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 .
Election/Restrictions
Claims 10-14 and 16-21 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected invention, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 2/23/2026.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
For applicant’s benefit portions of the cited reference(s) have been cited to aid in the review of the rejection(s). While every attempt has been made to be thorough and consistent within the rejection it is noted that the PRIOR ART MUST BE CONSIDERED IN ITS ENTIRETY, INCLUDING DISCLOSURES THAT TEACH AWAY FROM THE CLAIMS. See MPEP 2141.02 VI.
“The use of patents as references is not limited to what the patentees describe as their own inventions or to the problems with which they are concerned. They are part of the literature of the art, relevant for all they contain.” In re Heck, 699 F.2d 1331, 1332-33, 216 USPQ 1038, 1039 (Fed. Cir. 1983) (quoting In re Lemelson, 397 F.2d 1006, 1009, 158 USPQ 275, 277 (CCPA 1968)). A reference may be relied upon for all that it would have reasonably suggested to one having ordinary skill in the art, including non-preferred embodiments. Merck & Co.v. Biocraft Laboratories, 874 F.2d 804, 10 USPQ2d 1843 (Fed. Cir.), cert, denied, 493 U.S. 975 (1989). See also Upsher-Smith Labs. v. Pamlab, LLC, 412 F.3d 1319, 1323, 75 USPQ2d 1213, 1215 (Fed. Cir. 2005) See MPEP 2123.
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)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Wietfeldt (US 20150316652 A1, cited on IDS).
Regarding claim 1, Wietfeldt teaches a method comprising:
receiving, at a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) subsystem operating on a computing device, a first set of satellite signals (inherent to 605, Fig. 6 as per para. [0072] “effects of interference on a GNSS receiver receiving (and processing) GNSS signals may be determined”);
determining a first set of satellite signal qualities for the first set of satellite signals received at the GNSS subsystem operating on the computing device (605, Fig. 6 as per para. [0072] “At block 605, effects of interference on a GNSS receiver receiving (and processing) GNSS signals may be determined. Such effects may be measured based on the SNR (signal-to-noise ratio), RSSI (received signal strength indication), SNR (signal to interference plus noise ratio), or some other form of measurement”, where SNR and RSSI comprise satellite signal qualities);
determining that the first set of satellite signal qualities does not satisfy a signal quality threshold (620, Fig. 6 as per para. [0074] “At block 620, space vehicles that are expected to be the least affected by the conditions during the upcoming RAT operating event may be determined. The SVs may be selected based on the one or more characteristics received at block 615 and an analysis of the data structure maintained at block 610”, where unselected SVs implicitly do not satisfy a signal quality threshold; also 630, Fig. 6 “Determine if a sufficient number of space vehicles are expected to meet a threshold value”); and
responsive to determining that the first set of satellite signal qualities does not satisfy the signal quality threshold, asserting, by the GNSS subsystem, a power back-off request effective to reduce a power of one or more radio access technology, transmitters operating on the computing device (635, Fig. 6 “In response to determining that a sufficient number of space vehicles will not meet the SNR threshold, determining a remedial action” and 640 “Transmitting a message indicative of a recommended remedial action to one or more RATs” in view of para. [0051] “The commands sent by GNSS receiver 120, which are generated by coexistence manger 230, may include instructions to a RAT transceiver regarding: decreasing a transmit power level”).
Regarding claim 2, Wietfeldt teaches wherein:
the set of satellite signals is received from a first constellation or in a first radio- frequency band (para. [0074] “GPS... GLONASS and Galileo”, any of which meet the first constellation; para. [0075] “one or more SVs (of a same or different global navigation satellite systems) may be selected for use in performing a location determination”); and
asserting the power back-off request is effective to reduce the power of the one or more radio access technology transmitters for the first radio-frequency band (para. [0051] “The commands sent by GNSS receiver 120, which are generated by coexistence manger 230, may include instructions to a RAT transceiver regarding: decreasing a transmit power level”).
Regarding claim 3, Wietfeldt teaches:
determining a second set of satellite signal qualities for a second set of satellite signals received at the GNSS subsystem operating on the computing device and from a second constellation or a second radio-frequency band that is different than the first constellation or the first radio-frequency band (implied by para. [0074] “GPS... GLONASS and Galileo” and para. [0075] “one or more SVs (of a same or different global navigation satellite systems) may be selected for use in performing a location determination”, emphasis added;
determining that the second set of satellite signal qualities does not satisfy the signal quality threshold (620, Fig. 6 as per para. [0074] “At block 620, space vehicles that are expected to be the least affected by the conditions during the upcoming RAT operating event may be determined. The SVs may be selected based on the one or more characteristics received at block 615 and an analysis of the data structure maintained at block 610”, where unselected SVs implicitly do not satisfy a signal quality threshold; also 630, Fig. 6 “Determine if a sufficient number of space vehicles are expected to meet a threshold value”); and
responsive to determining that the second set of satellite signal qualities does not satisfy the signal quality threshold, asserting, by the GNSS subsystem, a power back-off request effective to reduce a power of one or more radio access technology transmitters operating on the computing device for the second radio-frequency band (635, Fig. 6 “In response to determining that a sufficient number of space vehicles will not meet the SNR threshold, determining a remedial action” and 640 “Transmitting a message indicative of a recommended remedial action to one or more RATs” in view of para. [0051] “The commands sent by GNSS receiver 120, which are generated by coexistence manger 230, may include instructions to a RAT transceiver regarding: decreasing a transmit power level”).
Regarding claims 4 and 5, Wietfeldt teaches:
determining that a weighting of the first constellation or the first radio-frequency band satisfies a weight threshold value (630, Fig. 6 “Determine if a sufficient number of space vehicles are expected to meet a threshold value” and 635, Fig. 6 “In response to determining that a sufficient number of space vehicles will not meet the SNR threshold, determining a remedial action”), wherein determining the first set of satellite signal qualities for the first set of satellite signals received from the first constellation or the first radio-frequency band is responsive to determining that the weighting of the first constellation or the first radio-frequency band satisfies a weight threshold value (para. [0076] “At block 630, it may be determined whether, based on the expected interference during the upcoming one or more RAT transceiver operating events, GNSS signals will be properly received from a sufficient number of SVs... If the GNSS signals are expected to be sufficiently strong based on the comparison (e.g., sufficient GNSS signals are expected to be received from at least 3 or 4 of the least affected SVs), method 600 may proceed similarly to method 500 from block 560 on”, where block 560 is “Receive a GNSS signal from the space vehicle”),
wherein the weighting of the first constellation or the first radio-frequency band is based on at least one of:
an interference level of the first constellation or the first radio-frequency band (para. [0076] “At block 630, it may be determined whether, based on the expected interference during the upcoming one or more RAT transceiver operating events, GNSS signals will be properly received from a sufficient number of SVs); or
a number of external system interrupts to the GNSS subsystem at the first constellation or the first radio-frequency band.
Regarding claim 6, Wietfeldt at least implicitly determines that a tracking operation is active for the GNSS subsystem operating on the computing device, wherein determining the first set of satellite signal qualities is responsive to determining that the tracking operation is active for the GNSS subsystem operating on the computing device, as satellite signal qualities do not appear capable of being determined without active tracking operation.
Regarding claim 7, Wietfeldt teaches:
asserting, by the GNSS subsystem, an initial power back-off request effective to reduce a power of one or more radio access technology transmitters operating on the computing device (640, Fig. 6 “Transmitting a message indicative of a recommended remedial action to one or more RATs” in view of para. [0051] “The commands sent by GNSS receiver 120, which are generated by coexistence manger 230, may include instructions to a RAT transceiver regarding: decreasing a transmit power level” can be considered an “initial” power back-off request); and
determining that a position or time is acquired by the GNSS subsystem (650, Fig. 6; );
determining that an additional position or time acquisition by the GNSS subsystem is requested, wherein determining the first set of satellite signal qualities is responsive to determining that the additional position or time acquisition by the GNSS subsystem is requested (additional position requests are implied by para. [0056] “no more than a defined amount of time is to elapse without giving GNSS receiver 120 full preference for location determination”).
Regarding claim 8, Weitfeldt teaches determining that the GNSS subsystem operating on the computing device is using multi- band or multi-constellation acquisition (implicit to para. [0074] “At block 620, space vehicles that are expected to be the least affected by the conditions during the upcoming RAT operating event may be determined” and “SVs from multiple global navigation satellite systems may be ordered together (e.g., an SV of GPS may be ordered with SVs of GLONASS and Galileo)”), wherein the initial power back-off request comprises a request to reduce a power of one or more radio access technology transmitters operating on the computing device at any constellation or radio-frequency band available to the multi-band or multi-constellation acquisition (640, Fig. 6 in view of para. [0077] “decrease a power” and para. [0078] “a message indicative of the remedial action may be transmitted by the CxM to the one or more relevant RAT transceivers”).
Regarding claim 9, Wietfeldt teaches determining that the GNSS subsystem operating on the computing device is using single- band or single-constellation acquisition (implicit to para. [0074] “At block 620, space vehicles that are expected to be the least affected by the conditions during the upcoming RAT operating event may be determined” and “The SVs ordered may be for a specific GNSS being used by the GNSS receiver”), wherein the initial power back-off request comprises a request to reduce a power of one or more radio access technology transmitters operating on the computing device at a particular constellation or a particular radio-frequency band available to the single-band or single-constellation acquisition (640, Fig. 6 in view of para. [0077] “decrease a power” and para. [0078] “a message indicative of the remedial action may be transmitted by the CxM to the one or more relevant RAT transceivers”).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Chao (US 20140274162 A1) teaches determining that GNSS satellite signal qualities do not satisfy a signal quality threshold (110, Fig. 3), and responsive to the determining, asserting a power back-off request effective to reduce a power of one or more RAT transmitters (118, 122, 126). The back-off request is deasserted at 114, Fig. 3.
Yu (US 20190353796 A1) teaches determining that GNSS satellite signal qualities do not satisfy a signal quality threshold (S11-S13, Fig. 4), and responsive to the determining, asserting a power back-off request effective to reduce a power of one or more RAT transmitters (S14, Fig. 4). The back-off request is deasserted as per para. [0040].
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/CASSI J GALT/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3648