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 .
This action is in response to the preliminary amendment filed on 1/22/2024. Claims 1-16,26 are pending and have been considered below.
Claim Objections
Claim 10 is objected to because of the following informalities: in claim 10, line 10 [last line of claim], “a terminal” should be changed to “the terminal”.
Appropriate correction is required.
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.
Claim(s) 1-6, 11-16, 26 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Zhuang et al. (US 2023/0336309).
Regarding claim 1:
Zhuang discloses a positioning system and method, performed by a network device (abstract; see figures), and comprising:
receiving an instruction for activating or deactivating an uplink positioning reference signal sent by a location management function (LMF) (para 8-14; see fig 1d [LMF, network device gNB, terminal UE]; para 80, partially reproduced herein {..location management function (LMF) exchanges configuration information with a transmission and reception point}; para 82 {NR positioning protocol A (NRPPa) positioning request}; figure 1d [step 2. NRPPa positioning information request, and step 5a, 5b]); and
sending an activation command or a deactivation command to a terminal in a radio resource control (RRC) non-connected state based on the instruction for activating or deactivating the uplink positioning reference signal (fig 1-2; para 11 {non-connected-state positioning…}; para 14 {sending activation related information of an uplink positioning reference signal to a terminal, where the activation related information includes activation information and/or deactivation information}; para 224, 738; figures; and see throughout the disclosure).
Regarding claim 11:
Zhuang discloses a positioning system method, performed by a terminal device (see figures; abstract), and comprising:
receiving an activation command or a deactivation command sent by a network device, wherein the terminal device is in a radio resource control (RRC) non-connected state (para 5 {non-connected-state positioning..}; para 8 {receiving activation related information of an uplink positioning reference signal from the network-side device, where the activation related information includes activation information and/or deactivation information}; figures 2-3; para 94); and
activating or deactivating an uplink positioning reference signal based on the activation command or the deactivation command (para 225 { activated and/or deactivated through activation related information}; para 253; figures; and see throughout the disclosure).
Regarding claim 2:
Zhuang discloses all of the subject matter as described above and sending the activation command or the deactivation command to the terminal device after triggering the terminal device to enter an RRC connected state (para 63,65 [UE enters the RRC connected state]; para 95; and see throughout the disclosure).
Regarding claims 3, 13:
Zhuang discloses all of the subject matter as described above and sending the activation command or the deactivation command to the terminal, wherein the terminal has an ongoing uplink small data transmission (SDT) (para 112 [small data transmission (SDT) resource information specific to the terminal]; para 487; and see throughout the disclosure).
Regarding claim 4, 14:
Zhuang discloses all of the subject matter as described above and sending a paging message to the terminal, and sending the activation command or the deactivation command to the terminal in a random access procedure of the terminal (para 55 [paging, and random access procedure]; para 61,64; para 123-128; and throughout).
Regarding claim 5:
Zhuang discloses all of the subject matter as described above and controlling the terminal to be in the RRC non-connected state (para 91; figures; para 386,387).
Regarding claim 6:
Zhuang discloses all of the subject matter as described above and wherein receiving an indication message sent by the LMF; and configuring the uplink positioning reference signal for the terminal based on the indication message, wherein the uplink positioning reference signal is an aperiodic or semi-persistent signal (para 225 [uplink positioning reference signal is aperiodic or semi-persistent]; figs; para 361; and see throughout the disclosure).
Regarding claim 12:
Zhuang discloses all of the subject matter as described above and receiving an instruction for triggering the terminal to enter an RRC connected state sent by the network device; entering the RRC connected state (para 63,65 [UE enters the RRC connected state]; para 95); and receiving the activation command or the deactivation command sent by the network device (para 95-96; and see throughout the disclosure).
Regarding claim 15:
Zhuang discloses all of the subject matter as described above and receiving a positioning capability request message sent by a location management function (LMF), wherein the positioning capability request message is configured to at least request for at least one of a type or a movement state of the terminal (para 81 [ LMF exchanges capability information with the UE]; para 198; para 277 [a first motion event, including that the terminal does not enter the connected state upon detecting by the terminal that a location moving distance]; and see throughout the disclosure).
Regarding claim 16:
Zhuang discloses all of the subject matter as described above and sending the at least one of the type or the movement state of the terminal to the LMF based on the positioning capability request message (para 81,198; figure 1d [step 1. LPP capability transfer between LMF and UE]; and see throughout the disclosure).
Regarding claim 26:
Zhuang discloses all of the subject matter as described above and controlling the terminal in the RRC non-connected state (para 91; figures; para 386,387).
Claim(s) 10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Yu et al. (US 20240022381).
Regarding claim 10:
Yu discloses a positioning method, performed by a network device (abstract; see figures), and comprising:
receiving a positioning information request message sent by a location management function (LMF) for instructing or requesting the network side device to configure an uplink positioning reference signal for a terminal (para 6-10; figure 4 [steps S401-S403]; figure 5 [step S503, positioning information request from LMF]); and
configuring the uplink positioning reference signal for the terminal based on the positioning information request message (para 6 {…configuring an uplink positioning reference signal resource, including: A first network device receives first information sent by a location management function network element (LMF), … the first network device configures an uplink positioning reference signal resource for a first terminal device…}; para 125-127; figure 4-7; para 144,171; and see throughout the disclosure); sending a second error indication message to the LMF in response to failing to configure the uplink positioning reference signal for the terminal within a preset duration, wherein the uplink positioning reference signal is performed by a terminal in a radio resource control (RRC) non-connected state. (NOTE: Claim construction/interpretation: Claim 10 [method claim] recites the following limitation;
“sending a second error indication message to the LMF in response to failing to configure the uplink positioning reference signal for the terminal within a preset duration, wherein the uplink positioning reference signal is performed by a terminal in a radio resource control (RRC) non-connected state.”
This is a contingent/conditional limitation. Contingent/conditional limitations are not positively recited in the claim(s) and are thus only executed [or performed or implemented], when the condition is true/met.
For instance, the step of sending a second error indication message to the LMF, is only performed when[condition] failing to configure the uplink positioning reference signal for the terminal within a preset duration; otherwise, this step is not performed, i.e. the prior art is not required to teach this element when the condition is not met.)
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 7-9 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
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Duan (US 12519507) discloses reconfigurable intelligent surface, RIS, aided and non-RIS-aided signal timing.
Edge et al. (US 12041578) discloses system and methods for supporting uplink and downlink positioning procedures in a wireless network.
Si et al. (US 20210337501) discloses non-connected-state uplink positioning method and devices.
Zhenxian Hu et al. (NB-IoT Network Monitoring and Diagnosing; IEEE, published 2019, 9 pages)
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/HIRDEPAL SINGH/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2631