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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on 12/05/2024 and 06/27/2025 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements have been considered by the examiner.
Specification
The lengthy specification has not been checked to the extent necessary to determine the presence of all possible minor errors. Applicant’s cooperation is requested in correcting any errors of which applicant may become aware in the specification.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(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.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 7 and 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Regarding claim 7, the terms “nPRB” and “NRB” do not have a specified range of values (e.g., integer greater than or equal to 0), rendering the scope of the claim indefinite.
Regarding claim 13, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as claim 7 above.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 1-4, 8-11, and 14-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Rosenthal et al. (US 2022/0224583 A1), hereinafter referred to as Rosenthal, in view of Luo et al. (US 2019/0141666 A1), hereinafter referred to as Luo.
Regarding claim 1, Rosenthal teaches a communication method (Rosenthal – Paragraph [0006], note backscatter devices, communication method), comprising:
generating, by a first device, a first orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) time domain signal, wherein the first OFDM time domain signal occupies one subcarrier in frequency domain (Rosenthal – Fig. 1; Paragraph [0023], note signal source 102 may generally be any device that is capable of transmitting a suitable carrier signal 114, the carrier signal 114 may have a carrier frequency (e.g. a frequency of a carrier wave that may be modulated with an input signal to provide data in the backscatter signal 116), the carrier signal 114 may generally be implemented using any signals which may be backscattered by backscatter devices described herein (such as OFDM, see Paragraph [0029]); Paragraph [0033], note subcarrier frequency);
sending, by the first device, the first OFDM time domain signal to a second device (Rosenthal – Fig. 1; Paragraph [0023], note signal source 102 may generally be any device that is capable of transmitting a suitable carrier signal 114 for backscatter by the backscatter device 110); and
sending, by the second device, a signal in a backscatter communication manner (Rosenthal – Fig. 1; Paragraph [0029], note the backscatter device 110 may modulate a backscattered version of the antenna 112 from the signal source 102 to provide a backscatter signal 116 encoded with data to the wireless communication device 106).
Rosenthal does not teach receiving, by the first device, a signal from the second device in a backscatter communication manner.
In an analogous art, Luo teaches receiving, by the first device, a signal from the second device in a backscatter communication manner (Luo – Fig. 2; Paragraph [0038], note a wideband transceiver 202 transmits, via one or more transmit antennas, OFDM symbols 232 to RFID tag 210 (backscatter node, see Paragraph [0043]); Paragraph [0044], note one or more transmit antennas of wideband transceiver 202 may transmit the OFDM symbols, and modulated OFDM symbols (e.g., h.sub.2(t) 233) may reflect from RFID tag 210 and travel to one or more receive antennas of the wideband transceiver 202).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to incorporate the teachings of Luo into Rosenthal in order to allow for accurate and precise positioning of devices through backscatter (Luo – Paragraph [0011]).
Regarding claim 2, the combination of Rosenthal and Luo, specifically Rosenthal teaches wherein a frequency of the subcarrier is zero (Rosenthal – Paragraph [0057], note undesired subcarrier frequency bins may be set to zero).
Regarding claim 3, the combination of Rosenthal and Luo, specifically Rosenthal teaches wherein the first OFDM time domain signal comprises a first OFDM symbol and a second OFDM symbol in time domain, the first OFDM symbol is adjacent to the second OFDM symbol, and the first OFDM symbol and the second OFDM symbol are continuous in phase (Rosenthal – Fig. 5; Paragraph [0065], note data 502 may be obtained by the backscatter device 518 for transmission, the data 502 may be represented as symbols, e.g., OFDM symbols, the pre-computed time domain sequences stored by the look-up table 508 may be pre-computed time domain sequences for the real (in-phase, “I”) portion of a transform output; Paragraph [0076], note the in-phase (I) and quadrature (Q) time-domain sequences of digital samples corresponding to OFDM symbols were pre-calculated and loaded into the look-up tables 508 and 510, respectively).
Regarding claim 4, Rosenthal does not teach wherein a time domain start position of the second OFDM symbol is determined based on a time domain start position of the first OFDM symbol, an index of the second OFDM symbol in a first time domain resource, and duration of the first OFDM symbol; and the index of the second OFDM symbol in the first time domain resource is an integer greater than or equal to 0.
In an analogous art, Luo teaches wherein a time domain start position of the second OFDM symbol is determined based on a time domain start position of the first OFDM symbol, an index of the second OFDM symbol in a first time domain resource, and duration of the first OFDM symbol (Luo – Fig. 5; Paragraph [0070], note the duration of each OFDM symbol may be shorter than one half of the multiplicative inverse of the backscatter link frequency of the backscatter node, at least a subset of the OFDM symbols may occur entirely during a period in which a backscatter node is not transitioning between reflective states); and
the index of the second OFDM symbol in the first time domain resource is an integer greater than or equal to 0 (Luo – Fig. 5; Paragraph [0070], note OFDM symbols 521 and 522 may each occur entirely during period 501 while the backscatter node remains in the first reflective state).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to incorporate the teachings of Luo into Rosenthal for the same reason as claim 1 above.
Regarding claim 8, Rosenthal teaches a communication method, wherein the method comprises:
receiving, by a second device from a first device, a first orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) time domain signal that occupies one subcarrier in frequency domain (Rosenthal – Fig. 1; Paragraph [0023], note signal source 102 may generally be any device that is capable of transmitting a suitable carrier signal 114, the carrier signal 114 may have a carrier frequency (e.g. a frequency of a carrier wave that may be modulated with an input signal to provide data in the backscatter signal 116), the carrier signal 114 may generally be implemented using any signals which may be backscattered by backscatter devices described herein (such as OFDM, see Paragraph [0029]); Paragraph [0023], note signal source 102 may generally be any device that is capable of transmitting a suitable carrier signal 114 for backscatter by the backscatter device 110; Paragraph [0033], note subcarrier frequency); and
sending, by the second device to a wireless device, a signal in a backscatter communication manner, wherein a radio frequency carrier of the signal is determined based on a radio frequency carrier of the first OFDM time domain signal (Rosenthal – Fig. 1; Paragraph [0029], note the backscatter device 110 may modulate a backscattered version of the antenna 112 from the signal source 102 to provide a backscatter signal 116 encoded with data to the wireless communication device 106; Paragraph [0030], note the carrier signal 114 used by the backscatter device 110 may include a signal having a carrier frequency that is provided by the signal source 102).
Rosenthal does not teach sending, by the second device to the first device, a signal in a backscatter communication manner.
In an analogous art, Luo teaches sending, by the second device to the first device, a signal in a backscatter communication manner (Luo – Fig. 2; Paragraph [0038], note a wideband transceiver 202 transmits, via one or more transmit antennas, OFDM symbols 232 to RFID tag 210 (backscatter node, see Paragraph [0043]); Paragraph [0044], note one or more transmit antennas of wideband transceiver 202 may transmit the OFDM symbols, and modulated OFDM symbols (e.g., h.sub.2(t) 233) may reflect from RFID tag 210 and travel to one or more receive antennas of the wideband transceiver 202).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to incorporate the teachings of Luo into Rosenthal in order to allow for accurate and precise positioning of devices through backscatter (Luo – Paragraph [0011]).
Regarding claim 9, the combination of Rosenthal and Luo, specifically Rosenthal teaches wherein a frequency of the subcarrier is zero (Rosenthal – Paragraph [0057], note undesired subcarrier frequency bins may be set to zero).
Regarding claim 10, the combination of Rosenthal and Luo, specifically Rosenthal teaches wherein the first OFDM time domain signal comprises a first OFDM symbol and a second OFDM symbol in time domain, the first OFDM symbol is adjacent to the second OFDM symbol, and the first OFDM symbol and the second OFDM symbol are continuous in phase (Rosenthal – Fig. 5; Paragraph [0065], note data 502 may be obtained by the backscatter device 518 for transmission, the data 502 may be represented as symbols, e.g., OFDM symbols, the pre-computed time domain sequences stored by the look-up table 508 may be pre-computed time domain sequences for the real (in-phase, “I”) portion of a transform output; Paragraph [0076], note the in-phase (I) and quadrature (Q) time-domain sequences of digital samples corresponding to OFDM symbols were pre-calculated and loaded into the look-up tables 508 and 510, respectively).
Regarding claim 11, Rosenthal does not teach wherein a time domain start position of the second OFDM symbol is determined based on a time domain start position of the first OFDM symbol, an index of the second OFDM symbol in a first time domain resource, and duration of the first OFDM symbol; and the index of the second OFDM symbol in the first time domain resource is an integer greater than or equal to 0.
In an analogous art, Luo teaches wherein a time domain start position of the second OFDM symbol is determined based on a time domain start position of the first OFDM symbol, an index of the second OFDM symbol in a first time domain resource, and duration of the first OFDM symbol (Luo – Fig. 5; Paragraph [0070], note the duration of each OFDM symbol may be shorter than one half of the multiplicative inverse of the backscatter link frequency of the backscatter node, at least a subset of the OFDM symbols may occur entirely during a period in which a backscatter node is not transitioning between reflective states); and
the index of the second OFDM symbol in the first time domain resource is an integer greater than or equal to 0 (Luo – Fig. 5; Paragraph [0070], note OFDM symbols 521 and 522 may each occur entirely during period 501 while the backscatter node remains in the first reflective state).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to incorporate the teachings of Luo into Rosenthal for the same reason as claim 8 above.
Regarding claim 14, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as claim 1 above, except the claim is written in an apparatus claim format, which is taught by Luo (Luo – Paragraph [0156], note one or more computers (e.g., servers, network hosts, client computers, integrated circuits, microcontrollers, controllers, field-programmable-gate arrays, personal computers, digital computers, driver circuits, or analog computers) are programmed or specially adapted to perform one or more of the following tasks; Paragraph [0157], note computer fetches instructions from memory).
Regarding claim 15, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as claim 2 above.
Regarding claim 16, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as claim 3 above.
Regarding claim 17, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as claim 4 above.
Regarding claim 18, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as claim 8 above, except the claim is written in an apparatus claim format, which is taught by Luo (Luo – Paragraph [0156], note one or more computers (e.g., servers, network hosts, client computers, integrated circuits, microcontrollers, controllers, field-programmable-gate arrays, personal computers, digital computers, driver circuits, or analog computers) are programmed or specially adapted to perform one or more of the following tasks; Paragraph [0157], note computer fetches instructions from memory).
Regarding claim 19, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as claim 9 above.
Regarding claim 20, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as claim 10 above.
Claims 6 and 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Rosenthal in view of Luo as applied to claims 1 and 8 above, and further in view of Nam et al. (US 2017/0201968 A1), hereinafter referred to as Nam.
Regarding claim 6, the combination of Rosenthal and Luo does not teach wherein an index of the subcarrier is a first value; or an index of the subcarrier is a second value, and the second value is determined based on a first value and an offset.
In an analogous art, Nam teaches wherein an index of the subcarrier is a first value (Nam – Paragraph [0242], note first subcarrier index); or
an index of the subcarrier is a second value, and the second value is determined based on a first value and an offset (Nam – Paragraph [0242], note second subcarrier index which is an offset different from the first subcarrier index and the offset value can be chosen from one of e.g., 4 candidate values).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to incorporate the teachings of Nam into the combination of Rosenthal and Luo in order to allow a UE to detect an initial-access signal to determine an alternative OFDM numerology (Nam – Paragraphs [0234] and [0242]).
Regarding claim 12, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as claim 6 above.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 5 is 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.
Claims 7 and 13 would be allowable if rewritten to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action and to include all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Applicant’s dependent claims recite performing, by the first device, transform precoding on a first sequence, to obtain a second sequence, wherein one element in the second sequence is non-zero, an element other than the element in the second sequence is zero, and the non-zero element in the second sequence is mapped to the subcarrier; and
wherein an index nPRB of a resource block in which the subcarrier is located and that is in a first downlink frequency domain unit meets the following formula: nPRB = [NRB/2], wherein NRB is a quantity of resource blocks in the first downlink frequency domain unit, [ ] represents rounding down; and the first downlink frequency domain unit is used by the first device to communicate with the second device.
The limitations above are neither taught nor suggested by the prior art.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Gravelle et al. (US 2012/0127021 A1) discloses OFDM signal distance measurement and RFID modulated backscatter systems.
Reynolds et al. (US 2016/0365890 A1) discloses a backscattering device providing a signal to a wireless device employing OFDM.
Kim et al. (US 2022/0159671 A1) discloses IoT devices performing backscattering, and DC-biased OFDM modulation.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to BAILOR C HSU whose telephone number is (571)272-1729. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri. 9:00 am - 5:00 pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Huy Vu can be reached at (571)-272-3155. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/BAILOR C HSU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2461
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