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 .
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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.
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 8/7/2026 has been entered.
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.
Claims 1-2, 4, 9-11, 14-15, 17 and 19-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over WO 2018/228868 (hereinafter Fraunhofer) in view of US 2020/0382978 (hereinafter Manolakos) and 2019/0089443 (hereinafter Malik).
Regarding claims 1, 9, 14 and 19, Fraunhofer teaches a method, comprising: transmitting, to a user equipment of the plurality of user equipments, a value of a beam direction of a physical channel, the value of the beam direction employing the predefined coordinate system (page 7, second paragraph, DoA information may be provided to mobile station).
Fraunhofer does not explicitly teach broadcasting, to a plurality of user equipments, coordinate information of a transmit receive point, the coordinate information relative to a predefined coordinate system; and after the transmitting the indication, transmitting or receiving the physical channel using the beam direction.
However, Manolakos teaches broadcasting, to a plurality of user equipments, coordinate information of a transmit receive point ([0104]:details To support location estimates, the cells/TRPs of base stations 502 may be configured to broadcast positioning reference signals (e.g., PRS, NRS, TRS, CRS, etc.) to UEs 504 in their coverage area to enable a UE 504 to measure characteristics of such reference signals), the coordinate information relative to a predefined coordinate system ([0102]: details A location estimate may be geodetic and comprise coordinates (e.g., latitude, longitude, and possibly altitude) or may be civic and comprise a street address, postal address, or some other verbal description of a location. A location estimate may further be defined relative to some other known location or defined in absolute terms (e.g., using latitude, longitude, and possibly altitude)).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Fraunhofer to incorporate the teachings of Manolakos and include broadcasting, to a plurality of user equipments, coordinate information of a transmit receive point, the coordinate information relative to a predefined coordinate system of Manolakos with Fraunhofer. Doing so would enhance signaling efficiencies (Manolakos, at paragraph [0004]).
Moreover, Malik teaches after the transmitting the indication, transmitting or receiving the physical channel using the beam direction (FIG. 4; [0067], [0077]-[0078]; [0081]: details physical broadcast channel (PBCH)… transmitted in the corresponding beam direction… MSG2 includes beam refinement info; MSG4 and subsequent DL Tx received by UE using beam refinement info).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Fraunhofer to incorporate the teachings of Malik and include after the transmitting the indication, transmitting or receiving the physical channel using the beam direction of Malik with Fraunhofer. Doing so would help enhance network efficiency (Malik, at paragraph [0004]).
Regarding claims 2, 10, 15 and 20, Fraunhofer teaches wherein the value of the beam direction comprises a value representative of a zenith of an angle of arrival, a value representative of a zenith of an angle of departure, a value representative of an azimuth of an angle of arrival, or a value representative of an azimuth of an angle of departure (page 7, lines 13-28, polar and geographic coordinate systems, DoA; page 10, second paragraph makes reference to the horizontal and vertical angles, i.e. azimuth and zenith angles).
Regarding claims 4, 11 and 17, Fraunhofer teaches wherein the physical channel comprises a physical downlink control channel, a physical downlink shared channel, a physical uplink shared channel, a physical uplink control channel, an uplink pilot, a downlink pilot, an uplink reference signal, a downlink reference signal, an uplink measurement channel, or a downlink measurement channel (page 2, lines 29-30, PRS sequences are downlink signals that are defined for positing purposes and that are broadcast to all radio terminal within a cell, as downlink reference signal).
Claim 7 and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Fraunhofer in view of Manolakos and Malik, further in view of US 2021/0314112 (hereinafter Balasubramanian).
Regarding claim 16, Fraunhofer does not explicitly teach broadcasting the predefined coordinate system.
However, Balasubramanian teaches broadcasting the predefined coordinate system ([0216]: details network may broadcast V.sub.i in sub-geographic region-i. For example, the eNB may broadcast V.sub.i in sub-geographic region-i, using a sub-geographic region specific group radio network identifier (GRNTI). The sub-geographic region specific GRNTI may provide a one-to-one mapping between the sub-geographic location and GRNTI. The sub-geographic region specific GRNI of one or more (e.g., all) regions may be broadcasted in SIBs).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Fraunhofer to incorporate the teachings of Balasubramanian and include broadcasting the predefined coordinate system of Balasubramanian with Fraunhofer. Doing so would be improving situational awareness (Balasubramanian, at paragraph [0101]).
Regarding claim 7, Fraunhofer does not explicitly teach wherein the broadcasting the coordinate information of the transmit receive point further comprises transmitting a system information block.
However, Balasubramanian teaches wherein the broadcasting the coordinate information of the transmit receive point further comprises transmitting a system information block ([0216]: details may be broadcasted in SIBs).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Fraunhofer to incorporate the teachings of Balasubramanian and include wherein the broadcasting the coordinate information of the transmit receive point further comprises transmitting a system information block of Balasubramanian with Fraunhofer. Doing so would be improving situational awareness (Balasubramanian, at paragraph [0101]).
Claims 5-6, 12-13 and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Fraunhofer in view of Manolakos and Malik, further in view of US 2023/0147613 (hereinafter Karjalainen).
Regarding claims 5, 12 and 18, Fraunhofer does not explicitly teach wherein the value of the beam direction comprises differential coordinates relative to a reference beam direction.
However, Karjalainen teaches wherein the value of the beam direction comprises differential coordinates relative to a reference beam direction ([0071]: details at least one positioning assistance measurement comprising an anchor node based angular difference (AAD) between the pair of uplink and/or downlink beam directions may be computed based on the positioning measurement configuration by each respective anchor node 602, 603… the positioning assistance measurements of the anchor nodes 602, 603 may be determined in a global coordinate system with respect to at least one relative global coordinate reference point comprising at least one of a compass north, a cartesian coordinate point or a polar coordinate point).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Fraunhofer to incorporate the teachings of Karjalainen and include wherein the value of the beam direction comprises differential coordinates relative to a reference beam direction of Karjalainen with Fraunhofer. Doing so would be improving positioning accuracy (Karjalainen, at paragraph [0055]).
Regarding claims 6 and 13, Fraunhofer does not explicitly teach wherein the reference beam direction comprises coordinates of a synchronization signal block beam direction, or coordinates of a sensing beam direction.
However, Karjalainen teaches wherein the reference beam direction comprises coordinates of a synchronization signal block beam direction, or coordinates of a sensing beam direction ([0075]: details positioning assistance measurements may be associated with at least one of reference signals, data or control. The positioning assistance measurements may be associated… a synchronization signal block (SSB)).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Fraunhofer to incorporate the teachings of Karjalainen and include wherein the reference beam direction comprises coordinates of a synchronization signal block beam direction, or coordinates of a sensing beam direction of Karjalainen with Fraunhofer. Doing so would be improving positioning accuracy (Karjalainen, at paragraph [0055]).
Claim 21 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Fraunhofer in view of Manolakos and Malik, further in view of US 2019/0097712 (hereinafter Singh).
Regarding claim 21, Fraunhofer does not explicitly teach obtaining, through sensing, a location of the user equipment relative to the predefined coordinate system; and determining the beam direction based on the coordinate information of the transmit receive point and the location of the user equipment.
However, Singh teaches obtaining, through sensing, a location of the user equipment relative to the predefined coordinate system; and determining the beam direction based on the coordinate information of the transmit receive point and the location of the user equipment ([0104]: details in addition to location information gathered for the UEs, UE orientation information may also be gathered. UE orientation information may be used to normalize the beam direction reference coordinates so that UEs transmitting uplink signaling can correct select an appropriate beam direction relative to the fixed location of the eNB, rather than being relative to the body of the UE).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Fraunhofer to incorporate the teachings of Singh and include obtaining, through sensing, a location of the user equipment relative to the predefined coordinate system; and determining the beam direction based on the coordinate information of the transmit receive point and the location of the user equipment of Singh with Fraunhofer. Doing so would reduce latency (Singh, at paragraph [0081]).
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to pending 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.
Conclusion
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/JASPER KWOH/Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2415
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