DETAILED ACTION
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 .
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.
Response to Amendment
The amendment filed 8/6/2026 has been entered. Claims 1-7 and 9-20 are pending.
Specification
The abstract of the disclosure is objected to because it should be in narrative form and avoid the form often used in patent claims. A corrected abstract of the disclosure is required and must be presented on a separate sheet, apart from any other text. See MPEP § 608.01(b).
The lengthy specification has not been checked to the extent necessary to determine the presence of all possible minor errors. Applicant’s cooperation is requested in correcting any errors of which applicant may become aware in the specification.
Claim Objections
Claims 1-7 and 9-20 are objected to because of the following informalities:
The claimed feature of “unrelated” is unclear because the claim does not explicitly recite what element is “unrelated with a transmitting beam” and how that relationship is determined. Also, the scope of the claims is unclear because both the resource set and the selecting beam are related to the transmitting beam because of their association with the transmitting beam information.
Regarding claims 5, 7, 12, 13, 17, 20, a list with numerous conjunctions is grammatically incorrect. The conjunction should only appear before the last element of the list. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1-7 and 9-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
The term “approximately” in claim 1 is a relative term which renders the claim indefinite. The term “approximately” is not defined by the claim, the specification does not provide a standard for ascertaining the requisite degree, and one of ordinary skill in the art would not be reasonably apprised of the scope of the invention. The spatial relationship between beams is unclear when they are approximately orthogonal.
The term “approximately” in claim 14 is a relative term which renders the claim indefinite. The term “approximately” is not defined by the claim, the specification does not provide a standard for ascertaining the requisite degree, and one of ordinary skill in the art would not be reasonably apprised of the scope of the invention. The spatial relationship between beams is unclear when they are approximately orthogonal.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claims 1-7, 9-10 and 14-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over WO 2022/056670 (hereinafter Nokia) in view of US 2024/0031991 (hereinafter Wang).
Regarding claims 1 and 14, Nokia teaches a method of wireless communication, comprising: receiving, by a first device, based on a receiving beam information, a first sidelink transmission (paragraph 115, in FIG. 7, in an operation 710, the UE 114 may measure a quality of a SL data signal received through the same received beam as the beam through which the SL control 704 is received); selecting, based on selection information, a resource set for a second sidelink transmission (FIG. 7, item 712, "Determine Resource Selection"; paragraph 116, "in the operation 712, the UE 114 may determine that reusing the reserved radio resources as indicated by the SL control signal 704 may result in collision interferences, and thus the reserved radio resources as indicated by the SL control signal 704 may be excluded by the UE 114 when the UE 114 select radio resources from the resource pool for the SL communication with the UE 116."; paragraph 117, as illustrated in FIG. 7, the UE 114 may transmit a first SL signal 714 to its target UE 116 for example through the transmission beam 124 as illustrated in FIG. 2 by using the radio resources selected in the operation 712, without collision interferences with the SL communication between the UE 110 and UE 112); and sending, to a second device, the second sidelink transmission based on transmitting beam information (Fig. 7 item 714, "First SL signal"; see paragraph 117 cited above), wherein the selection information includes at least one of: a frequency domain index of sidelink positioning reference signal, a delay budget, a number of comb offset to be used for the second sidelink transmission, a resource pool from which resources are to be reported, a priority, or a resource reservation interval (paragraph 108, "based on the received SL control signal 704, through the operation 706, the UE 114 may determine information for example on radio resources scheduled/reserved by the UE 110 (e.g. for the SL transmission to the UE 112).
Nokia does not explicitly teach wherein the resource set is selected by a selecting beam which is unrelated with a transmitting beam obtained from the transmitting beam information and has a spatial relationship that is orthogonal or approximately orthogonal with regard to the transmitting beam.
However, Wang teaches wherein the resource set is selected by a selecting beam ([0095]: details the transmitting UE may then select a sidelink beam to use to transmit the sidelink communication in the granted sidelink resource based at least in part on the set of sidelink beams indicated in the sidelink grant) which is unrelated with a transmitting beam obtained from the transmitting beam information (FIGURE 5, 505, 510, 515, 520, etc.: details spatial relation for uplink communication; each beam are unrelated to each other because they are different) and has a spatial relationship that is orthogonal or approximately orthogonal with regard to the transmitting beam (FIGURE 5; [0003]: details spatial relation for uplink communication; OFDM).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Nokia to incorporate the teachings of Wang and include wherein the resource set is selected by a selecting beam which is unrelated with a transmitting beam obtained from the transmitting beam information and has a spatial relationship that is orthogonal or approximately orthogonal with regard to the transmitting beam of Wang with Nokia. Doing so would improve flexibility (Wang, paragraph [0085]).
Regarding claims 2 and 15, Nokia teaches wherein at least one of the receiving beam information or the transmitting beam information is obtained from at least one of a sidelink control information (SCI), a SCI indicating SL-PRS (sidelink positioning reference signals), PSSCH, PSCCH, PSSCH, SL-PRS or a downlink control information (paragraph 106: details PSCCH and PSSCH).
Regarding claim 3, Nokia teaches wherein at least one of the receiving beam information, the transmitting beam information, or the selection information is i) configured or pre-configured or predefined from a higher layer, and wherein the higher layer is at least one of a RRC layer, a SL LPP, a PC5-RRC, a PC5-S, a MAC layer, or an application layer, or ii) from a physical layer, and wherein the physical layer is at least one of a first SCI, a second SCI, DCI3-0, a SCI for SL-PRS, or a MAC CE (paragraph 88 that "the UE may measure either a quality of the PSCCH and/or a quality of the PSSCH as per higher layer signaling configurations).
Regarding claims 4 and 16, Nokia teaches wherein the transmitting beam information includes information on one or more beams in a transmission beam group and the transmitting beam information is associated with actual transmission beams, wherein the method further comprises: performing a sensing procedure based on sensing related beam information, wherein the sensing related beam information includes i) a beam having a direction that is opposite to and/or same as a transmitting beam in the transmission beam group, or ii) multiple beams included in a reception beam group including a beam having a direction that is opposite to and/or same as the transmitting beam in the transmission beam group (paragraph 111, 112, FIG. 8, 10, 12, 14 disclosing transmissions and sensing in both forward direction and rear direction, the subject matter is an expected design measure).
Regarding claims 5 and 17, Nokia teaches wherein at least one of the transmitting beam information or the receiving beam information is received from the second device or other devices, or wherein the receiving beam information has a relation with the transmitting beam information, or wherein the receiving beam information contains all beam directions received during a sensing window, or partial directions that is a part of all beam directions received during a sensing window (FIG. 7, item 712, "Determine Resource Selection"; paragraph 116, "in the operation 712, the UE 114 may determine that reusing the reserved radio resources as indicated by the SL control signal 704 may result in collision interferences, and thus the reserved radio resources as indicated by the SL control signal 704 may be excluded by the UE 114 when the UE 114 select radio resources from the resource pool for the SL communication with the UE 116."; paragraph 117, as illustrated in FIG. 7, the UE 114 may transmit a first SL signal 714 to its target UE 116 for example through the transmission beam 124 as illustrated in FIG. 2 by using the radio resources selected in the operation 712, without collision interferences with the SL communication between the UE 110 and UE 112).
Regarding claims 6 and 18, Nokia teaches performing a sensing procedure based on sensing related beam information, wherein the sensing related beam information includes i) information on one or more receiving beams having particular directions with respect to a transmitting beam included in the transmitting beam information, ii) a beam having a direction that is opposite to and/or same as the transmitting beam, or iii) multiple beams included in a reception beam group including a beam having a direction that is opposite to and/or same as the transmitting beam (paragraph 111, 112, FIG. 8, 10, 12, 14 disclosing transmissions and sensing in both forward direction and rear direction, the subject matter is an expected design measure).
Regarding claims 7, Nokia teaches wherein the sensing related beam information has a relation with the transmitting beam information, or wherein the sensing related beam information is used for the second sidelink transmission sent to the second device in an additional beam direction included in a transmission beam group including a beam having a direction same as that of the transmitting beam, in a combined beam direction included in a transmission beam group including a beam having a direction same as that of the transmitting beam, or wherein the sensing related beam information is used for another sidelink transmission which is sent to another device in an additional beam direction included in a transmission beam group including a beam having a direction same as that of the transmitting beam or a combined beam direction included in the transmission beam group (paragraph 111, 112, FIG. 8, 10, 12, 14 disclosing transmissions and sensing in both forward direction and rear direction, the subject matter is an expected design measure).
Regarding claims 9, Nokia teaches wherein the resource set is selected without considering conflict in time frequency domain (FIG. 7, item 712, "Determine Resource Selection"; paragraph 116, "in the operation 712, the UE 114 may determine that reusing the reserved radio resources as indicated by the SL control signal 704 may result in collision interferences, and thus the reserved radio resources as indicated by the SL control signal 704 may be excluded by the UE 114 when the UE 114 select radio resources from the resource pool for the SL communication with the UE 116."; paragraph 117, as illustrated in FIG. 7, the UE 114 may transmit a first SL signal 714 to its target UE 116 for example through the transmission beam 124 as illustrated in FIG. 2 by using the radio resources selected in the operation 712, without collision interferences with the SL communication between the UE 110 and UE 112).
Regarding claims 10, Nokia teaches wherein the sending the second sidelink transmission includes transmitting a sidelink positioning reference signal (SL-PRS) using resources reserved by the receiving beam information or the transmitting beam information depending on a conflict level of time and frequency resources, or wherein the second sidelink transmission corresponds to SL-PRS and wherein the second sidelink transmission is sent based on channel occupancy ratio (CR) and channel busy ratio (CBR) (paragraph 123: "the UE 1000 may obtain information on positions of other UEs (e.g. information on absolute positions of the other UEs such as the longitudes and latitudes of respective UEs, information on relative positions among respective UEs) for example based on information broadcasted (e.g. periodically) from respective UEs which expect to perform SL communications).
Claims 11-13 and 19-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Nokia in view of Wang, further in view of US 2020/0404665 (hereinafter Ryu).
Regarding claims 11 and 19, Nokia does not explicitly teach wherein the resource set for the second sidelink transmission are selected further based on channel occupancy ratio (CR) and channel busy ratio (CBR), or wherein the channel occupancy ratio (CR) and the channel busy ratio (CBR) are defined based on beam information provided by a higher layer or a physical layer, the beam information including the receiving beam information or the transmitting beam information.
However, Ryu teaches wherein the resource set for the second sidelink transmission are selected further based on channel occupancy ratio (CR) and channel busy ratio (CBR), or wherein the channel occupancy ratio (CR) and the channel busy ratio (CBR) are defined based on beam information provided by a higher layer or a physical layer, the beam information including the receiving beam information or the transmitting beam information (FIG. 3, 5 and 7, the usage of CBR for determining the transmission over SL).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Nokia to incorporate the teachings of Ryu and include wherein the resource set for the second sidelink transmission are selected further based on channel occupancy ratio (CR) and channel busy ratio (CBR), or wherein the channel occupancy ratio (CR) and the channel busy ratio (CBR) are defined based on beam information provided by a higher layer or a physical layer, the beam information including the receiving beam information or the transmitting beam information of Ryu with Nokia. Doing so would improve LTE and NR technologies (Ryu, paragraph [0004]).
Regarding claims 12 and 20, Nokia does not explicitly teach wherein the channel occupancy ratio and the channel busy ratio are received from a higher layer, or, wherein the channel occupancy ratio and the channel busy ratio are obtained from a measuring by the first device, the measuring performed by the first device configured to use receiving a FR2 beam with a certain direction, FR2 beams with certain reception beam group, a FR2 wide beam, or FR2 beams with all directions, or wherein a channel busy ratio (CBR) measurement window is set based on maximum numbers of transmitting beams and receiving beams that are provided from a higher layer.
However, Ryu teaches wherein the channel occupancy ratio and the channel busy ratio are received from a higher layer, or wherein the channel occupancy ratio and the channel busy ratio are obtained from a measuring by the first device, the measuring performed by the first device configured to use receiving a FR2 beam with a certain direction, FR2 beams with certain reception beam group, a FR2 wide beam, or FR2 beams with all directions, or wherein a channel busy ratio (CBR) measurement window is set based on maximum numbers of transmitting beams and receiving beams that are provided from a higher layer (FIG. 6, item 610).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Nokia to incorporate the teachings of Ryu and include wherein the channel occupancy ratio and the channel busy ratio are received from a higher layer, or, wherein the channel occupancy ratio and the channel busy ratio are obtained from a measuring by the first device, the measuring performed by the first device configured to use receiving a FR2 beam with a certain direction, FR2 beams with certain reception beam group, a FR2 wide beam, or FR2 beams with all directions, or wherein a channel busy ratio (CBR) measurement window is set based on maximum numbers of transmitting beams and receiving beams that are provided from a higher layer of Ryu with Nokia. Doing so would improve LTE and NR technologies (Ryu, paragraph [0004]).
Regarding claims 13, Nokia does not explicitly teach wherein at least one of the channel occupancy ratio or the channel busy ratio is defined per a beam, or wherein at least one of the channel occupancy ratio (CR) and/or a limit of the CR (CR.sub.limit) have relations with a priority value of at least one of PSCCH, PSSCH, SL-PRS, or other RS/CH, and/or has relation with beam directions, or wherein at least one of a list of channel busy ratio (CBR) including multiple CBR measurements or a list of channel occupancy ratio (CR) including multiple measures is configured for the first device.
However, Ryu teaches wherein at least one of the channel occupancy ratio or the channel busy ratio is defined per a beam, or wherein at least one of the channel occupancy ratio (CR) and/or a limit of the CR (CR.sub.limit) have relations with a priority value of at least one of PSCCH, PSSCH, SL-PRS, or other RS/CH, and/or has relation with beam directions, or wherein at least one of a list of channel busy ratio (CBR) including multiple CBR measurements or a list of channel occupancy ratio (CR) including multiple measures is configured for the first device (FIG. 6, item 610).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Nokia to incorporate the teachings of Ryu and include wherein at least one of the channel occupancy ratio or the channel busy ratio is defined per a beam, or wherein at least one of the channel occupancy ratio (CR) and/or a limit of the CR (CR.sub.limit) have relations with a priority value of at least one of PSCCH, PSSCH, SL-PRS, or other RS/CH, and/or has relation with beam directions, or wherein at least one of a list of channel busy ratio (CBR) including multiple CBR measurements or a list of channel occupancy ratio (CR) including multiple measures is configured for the first device of Ryu with Nokia. Doing so would improve LTE and NR technologies (Ryu, paragraph [0004]).
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1-7 and 9-20 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
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Freda (US 2022/0150730) details sidelink radio link.
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 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 Jasper Kwoh whose telephone number is (408)918-7644. The examiner can normally be reached Tuesday through Friday, 10am to 4pm Pacific.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Jeffrey Rutkowski can be reached at (571) 270-1215. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JASPER KWOH/Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2415
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