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 .
Response to Amendment
This office action has been changed in response to the amendment filed on 6/10/2026.
Claims 1, 2, 4, 5, 7-12, 14-18 have been amended. Claims 19 and 20 have been newly added.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 6/10/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
In response to the Applicant’s argument that “Tenny fails to disclose that the location management function transmits location information to the location service client” (Pages 10-11), the Examiner respectfully disagrees.
For Applicant’s argument to be persuasive over Tenny Fig. 2, the claim would have to state “receiving directly by a location management function from a location service client…” or something similar because (Fig. 2 [4 & 5]) is occurring because of location service request sent by the client (Fig. 2 [210]) in step 1.
In response to the Applicant’s argument that “Tenny fails to disclose an LMF establishing a direct connection with a wireless network node, much less transmitting or receiving any positioning messages via such a direct connection” (Page 11), the Examiner respectfully disagrees.
Tenny additionally states “In some embodiments, nodes within the core 110 communicate directly with the UE 180” (Pages 3-4 [0050]) and that “Other items shown or discussed as coupled may be directly coupled or may be indirectly coupled or communicating through some interface, device, or intermediate component whether electrically, mechanically, or otherwise.” (Page 9 [0112]) The Examiner cannot discount that Tenny explicitly states that the location management function “instigate positioning operations directly with one or more of the UE or a radio access network (RAN) node” in claim 1.
In response to applicant’s argument that there is no teaching, suggestion, or motivation to combine the references, the examiner recognizes that obviousness may be established by combining or modifying the teachings of the prior art to produce the claimed invention where there is some teaching, suggestion, or motivation to do so found either in the references themselves or in the knowledge generally available to one of ordinary skill in the art. See In re Fine, 837 F.2d 1071, 5 USPQ2d 1596 (Fed. Cir. 1988), In re Jones, 958 F.2d 347, 21 USPQ2d 1941 (Fed. Cir. 1992), and KSR International Co. v. Teleflex, Inc., 550 U.S. 398, 82 USPQ2d 1385 (2007). In this case, one of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine the teachings of Tenny with that of Zong since both references are related to positioning methods of UE’s in a wireless network.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1, 7, 8, 14 and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Tenny et al. (US-2020/0367022 hereinafter, Tenny).
Regarding claim 1, Tenny teaches a wireless communication method comprising:
receiving, by a location management function (Fig. 1 [160] and Fig. 2 [250]) from a location service client (Fig. 2 [210]), a request for location information associated with a wireless terminal; (Fig. 2 [5] and Page 4 [0056] “Once the VGMLC 240 has selected LMF 250, the VGMLC 240 invokes an LCS request operation to forward the location request to the LMF 250. The LCS request operation may include a Nlmf_ProvideLocation Request message.”)
establishing, by the location management function (Fig. 1 [160] and Fig. 2 [250]), a direct connection with a wireless network node; (Page 9 Claim 1 “instigate positioning operations directly with one or more of the UE or a radio access network (RAN) node” note: RAN node is used interchangeably with eNB, see Page 3 [0050] “The NG-RAN 170 may include one or more eNBs or gNBs or other RAN nodes”)
transmitting, by the location management function (Fig. 1 [160] and Fig. 2 [250]), to the wireless network via the direct connection (Page 9 Claim 1 “instigate positioning operations directly with one or more of the UE or a radio access network (RAN) node”), a downlink network positioning message for acquiring the location information associated with the wireless terminal; (Page 9 Claim 1 “instigate positioning operations directly with one or more of the UE or a radio access network (RAN) node”)
receiving, by the location management function (Fig. 1 [160] and Fig. 2 [250]), from the wireless network node via the direct connection, an uplink network positioning message comprising the location information associated with the wireless terminal; (Page 9 Claim 1 “receive location information from one or more of the UE or the RAN node”)
transmitting, by the location management function (Fig. 1 [160] and Fig. 2 [250]) to the location service client (Fig. 2 [210], the location information associated with the wireless terminal, (Page 9 Claim 1 “transmit a location service result to the network node” and Fig. 2 [17 & 18])
wherein the location information associated with the wireless terminal indicates the location of the wireless terminal. (Page 9 Claim 4)
Regarding claim 7, Tenny teaches receiving, by the location management function from the wireless network node, a transport message indicating a handover associated with the wireless terminal; (Page 5 [0066] “notify the LMF 250 when handover occurs”) and
establishing a direct connection with a target wireless network node of the handover. (Page 5 [0066] “notify the LMF 250 when handover occurs” and “When the LMF 250 is able to access the new AMF, the LMF 250 may resume any of steps 10-14 with the new AMF” and Fig. 2 [10-14])
Regarding claim 8, Tenny teaches a wireless communication method for use in a wireless network node (Fig. 2 [270]), the wireless communication method comprising:
establishing, by a wireless network node, a direct connection with a location management function (Page 9 Claim 1 “instigate positioning operations directly with one or more of the UE or a radio access network (RAN) node”),
receiving, by the wireless network node from the location management function via the direct connection, a downlink network positioning message for location information associated with a wireless terminal (Page 9 Claim 1 “instigate positioning operations directly with one or more of the UE or a radio access network (RAN) node”, Fig. 5 [2] and Page 6 [0088]), and
transmitting, by the wireless node to the location management function via the direct connection, an uplink network positioning message comprising the location information associated with the wireless terminal, (Fig. 5 [4 & 5], Page 9 Claim 1 “receive location information from one or more of the UE or the RAN node” and Page 6 [0090-0091])
wherein the location information associated with the wireless terminal indicates the location of the wireless terminal. (Page 9 Claim 4)
Regarding claim 14, the limitations of claim 14 are rejected as being the same reasons set forth above in claim 7.
Regarding claim 15, the limitations of claim 15 are rejected as being the same reasons set forth above in claim 1. See additional structure processor in Fig. 12 [1230], memory in Fig. 12 [1260] and a communication unit in Fig. 12 [1220 & 1240].
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 5, 6, 11, 12 and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tenny in view of Zong et al. (WO2022/198497 hereinafter, Zong).
Regarding claim 5, Tenny teaches the limitations of claim 1 above, but differs from the claimed invention by not explicitly reciting transmitting, by the location management function to the wireless network node via at least one core network function, a routing identifier associated with the location management function and a function correlation identifier associated with the request for the location information at the location management function; and
receiving, by the location management function from the wireless network node via the direct connection, a node correlation identifier associated with the wireless terminal at the wireless network node.
In an analogous art, Zong teaches a positioning method and system (Abstract) that includes a location management function (Fig. 4 [LMF]) that establishes a direct connection (Fig. 4 [409]) with a wireless network node (Fig. 4 [UE]) serving a wireless terminal (Fig. 4 [UE]) that includes transmitting, to the wireless network node (Fig. 4 [RAN]) via at least one core network function (Fig. 4 [AMF]), a routing identifier associated with the location management function (Page 15 “the AMF can send the information of the LMF to the RAN, or the AMF can determine the address of the LMF according to the identity of the LMF and send it to the RAN” and “The address of the LMF may be a full qualified domain name (FQDN), or an interface address between the LMF and the RAN, such as the N2 address information of the LMF”) and a function correlation identifier associated with the request for the location information at the location management function (Page 17 “If the LMF and the GMLC are set in combination, at this time, the GMLC may send the context identifier information about the UE to the AMF, for example, the context identifier information may be routing information”), and receiving, by the location management function from the wireless network node via the direct connection, a node correlation identifier associated with the wireless terminal at the wireless network node. (Page 17 “when the RAN establishes a connection with the LMF, the LMF may receive a first identifier from the RAN, where the first identifier is an identifier allocated by the RAN to the UE, for example, the first identifier may be "RAN NGAP UE ID for LCS””)
Before the effective filing date of the invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to be motivated to implement the invention of Tenny after modifying it to incorporate the ability to directly connect to a wireless network node by sending a routing identifiers of Zong since it avoids sending user data outside an enterprise network which can help increase data security. (Zong Page 16 “Since the measurement information of the UE is not sent to the access and mobility management function network element in the above positioning process, for the UE accessing the enterprise network, the above sending process avoids sending user data outside the enterprise network, which is helpful for Meet the needs of users for data security”)
Regarding claim 6, Tenny in view of Zong teaches wherein the node correlation identifier and the function correlation identifier are next generation application protocol user equipment identifiers of the wireless terminal. (Zong Page 17 "RAN NGAP UE ID for LCS” and "LMF NGAP UE ID")
Regarding claim 11, the limitations of claim 11 are rejected as being the same reasons set forth above in claim 5. Note: the difference between claim 5 and 11 is the perspective, claim 5 is from the location management function so for example, the LMF “transmits” in the first step whereas in claim 11, the perspective is from the wireless network node so the step is “receiving” the same information.
Regarding claim 12, Tenny in view of Zong teaches wherein the direct connection is established by the wireless network node based on the routing identifier. (Zong Page 15 “the AMF can send the information of the LMF to the RAN, or the AMF can determine the address of the LMF according to the identity of the LMF and send it to the RAN” and “The address of the LMF may be a full qualified domain name (FQDN), or an interface address between the LMF and the RAN, such as the N2 address information of the LMF”)
Regarding claim 19, the limitations of claim 19 are rejected as being the same reasons set forth above in claim 5.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-4, 9, 10, 13, 16-18 and 20 are 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: The Examiner was unable to find the combination of claim 1+2, 8+9 and 15+16 in the prior art. It is noted that the wireless network node in Zong is able to directly contact the LMF, however Zong does not disclose wireless network node sending to a core network node function, node information of the wireless network node and a node correlation identifier associated with the wireless terminal at the wireless network node and then the LMF directly contacting the wireless network node as disclosed in claims 2, 9 and 16.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
US-12,477,504 to Wu which discloses a method and system for supporting location services at a base station via direct messages to an LCS.
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 MATTHEW C SAMS whose telephone number is (571)272-8099. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:30-5 EST.
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.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Matthew Anderson can be reached at (571)272-4177. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/Matthew C Sams/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2646
Prosecution Insights