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 .
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.
Claim 19 recites the limitation "the TEG effective time information" in lines 1-2 of the claim. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim. It appears claim 19 should be dependent upon claim 18 to provide proper antecedent basis and will be treated as such for the purpose of this office action.
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, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, 12, 15, 18, 19, and 21 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Ernstrom et al., US Patent Application Publication Number 2024/0183928 (hereinafter Ernstrom)
Regarding claims 1, 7, and 15, Ernstrom discloses an error measurement method, comprising: measuring, by a base station, sounding reference signals (SRSs) transmitted by a terminal to obtain relative time of arrival (RTOA) measurement values corresponding to different timing error groups (TEGs) [paragraph 0134]; and transmitting, by the base station, the RTOA measurement values or a difference between the RTOA measurement values corresponding to different TEGs to a location management function (LMF) [paragraphs 0126, 0134].
Regarding claims 4, 11, and 18, Ernstrom discloses determining whether a measurement time of the RTOA measurement values satisfies an effective time condition based on TEG effective time information [paragraphs 0125-0126 wherein the temporal index reads on the effective time information]; wherein the transmitting the RTOA measurement values or the difference between the RTOA measurement values corresponding to different TEGs to the location management function (LMF) comprises [paragraph 0126]: transmitting the RTOA measurement values or the difference between the RTOA measurement values corresponding to different TEGs to the LMF, in a case where the effective time condition is satisfied [paragraph 0134].
Regarding claims 5, 12, and 19, Ernstrom discloses wherein the TEG effective time information comprises at least one of the following: a TEG effective time period; or a starting time and an ending time of a TEG effective time window; or indication information for TEG re-division; or indication information for a change situation of a TEG ID; or a validity period of a TEG ID; or a mean value of a change rate of a timing error (TE); or a variance of uncertainty of a TE; or an amount of change in a TEG; or indication information for a change situation of a TEG association relationship [paragraph 0126 wherein the temporal index reads on a TEG effective time period].
Regarding claim 9, Ernstrom discloses wherein the performing error compensation according to the RTOA measurement values comprises: obtaining a difference between the RTOA measurement values corresponding to different TEGs according to the RTOA measurement values [paragraphs 0134-0135]; and performing error compensation based on the difference between the RTOA measurement values [paragraph 0135].
Regarding claim 21, Ernstrom discloses an error compensation apparatus, comprising: a memory, a transceiver, a processor, wherein the memory is configured to store a computer program; the transceiver is configured to transmit and receive data under control of the processor; and the processor is configured to read the computer program from the memory to perform steps of the error compensation method according to claim 7 [paragraphs 0260-0261].
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2, 3, 6, 8, 10, 13, 16, 17, and 20 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. Specifically, dependent claims 2, 8, and 16, disclosing similar limitations, have not been found. Dependent claims 3, 10, 17 are allowable by their dependence upon claims 2, 8, and 16. Dependent claims 6, 13, and 20, disclosing similar limitations, have not been found in the context of their respective base claims and intervening claims.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Sosnin et al., US Patent Application Publication Number 2022/0053436, disclose transmit and receive timing errors estimation and compensation.
Zhou et al., US Patent Application Publication Number 2022/0252690, disclose NR positioning enhancement for timing and angle based methods and resource aggregation.
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/EAW/
March 31, 2026
/ERIKA A WASHINGTON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2644
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