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 .
Status of Claims
The following is a non-final, first action on the merits, in response to application filed March 25, 2024. Claims 1-60, are currently pending.
Priority
Certified copy of priority document GR 20210100650 dated September 30, 2021, is acknowledged which papers have been placed of record in the file.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 3/25/2024, is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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)(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.
Claim(s) 1-3, 5, 14-17, 29-33, 35, 44-47, 59-60, is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Manolakos et al (hereinafter Manolakos) (US 2021/0242913).
Regarding claims 1, 14, 29, 31, 44, 59, Manolakos discloses a method (device) of wireless positioning performed by a user equipment (UE), comprising:
receiving, from a location server, a positioning reference signal (PRS) configuration indicating one or more PRS resources to be measured by the UE during a positioning session (a processor in a user equipment (UE) configured for positioning, includes program code to receive a positioning reference signal (PRS) configuration for receiving PRS) (para. 0008; 0099, 0106);
transmitting, to a base station serving the UE, measurement report payload related information based on the PRS configuration (non-co-located physical transmission points may be the serving base station receiving the measurement report from the UE and a neighbor base station whose reference RF signals the UE is measuring) (paras. 0040, 0101); and
obtaining positioning measurements of the one or more PRS resources based on the PRS configuration (T.sub.PRS may be measured in terms of the number of subframes between the start of consecutive positioning occasions. Multiple PRS occasions may be associated with the same PRS resource configuration, in which case, each such occasion is referred to as an “occasion of the PRS resource” or the like) (paras. 0072, 0073, 0102, 0103 ). Park further discloses a memory (1404), a transceiver (1410), and a processor (1402) communicatively coupled to the memory configured to receive and transmit PRS based communication.
Regarding claims 2, 15, 30, 32, 45, 60, Park discloses wherein the measurement report payload related information comprises the PRS configuration, an estimated size of the measurement report, or both (paras. 0106, 0110).
Regarding claims 3, 16, 33, 46, Park discloses determining the estimated size of the measurement report based on an estimated number of positioning measurements indicated by the PRS configuration, a minimum number of measurements for the positioning session, a quality of service (QoS) level for the positioning session, outlier rejection results from a previous measurement report, PRS processing capabilities of the UE, or any combination thereof (the base station 102 may transmits DL PRS in an active bandwidth part. In some implementations, the DL PRS may include a PRS resource or aggregate PRS spanning across multiple active bandwidth parts) (paras. 0059, 0106, 0107).
Regarding claims 5, 17, 35, 47, Park discloses,
transmitting a scheduling request (SR) to the base station, the SR requesting an uplink grant for a measurement report for the positioning measurements (the PRS configuration is received from a location server and the indication of the maximum number of DL MIMO layers is received from a serving base station);
receiving the uplink grant from the base station in response to the SR, the uplink grant indicating uplink resources on which to transmit the measurement report (the UE may transmit to the location server a report with the number of antennas used to receive the PRS or the maximum number of DL MIMO layers configured to the UE); and
transmitting at least a portion of the measurement report to the base station on the uplink resources indicated by the uplink grant (the report of the number of antennas used to receive the PRS or the maximum number of DL MIMO layers configured to the UE may be included in a positioning measurement report transmitted to the location server) (para. 0123).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(d):
(d) REFERENCE IN DEPENDENT FORMS.—Subject to subsection (e), a claim in dependent form shall contain a reference to a claim previously set forth and then specify a further limitation of the subject matter claimed. A claim in dependent form shall be construed to incorporate by reference all the limitations of the claim to which it refers.
The following is a quotation of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, fourth paragraph:
Subject to the following paragraph [i.e., the fifth paragraph of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112], a claim in dependent form shall contain a reference to a claim previously set forth and then specify a further limitation of the subject matter claimed. A claim in dependent form shall be construed to incorporate by reference all the limitations of the claim to which it refers.
Claim 57, rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(d) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, 4th paragraph, as being of improper dependent form for failing to further limit the subject matter of the claim upon which it depends, or for failing to include all the limitations of the claim upon which it depends. The dependency of claim 57 to claim 55, is erroneous. Claim 57, suited to depend on claim 56. Applicant may cancel the claim(s), amend the claim(s) to place the claim(s) in proper dependent form, rewrite the claim(s) in independent form, or present a sufficient showing that the dependent claim(s) complies with the statutory requirements.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 24-28, 56, 58, are allowable.
Claims 4, 6-13, 18-23, 34, 36-43, 48-55, 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.
Claim 57, would be allowable if rewritten to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(d) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 4th paragraph, set forth in this Office action and to include all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
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/QUTBUDDIN GHULAMALI/
Primary Examiner,
Art Unit 2632.