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 .
Oath/Declaration
The Oath or Declaration is being considered by examiner and complies with PTO requirements.
Drawings
The drawings were received on 03/14/2924. These drawings are reviewed and accepted by the Examiner.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDSs), submitted on 03/14/2024, 04/07/2025, and 11/18/2025, are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CRR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner.
Claim Objections
Claims 2, 7 are objected to because of the following informalities: not all acronyms are described in the claims. For Examples, ATRSTD, RSRP …
Regarding claim 2, line 10, the term “a TA” should be --the TS--.
Appropriate correction is required.
Election/Restrictions
Applicant's election with traverse of Invention II (claims 8-15, 20) in the reply on the interview on 02/10/2026 is acknowledged. The traversal is on the ground(s) that search and examination of the entire application would not place a serious burden on the Examiner. This is not found persuasive because Group I (claims 1-7, 16-19) is classified in H04L 25/0226; H04L 5/006, and Group II (claims 8-15, 20) is classified in H04W 64/00; H04W 74/0833 and the search and examination of the entire application would place a serious burden on the Examination. Examiner agrees with the Applicant’s election of Group I (claims 1-7, 16-19).
The requirement is still deemed proper and is therefore made FINAL.
Claims 8-15, 20 are withdrawn from further consideration by the Examiner, 37 CFR 1.142(b), as being drawn to a non-elected and the claims 8-15, 20 should be cancelled.
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 1-2, 16-17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over 3GPP TSG-RAN WG2 Meeting #113-e R2-2101225, Huawei, HiSilicon) cited by Applicant (see IDS filed 04/07/2025) hereinafter HiSilicon in view of Manolakos et al (US 2023/0031065) hereinafter Manolakos.
Regarding claim 1, HiSilicon discloses a positioning method (see Introducion), comprising: in a case that a terminal completes cell reselection or camped cell handover (see Section 2.2: to enable the UE to continue transmitting SRS and ensure the periodic
Positioning not being interrupted after UE performs cell reselection, two ways can be
considered: Option 1: Update the SRS configuration whenever the UE perform cell
reselection) during sending of an uplink reference signal in an idle state or an inactive state, performing, by the terminal, a first behavior (see Section 2.2). HiSilicon fails to explicitly disclose wherein the first behavior is related to the sending, releasing, or updating of the uplink reference signal, and the uplink reference signal comprises an uplink positioning reference signal and/or an uplink sensing signal.
Manolakos discloses wherein the first behavior is related to the sending, releasing, or updating of the uplink reference signal, and the uplink reference signal comprises an uplink positioning reference signal and/or an uplink sensing signal (see [0049], [0050], [0090], [0093]). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to send, release, or update of the uplink reference signal, and the uplink reference signal comprises an uplink positioning reference signal and/or an uplink sensing signal as Manolakos in view of HiSilicon in order to use a particular receive beam to receive one or more reference downlink reference signals (e.g., positioning reference signals (PRS), tracking reference signals (TRS), phase tracking reference signal (PTRS), cell-specific reference signals (CRS)
Regarding claim 2, HiSilicon discloses wherein the first behavior comprises at least one of the following: initiating a small data transmission (SDT) process, wherein the SDT process is used to request to update a configuration of the uplink reference signal and/or a timing advance (TA) validity parameter; releasing a reference signal resource corresponding to the uplink reference signal; entering a connected state by initiating a random access procedure; sending a first message based on a 4-step random access process, wherein the first message is used to request a network-side device to perform a TA update; sending the uplink reference signal based on a TA of a last cell; or performing TA compensation based on a reference signal time difference (RSTD) between a target cell and the last cell, and sending the uplink reference signal based on a compensated TA (see Section, 2.1.2).
Claims 16-17 are similar to claims 1-2. Therefore, claims 16-17 are rejected under a similar rationale.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-7, 18-19 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.
Ingale et al (US 2021/0235475) disclose a method and apparatus for handling SI in wireless communication system.
Lee et al (US 2023/0164732) disclose a method for transmitting and receiving signal in wireless communication system, and apparatus for supporting same.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KHAI TRAN whose telephone number is (571)272-3019. The examiner can normally be reached until 4:00PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Chieh Fan can be reached at 571-272-3042. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/KHAI TRAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2632
KT
February 10, 2026