DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, field on or after Match 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s response filed 01/30/2026 do not traverse or otherwise address the Examiner’s taking of Official Notice that “sending multiple pieces of information in a single request” is well known in the prior Office Action. Accordingly, the officially noticed fact is taken to be admitted prior art because Applicant failed to specifically traverse the Official Notice. See MPEP § 2144.03(C).
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1,9,17 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
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.
The factual inquiries 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 1,2,4,9,10,12,17,19 are being rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Keating et al. (US 20200229130 A1, hereinafter Keating) in view of Dong (US 12604293)
Regarding claim 1, Keating discloses a positioning method comprising:
receiving, by a terminal, a request from a first base station, wherein the request requests the terminal to measure a positioning reference signal (Par. 0011: Lines 8-11; The gNB requests the UE to provide location information by sending a positioning reference signal);
measuring, by the terminal, the positioning reference signal based on the request, to obtain a measurement result (Par. 0011: Lines 11-13; The UE performs a measurement on the positioning reference signal);
sending, by the terminal, the measurement result to the first base station or a second base station (Par. 0011: Lines 12-13; The UE sends the location report to the gNB).
Keating does not disclose the terminal is in a radio resource control (RRC) inactive state and the request comprises a to-be-measured measurement quantity.
Dong, however, discloses a UE in a RRC inactive state, receiving a request to perform positioning in a paging message sent to the UE. The request to perform positioning on a PRS includes a to be measured quantity (Col. 6: Lines 1-8; If the UE is in RRC disconnected state, the first paging message to UE is broadcast. RRC disconnected states include RRC inactive states. The paging message triggers the UE to perform positioning measurements and report the results to the LMF; Col. 6: Lines 23-26; The first paging message carries the positioning request message. The positioning request message is information for the LMF to indicate performing of the positioning measurement; Col. 9: Lines 50-52; The positioning measurement is performed on a position reference signal (PRS); The UE in RRC inactive mode receives the paging massage carrying the positioning request message sent from the base station. The UE performs positioning measurement on the PRS send by the base station in response to receiving the paging message; Col. 11: Lines 49-58; The positioning request message includes positioning configuration for performing the positioning measurement by the UE. The configuration indicates a measurement parameter of positioning; Col. 14: Lines 9-10; Measurement parameter of positioning includes parameters such as PRS-RSRP and PRS-RSTD; The positioning request specifies a measurement parameter, such as RSRP and RSTD, which identifies the quantity of the positioning reference signal that is to be measured).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the positioning method of Keating with the teachings of Dong such that the positioning request is received while the UE is in an RRC inactive state and includes the measurement parameter to be measured, in order to allow the UE to perform the requested positioning measurement without transitioning to the RRC connected state, thereby reducing positioning delay and UE power consumption.
Regarding claim 2 as applied to claim 1, Keating in view of Dong disclose the limitations of claim 1. Keating further dislcoses the request is carried in the broadcast message from the first base station or a paging message used to page the terminal (Par. 0058: Lines 1-7; UE is paged with a flag to wake up to perform positioning).
Dong also discloses the request comprising the to-be-measured quantity is carried in a paging message used to page the terminal (Col. 6: Lines 1-8; If the UE is in RRC disconnected state, the first paging message to UE is broadcast. RRC disconnected states include RRC inactive states. The paging message triggers the UE to perform positioning measurements and report the results to the LMF; Col. 6: Lines 23-26; The first paging message carries the positioning request message. The positioning request message is information for the LMF to indicate performing of the positioning measurement; Col. 9: Lines 50-52; The positioning measurement is performed on a position reference signal (PRS).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the positioning method of Keating with the RRC inactive positioning teachings of Dong, as detailed in the rejection of claim 1, in order to allow the UE to perform positioning measurements while remaining in the RRC inactive state, thereby reducing positioning delay and UE power consumption.
Regarding claim 4 as applied to claim 1, Keating discloses receiving, by the terminal, indication information from the first base station, wherein the indication information indicates to the terminal to measure the positioning reference signal in an RRC non-connected state (Par. 0035: Lines 1-5; The UE is flagged in the paging message to perform positioning measurements is the RRC_idle mode).
Regarding claim 9, the rejection of claim 1 addresses the limitations presented in claim 9. Therefore, the limitations of claim 9 have been addressed.
An apparatus capable of performing the recited functions necessarily includes a transceiver and a processor.
Regarding claim 10 as applied to claim 9, the rejection of claim 2 addresses the limitations presented in claim 10. Therefore, the limitations of claim 10 have been addressed.
Regarding claim 12 as applied to claim 9, the rejection of claim 4 addresses the limitations presented in claim 12. Therefore, the limitations of claim 12 have been addressed.
Regarding claim 17, the rejection of claim 1 addresses the limitations presented in claim 17. Therefore, the limitations of claim 17 have been addressed.
Regarding claim 19 as applied to claim 17, the rejection of claim 4 addresses the limitations presented in claim 19. Therefore, the limitations of claim 19 have been addressed.
Claims 5,13,20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Keating et al. (US 20200229130 A1, hereinafter Keating) in view of Dong (US 12604293) in further view of Applicant Admitted Prior Art
Regarding claim 5 as applied to claim 1, Keating discloses positioning assistance information, and the positioning assistance information indicates the positioning reference signal (Par. 0005: Lines 7-11; The gNB sends assistance information to the UE to assist in making measurements of the PRS; Par. 0051: Lines 1-2; The UE receives OTDOA and PRS configuration information).
However, Keating in view of Dong does not clearly teach the positioning assistance information is included in the request message. Applicants Admitted Prior Art teaches that sending multiple pieces of information in a single request is well known.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in that art before the effective filing date of the invention to include the positioning assistance information in the message from the base station to the terminal requesting the terminal to measure a positioning reference signal to streamline signaling and reduce latency.
Regarding claim 13 as applied to claim 9, the rejection of claim 5 addresses the limitations presented in claim 13. Therefore, the limitations of claim 13 have been addressed.
Regarding claim 20 as applied to claim 17, the rejection of claim 5 addresses the limitations presented in claim 20. Therefore, the limitations of claim 20 have been addressed.
Claims 6,7,14,15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Keating et al. (US 20200229130 A1, hereinafter Keating) in view of Dong (US 12604293) in view of Applicants Admitted Prior Art in further view of Agnihotri et al. (US 20190327707 A1, hereinafter Agnihotri).
Regarding claim 6 as applied to claim 5, Keating in view of Dong in view of Applicants Admitted Prior Art discloses the claimed invention but does not disclose wherein the positioning assistance information comprises at least one of time-frequency resource, a transmission periodicity, or a quantity of symbols of the positioning reference signal.
However, Agnihotri discloses wherein the positioning assistance information comprises at least one of time-frequency resource, a transmission periodicity, or a quantity of symbols of the positioning reference signal (Par. 0067: Lines 10-16; The PRS configuration information may include periodicity, PRS bandwidth, and PRS carrier frequency).
Although Agnihotri teaches sending the PRS configuration information from the eNB to a location server, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to incorporate this PRS configuration information into the request message from the base station to the UE, as taught by Keating in view of Dong in further view of Applicants Admitted Prior Art. This would streamline signaling, reduce latency, and enable the UE to perform more accurate and timely positioning measurements.
Regarding claim 7 as applied to claim 1, Keating in view of Dong in further view of Applicants Admitted Prior Art discloses receiving a to-be-measured measurement quantity, the to-be-measured measurement quantity comprises at least one of an angle of arrival, a reference signal time difference, or a receiving time difference (Claim 1 and Claim 6: UE receives PRS configuration information from a base station which includes RSDT measurements). However, Keating in view of Dong in further view of Applicants Admitted Prior Art does not explicitly disclose the inclusion of the to-be-measured measurement quantity in the request.
Agnihotri discloses a measurement configuration parameter, and the measurement configuration parameter comprises at least one of a measurement periodicity, a quantity of measurement times, whether periodic reporting is performed, or a measurement identifier (Par. 0071: Lines 34-39; The UE is given a preferred number of occasions for which the UE should attempt to measure the PRS). However, Agnihotri does not explicitly disclose the inclusion of the measurement configuration parameter in the request.
Applicants Admitted Prior Art teaches that sending multiple pieces of related information (e.g., what to measure and how to measure it) in a single request message is a well-known practice. Combining these two sets of information into a single request minimizes signaling overhead and reduces latency. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the disclosures of Keating in view of Dong and Agnihotri to include both sets of information in a single request. Such a modification represents a predictable and routing optimization.
Regarding claim 14 as applied to claim 13, the rejection of claim 6 addresses the limitations presented in claim 14. Therefore, the limitations of claim 14 have been addressed.
Regarding claim 15 as applied to claim 9, the rejection of claim 7 addresses the limitations presented in claim 15. Therefore, the limitations of claim 15 have been addressed.
Claims 8,16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Keating et al. (US 20200229130 A1, hereinafter Keating) in view of Dong (US 12604293) in further view of Iwamura et al. (US 8423026 B2, hereinafter Iwamura).
Regarding claim 8 as applied to claim 1, Keating discloses when the terminal is in an RRC connected state, and the terminal is served by the first base station, sending, by the terminal, the measurement result to the first base station or when the terminal is served by the second base station, sending, by the terminal, the measurement result to the second base station; or
when the terminal is in an RRC non-connected state, sending, by the terminal, the measurement result to the first base station (Par. 0014: Lines 11-14; While the UE is in RRC_inactive or RRC_idle mode, the UE send location report to the base station) or when a camped cell of the terminal corresponds to the second base station, sending, by the terminal, the measurement result to the second base station .
Keating in view of Dong does not disclose a camped cell of the terminal corresponds to the first base station. Iwamura, however, discloses a camped cell of the terminal corresponds to the first base station (Col. 4: Lines 7-10; The camped cell is the cell under control of the base station to which the UE belongs to).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Keating in view of Dong with Iwamura to recognize that the base station receiving the measurement result with the UE is in a RRC non-connected state corresponds to the camped cell’s base station, as this is standard network behavior in idle/inactive state. Such a combination would allow efficient routing of measurement reports without unnecessary signaling overhead.
Regarding claim 16 as applied to claim 9, the rejection of claim 8 addresses the limitations presented in claim 16. Therefore, the limitations of claim 16 have been addressed.
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 FABIAN BOTELLO whose telephone number is (571)272-4439. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 8:30 am - 5:30 pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Wesley Kim can be reached at 571-272-7867. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/FABIAN BOTELLO/Examiner, Art Unit 2648
/WESLEY L KIM/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2648
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