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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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)(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 1-7, 10-21, and 24-28 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Hong et al (2025/0331002).
Regarding claims 1 and 15, Hong discloses a method and a user equipment (UE) (see wireless device in figure 15) for wireless communication, comprising: one or more memories; and one or more processors, coupled to the one or more memories, the one or more processors individually or collectively configured to cause the UE to: receive a sidelink carrier aggregation configuration including a configuration for sidelink radio link failure (RLF) detection (see a sidelink Carrier Aggregation (CA) configuration in paragraphs 0252, 0265; a sidelink radio link failure in paragraphs 0284) to: select one or more sidelink carriers (see a sidelink carrier selection procedure in the abstract and paragraph 0257); detect a sidelink carrier failure associated with a failed sidelink carrier from among the one or more sidelink carriers (see detect a sidelink Radio Link Failure (SL RLF) in paragraph 0249), and recover from the sidelink carrier failure in accordance with a reselection of at least one of the one or more sidelink carriers from among one or more candidate sidelink carriers (see recovery from radio link failure (RLF) in paragraphs 0105, 0172); and transmit a sidelink communication in accordance with the one or more sidelink carriers (see transmit one or more SL TBs (e.g., PSSCH transmissions) via the (re-)selected one or more SL carriers in paragraph 0252).
Regarding claims 2 and 16, Hong discloses detecting a sidelink RLF as a result of a failed attempt to recover from the sidelink carrier failure (see detection of and recovery from radio link failure (RLF in paragraphs 0105, 0283-0284).
Regarding claims 3 and 17, Hong discloses wherein an indication of the sidelink carrier failure includes one or more of: a maximum discontinuous transmission; a maximum quantity of retransmissions; an integrity check failure; or a timer expiration (see The UE may detect the beam failure based on a determination that a quality of beam pair link(s) of an associated control channel is unsatisfactory (e.g., having an error rate higher than an error rate threshold, a received signal power lower than a received signal power threshold, an expiration of a timer, and/or the like) in paragraph 0172).
Regarding claims 4 and 18, Hong discloses wherein the one or more candidate sidelink carriers includes the failed sidelink carrier (see The wireless device may have a plurality of SL candidate carriers selected during the SL carrier (re-)selection procedure according to the example embodiment(s). The wireless device may select one of the plurality of SL candidate carriers as an SL carrier (e.g., of a replacement the first SL carrier and/or a new SL carrier to be used for SL communications with the second wireless device) selected during the SL carrier (re-)selection procedure in paragraphs 0287; detect a sidelink Radio Link Failure (SL RLF) in paragraph 0249).
Regarding claims 5 and 19, Hong discloses wherein the one or more candidate sidelink carriers excludes the failed sidelink carrier (see Upon determining and/or detecting the SL RLF (e.g., HARQ-based SL RLF), the first wireless device may release (equivalent to “exclude”) the PC5-RRC connection (e.g., release the SL configuration and the SRBs of DRBs) established (e.g., maintained and/or configured) with a second wireless device (e.g., receiving wireless device) in paragraph 0273).
Regarding claims 6 and 20, Hong discloses wherein the configuration for sidelink RLF detection further includes one or more configurations for: setting a timer for an amount of time, and excluding the failed sidelink carrier from among the one or more candidate sidelink carriers until the amount of time has elapsed (see the BWP inactivity timer expires in paragraph 0128; A UE may initiate a beam failure recovery (BFR) procedure based on detecting a beam failure in paragraph 0172; The first wireless device may determine a first carrier as a candidate SL carrier for SL carrier (re-)selection for a first sidelink logical channel in paragraph 0257. Note that after a sitelink carrier failure occurred, the sitelink carrier will be released and reactivated later after a period when the sitelink carrier has recovered and become available).
Regarding claims 7 and 21, Hong discloses wherein the configuration for sidelink RLF detection further includes one or more configurations for transmitting, to a network node, a sidelink carrier failure report identifying the failed sidelink carrier (see The base station may configure the UE with a reporting configuration and the UE may report the RSRP measurements to a network in paragraph 0168; a SL CSI report in paragraph 0297).
Regarding claims 10-14 and 24-28, claims 10-14 and 24-28 claim a network node and a method performed by the network node that is in communication with the UE claimed in claims 1, 4-7, 15, and 18-21 where the process performed by the network node is a reverse process performed by the UE. Claims 10-14 and 24-28 further include a downlink signal identifying a sidelink carrier from among one or more available sidelink carriers. Hong discloses this feature (see The UE may monitor a set of PDCCH candidates in one or more CORESETs for detecting one or more DCIs and carrier availability in paragraphs 0202, 0257, 0285). Claims 10-14 and 24-28 are, therefore, subject to the same rejection.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 8-9 and 22-23 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to BRIAN D NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)272-3084. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8:00 - 4:30.
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, 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.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/BRIAN D NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2475
Prosecution Insights