DETAILED ACTION
This Action is in response to Applicant’s amendment filed on 12/23/2025. Claims 1-30 are still pending in the present application. This Action is made FINAL.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 1-4, 12-18, and 27-30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Manolakos et al. (U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2021/0050978) in view of Kazmi et al. (U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2023/0283425)
Referring to Claim 1, Manolakos et al. disclose an apparatus for wireless communication at a user equipment (UE) (par 116, UE), comprising: at least one memory; and at least one processor coupled to the at least one memory and, based at least in part on information stored in the at least one memory, the at least one processor, is configured to cause the apparatus to: receive, from a network entity, an indication of an uplink (UL) reference signal configuration (par 116, uplink reference signal resource configuration), wherein the UL reference signal configuration associates a set of UL reference signal transmission occasions with an active discontinuous reception (DRX) mode and of at least one cell associated with the UE (par 116, transmit with as much overlap with DRX active time as practicable; Also, i.e. inactive time taken into account); and provide, for at least one transmit receive point (TRP) associated with the at least one cell and at the set of UL reference signal transmission occasions, at least one UL reference signal during a portion of the active DRX mode based on the UL reference signal configuration (Fig. 1, Fig. 2A, par 116, UE transmits uplink reference signal to cell base station; Also, par 139).
However, Manolakos et al. do not explicitly disclose associating UL reference signal transmission occasions with an inactive DRX mode.
In the same field of endeavor, Kazmi et al. discloses associating UL reference signal transmission occasions with an inactive DRX mode (pars 55 and 56, DRX inactive time).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate associating UL reference signal transmission occasions with an inactive DRX mode, as taught by Kazmi et ail., in the apparatus of Manolakos et al., for the purpose of implementing selective SRS transmission (Kazmi et al., Abstract).
Referring to Claim 2 as applied to Claim 1 above, Manolakos et al. as modified disclose the apparatus, wherein the at least one UL reference signal is one or more of: a sounding reference signal (SRS) for positioning; or a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) (Manolakos et al., par 116, SRS).
Referring to Claim 3 as applied to Claim 1 above, Manolakos et al. as modified disclose the apparatus, wherein the at least one UL reference signal includes position measurement data (par 98, SRS, positioning); and wherein the at least one cell associated with the UE includes at least one of a serving cell or at least one neighbor cell of the UE (Manolakos et al., par 117, serving and neighboring cells).
Referring to Claim 4 as applied to Claim 1 above, Manolakos et al. as modified disclose the apparatus, wherein the network entity is at least one of a base station, a location management function (LMF), or a sensing entity (Manolakos et al., par 116, location server).
Referring to Claim 12 as applied to Claim 1 above, Manolakos et al. as modified disclose the apparatus, wherein the at least one processor, is further configured to cause the apparatus to: provide, for the network entity, at least one DRX information request corresponding to the at least one cell associated with the UE (pars 113-118, DRX configuration information from UE); and receive, from the network entity based on the at least one DRX information request, at least one DRX configuration corresponding to the at least one cell associated with the UE (Manolakos et al., pars 113-118, configure).
Referring to Claim 13 as applied to Claim 12 above, Manolakos et al. as modified disclose the apparatus, wherein the at least one DRX configuration corresponding to the at least one cell associated with the UE is comprised in at least one of a dedicated positioning system information block (SIB), a sensing SIB, a radio resource management (RRM) SIB, a medium access control (MAC) control element (MAC-CE), downlink control information (DCI), a radio resource control (RRC) signaling configuration, a long term evolution (LTE) positioning protocol (LPP) message, or assistance information; or wherein the at least one DRX configuration corresponding to the at least one cell associated with the UE is in response to the at least one DRX information request corresponding to the at least one cell associated with the UE (Manolakos et al., pars 113-118, LPP, DRX configuration information, etc).
Referring to Claim 14, Manolakos et al. disclose an apparatus for wireless communication at a network entity (par 116, location server), comprising: at least one memory; and at least one processor coupled to the at least one memory and, based at least in part on information stored in the at least one memory, the at least one processor, is configured to cause the apparatus to: configure, for a user equipment (UE), an uplink (UL) reference signal configuration (par 116, uplink reference signal resource configuration), wherein the UL reference signal configuration associates a set of UL reference signal transmission occasions with an active discontinuous reception (DRX) mode of at least one cell associated with the UE (par 116, transmit with as much overlap with DRX active time as practicable; Also, i.e. inactive time taken into account); and provide, for the UE, an indication of the UL reference signal configuration (par 116, uplink reference signal resource configuration).
However, Manolakos et al. do not explicitly disclose associating UL reference signal transmission occasions with an inactive DRX mode.
In the same field of endeavor, Kazmi et al. discloses associating UL reference signal transmission occasions with an inactive DRX mode (pars 55 and 56, DRX inactive time).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate associating UL reference signal transmission occasions with an inactive DRX mode, as taught by Kazmi et ail., in the apparatus of Manolakos et al., for the purpose of implementing selective SRS transmission (Kazmi et al., Abstract).
Referring to Claim 15 as applied to Claim 14 above, Manolakos et al. as modified disclose the apparatus, wherein the network entity is at least one of a base station, a location management function (LMF), or a sensing entity (Manolakos et al., par 116, location server).
Referring to Claim 16 as applied to Claim 14 above, Manolakos et al. as modified disclose the apparatus, wherein the at least one processor, is further configured to cause the apparatus to: receive, from the UE and at the set of UL reference signal transmission occasions, at least one UL reference signal during a portion of the active DRX mode, wherein the network entity is a network node (Manolakos et al., pars 116-118, SRS, DRX).
Referring to Claim 17 as applied to Claim 16 above, Manolakos et al. as modified disclose the apparatus, wherein the at least one UL reference signal is one or more of: a sounding reference signal (SRS) for positioning; or a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) (Manolakos et al., par 116, SRS).
Referring to Claim 18 as applied to Claim 16 above, Manolakos et al. as modified disclose the apparatus, wherein the at least one UL reference signal includes position measurement data (par 98, SRS, positioning); and wherein the at least one cell associated with the UE includes at least one of a serving cell or at least one neighbor cell of the UE (Manolakos et al., par 117, serving and neighboring cells).
Referring to Claim 27 as applied to Claim 14 above, Manolakos et al. as modified disclose the apparatus, wherein the at least one processor, is further configured to cause the apparatus to: receive, from the UE, at least one DRX information request corresponding the at least one cell associated with the UE (pars 113-118, DRX configuration information from UE); and provide, for the UE based on the at least one DRX information request, at least one DRX configuration corresponding to the at least one cell associated with the UE (Manolakos et al., pars 113-118, configure).
Referring to Claim 28 as applied to Claim 27 above, Manolakos et al. as modified disclose the apparatus, wherein the at least one DRX configuration corresponding to the at least one cell associated with the UE is comprised in at least one of a dedicated positioning system information block (SIB), a sensing SIB, a radio resource management (RRM) SIB, a medium access control (MAC) control element (MAC-CE), downlink control information (DCI), a radio resource control (RRC) signaling configuration, a long term evolution (LTE) positioning protocol (LPP) message, or assistance information; or wherein the at least one DRX configuration corresponding to the at least one cell associated with the UE is in response to the at least one DRX information request corresponding to the at least one cell associated with the UE (Manolakos et al., pars 113-118, LPP, DRX configuration information, etc).
Referring to Claim 29, Manolakos et al. disclose a method of wireless communication at a user equipment (UE) (par 116, UE), comprising: receiving, from a network entity, an indication of an uplink (UL) reference signal configuration (par 116, uplink reference signal resource configuration), wherein the UL reference signal configuration associates a set of UL reference signal transmission occasions with an active discontinuous reception (DRX) mode of at least one cell associated with the UE (par 116, transmit with as much overlap with DRX active time as practicable; Also, i.e. inactive time taken into account); and providing, for at least one transmit receive point (TRP) associated with the at least one cell and at the set of UL reference signal transmission occasions, at least one UL reference signal during a portion of the active DRX mode based on the UL reference signal configuration (Fig. 1, Fig. 2A, par 116, UE transmits uplink reference signal to cell base station; Also, par 139).
However, Manolakos et al. do not explicitly disclose associating UL reference signal transmission occasions with an inactive DRX mode.
In the same field of endeavor, Kazmi et al. discloses associating UL reference signal transmission occasions with an inactive DRX mode (pars 55 and 56, DRX inactive time).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate associating UL reference signal transmission occasions with an inactive DRX mode, as taught by Kazmi et ail., in the method of Manolakos et al., for the purpose of implementing selective SRS transmission (Kazmi et al., Abstract).
Referring to Claim 30, Manolakos et al. disclose a method of wireless communication at a network entity (par 116, location server), comprising: configuring, for a user equipment (UE), an uplink (UL) reference signal configuration (par 116, uplink reference signal resource configuration), wherein the UL reference signal configuration associates a set of UL reference signal transmission occasions with an active discontinuous reception (DRX) mode of at least one cell associated with the UE (par 116, transmit with as much overlap with DRX active time as practicable; Also, i.e. inactive time taken into account); and providing, for the UE, an indication of the UL reference signal configuration (par 116, uplink reference signal resource configuration).
However, Manolakos et al. do not explicitly disclose associating UL reference signal transmission occasions with an inactive DRX mode.
In the same field of endeavor, Kazmi et al. discloses associating UL reference signal transmission occasions with an inactive DRX mode (pars 55 and 56, DRX inactive time).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate associating UL reference signal transmission occasions with an inactive DRX mode, as taught by Kazmi et ail., in the method of Manolakos et al., for the purpose of implementing selective SRS transmission (Kazmi et al., Abstract).
Claims 5, 10, 11, 19, and 24-26 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Manolakos et al. (U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2021/0050978) in view of Kazmi et al. (U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2023/0283425) further in view of Kumar (U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2021/0384949)
Referring to Claims 5 and 19 as applied to Claims 1 and 16 above, Manolakos et al. as modified disclose the apparatus (par 116) and dropping criteria (Manolakos et al., par 94, turning off transmission).
However, Manolakos et al. as modified do not explicitly disclose UL reference signal configuration indicates dropping criteria associated with UL resources for the at least one UL reference signal; wherein the at least one processor, is further configured to cause the apparatus to: drop an UL resource at one of the set of UL reference signal transmission occasions based on the dropping criteria.
In the same field of endeavor, Kumar discloses UL reference signal configuration indicates dropping criteria associated with UL resources for the at least one UL reference signal; wherein the at least one processor, is further configured to cause the apparatus to: drop an UL resource at one of the set of UL reference signal transmission occasions based on the dropping criteria (par 84, configuration, SRS resource dropped).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate UL reference signal configuration indicates dropping criteria associated with UL resources for the at least one UL reference signal; wherein the at least one processor, is further configured to cause the apparatus to: drop an UL resource at one of the set of UL reference signal transmission occasions based on the dropping criteria, as taught by Kumar, in the apparatus of Manolakos et al. and Kazmi et al., for the purpose of mitigating collision (Kumar, Abstract).
Referring to Claims 10 and 24 as applied to Claims 5 and 19 above, Manolakos et al. as modified disclose the apparatus, wherein the dropping criteria indicates (i) a set of reference signals that corresponds to a subset of the at least one cell associated with the UE, wherein the set of reference signals is associated with the UL resources for quasi-co-location (QCL) (Manolakos et al., pars 82, 94, and 116-118, turning off, QCL) , and (ii) an overlap duration of a positioning reference signal and a DRX cycle of the at least one cell associated with the UE that is greater than or equal to a configured number of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols; wherein the UL resource is at least a portion of a sounding reference signal (SRS) for positioning; and wherein to drop the UL resource at one of the set of UL reference signal transmission occasions based on the dropping criteria, the at least one processor, is configured to cause the apparatus to drop one or more UL resources for each cell of the subset of the at least one cell associated with the UE that is in the active DRX mode and for which the dropping criteria is met (Manolakos et al., pars 82, 94, and 116-118 turning off, DRX, overlap).
Referring to Claims 11 and 25 as applied to Claims 10 and 24 above, Manolakos et al. as modified disclose the apparatus, wherein at least a portion of the SRS for positioning includes one or more symbols of the SRS for positioning outside of the overlap duration (Manolakos et al., pars 82, 94, and 116-118, as much overlap).
Referring to Claim 26 as applied to Claim 19 above, Manolakos et al. as modified disclose the apparatus, wherein the network entity is a base station, and wherein the at least one processor, is further configured to cause the apparatus to: transmit, for at least one of a location management function (LMF) or a sensing entity, at least one of: an indication of the inactive DRX mode, associated with the at least one cell associated with the UE, that corresponds to the empty portion associated with the dropped UL resource at one of the set of UL reference signal transmission occasions based on the dropping criteria; or at least one DRX cycle, associated with the at least one cell, that overlaps with at least one UL positioning reference signal of the UE (Manolakos et al., pars 82, 94, and 113-118, DRX configuration, overlap).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 6-9 and 20-23 are objected to as being dependent upon rejected base claims, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Claims 6, 8, 20, and 22 are allowed because the prior art of record singly or in combination failed to teach the claim limitations in their entirety as applied to the base and intervening claims. Claims 7, 9, 21, and 23 are allowed as being dependent on allowed claims.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 12/23/2025 have been fully considered but are moot in view of new grounds of rejection necessitated by amendment. See the above rejection for the relevant citations found in the cited prior art disclosing the amended limitations.
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 extension fee 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 SUHAIL KHAN whose telephone number is (571)270-7187. The examiner can normally be reached on M-TH 8:30am-6:30pm. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Rafael Perez-Gutierrez can be reached on 5712727915. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, Applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice. Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/Suhail Khan/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2642
Prosecution Insights