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 .
This Office Action is a response to communications dated 01/13/2026 and 10/03/2024. Claims 21-40 are pending in the application.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement filed 10/03/2024 complies with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97, 1.98 and MPEP § 609. It has been considered and placed in the application file.
Drawings
The drawings are objected to under 37 CFR 1.83(a). The drawings must show every feature of the invention specified in the claims. Therefore, the “excluding the candidate single-slot resources whose associated one or more resources are included where LBT failure has been indicated” as commonly recited in base claims 21, 33, and 40 must be shown or the feature(s) canceled from the claim(s). No new matter should be entered.
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.
Specification
The specification is objected to as failing to provide proper antecedent basis for the claimed subject matter. See 37 CFR 1.75(d)(1) and MPEP § 608.01(o). Correction of the following is required: the “excluding the candidate single-slot resources whose associated one or more resources are included where LBT failure has been indicated” as commonly recited in base claims 21, 33, and 40.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112(a):
(a) IN GENERAL.—The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor or joint inventor of carrying out the invention.
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112:
The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor of carrying out his invention.
Claims 21-40 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the written description requirement. The claim(s) contains subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to reasonably convey to one skilled in the relevant art that the inventor or a joint inventor, or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the inventor(s), at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention.
As per claims 21-40, there is no support for the claim limitation of the “excluding the candidate single-slot resources whose associated one or more resources are included where LBT failure has been indicated” as commonly recited in base claims 21, 33, and 40. The claim limitation appears to be introduced in the pre-liminary amendment dated 10/03/2024. In the specification of the instant application, paragraph [0060], there is a feature as “(A5) The TxUE40T excludes resources (any candidate single-slot resources Rx,y) satisfying all of the following conditions from the set SA” is disclosed. Furthermore, paragraph [0061], it is further disclosed “a) A slot t'mSL that is not sensed in step A2” and paragraph [0062]: “b) A slot that can be used for sidelink transmission based on a list of periodicity of sidelink transmission and decoded PSSCH (an SCI format 1-A that is received in the slot t'mSL and includes a 'Resource reservation period' field).” From the disclosed feature, the claimed limitation of “excluding the candidate single-slot resources whose associated one or more resources are included where LBT failure has been indicated” cannot be unambiguously derived to reasonably convey to one skilled in the relevant art that the inventors, at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention.
Should the Applicant disagree with the examiner’s position in the rejection, kindly point out the support in the specification of the instant application.
Allowable Subject Matter
Should a response to this Office Action overcome the above raised issues, the instant application shall be placed in a favorable condition for allowance because the claims appear to recite a novel and unobvious invention having the features of “in case that sidelink resource allocation is performed in a predetermined mode, define candidate single-slot resources for transmission as a set of contiguous sub-channels, exclude the candidate single-slot resources whose associated one or more resources are included where LBT failure has been indicated, determine a resource set based on the candidate single-slot resources, randomly select resources for the sidelink transmission from the resource set, transmit sidelink data to the another communication apparatus using the selected resources,” structurally and functionally interconnected in a manner as claimed with the considered relevant references listed hereinbelow fail to suggest or render obvious either singular or in a combinable consideration.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Kim et al. (US 2018/0249484).
Xue et al. (US 2022/0061095).
Farag et al. (US 2023/0025259).
Chen et al. (US 2023/0300885).
Chen et al,. (US 2023/0309145).
Lee et al. (US 11,647,540).
Hwang et al. (US 2024/0334476).
Ko et al. (US 12,004,133).
Cheng et al. (US 2025/0133581).
Li (US 12,279,234).
Huang et al. (US 12,302,394).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to FRANK DUONG whose telephone number is (571)272-3164. The examiner can normally be reached 7:00AM-3:30PM.
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, MICHAEL THIER can be reached at 571-272-2832. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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Applicant is encouraged to submit a written authorization for Internet communications (PTO/SB/439, http://www.uspto.gov/sites/default/files/documents/sb0439.pdf) in the instant patent application to authorize the examiner to communicate with the applicant via email. The authorization will allow the examiner to better practice compact prosecution. The written authorization can be submitted via one of the following methods only: (1) Central Fax which can be found in the Conclusion section of this Office action; (2) regular postal mail; (3) EFS WEB; or (4) the service window on the Alexandria campus. EFS web is the recommended way to submit the form since this allows the form to be entered into the file wrapper within the same day (system dependent). Written authorization submitted via other methods, such as direct fax to the examiner or email, will not be accepted. See MPEP § 502.03.
/FRANK DUONG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2474 September 09, 2026
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