DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present U.S. non-provisional application is being examined under the first-inventor-to-file provisions of the AIA . The present U.S. non-provisional application, filed on July 17, 2024, is the U.S. national stage of an international PCT application, filed on January 27, 2022.
Response to Amendment
This Office action is responsive to the amendment and arguments on September 1, 2026. Claims 1, 2, 5 and 6 were amended. Claims 7 and 8 were added. Claims 1-8 are pending for re-consideration in the present U.S. non-provisional application.
Response to Arguments
The arguments (pages 5-8) directed to the rejections under 35 U.S.C. 102 have been considered, but considered as moot in view of new grounds of rejection. Accordingly, new rejections under 35 U.S.C. 103 are entered.
The arguments (pages 8-9) directed to the rejections under 35 U.S.C. 103 have been considered, but considered as moot in view of new grounds of rejection. Accordingly, new rejections under 35 U.S.C. 103 are entered.
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 1-8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Manolakos et al. (US 2020/0235877 A1) in view of Guo (US 2022/0038239 A1).
1. A terminal (Manolakos, FIG. 16) comprising:
a reception unit (Manolakos, FIG. 16, Id.) configured to receive, in downlink, information indicating a muting pattern (Manolakos, paras. [0178], [0199], “…In some cases, UE 115-a may have a measurement gap before or after a downlink PRS or an uplink PRS. The measurement gap may span a number of symbols (e.g., OFDM symbols) during which UE 115-a is not expected to transmit or receive any other signal (e.g., in up to all carriers). In some cases, UE 115-a may not be expected to transmit or receive as described in both cases of intra-band carrier aggregation and inter-band carrier aggregation. In some cases, UE 115-a may not be expected to transmit or receive only in the carriers of the same band in scenarios of inter-band carrier aggregation, or all carriers of intra-band carrier aggregation. In some cases, base station 105-a may signal the measurement gap to UE 115-a…” It is noted that the signaling of the measurement gap corresponds to the receiving of information indicating a muting pattern.);
a transmission unit (Manolakos, FIG. 16, Id.) configured to transmit, in uplink and using the muting pattern, a reference signal for positioning (Manolakos, paras. [0199], [0203], “The uplink PRS configuration 400 may be an example of non-contiguous uplink PRS transmission. […] A UE 115 may transmit a set of uplink PRS in each of the shown uplink PRS resources 410. A base station 105 receiving the set of uplink PRS for each of the uplink PRS resources 410 and generate a combined signal 415…”); and
a control unit (Manolakos, FIG. 16, Id.) configured to assume that resources of the reference signal for positioning are to be non-contiguously allocated (Manolakos, paras. [0199], [0203], “The uplink PRS configuration 400 may be an example of non-contiguous uplink PRS transmission. […] Uplink PRS may be configured, activated, or triggered. In some cases, the uplink PRS may be configured by RRC signaling. The UE 115 may maintain uplink PRS transmission throughout the entire duration of the connection. In this example, the uplink PRS transmission may be periodic, where the periodicity and periodic characteristics of the uplink PRS are configurable.”)
Manolakos et al. may not seem to describe the identical claimed invention, however in the same field of endeavor, Guo provides prior art disclosure and suggestions for the claimed invention, such as a muting pattern (Guo, paras. [0046], [0153], “At block 201, a network device transmits first configuration information to a UE, and the UE receives the first configuration information from the network device. The first configuration information includes configuration information about multiple PRS resource sets. The multiple PRS resource sets include a first PRS resource set and at least one second PRS resource set. […] In an example, if the UE is configured with the periodic muting sequence B.sub.muting, and the frequency-domain muting configuration, F.sub.muting, the UE shall use B.sub.muting to determine which PRS period has PRS muting and use F.sub.muting to determine the RBs in which the PRS transmission is muted..:” emphasis added.) The prior art disclosure and suggestions of Manolakos et al. are for reasons of enabling RSTD measurement (Guo, paras. [0046], [0153], Id.) In view of the prior art of record, the claimed invention 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, for reasons of enabling RSTD measurement.
2. The terminal as claimed in claim 1, wherein: the reception unit (Manolakos, FIG. 16, Id.) receives, in downlink, information indicating allocation of the resources of the reference signal for positioning, and the control unit allocates resources of the reference signal for the positioning based on the information indicating the allocation of the resources (Manolakos, paras. [0199], [0205], “…In some examples, uplink PRS may be triggered. For example, a base station 105 may transmit DCI to the UE 115, which triggers the UE 115 to transmit an uplink PRS. The transmission may be for one occasion, or the UE 115 may be configured to transmit uplink PRS for a fixed number of occasions with a configured periodicity. After transmitting the uplink PRS for the configured number of occasions, the UE 115 may stop transmitting the uplink PRS. The base station 105 may later transmit a second DCI to re-trigger the UE 115 to transmit uplink PRS. In some cases, this may be an example of dynamic transmission of uplink PRS.”)
3. The terminal as claimed in claim 2, wherein the reception unit receives, in downlink, information indicating an allocation pattern of the resources of the reference signal for positioning, and the control unit allocates resources of the reference signal for the positioning based on the allocation pattern (Manolakos, paras. [0199], [0205], Id.)
4. The terminal as claimed in claim 2, wherein the reception unit receives, in downlink, a parameter indicating non-contiguous positions of the resources of the reference signal for positioning, and the control unit allocates the resources of the reference signal for positioning at non-contiguous locations based on the parameter (Manolakos, paras. [0199], [0205], Id.)
5. A base station (Manolakos, FIG. 20) comprising:
a reception unit (Manolakos, FIG. 20, Id.) configured to receive, from a terminal, a reference signal for positioning and information indicating a muting pattern (Manolakos, paras. [0199], [0203], Id. It is noted that the base station receiving of information indicating a muting pattern is merely construed as using a muting pattern.);
a control unit (Manolakos, FIG. 20, Id.) configured to assume that resources of the reference signal for positioning are to be non-contiguously allocated (Manolakos, paras. [0199], [0203], Id.); and
a transmission unit configured to transmit, in downlink, information indicating a muting pattern (Manolakos, paras. [0178], [0199], Id. cf. Claim 1).
Manolakos et al. may not seem to describe the identical claimed invention, however in the same field of endeavor, Guo provides prior art disclosure and suggestions for the claimed invention, such as a muting pattern (Guo, paras. [0046], [0153], Id.) The prior art disclosure and suggestions of Manolakos et al. are for reasons of enabling RSTD measurement (Guo, paras. [0046], [0153], Id.) In view of the prior art of record, the claimed invention 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, for reasons of enabling RSTD measurement.
6. A communication method performed by a terminal (Manolakos, FIG. 16, Id.), the communication method comprising:
receiving, in downlink, information indicating a muting pattern (Manolakos, paras. [0178], [0199], Id.);
transmitting, in uplink and using the muting pattern, a reference signal for positioning (Manolakos, paras. [0199], [0203], Id.); and
assuming that resources of the reference signal for positioning are to be non-contiguously allocated (Manolakos, paras. [0199], [0203], Id. cf. Claim 1).
Manolakos et al. may not seem to describe the identical claimed invention, however in the same field of endeavor, Guo provides prior art disclosure and suggestions for the claimed invention, such as a muting pattern (Guo, paras. [0046], [0153], Id.) The prior art disclosure and suggestions of Manolakos et al. are for reasons of enabling RSTD measurement (Guo, paras. [0046], [0153], Id.) In view of the prior art of record, the claimed invention 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, for reasons of enabling RSTD measurement.
7. The terminal as claimed in claim 1, wherein the muting pattern indicates a plurality of physical resource blocks (PRBs) that are configured to be muted (Guo, paras. [0046], [0153], Id.)
8. The terminal as claimed in claim 4, wherein the parameter further indicates the muting pattern from a plurality of muting patterns (Guo, paras. [0046], [0153], Id.), and the muting pattern indicates a plurality of physical resource blocks (PRBs) that are configured to be muted (Guo, paras. [0046], [0153], Id.)
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112 that forms the basis for all new matter rejections set forth in this Office action:
(a) IN GENERAL.—The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor or joint inventor of carrying out the invention.
Claim 5 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) as failing to comply with the written description requirement. The claims contains subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to reasonably convey to one skilled in the relevant art that the inventor or a joint inventor had possession of the claimed invention.
Claim 5 recites “A base station comprising: a reception unit configured to receive, from a terminal, a reference signal for positioning and information indicating a muting pattern…” (ll. 1-3) whereas a base station receiving information indicating a muting pattern does not appear to have sufficient support in the specification. Although the arguments indicate the specification at paragraphs [0065] and [0084]-[0089] provides support, the closest mention therein to the indication above is description of RRC and MAC signaling with indications of muting patterns (Specification, paragraphs [0087], [0089], “In addition, the terminal 20 may assume that the muting PRBs of UL-PRS are to be indicated. The muting PRBs are physical resource blocks in which UL-PRS is muted. The muting PRBs may be a plurality of PRBs that are configured to be muted as a muting pattern. With respect to the muting pattern, the SRS-Pos resource allocation that is specified in the NR release 16/17 may be reused. […] In addition, the terminal 20 may assume that a plurality of muting patterns are configured by RRC, and one of the options is to be activated by MAC-CE or indicated by DCI.”) However, the signaling in the specification is configuration signaling from the base station to the user equipment, whereas the indication of the claimed invention is in the opposite direction. Accordingly, the specification is considered as not sufficient to convey possession of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art. A translation or other typographical deficiency is suspected in the presentation of said language in the claim. Accordingly, in coarse alignment with the amendment to the other independent claims, the receiving of information indicating a muting pattern is merely construed as using a muting pattern. Appropriate correction is required.
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112 that forms the basis for all indefiniteness rejections set forth in this Office action:
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
Claim 5 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) as indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
Claim 5 recites “A base station comprising: a reception unit configured to receive, from a terminal, a reference signal for positioning and information indicating a muting pattern…” (ll. 1-3) whereas a base station receiving information indicating a muting pattern does not appear to have sufficient support in the specification, which leaves it unclear what meaning was intended. A translation or other typographical deficiency is suspected in the presentation of said language in the claim. Accordingly, in coarse alignment with the amendment to the other independent claims, the receiving of information indicating a muting pattern is merely construed as using a muting pattern. Appropriate correction is required.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record (PTO-1449, PTO-892) and not relied upon is considered pertinent to the subject matter of the present U.S. non-provisional application.
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. MPEP 706.07(a). 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 Timothy J. Weidner whose telephone number is (571) 270-1825. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday, 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM, Eastern Standard Time.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Ayaz R. Sheikh can be reached on (571) 272-3795. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/TIMOTHY J WEIDNER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2476
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