DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
1. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
2. A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 02/18/2026 has been entered.
Status of Claims
3. This Office Action is in response to the application filed on 02/18/2026. Claims 1 and through 30 are presently pending and are presented for examination.
4. 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 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.
Response to Arguments
5. Applicant's arguments filed 02/18/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicant argued that specification teaches wherein the configuration indicates that the one or more RS-P resources comprise a first virtual instance of the one or more RS-P resources over which no RS-P is transmitted.
Examiner respectfully disagrees. None of the paragraphs 153, 157, 164, 165, and 169 cited by the applicant mention anything about RS-P. For example, applicant cited the paragraph [0153] “…the virtual ports 924 on which no physical pilot signal is transmitted to the UE 904”. No physical pilot signal is not the same as no RS-P is transmitted.
Applicant cited the paragraph [0196] ... the configuration indicates that the one or more RS-P resources comprise a plurality of RS-P instances, the plurality of RS-P instances comprising at least the first virtual instance. In some designs, each instance of the plurality of RS-P instances is indicated as virtual by the configuration. Hence, the Specification clearly supports a configuration that indicates that at least some virtual instances associated with configured RS-P resource(s) will not include any RS-P transmission.
Examiner respectfully disagrees. There is no mention of no RS-P being transmitted over RS-P resources. There is no support wherein the configuration indicates that the one or more RS-P resources comprise a first virtual instance of the one or more RS-P resources over which no RS-P is transmitted. The “Hence, the Specification clearly supports a configuration that indicates that at least some virtual instances associated with configured RS-P resource(s) will not include any RS-P transmission” is a conclusive statement.
Applicant argued that El does not teach wherein the configuration indicates that the one or more RS-P resources comprise a first virtual instance of the one or more RS-P resources over which no RS-P is transmitted or for which no RS-P is observed by the wireless node or both.
Examiner respectfully disagrees. Firstly, the amended limitation “wherein the configuration indicates that the one or more RS-P resources comprise a first virtual instance of the one or more RS-P resources over which no RS-P is transmitted” is not disclosed in the specification and is considered a new matter. Secondly, El teaches the WTRU may determine that the DL PRS resource configuration… the DL PRS is not transmitted (pargraph 80). In addition, according to applicant remarks of 02/18/2026 the wherein the configuration indicates that the one or more RS-P resources comprise a first virtual instance of the one or more RS-P resources over which no RS-P is transmitted is a design choice not an inventive concept (applicant remarks of 02/18/2026 page 10 “[0196] ... the configuration indicates that the one or more RS-P resources comprise a plurality of RS-P instances, the plurality of RS-P instances comprising at least the first virtual instance. In some designs, each instance of the plurality of RS-P instances is indicated as virtual by the configuration”).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
6. 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 1-7, 11-23, and 25-30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over El Hamss et al. (US 2025/0089002 A1-hereafter El) in view of Wong et al. (US 2016/0050053 A1) and further in view of Cha et al. (US 2022/0271888 A1).
For claim 1 El teaches a method of operating a wireless node (see paragraph 3 methods operating by wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU a wireless node)” and claim 23 “a method comprising: receiving configuration information, wherein the information indicates to monitor for positioning reference signal (PRSs) in an unlicensed band (resource)”), comprising:
receiving a configuration associated with one or more reference signal for positioning (RS-P) resources from a position estimation entity (paragraph 75 “WTRU may receive configuration information indicating an SRSp occasion (e.g., multiple SRSp transmission occasions (instances)) resource or DL PRS resource”, paragraph 78 PRS or SRSp configuration received from as an example from location management function (LMF), and paragraph 97 “PRS and PRS resource may be used interchangeably herein”),
wherein the configuration indicates that the one or more RS-P resources comprise a first virtual instance of the one or more RS-P resources over which no RS-P is transmitted (paragraph 80 “WTRU may determine that the DL PRS resource configuration… the DL PRS is not transmitted”, paragraph 85 “The multiple SRSp transmission occasions may be grouped on sets of SRSp resources, e.g., a ( e.g., each) set may be associated with a DL PRS occasion” and paragraph 105 “the WTRU may (e.g., receive configuration information indicating to) measure a number of samples (e.g., M samples) of PRS, for example, to determine whether the PRS is present or not. The number of samples may be one (e.g., or larger than one) sample. One sample of PRS may be defined by one PRS resource (e.g. , PRS spanning the configured number of OFDM symbols or slots) or repetitions of one PRS resource. The WTRU may measure the number of samples (e.g., default number of samples) of PRS. The WTRU may increase the number of samples to determine whether the PRS is present or not, for example, if a measurement condition is not satisfied (e.g., the RSRP of PRS is below the preconfigured threshold)”), and
wherein the first virtual instance of the one or more RS-P resources is associated with a set of RS-P resources separate from the one or more RS-P resources (paragraph 85 “The multiple SRSp transmission occasions may be grouped on sets of SRSp resources, e.g., a ( e.g., each) set may be associated with a DL PRS occasion”);
performing one or more measurements of the set of RS-P resources (paragraph 80 “DL PRS measurements”, and paragraph 92 “The WTRU may request the LMF and/or the serving base station (e.g., gNB) to enable DL positioning measurements on unlicensed bands.”);
deriving measurement information associated with the first virtual instance of the one or more RS-P resources based on the one or more measurements of the set of RS-P resources (paragraph 111 “The WTRU may combine measurements (e.g., in a measurement report) associated with DL PRS”); and
transmitting a measurement report comprising the measurement information to the position estimation entity (paragraph 111 “The WTRU may combine measurements (e.g., in a measurement report) associated with DL PRS-WTRU provides many kind of measurement reports”).
El does not explicitly teach virtual RS-P resources.
However, Wong teaches FIG. 4 is a flow diagram of a method 400 for performing interference cancellation or suppression based on virtual cell identifiers and state information according to some embodiments--at block 420, the user equipment uses the virtual cell identifier to derive a virtual reference signal, such as a DMRS, for interfering cell (Wong: Fig. 4, paragraph 18, and paragraphs 41-42).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of claimed invention to use the teachings of Wong in the positioning method of El in order for the user equipment (UE) to use a virtual reference signal derived from the virtual cell identifier and the identified non-virtual reference signals to demodulate interfering signals transmitted using the virtual cell identifier (Wong: Fig. 4, paragraph 18, and paragraphs 41-42).
Moreover Cha teaches the PRS is periodically transmitted, and a muting pattern may be configured/indicated to indicate whether the PRS is transmitted or zero power is configured at each transmission time/period by a bitmap in consideration of a total of 5 transmissions of the PRS resource. More specifically, the PRS muting pattern may be
configured in 5 bits. For example, "1" (or "0") and "0" (or "1 ") in a bit string may indicate non-zero power for the PRS and zero power for the PRS, respectively. When the muting pattern is set as a bit string of "10101", the UE may recognize that the PRS resource is configured with zero power at second and fourth transmission time points (Cha: at least paragraphs 372-373). In addition, Cha teaches for example, the LMF/location server may configure one or multiple PRS muting patterns for the UE, configure a specific muting pattern with linkage to/in conjunction with a PRS resource set, and/or configure a specific muting pattern with linkage to/in conjunction with a specific PRS resource. For example, the LMF/location server/BS may adaptively this configuration in consideration of an inter-PRS interference environment and/or PRS detection performance (Cha: at least paragraph 364).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of claimed invention to use the teachings of Cha in the combined positioning method of Wong and El in order for the user equipment (UE) to detect inter-PRS interference environment and/or PRS detection performance identifier Cha: at least paragraph 364).
For claim 19 El in view of Wong further in view of Cha teaches a method of operating a position estimation entity (as discussed in claim 1), comprising:
determining a configuration associated with one or more reference signal for positioning (RS-P) resources (as discussed in claim 1),
wherein the configuration indicates that the one or more RS-P resources comprise a first virtual instance of the one or more RS-P resources over which no RS-P is transmitted (as discussed in claim 1), and
wherein the first virtual instance of the one or more RS-P resources is associated with a set of RS-P resources separate from the one or more RS-P resources (as discussed in claim 1); and
transmitting the configuration to a wireless node (as discussed in claim 1).
For claim 29 El in view of Wong further in view of Cha teaches a wireless node, comprising:
a memory (Fig. 1B “processor 118”);
at least one transceiver (Fig. 1B “transceiver 120”); and
at least one processor communicatively coupled to the memory and the at least one transceiver (Fig. 1B “memory 130”), the at least one processor configured to:
receive, via the at least one transceiver, a configuration associated with one or more reference signal for positioning (RS-P) resources from a position estimation entity (as discussed in claim 1),
wherein the configuration indicates that the one or more RS-P resources comprise a first virtual instance of the one or more RS-P resources over which no RS-P is transmitted (as discussed in claim 1), and
wherein the first virtual instance of the one or more RS-P resources is associated with a set of RS-P resources separate from the one or more RS-P resources (as discussed in claim 1);
perform one or more measurements of the set of RS-P resources (as discussed in claim 1);
derive measurement information associated with the first virtual instance of the one or more RS-P resources based on the one or more measurements of the set of RS-P resources (as discussed in claim 1); and
transmit, via the at least one transceiver, a measurement report comprising the measurement information to the position estimation entity (as discussed in claim 1).
For claim 30 El in view of Wong further in view of Cha teaches a position estimation entity, comprising:
a memory (Wong: Fig. 5 “memory 530”);
at least one transceiver (Wong: Fig. 5 “transceiver 520”); and
at least one processor communicatively coupled to the memory and the at least one transceiver (Wong: Fig. 5 “processor 525”), the at least one processor configured to:
determine a configuration associated with one or more reference signal for positioning (RS-P) resources (as discussed in claim 1),
wherein the configuration indicates that the one or more RS-P resources comprise a first virtual instance of the one or more RS-P resources (as discussed in claim 1), and
wherein the first virtual instance of the one or more RS-P resources is associated with a set of RS-P resources separate from the one or more RS-P resources over which no RS-P is transmitted (as discussed in claim 1); and
transmit, via the at least one transceiver, the configuration to a wireless node (as discussed in claim 1).
For claims 2 and 20 El teaches the method, wherein the one or more RS-P resources comprise:
one or more downlink positioning reference signal (PRS) resources (paragraph 75 “WTRU may receive configuration information indicating an SRSp occasion (e.g., multiple SRSp transmission occasions (instances)) resource or DL PRS resource”), or
one or more uplink sounding reference signals for positioning (SRS-P) resources, or one or more sidelink SRS-P resources (paragraph 75 “WTRU may receive configuration information indicating an SRSp occasion (e.g., multiple SRSp transmission occasions (instances)) resource or DL PRS resource”).
For claims 3 and 21 El teaches the method, wherein the configuration indicates that the one or more RS-P resources comprise a plurality of RS-P instances, the plurality of RS-P instances comprising at least the first virtual instance (as discussed in claim 1).
For claim 4 El teaches the method, wherein the configuration indicates that the one or more RS-P resources comprise a plurality of RS-P instances, and wherein less than all instances of the plurality of RS-P instances are indicated as virtual by the configuration (as discussed in claim 1).
For claim 5 El teaches the method,
wherein the configuration indicates the one or more RS-P resources via a RS-P resource set identifier (paragraph 129 “The WTRU may transmit (e.g., transmit only) on
a SRSp resource ( e.g., one SRSp) resource from the configured set. The WTRU may receive configuration information indicating a set index ( e.g., identifying the set of SRSp
resources associated with DL PRS occasion). DL PRS occasion configuration information may include the set index of the set of SRSp resources.”), or
wherein the configuration indicates the one or more RS-P resources via one or more individual RS-P resource identifiers (paragraph 129 “The WTRU may transmit (e.g., transmit only) on a SRSp resource ( e.g., one SRSp) resource from the configured set. The WTRU may receive configuration information indicating a set index ( e.g., identifying the set of SRSp resources associated with DL PRS occasion). DL PRS occasion configuration information may include the set index of the set of SRSp resources.”).
For claim 6 El in view of Wong teaches the method, further comprising:
determining mapping information that maps the one or more RS-P resources to the set of RS-P resources (Wong: pargraph 6 “identify CRS and CSI using mapping-static mapping and dynamic mapping”); and
determining the set of RS-P resources based at least in part on the mapping information (Wong: pargraph 6 “identify CRS and CSI using mapping-static mapping and dynamic mapping”).
For claim 7 El in view of Wong further in view of Cha teaches method of claim 6, wherein the mapping information is received at the wireless node (Wong: pargraph 6 “identify CRS and CSI using mapping-static mapping and dynamic mapping”).
For claim 11 El teaches the method,
wherein the one or more RS-P resources and the set of RS-P resources are associated with the same bandwidth (pargraph 146 “PRS bandwidth information”), or
wherein the one or more RS-P resources are associated with a first bandwidth and the set of RS-P resources comprise at least one RS-P resource associated with a second bandwidth that is different than the first bandwidth (pargraph 53 “different bandwidth information”).
For claim 12 El teaches the method, wherein the configuration indicates that the one or more RS-P resources comprise a second virtual instance of the one or more RS-P resources (as discussed in claim 1).
For claim 13 El teaches the method of claim 12, further comprising:
receiving an aperiodic or on-demand trigger that requests the wireless node to measure the one or more RS-P resources for the second virtual instance (paragraph 92 “request the network to configure and/or enable the DL positioning reference signals on unlicensed spectrum bands”) ; and
performing at least one measurement of the one or more RS-P resources for the second virtual instance (paragraph 111 “the WTRU may combine measurements (e.g., in a measurement report) associated with DL PRS”).
For claim 14 El teaches the method, further comprising:
transmitting a virtual resource processing capability indication to the position estimation entity (pargraph 53 “MTC devices may have certain capabilities, for example, limited capabilities including support for (e.g., only support for) certain and/or limited bandwidths.”),
wherein the configuration is based on the virtual resource processing capability indication (pargraph 53 “MTC devices may have certain capabilities, for example, limited capabilities including support for (e.g., only support for) certain and/or limited bandwidths.”).
For claim 15 El teaches the method, further comprising:
receiving priority information indicative of a relative priority between a virtual resource and the set of RS-P resources (paragraph 142 “positioning report associated with high priority application”),
wherein the one or more measurements, the measurement report, or both, are based on the priority information (paragraph 142 “positioning report associated with high priority application”).
For claim 16 El teaches the method, further comprising:
transmitting a request for an on-demand virtual resource configuration (paragraph 80 “request for DL PRS resource configuration”),
wherein the configuration is received in response to the request (paragraph 80 “receive the request DL PRS resource configuration”).
For claim 17 El teaches the method, wherein the wireless node is a user equipment (UE) (paragraph 16 “UE, and base station, or network elements”), or
wherein the wireless node is a network component (paragraph 16 “UE, and base station, or network elements”).
For claim 18 El teaches the method,
wherein the configuration is associated with a position estimation session of a user equipment (UE) (paragraph 111 “A WTRU may apply an average (e.g., weighted average) of the DL PRS measurements within the DRS window and outside the DRS window, for example, with different weights.”), or
wherein the configuration is associated with a sensing procedure of one or more target objects (paragraph 124 “positioning signals based in sensing duration (procedure)”), or
a combination thereof (paragraph 111 and 124).
For claim 22 El teaches the method,
wherein the configuration indicates that the one or more RS-P resources comprise a plurality of RS-P instances, and wherein less than all instances of the plurality of RS-P instances are indicated as virtual by the configuration (as discussed in claim 4), or
wherein the configuration indicates the one or more RS-P resources via a RS-P resource set identifier (as discussed in claim 5), or
wherein the configuration indicates the one or more RS-P resources via one or more individual RS-P resource identifiers (as discussed in claim 5).
For claim 23 El teaches the method further comprising:
transmitting mapping information that maps the one or more RS-P resources to the set of RS-P resources to the wireless node (as discussed in claim 6).
For claim 25 El teaches the method, further comprising:
receiving a measurement report from the wireless node comprising measurement information (paragraph 4 “WTRU sends a measurement report”),
wherein the measurement information is associated with the first virtual instance of the one or more RS-P resources based on one or more measurements of the set of RS-P resources (paragraph 4 “WTRU sends a measurement report with respect to PRS resource”).
For claim 26 El teaches the method, wherein the configuration indicates that the one or more RS-P resources comprise a second virtual instance of the one or more RS-P resources (as discussed in claim 1).
For claim 27 El teaches the method, further comprising:
receiving a virtual resource processing capability indication from the wireless node (as discussed in claim 14),
wherein the configuration is based on the virtual resource processing capability indication (as discussed in claim 14).
For claim 28 El teaches the method, further comprising:
receiving a request for an on-demand virtual resource configuration from the wireless node (as discussed in claim 18),
wherein the configuration is transmitted in response to the request (as discussed in claim 18).
7. Claims 8-10, and 24 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over El Hamss et al. (US 2025/0089002 A1-hereafter El) in view of Wong et al. (US 2016/0050053 A1) further in view of Cha et al. (US 2022/0271888 A1) and further in view of Kim et al. (US 2025/0247180 A1).
For claim 8 El in view of Wong further in view of Cha does not explicitly teach the method of claim 7, wherein the mapping information comprises:
beam information associated with the one or more RS-P resources and the set of RS-P resources, or
quasi colocation (QCL) information associated with the one or more RS-P resources and the set of RS-P resources, or
However, Kim teaches a QCL type-D reference signal (RS) or a TCI state (or simply TCI) may mean a spatial parameter, i.e., a QCL reference RS for a DL beam,
or may be extended and interpreted as a reference RS or source RS for the spatial parameter or other beam/spatial related parameters (Kim: paragraph 262).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing claimed invention to use the teachings Kim in the combined reference configuration of Cha, Wong and El in an environment where analog beamforming is not used (Kim: paragraph 262).
For claim 9 El in view of Wong further in view of Cha and further in view of Kim teaches the method of claim 8, wherein the mapping information is based on one or more parameters associated with the set of RS-P resources and machine learning (ML) (Kim: paragraph 133 “Machine Learning (ML) refers to a technology in which machines learn patterns for decision-making from data on their own without explicitly programming rules” and paragraph 320 “AI/ML model using reference signal received power (RSRP)”).
For claim 10 El in view of Wong further in view of Cha and further in view of Kim teaches the method of claim 9, wherein the one or more parameters comprise:
one or more reference signal timing differential (RSTD) measurements (El: paragraph 137 “RSTD”), or one or more angle of departure (AoD) measurements (El: paragraph 122 “AoD”), or
one or more angle of arrival (AoA) measurements (El: paragraph 122 “AoA”), or
one or more reference signal received power (RSRP) measurements (Kim: paragraph 133 “Machine Learning (ML) refers to a technology in which machines learn patterns for decision-making from data on their own without explicitly programming rules” and paragraph 320 “AI/ML model using reference signal received power (RSRP)”), or
one or more reference signal received quality (RSRQ) measurements (Kim: paragraph 222 “(RSRQ)”), or
or
any combination thereof, or
or
For claim 24 El in view of Wong further in view of Cha and further in view of Kim teaches the method of claim 23, wherein the mapping information (as discussed in claim 8) comprises:
beam information associated with the one or more RS-P resources and the set of RS-P resources (as discussed in claim 8), or
quasi colocation (QCL) information associated with the one or more RS-P resources and the set of RS-P resources (as discussed in claim 8), or
.
Conclusion
8. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure: Vogedes et al. (US 2024/0171340 A1).
9. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to David M OVEISSI whose telephone number is (571)270-3127. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8Am-5PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Jeffrey Rutkowski can be reached at (571) 270 - 1215. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/MANSOUR OVEISSI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2415
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