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 .
DETAILED ACTION
This communication is a Final office action in merits. Claims 8-9 are canceled. Claims 1-7, 10-40, after amendment, are presently pending. Claims 1-7, 10-15, 25-33, 38-40, have been elected and considered below.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 10/14/2024 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Restriction Election
Applicant elects Group I (claims 1-15, 25-33, 38-40), without traverse, for further examination.
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 of this title, 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 set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied 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.
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 1-7, 10-15, 30-33 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 2025/0088883 A1, Rao et al. (hereinafter Rao).
As to claim 1, Rao discloses a method of wireless communication performed by a user equipment (UE), comprising:
receiving a configuration indicating one or more trigger conditions for activating sidelink-based positioning operations in conjunction with a cellular-based positioning procedure (Figs 1A, 2-4; pars 0073, 0075, 0078-0080, 0083-0084, 0206-0207, 0210, triggering/activating sidelink based positioning procedure with collaborative positioning including cellular-based positioning);
transmitting a notification to a network entity that at least one of the one or more trigger conditions was detected (Figs 5, 7-8; pars 0003-0004; pars 0075-0083, in one or more embodiments, in response to detecting a triggering event (e.g. determining the distance between anchor WTRU and member WTRUs below threshold values, or detecting an RSRP measurement of PRS from a TRP is below a threshold), an anchor WTRU then performs PRS measurements and sends a report to LMF), wherein the notification includes a list of sidelink anchor nodes detected by the UE for the sidelink-based positioning operations (pars 0003, 0073-0075, 0399, 0404, a set of member WTRUs being selected based on measured distances (e.g. collaborative WTRU group) as part of configuration report being sent to the LMF); and
performing the sidelink-based positioning operations with one or more anchor nodes from the list of sidelink anchor nodes based on detecting at least one of the one or more trigger conditions (pars 0073, 0206-0207, 0210, 0239-0240, performing sidelink measurement and sidelink based positioning by the anchor WTRU; Fig 5; pars 0319-0325, a WTRU being triggered to send an indication via sidelink to another WTRU for PRS measurement and/or configuration associated with positioning operations).
Although Rao’s teachings may be related to more than one embodiments, consider Rao’s teachings as a whole, it would have been obvious to one of skill in the art before the filing date of invention to combine Rao’s teachings together to activate and perform sidelink based positioning based on configuration or triggering conditions from cellular based positioning.
As to claim 2, Rao discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the one or more trigger conditions comprise: a number of detectable cellular-based links for the cellular-based positioning procedure being less than a threshold (pars 0075, 0079-0080, RSRP measurement of a positioning reference signal (PRS) being below a threshold), a change in location of the UE (pars 0038, 0073-0074, 0079), a change in serving cell of the UE (pars 0043, 0046), a confidence in a cellular-based position estimate of the UE being less than a confidence threshold (pars 0073, 0219, 0259), or any combination thereof.
As to claim 3, Rao discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the sidelink-based positioning operations are in addition to an ongoing sidelink-based positioning procedure performed by the UE (pars 0072, 0218-0219, 0272, 0275, providing new configuration information and/or selecting another device for measurement and positioning procedure).
As to claim 4, Rao discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the configuration further indicates a type of the sidelink-based positioning operations (pars 0226, 0305, 0339-0340, 0342, type of reference signals, type of configuration information, type of positioning resources, etc.).
As to claim 5, Rao discloses the method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving, from the network entity, a second list of sidelink anchor nodes with which to perform the sidelink-based positioning operations, the second list of sidelink anchor nodes including at least the one or more sidelink anchor nodes (pars 0003-0004, 0061, 0073-0075, more than one anchor nodes); or selecting the one or more sidelink anchor nodes with which to perform the sidelink-based positioning operations (pars 0072, 0250-0251, 0258-0259, 0264, 0290-0291,selecting an anchor WTRU for sidelink positioning).
As to claim 6, Rao discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the sidelink-based positioning operations are performed within a threshold period of time of positioning measurements performed for the cellular-based positioning procedure (pars 0311, 0346, 0364, 0374).
As to claim 7, Rao discloses the method of claim 1, wherein performing the sidelink-based positioning operations based on detecting the at least one of the one or more trigger conditions comprises: receiving, from the network entity, time and frequency resources for the sidelink-based positioning operations based on operating in Mode 1 resource allocation (par 0374, Mode 1 sidelink operation); or autonomously selecting the time and frequency resources for the sidelink-based positioning operations based on operating in Mode 2 resource allocation (par 0374, Mode 2 sidelink operation).
8-9. (Canceled)
As to claim 10, Rao discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the notification further includes locations of anchor nodes on the list of sidelink anchor nodes (pars 0073-0074, 0210, anchor WTRU reporting the location of the WTRU to the LMF).
As to claim 11, Rao discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the sidelink-based positioning operations are configured to be: aperiodic, periodic with a periodicity matching a periodicity of positioning reference signals (PRS) measured or transmitted for the sidelink-based positioning operations, or periodic with a stop time (pars 0311, 0346, 0364, 0374).
As to claim 12, Rao discloses the method of claim 1, further comprising: transmitting, to the network entity, based on a failure of the sidelink-based positioning operations, a notification indicating the failure of the sidelink-based positioning operations (pars 0307, 0319, 0352, 0386, indicate dropping or suspending performing PRS measurement due to poor quality (e.g. indicating failure)).
As to claim 13, Rao discloses the method of claim 1, wherein performing the sidelink-based positioning operations based on detecting the at least one of the one or more trigger conditions comprises: modifying one or more resources of an ongoing sidelink-based positioning procedure performed by the UE (pars 0301, 0332, the anchor WTRU may combine PRS configurations including combing resources for compensating poor quality).
As to claim 14, Rao discloses the method of claim 13, wherein the one or more resources comprise: a bandwidth of the ongoing sidelink-based positioning procedure (par 0262, LLP bandwidth), a repetition factor of one or more sidelink resources of the ongoing sidelink-based positioning procedure, a comb value of the one or more sidelink resources of the ongoing sidelink-based positioning procedure (par 0226, comb offset values), a periodicity of the one or more sidelink resources of the ongoing sidelink-based positioning procedure (pars 0225-0226, 0243), or any combination thereof.
As to claim 15, Rao discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the sidelink-based positioning operations comprise: measuring one or more sidelink positioning reference signal (SL-PRS) resources transmitted by the one or more sidelink anchor nodes (pars 0387, 0390-0391), transmitting one or more SL-PRS resources to the one or more sidelink anchor nodes (pars 0390-0391), or a combination thereof.
16-24. (Withdrawn)
As to claim 30, it is a device claim encompassed claim 1. Rejection of claim 1 is therefore incorporated herein.
As to claims 31-33, they are rejected with the same reason as set forth in claims 2-3, and 6, respectively.
Claims 25-26, 29, 38-40 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 2024/0031975 A1, Baek et al. (hereinafter Baek).
As to claim 25. Baek discloses a method of wireless communication performed by a user equipment (UE) (Fig 13), comprising:
engaging in a cellular-based positioning session based on configuration information received from a network entity (pars 0017-0020, 0022, 0032, 0045, performing network-based positioning by receiving configuration signal from a base station);
performing one or more sidelink-based positioning operations with one or more sidelink anchor nodes during the cellular-based positioning session, wherein the one or more sidelink anchor nodes are selected by the UE; (Figs 12-13; pars 0015-0016, 0018, 0028-0030, 0038-0039, 0196, performing US-to-UE sidelink positioning or US-to-AN sidelink positioning as well as network-based positioning using a Uulink); and
transmitting, to the network entity, a report including the sidelink-based positioning measurements (Fig 13; pars 0028-0030, 0034, 0044-0045, 0047, transmitting the generated UE-assisted measurement information to the network). Although Baek’s teachings may be related to more than one embodiments, consider Baek’s teachings as a whole, it would have been obvious to one of skill in the art before the filing date of invention to combine Baek’s teachings together to engaging in a cellular-based positioning session while performing a sidelink positioning operation with a relay UE.
As to claim 26. Baek discloses the method of claim 25, wherein: the report further includes locations of the one or more sidelink anchor nodes (pars 0022, 0225).
As to claim 29. Baek discloses the method of claim 25, wherein the report further includes positioning information resulting from the cellular-based positioning session (Fig 15; pars 0320, 0349-0357, 0371, 0377).
34-37. (Withdrawn)
As to claim 38, it is a device claim encompassed claim 25. Rejection of claim 25 is therefore incorporated herein.
As to claims 39-40, they are rejected with the same reason as set forth in claims 26 and 29, respectively.
Claims 27-28 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Baek in view of Rao.
As to claim 28. Baek discloses the method of claim 25, but does not expressly disclose receiving, from the network entity, an indication to activate opportunistic sidelink-based positioning operations. Rao, in the same or similar field of endeavor, further teaches receiving, from the network entity, an indication to activate opportunistic sidelink-based positioning operations (pars 0287, 0311, 0417, 0450, receiving activation/trigger from the network for SL (sldelink) measurement, configuration of positioning opreation). Therefore, consider Baek and Rao’s teachings as a whole, it would have been obvious to one of skill in the art before the filing date of invention to incorporate Rao’s teachings in Baek’s method to enable sidelink based positioning upon receiving network activation.
As to claim 27. Baek discloses the method of claim 25, further comprising: receiving, from the network entity, an indication that the one or more sidelink-based positioning operations are to be performed within a threshold period of time of a reference transmission time (Baek: par 0143, resource selection window being a time interval for SL transmission; Rao: pars 0225-0226, 0305, 0311, 0336, 0364).
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments have been considered but they are not persuasive. Applicant essentially argues that Rao does not disclose or teach limitations recited in claims 8-9 and therefore incorporate them into their base claim 1. As indicated in merit rejection above, in one or more embodiments taught by Rao, in response to detecting a triggering event (e.g. determining the distance between anchor WTRU and member WTRUs below threshold values, or detecting an RSRP measurement of PRS from a TRP is below a threshold), an anchor WTRU then performs certain PRS measurements and sends a report to LMF. Such report includes a set of member WTRUs being selected based on measured distances (e.g. forming a collaborative WTRU group). Rao therefore reads on claimed limitations. See citations and merit rejection above for more details. Applicant is encouraged to further clarify and distinct claimed invention from prior art of record.
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.
Examiner’s Note
Examiner has cited particular column, line number, paragraphs and/or figure(s) in the reference(s) as applied to the claims for the convenience of the Applicant. Although the specified citations are representative of the teachings of the art and are applied to the specific limitations within the individual claim, other passages and figures may apply as well. It is respectfully requested from the applicant in preparing responses, to fully consider the reference(s) in entirety as potentially teaching all or part of the claimed invention, as well as the context of the passage as taught by the prior art or disclosed by the Examiner.
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Qun Shen whose telephone number is (571) 270-7927. The examiner can normally be reached on Mon-Friday from 9:00-5:00. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner's Supervisor, Amandeep Saini can be reached on (571) 272-3382. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is (571) 273-8300. Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free).
/QUN SHEN/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2662