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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 9/2/2026 has been entered.
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.
Claim(s) 1, 8-9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Shi et al. (hereinafter Shi)(US 2021/0152398) in view of Eleftheriadis et al. (hereinafter Eleftheriadis)(US 2021/0234591).
Regarding claim 1, Shi teaches a user apparatus comprising: a communicator configured to wirelessly communicate with a base station; and a controller configured to, based on a positioning Radio Resource Control (RRC) parameter related to a positioning Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) used for positioning of the user apparatus, received from the base station, configure the positioning SRS, wherein the communicator transmits the positioning SRS in uplink, and wherein the communicator receives, from the base station, relation information indicating a relation between the positioning SRS in the uplink and a control signal in downlink(P[0009], the network device transmits a mapping combination to the terminal device through Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling; Fig.2, item 200, terminal device receives a mapping relationship between SRS resource and a downlink reference signals; P[0016], downlink reference signal may include synchronization signal, CSI-RS; P[0019], network device with configuration information ).
Shi did not teach explicitly SRS used for positioning of the user apparatus. However, Eleftheriadis teaches in an analogous art SRS used for positioning of the user apparatus (P[0069], location of a wireless device may be estimated based on measurements performed by network node of uplink transmissions of SRS). Therefore, it would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at time of the invention SRS used for positioning of the user apparatus in order to have wider applicability.
Claims 8-9 are rejected for the same reason as set forth in claim 1.
Claim(s) 2-3 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Shi et al. (hereinafter Shi)(US 2021/0152398) in view of Eleftheriadis et al. (hereinafter Eleftheriadis)(US 2021/0234591) and Lee et al. (hereinafter Lee)(US 2018/0167895).
Regarding claim 2, Shi in view of Eleftheriadis teaches, wherein the communicator transmits the positioning SRS that is received by the base station and measured by the base station., and positioning measurement information related to the positioning SRS is reported from the base station to an LMF(Eleftheriadis: P[0069], location of a wireless device may be estimated based on measurements performed by network node of uplink transmissions of SRS ).
Shi in view of Eleftheriadis did not teach received power is measured by the base station and the received power of the positioning SRS is reported from the base station to an LMF. However, Lee teaches in an analogous art wherein the received power is measured by the base station and the received power of the positioning SRS is reported from the base station to an LMF (P[0079], UE transmits the SRS and eNB or LMU measures RSRP of a reception signal; P[0103],eNB to perform measurement RSRP or RSRQ on an RS and report location measurement to a location server). Therefore, it would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at time of the invention wherein received power is measured by the base station and the received power of the positioning SRS is reported from the base station to an in order to perform location.
Regarding claim 3, Lee teaches the user apparatus, wherein the received power of the positioning SRS is a Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) of the positioning SRS(P[0103], RSRP).
Claim(s) 4, 6 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Shi et al. (hereinafter Shi)(US 2021/0152398) in view of Eleftheriadis et al. (hereinafter Eleftheriadis)(US 2021/0234591) and Nilsson (hereinafter Nilsson)(US 2020/0235802).
Regarding claim 4, Shi in view of Eleftheriadis teaches all the particulars of the claim except, wherein a Quasi Co- Location (QCL) condition of a Positioning Reference Signal (PRS) and an SS/PBCH Block (SSB) is configured. However, Nilsson teaches in an analogous art wherein a Quasi Co- Location (QCL) condition of a Positioning Reference Signal (PRS) and an SS/PBCH Block (SSB) is configured(P[0022], SRS resource sets can be configured with a spatial QCL relation to indicate to the UE which UE beam to use during the SRS transmission; SRS-SpatialRelationInfo can point to a DL SSB/PBCH to UL reference signal; the network node determines which SRS resource gives the highest RSRP). Therefore, it would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at time of the invention wherein a Quasi Co- Location (QCL) condition of a Positioning Reference Signal (PRS) and an SS/PBCH Block (SSB) is configured in order to perform location.
Regarding claim 6, Shi in view of Eleftheriadis teaches all the particulars of the claim except, wherein the relation information is spatial information related to spatial relationship between the positioning SRS and the control signal. However, Nilsson teaches in an analogous art wherein the relation information is spatial information related to spatial relationship between the SRS and the control signal(P[0022], SRS-SpatialRelationInfo can point ot a DL SSB/PBCH to UL reference signal; the network node determines which SRS resource gives the highest RSRP; The network node can then use higher layer signaling to update the SRS-SpatialRelationInfo with the best SRS resource). Therefore, it would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at time of the invention wherein the relation information is spatial information related to spatial relationship between the positioning SRS and the control signal in order to have improved transmission selection.
Claim(s) 7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Shi et al. (hereinafter Shi)(US 2021/0152398) in view of Eleftheriadis et al. (hereinafter Eleftheriadis)(US 2021/0234591) and Lin et al (hereinafter Lin)(US 2018/0198583).
Regarding claim 7, Shi in view of Eleftheriadis teaches all the particulars of the claim except, wherein the communicator receives, from the base station functioning as a Transmission Reception Point (TRP), TRP information related to a location of the TRP and/or a beam of the TRP. However, Lin teaches in an analogous art wherein the communicator receives, from the base station functioning as a Transmission Reception Point (TRP), TRP information related to a location of the TRP and/or a beam of the TRP(item 805 in Fig. 8; the base station transmits beam reference signals indicating which beams or TRPS(s) the beam reference signal(s) is transmitted). Therefore, it would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at time of the invention wherein the communicator receives, from the base station functioning as a Transmission Reception Point (TRP), TRP information related to a location of the TRP and/or a beam of the TRP in order to have improved efficiency.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MUTHUSWAMY GANAPATHY MANOHARAN whose telephone number is (571)272-5515. The examiner can normally be reached 6:30am-3:00pm.
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/MUTHUSWAMY G MANOHARAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2647
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