub US 2022/0086855 A1).
Regarding claims 1, 7, Wu discloses a terminal device, operating at least in a device-to-device (D2D) communication mode based on a first Radio Access Technology (RAT) (fig. 9, “first RAT” [0051], “D2D” [0048]).
a processor; a memory configured to store a computer program executable by the processor; and a transceiver configured to (processor 940, memory 930, transceiver 920, fig. 9)
send information (“the UE may transmit a sidelink information message to the base station” [0051]) to a network device operating in a second RAT (“the base station may be configured to support scheduling of sidelink resources for a first RAT (e.g., an LTE RAT) and a second RAT (e.g., a NR RAT)” [0050]),
the information comprises service information of D2D communication based on the first RAT (“the sidelink information message may include additional information, such as whether the sidelink communications are for normal or high priority communications, a quality-of-service (QoS) indicator for the sidelink communications, a transmissions type indication, a service type indicator, and the like” [0051], “a first BSR may be included in the resource request identifying information to be communicated using the first RAT” [0052]),
send a Buffer Status Report (BSR) to the network device, wherein the BSR comprises service traffic information and a target address index of the D2D communication based on the first RAT (“a request for resources within the available sidelink resources, the request indicating the identifier and a BSR configured based on whether the request for resources is associated with the second RAT or both the first RAT and the second RAT” [0138], “the resource request may include a BSR configured for the first RAT .. the resource request may include an enhanced BSR if the resource request is for sidelink resources for the second RAT (e.g., for an NR-V2X resource or for a NR-V2X plus an LTE-PC5 resource). In some aspects, this may include UE 210 reusing a destination index mapping (e.g., the LCID mapping) and/or indicating a service type, such as PSID or ITS-AID” [0103]).
However, Wu does not explicitly disclose Radio Resource Control (RRC) information.
Nevertheless, Mallick discloses “the remote unit 102 may inform the network device 424 using RRC signaling that it may need to perform sidelink transmission on the second RAT” [0053].
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have Radio Resource Control (RRC) information because “The network device 424 may then in turn configure the remote unit 102 with necessary configuration information such as: LCG IDs specific to sidelink logical channels of the second RAT, a RNTI specific to accomplish communication (e.g., receiving a sidelink second RAT specific DCI) with the second protocol stack 404, etc” [0051].
Regarding claim 14, Wu discloses a network device, operating in a second Radio Access Technology (RAT) (fig. 13, “second RAT” [0051]).
a processor; a memory configured to store a computer program executable by the processor; and a transceiver configured to (processor 1340, memory 1330, transceiver 1320, fig. 13)
receive Radio Resource Control (RRC) information sent from a terminal device (“the UE may transmit a sidelink information message to the base station” [0051]) operating at least in a device-to-device (D2D) communication mode based on a first RAT (“UEs, such as D2D communications .. LTE RAT .. NR RAT” [0095], “first RAT” [0051]),
the RRC information comprises service information of D2D communication based on the first RAT (“the sidelink information message may include additional information, such as whether the sidelink communications are for normal or high priority communications, a quality-of-service (QoS) indicator for the sidelink communications, a transmissions type indication, a service type indicator, and the like” [0051], “a first BSR may be included in the resource request identifying information to be communicated using the first RAT” [0052]),
receive a Buffer Status Report (BSR) send by the terminal device, wherein the BSR comprises service traffic information and a target address index of the D2D communication based on the first RAT (“a request for resources within the available sidelink resources, the request indicating the identifier and a BSR configured based on whether the request for resources is associated with the second RAT or both the first RAT and the second RAT” [0138], “the resource request may include a BSR configured for the first RAT .. the resource request may include an enhanced BSR if the resource request is for sidelink resources for the second RAT (e.g., for an NR-V2X resource or for a NR-V2X plus an LTE-PC5 resource). In some aspects, this may include UE 210 reusing a destination index mapping (e.g., the LCID mapping) and/or indicating a service type, such as PSID or ITS-AID” [0103]).
However, Wu does not explicitly disclose Radio Resource Control (RRC) information.
Nevertheless, Mallick discloses “the remote unit 102 may inform the network device 424 using RRC signaling that it may need to perform sidelink transmission on the second RAT” [0053].
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have Radio Resource Control (RRC) information because “The network device 424 may then in turn configure the remote unit 102 with necessary configuration information such as: LCG IDs specific to sidelink logical channels of the second RAT, a RNTI specific to accomplish communication (e.g., receiving a sidelink second RAT specific DCI) with the second protocol stack 404, etc” [0051].
Regarding claims 2, 15, Wu, Mallick discloses everything claimed as applied above. In addition, Wu discloses the terminal device further operates in a D2D communication mode based on the second RAT (“support sidelink communications using a second RAT (such as a NR RAT, a mmW RAT, and the like)” [0096]), and wherein the RRC information further comprises service information of D2D communication based on the second RAT (“the sidelink information message may further include or otherwise provide an indication of a transmission type (e.g., normal TTI, URLLC, etc.), a traffic profile, a QoS indicator, a service type indicator, and the like, for the sidelink communications using the second RAT” [0111]).
Regarding claims 3, 16, Wu, Mallick discloses everything claimed as applied above. In addition, Wu discloses the RRC information further comprises first indication information, and the first indication information is used to indicate that the RRC information comprises the service information of the D2D communication based on at least one of the first RAT or the second RAT (“UE 210 may transmit a sidelink information message (e.g., a SideLinkUEInfo message) to base station 205 that includes or otherwise conveys an indication that sidelink communications are to be performed using the second RAT or both the first and second RATs” [0098], “an indication of a service type for the sidelink communications” [0099]).
Regarding claims 4, 8, 17, Wu, Mallick discloses everything claimed as applied above. In addition, Wu discloses the service information is Sidelink UE Information of the terminal device (“a SideLinkUEInfo message” [0098]).
Regarding claims 5, 9, 18, Wu, Mallick discloses everything claimed as applied above. In addition, Wu discloses the RRC information is defined according to the first RAT (“the sidelink information message may be transmitted to the base station using the first RAT” [0051], “the sidelink resources may be scheduled using or via the first RAT” [0098]).
Regarding claim 10, Wu, Mallick discloses everything claimed as applied above. In addition, Wu discloses the RRC information comprises first information defined according to the first RAT and second information defined according to the second RAT (“a first BSR may be included in the resource request identifying information to be communicated using the first RAT and a second BSR may be included in the resource request identifying information to be communicated using the second RAT” [0052]).
Regarding claim 11, Wu, Mallick discloses everything claimed as applied above. In addition, Wu discloses the first information comprises the service information of the D2D communication based on the first RAT, and the second information comprises the service information of the D2D communication based on the second RAT (“a first BSR may be included in the resource request identifying information to be communicated using the first RAT and a second BSR may be included in the resource request identifying information to be communicated using the second RAT” [0052], “the sidelink information message may further include or otherwise provide an indication of a transmission type (e.g., indicating one or more of normal TTI, URLLC, MiCR, non-MiCR, etc., corresponding to a desired latency and type of resource allocation), a traffic profile, a quality of service indicator, a service type indicator, and the like, for the sidelink communications using the second RAT and/or the first RAT” [0115]).
Regarding claim 21, Wu, Mallick discloses everything claimed as applied above. In addition, Wu discloses the terminal device further operates in a D2D communication mode based on the second RAT, and wherein the RRC information further comprises service information of D2D communication based on the second RAT; wherein the RRC information further comprises first indication information, and the first indication information is used to indicate that the RRC information comprises the service information of the D2D communication based on at least one of the first RAT or the second RAT (“In the situation where the UE is only requesting sidelink resources for the second RAT, at 315 the UE may transmit a sidelink information message to the base station using the first RAT, but that provides an indication that the sidelink communications are to be performed using the second RAT. In some aspects, the sidelink information message may further include or otherwise provide an indication of a transmission type (e.g., normal TTI, URLLC, etc.), a traffic profile, a QoS indicator, a service type indicator, and the like, for the sidelink communications using the second RAT” [0111], “the UE wishes to perform sidelink communications using just the second RAT or using the second RAT and the first RAT” [0110]).
Regarding claim 22, Wu, Mallick discloses everything claimed as applied above. In addition, Wu discloses cause the terminal device to send second indication information to the network device, wherein the second indication information is used to indicate that the RRC information is defined according to the first RAT and the second RAT (“the UE may determine whether it wants to perform sidelink communications using the second RAT or the second RAT and the first RAT” [0109], “provides an indication that the sidelink communications are to be performed using the second RAT and the first RAT. In some aspects, the sidelink information message may further include or otherwise provide an indication of a transmission type (e.g., indicating one or more of normal TTI, URLLC, MiCR, non-MiCR, etc., corresponding to a desired latency and type of resource allocation), a traffic profile, a quality of service indicator, a service type indicator, and the like, for the sidelink communications using the second RAT and/or the first RAT” [0115]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 6, 13, 20 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
Previous minor informality objection to the title is withdrawn in view of Applicant’s amendment.
Previous nonstatutory double patenting rejection is withdrawn in view of Applicant's Terminal Disclaimer filing.
Applicant's arguments have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicants have argued regarding claim 1 that “Wu fails to disclose that the BSR includes "a target address index of the D2D communication based on the first RAT", as claimed in amended claim 1” (page 10).
In response to Applicants’ argument, the examiner respectfully disagrees. Wu discloses “a request for resources within the available sidelink resources, the request indicating the identifier and a BSR configured based on whether the request for resources is associated with the second RAT or both the first RAT and the second RAT” [0138], “the resource request may include a BSR configured for the first RAT .. the resource request may include an enhanced BSR if the resource request is for sidelink resources for the second RAT (e.g., for an NR-V2X resource or for a NR-V2X plus an LTE-PC5 resource). In some aspects, this may include UE 210 reusing a destination index mapping (e.g., the LCID mapping) and/or indicating a service type, such as PSID or ITS-AID” [0103], “a BSR configured based at least in part on whether the request for resources is associated with the second RAT or both the first RAT and the second RAT” [0090]. This shows a BSR which includes service information and target address index. The resource request includes BSR configured for the first RAT [0103]. The claimed limitations do not differentiate the first RAT from the second RAT or whether they are different from one another. Therefore, a combination of Wu and Mallick discloses the limitations of claim 1.
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.
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CHRISTINE DUONG FUQUA
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2462
/CHRISTINE T DUONG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2462 09/17/2026
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