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 .
Status of Claims
This office action is responsive to the Response to Election/Restriction filed on 11/25/25. Claims 10 – 13 have been canceled, claims 16 – 24 have been added and claims 1 – 9, 14 – 24 are pending.
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of Claims 1 – 9, 14 and 15 in the reply filed on 11/25/25 is acknowledged.
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 (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.
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 1 – 9 and 14 – 24 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Rao et al. (US 2024/0015686 A1) in view of Ko et al. (US 2022/0385423 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Rao teaches a user equipment (UE) (Fig 1B: WTRU 102; Fig. 2: WTRU 202), comprising: at least one memory (Fig. 1B: memory 130/132); and at least one processor (Fig. 1B: processor 118) coupled with the at least one memory (see Fig. 1B) and configured to cause the UE to: receive, from a location management function (Fig. 2: LMF 206; paragraph 87: LMF), a request comprising a plurality of parameters for performing resource selection for transmission of a sidelink positioning reference signal (paragraph 87: the WTRU may receive a PRS transmission, due to an LMF-initiated on demand request, which may be correlated with the indication (i.e. request or measurement report) sent by the WTRU. The LMF-initiated on demand request may contain and be identified with a request ID. Additionally, the on-demand request may also be associated with a priority value. Also described in paragraph 148: sidelink positioning reference signal); perform the resource selection for determining a sidelink resource for the transmission of the sidelink positioning reference signal (paragraph 87: The updated PRS configuration received by the WTRU, in the LMF-initiated on-demand request, may augment an existing PRS configuration (e.g. additional resource, resource set, TRPs are included) and/or may overwrite an existing PRS configuration (e.g. change/removal of resource, resource set. Further described in paragraph 201: The on-demand request may include either the request for certain PRS/SRSp configurations, selection of PRS/SRSp or an indication to change one or more parameters in the PRS/SRSp configurations (e.g. resources); and determine the sidelink resource based on the resource selection and based on one or more of a priority, a packet delay budget, a reference signal received power, a positioning reference signal offset, or a positioning reference signal comb pattern (paragraph 87: The LMF-initiated on demand request may contain and be identified with a request ID. Additionally, the on-demand request may also be associated with a priority value).
Although Rao teaches resource selection, Rao does not explicitly disclose autonomous resource selection.
However, Ko teaches autonomous resource selection (paragraph 110: the UE may autonomously select or schedule a resource for SL transmission. For example, the UE may perform SL communication by autonomously selecting a resource within a configured resource pool).
In view of this, it would have been obvious to one skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Rao’s UE by incorporating the teachings of Ko, for the purpose of enabling a UE to automatically and intelligently select its own resources.
Regarding claims 2, 15 and 17, Rao teaches the UE of claim 1, wherein the plurality of parameters comprise a sidelink positioning quality indicator, a priority value and positioning delay budget to be used for resource selection of the sidelink positioning reference signal, a latency range for sidelink report transmission, reception, or a combination thereof between sidelink user equipments, a resource pool configuration, a reference signal type for sensing, a source identifier, a destination identifier, a cast type, a positioning technique, a report configuration for reporting a positioning value, or some combination thereof (paragraph 87: The LMF-initiated on demand request may contain and be identified with a request ID. Additionally, the on-demand request may also be associated with a priority value. Also described in paragraph 77, 85, 86, 143, 150).
Regarding claims 3 and 18, Rao teaches the UE of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is configured to cause the UE to configure a set of positioning reference signal offsets, positioning reference signal comb patterns, or a combination thereof per resource pool, per sidelink bandwidth part, or per sidelink carrier, and the autonomous resource selection for the transmission of the sidelink positioning reference signal is performed using available positioning reference signal offsets, an available comb pattern, or a combination thereof (paragraph 118: request related to spatial parameter, the WTRU may receive additional or updated information for at least one of the following PRS parameters: TRP ID, PRS Resource set ID, PRS resource ID with associated parameters (e.g., periodicity, comb value, muting pattern), and/or Expected AoD and uncertainty (e.g., range in angles), expected Reference Signal Time Difference (RSTD) and uncertainty (e.g., time range). Further described in paragraph 132: a RE offset for PRS or SRS for positioning; a comb pattern for PRS or SRS for positioning; a spatial relation; a TRP ID; an absolute radio-frequency channel number (ARFCN); a subcarrier spacing; an expected RSTD, uncertainty in expected RSTD; a start PRB; a bandwidth of PRS or SRS and/or a BWP ID.).
Regarding claims 4 and 19, Rao teaches the UE of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is configured to cause the UE to receive mapping information comprising an association between a positioning reference signal resource, a positioning reference signal bandwidth, and a sidelink quality indicator value, and the sidelink quality indicator value is associated with a sidelink positioning accuracy, a latency range, or a combination thereof (paragraph 71-72: positioning; latency; paragraphs 77-78: mapping rules; paragraph 88: positioning accuracy).
Regarding claims 5 and 20, Rao teaches the UE of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is configured to cause the UE to perform at least one resource reselection based on at least one trigger received from a medium access control, and performing the at least one resource reselection comprises requesting a candidate resource for positioning reference signal transmission in a resource pool, a carrier, a bandwidth part, or some combination thereof based on a sidelink positioning request received from the location management function (paragraphs 77-78: triggering conditions; paragraph 84; paragraph 85: For the triggering of the PRS measurement, the WTRU may either transition immediately after sending the on-demand indication or transition upon receiving a confirmation indication (e.g. in a DCI, DL MAC CE); also described in paragraph 191).
Regarding claims 6 and 21, Rao teaches the UE of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is configured to cause the UE to perform the autonomous resource selection using sensing, random resource selection, or a combination thereof, and report a candidate positioning reference signal offset, a comb pattern, a candidate resource set, or some combination thereof for the transmission of the sidelink positioning reference signal to a higher layer (paragraphs 77 and 102: higher layer; paragraphs 38, 51, 99, 118, 132).
Regarding claims 7 and 22, Rao teaches the UE of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is configured to cause the UE to maximize a selection of contiguous resources from multiple candidate resource sets received from a plurality of resource pools for the transmission of the sidelink positioning reference signal at the same time within a time period (paragraph 53: contiguous; paragraph 99: timing; paragraph 102).
Regarding claims 8 and 23, Rao teaches the UE of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is configured to cause the UE to reserve at least one resource and at least one positioning reference signal offset or a comb pattern for the transmission of the sidelink positioning reference signal within a packet delay budget (paragraph 132: comp pattern; paragraph 296: delay).
Regarding claim 9, Rao teaches the UE of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is configured to cause the UE to indicate a cast type indicator in sidelink control information, and the cast type indicator indicates a one-to-one, one-to-many, or many-to-one sidelink positioning reference signal transmission (paragraphs 73-74; 77, 106, 161).
Regarding claim 14, Rao teaches the same limitations described above in the rejection of claim 1.
Regarding claim 16, Rao teaches the same limitations described above in the rejection of claim 1.
Regarding claim 24, Rao teaches the same limitations described above in the rejection of claim 1.
Conclusion
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/RHONDA L MURPHY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2462