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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on 3/13/25 and 11/17/24 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner.
Drawings
The drawings are objected to because Figures 7-11 are not completely legible. Most of the labeling of elements in each of these figures is blurry and illegible and should be corrected. Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim(s) 1-7, 11, 13-17, 19, and 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Manolakos et al. (U.S. 2025/0031146) (hereinafter “Manolakos”) in view of Pan et al. (U.S. 2024/0323910) (hereinafter “Pan”).
Regarding claim 1, Manolakos teaches a user equipment (UE) in Figure 9 including a processor 910 coupled to a memory 960 via a bus 905; where an anchor UE 310 receives a SL-PRS reference signal from a target UE 305 as spoken of on page 8, paragraph [0058]; and where a resource pool for positioning (RP-P) may be conveyed to UEs via a sidelink configuration (resource allocation configuration) for use in SL-PRS transmission, and may designate particular resource pools for sidelink reference signals in different scenarios, and where the resource pools comprise a set of resources used for the transmission of RF signals via sidelink for positioning as spoken of on page 8, paragraph [0059].
Manolakos also teaches where a SL-PRS configuration for a positioning session may be determined based on an unlicensed frequency spectrum (unlicensed carrier(s)) used in the positioning session as spoken of on page 12, paragraph [0082].
While Manolakos also teaches where each of the one or more SL-PRS configurations of an RP-P may include respective specific physical layer features such as a number of symbols, comb type, comb-offset, number of subchannels (subchannel numbers), channel size (subchannel sizes), and start resource block (RB) as spoken of on page 8, paragraph [0059], Manolakos does not explicitly teach “the resource allocation configuration comprising at least resource block (RB) sets, subchannel sizes, subchannel numbers, and comb-sizes of multiple SL-PRSs”.
However, Pan teaches a method and system for wireless communication of positioning information through sidelink where a SL-PRS configuration may include a SL-PRS comb size and/or a SL-PRS RB set as spoken of on page 7, paragraph [0072].
Given the above references, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the invention, to include SL-PRS comb size and SL-PRS RB set parameters as taught in Pan as additional parameters of the SL-PRS configurations of Manolakos in order to provide an increased amount of configuration information to sidelink devices, thereby improving the awareness of sidelink devices resulting in a more reliable sidelink positioning process as spoken of on page 8, paragraphs [0058]-[0059] of Manolakos.
Regarding claim 2, Manolakos further teaches a target UE 305 in communication with a plurality of anchor UEs 310 (multiple communication devices) for positioning, where a resource pool for positioning (RP-P) may be conveyed to UEs via a sidelink configuration (at least one SL-PRS) as spoken of on page 8, paragraphs [0057] and [0059].
Regarding claim 3, Manolakos further teaches a target UE 305 in communication with a plurality of anchor UEs 310 (multiple communication devices) for positioning, where a resource pool for positioning (RP-P) may be conveyed to UEs via a sidelink configuration, and where each RP-P configuration may be relayed via a PSCCH, which may reserve one or more SL-PRS configurations (multiple SL-PRSs) as spoken of on page 8, paragraphs [0057] and [0059].
Regarding claim 4, Manolakos does not explicitly teach “wherein the at least one processor is configured to cause the UE to transmit a resource allocation configuration request, and in response, receive the resource allocation configuration”.
However, Pan teaches a method and system for wireless communication of positioning information through sidelink where a sidelink measurement request includes an indication that requests other UEs perform SL positioning as spoken of on page 7, paragraph [0066].
Given the above references, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the invention, to apply the sidelink measurement requests taught in Pan to the SL-PRS configuration system of Manolakos in order to ensure that SL positioning is performed in response to UE desire or need, thereby improving user experienced quality of service as spoken of on page 7, paragraph [0069] of Pan.
Regarding claim 5, While Manolakos further teaches where a default PRS DRX configuration may be used if a separate PRS DRX configuration is not specified for a given SL-PRS configuration as spoken of on page 10, paragraph [0068], Manolakos does not explicitly teach “wherein the resource allocation configuration is pre-configured by at least one of the UE or a communication device”.
However, Pan teaches a method and system for wireless communication of positioning information through sidelink where SL assistance data configuration of a UE to transmit can be provided by pre-configuration, where the pre-configuration of SL assistance data can be seen as a default configuration of a UE, and where the SL assistance data configuration may include Tx SL PRS configuration of the UE as spoken of on page 6, paragraph [0063].
Given the above references, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the invention, to apply the pre-configuration of SL PRS configuration information taught in Pan to the SL-PRS configuration system of Manolakos in order to establish SL PRS configurations ahead of time, thereby improving the efficiency of the SL control communication in the system.
Regarding claim 6, Manolakos further teaches the target UE 305 and anchor UE(s) 310 shown in Figure 3B and spoken of on page 8, paragraph [0057].
Regarding claim 7, Manolakos further teaches where an anchor UE 310 receives a SL-PRS reference signal from a target UE 305 as spoken of on page 8, paragraph [0058]; where a SL-PRS configuration for a positioning session may be determined based on an unlicensed frequency spectrum (unlicensed carrier(s)) used in the positioning session as spoken of on page 12, paragraph [0082].
Regarding claim 11, Manolakos further teaches where a resource pool for positioning (RP-P) may be conveyed to UEs via a sidelink configuration, and where each resource pool further includes a bandwidth (e.g. subcarriers, bandwidth part, etc.) as spoken of on page 8, paragraph [0059].
Regarding claim 13, Manolakos teaches a user equipment (UE) in Figure 9 including a processor 910 coupled to a memory 960 and sensor 940 (controller) via a bus 905; where an anchor UE 310 receives a SL-PRS reference signal from a target UE 305 as spoken of on page 8, paragraph [0058]; and where a resource pool for positioning (RP-P) may be conveyed to UEs via a sidelink configuration (resource allocation configuration) for use in SL-PRS transmission, and may designate particular resource pools for sidelink reference signals in different scenarios, and where the resource pools comprise a set of resources used for the transmission of RF signals via sidelink for positioning as spoken of on page 8, paragraph [0059].
Manolakos also teaches where a SL-PRS configuration for a positioning session may be determined based on an unlicensed frequency spectrum (unlicensed carrier(s)) used in the positioning session as spoken of on page 12, paragraph [0082].
While Manolakos also teaches where each of the one or more SL-PRS configurations of an RP-P may include respective specific physical layer features such as a number of symbols, comb type, comb-offset, number of subchannels (subchannel numbers), channel size (subchannel sizes), and start resource block (RB) as spoken of on page 8, paragraph [0059], Manolakos does not explicitly teach “the resource allocation configuration comprising at least resource block (RB) sets, subchannel sizes, subchannel numbers, and comb-sizes of multiple SL-PRSs”.
However, Pan teaches a method and system for wireless communication of positioning information through sidelink where a SL-PRS configuration may include a SL-PRS comb size and/or a SL-PRS RB set as spoken of on page 7, paragraph [0072].
Given the above references, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the invention, to include SL-PRS comb size and SL-PRS RB set parameters as taught in Pan as additional parameters of the SL-PRS configurations of Manolakos in order to provide an increased amount of configuration information to sidelink devices, thereby improving the awareness of sidelink devices resulting in a more reliable sidelink positioning process as spoken of on page 8, paragraphs [0058]-[0059] of Manolakos.
Regarding claim 14, Manolakos further teaches a target UE 305 in communication with a plurality of anchor UEs 310 (multiple communication devices) for positioning, where a resource pool for positioning (RP-P) may be conveyed to UEs via a sidelink configuration (at least one SL-PRS) as spoken of on page 8, paragraphs [0057] and [0059].
Regarding claim 15, Manolakos further teaches a target UE 305 in communication with a plurality of anchor UEs 310 (multiple communication devices) for positioning, where a resource pool for positioning (RP-P) may be conveyed to UEs via a sidelink configuration, and where each RP-P configuration may be relayed via a PSCCH, which may reserve one or more SL-PRS configurations (multiple SL-PRSs) as spoken of on page 8, paragraphs [0057] and [0059].
Regarding claim 16, Manolakos does not explicitly teach “wherein the at least one controller is configured to cause the processor to transmit a resource allocation configuration request, and in response, receive the resource allocation configuration”.
However, Pan teaches a method and system for wireless communication of positioning information through sidelink where a sidelink measurement request includes an indication that requests other UEs perform SL positioning as spoken of on page 7, paragraph [0066].
Given the above references, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the invention, to apply the sidelink measurement requests taught in Pan to the SL-PRS configuration system of Manolakos in order to ensure that SL positioning is performed in response to UE desire or need, thereby improving user experienced quality of service as spoken of on page 7, paragraph [0069] of Pan.
Regarding claim 17, While Manolakos further teaches where a default PRS DRX configuration may be used if a separate PRS DRX configuration is not specified for a given SL-PRS configuration as spoken of on page 10, paragraph [0068], Manolakos does not explicitly teach “wherein the resource allocation configuration is pre-configured by at least one of a user equipment (UE) or a communication device”.
However, Pan teaches a method and system for wireless communication of positioning information through sidelink where SL assistance data configuration of a UE to transmit can be provided by pre-configuration, where the pre-configuration of SL assistance data can be seen as a default configuration of a UE, and where the SL assistance data configuration may include Tx SL PRS configuration of the UE as spoken of on page 6, paragraph [0063].
Given the above references, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the invention, to apply the pre-configuration of SL PRS configuration information taught in Pan to the SL-PRS configuration system of Manolakos in order to establish SL PRS configurations ahead of time, thereby improving the efficiency of the SL control communication in the system.
Regarding claim 19, Manolakos teaches a user equipment (UE) in Figure 9 including a processor 910 coupled to a memory 960 via a bus 905; where an anchor UE 310 receives a SL-PRS reference signal from a target UE 305 as spoken of on page 8, paragraph [0058]; and where a resource pool for positioning (RP-P) may be conveyed to UEs via a sidelink configuration (resource allocation configuration) for use in SL-PRS transmission, and may designate particular resource pools for sidelink reference signals in different scenarios, and where the resource pools comprise a set of resources used for the transmission of RF signals via sidelink for positioning as spoken of on page 8, paragraph [0059].
Manolakos also teaches where a SL-PRS configuration for a positioning session may be determined based on an unlicensed frequency spectrum (unlicensed carrier(s)) used in the positioning session as spoken of on page 12, paragraph [0082].
While Manolakos also teaches where each of the one or more SL-PRS configurations of an RP-P may include respective specific physical layer features such as a number of symbols, comb type, comb-offset, number of subchannels (subchannel numbers), channel size (subchannel sizes), and start resource block (RB) as spoken of on page 8, paragraph [0059], Manolakos does not explicitly teach “the resource allocation configuration comprising at least resource block (RB) sets, subchannel sizes, subchannel numbers, and comb-sizes of multiple SL-PRSs”.
However, Pan teaches a method and system for wireless communication of positioning information through sidelink where a SL-PRS configuration may include a SL-PRS comb size and/or a SL-PRS RB set as spoken of on page 7, paragraph [0072].
Given the above references, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the invention, to include SL-PRS comb size and SL-PRS RB set parameters as taught in Pan as additional parameters of the SL-PRS configurations of Manolakos in order to provide an increased amount of configuration information to sidelink devices, thereby improving the awareness of sidelink devices resulting in a more reliable sidelink positioning process as spoken of on page 8, paragraphs [0058]-[0059] of Manolakos.
Regarding claim 20, Manolakos teaches a user equipment (UE) (first communication device) in Figure 9 including a processor 910 coupled to a memory 960 via a bus 905; where an anchor UE 310 (second communication device) receives a SL-PRS reference signal from a target UE 305 (first communication device) as spoken of on page 8, paragraph [0058]; and where a resource pool for positioning (RP-P) may be conveyed to UEs via a sidelink configuration (resource allocation configuration) for use in SL-PRS transmission, and may designate particular resource pools for sidelink reference signals in different scenarios, and where the resource pools comprise a set of resources used for the transmission of RF signals via sidelink for positioning as spoken of on page 8, paragraph [0059].
Manolakos also teaches where a SL-PRS configuration for a positioning session may be determined based on an unlicensed frequency spectrum (unlicensed carrier(s)) used in the positioning session as spoken of on page 12, paragraph [0082].
While Manolakos also teaches where each of the one or more SL-PRS configurations of an RP-P may include respective specific physical layer features such as a number of symbols, comb type, comb-offset, number of subchannels (subchannel numbers), channel size (subchannel sizes), and start resource block (RB) as spoken of on page 8, paragraph [0059], Manolakos does not explicitly teach “the resource allocation configuration comprising at least resource block (RB) sets, subchannel sizes, subchannel numbers, and comb-sizes of multiple SL-PRSs”.
However, Pan teaches a method and system for wireless communication of positioning information through sidelink where a SL-PRS configuration may include a SL-PRS comb size and/or a SL-PRS RB set as spoken of on page 7, paragraph [0072].
Given the above references, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the invention, to include SL-PRS comb size and SL-PRS RB set parameters as taught in Pan as additional parameters of the SL-PRS configurations of Manolakos in order to provide an increased amount of configuration information to sidelink devices, thereby improving the awareness of sidelink devices resulting in a more reliable sidelink positioning process as spoken of on page 8, paragraphs [0058]-[0059] of Manolakos.
Claim(s) 8-10, 12, and 18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Manolakos in view of Pan and Li et al. (U.S. 2026/0136324) (hereinafter “Li”).
Regarding claims 8-10 and 18, while Manolakos further teaches where a resource pool for positioning (RP-P) may be conveyed to UEs via a sidelink configuration, and where each resource pool further includes a bandwidth (e.g. subcarriers, bandwidth part, etc.) as spoken of on page 8, paragraph [0059], Manolakos in view of Pan does not explicitly teach “wherein the resource allocation configuration indicates a shared resource pool structure with at least one of RB sets defined for SL-PRS and associated sidelink control information, or the RB sets defined for sidelink data and the associated sidelink control information” or “wherein the resource allocation configuration indicates a shared resource pool structure with RB sets defined for SL-PRS, sidelink data, and associated sidelink control information” or “wherein the resource allocation configuration indicates a dedicated resource pool structure with RB sets defined for SL-PRS and associated sidelink control information”.
However, Li teaches systems and methods for device-to-device communications supporting SL positioning where a shared or dedicated SL-PRS resource pool can be configured or pre-configured to include RB sets with or without guard bands as spoken of on page 7, paragraph [0087]; and where the RB sets are configured in relation to SCI (associated sidelink control information) carrying SL positioning scheduling information as spoken of on page 7, paragraph [0088].
Given the above references, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the invention, to apply the use of RB sets as taught in Li to the SL-PRS configuration system of Manolakos in view of Pan in order to provide better organization of the RB information, thereby reducing the possibility of data collision with other SL traffic as spoken of on page 12, paragraph [0141] of Li.
Regarding claim 12, Manolakos in view of Pan does not explicitly teach “wherein a sidelink positioning RB set configuration comprises multiple interlaced transmissions for SL-PRS RB sets with a number of interlaces that are equally spaced according to a parameter that indicates the number of interlaces or RBs between each of the multiple interlaced RB transmissions”.
However, Li teaches systems and methods for device-to-device communications supporting SL positioning where a shared or dedicated SL-PRS resource pool can be configured or pre-configured to include an integer number (parameter) of RB sets with or without guard bands as spoken of on page 7, paragraph [0087]; and where interlace RB-based PSCCH transmission is configured or pre-configured where each PSCCH transmission for SL-positioning occupies 1 common interlace/subchannel and M dedicated PRBs as spoken of on page 7, paragraphs [0087]-[0088].
Given the above references, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the invention, to apply the use of RB sets as taught in Li to the SL-PRS configuration system of Manolakos in view of Pan in order to provide better organization of the RB information, thereby reducing the possibility of data collision with other SL traffic as spoken of on page 12, paragraph [0141] of Li.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. References considered relevant to this application are listed in the attached “Notice of References Cited” (PTO-892).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MICHAEL J. MOORE, JR., whose telephone number is (571)272-3168. The examiner can normally be reached M-F (9am-4pm).
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/MICHAEL J MOORE JR/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2467
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