DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application is being examined under the pre-AIA first to invent provisions.
Response to Amendment
This communication is considered fully responsive to the amendment filed on 08/13/2026.
Claims 1, 4 and 7 have been amended.
Claims 10-11, 12-13 and 14-15 have been added.
Claims 2-3, 5-6 and 8-9 have been canceled.
Rejection to claims under 35 USC § 101 is withdrawn since it has been amended accordingly.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims on 08/13/2026 have been considered but are moot because the arguments are related solely to newly added limitations addressed in the instant Office Action with newly identified prior art, thus rendering the applicant’s arguments moot.
Examiner’s Note - Priority Date
The record identifies the parent international application as PCT/CN2023/072999, filed 01/18/2023. The previously identified date of 01/18/2013 is erroneous. The applicable effective filing date analysis should be updated accordingly.
Claim Objections
Claims 1, 4 and 7 objected to because of the following informalities:
Said claims recite acronym “SRS” lacks an express definition in the presently pending claims because the earlier recitation of “sound reference signal (SRS)” has been canceled. Applicant is required to spell out the term at its first use.
Said claims recite “wherein the SRS configuration suggestions include a cell group configuration comprises one or more information elements, each information element containing a cell identification (ID) within the cell group”. The underlined limitations is grammatically defective and fails to recite a clear relationship between the “SRS configuration suggestions”, the “cell group configuration,” and the “one or more information elements.”
The most likely intended wording appears to be:
“wherein the SRS configuration suggestions include a cell group configuration comprising one or more information elements, each information element containing a cell identification (ID) of a cell within the cell group”.
The wording eliminates the grammatical defect and makes clearer that each information element identifies a member cell of the recited cell group.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103(a) which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
(a) A patent may not be obtained though the invention is not identically disclosed or described as set forth in section 102 of this title, if the differences between the subject matter sought to be patented and the prior art are such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains. Patentability shall not be negatived by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claim(s) 1, 4 and 7 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being unpatentable over ETSI TS 138 455 V17.1.1 (2022-08) (“3GPP455”) in view of Liu (US 2015/0305027).
Examiner’s note: in what follows, references are drawn to 3GPP455 unless otherwise mentioned.
3GPP455 comprises the following features:
With respect to independent claims:
Regarding claim 1, a method of wireless communication, comprising:
transmitting, by a network node to a second network node, a SRS configuration to be used in a positioning procedure ([Section 8.2.6.2 and Fig. 8.2.6.2-1] “The LMF initiates the procedure by sending a POSITIONING INFORMATION REQUEST message to the NG-RAN node.”, and [Section 8.2.6.2] “If the Requested SRS Transmission Characteristics IE is included in the POSITIONING INFORMATION REQUEST message, the NG-RAN node may take this information into account when configuring SRS transmissions for the UE, and it shall include the SRS Configuration IE and the SFN Initialisation Time IE in the POSITIONING INFORMATION RESPONSE message.”), the SRS configuration configured by the network node ([Section 8.2.6.2] “the NG-RAN node may take this information into account when configuring SRS transmissions for the UE”) and applied for a cell group (This will be discussed in view of Liu.); and
wherein the network node is a location management function (LMF) configured to transmit the SRS configuration by transmitting a requested SRS transmission characteristics information element ([Section 8.2.6.2] “If the Requested SRS Transmission Characteristics IE is included in the POSITIONING INFORMATION REQUEST message, the NG-RAN node may take this information into account when configuring SRS transmissions for the UE, and it shall include the SRS Configuration” See the corresponding figure, Fig. 6.2.6.2-1.) that includes SRS configuration suggestions (See aforesaid [Section 8.2.6.2].) concerning a cell group (This will be discussed in view of Liu.), and
wherein the SRS configuration suggestions include a cell group configuration comprises one or more information element, each information element containing a cell identification (ID) within the cell group (This will be discussed in view of Liu.).
It is noted that while disclosing positioning SRS, 3GPP455 does not specifically teach about a cell group. It, however, had been known in the art before the effective date of the instant application as shown by Liu as follows;
applied for a cell group ([Liu, claim 1] “A method for configuring sounding reference signal (SRS) resources of cooperating cells, comprising: grouping all cells into different cell groups”);
concerning a cell group (See aforesaid [Liu, claim 1]);
the SRS configuration suggestions include a cell group configuration ([Liu, claim 1] “determining a SRS initial time domain resource configuration order of each cell group”, and [Liu, claim 3] “allocating SRS initial time domain resources to each cell group”) comprises one or more information element, each information element containing a cell identification (ID) within the cell group ([Liu, 0061] “step S101, grouping all the cells into different cell groups.”, and [Liu, 0062] “he cell 0 is in the cell group 1, the cells 1, 3 and 5 are in the cell group 2, and the cells 2, 4, 6 are in the cell group 3, and each cell group has the same allocation method.”).
A PHOSITA would have been motivated to use Liu’s cell group SRS resource approach in 3GPP455’s LMF-requested positioning SRS procedure because Liu expressly seeks to “minimize the inter-cell SRS interference” and explains that the cell group allocation suppresses inter-cell interference, reduces signaling interaction among cooperating cells, and improves system spectral efficiency. The combination would have involved applying known SRS resource coordination techniques to the predictable multi cell positioning SRS architecture of 3GPP455.
Regarding claim 4, it is a communication apparatus claim corresponding to the method claim 1, and is therefore rejected for the similar reasons set forth in the rejection of claim 1.
Regarding claim 7, it is a CRM claim corresponding to the method claim 1, except the limitations, and is therefore rejected for the similar reasons set forth in the rejection of claim 1.
Claim(s) 10, 12 and 14 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being unpatentable over ETSI TS 138 455 V17.1.1 (2022-08) (“3GPP455”) in view of Liu (US 2015/0305027) and further in view of Dinan (US 2018/0167863).
Examiner’s note: in what follows, references are drawn to 3GPP455 unless otherwise mentioned.
Regarding claims 10, 12 and 14, it is noted that while disclosing positioning SRS, 3GPP455 does not specifically teach about a cell ID of a group. It, however, had been known in the art before the effective date of the instant application as shown by Dinan as follows;
the method of claim 1, the wireless communication apparatus of claim 4 and the non-transitory CRM of claim 7, respectively, wherein the cell group configuration further includes another information element containing an identity of the cell group ([Dinan, claim 5] “the configuration parameters comprise a media access control dedicated information element (IE) comprising a sequence of one or more IEs, and wherein a first IE of the sequence of one or more IEs comprises: a first cell group index”, [Dinan, 0082] “Each of the at least one first information element may comprise: a first cell group index of a first secondary cell group”, and [Dinan, 0084] “The configuration may assign a secondary cell in the plurality of cells to a cell group using the cell group index. The cell group index may identify one of a plurality of cell groups.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of instant application to modify 3GPP455 by using the features of Dinan in order to properly configure TAG configuration such that “Cells may be grouped into a plurality of cell groups. Base stations may exchange messages regarding the cell groups so that one of the base stations may receive uplink signals from a wireless device” [Dinan, Abstract].
Claim(s) 11, 13 and 15 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being unpatentable over ETSI TS 138 455 V17.1.1 (2022-08) (“3GPP455”) in view of Liu (US 2015/0305027) and further in view of ETSI TS 138 305 V15.9.0 (2021-10) (“3GPP305”).
Examiner’s note: in what follows, references are drawn to 3GPP455 unless otherwise mentioned.
Regarding claims 11, 13 and 15, it is noted that while disclosing positioning SRS, 3GPP455 does not specifically teach about a report. It, however, had been known in the art before the effective date of the instant application as shown by 3GPP305 as follows;
the method of claim 1, the wireless communication apparatus of claim 4 and the non-transitory CRM of claim 7, respectively, wherein the method further comprises: receiving, from a wireless device, in response to the SRS configuration to be used in the positioning procedure, a report comprising one or more parameters ([3GPP305, Section 8.1.3.3] “The purpose of this procedure is to enable the LMF to request position measurements or location estimate from the UE, or to enable the UE to provide location measurements to the LMF for position calculation.”, and [3GPP305, Section 8.1.3.3.2] “The UE sends an LPP Provide Location Information message to the LMF.”).
A PHOSITA would have been motivated to use the known 3GPP305 UE to LMF measurement reporting procedure with the 3GPP455/Liu LMF driven SRS positioning configuration procedure. Doing so would provide the LMF with UE measurement parameters needed to perform or assist positioning after configuration of the relevant SRS resources. The result is predictable because 3GPP305 expressly identifies UE provided location measurements as information used by the LMF “for position calculation”.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See 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 extension fee 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 date of this final action.
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/HARRY H KIM/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2411
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