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 .
This action is in response to amendment/remarks filed on May 26, 2026.
Amendment to the claim 57 acknowledged and accepted, the 112 (d) rejection has been withdrawn.
Note: Examiner has corrected mention of Park with Manolakos as an oversight. The reference paragraphs cited are not affected by this change. Examiner regrets an inconvenience caused and appreciates applicant’s understanding.
Response to Remarks/Amendment
Applicant's remarks (page 18), filed May 26, 2026, have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. Applicant submits that Manolakos does not disclose or suggest “transmitting, …. , measurement report payload related information based on the PRS configuration”. Examiner respectfully disagrees with applicant’s assertion.
Manolakos, discloses 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. The 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, (para. 0040). As to payload related information, Manolakos discloses “ ….. sequence 400 with positioning reference signal (PRS) positioning occasions, …. sequence 400 may be applicable to the broadcast of PRS signals from a base station (e.g., any of the base stations described herein) or other network node. The subframe sequence 400 may be used in LTE systems, and the same or similar subframe sequence may be used in other communication technologies/protocols, such as 5G and NR”. At para. 0070, Manolakos discloses, “A base station may transmit radio frames (e.g., radio frames 410), or other physical layer signaling sequences, supporting PRS signals (i.e. a downlink (DL) PRS) according to frame configurations either similar to, or the same as that, shown in FIG. 4, which may be measured and used for a UE (e.g., any of the UEs described herein) position estimation”. Applicant describes payload with reference to fig. 7, that shows the TPRS periodicity with N PRS resources, and at para. 0169 states, “The payload size of the uplink grant needed for an LPP measurement report can be estimated based on the PRS configuration (e.g., PRS configuration 700) provided to the UE. The fig. 4, in Manolakos highlighted and analyzed above, is no different than applicant’s described TPRS configuration 700 at fig. 7, to be a payload, para. 0139, 0140. It is clear from the above similar features, Manolakos discloses implicit payload related information based PRS configuration transmitting measurement report serving the UE. Applicant’s argument deemed not persuasive in view of the above showing, the rejection has been maintained.
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 ). Manolakos 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, Manolakos 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, Manolakos 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, Manolakos 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).
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.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
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/QUTBUDDIN GHULAMALI/
Primary Examiner,
Art Unit 2632.
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