Response to Amendment
This Office Action is in response to a communication received on April 28, 2026.
This application has been reassigned to a new examiner. The examiner’s contact information is found at the end of the office action.
Claims 1-20 are pending in this application.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments received April 28, 2026 have been received and are persuasive. As result the 35 USC §103 rejection has been withdrawn. However a new grounds of rejection is being provided below.
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 1-2, 3-9, 11-16, and 18-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Liu et al (US 2024/0048329, hereinafter “Liu”).
Regarding claims 1, 8, and 15, Liu teaches a method comprising:
receiving, by a wireless device, one or more radio resource control (RRC) messages comprising configuration parameters (see ¶130, wherein the base station transmits the configuration to a UE, see ¶127 wherein the configuration can be transmitted using RRC messages) indicating:
a sidelink resource pool of a sidelink bandwidth part (BWP) configured in a shared spectrum (see ¶¶57 and 130, wherein the frequency configuration is provided to the UE and in at least one embodiments the frequency can be communicated in the form of a BWP);
one or more resource blocks (RBs) for a physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH) transmission via the sidelink resource pool (¶¶120 and 130, wherein the UEs are provided with a plurality of RB sets of which to configure PSFCH resources); and
a first common interlace index, among a plurality of common interlace indexes, configured for the PSFCH transmission via the sidelink resource pool (¶¶120 and 130, wherein the UE is provided an interlace index of which a common set of resources of PSSCH and PSFCH can be mapped);
determining multiple common RBs of a first common interlace corresponding to the first common interlace index (¶¶125, 131, 134-35 wherein the UE is configured to determine which PSFCH resources to use based upon the RB sets and the associated PSSCH resources), wherein an index of each of the multiple common RBs is based on:
an interlaced RB index corresponding to the first common interlace index (see ¶¶125, 131, 134-35, wherein the a mapping index between the interlaces PSFCH and PSSCH resources are used to determine RB resources); and
a first common RB index indicating a starting RB of the sidelink BWP (see ¶¶145, wherein in at least one embodiments one RB is a leading RB); and
transmitting, during a PSFCH slot, one or more sidelink transmissions:
via at least one RB of the one or more RBs (¶¶125,132, 136, and 145, wherein the UE transmits a sidelink feedback transmission over the mapped RB of the PSFCH); and
via the multiple common RBs (¶¶125,132, 136, and 145, wherein the mapped PSFCH have common RB sets with other channels).
Regarding claims 2, 9, and 16, Liu teaches the method of claims 1, 8, and 15, wherein the one or more sidelink transmissions comprise hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) information (¶140, wherein the sidelink communication can be ACK associated with HARQ transmissions).
Regarding claims 4, 11, and 18, Liu teaches the method of claims 1, 8, and 15, wherein the PSFCH slot comprises one or more PSFCH transmission occasions (see ¶132, wherein the transmission can be an PSFCH occasion).
Regarding claim 5, 12, and 19, Liu teaches the method of claims 1, 8, and 15, further comprising performing a channel access procedure before the transmitting the one or more sidelink transmissions (¶¶122 and 132, wherein the UE has to perform channel access procedure).
Regarding claims 6 and 13, Liu teaches the method of claims 5 and 12, further comprising transmitting, based on the channel access procedure indicating that a channel is idle, the one or more sidelink transmissions (¶¶122 and 132, wherein the type 2 channel access procedure to perform channel sensing looking for an idle channel to avoid contention and interference).
Regarding claims 7, 14, and 20, Liu teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the transmitting the one or more sidelink transmissions comprises transmitting the one or more sidelink transmissions via the multiple common RBs in a frequency domain (¶135 and ¶33, wherein the sets of RBs are associated with shared frequency of a frequency band).
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.
Claim 3, 10, and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liu in view of Si et al (US 2023/0028000, hereinafter “Si”).
Regarding claims 3, 10, and 17, Liu teaches the method of claims 1, 8, and 15.
However Liu does not explicitly indicate wherein the transmitting the one or more sidelink transmissions via the multiple common RBs is for one or more occupancy channel bandwidth (OCB) requirements.
Si teaches a system of managing configuration of PSFCH resources including RB sets, wherein Si suggestions that the allocation of the RB resources should comply with OCB requirements (see ¶84).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to use Si’s suggestion of ensuring that the interlace resource pool should comply with OCB requirements to ensure the interlace RB sets of Liu complies with the requirements and complies with regulation of the spectrum.
Pertinent Prior Art
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
US 2023/0370232 issued to Liu et al., because it teaches specifics about configuration of PSFCH resources using index information and RRC configurations.
US 2023/0371089 issued to Liu et al., because it teaches discussion about how feedback channel resources are selected and configured.
Conclusion
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/KEVIN T BATES/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2472
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