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 .
Claims 1-20 are pending in this office action.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to the amendment filed 01/05/2026 have been considered but are moot in view of new grounds of rejection.
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.
Claims 1, 2, 5-7, 10-12, 15-17 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Leng et al (US 2023/0199680 A1) in view of Chang et al (US 2022/0337312 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Leng teaches a method performed by a device providing non-terrestrial network (NTN) access, the method comprising:
transmitting, to a user equipment (UB), a UB capability enquiry message; and receiving, from the UE, a UB capability information message corresponding to the UB capability enquiry message (Leng: Fig. 13),
wherein the UE capability information includes:
information for indicating whether the UE supports NTN access or not (Leng: Fig. 13:1320; [0134]-[0137]),
information for indicating whether the UE supports NTN features in a geostationary satellite orbit (GSO) scenario or a non-geostationary satellite orbit (NGSO) scenario (Leng: Fig. 13:1320; [0134]-[0137]).
Leng does not explicitly disclose information for indicating a UE type related to a very small aperture terminal (VSAT), information related to a satellite antenna of the UE for NTN access, and information on a maximum number of one or more satellites simultaneously accessible in the UE.
Chang teaches information for indicating a UE type related to a very small aperture terminal (VSAT), information related to a satellite antenna of the UE for NTN access, and information on a maximum number of one or more satellites simultaneously accessible in the UE (Chang: Fig. 1C; [0027], [0059]).
It would have been obvious to a person having an ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of th claimed invention to modify the system of Chang wherein information for indicating a UE type related to a very small aperture terminal (VSAT), information related to a satellite antenna of the UE for NTN access, and information on a maximum number of one or more satellites simultaneously accessible in the UE as disclosed by Chang to provide a system for multibeam VSAT for cluster of GSO satellites (Chang: Abstract).
Regarding claim 6, Leng teaches a method performed by a user equipment (UE), the method comprising:
receiving, from a non-terrestrial network (NTN) device, a UE capability enquiry message; and transmitting, to the NTN device, a UE capability information message corresponding to the UE capability enquiry message (Leng: Fig. 13),
wherein the UE capability information includes:
information for indicating whether the UE supports NTN access or not (Leng: Fig. 13:1320; [0134]-[0137]),
information for indicating whether the UE supports NTN features in a geostationary satellite orbit (GSO) scenario or a non-geostationary satellite orbit (NGSO) scenario (Leng: Fig. 13:1320; [0134]-[0137]).
Leng does not explicitly disclose information for indicating a UE type related to a very small aperture terminal (VSAT), information related to a satellite antenna of the UE for NTN access, and information on a maximum number of one or more satellites simultaneously accessible in the UE.
Chang teaches information for indicating a UE type related to a very small aperture terminal (VSAT), information related to a satellite antenna of the UE for NTN access, and information on a maximum number of one or more satellites simultaneously accessible in the UE (Chang: Fig. 1C; [0027], [0059]).
It would have been obvious to a person having an ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of th claimed invention to modify the system of Chang wherein information for indicating a UE type related to a very small aperture terminal (VSAT), information related to a satellite antenna of the UE for NTN access, and information on a maximum number of one or more satellites simultaneously accessible in the UE as disclosed by Chang to provide a system for multibeam VSAT for cluster of GSO satellites (Chang: Abstract).
Regarding claim 11, Leng teaches a device non-terrestrial network (NTN) access, comprising: at least one transceiver; and at least one processor coupled to the at least one transceiver, wherein the at least one processor is configured to:
transmit, to a user equipment (UE), a UE capability enquiry message; and receive, from the UE, a UE capability information message corresponding to the UE capability enquiry message (Leng: Fig. 13),
wherein the UE capability information includes:
information for indicating whether the UE supports NTN access or not (Leng: Fig. 13:1320; [0134]-[0137]),
information for indicating whether the UE supports NTN features in a geostationary satellite orbit (GSO) scenario or a non-geostationary satellite orbit (NGSO) scenario (Leng: Fig. 13:1320; [0134]-[0137]).
Leng does not explicitly disclose information for indicating a UE type related to a very small aperture terminal (VSAT), information related to a satellite antenna of the UE for NTN access, and information on a maximum number of one or more satellites simultaneously accessible in the UE.
Chang teaches information for indicating a UE type related to a very small aperture terminal (VSAT), information related to a satellite antenna of the UE for NTN access, and information on a maximum number of one or more satellites simultaneously accessible in the UE (Chang: Fig. 1C; [0027], [0059]).
It would have been obvious to a person having an ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of th claimed invention to modify the system of Chang wherein information for indicating a UE type related to a very small aperture terminal (VSAT), information related to a satellite antenna of the UE for NTN access, and information on a maximum number of one or more satellites simultaneously accessible in the UE as disclosed by Chang to provide a system for multibeam VSAT for cluster of GSO satellites (Chang: Abstract).
Regarding claim 16, Leng teaches s device of a user equipment (UE), comprising: at least one transceiver; and at least one processor coupled to the at least one transceiver, wherein the at least one processor is configured to:
receive, from a non-terrestrial network (NTN) device, a UE capability enquiry message; and transmit, to the NTN device, a UE capability information message corresponding to the UE capability enquiry message (Leng: Fig. 13),
wherein the UE capability information includes:
information for indicating whether the UE supports NTN access or not (Leng: Fig. 13:1320; [0134]-[0137]),
information for indicating whether the UE supports NTN features in a geostationary satellite orbit (GSO) scenario or a non-geostationary satellite orbit (NGSO) scenario (Leng: Fig. 13:1320; [0134]-[0137]).
Leng does not explicitly disclose information for indicating a UE type related to a very small aperture terminal (VSAT), information related to a satellite antenna of the UE for NTN access, and information on a maximum number of one or more satellites simultaneously accessible in the UE.
Chang teaches information for indicating a UE type related to a very small aperture terminal (VSAT), information related to a satellite antenna of the UE for NTN access, and information on a maximum number of one or more satellites simultaneously accessible in the UE (Chang: Fig. 1C; [0027], [0059]).
It would have been obvious to a person having an ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of th claimed invention to modify the system of Chang wherein information for indicating a UE type related to a very small aperture terminal (VSAT), information related to a satellite antenna of the UE for NTN access, and information on a maximum number of one or more satellites simultaneously accessible in the UE as disclosed by Chang to provide a system for multibeam VSAT for cluster of GSO satellites (Chang: Abstract).
Regarding claims 2, 7, 12 and 17, Leng in view of Chang teaches wherein the UE capability information message includes information indicating one of a plurality of types related to the NGSO scenario (Leng: Fig. 1; [0132]-[0133]), information on a position measurement error, and information on an accuracy of a position estimation
Regarding claims 5, 10, 15 and 20, Leng teaches receiving, from the UE, global navigation satellite system (GNSS) assistance information, wherein the GNSS assistance information comprises information on an GNSS valid interval, and wherein the UE capability information message comprises information related to a gap for reacquiring a GNSS position, between GNSS valid intervals (Leng: Figs. 7-9; [0088]-[0091], [0108]-[0109]).
Claims 3, 8, 13 and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Leng et al (US 2023/0199680 A1) in view of Chang et al (US 2022/0337312 A1) in further view of Li (WO 2024/020748 A1) (citation from the attached English translation).
Regarding claims 3, 8, 13 and 18, Leng in view of Chang does not teach but Li teaches receiving, from the UE, position information of the UE, wherein the UE capability information message is used for a network-verification for the position information of the UE, and wherein, for the network-verification, multiple - round trip time (RTT) positioning technique, downlink (DL) time difference of arrival (TDOA) positioning technique, or uplink (UL) TDOA positioning technique is used (Li: Page 26; Fig. 23 and Page 8: Optionally, the positioning technology may be any one of positioning technologies such as DL-TDOA, multi-RTT, DL-AOD or E-CID).
It would have been obvious to a person having an ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Leng in view of Chang by receiving, from the UE, position information of the UE, wherein the UE capability information message is used for a network-verification for the position information of the UE, and wherein, for the network-verification, multiple - round trip time (RTT) positioning technique, downlink (DL) time difference of arrival (TDOA) positioning technique, or uplink (UL) TDOA positioning technique is used as disclosed by Li to provide a system for positioning (Li: Abstract).
Claims 4, 9, 14 and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Leng et al (US 2023/0199680 A1) in view of Chang et al (US 2022/0337312 A1) in further view of Jeong et al (US 2022/0329975 A1).
Regarding claims 4, 9, 14 and 19, Leng in view of Chang does not explicitly disclose wherein the UE capability information message comprises information on whether hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) retransmission is disabled or not and information on whether HARQ- acknowledge (ACK) feedback is supported in case that the HARQ retransmission is disabled in a HARQ process, and wherein the HARQ retransmission indicates a retransmission of a transport block (TB) or code block group (CBG) of the HARQ process in response to a negative acknowledge (NACK).
Jeong teaches wherein the UE capability information message comprises information on whether hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) retransmission is disabled or not and information on whether HARQ- acknowledge (ACK) feedback is supported in case that the HARQ retransmission is disabled in a HARQ process, and wherein the HARQ retransmission indicates a retransmission of a transport block (TB) or code block group (CBG) of the HARQ process in response to a negative acknowledge (NACK) (Jeong: Fig. 9; [0133]-[0104], [0159]).
It would have been obvious to a person having an ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Leng in view of Chang wherein the UE capability information message comprises information on whether hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) retransmission is disabled or not and information on whether HARQ- acknowledge (ACK) feedback is supported in case that the HARQ retransmission is disabled in a HARQ process, and wherein the HARQ retransmission indicates a retransmission of a transport block (TB) or code block group (CBG) of the HARQ process in response to a negative acknowledge (NACK) as disclosed by Jeong to provide a system for determination and reporting of UE position in an NTN (Jeong: Abstract).
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. 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.
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/KODZOVI ACOLATSE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2478