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 Office Action is in response to Application filed on April 09, 2024 in which claims 1-15 are presented for examination.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on May 20, 2024 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
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.
Claim(s) 1-2 and 6-15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over
LG ELECTRONICS. Discussion on other enhancements for positioning. R1-2110093, 3GPP TSG RAN WG1 #106bis-e. 02 October 2021 in view of CATT. On where to deploy the UE location prediction function. R3-213542, 3GPP TSG RAN WG3 #113-e. 06 August 2021.
LG ELECTRONICS which is most relevant to claim 1, discloses “A method performed by a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system, the method comprising: receiving configuration information related to a reference signal for positioning; communicating the reference signal based on the configuration information; and performing an operation related to the positioning based on the reference signal” by providing a method comprising the feature, wherein DL positioning for a UE being in an RRC_INACTIVE state supports positioning reference signal (PRS) reception (see section 2.2). Claim 1 differs from LG ELECTRONICS in that: “wherein in receiving the configuration information, a radio resource control (RRC) state of the UE is set to an RRC connected state, wherein based on that the RRC state of the UE is an RRC inactive state, the configuration information is used, and wherein based on that an estimated location of the UE in the RRC inactive state is obtained based on a pre-trained artificial intelligence (AI) model: (i) information related to the estimated location is reported by the UE; and (ii) the configuration information is generated based on the information related to the estimated location”. However, these different features could be derived by a person skilled in the art through simple design changes to the features of LG ELECTRONICS, wherein: after obtaining partial information related to a time window for DL PRS reception, a UE dynamically measures a PRS in the configured window (see section 2.2); and the PRS reception is supported in the RRC_INACTIVE state (see section 2.2), and to the features of CATT, wherein: the location prediction of a UE is useful for a RAN notification area (RNA) configuration for the RRC inactive state; a model is trained by using data collected in a small number of RAN nodes or one RAN node in a network, and the location of the UE is predicted by using the information collected in the RAN; and a UE location prediction AI/ML function is used (see section 2). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to have incorporated the features of CATT into the teachings of LG ELECTRONICS because that would have enhanced the versatility of LG ELECTRONICS by allowing it to more effectively perform operations based on reference signals.
Claims 9, 12, 13, 14 and 15 pertain to a terminal, a method performed by a base station, a base station, a device, and a non-volatile processor-readable medium, respectively, having substantially the same technical features as claim 1.
Claims 2, 6-8 and 10-11.
The additional features of claims 2 and 10 could be derived through simple design changes to the feature of LG ELECTRONICS, wherein an NRPP message (measurement request) is transmitted (see section 2.2), and to the feature in CATT of using a trained model by employing, as data usable for inference, data collected in many RAN nodes or a small number of or one RAN node in a network (see section 2).
The additional features of claim 6 could be derived through a simple design change to the feature of CATT, wherein the location prediction of a UE is useful for a RAN notification area (RNA) configuration for the RRC inactive state (see section 2).
The additional features of claims 7-8 could be derived through simple design changes to the features of CATT, wherein: a model is trained by using data collected in a small number of RAN nodes or one RAN node in a network, and the location of the UE is predicted by using the information collected in the RAN; and a UE
location prediction AI/ML function is used (see section 2).
The additional feature of claim 11 could be derived through a simple design change to the feature in LG ELECTRONICS of transmitting information from a RAN to the UE (see section 2.2).
Claim(s) 3-5 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over
LG ELECTRONICS. Discussion on other enhancements for positioning. R1-2110093, 3GPP TSG RAN WG1 #106bis-e. 02 October 2021 in view of CATT. On where to deploy the UE location prediction function. R3-213542, 3GPP TSG RAN WG3 #113-e. 06 August 2021 and in further view of ZTE et al. Solution to AI-based mobility optimization. R3-215526, 3GPP TSG RAN WG3 #114-e. 22 October 2021.
The additional features of claims 3-4 could be derived through a simple design change to the feature in ZTE of including, as UE input data for mobility optimization, UE past location information, a UE historical serving cell and the corresponding location thereof, the mobility speed of a UE, and the like (see page 8).
The additional feature of claim 5 could be derived through a simple design change to the feature in ZTE of including a UE trajectory prediction output and the like as an information input in a local node (see page 8).
Other Reference(s) Cited
US-12189045-B2 describing a method may include transmitting, by a network entity, at least one positioning measurement configuration associated with at least one radio access network notification area to a user equipment. The method may further include receiving, by the network entity, at least one location message. The method may further include transmitting, by the network entity, at least one location message response The at least one location message response comprises at least one last known location of the user equipment transmitted to the location management entity or at least one last location-associated measurement by the user equipment transmitted to the location management entity.
US 20230300777-A1 describing a method and apparatus for transmitting and receiving a signal in a wireless communication system.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to FRANTZ COBY whose telephone number is (571)272-4017. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Thursday 7AM-5:30PM.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Tonia Dollinger can be reached at (571) 272-4170. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/FRANTZ COBY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2459
March 17, 2026