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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant's election with traverse of the election requirement of 10/1/2025 in the reply filed on 11/21/2025 is acknowledged. The traversal is found persuasive. Thus, the requirement has been withdrawn. All claims have been examined.
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) 1, 3-7, 13-15, and 17-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 2020/0395986 (“Ligander” or “L”).
1: L teaches an apparatus configured for wireless communications (that of fig 1), comprising: a plurality of panels (101 and 102) comprising a plurality of antenna elements (as shown in figs 2 and 3), wherein the plurality of panels comprise at least a first panel (102) and a second panel (101); one or more memories (that of 140, as described in claim 27); and one or more processors (as described in claim 27), coupled to the one or more memories (as stated in claim 27), configured to cause the apparatus to: receive the one or more signals on a second subset of the plurality of antenna elements (after the signal was sent from a first subset of the plurality of antenna elements) (claim 27 describes that signals are received from 102 at 101; Fig 2 illustrates the receiving subsets of antenna elements); and determine an angle of misalignment between the first panel and the second panel based on one or more signal characteristics of the one or more received signals (as shown in fig 3).
Nevertheless, L fails to teach that it’s processor and memory cause the apparatus to send one or more signals from a first subset of the plurality of antenna elements.
However, automating antenna transmission was old and well-known.
Thus, it would have been obvious to provide that L’s processor and memory of L’s 140 automated the sending step.
The motivation would have been to reduce the work required by installation personnel.
15: L teaches a method for wireless communications by an apparatus (that inherent in the device of fig 1) comprising a plurality of panels (101 and 102) having a plurality of antenna elements (as shown in figs 2 and 3), the method comprising: sending one or more signals from a first subset of the plurality of antenna elements associated with the plurality of panels (signals are sent from 102 to 101), wherein the plurality of panels comprise at least a first panel (102) and a second panel (101); receiving the one or more signals on a second subset of the plurality of antenna elements (signals are received by 101); and determining an angle of misalignment between the first panel and the second panel based on one or more signal characteristics of the one or more received signals (as shown in fig 3).
20: The modified device of claim 1 would comprise one or more non-transitory computer-readable media (the memory of 140) comprising executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors (the processors of 140) of an apparatus (that of fig 1) comprising a plurality of panels (101 and 102) having a plurality of antenna elements (as shown in figs 2 and 3), cause the apparatus to perform operations comprising: sending one or more signals from a first subset of the plurality of antenna elements associated with the plurality of panels (signals are sent from 102 to 101), wherein the plurality of panels comprise at least a first panel (102) and a second panel (101); receiving the one or more signals on a second subset of the plurality of antenna elements (signals are received by 101); and determining an angle of misalignment between the first panel and the second panel based on one or more signal characteristics of the one or more received signals (as shown in fig 3).
3: The modified device described in regard to claim 1 above would be such that the first subset of the plurality of antenna elements would be associated with the first panel (102 is the transmitter, as described above); the second subset of the plurality of antenna elements would be associated with the second panel (101 is the receiver, as described above); and to send the one or more signals, the one or more processors would configured to cause the apparatus to send a signal in a steered direction at a first angle relative to a boresight direction of the first panel (any direction of a directional antenna is a steered direction).
4, 18: L teaches that the first subset of the plurality of antenna elements consists of a single first antenna element associated with the first panel (as shown in fig 4, a single reflector antenna could be used instead of the array of fig 2); and the second subset of the plurality of antenna elements consists of a single second antenna element associated with the second panel (as shown in fig 4, a single reflector antenna could be used instead of the array of fig 2).
5, 19: L teaches that the first subset of the plurality of antenna elements comprises a first plurality of antenna elements associated with the first panel (the array of fig 2 could be used as the antenna of 102); and the second subset of the plurality of antenna elements comprises a second plurality of antenna elements associated with the second panel (the array of fig 2 could be used as the antenna of 102).
6: L teaches that the one or more signal characteristics of the signal comprise at least one of: a signal strength; a reference signal received power (RSRP); a reference signal received quality (RSRQ); a reference signal strength indicator (RSSI); a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR); or a signal-to-interference-and-noise ratio (SINR) (as shown in fig 3).
7: L teaches that to determine the angle of misalignment, the one or more processors are configured to cause the apparatus to determine the angle of misalignment based on a table providing a plurality of mappings between a plurality of values for a first signal characteristic and a plurality of misalignment angles (the data stored to create the plots of fig 3 can be considered mappings).
13: L teaches one or more sensors (those used in acquiring the data of fig 3), wherein: the one or more processors are configured to cause the apparatus to obtain, via the one or more sensors, sensor information indicating at least one of a location or an orientation of one or more of the plurality of panels (as shown in fig 3); and to determine the angle of misalignment (as shown in fig 3), the one or more processors are configured to cause the apparatus to determine the angle of misalignment based on the sensor information (as shown in fig 3).
14: L fails to teach that the one or more sensors comprise at least one of: a gyroscope; an image sensor; or a light detection and ranging (LiDAR) sensor. However, each of these was old and well-known at the time of invention. Thus, it would have been obvious to improve accuracy of the L’s measurement by including any of them as an additional sensor.
17: L teaches that the first subset of the plurality of antenna elements are associated with the first panel (102 transmits); the second subset of the plurality of antenna elements are associated with the second panel (101 receives); and sending the one or more signals comprises sending a signal in a steered direction at a first angle relative to a boresight direction of the first panel (for directional antennas, any direction is a steered direction).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2, 8-12, and 16 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 GRAHAM P SMITH whose telephone number is (571)270-1568. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 10am - 6pm.
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/GRAHAM P SMITH/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2845