DETAILED ACTION
This action is responsive to claims filed on 6 April 2026 and Information Disclosure Statement filed on 37 March 2026.
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
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 27 March 2026 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Response to Amendment
Claims 1-20 were pending the Non-Final Rejection mailed on 6 January 2026.
Claims 1-2, 6, 9-11, 13, and 15-16 have been amended.
Claims 1-20 remain pending for examination.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 6 April 2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
In response to Applicant’s argument on page 7 of Applicant Remarks that, in substance, references CN 116264663 and CN 112074751 were not considered, Examiner respectfully disagrees.
On the List of References Cited by Applicant and Considered by Examiner corresponding to the IDS listing CN 116264663 and CN 112074751, CN 116264663 and CN 112074751 are clearly indicated as considered, and no portion of the Non-Final Rejection suggests otherwise. See the stamp at the bottom of every page of the List of References Cited by Applicant and Considered by Examiner corresponding to the IDS listing CN 116264663 and CN 112074751 stating, “ALL REFERENCES CONSIDERED EXCEPT WEHRE LINED THROUGH. /TRC/”. Therefore, CN 116264663 and CN 112074751 were considered as previously indicated.
In response to Applicant’s argument on page 7 of Applicant Remarks that, in substance, suggests that the entirety of the IDS listing Fischer, Sven. “Observed Time Difference Of Arrival (OTDOA) Positioning in 3GPP LTE” | Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. June 6, 2014 (hereinafter Fischer) was not considered, Examiner respectfully disagrees.
The List of References Cited by Applicant and Considered by Examiner corresponding to the IDS listing Fischer includes a stamp at the bottom of every page indicating that “ALL REFERENCES CONSIDERED EXCEPT WEHRE LINED THROUGH. /TRC/”. Thus, all references whose listing was not struck through, like Fischer, were considered as indicated. The only listed reference that was not considered in that IDs was Fischer. Now that Fischer has been provided with the IDS filed on 27 March 2026, Fischer is being considered by Examiner.
In response to Applicant’s argument on page 10 of Applicant Remarks that, in substance, amended claims 1 and 11 are allowable, because the Non-Final Rejection relies on Hwang et al. (US 2019/0357025, hereinafter Hwang) in view of Luo et al. (US 2017/0367032, hereinafter Luo) to merely disclose transmission and reception pools as “services,” but not a SL ranging service simultaneously supported with a second SL service, Examiner respectfully disagrees.
Applicant's arguments do not comply with 37 CFR 1.111(c) because they do not clearly point out the patentable novelty which he or she thinks the claims present in view of the state of the art disclosed by the references cited or the objections made. Further, they do not show how the amendments avoid such references or objections.
Here, former claim 10 included the subject matter amended into independent claims 1 and 11. In the Non-Final Rejection, claim 10 was rejected as obvious in view of Hwang-Luo, wherein Hwang, at Figs. 2, 12A, 12B, ¶¶ 44, 57, 101-102, 104, and 112, discloses a UE determining its geographical position based on sensing a vehicle-to-everything (V2X) resource pool and supporting a signal exchange with a base station for transmission of a V2X system information block (SIB). Such a determination of a geographical position based on sensing appears to be within the scope of the claimed SL ranging service, and such support of a signal exchange for a V2X SIB appears to be within the scope of a second SL service of a plurality of SL services. However, this portion of Hwang does not appear to be addressed in Applicant Remarks. Thus, amended claims 1 and 11 still appear to be disclosed by Hwang-Luo as provided in the Non-Final Rejection of claim 10. Applicant did not provide any other arguments specific to any one of claims 2-10 or claims 12-15. Therefore, the prior art rejection of claims 1-11 is maintained below, wherein the prior art rejection is adjusted as necessitated by amendment, such that the prior art rejection of claim 10 will be applied to claims 1 and 11.
In response to Applicant’s argument on page 10 of Applicant Remarks that, in substance, the UE disclosed in Lee et al. (WO 2024/010237, citing EP 4535886 as the English equivalent, hereinafter Lee) is not disclosed as indicating a ranging method to be used by the UE to perform a ranging service with a second wireless device, Examiner respectfully disagrees.
Applicant's arguments do not comply with 37 CFR 1.111(c) because they do not clearly point out the patentable novelty which he or she thinks the claims present in view of the state of the art disclosed by the references cited or the objections made. Further, they do not show how the amendments avoid such references or objections.
Here, although Applicant addressed Lee as cited at Fig. 3, 5, ¶¶ 40, 42-45, 56, and 60, Applicant’s remarks do not appear to address Lee as cited at Fig. 7 and ¶ 88, which appears to disclose the subject matter Applicant argues that the other cited portions of Lee don’t disclose. For Applicant’s convenience, Fig. 7 and ¶ 88 are provided below.
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The term “sidelink,” as used in Lee, appears to be consistent with how the term is used in the art, which is understood to be link between two hierarchically similar devices, such as user equipment, which may be referred to as wireless devices. Thus, Lee, as cited at Fig. 7 and ¶ 88 in the Non-Final Rejection, appears to explicitly disclose a base station receiving, from user equipment, an indication of sidelink positioning methods to be used for sidelink positioning between two user equipment as an example of a ranging method to be used by a first wireless device to perform a ranging service between the first wireless device and a second wireless device.
In response to Applicant’s argument on page 10 of Applicant’s Remarks that, in substance, Lee’s disclosure of a Location Management Function (LMF) determining parameters of radio resources is not within the scope of the claimed base station determining parameters of radio resources, Examiner respectfully disagrees.
Applicant's arguments do not comply with 37 CFR 1.111(c) because they do not clearly point out the patentable novelty which he or she thinks the claims present in view of the state of the art disclosed by the references cited or the objections made. Further, they do not show how the amendments avoid such references or objections.
Here, Applicant’s argument does not appear to address Lee as cited at Fig. 7 and ¶¶ 29 and 97 disclosing a base station, embodied as a gNodeB, is explicitly disclosed as configuring transmission resources for a UE for sidelink (SL) positioning (SL-P) and determining a SL-PRS transmission configuration according to a request received from an LMF or the UE. Lee, as cited at Fig. 5 and ¶ 56, discloses the base station receiving assistance information and the request from the LMF. Lee, at ¶¶ 61-62, including Table 3, discloses the assistance information as indicating the UE’s positioning capability information. Lee, at ¶¶ 63-64, discloses the request as including various information related to the UE’s supported positioning methods. Thus, the base station is explicitly disclosed in Lee as configuring transmission resources for the UE to perform SL-P according to the UE’s supported SL-P methods as indicated in the request and assistance information received by the base station from the LMF or UE.
Therefore, Lee still appears to anticipate claim 16 as cited in the Non-Final Rejection, and the rejection is maintained below.
In response to Applicant’s argument on page 10 of Applicant Remarks that, in substance, Lee in view of Duan et al. (US 2024/0314725, hereinafter Duan) does not disclose subject matter within the scope of claim 18, Examiner agrees. The prior art rejection of claim 18 is withdrawn as provided below.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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.
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim 16 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Lee et al. (WO 2024/010237, citing from EP 4535886 as the English equivalent of WO 2024/010237, hereinafter Lee).
Regarding Claim 16, Lee discloses a method comprising:
receiving, by a base station from a first wireless device, a first radio resource control (RRC) message indicating a ranging method to be used by the first wireless device to perform a ranging service between the first wireless device and a second wireless device (Fig. 5 and ¶¶ 56 and 60, including Table 2, disclose an LMF receiving, from a UE, a message indicating UE capability information indicating capability of using various location methods including GNSS, OTDOA, ECID, and EPDU; Fig. 3 and ¶¶ 42-45 disclose the LMF and UE as communicating via a base station and AMF; and ¶ 40 discloses that access and measurement-related configuration control messages are transmitted and received through the RRC layer; and Fig. 7 and ¶ 88 disclose the LMF and target UE exchanging capability information including the available mode of SL positioning);
determining, by the base station and based on the ranging method, parameters for radio resources to perform the ranging service by using the ranging method (Fig. 5 and ¶¶ 56 disclose the LMF delivering assistance information and a request for signal measurement of the UE to the UE; ¶¶ 61-62, including Table 3, disclose the assistance information as including assistance data related to the positioning methods indicated in the UE capability information, including GNSS, OTDOA, and EPDU; ¶¶ 63-64, including Table 4, disclose the request as including various information related to the positioning methods for requesting the location measurement from the UE; and ¶ 29 discloses the LMF requesting the BS to configure transmission resources for the UE for SL positioning (SL-P) and the BS configuring transmission resources according to the request; and Fig. 7 and ¶ 97 disclose the gNB determining the SL-PRS transmission configuration for SL-PRS transmission based on the request received from the LMF including SL-PRS Tx resource allocation and txParameters); and
transmitting, by the base station to the first wireless device, a second message comprising the parameters for the radio resources (Fig. 5 and ¶ 56 disclose the LMF delivering the assistance information and a request for obtaining a UE measurement result; and Fig. 7 and ¶¶ 97-98 disclose the SL-PRS transmission configuration provided to the UEs from the gNB as including SL-PRS TX resource allocation and txParameters).
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 1 and 5-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hwang et al. (US 2019/0357025, previously cited, hereinafter Hwang) in view of Luo et al. (US 2017/0367032, hereinafter Luo).
Regarding Claim 1, Hwang discloses a method comprising:
receiving, by a base station from a wireless device, a first radio resource control (RRC) message (Fig. 2 and ¶ 46 disclose a UE and eNB establishing an RRC connection and the eNB receiving UECapabilityInformation from the UE) indicating whether the wireless device supports a plurality of sidelink (SL) services, including at least a SL ranging service, simultaneously (Fig. 2 and ¶¶ 46-47, 49-53 disclose the UECapabilityInformation as indicating support for simultaneous PC5 (i.e., sidelink) transmission and/or reception on multiple frequency bands; Figs. 12A, 12B and ¶¶ 57, 101-102, 104 and 112 disclose the UE determining its geographical position based on sensing a V2X resource pool; and Fig. 2 and ¶ 44 disclose the signal exchange between the UE and eNB as being for transmission of a V2X SIB); and
transmitting, by the base station, a second RRC message (Fig. 2 and ¶ 53 disclose the eNB transmitting an RRC Connection Reconfiguration message to the UE) indicating that:
a first frequency band is associated with the SL ranging service (¶ 53 discloses the RRC Connection Reconfiguration message as including reception (RX) pool information on a corresponding reception carrier per selected V2X frequency); and
a second frequency band is associated with a second SL service of the plurality of SL services (¶ 53 discloses the RRE Connection Reconfiguration message as including transmission (TX) pool information on a corresponding transmission carrier per selected V2X frequency).
Hwang may not explicitly disclose wherein the second RRC message is based on the first RRC message.
However, in analogous art, Luo discloses:
transmitting, by the base station and based on the first [[RRC]] message, a second [[RRC]] message (Fig. 1 and ¶¶ 47-49, 51 and 71 disclose a first communication node (i.e., a UE) determining indication information to report to a second communication node (i.e., a base station (BS)) indicating information about whether proximity services are capable of being received simultaneously or in parallel on indicated bands; Fig. 2 and ¶¶ 87-89 and 109 disclose the second communication node (i.e., BS) receiving the indication information indicating about whether proximity services are capable of being received simultaneously or in parallel on indicated bands and allocating a proximity service resource and/or a cellular network service resource to the first communication node according to the indication information).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use Luo to modify Hwang in order to have a UE and BS exchange RRC messages indicating whether the UE supports simultaneous sidelink services and allocating resource according to the indication. One would have been motivated to do this, because in order to reasonably and effectively allocate resources to UE, the base station needs to comprehensively know whether UE has a ProSe supporting capability (Luo ¶ 49).
Regarding Claim 5, Hwang-Luo disclose the method of claim 1.
Hwang discloses wherein the first RRC message indicates:
concurrent multiple sidelinks capability of the wireless device (Fig. 2 and ¶¶ 46-47, 49-53 disclose the UECapabilityInformation as indicating support for simultaneous PC5 (i.e., sidelink) transmission and/or reception on multiple frequency bands), and
whether the wireless device supports a plurality of simultaneous sidelinks (Fig. 2 and ¶¶ 46-47, 49-53 disclose the UECapabilityInformation as indicating support for simultaneous PC5 (i.e., sidelink) transmission and/or reception on multiple frequency bands).
Hwang may not explicitly disclose wherein the first RRC message indicates whether the wireless device supports a plurality of simultaneous unicast sidelinks.
However, in analogous art, Luo discloses wherein the first RRC message indicates whether the wireless device supports a plurality of simultaneous unicast sidelinks (¶ 49 discloses the UE supporting multiple unicast sidelinks).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use Luo to modify Hwang in order to have a UE and BS exchange RRC messages indicating whether the UE supports simultaneous sidelink services and allocating resource according to the indication. One would have been motivated to do this, because in order to reasonably and effectively allocate resources to UE, the base station needs to comprehensively know whether UE has a ProSe supporting capability (Luo ¶ 49).
Regarding Claim 6, Hwang-Luo disclose the method of claim 1.
wherein the first RRC message indicates whether the wireless device is able to simultaneously send or receive data of at least two of the following services:
a vehicle-to-everything (V2X) service (Fig. 2 and ¶ 44 disclose the signal exchange between the UE and eNB as being for transmission of a V2X SIB);
the SL ranging service (Figs. 12A, 12B and ¶¶ 102-104 and 112 disclose the UE determining its geographical position based on sensing a V2X resource pool);
a public safety service (Abstract; Fig. 2 and ¶ 45 discloses the services as including safety services);
a relay service; or
uplink or downlink communication service between the wireless device and the base station (¶ 46 discloses the sidelink capability information as indicating support for simultaneous Uu transmission/reception and SL transmission/reception).
Regarding Claim 7, Hwang-Luo disclose the method of claim 1.
Hwang discloses wherein the first RRC message indicates that the wireless device supports simultaneous SL transmissions of one or more packets for the plurality of SL services (¶ 47 discloses accommodating multiple transmission/reception chains for V2X allowing simultaneous transmission through a PC5 interface via supported bands).
Regarding Claim 8, Hwang-Luo disclose the method of claim 1.
Hwang further discloses comprising sending, by the base station, to the wireless device, and based on the first RRC message, information indicating a plurality of frequency bands for a plurality of sidelink services (Fig. 2 and ¶ 53 disclose the serving eNB transmitting the RRC connection reconfiguration message to the UE, wherein the message indicates the TX/RX pool information for each selected V2X frequency).
Hwang may not explicitly disclose wherein the plurality of sidelink services are a plurality of unicast sidelink services.
However, in analogous art, Luo discloses a plurality of unicast sidelink services (¶ 49 discloses the UE supporting multiple unicast sidelinks).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use Luo to modify Hwang in order to have a UE and BS exchange RRC messages indicating whether the UE supports simultaneous sidelink services and allocating resource according to the indication. One would have been motivated to do this, because in order to reasonably and effectively allocate resources to UE, the base station needs to comprehensively know whether UE has a ProSe supporting capability (Luo ¶ 49).
Regarding Claim 9, Hwang-Luo disclose the method of claim 1.
Hwang further discloses sending, by the base station, to the wireless device, and based on the first RRC message a second parameter indicating whether a frequency band for a sidelink service is being used for the plurality of SL services (Fig. 2 and ¶ 53 disclose the serving eNB transmitting the RRC connection reconfiguration message to the UE, wherein the message indicates the TX/RX pool information for each selected V2X frequency).
Regarding Claim 10, Hwang-Luo disclose the method of claim 1.
Hwang discloses wherein the second SL service comprises a vehicle-to-everything (V2X) service (Figs. 12A, 12B and ¶¶ 57, 101-102, 104 and 112 disclose the UE determining its geographical position based on sensing a V2X resource pool; and Fig. 2 and ¶ 44 disclose the signal exchange between the UE and eNB as being for transmission of a V2X SIB).
Regarding Claims 11-15, though of varying scope, the limitations of claims 11-15 are substantially similar or identical to those of claims 1, 5-7 and 10, and are rejected under the same reasoning.
Claims 2-4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hwang-Luo as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Lee et al. (WO 2024/010237, citing from EP 4535886 as the English Equivalent of WO 2024/010237, hereinafter Lee).
Regarding Claim 2, Hwang-Luo disclose the method of claim 1.
Hwang-Luo may not explicitly disclose wherein the wireless device is a first wireless device of a plurality of wireless devices configured for a SL ranging service, wherein the plurality of wireless devices comprises the first wireless device and a second wireless device, and wherein the method further comprises:
receiving, from the first wireless device, a third RRC message indicating a ranging method for the first wireless device to perform the SL ranging service between the first wireless device and the second wireless device;
determining, by the base station and based on the ranging method, parameters for radio resources to perform the SL ranging service by using the ranging method; and
transmitting, by the base station to the first wireless device, a fourth RRC message comprising the parameters for the radio resources.
However, in analogous art, Lee discloses wherein the wireless device is a first wireless device of a plurality of wireless devices configured for a SL ranging service (Fig. 7 and ¶¶ 84-86 disclose an in-coverage scenario for a Sidelink (SL) positioning (SL-P) operation including a target UE and anchor UEs), wherein the plurality of wireless devices comprises the first wireless device and a second wireless device (Id.), and wherein the method further comprises:
receiving, from the first wireless device, a third RRC message indicating a ranging method for the first wireless device to perform the SL ranging service between the first wireless device and the second wireless device (Fig. 7 and ¶¶ 88 and 92 disclose the UEs exchanging LongTerm Evolution (LTE) Positioning Protocol (LPP) capabilities with the network (via a serving gNB) including an AMF and LMF, wherein the capabilities indicate supported SL positioning methods and available modes of SL positioning);
determining, by the base station and based on the ranging method, parameters for radio resources to perform the SL ranging service by using the ranging method (Fig. 7 and ¶ 97 disclose the serving gNB determining SL-PRS Tx configuration for the UEs); and
transmitting, by the base station to the first wireless device, a fourth RRC message comprising the parameters for the radio resources (Fig. 7 and ¶ 98 disclose the serving gNB transmitting the SL-PRS Tx configuration to the UEs).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use Lee to modify Hwang-Luo in order to include SL positioning as one of the SL services to be performed simultaneously with other SL services. One would have been motivated to do this, because provisioning for SL positioning service may help networks acquiring information for helping networks to efficiently provide next-generation wireless communication system service in the face of increased data traffic (Lee ¶¶ 2 and 6).
Regarding Claim 3, Hwang-Luo-Lee disclose the method of claim 2.
Hwang-Luo may not explicitly disclose wherein the first RRC message and the third RRC message are a same RRC message.
However, in analogous art, Lee discloses wherein the first RRC message and the third RRC message are a same RRC message (Figs. 5, 7 and ¶¶ 59-60, including Table 2, and ¶ 88 disclose the UE capability information as including indications of the SL services that the UE supports including SL-P and other sidelink services including transmission and reception).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use Lee to modify Hwang-Luo in order to include SL positioning as one of the SL services to be performed simultaneously with other SL services. One would have been motivated to do this, because provisioning for SL positioning service may help networks acquiring information for helping networks to efficiently provide next-generation wireless communication system service in the face of increased data traffic (Lee ¶¶ 2 and 6).
Regarding Claim 4, Hwang-Luo-Lee disclose the method of claim 2.
Hwang-Luo disclose wherein the second RRC message and the fourth RRC message are a same RRC message.
However, in analogous art, Lee discloses wherein the second RRC message and the fourth RRC message are a same RRC message (Figs. 5, 7, and ¶¶ 61-64 including tables 3 and 4, and ¶¶ 94-98 disclose the gNB determining and providing configuration information including information for SL-P and other sidelink services including SL transmission and reception).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use Lee to modify Hwang-Luo in order to include SL positioning as one of the SL services to be performed simultaneously with other SL services. One would have been motivated to do this, because provisioning for SL positioning service may help networks acquiring information for helping networks to efficiently provide next-generation wireless communication system service in the face of increased data traffic (Lee ¶¶ 2 and 6).
Claim 17 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lee as applied to claim 16 above, and further in view of Duan et al. (US 2024/0314725, hereinafter Duan).
Regarding Claim 17, Lee discloses the method of claim 16.
Lee may not explicitly disclose wherein the ranging method comprises at least one of the following:
two-way ranging;
sidelink uplink time difference of arrival (SL-UTDOA);
sidelink downlink time difference of arrival (SL-DTDOA);
sidelink uplink phase difference of arrival (SL-UPDOA); or
sidelink downlink phase difference of arrival (SL-DPDOA).
However, in analogous art, Duan discloses wherein the ranging method comprises at least one of the following:
two-way ranging;
sidelink uplink time difference of arrival (SL-UTDOA) (Figs. 10, 11, 13, and ¶¶ 110, 112, and 132 disclose sidelink aided UL TDOA based positioning methods);
sidelink downlink time difference of arrival (SL-DTDOA) (Figs. 8, 9, 12, and ¶¶ 93, 95, and 129 disclose sidelink aided DL TDOA based positioning methods );
sidelink uplink phase difference of arrival (SL-UPDOA); or
sidelink downlink phase difference of arrival (SL-DPDOA).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use Duan to modify Lee in order to perform a SL-UTDOA based positioning method or a SL-DTDOA based positioning method. One would have been motivated to do this, because such assistance information may have reduce the impact of low quality positioning reference signals (PRS) and/or sounding reference signals (SRS) measurement from non-serving stations, improving the reliability of reference signal time difference (RSTD) positioning (Duan ¶ 27).
Claim 19 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lee as applied to claim 16 above, and further in view of Hwang.
Regarding Claim 19, Lee discloses the method of claim 16.
Lee may not explicitly disclose wherein the first RRC message indicates one or more supported frequencies for ranging service between the first wireless device and the second wireless device.
However, in analogous art, Hwang discloses wherein a first RRC message indicates one or more supported frequencies for ranging service between the first wireless device and the second wireless device (Fig. 2 and ¶¶ 46-47, 49-53 disclose the UECapabilityInformation as indicating support for simultaneous PC5 (i.e., sidelink) transmission and/or reception on multiple frequency bands).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use Hwang to modify Lee in order to indicate available frequency bands in UE capability information. One would have been motivated to do this, because such an indication may aid in supporting V2X services of multiple operators by managing V2X resources and balancing load efficiently to processing V2X communication services on multiple carriers (Hwang ¶ 11), such as by indicating frequency bands that are available for simultaneous SL operation, allowing the UE to monitor one band, such as a band necessary for receiving a safety service, while allowing the UE to transmit on another SL band (Hwang ¶ 53).
Claim 20 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lee as applied to claim 16 above, and further in view of Shen (US 2025/0287340).
Regarding Claim 20, Lee discloses the method of claim 16.
Lee may not explicitly disclose wherein the first RRC message indicates whether the first wireless device or the second wireless device is able to perform ranging via a PC5 reference point.
However, in analogous art, Shen discloses wherein the first RRC message indicates whether the first wireless device or the second wireless device is able to perform ranging via a PC5 reference point (Figs. 2, 3 and ¶¶ 22 and 25 disclose an AMF (via a NG-RAN (Base Station) receiving PC5 capability information of a UE indicating that it is capable of user ranging/sidelink positioning service over a PC5 reference point).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use Shen to modify Lee in order to including an indication of being able to use a PC5 reference point for a SL ranging service in UE capability information. One would have been motivated to do this, because such an indication may help ensure that service authorization information is provisioned to the NG-RAN and for ranging/sidelink positioning services (Shen ¶¶ 7-8).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 18 is objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: As indicated in Applicant Remarks, at p. 10, last ¶, claim 18 requires the claimed first wireless device to receive, form a plurality of reception points, measurement reports based on reference signals sent by the claimed second wireless device. As provided by Applicant, the prior art of record does not appear to disclose this subject matter. Further search and consideration did not reveal other prior art disclosing this subject matter. Thus, if written in independent form, claim 18 would be allowed.
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 THOMAS R CAIRNS whose telephone number is (571)270-0487. The examiner can normally be reached 9AM-5PM ET M-F.
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/Thomas R Cairns/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2468
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