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 .
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.
Claims 1, 4-5 and 9-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Zheng et al. (US Pub 2024/0179667).
As of claims 1, 9 and 14, Zheng discloses an apparatus comprising:
at least one processor (via a processor; see paragraph [0275]); and
at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus, which is configured to perform side link positioning with another apparatus (via a memory; see claim 17), at least to perform:
transmitting, to the other apparatus, an indication that a side link positioning reference signal (SL PRS) resource transmission, which the apparatus is configured to transmit, comprises at least one de-modulation reference signal (DMRS) symbol (see paragraph [0122], “ when the first resource is determined from the PSSCH resource set, in addition to the SL PRS, other information related to the SL PRS is further transmitted on the first resource, for example, at least one of PSSCH DMRS; first SCI used for the decoding of a PSSCH; second SCI used to indicate a transmission parameter and/or positioning information of the SL PRS; dedicated information, a MAC CE, and/or RRC signaling; data information indicating positioning information, and the like, so that the second terminal configured to receive the first resource may accurately learn a location and positioning information of the SL PRS”); and
generating a sequence of a SL PRS resource transmission comprising:
a SL PRS sequence; and a DMRS sequence comprising at least one DMRS symbol (via multiplexing the DMRS and SL PRS; see fig. 10; also see paragraph [0133]; and
transmitting the sequence of the SL PRS resource transmission at least to the other apparatus (see paragraph [0122], “ when the first resource is determined from the PSSCH resource set, in addition to the SL PRS, other information related to the SL PRS is further transmitted on the first resource, for example, at least one of PSSCH DMRS; first SCI used for the decoding of a PSSCH; second SCI used to indicate a transmission parameter and/or positioning information of the SL PRS; dedicated information, a MAC CE, and/or RRC signaling; data information indicating positioning information, and the like, so that the second terminal configured to receive the first resource may accurately learn a location and positioning information of the SL PRS”).
As of claims 4 and 10, Zheng discloses the step of transmitting the sequence of the SL PRS resource transmission on a shared resource pool (via transmitting the SL PRS and DMRS on the first resource; see fig. 10; also see paragraph [0115] and [0122]).
As of claims 5 and 13, Zheng discloses transmitting, to the other apparatus, an indication on a position of the at least one DMRS symbol in the sequence of the SL PRS resource transmission (via disclosing that the first SCI is used for decoding of a PSSCH; see paragraph [0115]).
As of claim 11, Zheng discloses performing a side link positioning measurement based on the SL PRS resource transmission (via second terminal performing side link positioning measurement; see paragraph [0122]).
As of claim 12, Zheng discloses combining the received DMRS sequence with the received SL PRS sequence to a combined SL PRS sequence; and determining position of the apparatus based on the combined SL PRS sequence (via determining position of the second terminal by combining the SL PRS and DMRS sequence; see paragraph [0122]).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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 6-8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zheng et al. (US Pub 2024/0179667) in view of OPPO (Discussion of Potential salutation for SL positioning, R1-2206289, as presented in the IDS).
As of claims 6-7, Zheng discloses all the limitation of the claimed invention as mentioned in claim 1 above, however it does not explicitly disclose that the DMRS sequence and the SL PRS sequence are generated using same or similar sequence initialization equation and the DMRS sequence and the SL PRS sequence are generated using a DMRS sequence initialization equation.
Oppo discloses that the it is known in the art that the DMRS and SL PRS are generated using a same or similar sequence initialization equation (see section 2.2, pages 3-4).
From the teaching of Oppo it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to modify the system of Zheng to generate DMRS and SLPRS sequence as taught by Oppo in order to facilitate easier tracking of channel characteristics.
As of claim 8, Zheng discloses that the DMRS sequence is generated using a first identity value and the SL PRS sequence is generated using a second identity value (Zheng discloses that the SP PRS sequence initialization ID is determined based on CRC information of the first stage SCI (see paragraph [0141]). Zheng further discloses that the need to reduce interference to the SL PRS (see paragraph [0050]). It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art to utilize different ID to the generation of the DMRS sequence to reduce the interference.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-3 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to NABIL H SYED whose telephone number is (571)270-3028. The examiner can normally be reached 8:00-5:00 M-F.
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/NABIL H SYED/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2686
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