TAILED 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 .
Priority
All claims in this 371 US application have priority date of 06/30/2020 of provisional application filed in the PCT application.
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 3/9/2026 has been entered.
Claims 16-18, 26, and 36-38 are amended, no claims are canceled or added. Claims 16-18,20-30,36-38 and 40-42 are pending. With this action claims 16-18,20-22,29-30,36-38 and 40-42 are rejected and claim 27 are objected to.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) files 3/9/2026 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.
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) 16,17,21,22, 26, 28, 36,37 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over WO 2020005470 A EDGE STEPHEN WILLIAM et al. in view of US 20240364478 A1 WANG; Cong et al.
Consider Claims 16, 36
Edge teaches A User Equipment ("UE") for wireless communication, comprising:
a memory; and a processor coupled with the memory and configured to cause the UE (Edge [0007] “..a user equipment (UE) capable of supporting periodic and triggered location, includes at least one wireless transceiver configured to wirelessly communicate with at least one wireless network; at least one memory; and at least one processor coupled to the at least one wireless transceiver and the at least one memory and configured to receive via the at least one wireless transceiver a request for a periodic or triggered location from a location server…”) to:
receive a location information request message comprising a measurement configuration (Edge [0040] “…Enhancement E3 : when an LS initiates periodic and triggered location event reporting in a UE by sending a message to the UE (e.g. an LPP message or a supplementary services message)…”; Fig. 10, [0219] “..at block 1002, the UE receives a request for a periodic or triggered location from a location server, such as an LMF (e.g. LMF 152), e.g. as at stage 19 in FIG. 7 or stage 15 in FIG. 8…”), wherein the measurement configuration comprises a Radio Resource Control ("RRC") state-aware measurement configuration (Edge [0116]-[0117] teaches example of operation based on connected or idle state considered “state aware” in plain meaning) based on at least one Radio Access Technology ("RAT")-dependent positioning technique (Edge [0166]-[0168] teaching examples of operations based on “access type(s)” i.e. LTE, 5G, WLAN equivalent to “RAT” dependent positioning technique);
perform one or more positioning measurements according to the measurement configuration (Fig. 7, 8, 10, [0219] “..At block 1008, the UE obtains event information, which may comprise at least one of location measurements, a location estimate, a type of detected triggering event, or a combination thereof, e.g. as at stage 28 in FIG. 7 or stage 22 in FIG. 8..”); and
transmit a positioning report to the LMF (Fig. 10, Fig. 7, Fig. 8, [0219] “..At block 1012, the UE transmits a first message to the RAN node, where the first message contains a Non-Access Stratum (NAS) Transport message containing a routing identifier identifying the location server and an event report message containing the event information, e.g. as at stage 29 in FIG. 7 or stage 29 in FIG. 8. .. the CN node forwards the event report message to the location server (e.g. as at stage 32 in FIG. 7 or stage 32 in FIG. 8). ..”)[00221] “…The event report message sent at block 1012 may comprise a message for a positioning protocol (e.g. LPP or NPP)..”) wherein the positioning report is one of a triggered positioning measurement report or a periodic positioning measurement report ([0040] “..initiates periodic and triggered location event reporting..”).
Edge does not explicitly teach provide, to a location management function (“LMF”), an indication for operating in a reduced power mode;
receive a configuration for energy efficient positioning measurements; and
perform one or more positioning measurements according to the configuration for energy efficient positioning measurements.
WANG teaches provide, to a location management function (“LMF”), an indication for operating in a reduced power mode (Wang ¶89-93 “[0090] UE can report PO offset ranges from 0 to X (X can be determined with different DRX/eDRX or PRS configuration) to LMF in LPP (LTE Positioning Protocol) message. In LPP messages, there are three message types send from UE to LMF, i.e., Provide Capabilities, Request Assistance Data and Request Location Information. The PO offset information may include, but is not limited to, the following IEs: [0091] UE_ID [0092] PO offset. . .”)
receive a configuration for energy efficient positioning measurements (¶93 LMF can further inform the desired PO offset of different UEs to gNB during the positioning process in the LPP message.; [0067] A network can configure different PO offset ranges from 0 to X (X can be determined with different DRX or PRS configurations) for UE in the RRCRelease signal. The PO offset information may include, but not limited to, the following IEs: [0068] UE_ID [0069] PO offset. . .”); and
perform one or more positioning measurements according to the configuration for energy efficient positioning measurements (Wang [0076] As defined in Table 1, which is also illustrated in 3GPP standard 38.840, UE could enter light sleep when the time gap between two signals is greater than 6 ms and enter deep sleep when the time gap is greater than 20 ms.
[0077] Based on the power consumption model, PO's time location that minimizes the power consumption can be determined. [0078] Based on the desired PO time location, a proper PO_offset could be determined. Take PRS from 2 TRPs as an example, the proper PO offset can be calculated as follows (denote D.sub.PRS as the time gap between two adjacent PRS, and D.sub.PO refers to the PO duration)..”).
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 Edge to include the noted teachings of Wang in order to set positioning occasions to reduce power consumption (Wang ¶27-28)
Consider Claims 17, 37
Edge teaches The UE of claim 16, wherein the request message comprises a measurement configuration (see claim 16 rejection) and a UE autonomous release indication (Edge [0040] “….the LS includes criteria in the message defining when the UE is allowed or required to use EDT to send event reports and when the UE is allowed or required to use EDT with immediate release to send event reports…” [0132] “..In addition, the LMF 152 includes in the message an indication that the UE 105 is permitted to send event reports using EDT..”), wherein to transmit the positioning report, the processor is configured to cause the UE to initiate a Long- term evolution Protocol Positioning ("LPP") session with the LMF ([0139] “..In one embodiment, the UL positioning protocol message (if sent) may be an LPP Provide Location Information message. ..”; See also [00221]), wherein the UE Autonomous Release signal is transmitted to a radio access network (“RAN”) node in response to completing the LPP session (See Edge Fig. 7, [0130] “..(ii) the UE is enabled to request immediate release of the signaling connection by the RAN 112 following the sending of an event report using EDT, which may minimize the duration of the signaling connection;..” and “..In one embodiment, the UL positioning protocol message (if sent) may be an LPP Provide Location Information message. ..” thus completion of LPP reporting session” Edge [0039] Enhancement E2: an EDT Request sent by a UE to a RAN node is allowed to include an immediate release indication, which causes the RAN node to release the signaling connection to the UE immediately, thereby minimizing UE signaling and the duration of the signaling connection…”).
Consider Claim 21
The combination teaches: The UE of claim 20, wherein the second configuration comprises a first sub-configuration for devices in an RRC idle state and a second sub-configuration for devices in an RRC inactive state. ( Edge ¶194 In a first embodiment of the disclosure, when a gNB configures frequency measurement configuration information for enabling a UE to perform frequency measurement in an RRC idle mode or an RRC inactive mode through an RRCRelease message in the UE, the gNB may configure a plurality of frequency measurement groups and the UE may perform frequency measurement in the RRC idle mode or the RRC inactive mode)
Consider Claim 22
The combination teaches: The UE of claim 19, wherein the RRC-state-aware measurement configuration comprises at least one of: a Downlink ("DL") positioning reference signal received power measurement configuration, a DL Reference Signal Time Difference ("RSTD") measurement configuration, or a UE Receive-Transmit time difference measurement configuration to be measured in an RRC connected state or in an RRC non-connected state, depending on the RAT-dependent positioning technique (See Edge [0061] “..An LPP message sent from the LMF 152 to the UE 105 may instruct the UE 105 to do any of a variety of things, depending on desired functionality. For example, the LPP message could contain an instruction for the UE 105 to obtain measurements for GNSS (or A-GNSS), WLAN, OTDOA, and/or ECID (or some other position method)…”; AND [0059]”… With a UE assisted position method, UE 105 may obtain location measurements (e.g. measurements of RSSI, RTT, RSTD, RSRP and/or RSRQ for gNBs 110, ng-eNBs 114 or WLAN APs, or measurements of GNSS pseudorange, code phase and/or carrier phase for SVs 190), and send the measurements to a location server (e.g. LMF 152) for computation of a location estimate for UE 105…”).
Claim 26
The combination teaches wherein the indication to the LMF for operating in the reduced power mode is provided while in an RRC connected state (Wang ¶89-93 “[0090] UE can report PO offset ranges from 0 to X (X can be determined with different DRX/eDRX or PRS configuration) to LMF in LPP (LTE Positioning Protocol) message.” Where LPP messages are sent in RRC_Connected state as is ordinarily known and admitted by the applicant see SPEC [0047] “In the case of NR and LTE based positioning, for Rel-16 an LTE Protocol Positioning (“LPP”) session may only be initiated while the UE is in RRC_CONNECTED state”).
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 combination to include the noted teachings of Wang in order to set positioning occasions to reduce power consumption (Wang ¶27-28).
Claim 28
The combination teaches wherein the configuration for energy efficient positioning measurements comprises a configuration for reduced power positioning technique or a configuration for measuring fewer positioning reference signal ("PRS") resources per resource set or configuring fewer transmission-reception points ("TRPs") to be measured (Wang ¶93 LMF can further inform the desired PO offset of different UEs to gNB during the positioning process in the LPP message.; [0067] A network can configure different PO offset ranges from 0 to X (X can be determined with different DRX or PRS configurations) for UE in the RRCRelease signal. The PO offset information may include, but not limited to, the following IEs: [0068] UE_ID [0069] PO offset. . .”).
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 combination to include the noted teachings of Wang in order to set positioning occasions to reduce power consumption (Wang ¶27-28)
Claim(s) 18, 38 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over WO 2020005470 A EDGE STEPHEN WILLIAM et al. in view of US 20240364478 A1 WANG; Cong et al. and further in view of US 20210227623 A1 PARK; Suyoung et al.
Consider Claims 18, 38
The combination teaches: The UE of claim 16, wherein the request message comprises a measurement configuration (see claim 16 rejection) and a UE autonomous release indication (see claim 17 rejection) wherein the processor is configured to cause the UE to: transmit a UE Autonomous Release signal to a radio access network (“RAN”) node (Edge Fig. 7, [0130] “..(ii) the UE is enabled to request immediate release of the signaling connection by the RAN 112..”)
The combination does not teach receive an inactivity timer from the LMF, the inactivity timer tracking an elapsed time from a last transmitted positioning measurement report; and
transmit a UE Autonomous Release signal in response to expiry of the inactivity timer.
Park teaches receive an inactivity timer from the LMF (Park [0175] “..expiration value of the datainactivitytimer received from the MN RRC..”), the inactivity timer tracking an elapsed time from a last transmitted positioning measurement report; and
transmit the UE Autonomous Release signal in response to expiry of the inactivity timer (Park [0178] “In FIG. 11A, operations 51110 to 51130 are the same as operations S810 to S830, and operations 51150 to S170 in FIG. 11B are the same as operations S850 to S870 in FIG. 8B. [0179] When the BWP-InactivityTimer expires and the DRX inactivity timer expires, the terminal may transmit an RRC connection release request to the base station in operation 51140 or operation 51180. The details are the same as those set forth above, and will be omitted below.”)
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 combination to include the noted teachings of Park in order to release the MN and the SN (Park [0176]).
Claim(s) 20, 40-42 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over WO 2020005470 A EDGE STEPHEN WILLIAM et al. and US 20240364478 A1 WANG; Cong et al., further in view of CN 103125131 A JUNG, SUNG-HOON et al.
Consider Claims 20, 40
The combination teaches: UE of claim 19 (see above)
But does not teach wherein the RRC-state-aware measurement configuration comprises a first configuration for devices in an RRC connected state and a second configuration for devices not in the RRC connected state.
Jung teaches wherein the RRC-state-aware measurement configuration comprises a first configuration for devices in an RRC connected state and a second configuration for devices not in the RRC connected state. (Jung [0004] “MDT can be divided into record-type MDT and the immediate MDT. The recording circuit test, after performing the MDT measurement, the UE at a specific time the recorded measure to a network. According to the immediate MDT, after performing the MDT measurement, when it satisfies the report condition, the UE will measure to a network. record-type MDT MDT measurement is performed at the radio resource control (RRC) idle mode, but the immediate MDT MDT measurement is performed under the RRC connection mode.” [0096] “UE receiving the MDT configuration from a network (step S710). the UE in the service cell to establish the RRC connection, the RRC connection mode. Even if the RRC mode to the RRC idle mode, still maintains the MDT configuration, so it maintains the MDT measuring result.” [0097] MDT configuration may include recording interval, reference time and area configuration of at least one. recording interval represents the interval of the measuring result is stored. a reference time when reference time when UE sends the recorded measurement for reporting. area configuration indicating UE request for performing recording area.)
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 combination to include the noted teachings of Jung in order to perform MDT measurements (Jung [0004]).
Consider Claim 41
The combination teaches The method of claim 40, wherein the second configuration comprises a first sub- configuration for devices in an RRC idle state and a second sub-configuration for devices in an RRC inactive state (Jung [0004] [0096] [0097] as explained for claim 40)
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 combination to include the noted teachings of Jung in order to perform MDT measurements (Jung [0004]).
Examiner also notes that the second configuration is recited in the claims as merely as printed matter or nonfunctional descriptive material where the content the measurement configuration does not cause an effect or functional transformation in the UE and/or merely produces a predictable result that does not distinguish from the prior art (See MPEP 2115.05 Functional and Nonfunctional Descriptive Material and MPEP 2112.01 Nonfunctional printed matter does not distinguish claimed product from otherwise identical prior art product).
Consider Claim 42
The combination teaches The method of claim 36, wherein the RRC-state-aware measurement configuration comprises at least one of: a downlink ("DL") positioning reference signal received power("RSRP") measurement configuration, a DL reference signal time difference ("RSTD") measurement configuration, or a UE receive-transmit time difference measurement configuration to be measured in an RRC connected state or in an RRC non-connected state, depending on the RAT-dependent positioning technique (Jung [0004] [0096] [0097] as explained for claim 40).
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 combination to include the noted teachings of Jung in order to perform MDT measurements (Jung [0004]).
Examiner also notes that the RRC-state-aware measurement configuration is recited in the claims as merely as printed matter or nonfunctional descriptive material where the content the measurement configuration does not cause an effect or functional transformation in the UE and/or merely produces a predictable result that does not distinguish from the prior art (See MPEP 2115.05 Functional and Nonfunctional Descriptive Material and MPEP 2112.01 Nonfunctional printed matter does not distinguish claimed product from otherwise identical prior art product).
Claim 29 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over WO 2020005470 A EDGE STEPHEN WILLIAM et al. in view of US 20240364478 A1 WANG; Cong et al. and further in view of US 20220394664 A1 XIE; Zonghui et al.
Consider Claim 29
The combination teaches: The UE of claim 16, (see above)
The combination does not teach wherein the processor is configured to cause the UE to:
request a Positioning System Information Block ("PosSIB") from a first cell;
receive paging downlink control information ("DCI") from the first cell, the paging DCI comprising an indication that an updated PosSIB is available; and
retrieve the updated PosSIB in response to the paging DCI
XIE teaches herein the processor is configured to cause the UE to:
request a Positioning System Information Block ("PosSIB") from a first cell;
receive paging downlink control information ("DCI") from the first cell, the paging DCI comprising an indication that an updated PosSIB is available; and
retrieve the updated PosSIB in response to the paging DCI (XIE [0003] A terminal device wakes up in a specific time period, to receive paging downlink control information (DCI). The paging DCI is used to notify the terminal device to obtain updated system information or indicate that there is paging scheduling information for the terminal device. The terminal device parses the paging DCI. Then, based on the indication of the paging DCI, the terminal device obtains the updated system information, reads content of a paging message on a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) resource indicated by the paging DCI, or perform other processing.).
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 combination to include the noted teachings of XIE in order to a terminal device needs to read a specific field in a system information block type 1 (SIB1) to determine whether updated system information is required by the terminal device (Xie [0004])
Claim 30 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over WO 2020005470 A EDGE STEPHEN WILLIAM et al. in view of US 20240364478 A1 WANG; Cong et al. and US 20220394664 A1 XIE; Zonghui et al. and further in view of CN 103125131 A JUNG, SUNG-HOON et al.
Consider Claim 30
The combination doesn’t but Jung teaches The UE of claim 29, wherein the PosSIB comprises a first measurement configuration applicable to an RRC connected state and a second measurement configuration applicable to an RRC non-connected state (Jung [0004] “record-type MDT measurement is performed at the radio resource control (RRC) idle mode, but the immediate MDT measurement is performed under the RRC connection mode.” [0096] [0097] .)
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 combination to include the noted teachings of Jung in order to perform MDT measurements (Jung [0004]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 23-25 and 27 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.
Consider Claim 23-25
Edge as cited in combination with US 20240098547 A1KIM; Donggun (See[0230] “when system information (e.g., SIB2) broadcasts or includes an indicator (IDLE or INACTIVE Mode Measurement) indicating that RRC idle mode or RRC inactive mode frequency measurement may be supported, and the UE has a frequency measurement result measured in the RRC idle mode or the RRC inactive mode..”) teaches The UE of claim 16, wherein the processor is configured to cause the UE to: receive system information from a first cell, the system information comprising a first system information block ("SIB1") which includes a positioning support indicator that indicates whether the first cell supports a connection to an LMF.
However claim 23 further recites perform cell reselection, wherein the first cell is excluded from cell reselection consideration when the positioning support indicator indicates that the first cell does not support a connection to the LMF, which is not taught by the prior art.
Claims 24-25 are allowable for the same reasons for depending on claim 23.
Consider Claims 27
But none of the cited art teaches the indication for operating in a reduced power mode comprises a battery levels, as recited in claim 27.
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 20240098547 A1 KIM; Donggun regarding measurement configuration based on at least one Radio Access Technology ("RAT")-dependent positioning technique
[0194] In a first embodiment of the disclosure, when a gNB configures frequency measurement configuration information for enabling a UE to perform frequency measurement in an RRC idle mode or an RRC inactive mode through an RRCRelease message in the UE, the gNB may configure a plurality of frequency measurement groups and the UE may perform frequency measurement in the RRC idle mode or the RRC inactive mode
[0195] Also, an embodiment of the disclosure may provide a method in which when a gNB indicates frequency measurement configuration information to an RRC inactive mode or RRC idle mode UE, the gNB may configure a separate frequency measurement list or a separate timer according to a frequency configuration group or radio access technology (or for each cell or each beam).
US 20230148057 A1 DONG; Xiandong
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Conclusion
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/UMAIR AHSAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2647
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