DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
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 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.
This action is in response to amendments and remarks filed on 5/28/2026.
Claims 1-20 remain pending. Claims 1-20 have been examined and are rejected.
Priority
This application is a continuation of PCT/CN2021/083325 filed 3/26/2021.
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 5/28/2026 has been entered.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 5/28/2026 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments filed in the communications above have been fully considered but are not persuasive. In the communications filed, applicant argues in substance that:
Argument (a) In particular, the cited references fail to disclose a wireless communication node indicating to a wireless communication device one or more positioning methods in a measurement report in which each of the one or more positioning methods is associated with a respective subset of a plurality of measurement instances. The Office Action acknowledges that Manolakos does not disclose subject matter related to positioning methods. In an attempt to remedy the deficiencies of Manolakos, the Office Action alleges that Rao discloses indication of one or more positioning methods at paragraphs [0099]-[0100].
However, Rao merely describes that a positioning configuration (not a measurement report) can include one or more positioning methods (the supposed "plurality of positioning methods") at paragraphs [0099]-[0100]. Rao further expressly lays out that in the same positioning configuration is to include an uplink resource to report the positioning measurement at paragraph [0104], and that a WTRU is to select a configuration to perform a measurement and send a measurement report at paragraphs [0520]-[0522]. Even if the positioning configuration of Rao could somehow be equated to the recited measurement report, nowhere does Rao suggest such a configuration in connection with any measurement instance. Rao thus does not contemplate a positioning configuration in which each positioning method is associated with a respective subset of a plurality of measurement instances. Rao thus fails to remedy the deficiencies of Manolakos.
In response to Argument (a), examiner respectfully disagrees.
In the first limitation of Claim 1, the wireless communication node (WCN) requests the wireless communication device (WCD) to transmit a measurement report. In the second newly amended limitation of Claim 1, the WCN transmits an indication to the WCD comprising positioning methods in the measurement report. Because the WCN is the device which requests the measurement report, and the WCD is the device which provides the measurement report, the indicating of positioning methods of Claim 1 does not appear to be included in the measurement report itself as argued by applicant, but rather is interpreted as describing configuration information for the measurement report that is provided by the WCN to the WCD. Interpreting the indication of positioning methods as being included in the measurement report itself would result in contradictory claim language as the indication of positioning methods is performed by the WCN as recited in the claim, but it is the WCD which transmits the measurement report.
Thus in view of the provided claim interpretation, the concept of a positioning configuration including one or more positioning methods is taught by Rao as discussed by applicant in the argument above. Additionally, the positioning method that is indicated in the configuration of Rao is necessarily associated with one or more measurement instances that are subsequently provided in the measurement report that is performed based on the received configuration information.
For at least these reasons, applicant’s arguments are considered not persuasive.
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.
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 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Manolakos et al. (US 2021/0360577 A1) in view of Rao et al. (US 2023/0379860 A1).
With regard to Claim 1, Manolakos teaches:
A wireless communication method, comprising:
sending, by a wireless communication node to a wireless communication device, a message requesting the wireless communication device to transmit a measurement report for positioning; (a base station functioning as a positioning beacon/location measurement unit and comprising a location server may transmit reference signals to UEs to be measured by the UEs [Manolakos: 0032; 0136; 0082]);
and indicating, by the wireless communication node to the wireless communication device, one or more positioning parameters in the measurement report, wherein each of the one or more positioning parameters is associated with a respective subset of a plurality of measurement instances; (the location server (e.g., LMF) may provide assistance data to the UE comprising parameters applicable to a particular positioning method [Manolakos: 0116; 0059], wherein a UE performs measurements based on the provided parameters and reports them to a positioning entity [Manolakos: 0111]);
wherein the measurement report includes a plurality of measurement instances, each of which is associated with a respective time stamp and includes one or more time-domain occasions; (a UE measures the differences between the times of arrival (ToAs) of reference signals (e.g., positioning reference signals (PRS)) received from pairs of base stations, referred to as reference signal time difference (RSTD) or time difference of arrival (TDOA) measurements, and reports them to a positioning entity [Manolakos: 0111; 0145-46; 0091], wherein the UE determines a timestamp for each of the plurality of positioning measurements relative to the reference point [Manolakos: Claim 9; 0147], and wherein a “PRS instance” or “PRS occasion” is one instance of a periodically repeated time window (such as a group of one or more consecutive slots) where PRS are expected to be transmitted [Manolakos: 0096]).
However, Manolakos does not explicitly teach (where underlining indicates the portion of each limitation not taught):
and indicating, by the wireless communication node to the wireless communication device, one or more positioning methods in the measurement report.
In a similar field of endeavor involving providing measurement reports based on positioning information, Rao discloses:
and indicating, by the wireless communication node to the wireless communication device, one or more positioning methods in the measurement report, wherein each of the one or more positioning methods is associated with a respective subset of a plurality of measurement instances; (WTRU receives assistance data from the LMF including one or more Positioning Reference Signal (PRS) configurations which may include a measurement configuration and/or a measurement report configuration [Rao: 0013; 0394], wherein the positioning configuration may include one or more of positioning methods used (e.g., DL-TDOA (Time Difference of Arrival), UL-TDOA, DL-AoD (Angle of Departure), UL-AoA (Angle of Arrival), Multi-RTT) [Rao: 0099-100]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Manolakos in view of Rao in order to indicate, by the wireless communication node to the wireless communication device, one or more positioning methods in the system of Manolakos.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Manolakos with Rao as doing so would allow the LMF to select appropriate positioning methods based on target QoS and positioning accuracy [Rao: 0140-54] which reduces computational burden on the WTRU.
With regard to Claim 2, Manolakos-Rao teaches:
The wireless communication method of claim 1, wherein each time-domain occasion corresponds to when the wireless communication device receives a single instance of a reference signal resource set; (the UE performs at least one positioning measurement of at least one DL-PRS received from a TRP during a positioning session [Manolakos: 0145], wherein the reported timestamps would need to be able to index only inside the PRS instances in which the PRS are scheduled [Manolakos: 0139]).
With regard to Claim 3, Manolakos-Rao teaches:
The wireless communication method of claim 1, wherein the time stamp is indicated by a first time stamp that corresponds to a reception time of a first reference signal for determining a measurement instance of the plurality of measurement instances and a second time stamp that corresponds to a reception time of a last reference signal for determining the measurement instance; (a UE measures the differences between the times of arrival (ToAs) of reference signals (e.g., positioning reference signals (PRS)) received from pairs of base stations, referred to as reference signal time difference (RSTD) or time difference of arrival (TDOA) measurements, and reports them to a positioning entity [Manolakos: 0111; 0145-46; 0091], wherein each reported timestamp would be the amount of time between the first or last slot of the first or last PRS instance of a positioning frequency layer and the time the UE performed the associated positioning measurement [Manolakos: 0134]).
With regard to Claim 4, Manolakos-Rao teaches:
The wireless communication method of claim 1, wherein the time stamp is indicated by a first time stamp that corresponds to a reception time of a first reference signal for determining a measurement instance of the plurality of measurement instances and a duration for determining the measurement instance; (determining a timestamp for the at least one positioning measurement relative to a reference point, wherein the timestamp comprises an amount of time relative to the reference point that the at least one positioning measurement is valid [Manolakos: 0133-34]).
With regard to Claim 5, Manolakos-Rao teaches:
The wireless communication method of claim 1, further comprising: determining, by the wireless communication node, a number of the one or more time-domain occasions based on a single resource set; (each reported timestamp would be the amount of time between the first or last slot of the first or last PRS instance of a positioning frequency layer and the time the UE performed the associated positioning measurement such that when the serving base station receives the MAC-CE package containing the measurement report, there is exact knowledge of when the report was transmitted, and therefore, exact knowledge of which PRS were measured [Manolakos: 0134]).
With regard to Claim 6, Manolakos-Rao teaches:
The wireless communication method of claim 1, further comprising: determining, by the wireless communication node, a number of measurement instances based on a single resource set; (each reported timestamp would be the amount of time between the first or last slot of the first or last PRS instance of a positioning frequency layer and the time the UE performed the associated positioning measurement such that when the serving base station receives the MAC-CE package containing the measurement report, there is exact knowledge of when the report was transmitted, and therefore, exact knowledge of which PRS were measured [Manolakos: 0134]).
With regard to Claim 7, Manolakos-Rao teaches:
The wireless communication method of claim 1, further comprising: determining, by the wireless communication node, a number of the one or more time-domain occasions based on a single transmission reception point (TRP); (a “PRS resource set” is a set of PRS resources used for the transmission of PRS signals, where each PRS resource has a PRS resource ID and the PRS resources in a PRS resource set are associated with the same TRP [Manolakos: 0094]).
With regard to Claim 8, Manolakos-Rao teaches:
The wireless communication method of claim 1, further comprising: determining, by the wireless communication node, a number of measurement instances based on a single transmission reception point (TRP); (a UE may indicate that the timestamps for the last ‘Y’ PRS instances are being reported relative to a reference point [Manolakos: 0138]).
With regard to Claim 9, Manolakos-Rao teaches:
The wireless communication method of claim 1, further comprising: determining, by the wireless communication node, a number of the one or more time-domain occasions based on a single positioning frequency layer; (each reported timestamp would be the amount of time between the first or last slot of the first or last PRS instance of a positioning frequency layer and the time the UE performed the associated positioning measurement [Manolakos: 0134] wherein a “positioning frequency layer” is a collection of one or more PRS resource sets across one or more TRPs that have the same values for certain parameters [Manolakos: 0097]).
With regard to Claim 10, Manolakos-Rao teaches:
The wireless communication method of claim 1, further comprising: determining, by the wireless communication node, a number of measurement instances based on a single positioning frequency layer; (each reported timestamp would be the amount of time between the first or last slot of the first or last PRS instance of a positioning frequency layer and the time the UE performed the associated positioning measurement [Manolakos: 0134] wherein a “positioning frequency layer” is a collection of one or more PRS resource sets across one or more TRPs that have the same values for certain parameters [Manolakos: 0097]).
With regard to Claim 11, Manolakos-Rao teaches:
The wireless communication method of claim 1, further comprising: indicating, by the wireless communication node, a plurality of reference signals to be included in the measurement report; wherein each of the indicated reference signals is indicated through at least one of a transmission reception point (TRP) identifier (ID), a resource set ID, or a resource ID; and wherein each of the indicated reference signals is associated with the respective subset of the plurality of measurement instances; (a base station functioning as a positioning beacon/location measurement unit and comprising a location server may transmit reference signals to UEs to be measured by the UEs [Manolakos: 0032; 0136; 0082], wherein a PRS resource set is identified by a PRS resource set ID and is associated with a particular TRP (identified by a TRP ID) [Manolakos: 0094]).
With regard to Claim 12, Manolakos-Rao teaches:
The wireless communication method of claim 11, wherein each of the plurality of measurement instances further includes one or more measurement values of the same measurement type or different measurement types; (a UE may report a common reference point for the timestamps for all measurements across multiple types of positioning methods (e.g., DL-TDOA, multi-RTT, DL-AoD), wherein a UE may also report the same differential timestamps for different measurement types, thereby eliminating the need to report a differential timestamp for each measurement [Manolakos: 0140]).
With regard to Claim 13, Manolakos-Rao teaches:
The wireless communication method of claim 1, further comprising: indicating, by the wireless communication node, a plurality of measurement elements to be included in the measurement report; wherein each of the indicated measurement elements is indicated through a transmission reception point (TRP) identifier (ID); and wherein each of the indicated measurement elements is associated with the respective subset of the plurality of measurement instances; (a base station functioning as a positioning beacon/location measurement unit and comprising a location server may transmit reference signals to UEs to be measured by the UEs [Manolakos: 0032; 0136; 0082], wherein a PRS resource set is identified by a PRS resource set ID and is associated with a particular TRP (identified by a TRP ID) [Manolakos: 0094]).
With regard to Claim 14, Manolakos-Rao teaches:
The wireless communication method of claim 13, wherein each of the measurement instances further includes one or more measurement values of the same measurement type or different measurement types, and wherein each measurement value is associated with reference signal information for determining the measurement value; (a UE may report a common reference point for the timestamps for all measurements across multiple types of positioning methods (e.g., DL-TDOA, multi-RTT, DL-AoD), wherein a UE may also report the same differential timestamps for different measurement types, thereby eliminating the need to report a differential timestamp for each measurement [Manolakos: 0140]).
With regard to Claim 15, Manolakos-Rao teaches:
The wireless communication method of claim 1,
wherein each positioning method includes one or more measurement elements; (the UE receives the identifiers (IDs) of a reference base station (e.g., a serving base station) and multiple non-reference base stations in assistance data, wherein the UE then measures the RSTD between the reference base station and each of the non-reference base stations [Manolakos: 0111]);
wherein each measurement element is indicated through a transmission reception point (TRP) identifier (ID); (a PRS resource set is identified by a PRS resource set ID and is associated with a particular TRP (identified by a TRP ID) [Manolakos: 0094]);
wherein each measurement element further includes one or more measurement values of the same measurement type or different measurement types; and wherein each measurement value is associated with reference signal information for determining the measurement value; (a UE may report a common reference point for the timestamps for all measurements across multiple types of positioning methods (e.g., DL-TDOA, multi-RTT, DL-AoD), wherein a UE may also report the same differential timestamps for different measurement types, thereby eliminating the need to report a differential timestamp for each measurement [Manolakos: 0140]).
With regard to Claim 16, Manolakos-Rao teaches:
The wireless communication method of claim 1, further comprising:
indicating, by the wireless communication node, one or more measurement elements to be associated with one of the plurality of measurement instances in the measurement report; (the UE receives the identifiers (IDs) of a reference base station (e.g., a serving base station) and multiple non-reference base stations in assistance data, wherein the UE then measures the RSTD between the reference base station and each of the non-reference base stations [Manolakos: 0111]);
wherein each measurement element is indicated through a transmission reception point (TRP) identifier (ID); (a PRS resource set is identified by a PRS resource set ID and is associated with a particular TRP (identified by a TRP ID) [Manolakos: 0094]);
wherein each measurement element further includes one or more measurement values of the same measurement type or different measurement types; and wherein each measurement value is associated with reference signal information for determining the measurement value; (a UE may report a common reference point for the timestamps for all measurements across multiple types of positioning methods (e.g., DL-TDOA, multi-RTT, DL-AoD), wherein a UE may also report the same differential timestamps for different measurement types, thereby eliminating the need to report a differential timestamp for each measurement [Manolakos: 0140]).
With regard to Claim 17, Manolakos-Rao teaches:
The wireless communication method of claim 1, wherein the measurement report includes at least one of: a transmission reception point (TRP) identifier (ID), a resource set ID, a resource ID, or a measurement instance ID for determining a reference timing of a downlink reference signal time difference (DL RSTD) value; (a base station functioning as a positioning beacon/location measurement unit and comprising a location server may transmit reference signals to UEs to be measured by the UEs [Manolakos: 0032; 0136; 0082], wherein a PRS resource set is identified by a PRS resource set ID and is associated with a particular TRP (identified by a TRP ID) [Manolakos: 0094]).
With regard to Claims 18-20, they appear substantially similar to the limitations recited by claims 1-17 and consequently do not appear to teach or further define over the citations provided for said claims. Accordingly, claims 18-20 are rejected for the same reasons as set forth in claims 1-17.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
Manolakos et al. (US 2021/0377698 A1) which teaches for each reported Rx-Tx time difference measurement, the reported information includes an identifier of a measured TRP, an identifier of a PRS resource set, an identifier of a PRS resource, and a timestamp [0091].
Duan et al. (US 2021/0099832 A1) which teaches the measurement report further comprises identifiers of the one or more TRPs, a timestamp during which the one or more positioning measurements are valid, one or more parameters indicating a quality of the one or more positioning measurements, information about the one or more downlink reference signals that was used to perform the one or more positioning measurements, etc. [Claim 15].
Rao et al. (US 2023/0379860 A1) which teaches The WTRU may receive from the network while in RRC Connected mode (e.g., just or prior to transitioning to RRC Inactive/Idle mode) an indication of whether to use the same or a different positioning method [0223].
Huang et al. (US 2022/0201531 A1) which teaches a terminal reports a measurement report to the positioning device where the measurement report includes M measurement results, and wherein the M measurement results may further include N timestamps of the N PRSs received by the terminal [0081; 0120].
Yerramalli et al. (US 2022/0030543 A1) which teaches a UE and/or gNBs may report measurements (e.g., optionally, with a designation of associated time stamps) of multiple reference signals for positioning (e.g., PRSs, SRS-Ps, etc.) to the LMF, wherein the LMF may attempt to process these measurements into a positioning estimate of the UE at the desired time instance [0138].
In the case of amendments, Applicant is respectfully requested to indicate the portion(s) of the specification which dictate(s) the structure relied on for proper interpretation and support, for ascertaining the metes and bounds of the claimed invention.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to AUSTIN J MOREAU whose telephone number is (571) 272-5179. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 9:00 - 6:00 ET.
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/AUSTIN J MOREAU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2446
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