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.
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 1/5/2026 has been entered.
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.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 2024/0089938 (hereinafter Cheng) in view of US 2022/0046600 (hereinafter Hosseini).
Regarding claims 1, 8 and 15, Cheng teaches method comprising: receiving, by a first wireless device from a base station, a message comprising configuration parameters of a resource pool for one or more first sidelink transmissions (FIG. 4, 410; FIG. 5, 510: details SL-U configuration; LBT configuration); determining, based on a channel access priority class (CAPC) value of the one or more first sidelink transmissions, a first quantity of consecutive time slots, that are within a duration of a maximum channel occupancy time (COT), for a multi-consecutive slots transmission (MCSt) of the one or more first sidelink transmissions (FIG. 2, 200, 211, 212, 220a, 220b: details MCSt from UE1 having slot N+1 slot N+2 within COT… SL-U transceiving with enhancements… Multiple candidate starting symbols… MSCt resources reservation… CAPC and PQI mapping), wherein: the first quantity of consecutive time slots comprises a set of interlaced resource blocks (RBs) in a frequency domain in the resource pool (FIG. 3: details slots having PSCCH, PSSCH, G, CPE, AGC, as set of interlaced RBs; frequency bands, as in frequency domain); and the duration of the maximum COT is associated with the CAPC value (FIG. 2, 200, 211, 212, 220a, 220b; [0038]: details maximum COT… based on a CAPC value of the SL transceiving); selecting one or more resources, in the resource pool, comprising the first quantity of consecutive time slots for the MCSt of the one or more first sidelink transmissions (FIG. 9, 901: applying one or more resource selection rules to reserve MSCt resources for a SL transceiving); transmitting, to a second wireless device and via the one or more resources, the one or more first sidelink transmissions (FIG. 9, 903: performing SL transceiving with the selected MSCt resources).
Cheng does not explicitly teach receiving, from a third wireless device and via the one or more resources, a second sidelink transmission after transmitting the one or more first sidelink transmissions.
However, Hosseini teaches receiving, from a third wireless device and via the one or more resources (FIG. 7; [0074]-[0082]: details resource selection window), a second sidelink transmission after transmitting the one or more first sidelink transmissions (FIG. 8, 810, 804; [0082]-[0116]: details receive from the first UE SL resource information after transmitting second request).
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 Cheng to incorporate the teachings of Hosseini and include receiving, from a third wireless device and via the one or more resources, a second sidelink transmission after transmitting the one or more first sidelink transmissions of Hosseini with Cheng. Doing so would minimize risk of collisions and sidelink resource inefficiency (Hosseini, at paragraph [0081]).
Regarding claims 2, 9 and 16, Cheng teaches wherein the message comprises at least one of: a medium access control control element (MAC CE); or a downlink control information (DCI) ([0025]: (pre-)configuration signaling can be transmitted via SIB and/or (PC5-) RRC and/or (PC5-) MAC-CE and/or DCI).
Regarding claims 3, 10 and 17, Cheng teaches wherein a sidelink bandwidth part (BWP), comprising the resource pool, is on a shared spectrum with a plurality of radio access technologies (RATs) (FIG. 4, 401; preconfigured per BWP, as sidelink bandwidth part; preconfigured per system, as shared spectrum with RATs).
Regarding claims 4, 11 and 18, Cheng teaches wherein the resource pool comprises one or more resource block (RB) sets ([0037]: details per RB set).
Regarding claims 5, 12 and 19, Cheng teaches wherein an RB set of the one or more RB sets indicates a set of contiguous RBs in a frequency domain for performing a listen-before-talk (LBT) based channel access procedure (FIG. 3, 211, 212, 331, 332: details slots N N+1 N+2, as contiguous RBs; frequency bands… LBT start and end, as in frequency domain).
Regarding claims 6, 13 and 20, Cheng teaches wherein the message comprises a radio resource control (RRC) message ([0025]: (pre-)configuration signaling can be transmitted via SIB and/or (PC5-) RRC and/or (PC5-) MAC-CE and/or DCI).
Regarding claims 7 and 14, Cheng teaches wherein the selecting is based on at least one of: a resource selection procedure in the resource pool; or a first priority of the one or more first sidelink transmissions (FIG. 9, 901: applying one or more resource selection rules to reserve MSCt resources for a SL transceiving).
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1-20 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
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/JASPER KWOH/Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2415