Patent Application 17994041 - COMMUNICATION METHOD AND APPARATUS - Rejection

Patent Application 17994041 - COMMUNICATION METHOD AND APPARATUS

Title: COMMUNICATION METHOD AND APPARATUS

Application Information

• Invention Title: COMMUNICATION METHOD AND APPARATUS
• Application Number: 17994041
• Submission Date: 2025-05-14T00:00:00.000Z
• Effective Filing Date: 2022-11-25T00:00:00.000Z
• Filing Date: 2022-11-25T00:00:00.000Z
• National Class: 370
• National Sub-Class: 329000
• Examiner Employee Number: 94960
• Art Unit: 2469
• Tech Center: 2400

Rejection Summary

• 102 Rejections: 0
• 103 Rejections: 4

Cited Patents

The following patents were cited in the rejection:

• US 0279451🔗
• US 0399927🔗
• US 0353042🔗
• US 0174655🔗
• US 0103557🔗

Office Action Text

    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 .

Response to Arguments
Applicant’s Amendments and Arguments filed 04/28/2025 have been considered for examination. 

With regard to the objections to Abstract and Claims, Applicant’s arguments filed 04/28/2025 in view of the amendments have been fully considered and are persuasive. Thus, the objections to Abstract and Claims have been withdrawn.

With regard to the 103 rejections, Applicant’s arguments filed 04/28/2025 in view of the amendments have been fully considered but are moot because the arguments do not apply to any of the references being used in the current rejection. 

Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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.	
Claims 1, 6 and 11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tsai et al (US Publication No. 2022/0174655) in view of Gao et al (US Publication No. 2022/0353042).

Regarding claim 1, Tsai discloses, a communication method, comprising: 
sending, by a first terminal apparatus [¶0186, Tx UE; note that since ¶0186 describes a sidelink communication including SCI, TCI, measurements corresponding to X SL reference signals, at least Tx UE and Rx UE involving the sidelink communication are implicit] to a second terminal apparatus [¶0186, Rx UE; note that since ¶0186 describes a sidelink communication including SCI, TCI, measurements corresponding to X SL reference signals, at least Tx UE and Rx UE involving the sidelink communication are implicit], first indication information for indicating a first sidelink transmission configuration indication (SL TCI) of a first reference signal [¶0186, SCI scheduling assignment for providing a transmission configuration indicator (TCI) for SL CSI-RS linked/QCLed with the DM-RS, stated as “The TCI provided as part of the SCI scheduling assignment indicates the QCL relations to use which reception beam to use for PSSCH”, “SL DM-RS may be configured as one of SL CSI-RS port to save antenna port overhead, this can be done by using TCI to indicate which DM-RS is linked with SL CSI-RS, for example as shown in FIG. 5” and “SCI indicates which SL CSI-RS is QCLed with DM-RS”] . . .; and 
sending, by the first terminal apparatus to the second terminal apparatus, the first reference signal on the first channel [¶0186, the V2X UE can report measurements corresponding to up to number of X SL reference signals (either SL-CSI-RS or SL-SSBs), where number of X SL reference signals can be either indicated by PC5-MAC-CE (if semi-persistent SPS reporting) or SCI (aperiodical reporting). Each such report includes: the measured L1-RSRP of the strongest SL-CSI-RS and the remaining up to X-1 SL-CSI-RS: The difference between the measured SL L1-RSRP and the measured SL L1-RSRP of the best SL-CSI-RS; note that since the SL CSI-RS is a reference signal with respect to which the Rx UE (see “V2X UE” in ¶0186) can report measurements, the SL CSI-RS is required to be transmitted from the Tx UE to the Rx UE].  
Although Tsai discloses, “first indication information for indicating a first sidelink transmission configuration indication (SL TCI) of a first reference signal” as set forth above, Tsai does not explicitly disclose (see, italicized limitations), but Gao discloses, first indication information for indicating a first sidelink transmission configuration indication (SL TCI) identifier of a first reference signal, and the first SL TCI identifier indicates a channel feature of a first channel experienced by the first channel used to transmit the first reference signal [¶0054, transmission state includes at least one of: quasi-co-location (QCL) state, transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state, spatial relation (also referred to as spatial relation information), reference signal (RS), spatial filter, or pre-coding. A transmission state identifier (ID) includes at least one of QCL state index, TCI state index, spatial relation index, reference signal index, spatial filter index, or precoding index. … QCL state in this document can be used interchangeably with Transmission Configuration Indicator (TCI) state, which comprises one or more reference RSs (i.e., first reference signal) and their corresponding QCL type parameters, such as Doppler spread, Doppler shift, delay spread, average delay, average gain, and spatial parameter (i.e., channel feature of the first reference signal); note that the QCL type parameters, such as Doppler spread, Doppler shift, delay spread, average delay, average gain, and spatial parameter (i.e., channel feature) is experienced by at least one channel used to transmit the one or more RSs].
It is noted that the above-mentioned feature is a known technique in the field Applicant's endeavor, e.g., telecommunication art.
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to combine the system of Tsai with "the above-mentioned known feature(s)" taught by Gao to reach the claimed invention as set forth above. Since one having ordinary skill in the art could have recognized that applying the known technique taught by Gao into the system of Tsai would have yield predictable results and/or resulted in the improved system, such as e.g., enabling precise control of spatial transmission resources and improving overall network performance and user experience, such a modification (or application) would have involved the mere application of a known technique to a piece of prior art ready for improvement," the claim is unpatentable under 35 U.S.C. 103(a). Ex Parte Smith, 83 USPQ.2d 1509, 1518-19 (BPAI, 2007) (citing KSR v. Teleflex, 127 S.Ct. 1727, 1740, 82 USPQ2d 1385, 1396 (2007)).

Regarding claim 6, claim 6 merely different from claim 1 in that it recites claimed features from the perspective of a counter-part terminal apparatus, but recites similar features to claim 1 without further additional features. Thus, claim 6 is rejected at least based on a similar rationale applied to claim 1.

Regarding claim 11, Tsai discloses, a terminal apparatus [¶0186, Tx UE; note that since ¶0186 describes a sidelink communication including SCI, TCI, measurements corresponding to X SL reference signals, at least Tx UE and Rx UE involving the sidelink communication are implicit], comprising: 
a memory storing computer-readable instructions [¶0186, note that every UE has at least one memory storing computer-readable instructions]; 
a processor connected to the memory [¶0186, note that every UE has at least one processor connected to the memory]; and 
a transmitter, coupled to the processor [¶0186, note that every UE has at least one transmitter coupled to the processor]; 
wherein the processor is configured to execute the computer-readable instructions to 
[¶0186, note that every UE has at least one processor configured to execute the computer-readable instructions to perform action(s)].
	Thus, claim 11 is rejected at least based on a similar rationale applied to claim 1.

Claims 3-4, 8, 10 and 13-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tsai et al (US Publication No. 2022/0174655) in view of Gao et al (US Publication No. 2022/0353042) and further in view of Li et al (US Publication No. 2023/0103557).

Regarding claim 3, Tsai in view of Gao discloses, the method according to claim 1 and particularly, “SL TCI identifier” as set forth above. Tsai in view of Gao does not explicitly disclose (see, italicized limitations), but Li discloses, 
determining NSL-TCI SL TCI identifiers, wherein NSL-TCI is a positive integer greater than or equal to 1, and the first SL TCI identifier belongs to the NSL-TCI SL TCI identifiers [¶0060, the MAC signaling further indicates which TCI state of the plurality of activated TCI states is configured for the control channel … the set of TCI states given by the RRC signaling includes TCI #0, TCI #1, TCI #2 . . . TCI #63, ; ¶0077-0078, in S21, a set of TCI state indication signalings is received; in S22, TCI states of a plurality of channels are determined based on the set of TCI state indication signalings]; and 
sending first configuration information to the second terminal apparatus, wherein the first configuration information is for configuring the NSL-TCI SL TCI identifiers for the second terminal apparatus [¶0060, the MAC signaling further indicates which TCI state of the plurality of activated TCI states is configured for the control channel … the set of TCI states given by the RRC signaling includes TCI #0, TCI #1, TCI #2 . . . TCI #63, ; ¶0077-0078, in S21, a set of TCI state indication signalings is received; in S22, TCI states of a plurality of channels are determined based on the set of TCI state indication signalings; further see ¶0061; note that configuring the MAC signaling in the DCI is considered as sending the MAC signaling to at least one receiving device].  
It is noted that the above-mentioned feature is a known technique in the field Applicant's endeavor, e.g., telecommunication art.
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to combine the system of Tsai in view of Gao with "the above-mentioned known feature(s)" taught by Li to reach the claimed invention as set forth above. Since one having ordinary skill in the art could have recognized that applying the known technique taught by Li into the system of Tsai in view of Gao would have yield predictable results and/or resulted in the improved system, such as e.g., enabling precise control of spatial transmission resources and improving overall network performance and user experience, such a modification (or application) would have involved the mere application of a known technique to a piece of prior art ready for improvement," the claim is unpatentable under 35 U.S.C. 103(a). Ex Parte Smith, 83 USPQ.2d 1509, 1518-19 (BPAI, 2007) (citing KSR v. Teleflex, 127 S.Ct. 1727, 1740, 82 USPQ2d 1385, 1396 (2007)).

Regarding claim 4, Tsai in view of Gao and Li discloses, the method according to claim 3 and particularly, “SL TCI identifier” as set forth above. Tsai discloses, wherein the determining NSL-TCI SL TCI identifiers includes: determining the NSL-TCI SL TCI identifiers [see supra rejections as set forth above in claim 3] based on a quantity of panels, transmission beams, or antennas of the first terminal apparatus [¶0197, if N.sub.s=2, then it can imply that a V2X UE according to an embodiment of the disclosure has at least two panels that are spatially orthogonal, which may occur when a vehicle mounts its two panels at the front and rear bumpers].

Regarding claim 8, claim 8 is merely different from claim 3 in that it recites claimed features from the perspective of a counter-part terminal apparatus, but recites similar features to claim 3 without further additional features. Thus, claim 8 is rejected at least based on a similar rationale applied to claim 3.

Regarding claim 10, Tsai in view of Gao discloses, the method according to claim 6 as set forth above. Tsai in view of Gao does not explicitly disclose (see, italicized limitations), but Li discloses, determining NSL-TCI SL TCI identifiers based on configuration information of a receiving resource pool, wherein NSL-TCI is a positive integer greater than or equal to 1, and the first SL TCI identifier belongs to the NSL-TCI SL TCI identifiers [¶0060, the MAC signaling further indicates which TCI state of the plurality of activated TCI states is configured for the control channel … the set of TCI states given by the RRC signaling includes TCI #0, TCI #1, TCI #2 . . . TCI #63, ; ¶0077-0078, in S21, a set of TCI state indication signalings is received; in S22, TCI states of a plurality of channels are determined based on the set of TCI state indication signalings; note that the set of TCI states of the configured RRC signaling are determined based on configuration information of a receiving resource pool].  
	It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide the above-mentioned feature(s) as taught by Li in the system of Tsai for similar rationales set forth above in claim 3.

Regarding claim 13, claim 13 is rejected at least based on a similar rationale applied to claim 3.

Regarding claim 14, Tsai in view of Gao and Li discloses, the apparatus according to claim 13 as set forth above. Tsai discloses, panels or antennas, wherein the antennas are configured to transmit using transmission beams [¶0147, an embodiment may include a vehicle (or UE) that is equipped with two panels, each associated with multiple antennas and at least one transceiver (TXRU)], and Tsai in view of Gao and Li discloses, wherein the processor is further configured to determine the NSL-TCI SL TCI identifiers by determining the NSL-TCI SL TCI identifiers based on a quantity of the panels, the transmission beams formed by the antennas, or the antennas [see supra rejections set forth above in claim 4].  
	Thus, claim 14 is rejected at least based on a similar rationale applied to claim 4.

Claims 2, 7 and 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tsai et al (US Publication No. 2022/0174655) in view of Gao et al (US Publication No. 2022/0353042) and further in view of Tsai’927 et al (US Publication No. 2022/0399927)1.

Regarding claim 2, Tsai in view of Gao discloses, the method according to claim 1 as set forth above. Tsai discloses, wherein the first reference signal includes a sidelink channel state information reference signal [¶0186, SL CSI-RS]. 
Tsai in view of Gao does not explicitly disclose (see, italicized limitations), but Tsai’927 discloses, the first indication information is carried in second-stage sidelink control information [¶0186, Since the TCI state is for the indication of SL-RS associating with PSCCH or PSSCH, therefore, TCI state can be carried by the 2nd-stage SCI] (see also e.g., ¶0135 of Provisional Application No. 62/933,824)
	The above-mentioned feature is a known technique in the field Applicant's endeavor, e.g., telecommunication art. 
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to combine the system of Tsai in view of Gao with "the above-mentioned known feature(s)" taught by Tsai’927 to reach the claimed invention as set forth above. Since one having ordinary skill in the art could have recognized that applying the known technique taught by Tsai’927 into the system of Tsai in view of Gao would have yield predictable results and/or resulted in the improved system, such as e.g., enabling direct communication between user equipment in sidelink sicarios, such a modification (or application) would have involved the mere application of a known technique to a piece of prior art ready for improvement," the claim is unpatentable under 35 U.S.C. 103(a). Ex Parte Smith, 83 USPQ.2d 1509, 1518-19 (BPAI, 2007) (citing KSR v. Teleflex, 127 S.Ct. 1727, 1740, 82 USPQ2d 1385, 1396 (2007)). 

Regarding claim 7, claim 7 is rejected at least based on a similar rationale applied to claim 2.

Regarding claim 12, claim 12 is rejected at least based on a similar rationale applied to claim 2.

Claims 5, 9 and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tsai et al (US Publication No. 2022/0174655) in view of Gao et al (US Publication No. 2022/0353042) and further in view of Yoshioka et al (US Publication No. 2022/0279451).

Regarding claim 5, Tsai in view of Gao discloses, the method according to claim 3 as set forth above. Tsai in view of Gao does not explicitly disclose (see, italicized limitations), but Yoshioka discloses, wherein the first configuration information is carried in a radio resource control message of a PC5 interface [¶0171, When a TCI state is (pre)configured for a sidelink channel by a network, when a TCI state is configured for a sidelink channel by a PC5-RRC message transmitted from another terminal 20, which is sidelink RRC signaling]. 
	The above-mentioned feature is a known technique in the field Applicant's endeavor, e.g., telecommunication art. 
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to combine the system of Tsai in view of Gao with "the above-mentioned known feature(s)" taught by Yoshioka to reach the claimed invention as set forth above. Since one having ordinary skill in the art could have recognized that applying the known technique taught by Yoshioka into the system of Tsai in view of Gao would have yield predictable results and/or resulted in the improved system, such as e.g., enabling direct communication between user equipment in sidelink sicarios, such a modification (or application) would have involved the mere application of a known technique to a piece of prior art ready for improvement," the claim is unpatentable under 35 U.S.C. 103(a). Ex Parte Smith, 83 USPQ.2d 1509, 1518-19 (BPAI, 2007) (citing KSR v. Teleflex, 127 S.Ct. 1727, 1740, 82 USPQ2d 1385, 1396 (2007)).

Regarding claim 9, claim 9 is rejected at least based on a similar rationale applied to claim 5.  

Regarding claim 15, claim 15 is rejected at least based on a similar rationale applied to claim 5. 
  
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SUN JONG KIM whose telephone number is (571)270-3216.  The examiner can normally be reached on 7:30am-5:30pm (M-T).
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.f attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Ian Moore can be reached on (571) 272-3085.  The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/SUN JONG KIM/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2469                                                                                                                                                                                                        




    
        
            
    

    
        1 Tsai’927 claims priority of US Provisional Application No. 62/933,824 filed on 11/11/2019, thus Tsai’927 is qualified as a prior art under 102(a)(2) for the instant application with the effective filing date 05/27/2020.