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
Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 (a)-(d). The certified copy has been filed in parent Application No. 20206283, filed on Dec. 11, 2020.
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) 1-3, 5-13, 16-17, 19-22 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Fischer et al. (hereinafter Fischer)(US 2016/0234709) in view of Kumar et al. (hereinafter Kumar)(US 9820091).
Regarding claim 1, Fischer teaches an apparatus comprising at least one processor, and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to(item 200 in Fig. 2; also Fig. 1; base stations 144 and base stations 140):
obtain a first positioning reference signal configuration from at least a first serving access node and a first neighbor access node comprised in a first network, wherein the apparatus is associated with a first network to the first network(P[0116], PRS configuration information; carrier frequency);
determine first positioning information by receiving a first positioning reference signal based on the obtained first positioning reference signal configuration(P[0062], positioning information ToA);
obtain a second positioning reference signal configuration from a second serving access node and a second neighbor access node in a second network, wherein the apparatus is further associated with a second network to the second network(P[0062], positioning information ToA);
determine second positioning information by receiving a second positioning information reference signal based on the obtained second positioning reference signal configuration(P[0062], positioning information ToA);
estimate a clock frequency difference between the first network and the second network and determine an offset between the first network and the second network(P[0071], offset and frequency difference);
remove the determined offset from the obtained first positioning reference signal and the second positioning information reference signal(P[0075], RTD may be zero or known value);
and
determine a joint positioning information by using the first and the second positioning information([0128], mobile device position; frequency bias compensation).
Fischer did not teach specifically first subscription and second subscription. However, Kumar teaches in an analogous art first subscription and second subscription(title and also abstract). Therefore, it would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the invention to have first subscription and second subscription in order to have wider applicability.
Regarding claim 2, Fischer in view of Kumar teaches an apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the apparatus is further caused to obtain the first positioning reference signal configuration after transmitting a first positioning request to the first serving access node(Kumar: Fig. 3, provide assistance data; also col. 13, lines 39-42, assistance data for a first candidate subscription; SIM-1).
Regarding claim 3, Fischer in view of Kumar teaches an apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the apparatus is further caused to obtain the second positioning reference signal configuration after transmitting a second positioning request to the first serving access node(Kumar: Fig. 3, provide assistance data; also col. 13, lines 45-48, assistance data for a second candidate subscription; SIM-2).
Regarding claim 5, Fischer in view of Kumar teaches an (apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the first positioning reference signal configuration is obtained from a frequency band used by the first network and the second positioning reference signal configuration is obtained from another frequency band used by the second network(Fischer: P[0049], base stations operating on different carrier frequencies F1 and F2).
Regarding claim6, Fischer in view of Kumar teaches an apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the apparatus further comprises multiple receiver chains(Fischer: fig. 8, items 882, 884).
Regarding claim 7, Fischer in view of Kumar teaches an apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the apparatus is further caused to transmit the joint positioning information(Fischer: P[0144], mobile device sends the compensated measurement to the server).
Regarding claim 8, Fischer in view of Kumar teaches an apparatus according to claim 1, wherein one or more of the first or second positioning information comprises received signal time difference or downlink time difference of arrival(Fischer: P[0142], OTDOA between the first positioning signal and the second positioning signal).
Regarding claim 9, Fischer in view of Kumar teaches an apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the joint positioning information comprises an estimate of the location of the apparatus(Fischer: P[0144], determine a position of the mobile device based on compensated measurement).
Regarding claim 10, Fischer in view of Kumar teaches an apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the apparatus is further caused to use the first positioning reference signal configuration or the second positioning reference signal configuration for obtaining positioning information with respect to both the first and the second network(Fischer: P[0142], difference between the first frequency of the first positioning signal and the second frequency of the second positioning signal; inter frequency bias compensation in the measurements).
Regarding claim 11, Fischer in view of Kumar teaches an apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the apparatus is a terminal device(Fischer: abstract).
Claims 11-13, 16-17, 19-22 are rejected for the same reason as set forth in claims 1, 1-3, 5-8 respectively.
Claim(s) 4, 18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Fischer et al. (hereinafter Fischer)(US 2016/0234709) in view of Kumar et al. (hereinafter Kumar)(US 9820091) and Bitra et al. (hereinafter Bitra)(US 2018/0184452).
Regarding claim 4, Fischer in view of Kumar teaches all the particulars of the claim except an apparatus, wherein at least one of the following: the first positioning reference signal configuration or the second positioning reference signal configurations are obtained as broadcasts. However, Bitra teaches in an analogous art, wherein at least one of the following: the first positioning reference signal configuration or the second positioning reference signal configurations are obtained as broadcasts(P[0044], PRS positioning signals being broadcast). Therefore, it would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the invention to have at least one of the following: the first positioning reference signal configuration or the second positioning reference signal configurations are obtained as broadcasts in order to have improved efficiency.
Claim 18 is rejected for the same reason as set forth in claim 4.
Conclusion
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/MUTHUSWAMY G MANOHARAN/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2647