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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
IDS(es) submitted on 4/5/2026 has/have been considered.
Response to Amendment
The amendment made dated 12/22/2025 does not contain any new matter, and has been accepted.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to the independent 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.
Applicant argues that the newly amended independent claims overcome the previous reference of Qiong et al.
Examiner would like to assert that the newly amended independent claims are now rejected with the incorporation of the Shrestha reference, as shown below.
Due to the broadness of the claim language, the claims are still not yet in condition for allowance, and are still rejected as shown below.
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, 6, 13-18, 25, 27 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liu Qiong et al. (CN 111866970 A; effective filing date 4/30/2019; hereinafter Qiong) in view of Shrestha et al.(US 2022/0109959; hereinafter Shrestha).
Regarding claims 1, 13, 25 and 27, Qiong discloses a location information sending method comprising:
acquiring, by a user terminal, indication information that indicates the user terminal to perform an operation of reporting location information (Abstract: the reporting of user terminal position is triggered by the RRC message from the network); and
in response to the indication information, reporting, by the user terminal, the location information of the user terminal (Abstract: user terminal reporting its position information when triggered by the network) through any one or any combination of:
a Random Access Message (MsgA) ([0169]: the message 630 may be Message A or Message 3),
a Random Access Message 3 (Msg3), or
a Random Access Message 5 (Msg5),
wherein the location information comprises any one or any combination of:
a distance between the user terminal and a center of a cell;
a distance between the user terminal and a satellite ([0106]: determining the distance between the UE 610 and the satellite base station 605);
a cell within a signal receiving range of the user terminal ([0173]: reported cell ID by the UE);
signal strength of a cell within a signal receiving range of the user terminal;
signal quality of a cell within a signal receiving range of the user terminal;
or
a cell with a strongest signal within a signal receiving range of the user terminal ([0173]: use of strongest signaling).
It would have been obvious to one ordinarily skilled in the art at the time of invention to incorporate Shrestha’s disclosure to better determine location information of UE.
Regarding claims 2 and 14, Qiong discloses all the particulars of the claim but is unclear about the limitation of wherein the location information is used for a base station to select a core network based on the location information, or
for the base station to form a cell identity (ID) using the location information and sends the cell ID to a core network.
However, Shrestha does disclose the limitations of wherein the location information is used for a base station to select a core network based on the location information ([0129]: using the UE location information to select an appropriate core network), or
for the base station to form a cell identity (ID) using the location information and sends the cell ID to a core network.
It would have been obvious to one ordinarily skilled in the art at the time of invention to incorporate Shrestha’s disclosure to register to the correct core network for service.
Regarding claims 3 and 16, Qiong discloses wherein the indication information comprises location range information for which the location information needs to be reported, or
wherein the indication information comprises a Tracking Area Code (TAC) (Abstract; Tracking area; or Shrestha [0179]: reporting of the TAC) or a Global Cell Identity (GCI) that triggers the operation of reporting the location information, or
wherein the indication information comprises an information identity for indicating the user terminal to perform the operation of reporting the location information.
Regarding claims 6 and 18 Shrestha discloses the method wherein acquiring the indication information comprises:
in response to that the user terminal performs registration area update or tracking area update, acquiring the indication information ([0129]: initial core network registration and selection); or
in response to that the user terminal is powered on and attaches/re-attaches to a network, acquiring the indication information; or
in response to that the user terminal attaches/re-attaches to the network after receiving a paging message, acquiring the indication information.
Regarding claim 15, Qiong in view of Shrestha discloses the method of claim 13, wherein the indication information comprises location range information for which the location information needs to be reported (Qiong Abstract; Tracking area; or Shrestha [0179]: reporting of the TAC updates).
Regarding claim 17, Qiong discloses the method according to claim 13, wherein the indication information comprises an information identity for indicating the user terminal to perform the operation of reporting the locating information (Abstract: the network identifying the UE to report location and position to the network).
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 CHUCK HUYNH whose telephone number is (571)272-7866. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 10am - 6pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Kathy Wang-Hurst can be reached at 571-270-5371. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/CHUCK HUYNH/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2644
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