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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 08/18/2026 have been fully considered and are persuasive. In particular, the Bao reference that was relied upon previously does not appear to teach that the first UE receives a location information request from a network entity that includes a positioning measurement parameter indicating requested position measurements, as well as an anchor measurement list that includes a set of second UEs. New grounds of rejection are presented below.
The assertion of official notice that was given in the rejection of claims 5, 10, and 20 was not traversed, rendering the asserted subject matter admitted prior art. See MPEP 2144.03(C).
The previous Office action described that certain language in claim 15 does not limit the scope of the claim. See NFOA at 2. The applicant did not address this interpretation.
The § 112(b) rejections that were made in the NFOA have been overcome by the recent amendment.
Claim Interpretation
Claim 15 is drawn to a “network entity” that is configured to receive “at least one report from at least one UE.” The language that describes the content of this report, and the manner in which it was generated, is not given patentable weight.
Claim 15 is drawn to an apparatus – a network entity. The scope of an apparatus claim “is not limited by language that … does not limit a claim to a particular structure.” MPEP 2111.04 I. Claim 15 recites that the “report” is based on a positioning measurement procedure for obtaining location information associated with a first UE based on sidelink (SL) positioning reference signal (PRS) transmissions between the first UE and a set of second UEs. This describes how the report is generated based on communications between a first UE and second UEs. But claim 15 is drawn to an apparatus, the network entity, that is separate from these UEs. The manner in which the “report” is generated does not provide any structural limitation on the “network entity” to which the claim is drawn. Therefore the language quoted above in italics does not limit the scope of claim 15. The BRI of claim 15 therefore only requires a network entity that is configured to receive a report from a UE.
In the interest of compact prosecution, all language in claim 15 is addressed in the prior art rejections below.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1, 3, 12, 15, 16, and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) and 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Bao, US 20220110088 (“Bao ‘088”).
Claim 1: Bao ‘088 discloses a first user equipment (UE) for wireless communication, comprising:
at least one memory; and at least one processor coupled with the at least one memory (see Fig. 2) and configured to cause the first UE to:
receive a first location information request from a network entity (The target UE receives, from anchor unit 850 within a network entity (see Fig. 8), “measurement reporting configuration message 956 … requesting the target UE 700 to report one or more PRS measurements.” ¶ 139. This configuration message 956 is therefore a request from the network entity), wherein the first location information request includes a first measurement configuration that includes at least one positioning measurement parameter indicating requested position measurements, and wherein the first measurement configuration further includes an anchor measurement list that includes a set of second UEs (The configuration message 956 (that is, the first location information request) includes parameters that indicate to the target UE which measurements to perform. ¶ 127. This message 956 also specifies which anchors (which are UEs: see ¶¶ 102-103) to perform measurements based on, thus includes an anchor measurement list of a set of second UEs. ¶¶ 127 and 139);
perform a positioning measurement procedure to obtain location information associated with the first UE based on sidelink (SL) positioning reference signal (PRS) transmissions between the first UE and the set of second UEs; and transmit a first report to the network entity based on the positioning measurement procedure (¶¶ 111 and 139-141).
Claim 3: Bao ‘088 discloses that the first measurement configuration further includes a mapping relationship between each of the set of second UEs and the at least one positioning measurement parameter (The configuration message 956 specifies which second UEs to perform measurements based on, and which “reference signal measurements to report.” ¶¶ 127 and 139. This meets the scope of the claimed mapping relationship), and wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the first UE to:
transmit a second location information request to each of the set of second UEs according to the mapping relationship, wherein the second location information request transmitted to a second UE includes a second measurement configuration including positioning measurement parameters mapped to the second UE (The target UE sends PRS request to the anchor (second UE) “with the indicated parameters.” ¶¶ 113, 124, and 128.).
Claim 12: Bao ‘088 discloses a second user equipment (UE) for wireless communication, comprising:
at least one memory; and at least one processor coupled with the at least one memory (see Fig. 2) and configured to cause the second UE to:
receive a location information request requesting the second UE to perform the positioning measurement procedure, wherein the location information request includes a measurement configuration including positioning measurement parameters indicating requested position measurements (An anchor, which is a second UE, receives PRS configuration message 952 from the network entity. ¶ 126 and Fig. 9. This is a request from the network entity for the anchor to perform a PRS measurement procedure. ¶¶ 126-128. The message 952 includes parameters indicating requested position measurements. ¶ 126.);
perform a positioning measurement procedure to obtain location information associated with a first UE based on sidelink (SL) positioning reference signal (PRS) transmissions between a first UE and the second UE; and transmit a report based on the positioning measurement procedure (Based on the received request, the anchor performs the positioning measurement of the target UE, and transmits a report based on the measurement procedure. ¶ 128 and Fig. 9).
Claim 15: Bao ‘088 discloses a network entity for wireless communication, comprising: at least one memory; and at least one processor coupled with the at least one memory (see Fig. 4) and configured to cause the network entity to:
transmit a first location information request to a first UE (The target UE receives, from anchor unit 850 within a network entity (see Fig. 8), “measurement reporting configuration message 956 … requesting the target UE 700 to report one or more PRS measurements.” ¶ 139. This configuration message 956 is therefore a request that is transmitted from the network entity), wherein the first location information request includes a first measurement configuration that includes at least one positioning measurement parameter indicating requested position measurements, and wherein the first measurement configuration further includes an anchor measurement list that includes a set of second UEs (The configuration message 956 (that is, the first location information request) includes parameters that indicate to the target UE which measurements to perform. ¶ 127. This message 956 also specifies which anchors (which are UEs: see ¶¶ 102-103) to perform measurements based on, thus includes an anchor measurement list of a set of second UEs. ¶¶ 127 and 139); and
receive at least one report from at least one UE, wherein the at least one report is based on a positioning measurement procedure for obtaining location information associated with the first UE based on sidelink (SL) positioning reference signal (PRS) transmissions between the first UE and the set of second UEs (¶¶ 111 and 139-141).
Claims 16 and 18: see rejection of claims 1 and 3, respectively.
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 4 and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bao ‘088 in view of Bao, US 20220201774 (“Bao ‘774”).
Claims 4 and 19: Bao ‘088 does not disclose determine positioning measurement parameters for each of the set of second UEs included in the anchor measurement list according to a pre-configuration, a system information block, or an implementation of the first UE.
Bao ‘774 discloses: determine positioning measurement parameters for each of plural second UEs according to a pre-configuration, a system information block, or an implementation of the first UE (¶¶ 103, 106, and 112.).
It would have bene obvious to a skilled artisan before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Bao ‘088 with teachings in Bao ‘774, the rationale being to provide flexibility in the manner in which the measurements are made. When modifying Bao in this manner, the POSITA would have found it obvious to determine the parameters in this way for each second UE in the anchor measurement list.
The Bao ‘088-Bao ‘774 combination discloses: transmit a second location information request to each of the set of second UEs included in the anchor measurement list, wherein the second location information request transmitted to a second UE includes a second measurement configuration including positioning measurement parameters determined for the second UE (Bao ‘774 Fig. 7 and its description).
Claims 5-11, 14, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bao ‘088.
Claims 5 and 20: Bao ‘088 discloses: transmit the first report when at least one requested position measurement is received from a second UE of the set of second UEs, wherein the first report includes the at least one requested position measurement (Fig. 11).
Bao ‘088 does not disclose transmitting the report when the measurement is received within a response duration, or that the report includes an identifier (ID) associated with the second UE. Official notice is taken that these concepts were well known in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention. For example, setting a timeout for receiving a response to a request was widely practiced in this and similar fields. It would have been obvious to the POSITA to include this in Bao ‘088, the rationale being to enable the UE to request information of other second UEs when a request is lost or not received, thereby providing the location result more quickly in this scenario. In addition, reporting the ID of the second UE would have been an obvious modification, as it would have resulted in more accurate reporting.
Claim 6: Bao ‘088, as modified by official notice in the rejection of claim 5 above, discloses: transmit the first report when a configured number of requested position measurements are received from the set of second UEs within a response duration (see rejection of claim 5).
Claim 7: Bao ‘088, as modified above, discloses that the first report includes each requested position measurement of the configured number of requested position measurements with an ID associated with a corresponding second UE from which the respective requested position measurement is received, or wherein the first report includes a location estimate determined based at least in part on the configured number of requested position measurements (¶¶ 129-136 and 139-141).
Claim 8: as described in the rejection of claim 5, it was well known to: start a response timer with a length corresponding to a response duration for each second UE of the set of second UEs respectively when the second location information request is transmitted from the first UE to each second UE. It would have been obvious to the POSITA to include this in Bao ‘088, the rationale being to enable the UE to request information of other second UEs when a request is lost or not received, thereby providing the location result more quickly in this scenario.
Claim 9: as described above, it was well known to set a timeout timer when expecting a response from another network entity. See rejection of claim 5. Therefore it would have bene obvious to modify Bao ‘088 to include: stop the response timer for a second UE of the set of second UEs in response to reception of a second report including at least one requested position measurement or an error indication from the
second UE, for reasons given above.
Claim 10: as described above, it would have been obvious to modify Bao to determine, upon a timeout condition, that a request for measurement resulted in a failure. See e.g. rejection of claim 5. This modified Bao ‘088 does not disclose that the first report includes a first error indication with a cause value when the first UE fails to receive any of the requested position measurements from any of the set of second UEs within a response duration. However, official notice is further taken that it was well known to include, in a measurement report, an indication of an encountered error. Therefore it would have been obvious to the skilled artisan to modify Bao ‘088 to include this, the rationale being to enable the server to gain knowledge of the causes of various errors, which the POSITA would recognize would be valuable information in addressing such problems.
Claim 11: Bao ‘088, as modified above, discloses that the first report includes at least one requested position measurement received from at least one second UE of the set of second UEs (¶¶ 129-130 and 141) within a response duration (see rejection of claim 5) and at least one cause value for other second UEs of the set of second UEs when: the first UE fails to receive any of the requested position measurements from the other second UEs within the response duration (see rejection of claim 10 above. The reason for modifying Bao ‘088 to include this feature is the same as the modification of Bao ‘088 described in the rejection of claim 10).
Claim 14: Bao ‘088 discloses that the location information request is received from a network entity (¶ 126.). Bao ‘088 does not disclose that the request further indicates a reporting entity for receiving the report from the second UE, and wherein the reporting entity is the network entity or the first UE. Official notice is taken that this was well known in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention. For example, indicating in a request the destination of a measurement report was widely known. It would have been obvious to the POSITA to include this in Bao ‘088, the rationale being to ensure that the report is delivered to the intended destination.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ROBERT J HANCE whose telephone number is (571)270-5319. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 11:00am-7:00pm ET.
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/ROBERT J HANCE/ Reexamination Specialist, Art Unit 3992
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