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 .
Priority
The pending application 18/472,498, filed on 22 September 2023, claims priority from foreign application KR10-2022-0150902, filed on 11 November 2022 in the Republic of Korea, and foreign application KR10-2022-0120361, filed on 22 September 2022 in the Republic of Korea.
Response to Amendment
Applicant's amendment filed on 5 FEB 2026 has been entered. Claims 1, 6, 11, and 16 have been amended. Claims 1-20 are still pending in this application, with claims 1 and 11 being independent.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1 and 11 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Claim Objections
Claims 6 and 16 are objected to because of the following informalities:
In line 7 of claims 6 and 16, the equation obscures the text, as shown below.
PNG
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47
305
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Greyscale
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Regarding claim 1:
Lines 3-4 recite “selecting at least two reference reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) devices for estimating a position of a user equipment (UE) from among a plurality of RIS devices.”
Lines 9-11 recite “estimating a multi-RIS channel for the plurality of RIS devices by estimating one or more channels in one or more reflection paths between the UE and one or more RIS devices except for the selected at least two reference RIS devices among the plurality of RIS devices.” It is unclear to the examiner if “one or more RIS devices” in line 10 are included in, are the same as or distinct from “a plurality of RIS devices” recited in line 4. Additionally, it is unclear if “the plurality of RIS devices” in line 11 refer to the “selected at least two reference RIS devices” or some other RIS devices.
For the purpose of prosecution, “estimating a multi-RIS channel for the plurality of RIS devices by estimating one or more channels in one or more reflection paths between the UE and one or more RIS devices except for the selected at least two reference RIS devices among the plurality of RIS devices” has been interpreted as “estimating a multi-RIS channel for the plurality of RIS devices by estimating one or more channels in one or more reflection paths between the UE and one or more unselected RIS devices among the plurality of RIS devices.”
Claims 2-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being depending on rejected claim 1 and for failing to cure the deficiencies listed above.
Regarding claim 11:
Lines 4-5 recites “select at least two reference reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) devices for estimating a position of a user equipment (UE) from among a plurality of RIS devices.”
Lines 10-12 recite “estimate a multi-RIS channel for the plurality of RIS devices by estimating one or more channels in one or more reflection paths between the UE and one or more RIS devices except for the selected at least two references RIS devices among the plurality of RIS devices.”
It is unclear to the examiner if “one or more RIS devices” in line 11 are included in, are the same as or distinct from “a plurality of RIS devices” recited in line 5. Additionally, it is unclear if “the plurality of RIS devices” in line 11 refer to the “selected at least two reference RIS devices” or some other RIS devices.
For the purpose of prosecution, “estimate a multi-RIS channel for the plurality of RIS devices by estimating one or more channels in one or more reflection paths between the UE and one or more RIS devices except for the selected at least two references RIS devices among the plurality of RIS devices” has been interpreted as “estimate a multi-RIS channel for the plurality of RIS devices by estimating one or more channels in one or more reflection paths between the UE and one or more unselected RIS devices among the plurality of RIS devices.”
Claims 12-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being depending on rejected claim 11 and for failing to cure the deficiencies listed above.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 6 and 16 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:
Regarding dependent claims 6 and 16, the prior art of record fails to explicitly teach or render obvious, either alone or in combination, estimating the multi-RIS channel for the plurality of RIS devices includes estimating a channel hr,k in a reflection path between the UE and a kth RIS device except for the selected at least two reference RIS devices among the plurality of RIS devices, wherein the channel hr,k is estimated through the following equation:
h
r
,
k
=
P
L
x
k
-
x
u
2
+
y
k
-
y
u
2
a
θ
k
θ
k
=
tan
-
1
x
k
-
x
u
y
k
-
y
u
wherein position information about the kth RIS device is (xk, yk), the position information about the UE is (xu, yu),
a
θ
k
is a steering vector indicating a channel direction of the kth RIS device, a function of PL indicates a path loss based on a distance between the base station and the kth RIS device, and θk indicates an angle of departure (AoD) between the UE and the kth RIS device.
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 NAOMI M WOLFORD whose telephone number is (571)272-3929. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday, 8:30 am - 4:30 pm EST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Resha Desai can be reached at (571)270-7792. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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NAOMI M. WOLFORD
Examiner
Art Unit 3648
/N.M.W./ Examiner, Art Unit 3648
25 MAR 2026
/RESHA DESAI/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3648