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 .
Priority
Should applicant desire to obtain the benefit of foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d) prior to declaration of an interference, a certified English translation of the foreign application must be submitted in reply to this action. 37 CFR 41.154(b) and 41.202(e).
Failure to provide a certified translation may result in no benefit being accorded for the non-English application.
Applicant cannot rely upon the certified copy of the foreign priority application to overcome this rejection because a translation of said application has not been made of record in accordance with 37 CFR 1.55. When an English language translation of a non-English language foreign application is required, the translation must be that of the certified copy (of the foreign application as filed) submitted together with a statement that the translation of the certified copy is accurate. See MPEP §§ 215 and 216.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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, 25 and 34 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Zhang et al. (US 2021/0410103 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Zhang discloses a positioning method, comprising:
obtaining positioning-related information based on a sidelink communication interface by
a first terminal (see [0106], “the functions of the stations in the method 1300 may be performed by a helper UE. For example, UL PRS and device-to-device sidelinks (e.g., PC5) may be used to provide PRS or other reference signals such as SRS for positioning.”);
determining (see “to determine” [0118]), by the first terminal according to the positioning-related information, a target terminal (see target UE, [0118]) that initiates a Device-to-Device (D2D) positioning service (see “sidelink transmission”, where 5G sidelink is fundamentally a Device-to-Device (D2D));
performing a process of the D2D positioning service with the target terminal through a
sidelink communication interface by the first terminal (see sidelink transmission, [0118]).
Regarding claim 4, Zhang discloses a positioning method comprising:
performing, by a target terminal (see target UE, [0118]), a process of a Device-to-Device (D2D) (sidelink is a form of device-to-device) positioning service with a first terminal based on a sidelink communication interface (see sidelink interface, [0118]).
Regarding claim 25, Zhang discloses the terminal comprising: a memory, a transceiver (see transceiver [0063]), and a processor, wherein the memory (see processor and memory [0071]) is configured to store a computer program (computer readable medium [0127]); the processor is configured to read the computer program in the memory; the transceiver is configured to send and receive data under the control of the processor and perform obtaining positioning-related information based on a sidelink communication interface (see Prose, positioning and sidelink [0106]); the processor is configured to read the computer program in the memory and perform the following operations:
determining, according to the positioning-related information (see to determine [0118]), a target terminal that initiates a Device-to-Device (D2D) positioning service (see target UE); performing a process of the D2D positioning service with the target terminal through a sidelink communication interface (see [0118] sidelink interface, where sidelink is a variety of D2D. ).
Regarding claim 34, Zhang discloses the terminal comprising: a memory, a transceiver, and a processor, wherein the memory is configured to store a computer program; the transceiver is configured to send and receive data under the control of the processor (see processor, computer program, transceiver, memory [0063] and [00071]); and the processor is configured to read the computer program in the memory and perform steps of the method according to claim 14 (see processor, computer program, transceiver, memory [0063] and [00071]).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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) 2 and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang in view of Ly et al (US 2022/0159553 A1).
Regarding claim 2, Zhang discloses the method according to claim 1, wherein obtaining the positioning-related information based on the sidelink communication interface comprises: broadcasting a service request message of the first terminal through a sidelink communication interface (see [0071] broadcast a solicitation message, over sidelink therefore between first UE and another UE.); receiving first positioning-related information from a second terminal through the sidelink communication interface (see [0042], “Sidelink communication may be based on V2X or other D2D communication, such as Proximity Services (ProSe), etc”);
and/or monitoring second positioning-related information sent by the second terminal through the sidelink communication interface.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to combine the teachings of Ly with that of Zhang. Doing so would conform to well-known techniques in the field of invention.
Regarding claim 15, Zhang discloses the method according to claim 14, further comprising:
receiving a service request message broadcast by the first terminal through a sidelink communication interface; sending first positioning-related information to the first terminal based on the sidelink communication interface (see [0071] broadcast a solicitation message, over sidelink therefore between first UE and another UE) according to the service request message (see solicitation, [0071]); and/or sending second positioning-related information based on the sidelink communication interface.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to combine the teachings of Ly with that of Zhang. Doing so would conform to well-known techniques in the field of invention.
Claim(s) 3-4, 13, 16-17 and 24 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang in view of Abbas et al. (US 2023/0413228 A1).
Regarding claims 3 & 16, Zhang discloses the methods according to claims 1 and 14, Zhang does not explicitly disclose however Abbas discloses wherein performing the process of the D2D positioning service with the target terminal comprises at least one of following: performing a process of a relative-position request service between the first terminal and the target terminal (see positioning procedure relative positioning [0020]); performing a process of the absolute-position request service of the first terminal (see sidelink, therefore requiring first and second terminal [0020] and see absolute positioning); performing a process of the absolute-position request service of the target terminal (see target UE, [0100] and absolute positioning ).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to combine the teachings of Abbas with that of Zhang. Doing so would conform to well-known techniques in the field of invention.
Regarding claims 4 & 17, Ly in view of Abbas discloses the methods according to claims 3 and 16,
Zhang does not specifically disclose however Abbas discloses wherein performing the process of the D2D positioning service with the target terminal through the sidelink communication interface comprises:
ending/receiving a first positioning request message to the target terminal/first terminal ((see request for positioning procedure [0029])) through the sidelink communication interface (see sidelink interface [0028]);
determining to accept the relative positioning service according to the first positioning request message (see initiates [0100])
receiving/sending a positioning response message from the target terminal/first termainl (see sidelink between node 100 and car in fig. 5, );
in case that the positioning response message indicates that the target terminal accepts the D2D positioning service (see initiates [0100]), performing the process of the D2D positioning service (see sidelink which is a variety of D2D), wherein the D2D positioning service comprises: the relative-position request service between the first terminal and the target terminal (see relative positioning [0100]), and/or the absolute-position request service of the first terminal (see absolute positioning [0100]);
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to combine the teachings of Abbas with that of Zhang. Doing so would conform to well-known techniques in the field of invention.
Regarding 13 and 24, Zhang discloses the methods according to claims 3 and 16, wherein performing the process of the absolute-position request service of the target terminal comprises: sending a third positioning request message to the target terminal (see third message related to positioning in [0124], furthermore, inherently more than one positioning requests would be sent as expected in the field of art), wherein the third positioning request message is configured to indicate that the first terminal is to establish an absolute positioning service with the target terminal (see absolute positioning [0130]); receiving a positioning response message from the target terminal (see fig. 5, with sidelink communication between nodes); receiving absolute position information of the target terminal from the target terminal (see absolute positioning [0131]), in case that the positioning response message indicates that the target terminal accepts the absolute positioning service (see absolute positioning [0131]);
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to combine the teachings of Abbas with that of Zhang. Doing so would conform to well-known techniques in the field of invention.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5, 10-12, 18-19 & 23 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
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to K. WILFORD SHAHEED whose telephone number is (469) 295-9175. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday 9 am-6pm; CST; ALT Friday. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. The examiner’s Supervisor, Jinsong Hu, can be reached at (571)272-3965, where attempts to reach the examiner are unsuccessful.
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/KHALID W SHAHEED/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2643
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