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/Restriction
Applicant’s reply filed 7/31/2026 to restriction requirement was inadvertently incomplete. Applicant elected Group I over the phone, see interview summary attached.
Applicant is advised that the reply to this office action must confirm the election in writing.
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 statement (IDS) submitted on 11/15/2024 is being considered by the examiner.
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.
Claim(s) 1-5 and 22-26 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by US 20210360371 A1 Qiao; Weihua et al.
Claim 1 and 22:
Qiao teaches a method and A first device for a communication network (See e.g. Qiao Fig. 22 LCS Client, GMLC or UDM/OAM; Fig. 27 AMF LCS Client or GMLC; ), comprising:
at least one processor (¶354 processors); and
at least one memory including computer program code which, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the first device to perform operations (¶354 memory), the operations comprising:
transmitting, to a second device, a first request for indoor or outdoor analytics information of a user equipment (various interpretations are possible within Qiao, See e.g. Fig. 22, ¶387 “a gateway mobile location center (GMLC) may receive a message (e.g. Positioning Capability Request) from a location services (LCS) client, the Positioning Capability Request message may indicating requesting/querying at least one of: capability of positioning service level, supported positioning service area (e.g. supported 5G positioning service area), and/or supported enhanced positioning service area (e.g. 5G enhanced positioning service area)”); and
receiving from the second device, indoor or outdoor analytics information of the user equipment (Qiao Fig. 22 ¶387-¶398, ¶398 “in response to the message received from the LCS client, the GMLC may send to the LCS client a response message (e.g. Positioning Capability Response). The Positioning Capability Response message may comprise the supported capability of positioning service level, supported positioning service area, and/or supported enhanced positioning service area.”), wherein the indoor or outdoor analytics information of the user equipment comprises at least one of:
a mobility prediction of the user equipment, the mobility predicting including at least one of: an indoor or outdoor indication; coordinates of a building; or a confidence level of the mobility prediction; or mobility statistics of the user equipment, the mobility statistics including at least one of an indoor or outdoor indication; or coordinates of a building (¶380 “The UE service area information may indicate UE service area, for example, indoor area and/or outdoor area. The outdoor area may comprise rural area, urban area, and/or dense urban area”).
Claim 2 and 23:
Qiao teaches The first device of claim 22, wherein the computer program code comprises computer program of a location management function, wherein the first request is transmitted by the location management function of the first device to a network data analytics function of the second device and wherein the indoor or outdoor analytics information of the user equipment is received from the network data analytics function of the second device (Qiao Fig. 29 embodiment where LMF sends requirest to UDM/OAM for UE position capability which includes UE service area ¶425-435).
Claim 3 and 24:
Qiao teaches The first device of claim 23, wherein the transmitting comprises: in response to receiving, from a location services client or a network function of the communication network, a second request for indoor or outdoor information of the user equipment, transmitting, to the second device, the first request for indoor or outdoor information of the user equipment (See e.g. Qiao Fig. 29 LCS Client sends positioning capability request to LMF via AMF and GMLC, and LMF sends capability request to UDM/OAM in response ¶425-435).
Claim 4 and 25:
Qiao teaches The first device of claim 24, wherein the operations further comprise: transmitting the indoor or outdoor analytics information of the user equipment received from the second device towards the location services client or to the network function (See e.g. Qiao Fig. 29 LMF sends service area information to the network function (AMF or GMLC) and towards LCS client ¶425-435).
Claim 5 and 26:
Qiao teaches The first device of claim 22, wherein the operations further comprise: determining based on the indoor or outdoor analytics information of the user equipment, a location of the user equipment (Qiao ¶456-57 “..In response to the message received from the AMF, the LMC/LMF may take one or more actions. In an example action, based on the one or more information elements/parameters received from the AMF, the (R)AN positioning capability, the UE positioning capability, the UE service area information, and/or the UE velocity information, the LMC/LMF may determine one or more positioning methods for the positioning request...”).
Pertinent Prior Art(s)
The prior art made of record though not relied upon in the current rejection is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
US 20120113837 A1 Siomina; Iana et al.
US 20250024412 A1 Pateromichelakis; Emmanouil et al.
US 20210360371 A1 Qiao; Weihua et al.
US 20210385625 A1 Qiao; Weihua et al.
WO 2021187893 A1 LEE JICHEOL et al.
Conclusion
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UMAIR AHSAN
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2647
/UMAIR AHSAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2647
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