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 .
Priority
Claims have priority date of 07/20/2020.
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 1/07/2026 has been entered.
Claims 1, 33 and 35 are amended, claims 13 and 14 are canceled, and; claims 1-12, 15-35 remain pending in this application.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1, 31, and 33-35 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.
Election/Restrictions
Claims 31, 32, and 34 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected invention, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 5/02/2025.
Claim Interpretation
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(f):
(f) Element in Claim for a Combination. – An element in a claim for a combination may be expressed as a means or step for performing a specified function without the recital of structure, material, or acts in support thereof, and such claim shall be construed to cover the corresponding structure, material, or acts described in the specification and equivalents thereof.
The following is a quotation of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph:
An element in a claim for a combination may be expressed as a means or step for performing a specified function without the recital of structure, material, or acts in support thereof, and such claim shall be construed to cover the corresponding structure, material, or acts described in the specification and equivalents thereof.
The claims in this application are given their broadest reasonable interpretation using the plain meaning of the claim language in light of the specification as it would be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art. The broadest reasonable interpretation of a claim element (also commonly referred to as a claim limitation) is limited by the description in the specification when 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, is invoked.
As explained in MPEP § 2181, subsection I, claim limitations that meet the following three-prong test will be interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph:
(A) the claim limitation uses the term “means” or “step” or a term used as a substitute for “means” that is a generic placeholder (also called a nonce term or a non-structural term having no specific structural meaning) for performing the claimed function;
(B) the term “means” or “step” or the generic placeholder is modified by functional language, typically, but not always linked by the transition word “for” (e.g., “means for”) or another linking word or phrase, such as “configured to” or “so that”; and
(C) the term “means” or “step” or the generic placeholder is not modified by sufficient structure, material, or acts for performing the claimed function.
Use of the word “means” (or “step”) in a claim with functional language creates a rebuttable presumption that the claim limitation is to be treated in accordance with 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph. The presumption that the claim limitation is interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, is rebutted when the claim limitation recites sufficient structure, material, or acts to entirely perform the recited function.
Absence of the word “means” (or “step”) in a claim creates a rebuttable presumption that the claim limitation is not to be treated in accordance with 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph. The presumption that the claim limitation is not interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, is rebutted when the claim limitation recites function without reciting sufficient structure, material or acts to entirely perform the recited function.
Claim limitations in this application that use the word “means” (or “step”) are being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, except as otherwise indicated in an Office action. Conversely, claim limitations in this application that do not use the word “means” (or “step”) are not being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, except as otherwise indicated in an Office action.
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(s) 1-2, 4-12, 15-19, 20-27, 30, 33 and 35 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 9439039 B1 Patil; Shailesh et al. and US 20180227702 A1 Bitra; Suresh Kumar et al. further in view of US 20220225434 A1 Kim; Taehun et al.
Consider Claims 1, 33 and 35
Patil teaches A first user equipment (UE) (Patil Fig. 17; Col. 33 L51-L63: apparatus 1602), comprising: a memory; at least one transceiver (Patil Fig. 17; Col. 33 L51-L63: transceiver 1710 memory 1706); and at least one processor communicatively coupled to the memory and the at least one transceiver Patil Fig. 17; Col. 33 L51-L63: processing system 1714), the at least one processor configured to: cause the at least one transceiver to transmit a request to perform a UE- UE positioning procedure with a second UE (Patil Fig. 13; Col. 28 L 60-66: “..At 1304, the UE may transmit a first message that includes at least one of a first request to participate in D2D positioning within a first set of resources for D2D positioning or a second request to participate in D2D ranging within a second set of resources for D2D ranging…”);
receive, via the at least one transceiver, a radio resource configuration for the UE-UE positioning procedure, the radio resource configuration indicating first radio resources for transmitting positioning signals to the second UE and second radio resources for receiving positioning signals from the second UE (Patil Fig. 13; Col. 29 L15-L26: “..At 1304, the UE may receive a second message, based on the transmitted first message, indicating at least one of whether the UE is allowed to participate in D2D positioning or whether the UE is allowed to participate in D2D ranging. In an aspect, the second message may indicate one or more of a subset of the first set of resources for D2D positioning or a subset of the second set of resources for D2D ranging. The subset of the second set of resources for D2D ranging may include a first group of resources allocated to the UE for initiating D2D ranging and a second group of resources allocated to a second UE for initiating D2D ranging…”);
cause the at least one transceiver to transmit, at one or more transmission times, one or more first positioning signals to the second UE on the first radio resources; receive, at one or more times of arrival (ToAs), via the at least one transceiver, one or more second positioning signals from the second UE on the second radio resources; and estimate a distance between the first UE and the second UE based on at least transmission times of the one or more first positioning signals and ToAs of the one or more second positioning signals (Patil Fig. 13, Col. 29 L 55- Col. 30 L 8: “..At 1310, the UE may perform at least one of a D2D positioning or a D2D ranging based on the received second message. For example, referring to FIG. 11, the UE 1106 may perform D2D positioning according to the methods disclosed in FIG. 9A-B or 10A-B. ... In yet another example, if the UE 1106 is to perform D2D ranging, then the UE 1106 may transmit an assigned sequence (e.g., a Zadoff Chu sequence) on an assigned resource in the second set of resources to the UE 1104 and receive another sequence from the UE 1104. Based on the time at which the sequence was transmitted to the UE 1104 and on the time at which the sequence was received from the UE 1104, the UE 1106 may determine the distance between the UE 1106 and the UE 1104..”).
Patil teaches the method of claim 1 and the user equipment of claim 35 in the same manner.
Patil does not teach: transmitting, to a location server, at least the one ore more transmission times of the one or more first positioning signals and the one ore more ToAs of the one or more second positioning signals to enable the location server to estimate a distance between the first UE and the second UE.
Bitra teaches wherein the enabling comprises: transmitting, to a location server, at least the transmission times of the one or more first positioning signals and the ToAs of the one or more second positioning signals to enable the location server to estimate a distance between the first UE and the second UE (Bitra [0042] “..the UE 105 may make measurements (e.g. of RTT, RSSI, S/N, TOA, RSRP, RSRQ and/or AOA) for each of one or more of PDs 106_a, 106_b and 106_c based on signals 131, 132 and 133, respectively, received by the UE 105 from these PDs. … The measurements may be used by the UE 105, a PD 106 or location server 160 (e.g. if the measurements are sent to the location server 160 by the UE 105 and/or PD(s) 106) to obtain a location for the UE 105,..” Note: RTT measurements encompass transmission times and TOAs).
It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art, to modify the invention of Patil to include the noted teachings of Bitra in order to obtain by a UE, location estimation of the UE via proximity devices in communication with the UE (Bitra [0003])
The combination of Patil and Bitra does not teach further comprising: transmitting a type of the first UE in non-access stratum (NAS) signaling during network registration, the type of the first UE indicating whether the first UE is a vehicle UE (V-UE);
The [received] radio resource configuration based, at least in part, on the type of the first UE.
Related art Kim teaches transmitting a type of the first UE in non-access stratum (NAS) signaling during network registration (Kim teaches (Kim ¶113 “NAS protocols 217 and 237 may provide control plane functionality such as authentication, security, connection setup, mobility management, and session management. . .”) the type of the first UE indicating whether the first UE is a vehicle UE (V-UE); (Kim ¶304 “A UE may send a sidelink UE information message to a base station via an uplink dedicated control channel (UL-DCCH) message when performing a sidelink UE information procedure. The sidelink UE information may comprise information elements (e.g. resource or frequency) per type of a sidelink service (e.g. sidelink discovery, sidelink communication or V2X communication) or UE type (e.g. pedestrian or vehicle)..”; ¶357); and
the [received] radio resource configuration based, at least in part, on the type of the first UE (Kim ¶360 base station provide Msg4 to UE in response to re-establishment request of ¶357 and where ¶344 teaches Msg 4 based in part on the type of the first UE i.e. vehicle or pedestrian, ¶344 “The sidelink authorization information may comprise sidelink authorization for one or more service types. Based on the sidelink authorization information and the request for configuration parameters of the sidelink, the base station may provide configuration parameters of the sidelink via an RRC response message in MSG 4...”)
It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art, to modify the invention of Patil to include the noted teachings of Kim in order to communicates via the sidelink based on the configuration parameters (Kim Abstract)
Consider Claim 2
Patil teaches The method of claim 1, wherein the first UE has a subscription with a wireless network operator that permits the first UE to participate in the UE-UE positioning procedure (Patil Fig. 6 Col. 6 L 32-66: subscription with operator inherent in LTE architecture described and further suggested by “subscriber station” reference for UE 102).
Consider Claim 4
Patil teaches The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving a notification that the second UE is proximate the first UE.
(Patil Fig. 11; Fig. 13; Col. 23 L 20-L40: “..the base station 1102 may transmit a resource message 1114 that indicates a first set of resources (e.g., the set of resource 950 or the set of resources 1050) that may be used for D2D positioning .. or D2D ranging..” and Fig. 11 where notification 1114 also shows UEs are proximate as they are in the same serving cell)
Consider Claim 5
Patil teaches The method of claim 4, wherein the second UE is determined to be proximate the first UE based on: the first UE and the second UE being served by the same cell,
the first UE and the second UE being served by different cells supported by the same base station (Patil Fig. 11; Fig. 13; Col. 23 L 20-L40: “..the base station 1102 may transmit a resource message 1114 that indicates a first set of resources (e.g., the set of resource 950 or the set of resources 1050) that may be used for D2D positioning .. or D2D ranging..” and Fig. 11 where notification 1114 also shows UEs are proximate as they are in the same serving cell), or
the first UE and the second UE being served by different base stations within a threshold distance of each other, wherein the threshold distance is such that the first UE and the second UE are expected to be within sidelink communication range of each other.
Examiner Note: “determination” not given patentable weight because entity that performs the determination is not specified.
Consider Claim 6
Patil teaches The method of claim 4, wherein the first UE receives the notification from a serving base station via unicast (Patil Fig. 11; Fig. 13; Col. 23 L 20-L40: “..he base station 1102 may transmit the resource message 1114 using either dedicated RRC signaling (e.g., unicast) or a broadcast mechanism (e.g., a SIB)..”).
Consider Claim 7
Patil teaches The method of claim 4, wherein the first UE receives the notification from a serving base station via broadcast or multicast signaling to at least the first UE and the second UE (Patil Fig. 11; Fig. 13; Col. 23 L 20-L40: “..he base station 1102 may transmit the resource message 1114 using either dedicated RRC signaling (e.g., unicast) or a broadcast mechanism (e.g., a SIB)..”).
Consider Claim 8
Patil teaches The method of claim 4, wherein: the notification includes an identifier of the second UE, and
the request to perform the UE-UE positioning procedure includes the identifier of the second UE (Patil Fig. 13; Col. 28 L 60-66: “..At 1304, the UE may transmit a first message that includes at least one of a first request to participate in D2D positioning within a first set of resources for D2D positioning or a second request to participate in D2D ranging within a second set of resources for D2D ranging…” and Col. 29 L1-15: “..The second request to participate in D2D ranging may include an ID associated with the UE 1104 to indicate that the D2D ranging is with the UE 1104…”);.
Consider Claim 9
The combination teaches wherein the first UE sends the request to a location server in one or more Long-Term Evolution (LTE) positioning protocol (LPP) messages (Bitra Fig. 3 Location server 160 UE 105 and [0064]-[0065] teaching single or separate LPP messages with location server exchanged for requesting positioning capabilities and assistance data)
It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art, to modify the invention of Patil to include the noted teachings of Bitra in order to obtain by a UE, location estimation of the UE via proximity devices in communication with the UE (Bitra [0003])
Consider Claim 10
Patil teaches The method of claim 1, wherein the request to perform the UE-UE positioning procedure does not include an identifier of the second UE (Patil Fig. 13; Col. 28 L 60-66: where disclosed “first request” embodiment does not include UE identifier and the disclosed “second request” embodiment is only specified as may include a UE identifier thus not required to include a UE identifier).
Consider Claim 11
Patil teaches The method of claim 1, wherein the first UE receives the radio resource configuration from a serving base station (Patil Fig. 13; Col. 29 L15-L26: where disclosed “second message” is from serving base station 1102).
Consider Claim 12
Patil teaches The method of claim 11, further comprising: transmitting, to the serving base station, a request for measurement gaps for the UE-UE positioning procedure (Patil Fig. 13; Col. 28 L 60-66: “..At 1304, the UE may transmit a first message that includes at least one of a first request to participate in D2D positioning within a first set of resources for D2D positioning or a second request to participate in D2D ranging within a second set of resources for D2D ranging…”), wherein the radio resource configuration includes one or more measurement gaps in which to transmit the one or more first positioning signals, receive the one or more second positioning signals, or both Patil Fig. 13; Col. 29 L15-L26: “..At 1304, the UE may receive a second message, based on the transmitted first message… the second message may indicate one or more of a subset of the first set of resources for D2D positioning or a subset of the second set of resources for D2D ranging. The subset of the second set of resources for D2D ranging may include a first group of resources allocated to the UE for initiating D2D ranging and a second group of resources allocated to a second UE for initiating D2D ranging…”).
Consider Claim 15
The combination teaches The method of claim 1, wherein the location server is associated with a serving base station (Bitra [0037] “..UE 105 send the SPS measurements to the location server 160 (e.g. via base station 120 and Network(s) 170..” thus associated),
It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art, to modify the invention of Patil to include the noted teachings of Bitra in order to obtain by a UE, location estimation of the UE via proximity devices in communication with the UE (Bitra [0003])
Consider Claim 16
The combination teaches The method of claim 15, but does not teach wherein the UE transmits at least the transmission times of the one or more first positioning signals and the ToAs of the one or more second positioning signals to the serving base station (Bitra [0042] “..the UE 105 may make measurements (e.g. of RTT, RSSI, S/N, TOA, RSRP, RSRQ and/or AOA) for each of one or more of PDs 106_a, 106_b and 106_c based on signals 131, 132 and 133, respectively, received by the UE 105 from these PDs. … The measurements may be used by the UE 105, a PD 106 or location server 160 (e.g. if the measurements are sent to the location server 160 by the UE 105 and/or PD(s) 106) to obtain a location for the UE 105,..”) in radio resource control (RRC) signaling.
It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art, to modify the invention of Patil to include the noted teachings of Kim in order to communicates via the sidelink based on the configuration parameters (Kim Abstract)
Consider Claim 17
The combination teaches The method of claim 15, wherein the UE transmits at least the transmission times of the one or more first positioning signals and the ToAs of the one or more second positioning signals to the serving base station in unencrypted LPP signaling. (Bitra [0097] “..he third message may be an LPP or LPP/LPPe Provide Location Information message (e.g. if UE 105 is providing a calculated location for the UE 105 or location measurements obtained by PD(s) 106) and possibly by the UE 105 to location server(s) 160)…”).
It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art, to modify the invention of Patil to include the noted teachings of Bitra in order to obtain by a UE, location estimation of the UE via proximity devices in communication with the UE (Bitra [0003])
Consider Claim 18
Patil teaches The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving assistance information, the assistance information comprising common assistance information and UE-specific assistance information (Patil Col. 14 Lines 40-46 teaching receiving various broadcast information that is equivalent of common assistance information and UE-specific assistance information as vaguely claimed).
Consider Claim 19
Patil teaches The method of claim 18, wherein the UE-specific assistance information comprises:
ToA measurements of the one or more first positioning signals,
ToA measurements of the one or more second positioning signals,
an estimate of the distance between the first UE and the second UE,
an estimate of a location of the second UE,
an estimate of an angle of arrival (AoA) of the one or more second positioning signals,
a synchronization signal block (SSB) identifier associated with the second UE, a
timing advance associated with the second UE, or any combination thereof (Patil Col. 14 Lines 40-46 “UEs of the first reference UE type may broadcast sequences for positioning (e.g., a Zadoff Chu sequence). UEs of the second reference UE type may broadcast timing information, such as time of arrival or time difference of arrival, associated with broadcasted sequences from UEs of the first reference UE type” ).
Consider Claim 20
Patil teaches The method of claim 18, but does not teach wherein the first UE receives the UE-specific assistance information via RRC signaling or PC5 RRC signaling.
Kim teaches wherein the first UE receives the UE-specific assistance information via RRC signaling or PC5 RRC signaling (Kim [0284]-[0286] teaching sidelink configuration over PC5 signaling; [0369] RRC signaling for sidelink)
It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art, to modify the invention of Patil to include the noted teachings of Kim in order to communicates via the sidelink based on the configuration parameters (Kim Abstract)
Consider Claim 21
Patil teaches The method of claim 18, but does not teach wherein the first UE receives the common assistance information in one or more system information blocks (SIBs) or a shared radio network temporary identifier (RNTI).
Kim teaches wherein the first UE receives the common assistance information in one or more system information blocks (SIBs) or a shared radio network temporary identifier (RNTI) (Kim [0320] A configuration for a scheduled mode may comprise at least one of: [0321] slidelink radio network temporary identifier (RNTI); [0369] sidelink SIB)
It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art, to modify the invention of Patil to include the noted teachings of Kim in order to communicates via the sidelink based on the configuration parameters (Kim Abstract)
Consider Claim 22
Patil teaches The method of claim 1, wherein the first radio resources for transmitting positioning signals to the second UE and the second radio resources for receiving positioning signals from the second UE comprise: sidelink resources, Uu interface resources, radar resources, wireless local area network (WLAN) resource, Bluetooth® resources, laser resource, or any combination thereof (Patil Col. 12 L 26-34 “..The exemplary methods and apparatuses discussed infra are applicable to any of a variety of wireless device-to-device communications systems, such as for example, a wireless device-to-device communication system based on FlashLinQ, WiMedia, Bluetooth, ZigBee, or Wi-Fi based on the IEEE 802.11 standard. To simplify the discussion, the exemplary methods and apparatus are discussed within the context of LTE…”).
Consider Claim 23
Patil teaches The method of claim 22, wherein the sidelink resources comprise: time domain resources, frequency domain resources, a sequence of the one or more first positioning signals, a sequence of the one or more second positioning signals, or any combination thereof (Patil Fig. 3, Col. 8 L 60 – Col. 9 L 5 time and frequency domain resources; Also see Patil Col. 14 Lines 40-46 for sequences)
Consider Claim 24
Patil teaches The method of claim 22, wherein the Uu interface resources comprise: a downlink reference signal configuration for the one or more first positioning signals, an uplink reference signal configuration for the one or more second positioning signals, a discontinuous reception configuration, a discontinuous transmission configuration, an SSB-based time window, or any combination thereof (Patil Col. 9 L 6-L38 DL and UL reference signal resources).
Consider Claim 25
Patil teaches The method of claim 24, wherein: the downlink reference signal configuration comprises a positioning reference signal (PRS) configuration, and the uplink reference signal configuration comprises a sounding reference signal (SRS) or a phase tracking reference signal (PTRS) configuration (Patil Col. 9 Lines 5-10 “..the DL-RS include Cell-specific RS (CRS) (also sometimes called common RS) 302 and UE-specific RS (UE-RS) 304…” where PRS and SRS are ordinary design variations of the CRS and UE-RS disclosed).
Consider Claim 26
Patil teaches The method of claim 22, wherein the radar resources comprise: a frequency of the one or more first positioning signals, a frequency of the one or more second positioning signals, waveform parameters of the one or more first positioning signals waveform parameters of the one or more second positioning signals, a time domain pattern of the one or more first positioning signals, a time domain pattern of the one or more second positioning signals, or any combination thereof (Patil Col. 9 Lines 1-10 OFDM time domain symbols of the resource blocks teaching time domain pattern).
Consider Claim 27
Patil teaches (Currently Amended) The method of claim 26, wherein: the waveform parameters of the one or more first positioning signals define an orthogonal freqiuency division multiplexing (OFDM)-based waveform, and the waveform parameters of the one or more second positioning signals define an OFDM-based waveform (Patil Col. 9 Lines 1-10 OFDM symbols).
Consider Claim 29
The combination teaches The method of claim 1, further comprising:
receiving a handover command, the handover command including a second radio resource configuration for the UE-UE positioning procedure, the second radio resource configuration indicating third radio resources for transmitting positioning signals to the second UE and fourth radio resources for receiving positioning signals from the second UE (Kim Figs. 34, 35, ¶364 “The examples of FIGS. 33 and 34 may apply to a handover procedure. A UE may perform a procedure to establish an RRC connection with a target base station. The UE may send a request of configuration parameters of a sidelink to the target base station”; ¶369 “ For example, the base station may send the RRC response message together with the configuration parameters of the sidelink. For example, the base station may include the configuration parameters of the sidelink in the RRC response message.”).transmitting one or more third positioning signals to the second UE on the third radio resources; receiving one or more fourth positioning signals from the second UE on the fourth radio resources; and enabling the distance between the first UE and the second UE to be estimated based on at least transmission times of the one or more third positioning signals and ToAs of the one or more fourth positioning signals (Patil Fig. 13, Col. 29 L 55- Col. 30 L 8: “..At 1310, the UE may perform at least one of a D2D positioning or a D2D ranging based on the received second message. For example, referring to FIG. 11, the UE 1106 may perform D2D positioning according to the methods disclosed in FIG. 9A-B or 10A-B. ..”).
It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art, to modify the invention of Patil to include the noted teachings of Kim in order to communicates via the sidelink based on the configuration parameters (Kim Abstract)
Consider Claim 30
Patil teaches The method of claim 1, but does not teach wherein: the first UE is in an RRC inactive mode, and the radio resource configuration is received in an RRC release message.
Kim teaches the first UE is in an RRC inactive mode, and the radio resource configuration is received in an RRC release message (Kim [0369] Based on the request, a base station may provide configuration parameters of the sidelink via an RRC response message in MSG 4 of the RRC connection procedure or an RRC reconfiguration message. …. The UE in an RRC idle or an RRC inactive state may stay in the same RRC state after receiving the sidelink SIB via the physical message or the MAC message without RRC state change. The UE in an RRC idle or an RRC inactive state may enter into or stay in an RRC idle or an RRC inactive state after receiving the RRC release message…)
It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art, to modify the invention of Patil to include the noted teachings of Kim in order to communicates via the sidelink based on the configuration parameters (Kim Abstract).
Claim 28 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 9439039 B1 Patil; Shailesh et al. and US 20180227702 A1 Bitra; Suresh Kumar et al. further in view of US 20220225434 A1 Kim; Taehun et al. and further in view of WO 2015096845 A1 BULAKCI OEMER et al.
Consider Claim 28
Patil teaches The method of claim 26.
Patil does not teach wherein: the time domain pattern of the one or more first positioning signals define a pulse modulated time-domain waveform, and the time domain pattern of the one or more second positioning signals define a pulse modulated time-domain waveform.
Bulaki teaches the time domain pattern of the one or more first positioning signals define a pulse modulated time-domain waveform, and the time domain pattern of the one or more second positioning signals define a pulse modulated time-domain waveform (Bulaki PG. 6-7 “… the communication resource of the D2D communication link is at least one of a transmission time, a transmission frequency, a transmission space, a transmission code, a transmission modulation, or a transmission power of the D2D communication link. Thus, the method can be applied using different communication technologies. The transmission time of the D2D communication link can relate to a time division multiple access (TDMA) scheme. The transmission frequency of the D2D communication link can relate to a frequency division multiple access (FDMA) scheme. The transmission space of the D2D communication link can relate to a space division multiple access (SDMA) scheme. The transmission code of the D2D communication link can relate to a code division multiple access (CDMA) scheme. The transmission modulation of the D2D communication link can comprise a modulation format, a modulation pulse shape, e.g., a filter bank multi carrier (FBMC) pulse shape, a carrier frequency spacing, and/or a symbol time spacing. The transmission power of the D2D communication link can relate to the power of the electromagnetic waves of the D2D communication link…”)
It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art, to modify the invention of Patil to include the noted teachings of Bulaki in order to apply the method using different communication technologies. (Bulaki PG. 6 last paragraph)
Pertinent Prior Art(s)
The prior art made of record though not relied upon in the current rejection is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
US 20190208387 A1 BAGHEL S K et al. (WO-2019133495-A1)
CN 105592550 A TANG, Ji-ye et al. Tang teaches receiving a handover command, the handover command including a second radio resource configuration for the UE-UE positioning procedure, (Tang Pg. 14-15: “..Step B3: the M-1 vehicle terminal respectively sends to selected a link resource D2D link resource switching command, so that the vehicle terminal receives the link resource switching command switch D2D link resource carried in the handover command.
…”).
Conclusion
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/UMAIR AHSAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2647