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 .
The preliminary amendment filed on 03/21/2025 has been entered. Claims 4, 6, 9, 12, 14, 16 and 19 are amended. Claims 1-20 are pending and addressed below.
Specification
The title of the invention is not descriptive. A new title is required that is clearly indicative of the invention to which the claims are directed.
Drawings
The drawings are objected to under 37 CFR 1.83(a) because they fail to show descriptive texts in Figs. 1A, 1B, 2 and 4 for various numbered steps or labels as described in the specification. Any structural detail that is essential for a proper understanding of the disclosed invention should be shown in the drawing. MPEP § 608.02(d). Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Claim Objections
Claims 1, 9, 16 are objected to because claims recite “a third message” without reciting a first and a second message. Similar objection applies to claims 5, 13, and 20 reciting “a fourth message”.
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 4, 12 and 19 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.
Claim 4 recites the limitation "whether a third message associated with a destination layer 2 identifier or a service type is transmitted based on the default frequency" in lines 5-6. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim. It is unclear if it is the same third message as in claim 1 upon which it depends or a different third message. Claims 12 and 19 are subjected to the same rejection for the same reason.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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.
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-3, 5, 7, 9-11, 13, 15-18 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by IDS reference Choi; Su Han et al US 20200328865 A1, hereinafter Choi.
Regarding claim 1, 9 and 16, Choi teaches, a communication method, wherein the method is applied to a first user equipment, and the method comprises:
obtaining first indication information for a default frequency (A default frequency is interpreted as a default/initial/preconfigured frequency bandwidth. Choi [0076] “A default SL BWP used for initial communication (e.g., initial transmission) in the groupcast sidelink communication may be preconfigured.”), wherein the default frequency is used to communicate with a second user equipment (Choi [76] “Terminal(s) disposed outside cell coverage of a base station may be configured to perform the groupcast sidelink communication using the default SL BWP.”); and
transmitting a third message to the second user equipment at the default frequency, wherein the third message comprises a PC5-RRC message or a PC5-S message (A third message is interpreted as any message between the terminals of the sidelink communication (Choi [97] “Referring back to FIGS. 7A and 7B, the terminal #1 may be configured to generate a third message including configuration information of the SL BWP(s) and transmit the third message to the participating terminals (e.g., terminal #2, . . . , terminal # n) (S704). … The third message may be an RRC message, a MAC message, or a PHY message. The third message may be transmitted and received via the default SL BWP (e.g., SL BWP #0).”; [0065] “The control plane protocol stack shown in FIG. 5 may include a PHY layer, a MAC layer, an RLC layer, and a radio resource control (RRC) layer. The sidelink communications between the UEs 235 and 236 may be performed using a PC5 interface (e.g., PC5-C interface).”, implying RRC message is a PC5-RRC message).
With respect to claim 9, claim recites the identical features of claim 1 for a corresponding apparatus. Therefore, it is subjected to the same rejection.
With respect to claim 16, claim recites the identical features of claim 1 for a corresponding non-transitory computer readable medium. Therefore, it is subjected to the same rejection.
Regarding claims 2, 10 and 17, Choi teaches the method/apparatus/CRM, as outlined in the rejection of claims 1, 9 and 16.
Choi further teaches, wherein the default frequency is preconfigured by a network or predefined (Choi [0078] “The default SL BWP may be predefined in the 3GPP technical specification, …”, [0081] “Configuration information of the default SL BWP may be transmitted to the terminals in an access procedure (e.g., attach procedure) between the terminals (e.g., terminal #1, terminal #2, . . . , terminal # n) and the base station.”).
Regarding claims 3, 11 and 18, Choi teaches the method/apparatus/CRM, as outlined in the rejection of claims 1, 9 and 16.
Choi further teaches, wherein the default frequency is obtained from an upper layer of the first user equipment (Choi [0083] “Terminals connected to the base station (e.g., terminals operating in an RRC connected state or an RRC inactive state) may be configured to obtain configuration information of the default SL BWP from the base station.”, implying SL BWP configuration is obtained from upper RRC layer).
Regarding claims 5, 13 and 20, Choi teaches the method/apparatus/CRM, as outlined in the rejection of claims 1, 9 and 16.
Choi further teaches, wherein a fourth message associated with the third message is also transmitted at the default frequency (Choi [102] “When the configuration of the SL BWP(s) is completed, each of the participating terminals may be configured to transmit to the base station a fourth message indicating that the configuration of the SL BWP (s) has been completed (S706).”, [103] “The fourth message may be transmitted and received via the default SL BWP (e.g., SL BWP #0)”).
Regarding claims 7 and 15, Choi teaches the method/apparatus, as outlined in the rejection of claims 1 and 9.
Choi further teaches, wherein the default frequency corresponds to a carrier or a bandwidth part (see rejection of claims 1 and 9 above, teaching bandwidth part).
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.
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 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.
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.
Claims 4, 6, 8, 12, 14 and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Choi, in view of IDS reference, R2-1710085, Huawei, Discussion on the Tx carrier selection for PC5 CA, 3GPP TSG-RAN WG2 Meeting #99bis, Prague, Czech Republic, 9 - 13 October 2017, hereinafter NPL-H.
Regarding claims 4, 12 and 19, Choi teaches the method/apparatus/CRM, as outlined in the rejection of claims 1, 9 and 16.
Choi does not expressly teach, however, in the same field of endeavor, NPL-H teaches, further comprising: obtaining second indication information, wherein the second indication information comprises upper layer indication information or indication information received from a network, to indicate whether a third message associated with a destination layer 2 identifier or a service type is transmitted based on the default frequency ((see NPL-H, page 2, lines 13 to 21: " According to the TS 24.386 [4J (see Annex), both of the mapping between V2X service identifiers and Destination Layer-2 IDs and the mapping between V2X service identifiers and frequencies can be provisioned in the UE's upper layer. For each V2X packet to be transmitted, the upper layer will generate the associated Destination Layer-2 IDs and frequency information based on these two mapping relationships and the V2X service identifier of this packet, and then pass these two parameters to the AS layer", teaches upper layer indication and destination layer 2 identifier).
Therefore, 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 invention of Choi to include the features as taught by NPL-H above in order to facilitate Tx carrier selection for PC5 CA (NPL-H Title).
Regarding claims 6 and 14, Choi teaches the method/apparatus, as outlined in the rejection of claims 1 and 9.
Choi does not expressly teach, however, in the same field of endeavor, NPL-H teaches, further comprising: after obtaining a sidelink grant, selecting based on frequency information associated with the sidelink grant, a destination identifier corresponding to the frequency information to perform sidelink transmission (NPL-H page 1, lines 25-27 “For the case where multiple frequencies for V2X are supported, a mapping between service types and V2X frequencies is configured by upper layers. The UE should ensure a service to be transmitted on the corresponding frequency.”, page 2, lines 13 to 21: " According to the TS 24.386 [4J (see Annex), both of the mapping between V2X service identifiers and Destination Layer-2 IDs and the mapping between V2X service identifiers and frequencies can be provisioned in the UE's upper layer. For each V2X packet to be transmitted, the upper layer will generate the associated Destination Layer-2 IDs and frequency information based on these two mapping relationships and the V2X service identifier of this packet, and then pass these two parameters to the AS layer", teaches a sidelink service (i.e., sidelink grant) is associated with a frequency and there is a mapping among service, frequency, and destination identifier).
Therefore, 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 invention of Choi to include the features as taught by NPL-H above in order to facilitate Tx carrier selection for PC5 CA (NPL-H Title).
Regarding claims 8, Choi teaches the method, as outlined in the rejection of claim 1.
Choi does not expressly teach, however, in the same field of endeavor, NPL-H teaches, wherein the first user equipment supports multi-carrier communication, and the second user equipment supports single-carrier communication or multi-carrier communication (see NPL-H Titile “Tx carrier selection for PC5 CA”, 2.2 “Tx carrier selection in the AS layer”, teaches multi-carrier communication on the sidelink).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
LI; Qing US 20230040863 A1, SIDELINK BANDWIDTH PARTS WITH SIDELINK CARRIER AGGREGATION.
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/MAHBUBUL BAR CHOWDHURY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2475
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