DETAILED ACTION
This communication is in response to Application No. 18/718,811 filed on 6/12/2024. The amendment presented on 7/16/2026, which cancels claims 2-3, 11-12, and 16-17 and amends claims 1, 4-5, 7-8, 13, 15, and 18, is hereby acknowledged. Claims 1, 4-10, 13-15, 18-19, and 28 have been examined.
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 .
Claim Objections
The amendment presented on 7/16/2026 providing change to the claims is noted. All prior objections to the claims are hereby withdrawn. However, a new objection is being made.
Claim 19 is objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 19 is dependent on currently cancelled claim 16. It appears to be dependent on claim 15.
Appropriate correction is required.
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.
Claims 1, 4-6, 9-10, 13-15, 18-19, and 28 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wu et al. (hereinafter Wu)(US 2023/0092660) in view of Hosseini et al. (hereinafter Hosseini)(US 2023/0040453), and further in view of Ganesan et al. (hereinafter Ganesan)(US 2023/0309066).
Regarding claims 1, 13, and 15, Wu teaches as follows:
An apparatus (interpreted as the UE 302 un figure 3A) of transmitting a sidelink positioning reference signal, comprising:
a memory (340 in figure 3A), a transceiver (310 and 320 in figure 3A), and a processor (332 in figure 3A); wherein the memory is configured to store a program instruction (the memories 340, 386, and 396 may therefore provide means for storing, means for retrieving, means for maintaining, etc., see, ¶ [0090]); the transceiver is configured to transmit and receive data under control of the processor (the UE 302 and the base station 304 each include one or more wireless wide area network (WWAN) transceivers 310 and 350, respectively, providing means for communicating via one or more wireless communication networks, such as an NR network, an LTE network, a GSM network, and/or the like, see, ¶ [0083]); the processor is configured to read the program instruction in the memory and perform following (a first user equipment (UE) includes a memory; at least one transceiver; and at least one processor communicatively coupled to the memory and the at least one transceiver, the at least one processor configured to: determine a set of resources for transmission of one or more sidelink positioning reference signals (PRSs); and transmit, via the at least one transceiver, a sidelink control message to reserve the set of resources for the transmission of the one or more sidelink PRSs, see, ¶ [0009]):
determining a first resource by a first terminal through performing resource-sensing on detecting sidelink control information (SCI) transmitted by a second terminaldetermines a set of resources for transmission of one or more sidelink positioning reference signals (PRSs), see, ¶ [0144] and figure 9)(in Mode 2, the transmitting UE performs channel sensing by blindly decoding all PSCCH channels and finds out reserved resources by other sidelink transmissions, see, ¶ [0134]-[0135] and figure 8); and
transmitting a sidelink positioning reference signal (S-PRS) on the first resource (at 920, the first UE transmits a sidelink control message to reserve the set of resources for the transmission of the one or more sidelink PRSs, see, ¶ [0045] and figure 9).
Wu teaches determining resource through resource-sensing but does not teach determining based on detecting the SCI transmitting by the other terminal.
Hosseini teaches as follows:
Obtaining indication information comprised in the SCI by the first terminal (the UE may estimate or determine which radio resources (e.g., sidelink resources) may be in-use and/or reserved by others by detecting and decoding sidelink control information (SCI) transmitted by other UEs. The UE may use a sensing-based resource selection algorithm to estimate or determine which radio resources are in-use and/or reserved by others, see, ¶ [0062]);
wherein the indication information is configured to indicate information related to a transmission resource of the S-PRS (the sidelink SL-RS may include zero power (ZP) SL channel state information (CSI) RS (CSI-RS) (ZP SL CSI-RS), non-zero power (NZP) SL CSI-RS (NZP SL CSI-RS), SL CSI interference measurement (IM) (SL CSI-IM), SL sounding reference signal (SRS) (SL SRS), SL positioning reference signal (PRS) (SL PRS), etc., see, ¶ [0030]); and
determining one or more second resources (interpreted as the candidate resources) by the first terminal based on the information related to the transmission resource; determining the first resource (interpreted as selected resource from the candidate resources) by the first terminal based on the one or more second resources (the UE may select/reserve resources for a sidelink transmission from the resources that are unused and therefore form the set of candidate resources. The UE may continuously perform sensing for SCI with resource reservations in order to maintain a set of candidate resources from which the UE may select one or more resources for a sidelink transmission, see, ¶ [0062]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Wu with Hosseini to include the sensing-based resource selection algorithm monitoring received SCI from other UEs as taught by Hosseini in order to efficiently reserve transmission resource for the S-PRS.
Wu in view of Hosseini teaches all limitations as presented above except for transmitting the information of resource period.
Ganesan teaches as follows:
A TX UE may signal one or more parameters such as sidelink PRS offset, PRS comb pattern, periodicity for each sidelink PRS transmission resource, a sidelink PRS bandwidth, a resource pool, a BWP, carriers, a reporting configuration such as positioning method to be used, absolute or relative positioning, a periodicity, and so forth (see, ¶ [0108]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Wu in view of Hosseini with Ganesan to include signaling periodicity for each sidelink PRS transmission resource as taught by Ganesan in order to efficiently select transmission resource based on the periodicity information.
Regarding claims 4 and 18, Hosseini teaches as follows:
Wherein the information related to the transmission resource is transmitted in a first field added in a first SCI format (the UE may receive SCI from another UE that includes reservation information based on a resource reservation field comprised in the SCI, see, ¶ [0062]).
Therefore, they are rejected for similar reason as presented above.
Regarding claims 5 and 19, Wu teaches as follows:
Obtaining the one or more second resources by the first terminal through the information related to the transmission resource and a reference signal received power (RSRP)(the determination at 1120 includes the second determination if a measured RSRP associated with the second resource is less than an RSRP threshold, and the determination at 1120 includes the third determination if the measured RSRP associated with the second resource is not less than an RSRP threshold, see, ¶ [0158] and figure 11).
Regarding claim 6, Wu teaches as follows:
Using one or more third resources in resources other than a resource corresponding to the information related to the transmission resource as the one or more second resources by the first terminal, wherein the one or more third resources comprise an occupied resource having the RSRP less than a first threshold (wherein the second determination is based on a measured RSRP associated with the second resource being less than an RSRP threshold, and wherein the third determination is based on the measured RSRP associated with the second resource not being less than the RSRP threshold, see, ¶ [0193]).
Regarding claims 9-10 and 14, Hosseini teaches as follows:
The UE may continuously perform sensing for SCI with resource reservations in order to maintain a set of candidate resources from which the UE may select one or more resources for a sidelink transmission (see, ¶ [0062])(which is equivalent to applicant’s full sensing).
Therefore, they are rejected for similar reason as presented above.
Regarding claim 28, Wu in view of Hosseini and Ganesan teaches all limitations as presented above in the rejection for claim 13.
Wu further teaches as follows:
An apparatus of receiving a sidelink positioning reference signal, comprising: a memory, a transceiver, and a processor; wherein the memory is configured to store a program instructions; the transceiver configured to transmit and receive data under control of the processor; the processor is configured to read the program instruction in the memory, and the transceiver is configured to perform step of the method according to claim 13 (a second user equipment (UE) includes a memory; at least one transceiver; and at least one processor communicatively coupled to the memory and the at least one transceiver, the at least one processor configured to: receive, via the at least one transceiver, from a first UE, a sidelink control message to reserve a set of resources for transmission of one or more sidelink positioning reference signals (PRSs); and communicate, via the at least one transceiver, the one or more PRSs in accordance with the sidelink control message, see, ¶ [0010]).
Claims 7-8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wu et al. (hereinafter Wu)(US 2023/0092660) in view of Hosseini et al. (hereinafter Hosseini)(US 2023/0040453) and Ganesan et al. (hereinafter Ganesan)(US 2023/0309066), and further in view of Li et al. (hereinafter Li)(US 2020/0288473).
Regarding claims 7-8, Wu in view of Hosseini and Ganesan teaches all limitations as presented above except for the received signal strength indication (RSSI).
Li teaches as follows:
S303, selecting the transmission resource in the available resource set, and setting the SPS counter used for resource scheduling. Optionally, the selection of the transmission resource from the available resource set is carried out as follows: the S-RSSI (Sidelink-Received Signal Strength Indication) is sorted, and the transmission resource is selected from the available resource subset with lower S-RSSI (see, ¶ [0121]-[0122] and figure 3).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Wu in view of Hosseini and Ganesan with Li to include the Sidelink-Received Signal Strength Indication (S-RSSI) as taught by Li in order to efficiently determine quality of candidate resources.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 7/16/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Response to Arguments:
The limitations incorporated from canceled claim 2 and unexamined limitation of previous claim 1 were taught by existing references as presented above; and
The limitation of resource period was taught by newly sited reference as presented above because the resource period was not previously examined.
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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Jeong S Park whose telephone number is (571)270-1597. The examiner can normally be reached Monday through Friday 8:00-4:30 ET.
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/JEONG S PARK/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2417
September 10, 2026
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