DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
This is a final action for application number 17/885,424 in response to an amendment filed 11/21/2025; the original application filed on 08/10/2022.
Claims 1, 4-8, 11-16 and 19-29 are currently pending and have been considered below.
Claims 1, 8 and 16 are independent claims.
Claims 2, 3, 9, 10, 17 and 18 have been cancelled.
Claims 27-29 are new claims.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS), submitted on 10/07/2025 and 11/07/2025, are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Response to Arguments
Applicants’ arguments in the instant Amendment, filed on 11/21/2025, with respect to limitations listed below, have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicant’s arguments: “Xiong et al. in view of Lin et al. does not teach receiving, from the network, an indication of a position of the UE”
The Examiner disagrees with the Applicants. The Examiner respectfully submits that Lin et al. teaches once a phase coherence list (e.g., phase coherence list 1010) is generated by the network, the network can transmit the phase coherence list to the UE. Based on the information in the phase coherence list, the UE can determine the list of groups of resources that are phase coherent. Using the disjoint phase coherent resources identified in the phase coherence list, the UE can triangulate its position and/or exchange positioning data with the network, (Lin et al., Paragraph 146),
The Examiner respectfully suggests that the claim be further amended and details in the specification be incorporated to distinguish the claimed invention over prior art of record. Should the Applicant desire an interview to further clarify the claim interpretation/rejections, please contact the Examiner at 571-270-1921 to schedule an interview.
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, 4-8, 11-16, 19-26 and 29 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xiong et al. (US 2019/0178976 A1) in view of Lin et al. (US 2022/0045811 A1).
Regarding claims 1, 8 and 16, a method for performing location estimation using frequency hopping (FH) positioning reference signals (PRSs), comprising:
a user equipment device (UE), receiving, from a network, a first repetition of a FH PRS in a first frequency bandwidth, [a method performed at a network node comprising, within a position reference signal time period, broadcasting: a first position reference signal within a first frequency band and during a first time period, (Xiong et al., Paragraph 6)],
wherein the first repetition of the FH PRS is a full bandwidth PRS, [PRS is broadcast across the whole bandwidth with predefined PRS configuration information, (Xiong et al., Paragraph 71)],
switching to a second frequency bandwidth and receiving, from the network, a second repetition of the FH PRS in the second frequency bandwidth, [at least one further position reference signal within at least one further frequency band and during at least one subsequent time period, said at least one further frequency band being different to said first frequency band, (Xiong et al., Paragraph 6)],
Xiong et al. fails to explicitly teach receiving, from the network, an indication of a position of the UE,
Lin et al. teaches that once a phase coherence list (e.g., phase coherence list 1010) is generated by the network, the network can transmit the phase coherence list to the UE. Based on the information in the phase coherence list, the UE can determine the list of groups of resources that are phase coherent. Using the disjoint phase coherent resources identified in the phase coherence list, the UE can triangulate its position and/or exchange positioning data with the network, (Lin et al., Paragraph 146),
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention was made to modify Huang et al. by receiving, from the network, an indication of a position of the UE, (Lin et al., Paragraph 137), in order to determine, at the user equipment, one or more positioning measurements based on the positioning reference signal in the disjoint bandwidth segments, (Lin et al., Paragraph 7).
Regarding claims 4, 11 and 19, the method wherein the second frequency bandwidth is at least partially overlapped with the first frequency bandwidth, [further position reference signals and said first position reference signals are broadcast in different non-overlapping frequency bandwidths and time periods, while in other embodiments some of the signals may overlap in frequency where they do not overlap in time, (Xiong et al., Paragraph 13)].
Regarding claims 5, 12 and 20, the method wherein the second frequency bandwidth is a subset of a full bandwidth used for a full bandwidth PRS, [the broadcast of a first PRS block may be within one of the subframes of the PRS occasion or time period and across a frequency range which is a subset of the frequency range conventionally reserved for this signal, (Xiong et al., Paragraph 61)].
Regarding claims 6, 13 and 22, the method wherein the UE comprises a reduced capacity UE, [Narrowband user equipment will be sent configuration information that indicates a frequency time resource of one of these signals, which they may therefore receive and respond to, (Xiong et al., Paragraph 24)].
Regarding claims 7, 15 and 21, the method further comprising: the UE, reporting, to the network, measurements of at least the first repetition of the FH PRS and the second repetition of the FH PRS, [The measurements performed at the user equipment consist of estimating the time offsets between the PRS signals received from different network nodes. It then reports these to the network node which forwards the information to the location server together with an estimate of the measurement quality. This allows the location server to determine the user equipment position, (Xiong et al., Paragraph 93)].
Regarding claims 14, 23 and 25, the UE wherein the one or more processors are further configured to cause the UE to: report, to the network, one or more capabilities associated with a positioning procedure for location estimation, [A UE may indicate the number of frequency layers it can support when it sends the network its positioning capabilities, such as during an LTE positioning protocol (LPP) session, (Lin et al., Paragraph 102)].
Regarding claims 24 and 26, the apparatus of claim 23 wherein the one or more capabilities include a radio frequency retuning time, [the UE 307 may simultaneously utilize a first radio to tune to one carrier frequency (e.g., the anchor carrier) and a second radio to tune to a different carrier frequency (e.g., a secondary carrier), (Lin et al., Paragraph 89)].
Regarding claim 29, the method of claim 1, a wherein receiving the reference signal configuration from the network comprises receiving a configuration that is selected based on one or more capabilities reported by the UE, [the UE can also indicate its capability. For example, UE capability can include information regarding its ability to utilize information that the transmission is phase coherent across the PRS resources, (Lin et al., Paragraph 163)].
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 27 and 28 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
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. 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 Shukri Taha whose telephone number is 571-270-1921. The examiner can normally be reached on 8:30am-5pm Mon-Fri.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Joseph Avellino can be reached on 571-272-3905.
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/SHUKRI TAHA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2478