DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present U.S. non-provisional application, filed on June 13, 2024, is being examined under the first-inventor-to-file provisions of the AIA .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on November 7, 2025 was filed before the mailing date of a first Office action in the present U.S. non-provisional application, in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement has been considered by the examiner.
Response to Amendment
This Office action is responsive to the election on June 29, 2026. The election of invention group I without traverse is acknowledged. Claims 16-20 are withdrawn. Claims 1-15 are pending for consideration in the present U.S. non-provisional application.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5-8, 12 and 13 would be considered as allowable if rewritten into independent form to include all of the limitations of the respective base claim and any intervening claims. The claimed invention is neither anticipated by the prior art of record, nor considered as obvious in view thereof to a person having ordinary skill in the art.
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, 9-11, 14 and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Qualcomm et al. (WO 2022/000229 A1) in view of Ma et al. (US 2023/0171625 A1).
1. A sensing node (Qualcomm, FIG. 2), comprising: one or more memories; one or more transceivers; and one or more processors communicatively coupled to the one or more memories and the one or more transceivers, the one or more processors, either alone or in combination, configured (Qualcomm, FIG. 2, Id.) to:
receive, via the one or more transceivers, from a sensing entity, a configuration to report interference measurements (Qualcomm, paras. [0062], [0063], “As shown by reference number 405, the base station may transmit, and the UE may receive, configuration information. […] In some aspects, the configuration information may indicate that the UE is to receive one or more reference signals associated with a sensing signal, measure the one or more reference signals, determine a sensing interference report for reducing interference for the sensing signal, transmit the sensing interference report, and/or the like. In some aspects, the configuration information may indicate that the UE is to receive the one or more reference signals based at least in part on an SMR and/or an SIMR.”);
obtain, at a first time, one or more sensing measurements of one or more first sensing reference signals transmitted by a transmitter sensing node (Qualcomm, paras. [0062], [0063], “…In some aspects, the configuration information may indicate that the UE is to receive one or more reference signals associated with a sensing signal, measure the one or more reference signals, determine a sensing interference report for reducing interference for the sensing signal, transmit the sensing interference report, and/or the like. In some aspects, the configuration information may indicate that the UE is to receive the one or more reference signals based at least in part on an SMR and/or an SIMR.” Id.);
obtain, at the first time, one or more interference measurements of one or more second sensing reference signals transmitted by one or more aggressor sensing nodes (Ma, paras. [0053], [0090], “…For example, a base station 105 of the wireless communications system 100 may configure a victim UE 115 with a set of interference measurement resources for measuring interference attributable to sensing signals transmitted by a sensing UE 115. The set of interference measurement resources may correspond to a set of time/frequency resources of a reference signals, sensing signals, or both, transmitted by the sensing UE 115. The set of interference measurement resources may also be measured via wideband RSSI. The victim UE 115 may perform measurements of the sensing signals, and transmit a measurement report to the base station 105. The base station 105 may then selectively adjust parameters associated with the sensing signals transmitted by the sensing UE 115, resources used for signal reception (e.g., downlink reception) by the victim UE 115, or both, in order to mitigate the interference.”); and
transmit, via the one or more transceivers, to the sensing entity, an interference measurement report including at least the one or more interference measurements (Ma, paras. [0053], [0090], “…The victim UE 115 may perform measurements of the sensing signals, and transmit a measurement report to the base station 105. The base station 105 may then selectively adjust parameters associated with the sensing signals transmitted by the sensing UE 115, resources used for signal reception (e.g., downlink reception) by the victim UE 115, or both, in order to mitigate the interference.” Id.)
Qualcomm et al. may not seem to describe the identical claimed invention, however in the same field of endeavor, Ma et al. provides prior art disclosure for the claimed invention, such as obtain, at the first time, one or more interference measurements of one or more second sensing reference signals transmitted by one or more aggressor sensing nodes (Ma, paras. [0053], [0090], Id.) The prior art disclosure and suggestions of Ma et al. are for reasons of addressing interference issues associated with sensing signals (Ma, paras. [0053], [0090], “To address interference issues associated with sensing signals transmitted by sensing UEs, techniques for management of sensing signal interference are described…” 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 addressing interference issues associated with sensing signals.
2. The sensing node of claim 1, wherein: the configuration indicates one or more sensing reference signal parameters, and the one or more first sensing reference signals are configured according to the one or more sensing reference signal parameters (Qualcomm, paras. [0062], [0063], Id.)
3. The sensing node of claim 2, wherein the one or more second sensing reference signals are configured according to the one or more sensing reference signal parameters (Ma, paras. [0053], [0090], Id.)
4. The sensing node of claim 2, wherein the one or more sensing reference signal parameters are frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) parameters (Qualcomm, paras. [0062], [0067], “…In some aspects, the SMR and/or the SIMR may be based at least in part on enhanced reference signals that may, for example, represent characteristics of waveforms (e.g., impulsive, FMCW, PMCW, and/or the like)…”)
9. The sensing node of claim 1, wherein the transmitter sensing node is: the sensing node, or a second sensing node (Qualcomm, paras. [0062], [0063], Id.)
10. The sensing node of claim 1, wherein the sensing node is: a user equipment (UE) (Qualcomm, paras. [0062], [0063], Id.), a transmission-reception point (TRP), a roadside unit (RSU), or a sensing reference unit (SRU).
11. A sensing entity, comprising: one or more memories; one or more transceivers; and one or more processors communicatively coupled to the one or more memories and the one or more transceivers, the one or more processors, either alone or in combination, configured (Qualcomm, FIG. 2, Id.) to:
receive, via the one or more transceivers, from a sensing node, a sensing measurement report including one or more sensing measurements of one or more first sensing reference signals transmitted by a transmitter sensing node (Qualcomm, paras. [0062], [0063], Id.);
receive, via the one or more transceivers, from the sensing node, an interference measurement report including at least one or more interference measurements of one or more second sensing reference signals transmitted by one or more aggressor sensing nodes (Ma, paras. [0053], [0090], Id.); and
perform one or more mitigation operations based on the interference measurement report (Ma, paras. [0053], [0090], Id.)
Qualcomm et al. may not seem to describe the identical claimed invention, however in the same field of endeavor, Ma et al. provides prior art disclosure for the claimed invention, such as receive, via the one or more transceivers, from the sensing node, an interference measurement report including at least one or more interference measurements of one or more second sensing reference signals transmitted by one or more aggressor sensing nodes (Ma, paras. [0053], [0090], Id.) The prior art disclosure and suggestions of Ma et al. are for reasons of addressing interference issues associated with sensing signals (Ma, paras. [0053], [0090], 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 addressing interference issues associated with sensing signals.
14. The sensing entity of claim 11, wherein the one or more processor configured to perform the one or more mitigation operations comprises the one or more processors, either alone or in combination, configured to: transmit, via the one or more transceivers, to the sensing node, a configuration of the one or more second sensing reference signals to enable the sensing node to perform interference cancellation for the one or more second sensing reference signals; coordinate sensing operations of the sensing node and the one or more aggressor sensing nodes to reduce interference between the sensing node and the one or more aggressor sensing nodes; apply interference cancelation to the one or more sensing measurements; or any combination thereof (Ma, paras. [0053], [0090], Id.)
15. The sensing entity of claim 11, wherein the sensing entity is: a sensing management function (SnMF), a location management function (LMF), a sensing server, a location server, a user equipment (UE) (Qualcomm, paras. [0062], [0063], Id.), a transmission-reception point (TRP), a roadside unit (RSU), or a sensing reference unit (SRU).
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.
Khan et al. (US 2025/0266915 A1) provides prior art disclosure considered as relevant to the subject matter of the claimed invention (Khan, Abstract, “A wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) may include a processor that is configured to receive configuration information indicating a plurality of sub-bands for cross-link interference (CLI) measurements and respective resources for performing CLI measurements for each of the plurality of sub-bands. The processor may receive a downlink control information (DCI) indicating resources associated with a first reference sub-band. The processor may perform a CLI measurement for the first reference sub-band using one or more resources for performing CLI measurements for the first sub-band. The processor may perform a CLI measurement for at least one other sub-band of the plurality of sub-bands using the respective resources for CLI measurements of the at least one other sub-band based on determining that the CLI measurement for the first sub-band is greater than a threshold. The processor may send an indication that the CLI measurement for the sub-band is greater than the threshold.”)
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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