DETAILED ACTION
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 .
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 3/2/2026 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to the claim(s) 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
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claim(s) 1 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kumabe et al. (2020/0124739) hereinafter “Kumabe” and Saily et al. (2022/0299589) hereinafter “Saily’.
As to claim 1, (Currently Amended) Kumabe discloses A method implemented in a network node (1), the method comprising:
determining a regional local environment integrity indicator (Cn, see [0061]-[0070]), the regional local environment integrity indicator indicating information about a local environment or a regional environment related to a potential impact on positioning measurement accuracy; [[and]]
receiving, as a result of a triqqer, a report from a wireless device, WD,( see [0112]: “…When the determination result packet transmitted from another vehicle is received”)
the report indicating at least one local environment measurement issue, (see [0108]: “…may acquire the determination result of the surrounding environment of another device…” ; and
sending (see [0112]: “broadcasts a determination result packet indicating category information”) the determined regional local environment integrity indicator to the WD.
Kumabe fail to explicitly recite yet in an analogous art Saily discloses receiving, as a result of a triqqer, a report from a wireless device, WD, via a radio resource control, RRC, signaling, the triqqer comprising one or both of a request from a mobility network entity, MNE, and an expiration of a monitoring time window. See [0040], [0063], [0081] Before the effective filing date of the instant invention it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify Kumabe such that receiving, as a result of a triqqer, a report from a wireless device, WD, via a radio resource control, RRC, signaling, the triqqer comprising one or both of a request from a mobility network entity, MNE, and an expiration of a monitoring time window, as taught by Saily for the purpose of enabling a way to obtain the data if/when it is not updated.
The limitation “the regional local environment integrity indicator being determined based on the at least one local environment measurement issue” is considered an intended use not carrying patentable weight since it is outside the scope of the method comprising “determining”, “receiving”, and “sending”.
Claim(s) 4-6, 8-11, 13, 17-18, 20-23, and 25-26 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kumabe and Saily as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of InterDigital (“3GPP TSG-RAN WG2 #112-e”, R2-2010675).
As to claim 4. (Currently Amended) Kumabe and Saily discloses The method Claim 1, is silent yet in an analogous art InterDigital discloses wherein sending the determined regional local environment integrity indicator together with assistance data to the WD (see section 3.2, “The Rel-16 assistance data transfer procedure can be reused for the integrity assistance data transfer”, “… a new field may be introduced in LPP for the LMF to provide the UE assistance information, which enables integrity computation” etc., the regional local environment integrity indicator indicating a positioning integrity associated with an estimated position of the WD (see sections 2.2-2.3), and the estimated position of the WD being based on the assistance data (see sections 2.2-2.3). Before the effective filing date of the instant application it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the method wherein sending the determined regional local environment integrity indicator together with assistance data to the WD, the regional local environment integrity indicator indicating a positioning integrity associated with an estimated position of the WD, and the estimated position of the WD being based on the assistance data for the purpose of sharing the information.
As to claim 5. (Currently Amended) Kumabe and Saily discloses The method of Claim 1, is silent to yet in an analogous art InterDigital discloses wherein receiving the report from the WD as part of a Long-Term Evolution, LTE, Positioning Protocol, LPP, message (see section 3.2) and as a result of a request from the network node (see section 3.5). Before the effective filing date of the instant application it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to apply the invention to the latest standards such that wherein receiving the report from the WD as part of a Long-Term Evolution, LTE, Positioning Protocol, LPP, message and as a result of a request from the network node.
As to claim 6, (Currently Amended) the combination of Kumabe, Saily and InterDigital discloses The method of Claim 5, InterDigital discloses wherein the request comprises a provide location information message from the network node to the WD. (see section 3.5 “via LPP request location information (message)”).
As to claim 8, (Original) the combination of Kumabe, Saily, and InterDigital discloses The method of Claim 7, InterDigital discloses wherein the trigger further comprises a measurement issue detection (see section 3.5 – UE may report if it detects faulty condition).
As to claim 9, (Currently Amended) the combination of Kumabe and InterDigital discloses The method of Claim 5, InterDigital discloses wherein receiving the report from the WD, as a result of at least one of a pre-configuration and a configuration of the WD (operation of the UE based on 3GPP rel-16 is considered to be at least one of a pre-configuration and a configuration).
As to claim 10, (Currently Amended) Kumabe discloses The method of Claim 1, is silent to yet in an analogous art InterDigital discloses further comprising:
receiving information indicating a capability of the WD to monitor and report about local environment measurement issues. See section 3.1. Before the effective filing date of the instant application it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to add a step of receiving information indicating a capability of the WD to monitor and report about local environment measurement issues for the purpose of applying method of Kumabe to the latest standards.
As to claim 11, (Currently Amended) the combination of Kumabe and InterDigital discloses The method of Claim 10, InterDigital discloses wherein the information indicating the capability of the WD to monitor and report about the local environment measurement issues is pre-configured at the WD. See section 3.1 (operation of the UE based on 3GPP rel-16 is considered to be a pre-configuration).
As to claim 13, (Currently Amended) InterDigital discloses A method implemented in a wireless device, WD (UE), the method comprising:
obtaining assistance data (see section 3.2 “In Rel-16, assistance data transfer procedure in LPP is used for sending assistance information from the LMF to UE”) and a regional local environment integrity indicator (section 3.2 “…the UE may acquire the integrity assistance data from the network” and see [Xiomi] Proposal 2, [Nokia] Proposal 1); and
determining a positioning integrity (see section 2.1 “… by receiving the assistance information from the network, the UE determines the integrity related result itself”) based on the regional local environment indicator. Also see above for correspondence to claim 1. sending a report to a network node, the report indicating at least one local environment measurement issue (see section 3.5 “…UE may need to
provide the integrity related measurements and/or calculated PL to LMF…”), the regional local environment integrity indicator being based on the at least one local environment measurement issue (also see section 3.3).
Interdigital is silent to yet in an analogous art Kumabe and Saily discloses The regional local environment integrity indicator indicating information about a local environment or a regional environment related to a potential impact on positioning measurement accuracy as applied above to claim 1. Before the effective filing date of the instant application it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to include the regional local environment integrity indicator indicating information about a local environment or a regional environment related to a potential impact on positioning measurement accuracy as taught by Kumabe ([0072]) for the purpose of accounting for local effects due to multipath fading.
As to claim 17, (Currently Amended) the combination of InterDigital, Kumabe, and Saily discloses The method of Claim 15, InterDigital discloses wherein sending the report to the network node as part of a Long-Term Evolution, LTE, Positioning Protocol, LPP, message and as a result of a request from the network node (see section 3.5 “…upon request from LMF”.
As to claim 18, (Currently Amended) the combination of InterDigital, Kumabe, and Saily discloses The method of Claim 17, InterDigital discloses wherein the request comprises a provide location information message from the network node to the WD. (see section 3.5 “via LPP request location information (message)”).
As to claim 20, (Original) the combination of InterDigital, Kumabe, and Saily discloses discloses The method of Claim 19, InterDigital discloses wherein the trigger comprises at least one a request from a mobility network entity, MNE, a measurement issue detection (see section 3.5 – UE may report if it detects faulty condition) and an expiration of a monitoring time window.
As to claim 21, (Currently Amended) the combination of InterDigital, Kumabe, and Saily discloses The method of Claim 15, InterDigital discloses wherein sending the report to the network node, as a result of at least one of a pre-configuration and a configuration of the WD. (operation of the UE based on 3GPP rel-16 is considered to be at least one of a pre-configuration and a configuration).
As to claim 22, (Currently Amended) the combination InterDigital, Kumabe, and Saily discloses The method of Claim 13, InterDigital discloses further comprising: sending information indicating a capability of the WD to monitor and report about local environment measurement issues to the network node. See section 3.1.
As to claim 23, the combination of InterDigital, Kumabe, and Saily discloses (Currently Amended) The method of Claim 22, InterDigital discloses wherein the information indicating the capability of the WD to monitor and report about the local environment measurement issues is pre-configured at the WD. See section 3.1 (operation of the UE based on 3GPP rel-16 is considered to be a pre-configuration).
As to claim 25, (Currently Amended) InterDigital discloses A network node (LMF) comprising (inherently) processing circuitry, the processing circuitry configured to cause the network node to:
determine a regional local environment integrity indicator (see section 3.2, & note: “proposal 2” wherein the LMF “should collect integrity assistant data”); and
send the determined regional local environment integrity indicator to a wireless device, WD (see section 3.2, & note: “proposal 2” wherein the LMF “should collect integrity assistant data and transmit them to UE”). Also see section 3.3 (mislabeled as a second 3.2 “information on external error sources in assistance data for integrity”) and “Proposal 16” and proposals 18-21.
Interdigital is silent to yet in an analogous art Kumabe and Saily receive, as a result of a tripper, a report from a wireless device, WD, via a radio resource control, RRC, signaling, the report indicating at least one local environment measurement issue, the regional local environment integrity indicator being determined based on the at least one local environment measurement issue, the tripper comprising one or both of a request from a mobility network entity, MNE, and an expiration of a monitoring time window as applied above to claim 1. Before the effective filing date of the instant application it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to receive, as a result of a tripper, a report from a wireless device, WD, via a radio resource control, RRC, signaling, the report indicating at least one local environment measurement issue, the regional local environment integrity indicator being determined based on the at least one local environment measurement issue, the tripper comprising one or both of a request from a mobility network entity, MNE, and an expiration of a monitoring time window as taught by Kumabe ([0072]) for the purpose of accounting for local effects due to multipath fading.
As to claim 26, (Currently Amended) InterDigital discloses A wireless device, WD, comprising processing circuitry, the processing circuitry configured to cause the WD to:
obtain assistance data (see section 3.2 “In Rel-16, assistance data transfer procedure in LPP is used for sending assistance information from the LMF to UE”) and a regional local environment integrity indicator
(section 3.2 “…the UE may acquire the integrity assistance data from the network” and see [Xiomi] Proposal 2, [Nokia] Proposal 1); and
determine a positioning integrity based on the regional local environment indicator (see section 2.1 “… by receiving the assistance information from the network, the UE determines the integrity related result itself”).
Interdigital is silent to yet in an analogous art Kumabe and Saily discloses send, as a result of a tripper, a report to a network node via a radio resource control, RRC, signaling, the report indicating at least one local environment measurement issue, the regional local environment integrity indicator being determined based on the at least one local environment measurement issue, the trigger comprising one or both of a request from a mobility network entity, MNE, and an expiration of a monitoring time window as applied above to claims 1. Before the effective filing date of the instant application it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to send, as a result of a tripper, a report to a network node via a radio resource control, RRC, signaling, the report indicating at least one local environment measurement issue, the regional local environment integrity indicator being determined based on the at least one local environment measurement issue, the trigger comprising one or both of a request from a mobility network entity, MNE, and an expiration of a monitoring time window as taught by Kumabe ([0072]) for the purpose of accounting for local effects due to multipath fading.
Claim(s) 3,12, & 24 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kumabe and Saily as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Siomina et al. (2014/0087754) hereinafter “Siomina”.
As to claim 3. (Currently Amended) Kumabe and Saily discloses The method of Claim 2, wherein the at least one local environment measurement issue
is detected by the WD (see section 2.1), is silent yet in an analogous art Siomina discloses detection by comparing different positioning measurements and estimating at least one measurement error based on the comparison (see Fig. 5 and [0110]-[0115]). Before the effective filing date of the instant application it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the method of Kumabe by comparing different positioning measurements and estimating at least one measurement error based on the comparison as taught by Siomina for the purpose of achieving a confidence level.
As co claim 12, (Currently Amended) Kumabe and Saily discloses The method of Claim 1, is silent yet in an analogous art Siomina discloses wherein the regional local environment integrity indicator is represented by at least one of a geographical reference (pre-defined Universal GAD shapes, [0115]) and a measurement issue event. Before the effective filing date of the instant application it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the method of Kumabe by representing the indicator as at least one of a geographical reference and a measurement issue event as taught by Siomina for the purpose of using known 3GPP indications.
As to claim 24, (Original) Kumabe and Saily discloses The method of Claim 13, combination of Kumabe, Saily and Siomina further provide for the indicator representation as applied above to claim 12.
Claim(s) 14 & 16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Interdigital, Kumabe and Saily as applied to claims 13 & 15 above, and further in view of Siomina et al. (2014/0087754) hereinafter “Siomina”.
As to claim 14, (Currently Amended) Interdigital and Kumabe and Saily discloses The method of Claim 13, is silent yet in an analogous art Siomina discloses further comprising: estimating a position of the WD based on the determined positioning integrity (see [0112]). Before the effective filing date of the instant application it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the method by estimating a position of the WD based on the determined positioning integrity as taught by Siomina for the purpose of improving the results of the estimation.
As to claim 16, (Original) Interdigital, Kumabe and Saily discloses The method of Claim 15,
wherein the at least one local environment measurement issue
is detected by the WD (see section 2.1), is silent yet in an analogous art Siomina discloses detection by comparing different positioning measurements and estimating at least one measurement error based on the comparison (see Fig. 5 and [0110]-[0115]). Before the effective filing date of the instant application it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the method by comparing different positioning measurements and estimating at least one measurement error based on the comparison as taught by Siomina for the purpose of achieving a confidence level.
Conclusion
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LESTER G. KINCAID
Primary Patent Examiner
Art Unit 2649
/LESTER G KINCAID/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2649
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